“Watch in quiet times, for the serene is oft the guise the oncoming storm takes.”

I shivered as the cold air washed over me, causing me to pull my jacket tighter... I had been sitting in the Ponyville Clocktower ever since I had arrived earlier today. The sun had long since set and the first night of winter had begun...and just my luck I was in the highest point in the whole town, causing me to get the full force of the cold winter winds.

My target hadn’t moved at all, but luckily for me the ghouls had started to clear up, shambling off in random directions. I lit up one of my last cigarettes and peered through the scope once again. Not much had changed inside the building other than Predious now reading a...cooking book? Seriously?

Rolling my eyes, I took a drag on the cigarette and shifted my position slightly. As I waited for more ghouls to clear out, I began humming a tune I had heard on the radio. The song, as far as I remember, was about somepony wanting to see her friends smile because it gave her joy...heh, wouldn’t see that in the wasteland nowadays.

My ears folded back and a chill ran up my spine as I heard light hoofsteps coming up the stairs behind me. I quickly twisted my rifle around and aimed it right where somepony should be standing...only to find nothing there. My first thought was zebra invisibility cloak, but that was quickly debunked as a small pebble I threw just clattered down the steps harmlessly.

I sighed, thinking it was just my normal paranoia while on a job and the wind messing with me. Okay...calm down Storm. Focus on the task at hoof and stop jumping at every damn noise you hear…

It was another twenty minutes before the lights in the library went out. By this time, most of the ferals had wandered off, leaving a much more manageable path through the town. I put out my most recent cigarette and put it back into my pocket, not wanting to waste the bit that remained by tossing a half-used cigarette over the tower. I strapped my rifle back around my back and slowly made my way down the stairs.

“Fuck…” I shivered violently. It was even colder down on the ground than up on the belfry. How was that even possible? And….why did I feel as if I was being watched? I shook my head and ignored that feeling as I trudged my way through the town.

Snow had started falling when I was about halfway through the town, giving the entire place an eerie feeling...it also didn’t help that it was pitch black and the only things I could see were the silhouettes of the buildings in front of me.

The occasional ghoul sometimes wandered out into the street, forcing me to hide behind a frosty mailbox or something. Other than that, I had little interruption as I made my way towards the library. By the time I reached my destination, the snow was already halfway to knee height and I was shaking uncontrollably….damn how I wish I had worn something a little warmer.

I slowly prodded the door open with a hoof and crept inside, making sure to stay as quiet as possible. I could just make out the faded old books that lined the walls. Most looked as if time hadn’t been friendly to them at all while others looked in near-pristine condition.

“Creepy in here, isn’t it?” What the hell! I took a look around, but I wasn’t able to see anything or anypony. Without a second thought, I took out my Colt 1911, pointing it every which way. Not noticing that I never really aimed in the direction where the sound came from. I slowly turned around to where the voice really came from, and there stood…a bookshelf. “Why do they always have to make this harder on them than they need to?”

I wasn’t going to take any chances with this guy, so I decided it would be best to just tackle him. And well, i’m not going to lie, I was wrong. I ran straight into a bookshelf and not the pony I was looking for. A black mist and gleeful laughter came from behind me. “Oh man, I wasn’t able to keep myself from laughing at that. Sorry but that just looked so silly, I couldn’t help myself. But you were right, I was A bookshelf. Well might as well take this chance to take care of you.”

Shit! I forgot that he uses illusion magic! With no time to think I took my Colt and shot him right in the front left hoof, and he fell to the ground with a howl of pain. I took out my magazine of rubber bullets, put it into the gun, chambering one of the non-lethal rounds, and pointed it at at his head. “And this is why they hire me for these jobs.” POW!!! The rubber bullet did it’s job and knocked him out for the time being.

“Now where do I have to take this poor bastard?” I checked my satchel. Wait, where is it? I sighed and tried to find that damned piece of paper. And, after about an hour of searching I finally found it. It had fallen out when I tackled the bookshelf. I was puzzled to see where it said to take him. “Well, it appears that you have got yourself into trouble with the Steel Rangers.”

My ears perked up at the sound of glass breaking in the other room. Shit! I completely forgot about the ghouls outside, the gunshot must have attracted them. They would have gotten here sooner if there wasn’t about four feet of snow out there. Thank the goddesses for that.

“What, what’s going on?” I guess that unicorn finally woke up, well at least I don’t have to carry him up the stairs now.

“Get up…wait can you even stand?” I just remembered that I shot him in the leg.

With a flinch, he stood up. “Ya, and thanks for asking me. Most other bounty hunters would point their gun and yell at me to get up. By the way, what’s happening?”

“Well to make it short, if we don’t get to high ground we will most likely be torn apart by ghouls and die. Any other questions?” I said this as I started to heading towards the nearest stairs, the ghoul being in the other room.

“Ya, where is the bathroom?” He said this with a smug look on his face. I wanted to punch him in the face so hard, but now wasn’t the time.

I got myself up the stairs and whispered “Do you want to die!?!? Get up the stairs, now!”

“Fine, fine.” He limped up the stairs. And I guess the ghoul heard my voice, because it was rushing across the room to where my voice came from. I had no time to think, I aimed my gun at that ghouls head and fired.

The bullet tore the thing’s skin on its face, causing me to blink in surprise at the fact the ghoul’s head wasn’t blown off. I spotted the ammo counter at the bottom of my HUD and three letters accompanied the numbers telling me how much ammo I had left: RBR.

I slammed the door shut behind me once we were in the upper part of the library. After sliding down the door and onto the floor with a nice thump, I sighed and changed out the mag of rubber bullets for one with actual bullets.

After a while, the loud banging on the door began making my goal of blocking entrance to the room harder as bits of wood started to chip off of the door and fall onto my lap “Damnit, this old door won’t hold much longer. Who knew this would be how I died? Getting ripped apart by ferals while on a job…”

“You know, you don’t seem to be that smart….nor good at your job.” the red pony said as he dug through something off in the corner of the room. He stood back up with large minigun floating in his magical aura. He smirked “I only keep this for emergencies.”

I blinked with disbelief at the fact that he had a gun that big but didn’t try to use it on me earlier….and he’s calling me the dumb one.

“Out of the way!” he ordered me as the minigun revved up. Just as I had cleared the door, it burst open and the bullets being fired perforated every ghoul that tried to rush through the door. Many screeches and loud gun noises later, I uncovered my head and looked around. The barrels of the minigun were smoking and a large pile of shredded jerky and ichor lay in the doorway. “Now that we’ve probably attracted every feral within a fifty mile radius of our location, we should get out of here.”

I nodded in agreement and stood up, walking over to the unicorn. I bit down on the barrel of my pistol, normally not a smart thing to do...but for what I had planned, it was the only option. I brought the gun across his face, granting a loud yet satisfying WHACK to echo across the room. I looked over the damage I had done as I holstered my weapon. He’d be sore for sure when he woke up in a few hours, but the need for the rest of this job to go smoothly outweighed my morals.

I picked up the minigun and dropped it into my satchel, thanking the goddesses for the enchantment to allow me to carry more than what would normally be possible in it.

* * * * * * * * * * *

After tying his legs up, it wasn’t easy getting Predious out of the Library, and it was even harder to find an inconspicuous house to lay low in for a while, but I had managed to do it. To his credit, and my relief, my ‘cargo’ had known that if he struggled at all, we both would have been zombie food. The old residence was freezing inside, for some reason feeling even colder than outside. The whole house just felt… wrong.

“Oh, I see your coat is standing up on the back of your neck.” My cargo chimed up. “So you have seen them.”

“One, keep your voice down. Two, what the fuck are you talking about?” I lowered down to the floor, slipping him off of my back and setting him next to the moldy couch in the living room. So far, this dick fancied running his mouth a bit too much for my liking.

“Spirits.” He chuckled. “There is no need to be afraid, they won’t harm you.”

“You’re fucking crazy.” I checked the clock on my EFS, hoping that I didn’t have to wait long before morning. “Just sit tight, we won’t have to stay here long.”

11:29pm.

Shit, just my luck. We’ve got another 8 hours before it starts getting light out, and that isn’t even calling into fact that the storm outside didn’t seem to be letting up. The last thing I planned for was to be snowed in a house for three days with only enough rations to split between us for half that time. If the weather calms down, I may be able to scavenge for food, but so far, I didn’t have high hopes.

“I understand your apprehensiveness, but is there any reason why we can’t have a civil conversation?” He was just trying to get under my skin. He knew as much as I did that we were stuck here.

“Yes, there is.” I stiffly retorted. “It’s so I don’t get tired of hearing your bullshit and end up deciding I should just shoot you.”

“Now now, there is no reason for such harsh action.” It was almost as if he was tailoring the words he used just to piss me off. “Besides, if you shoot me, the monsters outside would most definitely hear it.” Great, now he has to bring LOGIC into this. My body shivered again as I felt the room drop in temperature yet again.

“Whatever, I’m going to find us some blankets before we freeze to death in here.” I turned and trotted off, keeping my hoofsteps light as I made my way up the stairs to the second floor. As my head crested the landing, movement caught my eye down the hallway as I barely caught the dark form of a foal enter the room closest to me. Shit. I never thought what I’d do if one of those zombies was already inside the house.

I bit down on the barrel of my rifle, wielding it like a club as I gingerly stepped down the hallway. I just needed to remember to aim for the head, as destroying the brain was nearly the only way to stop these things, and I didn’t have the strength to overpower it in hoof to hoof combat. I crept up to the doorway, pausing to collect my thoughts before rushing in, attempting to trigger S.A.T.S. as I raised the rifle up.

The room was completely empty.

No furniture, no junk, just a cold, bare room. A knock behind me caught my attention, so I spun around quickly, peaking my head out doorway. Another knock came from behind the closed door to the room at the end of the hall, spiking my pulse as I felt my chest tighten. Calm down, it’s just the century and a half old house shifting in the wind. There is no need to get all jumpy.

The floorboards creaked under hoof as I cautiously continued on. Each room on the second floor was strangely empty, my first thought writing it off as maybe this house hadn’t been owned by anypony before the war. That wouldn’t make sense, seeing as the first floor was fully furnished. Finally, I approached the last room, the yellowed, peeling white paint on the door looked worse than the rest of the decay in the house, striking a sense of dread as to what might be behind it.

I hoofed at the handle, the corroded brass fitting screeched as it turned, sending sharp jolts of fear down my spine. My hoof froze before the latch unlocked. As much as I fought it, the fear I felt was winning out, clouding my mind. I took a step back to reflect on how ridiculous this was. Here I am, a goddess damned bounty hunter, afraid to open a door in an empty house.

My ears perked and swiveled forward as soft crying came through the door. The voice of a small foal was whispering through the tears for their mother. What would a foal be doing alone in a place like this? The kid of an unlucky scavenger? Ghoul on the verge of going feral? Regardless, I need to know whether or not it’s going to cause a problem for us staying here. I hoofed the latch open quickly, pushing the door open.

The creaking hinges sounded like they were groaning in agony as the door swung inward. The small form of a white pony foal sat facing away from me in the center of a queen sized bedspread, it’s sobbing continuing oblivious to the sound of the door. Immediately, the fear from before flooded back, my body stiffening up as I took a step in. I carefully set my rifle down in the doorframe, watching as the foal rocked back and forth slowly.

“Hey there… what’s your name?” I spoke softly, trying not to startle the child. It’s sobs stopped as it got to it’s hooves slowly.

“Mommy?” It asked turning it’s head to look at me. I felt the breath leave my body as my eyes locked to it’s face, refusing to avert my gaze even as my mind screamed for me to leave. The young colt was missing the skin and muscles from the right half of his face, the other half was locked in a perpetual scream.

My body acted on instinct, barreling out the door and scattering my rifle across the floorboards. I pulled the door shut far harder than I should have, slamming it closed before scrambling to get my rifle and head downstairs. Predious chuckled again as I nearly tumbled down the rotting steps, slamming into the freezing floor.

“What the FUCK was that?” I growled and stomped over to him, leveling my rifle with his head.

“I told you they were here. They are always most active around this time of night.” He spoke with an unnatural calmness, spiking my anger to overtake the fear that was wracking my body. “The spirits here have been in this town much longer than I have.” His words drove me to action, swinging the gun in my hooves and dropping the butt of it down onto his head.

“Don’t play coy! How the FUCK could you think up an illusion as twisted as that.” I pointed the barrel at his head again, waiting until he shook off the pain and looked back up at me. I could tell his patience with me was waning, but I didn’t care, somepony as sick as him isn’t even worth being brought back alive.

“If you truly believe it is me, then tell me. Do you see me casting a spell?” He smirked as he kept his eyes on the stairs behind me. I slowly turned as the hairs on my coat stood up, looking behind me to see the dead foal staring at us from halfway down the stairs. I turned back and looked down at his horn. It was dark. No spell aura, or even suppressed spell aura as I had seen some unicorns could do.

“Mommy?” The colt asked, his voice dropping the temperature around me again.

Fuck this place.

I scooped up Predious onto my back and bolted for the door. A swift buck shattered it off it’s moldy frame, thankfully almost silently dropping down into the snow. I galloped as fast and as hard as I could down the street, choosing to take the quickest path out of town. I don’t know whether it was luck, or fate, but the ghouls that had been wandering around were absent. Even though they were nothing more than savage monsters, maybe they knew to leave town at this time of night.

Something I’ll be keen to remember if I ever am forced to return to the Ponyville ruins. And I say forced, because there is no chance in hell, that I’m ever coming back here of my own choice.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The freezing night air was still as the snow fell quietly in the darkness all around, the crunching of my hooves and incessant tune Predious had started quietly humming were the only reminders that I wasn’t dreaming. Well, that and the constant fear that we were going to freeze to death if we didn’t find shelter helped keep me focused. My ‘cargo’ stopped humming momentarily and shifted around on my back.

“I would hate to think you don’t know this, but I think we should find a place to warm up.” His voice echoed amongst the hills around us, carrying off into the distance.

“We would have already if I didn’t have to haul your ass around.” I groaned, pulling us up a small embankment.

“Oh, if I had known you were having so much trouble…” He quickly rolled himself off my back and into the snow, standing up onto his hooves as I spun around. His horn glowed as he levitated the short length of rope over to me, laying it across my back. “It feels SO much better to be able to move my hooves again.”

The nerve of this guy!

“What the FUCK. You’ve just been laying on me this whole time when you could have just been walking!?” I was fuming. If it weren’t for the contract specifying he was needed alive, I’d cut him open and use his guts for warmth.

“You expected a simple knot to stop a unicorn? If that were true, our kind would never have made it through the dark ages.” He rolled his eyes and tramped past me, pressing onward. “The bindings have been undone since we left the library. I was simply curious to see how you handled the situation.”

“Well I hope you were entertained.” I shouted, keeping a few paces behind him. “Cause this still doesn’t fix us freezing to death out here!”

“Nonsense, there, ahead of us. Ruins of some kind.” He lifted his hoof and pointed ahead of us. I squinted, barely able to make out the faintest of outlines. As we approached, some sort of motion sensor activated a set of lights inside it.

It was a two story building, well, half of a two story building to be specific. The light inside came from a flickering set of fluorescent lighting that hung down from the twisted concrete and metal that jutted out of the ruins.

“Huh, kinda odd to see half a building.” I spoke slowly, looking around at our dimly lit surroundings. The only objects of interest were a few Sky carriage wrecks fifty feet or so to our left, the rusting mass of old chain link fencing still stood out around them. “There’s no other rubble around, so where did it-” That was as far as I made it before a loud snap emanated from the snow all around us, the ground tilting down and throwing both Predious and I onto our sides.

“DON’T MOVE!” He shouted, slowly sliding into the ground. One final set of cracks filled the air before he was sucked down, a loud groan coming from where he had just been. I froze stiff, listening as a long silence filled the air. “I’M OKAY!”

I let out a long sigh before wondering when I had started holding my breath. Now that I know I didn’t fail this contract by getting him killed, I can get back to the matter at hoof. Well, to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what exactly was happening. Maybe if I can just pull myself to where he was…

The moment I shifted my weight, another crack preceded the ground below me giving out, plunging me down a few feet before I felt something tug on me and yank me up. I blinked in the darkness, watching as a soft light grew around me. I looked down to see Predious’s horn glowing, outlining what looked to be an old office of some sort. Turns out, my satchel had gotten caught on one of the struts that had been holding up the glass roofing we fell through, keeping me hanging above the carpeted office floor.

“Well, at least we know where the other half of the building went!” He chimed happily. All fun and games for the guy who wasn’t hanging precariously and freezing his flank off. The strut above me let out a groan, the snap of what I assumed was an essential bolt was all I heard before my body slipped from my bag. I slammed onto the wood with a wet thump, groaning and rolling onto my back as pain shot through what I had previously thought was my numb body.

“Oh, Celestia that-” For the second time in five minutes, I was cut off by the sound of a snap. This time the floor below me gave out completely, dropping me down yet another floor. Without my bag to slow my fall again, my momentum carried me through the rotten carpet and wood, finally dumping my flank onto the concrete ground of what I assumed was the basement. With my last throws of consciousness, I peered up through the set of holes above me, spotting the light of Predious’s horn shining down on me as he floated my satchel off the strut and out of sight.

Well, this wasn’t how I thought I’d go out. Left to die at the bottom of this hole, with my provisions taken by the only pony around for miles capable of saving me. At the very least, the air down here was warm enough that I wouldn’t freeze to death. Not that I care right now, I’m too tired to care. Maybe I can just sleep the pain away…

Author's Notes:

Hey there! Special thanks to Gamma Deekay for helping me a ton on this chapter! I kinda fell into a rut during the writing of this since I was working on chapter 6 of Old Grudges at the same time. He and my newest friend, Rin Glaze are two of the reasons this chapter was even finished! Also, I am switching from the standard FoE footnote style to the same one that Gamma has been using for Better Days, so every chapter from now on will use that style. Thanks for reading!