I never was much of a morning pony. True I always got up early and practiced my flying or my knife fighting, but I never did enjoy it much. That was until one morning when I woke up early to check the town. I heard a little filly crying, sitting on a rock just as the sun started to rise. I was concerned at first, until I realized she was actually smiling. I couldn't help but ask her if something was wrong, to which she promptly replied, "No, but every morning when I see the sunrise, I can't help but remember my mother. Her smile, her soft voice as she sang to me, all the wonderful things she taught me. So every time I see a sunrise, I always think of what I can do to make the day better than yesterday." Ever since that quiet morning when I sat and watched the distant sunrise with that little filly, I've always woken up in time to watch the sun come up with a smile.

Finder and I stayed up far too late reading Commander Hurricane's journal, and I figured he would want to sleep a little bit longer so I stayed outside and practiced my flying a little. I could fly pretty fast, and I was getting better at maneuvering mid-air, but I just couldn't shake that fear of falling whenever I got somewhat high. Maybe that's why pegasi before the war had flight camps, to help kids get over their fear of falling so they can fly like a normal pegasus pony. I checked all of my books, but apparently having a fear of falling was too pathetic for anyone during the times of the Cirran Empire or pony tribes to acknowledge.

So as I tried yet again to fly more than ten feet off the ground, my wings locked up and I fell to the ground. Face first. Again. I could hear faint giggling coming from the direction of the house, but I didn't give it's author the pleasure of looking up with my dirt covered face. "Yeah go ahead and laugh, not like you're the first. But one day I'm going to fly above the clouds and see the best sunrise ever."

To my surprise he walked over and helped me up with an easy smile. "I'm sure you will, but why can't you do that now? I mean your wings aren't broken or anything right?"

Now that lit a fuse for sure. "No my wings aren't broken, they aren't worthless, and I'm not a chicken! I'm tired of everypony making fun of my wings!" When I calmed down enough to realize how tense I was, I just laid back down and covered my face with a hoof. When I looked up I expected him to have walked away after that pathetic display, but he was still standing there with his easy smile.

"I-I'm sorry that was... childish of me. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." I felt even more stupid as I wiped a tear away with a fetlock.

He pawed at the dirt and hung his head. "Don't worry about it, everypony has their problems. I mean look at me, if I was alive before the war ponies would be terrified of me. And I'm the one who should be sorry, that was a stupid question and I shouldn't have even asked that."

He helped me back onto my hooves again, and after a few false starts I finally started talking again. "So... you ready to head out?"

"Ready when you are." After I took a moment to get my bags, we left the house behind and made our way to Las Pegasus. I'd never been there myself of course, but I'd heard the ruins there were an amazing sight to see. Giant towers almost reaching the cloud layer, still glowing signs proclaiming the names of casinos long abandoned, and some of the largest Balefire craters you can find in the Wasteland. Apparently the zebras saw Las Pegasus as a summary of everything they hated about ponykind, so they destroyed it with extreme prejudice.

Then again it's a sight few have dared to see due to the Hellhounds, Bloodwings, Feral Ghouls, and the nearly omnipresent radiation. As I went down the list I was starting to reconsider my choice of going there actually. "Hey Finder, you said you've been to Las Pegasus before right? Why would anypony in their right mind ever go there?"

He stifled a laugh as he jumped over a large rock with enough grace to make any mare jealous. (Except for me of course...) "Well Las Pegasus isn't anymore dangerous than anywhere else if you know what to do. But since there are so many ways to end up dead there, most ponies won't even go within sight of it. And that means there's all kinds of good stuff you can find there. The last time I went there I found a StableTec service store that sold PipBucks, and it had seventeen of them that had never even been used! Seventeen! I had to leave most of them, but they're probably still there."

"Right, point taken. So, since we're going to be in the area anyways..."

"Yes we can go see if they're still there."

"Yes! This is gonna be so awesome!" I jumped as high as I could in excitement, but he pulled me back to the ground by my tail.

"But! You have to do exactly as I say, when I say it, without any questions. Got it? Las Pegasus is really dangerous and it's easy to get lost, so I don't want you wandering around into a Balefire crater or something." I saluted him with a serious expression, which probably just looked silly considering the backwards and upside-down position I was flying in. We both had a few good laughs as I landed next to him, but we went silent when we reached the top of a small hill.

Not far from us was the blasted remains of a pre-war town. some of the buildings seem to have been destroyed more recently, and the rubble had been piled up to form a wall around the few buildings still standing. The most notable of these was a large casino, the peeling black paint and huge size of the structure making it stand in stark contrast to the surrounding landscape. A large sign above the front entrance proudly proclaimed it's name, 'The Black 9'.

The wall was of poor construction and it looked as though it was cobbled together in a hurry. It probably wouldn't take more than a grenade to render it useless, but with the guards patrolling along its top I suppose it serves it's purpose.

By watching said guards I quickly decided this wasn't likely to be a very friendly place. They all wore spikes or chains of some kind, and their clothing and weapons were all in very poor conditions. Raiders probably, but I personally didn't plan on getting anywhere near close enough to be sure. One look at Finder told me he certainly didn't share that sentiment.

"No. I don't know what you're thinking, but no." He shook his head before looking at me with a puppy-eyes frown.

"What- But come on Updraft! Do you have any idea what kind of loot they have in there?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. There's no way I'm going into a fort full of angry raiders. I sat down with a 'humph' and crossed my forelegs.

"Oh come on, you haven't even heard my plan yet!"

There was a sound of hoof smacking forehead, and I knew I was going to immediately regret my decision. "I know I'm going to hate myself for even asking this, but what's your 'plan'?

"Alright, from what I've seen they keep all the good stuff on the second floor of that black building. There's a back door that'll let us in no problem, and I know most of the raiders aren't here, so their won't be too many guards. All we gotta do is sneak around to the part of the wall that's closest, run to that back door, and get inside."

"And how do we escape?" I tried and probably failed to hide the skepticism in my voice.

"After we rob them blind, there's some stairs that lead up to the roof. We get up there and you fly us to safety beyond the wall."

I didn't like that idea at all: that building looked pretty tall, at least four stories. And the wall looked several hundred yards away and I've never carried anyone while flying before. But I let those thoughts sit at the back of my mind, I had more immediate concerns. "And you're sure you know your way around that place? I'd rather us not get lost in there."

"Sure do. I already got in there once, but they always have one guard outside the room with all their stuff and I couldn't get past him. But I'm sure you could handle that just fine."

I wasn't very comfortable about others seeing me as being really good at killing ponies. And killing somepony without it being a fight? definitely not my style. But I guess since they're raiders I can do it if I need to. But... "What about the guards on the wall? I doubt I can fly right over their heads without them noticing."

His face lit up like a tree on Hearth Warming Eve as he reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a little orange disc. "Oh I've got something to help with that."

Stupid! This was a terrible idea! But as we sprinted from the wall to the large casino it was far too late to go back. Finder's timed mine worked as a perfect distraction, the explosion leveling a part of the wall on the opposite side of town and drawing the attention of every raider here. I reached the back door shortly behind Finder, and to my dismay it was locked. I was about to start losing it before he pulled out a screwdriver and bobby pin. One picked lock later and we were safely inside a small maintenance room.

"Wait you can pick locks? Where did you learn to do that?" I began picking through the trash piles in the room to see if I could find anything salvageable. Really it was just something to help keep my mind off of the fact that we just ran into the middle of a raider's camp unnoticed. Finder was working on unlocking the door that lead further into the building. I didn't find much, but I was a few caps richer so I wasn't going to complain.

"My mom taught me. My parents taught me a lot of that kind of stuff, but I never got to learn some of the stuff most ponies did." Somehow he was capable of speaking clearly while holding a bobby pin in his mouth. Dumb earth ponies and their dumb ability to do things like that...

I wanted to ask what he meant about not learning the things most ponies did, but the door clicked open and I didn't want to make any more noise than I had to. We quietly made our way through the dark hall, walking left and passing several open doors that led to small offices or other hallways. Finally we came to a large doorway on our right that let bright light pierce the darkness in our hallway, ruining our night vision. Finder peaked his head around the corner briefly before sprinting across the opening and stopping safely on he other side. He turned back and motioned me to do the same.

I poked my head around he corner, but I'll never stop regretting seeing what was in the room. It was the large casino floor of the building, most of the machines still working and giving off bright neon lights after all this time. However the raiders clearly decided this was going to be the main attraction of their sickening home. There were countless bodies hanging from the high ceiling, many still dripping blood onto the floor below.

There were several empty cages scattered around the room, but the blood stains told me they hadn't been empty for long. I couldn't see what was in a row a cages behind some slot machines, but in a closer cage there was a raider that was-

Well there wen't my breakfast. I could have lived a happy life never having seen a pony be that personal with a dismembered corpse, but the Wasteland hated me apparently. I took a moment to recover, and I had to close my eyes and sing a song in my head to drown out the sounds, but I finally crossed the opening to where Finder was waiting. He looked at me for a moment and frowned before turning and continuing further down the hall. We slipped through heavy door marked 'employees only' and found ourselves at the middle of a stairwell. It was to dark to see what was below us, but I could hear voices from the floor above us.

Finder tilted his head and ears upward before turning to me. "Okay here's what we're gonna do. When I say 'go', we're gonna run (quietly!) up the stairs, through the open door into the offices, and we're gonna go into the first room on our left. Once we're in there this will be easy. Just no matter what stay right on my tail... and don't look right. Please." He regarded me with a concerned frown. I got really curious about what he meant by that, but I trusted him so I nodded anyways.

We waited there for several minutes, bodies poised to sprint up the stairs at a moment's notice. I was just starting to get bored when Finder barely whispered something before bolting up the stairs silently. I kept up with him without a problem, but I probably made lot more noise than he did. We entered the offices, a large, open room filled with broken cubicles and defiled worktables, and immediately ran to our left. I could hear the voices of several raiders in the same room as us!

The sprint felt like it lasted an eternity but we finally reached the door he was talking about. Finder reached for the handle but he froze as his ears perked up. He turned around looking panicked as he looked at the room behind me. I heard a muffled, gravelly voice through the door. "D'you hear somethin? I coulda sworn I heard one uf dem idjits outside tryin' to spy on us." Yep, the wasteland definitely hates me.

We ran along the wall trying to open any door we could, but they were all locked or blocked by debris. Finally Finder lucked out as he pulled open a door to a janitor's closet and rushed inside. I could hear the door to the office open! I flew to the closet as fast as I could, only turning back to pull the door closed. But what I saw must have been what Finder warned me about. I sat frozen in place in the doorway as I looked at the far side of the room where the two raiders were talking.

The wall in front of them was covered from top to bottom with the mutilated, defiled bodies of young fillies and colts, none of which died a quick death. They were crudely nailed to the wall with rusty spikes, their heads were all turned to face the viewer, their faces all wearing expressions of horror. The two raiders were struggling to fit a new victim into an open place on the wall. If my mind could fully comprehend what I was seeing I'd likely go on a bloodthirsty rampage. But as it was all I could do was cry.

Finder pulled me into the closet by my tail, before easing the door closed. He breathed a sigh of relief and mumbled something but my addled brain couldn't make out what he said. I just sat n the middle of the closet and cried. At first Finder was giving me some space, but he quickly moved close and hugged me tight. "I told you not to look..." He held me as I cried into his shoulder. I never imagined anypony could be so cruel.

It took me a long time to look up from my little corner in the closet. Finder had left and come back several times, crawling through the air vents in the ceiling trying to decide where to go next. The most recent time he came back covered in some kind of black dust, causing him to sneeze and send the stuff everywhere in the small room. I couldn't help but laugh a little at how silly he looked when I could only make out his eyes and mouth. "Okay when we go up there, don't take the first left. Just trust me."

After Finder finally managed to get most of the black stuff off of his coat, we climbed the stack of boxes he made and began our crawl through the air vents. Finder navigated us through the dark tight maze (I was only a little scared, promise!) and finally we squirmed our way through the tight opening into a small office with windows on the front wall. The glass was broken, but luckily for us someone had boarded them up.

I nearly fell on top of Finder in my rush to get out of the air ducts. Leave small spaces for the Earth Ponies... I crept up behind him as he peeked out of the door, but he waved me back. "Let me look first." After what happened earlier I didn't care to argue. I almost yelped when a raider walked past the doorway, but Finder didn't even flinch."Alright there's only one guard left. If you creep along the left side of the hallway he won't see you until your right on top of him. Ready?"

"Ready when you are." I wasn't. I poised myself next to the door, but I really didn't like this. Killing a pony before they can fight back? Really doesn't seem like something the good guys would do. Then my thoughts drifted back to what they did to those poor kids. No, they deserve this.

I slipped out of the door and into the dark hall, only one of the lights was working and it was hanging above the guard. I crept low next to the left wall, and I was able to get within hoof's reach before he noticed me. But he was far too late. I lunged forward and slid my left wing across his throat. The scaled blade nearly decapitated the raider, staining my wing and side in his blood. Finder rushed to my side and began picking the lock on the door.

"We need to hurry. Somepony else might wander up here any second." He began frantically picking it, breaking two bobby pins in the process. Finally he got the door open, and what waited inside almost made my jaw hit the floor. When Finder said the raiders had a lot of loot in here, I pictured some piles of weapons, food, maybe some old prewar tech. But I never expected this. Inside was a large office with a massive desk in the middle and several chairs (all made of wood, and not even rotted in the slightest!) scattered around the room. But in the back of the room was the largest steel door I had ever seen! Okay it wasn't really that big, I just don't get out much.

Seeing the terminal sitting in the wall next to the door, I wondered how Finder planned on opening it. I asked as much. He walked over to the terminal and pressed a button, opening the door while looking at me with a smug smile. "Oh, right. I guess there isn't a point in locking this door when they have the other door locked and a guard outside at all times..." He snickered as he walked into the vault. I stood at the door as a lookout, but I peeked inside briefly.

The floor was littered with stacks of weapons, and there were several small boxes overflowing with caps The walls were lined with small doors, each having a lock. It looks like somepony had tried to open several of them with a hammer, and the black stain on the floor and left wall made me think somepony thought it was a god idea to use a grenade... The back half of the room was blocked off by large steel bars and another steel door, and I couldn't believe what I saw beyond them. Gems! Piles of them, overflowing from crates and barrels. I'd never seen more than one or two at a time, but it looked like there were thousands of them back there!

"Keep your eyes on the door. I really don't want somepony coming up behind me. It should only take me a minute to bag all of this stuff. No way I can open the wall boxes, but I can at least grab all these caps." I nodded and ran back to the office door, peeking into the hallway. As an afterthought I decided to drag the raider's body into the office and close the door. Sure there'd still be blood all over the floor, but that was normal for raider territory right?

I sat with my ear to the door trying to hear if anypony walked down the hall. No one did, and soon Finder had both of our bags full of caps and other valuables. I noticed one of his bags had several of those white ball things like I found before, but I didn't have the time to ask him why. We lined up against the door and built up the courage to leave the room, but we heard a dull boom from outside the building.

"That's so not cool!" Finder busted though the door and galloped down the hall away from where we came. I strained to catch up to him, having to use my wings for extra speed. We rounded a corner and began ascending a flight of stairs, quickly passing the third and fourth floors.

"What? What is it!?"

"That was the distraction to help us get us off the roof! It went off early!"

Wait, that was our only way to get off the roof? So not cool! "So what now?"

"I don't know, but we need to see if there's still a way to fly out. Not like it's better to stay here until they find us!" He picked a metal door at the top of the stairs, and I immediately felt relieved to be breathing (by Wasteland standards at least) fresh air again. I'm not sure what bothered me more, the horrid smell that permeated the entire building, or how fast I stopped noticing it.

We walked to the edge of the roof and peeked over the short railing. Sure enough the raiders were already starting to settle down, the smoke cloud left over from Finders distraction (which he explained was a mine he wired to a timer so it would go off whether somepony stepped on it or not) rapidly dissipating. I looked to Finder hoping he had some kind of backup plan, but he merely shrugged. I backed up from the roof and started taking any none essential things out of my bags.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking as much out of my bags as I can. I’m going to have to fly fast if we’re going to make it, and I can’t afford to have this stuff slowing me down.”

“You still want to fly out?” He looked at me incredulously but he started taking the heavier items out of his bags as well.

“Do you have a better plan?” He didn’t reply so I took that as a no. “Alright all aboard Pegasus Airlines, next stop anywhere but here.” I barely felt his weight climb on my back, and he wrapped his forelegs around my neck.

“Think you can fly faster than they can aim?”

I smirked and backed up as far as I could. “I’m planning on flying faster than they can draw.” I got a running start and flew off the roof as fast as my wings could carry me, the only thing I could hear over the screaming wind was the screaming pony on my back. He must have never moved this fast before. As soon as I left the roof I closed my eyes hoping to overcome that feeling of falling. Unfortunately it didn’t work for long, and I had to fight harder than ever before to stay in the air.

Before long I had to open my eyes to get my bearings, and to my surprise we had already flown over the wall! Which was good because I quickly started tumbling out of the sky. I had plenty of experience with hard landings, but Finder didn't. So right before I hit the ground I bucked him skyward a little to slow his fall. Unfortunately that meant I hit the ground faster than normal, which hurt. A lot. We rolled and slid on the ground for several feet, finally coming to a stop on the other side if the small hill we came from earlier.

“We made it! I can’t believe we made it! They never even saw us! Why didn't you tell me you could go that fast?”

I groaned in response and rolled onto my hooves. Pain! Sure enough I hurt my right hindleg. It probably wasn’t too bad but I wouldn’t be walking on it soon. I stood up holding my leg off the ground, and gave my wings an experimental flap- Ow! Okay so no flying either. Well this sucks.

“Oh goddesses that was so awesome! That was the escape of a lifetime!” His cheeriness was starting to bother me, but all bruises and injuries aside that could have gone much worse so I couldn’t help but smile anyways. “Told you I could fly faster than they could draw!”

“Ahem.”

We both froze as the third voice boomed over our laughs. Behind us stood the tallest pony I’d seen yet. And behind him stood dozens of raiders armed head to hoof in spikes and guns. “Looks like we got some new toys.”

“Oh come on!”

Within minutes we were tied to large wooden posts in a corner of the fort. The bloodstains around us gave me a good idea of what kind of activities went on here. The stallion leading the raiders that caught us said he had to go speak to the “Boss”, and he commanded the other raiders to leave us alone until he came back. Small favors I guess.

My wing was yelling its protests in my mind as it chaffed against the splintering wood, and my hurt leg was in too much pain to think about. They made me walk on it the whole way back! “Hey Finder I have a great idea. How about we go and rob a fort! Full of angry raiders!”

“Sorry! I really thought this would work. And now your hurt and we’re probably going to die. I’m so useless.”

“Hey what did I tell you about saying that? We aren’t dead yet, who knows maybe they’ll ask us to join them. Raiders aren’t exactly bright if you haven’t noticed.” I wish they were a little less smart though, they took my wingblades then searched me to make sure I didn’t have any other weapons.

Night had already fallen by the time our captor came back, and when he did he had a scowl on his face. “Consider yourselves lucky, the boss said he wants you for himself. Selfish bastard. We’ll take you to him in the morning, so you better enjoy your last night alive.” I shared a look with Finder as the raider grumbled and walked off. He left two raider bucks to watch us, much to my chagrin.

One of them turned and looked at me with a leery smile I didn’t like one bit. “Hey Meats you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Don’t even think about it Pins, if the boss finds out he’ll kill you.”

“We’re the only ones out here right? So if I don’t tell him, and you don’t tell him, then how can he know?”

“I still don’t think this is a good idea. What if she tells him?”

“Let the bitch say what she wants, he’ll be too busy cutting her up to listen anyways.”

I was really not liking where this conversation was going. “Hey do I get a say in this?” They ignored me completely.

“I still don’t want any part of this. Look I’m gonna go piss, just do it before I get back.” The buck walked around a corner and out of sight.

“Oh I’m gonna do it all right.” He started skulking towards me, and I sank back against the wood post.

“Look why don’t we just talk this over? I’m sure we can come to some kind of deal or-“ I was silenced as his hoof struck my cheek.

“Shut up bitch, I’m getting what I want and you aren’t, that’s the deal.”

“Leave her alone!” The raider growled and turned to Finder.

“Shut up filly or you’ll be next!”

He turned back to me and time seemed to slow down for the next few moments. It wasn’t so much that his head exploded, it just wasn’t there anymore. The loud bang that followed sounded like it came from all directions at once. Then a second bang, much louder than the first, lit up the night sky with deafening violence. More gunfire roared than I had ever imagined, and soon Meats came running around the corner followed closely behind by a hail of bullets.

“Pins! Some crazy mare is… WHAT THE F-“ His head disappeared followed by another distant boom.

The gunfight raged on in the fort, whoever was attacking was very determined to win. We were protected by nothing more than an old collapsing house. At least we were until a rocket hit it, leaving my mind reeling and my lungs fighting for air in the dust cloud. When the dust settled I got a good sight of the pony crazy enough to attack a raider fort head on.

It was AN attacker, just one pony! The mare with a pink coat and aqua blue mane stood in the center of town holding more guns in her telekinesis than I’d ever seen in one place before! She wore the most sophisticated armor I’d ever seen too. It was a silver breastplate, greaves, and backplate with dark blue outlines. It was polished perfectly clean and to my astonishment it was completely scratch free.

I soon found out why. One of the raiders braved the open space long enough to throw a grenade before being torn to pieces by the mare’s firepower. I panicked when it landed right in front of her feet, but as soon as it exploded a vibrant golden aura appeared around her that blocked the entire explosion! A shield spell! She was using that much telekinesis and a shield spell at the same time!

The fight barely lasted more than a minute before the last of the raiders in sight were slaughtered. The mare sat and admired her work before noticing us. She cantered over to us with a huge smile plastered on her face. “Hi I’m Smiles! What's your names?”

Level Up:

Sneaky Pinkie: You're becoming more practiced with the art of stealing and sneaking, giving you +5 to sneak and +5 to lockpicking.

Author's Notes:

Thanks to Kkat for writing such an amazing story and for giving us permission to do this thing that we like to do. Another big thanks to The 24th Pegasus for giving me permission to crossover his ideas with Fallout Equestria

And of course thanks to everyone who took the time to read my work. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!