“What is left to be said?” I spoke up. The last two weeks have been hard, not just on me, but on everypony. The crowd that had gathered around the Monument of Hope in Baltimare was respectable. “Storm wasn’t just a pony. She was a mother,” I said, looking over to mom. Her tears had wet the gauze that covered her eyes, and she could barely stand with her burns as bad as they were. Still, she was the strongest mare I knew, and she wouldn’t give up. “My grandmother.” Looking over to Caltrop, his eyes wavered as he too cried. “And a friend of everypony with a good heart.”

“The stories I’d been told when I was a filly, I never believed them.” I continued. “They always made her out to be some super mare. Well, I never saw that Storm, not until two weeks ago. And you know what?” I didn’t know where this was coming from. I was supposed to say something, and I guess… I just kinda knew what to say. “She was every bit the mare in those stories. Yes, she died a hero,” At that, Bluejay gave a soft nod. “but she never gave up. Not on me, on my friends, or any of you.” I jabbed a hoof at the crowd. “So I say we don’t give up on her. I say, we go out there and we live to make this world a better place like she did every damn day.”

“It doesn’t mean you have to fight in the same way.” The concrete statute’s base felt cold under my hooves. The wind that blew through the streets to the plaza droned out it’s own sadness. “It just means that you need to work for a better tomorrow. And if you have to fight for that tomorrow, then you fight. You fight like the rest of your life depends on it, because that’s what she wanted.”

“And each day, we’ll move forward.” I paused, looking over the crowd. Almost at the back, standing on some old crates, Synchro stood with a smile. “And we’ll remember what she gave to the wasteland. To us.” Turning around, I looked up to the large statue, the four letters embossed into it’s base sinking deep into my mind. “Hope.”

My cybernetic legs whined as I followed down the steps that descended into the back of the statue. Storm’s wrapped body levitated in both My and Bluejay’s hold. She had told me that a crypt had been built into the statue for when this day came, and she asked for my help to put Storm in her final resting place.

The circular stairs descended far past the light of the outside, and the air grew colder the further down we went. Only the light from our horns lit the dark staircase, and only the sound of our hooves met our ears.

“For being something you probably thought up on the spot…” Bluejay spoke up. “I think you did right by her.” She looked back up at me. “Storm would have liked it.”

“Thanks.” I’d had plenty of time to cope with her loss over the last two weeks. It seemed like everypony had been torn up by it to the point of tears. For me, I couldn’t cry. I felt like if I did, then I’d be lying to her. I’d spent so much time in ignorance, that I don’t feel like I knew Storm at all. How could I mourn somepony who I’d been so wrong about? Who had shown me nothing but love, even if I didn’t see it that way. I was pulled from my thoughts as I spotted something further down.

“What’s that?” Up ahead, a small blue light shined off the dark walls deeper down. It grew brighter with each step forward we took.

We reached the bottom of the stairs and walked forward through a small archway. Inside, was a moderately large domed chamber carved out of the bedrock under the city. Bluejay took Storm from me and levitated her body onto a small carved table in the center of the room. Beyond that, in the back of the chamber, was something odd.

Before us sat a very crooked and sickly looking tree shaped crystal. Embedded in its trunk, were the cutie marks of the old goddesses. From the thick branches, crystal vines hung down and made the whole chamber shimmer. It was unlike any tree i'd ever seen before, but that wasn't the only thing that had caught my eye. At the bottom of the tree, on top of it's roots, sat a small gold necklace. The gem at its center slowly pulsed and flickered a soft blue, almost as if there was a small flame trapped inside.

"It's not looking very bright, is it?" Bluejay asked with a sigh.

At the risk of sounding stupid, I spoke up. "What is it?" I might have known had I ever believed any of the stories I'd heard about Storm, but now it's too late. Of all the things I regret, I think that's the one thing I'll regret the most in my life.

"It's hope." Bluejay sighed, levitating Storm's body around and setting it at the base of the tree. "The wasteland is dieing, PC. Every year that gem gets dimmer. When it dies, so does our future." She turned to me and put a hoof on my shoulder, looking me straight in the eye. "It's your responsibility to fight for that future, to pick up where Storm left off, fighting the good fight."

"Bluejay," I smiled and shook my head. "You're an idiot if you think I'm the pony who Storm left that mantle to. Look at me! I'm a crippled unicorn whose only passion in the world anymore, is to love her family and farm corn." I reached up and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Being a hero? That's what you're good at. I'm just here to protect the one's I've come to love."

"Just as stubborn as ever, PC. Guess that's the one thing about you that'll never change." She laughed lightly and nodded, dropping her hoof to the floor. "But seriously, this is bigger than either of us, and one day I hope that you'll see that."

"And on that day, I will stand with you and fight for us all." I stepped up to her and wrapped a forehoof around her, pulling her into a tight hug. "Until then, I've got a family to start."

"So this is it then?" Bluejay gave me a smile.

"Yeah...?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow. "I mean, I'd figured that you had places you wanted to go. Ponies to save, big plans and all that."

"Actually, not really." She shrugged and looked back to the stairs. "I thought I'd head west with Synchro and Sandy, make good on that promise I gave him." With a firm nod, she glanced back. "We'll find Sandy some help out there. She'll be in good hooves."

"Well, she's like a daughter to me." I nudged her. "Bring her back safe, you hear me?"

“I will.” She whispered, pausing before shifting her gaze down to storm. “Do… do you mind if I pay my respects?”

“Take all the time you need.” I sighed sadly, taking one last look at Storm before turning around. “Goodby, Bluejay.” Walking up the stairs, I could barely hear her answer through her quiet sobs.

“See you around, PC.”

Walking back up, I wasn’t sure what to think about what was down there. The wasteland is a strange place, but could that one gem really represent all the hope that ponykind had? Was it really that close to going out forever? These were questions for somepony smarter than me, better than me. As I dragged my hooves up the stairs, I was filled with the feeling that I wouldn’t have to wait too long to find out.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I stepped out into the warming afternoon light. Part of me wanted to stay, the other, wanted to go. I settled with trotting across the street and sitting down for a moment. The monument was something I’d never cared for, just like Storm. Now it felt different, brighter to me. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to go back down there and tell Bluejay I wanted to go with her. Alas, I couldn’t do that to Caltrop after all we’d been through.

With this done, I still had to head home. I needed to help mom get Ficha settled in to run the shop while she healed. Needed to pick up some supplies while I was there as well. The cabin out at the lake had some repairs that needed to be done, and I was fairly certain that the shelter was out of pretty much everything. It wasn’t going to be easy, but that’s why Caltrop and I were going to tackle it together.

“Excuse me, miss?” The gentle voice of a stallion called over to me. The young stallion trotted up from the road, behind him, a very annoyed looking mare glared at me. The pegasus had a brown coat, a white and red striped mane, and rested in an old rusty hospital wheelchair. I didn’t know who she was, but I did recall seeing her at the funeral.

“Yeah, what do you want?” I snorted. Why couldn’t ponies just leave me alone?

“I just wanted you to clarify, beyond all doubt,” He muttered with a jitter in his voice. “Mrs. Storm Rider is deceased, correct?”

“Yeah, what’s it to you?” Using my magic, I flicked off the strap that secured Howdy to it’s holster. I really wasn’t in the mood to have some stallion start trouble with me.

“Oh, I see.” He looked back to the mare, giving a single short nod. “I do apologize for your loss.” I leaned over and looked at the mare behind him, only to have him step in the way. “My mother and Mrs. Storm knew each other long ago, we came to pay our respects.”

“Then you can pay them and go.” I got the feeling that there was more to this than he was telling. This whole awkward situation was making me feel damn insecure about these two. “Tell me, what’s your mother’s name?”

“Iron Cross.” He snorted, turning around with a smile. He walked back into the street without even another look back, wheeling off the mare in the chair, who only glared at me as they left. A shiver ran down my spine as I broke eye contact. Yeah, along with Caltrop’s sisters, I can add another pair to the list of ponies that I never want to see again.

I had literally no idea who that was. Guess it’s just another pony I’ll have to ask Caltrop about. He’d been slowly telling me all the stories that his Grandfather had fed him as a colt. Some of them, I’m pretty sure were exaggerated, but as I said, the wasteland is a weird place. Still, I’ve enjoyed our time together when he tells them too me. It’s grown to be the second most exciting thing I look forward to at the end of each day.

My first most exciting thing with him however… was a whole different kind of exciting.

Here I was once again.

The smell of dry wood was heavy in my nostrils, the dusty crate I sat inside at the very least gave me some protection from the cloudy midday sun. I breathed slowly, adjusting my hoof hold on Storms rifle. Carefully, I rested it down on my shoulder for a moment. With as light a touch as I could manage, I reached up and wiped the sweat beading on my brow. I watched as a mare wandered across the crosshairs of the scope.

You would think that a box resting at the end of the corn field would have been a horrible place to hide...

...and you'd be damn right.

Even more so if they saw this hunk of metal sticking out from the small hole carved in it. Good thing then that ferals weren't observant unless they could see something vaguely pony shaped. The green mare on the other side of my optic didn't seem to care about me in the least, content to shuffling around in the dirt and gnawing on her own exposed foreleg bone.

"Honey?" Caltrop's voice called out behind me. Even from a hundred yards, I heard the ghoul growl as it looked over in my direction.

"Damnit, Caltrop." I sighed, pausing as my lungs cleared. With a smooth press, I pulled the trigger with my hoof. The report of the old lever action rang through my ears. A thin plume of dust rose and wafted away as the ghoul let out a scream. "Shit." I sighed and used my hoof to cycle the action. Okay, calm yourself, breathe and... I pulled the trigger again, shaving the top of the skull off the ghoul. At least I'd gotten better with shooting using only my hooves, which was a whole lot harder than I'd thought it would be. Storm made it look easy, but it was probably her pipbuck doing half the work anyway.

"PC, what are yah doin' out here!" Caltrop spoke with a worried tone carrying itself right into my ears next to the ringing from the gunshot. With a click, he undid the latch that held the crate shut. I let out a whine as the back wall I'd been resting against gave out, dumping me back out into the dirt.

"I got that feral who's been tearing up the south field." I coughed, waving my forehoof around to clear some of the dust I'd kicked up. I'll say one thing about living on a farm, or in the wasteland for that matter. You can never dust yourself off enough, or take enough showers.

"I can see dat." He sighed, shaking his head as he held out his hoof. "And as much as I love yah helpin out, yah have ta rest." He was nothing, if not completely sincere. Grabbing ahold of his hoof, he tugged and pulled me upright. "I know dat the last month hasn't been easy, but yah just had Harvest Moon. And even after da whole month, your body still needs ta rest.” With a worried look, he shook his head. “I love Riddle and Harvest ta death, but dey need their mother along with their father."

"Caltrop, I know you mean well," Using my magic, I rolled my wheelchair around from the front of the crate. With a little bit of focus, I managed to lift myself and get my rear legs set into the harness. "but the amount of work around here is..."

"I know, I know." He grunted and rolled his tired eyes. "If yah'd just listen ta me for once, yah'd remember dat Sandy and Synchro will be here tomorrow. Dey'll help out, but you," He leaned forward and planted a kiss on the end of my dusty muzzle. "You need ta rest and take care of our beautiful daughters."

"As amazing as it is with you, remind me to wait to have sex again." I groaned, pulling Storm's rifle from the crate and carefully slinging it around Caltrop's neck. "It's nice to know I'm not barren, but I don't think I could handle another foal right now."

"Yeah, I agree with dat." Caltrop chuckled, nodding back down the way through the rows of golden corn. Slowly, I pulled myself forward. The old bearings in the chair squealed as I started to move, but they were always fine once I got moving. "So, dat ghoul. Yah sure it was da same one?"

"Green coat." I nodded. "Same as I'd seen a couple days ago." It was odd though. I didn't quite know when they'd become such a problem. Looking over to Caltrop as we walked, he mirrored my concerned expression. "That's three in the last two weeks. Think there's a problem out west?"

"If it were, it'd have ta be out on da everfree forest." Caltrop shrugged. "So long as dey keep comin, we'll keep killin’ I suppose. Could always use the one yah just put down for another apple tree." He paused and scrunched up his muzzle. "Yah magic does most of all dis, but yah used a feral for dat one, didn't yah?"

"Yeah, while my magic helps at the start," I nodded, looking at the rows of corn, "who knew that the dead were so useful in making things grow?" I sighed, stopping for a moment as an odd noise carried through the air. Shooting a hoof out, I stopped Caltrop mid stride. His ears perked as well, as we both traded looks. "That sounds like a vehicle."

"I'll get da girls inta the bunker." He nodded before leaning over to me quickly, kissing my cheek. "Be careful, hun." With that, he took off straight into a Gallop, turning and bolting down the dirt path towards our humble little cabin.

"I will." I grunted softly before turning myself inward to one of the corn fields. "Why couldn't I have worn my legs today?" I whined, pulling myself across the uneven rows of corn. "Oh yeah, because I forgot to charge them. Again." The old bearings in my chair squealed in protest as I tore through the soft dirt. Trying my best to both keep the old chair quiet while avoiding any of the stalks was a hard job, but my home was in danger.

The closer I got, the more the vehicle sounded like it was something big. Raiders? No, they don't have the skills to drive something. Mercenaries? Who would want my family dead? Come on, PC, think! Pushing myself out from the rows, I burst out into the small dirt path we'd kept open leading up to our farm. Turning towards the noise, I froze stiff. A towering four wheeled vehicle crawled along the path. A pair of burning red eyes sat high up at the end of a metal boom, slowly rotating down to look at me. With a screech, the vehicle came to a halt, and my heart rate started to fall.

"Mom!" The excited squeal filled my ears before I was tackled to the ground by a blue blur. As I flopped down into the dirt once again, a bright pair of pink eyes looked down on me from above. "Ooops! Sorry!" Sandy gasped, grabbing around under my forelegs to pull me upright. The servos and motors of her mechanical arm whined as she held tight, and the rubber pads of the clamp that replace her paw gingerly squeezed me.

Her mechanical arm looked more like it had once belonged on Lily than any of her previous ones. While it was a bit more complex than my legs, Synchro couldn’t stop bitching about how he wanted to give Sandy a proper hand with digits instead of a simple clamp with this upgrade. Guess they were still too complex for even him to figure out. Still, Sandy wore it well enough, and as long as she was happy with it, that was all that mattered. Once Sandy had me back up on my forehooves, she hugged me tightly before letting me go.

"Hey there, PC." Synchro called out from ontop of his machine. After a moment, the colt turned stallion stared down at me with a smile. "We made good time up from New Appleloosa. Hope our showing up early isn't a problem."

"No, no." I giggled, taking a moment to brush myself off... again. "Just surprised us is all." I pulled my hat out of my saddlebag and levitated it onto my head. "What ever happened to that awful music you played out of this thing?"

"That is um..." Sandy stammered, "I may have accidentally used the case they were in to kill a raider outside of Tall Tale. The records didn't survive" Wincing, she rubbed at her metal arm with her paw. "But, I've been learning a lot about how to fix things like radios. Synchro is a really good teacher!" Speaking of, Synchro wasn't kidding that Hellhounds grow up fast. She's four and a half years old, and nearly my height.

"You've grown up so much." I knew that last year the joint had been giving her lots of pain. I'm lucky that my legs won't grow anymore, but when she lost her arm, she still had a lot of growing to do. However, it looked like Synchro's changed out the cap on her shoulder since then with a bigger one. "How's the arm doing, Sandy?"

"Oh, you know..." She trailed off with a shrug. "It hurts some days, other's it's fine." She looked up at me with a soft smile and wavering eyes. "I'm just glad to be home."

"And we're so glad to have you home." I smiled, looking up to Synchro who shared the sentiment. "Both of you." Turning myself around, my chair gave a little squeak as I pulled it behind me. "Come on, let's go get Caltrop out of that bunker. I've got another little somepony for you two to meet."

"Another?" Synchro snorted through a light laugh. "You two have been getting busy, haven't you." Carefully, he jumped down from the top of the monstrous robot. The red eyes watched as he walked up to me and raised up his pipbuck. With a few taps to it, the machine's engine wound down, and the red eyes faded from sight.

"Yeah, but not in the way you think." I grunted, "Four fields of corn, three apple trees, and now two little fillies certainly keeps the two of us busy." Shaking my head, I whined out my frustration. "But you didn't come all this way to hear about my annoying days on the farm, come on, come on." I waved my forehoof for them to follow me. "No, your stay here marks the start of the time Caltrop and I can just enjoy ourselves with our family."

"Mhmm!" Sandy hummed in agreement.

"There will be no whining, no fighting, and no worries." I spoke up, proudly as the refurbished cabin came into view. Out from under the mattress that covered the survival shelter, Caltrop's eyes peered at me. "For the duration of your stay, there are nothing but better days ahead."

Author's Notes:

Wow. Just... wow.

It's been one hell of a journey to get to this point. Almost two years, but it's actually here. Not only that, but you are here. You all have been a tremendous driving force for me. The feedback and love that Better Days has received has been unreal to me, and you all are the ones that have made it what it is. As Percussion Cap's story comes to a close, I have to say that I, myself, am happy with the overall tone of the story. The whole idea of doing Better Days from the start, was to keep it less epic than Merchants of Hope, and I believe that I met that goal.

A lot has changed in the time that it took to write out Better Days. I got a lot better at writing, I made some amazing friends, and as if it weren't enough, I got a shit ton of fantastic art. Now that this story is over, I really hope that more people will feel up to giving it a shot. And just because the story is over, doesn't mean that you can't message or comment to me as to what you liked or didn't like. There's always more projects I'm working on, and I can't ever get enough feedback.

I want to thank Kkat for creating this absolutely fantastic universe for us all to enjoy. Along with her, I'd like to thank Somber, No One, Mimezinga, and many others for the inspiration that their stories have given. Sawyer is another author I'd like to thank, because he's actually stuck around to edit this whole story. Seriously, he's been doing half the work here as well, so he deserves the thanks. Another two special shout outs are for Regolit and RevelRomp, who have continued to stick with the stories I write and give me their thoughts. You two are awesome, never change! One other thing you all can thank Revel for, is the creation of Sandy. If you enjoyed her squeaky antics, then you have him to thank for the idea and design of her all together!

Lastly, I want to thank you all again. I know that I write my stories for me, but I post them up for you. Without the feedback, encouragement, and honesty (good or bad!) you all present to me, I couldn't move forward as smoothly as I have.