[Song: Call of Juarez The Cartel - Pawl Blaszczak - Final Explanations]

Standing strong as I looked at the corpse below, I simply had no words to say. The vileness of the pony below me had been ended.
And yet even after the act, I felt that it hadn't been enough, that he hadn't truly earned his rest amongst the dead.
None the less, he would no longer be terrorising anyone.

Darkness still laid across the night sky, the fight had only lasted a minute or two in reality, but had felt like hours between the tension and the drama. I could still feel the magic of the healing potion seep within my leg, pulling the skin back together. I got lucky that it was only a small calibre gun, only a grazing shot that missed any arteries or veins.
Taking what could be valuable from the bodies of the raiders, I stripped anything ranging from ammo to chems.
No point in letting it go to waste now, was there?

Cherry slowly approached me, a sad look upon her face.
"You... You shot him while he was..." I gave her a stern look, she backed down.
It was a dark night, both literally and figuratively. I wouldn't let this besmirch our closeness though, so I quickly flew on over to her and nuzzled into her side.
She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me.

"You murdered him in cold blood, Crimson."
"I didn't murder him. I executed him."
"What difference is it really?" She asked. "Murder? Execution? At the end of the night, his body will still lay there in the pool of maroon below where he fell."

I knew Cherry wasn't approving, but she had no idea of the circumstances, no clue to what he had admitted to me. I had to change this, as much as it might hurt her to hear, to imagine.

"Cherry? Do you want to know the difference?"
"Of course I do Crimson. What is the so called difference between the two huh?"
"Murder, like you say, is in cold blood. Execution is a measure of justice, reprisal and revenge."
Before I could continue, Cherry spoke up again. "So. Because he dared to continue towards our camp, he deserved execution?!"
I simply touched her lips with a wing, and looked at her, before continuing what I was about to say.
"Look at the pony on the floor over there, the one with the missing hind legs. Look at him. Look at the agony on his face, or what's left of it. Look at the trail where he's been dragged along this whole time. That raider was going to do the same to me if I hadn't stopped him. That raider would've done it to somepony else if he hadn't been stopped now. He would have defiled anypony he could given the chance."

Her eyes repeated how mine had become upon hearing it from his very own mouth. Looking at me in disbelief, I simply nodded, that stern look still in my eyes told her I wasn't joking. I was serious about every last word.
I knew Cherry would take it harder then I had, but I hadn't expected her to react as she did. She broke down into tears of anger and pain, and began staring in horror without any words to say at the corpse.
Cracks and thuds filled the air as she began beating it around, throwing it in the air with her hooves and bucking it across the rocky landscape.

Picking up the corpse and throwing it against the largest rock hill nearby, that was the point when I walked up to her and slowly covered her eyes with my feathers so she'd calm down. She burst into tears and assaulted me with a tackle to the ground, pinning me down with her weight.
Then she just held me there and cried into my neck as she nuzzled, her eyes closed but still pouring like oceans flooding a stretch of beach.
I simply laid there and kissed her head, wrapping my wings around her.

"Shhhhhh, its okay. Shhhhh."
She whimpered and continued to sob uncontrollably.
"Shhhh, I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere. It's okay."
We spent a good twenty minutes like that before she could pull herself together
By this time, Dusk and Fallen had gathered up the rest of what could be salvaged from the fallen raiders, allowing me and Cherry to simply trot on over to camp.

Though Cherry decided to lay across my back, I didn't mind, whatever calmed her down and made her feel secure made me feel happy.
As we walked into the trailer, Cherry slid off my back but held onto my neck as she sat down on the makeshift bedding.

"Lay down Crimson, on your back."
I looked at her, shocked that she would make such a strange demand, but obliging her request without any hassle.
She simply clambered on top of me, sat upon my chest before sliding down as if she were about to ride me, then pressed her body against mine and laid her neck along my chest, with her muzzle buried into my neck. She kissed me before whispering goodnight, and I simply wrapped my wings around her once more.

We'd only have a few hours sleep, but it would be much needed, appreciated, and with her on me like this? Much loved sleep.
I still avoided touching her with my hooves, because of the blood soaked on them, but she wasn't shy about stroking my ears with hers.
My eyes grew heavy, and before I even knew it, I was sleeping aside Cherry yet again. I could get used to this.

The night time passed, but we awoke by our own accord. That was a true surprise for us. Well, I say we woke on our own accord, the reality was that I woke up when the sounds of jokes and laughter filled the air and assaulted my dreams.
Cherry awoke with my stirring, but with a little encouragement for her to go back to sleep, she did so.
Still, it had been a many good few hours and looking at my pipbuck told me it was now 8:43am. We'd only meant to be asleep until 8am, but the others must have decided we'd earned our rest.

As soon as I walked out of the trailer, everyone went quiet though. Even the brahmin looked at me attentively as if he was about to ask something of me.
Looking around, their faces told the story clearly. They all wanted to know about the final kill. The executioner of scum was on trial for his crimes, and I would give them all a story to chill their bones.

"Crimson." Fallen had just looked at me sternly as he said my name. "We need to know what happened to that raider, not because you've committed some crime against us and not because we feel you have done wrong, but we need to know why."
"Well" I started. "Part of the damage to his corpse isn't mine, when I made the killing shot his legs had indeed been broken, his skull potentially fractured and his genitalia... destroyed. However, if you're referring to the fact it was kicked around and beaten further, with Cherry screaming... she was screaming in frustration after learning of his actions."
The camp went silent, everyone unknowing in what to do or what to say. Even myself I felt the tenseness and found myself dumbstruck by the moment.
Then, out of everyone, the brahmin began to speak.

"So, Crimson. What did he do that was worth the execution."
I looked at him with a smile, before beginning to sit down on my rump. I knew I'd need to now, now that the adrenaline wasn't flowing through me.
I'd find it a lot harder to accept and process, no doubt.

"I hope none of you have eaten yet. This is a hard story to believe, and even harder to process it."
...I wasn't wrong. Dusk was the only one to stay silent the whole time, seemingly untouched by the actions of the raider.
I knew it was just a facade, I'd played my share of poker and had been in enough tight situations to know when someone was bluffing, perhaps even themselves.

After twenty minutes, things began to go back to normal, and Cherry poked her head out of the trailer to check we were all still here before heading back inside and, I assume, going back to sleep. I smiled to myself, as long as she could get some rest, I wouldn't worry.

The sky grew lighter and the clouds thinner. It was a rare occurrence in the wasteland to see that, but my father had told me that was the pegasus farmers toiling the clouds, harvesting the crop and thinning them out so the nutrition may be brought back to them.
Strange, strange cloud magic. Apparently I had the capability that no-one else had, of manipulating the clouds like dad once had, but I'd never gotten the chance while he was around and only pulled a small chunk of it down before. It made me wonder how much I could do with the clouds, however.

We had all eaten breakfast by this point, with Cherry making an absolute mess of herself.
She got blood all over her mush from the wolf steak, not that any of the others had noticed it. I of course did when I went to kiss her and found the strange, copper taste about her lips.
She just giggled and apologised, before wiping her mouth down with a hoof and kissing me back.
Cherry Sundae really was a strange one.

"So, Cherry, what does wolf meat even taste like?"
I'd never eaten meat before, never needed to. In the Stable we had our own food recyclers, out at Angel there was crops grown, Opal traders often brought in exotic foods. Tank was the only village where it was common to eat meat.
"It's lovely, a lot better then bloastsprite, not sure if I prefer this or radhog meat though. Oh, nothing beats brahmin steak however."

The pack brahmin simply looked her way in horror and disgust, and I let out a little giggle as she sorely apologised to him.
It was strange to me how she could so easily compare them all though, but with second thoughts I suppose it was no different to me comparing sugar apple bombs, oranges and fancy buck carrot cakes.

"Anyway, you should try some!" Cherry had bounced on back to me again with a grin across her face as she said it.
"I'm really not sure."
"Come on, Crimson! For me?"
She tried to give her best convincing smile, but it really wasn't working. Then she tried pouting, to which I just shook my head.
"Awh. Please, Crimson?"
I just stood there with an amused look upon my face as I stared at the meat.
"For me?" she begged, and begged. I wasn't having it though.

That was my mistake, however. At this point she decided the best course of action would be to tackle me down to the ground and pin me down like she had once before.
She leant down and whispered in my ear.
"Crimson." She said, before nibbling the tip. "You're going to eat some meat, because if you don't... well, tonight I'll tease you, but I won't let you get what you want."
With that, she climbed off me and wiggled her flank in a delectable way. My mouth watered at the thought, to which she magically held some of the wolf meat to my mouth.

Taking a bite... I wasn't sure what to think at first. It was a lot chewier then anything I'd ever eaten before, perhaps not as sticky as the pre-war toffee apples, but chewier.
Then the taste really hit me, my pupils went wide as the juices slid down my throat. Now I understood why she was so happily eating this stuff! It was downright amazing!
I gingerly grabbed another piece off Cherry's plate, hoping she wouldn't notice as I started to chow down.

"Ah ah ah! Naughty Crimson!" Her grin said it all. "You should've asked."
"Sorry Cherry." I handed the meat back to her plate and she shook her head with a giggle.
"No, you carry on eating it, I'm just going to sit on your lap and make this as awkward as I can in retaliation."
I didn't know what she meant by that at first, until she straddled me and teased.
I tried to continue eating, but just found myself unable. She simply giggled her head off and climbed off a minute later, allowing me to get back to the delicious meat.

"You owe me something big for not being able to do that. Though I'll collect on that later"
With that she winked at me and I simply looked at her as I gulped down the last of the meat.
What had I gotten myself into?

We'd been walking for some time longer now, We'd put the mess of our makeshift camp site behind us, for the best I reckon.
Along our travels we'd seen the odd bloatsprite, sometimes by itself, sometimes they'd fly around in packs of threes.
Pocket Change was quick to raise his .44, but Dusk was quick to simply shake his head, grab his baseball bat off the side of the brahmin and calmly walk up to it, smashing it as if it was nothing.
Cherry just giggled and I felt a little envious.

"Hey, Dusk." Cherry had said in a velvet soft tone. He didn't utter a word but he had turned to look at her.
"How about you teach Crimson here some of that subtle awesomeness?"
She then looked at me, my face went red and she burst into giggles. I really, really wasn't happy now.
"Oh buck you, Cherry. Buck you hard."
Within an instant she grinned. "I'm sure you will, later"
With a kiss onto my cheek she carried on walking, I felt like sulking but I knew it was just a joke.

Further ahead we could see a... you know, I didn't even know what it was.
"Shit guys, shit. Manticore ahead." Kingcakes said in a low tone.
Ah, so it was a manticore.
"Wait. What's a manticore? Well, I can see its some kind of lion with a stinger, but... what?"
I really was utterly confused at this point.
Dusk just gave me his usual blank slate look, I couldn't tell if he was disappointed or didn't care.
Cherry's eyes grew wide though, I could always tell what was up through her. She'd be no good at poker.

"So, what's the dig? Are they intelligent? Aggressive? Hunt in packs? Territorial?" I asked, I had to ask.
"Aggressive, usually in packs but this one seems to be alone, and yeah, quite intelligent. Not ones to talk though."
I was about to fly over when Fallen Arrow stopped me by grabbing onto my tail with his magic.
"Crimson. It has wings. Don't."
Wings? "You're kidding me right?"
He simply shook his head.

If this thing had wings, a stinger, a mouth the size of that and was intelligent and aggressive, it looked like it'd put up a good fight.
He was right, we'd have to avoid it or attack it as a group.
I looked at the rest of the group, but Dusk just shook his head. "Don't wanna do that, Crimson."
Sighing, I continued walking. I wasn't exactly keen on the idea of fighting it, but I'd prefer to have the advantage of a surprise attack rather then fighting it in a even match.

We continued around it, and found a small settlement sitting on the horizon, not far from Coltchester.
"So, Pockets, you've been to Coltchester many a time, right?"
"That ah have youngun, whats it to ya?"
I simply pointed to the village adjacent to another town close to the towers of Coltchester.
"What's that place over there? Not the tall towers, but the small village with that single tower and what looks to be a walled up town nearby it?
"That right there? That's Coltshire Commons, Lad. Not ah nice place to be, if ya ask me."
"Raiders?"
"Ahnope. Just the fact it's the poorest of the poor. Can't afford ah nicer place to live, ya see? Just ah bunch of slums really."

I looked at the settlement ahead. I couldn't tell how it looked much from over here apart from it was a mess of different colours unlike the city, or even the town on the inside.
So, poorest of the poor. Probably no good looking for a water talisman there... but still, something about it drew me in, even from this distance.

"Pockets. You reckon they'll let you in the town?"
"Coltshire Town? Well buck, sure thay will! Thay'll love to have us, always do."
"You reckon it'd be better for yourself to search there, rather then Commons?"
"Sure as ma old bones can be."

I simply looked at Cherry. She looked back at me confused. "Wanna visit Coltshire Commons?"
She just looked at me as if I had asked if she was even female. "Is there a reason we should?"
"Who knows, maybe one of them will know something. It's always good to make more friends, right?"
Pockets inserted himself into the conversation once more.
"Ah think y'all crazy for wanting ta, but if you do, we'll be aheadin' ta Coltshire town."
I gave him a quick nod, and he nodded back.

Cherry just rolled her eyes at me before muttering something to herself, sounded like 'I dunno'.
"Well, it looks like your mind is made up, doesn't it Crimson?"
She stroked my cheek with her hoof before smiling at me, she was up for it as long as I wanted to go there it seemed.

And so, that was it. While Pocket Change, Fallen Arrow and Dusk would go with the brahmin to Coltshire town, me and Cherry would make our way over to the Commons.
We split up, only being a half mile from Commons meant that it would be quicker for us to head there ourselves, and allow the caravan to make their way to town. Pockets agreed that they'd be fine, especially with his three guards.

Rocks, mountains of rocks and dirt paths were all that was around the commons. No wonder no-one had wanted to live here, even as we came close it was obvious that there was no real source of income. No great water sources bar a collection tower. No obvious factories to salvage or repair and reuse. Nothing. They didn't even have a perimeter around the place. There was simply old run down houses that had been boarded up at the windows and doors replaced to make new living spaces.
Pockets was right, it really was a slum.

As me and Cherry trotted into town, we saw the dirty, dusty faces of children as they happily played with pre-war toys. If nothing else, it was a comforting sight to see that at the very least, the children had something to enjoy.
Cherry walked up to the colt, with a sure smile she began to speak.

"Hey little guy.. uh.. you don't know who I could talk to do you?"
He just stared at her blankly and ignored her.
I just stared at her blankly myself. She looked at me displeased at the result.
"Hey. Don't look at me like that! I never was good with colts."
Rolling my eyes, I walked up to the very same colt and sat down next to him.

"Hey big guy. What's your name?"
He looked at me with judging eyes, speaking slowly and cautiously.
"My name?"
"Mhm. My names Crimson, Crimson Wings. What's yours?"
"Well, mister Crimson, my names Dust Bucket. What you after?"

Smiling, I knew I was making progress. I looked over to Cherry to see the shock upon her face turn into a scowl as I smirked at my success.
"Well, Dust Buckets. How are you today?"

The colt looked at me with further suspicion, but continued to talk. "Uuh. I'm not supposed to speak to strangers."
"I know, I'm sorry. Can I ask where your parents or any of the adults are around here?"
I gave him a soft, happy smile and he began to smile back at me, if only a little.
"Well, you don't seem like you want to hurt me or anyone, so... yeah. Mummy is over in the hospital over there. She's the head doctor."

With that he pointed over to a rather large building which seemed rather intact, made sense. I walked over and knocked on the door.
"Hey, anyone around who I can speak to?"
A viewing port opened in the door and a set of eyes gauged me. Slowly the door opened and I was greeted by an armed pony and another security door, though this one looked even stronger.

"Who are you? What do you want? How did you know where to look for us? I've never seen you before, explain yourself." The mare demanded so many things at once I didn't even know where to start, so I simply drew a breath and took the sight of her in.
She'd been bloodied, a scar across her right eye told me she was no stranger to violence, her brown coat and mane looked dirty and dismal, I couldn't even be sure if that was her original colour of if the filth from the area around us had dyed it so.

"The kid over there told me." I pointed over to Dust Buckets, and he happily continued to play with his toy cart.
"DUST BUCKETS. I TOLD YOU TO STAY INDOORS WHILE I'M AT WORK. GET BACK IN." She cried out, which hurt my ears to say the least.
Hurriedly, the colt ran indoors leaving a dust cloud behind him. Now I understood why he might be called that with how big his eyes became and how the dust didn't settle.

"Colts. Never listen to what we say, even when it's for their own good. Now, you. Who are you? Both of you."
"My name is Crimson Wings, This is my..." I looked at Cherry, what was she? my travelling companion? Bodyguard?
"I'm his marefriend." She said "Cherry Sundae's the name."
I simply stuttered my words for a moment after, and brought myself together. I needed to win this protective mare over.
"Anyway. Yes, We're Crimson and Cherry."
"Not a travelling sales pony duo are you? We don't have anything to trade. Or steal, for that matter."

I looked sheepishly at Cherry. That was a lot closer to the truth then I'd like to admit, thinking about it.

"Well, kind've, sort've, no. Is the answer."
"Kind've, sort've, no? Explain yourself."
"Well the truth is we are on a quest to trade and gain an item of irreplaceable value. We come from Four Ridges and-"
"Four Ridges you say? You mean that big, hoity toity walled off zone off to the north-west?"
Cherry began to speak, once more. "We're not hoity toity! True, you have to prove your good intentions and have something to trade, but we're nothing like Tenpony Tower!"
The dirt covered mare just gave Cherry a shooty look. "I have even less patience for them. Now, before I chuck you out on your flanks, why are you here?"
Cherry went to speak again, but I placed a hoof in-front of her to stop her, and took over once more.
"We're here to help. We need a water talisman, and I understand that although you might not have one, making friends is a sure way of improving our chances of finding one."

The mystery mare simply pondered this for a moment, before beginning to speak again.
"My name is Doc Dirthooves. Come on in then, and we'll talk."

With that, she knocked on the door in a special pattern and the door was unlocked from the inside. Cherry closed the front door behind us as we walked through into a wide open area; now I understood why we were talking to anypony called Doc Dirthooves. Under the lights that shone above us, I could see her mane and coat were indeed naturally brown, and that we had been directed to the local hospital building.

"These wounds are all fresh, some of them only from... last night, perhaps yesterday?" Cherry pointed out.
"Why yes, they are. Tell me, do you have medical training then?" Cherry simply shook her head at this response.
"No, but I can tell from how the wounds are healing up, see here? The blood has dried up, caked the slicing wound and the skin is doing its best to heal up. Though these are naturally healing, aren't they?"
Doc Dirty just stood in shock, amazed at Cherry's natural ability to tell despite no prior medical training.
"How... can you tell?" She asked, her mouth agape.
"I notice things." was all she got in response.

"Okay. So, you wanted to trade? We haven't got anything right now, but occasionally we manage to get a little deeper into the old factory below, manage to get some more ammo out of the machines. Problem is, the automated security is too strong and we can't hack it either, none of us have the skill."
"So, the automated security did this to you?"
"No. Maisy did."

In unison, both Cherry and myself looked at Doc Dirty and asked, "Maisy?"
If only we hadn't asked...

It turned out that Maisy was the manticore that we had seen earlier, and she was the reason for all the recent wounded.
Maisy had been a pet of one of the villagers, but when the villager was killed in a recent raid, she went wild, tearing apart both raider and villagers alike.
Apparently the only reason any of them survived is because the zonkey bandit who had led the raid turned tail and fled after seeing the enraged animal, and Maisy had chased after them.

Doctor Dirthooves had given us permission to... dispatch of the problem, preferably through a non violent means, but we all highly doubted the effectiveness of speech.
To our luck however, we were informed that one of Maisy's wings were severely injured, running on the border of being destroyed, and that was how the bandits managed to get away. While this wasn't a good thing for Maisy, it meant if it came to the worst, it would play to our advantage.

We'd brought what extra ammo we could from the doctor in exchange for two healing potions. From what I could make out, she was going to pour it into a pot and water it down so they could have IV drips of weak healing potion.

She had some weird contraption which was effectively a cauldron with a mess of tubes coming out of it, which upon closer inspection, fed the contents through the tubes by method of pressure.
This pulled the liquid into an IV bag which had been pierced to be fed by the tube using an old needle from pre-war medical facilities, or so I hoped anyway.

I could see the advantage of doing it this way - it meant that the body wouldn't be put under the same stress as it is under a pure healing potion and it also allowed for more then just one pony to benefit.
By no means would it be as effective though.
Even still, it meant that the eight wounded ponies would be able to get some advanced healing into them and hopefully up and about a lot sooner then they would've otherwise, but it was still a lot slower process then just drinking a potion.

However, when you haven't got the potions to spare, you make do with what you can, I suppose.

"Cherry. I know you're going to think me a lunatic. I know you're going to call me a madpony. you're going to call me absolutely insane. liken me to the tales of Screw Loose, but... I think we should talk to the manticore."
She took a deep breath in, and looked at me blankly, before slowly exhaling and closing her eyes.
Again, she breathed deep and slowly, before looking at me once more.
Cherry irritably stated her opinion. "You're going to get yourself killed."
"Only if my plan doesn't work." I handed back, a cheeky smile on my face.
Sarcastically she asked me, "Oh really? What plan is this?"

I pointed out the huge mountain range ahead of us, that was where Maisy had run to while chasing the bandits.
None of the villagers knew where she was, but we had seen her on our way in, which was perfect - it saved us a lot of hassle tracking her down.
The area was covered in a mess of dead trees so thick that they didn't even need leaves to provide concealment, the sheer thickness of their timber limbs meant that it was an extremely hidden place to be as it was from atop of the mountain..

"I'm going to fly you atop that mountain, where you'll be waiting, sniper ready, in case Maisy doesn't take too kindly to my approach."
Cherry facehooved as I continued. "If things go wrong, I'm going to fly up through the branches and out into the open, with any luck she'll either climb a tree or try to follow me. If this happens, you'll be waiting with your magic concealing you, shoot. If you surprise her and you get a clean shot, you should be able to blow her head clean off if you use the hollow point ammo."

Cherry simply looked stunned. "Hollow point ammo? Where? When?"
"Back when we were over at Opal, You know that box of ammo I brought for you? You never opened it I see - it's HP rounds,"
She looked through her saddlebag and opened up the box, realising I was right she smiled as she pulled out a secondary magazine for her rifle and started sliding the bullets into it in preparation, before switching out the current magazine for the new.

"Hopefully, you won't need to shoot her, but if worst comes to worst, be ready. With all luck, I'll be walking out of area, not flying nor running. Walking."
She simply nodded.
"That's when I'll come collect you and we'll be back on our way to the Commons. Okay?"

Again, Cherry nodded. I could tell she didn't like this plan, somehow I knew she'd rather be down there with me.
Much like back with the wolves, in case anything happened. but I knew better, and I knew I could very likely require support from afar if things went wrong.
Besides. she wasn't exactly the best speaker, judging from her interactions with the colt earlier.

With the plan all set, I flew Cherry up to her designated point. We could see Maisy below, and she hadn't seen us flying overhead. Everything was going smoothly so far.
Drifting back down to the ground as quietly as I could, I rest myself at the mouth of the dead forest.

"Well... Time to do this." I didn't know who I was speaking to, but I still said it aloud.
A quick glance upwards and I could see Cherry as she began to conceal herself with her magic, until I couldn't see anything at all. I knew she was still up there though.
Carefully I made my way into the woods.
Twigs cracked under my hoof and I had to snap a few more branches then I'd have liked, but I knew that if I had to make a quick escape, it would be best to have a safe way out, rather then taking time to avoid running into the more flimsy of obstacles.

It wasn't a long walk in theory, it was only about 350 feet from the mouth to the mountain, where Maisy had been sitting inside a cave, but with myself being so cautious it made it all feel like it had taken me an hour, still, my chronometer of my pipbuck told me it was only ten minutes all the same.
As I came through the last of the broken and dead trees, I saw her, and through the corner of her eye, she saw me.

Slowly, I saw her powerful frame pull itself up, but then she staggered for a moment. I could tell she was in pain.
"Maisy." Her eyes grew wide and she looked at me, her full attention completely on me.
"Maisy, I'm here to help you. Please. I know right now you're scared because you just lost your friend, and I've heard about how the bandits hurt you. Please though, I'm not here to hurt you."
Slowly she pulled herself off the ground, growling at me. Instinct told me to back off, to start running, to fly away and let Cherry shoot her. No.
I stood my ground and looked straight into Maisy's eyes.

Maisy just glared at me as I met eye to eye... then, all of a sudden, she let her guard down.
Carefully I walked over to her and spoke again.

"It's okay girl. I promise. Here, I've got a healing potion and some hydra I took from some bandits I killed yesterday. I too don't like bandits, so that's something we have in common, huh?"
She just fell back to the ground, her wing now on show so I could see the damage done to it. Looked like they'd ripped it to shreds with either buckshot or something heavier. Perhaps even a minigun. What a truly, horrifyingly frightening thought that was.
I gently reached out a hoof as she lay there, and stroked her mane. She just looked up at me with an empathetic smile.

"I'm going to talk to you for a little first, okay? I promise, if you don't show me any aggression, I'll inject the hydra into you to regrow your wing and let you drink the healing potion, but first I need to trust you, and to trust you I'll need to be a little bit friendlier with you."
Maisy smiled and nodded, before pulling her paws away. She obviously understood me, and obviously she'd been trained well.

"So, you're old friend, I was told his name was Pudding Top, that right?"
Maisy began to cry gently, and I felt absolutely terrible.
"Shhhhhh, Maisy, Maisy. It's okay"
The towering size of the beast was frightening, but even more so was the sheer thought of how much pain had been inflicted upon her.
Her whole world torn from her in a single night. A single band of raiders.
I gently kissed the top of her head and continued to stroke her mane.
"It's okay Maisy."

We spent another five minutes like that. She laid her head on my lap as I sat up against the rocks and she cried her heart out,
Once the tears had stopped rolling down so heavily, I gently brushed her ear and hugged her.
I understood how it felt losing someone you loved, and that she needed affection rather then hate.

"You know, I lost my dad too, a long time ago,"
Maisy looked up at me with the most soppy, kitten cute eyes I'd ever seen and made a sound so soft, I knew what she meant even if we didn't speak the same tongue.
"Yeah, years ago. He was out with my mother as they came back from a trip from Tenpony Tower. A band of raiders came along and ambushed the caravan they were travelling with. My dad told the griffin mercenary to get my mum back home at any costs, and he died while trying to buy them some time."

Maisy just made a pained sound, whimpering softly before making a tiny roar.
"I know. We got them back though. We dragged our howitzers out of the ridge onto the mountain plateau... bombed the fuck out of their base, killed most of them, and had our mercenaries go in and sweep up, killing the last of those fuckers..."
I could feel my eyes water, I was about to cry, against my every last wish. "...before bringing my daddies body back."

The damn broke, bursting into tears I just couldn't hold it. The memories were still too painful now.
I remembered how mum had come back on her own, her eyes red and sore looking, dry heaving because she had no more tears.
When I asked what had happened, the griffin had told me and my mother held me for the whole day after that.
I watched as they bombarded the bandit base, hoping that with each shell, they'd all die a horrible, painful death.
Just like daddy had.

It took me another five minutes of crying before I could pull myself together. Now I found myself wrapped up in Maisy's powerful arms, not out of anger or aggression, but out of understanding and mutual need.
What a sight we must've been.
Then the broadcaster beeped at me, before Cherry began to speak.
"Crimson. Crimson. Are you down there still? Alive? Wounded?"

Maisy took one look at my foreleg in confusion, and I pulled my pipbuck up to speak.
"Yeah, I'm still around Cherry. Unharmed." With that, I heard her sigh over the other end.
"Want me to come collect you, bring you down here?"
"Yes please, it's quite boring sitting up here doing nothing."

I gave Maisy a look as she said it.
"Is it okay Maisy?" She just nodded.
So with that, I flew up to Cherry. It was a lot faster then getting through the woods originally because I could just fly up through the uncovered zone and go collect her, rather then having to be careful of a beast that could tear me in two if I had approached it poorly.

"Crimson. You've been... crying?"
"Emotional story. I'll tell you some other time when I have more tears and emotional strength to give. Okay?"
Cherry obviously wanted to know right now, but with the look on my face, she didn't try drag it out of me.
"Okay. Just... whenever you're ready, okay?"
"Yeah. I promise."

We floated back down to Maisy, who was happy to see me again. I simply snuggled myself back up against her chest and rubbed her ear gently. She smiled and nuzzled against my cheek while Cherry just stood in astonishment at how gentle Maisy was with me.
"Okay Crimson, hand you your due, you're charismatic. But this?"
Maisy huffed at Cherry, obviously annoyed by the remark. I just blinked.
"Of course, Maisy is intelligent and emotional just like you or me. She's hurt both physically and emotionally. She just needs a little love is all."

We spent another fifteen minutes just building trust with discussion of who we were, what we were doing, and general affection with, and from, Maisy.
Once we all felt truly comfortable, I offered her the healing medication, to which Maisy cooed,

"Maisy, this initial injection may hurt, its the hydra, and it's going to rebuild your wing for you. I'm sorry if it does hurt, and I'll give you the healing potion to reduce the pain and provide extra healing right after, okay?"
She winced at the thought, but didn't flinch nor cry as I slid the needle into her side and injected her with the serum, as I pulled out the needle Cherry very carefully popped the cap off a healing potion and let her drink.

Before our eyes, we watched as her wing regrew to its original form and all the smaller wounds vanished before our eyes.
Maisy was back to full strength, and rather then rampaging or hurting us, she simply got up and licked my face.
I kissed her cheek back, much to Cherry's displeasure at not getting a kiss herself, and we spoke about going back to Coltshire Commons.

As I mentioned it, Maisy's face grew sad again, and she drew a pony into the dirt below.
"You want to go retrieve the corpse, don't you girl?"
She simply nodded and with an expression of anger, clenched her paw into a ball and hit the ground.
"You know where it is? Where they took it if so?"
She nodded once more.
"You mind if Cherry rides on your back? She's an excellent sniper but she doesn't have wings like you or me. If we get into any fights, she'd do better on your back then she would mine."
One last time, she nodded.
...It was time to go retrieve a corpse.

As we flew through the air, I could see that same old face of excitement on Cherry's face. The same expression she'd had the very first time she'd rode on my back.
"Beautiful feeling, isn't it, Cherry?"
She just squealed. She was so happy. Maisy was just happy to be back flying, and getting the corpse of her best friend / father back.

We saw it, laid out along with all the rest of them as a small band of ponies, five of them, stripped each and every corpse of anything valuable.
I slipped my helmet on to give them one chance.

"BACK AWAY FROM THE CORPSES NOW. THIS MANTICORE WILL ACCEPT NONE OF YOU DEFILING THE CORPSE OF HER OLD FRIEND. IF YOU'RE SIMPLE SCAVENGERS, RETREAT NOW AND FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO SCAVENGE."

They shot at us. They had the audacity to shoot at us.
Why would no-one ever make anything easy for me?

"FINE. BE THAT WAY. WE WON'T EVEN GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO RUN."

Maisy swooped down first, with her claws she slashed a pony in half without even trying it seemed, before landing and charging another. Cherry began burst firing into the third with her SMG while I pulled out my 10mm and sliced the air with my wings almost folded, sliding into S.A.T.S the other two fell as my bullets penetrated the head of the first one, and cleanly placed three bullets into the chest of the next.

Like that, the fight was already over. I slipped my pistol back into its holster and pulled my helmet off, sighing as I fell to the ground.
More mindless killing. I wasn't sure if they were raiders or scavengers, for all I had known they could've been decent ponies just looking for something to trade.
Cherry walked over and gave me a hug.
"Crimson. It's okay. They shot us first, You gave them a warning. This isn't like the execution."

I sighed again. "Exactly." I started. "With the execution I knew what I was doing. He told me his background and make a mockery of forgiveness and mercy. These ponies? I have no clue."
Before I could utter another word, Maisy gently lifted my face with a finger, and pointed to the corpse of Pudding Top, and then the people we'd just killed.
With an angry look, she growled at them.
Cherry stood and thought about it for a moment.

"You mean... These were the raiders who killed your friend?"
Maisy nodded. It made me feel a lot better about myself, that at least they hadn't been innocent bystanders... this time.
Though like Cherry said, they had shot first. They had forfeited their right to safety by showing us aggression.
Even if they were bystanders, even if we were bullies. We weren't going to do anything more then take the one corpse if so.

We stripped all of the corpses. We got another eight healing potions. The rest of the stuff we gathered for the town. I knew that they wouldn't part with a water talisman even if they had found one if we didn't give them a reasonable gesture first, so we grabbed as much as we could carry in as many saddlebags as possible.
There was a lot of junk that was absolutely worthless though. Guns that looked so broken and rusted up that they'd backfire if you tried to use them, packets of food half eaten, even ammo casing that had been bent out of shape.

Finally, we were just about to leave when a sniper shot cracked through the air. Cherry screamed in agony before hitting the floor. My eyes expanded as I saw... a zonkey? He lowered his gun with a smirk across his face, my blood boiled.
Maisy looked at the bandit and roared, she was about to go chase the bandit but I knew we had to act fast if we were going to save Cherry's life.

Cherry had been shot through the chest towards the side but from the front.
The bullet hadn't managed to have enough power to piece through both sides of her barding, but with the amount of blood she was coughing up I knew she wouldn't survive without medical attention.

I stood there in shock for a moment as I watched what felt like gallons of blood pouring out of her chest and mouth, balls of it being coughed up. She'd obviously had a pierced lung from the shattering of the bullet inside her. FUCK.
I poured a healing potion straight onto the wound, but it barely did a lot. It healed up the skin, but I knew Cherry would need an operation, and there was no way in all of Equestria that I had the skill, know how or tools to do it myself, let alone here.
We needed to get back to the doctor, right now!

Maisy stormed off in the direction of the bandit, I couldn't let that happen, she was my only hope now, so I cried out to her. "MAISY. I KNOW YOU WANT TO CHASE THAT BASTARD, BUT PLEASE, I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW."
Maisy turned around and ran back to me. She picked up the corpse of her old friend and all our luggage, while I slipped a very heavy, hardly breathing Cherry onto my back.

We had to be fast.
My wings began to beat against the dry midday air, the dust picking up around me. Cherry moaned, only half concious as we began to scream through the air like a bullet.

Maisy gave a worried cry as Cherry fell limp on my back. We had to be going at 120% if we were to do this.

When we arrived at the village, everypony who was around and out of the hospital (which wasn't many), were shocked to see Maisy back. One of them drew their gun and aimed, but I began to shout at them that if they dared to delay either of us, their whole town would burn in revenge.
Maybe it wasn't the smartest of threats to make, but by the heavens, it worked.

Immediately as we landed, Doc Dirthooves opened up the door to see what the commotion was about and I stormed in as quick as lightning. Sliding Cherry off my back and onto a table, I yelled at the doctor.

"SHE NEEDS MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, NOW!"
"WHAT'S GOING ON CRIMSON? WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME? WHY IS MAISY BACK? WHAT'S HAPPENED?" Doc shouted back, obviously confused.
"MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FIRST, QUESTIONS NEXT."
She gave me a stern look but ran right over.

"What's the damage?" Doc asked. Her tempo finally pulling into full swing as she magically grabbed all the tools she'd need.
"Bullet through the lung, I'm sure of it." I quickly replied, there was no time to waste but the doctor needed to know what was wrong.
She looked at me hesitantly for a moment, before continuing to grab all her emergency equipment.
"What have you done so far about it?"
She picked up a IV tube and began to insert it into Cherry's foreleg, to which I poured healing potion into the emergency IV drip. It had a port for that reason, and I wasn't prepared to give Cherry sub standard treatment.

Turning back to face me, she was shocked. "You have more potions?"
"Some more. I'll explain in a minute, first, we need to stabilise her."
With a serious tone and a no nonsense face, she simply nodded at me.
"Agreed."

We worked together, her giving me instructions, me giving her further information on the wound and how it happened.
Once we were sure that Cherry would pull through, I talked to Doc D about it all. She insisted I call her that, as the name "Dirtyhooves" didn't match her profession too well... I was inclined to agree.
Cherry began to stabilise and her breathing become deeper, we'd done it. She was going to live.

Explaining how the whole ordeal with Maisy went was quite interesting, Doc D had really appreciated that I'd found another way, as she really hadn't much liked the idea of killing Maisy in the first place, but thought it was the only thing that could be done.

We also sorted out a bargain - I would help fortify the town, give up two more healing potions, give them all the guns and a high percentage of ammo that we scraped up from the bodies of the raiders, travellers and village members alike, and if the town ever did come across a water talisman - they would immediately send it straight to Four Ridges - in return we would send what excess water we could to them to give them clean drinking water.

In the short term it might've seemed like a one sided deal, with Coltshire Commons gaining more then we would. However, the needs of the many... and such, I was more then happy to make this deal.
It would mean another town fortified and trading with us, another source of information, and perhaps, just perhaps, another bastion of hope out in a wild, desolate wasteland in the long term. Nothing could be worth more then the chance to bring safety and happiness to another community.

Now that Cherry Sundae was fast asleep and slowly healing, with the bullet fragments removed, we walked out into town to go see the mayor and explain the bargain.
Just as we walked out, I saw somepony kicking Maisy as hard as they could through the corner of my eye.
I flew straight over to the attacker, who was obviously drunk by the way she stumbled around. This was not going to be pretty.

As I flew towards Maisy, the mare one bucked her right to the face.
She just tried not to do anything but not get hurt, but I wouldn't do the same, if Maisy wasn't going to defend herself, I would.

My heart-rate jumped skywards as I immediately brought myself to bear the full force of my kick to the side of the mares face, she went flying across town and smacked straight into a building.
She started to bleed, I didn't give a fuck, she deserved it.

The other one who had been attacking her, a buck that had been kicking her side, turned his attention to me as Maisy whimpered softly.
I dodged his first few kicks, landing a few of my own against his face and chest, but he was a bigger buck then I.
He eventually hit me good and floored me, and I just laid there dazed.

Storming over to me, he went to crush my head but I managed to roll out of the way.
The Doctor called for it to cease as she rushed to the pony I'd just belted, going to check and make sure she was still alive and fine, if not a little hurt.
Trying to wiggle out of the way, my attacker hit my ribs and I cried out in pain.
Despite wearing my armour the force of his kick still damn hurt, I found myself winded and unable to move any more.
This was it. He was going to end me right here, and there was nothing I could do.

Maisy cried out in anger, a roar which spread across the land and the pony in front of me stood still.
He pissed himself right there in front of me as he suddenly went as tense as a statue.

I quickly moved out of the way as not to be laying in any of the piss which was quickly spreading across the floor.
As I pulled myself up off the floor I noticed the assailant had a single claw laid across his neck, as he stood there perfectly still almost, too frightened to move a muscle.

"Maisy. Good girl, I think he's learned his lesson, come on, I'll give you another healing potion for that black eye."
Maisy just whined but complied, pulling her paw away from the terrified pony.
As I walked past him, I bucked him as hard as I could across down to the floor, and he shit himself, still too frightened to move.

"Nopony! Nopony messes with my Maisy. You fucking got that?"

We'd spent the rest of the day in the hospital mostly, watching over Cherry.
Maisy had returned to her home to rest up and feel safe while Doc D had brought everypony to the middle of town to discuss the proper treatment of myself and Maisy.
Although a lot of the villagers were justifiably worried around Maisy, the children soon got back to petting her and treating her like nothing nothing happened while she sat on her porch like the guard dog she had been trained to be.
Maisy smiled and took them for rides around the village, the children giggled their little heads off and everything was happy and peaceful again.

During that time, me and the doctor had sorted out the spoils of war, and also informed the town of the agreement.
Nopony argued about this though, they were all happy to be getting their guns back, extra guns, and the idea of a wall around the village wasn't exactly ignored either.
Looked like I had a lot of work to do, but a lot of ponies offered their hooves and horns if it meant that the town would have some reasonable level of fortification and security.

After all that was settled, I walked back into the hospital. I poured another healing potion into the communal IV drip mixing pot for the other healing ponies, and slowly but surely, their wounds began to heal even faster then before. The doctor smiled at my generosity, I'd already given them four healing potions, but this act meant that they would still have those. It just felt right. The needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few.

I walked over to Cherry, who was still asleep on her bed, her IV drip was running low so I pulled out yet another healing potion and topped it up. I wanted to make sure she'd have the best possible care, and if that meant giving her healing potions via IV drip, then I'd damn well do it.
The Doctor smiled at me as I kissed Cherry's forehead.

"You really like her, huh?" She said with a soft, subtle tone.
I sighed as I closed my eyes, nuzzling into Cherry.
"Yeah. I only met her a few days ago, but she makes my stomach queasy and my heart flutter, faster then my wings could ever possibly flap."
With a dainty giggle she had an honest smile across her face.
"I think you're in love. Aren't you?"
I just looked at her. Was this love? It wasn't the same as how I felt for mother superior, it wasn't anything cheaper though, either.
Taking a moment to reflect on what she'd just said, I looked back up to Doc D once more.
"Yeah... I think I am."

The doc had given me an old, slightly torn and very much yellowing book she used to rely on when she was training to be a doctor, "The Canterlot Journal of Medicine".
Reading through it, it was mostly about general procedures, how to handle a pony in shock, how to temporarily mend a broken bone or repair it properly with a healing potion, even the smaller things like how to tell if a pony is in medical distress.
I thanked her for it, and decided to read it while sitting next to Cherry. It had proved to be surprisingly interesting to me.
Hell, one of us had to know this stuff, right?

Looking out of the window, It was still such a pleasant sight outside despite the night skies drawing ever closer.
The sun was shining extra strong because of the thinned out clouds and it brought a gentle orange glow upon the mountains around us.
With a whisper, I heard my name. I looked down to my side to see Cherry's eyes flickering open and closed, as she spoke again.

"Crim- Crimson?" She uttered ever so softly.
I simply leant down and kissed her with a gentle but passionate touch.
"Yeah, It's me Cherry. I'm here"
I saw her smile as her eyes closed again. "You... you saved me."
"I'm sorry, it was my fault you got hurt in the first place."
Brushing her mane, I felt a tenderness so strong I could simply melt into this moment and never leave.
That was when she uttered it.
"I... I love you, Crimson."
I began to choke up and tears rushed to my eyes as I nuzzled against her.
"I love you too, Cherry."

I didn't leave her side. Neither of us said another word. Nopony approached. We just stayed like that as I held her in my embrace.

We spent the night together like that, I even fell asleep, my head nuzzled against hers. It's how I woke up the next morning.
The nurses I hadn't seen the day before were around now, and some of them were still d'awwing at the sight of us, my cheeks flushed at the thought as the smile across my face grew ever larger.
I hadn't just found my somepony, I had found my special somepony.

I wished I could've spent more time just embracing Cherry, but I knew I'd have to find out what Maisy liked to eat and how to prepare it, if need be. I also had to start plans to fortify the commons.

I walked out of the hospital, and asked around about Maisy. In fact, I hadn't even seen her about.

"Hey, Anypony know where I can find Maisy?"
No answer from most of the ponies about, they either shrugged or ignored me completely.
Then, the child who I'd spoken to the day before came up to me.
"Uhm, hello again mister, Maisy is over in her old home."
I smiled at the young colt. "Thanks, can you tell me where abouts the village that is? I've forgotten. ya'know? being new here and all."
"Over that way." He simply pointed out the house, and suddenly it became obvious. Of course it was. That the house with the biggest door.

"Maisy! Mai-sy!" Calling out her name worked, and she sleepily walked out of her home and yawned, before smiling at me.
"Hey girl. How are you today?" I stroked her mane and tickled her ear just the way she'd shown me she liked it, and she smiled big and gave me a lick.
"Have you had breakfast yet?" She simply nodded and showed me the bones of her meal. They looked a little bigger then a radbit but not as big as a wolf.
I'd have to figure that one out later.

"Say, you wanna help out in planning the fortification of this town?"
She nodded and smiled, then looked at me as if to ask where to start.
"Well, first we need to figure out where abouts to build the wall from, and I'd need the mayor or someone to do that. I don't even know who that is though."
Before I could get another word off, she smiled and trotted off. I had nothing I could do but trust her to play nice as I flew up into the air and assessed the surroundings around me.

"Well, if I plan to build it... no no, that'd be too short. I could... no, that wouldn't work. What if? Nah, too much resources, I don't even know where we're going to get any of it yet."
My concentration was broken as I looked on as a ponies face slowly rose up in front of me, and I hovered there stunned by the fact it was an earth pony looking directly at me. How could she?
I looked down, and there was Maisy, happily allowing her to ride on her back.
I petted Maisy and began to talk.

"You're the mayor, I presume?"
"That I am indeed. I take it you're Crimson Wings?"
"Indeed."
"Well I'm Mayor Gut-Rot, yes. What are you planning for these defences then?"

I looked at mayor Gut-Rot and explained to her that I wasn't quite sure what we could use to make the defences from, but that Cherry had a better idea having been part of the Tank Mercenary Group prior to this expedition and thus she would possibly know of building resources we could use.
Aside from that we discussed the general outline of the defences. We agreed we'd around the town using some of the more isolated buildings as watch towers, allowing for a little breathing room and meaning that there would already be some pre-determined fortification about it that could be converted.

Mayor Gut-Rot returned to her duties and I had Maisy carving out a line in the ground with her claws as a visual blueprint, from building to building she dragged her claws through the ground, upturning the dirt below and making it clear where we would build this wall.

In the mean time, I made my way to Cherry to check on her. Amazingly she was feeling a lot better, and her IV drip was empty once more. As I went to refill it she stopped me with her magic.
"Crimson, it's okay now, I promise."
I gave her a worried smile, but gave a reassuring one back. "I promise, I won't be running or doing any heavy exercise for a few days, but I can walk about again now."

That was good to hear.

"Cherry... I hate to ask, but do you know of any building resources in the area?"
She thought about it for a moment and looked out the window.
"Mountains." she said softly.
"...Uh, what?"
"The mountains." She just pointed out the window, and my gaze followed.
"We can use the mountains. Get rock from them, The stone from the mountains is sturdy and would do the job wonderfully."

"How do you even plan to use the stone from the mountains then, Miss Sundae?" Gut-Rot asked. I turned around not realising she was even there beforehoof.
"Got any explosives?" Cherry asked as if it was an everyday question.
"TNT, lots of TNT. Why?"
"For your own interest, can we use it?"
"Know what you'll be doing with it?"
"That I do."
"Then I don't see why not. We'll go get it out of storage for you."

Watching, absolutely confused by their conversation, I sat in awe.
Cherry wasn't charismatic, yet she'd just convinced the mayor to hand over their TNT... just like that.
I was absolutely dumbstruck as she grinned.

Cherry rode on Maisy's back and marked the mountain with some chalk we managed to find at the bottom of it. Luckily she'd remembered seeing the chalk around when we were taking care of Maisy, and had taken note for whatever reason.
Damn perceptive ponies like her made my head hurt sometimes.

Slowly and deliberately she looked across the whole of the rock face, drawing circles on it and Maisy used her claws to dig holes big enough for me to place the TNT in later. I watched as she went across the whole of the mountain, making decisions and then retracting them once she had Maisy fly out farther away.

While she was doing this, two ponies carrying a cart came along with three big, heavy boxes inside. more weight then I could lift alone. They simply shrugged and lifted them one by one between them with relative ease. Damn earth ponies will all their strength.
They opened them up once they were all off, and I saw why they were all so heavy. The first two cases were filled to the brim with TNT, and the third had a detonator and an reassuring amount of cable to make the connection.
They simply trotted off with their cart once this had been done, and I didn't blame them.

After nearly an hour of doing it, she'd made many pock holes in the mountain, and finally made her mind up.
She was finally happy that she'd done it just right.
Now it was about to be my job, but first... I just had to go and ask her.

"Cherry, Are you absolutely sure this is a good idea? I mean explosives? We're trying to build defences, and you're playing around with explosives!?" I truly was worried. What in Princesses names could she be thinking?
"Don't worry Crimson. It's fine, honest! I know what I'm doing!"

I shot her a worried look, and she simply gave me her trademark grin. She was a mad-mare, a true mad-mare.
Flying over to the rock face, I planted the explosives in the positions she'd marked with the chalk. I wasn't sure what she had planned or how she'd see it working out, but this was her idea and I had to trust her.

I knew she had said that the mountain would make a good resource for making the wall, but I really hadn't expected to be handling TNT when I agreed to make a fortification for the town.
But, once more, she was the perceptive pony who apparently knew her stuff about explosives and I was the pony with the wings, so I did as I was told and planted the TNT in the holes.

While I was toiling away up at the mountain, occasionally having to make the hopes a little deeper with a metal rod, Cherry was down on the ground preparing the detonator charge and all its connection cables, keeping it all unplugged for now but having it laid out ready for my return.
The more I thought about this the more it scared me, but there was no turning back now. I'd made a promise and Cherry had her plan, I wasn't going to go back on that now.

Having planted the last of the TNT in the rocks I flew back to cherry.
"Are... you... absolutely... certain?" I was out of breath, the work with the rod had been hard and handling it with my mouth made it hard to breathe with all the dust that came out.
She just giggled and patted my head.
"Of course I am. Now, take these wires here and attach them to each of the pieces of TNT. I'll let you attach the other end to the detonator so you feel safe, I promise."

With that I smiled. At least I knew there wasn't going to be a misfire and I wouldn't end up in a thousand pieces.

So I flew, once more, off to the mountain side. This time the job was a lot easier, simply attaching the cables to the wires coming off the TNT was hardly an exhausting job and allowed me to catch my breath once more.
Within a matter of minutes, it was done. All the connections were made and I landed back down onto the ground, attached the last cable to the detonator and smiled at Cherry.

She happily trotted over to me. One last time, I asked.
"Are you sure this will work?"
She just looked at me with eyes wider then I had ever seen, grinning from ear to ear... shit, why was she looking at me like that?
"I HAVE NO IDEA"
My heart sunk as she pressed the detonation trigger.

The mountain exploded. I watched in slow motion as one by one, each and every piece of TNT were set off in a chain reaction, I thought this was going to be the end and that pieces were going to fly out at us and crush us, or even worse, the town.
They didn't. Of course they didn't!
Cherry was rolling around on the floor laughing at my expression as I watched the mountain fall apart in an orderly form.

Chunks of mountain, squares and rectangles, neat triangular shapes. The mountain had been generous to us, and it hit me, Cherry had planned for it all. All that time she took with marking it up was in an effort to make it work to her benefit, and she got it right.
The mountain collapsed in front of us, the last of the charges set off and showed something spectacular.
she'd even designed it to have a path to the top.
A path to the top of the mountain, which with some work would be fully traversable.

"Still think I'm a mad-mare?" Cherry whispered with soft allure as she nibbled on my ear. I felt aroused and paralysed by her teasing nature.
"You're a naughty naughty buck, Mister Wings. You should always trust your marefriend. What good is a relationship without trust?" She asked teasingly.
I looked at her, stammering my words. "You... we're... we..." I shook my head and pulled myself together.
"We haven't made anything official though?"
She looked at me with a grin. "Well, I'm telling you. It's official now."
I grinned back just as much, this felt too good to be true.

Tell you what wasn't too good to be true though, the effort in trying to get these villagers to give the aid they'd promised. When they saw the size of the chunks that Cherry had made, a lot of them tried to back out, until Mayor Gut-Rot shouted at them to get the pieces onto the wagons.
The mayor and three other ponies all pulled and the wagon moved without any signs of trouble, I stood in awe at the sheer determination of earth ponies. Never giving up, never giving in, never saying no to a challenge.

Maisy managed to pull a cart by herself, I was so proud of her and she could see it on my face. She hadn't found it as easy going as the four ponies, but she still managed it. I offered my help and she happily let me lead, it didn't make a lot of difference, but I'm sure she appreciated the thought of it none the less.

It had taken us the best part of the day to do it in the end, but we got it done, We'd transferred all the pieces over to the town and set them in place, between building to building while a group of unicorns chipped away at the stone with chisels and hammers to adjust the fit to be just right.

By the end of the night, the wall was built, the desolate, isolated buildings which were to act as guard towers had been converted while we moved the stone, hollowed out on the inside and re-purposed so that guards could make one clean walk across the entire wall.
The downstairs of the houses were hollowed out large enough so a pack brahmin might walk through, and the earth ponies devised an ingenious pulley system that meant heavy stone doors akin to a Stable door would block the approach from the inside.

Another group of unicorns worked throughout the night to give the wall a purposeful walkway, complete will a low wall for some protection.
It truly was a masterpiece, and none of us could have been any the more proud of our achievement.
It had taken a day of non stop hard labour, we were all exhausted, but it had happened.
We had turned Coltshire Commons from a group of houses and the odd tower apartment which had no defence against raiders, into a fully fledged down capable of denying access to all but the most determined of attackers.

I escorted Maisy back to her home, and she pulled out another corpse from the storage room. I then realised it was radhogs she'd been eating, which had explained why I hadn't recognised the skeletal structure of the one from her breakfast.
She happily snacked on her dinner and I kissed her on the head and said goodnight. She stopped chewing and smiled at that moment.

"You know. I... I really like having you around Maisy. I wish... I wish you'd stick with us now that we have the town defended. I mean, you're obviously welcome to stay and I won't hate you or be hurt, but... I could really use your company. Would you?"
She looked at me for a moment and pushed her meal to a side.
Then she jumped on top of me with all her power, she could've ripped out my throat in a moments notice if she had so decided to.

Instead, she licked my neck and cheek over and over before nuzzling into me.
"I take it as a yes?" with a gentle laughter I smiled, and she nodded before once again licking me all over.
Brushing my hoof through her mane I kissed her on the nose.
"Goodnight Maisy"
She smiled and went back to her meal as I left.

Mayor Gut-Rot just smiled at me as we looked down at it from one of the apartments that sat inside the new perimeter.

"Thank you, Crimson.This means a lot to us all. You have no idea how much safer we will be able to sleep at night."
I smiled back. "You're welcome. Just please remember your end of the bargain."
She let out a tired laugh and hugged me. "Of course. You have our undying gratitude. Well, as a town. Some of those ponies may not show it, may say otherwise, but they're just tired after a long day. You should get some rest, I know that's what I'm about to do."

I nodded in agreement and trotted over to the room we had been allowed to stay in, now that Cherry was out of the hospital and there was a perimeter, I felt a lot safer sleeping in the apartment then I would've the night before.
Cherry was already seemingly asleep as I slipped down next to her, closing my eyes without a care.

I heard a murmur coming from her beautiful lips. "Crimson?"
"Yeah Cherry?" I smiled as I felt myself drift off into a sleep. Cherry placed her hoof on my mouth.
"I love you."
I went to say it back and felt her hoof press further on my lips.
I just kissed it in return and slipped into a deep sleep, replaying those last words over and over.

Footnote:
Level up!
Perk unlocked! Civilised Education!
Due to your civilised upbringing and education, you gain +3 skill points every time you level up.

Footnote:
Cherry Sundae level up!
Perk unlocked! Civilised Education!
Due to your civilised upbringing and education, you gain +3 skill points every time you level up.

Footnote:
Maisy has joined the party!
Tagged skills: Unarmed
S8 P7 E8 C2 I3 A7 L5

75 Unarmed attained.

Special mention to Katarn for suggesting the music! I love having another sense of depth to this, and hacking a track list helps in my mind. So thank you for suggesting such an amazing piece. Much appreciated!

Extra special mention goes out to Tea - he went through the whole chapter with me, discussing it as he read. We had a lot of bouncing back and forth on things, and he pointed out a few grammar errors, typo's, inconsistencies and general parts where the story didn't explain itself enough - They've all been fixed now though, thanks to him letting me know where I needed to improve.
So thank you, Tea.

As promised, I'm going to keep advertising the fact that the head picture came from WavemasterRyx, who can be found:http://ask-the-waves.tumblr.com/ !

My best friend Mel gets love for being amazing, supportive and keeping me going. <3 Seriously, I love you Melly, so damn much. She's the best friend anyone could ever ask for and she means so damn much to me I could never really express it.
If it wasn't for her support, I doubt I'd have had the confidence to do this.

Special thanks goes to my friend Tom for massively defining this chapter not just once, but twice, with a simple comment which he had no clue would end up doing what it did - and then for answering a yes/no question with no information attached.

Thanks for reassuring me that Maisy is a workable idea without being Mary Sue [trust me - she's not] go to Random Blank, NoakWolf, No-one,Nyerguds, Wayofthepen and AlwaysTheCurious

Thank you both Kkat and Somber for both writing amazing stories that have inspired me to write. Without you two, there would be a massive hole in my world, and I don't know how I would've filled it otherwise. Thank you.

Lastly: Thank you to all of my readers. You keep me going with your compliments, your views, and the sheer interest this is getting.
If It hadn't gotten any interest at all, I wouldn't be realising this chapter now. Thank you so much, I love you all.