I stood alone in the green field. The ground was covered in some kind of grass that felt soft beneath my hooves. It didn’t take me long to decide it seemed like a lovely place to lay down and rest. Looking up I saw the most beautiful blue sky imaginable mottled with a few fluffy white clouds. It was completely silent, but rather than feeling lonely I felt at peace. Then all of that changed.

It started with the vibrant blue sky so full of warmth. It turned dark and red, before being completely overtaken by black, hateful clouds. The soft ground beneath me turned brown and blackened as the soothing plants died beneath me, leaving charred dirt beneath. The world around me remained silent but it was chilling and frightening.

Then in the distance arose… something. It was huge, never really staying in one shape. It wasn’t really black, as if the light itself was scared to even approach the monster. It grew and grew as it approached me, the ground shaking with every step it took. I wanted to run, I wanted to get as far away as I could. But all I could do was shake with fear, terrified of the blackness the monster brought with it. It reached out for me ever so slowly with massive clawed hands, leaving nothing but darkness in their wake.

I still couldn’t run, only stare at death itself as I shook on the ground. I could feel myself being drawn towards the clawed hands as they started to close around me, as if some dark forces were pulling me away. Fear kept me in place as I was wrapped in darkness, feeling cold and alone. Then I felt something inside of me, a warmth against the freezing darkness. I opened my eyes to see the monster far away now, lumbering away and back into the distance where it came from in terrifying silence. In front of me was a small floating light, its presence warm and inviting.

I couldn’t explain why but I felt stronger by just being near it, as if the light itself gave me the strength to overcome any challenge. Slowly it bobbed through the air in the direction of the retreating darkness, and I decided to follow so I wouldn’t be alone again. Shortly we came upon the monster again, continually changing size and shape but remaining darker than any night. It was reaching its clawed hands towards another small floating light, but this light was different.

It seemed weaker than the first, unable to fight off the approaching darkness. I watched the first light to see if it would help, but it merely bobbed in the air next to me, as if beckoning for me to save the second light. I folded my ears back and took a shake step forward…

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Of course not all of my ideas are terrible, I figured you would have learned that by now.”

Finder and I decided it would be best to travel by day after the previous incidents. So taking Rock Breaker’s advice we were picking our way through a destroyed shopping district in the heat of the day. We already visited Finder’s second hideout, but the whole building was nothing but rubble so after some brief digging we gave up on it.

Currently we were presented with a bit of a problem: our last destination was barely a few hundred feet away from the partly collapsed grocery store we were in. However we were going to have to run a lot of that across a large highway with no cover.

We already had four close encounters with hellhounds getting this far, and a run like that would likely get us killed. But the alternative was to take a short trip through the subway which would leave us only a few blocks away from our next hideout on the correct side of the street. Which for some reason Finder really didn’t want to do.

“So why can’t we take the subway again? I mean I’m a little scared of the dark after the other night but that’s better than drawing the attention of every hellhound in town again.” I pouted as I flapped my sore wings.

“There’s a reason not even the hellhounds go down there. This was Las Pegasus, it was one of the crime capitals of Equestria back during the war. Even with that military camp they didn’t have nearly enough soldiers to keep the peace around here, so the mayor had a stupid idea. He made a contract with the Robronco Corperation, and bought thousands of automated sentries. Oh they kept the peace alright, nopony was going to mess with that much firepower that didn’t care about killing ponies.”

“But when the bombs fell, well everypony retreated to the tunnel systems to take shelter. Thanks to some pretty smart ponies almost the whole tunnel system stayed intact even though this place got hit with three balefire bombs. Unfortunately it couldn’t protect them from the radiation, so there’s massive hordes of ghouls roaming around down there. And unfortunately for us, most of the sentries were called down there too, and they don’t recognize the ghouls as threats. Also-”

“Okay okay, I get it. There’s hordes of zombie ponies and lots of lazery death down there, so don’t go down right?” He nodded as he passed me a RadAway before sipping one down himself. I don’t know what oranges taste like, but if they tasted anything like this stuff than they must have been pretty gross.

Finder scanned the nearby buildings and streets before ducking back behind our collapsed wall. “Ready to run?”

I tightened the straps of my saddlebags and my wingblades. “No, but we might as well get this over with.” After a moment I added, “Just don’t look right?”

He turned back to the road with a bitter smile. “Yeah, just don’t look right.” We sprinted for all we were worth, the wave of heat coming up from the asphalt robbing our breaths. This road was huge! Why did ponies ever need a road this big?! Every moment I expected beams of energy to start lancing overhead or a growl of rage to erupt somewhere around us. But nothing ever came, and we collapsed into the alleyway we ran to.

After catching our breaths we slowly made our way through the narrow passage, looking for any traps or signs of trouble. Finally after walking about two blocks Finder pointed a hoof at a cellar door set near the back of an old restaurant. “That’s the third hideout, but it looks like somepony else got here first.” After searching our surroundings he slowly made his way to the door while I waited behind an old dumpster.

Looking at the door closely I could see what he meant. It was wire trapped, set that if you opened the door several landmines would be set off. But who would booby trap the outside of the door if they wanted to hide inside? Finder made short work of the simple trap, defusing the mines and putting them in one of his bags.

“Whoever the hellhounds were trying to trap is probably still in there, so we should be very careful when we open this door.” Oh, well that made since why the trap was on the outside… duh. Standing on both sides of it, we threw the door open and waited outside. And waited, and waited… nothing. Finally I got too bored to wait any more.

I stuck my head through the doorway but couldn’t see anything in the darkness. “If anypony is in there don’t shoot we’re friendly!” Finder smacked his forehead with a hoof but honestly what else was I supposed to say? I slowly made my way down the creaky wooden stairs, my eyes beginning to adjust to the dark room. When I reached the bottom I could finally start to take in my surroundings.

The walls were lined with wooden barrels, and most of the small room had shelves full of old glass bottles. Most of the bottles had broken and shattered on the floor, but a few were still intact. In one corner sat a dusty wooden table and chair. Then I saw him, a griffon curled up in the opposite corner holding a massive shotgun. He looked dead, and was covered in blood.

“Hello?” No answer.

Finder descended the stairs behind me and stopped on the last step. “Umm… Is he dead?”

“I don’t think so, it looks like he’s breathing.” I slowly walked over to him, muscles tensed to jump in case he decided to put that gun of his to use. After reaching him I could tell he was still shallowly breathing, but he was definitely unconscious. “Help me move him to that table, he’s hurt pretty badly.”

Setting his shotgun aside we gently lifted him and set him on the table, his arms and legs hanging off the sides and the table creaking under his weight. It took some work but we were finally able to strip the ragged, leather barding off of him, revealing his heavily bloodied body beneath.

He was covered in deep cuts and bruises, and I counted at least three bullet wounds. I didn’t even know where to start to treat that many wounds, but I figured they all needed cleaning. “Finder can you give me your water? I won’t have enough to clean him off.”

“You really think we can save him? That’s a lot of blood…”

“It doesn’t matter! We have to help him! We have to try! I… I have to save him…” I trailed off as tears formed in my eyes. Reaching into my bags I pulled out my canteen and a strip of cloth. I started to clean the griffon’s body, but I quickly ran out of water trying to wash away such a substantial amount of blood.

Finder passed me his two canteens before setting his meagre amount of medical supplies on the chair. “I wish Airem would have sold me some of his healing potions, I only have one.”

“I have one too so he should be fine.” My voice was barely a whisper as I continued my work. “I have to save him. I can’t let him die.”

After cleaning his wounds and checking to make sure none of the bullets were still in him, I carefully poured my healing potion over his wounds. Thankfully one thing we had plenty of was healing bandages, and soon we had him trussed up neck to tail looking like a mummy. Thanks to Bora I was even able to properly bandage his wings.

Finder carefully poured his potion down the griffon’s mouth and made sure it ‘went down the right pipe’ as he called it. He was still breathing shallowly, but at least we stopped the bleeding and treated his wounds as best as we could. All we can do now is wait to see if he wakes up.

There really wasn’t much we could do since it was already getting dark outside, so Finder settled for searching the room to find any supplies his family might have left here the last time. He came back with a lantern, and I felt a rush of pride as I succeeded in lighting it on the first try. However I decided it was best if I didn’t practice my magic any further in a cellar filled with wine.

After doing some maintenance on my wingblades I decided to do a rough inventory check. I still had a few bandages, some gun parts I was carrying for Finder, a now empty canteen along with a few more servings of food. I had the extra knife that Finder brought me in the military camp, and I still had that glass ball I picked up at the mining town. The best part was that I still had that bottle of Sparkle Cola~ I scavenged from before! It wasn’t much, but that suited me just fine.

As far as caps went, well I was just about broke. Don’t get me wrong I had more than I ever made while working guard duty at Desert Springs, but according to Finder one hundred caps was nothing to brag about in the wasteland proper. Currently he was walking around the room ensuring there was absolutely nothing threatening or anything worth scavenging. Apparently it was just something he did everywhere he went.

So why am I going over all of this? Well to put it bluntly, I was bored. I hate waiting, but more than anything I hate being stuck in one place. Must be a pegasus thing. “Hey Finder, since you’re parents aren’t here where do you want to look next?” He finally decided there wasn’t anything here he hadn’t already seen so he sat down on the floor next to me with the griffon’s huge shotgun.

“I don’t know honestly. I mean before we got separated we were having trouble with some slavers out of Appleloosa. I doubt they could have caught my parents, but I guess maybe that’s a good place to look for clues.” He started taking the gun apart with ease, cleaning each part with a rag covered in some kind of oil before setting them aside.

“Appleloosa huh? I heard that’s a pretty nasty place, gonna be hard to get in and out of there without starting a war. Got any plans?” I pulled out the bottle of carroty goodness and popped the cap, putting it with the others.

He looked at me incredulously before going back to his work. “You’re still letting me make the plans? I mean so far my plans just seem to get you hurt.”

I thought that over for a moment as I sipped on my drink. “Yeah I guess that’s true, but hey we’ve made it this far right? And so far no serious injuries so I think you’re doing an excellent job.”

He started putting the gun back together already, he was fast! “Yeah but this last time you almost died Updraft! I almost got you killed and you don’t even have a reason to be here. I mean… I don’t want to lose you, you’re my only friend you know?”

I laid a hoof on his shoulder and passed him my Sparkle Cola~, of which he hesitantly shared a drink. “Hey what did I tell you about that inferiority complex of yours? Look if anything your plans have gone way better than mine. I mean I was away from home for barely a day and I… I killed three ponies. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to, and that scares me more than anything. I’d rather die than ever do something like that again. At least with your plans I know we won’t end up hurting anypony.”

He gave a bitter smile as he passed my soda back to me. “Not true, I convinced you to kill that raider remember?”

I bopped him on the head before taking the last sip of my drink. “You didn’t convince me to do anything. And besides after what they did to those kids… Those monsters weren’t ponies.”

We sat in silence after that, the mood having been killed. Finder finished cleaning the griffon’s gun and had started using strips of leather to patch up some of the holes. I took to staring at the small light dancing in the lantern until a quiet knock at the door nearly made me jump out of my fur. I turned to see Finder having already disappeared further into the room, probably somewhere no one would ever find him unless he wanted to be found.

*Thump*

A quiet voice whispered through the door. “Ponies I know you are in there, it Rock Breaker. I am coming in do not shoot.” With more gentleness than I would have imagined an eight foot tall death machine could muster he eased the cellar door open and ducked inside. I had to stifle a laugh behind my hoof as he struggled to fit through the small opening and into the room.

“You laugh now but who will laugh when you need to reach something tall?” I tilted my head and flapped my wings. “Fine. But do not come crying to me when you need to open a door.” He laughed and patted my head with that unusual gentleness. “Your friend is still hiding yes? He is a fast one for sure.” He pulled the cellar door closed, once again leaving us in darkness except for the soft amber light of the lantern.

“Sorry after yesterday I don’t think he’ll ever be comfortable around dogs anymore.” I whispered before moving aside to let Rock Breaker get more comfortable. He looked at our tiny lantern with a grin before pulling out his own, much brighter lantern. Lighting a match on the stone floor he lit his lantern and set it beside mine. With the brighter light he almost jumped at the sight of the bandaged griffon in the corner of the room.

“I see you made a new friend?” He snorted distastefully as he looked at the griffon and his barding.

“Yeah we found him here. He was in really bad shape, we had to use our last medical supplies to save him. I guess you don’t much care for griffons?” I was just starting to warm up to the big guy, I really didn’t want something like petty racism to come between us.

But if anything he looked almost offended by my question. “I do not hate them, but I do not like the way they do things. Ponies always get involved, think they need to change everything. Dogs are stubborn, sometimes stupid. Zebras never trust anyone but each other, and they really do not like dogs. But griffons act without thinking, they rely on emotions to make decisions. I do not like that.”

I hadn’t really met any griffons so I couldn’t really argue against that. But where had Rock Breaker met zebras? And I wanted to get to know more about hellhounds and why they always fight with ponies. “Where have you met zebras before? I mean I’ve always heard about them but I’ve never met any.”

He unslung a big metal canister from his back and I my eyes lit up as I graciously accepted the offered water. I began filling up our canteens as he thought about my question.

“Long time ago. West side of town where there was an old factory, a bunch of zebras moved in to get away from the ponies. Dogs were nicer then because we had more visitors, so zebras felt safe. They were always nice to me but it was because they were scared to make my father angry I think. One day they just left, said they were going to Hoofington to be with more zebras.”

So the hellhounds here used to be nice to visitors? But what changed that? If they used to be so nice they could live alongside ponies and zebras, what made them start killing everything that came close enough? “Hey Rock Breaker can I ask you a personal question? About your home?”

He quirked an eye curiously. “I suppose you can, but only if you tell me about your home after.”

“Of course, that’s only fair. I was just wondering what made hellhounds- I mean dogs, start attacking everyone that comes here?”

He let out a sigh as he sat cross legged on the floor. I never heard him but somehow I knew Finder had moved so that he could hear better. “When I was just a pup we had a lot of visitors. Ponies, griffons, even a tribe of zebra. We traded things with them in return for things we could not find here. But one day a pony came with a lot of others, and griffons too. He called himself RedEye.”

“He talked with my father, said he wanted to help us. He wanted us to come with him to Fillydelphia to protect him and his work. He said he would pay us whatever we wanted and said he would make a place for us in the ‘new world’. Father could tell he was lying, that he wanted to make us slaves. This did not go well with the other dogs.”

He stared at the lantern with distant eyes. “Remember what I said about dogs? How we are stubborn, sometimes stupid? Well when other dogs heard that the ponies wanted to take us from our homes, they wanted to fight. Dogs won of course, ponies never can beat us.” He looked at me with pride and a hint of a smile. “But so many dogs died, too many. After that it did not matter what father said, dogs did not want to talk to ponies anymore. That is why my family is the only one that will still trade with ponies when we can.”

I flicked my ears as I intently listened to the sound of something moving outside. Rock raised his head and sniffed a few times. “That is Trueshot. Sorry you will have to tell me about your home another time, I have to go. By the way you can leave whenever you want, other dogs will not bother you. We talked with father, and though they usually do not listen when he asks them to not hurt ponies, me and Trueshot made a deal with the other elders to convince the others.”

Something about all of this bothered me, and I couldn’t help but ask. “Why are you helping us so much? I mean we sneak into your home and give you all this trouble, so why help us? Don’t you want us to do something in return?”

He scratched his chin as he collected the metal canister full of water. After thinking or a moment he shrugged and opened the door. “Not really, I do not think you could help with anything we need anyways. There is an old dog saying. You have to give of yourself, before you are worthy to receive.” With a wave and another sharp smile, he worked his way through the door and closed it behind him.

I turned to Finder for some answers, but he was already too busy looking through his bags to notice. “So what do you think that was all about? I mean I’m grateful for the help and all, but I feel like we’re getting out of this way too easily.” Finder looked up from his bags with a bundle of rope in his mouth.

He mumbled something incoherent before spitting the rope into a hoof. “How should I know? Hey give me a hoof will ya? Let’s set him on the floor.” I had no idea what Finder was doing, but I helped him lift the griffon and we gently set him on the floor. I watched intently with curiosity and fascination as he started making… something out of the table and chair.

He broke the legs off of both and set them aside. I gave him my knife to cut the rope up, and he used it to tie the chair and table together. He then tied the table lags together end to end, making two long poles. Tying those to the table with more rope, he stepped back to admire his hoofwork. It only took me a second to realize he made a makeshift cart, minus the wheels, using the table legs and backrest of the chair to make a harness. The table, along with the parts of the chair tied to it, were just big enough to fit the griffon on.

“Wow. I never would have thought of that.” He grinned sheepishly as he gave me back my knife and collected the remaining rope. “Like how did you even know how to do that? That’s incredible!”

“My dad showed that to me once. We rescued a pony from a bunch of raiders this one time, and we were carrying way too much stuff already to carry him back. So he made this thing, called a sled, to pull him to the closest town.”

Yeah, I was really lucky he found me. Aside from the fact that he saved my life once already, I’ve already learned a ton of helpful things by traveling with him. With a little effort we managed to get the sled and griffon outside of the cellar, and after I got strapped into the decidedly uncomfortable harness (And by straps, I mean more rope with strips of leather so they wouldn’t chafe too badly), we started on our way out of this particular hellhole.

True to his word, Rock Breaker must have worked something out with the rest of the hellhounds. We came across five of them as we walked through town but other than some menacing growls and angry glares they didn’t bother us. Until we got to the edge of town where the factories from yesterday were. We had just turned the last corner to leave town through a small street when three hellhounds stood in our way.

They were all of a darker color, each wearing tanned leather armor with no weapons except for their claws. Which of course was plenty enough to kill us with. I nervously coughed into my hoof and approached them, the sled on my back feeling extremely heavy now that I had the urge to fly away. “Umm excuse me, do you mind if we pass? You see we finished our business here and we’d like to get out of your hair.”

The hellhound in the front laughed as he barred his claws and teeth. “Ha! Ya hear that boys? The little ponies think they can just walk in and out whenever they want, like they own the place or something. Tell you what pony, how about you give me the chicken you’re dragging around and I may feel nice enough to let you two go.”

The other two dogs laughed and one decided to join in the fun. “Or better yet, let’s kill the pony and use his bones to beat the other two to death. Killing two birds with one body!” He rolled on the floor laughing while the other two watched him with dumbfounded expressions.

“You’re messed up in the head, ya know that?” The leader of the group turned back to me with a huge smile. He took a step closer and sniffed at the air. “You smell terrible, but I bet you taste pretty good.” Another step closer. I fumbled with the straps on the harness in a panic, hoping I could at least try to fight them off. Finder was frozen in terror as he tracked another of the hellhounds starting to circle to our left, trapping us between pointy death and a brick wall.

“Let’s get em’!” The ‘messed up’ hellhound yelled from behind the leader before he started running at us. I managed to get out of the straps finally, but it was too late!

“Whoa whoa! Timeout!” Trueshot yelled from a second story window above us in the building to our right. He jumped down to the street and landed with a quiet thud between us and the other hellhounds. “What are you doing Raze, you know what the elders said.” To my surprise he was wearing some kind of black combat vest covered in pockets. It looked like it was made during the war, but I didn’t know that any of the hellhounds fought in the war.

The other hellhounds skidded to a halt a few feet in front of him, quickly showing varying levels of annoyance at the newcomer. As usual the ‘leader’ of the group was the first to react. “Go back to playing with your toys Trueshot, this doesn’t have to involve you. Unless of course you want me to show you why you’re not the top dog around here again, I haven’t had that much fun since I was a pup.” He had a sickly grin as he stood up on his hindlegs, dwarfing Trueshot and making me and Finder look tiny in comparison.

Raze took several steps forward and roughly shoved Trueshot aside like a tin can, raising a clawed hand as if daring him to do something about it. After a few tense moments Trueshot’s posture slumped and he looked at us with sad eyes. To my horror he whispered “I’m sorry…” as Raze turned back to us with a sharp grin.

The towering hellhound strode up to me and got on all fours, leaning down, down, and down so he could be at eye level with me. His foul breath reeked of meat, and I shrunk back as he adopted a smile. “I’ve never tasted pegasus before. I bet you’d taste good with some salt.”

Trueshot stepped forward and took up a fighting stance. “Sorry Raze, but this time is gonna be different. The elders said these ponies get to leave her safely, and that’s how it’s gonna be. I’m not just gonna stand by and let you have what you want, not again. If you want them, you’re gonna have to kill me first, and I doubt my father will like that.” He said with a smirk.

They stared at each other for several moments before Raze snorted and took a step back. "Take your little friends and leave, I'm tired of listening to your mouth." He waved a clawed hand haphazardly close to my face, or no other reason than because he knew he could get away with it. The other two hellhounds wore smug grins as they looked at me and Finder trying to appear as small as possible.

Despite the massive size difference between Trueshot and the other dogs, he didn't hesitate to take a step between us and the other hellhounds. "Raze, are we cross?" He asked as he gestured to the rifle slung over his shoulder. According to Rock Breaker there wasn't a hellhound alive who could match his brother's skill with a rifle, and that was especially scary since it was a Magical Energy Weapon.

"Your gun doesn't scare me, without that you're nothing but a skinny pushover." The lead hellhound, Raze, sneered as he tensed his muscles to fight. But I had enough experience as a guard to see when someone was making nervous decisions.

"Why Raze what an ugly thing to say. Does this mean we aren't friends anymore?" He stretched his arms above his head, and Raze suddenly looked very panicked. I looked behind us to see the massive form of Rock Breaker approaching with a decidedly large frown on his face. "You know... if I thought we weren't friends anymore, I just don't know if I could bear it."

It didn't take him long to scowl and start walking away, his two lackeys in tow. "Only the weak have to protect each other." He sneered as they skulked down the street.

"Oh yeah? Well if I'm weak then what does that make you three eh?" As soon as the group disappeared around the corner Trueshot immediately dropped his mask of confidence and almost collapsed to the ground. "How about you don't do anything else to upset them? They could literally rip me limb from limb if so inclined."

As of that moment I probably became the only pony in the history of the wasteland to give a hellhound a hug. And not just any hug, but a flying-tackle bear hug. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! That was like super scary but you were totally awesome and you totally saved us!”

His protests were music to my ears. “What are you- hey knock it off! I have a reputation to uphold, I can’t be seen like this!”

He struggled in vain as I held on tightly. “Nuh-uh, not until you hug me back!”

Seeing that I was serious and that Rock Breaker would soon be here, he gave a half-hearted hug in return before shoving me off. “Yeah whatever, just don’t get into any more trouble alright? I might not be there to save you next time.”

I got back to my hooves and with Finder’s help I wriggled my way back into the straps of the makeshift sled. “I still don’t know what we did to make them mad. I mean sure we’re ponies and they’re dogs, but that doesn’t mean we have to hate each other.”

“Do you really believe that? You really believe dogs and ponies can be peaceful?” He looked at me incredulously as Finder checked on the griffon.

“Sure I do! I think everyone can be friends if they’re willing to try.”

He tilted and scratched his head. “You are a very strange pony.”

I smiled and shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”

Finally Rock Breaker reached us, and the frown on his face look more intimidating than his toothy smile. “What did Raze do this time?”

Trueshot scratched the back of his head and sighed. “Just causing trouble like always, I took care of it.” They made eye contact and held their stares just enough to make me feel uncomfortable, before Trueshot finally averted his gaze. “Okay fine, you win. But I had to step in, he was gonna hurt them.”

“I know, just next time do not do it alone alright? If you think he is going to cause trouble get me or father. We are much bigger than he is.” Rock Breaker patted Trueshot on the head and adjusted his vest.

Trueshot swatted his brother’s hands away with a smirk. “Don’t tell me what to do, I’m the big brother here, remember?” I watched the whole exchange with a smile plastered on my face. Finally taking notice, Trueshot turned to me with a scowl. “What?”

“Oh nothing, I was just thinking.” It must feel good having family to look after you like that…

Rock Breaker coughed into a paw and nudged his brother back the way we came. “Well we have to go, the pack is supposed to be having a meeting and they are waiting on us. If we meet again I do hope to hear about your home, since I told you about mine.”

“Yeah, I would like that. If you ever need anything just let me know!” Of course I knew the odds of us ever seeing each other again were really small, I still felt like I owed them a favor or two.

They both walked back into town as Trueshot shouted over his shoulder. “Will do. And next time we meet hopefully it won’t be because we have to save you from more bloodwings yeah?”

With a few waves and smiles Finder and I walked out of the city a lot more easily than when we entered. While we managed to somehow make it out of this place without getting cut into pony kibble, it certainly wasn’t a place I’d want to vacation to anytime soon. We had to move slowly since I was dragging a cart with no wheels, but after an hour the city disappeared behind the low hills behind us.

Ever since we left the city Finder and I continued on our way in silence. The past two days have just been too surreal for me to talk about just yet, and I imagine Finder felt the same way. Thankfully we still had plenty of water because we were traveling by day now, and it was definitely going to be hot. It also didn’t help that there was a strong wind blowing the dirt and hot air into our faces, but that’s something you just get used to after living in the desert for so long

After several hours of walking I was really tired of dragging this sled, so after seeing some large rocks jutting from the hard ground we decided to take a break. It wasn’t much shade, but thanks to the late-afternoon sun it was plenty for the three of us. After drinking most of what was left of our water we decided it was time for a late lunch. Delicious dog food, yum!

As we sat and enjoyed our food I decided to bring up something that was on my mind. “Hey Finder?”

He looked up from his food and politely swallowed what he was chewing before speaking. “Yeah?”

“I was just wondering where we were heading next. Not a lot out here for us to do unless we go south.”

He tilted his head for a moment and scratched his chin. “Not sure, I mean I planned to go to New Appleloosa next, but we’d have to pass the crater and a whole lot of slaver territory to get there from here. I don’t think it would be a good idea to drag an injured griffon across the desert either.”

We continued eating in silence as we thought that over. I wanted Finder to reunite with his parents as soon as possible, but I also didn’t want to drag the griffon into someplace dangerous. Speaking of which…

I got up and walked over to the sleeping griffon, putting a hoof on his forehead. I could tell he still had a high fever, and his breathing was shallow and ragged. But he was still alive, and as long as he is I’m going to do as much as I can to keep him that way.

“I got it!” When my heart finally stopped pounding and I finally came back down to the ground Finder looked at me sheepishly. “Sorry. Anyways I know where we’re going next. There’s a little town southeast of here called Nowhere, nice ponies. We can leave him there at the clinic before we go to New Appleloosa.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, plus I’d really like a good night’s sleep before we go to the next deathtrap.” And to rest my hooves... I felt like I've done more waking in the past week than the rest of my life combined. My mane and coat were a mess, I was absolutely filthy, and I would just about sell my left leg for a soft bed and warm food. But most of all? I missed home.

I looked to the sky to distract myself before I started getting depressed or something. The Enclave barely seemed to care about keeping the cloud cover intact way out here, evidenced by the fact that the beautiful blue sky was clearly visible on most of the skyline. For a moment I entertained the idea of flying up there, seeing how high I could get. But there was no way I could risk doing something like that and getting hurt, Finder certainly couldn't pull both of us on that sled.

Feeling fairly rested and excited at the prospect that there might be a nice bed waiting for me at the end of this walk, I stood up and stretched my legs. "Well I'm ready whenever you are, might as well get this show on the road.

Finder nodded and started packing up his things. I was just about to strap myself to the sled when I felt the ground rumble slightly. Oh no...

"Look out!" Finder yelled before climbing the large rock with incredible grace. I immediately took to the air and gave my wings several strong flaps to get me as high as possible. The ground where I was just standing exploded upwards, sending dirt and rocks everywhere as a nightmare emerged from below. The hellhound looked around in confusion before snarling and looking up.

I immediately recognized him as the same hellhound from before, Raze. Unlike before he was wearing armor made from bones and leather that covered most of his body. A large skull of some animal sat on his head, serving as a ghostly helmet and completing the horrifying image.

"What do to want? We're already far outside your territory and we have nothing to give you!" Oh this was not good, we had nowhere to run and he looked very angry.

He let out a snort before walking over to the griffon. "Stupid ponies, always begging for your lives instead of fighting for them. But you will fight me, that I can promise." He dragged the griffon to the ground and stepped on one of his wings. I swear I heard something snap. "So tell me pony, which of his legs should I cut off first? Or perhaps a wing?" He raised the griffon's other wing and held a claw up to the joint.

"Wait! Okay I'm coming down, just don't hurt him." I descended quickly until my hooves touched dirt, and I took my saddlebags off and set them beside me. "Okay if I have to fight you to make you leave him alone, then fine. But at least give me a moment to get ready."

Raze seemed pleased with himself as he put on a sickly grin. He stood on his hind legs and stepped off of the griffon's wing. I grit my teeth as I watched him twist his heel and dig his class into the wing before stepping off. "Fine you may use your weapons, it won't matter anyways. Your kind has always been too weak to put up a good fight anyways."

Okay I was really getting tired of his arrogant attitude. Keeping him in the corner of my eye I dug through my saddlebags and pulled out my wingblades. I also pulled out my weighted combat knife: I couldn't afford to play around with this guy. I tried my best to ignore his laughing as I strapped my wingblades on and steeled my nerves.

"You’re seriously going to fight with those? Oh wow, you're going to be way more fun than that other bird."

So was he the one who hurt the griffon? Ignoring his taunts, I turned to Finder who was still perched on top of the rock and trying to remain as small as possible. "Finder if I lose this I want you to run as fast as you can okay?" It was hard to tell since he was shaking so bad, but he nodded before going back to his best rock impersonation. Taking one last deep breath to calm my nerves I turned to face the hellhound. "Please don't do this, I really don't want to fight you."

He laughed as he pointed down. "Don't worry about that pony, I doubt you'll get the chance anyways."

Wait what? I could feel a slight tremor beneath my hooves. Nonono this is so not cool! I sprung into the air and not a second too soon, rock and dirt exploding in every direction as a hellhound emerged from a hole where I was standing. I didn't have time to protest the circumstances, as soon as got out of reach of the hellhound beneath me lasers started flying through air around me. I couldn't see the shooter but guessing where the shits were coming from I landed a short distance away with the other hellhound blocking his shot.

"Oh come on this is ridiculous! Three, really? I thought you said you wanted to fight me!”

Raze laughed as the other dog dug back under ground. "I do, but it's much more fun watching you try to dance!"

Oh this is bad, like really bad. The other dog seems content to conserve his ammo so long as I'm on the ground but- I rolled the side and barely dodged the swipe of the first dog as he burst through the ground next to me. I recognized him to be the dog from earlier, the 'messed up' one with Raze before. He snarled and lunged at me, but I used my wings to help jump backwards and land just out of his reach.

Using the momentary surprise I jumped over him and slashed along his back with one of my wings, getting a howl of pain in return for my efforts. Not stopping for a moment I immediately went back in the air before he turned and tried to swing at me in a blind rage. More shots rang out and I had to do some fancy flying to avoid being turned into a pile of pegasus dust.

Doing my best to be a hard target I flew in loose patterns trying to spot the shooter. Fortunately it definitely wasn't Trueshot, this dog would probably have trouble hitting me while I was standing still. Even so I need to take him out before he gets a lucky shot. Ducking under a particularly close shot I caught a glimpse of him in the distance laying among a bunch of small rocks. Cheeky bugger.

I have to finish this quickly before I get too tired to fight so I'm only going to have one shot at this. Luckily he wasn't smart enough to plan out his position very well and I intend to take full advantage of it. Dodging his shots and planning my route, I slowly made my way closer to him. When I felt it was a comfortable distance I flew directly between the poor hellhound and the sun. Silly dog, I don't even use guns and I know better than to look directly at the sun through a sniper scope.

I rocketed into the air and flew to him as fast as I could. It didn't take long for my brain to remind me that I don't like heights but I didn't need to go far and a hard landing was what I planned anyways. The hellhound never even saw me coming and I landed with a kick to the back of his head. Hard! I'm not sure if he's dead or not, but he's definitely unconscious. I could hear the other hellhound coming but I was far too late to dodge him. He tackled me to the ground and pinned me under his weight.

He raised a clawed hand but before he could strike I bucked him in the groin with both hind legs. Okay yes I know it's kind of dirty, but it's not like they're fighting fair either! He buckled to the ground next to me just long enough for me to take to the air and get out of his reach. He growled in anger but there was no way I was going back down there to fight in his terms.

"Pony you are making this harder than it needs to be. New rule: every time you fly higher than we can reach I'm going to cut off a part of the griffon. Sounds like a fun game right?"

"Oh for Celesta's sake!"

I stared at Raze for a few moments until I was sure he was serious. With a scowl and heavy heart I slowly descended back to the ground. Raze looked like he enjoyed ordering me around, but the other dog looked about ready to jump out of his fur for the chance to tear me apart.

As soon as my hooves touched the ground the second hellhound charged and attacked mr relentlessly. Swing, dodge. Swing, dodge. Pounce, roll and run. I was faster than him, but just barely. One wrong move and I could lose my head, and I like it where it is thank you very much.

I wanted to counter attack but his slashes were too quick and too often for me to risk it. I felt the cold touch of one of the large rocks on my back right as he brought a clawed arm down at me. Well I hope this works... I ducked and he struck the rock hard, burying his claws deep into the soft desert rock. It wasn't much of an opening but it was all I needed to lunge up at him and bury my life deep in his chest. If dog anatomy is anything like pony anatomy that should have been a lung.

I pulled my knife out and rolled to the side in case he decided to keep fighting, but he crumpled to the ground holding a paw over the wound. His breathing was coming in short gasps and his pained expression told me I was right about the lung. Knowing better than to have my back to Raze I trotted a safe distance from the injured dog and faced the last one standing.

I could see the hatred in his eyes as he looked at me. I returned his look with a confident smile. "What's the matter Raze, jealous because I'm a better dancer than you and your friends?" I certainly sounded more confident than I was. In reality I was tired, covered in sweat, and still scared out of my mind. But if there's one thing I've learned about bullies, is that they love it more than anything when they get too see how much you fear them.

"I'm going to hurt you, pony. I'm going to rip you into little pieces and feed them to the ghouls. And I'll make sure your friend gets to watch. But first I'm going to break every bone in your body and make you watch as I kill your griffon friend."

"Well let's tango then."

Raze howled before charging at me, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him. The moment he reached me he started swinging, his heavy arms barely missing as I dodged for my life. He was far slower than the last hellhound, but I could feel the air whip past me with each swing. Wouldn't matter if he got me with his claws or not, one hit from that and this fight is over.

I ducked under a right swing and barely managed to jump to the right and evade another swipe from the left. Taking the opportunity I jumped over him with a flap of my wings, bringing a scaled blade down on his head as I passed. No sooner had I landed Raze spun around and slammed the back of his hand into my jaw. I was sent sprawling several feet away, my mind fighting to remain conscious and regain its senses.

Once my vision cleared I turned to see Raze approaching me with a triumphant grin. His bone helmet was shattered on the ground behind him, but other than a small cut he was unharmed. I tried to get back to my hooves but he jumped on me too fast. He pinned my chest under a knee as he wrapped a hand around my throat. My breathe game out in short gasps as he laughed above me.

"See pony? Dogs are better hunters, fighters, and killers. One day you ponies will learn your place is beneath us, but until then I'll just keep killing you one by one.

I turned my head and saw Finder looking over the edge of his rock, tears in his eyes. I couldn't find my voice, so I just mouthed the word 'run'. He stayed there and watched for a moment, but quickly turned and disappeared out of sight. Well at least one of us is going to make it out of here...

My vision was turning black, but I still had one more thing to do to make sure Finder could get away. With my left hoof I tried reaching for a rock just a little too far away, hoping to distract his attention. It worked, and soon he was mocking me.

"Go ahead pony, fight for your life. In fact feel free to beg while you're at it."

He let go of my neck and put slightly less weight on my chest. Little did he know he only made my plan that much easier. I waited until his attention was distracted by my hoof, almost reaching that rock. As soon as he looked away I brought a wing up and sliced at the back of his leg, right below the knee. While not a fatal injury by any means, severing a tendon like that will ensure he'll never be able to chase anything again.

He howled in pain and let off of my chest just long enough for me to roll to the side, evading the clawed fist he slammed angrily into the ground. Before I could try to run he grabbed me by a wing (Ow!) and hurled me as hard as he could into one of the large rocks.

Thankfully I didn't hit head first, but I blacked out for several seconds and I knew something was very wrong with my wing. I looked up to see the approaching form of Raze, his bloody leg limping and his eyes full of hatred. Despite it all I couldn't stop the smirk coming across my face. "How are you going to hunt anything while you're limping like that?"

His expression didn't change, but then again I don't think he could possibly have looked more angry anyways. Just as he reached me I felt a small shadow pass over me. Finder!

He leapt off of the rock behind me and drive my knife deep into the hellhound's shoulder. Raze looked barely offended as he grabbed Finder and slammed him into the ground. Finder was still conscious and kicking at him so Raze must be getting tired.

He raised a clawed hand and looked at me with a wicked grin. I have to do something to help Finder!

"Wait! Don't hurt him please! Do what you want with me just leave him alone!" My voice was raspy and mixed with coughing fits, but I know I got the point across.

“Ha! Don’t worry I’ll cut you up and mix you with some bloodwing meat soon enough. But first I’m going to make you suffer for a while.”

I wanted to get up, to keep fighting and save Finder. But my body just wouldn’t move! As the darkness overcame my vision the last thing I saw was Raze bringing his massive arm down, accompanied by a loud bang.

Level Up!

Filly’s League +2: Years of practice with your blades has honed your skill with melee weapons. +5 to melee damage

Author's Notes:

(I tried a slightly different format this time, like/dislike/didn't notice?)

I want to give out a big thanks to Kkat for being awesome as always, and for letting me take part in her amazing world building. I also want to thank The 24th Pegasus and LoyalLiar for letting me use some of the ideas from their universe to make mine a little more unique.

As always feel free to PM me if you have any question, comments, or concerns! Or feel free to leave them in the comments section below. ^_^