When I was just a filly, I didn’t have many ponies around to take care of me. Sure Mayor Laps raised me like she was my own grandmother, but before Sandy’s family moved into town I was usually on my own. That’s why I spent most of my time in Mr. General’s store listening to the caravaners and merchants tell stories. I always loved hearing about life in the wasteland, about the adventures and the danger. Sometimes they would tell stories I was probably too young to hear, but the wasteland doesn’t let innocence last long anyways. Other times I met ponies that still make my hair stand up when I think about them.

I remember one pony far too well. One day a dusty old stallion came walking into town looking for somepony. After asking around he came into Mr. General’s store to buy some supplies for a long trip. I asked him where he was going, and he looked at me with the most hollow looking eyes I’d ever seen.

“It doesn’t matter where I’m going, and it doesn’t matter where I’ve been. It doesn’t even matter where I am. But do you know what does matter, little filly?”

I shook my head as he took a few steps closer. “Happiness. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, so long as you’re happy doing it. And do you know what makes me happy?” I shook my head again but he just kept stepping closer to me.

“Making ponies smile. That makes me happier than anything else in the whole world. And do you know what the easiest way is to make somepony smile?” By now I was backed into the corner and he was right on top of me. “By holding a gun to their head.”

“What am I looking at?” I stared down at the grotesque canned sludge that I was told to eat. “Did you at least kill it before you gave it to me? I swear I just saw it move.”

Finder didn’t seem to have the same reservations about the 'food', he dug in with gusto and even getting seconds. “Oh stop whining it’s perfectly safe. Plus it tastes good!”

“Yeah I think I’ll just stick to eating food that’s still edible thank you very much. I’m going to go check on the others.” Turns out the cages in The Black 9 had quite a few living ponies in them from their last raid, and it was with great effort (until Smiles walked in and just started shooting the locks off of the cages…) that we freed all of them. I got up to walk away but a hoof pulled me back.

“Just don’t go wandering around alright?” It was mildly annoying that he was treating me like some lost filly, but after what I saw in the casino I can’t say I didn’t appreciate the concern. I returned his worried look with a grateful smile.

“Okay I promise.” After sliding my share of the not-food over to him, I walked off in the direction of the large casino. Okay my hoof was still pretty messed up so it was more of a hobble, but you get the idea. Smiles made quick work of the raiders both inside and out, and after the attack everyone decided it was a good place to rest for a while.

I walked onto the casino floor and was relieved to see that it had been (mostly) cleaned of the raider decorations and bodies. The cages had all been stacked in one corner of the room, the few remaining occupants were lying around the room in disbelief. I received a few ‘thank you’s‘ as I hobbled my way through the room, apparently these ponies assumed I helped Smiles attack the fort.

It didn’t take long to find the pony I was looking for, the unicorn was sitting at the back of the room surrounded by a dozen colts and fillies. He had a light brown coat, amber eyes, and a white mane/tail. Somehow in the midst of this hellish landscape he still seemed to carry an easy smile and calm nature, even now when surrounded by nearly a dozen whining and crying children.

“I’m hungry!” “I want my parents!” “Where’s my mommy!” “What’s that smell?”

He continued fumbling around with some bandages as he tried to make a colt sit still, completely unperturbed by the chaos around him. “Now children one at a time please, I can only pull so many tricks out of this bag of mine. And will you please stop moving I’m trying to bandage your leg.” That seemed to calm a few of the older ones but most were still complaining.

He finished bandaging the colt’s leg, and once he saw me he shooed the children to the side so he could look at my injuries. “I see the Angel of the Wastes has come to grace me with her presence. How’s your wing and leg doing? Still having headaches? Back pains?”

I smiled but sat down with a ‘humph’ in what he proudly called his 'clinic'. “Airem, I told you to stop calling me that… Anyways no more headaches or back pains, and my leg’s doing much better. My wing’s still pretty stiff though, and it hurts to move it even a little.”

He stepped to my side to get a better look, and after some poking and prodding (and maybe a less than dignified yelp or two from me…) he sat down in front of me with a frown. “Sorry I’ve never treated a pegasus before, so I’m just winging it here.” Somewhere in the room I heard at least one facehoof. “Really all I can do is give you something for the pain and wish you the best of luck, sorry.”

I smiled and patted him on the back with my good wing. “That’s alright you’ve already done more than I could have asked for. How’s everypony else doing?”

He sighed and for once actually looked genuinely displeased about something. “Honestly? No idea. Every time I try to look at some of the older ponies, one of the children have some other tragedy I have to attend too. I understand that their kids and this is no place for a child to be, but I have to think about everypony not just the whiny ones…”

I scratched my chin as an idea came to me. “I think I can help with that.” I got up and walked to where one of the fillies was sitting alone. “Hello there my name’s Updraft, what’s your name?”

She looked at me hesitantly, but after seeing Airem smiling at her she loosened up a little. “Updraft? That’s a funny name. My name’s Clockwork.” And my name is weird?

“Could you do me a big favor?” I pointed across the room to where a table was sitting. “See I’m all hurt and covered in bandages, so could you bring me the candle that’s sitting on that table?” She glanced at me questioningly but did as I asked. “Alright now pay very close attention okay? I’m going to do a magic trick.”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Airem watching me with curiosity as well, probably expecting some kind of trick involving sleight of hoof or an illusion. He sure was in for a surprise! I stood the candle upright on the floor and draped my good wing over it. After ensuring that Clockwork was watching, I focused hard on my magic. A few moments later I removed my wing from the candle, leaving a small flame burning at the top. Clockwork smiled and clapped her hooves, but Airem wouldn’t let it go so easily.

“Wait, wait, wait! How did you just do that?! That shouldn’t be possible! You shouldn’t be possible!” He ran over to observe the candle more closely before staring at me, expecting an answer.

I smiled innocently and flicked his horn with my wing. “Magic silly!”

Children. I always did like playing with the kids at Desert Springs. Seeing them smile just seemed to make my day a little better every time. There was even a point in time that I entertained the idea of having a few of my own. But now, surrounded by this many of them after performing my “magic trick” for probably the twentieth time… I quickly locked those thoughts away in a safe, buried it, built a house on top (concrete foundation for good measure), and promptly moved in just to make sure no one else ever accidentally dug them up.

I looked over the throng of kids at Airem, giving him a pleading look. He simply shrugged before turning back to his most recent patient, a pegasus mare with a soft blue coat and white mane. Her Cutie mark was a trio of snowflakes with several curved lines going between them. Wait a minute… pegasus!

“Alright sorry kids show’s over!” There were several ‘awws’ as I looked around the room until I saw Finder examining the slot machines. “But I have a super cool friend to show you guys come on!” I walked across the room as fast as my beaten body could, a veritable mob of children and adults alike following me. Stopping next to Finder I put my hoof around his neck and swung him around to face the crowd. “This is Finder, and he has something to tell you all about the dangers of playing with Killing Joke, as well as why you should never try to rob a fort full of angry raiders. You’ve got the floor!”

I grinned and walked away as he stuttered and tried to process so many questions at once. I felt kind of bad for him, but he needed to get used to talking to more ponies anyways, and I really needed to get away from them for a few moments. I walked back to Airem to talk with that pegasus mare, but she was already walking into the back hallway! I rushed to catch up to her, agitating my injuries and causing the pain to flare up.

As she disappeared around the corner I shouted “Wait for me!” to which she surprisingly obliged immediately. I rounded the corner into the dark hallway and immediately tripped over myself as I tried to not ram into her. As I groaned and looked up at the ceiling from the floor, I had but one thought going through my mind: best first impression ever. Of all time.

“Umm hello?” I quickly scrambled to my hooves and tried to keep what little dignity I had left. “I’m terribly sorry, are you hurt?” She had put on a tattered brown cloak which covered her whole body, but I was sure I could see the glint of steel underneath.

Actually yes, that hurt a lot. “No I’m fine. Sorry I wasn’t watching where I was going.” I offered a sheepish smile as I moved aside to let a group of ragged looking ponies rush into the casino floor. My years as a guard helped me notice they all seemed to be hiding weapons in their barding, but I didn’t think much of it. They looked fairly well off, maybe they were with Smiles and Airem?

“No it’s my fault I shouldn’t have stopped where ponies are walking. Sorry.” Is she serious? Okay then…

“Oh right! You’re a pegasus that’s so awesome!”

“Really? I mean I haven’t seen any other pegasi down here, but so far most ponies just give me dirty looks…” She tilted her head downwards, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

I let out a deep breath and put my hoof on her shoulder. “I know what you mean. Growing up in Desert Springs was hard; I constantly got bullied and picked on even by the adults.”

“Wait you grew up down here? What happened did you fall below the clouds when you were a filly or something?” She had a motherly look on her face as she put both her forehooves on my shoulders.

Wait how did she turn this situation around so fast? “Fall below the… no I was born down here. I think. Miss Laps said she found me in a basket outside the front door of our town hall one night, so I’m not really sure.”

“Oh good I’ve heard all kinds of stories about little colts and fillies who barely know how to fly falling below the cloud layer and being unable to fly back up.” She showed an expression of relief before a realization hit her, and she was treating me like a helpless kid again. “Oh my goodness so you never knew your parents? That’s a horrible thing for somepony to have to go through, you must have been so lonely!”

“Yes, I was.” Honestly that was massive understatement. I mean yeah mayor Laps was always there when I woke up and went to bed, but during the day I was pretty much on my own. And of course if me being a pegasus wasn’t enough of a reason for others to pick on me, the fact that nopony really cared to help just made it worse.

I heard a shout followed by a loud thump! as something hit a wall in the casino floor. Not good. We turned and rushed through the door, only to see that the situation was about as bad as possible. The group I saw earlier was pushing ponies around and herding them to a far corner of the room. I could barely make Airem out of the crowd, he was placing himself between the children and the bad guys.

I looked to my right and saw Finder crumpled to the floor with a large, burly stallion standing over him. He didn’t look good, his head was bleeding and he barely looked conscience. The large buck’s voice boomed over the shouting of the others. “Where is the pegasus? Tell me or I’ll see if I can’t throw you through the wall this time!”

I’d seen enough. I darted to the stallion as fast as I could and tackled him off of Finder. At least that’s what I tried to do, what really happened was I ran about six steps before nearly collapsing against the wall as pain shot through my injured leg. He turned to me and snarled. “Well look who showed up to the party. We’ve come a long way looking for you.”

“Well you did walk right past me in that hallway…” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. If they couldn’t find me when they were that close, it’s a wonder they can even get dressed in the mornings.

A scraggly pony trotted next to the stallion whom I correctly assumed to be their leader. “See boss told you I saw wings under those bandages, if you’d listen to me just once maybe-“. He was cut off by his head being slammed into the floor hard enough to splinter the old hard wood. That stallion was strong! He looked back at me with a disgusting grin.

“Alright filly this is how this is gonna go. I don’t give a shit about you or anypony else in this room, I just want my caps. So you’re going to come quietly or a lot of ponies are gonna die.” To emphasize his point a unicorn mare standing near me pulled a combat shotgun out of her barding with her magic. Six shots, semi-automatic. This could get very ugly, very fast if I didn’t play this right.

The only thing I could do to ensure nopony got hurt was to go with them, that much was obvious. The stallion put his hoof and a lot of his weight on Finder’s chest, and as Finder struggled to breath I lost any will to fight them. “Al… alright. I’ll go with you, just don’t hurt anypony.”

I couldn’t believe it but the timid pegasus stepped between me and the annoyed leader. “Now you listen here you big- big bully! You’re not taking her anywhere and that’s final!” She was shaking like a bloatsprite in a sandstorm, but her eyes remained firmly locked with the burly stallion. I noticed her left wing and foreleg tensed, ready to throw off her cloak.

I have trouble explaining what happened next, and all that I can say is that a force like none I’d ever seen before lifted the gang leader off of the floor and pressed him firmly against the wall. I vaguely remember seeing the massive red stallion in the crowd earlier, but I never imagined he would be so strong and fast! He kept the gang leader lifted from the floor with just one hoof despite his fervent struggling.

“Now you listen to me son, I’ve got someplace to be, and I’m not going to let somepony as weak as you keep me from getting there. And to be honest, I don’t appreciate you beating on the little one’s either.” The giant of a pony threw the gang leader through a nearby window without any hint of effort. He turned to the closest ganger, who promptly jumped out of the window after his leader.

That left six gangers total. One with the combat shotgun, one with some kind of scoped rifle, two with semi-auto pistols, one with a revolver, and one with a… shovel? He seems slightly underequipped… pFNG’s…

For several long moments nopony dared to make the first move. But finally someone decided to ease the tension in the air, and as per usual Smiles did it with over-the-top flair. She crashed down through the ceiling in between the gangers and the mass of ponies huddled in the far side of the room. “Did somepony say party?” And then the world exploded.

I dragged my fellow pegasus to the floor with me and hoped we didn’t get shot while Smiles destroyed the room around her. When she finally stopped shooting her throng of weapons the floor was covered in empty bullet casings, the room was full of smoke and the smell of gunpowder, and one ganger still stood in the middle of it all shaking and most definitely wetting himself. So Smiles couldn’t bring herself to shoot someone who only had a shovel to defend himself with? “Huh, I missed one. Hold on give me a sec.”

“Wait don’t shoot him! I want to know why these guys were after me.” I rose and hobbled over to the pony barely old enough to be called a stallion, who quickly hid behind me.

“Don’t let her shoot me I don’t want to die! This was my first job and I’ll never do it again I swear just let me go!” I couldn’t help but believe him, his Cutie Mark was a wagon of all things! Not exactly proper gang material if you ask me.

“That’s your problem. These guys threatened my quarry, so I’m gonna deal with them down to the last pony.” She telekinetically slid me aside and raised one of her many weapon to point at the trembling buck.

“No!” Again my fellow pegasus positioned herself in front of someone who couldn’t defend themselves, but this time she looked far more fierce. She had thrown off the ugly brown cloak she wore, and was now staring at Smiles with two of the most impressive sub-machine guns I’ve ever seen. They only had mild damage, the oiled steel glistening in the light coming from the windows. They each had belt feeds that ran below the guns and into large ammo boxes on either side of her.

Perhaps the most impressive part was the pristine condition the battle saddle was in. It looked like it was hoof made this morning! She looked across the room at Smiles, her mouth hanging less than an inch from the bit. “I will not let you kill him! Haven’t enough ponies died already?” I loved this mare. I could already tell she was going to be someone I could look up to.

Smiles laughed (How dare she!) and started looting the dead gangers. “Gotta say I admire your guts…” After a few tense moments she looked up and put her gun back down. “Alright fine he can live, but if I were you I wouldn’t leave him alone with me.” She winked before hopping through the broken window.

I’m not sure how I felt about her particular kind of crazy. On one hoof she did save us, but she only did it for the caps, and she seems to place money over the lives of ponies. And that bothered me even more than raiders. I looked over at my new pegasus friend. She was still standing still, her muscled tensed up as she stared at the window. I placed a hoof on her shoulder and she finally let out a breath, nearly collapsing to the floor.

“Oh my goodness. I really did that just now didn’t I?” She looked on the verge of tears, and I wrapped her in a loose hug. I knew healing potions were some of the best things for healing physically wounds, but hugs seemed to help with a lot more sometimes.

“You sure did. Twice in fact, and I’m very grateful.” After a few deep breaths we parted and she went to collect her cloak. I was much more interested in the nervous looking buck trying to sneak his way to the back door. “So my newest bestest friend, I believe we have something to talk about…”

“HE WHAT?!?” I spit my Sparkle Cola~ all over the ground in front of me. After the fiasco inside the casino everypony decided to go outside and get some fresh air. A little bit of scavenging and Finder came back with some bullets, a few caps, and with the help from a giant red earth pony, an entire vending machine full of somewhat cold soda. (Yay!)

“I’m serious! That’s what he told the boss! I said he was crazy but nopony listens to the new guys…” The young buck seemed much more relaxed now that Smiles was out of sight, but he still looked over his shoulder every time he thought he heard somepony behind him. “That guy’s a real creep, no wonder you left.”

Finder was holding one of the bottles against his bandaged head when he turned to me with his eyebrows raised. “So let me get this straight. This sleaze ball happens to be the leader of a big gang, he takes some kind of creepy fancy to you, and so you hightail it out of town. And now he’s paying mercenaries to find you and bring you back? And you were planning on telling me this when?”

“Well how was I supposed to know the crazy pony was going to chase me this far? Seriously with his influence he could have a hundred other mares in his bedroom every night! I don’t get it…”

My pegasus friend put a hoof on my shoulder and shot me a sympathetic smile. “Good, if you did understand it then I’d be concerned about you.” That got a few laughs from everypony, and it was nice for once that everypony was able to sit and talk without somepony pulling a gun…or several.

Several of the colts and fillies ran up and tugged at Finder’s tail. “Come on! Let’s play hide and seek!” “Yeah come play with us!” He looked at me and shrugged before running off with them, head injury forgotten. I looked across the street to see Airem sitting in some shade, looking distraught as he counted out his remaining medical supplies. We must have used up nearly everything he had, I’d be sure to repay him for it if I ever got the chance. I nearly jumped as the deep voice of the massive red buck rose over the chatting of the small crowd.

“It’s time for me to go, I have somewhere I need to be. Thank you all for the help.” He looked at the sky, gauging the time before turning to me. “If you’re ever around Baltimare and those ponies are still giving you trouble, find me and I’ll see if I can’t help you out. Name’s Boxer.” And with that he left, everypony who had gathered near us giving him wide berth as he walked past.

“Boxer… that’s a nice name.” I turned to see the blue pegasus sitting next to me watch him go before turning to me with a smile. “And my name’s Bora, pleasure to meet you.”

“Updraft, and it’s nice to meet you too.”

“Updraft… I like that name too.”

Everypony stayed and talked for a while, but I needed a little time by myself to think. A month ago I‘d barely even seen a dead body, much less a fight to the death. But already I had seen the death of over forty ponies, three of which I killed myself. It… was a lot to take in, even without thinking about what I saw in that casino.

I decided to walk around the fort and see the wall they had built. Really it didn’t look so bad in most places, it seems like whoever started building was trying to make as strong as possible but something happened and he had to hurry and finish it. Some places of the wall were just pieces of scrap metal piled together, several holes big enough for a pony going all the way to the other side. When I came to the gate my attention was immediately drawn to the two bucks walking outside. They had just finished throwing the last of the ganger bodies into a pile with the rest of the raiders, and were making their way back inside.

I frowned at that. Sure they were raiders and scumbags, but they were still ponies. They deserved better than that, right? After a brief trot (my leg was starting to feel much better!) I walked back outside of the fort carrying the ganger’s shovel. It tasted gross, but I was willing to put up with it so long as I didn’t get a disease or something. It took me several minutes but I finally had the first grave dug.

I carried the body of the ganger mare who had the combat shotgun, gently laying it into the grave. I didn’t really have anything to say, I didn’t know anything about her. So instead I just had a moment of silence before covering the grave and using a small pile of rocks in place of a headstone. I wasn’t sure when I started crying, but now that I started I couldn’t seem to stop. It’s a lot easier to justify killing somepony when you don’t stop to bury them.

Looking up through wet eyes I could see Finder watching me with a sad smile. “It’s going to take you all day if you do this by yourself doofus.” He hugged me briefly before pulling out another shovel and started digging a few yards away.

After a few moments of digging I spit out my shovel. “Finder? Would you mind… would you mind helping me bury all of those children inside too? They… they deserve to be buried… to be…” remembered, I wanted to say. I just couldn’t get my aching heart to say anything else. I knew I really had no right to ask something like that of him, but I wasn’t sure I could go back in there alone.

He nodded his head without hesitation, then dropped his shovel outside of the hole he was digging. “You’re going to do this every time aren’t you? No matter if they’re raiders, slavers, or anything else. You’re still going to stop and bury them.” I couldn’t help but meekly nod my head before I kept digging. “Well I guess I’ll have to find a way to keep a few shovels around just in case.”

This time it was my turn to hug him, but soon we both fell to the silent task of burying the many dead ponies before us. It took the better part of the day but we finally put all the dead ponies to rest in proper graves. I asked Bora to keep the children occupied elsewhere while we fetched the defiled corpses from inside The Black 9.

I was surprised so many of the ponies were still here after Smiles left. Turns out she was only here to rescue a hoof full of ponies, all of which were preparing to leave with Airem at the moment. “So you work for Smiles?” I asked him as he took one last look at Finder’s head before he too made his preparations to leave.

“More like I work with her really. We’re not really like the griffon mercenaries though, far from. Griffon’s work independently in almost every situation, with a few exceptions such as RedEye’s griffons or the ones working near Shattered Hoof Ridge. See we’re different because we all work together, nopony being more important than the other. We all form up an organization called The Shadow of Light.”

“The Shadow of Light?” Finder echoed as he tapped a hoof to his chin. “Never heard of it.”

Airem turned to us with a knowing smile. “And that’s exactly the point. We do what we can to help those in need, only accepting minimal payments if any. But we never spread our name: that would defeat the point of our work. Think about an organization of any kind doing something good in the Wasteland, any kind of good.” I thought about the stories I’ve heard about Friendship City, and how they offered to give shelter to any who came.

“Now that’s all fine and dandy, but as an entire group of ponies it’s really hard to put a face to that good action, right? It’s just not quite as impactful because you don’t really know the full extent of their abilities. Maybe they’re barely giving you a fraction of what they have, or maybe they’re giving you everything they own. You just can’t tell. But,” he accented with a hoofstomp. “if a single pony were to help you, completely devoid of some higher political reason, it seems much more sincere doesn’t it?”

I thought back to all the times Finder has helped me in the past few days. About how much I loved it whenever Mayor Lapps would bring me a Sparkle Cola~ when I was a filly. I was beginning to understand what he meant. “So you help ponies without telling them you’re part of an organization, so they’ll think it was just another wastelander trying to do the right thing?”

“Exactly! We’re trying to help ponies help themselves. We’re trying to give them hope, not just in pony kind but also that they can do better, be better. That someday when they see somepony else in trouble, they’ll remember what we did for them and they’ll do the right thing too.”

These all seemed like noble intentions, and I certainly could respect what they were trying to do. But… “But you have to fund all of this somehow right? I’m sure you guys scavenge a lot and sell what you can, but all of this,” I motioned to all of the ponies littering the empty street, most of which were wrapped in bandages and carrying firearms acquired from the raiders. “has to cost a lot of caps.”

He sighed and for once since our conversation started he seemed without his contagious enthusiasm. “Yes it does, more than you know. We do have another source of income rather than selling loot and charging for jobs like this, but sometimes I’m ashamed to say we get by with more caps than we should. Sometimes I think the others interpret ‘minimal payment’ a bit differently.” I had a feeling he thought Smiles was in that group.

“Well it appears we must be off, the client for this job is quite impatient after all. Good luck on your journey, Angel of the Wastes!” After nodding to the three ponies nearby they all trotted through the fort’s gates and out of sight.

“I told you not to call me that!” I shouted as my cheeks turned red, but I doubt he heard me. Finder was just rolling on the floor laughing, so I got up and walked away to find Bora. “I don’t have to subject myself to this!”

He just kept giggling while I walked off, my face getting redder by the second. “No wait, come back and tell me what pony heaven is like!” I wanted to kick him, but all I could do was smile as I trotted off. After searching I found Bora where I’d least expected, on the roof of The Black 9 staring at the clouds above. I sat down beside her and immediately noticed she had been crying and was doing a poor job of hiding it.

“You came from up there, didn’t you?” I asked it as a question, but the answer was pretty obvious. Nopony who grew up in the wasteland could be as polite a she was.

“It’s not something I like to talk about sorry.” Well I messed that one up. I tried to think of a subject change to get me out of this proverbial minefield.

“So what were you doing here anyways? I mean not down here, I mean like… here in this place…” Smooth one. She smiled and pat my back with a wing (So that’s what that felt like when I did that to other ponies!).

“I know what you meant. I was traveling with a merchant caravan along the slaver route. We heard some fighting ahead in the old mining town and decided to take a detour. Unfortunately we go too close to raider territory. Long story short they captured me, but the rest got away. I think that group that brought you two in was looking for them, but I guess they didn’t find them.”

Now I felt terrible. I was the reason for the fighting in the mining town, if I hadn’t been so stupid she never would have gotten caught up in this mess. I told her as much.

“No it’s not your fault, in fact if it hadn’t been for you we would have walked right into those five slavers. If anything you saved us all, really.” Seriously how does she keep turning things around on me so easily? “Anyways I suppose I need to be going, I’m sure the others are waiting for me at the next stop on the route.”

She stood and flapped her wings a few times, causing me to do the same but noticeable slower and with a wince. “Are your wings hurt?” I nodded and extended my bandaged right wing. “Oh my goodness who did this? These bandages are much too tight! Sit down and let me look.” It made me feel like a little filly again but I did as she asked.

She gently removed the bandages and fussed over the condition of my wings. “Your feathers are all out of place, you really should take better care of them.” They are? I never really had anyone to tell me how to take care of my wings, I just did what thought was best for them. Unfortunately none of my books covered the care of wings except for explanation on how to do some warmups before seriously exerting them.

I ducked my head sheepishly. “Sorry I never had anyone to tell me how. Could you… could you show me? I mean if you don’t want to I understand this is probably a weird question to ask and-“ She shushed me with a hoof.

“Of course I’ll show you. No pegasus should have to learn something like this without help. Now…” She began to instruct me on how to properly remove feathers that were in the way of new ones that needed to regrow, how to arrange them correctly, and all the other finer points of “preening” as she called it. I felt embarrassed that I even had to ask this, but she reassured me saying it’s not something anypony could know without being taught.

After we finished I was sitting in a small pile of feathers she instructed me to pull out, and my wings looked far better. I frowned as I compared them to Bora’s: hers still looked much better, healthier. But it was a start, and my wings no longer felt so sore. She assured me it would take time for them to look like they should, but I would still fly with pride now that I actually knew how to care for my wings properly. Bora wrapped the bandages around my scraped up wing much more loosely than before, and let out a sigh of relief as she looked at her work.

“I’m no doctor but your wing wasn’t injured too badly. I’d say drink a healing potion tonight before you sleep and you should be able to fly by the morning. Be sure to take the bandages off before you sleep though, your feathers will need the cool air.” I couldn’t help reaching over and giving her a sidelong hug.

“Thank you so much! Ponies always make fun of my wings, but I don’t know what I’d do without them.” She giggled and hugged me back.

“No problem, I couldn’t possible leave anypony hurting like that when I could help. I really must be going though, I imagine my Brahmin friend is worried sick about me.” Yeah she would be the type of pony to be friends with a Brahmin, I mused in my head.

“Okay well you take care then, don’t get caught by any more raiders.”

“Well if I do then you’ll just have to come rescue me again!” She called out as she flew from the rooftop with a speed that betrayed her shy nature.

“It wasn’t even me! Smiles did all the fighting!” I knew she didn’t hear me, but seriously this reputation thing was getting annoying.

“Ready to leave yet, oh great slayer of raiders and Angel of the Wastes?” I heard Finder snickering behind me.

“Oh that’s it! Come ‘ere you!” I chased him back inside the casino with a smile and a newfound warmth in my heart. Maybe leaving Desert Springs wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Quest Perk!

Social Pony – Ponies find you easy to talk to, and are more likely to treat you as a friend, for better or for worse. +5 Charisma

Character Updates!

Name: Smiles
Gender: female
Race: Unicorn
Age: 22
Appearance: Aqua Blue mane/tail; pink coat; green eyes.
Cutie Mark: N/A
Size: average
Occupation: mercenary
Weapons of choice: All of them. Any weapon that goes bang is her friend, and the bigger the bang the happier she is.
Skillset: Exceptional skill with telekinesis. She can’t lift any objects that are very heavy, but she can lift a large number of objects at once, and manipulate each one with astonishing effectiveness.

Name: Bora
Gender: Female
Race: Pegasus
Age: 18
Appearance: light blue coat; white mane/tail; lavender eyes
Cutie Mark: a trio of snowflakes with several curved lines going between them
Size: average
Occupation: Caravaner
Weapons of Choice: A dual SMG battlesaddle that was custom made.
Skillset: N/A

Name: Boxer
Gender: Male
Race: Earth Pony
Age: 32
Appearance: Red coat with brown eyes/mane/tail, both of which are cut short.
Cutie Mark: A stone tower like you would find on a chess board
Size: Massive. Like this guy is a building among ponies. (Descendant of Snowflake?)
Occupation: N/A
Weapons of Choice: N/A
Skillset: N/A

Author's Notes:

Author Note: As usual a big thanks to Kkat for letting us do this fun thing we like to do, and another big thanks goes out to The24thPegasus and LoyalLiar for letting me implement some ideas from their story verse into my own little project. Check them out!

P.S. For those of you who didn’t get the pFNG comment, if you’re interested here’s where it came from. Warning: contains strong language and some violence (Though if you’re reading this story I can’t imagine that being a problem…)
Shack Tactical - Dslyecxi on the Hunt

P.S.S. If anyone can call out one of the other many refernces I made in this chapter, I'll write an OC of their choice into a future chapter! Or the first person who guesses where Boxer’s name came from will get a special prize! (But if you guess where Airem’s name came from I’ll have to call you a stalker O.o)