Fallout: Equestria - Rising Dawn

by Interloper

First published 12th of January, 2014

In the Northern Wasteland, a dying stable is the least of anypony's problems - for outside those stable doors, only darkness awaits.

For two centuries the ponies of Stable 91 slept beneath the earth, dreaming sweet dreams as the world above burned away in spellfire. But in that dark world, an ancient nightmare stirred from its slumber, awakened by the destruction of the Great War. From the ashes of the Crystal Empire it rose, spreading its waking nightmares across the wasteland's irradiated snowplains. It was only a matter of time before the ponies of Stable 91 awoke, screaming, never to see the light again. For in the Northern Wasteland, outside '91's stable door, only darkness awaits...

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Warning, there are spoilers in the comments!

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Rising Dawn is a non-canon spinoff of Fallout: Equestria, by Kkat.
Editors & Pre-Readers: PersonalGamer, Defiance, Starlight Nova, Dannykat, and Mystery Meat.
Special thanks to Dannykat, Alaxsxaq, and Private Dangle for helping me get the story started and planned!
Cover art by Interloper

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Rising Dawn is currently on an indefinite hiatus. See this blog for more info.

Introduction

… all was lost. The virtues of friendship were thrown away - drowned beneath the tides of the Great War. Life as everypony knew it came apart in a matter of hours. Balefire megaspells, the products of a devastating war with the Zebras, fell from the sky and millions of lives were extinguished. Few were spared. Not even the ponies of the Crystal Empire. Long ago the Crystal Empire alone kept at bay the evil that lurked beyond the Crystal Mountains, until they too joined the rest of the world in a pyre of spellfire. As the Empire's thousand year vigil came to an end, a sinister, aberrant darkness washed across the ashen drifts of the Northern Wasteland.

200 years have passed since the North was plunged into utter darkness, and life struggles to persist in a world devoid of virtue. Mercenaries, criminals, and monsters – pony and mutant alike, thrive in this Goddesses-forsaken wasteland. But even then, they are the least of greater evils, for when the bombs fell, long ago, the world was not reborn in spellfire, but in darkness.

Unbeknownst to the nightmarish horrors that swept over the world above them, the ponies of Stable 91, one of many underground shelters designed to spare their inhabitants from the apocalypse, sleep softly within the comforts of their white halls. But it was only a matter of time before their precious little world fell apart and they awoke, screaming, with not a single ray of light to touch their faces ever again.

Chapter 1- Cradle - Pt I

The water level was rising. Bubbling. Boiling. My skin prickled. I could feel its heat radiating against my flesh.

A rivulet of sweat ran down my face.

I peered beneath the railing over the stable’s water purifier, staring into the churning, turbulent waters below.

‘Something’s wrong.’ A tremor rumbled through the catwalks. Engineer ponies froze on their hooves. I felt the metal beneath my hooves begin to shake.

Then the catwalks - the purifier - the chamber -

My entire world began to quake.

"RED DAWN!" someone shrieked.

Hearing my name, I jerked upright and slammed my head into the railing above me. I hoofed the throbbing pain beneath my cropped, red mane, a curse at the tip of my tongue.

But my curses were lost beneath everybody’s screams.

The brown of my coat was lost in a flood of brilliant white as a blinding flash engulfed the teardrop-shaped chamber around me.

Ponies screamed for their lives. The metal shuddered beneath my hooves. The catwalks that spiraled around Stable 91’s water purifier shook violently below.

I reared upon my hinds, covering my ears with my forehooves as sirens wailed over my muffled, pounding heartbeat. Every single console in the chamber was screaming for everybody’s - anybody’s attention. It was like the whole world was about to explode – the only world that I had ever known my entire life.

My eyes darted frantically to the rumbling water purifier at the center of the chamber. I cringed as my pupils contracted to the blazing outburst of another star gone supernova.

"Why the fuck is it doing that!?" I screamed against the howling sirens as I felt something wet trickle out my ear. In the ensuing chaos, hooves clopped frantically around me. Ponies rushed to flashing consoles and terminals. Others stopped to diagnose the engorged pipes that wove into the walls around us.

But there were too many pipes, too many terminals, and not enough ponies to fix them. We weren’t prepared for something like that – we weren’t prepared for so many things to come apart at once.

Because something like that was never supposed to happen.

Everybody dropped what they were doing and swung their heads back to the purifier. My pupils shrank in horror amid the scarlet irises of my widening eyes.

The machine let out an ear piercing shriek, and every single one of the pipes in the chamber began to rumble and screech.

I doubled over as the deafening metallic scream tore through my already ringing ears. I winced, darting my eyes left and right at the swelling weave of pipes that spiraled around us.

They popped and hissed with steaming jets of vapor.

‘Goddesses. We’re all going to die.’

If we weren’t going to be cooked alive, I was sure that the entire room was going to collapse upon itself.

A familiar voice shook me back into focus, calling my name from across the chamber.

“Red! I need you!” My ears perked at the mare’s voice. I swung my head over my shoulder and saw her slamming her hooves desperately into a flashing console.

The water purifier’s console.

The machine was about to blow, and she was standing right in front of it.

“DD, get away from that thing –”

An engorged pipe erupted in front of me. I ducked. Boiling steam gushed overhead and I threw myself to the floor, knocking the air out of my lungs.

The steam cascaded over me but not around me, and I thanked the First Law of Thermodynamics for working as it should have. ‘Now, if I could just crawl under this and –‘ another pipe blew out with a shower of shrapnel and boiling steam. A blast of hot air crashed into me – and I cursed as shrapnel bit deep into my barding. Again, the entire chamber quaked.

Explosions wracked the swaying catwalk underhoof as pipes ruptured and spewed all around me.

Again. And again.

The hot air was getting hard to breath – it felt as if my lungs were boiling from the inside out. I let out a ragged gasp for air I rifled through my saddlebags, wrenched out my breather mask and slapped it onto my muzzle. I took a deep, rasping breath of heavenly cold oxygen, crawled under the scalding cloud of steam, and galloped across the catwalk.

One of the pipes in front of me began to rattle and pop.

Boiling water spurted out of it like a punctured artery.

I slipped into SATS.

My PipBuck illuminated the world around me in streaks of gridded teal. SATS saw it first.

The pipe exploded, and shrapnel screamed towards me. But the shrapnel twinkled teal – and I sidestepped away as the blast wave erupted.

But that didn’t save me from the backwash. My left hind leg nearly cleared the blast –

I was so close.

But not close enough.

The moment I felt its searing touch, I yelped as an inferno engulfed my left flank and sent my nerve endings shrieking. The boiling splash soaked through my jumpsuit and split apart the flesh of my coat. It summoned up screaming blisters that throbbed with every beat of my drumming heart.

Within seconds, my leg gave up under me. I tumbled end over end across the catwalk until the unforgiving steel grating slowed my roll to a drag like brakes on a wheel.

I’ve been burned before, but boiled? The water soaked into my bleeding, burning coat and just kept cooking. Blinded by tears, I shook my body vigorously, showering a pair of fleeing engineer ponies with cooling, bloody water.

The boiling pain began to subside, but the bleeding blisters continued to leak crimson down my cooked, throbbing flesh. My horn flickered to life, and I yanked a health potion out of my saddlebags. I pushed my mask up with a hoof and dumped its contents down my throat.

I growled through my teeth as I pulled my breather mask back down and struggled to flex my stinging limb. The healing potion’s effect was not as pronounced or as immediate as I had hoped. I half limped, half galloped my regenerating ass to a console built into a, thankfully, pipe free wall.

I tapped its screen and punched in the buttons that controlled the vents above us. I dialed the fans to maximum and groaned with relief when the huge fans above the chamber sucked the boiling air into their spinning blades.

Luckily for me, that wasn’t the end of it.

SCREEE!

Metal scraped against metal – and the chamber convulsed, heaving me to the floor. Ponies hurtled over the railing as the walkway behind me toppled over and careened into the water below. If they hadn’t been impaled by the metal beams, they’d be fine.

I hoped.

I coughed and choked as I scrambled to my hooves, pushing through the dwindling smoke and steam to the muffled voice of a screaming mare. I spotted someone’s silhouette in the smoke, and knew it was her.

"Dew Drops, what the fuck is going on!?" I shouted over the deafening klaxons.

"I-I don't know!" she screamed back, warning lights painting her blue coat with flashes of red.

I squinted through the lenses of my breather mask, and galloped towards the mare.

“You need to get clear of that thing!” I screamed over the wailing sirens. “It’s gonna blow!”

My words flew past her ears as she pounded her hooves against the console’s screen, her breaths hissing out of her rebreather. "Goddesses – no, come on – come on!"

I skidded to a halt as the rumbling shell that housed the water purifier at the center of the chamber howled with an anguished mechanical wail.

There was a blue flash. I felt it in my bones and my innards as a seismic crash ripped through the chamber, hurling me to the floor in a heap.

The arcane machine erupted with a blaze of light like a star going supernova, tearing down the fans from the ceiling and shaking the metal beneath my hooves. I watched helplessly as more catwalks and screaming ponies plummeted into the waters below.

“DEW DROPS!” I wailed, scrambling to my hooves as clouds of billowing black smoke washed over me. ‘Please be okay, Goddesses, please be okay!’

I flinched – someone tumbled down a catwalk from on high. He screamed until his screams went silent as he slammed into the railing next to me and plunged into the smoke-filled darkness.

“Holy shit!”

I galloped blindly across the walkway, thick acrid smoke rushing past me. I leaped out of the smoke – and my heart fluttered with distant relief. She was still pounding her hooves against the console. Alive, but with ragged holes and lines of scarlet now trailing down her jumpsuit.

The mare fumbled with the system’s still working controls, stabbing her hooves fruitlessly into the console’s keyboard. With a dying hum, the purifier’s high pitched mechanical whine faded to a dead silence.

Dew Drops stood there, motionless as she stared at the smoking, ruined machine.

She pushed off the console and fell to her four hooves, turning sluggishly towards me with a shell-shocked look on her face.

“Red –” she began. But the terminal’s screen flashed - its controls arcing with electricity.

“DD, get down!” I screamed, reaching out to her with a foreleg as the terminal exploded, showering her with a hail of shrapnel. She pounced – and slammed into me. I broke her fall, knocking the wind out of my chest.

We thrashed blindly against each other's limbs until I managed to bite down on her teal mane and yank her to her hooves.

“DD!”

“I’m okay – I’m okay,” she stammered as she leaned into me, panting to fill her lungs with air. The mare lifted her head, and her eyes widened through her breather mask as she stared at the destruction behind me. “Goddesses …”

We both turned. I tore off my mask, and it clattered to the floor.

I swept my gaze across the once pristine, silvery, teardrop shaped chamber. It looked like a fucking tornado blew through it. The cobweb of interlocking pipes that ran across the ceiling and the curved walls around us were ripped apart from the inside out.

I squinted through the smoke as ponies dashed across the remaining walkways, plugging steaming pipes and spraying retardant into the rampant flames – all the while the sirens continued to shriek.

One pony galloped past me. Her jumpsuit was on fire. The mare hurled herself to the catwalk and squirmed, wriggled, and rolled until her jumpsuit stopped smoking. I called out to her, and she waved a trembling hoof at me – smoking – but okay.

I gulped, swearing under my breath. ‘How the fuck did all this happen?’

"It’s gone …” I barely heard Dew Drops whisper under the whooping sirens. “IT’S GONE!”

I blinked. Then my eyes widened, unsure if I heard her right. "Gone … gone? The whole thing!?" She just stared past me, pulling off her mask, her lips moving but not a single word escaping her lips.

“DD!” I shouted over the sirens, shaking her with my hooves. She blinked, and her ears perked. “DD! Come on!” The mare shook her head and hoofed her right ear with a confused look on her face. I groaned. "Would somebody turn that shit off!"

But my pleas went unheard as ponies scrambled past us. They battered broken consoles with frantic hooves and gawked at the smoldering machine at the center of the chamber – the smoldering machine that purified our stable's water and housed our stable’s precious arcane water talisman.

I roared with a voice that nobody else could hear. With SATS fully charged, my horn glowed red and I hurled my wrench at a console at the other end of the catwalk. It banged silently against the buttons and to my surprise, the sirens shut up. "Gone? The whole system!?" I shouted as the sirens became replaced with everyone’s screams.

She at least heard me that time.

"No – worse," she croaked as she stared at the smoking machine. "The water talisman. It's ... Gone."

My ears twitched. I couldn’t have heard that right. No. Impossible. I tried gulping down the lump in my throat, but it refused to go down. It was getting hard to breath.

I looked at her, unable to accept what I was hearing. I blinked. Then I blinked again. A horrible realization dawned on me.

“Celestia – this can’t be fucking happening …” I whispered, sweat trickling down my forehead. Without the water talisman, we wouldn’t be able to use clean water. Without clean water ....

‘Everyone is going to die.’

I turned my widening eyes to Dew Drops. “H-h... how? That thing is supposed to last centuries.”

"I don't know! I tried fixing it, tried shutting it off, but the purifier’s controls went haywire and the thing blew up ..."

I let out a trembling sigh.

‘We’re doomed.’

I looked at the smoking terminal in front of me and tapped my hooves uselessly against its still flickering screen. It flashed once, stuttered, and died.

I took a deep breath, wiping away the sweat from my forehead. As evenly as I could manage, I asked, "The stable ... how long?"

"What do you mean how long –"

"How fucking long do we have until our water reserves are gone!?"

"I-I don't know yet. W-we need to tell the Overmare!" Dew Drops hooked a leg around a mare who was running towards us. “Bubbles! Get the Overmare, get help – do something!”

She nodded, and scampered off to the exit. I started towards the smoking, metal ruin, but Dew Drops waved me off and gestured to my PipBuck instead.

I shook my head and attempted, with futility, to interface with the purifier’s systems. I wasn’t surprised. No response. “Nothing … shit!”

Dew Drops stepped forward. But her hoof slipped on a puddle and she thumped her face against the catwalk. She groaned, looked at her hooves, then at me, then at her hooves.

My horn flickered to life – and she glowed with a pink magical field that pulled her to her hooves. Overmare Peach Petals stood behind her, her horn glowing as she stared wide-eyed at the ruined machine behind me.

“I ran into her just as I was about to leave,” Bubbles muttered, hoofing her forehead as she trotted over. Following closely behind them were three security ponies who gazed at the destruction around us in disbelief. The blood drained from Peach Petals’ face.

"What happened here? How ... how did all this happen?"

I looked at her and glanced over my shoulder.

"The water talisman got fried, I don't know why, and neither does Dew Drops here," I replied, chewing my lower lip as I eyed my master engineer. You'd probably be expecting that someone two years younger than you would be your apprentice and not the other way around. Well, it might as well have been, because Dew Drops was gazing at the machine’s smoking remains - slack-jawed like everyone else.

She was supposed to be an expert on arcane devices; but she had as little of a clue as to how the water purifier blew up as I did.

"Can it be fixed? Goddesses, please tell me it can!" the Peach Petals begged, trying to hide the palpable trembling in her voice. She glanced around in desperation at the engineer ponies that galloped past her. "You, and you! You and you and you ..." Wherever her hoof jerked, a scrambling pony froze. "Find some way to fix this – now!" she commanded, the Overmare in her voice returning.

I winced at what I had to say, rewording it in my head to exclude a few unneeded ‘fucks’ and a ‘shit.’ But Dew Drops stole the words right from my trembling lips.

"Ma'am, the thing's fried, we can't fix it –"

The Overmare silenced her with a seething glare.

"I don’t care!” she snapped. “You need to find something. Find something …please try to find something. Just. Try.."

"I-I … we'll try ... ma'am," Dew Drops eeped. I looked behind the Overmare and across the catwalk behind the door she came from, a small group of terrified ponies had begun to gather.

“They’re not supposed to be here,” I murmured.

The Overmare and her retinue rushed towards them. "Everybody calm down, the situation is under control. Return above floors and I will let you know personally once this ... issue has been resolved ... and I promise you, it will …" she trailed off, her voice fading away as she herded them as far from the door as she could before it slid shut.

Calm. It was hard to stay that way when the very thing that kept us alive was gone. The Overmare’s presence created an air of doomed silence. Though my ears perked at a few scattered, retching curses that someone hissed here and there, everyone wasn’t so focused on trying not to get cooked alive anymore. They were instead more focused on trying to do what the Overmare ordered them to do.

‘This is going to be a lot of work.’ I let out a trembling sigh as my entire body shook. The future looked grim. Without a water talisman, my stable’s days were numbered.

I heard hooves clop against the catwalk next to me. Dew Drops took a good look at me. She gasped when she saw my scalded, bloody hind leg, her grey eyes widening.

“Luna’s grace …”

I nodded weakly. “I can fix that,” ‘Somewhat,’ I wanted to add. The blisters had stopped bleeding at least, but the flesh was raw and stinging. I levitated two more potions from my bag and downed them one after the other before I spoke. “But the purifier … what about the purifier?”

Dew Drops shook her head, hanging it low.

"Yes. It can be fixed … of course it can be fixed. But the water talisman? It’s not even there anymore," she murmured, staring at the smoking wreck.

I closed my eyes shut and just shook my head. "How long do we have?" I asked again.

She scrolled through her PipBuck's interface, narrowed her eyes at the screen, and shrugged. "A few weeks – a month or two maybe? Depends on how fast we consume our reserves.”

An orange engineer pony with her apprentice in tow approached.

"DD we need another talisman," Amber Fields said, her short yellow mane glistening and dripping with water. She was one of the ponies who fell into the water below. I thanked the Goddesses that my friend wasn't dead. She lifted a reflective sliver of scrap metal and held it out to us in her hoof. "This is all that's left of ours."

"We need to get the others," I said, cradling my head in my hooves. "We need to find some way to ... I don't know – purify our damned water!"

The other mare's apprentice groaned, giving voice to the thoughts that were running circles in my head.

"Don't you get it? We're fucked, fucked I'm telling you! Our water’s gonna get contaminated –" A hoof struck her muzzle, cutting her off.

Amber Fields glared at her sniveling apprentice and nodded at Dew Drops. "We'll find a way ... we have to," she said hauntingly, before dragging her apprentice away with her by the tail.

I cradled my head in my hooves, trying to formulate ways we could possibly filter and purify our water. Talismans casted, multiplied, and sustained spells several fold. ‘All we’d need is a ton of gifted unicorns to … no. Maybe we could just jury-rig a filtration device using the stable’s… no, no, too inefficient.’

I hung my head, dismally. We would not be able create something with the scale to support the needs of three hundred ponies.

We didn’t have the room – the supplies, or the materials to build anything new within our stable. The stable where the last of ponykind had thrived in for nearly the last two centuries. Soon, all of that would be gone. All because of one talisman.

We were doomed. I knew that for a fact.

I felt someone wrap a leg around me and squeeze me tight. I knew it was her. Dew Drops rested her head on my shoulder as we stood there in silence, watching the broken machinery around us smoke with dreary eyes.

With a trembling hoof, she swept out of her eyes a lock of her tousled mane. “At least we’re alive …” I heard the mare whisper.

I frowned at her, saying nothing. For a moment, the stinging sensation on my leg faded away as I eyed the ragged shrapnel wounds on her blue coat. I narrowed my eyes at her, my horn glowing with a scarlet sheen. She nodded, clenching her jaw as I dug the metal fragments out of her hide.

“What you did earlier … that was stupid of you,” I began. “You could’ve had more than just shrapnel in your coat. That machine was beyond saving the moment it started tearing the chamber apart.” My brows furrowed and I clenched my jaw. “You could’ve died.”

Dew Drops sighed, bowing her head. “I needed to at least try, Red,” she replied, softly, wincing as I pulled another bloody sliver of metal out of a ragged hole in her jumpsuit. “If I didn’t give it a shot, I never would’ve known it wasn’t possible.”

I shook my head. “You know more about arcane constructs than our entire shift combined …”

“Exactly … that’s why I was there,” she insisted.

I glared into her soft eyes.

“No … DD. We can’t afford to lose you,” I whispered, my voice trembling.

Dew Drops cocked her head at me, watching me quietly as I stared at my hooves.

“We? Or you?”

I avoided her gaze, digging through her coat.

“Red …”

I pulled the last sliver of metal out of her hide. She shook herself briskly, wiping away the tears of pain in her eyes.

Dew Drops met my gaze. I just sighed and wrapped a leg around her as we gazed at the ruined metal pipes that drooped limply above us.

“We can fix this …” she whispered. “We have to ...”

The sounds of hooves clopping our way drew our attention away from the destruction around us. I saw a stallion with a gray coat and a messy brown mane stumble toward me, head hung low.

"Box Cutter!" I said, calling out his name. He looked at me wearily. "Are you alright?" He staggered closer until I could see the deep gash on his chest.

The answer had to be no.

He just smiled faintly, rocking back and forth on his hooves. I trotted up next to him and he leaned against me. His jumpsuit was dripping wet; he must have fallen in with Amber Fields and the others.

"Fine and dandy, Red," he chuckled. “Just got banged up a little bit.” Box Cutter sighed, waving me off, “Yeah, I’m good – nothing I can’t handle: applebucking mares bang harder than this.”

I smirked – then noticed the bump on his head.

"No, you're not.”

“Oh yeah?” He snorted, “You look pretty messed up yourself."

“It’s superficial.” I grimaced at my crimson hind leg. “Nothing I can’t fix with a few healing potions,” I added, painfully. Goddesses, did it sting.

“Nothing you can’t fix huh …” He sighed, shaking his head. “Can we fix … this?” he asked, looking all around him.

I glanced over at Dew Drops who was staring blankly at the water purifier. Box Cutter slumped against me when I didn’t answer.

"DD, help me get Box to the clinic … I think he has a concussion." I waved a hoof in front of his face, but Box Cutter’s eyes just stayed hazy and unfocused.

“DD?”

Her ears perked, and she nodded slowly. Dew Drops cleared her throat, and said to the ponies of Shift C, who were milling about with shell-shocked expressions, “Everypony, listen up!”

The engineering ponies turned to face her. “Start repairs on the water purifier and plug those pipes. Re-divert the pumps to the reserves; work until the next shift arrives. Until then … just … do something.”

Dew Drops levitated out a trio of health potions, giving them to Box Cutter to drink until the gash in his chest stopped bleeding somewhat. I nodded at her thankfully because Box Cutter was too out of it to do it himself.

I lifted one of his legs over my shoulder. Dew Drops cocked her head at me. “Can you give me a hoof?”

She took one look at my scalded leg and shook her head. “You aren’t carrying him with that,” she told me.

“Right …” I nodded.

“C’mere, Box Cutter,” she grunted as I lifted one of his legs over her.

He moaned as the gash on his chest scraped against her jumpsuit. “Fuck – fuck – that hurts!”

“Oh shush,” Dew Drops smiled. “I know it’ll take more than that to hurt you.”

Box Cutter laughed weakly – and cried when I finally heaved him onto her back. Dew Drops didn’t waste another second as she paced to the clinic and I limped after her. Moving that fast wasn’t going to help my leg, but I needed to see my friend through.

We left the dark, damp confines of the engineering level, its pony-sized piping and grated floor turning into gray tiles and white-washed, concrete walls.

We trotted – or at least I tried to trot through the halls, our gaits quickening as earth ponies and unicorns watched us with worried eyes. Their conversations faded to an uncertain silence when they saw the bleeding stallion on Dew Drops’ back, and the ruined hind leg that I dragged behind me. Everyone we passed stopped to stare. I just pursed my lips and tried to turn my limp into a trot.

My ears perked at the sound of wings flapping through the air.

A flock of young pegasi were trailing after us.

“We shouldn’t have come this way,” Dew Drops said softly.

I tried not to make eye contact with the others. “Why not?”

“Look at them – they’re scared.”

Just when I thought my leg was finally going to give up on me, a pegasus in security barding landed in front of us a yard away.

“DD – oh shit! Is that Box Cutter?” Lightning Twirl raced towards us. “The hell happened? I mean, I heard the explosions and everything,” she said, blowing a rogue strand of her wild white bangs out of her eyes. There was a short pause as Lightning Twirl eyed the gathering crowd of murmuring ponies around us.

I nodded. “The water–”

“The water purifier overloaded. T-they’re fixing it as we speak,” Dew Drops stammered.

“DD –”

She cleared her throat. “Box Cutter fell and well …”

“DD –”

“He’s making a bloody mess all over my jumpsuit,” she finished. Dew Drops pursed her lips at me as I frowned at her. She gave me a sideways look, her eyes darting around at the herd of ponies that were staring right at us.

“I’m still conscious you know ...” he muttered as he laid limp on her back.

“Listen,” Dew Drops began quietly, glancing over her shoulder, “Box Cutter has a concussion, I think.” Lightning Twirl’s violet eyes widened at that. “We need to get him to the clinic.”

She trotted over. “I can fly him there. I’ll use the aerial access tunnels – it’s much faster,” she offered. Dew Drops nodded at me – and I transferred him to her back. He groaned painfully when Dew Drops' jumpsuit brushed against the gash in his chest, smearing blood all over her back.

“Red … come on,” she murmured, blood dripping down her chest and pattering across the white floor beneath her.

“Sorry – shit – sorry,” I winced, trying to lift him onto her back. When I finally got him on, he hugged his forelegs around the base of her neck.

“Hold on tight or you’ll fall off,” Lightning Twirl said, unfurling her wings.

Box Cutter nodded faintly. “Yeah, yeah, that what you tell your boyfriend?” Lightning Twirl just snorted and took off, Box Cutter screaming about his head hurting.

I shook my head, exhaling a long sigh of relief as Dew Drops and I – and the ponies around us watched the two disappear into a hole in the ceiling.

“He’ll be alright,” I heard Dew Drops whisper. She gulped, looking down at the specks of blood on the floor under her hooves, and the red smeared all over her jumpsuit. The mare turned her head, and found that everyone was staring back at her. “We’ll be alright,” she said, louder.

I closed my eyes for a moment. “Yeah … alright,” I murmured, scratching my mane as everyone went back to minding their own businesses now that my bleeding friend was nowhere to be seen.

I looked over my shoulder down the hall and saw that the engineering level was far behind us. Away from all that destruction … everyone else was going back to doing their thing.

They didn’t know. It’s not like the purifier hadn’t broken down before. We always fixed it back up, and they’d always have their water running again.

But they didn’t know.

We trotted through the living quarters on the way to the clinic. Lining the walls were their wide, circle shaped doors, decorated with photos of the ponies within and their families. Fortunately, the explosions downstairs weren’t enough to shake those photos from their doors. Inside we could hear voices emanating from within, laughing without a single care in the world.

High above our heads hung poofy cloud-shaped cushions – perches for the pegasi. Farther above my head I could see the pegasi quarters. My mother lived up there. The entire pegasus tier was painted sky blue with murals of great cloud cities from before the war. Cities that probably didn’t exist anymore.

Everywhere I looked, ponies had tried to cover up the boring walls around us with murals painted by artists from generations past and present. There were rolling hills of green, and purple skies; fields of gold and shimmering blue seas. There were amber sunsets, and moons gleaming white against starry night skies that stretched across the walls as far as I could see – none of which the ponies who painted them had ever seen.

If only we could’ve just painted murals over the ruined pipes at engineering. Maybe then we all could’ve just pretended that none of it ever happened. Maybe then life would’ve just went on without our water talisman.

A herd of fillies and colts ran past us, laughing at each other in a game of tag, breaking me from my trancelike state. I tore my gaze away from the murals that I had walked past my entire life. One of the fillies slowed, staring at my now scabbing leg as she trotted past.

I felt the stinging sensation return to my flank. I cursed under my breath, and kept limping, the clinic an elevator ride away. We just had to get to the damned elevator.

I sighed as we passed by open, dome-shaped rooms where ponies lounged on couches or cushions, eating dried carrot chips while listening to live music from a cello, guitar, and violin. The soft hum of the yellow ambient lights above me calmed my nerves. I almost wanted to forget that the water talisman was broken.

None of those ponies even knew.

Maybe it was better that way. Maybe. Upstairs, you couldn’t really tell anything was wrong at all.

Down in our stable, several hundred feet underground in a bomb shelter built two centuries ago and spared from the balefire holocaust, I imagined life to be just about as comfortable as it was up on the surface before the bombs fell.

It was as if ponies had lived there since the beginning of time.

But if there hadn’t been so few of us down there, I would’ve believed that notion.

Chapter 1 - Cradle - Pt II

I looked down at Box Cutter who lay spread-eagled on the clinic bed with an ice pack wrapped around his head. Bandages mummified his chest.

Me? I suppose I was better off. After a healthy dose of a super healing potion, the scabs on my leg peeled off, and the flesh beneath my blue and yellow jumpsuit went to a very interesting shade of pink. I got bandaged up and told to not run on it, though the itching was really starting to bother me.

It turned out that Box Cutter did in fact have a concussion. I was just glad that Lightning Twirl got him to the clinic fast enough for the doc to wrap his head in ice before the swelling began.

I sighed, safe from danger and impending doom … for the moment.

A peaceful yellow glow fell upon us from the lights above. The walls around us were patterned with swarms of butterflies of alternating colors of pink and yellow – insects that were probably long extinct. The ceiling was painted to resemble an open sky with sparse clusters of poofy clouds. I imagined that laying on a hospital bed in pain was probably better when your head was in the clouds.

I hoped the other ponies inside the clinic felt the same way. All around us, the clinic's clean, sterile halls were filled to the brim with Shift C’s wounded.

Behind the pink curtains surrounding Box Cutter's bed, I heard someone groan. Nearly a dozen of the engineering ponies suffered shrapnel wounds, second degree burns, concussions, broken bones, or a lovely pick-n-mix of all of the above. I was one of them, but I got off easily. I winced at the thought of my entire body getting cooked. Thankfully … nobody died, at least.

Excluding the members of C Shift, the stable was as healthy and happy as it could be.

‘For now,’ I thought darkly.

For the two centuries since the bombs fell, my stable had lived in relative luxury. Clean water. Working toilets. Hot baths. Fresh food – if colorless apples and genetically-modified veggies counted as fresh. We had it all. I wasn't sure how long we could continue living the way we did with the water talisman broken. Water was always recycled.

That poop water in your toilet? It's what you're going to drink tomorrow morning at breakfast. Not that it'll taste like anything, it was recycled and treated. But without the talisman, that poop water was still going to be poop water when you go for a drink tomorrow no matter what you do .

"What happened?" I asked Box Cutter, who, thankfully, was still conscious. “I tried accessing the systems but they were dark by the time I had my PipBuck up.”

"Shit if I know. My console was giving me crazy readings and the entire room started shaking." He sighed. “Then the catwalk fell out from under my hooves and, well, I’m here now.”

I furrowed my brows. "What kind of readings, though?"

"The water talisman just couldn't take it anymore I guess. It overloaded. There was too much pressure in the valves and it overheated trying to compensate. It started boiling the water instead of treating it."

Behind me, Dew Drops harrumphed. "That explains the explosions. But why? It's supposed to last us centuries."

It was a question none of us could answer. It was probably a question nobody in the stable could answer. Something like that was never supposed to happen. Ever.

"There has to be another way,” Dew Drops muttered, “There just has to be …" She turned to me, hoping that I’d say the same. I just met her gaze with worried eyes before looking down at the white-tiled floor beneath my hooves. A voice in the back of my head kept telling me that we’d be drinking poop water soon enough.

A few seconds of silence hung over us until Dew Drops sighed and shook her head. "All the engineering ponies are meeting with the Overmare later at midnight. You and I will be going, Red.” She peered down at Box Cutter. “Think you can make it, Box?"

"He needs to stay in bed," the doctor's voice said behind the curtains. Stitches, the stable's local equine fixer, pushed through the pink fabrics. She levitated a pen out of her white coat and jotted down notes on a clipboard as she gave the injured earth pony on the bed a look over. "Box Cutter hit his head pretty hard. He might lapse out of consciousness and hurt himself even more if he tries doing anything strenuous." Doctor Stitches gave the stallion a serious look. "I might even need to crack his skull open to relieve the pressure building up inside, or it might blow like the purifier downstairs."

Box Cutter's eyes widened in horror. "Just pulling your leg," Stitches chuckled. I glared at her and so did Dew Drops. She had that sick sense of humor that scared the hell out of you and made you even angrier after finding out your mom wasn't really going to die from cancer. The bastard. "You do have a concussion though, so you still need to rest for a bit, maybe even for a while."

Box Cutter groaned.

"Could be worse," Dew Drops grinned. "Your head could’ve exploded."

"Quit scaring me, this shit's serious," he pouted.

Dew Drops patted his ruffled, frizzy mane reassuringly.

"You'll be fine. Take it easy. Red and I are going to grab a bite before the meeting."

I bumped hooves with Box Cutter and left the clinic, Dew Drops taking the lead. We stepped out the door and I cringed as a pair of hooves wrapped around me.

“My baby, my baby!” my mom moaned, covering me with her feathers. The white pegasus – my mother – pushed me into the door and my bad leg rubbed painfully against its frame.

“Mom – ow – please –”

“I’m so glad you’re okay! I heard the explosions and I thought you were hurt! But my little colt is A-OK!” she cried, hugging me tighter as she smooshed my muzzle into her scarlet mane.

I rolled my eyes, wincing as my mother squeezed me to death.

“Miss Morning Dawn, your little pony got a boiling steam bath … you probably shouldn’t be touching him … at all,” Dew Drops advised, suppressing a giggle.

Mom’s ears twitched and she let go of me immediately. I glanced off to the side so that she wouldn’t see the annoyed look in my face, my flesh burning where the door grazed me. I smiled painfully at her. “I’m fine, Mom.”

“Did you have dinner yet? Curfew starts in an hour,” she asked, raising a foreleg to rub my shoulder.

“DD and I were just about to go get something to eat. Don’t worry about me, Mom. I’m fine, really … but the water purifier isn’t,” I said, frankly. “The water t- ” Dew Drops clapped my mouth shut with a hoof.

“The water’s going to be cold for a few days while we try to get the heater working. It blew out too when the purifier broke down. But we still have our reserves, so we should be fine for a while until we can fix them,” Dew Drops finished for me. I glared at her. “We’re going to a meeting with the Overmare later tonight. We’ll have it allllll fixed A-S-A-P,” she drawled.

“Oh ... okay,” Mom said, touching a hoof to her lower lip. “Wear your sealed barding next time you’re down at engineering,” she said to me as I nodded incessantly. “You two should go have dinner now, it’s getting late.” Mom glanced over her shoulder. “Love you, son!”

“Yes, Mom,” I said quickly, cantering to the door. I feigned a smile, relieved to finally have some distance between her, lest she smother me to death with her hugs. I trotted after Dew Drops who was already halfway down the hall.

“Love you!” I heard her call after me.

My cheeks turned scarlet and I waved goodbye, eager to catch up to my friend.

Mom didn’t leave until after I caught up with Dew Drops. The mare giggled at me. She must’ve thought that was cute. Well I’m not cute. I’m a full grown stallion! I fixed things! I’m an engineer, a repair pony, and a cynic … I’m a lot of things, but I wasn’t cute.

I let out a long sigh.

I knew that the meeting was going to be in vain. There was nothing else we could do. We didn’t have any extra talismans. Ours was built in, and was supposed to be built to last.

‘For Celestia’s sake, why now?’ I thought.

Eight generations ago my great, great, great … great whatever grandmother and grandfather fled inside our stable just as the bombs fell. It had been two hundred years since the green fires we read about in the books annihilated the earth above us. Even underground, you could still see the seismic aftershocks of the spellfire explosions above in the vicious cracks in the walls.

Two centuries of clean water had passed since then, and our talisman just so happened to decide to inconveniently break at the turn of the century. There was no going back. Its warranty was beyond expired.

‘Speaking of warranties … no.’

Stable-Tec, the Ministries – there was nothing left above ground. At least that’s what we were told. The history books told us that when the bombs fell, the earth split apart, oceans evaporated, trees disintegrated, and the world became a cold, empty crater devoid of life.

We were all that was left. Stable 91 was the only home I had ever known, and the only thing that kept us alive for so long was gone.

‘Goddesses help us all.‘

Dew Drops stopped suddenly and I bumped my head into her behind. I blinked, gasped, and took a step back. She glanced at me with a sly grin. Dew Drops swished her tail across my reddening muzzle with an elegant flourish.

“Pfft pwa –” I sputtered through her tail, my name beginning to match my likeness.

“Don’t look so down, Red,” she said as I groaned and cantered past her to the cafeteria. “We’ve lived here, our mothers lived here, and their mothers lived here. We’ll find a way, I promise.” Dew Drops bumped her flank playfully with mine and I winced.

“That hurts, you know?” I cringed as my scalded hide tingled and stung.

She just wrapped a leg around me. “C’mon, let’s get something to eat.” Dew Drops and I entered the cafeteria and found that it was surprisingly alive with chatter.

The air was tingling with a normality and an everydayness that made my mane itch. Dew Drops caught the eyes of a hoofful of ponies sitting at a table nearby when they saw her engineer jumpsuit. She gave them a hearty smile and the two of us made our way to the cafeteria line.

But before I could even lift a hoof, I felt something pull my tail. I glanced behind me and Amber Fields’ colt was peering up at me with wide eyes.

“Mister Dawn, is the water talisman broken?”

Pursing my lips, I glanced over at Dew Drops in hopes she’d answer for me. She mouthed no. I was awful with kids.

“I uh, no, it’s just …” I stammered, scratching my mane as I searched for a delicate way to word my answer without scaring him. Even for his age, he knew that the water talisman meant life, and without it, meant death. Or whatever he thought came after life. “The water purifier’s just broken,” I said, “We can fix it, don't you worry, kid!” I said, ruffling up his mane. “Go back to Amber and tell her that Box Cutter’s alright too, okay?”

“That’s what Miss Peach Petals said!” I sighed with relief when scampered off. Thank the Goddesses I didn’t make him cry.

Thank the Goddesses nobody else but me was worried. Overmare Peach Petals really knew how to keep everybody from freaking out and breaking chairs against the walls.

I heard Dew Drops chuckle. “And you say you’re horrible with foals. He’s not crying his eyes out thanks to you.”

“Yeah, well, it’s better that the kids don’t know how screwed they are,” I muttered. Dew Drops hooked her foreleg around mine and led me to the line like I was her foal.

I shrugged her off with a bothered look on my face.

“You’re so cute when you’re annoyed, Reddy,” she cooed, lifting an eyebrow at me with a smirk. “You really need to lighten up. We’re not dying any time soon.” The expression on my face persisted. She just pouted and wrinkled her brow.

“I’m two years older than you,” I pointed out for the millionth time, levitating a plate for her and then myself.

“And you’re still my apprentice,” she snapped, before craning her neck towards me so that we looked eye to eye. “And I’m telling you to lighten. Up,” I narrowed my eyes at her – but then I saw that the ponies behind us had their ears perked. Their faces went from oblivious contentment to that of fearful concern.

I sighed, grinning sheepishly. “Did I say we’re screwed? I meant we, as in Dew Drops and I, because it’ll be our shift that’ll have to fix the purifier,” I said forcefully. The ponies looked away and began murmuring to each other. “I wouldn’t want to make them shit themselves to death too soon,” I hissed, levitating up a hoofful of slightly over-steamed carrots, and a few slices of what looked to be hydroponically-grown squash onto a plate.

We took our seats next to another engineer pony from our shift. Star Glint and his marefriend, Lightning Twirl, were making cute little faces at each other.

I groaned, sticking out my tongue at them. “Yuck.”

Dew Drops watched as Star Glint gave Lightning Twirl a wet smooch.

“Aww!” Dew Drops crooned, wrapping a leg around me, pulling me close and puckering her lips.

I shrugged her off, again.

“Don’t be such a tease, DD, you’re making Red turn ... well, red,” laughed Lightning Twirl, as she swept a lock of her white mane out of her eye.

Star Glint chuckled with a devious grin.

“Yeah, how long have you two been friends? Ten? Fifteen years?”

I sighed, as Dew Drops bit her lower lip, suppressing a wide, sly grin.

“Eighteen,” I said, narrowing my eyes at the two lovers.

“Oh come on, Red, you two look GREAT together!” Lightning Twirl snickered. “Unless Red’s ... gay?”

I growled, “Gay? GAY? Me being straight or gay is the only thing fucking bothering you? Am I the only pony who’s bothered by the fact that our water talisman is broken?!” I hissed loud enough for only us to hear. I leaned over the table, glaring at Star Glint, who shrugged in response. If anyone should’ve been disturbed by what happened, it should’ve been another engineer pony like him.

Lightning Twirl stretched a feathered wing over her boyfriend.

“You need to lighten up –“

“I work down at engineering. Engineering. Keeps. Everyone. Alive. And now that the talisman’s broken, we can’t do that!” I whinnied, folding my forelegs across my chest as I sat down.

Lightning Twirl pursed her lips. “So you’re not gay?”

I sighed, levitating a carrot to my mouth. I munched on it bitterly as they waited for a response as they grinned playfully at me.

“There’s nothing wrong with … with being gay – and I’m not!” I snapped. “I’m too busy.”

And I wasn’t even exaggerating. I spent most of my free time tinkering with random bits of machinery I’d find or fixing other ponies’ broken things in my room over at B-Block.

I was B-Block’s handy pony. The red cog and wrenches crossed over my flanks reminded me of the years I spent trying to find my special talent. After failing time and time again, I finally found one, and all I was trying to do was to put it to good use.

I wasn’t really the nicest stallion people knew – but hell, I knew my way around a wrench and a screwdriver and I could fix almost – mind you, almost – anything, if given the time. Well, except for the water talisman. I had neither the tools nor the brains to do that anyways. That really bothered me. Maybe it was because an opportunity to get my hooves on something new to fix had slipped away? Fixing radios and terminals did get pretty old after the hundred-somethingth time.

Nah. Maybe it was because our water was going to be contaminated without a working talisman.

I sighed. “I can’t believe you guys aren’t worried about having poop in your water.”

Star Glint rolled his eyes, pointing at the bandages around his face.

“That explosion really got me, but I’m not letting it bring me down,” he said, “Everybody’s going to get scared if you are too. It’s best if they just knew that the purifier broke, not the talisman.”

Dew Drops rested a foreleg on my shoulder.

“So stop being worried. I keep telling you we’ll find a way but you won’t believe me.”

I opened my mouth but she cut me off, “When we work together, there’s nothing we can’t do,” Dew Drops said.

“Right,” I scoffed, levitating another carrot into my mouth. “I’m surprised how much control the Overmare has over the situation.”

“If a leader like Peach Petals tells her little ponies everything’s going to be okay, then everything’s going to be okay,” Lightning Twirl chuckled.

I thought, ‘Maybe we are going to be okay? Maybe we can figure out some way to purify the water ourselves.’

My ancestors couldn’t possibly have settled Stable 91 without knowing something like that would ever happen. Then again, for the millionth time, something like that WASN’T supposed to happen.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we aren’t going to fucking die drowning in poop water,” I said with forced enthusiasm.

“What’s with you and poop water?” Dew Drops asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

I shrugged, popping a slice of squash into my mouth. I levitated a cup of water and eyed its contents carefully before gulping it down.

“I’m going to go make sure they’ve got the pumps connected to our reserves,” I said getting up from my seat. Dew Drops wrenched me down back to my rump and I cursed under my breath as my bad leg bumped the edge of the seat.

“Don’t you dare think about going there without me. We never. Work. Alone. Besides,” she chuckled, “Just let the next shift deal with it. Let the ponies who didn’t get blown up with steam and shrapnel link the reserves.” She glanced at her PipBuck. “Their shift starts in 10 minutes anyways.”

I folded my forelegs over one another on the table and rested my head on my hooves. Dew Drops gave me a hug and I just sat there. My eyes caught Star Glint’s amused smirk, and I turned, sighed, and wrapped my legs around her.

“You should get some rest. The meeting is five hours,” Dew Drops said softly.

I got up from the table and, after waving my goodbyes, I was off to B-Block.

I opened the door to my room and stumbled in through the darkness. I unzipped my jumpsuit and left it strewn across the floor as I waddled over to my bed in my underwear.

I sighed, flicked my lamplight on, and rested a hoof on my blanket, about ready to go to bed.

Slinking into my mattress, I laid out my legs with extra care to not graze my hind left against something hard. I sunk my head into a pillow and stared blankly at the ceiling. I was actually glad Dew Drops stopped me before I could make my way to engineering again, because as I lay on my mattress, I realized that I was exhausted.

My room was pretty bland. I had a bed, a couch, a fridge, a closet, a bathroom, and a study table topped by stacks of books by the door.

I threw a passing glance at the swear jar sitting on my desk.

It was almost full.

Dew Drops thought it’d help cure my potty mouth. It didn’t helped much.

I sighed, and tried to close my eyes. But a nagging feeling in the back of my mind forced them back open.

I couldn’t help but stare at the shelf at the far corner of my room. It was my handy pony queue. I levitated a radio towards me from the pile and set it down at the edge of my bed, giving it a thorough look over. I needed to splice in some new wires. Looked like someone’s foal tried cutting it with scissors. I hoped they didn’t do that while it was plugged in.

I levitated it across the room back to its shelf and stretched out my legs, yawning. I scrutinized my hind leg and unraveled the bandages. The flesh under my coat was a very light shade of brown and the itching had subsided a while ago. I let out a sigh of relief.

Rolling over towards the bedside table next to me, I glanced at a picture frame of a foal, my mom, and a unicorn stallion I hardly knew. I didn’t know my dad too well.

‘You look just like him,’ my mom always told me. I had his brown coat and his red eyes. ‘We did look alike,’ I thought. My mom’s red mane and white coat were a polar contrast to my dad’s. I ran a hoof absent mindedly through my short, cropped, dark red mane. I did have her hair though.

My father died in an accident when I was just a baby.

Red Roan. That was his name.

I looked at the unicorn stallion in the picture. He looked happy, and I bet he enjoyed his job every day of his life until that pipe blew up in his face. Or so I was told. Funny, I had pipes blowing up in mine too earlier that day and nearly died myself. When I got my cutie mark and filled the horseshoes my father left behind, I never once thought that I’d ever die from doing it. I sighed, staring at the photograph. The white-coated pegasus mare – my mother – hugged me as I smiled a wide, toothless grin.

Only then did it really sink in that I could have died down there at engineering. ‘I could have died.’ I turned to the picture frame next to it and I saw a photo of myself, Dew Drops, Amber Fields, Star Glint, Lightning Twirl, and Box Cutter posing in front of a camera while holding the results of our Cutie Mark Aptitude Tests. Dew Drops was hugging me as I bumped hooves with my best friend. Amber Fields, Lightning Twirl, and Star Glint were jumping for joy behind the three of us as the camera pony snapped the picture.

My eyes focused on Dew Drops. I remembered what she was like back then. She was still the same smart, helpful, and humble pony she always was. I always admired her … and how fast she learned things. She’d glance at a manual, disassemble a radio once, put it back together, and reassemble it without looking back at the instructions. She was amazing in almost every way.

No. She was amazing in every way.

Me? It took me twenty radios before I finally memorized what piece went where and why. She taught me everything I knew. Actually, most of what I knew was a result of my apprenticeship under the younger, fully-fledged mare. I owed my specialization in electrical engineering to her.

I sighed. My mom loved her. I questioned if she loved Dew Drops more than I – ‘hah! Nah.’ But really … who wouldn’t?

Looking back now, I don’t think I would’ve gotten my cutie mark without her help either. My crusade to earn my cutie mark was one of trial and error. I spent a few years trying everything, but I didn’t enjoy any of those other ‘talents’ one bit. Drawing? I got good at it, but there wasn’t much to draw in an underground bunker. Cooking? Awful. I even tried working at the orchards, but bucking apples all day bored the hell out of me.

My mother never wanted me to work down at engineering ever since … Dad … but the satisfaction of watching a broken terminal come back to life was, to me, almost as intoxicating as the hard cider from the stable's orchards.

One day, when I was just a colt, and she, a filly, Dew Drops was replacing a light bulb in her bedside lamp. She was nice enough to show me what end went where and how I had to screw it in.

Not long after, my Mom watched me with uncertainty as I replaced a flickering lightbulb in our bathroom. From then on, I realized that fixing things was just exactly what I wanted to do. The CAT was a redundant reminder that I was going to be an engineer just like my late father.

I fixed Star Glint’s alarm clock. I fixed the sound system in Amber Fields’s quarters. I even fixed Peach Petals’ faulty terminal. All that mattered to me was being able to fix things that broke.

I’m Red Dawn, and I fix things.

If I were younger, I would've thought that I could fix anything.

My only regret was that I should have been there to lend Dew Drops a helping hoof. I was too busy wondering why the chamber's water level was receding until it was too late. Maybe if I had gotten there in time ... no. That day was been a reminder that some things were beyond fixing. That water talisman was beyond anybody’s expertise – invented by minds long dead and manufactured with arcane technology long lost.

And the rest of engineering and I had to focus on finding a solution to our stable's freshwater problem before everybody died from disease or dehydration – or both.

You couldn't really fix dead.

I rolled over in my bed and sighed as I levitated the picture closer to see the newly-formed cutie mark on young-me’s flank. It brought the slightest of smiles to my face as I laid my head back down on my pillow.

That day was probably the happiest day of my life. Well, finding out my mom didn’t have cancer was probably the happiest, actually, but that photo had to be the second happiest. My eyes stared longingly at the blue filly who hugged the brown-coated colt in the photo, and I closed my eyes.

If I died, I would’ve left all that. My mom. My friends. I thought about my mom crying as they fed my body into a cremator. I thought about my friends – Dew Drops – mourning for the pony that pushed them away every time he tried to get work done.

I could have died.

Chapter 1 - Cradle - Pt III

A hoof banged loudly against my door, yanking me from my slumber.

“Red!” I heard Dew Drops shout, “You’re going to be late!”

“Well fuck,” I hissed, throwing on my jumpsuit, dragging a comb through my mane, and rushing out the door. I ran into her and we tumbled to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

I looked into her cool gray eyes, and turned red at the warmness of her coat. I scrambled off of her, apologizing as I helped the mare to her hooves.

She just smiled at me and we hurried off to the assembly room one floor above engineering. When we got there, everyone was waiting for us. The Overmare regarded us with unnatural patience, tapping her hooves together as she stood on her hind legs against the podium.

Amber Fields lifted an eyebrow.

“You two are late,” she smirked.

“Late from a good night I hope,” Lightning Twirl grinned, giggling with her boyfriend.

My cheeks turned red once more and we took our seats before the Overmare.

About fifty other ponies – many of whom were engineers like me – were seated around us. Box Cutter, among many others of Shift C who sustained more severe injuries, were out for the count.

“I’m glad you ponies are here," she began, eyeing Dew Drops and I with a look that said ‘Get here on time next time’. I looked away, pretending I didn’t know what she was implying. “But our water talisman is broken – you all know this. I managed to keep everybody from panicking … for now. And I am thankful you ponies didn’t spread the word." The Overmare smiled thoughtfully, and added, "Very smart of you all.”

Dew Drops glared at me and I sighed, shaking my head.

“But we can’t keep the rest of the stable uninformed forever. Sooner or later ponies are going to notice the taste in their water. Our reserves have been sitting in aluminum tanks underneath the stable for centuries, and, while they may be clean, I’m sure the taste is going to get to them. But never mind that – what matters now is that we’re working on time borrowed from the ponies that lived before us.”

The ponies around me exchanged worried looks, murmuring among themselves.

“To be frank,” Peach Petals began, “No – we don’t have a replacement. That water talisman, the one we’ve had for 200 years, was the only one we had. The only one we’ve ever had.”

The murmuring died away to panicked chatter.

“So we’re going to die here?”

“What about my filly? We can’t live without fresh water!”

"How are we going to fix this?"

“Poop water,” I said, loudly. Dew Drops smacked me on the back of the head.

“Everybody please settle down. I said we would get this resolved, and with your help, we will. We must, because the lives of almost three hundred people are counting on us.” Overmare Peach Petals punched a button on the podium with her hoof, and a projector flickered at the back of the room. An anthill view of the stable’s infrastructure painted the white screen behind her.

She trotted up to the projection and tapped her hoof on the roll down screen. The picture rippled slightly at the touch of her hoof.

“Beneath the engineering level, we have a six thousand gallon water tank. Stable-Tec was far too confident in their stables’ abilities to sustain their populations. But they at least installed a contingency for us to fall back upon.” She rested her hooves upon the podium, scanning the apprehension flickered across our faces. I took shallow breaths, squirming restlessly in my seat. There was no way we could survive with that much water. Not for long.

Not for long.

“Six thousand gallons …”

I stopped squirming. Six. Thousand. Nervous murmuring whispered among us. Dew Drops and I exchanged troubled looks.

‘Impossible,’ I thought, ‘It couldn’t be. Stable-Tec couldn’t have been that incompetent to not give us a proper contingency, could they?’

Six thousand was hardly enough for all three hundred of us. It just didn't make sense.

‘Those bastards. Those fucking bastards.’

Peach Petals’ voice echoed through my ears. “It’s not a lot.”

‘No shit.’

“But it will suffice – and I will gladly take what I can get. With our water usage reduced to maximum efficiency, and drinking water rationed properly, we should be able to last up to ninety days at the bare minimum.”

I grit my teeth.

“THREE MONTHS?” a pegasus mare hollered in disbelief, flapping her wings into the air. A hoof curled around her tail and yanked her back down to her seat.

Three months.

That was ninety days. Ninety days. Put it that way, and it didn’t seem so bad. But any number that told you how long you had left to live was still a difficult number to swallow. We had three months. Three months.

I wondered how much worse it would’ve sounded if she just said that. I gulped a lump of dread down my throat. I could already feel the months ticking by like seconds on a clock.

Our days were numbered.

"Now, now, my little ponies. Ninety days should be enough time to fix this, I believe,” she said evenly, trotting back up to the podium. She pressed another button and the projector flicked to a picture of Equestria. Names of cities and foreign nations, Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan, Roan, the Crystal Empire – some of them I knew, but all of them meant nothing to me. She pointed to one of the regions on the map.

“We are here, south of the Crystal Empire. Stable 91 was built not too far from a city named Poneva, which is near the Crystal Borderlands. One of my great grandmares down the line was from there. She worked for Stable-Tec.”

Stable-Tec. Stable-Tec built our stable. Everything we used daily, everything around us was built by Stable-Tec. They were the reason we had survived all those years.

And those idiots were the reason why we were done for.

“Now, my great grandmare worked at a Stable-Tec facility in Poneva. There, they manufactured and distributed talismans of all sorts. The water talisman was one of many of these.”

This time, we all went silent.

“There is only one thing between us and Poneva, my little ponies,” Overmare Peach Petals said gravely, leaving the podium and stepping to the edge of the stage to meet eyes with everyone in the room.

“The Stable Door.”

It was quiet for a moment as everyone struggled to connect the dots. Me? I was struggling to figure out if that was even possible.

“You … you want to open the door?” I heard Lightning Twirl squawk, reading my mind. Everybody looked at her, and then at the Overmare.

“We’ll die if we step out that door!” one pony said.

“There’s nothing left out there!” said another.

“The balefire burned everything away!”

The history books told us that the world outside was gone. That we were the last vestige of civilization on the planet. That we were the last of ponykind.

“It is our only hope. If we open those doors, we may die. But if we remain here, we will die.” Peach Petals paused to let her words sink into our shaking heads.

Everyone fell silent once more. I didn’t know what to think – what to do. I had never seen the world outside in my life, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. The only other pony in my family who had ever been outside the stable was 200 years dead. The only life I knew was a life inside the stable.

And I couldn’t stop shaking.

Dew Drops wrapped a hoof around my trembling foreleg.

“I want to send out an expedition to Poneva. I want to know if we still have a chance.” Her expression turned grim. “I won’t force anybody to go. All I ask is that six ponies volunteer.”

My ears perked up at her words.

“I’ll go,” someone said next to me. That someone was Dew Drops. My jaw dropped as I whirled to face her with wide eyes. “I couldn’t fix the Talisman and it blew up in my hooves when I tried. I’ll go. I can help fix this mess.”

“Are you crazy?!” I hissed, loud enough for only her to hear, “You really want to go out there?” She ignored me as she stood to her hooves. Gasps filled the air.

“You said it yourself earlier, Red … I know more about arcane devices more than anybody else in our shift. If worst comes to worst, I might be able to repair any talismans we find if they’re damaged.”

I held her hoof. “DD, please don’t do this … you don’t know what’s out there!” I begged.

She looked at me and said nothing.

“Thank you, Dew Drops. I need five other ponies.”

The room went silent. Nobody had the guts. I didn’t have the guts. My own guts churned as a rivulet of sweat trickled over my brow.

“I’ll go too!” Star Glint declared, jumping to his hooves. “I’m not letting my friends walk out that door alone!”

Lightning Twirl shot up into the air with a pomf. “You eggheads aren’t going anywhere without me.”

Amber Fields stood to her four hooves.

“Me too. If they go, I go.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Amber, think about your colt! Your husband!” I blurted out. “You have a family to come back to!”

She looked hurt. “Red Dawn, you have a family too. Morning Dawn. Me. DD, Star, Twirl, and Box. If I don’t go, there won’t be any family left alive to think about.”

I turned my eyes low as shame and fear swept over me. Dizziness overcame me, and I clenched a shaking hoof around the back of somebody’s seat.

I could feel Dew Drops’ eyes upon me … boring into my hide, tearing me apart ... I shook my head furiously. What was she thinking? What the fuck was she thinking? There mere thought of leaving my home – my only home was insane. But the weight of my friends' stares threatened to crush me beneath. I couldn’t accept that Amber Fields’ was right. My home would be my grave if we couldn’t save it.

I weighed my options: stand up with my friends and die at the moment we step out that door – or wait there and die for sure.

Either way I’d be dead. Either way, they’d be dead.

My heart raced faster than I could breathe. I clenched my eyes shut so hard I felt like they were going to recede into their sockets. I couldn’t let my friends die out there. I couldn’t let Dew Drops die out there. I’d never be able to live with myself if I let her go and she never came back.

I trembled beneath their heavy stares.

My eyes clenched shut once more as I hung my head. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry for us all.

I gave up a trembling sigh and stood to my hooves.

“I’ll go,” I said, standing beside her.

“Red–” Dew Drops began.

“You go, I go. We never. Work. Alone,” I told her, my voice trembling.

The auditorium doors flew open, and a bed-headed Box Cutter stumbled inside.

“Don’t you ponies go do anything without me!” he shouted, his head still wrapped in bandages. Box Cutter tripped on his own hooves, falling flat on his face as everybody watched. Lightning Twirl fluttered towards him and helped him back up.

The Overmare’s expression flickered with both pride and sadness. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Thank you … all of you – thank you. You will be stepping out into a world none of us here have ever seen. You will be stepping out into the unknown,” her voice trembled.

“You may not return.”

An unnerving silence fell upon us all. I turned and saw Dew Drops, her jaw clenched and her eyes fixed upon the floor. I wrapped my hooves around her and squeezed her tight as I felt her head rest against mine.

“My little ponies … I would gladly come with you myself, but the stable needs me here. The stable needs you too, and you and you and you,” she said, pointing her hoof at the ponies seated around us. “Until they return, I will need all of you who remain to monitor everybody’s water usage and make sure nobody exceeds the contingent five gallon limit.

“Should the worst come … should they not return, I will impose stricter limits and weigh other … options. But for now, I want you all to encourage everybody to not max out their daily rations – so please spread the word.” Peach Petals stared into the crowd, watching the fear and apprehension that wavered upon our faces in the heavy silence.

“You are all dismissed. Goddesses help us all.”

Everybody got up from their seats. Their movements were sluggish. Some were too stunned to even stand. The six of us made our way to the door, but a leg hooked around one of mine.

A teary eyed unicorn, Sea Shammy, a mare I barely knew from another shift, approached me.

“Thank you …” she whispered.

A winged security pony named Beryl came to us. “I’m sorry nobody else had the guts to do that,” she looked ashamed.

“Someone had to do it,” Dew Drops stated softly. “I … I’m about as scared as you are.”

I chewed my lower lip, staring down at my hooves. “I don’t want to go,” I murmured, “But it’s not about that.” I looked at Dew Drops, curling a hoof around her shoulder. “It’s … it’s about what needs to be done …”

We stood at the door as ponies walked past, thanking us as they left. The Overmare was the last to approach.

“Thank you,” she said again, meeting our eyes. “We’re on a very tight schedule, so you all will have to leave for Poneva tomorrow morning. Prep your gear and pack rations to last at least a week or longer. You’ll be armed, and you’ll be ready.” Peach Petals tapped her PipBuck. “I’ll have the security ponies clear you all for armory access.”

I gulped.

“Ma’am, are you sure we'll need them?" I asked with uncertainty. Everyone got weapons training when they were younger. We learned how to disassemble them and put them back together. We even learned how to shoot them. But if what everyone believed was true … that there was nothing left to find up there …

‘Then we wouldn’t need them, right?’I asked myself, hoping I wouldn’t have to find my answer.

I just hoped to the Goddesses that we were going to be right. I wasn’t sure if I could …

Lightning Twirl caught my apprehensive gaze and read my mind. “It’s easy, just point, flip on SATS, and shoot! Besides, I’ll be here to protect you. Lightning Twirl: your local security pegasus – reporting for duty," she said, saluting.

She cocked her head at Star Glint, smirking. “He knows how to shoot too.”

“Yep.”

Peach Petals gave us an encouraging smile. “I know some of you haven’t held a gun since you were younger, but I’m sure Twirl can teach you. Get a lot of rest, and help yourselves to another dinner if you like. The armory and range will be open for you.”

She held out her hooves. We all hugged the Overmare.

“I believe in you ponies. You’ll come back … you have to.”

I sighted my carbine down range. Well, it was more of caved in tunnel with targets mounted on rails that ran down its length. The target was about twenty yards away from me, I estimated – well below the weapon’s maximum effective distance.

I know, I know. Laaaaame. But I needed to start somewhere, right? It had been awhile since I last used a gun, after all.

I braced the carbine against my shoulder with my magic, eyed down the iron sights, and pulled the trigger. In a flash of light and a puff of smoke, it rattled off a burst of lead that kicked up plumes of dust in the distance.

‘Balls.’

Narrowing my eyes at it, I threw on my training wheels. I watched as SATS plotted a firing solution, angles, numbers, and lines arcing across my line of sight to the target like twinkling, teal footlights. ‘Great.’ I couldn’t possibly miss this time. A teal marker materialized before me - and I lined it up with my sights.

All that in less than a second. Next to me, Dew Drops' carbine flashed once, ejecting a shell casing that sailed through the air as I pulled the trigger faster than it could fall.

The rounds perforated the center of the target, blowing a hole out the other side.

“Nice shot!” Amber Fields said through her mouth bit as she aimed her shotgun down range. She tongued the trigger and the weapon’s recoil nearly threw her off her legs. She spat it out, laughing.

“Wasn’t expecting that much kick!”

“Just plant your back legs back firmly and let your body do the moving, not your neck,” Star Glint said, trotting up to her and fixing her posture.

Box Cutter shouted wildly as he bit down his battle saddle’s mouth bit. He unloaded with both of his submachine guns and into a target not too far from the railing.

“T-h-i-sh i-sh fu-u-u-un!” he cried against the saddle’s rattling recoil.

And to my right, Dew Drops was punching holes in targets much, much farther than twenty yards out.

Ratatatat – Dew Drops cheered, pumping her hoof as the paper target fluttered to the floor in halves. I glanced at her dim PipBuck, and knew instantly that she didn’t even used SATS.

‘I’m terrible.’

Sighing, I slipped into SATS once more, sighted down range, and pulled the trigger. With short bursts, I grouped my rounds in and a few inches around the bullseye. I wasn’t that bad … with SATS, at least.

I felt Lightning Twirl land next to me.

“Good, you can shoot a piece of paper.” She interfaced with her PipBuck and the round target sunk below the range and a new one appeared. This one was in the shape of a pony. “Try now.”

I figured, this time, I’d try without SATS. But my eyes traced the target’s equine silhouette nervously. I gulped.

Ratatatat – and I missed every shot. I realized that I was breathing heavily and the strength of my magical grip was waning.

Lightning Twirl gave me a strange look as I grinned weakly and tried again, this time with SATS.

This time, I peppered the pony’s chest with burst of 10mm bullets. A gout of blood spurted into the air and the pony crumbled to the dust in a heap. ‘Wait.’

The blood drained from my face.

I ejected the magazine and leaned against the railing. The others were still firing down range. Twirl and Star were landing hits at the maximum effective distance. The rest of us were mediocre in comparison.

‘What the hell is wrong with me?’ I screamed inside my head. I slammed a fresh magazine home and yanked the charging handle back.

I focused this time, entering SATS and aiming for the pony's – no, the target’s head. The burst tore the damn thing off in a fountain of -

“SHIT! Goddesses DAMNIT!”

Everyone froze and looked at me as if I just lost my mind.

“You okay?” Star Glint asked. He looked at Lightning Twirl and she just shrugged, eyeing me strangely.

I was hyperventilating and shaking all over. It was just a paper target. Just a target. Not a pony. I blinked several times, and all I saw was its white, flat surface.

Box Cutter trotted over and bumped my shoulder with a hoof.

“Hey brony, you’re shaking …”

Star Glint bit down on the carbine that floated in front of me and pulled it away from my magical grip.

“You should sit down for a bit and rest,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. Star Glint spat the gun out onto a table. “Really, I think that’s enough. Besides, Twirl and I’ll protect you guys,” Star Glint beamed.

I didn’t say anything. I just sat on my rump in front of the railing and stared at the pony shaped target.

“What the fuck …” I muttered, scratching my mane.

I heard hooves clop behind me. I looked up and saw Dew Drops and her muzzle nuzzling my mane.

“Is my apprentice okay?” she asked softly.

I looked at my hooves, shaking my head. I peered up at her and shrugged.

“What’s up?” Amber Fields asked, trotting towards us.

“I think he’s just had enough for today,” Dew Drops said as a matter of factly, pulling me to my shaking hooves.

“You should get some rest, bud. We’re leaving pretty early tomorrow,” Amber Fields said, resting a hoof on my shoulder. I smiled at her sheepishly, nodding.

I started towards the exit but stumbled on my own hooves. Dew Drops kept me upright with a hoof as I exhaled softly.

“I’ll take him to his room. You guys have a good night, okay?” she said, hooking a leg around mine and leading me out the door.

“Take it easy, Red,” Box Cutter said as I bumped hooves with him weakly.

“Night!” Star Glint and Lightning Twirl said simultaneously.

I was silent for the rest of the walk. I didn’t know what came over me. My mind was blank and I didn’t even realized that we arrived at my door. I reached out with a hoof and missed the panel by an inch.

“I’ll do it … what’s your passcode?”

“E-G-P-R-2-9,” I said shakily.

The door opened and closed behind us as she helped me to my bed. She sat beside me as I stared at my hooves. Dew Drops glanced at my bedside table and levitated to herself the picture frames of us and my family with a warm smile.

But her smile faded away when she saw the uncertainty that haunted my expression.

“Red Dawn, what happened? Why were you shaking?” she asked, setting the frames back down on the table.

I sighed, shaking my head.

“I was shooting just fine – then Twirl had to put up that pony target. I just couldn’t do it. I got scared, and I imagined it was … another pony that I was shooting at,” I muttered, staring at the floor.

She said nothing for a few seconds as she rubbed my leg with her hoof. She always knew what to say, even when she didn’t say anything at all.

“I’m just scared,” I confessed, “I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I can shoot anybody …” I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, furrowing my brow. “I shouldn’t have volunteered, I’ll just get you all killed.”

She touched my chin and tipped my head to face her. “Don’t say that. I’d rather get stuck in Tartarus with you than anybody else.”

I smiled timidly. “Really?”

“Really,” she said. I could feel her breath on my muzzle. She was really close. “I’m glad you came with us.” Her eyes fluttered away nervously. “I was really hoping you would. And you did. I honestly was having second thought until you stepped up.”

“Why would you?” I asked. “You’re smarter than me and you can shoot a gun – you’re better than me at everything,” I whinnied.

“You know that’s not true,” she glared, scolding me. “You’ve always been able to fix anything you’ve put your mind to. We always have. I told you we can do anything … anything is possible when you have your friends with you, Red. Remember that,” she said, holding one of my hooves as her soft gray eyes gazed deeply into mine. “I can’t do anything without you.”

We looked at each other in the dim light for what seemed like an eternity.

“Dew Drops …” I began, until I felt her lips press against mine. I blushed and pulled away, wide-eyed and shaking. She looked about as surprised as I did.

“I-I’m sorry, I thought …” she began, her nervous eyes darting away from me. My brows furrowed as I hesitated, biting my lower lip as she turned her head away. But my heart hurled me onward. I leaned in close and gave her my flustered reprise.

As our lips met, she sat there in bliss, relishing in our kiss. A kiss I knew we’d both been working up the courage to do for too many years.

I gave in. I finally gave in. The floodgates parted, and my brain couldn’t contain my heart any longer.

Suddenly, the purifier, my queue, my cutie mark, the water talisman – none of it mattered to me more than the mare that sat next to me.

Slowly but surely, she returned to clarity and wrapped her legs around me, pulling me close.

“I wish we had more time,” she crooned, her lips leaving mine for the briefest of moments before returning to fill the void between us. In a few hours we’d leave. Leave the warmth and safety of our stable to venture out and into the unknown, possibly never to return again. We didn’t have much time left.

Dew Drops leaned against me and I felt her warm breaths upon the nape of my neck. “I wish you’d done that sooner,” Dew Drops whispered into my ear before pressing her lips against mine. My entire body went stiff as I felt her tongue slip inside my mouth.

‘Goddesses …’

My eyes fluttered closed. My heart throbbed faster than I could breathe. The taste of her tongue … it was intoxicating. I felt like I was going to melt into her hooves and become a steaming puddle of Red Dawn fondue.

“I’m … I’m sorry … I’m just trying to be good at what my cutie mark says I’m supposed to be good at. I’m just so damn busy all the time …” I trailed off, glancing at my handy pony queue.

She touched my cheek with a hoof, turning me away from that momentary distraction before she kissed me once more. I tried to do that tongue thing. ‘Ugh.’ Dew Drops nipped playfully at my lower lip before pulling away. She smirked. “You need to practice more often.”

“Is this training day? I-I seem to be getting a lot of that right now,” I chuckled nervously, holding her close with my trembling hooves. But really, it was her holding me.

Dew Drops pursed her lips, eyeing me worriedly as she noticed the palpable trembling in my forelegs. “How’s your leg, by the way?”

“Fine, it healed pretty fa –”

She rolled on top of me and laid me out on the bed.

“U-um … DD?” I said as I trembled at the warmness of her coat. Now her breaths were really close. “Wait –” but she silenced me with a wet smooch before I could say more.

I just closed my eyes and took her tongue lashing.

I pulled away, gasping for precious air as she waited, gazing down at me patiently with her half-lidded eyes. I paused for a moment, and that moment became seconds. Lying there, I thought to myself quietly as my heart pounded inside my chest – faster than I could breathe.

It felt like my heart was going to explode. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I could do nothing but lay there …

Frozen. Petrified.

As her muzzle hung inches away from mine, I found myself peering apprehensively into her gentle, gray eyes. They were the same familiar eyes I’d known and seen my entire life, but only until then had I ever looked into them and found myself so lost … and yet so found.

My whole life I had all the time in the world to look into those eyes … but only at that moment was I able to see. And I should’ve seen it a long time ago.

Realization dawned upon my face.

Goddesses. Dew Drops … she was so beautiful … and I was so afraid. Afraid that that was the only night we were going to have.

I blinked myself back into reality when I felt her hot breaths panting against me.

I knew what she wanted. I could see it in her flushed cheeks and her longing stare.

But Goddesses … I wanted more than that. At that moment, I wanted a future that I realized I should’ve wanted a long ago.

Our heartbeats slowed as the seconds ticked by.

“Red?” she said softly.

“DD …” I murmured. She cocked her head as I brought a trembling hoof to touch her soft, velvety cheek. “Could we … slow down?”

Several long heartbeats passed as I searched her eyes, afraid of what she’d say next.

I felt her body loosen up as a tender smile slowly stretched across her lips.

“Oh, Red …” she sighed gently, nuzzling me.

I closed my eyes and kissed her.

“I love you so much, DD,” I whispered, “I … I don’t want to make this night seem like it’ll be our last.”

She lowered herself onto my chest and snuggled up against me, and I squeezed her tight. Dew Drops cupped my cheek in her hoof and turned my head so that we could see eye to eye.

“I’ll love you, Red. Always …”

I ran a gentle hoof through her soft, bed-headed mane. A thin smile stretched across my lips as I watched her chest rise and fall, listening to the cadence of her soft breaths. I couldn’t believe it. I found it difficult not to stare. Lying there beside me, she was as beautiful as ever.

There was something about sleeping – vulnerable and helpless next to the mare I loved that made me love her even more.

Dew Drops squirmed, murmuring to herself in her slumber, before wrapping her forelegs around one of mine and hugging it close to her chest.

I sighed softly as I watched her sleep. I thought I loved her. No – I loved her. And I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want to let her leave the stable without me.

Tomorrow we would embark upon a journey into an alien world.

With her lying beside me, I pondered my life thus far.

For much of my teenaged and adult life, and until very recently, I scoffed at the thought of even finding a mate. Because if a stallion or a mare couldn’t find love in our stable and have a child, a stallion would donate, and a mare would be inseminated to bear a foal in order to maintain our stable’s population. It was dystopian, I know, but it was also rare ….

Still I always imagined I’d be alone for the rest of my life and become a nameless sperm donor for our stable, and that some mare would bear a child who would never know who its father was.

But as I lay next to her, I imagined … I dreamed … I longed for a life with her, and a family of our own. I lay there in silence, fighting the tears that threatened to well out of my eyes, trying to come to terms with the fact that there wasn’t any time left for us. For Dew Drops and I.

But Goddesses … I wanted more … I wanted a life with her … and I never wanted this night to end.

I looked away, closing my eyes. I didn’t deserve a mare like her. I was ashamed. There was never enough time – never enough time for her in my life. And I wanted to make time.

But I knew that I’d just have to make that night last. I sighed and hugged her close, her eyes fluttering open for a moment before she floated away back to her peaceful slumber, her legs still wrapped around me.

Lying there for hours with her in my hooves, I stared at the ceiling and dreamt wistfully of a life we might never have. A life I wanted so badly. I didn’t want to think about what might’ve been waiting for us outside those doors.

Blinking away my tears, I looked over her shoulder and saw the picture of myself and my parents. I needed to tell my mother that I was leaving.

I knew that she wasn’t going to be happy to hear that. In fact, I knew that Mom was probably beg me to stay. I was only comforted by the fact that when I’d leave, my mom, the mare who gave me life and raised me by herself would at least be safe.

I needed to save my stable.

I gently pulled away from Dew Drops’ forelegs. She fidgeted sleepily as I pushed a pillow in my place.

“... huhn … Dawn …” she murmured.

I felt my eyes well up with tears once more as I pulled the blanket over her and left my room. It was night time, well – night time in the stable I guess. The lights were off except for the glowing footlights that lined the floor in the halls of the living quarters.

High above me, the rooms where the pegasi slept had to be reached by a brisk climb up a tall staircase. I trotted up the steps, my clopping hooves the only sounds audible in the silence of the curfew.

I reached the top floor and a gray-coated security mare shined her flashlight in my face.

"Red Dawn?" Silver Dove, a pegasus quarter regular called out to me.

I knew it was past curfew. She did too.

"Hey ... I just wanted to visit my mom before tomorrow," I began.

She bowed her head and waved me forward with a wing.

"Go ahead," she said softly with a smile. "And good luck out there tomorrow. Stay safe, Red Dawn."

I rested a hoof on her shoulder and nodded before we parted ways. Trotting through the hall, I found myself outside Mom’s apartment.

I knocked, and a few seconds later, Mom opened the door. I just woke her up but her face lit up at the sight of me.

“Red, what are you doing up so late?” she asked, cocking her head.

“Mom … I need to talk to you,” I said with a grim look on my face.

She eyed me worriedly and motioned me to step inside.

The door closed behind us and we sat together on the couch. The same couch I played ‘fly pegasus fly’ on and banged my head on the table when I was just a colt. I didn’t have wings like she did.

It was hard to believe I was going to leave all that behind. Leave her behind.

“Your mane is all messed up,” she said trying to straighten my hair with her hooves.

I gave her a nervous grin and her eyes widened.

“Oh, I know that look … that’s the look your father used to give me when he’d done something funny.”

“That’s beside the point, Mom. I need to tell you something and you need to promise that you won’t freak out like you usually do.”

She thought for a moment, and nodded, zipping her hoof across her lips.

I told her everything. My mom just stared at me with wide eyes, her bottom lip quivering as the blood drained from her face. I told her about the water talisman breaking, and then the meeting with the Overmare, and how I volunteered with Dew Drops and the others to go help find a new one.

“Red … why … y-you step out that door and … I might never see you again!” She grasped my shoulders with both her forehooves. “I might never see my little colt ever again!”

“Mom! I’m not your little colt anymore,” I groaned. Her eyes welled up with tears as she shook her head, not wanting to accept that I’d be leaving her behind … and never coming back. To her, I’d always be her baby, and she wouldn’t – she couldn’t let me go.

“I’ll be fine, I’ll come back – I promise! We can do this … we can save our stable,” I told her as her shoulders quaked with sobs and tears streamed down her cheeks. Mom squeezed me so tight I didn’t think she’d ever let go.

A darker part of me wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to keep my promise. I … I didn’t want to leave her all alone. I gulped down my tears. I tried to swallow the cries that were clawing their way out of my throat – but the sound of my mother’s sobs wrenched open the tear ducts that I had dammed tight for too long.

I hadn’t cried since I was a foal. I guess, even then, I was still a foal. To Mom, I’d always be her little colt.

I cried out and wept into her mane like a baby. All my life she cared for me, and all my life I saw it as an annoyance, her overprotectiveness irritating me at every twist and turn.

I remembered earlier, outside the clinic, how I was so dismissive of her love for the only family she had left. So much shame. So much regret. In my life, I would have done so many things different.

It was time to make up for the words I never said enough to the only mare who deserved it more than anybody else in our stable.

“Mom –” I sobbed, stumbling over my words as tears streamed down my cheeks. “I … I love you."

She hugged me tighter and said softly, her voice trembling, “I love you too, Son … I’ve always loved you – I’ll always love you no matter what happens ...” She kissed me on the forehead. “I know you’re not a colt anymore, but a mother can only dream,” Mom chuckled, wiping her cheeks. “I’m just glad Dew Drops is coming with you. She’s a good mare and I trust that she’ll keep you safe.”

I grinned sheepishly.

Mom looked at me with her watery amber eyes. “Whatever you do … whatever happens ...” Mom’s quivering lips settled into a warm smile. “I don’t know how many clocks, radios, and terminals you’ve fixed, but what I do know is that you can fix this. Do your best, like you always have. If you don’t come back …” she trailed off, not wanting to finish.

“Whatever happens, I’ll … I’ll be proud of you, my little fixer pony,” Mom said again, choking on her teary sobs. “Your mother loves you so, so, very much.” She squeezed me tight and I laid my head against hers. “I know your father loves you too.”

“I wish he was here,” I whispered through sobs.

“He’s always been here. He’s watching us from the Everafter. He’s watched you grow and become the engineer pony I know he always wanted you to be.”

I looked my mother in the eye, my forelegs still wrapped around her.

“If I don’t come back …” I murmured, “If I don’t come back … I’ll always be here too, okay Mom?”

“Don’t say that!” she snapped, looking away. Mom pulled me close and hugged me tight, not wanting to let go. “Please … I can’t lose you too. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you both.”

She folded her wings around me protectively as if the shadows that stretched across the walls around us were going to eat her baby colt.

“I love you, Son,” she whispered.

It was time. We all stood in front of the door clad in dark blue security barding, battle saddles, coats, balaclavas, gas masks, oxygen tanks, and everything else we needed to survive in an irradiated, post-apocalyptic world.

I slung the carbine around my neck and checked my PipBuck again to see if I had everything. I checked and rechecked until I was satisfied that I didn’t left anything behind. I looked through my inventory and eyed two items it identified as ‘PICTURES x2'.

I smiled. They’d always be with me.

I looked back and saw my mom among the crowd of almost a hundred ponies who stood a few feet away from us six. I lifted my mask, pulled off my balaclava, and grinned at her, waving my hoof in the air. Mom cupped her mouth with a hoof and wiped away tears as she smiled back. She stood upon her hind legs so that she was a head taller than the rest of the gathering crowd.

Mom pointed at me and shouted, "That’s my colt, Red Dawn! Can you see him! That’s him! My baby colt!”

Dew Drops bumped my flank with hers and we both laughed, waving at her again as the crowd cheered at us all. Peach Petals finally filled in the entire stable on our ordeal that morning. At that moment, we had everybody’s apprehensive expectations weighing down like planets on our shoulders. There was a sort of fearful optimism in the air. And hope. But mostly fear. You could see it in everybody’s eyes.

As I pulled my balaclava over my muzzle, I was glad that they couldn’t see it in ours. At least not in mine. My mask hid away the uncertainty that lingered upon my face. I wasn’t sure if I could say the same for my friends. Yes, they were nervous. But Lightning Twirl – especially – she looked as nervous as a wing-sprinter shuffling behind the starting line.

She was leading us, after all. Lightning Twirl knew this well as she let out a long and drawn out sigh, stilling her shaking body.

She was ready.

We were ready too. No. We were as ready as we’d ever be.

The Overmare trotted over before peering up at a windowed guard post one floor above us. She nodded and the ponies inside hovered their hooves over the door’s controls. Peach Petals tapped a hoof on her PipBuck, overriding the stable door’s lock.

“Goddesses guide you all. We’ll be here waiting. I know you ponies can do it,” she said, her voice trembling as she blinked away tears. “You have to. You just have to …”

I wondered how she felt, sending six of her ponies to their possible deaths. I couldn’t have felt worse than the Overmare or my mom.

“Thank you ma’am,” Lightning Twirl said, saluting her.

Everybody had already said goodbye to their families, and, like my mom, they too were waving their final farewells as we made our way toward the door. Dew Drops was wearing a blue and white striped scarf her mother gave her. It was her mother’s favorite – a hand-me-down from her mother’s mother. It made me think of the pictures I took with me; it seemed as if we all wanted something to remember our loved ones by if we didn't get to come back.

Or didn’t come back in time.

I gulped a lump down my throat as my heart drummed against my chest. It felt like I had weights tied to my hooves. Every heavy step was a step further away from the only home I had ever known.

I gulped once more. I needed to be strong.

We needed to save them all.

A circular lock on the massive, cog-shaped door spun and sunk into its surface. Steam leaked and hissed through the cracks as it began to part, uttering a deafening metallic roar that threatened to melt me into the steel grating beneath my hooves. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw; my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. I could barely breathe.

I opened my eyes and only saw another great, cog-shaped door. I choked on my panting breaths.

“What the …”

“That’s the airlock. Please step into the vestibule. Until you return, this will be the last you’ll see of the stable when that door closes behind you. Goddess speed, my little ponies,” the Overmare said. I watched her force a sob back down her throat, her chin trembling as she steeled herself and clenched her jaw tight.

I heard a grating metallic groan and the doors began to close behind us like curtains on a stage. My eyes caught sight of my mother for the last time. I couldn’t watch as a mixture of fear, pride, and sadness played across my mother’s face. She wiped away the tears that were pouring down her cheeks, as she too mustered the courage to smile ear to ear at the only family she had left.

I grinned back behind my mask, promising her with my honest eyes that I’d return.

Then the impenetrable steel door slammed shut and shut me off from the rest of the stable – and apparently the light as we stood there fidgeting on our hooves in almost complete darkness.

We waited there for what felt like hours.

Then the whole chamber began to rumble beneath our hooves. I gulped and my heart rate began to rise. I was shaking again, and I could feel butterflies fluttering inside my stomach. I wanted to hurl.

But I felt a leg wrap around me.

Dew Drops …

‘We need to be strong. We can do this. We can save our stable.’

With a hiss, my ears popped and the door before us began to part open. I raised a hoof above my muzzle, expecting to be blinded by searing beams of natural sunlight. I expected to see a land flattened by the balefire bombs that annihilated my ancestors. I even expected to be sucked out of the door and into the open stars of the space I learned about when I was just a colt.

Through the widening crack between the parting doors I saw darkness.

Only darkness.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Fixer Pony – You are obsessed with maintaining a wide variety of machines, devices, and contraptions. +5 Small Guns, +5 Repair

Chapter 2 - Into the Darkness - Pt I

Darkness.

Behind us, the door slammed closed.

I had never known darkness such as that. The lights in the stable were only two blast doors behind me – and yet, as I gazed into the mouth of that black abyss, I knew that out there, they were so far away.

I flicked on my flashlight and gasped as the darkness parted.

“Goddesses … are you ponies seeing this?” Amber Fields trembled.

Bones. I saw bones. Too many to count.

Star Glint nudged a stray rib. “How many people you think died here?”

“Too many,” I heard Dew Drops murmur.

I took a step back and my hoof crunched through something brittle.

I looked down and the charred skull of a long dead pony broke like a porcelain jar around my hoof. I struggled against the urge to scream – looking elsewhere, somewhere that wasn’t littered by the bones of some dead pony.

I found no such respite.

All that remained were the shattered, howling jaws of ponies long dead. Their grinning skulls warning me to scurry back to the safety of my stable … the safety that they were never able to enjoy. Their jealous ghosts screamed at me to tuck my tail between my legs and return to the home that they had been denied.

I turned around and peered upwards at the door that loomed over me.

Hooves.

Black, hoof-shaped smears raked across its surface as far as I could reach. They … they scraped at the door with their hooves until their hooves were gored and worn to bloody stumps.

The door hadn’t been opened in two hundred years.

The door hadn’t been opened for them. I stood there, trembling in silence among their charred, frozen bones.

There they had lain… all this time.

This entire time we had never known. For our entire lives we had lived, sleeping and dreaming sweet dreams when just outside our doors was this… horror.

Hundreds of people died in that tunnel with food and safety only two doors away.

They were so close … but not close enough.

“Try not to look,” Dew Drops whispered, pushing me away from the mass grave.

But how couldn’t I? Even long dead, their bones still cried out for mercy - for some closure from the balefire annihilation that erased them from the face of Equestria.

Those people were the forgotten souls that our ancestors decided to leave behind. They were the souls we decided to leave behind. I wondered if my great grandmare knew. I wondered if she rolled around in bed at night knowing that she survived and millions did not.

I wondered if her Overmare knew that she condemned all of these people to burn.

My wandering, teary eyes came upon a charred, shattered skeleton too small to be that of a stallion or a mare.

“They had foals ...” I turned to find that the others were staring at me with shell-shocked eyes. “They had foals,” I murmured, nudging the delicate, trampled skull of a colt. Or was it a filly? I wondered how it died. I wondered if the people who crushed it beneath their feet even heard its screams.

A dying filly wailed in my thoughts.

“We need to get out of here,” I snapped, loud enough to turn heads.

Lightning Twirl started down the tunnel. “Don’t look back. We have to keep moving forward. There isn’t anything here for us to see,” she muttered, ash and dust swirling around her hooves as she trotted through the mass grave.

I flashed my light to the end of the tunnel.

‘Is that the end?’

I couldn’t tell. Only an empty stretch of abyss snaked beyond the reach of my flashlight. The dead paved a path of bone that we followed.

In the distance, the haunting moan of a frozen wind invited us onward. We heard its siren call and listened it as it promised us a water talisman and a return home to our families.

But the farther down the tunnel we walked, the colder it became. I began to shiver beneath my jumpsuit, the icy air slithering through my barding and gnawing at my flesh. My freezing, freezing flesh.

“Where’s the exit?” Box Cutter whispered, wisps of mist jetting out of his breather mask.

“We’re close, I think. Can’t you feel it getting colder?” Lightning Twirl replied, shivering as she led us through the tunnel.

I trailed behind them not wanting to see what waited for us outside, but, at the same time, pressing onward out of fear of being left behind. I feared what was outside far more than the frozen halls that stretched out before us.

Star Glint beamed his flashlight down the tunnel and we watched it pan across a partially collapsed archway.

“Thank the Goddesses,” I heard Dew Drops mutter. We trotted towards it. Our relief was short lived.

We were close enough to see the bones poking out of the rubble when we were blasted by a glacial breeze.

It felt as if we were planets away from home … because the world we emerged unto was nothing like we ever expected.

I ducked under the fallen archway and poked my head out of the tunnel. My eyes neither dilated nor contracted because the darkness didn’t give way to light.

We stepped out into the twilit snow beneath the shadow of an ashen, dead sky.

Before me was a desolate, frozen field of blackened trees that reached their grim claws to the clouds for a sun that would never come. Mountains of snow and crag fields of two hundred year old ice that would never melt smothered the lifeless earth as far as my eye could see. The wind moaned, and I shivered as a flurry of snow blew through my legs.

That was it. That was the world outside.

Our ancestors left all of that behind. For us, they left a lot of nothing behind.

‘This was it … this couldn’t be it …’ I kept telling myself. ‘This can’t be Equestria …’

As I stared across that frigid no-one’s land, I began to doubt whether there was anything left out there. Whether there was anything left for us.

For anybody.

The snowfall thickened as I took several trembling steps further into the twilight, my friends following close behind me. I peered upwards and my eyes glazed over.

The sky.

The world around me fell away from my paralyzed hooves as I stared skyward into desolate infinity. I shrunk beneath the crushing weight of the dark, nebulous clouds that loomed over us.

I tried to tear my gaze away – but vertigo overcame me.

I fell into the sky.

The earth disappeared beneath my hooves, and everything around me tumbled end over end as I dropped into the clouds.

The world turned white – and I careened muzzle first into the snow drifts. I laid there shaking uncontrollably with my mask in the snow as I swallowed the bile that gurgled in my throat. In my daze, I could hear ponies shouting after me through the ringing in my ears.

Hooves wrenched me to my knees and I gasped for air, my radmeter clicking softly. I looked up, and Box Cutter hauled me to my four hooves.

All around me, the others collapsed to the snow.

I saw Dew Drops dry heaving into the drifts.

Star Glint hoofed his mask and vomited into the ice.

Amber Fields shook her head furiously into her hooves.

For some of us, it wasn’t the vertigo that was making us sick. It was the hopelessness. The despair.

“The sky ... I never thought I'd ever see it,” Lightning Twirl murmured, her wings fluttering weakly a few feet above the snow. “This can’t be the same sky my ancestors soared.” She reached out into the dark clouds with a trembling hoof. “It can’t be … it just can’t …”

She was lied to her entire life. We all were.

The murals of the blue skies and the white clouds she admired growing up within the whitewashed halls of our stable were lies. All of them. They were all lies.

I dragged my dark eyes to the sky once more. I saw, in the distance, a black speck peering down at us from the top of a broken hill. A snow swirl blew across my eyes, and when I blinked, it was no longer there.

Then I hoofed my mask and puked into the snow.

I wanted to turn around and never look back.

Or up.

The sky had coagulated into a thick, impenetrable ocean of darkness. I was glad I couldn’t tell whether or not it was still there as I shined my flashlight down upon a path we decided to follow. We wandered through a forest of ancient, gangly trees, six different hoofprints trailing behind us.

For nearly four days we trekked and slogged through the snow with not a single ray of light to touch our faces. The sky had gone from a murky gray to an opaque black, and not once did the sun show itself.

In this nightmarish world there were only varying degrees of night. I stared grimly into the shadows knowing that I might never see the light of day or feel the warmth of a home ever again.

My PipBuck, every now and then, in a land I could barely see, would alert me that I had entered a new zone. How it could have possibly ever known that that particular area was known as the ‘Crystal Highway’ was beyond my understanding. There was no sign of a highway anywhere, let alone crystals. I looked down at the century old permafrost that concealed so much of the landscape.

If there was ever a highway, we wouldn’t be following it.

Our flashlights cut amber swaths through the shadows as our misty breaths reminded us that we were still alive. Exposed to the elements, our bodies began to slow and wear down while the snowfall only intensified. Around us was a forest of disintegrating stumps, uprooted trees, and half fossilized trunks. They drowned beneath the snowfall, clawing at the surface for air with gnarled, broken fingers as they suffocated beneath the shifting, white tides.

The wind moaned a haunting tune that chilled me to the very core. My soul felt like it was going to freeze over.

I shivered, not from the wind that blasted at my barding, but at the unnerving emptiness of that place.

Whatever life that had existed there once had been choked out of existence two hundred years ago. I wasn’t expecting to see anything that moved except for the hooves beneath us.

For five grueling hours, we trekked through the snow without rest. We probably walked more in the last three and a half days than we ever did in our entire lives.

We’d trudged almost endlessly through the gloom for the last few days with only a two or three hour breaks in between. The last time we remained idle for more than five hours was the day before when we found refuge inside a cave. That cave was an entire day behind us, with no form of shelter visible for miles.

Every muscle in my body ached. I wasn’t sure how much further I could go. My friends weren’t faring much better.

Amber Fields stumbled and collapsed as Lightning Twirl pushed us eastward in a direction she thought would lead us to Poneva. Box Cutter helped her to her hooves, the pegasus pony only pausing momentarily for the other two to catch up. I could hear Amber Fields’ sobs behind me as I trudged deeper into the seemingly endless snowfall.

‘We have to keep moving,’ Lightning Twirl had said. ‘We can’t stop,’ she had said.

But every hour, every minute, every second we spent exposed to the unforgiving elements, the snowfall thickened. It was getting harder and harder to see more than twenty yards ahead of us. It didn’t exactly help that my flashlight’s beam was beginning to wane through the snowflakes, warping and reflecting against the flurry of white specks that washed against my eyeholes.

Were it not for my PipBuck, I wouldn’t have known it’d been almost ninety hours since we left our stable. There wasn’t any sign of light – no hint of whether or not the sun or the moon was still hanging over us. I wondered if the balefire bombs simply knocked the planet out of its orbit around the sun. Impossible, but it was the best explanation I could think of for the seemingly endless night.

It was … unnatural.

I stumbled through the ashen drifts, my legs giving in to the stiffening fatigue that threatened to keel me over. I panted to fill my lungs with air, jets of mist hissing out of my mask’s filters as I forced my legs to keep moving. All I wanted was to just sit there and wait until my muscles stopped spasming. But out there, warm legs that weren’t moving weren’t going to stay warm for long.

A grayish magical field swirled around me and Dew Drops helped me to my hooves. I leaned against her, catching my breath. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking behind her mask and balaclava, but I hoped she didn’t think any less of me. I wasn’t sure how much trotting I had left.

“You’re fine, Red. Just catch your breath … we can make it,” she whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut, exhaling. “Why do you sound so sure?” I wheezed, taking a few weary steps through the snow.

She trudged onward as I wrapped a leg around her and followed.

“It’s all we’ve got to hope for,” the mare said softly, “Because if we don’t …” She stopped abruptly in her tracks and I nearly slumped into the snow. Dew Drops shook her head, not wanting to finish. I met her tired gray eyes briefly before the mare turned and walked on, her scarf billowing behind us in the wind.

We had to keep moving. So we did. Three more hours passed, and still the land was as desolate as ever.

By the time we came across a reminder that life once existed there, it had become so dark that we would not have been able to see anything past our muzzles without our flashlights.

A bent, half buried sign that reflected dully in our beams spoke to us more than anything out there had ever said since we emerged.

“City of Poneva, eighty miles,” Lightning Twirl read out loud, scraping away a layer of rime with a forehoof. She tapped her PipBuck and swung her flashlight due north. “I think we’re on the right track, if my PipBuck isn’t just spouting off bullshit my way.”

“Eighty fucking miles,” I muttered.

Star Glint sighed wearily and leaned against the sign only to have it crumble into the snow with him. He shook himself of the powder that clung to his barding and sighed as the snowfall scattered more across its blue fabric. “Let’s just find the damn thing and go,” the stallion grumbled.

I sighed. “How do we even know there’s a Water Talisman out there?” We had seen nothing but ice and snow for the last eighty-six hours. At that rate, I wasn’t sure we’d find anything left, let alone Poneva city. I was hoping to see a few ruined buildings here and there, maybe a fence. But there’d been no sign of civilization until then.

“We’ve been out here for hours, and the only thing that’s changed is this fucking sign here,” I growled, nudging its bruised, melted frame.

“Just keep walking,” Lightning Twirl droned flatly, as she followed the path wherever her flashlight pointed. “We can’t waste any more time –”

“We’re probably not even heading in the right direction,” I groaned. “How the hell do our PipBucks know that this really is the Crystal Highway?” I swept my hoof across the gnarled trees. “I’m not seeing any crystals anywhere.”

“As long as we stay on the highway, we’ll follow it,” she said, evenly. But not even Lightning Twirl could hide the palpable trembling in her voice. “This highway has to lead somewhere … if we follow it, we’ll get somewhere.”

“Somewhere,” I muttered, but my voice went unheard, lost beneath the moan of the wind. The snowfall thickened around us.

Lightning Twirl stood there quietly for a moment, as the cascading snowflakes washed over her. “We need to find shelter. Soon.”

I shook my head wearily as the others started forward. I stopped for a moment to lean against a burned, disintegrating tree trunk, narrowing my eyes through the snowflakes that rushed past me.

I beamed my light lazily across the trees, not looking for anything in particular. Nothing but snowflakes and dead trees. I flashed its yellow beam skywards and saw only a canopy of gnarled, ghastly branches. A jet of mist seethed out of my mask as I swept my light back to my friends to illuminate the path before us. Their shadows played against the trees like ghosts as they staggered wearily through the snow. I shivered and trotted after them, swinging my beam from left to right as their voices and flashlights became more distant,

For a moment, as it passed between the trees, a pair of teal eyes flashed back at me. I frowned, stopping for a moment and panning it back.

It wasn’t there anymore.

My eyes darted to my Eyes Forward Sparkle – my PipBuck’s proximity based IFF indicator. No red blips. Nothing. I hurried away, not looking back.

“You guys see that?” I huffed, crunching through the snow.

They all turned to look.

“It wasn’t a sign that said, ‘Stable-Tec, this way’ was it?” Box Cutter smiled hopefully.

I shook my head. “I think I saw something,” I murmured, chewing my lower lip. “Or someone.”

Star Glint panned his flashlight across the snowswept trees. “There's nothing here but us,” he said, shining it along the path once more.

I eyed Dew Drops worriedly. She pursed her lips and held my apprehensive gaze as the wind moaned and heavy snow collected upon our shoulders.

"Alright guys …” Lightning Twirl turned wearily, a long sigh hissing out of her mask. “The snow’s getting worse out here. We need to keep moving and stop looking back -"

Someone screamed. I whirled around and saw Amber Fields fall through the crumbling earth. There was a keening shriek – then an audible thump.

“What the fuck!?” I rushed to the place where she had been standing earlier – and nearly hurled myself over the edge of a pit. I scrambled away, snow and rocks tumbling into the darkness as the earth crumbled beneath my hooves. I found my footing and peered into sinkhole. Amber Fields writhed painfully at the bottom as snowflakes showered over her.

"Goddesses!” she cried out, the wind drowning out her voice. "I - I think I twisted my hoof!"

I clenched my jaw, swinging my head left to right. I watched as the storm swallowed up the trees around us.

It was coming.

I rushed over to the pit, shined my light inside and saw the immense skeletons lying beneath Amber Fields's heaving chest. Bears. Or they used to be. I shivered when I saw that the skulls had extra pairs of jaws.

Amber Fields’ eyes widened. "What the hell are these things?" she screamed, thrashing through their contorted bones.

My horn glowed with a scarlet sheen. "We're getting you out, Amber!” But she didn’t hear a word I said as the wind shrieked into our ears.

Dew Drops bowed her head, and a red and gray glow surrounded her as we lifted her out and set her down in the snow.

"How bad is it?" Lightning Twirl shouted over the howling wind.

"She twisted her ankle!" I shouted back, holding the mare upright with my magic as she limped painfully across the snow. Snow that piled taller and taller with every second we stood idle.

Lightning Twirl shook her head furiously.

“Fuck!”

"Twirl – we can't stay out here - the snow - it's getting too thick!" Dew Drops screamed as the wind blasted across our barding.

“You don’t think I know that?”

The glow of our flashlights dwindled and waned through the snowflakes that showered over us. I couldn’t see more than six feet in front of me as the world around us faded to black and white.

Lightning Twirl was but a silhouette in the snowfall. "Stay together, we're going to make it through this!" I heard her call out to us.

The wasteland shrieked – and a gust of frozen wind crashed into us.

I watched as Lightning Twirl’s outline sunk into the darkness.

“Twirl!” I screamed – but only the blizzard screamed back. “Shit …” I glanced around. To my left, Dew Drops’ dark shape huddled close. To my right, Amber Fields lay curled up beside me.

“Twirl!”

She didn’t answer. And neither Star Glint nor Box Cutter were in sight.

“SHIT!” The snow was going to devour us whole.

“Red?” I barely heard Dew Drops say.

My ears perked.

“Red, we need to get moving!”

Amber Fields moaned. “Where? Where do we go?”

“I … I … Twirl – where’s Twirl?” Dew Drops’ head swung from left to right as she squinted into the howling darkness. “Where are the others? Where the hell are they?!”

I felt their eyes fall upon me.

“Red …” Dew Drops murmured.

I said nothing as I heard muffled screams emanating from the darkness. My ears perked. The screaming stopped.

“Red!”

“I-I don’t know … I don’t know!” I clenched my jaw as the two shivering mares stared at me in hopeless silence. They didn’t know either. “SHIT!”

All I knew was that the storm was going to bury us alive. I hooked a leg under Amber Fields’ shoulder and pulled her to her hooves. “Come on – come on!”

I held Amber Fields tight as Dew Drops wrapped a leg around me. I shivered, staring through my frost-raked eyeholes into the storm’s howling maw.

The wasteland’s icy jaws were closing around us.

I gulped – and we waded into the blizzard.

Minutes dragged by like hours as the wind threatened to drag us away. We didn’t even know where we were going. ‘Anywhere but here,’ I thought. ‘Anywhere but here …’

But we weren’t going anywhere.

The wind drove us back mercilessly with every step we took. It shrieked into our ears and slowed our trots to stumbles. I couldn’t even hear myself think. I couldn’t even see past my nose as the blizzard drowned out the world around me. It heaved crushing snow onto our backs – weighing us down – wrenching us to the earth. I lifted my hoof – and dragged it through the snow as I struggled to sink it in front of me.

Amber Fields screamed, and collapsed into the ashen drifts.

“My leg – Goddesses my leg!” Dew Drops and I huddled around her, the wind screaming past us as I glared into the snowfall.

All I could see was white.

"I-I can't see – I can't see!" Amber Fields cried, clawing at her mask. “RED!”

“I’m here!” I told her, shaking the mare. “We’re here!” She wrapped her hooves around me and Dew Drops, and screamed into the storm.

“I’m sorry … this is my fault … my leg – I-I’m so sorry!”

“NO!”” I screamed, shaking her with my hooves. “We’re not dying out here … WE’RE NOT FUCKING DYING HERE!”

“Goddesses … w-where are the others!?” Dew Drops cried once more.

My eyes darted from left to right. I couldn’t even see either of the mares whose legs were wrapped around me.

I lifted my head and called out into the blizzard. "Twirl! Star! Box!" No response. "Where the fuck are they, Goddesses DAMNIT!?”

Only the wind shrieked in reply. It blasted us into the snow. We cowered there beneath the storm, screaming our throats raw as we held onto each other for our lives. There was nowhere to go when you couldn’t see a foot in front of you.

But we had to keep moving. We had to keep moving somewhere or the wasteland was going to swallow us whole.

With a suffocated cry, I forced myself to my four hooves, yanking Dew Drops and Amber Fields back up with me. Amber Fields sobbed, her limp rocking us back and forth as we stumbled blindly through the unforgiving storm. It bore down upon us, wearing us down, weathering away our strength to go on. My muscles began to ache. My legs threatened to buckle beneath me. But Amber Fields beat me to it as her legs gave way – and she dragged us back into the snow.

"I can't, Red!" Amber Fields cried, laying there as the storm drowned out her voice. “I can’t!”

I clenched my eyes shut and roared against the blasted wind, hauling her back to her hooves.

"Hold on, Amber,” I screamed. “HOLD ON!”

I squeezed her tight – and dragged the two mares with me. I fought through the unforgiving wind as it crashed against my face, and snow heaped around my legs. I wailed for my aching muscles to keep going – to break through the blizzard – but they screamed back, pleading with me to collapse even as my mind whipped my trembling legs onward.

But every hoof I planted in front of me was heavier than the last.

Weaker and weaker. Shallower and shallower. I gasped for ragged breaths that wouldn’t fill my lungs.

“DON’T LET ME GO, RED!” Amber Fields begged, “PLEASE – DON’T LET ME GO!”

"HOLD ON – HOLD ON!" I screamed, my muscles burning - my strength dwindling…

I felt her begin to slip away.

“RED!”

I swung my head around to face her, and found her watery, bloodshot eyes.

“AMBER, DON’T –”

She lost her footing and stumbled forward –

And the wind dragged her away into the night.

Amber Fields screamed – and she was gone. She was gone.

"AMBER!" I stopped for mere seconds, looking back the way we came only for the wind to catch me in the chest like sails on a boat. The wind hurled me into the snow.

“AMBER!”

My flashlight flew from my magical grip and everything went black.

All I could see was Dew Drops’ light flashing wildly across the swirling flakes like static noise on a terminal screen. I wanted to turn back. I wanted to go back for her.

But a dark corner of my mind told me that she was gone.

Gone.

I needed to be strong. I needed to survive.

I needed … to rest …

The snow heaped on top of me. In front of me. Around me. My tears fogged up the inside of my goggles and I lost the ability to see. I lost the will to see. The wasteland’s icy grip tightened around my legs as the snow piled higher, and higher – swallowing up my hooves and trapping them beneath the shifting, black tides.

At least when you died in a stable, you had a body to cremate. But out there, I feared that we were going to be lost beneath the ashen drifts, never to be seen again. Never to see the light again.

Seconds passed by, then minutes, then what felt like hours …

My body gave up.

Only my mind, with its dwindling will to survive, forced its nervous signals to twitch my frozen limbs through the unrelenting snowfall. My heart pounded faster than I could breathe. My muscles strained and struggled to move – to fight –

My muscles went stiff, and agony shot through my legs.

I stumbled – and fell. I felt Dew Drops yank my foreleg – trying to pull me back to my hooves. But I couldn’t …

Through the dark, veiny tunnels of my eyes, I saw stars.

- thump - thump - thump - thump – thump – thump ... thump …. thump …..

Darkness began to take me. I was done fighting. I was done … Amber Fields … I let her go … I …

I let go.

My legs slackened and Dew Drops threatened to slip away from me too. But instead, I slipped away from her.

I closed my eyes – and the wind dragged me into the howling darkness.

… thump ……. thump …………… thump ………………

“…….. DAWN!”

My head slammed onto solid floor.

… thump – thump – thump -

Hooves tore my breather mask from my face and I took an agonizing gasp. Dew Drops’ blurry, bloodshot eyes stared down into mine and she wrenched me to my hooves. I felt the metallic lip of a canteen push through my lips and the familiar taste of cider rushed down my throat.

I coughed, sputtered, and collapsed back into the snow-swept concrete.

Dew Drops’ mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. I tipped my glassy eyes to what had to be a ceiling over my head. But snow cascaded through holes in the roof and the walls around us. I watched faintly as three other silhouettes stumbled inside.

The cider metabolized and the black tunnels around me faded away.

“- Fields?” I heard her asking me. “Where’s Amber Fields!?”

I closed my eyes for a moment and I remembered the way her screams died away into the storm. I opened them, and saw the others staring down at me, masks off as their teary eyes bore down upon me with the weight of worlds.

“She’s gone.”

I looked away, not wanting to meet their eyes.

“She’s gone …”

I could have turned around. I could have caught her. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

She was already dead. “Goddesses …” I sobbed, “I told you, Dew Drops … I fucking told you … told you I’d get everyone killed.”

The light faded from Dew Drops’ eyes, and she shambled away with the rest.

A trembling sigh seethed out of my lips as I slumped against the blackened concrete walls of the dreary, ancient cottage.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness and my sobs choke me to a sleep I wished I would never wake from.

I woke to the wind as it shrieked and battered the walls around me.

“We can’t stay here for too long – we have to keep moving!” I heard Lightning Twirl shout, faintly. I rolled around, too tired to stand, too tired to think, too tired to … weep. I turned my ears away from sound of Box Cutter’s sobs, Dew Drop’s shouting, and Star Glint’s hooves pacing across the ruined concrete.

“Twirl – Amber is DEAD!” Dew Drops cried. “We’re tired, Red nearly died, and we’re going to die too if you keep pushing us!” she screamed, her voice hoarse.

Lightning Twirl groaned, the sound of hooves pounding across rough concrete crashing against my limp ears.

“I’m sorry, DD … but the longer we stay out here, the more likely this fucking wasteland’s going to kill us - just like it killed Amber!” Lightning Twirl shot back. “We’re running on borrowed time. We don’t have enough rations to last us more than two weeks! So what the fuck do you expect us to do, wait here and let the snow bury us!?”

Dew Drops sobs echoed through my ears. I curled up tighter, tucking my legs into my chest as my friends fought and argued. The wasteland was tearing us apart. It was tearing me apart.

There was a long silence, only Box Cutter’s muffled cries audible beneath the howling wind.

“Twirl …” I heard Star Glint say, “DD’s right … if we keep going like this, we’ll burn ourselves out. We’ll be weak and we’ll be worse off in the snow. We can’t survive unless we rest.”

“Star … not you too,” Lightning Twirl sobbed.

“Twirl, we need to rest,” Dew Drops begged, “This is killing us…”.

I heard Lightning Twirl’s hooves shuffle across the floor. There was a long silence as the wind moaned outside.

“Okay … okay we’ll stay here, for now … until we’ve rested up and the blizzard’s blown through. Then we’ll get a move on again.”

‘Thank the Goddesses.’

My bloodshot eyes fluttered open, and not to my surprise, they didn’t need to adjust. Everyone was still asleep as I wandered through the burned out ruin. The blizzard had subsided to a thin layer of snowfall that might have made for a peaceful winter night if I wasn’t standing inside the ruins of someone’s home.

The inside of the cottage was worn bare by the elements over two hundred years of unrelenting, wintry punishment. Black outlines painted the walls and floor where furniture was burned away by the balefire holocaust.

Parts of the brick house were already beginning to collapse, and some sections, like what I assumed to be its dining room, barred me entry with a fallen ceiling. Whatever belongings there that weren’t locked up looked to either have been incinerated or carried away by the wasteland’s frozen winds.

With my carbine slung over my shoulder, I trotted to a shattered, blackened window pane and stared out into the snow.

Dew Drops told me that anything was possible as long as we had our friends to help us. I imagined Amber Fields wandering through the snow alone, helpless and lost, just waiting to die - abandoned and left for dead by the ponies she thought were her friends. I turned my weary eyes low in shame and knew that her husband … her colt would never see his mother ever again.

And that I was the one to blame.

My shoulders began to quake with the force of my sobs. My body gave up, and Amber Fields died because I wasn’t strong enough.

Because I wasn’t strong enough … she was gone.

I imagined the mare stumbling through the drifts on her bad leg, her limp turning into crawls, and her crawls turning into stillness. She curled up in a vast, bleak field of snow – cold, alone, and dying – only to close her eyes and let the glacial touch of death finally take her.

I clenched my jaw and shook my head, unable to shed anymore tears. I stared outside the window, watching the snow fall.

The snow had risen several inches and nearly touched the bottom of the window, threatening to pour in through its shattered frame. I leaned against it and looked out into the gloom. I couldn’t say it was day, but it wasn’t night either. It was bright enough to see the paleness of the snow without a flashlight. It wasn’t as dark as it was … I looked at my PipBuck: four hours ago.

I scanned the lonely, twilit trees that surrounded the lonely cottage. A part of me hoped I’d see Amber Fields limping our way.

I frowned when I saw something else.

A black silhouette peeked out from behind a withering trunk, watching me from the distance. Squinting at it, I could see its teal, pupiless eyes narrowing back at me. We stared at each other for a good five seconds. I was about ready to call out after it when I felt someone nudge my shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Box Cutter asked, wearily.

I glanced over and back out the window, “I –”

It was no longer there.

“I … don’t know … I … I think I saw something.”

Box Cutter was silent for a moment.

“Amber?”

I shook my head slowly, lowering my head.

“I saw the storm take her away,” I whispered, cradling my head in my hooves. My friend leaned against me and stared out the window.

“This can’t be Equestria, Box. Nothing… nothing can survive out here. I can’t even hope that Amber’s still alive. I can’t hope that we’ll find the Water Talisman. Even if there are still any of them left, this fucking wasteland will freeze over before we can even get near them.”

I shivered and rubbed one of my forelegs with another.

Box Cutter sighed, hanging his head. “I’ll tell you one thing: this isn’t the Equestria I read about in the books – that’s for sure,” he muttered with a wheezing chuckle. “Amber … Amber was out of the game when she fell down that hole.” Box Cutter looked at me with his bloodshot eyes. It looked like he had been crying all night. I met his gaze, and he added, “No way anyone could’ve walked through a blizzard on a leg like that, Red. It wasn’t your fault …”

“I just hope she went out quick…” I trailed off. Maybe the snow buried her and she froze to death. Maybe the wind swept her off a cliff or …

I shook my head.

“I should’ve held on ... I just wasn’t strong enough, Box. I’m tired. Everything’s so sore. I’m not sure I can make the rest of the trek, and … and I think I’m seeing things now,” I breathed, letting my eyes wander off into the twilight.

He punched my shoulder with a hoof. “We have ponies waiting for us – waiting for you to come back home. If you give up, if I give up – If any of us gives up … the game’s over,” Box Cutter said, cutting his hoof through the air. “If one of us goes … the others have to keep going. Like what Twirl said, ‘just keep moving’.

“Don’t stop - don’t stop for just one moment, because if you go too …” he trailed off. Box Cutter shook his head. “There’s still five of us left, Red. As long as there’s still one of us standing, as long as there’s one pony still moving ... there’s still hope.”

“Hope …” I muttered, closing my eyes.

We leaned against each other for what felt like hours. I finally chuckled and said, “When you fell in the water and got stuck with that metal beam back home, you were grinning ear to ear like it was just a bruise.” I bumped him with a hoof. “How do you do it?”

Box Cutter snorted a jet of cloudy vapor. The stallion shivered on his hooves and he looked out the window with glassy, bloodshot eyes. “It takes more than a sauna treatment and a paper cut to kill me, Red.”

“You son of a bitch …” I muttered with a smirk. “You must’ve been born without nerve endings weren’t you,” I said, not asking. “Concussion and all, you still came to the meeting and volunteered. Didn’t even know what you were volunteering for.”

“I heard my friends. Couldn’t let ‘em join without me,” he grinned, weakly. Box Cutter sighed, hoofing his forehead. “I’m still feeling it, honestly. I get headaches every now and then, and that trek was really pushing it.”

I sighed, levitating out a canteen of stable cider. I took a swig, and passed it to him. “I never knew it'd be this bad,” he said, biting the canteen with his teeth and tipping his head back. “To think our ancestors were all about friendship and harmony and all that gooey stuff ...”

He shook his head, staring out in the ashen drifts. “They did all of this. They destroyed themselves."

I sniffled. "It’s hard to believe people actually lived out here once. I can't see anyone ever living here in a million years. I wouldn’t … fuck it. White walls are better than whiteouts, honestly.” I took another swig before passing the canteen to Box Cutter. The cider burned going down my throat, but the pain assured me that I was still alive.

"Amen to that, brony," he tipped his head and gulped. Box Cutter pulled the canteen from his lips and frowned, holding it upside down. "Least my headache's gone."

I snorted. "You should try to get some more rest. Your head might swell up and explode or something."

Box Cutter nodded, stumbling away from the window. I listened as his hoofsteps fade away into the breeze. I stood there for a few solemn moments in silence. The wind quieted down, and I heard someone sobbing nearby.

‘Dew Drops.’ Her sobs spirited me to her. I following her muffled voice to a small room that somehow held against the passage of time.

I peered into the empty doorway. In the dim glow of her PipBuck, I saw Dew Drops’ trembling silhouette lying beside the skull of some long dead pony. The shattered, half-buried skeleton lay crushed beneath a collapsed section of the cottage’s brick wall.

Dew Drops was lying across the charred, wooden floor, her quivering nose touching the skull’s pale, weathered muzzle. Her bags were scattered all around her and an empty canteen of what I assumed was cider was a hoof's length away from her anguished lips.

“DD?” I whispered.

She didn’t say a word as her shoulders convulsed with quiet sobs. The mare’s eyes were closed but beneath her eyelids, her eyes swiveled rapidly like she was in the middle of a dream.

Or a nightmare.

I laid down next to her, running a hoof through her disheveled teal mane. I couldn’t blame her. We went through a lot that day. I curled up next to her, gently nuzzling her cheek with mine. But she wouldn’t stop sobbing. I closed my eyes, resting my head against hers, her shoulders rocking against me.

I wanted to help her, somehow. Somehow, I wanted to comfort her, even though all I could give her were hugs and words.

But hugs and words couldn’t bring Amber Fields back. I forced my tears away, and watched her, helplessly.

“DD?” I began, rubbing her foreleg. The mare wouldn’t move.

On the other side of her body, closest to the wall, there was a strange blue orb a breath’s length away from her muzzle. Rivulets of tears streamed by and under it.

“The fuck is this?” I murmured, eyeing its surprisingly lustrous surface. Whatever that thing was, it miraculously survived whatever that cottage didn’t.

I reached out with my magic to pull it away from her. A red magical field swirled around it … and I felt a numbing sensation surge through my body.

My limbs slackened and the last thing I remembered before I blacked out was the skull’s sunken visage staring at me with its hollow, dead eyes.

Chapter 2 - Into the Darkness - Pt II

I exhaled a contented sigh, peering out the very same window Box Cutter and I had been looking out of only minutes earlier.

Only this time, I was looking through glass, and the trees outside had leaves of a very lively shade of green.

‘Impossible.’

Everything was dead a blink of an eye ago.

‘Where am I?’ I tried to say …

… but I floated a bright glass of lemonade to my mouth instead.

I swung the window open and looked out into the verdant, green yard outside. The tart, freshly squeezed juice swam down my parched throat and I smacked my lips with a satisfied “Whew!”

“Hey Flashy! How’s everything in the Empire?” I asked out loud ... in a mare’s voice.

‘Wait.’

Those weren’t my lips moving. Suspended before me was … the same blue orb that I saw earlier.

“I really hope you get this before Princess Luna ships you back to Canterlot,” I sighed ‘… no, she sighed – no, I – t-the mare? I ... I’m a mare!’

“When you get back, you are going to love what I did to our yard.” I let out a weary chuckle. “I even planted your begonias – just like the ones in Princess Cadance’s garden.”

The smell of freshly-cut turf was still in the air. I smiled out the window at what had to be an entire day’s work, admiring the lawn of lush green grass that stretched across the front yard. My smile grew wide as I followed the cobblestone path, lined by rows of pink begonias and stalks of balsams that ran from the front door, down to the white picket fence at the other end of the yard.

It was a dream. It had to be.

I tried to train my eyes down the stone path. But I couldn’t. I was frozen. Frozen in another pony’s body. Wherever she looked, I looked as well.

“Oh … and you’re going to love this.”

I grinned with pride at the newly-planted evergreen sapling that was the lawn’s centerpiece. “Yup. I did all this all by myself. Popped three babies outta me and I’m still going strong.” I yawned, my horn tingling wearily at the sight of the shovel, planted on a mound of dirt beneath its immature branches. “Yeah I’m fine … we’re doing fine here. Just fine.”

I stared at my hooves.

“Flash, I miss you …” I whispered, my ears wilting. “I really wish you were here. It’s … been really hard trying to stay focused when there’s a war going on on your doorstep. Our kids are always asking me when you’ll be home … when it’ll all be over.”

I let out a soft breath, feeling the warm, golden light of the sun shine onto my face for the first time in my … life. In her life.

My weary eyes fluttered to the clear, blue skies – and saw distant shapes soaring through the clouds.

“I’ve been seeing a lot of cloudships lately. They’re all flying south – away from Poneva. Been doing that for hours now, and I still don’t know what’s going on.” I leaned against the window, resting my chin on a hoof. “God … I hope you’re wrong. I hope it’s still safe. I hope it’s still safe in the Crystal Empire. I … I just hope you’re okay. I haven’t heard from you in weeks.”

I lowered my muzzle onto the windowsill, watching the fleets of cloudships sail across the sky.

“The kids miss you. I really miss you. We … really miss you. The kids I can manage, but I can’t keep my head on straight knowing that the front line’s getting closer every day.” My ears perked at the percussive echo of distant artillery fire.

Artillery fire. I knew exactly where I was. This was Equestria. Was. And those distant cracks were coming from the war that ended the world.

I sniffled, my voice trembling as I gazed longingly at the pink begonias outside. “We need you here, Flash. Our children need you here.” I shook my head, tears welling up in my eyes as the distant cloudships continued their flight south. “God … I don’t know how much longer I can stand this war. It’s gone on long enough, Flash – and we’ve got kids to raise for God’s sake!”

I sighed, pulled a chair behind me, and sunk into it. I eyed the lawn outside as I flicked through static and voices on the radio. On a table beside me, a radio played a gentle tune that brought a weary smile to my lips. I closed my eyes and hummed to the words as a mare sung over the radio.

“Sompony's dreaming

Dreaming a bad dream

Soon it’ll be over

Soon we’ll be waking

Waking to a summer day.”

I leaned against the window, admiring the mare’s heartwarming voice. Her words echoed through my thoughts … I played the song over and over, again and again ... ‘somepony’s dreaming … dreaming a bad dream …’

“That was Sweetie Belle’s ‘Summer Days!” another mare cheered as Sweetie Belle faded away. “Boy, do I love that song – really gets me in the mood to sit out, sip a glass of lemonade and watch the day go by! This is DJ PON3 wishing you sunny days from Maaanehatten!”

My eyes fluttered open, chuckling tiredly. I took another sip of lemonade as I rested my hindlegs on the windowsill. “Well, as you can see, Flash, I’m really trying.” I levitated the glass into the air. “Here’s to summer days, Flash!”

I closed my eyes once more and tipped the glass back into my lips.

Crash!

My eyes shot open.

The sound of laughing children yanked me to my hooves. Outside I watched as a trio of young ponies galloped after each other across the lawn. One of them, a colt, ploughed straight through a line of flower pots and sent them spilling into the cobblestone path.

My right eye twitched. “Boys!” I jumped out of my chair and raced outside, the colts and one filly tumbling over each other in the grass.

“Boys!”

I chuckled, “Ah … here comes our monsterfoals.”

I trotted outside into the afternoon sun, a cool breeze caressing my soft, brown bangs. My … pine green coat blazed a brilliant white as I stepped out into the front porch and bathed in the warmth of that great ball of fire in the sky.

I hoofed the yellow lily tucked behind my ear as I cantered toward the rampaging foals.

“Boys, please – you might hurt yourselves –”

One of the colts squeaked as his leg clipped a rose bush.

“Sunchaser!” I growled.

He froze in his tracks. “Sorry, Mom,” the pegasus colt sighed as his brother and sister trotted up to us.

I glared at him, and he bowed his head to his hooves. A weary breath sighed from my lips, and my eyes softened. “It’s not safe to be running around in the garden,” I told him, gently, touching his cheek. “There’re too many thorny bits to hurt yourself with!”

The colt glowered at his grinning siblings as I brushed his amber coat gingerly with a hoof. Sunchaser winced. I cooed softly, plucking thorns out of his hide. “There,” I said, ruffling his mane. “Let’s go inside and get you some bandages, Sunny.”

The three kids looked at me, at each other, and at me again.

The youngest of the three, a tawny pegasus filly, grinned.

She swiped a hoof at my shoulder.

“Tag, you’re it!” she nickered, and they scattered.

“H-hey – Cinnabelle! What did I just say about running in the garden!?” I moaned, facehoofing, “Flash, where are you when I need you to corral these out-of-control kids!” I said out loud, starting after them. “Get back here!” I stomped a hoof into the grass as they galloped away as fast as their little legs could take them.

I sighed.

Then a playful smile slowly crept across my lips. I sprang to my hooves and dashed after them, whirling upon Cinnabelle.

But I slowed as I caught up. The filly’s voice cracked, “You’ll never catch me!”

“Cinnabelle, you stop right this instant!” I demanded with a grin. “Just wait till your father sees this!” She veered through a garden of pony-shaped bushes. I ducked under a stray branch and pounced on the filly.

Cinnabelle squawked, flapping her little chicken wings before she ducked out of the way. My eyes widened.

Crash!

I ate a mouthful of leaves.

“Argh!” I whinnied, shaking the leaves and twigs out of my hair. "Pwa, pfft!" I plucked a stray leaf from my tongue, grinning. “You slippery little filly!” I got to my hooves and charged after her, my long emerald mane whipping behind me as I closed in. “This is what happens when you marry a soldier pony! He gives you fighter foals!”

I snapped my jaws closed and bit down on her mane, yanking the filly off her hooves. Cinnabelle dangled from my mouth, her wings beating in futility. A unicorn colt dashed past us, giggling. But my horn glowed and I yanked her older brother into the air in a field of emerald magic.

“Gotcha, Spring Fresh!” I cheered.

“Oh come on, that’s not even fair!” Spring Fresh pouted, folding his legs across his chest as he floated towards me.

“One more to go!” I said through a tuft of Cinnabelle’s blue hair.

“Mom! Put me down!” Cinabelle laughed, flapping her little wings.

“Not till I find your brother!” My eyes darted across the yard, frowning mischievously. “Now, where is he?”

I took one step forward – and the world around me flashed green.

My ears popped.

Then the cottage’s windows exploded.

I swung the kids away from the window behind us and hugged them close.

Broken glass ripped into my hide. I cried out through Cinnabelle’s mane and nearly dropped the screaming filly to the grass. With a suffocated moan, I lowered the children to my hooves and panted through the pain with teary eyes. Blood trickled down my chest as the sky darkened over us.

Just above the tree line, a plume of greenish-black clouds erupted to the skies in the distance.

“Dear God …” I murmured, watching the mushroom cloud swallow up the distant landscape with a tidal wave of spellfire. I felt Spring Fresh and Cinnabelle huddle between my legs.

Then my legs began to shake. It wasn’t fear. It was the earth.

It quaked beneath my hooves.

The ground ripped open around us.

It tore apart beneath me and my hooves slipped.

“NO!” I shoved the foals back.

Then the earth crumbled away.

“MOMMY!” Cinnabelle shrieked.

My horn glowed. Green magic enveloped me and I righted myself.

I hurled myself away from the edge and watched as the cottage rumbled and shook. A fissure ripped across the garden and tore her home in half. Its roof caved in and its walls collapsed from the inside, engulfing us in a suffocating blast of dust and debris. Billowing brown clouds surged past us as we fled from the collapsing cottage.

I swept the foals into my forelegs, and peered into their teary eyes.

“Where’s your brother?! Where’s Sunchaser?!”

“I-I don’t know!” Spring Fresh stammered, “I saw him running to the shed!”

I swung my head in its direction. My heart sunk as the shed sunk beneath a sea of smoke and embers.

I felt Spring Song tense.

“Stay close to your mother, okay!” I wheezed through the smoke, leading the foals out of the thickening black cloud and away from the shattered earth. An ocean of black smoke swept away the trees, the cottage - even the sun – silhouetting them with a dim, greenish hue.

I watched as the sun slowly faded away into the darkness and our wretched shadows melted away.

The day became as dark as night.

“Sunchaser!” I cried, but I couldn’t hear his voice.

My eyes darted all around me. A small sliver of hope burned weakly inside my heart. Maybe they could escape. Maybe there was a way out.

I saw, through the smoke and the darkened trees, a long road that stretched to the north and south. North toward the balefire. South into the distance.

We were in the middle of nowhere. I wondered if the mare knew she was going to die.

“Sunchaser!” I screamed, and I hoped to the Goddesses that he’d reply or come running out to see them.

He didn’t.

My horn sparked to life, lifting both her foals onto my back as we raced to the cottage. I screamed at her to stay outside – but she couldn’t hear me. They were going to be roasted alive in there.

I kicked down the door and looked over my shoulder. My eyes glistened with emerald light. A blinding tidal wave of spellfire annihilation that burned a swath towards us as fast as fire burned through paper.

They were going to be roasted alive out there too.

A deep rumbling resonated through my bones.

Then the world flashed around me.

The forest blew away in a flash of emerald spellfire that scoured away the grass, and the trees, and everything that lived.

The entire world burned as the mare ducked with her screaming foals under the quaking kitchen counter. Blinding balefire crashed against the cottage’s brick walls and spilled inside. Flames leaped across the floor at my hooves as I shielded the whimpering foals with my trembling body.

I blinked away the sweat that poured down my prickling, burning face. I could feel it: my coat withering away – my flesh shriveling away as the moaning spellfire crept closer and closer, threatening to devour us all alive. But even as an inferno consumed the world around her, only a mother’s will to protect her children kept that mare going. I felt Spring Song squeeze her children tighter.

I didn’t want to watch. But there was nothing else I could do as Spring Song’s teary eyes remained open.

They were going to burn. I knew it. But burning alive was the least of her worries. I turned my head to Spring Song’s foals, their tears glistening against their cheeks in the cruel emerald light.

With my magic I gathered the foals onto my back. I took a shallow breath as my muscles tensed – and I leaped over the flames.

I landed at the edge of the inferno. Most of me did. The parts that didn’t burned away with my tail as white hot blisters ripped across my hind legs. I held back the urge to scream at the gnawing, scorching heat that crashed against me. I looked up and saw that were standing in the very same room I found Dew Drops in earlier.

I lowered myself to the floor with a moan and felt the foals roll off my back.

My horn flickered with a ruddy sheen. A trap door opened up before me, and I levitated the foals into the basement’s depths below. Was there any point? I knew that she was only forestalling the inevitable. It was the only place inside and outside that hadn’t yet caught flame. Below the concrete foundation they’d be safe.

But I knew they weren’t.

My shallow gasps turned into sputters and chokes as acrid smoke wheezed into my lungs.

‘Soon,’ I thought grimly as the mare lowered Cinnabelle, then Spring Fresh into the darkness. ‘Too soon.’

“Mommy!” Cinnabelle whimpered.

I reached down to touch her cheek. “Stay down there,” I wheezed. “I’ll be back – I promise!” I stood to my hooves and felt Spring Song hesitate, her foals’ teary eyes weighing heavily upon her shoulders. I turned around, clenched my teeth, and closed the trap door behind me.

Sunchaser was still out there. I hurled myself out a window, screaming as broken glass raked against my flesh. I crashed into the scorched earth outside, shielding my eyes as I struggled to see outside. All around me the world was on fire.

At the other end of the yard, across a charred, blackened field of nothingness … the shed.

“Sunchaser …” I whispered. I wreathed my body in an envelope of green magic.

I felt my body tense.

My eyes fluttered closed. A shallow breath wheezed through my lips.

I galloped into the balefire.

My tears evaporated. My mane burned away. My nerve endings shrieked. Everything inside me convulsed in agony as the radioactive spellfire crashed against my body, cooking me alive.

Only Spring Song’s magic kept her from being utterly incinerated.

It wavered. It sparked.

Then my skin. Blisters popped. Flesh seared, closed, and tore apart once more with every tormented step I took. My body told me to die. I screamed in the silence behind her eyes, my burning flesh as real as hers. But the mare powered through it all – the fire, the flames – even after her coat burned away. Even as everything burned away.

I bucked the shed’s door down and found Sunchaser cowering underneath an overturned wheelbarrow.

He screamed.

“M-Mom?!”

“I-It’s me …” I wheezed, my voice as coarse as gravel. My blackened flesh was almost unrecognizable. “Sunny! Come on, I need to get you someplace safe!” I pleaded with him. He cried, shaking his head.

“Mom – where’s Dad?”

Tears trickled down my scorched cheeks.

“Sunny …”

“He’s dead isn’t he … we’re gonna die, aren’t we?!” Sunchaser cried, smothering his face with his hooves.

“No …” I whispered. “NO!” I levitated the trembling colt, threw him over my back, and galloped as fast as my dying body could take me.

“What about you!?” he asked, but I didn’t answer.

I wrenched open the basement door and lowered him into the darkness. I raised a hoof to follow him down and –

An avalanche slammed me into the floor. Then nothing.

Bones broke. Flesh squelched. I lost the feeling in my legs, trapped beneath the mountain of bricks that crushed me beneath.

I howled – I shrieked my throat raw in agony at the nerves that hadn't yet gone numb. The foals screamed, crying for their mother as my blood puddled around me and dribbled down the trap door and onto their horrified faces. My horn flickered and died. Dark tunnels closed in around me. Wretched breaths wheezed out of my scorched, bleeding lips.

I reached a trembling hoof across the trap door only for it to stop at the basement's edge.

“Mommy, please don’t go!” Cinnabelle cried out to her mother, reaching out to me with a foreleg not long enough to touch my own.

Blood trickled through my teeth. My eyes began to glass over.

“Stay down there … you’ll be safe ...” I sobbed, “I love you … I ….” Streaks of blood trailed down my face, mingling with my tears. “Your father and I will come back for you … I promise … don’t come out until I say it’s safe.”

The foals whimpered silently as the light faded from my eyes.

“Mommy …”

I smiled tenderly, craning my neck so that I could see them for the last time.

“It’s going to be okay. Don’t come out, it isn’t safe out here anymore,” I rasped, suffocating under the black smoke that hung above the floor. “J-just close your eyes and … go … go to sleep.” I choked on my words, tears streaming down my cheeks. “When you wake, up your Daddy and I will find you, okay?”

The three foals gazed up at me helplessly, their eyes glistening with tears. Cinnabelle struggled to reach me, fluttering her wings and, to the mare’s widening eyes, taking flight for the first time. I lowered my head and wept into the bloody floor.

“Cinnabelle… don’t look ... Spring, Sunny … take care of your sister.”

Sunchaser pulled her back down as she kicked, and screamed my name.

My hoof caught the basement door’s latch.

“Mommy, no! DON’T GO!” Spring Fresh wailed, her voice growing farther and farther away as black tendrils twisted and curled around the closing tunnels in my eyes. “NO!”

“DON’T – !”

I pulled the latch down and the door swung closed.

With a dying moan, I slumped to the floor, a puddle of my own blood pooling around me, seeping through the debris that trapped my broken limbs. I stared at death’s door, the black, veiny tendrils that curled around me giving way to a light … a light that drew me away from my ruined body and all the pain and suffering that licked at my trembling flesh.

My body clung desperately to life, but it wouldn’t stay for too much longer.

“Flash … Flash … I tried,” I said, pushing a blue orb to my face with a trembling foreleg. My horn began to glow as I poured into it all the magic I had left. “They’re safe now … I hope you made it out alive. I couldn’t save myself. I told them it’s going to be okay. I … I hope you’re okay … I love you,” I said with a grim finality that shook me to the core.

“Sompony’s sleeping …” I crooned, singing Sweetie Belle’s lullaby in a haunting tune that I would never forget. Blood trickled through my teeth as my voice wavered through the darkness that closed in around me. “Somepony’s sleeping …sleeping …through a bad dream … soon it’ll be over …

“… soon we’ll be waking … waking … way ...”

My own eyes opened. I blinked away a glassy tear and Dew Drops watery eyes gazed down at me.

“You saw it too?” she asked as if she'd seen a ghost.

My eyelids fluttered closed and I nodded slowly. The sensation of my flesh being lit aflame lingered even as the wasteland wind whispered across my shivering limbs.

‘I’m alive,’ I thought.

“What ... was that? How?”

Dew Drops pushed the orb away with a hoof.

“It’s some kind of memory orb,” she replied, quietly. “Lets you experience the memories of other ponies.”

I looked at the small blue orb and wondered how it could have ever survived that long. I pushed myself upright and saw Spring Song's crushed, lonely skeleton. “That was how it ended, wasn’t it,” I said, not asking. I let out a trembling breath that turned into a cloud of misty vapor.

“How could anyone deserve … this?” she asked, tears pouring down her cheeks. “How did it ever come to this?” She shook her head, staring down at her hooves. “The foals, Red … the foals …”

Dew Drops reached for the basement door and her hoof hesitated.

Giving her a weary, somber look, I stood to my hooves and gripped the latch with my magic. My chin trembled with quaking sobs as I lifted the trapdoor open, flicked on my carbine’s flashlight, and descended into the darkness below.

Among the dusty, fallen cabinets and the ancient debris I saw what I already knew. Huddled in the shadowy corner was a trio of skeletons, their limbs tangled together in a ghastly embrace. I turned away, dropping my flashlight as burning tears welled out of my eyes.

They were just foals. Just … foals …

That was the world we left behind. We left all of that behind. All of them. We closed our doors while everyone outside burned – Cinnabelle, Spring Fresh, Sunchaser …

I heard Dew Drops’ hooves clop next to me as she trotted to the dusty corner. She let out a shallow, trembling breath.

I watched as she carefully lowered each of their small, curled up remains onto a dusty tarp that we found lying on the floor. Like a funeral procession and with our heads hung low, we carried their tattered bones into the snow.

With our spades, we dug through until we unearthed the blackened soil beneath.

Dew Drops and I stood solemnly over the black mounds we dredged out of the frozen earth. Her blue scarf billowed in the somber, wintry breeze. Together, we levitated a blackened gravestone and drove it into the ground among three others.

The largest of the broken headstones belonged to Spring Song. We buried her next to her foals. We gave her what I knew she would have wanted; she and her foals would never be separated ever again. I hoped that we brought them some measure of peace.

One day, I hoped, their graves would feel the warmth of a summer day.

We sat within an alcove by a burned out window, listening to the wind. Dew Drops’ forelegs were wrapped tightly around me as we rested our backs against the wall beneath the windowsill.

It was still dark outside. I wondered if it was like that all the time in the wasteland. If it was always night.

In the small, scorched room, I could just barely see a foot in front of my hooves. From what I could make out, the window overlooked what I thought was the remains of the cottage’s backyard. The view from there might have been beautiful once, had the world been not a dead, frozen wasteland. From the charred outlines of what looked to be small furniture, I figured that it must have been one of the foals’ rooms; it was down a hall near the master bedroom Star Glint and Lightning Twirl claimed for their own.

Other than the occasional sob and the moaning wind, the night was a rather quiet one.

“DD?” I asked, softly.

“Red?”

“Are we going to find a Water Talisman?”

She rubbed one of my forelegs tenderly.

“Yes.”

I nodded, slowly.

She turned her head to look me in the eyes. “Don’t make Amber’s death be in vain, Red,” Dew Drops whispered, “We’re not done yet.” Her words echoed hauntingly through my thoughts. “Don’t give up on our Stable.”

I exhaled a cloud of mist and hugged Dew Drops tighter. She sighed, tucking her head under my chin.

“I won’t,” I whispered, burying my muzzle in her soft mane.

“Promise me.”

I lifted my head and stared down into her gray eyes, my expression rife with grim uncertainty. I leaned in and kissed her.

“I … I promise,” I added, forcing a grim smile.

But in the darkest corner of my mind, I kept telling myself that that was a hollow promise.

Chapter 2 - Into the Darkness - Pt III

I woke to the sound of hoofsteps crunching through the snow. My eyes shot open and I darted them around me. To my left, I saw that Dew Drops was slumped against the wall, fast asleep. My horn glowed and I levitated my carbine to my hooves.

I hugged it in my forelegs, listening as the hooves crunched closer. Closer. My heart pounded in my chest.

I slowly inched my way up the wall, trembling with every second that passed. I was afraid of what I might see. Outside the window, a dark mass with a flashlight was moving across the backyard.

I shouldered my carbine and flicked its flashlight to life.

“Star Glint?” I whispered, relieved.

The stallion turned, wrinkling his brows at me.

“Don’t shoot,” he chuckled quietly, “I’m just gonna take a leak.”

“Goddesses, you scared the shit out of me.” I sighed, “Just don’t stay too long out there.”

“Yeah, I might freeze my bits off,” Star Glint snorted, before trotting off once more.

I slid back down the wall and curled up next to Dew Drops. My eyes closed once more and I went back to sleep.

“Where is he?!” I heard Lightning Twirl scream.

I leaped to my hooves and ripped myself from Dew Drop’s embrace. I looked outside the doorway. “What the hell is going on?”

The pegasus stormed out into the hall wide-eyed and with her battle saddle bit clenched between her teeth.

“Star Glint? Where the hell is he?” she demanded.

“He’s missing?” Box Cutter asked, rubbing his eyes as he trotted out of his room.

“Well no shit, he’s standing right here isn’t he?” Lightning Twirl snapped.

I raised a forehoof. “Twirl, slow down.”

“Slow down?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Star Glint is missing, and … and you want me to slow down?”

Dew Drops followed me outside into the hall.

“Where’d you last see him?” she asked.

Lightning Twirl glanced over her shoulder. “We were sleeping in our room and I heard him leave – said he needed to take a piss,” she breathed, pacing across the hall.

I blinked. “I saw him last night …” I began, slowly, “Saw him walking out into the backyard …”

Her eyes widened at me. “You … you let him go out by himself?!”

“I-I thought he’d be fine –”

“We just lost Amber in a blizzard, and you think that Star Glint would have been fine walking out there by himself too? Have you lost your fucking mind, Red?”

Horror flashed across my face. I stumbled backwards, stammering, “I-I told him to not stay out there too long –“

“Goddesses, Red!” I winced as she jabbed a hoof into my chest. “You got Amber killed and then you let Star trot out there on his own!”

Dew Drops slapped Lightning Twirl across the face. “How dare you say that!”

Lightning Twirl touched her reddening cheek, glaring at Dew Drops in furious silence as tears welled up in her eyes.

“It wasn’t Red’s fault … none of it was!”

My ears wilted. My heart leaped inside my chest. I blinked, struggling to clear the blurriness in my eyes as the world spun around me. I found my balance when I fixed my wide-eyed gaze upon my hooves. But I could still feel the crushing weight of everybody’s eyes upon me.

‘What have I done …’

I looked up – and Lightning Twirl shot me a hateful stare. I met her eyes … her burning, teary eyes, and I knew just what I did.

‘I got another one of my friends killed.’

“I … I-I …”

I felt Dew Drops’ hoof rest upon my shoulder.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Fighting each other won’t solve any of this,” she said, softly, “Let’s go. Let’s find him. He couldn’t have gotten far.”

I gulped and peered outside. It was still dark. I wondered how long it’d been since I last seen him.

We hefted our gear and loaded our guns. I shivered beneath my barding as I zipped my bulletproof armor closed, and slipped my balaclava and mask over my muzzle.

I watched Dew Drops pack her saddlebags. Dew Drops paused for a moment to meet my stare. She pursed her lips, reaching over to touch my foreleg. I looked down at my hooves once more as she pulled on her balaclava, then her mask, and trotted out the door.

We followed Lightning Twirl into the backyard. It was an open field of snow. I beamed my carbine’s flashlight across the drifts and saw a faint trail of hoofprints snaking through the fresh powder.

“Everybody stay close,” Lightning Twirl said, loading rounds into her battle saddle.

I hoped to the Goddesses it’d never come to that. I was shaking uncontrollably and my mane was itching. I gulped with apprehension and trailed after the ponies into the charred, withering forest.

We followed the trail up to a tree not far from the cottage, and saw that the hoof prints ended there. We studied the yellow snow that puddled around the tree with weary eyes.

Box Cutter snorted, weakly.

“Guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he had to piss.”

Lightning Twirl and Dew Drops glared at him through their goggles. “Fuck. Sorry …”

I looked around, beaming my carbine’s flashlight across the gnarled, gangly trunks that slithered out of the snow. It passed over a pony-shaped silhouette.

“W-What was that?!” I gasped – gripped my carbine tight – and galloped after it.

My friends’ voices shouted after me.

“Red! What are you doing? Get back here!” Lightning Twirl screamed.

I didn’t stop.

“Star!” My voice echoed through the hollow, black forest. “Star! Star - where are you!?”

My flashlight dashed across a tree – and a dark mass ducked into the shadows.

“You – STOP!”

I raced after it, hurling one hoof after the other. The forest blurred past me. Branches broke against my chest. I trampled the brush underhoof.

I flashed my light into the trees and wrenched apart the darkness.

But there was nothing there. Nothing but the trees’ charred husks.

I stood there, shaking as the dead trees loomed over me, my heart thrashing inside my chest. My friends were a long ways behind me, their flashlights nothing but strobe lights in the distance. But I wasn’t slowing down. ‘I did this.’

‘I did this.’

I needed to find Star Glint. I lifted a trembling hoof and –

My EFS blinked. I slashed my flashlight across the contorted branches.

Two teal orbs stared back. The same eyes that I saw stalking the cottage from behind the trees.

“You son of a bitch!” I roared, galloping after it. “Who the fuck are you?” The eyes narrowed at me, and disappeared behind a tree.

I pounded through the snow, tearing apart the tracks that thing was leaving behind. Its silhouette darted through the trees - tree after tree - and each time I shined my light, I grazed its blurry outline.

Closer. And closer.

Flash.

Its barded flank escaped me.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FRIEND!?”

“RED!” A distant voice screamed. But I didn’t listen.

I pressed onward, chasing it into the darkness.

My flashlight flickered. I froze in my tracks. All became still. The wind. The snow. The trees.

My ears perked. All I could hear was the pounding in my temples.

An eerie silence descended upon the forest as I stood there, looking all around me, staring into the quiet, motionless trees. I swept my light across the trail of hoofprints and into the distance.

A twig snapped.

My beam caught Star Glint’s coat as he trotted through the woods – away from a massive, frozen boulder. “St-Star?” I asked, shaking. No response. I gulped a lump of apprehension down my throat and started forward. I flicked my safety off.

I followed him in a daze. I stumbled after him until he disappeared behind a tree. When I reached its blackened trunk, I found that he was … gone.

I swung my beam across the brush. Nothing. Not even tracks. It was a dead end. The tracks simply … ended.

I rubbed at my eyes with my forehooves, trying to catch my breath.

I couldn’t.

My wheezing breaths hissed out of my lips as I turned and backtracked, flashing my light warily across the snow. I followed the strange hoofprints back to my friends, and returned to that massive boulder.

I gulped, and looked down. My eyes widened at what I saw.

At that boulder, the tracks diverged. One set trailed off into the darkness behind me. To that dead end.

The other …

My magical aura glowed a deep crimson as I gripped my carbine tight.

I followed the tracks past the boulder.

My heart nearly stopped.

‘Dear Celestia.’

Lightning Twirl, Dew Drops, and Box Cutter huddled behind me. Nobody said a word as we looked across the snow drifts.

Blood.

There was so much blood. It trailed over rocks, stumps, and beyond the reach of our flashlights.

“Guys …” Box Cutter whispered. He didn’t have to finish his sentence as he tongued his battle saddle bit and craned his neck, chambering a round. The others did the same.

I levitated my carbine and pulled the bolt back, loading a round into its chamber. I felt like my shaking would drill me into the snow and through the earth.

Lightning Twirl stumbled through the drifts, following the blood. The blood. We saw deep canyons gouged into the snow and patches of bloody hair littering the trail. But there was still no sign of Star Glint. My filters wheezed with vapor as I panted through shallow breaths. I had never seen so much blood in my entire life. Blood.

It was … everywhere.

We followed the trail at a pace that made it seem like we’d been out there for centuries. It dragged on and on, deeper and deeper into the forest. I couldn’t even see the cottage from there. The forest thickened around us … closing in. Their dead branches clawed at my barding as we trotted further and further into the darkness.

The blood led through and … and over … and around a ruined stump. It was as if someone had tried clinging to it only to be dragged away. Lightning Twirl unfurled one of her wings in our path, and stopped in silence.

She exhaled a cloud of vapor and glanced back at us, hesitating. With a shivering exhale, Lightning Twirl pushed through the brittle foliage. The branches broke against her barding and we crushed them beneath our hooves, following her into a clearing.

There he was.

Box Cutter tore off his mask and vomited into the snow. I blinked. And blinked. And blinked again. It had to be a dream. I kept telling myself that it was a nightmare and that I was going to wake up from it.

I closed my eyes, clenching them shut.

But when I opened them, the skinless, mutilated mass was still lying in the ashen snow at my hooves.

Lightning Twirl screamed, falling to her haunches and cradling the flayed corpse’s head in her hooves. She wrenched off her mask, reared her head to the clouds and wailed into the night, her tears melting the layer of frost that had formed over the carcass’ grayish, frostbitten flesh.

She hugged Star Glint close and let out a banshee shriek that shattered the dead, unnerving silence that hung over the frozen wasteland.

“Who the fuck did this!?” Box Cutter demanded. “Who. The. FUCK!? You sick … sick fuckers! You killed my friend!”

Dew Drops just stared … frozen … tears running down her blood-drained face.

Box Cutter clamped down on his battle saddle’s bit. “Where are you!? Show yourselves!”

A twig snapped behind us.

I whirled upon my hooves and beamed my light into the foliage. An amber-coated pony approached. She staggered towards us on precarious legs. Then I saw her limp.

“Amber Fields?” I shined the light up her body and my eyes widened at what I saw. The mare was blindfolded and gagged. Her flank was red with blood and her coat was adorned with random gashes that had long stopped bleeding. Her saddle bags were bloated with round objects that poked out of the black fabric.

Amber Fields’ mouth moved but all that came out was a muffled cry.

“Amber!” Box Cutter trotted towards her.

Amber Fields shook her head, screaming at him through her gag. Streaming down her cheeks and through her blindfold were streaks of dried blood.

“Amber … thank the Goddesses you’re … what … what the fuck?” I asked, taking a few hoof steps towards her.

“Nnnph … nnnph! SNNNFF BRRRK!” she cried, sobbing through her gag as Box Cutter pulled it off. He reached for her blindfold, his hoof grazing her cheek. But she swung away from him, shaking her head furiously.

“NO!” she cried out, her chin quivering as fresh blood began to trickle through the black fabric that hid her eyes. “Get away from me!”

We didn’t.

“A-Amber …” I barely heard Lightning Twirl say over the pounding of my heart. The pegasus approached, but froze midstep as Amber Fields’ voice silenced every sound but the hearts that pounded inside our chests.

“It’s too late now … I tried to die … I’m so sorry …” the mare whispered.

Lightning Twirl opened her mouth to speak, but the blood drained from her face. She looked up from her PipBuck and screamed.

“CONTACTS ON MY EFS –”

The night lit up in a yellow flash.

A scream bearing Amber Fields’ name was wrenched from my lips as the overpressure punched the air out of my lungs. I stumbled backwards - my ears ringing - and fell into the ashen drifts as a pillar of gore blew out of the cratered soil before me. It hurled Box Cutter off his hooves like a rag-doll. He screamed – until a face-full of snow silenced his cries with a jarring crunch.

He held up both his forehooves. They were gone. Only bleeding, ruined stumps remained as he roared in agony.

Laughter erupted from the darkness.

Black forms burst out of the snow around us.

I shouldered my carbine, pointing my flashlight beyond the crater that was once been my childhood friend. The crater that was once Amber Fields.

A pony.

It … she was garbed in thick barding that would have been white had it not been stained a disgusting mixture of brown and red. My light flashed over the frostbitten flesh of her muzzle and staring back at me, behind a pair of cracked goggles, were glazed, black-veined eyes.

I watched her, frozen in place. I remembered the night at the shooting range.

It was just a target. Just a target.

It was a pony.

Dew Drops screamed … but her voice was muffled in my ears.

“Here they come! RED!”

They were ponies.

A gnarled grin stretched across her lips.

The blood drained from my face.

“WE’LL CUT YOU UP GOOD!” the pony howled madly. She galloped towards me, flailing a machete over her head.

I toggled SATS and fired. My carbine burped a burst of 10mm rounds that ripped open her chest. She let out a hysterical, giggling cry before crashing headfirst into the snow. I watched as she tried to stand to her hooves –

And hooves pulped her into the snow.

They paid her no mind as half a dozen ponies stampeded after us with rusty, warped blades clenched between their yellowed teeth.

Box Cutter dragged himself out of the snow drift with an agonized moan and bit down on his saddle bit.

The night lit up with gunfire and ecstatic squeals of delight.

A stallion hurled himself towards us, screaming - and Box Cutter’s submachine guns flashed in my eyes.

Splashes of gore erupted across his body. He reared up on his hinds, cackling with anguished glee - until a stray bullet blew his brains out the back of his head.

I gagged, the taste of vomit lingering upon my tongue.

“DO YOU WANNA SEE WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE ON THE INSIDE!?”

A psycho stallion lunged at me with a butcher’s knife.

I leaped into SATS. In between two heartbeats, I tagged everything between the stallion’s barded neck and his frothing muzzle.

I executed my firing solution.

He caught the first bullet through the throat and stumbled, blood erupting from his neck in a splash of crimson. The bullets made their way up his face and the burst tore the damn thing off in a fountain of fractured bone and gore.

My heart nearly skipped a beat. I watched the pony’s cratered skull squelch into the pale drifts.

I just stared … my mind going blank.

‘I killed two ponies.’

“YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!” Lightning Twirl cried, wrenching me from my trancelike state. Her wings unfurled and she launched herself into the air, lancing tracers through the charging psycho ponies.

Dew Drops screamed behind me.

A pony sunk a dull knife through her barding. The psycho tore the blade out of her and reared his head back for another stab. I cried out, and jammed my carbine into his chest.

I sunk the trigger back. Half a magazine’s worth of bullets erupted into his chest, muffin my gunfire with his squelching flesh.

His blood splattered across my mask. I gasped a shallow breath.

He gurgled out a frenzied laugh through a mouthful of blood, and slumped into the snow. I watched his legs twitch as his lifeblood pooled around him.

‘I killed him … I -’

Hooves slammed into me into the snow. I screamed - and a giggling mare leaped onto my chest.

“I bet you’re a pretty one,” she hissed, licking at my wheezing filters. She tore off my mask and balaclava with her hooves. “YOU’D LOOK BETTER WITHOUT A FACE!”

She reared upon her legs to stomp in my skull.

But a feathered blur crashed into her. Lightning Twirl and the psycho pony tumbled through the snow in a flurry of hooves and blood.

“Twirl!” I shouted after her as Dew Drops pulled me to my hooves.

Lightning Twirl shrieked and stomped her gory hooves as hard as she could into the mare’s chest. Her hooves blew snow skyward with a sickening crunch, launching herself into the air once more.

“You fuckers! Get away from me!” he screamed. The psycho ponies saw the gory stumps where his forehooves used to be, and erupted with laughter.

One mare leaped after him – only to be blown back and apart by a burst of submachine gun fire. Another knocked past the falling corpse, screaming for blood through his mask until a bullet tore it off in a shower of pink giblets.

He slumped into the snow. But they just kept coming.

Dew Drops and I shouldered our carbines. We emptied our magazines into psycho ponies left and right as they charged through the brush, trying to tear our hoofless friend apart in bloody melee.

Box Cutter cursed when his battle saddle ran dry.

We covered him, firing wildly into the night – pinning them down - holding the psychos at bay as he struggled to replace his spent magazine. They laughed and screamed - frothing at the mouth, our bullets doing nothing but driving their thirst for our blood to even greater heights.

There was a lull in the firefight. The psychos hurled themselves into the snow and ducked.

I lowered my carbine. At the other end of the clearing, silhouettes rose up from the brush.

Then something white hot punched through my shoulder and out the other side. I stumbled back. My blood trickling down my chest.

Muzzle flashes erupted from behind the trees.

“Get to cover!” Lightning Twirl shrieked as she dove into the canopy.

I dropped to my chest. Bullets screamed over my head.

That was what they wanted. They cheered, rising from the snow, and advanced, machetes held high.

Dew Drops ducked behind a tree trunk, firing her carbine at anything that moved. My blood leaked into the snow where I lay, but I clenched my jaw through the pain and screamed, squeezing the trigger until my magazine ran dry. I took a brief moment to slam a fresh magazine home and load a round into the chamber.

But that was all the time they needed. They threw themselves at Box Cutter as Dew Drop’s carbine clicked empty.

Lightning Twirl swooped down from the trees, legs outstretched to pull our friend to safety. But the psychos stitched her with bullet holes. She let out an anguished wail before hurling herself into the canopy once more.

“Box! No … no!” I cried, rising to my hooves only to get clipped by a burst of rifle fire. I hurled myself back down to the snow and watched helplessly as those psychos fell upon him like snarling, hungry animals.

I shouldered my carbine – but I couldn’t get a clear shot.

It was then that I realized.

They weren’t ponies.

They were monsters.

Box Cutter howled in defiance until his defiance sank into despair. He dug his gory stumps into the snow as they dragged him away into the brush. They laughed as he kicked and flailed and screamed - uselessly - leaving behind him a glistening trail of blood until he disappeared behind that curtain of cackling darkness.

His horrifying screams echoed through the trees. His gurgling, dying screams. He begged. He pleaded for us to help him. He pleaded for mercy. But there was nothing we could do … nothing I could do to save him. Only listen.

I listened to my best friend die.

Box Cutter shrieked into the night. Then nothing.

I watched with glassy eyes as the psychos cheered, firing their guns wildly into the air. I lay there in silence, my eyes glazed over, bullets blasting holes through the snow around me.

“No …” I whimpered, tears rolling down my cheeks. “BOX! NO! GODDESSES – BOX, NO!” I heaved myself to my hooves, and slammed my carbine.

I slipped into SATS and tagged three ponies for death. Glowing markers flashed before my eyes.

Head. Chest. Legs.

The closest pony lost her head. The next spilled his innards. The last pony’s legs blew apart and she laughed, tumbling across the snow.

“Red, look out!” I heard Dew Drops scream as a pony shoved the barrel of her rifle into my face. I swatted it away with a hoof and it discharged a three round burst a breath’s length away from my left ear.

I roared through the ringing in my ears, and side stepped into another pony’s machete, slicing myself across my barrel. I cried out, tears welling in my eyes as I fired my carbine wildly in a wide arc that launched the machete pony off his hooves and only mildly frustrated the other.

She snarled through her frothing lips before her jaw tore off in a flash of yellow tracers. Hooves planted the mare into the snow as Lightning Twirl barely stuck the landing. She turned to face me, and my heart sunk at the sight of her bloody, bullet-ridden barding.

A sliver of blood trickled down her lower lip as she met my eyes.

“Go!” she told me. I opened my mouth to protest, but Lightning Twirl cut me off, “I’m sorry Red, I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier … now go! I’ll hold them back!”

“Twirl –”

“JUST FUCKING GO!”

I stood there frozen upon my hooves as she launched herself back into the air. I watched as the psycho ponies arced their gunfire to the skies.

Dew Drops and I turned and ran.

I glanced over my shoulder to see tracers spear through both her wings. She shrieked in a burst of feathers and blood.

I watched helplessly as she plummeted out of the sky and into the center of a snarling, hungry mob. My eyes widened. I couldn’t stop watching. I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t even hear her screams over their frenzied cheers as she disappeared beneath their falling blades.

I watched as they butchered Lightning Twirl alive.

“Twirl!” Dew Drops wailed, pounding her hooves through the snow.

“They killed her – they FUCKING KILLED HER!” I cried.

“Don’t stop for anything!” she screamed as we galloped into the woods with no direction in mind.

‘Anywhere but here!’ I screamed in my thoughts. ‘Please, Goddesses … anywhere but here …’

The snow erupted in front of us. They were waiting for us the whole time.

Dew Drops shrieked as three psycho ponies leaped toward her. She charged through the center, knocking one of the ponies to the snow and trampling him underhoof. But someone wrenched her tail back. Another wrapped her blood-slicked forelegs around Dew Drops’ throat.

My eyes widened as they wrestled her to the ground.

“DD!” I screamed, leveling my carbine and - hooves bucked it out of my magical grip. I roared and reached out to her with my hooves, only to have them swatted away. A psycho pony cackled at me through his bloody, mocking grin.

I spun around. My hind hooves careened into his ribcage. I felt his bones shatter against me. He wheezed – and I shoved him to the snow.

“R-Red!” Dew Drops choked. I swung my head to the sound of her voice.

My eyes widened as a psycho squeezed her hooves around Dew Drops’ throat.

I galloped straight into her and plunged my horn into the psycho’s chest. I ripped out of her and felt warm blood and gore splattered onto my face. The psycho loosened up to scream – and I yanked the pony off of her. I threw my hooves around Dew Drops' shoulders and pulled. She didn’t budge. Dew Drops howl clenched her jaw and screamed as the psycho behind her wrenched her back by her tail.

“LET HER GO! You mother … MOTHER FUCKERS!” I screamed, tears pouring down my cheeks.

I tore a rock from the snow and hurled it at the pony’s skull.

Crack!

He let go with a splash of blood and brains as Dew Drops dove towards me, her hooves outstretched.

I met her teary gray eyes for a single fleeting moment as our hooves touched.

Then someone bucked me in the chest.

… ‘no –’

I slipped away from her.

“NO!”

My horn flickered to life as I tumbled away, trying to catch her in my magical field and –

A hoof swiped over my horn and my aura shattered like glass. I wailed, flailing after her helplessly as my magic failed me when I needed it the most -

- as I failed her when she needed me the most.

I tore the scarf from her neck instead and smashed into the snow, watching – powerless to stop them.

Another pony forced her to her haunches.

“Run, Red – RUN!” she shrieked as someone sunk a knife into her chest, and twisted it. “DON’T LOOK BACK!” she cried out to me as the sounds of her tearing flesh and her horrifying screams washed away my resolve.

They broke me. They tore me apart.

They tore her apart.

Her bloody barding. Her bloody coat. Her bloody insides.

They laughed over her dying screams, and her screams echoed through my thoughts. They stained my memories red with her gore. Her blood.

Her blood … a stain that would never wash away.

“Hahaha – HAHAHA!”

I did all I could have done.

I ran.

Hoofsteps plodded behind me. A psycho pony raced after me, laughing hysterically.

“I’LL FUCKING SKIN YOU ALIVE!”

My forehoof caught a gnarled root and I crashed head over hooves into the snow. I felt hooves plow into me, pinning me to the ground.

I didn’t have enough fight left in me.

So I whimpered. I cried. I looked up and saw Star Glint grinning back down at me.

The pony was wearing his skin.

My eyes widened as the unicorn pony drove a blade down to my stomach. I threw my hooves out in front of me and caught it an inch above my chest as the psycho stallion pushed, and pushed, and pushed.

“BLOOD! AHAHA! BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD!”

I screamed, lifting a rock from the snow. I smashed it against the pony’s skull and his magic wavered. I forced myself up, gripped the knife in my teeth and slashed it across the stallion’s throat. Flaps of Star Glint’s skin gave way to his carotid artery.

The psycho pony giggled through a mouthful of blood, arterial red spilling from the gash in his neck and onto my face. I tucked my hind legs in and bucked him off me, crying as his warm lifeblood dribbled down my cheeks and mingled with my tears.

I stumbled away, sobbed, and ran.

Bloody tears ran down my face as I wailed into the night.

I galloped into the howling darkness, gnarled, black shapes blurring past me.

I galloped until their delighted, triumphant laughter faded into the distance.

I ran, and ran, and ran.

I ran as the winds of the balefire winter crashed against me. I powered through it, not caring where I went as the snow thickened and the blizzard closed in.

I galloped wherever my legs could take me. I galloped to somewhere that wasn’t there.

I plowed through the snow that buried my hooves. I forced my way through the white out without so much of a single shit given.

And I collapsed in the storm.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Burning the Midnight Oil-- You've learned how to fight the hard way - and you learned fast. +10% XP whenever XP is earned

Chapter 3 - Dust and Echoes - Pt I

I woke up screaming.

Forelegs pinned me to the cold metal frame of a rusty hospital gurney. I thrashed against their limbs, swatting them away and kicking my legs at the shadows that loomed over me.

“Get away you, psychos! GET THE FUCK AWAY!” I howled, batting away their invading limbs.

“FUCK YOU!” I lashed out with my hindlegs. My hooves connected with someone’s face. He stumbled away from me and disappeared from the tunnels of my hazy eyes. “Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“Hold him still!” a mare shouted.

Hooves grabbed my forelegs. They wrenched them away from me and slammed them against the gurney. Hard.

“No … NO!”

They were going to rip me limb from limb. They were going to tear my legs from my shoulders.

I writhed like a cornered, netted animal, screaming my throat bloody and raw.

One of my hooves tore free.

“NOOO!” I wrenched a pony on top of me. We rolled off the edge of the gurney. A mare with pink eyes screamed as I sent her crashing into the cold, concrete floor.

I didn’t care. I dragged my forehooves to her throat and squeezed. She kicked under me, suffocating.

“I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Something metal cracked against my skull. I keeled over, blacking out for a second.

“Hold him - hold him down!”

I waited for the touch of a cold blade to slice through my bare flesh. I waited for the ripping, the tearing – but they never came.

They yanked my mouth open instead.

With my limbs pinned to the ground, I could do nothing as I felt the familiar taste of health potion dribble down my lips and wash down my throat. My head was spinning too much to care who was administering it.

I held out my limbs in feeble resistance. And for good measure, they cracked me across the skull again.

My consciousness left the building before I could scream.

My mummified body lay shivering on an itchy cot with a mildew-stained blanket pulled up to my neck. My limbs were splayed out underneath the blanket, and one of my legs hung limply from the edge of the bed.

I was alive. But I sure as hell didn’t feel like it. The flesh under my coat was bruised black and blue. My head throbbed as if I was beaten with a metal bar.

‘Wait,’ I thought, distantly.

If I remembered correctly … I was.

I groaned, tucking in my battered legs to my chest. My weary, bloodshot eyes swiveled sluggishly around the room. A gas lamp glowed dimly on a shabby bedside table to my right, its faint light hardly illuminating the room from end to end. Around me was a patchwork of corrugated scrap metal bolted together to hold the makeshift ceiling aloft. Outside, I could hear the moaning wind as it dragged its frozen hooves across the walls, trying to penetrate the walls of that metal hovel.

My right foreleg curled weakly to my chest. I gazed at my PipBuck, struggling to find the button to toggle its brightness. My weary pupils contracted. Four days. It had been four days since I lost almost everyone I loved.

“Welcome back,” a voice said from the darkness at the furthest corner of the room.

“Dew Drops?” I murmured, hopefully.

My ears drooped when a pony with a midnight blue coat and black bangs stepped into the light. Shadows played across her hard complexion. The mare looked like she’d seen better days.

“Night Sky.” She trotted up to my cot with a striped blue scarf slung over her shoulder. Dew Drop’s scarf. The mare held a small photograph in one of her hooves. She stared at the photo for a long while, eyeing me as I lay there. Night Sky closed her eyes and sighed, placing both at the edge of the bed between my legs. “You’ve a name?”

I closed my weary eyes.

“Red … Dawn.”

She nodded thoughtfully, glancing at my PipBuck. “You’re one of them stable ponies, innit,” Night Sky said, not asking.

I levitated the blue scarf to my chest, and ran a hoof across its blood-speckled fabric as gently as I would with Dew Drops’ mane. I let out a trembling sigh, cradling my head in my hooves.

I swirled a faint magical field around the photo and floated it to my eyes in silence. Dew Drops. Box Cutter. Amber Fields. Lightning Twirl. Star Glint. I gazed out the frost-encrusted window, and into the frozen wasteland outside.

“We found you in the drifts, half dead,” I heard Night Sky say, “You looked like you’ve been through hell.”

I stared at the picture of my friends as pain flickered across my glassy eyes.

“If this is hell …” I whispered, my voice trembling.

“This isn’t hell. It’s worse,” the mare said with a cold smile. “Welcome to the wasteland, Red Dawn.”

I stared at her with wide, teary eyes. Welcome back to life. I gulped a heavy lump down my throat. My lower lip trembled in denial. It was a nightmare, and I was going to wake up from it … I set the photo down on the blanket and my shoulders began to quake with sobs.

‘Wake up … please.’

I closed my eyes, listening to the chilling winds howl away outside the patchwork walls. I opened them and I was still laying on the same scratchy cot, in the same bleak hovel. I stared longingly at Dew Drops’ striped scarf, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.

I swung my legs out of the blankets and stood to my rickety hooves.

“And where the hell do you think you’re going?” she demanded.

“They’re still out there,” I croaked, pointing out the window. I made for what looked to be the door, but Night Sky stepped into my path. “My friends –”

“Are dead.”

“No!” I stumbled to get past her but she shoved me back with a foreleg. I snarled at her, “You didn’t see them! You don’t know!”

The look she gave me insisted that she’d beg to differ. My heart sunk.

“You go out there and I’m not gonna drag your sorry arse back.”

I glared at her, and took a step forward - only to cry out as agony jolted through my chest. I fell to the wooden floor in a heap. Blood seeped out of my gray bandages and pooled all over the floor around me.

I felt Night Sky clamp her jaws on my mane, but I twisted away, curling up on the floor.

“Now you opened up that bloody cut of yours again,” she muttered, rolling me over and tugging at the bandages.

I shook her off and tucked my legs into my chest. She stood over me, staring me down with her steely blue eyes. I sobbed and blinked away fresh tears.

“Why am I alive …” I whimpered, burying my head in my hooves.

“You’re lucky,” Night Sky whispered, sitting down next to me, “Not everypony gets to die in the wasteland. My crew patched you up. Though I nearly beat your brains out …” She turned her head low, glaring at me.

“You bucked one of my mates in the gobber, and tried to choke another to death. Look at you now, walking all over the place wrapped up like that. You aren’t so soft for a stable pony, aren’t you?” The mare chuckled, “Cor … no wonder you didn’t just snuff it.”

“What the fuck … did you just say?” I breathed, rising to trembling hooves.

“What?”

“No wonder I survived … I watched my friends die … and I ran.” I chuckled darkly, baring my teeth as tears ran down my cheeks. “Maybe I didn’t want to come back. Did you think for once that maybe I didn’t want to survive?”

She held my glare and stared back, unflinching.

“You’ve not a choice to just … die, Red Dawn.”

“Bullshit!” I screamed, “I walked out into that blizzard knowing I wouldn’t be coming back. You think I want to be here?” I cried, choking on my own tears, “Do you fucking think I want to be alive in this SHITHOLE?!”

Night Sky’s gaze did not relent.

She clenched her jaw and gave me a ghastly look. “This place might be a shitehole … but it’s all we’ve got left,” she said, softly. I looked down her chest and saw flecks of blood all over her tattered, bullet-scarred barding.

It changed nothing.

“I’m leaving ... and you’re not going to stop me,” I said, close enough to her muzzle to feel her shallow breaths.

I wiped away my tears and pushed past the mare, zipping up my barding and throwing on my saddle bags. I could feel her eyes on the back of my head as I limped out the door and staggered down a flight of stairs. Two ponies sat at a bar below. I hobbled past them to the door, and they looked up from their shot glasses, eyeing me irritably.

“The hell you doin’?” one of them growled, getting off his stool.

Night Sky poked her head over the railing. “Let’em go,” she said, simply.

The stallion snorted and returned to the bar, not even pausing once to glance over his shoulder. The mare sitting next to him followed me with her pink eyes as I made my way to the door.

I stepped outside.

And the storm blindsided me. Engulfed in frozen powder, I stumbled blindly through the snow, the drifts threatening to swallow me whole. I could just barely make out the lonely lights and the ramshackle buildings across the street as I plodded across the shifting, snowy dunes.

I just kept walking, not caring where I went – my eyes only opening once to find that the town’s lonely lights were far behind me. I whimpered, collapsing to my haunches. I reached into my breast pocket, and brought to my blood-drained face the only thing I had left to remember my friends by. My dead, butchered friends.

It hurt to cry. It hurt to stare at the photo I held in my hoof. It hurt knowing that they were gone. That they were all gone.

I blinked, and the world spun around me. I let out a shuddering breath, and slumped into the snow.

Days ago I was afraid. Afraid to let go of my precious life. My life at the stable. I could have died. Back home, I could have died a scalding, boiling death. I was afraid that I was going to leave them all behind. But instead, they left me behind in that frozen hell.

I failed them. One by one, I watched them all die. I watched them all die.

And I should’ve died with them.

I didn’t want it. Night Sky and her ponies gave me a second chance I never wanted.

“Anywhere but here …” I wept, “Goddesses … anywhere but here.” I shivered and quaked as the howling frozen wind blasted against my barding.

But I didn’t care.

‘I should’ve died,’ I thought.

We were supposed to find a water talisman together. Together.

‘We should’ve died.’

I tore my spade out of my bags and started digging. I stabbed at the frozen earth again and again, tears welling out of my eyes only to freeze ragged trails across my cheeks with every chilling, agonizing second that slaved by.

My legs went numb.

But I kept digging.

My magic flickered and popped.

But I kept digging.

My brain curdled inside my skull.

But I kept digging.

My body pleaded with me to stop. Every fiber of my being pleaded with me to stop.

But I. Just. Kept. Digging.

Not caring even as my heart began to slow. Not even as the shivering stopped. Not even as the dark tunnels closed in around me. I dug, and dug, and dug –

I collapsed into the snow, writhing with every laborious breath.

‘Give up. Just give up.’

I wrenched myself to my hooves with a grim resolve and speared my spade through the frozen earth once more. I wasn’t going stop digging until I hollowed out a grave for each and every one of my friends.

I couldn’t stop.

They deserved better.

I thought of them as I dug, their memories – the burden of being alive while they were not crushing me beneath.

With one grave finished, I buried Dew Drops.

One by one, I’d bury them all.

I dredged out another grave and moved on, tearing into the earth without a single pause. For them, I plunged my shovel deep and struggled to break the dark soil.

My magic flickered. Popped. And winked out.

A light bulb exploded inside my head as my brain tore itself apart. A blinding agony shot through every nerve ending in my body. I reared up on my hinds, howling as an inferno burned inside me, my spade tumbling to the snow.

But I slaved through the torment – bit down on the shovel's handle and kept digging.

I broke the earth. But instead, the earth broke me. I stumbled to my haunches, my spade crunching once more into the snow. I wailed Dew Drops’ name into the darkness. I screamed for the storm to take me to her.

If not to her, then … anywhere.

“Goddesses – anywhere but here!” I cried – and crumbled to the snow in a tangle of writhing, blistering limbs.

I took a shuddering breath and stared grievously into the sky. My pallid flesh was covered in sores that throbbed dully in my fading consciousness. I lay there, listening to my slowing heartbeat as the wind moaned a chilling requiem fit for a funeral.

A black figure clad in thick barding entered the blurry, veiny tunnel that were my eyes. The pony helped me to my hooves, and I leaned against its shoulder.

“What’ve you done …” I heard Night Sky murmur as she stared with wide eyes at the six graves I hollowed out of the earth.

I managed a few painful steps toward the final grave I dug.

The one I dug for myself.

“I need to finish this …” I wheezed, clamping my jaws around my spade’s handle and shambling toward the half-dredged hole.

Night Sky ripped the spade out of my mouth and swung it hard into my skull. Stars exploded in my eyes. My limbs slackened. I toppled to the snow in a heap, blood trickling down my forehead.

“That’s it,” she said, tucking the spade into her bags. “I don’t know you or your mates, but I’ll tell you this much: dying’s not gonna help anypony. Everypony that’s alive has lost somepony.”

I hacked out scarlet ichor, glaring at her.

“What do you know about losing shit …” I asked, darkly, my voice trembling.

Night Sky’s eyes narrowed with icy malice. She unzipped the lower half of her barding and it fell away before me.

My heart almost stopped.

“Too much, I’m afraid,” she replied softly, shivering through clenched teeth and wiggling the stubs that used to be her wings. I eyed the scarred flesh over what was supposed to be her cutie mark, a symbol of a lightning bolt branded over her mottled flesh. She zipped on her barding and bit my mane, yanking me to my hooves.

“I’m … sorry …” I rasped weakly.

Night Sky gave me a cold stare. “There’s no giving over. You might think you’ve a choice to die, but out here, you’ve not any other choice but to live. Because there isn’t anything out here that’ll just let you curl up and snuff it – that’d be too easy.

“There’s never an easy way out. There’s no mercy for the weak, and there’s never rest for the weary ... all you do is live, and while you’re still alive, you do everything you can to stay alive.”

My eyes fluttered closed as she pushed me onto her back and hauled me back to civilization.

Another day passed.

I woke up in the same cot. This time, the gas lamp was shut off, and the window was shuttered closed. I didn’t want to look outside anyways. Not anymore, at least.

I shivered inside my now completely bandaged coat. Every part of me, even my ears were wrapped in wool. I rolled over, wincing at the sharp pain that jabbed into my shoulder. I shifted my left hind leg and heard the clinking of empty health potion bottles at the foot of my cot.

I could feel my blisters healing. But without a super healing potion from my stable’s clinic, my time spent bandaged up was going to be a relatively lengthy one. My scabbing flesh itched underneath, and I fought the urge to scratch.

I sighed, tucking in my legs in search of warmth. I found none. But I did find Dew Drops’ scarf lying next to me. It was one of the only things I had left to remember her by. I reached out with my magic – and liquid fire erupted inside my skull.

My magic flickered and popped.

Then nothing.

My head flopped back against my pillow.

With teary eyes, I bit my tongue and held back a scream. Seconds passed as I squeezed my eyes shut and waited until the pain subsided to a dull, persistent throb. I lay there, staring at Dew Drops’ scarf, tears rolling down my cheeks.

With a shivering foreleg, I hugged it close, running a hoof across Dew Drops’ scarf. My eyes glazed over the flecks of dried blood that peppered its soft fabric. I sighed and hugged it close, nuzzling it with a tenderness that made my heart ache.

Nothing I could do could bring her back.

I lay there thinking about them. My mom, most of all. I wondered what she would’ve thought if she learned that I gave up. That I let the wasteland win.

No. I knew that my mother’s expectations weren’t the only things that mattered. 294 stable ponies were still counting on our return … my return. Every hour, every day I wasted away out there was one day closer to the end of their rations.

I knew then that the lives of 294 other ponies hung in the balance. It didn’t make me feel any better knowing that I was the last hope for my stable. Every other pony that stepped out that door died.

I was all they had left.

I, the unfledged engineer pony who, when he was younger, didn’t know what end to screw in a lightbulb, was all they had left. There was only one way you could screw it in!

I heaved a bitter, self-deprecating laugh and stared up darkly at the ceiling.

“You’re all fucked.”

I snorted, slumping against my unfluffed pillow.

As I lay there, I knew: saving my stable was my mission, and my mission alone.

I never worked alone. Even during the afterhours at engineering, Dew Drops usually waited for me to finish whatever I was doing before we both left. Sometimes I’d find her sleeping under some piping or laying on the floor next to my busy body.

Never. Work. Alone.

The always told me that. And yet there I was ...

Alone …

I wrapped Dew Drops’ scarf around my neck.

I swore on the graves of my friends that I wouldn’t stop until I finished what they started. There was a hole in the ground next to them, waiting for me - but until I was six feet under, I swore that I wouldn’t give up. Not on them. Not on my stable.

I limped over to my bags and bit down on the lip of my last health potion, tipping my head and downing it in seconds. I sighed, feeling my flesh tingle as the potion did its work.

Didn’t feel good enough, but it’d have to do.

I pulled out my armored security barding and laid it out on the dusty wooden floor. I gazed longingly at the numbers that were stenciled onto its right shoulder pad: 91.

A long and drawn out sigh wheezed out of my lips as I stared at it for several long seconds.

‘Home,’ I thought, solemnly, ‘I’ll make it back. I have to.’

I shrugged on my barding, zipped it closed and trotted over to the door, fumbling with the doorknob. It was difficult trying to get used to walking around without my magic.

I pushed the door open, and peeked outside.

Down the hall were three more rooms. Their doors were open, so I assumed everyone was downstairs. I slowly made my way downstairs, the wooden boards beneath my hooves creaking with every step. The smell of alcohol and bitter cigarette smoke made my nose wrinkle as I poked my head over the railing. Sitting around a table and sharing drinks were Night Sky and two other ponies.

She blinked and caught me in her peripherals.

“Cor blimey,” the mare chuckled as the other ponies turned to see me. “Look who it is.”

“You better not be thinkin’ about runnin’ again, ya lil shit,” a gruff pony with an eye patch growled, tipping a shot glass to his lips. The ash-colored earth pony downed it and took a puff from a cigarette he held between his teeth. My ears perked at his drawl. Different, and much harsher than Night Sky's.

I frowned. There was a distinct bruise on his muzzle. He must have been the one I bucked in the face.

‘Good,’ I thought, ‘From the looks of him, I bet he deserved it.’

“Well come on mate, we were just talking about you,” Night Sky said with a smile.

“I bet you were,” I muttered, leaning against the railing the entire way down.

I settled down on an empty barstool among the three other surface dwellers. A mare slid to me a shot glass of vodka across the table. I looked at her nervously. I remembered her pink eyes. She was the mare I tried to strangle to death a day ago.

“No hard feelings, I hope?” I said, with a wry grin.

The unicorn snorted, nodding her head once, one pink eye hidden behind a curtain of her untamed purple mane.

“We’ve all had the urge to choke a bitch. Can’t say I haven’t done that to anypony else sitting here. Well, except you, of course,” she scoffed, staring at me with what I hoped wasn’t a promise. “Everypony calls me Sprinkles. What about you?”

I wrinkled my brow at her strange vocabulary.

“Red Dawn,” I said, nervously. I glanced around the narrow rectangular room and saw that it too was made of a mixture of wooden planks and corrugated metal. There were a few round tables stood here and there, but most didn’t have enough chairs around them to sit the number of ponies that were drinking at our table.

Inside the fireplace at the far end of the room, a stack of blackening wood glowed warmly, making the room somewhat more pleasant than the one upstairs. It might have been a tavern at some point, but given its emptiness, I figured that they must’ve taken the place for themselves.

Stenciled on the wall above the bar’s counter were the words ‘Rough Riders,’ reinforcing my previous assumption. I wondered for a moment who those ponies were and what that place was. Ever since I woke up there, I hadn’t even bothered to ask where the hell I was.

“This some kind of town?”

Sprinkles nodded. “Guess you can say that. Dusktown’s a caravan stop for travelers heading up north from New Appleloosa. Total population of forty three ponies and one griffon.” The town sounded rather quaint for a post-apocalyptic safe haven. “Every now and then we go out to escort caravans heading up north.”

I cocked an eyebrow. To me, the thought of there being more people living in that winter wasteland was shocking. “You mean … there’re others?”

They looked at me like I said something stupid. The gruff earth pony snickered, taking a long drag from his cigarette.

Night Sky just snorted. “Forgot you’re a stable pony. Aye. Sure there are. Though not everypony’s as welcoming as us here in Dusktown,” she chuckled bitterly, shaking her black bangs out of her eyes. It sounded like there was more than what she felt comfortable to talk about.

I looked out a window by the door and saw that the storm had settled down. The silhouettes of thickly-barded equine shapes milling about made being alive in this shithole a little less disheartening. I reassured myself that if there were people still alive out there, then there was still hope for finding what my stable needed.

“What with all the Red Eye and Unity bollocks, we haven’t seen too many caravans coming up here lately. The North’s got its own problems. We don’t need any of any mad southerners coming up here and making things worse,” Night Sky added, pouring herself a glass of whiskey.

“Red and Unity what?”

“Slavers and alicorns. You don’t want to be traveling on your tod. You might get chained up and put to work up north at East Eden or south by Fillydelphia. And if you’re a unicorn … well, like I told you earlier, there’re worse things than death if you come across somepony talking about Unity.”

“A-alicorns? Like … like the Goddesses?” I asked hopefully.

The unicorn stallion laughed at me in his harsh, gravelly voice.

“There ain’t no goddesses out here, boy. Celestia and Luna’ve been dead for a looong time.”

I glared at the stallion.

“Fuck off …”

He sighed, giving me a crass chuckle before puffing on his cigarette. I wanted to take that thing and shove it down his throat.

I shook my head. What I needed was something to calm my frayed nerves. I focused my horn, clenching my jaw as I tried to levitate the shot glass. I groaned at the sharp pain that shot through my skull.

“Damnit.”

“It’s called magical burnout,” Night Sky said, glancing at the shot glass that refused to budge. “You work your magic too hard, and you… well, you burn out. Can’t use your magic till you rest up.”

‘Son of a …’

“How long till I’m better?”

The mare shrugged.

“Maybe a few days? It all depends on you.” Night Sky leaned over the table. “Don’t be a fuckwit and do something daft. You should be fine in a few days, I’d imagine.” She narrowed her eyes at me and added, with a tinge of irritation, “Considering that stupid shite you pulled off last time, you probably shouldn’t even be down here walking around.”

“I don’t have time to just sit here,” I muttered.

Sprinkles cocked an eyebrow at me. “What are you doing outside of your stable anyhow?”

“Come to say hello to the ponies ya fucks left behind?” the unicorn stallion growled, baring his teeth.

I glared at the bastard. “Better down there than up here,” I muttered.

He snorted and opened his mouth, but Night Sky cut him off.

“Shut your gob,” she sighed, knocking the stallion with a hoof. “Bone Charm had it rough when he was just a lad."

The stallion snorted, giving me a look that promised a bucking.

Well he sure had a charming personality.

I held my glare as I craned my neck, biting the glass and tipping it back. The vodka burned as it washed down my throat. I let out a shivering snort as my insides warmed a little.

“What does it matter to you ponies?”

Bone Charm thumped his hooves on the table. “We didn’t save your ass for nothin’, stable colt. Nopony but you’s stupid enough to walk out into a storm like that. It’d be dandy if I knew why I had to waste twelve of our healing potions on you.” The gruff unicorn stallion snorted cigarette smoke into my muzzle.

“Then you had to walk out into the snow and try to get killed, again.”

I snapped, leaning over the table to look him in the eye. “If it were up to me I’d go back, sit behind that door, and forget about everything outside.” I folded my forelegs across my chest. “Anywhere is better than here ...”

He sneered, “Go down south, hell, go anywhere on this planet and it’s all the same.” Bone Charm chuckled. “And if you didn’t know, stables all across Equestria've been opening up and nopony’s been coming out alive. Soon, I bet your cozy little hole won’t be so different.”

I fought to keep my composure. “I don’t care about this place … I don’t care what you think about me, and most of all, I don’t care about you. I stepped outside and I knew why we never opened our doors to let anyone in – because nothing outside those doors was worth saving!”

He wore a challenging smirk, saying, “Then why don’tcha go home? Scurry back into your hole and lock us out again. I lived forty years of my life here washin’ my hooves in blood just to survive, and you waltz out of that warm stable and bitch and moan, and threaten to kill yourself just because life just got a little harder for your hooficured hooves. I’ve lost too much to have a single sliver of pity for you, boy.

“And the last thing we need is another mouth to feed. So dream your sweet dreams in that stable of yours while we scrape on by up here!”

I stood up from my stool, knocking it over. “Listen here, you son of bitch –”

Night Sky slammed her a hoof on the table.

“Quiet, ladies. You bastards get in a fight and I’ll mop your arses across the floor,” she snarled. “So what’s your story, Red Dawn?” Night Sky asked – no, she demanded. The mare cocked her head and leaned across the table.

I grinded my teeth together and sighed.

“… our Water Talisman broke,” I said bitterly. “So five other ponies and I went out to find another.”

The gruff unicorn whistled, and chuckled, “Whew! Damn was I right about that.” He puffed a ring of smoke my way. “It’s only a matter of time ...”

Sprinkles poured me another glass and slid it across the table to my hoof.

“We found you by yourself, so I guess the others that came with you are …“

She caught my grim stare and fell silent. I downed the vodka in silence as the Sprinkles fidgeted with her hooves. ‘Awkward.’

“Well if it makes you feel better, we cleaned up those furies afterward,” Night Sky said, folding her forelegs across her chest. “Us and another group teamed up and wiped ‘em out.”

“It doesn’t,” I muttered.

“Wasn’t supposed to. What matters to me is that we get paid,” Bone Charm said, knocking his hooves together.

I was starting to hate that pony.

“What are you guys anyways? Mercenaries?”

They nodded in unison.

Sprinkles replied, “Mhm. We picked up a contract to put a dent in the snow fury population around these parts. I say we fucked them up pretty good.” She smiled, somewhat. “Maybe now we’ll have more visitors around here.”

I thought for a moment, shivering at the memories of the psycho ponies erupting out of the snow. “Snow Furies ...” I sneered, “That what they’re called?” Psycho ponies frothing at the mouth flashed before my eyes.

Night Sky nodded. “Aye. Though you might hear southerners call the bastards ‘raiders,’ but they’re hardly the same. They’re called snow furies. They like burying themselves in the snow to surprise anypony that comes their way. They’re a bunch of grotty cunts that ambush caravans or traders down by the Crystal Highway and all the way down to Poneva –”

“Poneva?” I blurted out, interrupting her.

Night Sky lifted an eyebrow.

“What about it?”

I looked down at my shot glass, both my forelegs supporting me over the table. “Word is, in my stable, an old Stable-Tec facility was built there. We were heading that way to find a water talisman.”

Night Sky chuckled, “Well good luck, I mean, I don’t think there’re many people feeling charitable about their water talismans these days ...”

“It’s worth a try,” I muttered, my voice trembling. “It’s our only hope.”

She snorted. “If you say so,” she said skeptically, getting up from her chair.

“What do you know about Poneva?”

Bone Charm put out his cigar and folded his legs across his chest. “Well I’ll say that there ain’t no Ponevan that’s done me good in my lifetime.” The unicorn stallion snorted, “’Cept pay me caps.”

“I wouldn’t do you any good if I was a Ponevan,” I muttered.

“Fuck you just say?”

Sprinkles leaned over the table. “Listen, kid, Bonehead here isn’t kidding. That city's no good. They’ve got all sorts of bad ponies you don’t even want to know about.”

“You make it sound like I’ll get eaten by a dragon or something.” I scoffed, tapping my forehooves together.

They looked at me with hard eyes. Not even a chuckle. ‘Okay, that didn’t sound too good.’ Night Sky returned with a few flat slices of bread from a loaf that didn’t rise.

“What’s this talk about dragons?”

“Red Dawn here wants to go up to Poneva,” Sprinkles said, gnawing on a slice.

My eyes lit up. “Can you take me there?”

She thought for a moment, and shrugged. “If you’re planning on staying there, you’re on your own, mate. But we’re heading up that way to turn in a few contracts.”

I smiled, something I hadn’t done genuinely in what seemed like forever.

“That’s great –”

“But we’re not going there any time soon. If you want to go, you’re going to have to come with us to finish whatever contracts we’ve got left before we turn in.”

I frowned, pursing my lips. I had nowhere else to be, and I didn’t know anyone else.

“Whatever gets me to Poneva in one piece,” I said, finally, with a drawn out sigh.

Bone Charm barely suppressed a chuckle. “Wait till he sees the bloodletters and snow devils. You’ll be regretting coming up here soon enough, stable colt.”

My expression darkened.

“I already am.”

Chapter 3 - Dust and Echoes - Pt II

I followed Night Sky outside into the soft, cold breeze, my hooves sinking deep into the snow that piled up overnight. The blizzard buried everything but the buildings outside, and ponies with shovels were laboring to clear the snow off their porches.

The town was shockingly alive with pony life … although, a life I could never have related to.

For one thing, everyone out there seemed to keep mixing up ‘everypony’ with ‘everyone’.

Or maybe it was just me.

But back in Stable 91, young ponies were never assigned occupations until they received their cutie marks. There, in Dusktown, blank flanks labored with their parents, pulling plows that cleared the immense mounds of snow off the single main road that ran down the town’s midsection.

If there was one thing that was similar between Dusktown at Stable 91, it had to be their main goal: surviving. Just as we survived through the participation of every able-bodied adult pony, those surface dwellers did the same, and more.

All around us, ponies worked together to push away the result of last night’s snow storm. Within ten minutes, a wide path of flattened snow stretched from one end of the town to the next. Now that the road was clear, ponies and their wagons began backing out of their scrap metal garages to begin their travels down its length. Sleepy stores and dimly-lit residences lined the road on either side.

Next to the Rough Riders’ tavern were several shops with a variety of items for sale. We walked past each, stopping for a moment to look inside a gun store that sold boxes of ammunition that I both could and couldn’t recognize. Night Sky shopped for a bit, buying whatever she needed for her merc contracts.

We returned outside into the cold, and I spared a glance at the sky. I cringed, swallowing bile down my throat.

‘Damn. I need to stop doing that.’ But in my sickness, I did see something up there that was rather unusual.

‘Where’s all the pegasi?’ I wondered.

All I saw were earth ponies and unicorns hauling around more than their weight or levitating shovels and other small tools. There wasn’t a single sound of wings flapping in the breeze. No sign of the feather-winged ponies I lived with back at Stable 91.

It seemed as if the surface had been settled by unicorns and earth ponies and only unicorns and earth ponies since the beginning of time. I wondered: was two hundred years enough to forget about the pegasi? Were they blasted into extinction when the balefire bombs annihilated their cloud cities? There wasn’t a single pegasus in the air as Night Sky and I trotted throughout town.

I wondered, hopelessly: was Night Sky the last of her kind?

In a clearing walled off by lines of bent metal stakes was a field of headstones. We walked past it, and I stopped for a moment to watch a mare sitting in the ashen drifts next to three freshly dug graves. She sobbed and murmured incoherently, cradling her head in her hooves.

Night Sky turned to glance over her shoulder, eyeing me curiously. I turned to the mare, then back at Night Sky. She just shook her head and gestured me to follow her.

“What happened to them?” I whispered, trotting beside her.

Night Sky gazed on forward, her face stone cold.

“Zebras,” she said simply, and nothing more.

I gave her a puzzled stare. I supposed it was none of my business, and I left the pony to grieve.

The mare’s sobs faded into wind as we made our way down the town’s only road.

A few yards down the street from the Rough Riders’ tavern was a boot shaped structure that puffed out smoke from its chimney. The windows glowed with a warmth that invited me to enter. Above its door hung a flickering neon sign that glowed with the words ‘diner’. The smell of bread and … ‘What was that?’ It smelled like a steam accident at engineering. ‘Meat?’ My stomach churned with a mixture of hunger and revulsion.

I figured as long as they had something I could eat … I’d survive. So we walked inside, the warmth of a furnace and a hearth loosening my tense muscles. It felt good. It felt good feeling heat against my coat again.

At the bar, Night Sky plopped down onto a stool, and I slumped into one beside her. Down the counter were other wastelanders who eyed my PipBuck curiously.

I smiled sheepishly and waved. They just looked away, chatting among themselves.

“Not too many ponies have seen a stable-dweller before,” Night Sky said, resting her forelegs on the counter in front of us. A light bulb flickered dimly over our heads, and a pony mare with stained overalls unscrewed it with her magic and screwed another one in its place.

It shined brighter than the other hanging, bare-wired bulbs around the room and bathed me in a white glow. The spotlight was on the stable-dweller. Everyone gave me a variety of looks, ranging from curiosity to the same hatred Bone Charm showed me at the tavern.

Maybe they were more interested in the bandages that are wrapped around my muzzle. I looked like a fucking corpse. The waitress trotted behind the counter, with a stick of what looked like charcoal and a slip of paper floating in her magical grip.

Night Sky offered to buy me a bowl of … stew. Bobbing inside of it were a variety of vegetables – which I was entirely okay with, until I saw, floating visibly beneath the surface, dark chunks of boiled … meat.

I gulped and shook my head. She shrugged, ordered one for herself, some bread for me, and pushed a few bottle caps across the warm counter. That must've been their currency.

‘Strange.’

“Why are you doing this for me?” I asked her quietly as the unicorn mare slid to me three slices of bread and Night Sky a bowl of soup. Two shot glasses of what looked like vodka, and two glasses of water slid our way, too.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful …” I trailed off, biting into the surprisingly soft, yet crusty bread. “… but … why? Why didn’t you just leave me out in that blizzard?”

Night Sky lapped at her bowl and paused for a moment.

“Ponies have to stick together out here. If we don’t … well, we die.” She answered, before returning to her soup. I watched her chew on one of the chunks of red meat and swallow, much to my suppressed disgust.

“Can’t argue with that …” I brought the water to my mouth, but my PipBuck’s radmeter clicked audibly. I hesitated, and placed it back down on the counter. “But how do you ponies live like this? I was expecting less of an actual town and more of a …”

“Shitehole,” she said, taking the words from my mouth.

“That’s not what I –”

“It’s fine. I expected as much from a stable-dweller,” Night Sky said with a terse chuckle. “This town has trade routes with Poneva and a few towns down south. We trade what we scavenge or make, and buy whatever else we can't make ourselves,” she explained.

I nodded, taking another bite from the bread.

“You said you’re a mercenary. What kind of work do you do?”

She licked at her empty soup bowl and wiped her mouth with a forehoof.

“Anything. Any work we can,” she replied with some resignation.

I blinked. “Anything?”

“Anything.”

My throat was parched and I eyed the radioactive water longingly.

“You can drink that, you know?” she said, “Just pop a Rad-Away if you start feeling dizzy.”

I sighed, shaking my head as I downed its contents. She tossed me a small red capsule, and I tucked it into my bags.

“So you’d kill a pony if that’s what you were being paid to do?” I asked, quietly. “You’d kill someone if that’s what it took?”

“Aye. If that’s what it took, why not? You said you were looking for a Water Talisman. Wouldn’t you do anything to bring one back so everypony in your stable could live?”

I tensed, frowning at my hooves as they rested on the counter.

“Why? Is that what Equestria’s come to?”

“This isn’t Equestria anymore, Red Dawn,” she said, bitterly. “And I’m no trader. I’m no gangster either. I’m a mercenary because I've a choice to live or die on my terms. I don’t need protection along the roads – I've my rifle and my mates for that. I've no need to take orders from some stupid bloke because I take orders from me and myself.”

The waitress behind the counter levitated a pitcher of water to me, and I nodded thankfully as she poured me another glass. “It’s a choice to survive, then,” I said, simply, with some understanding. “To be free.”

“Quite. I’ve a choice to do what I want to do, and I do it all for caps.” She sighed, resting her cheek on a hoof. “I get to choose. And not everypony gets that choice. You and me? We’re lucky. We’re lucky we’re not slaves. We’ve still a choice – we can choose to live or keep on living. It’s why I clobbered you with that shovel. You were wasting that choice on something stupid.” I bit my lower lip at that, pain flickering across my face.

“Being alive’s all that matters. You can’t save your stable dead, Red Dawn,” she said softly, resting a hoof on my shoulder. “I’m a mercenary and I choose to live and continue doing what I need to do to keep on living.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. It sounded perfectly reasonable in my head.

“You’ve a choice to live, and that means you’ve got to do what you need to do, Red Dawn. Maybe even if that means you live and some poor sod doesn’t.” She snorted, the faintest of smiles creasing her lips. “Personally, I don’t just go around taking any contract. I take ones I know matter to us ponies in Dusktown. If it means I’ve got to kill a bastard, I make sure she deserves it.”

“That’s … commendable?” I said, unsure.

“There’s no escaping it, Red Dawn.” Night Sky took another sip. “Out here, killing’s just part of living,” she said with a disturbing calmness that sent shivers down my spine.

I frowned at her, bothered by that statement. But I shook away the doubt from my mind. I pushed away my fears, because a darker part of me felt that I was just being naïve. If I was going to survive, I needed to be strong. I needed to do what needed to be done. “Whatever it takes,” I said finally.

“That’s the spirit.” She took her shot glass and held it out to me. “Cheers - to life.”

I almost tried levitating mine. I sighed, exasperated, and did the same, and our glasses clanked.

“To life.”

After helping her carry her supplies back to the tavern, she sent me below the floorboards to the basement to peruse their armory to arm myself for tomorrow’s contracts. Well, I guess it was an armory. It was mostly just a bunch of tables set with disassembled guns, random parts, tattered barding in need of repair, and boxes full of ammo and magazines. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of cordite and oil as I came down the stairs.

‘Whoa - what the hell is that thing!?’ I almost said that out loud.

The youngest member of the Rough Riders, a griffon, meandered around the tables, sifting through boxes of gun parts. The gray-feathered griffoness saw me come down the dim stairwell and gave me a sideways glance with her green eyes.

“You’re the pony Night Sky picked up, aren’t you?” she asked as I stared at the strange white markings on her face, instead of her eyes.

I blinked, fidgeting on my hooves, took a deep breath, and gave her a sheepish grin. “The one and only.”

The half-bird-lion thing - I mean, the griffon, walked up to me, her raptor claws clacking loudly against the wooden floor.

“What are you doing here?” She kept her distance.

I snorted. As if a bandaged up, half lucid pony was going to do anything remotely dangerous. Besides ... she was a griffon! A griffon! From the story books ... the raptors of Griffonstone!

And I was talking to one.

Trying not to stare at her lithe, alien form, and her wickedly sharp talons, I said, “I’ll be tagging along with your ... uh… your crew for a little bit.” Her brows furrowed at that. “Night Sky said you could help me pick out a gun?”

She tapped her beak with a claw and nodded.

“Uh, sure. I guess.” The griffon gestured for me to follow her and we waded through the junk to the far end of the basement. We came to a room lined with lockers. A dim light bulb flickered over a table at the center of the room. “Anything not in a locker is up for grabs.”

I blinked, eyeing all of the locked lockers. Everything was in a locker though. I walked over to the table and found a 10mm pistol lying among a heap of scrap metal and discarded parts. It’d have to do.

It was convenient too. I pulled up my PipBuck and sifted through my inventory. I found that I still had fifty three 10mm rounds stocked up. I stared wearily at the 10mm rounds in my bags, knowing how heavy the kick would be without a shoulder stock.

I really wished I still had my carbine.

I levitated the pistol – ‘balls!’

I mean, I bit down on its mouth grip and tested its weight. I wasn’t used to doing ... well … anything without my magic. It was a few pounds heavy, not too much for me to handle, I hoped. I’ve never shot a gun from my mouth before.

“Well I should be good –” I turned around and the griffon wasn’t there anymore. I waded through the rubbish and saw her leaning over a table in the main room, poking a black box. “What’s that for?”

The gray plume of feathers atop her head bobbed as she looked up. “Oh, this? Well, it was a radio at some point.”

‘A RADIO you say?’

My smile beamed as she continued. “It broke last week, and I’ve been trying to figure out why it stopped working.”

“Did you check if it’s plugged in?” I droned with a wry grin.

She caught my lame sense of humor and chuckled. “I’m no expert at electronics. All I do is clean the crew’s hardware,” she said, jutting a claw at the disassembled rifles lying about.

“Mind if I take a look?” I asked, trotting up to the table. She shrugged, and stepped away from the radio.

I gave it a look over, and opened it up with a screwdriver I picked out from my bags. I eyed the contents of the radio and saw that there was not a piece out of place.

I pulled the power cord taut and found a thin indentation over a section along its length. Probably got crushed or something.

“Heh, well, I’ve seen this before,” I said, standing on my hind legs, one foreleg on the table to hold me upright.

“Hm?”

“Looks like your radio’s going to make it,” I said, trying to sound like Dr. Stitches. “But the AC cord’s going to need a wire transplant ...” I looked at her, wrinkling my brow.

She ran a paw through her gray plume, flattened a rogue feather, and gave me a weird smile.

“That’s … great news, doctor …”

“Red Dawn,” I replied, fishing through my bags.

“My name’s Gail.” She clenched a paw into a fist and held it out to me. I looked at it for a second, hesitating. My eyes darted to hers, and I cracked a nervous smile.

I bumped her fist with a hoof.

“You’re a lot less scarier than the others, you know that?” I said with a chuckle, splitting the cord.

“Yeah, I get that a lot. I kinda stand out, ya know, with me hanging around a bunch of hardass mercs all the time,” Gail confessed, rubbing her neck. Yup. She stuck out to me like a sore hoof. Gail was different. Everyone else upstairs had that calloused look about them. She seemed sort of fresh.

“Oh … but they’re not so bad,” Gail chuckled, “They picked me up too when I was just a cub. Bone Charm raised me like I was his own.”

I cocked a brow at that. I couldn’t believe it - that bastard of a pony raised a sweet griffon like her?

“No way.”

“Yes way!" she laughed, folding her forelegs across her chest. "Though he’s kind of a dick sometimes …”

I snorted. ‘Sometimes?’

“But deep down, he's a real softy! He's always been there for me." Gail looked down at her paws. "My parents were never around as much as he was. But then again they’re not around anymore … so …”

My eyes softened. “What happened to them?” I asked gently.

“My parents were Talon mercs. Wasn’t really the best line of work to raise a kid, I guess. They died on a contract and orphaned me.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Night Sky was right about how everyone’s lost someone. If I ever lost my mom … I’m not sure what I’d do. “And now you’re a merc too?” I asked.

Gail nodded. “Yeah, yeah, ‘why follow in your parents’ footsteps when merc'ing got them killed’.” The young griffon sighed. “There’s not much to do here but merc work. Unless you want to join one of the gangs up in Poneva or become a slaver, you’re just a victim.” She shook her head, “And I’m not going to be a victim.”

Gail eyed the floor scathingly.

“I had a few run ins with slavers before the Rough Riders picked me up,” she murmured. “They chained my wings to my back and had me towing wagons around for them like some kind of pack animal.”

I fell silent and stared at my hooves. She was right. I wasn’t a merc, a gangster, or a slaver. I was a stable pony. But out there, it meant nothing to those people, especially Bone Charm. I was just a victim. I looked back down at my work and returned to it in silence.

I realized then that there were two kinds of wastelanders: survivors and victims.

And I was a victim.

I bit my lower lip so hard I almost drew blood. A few sluggish seconds passed us by in awkward quietude.

“Hmm…” Gail murmured, trying to break the ice. “I like your scarf.”

“Thanks. It’s … ah … a friend gave it to me,” I said. “She isn’t around anymore.”

Gail leaned against the table next to me. “We’ve all lost someone," she said, softly.

My eyes fluttered closed.

“I know.”

A few long minutes passed in silence as she watched me make my repairs. I noticed her eyeing the PipBuck on my foreleg.

“What’s that thing?”

“It’s a PipBuck,” I began, my tongue poking out of my lips as I focused on my work. “It’s like a terminal, but on your leg.”

“You look like you know a thing or two about arcane contraptions,” Gail said.

I chuckled, “Eh, I know my way around a wrench and a screw driver. I was an electrical engineer back at my stable.” I thought for a moment, frowning. “Still am.”

I wrinkled my nose at the stench of singed metal as I soldered in a spare wire I found at the bottom of my bags.

I finished with the cord and reassembled the radio.

“There she is, good as new,” I said, and switched it on. I cringed slightly as the radio flooded the room with deafening static.

Gail’s face lit up as she fiddled with the contraption.

“Thanks! Now we can have some music playing around here.”

The radio burped and hacked up random snippets of chatter in between its bouts of noise vomiting, and eventually picked up a channel that garnered our attention.

“- brrrfftt - now, my little ponies, it’s time for the news! Now you ponies remember when I told you ‘bout those two ponies who crawled themselves out of Stable 2 – brrrrffffffffttttttt ...”

And the signal died.

“Who was that?” I asked. My brow furrowed as I realized that Bone Charm was right about other stables opening too.

Gail groaned, twisting the tuner back and forth, trying to find the signal. “Sounded like DJ Pon-3. It’s really hard to get his signal around here.”

DJ Pon-3 … that name was familiar. The last I heard of that name, it was from a mare, and it was from a memory orb recorded 200 years ago.

“- brrrrffttttttt - gettin’ reports that one of those little ponies took out the raider nest in the heart of Ponyville ..."

My eyes widened.

‘A raider ... NEST?’ It took two merc groups to kill the furies that murdered my friends, and it took one pony to kill a nest of them?

That ... stable pony was … something.

The stallion on the radio continued, "... saved several pony captives - including the beloved – brrffttttttt - Ditzy Doo! Hey kid, tha – brrrfffffffftttttt” – and the signal broke out into static once more.

“Damn. Must be the clouds.”

“Hah - what?” I snickered. “There’s always clouds out though.”

“Yeah, but around these parts, the clouds and weather blow in from the Frozen Wastes and mix with the pegasi’s cloud cover. Makes it worse.”

I cocked an eyebrow at that. “The hell’s a cloud cover?”

“Well ever since the pegasi flew up and left everyone down on the surface for dead, they poofed up a layer of clouds to protect themselves. From us. The half dead survivors. Those feather-brained bastards ...” She shook her head. “They always say that they’re going to swoop down to the surface and save everyone. It’s been 200 years since the bombs fell and the cloud cover’s never opened up once.”

She leaned her back against the table and folded her forelegs across her chest. “Never trust a pegasus if you see one.”

“Wait, isn’t Night Sky a pegasus?”

Gail's beak dropped wide open.

“H-how’d you … never mind. Well, she’s a ‘Dashite’. She’s the kind of pegasus that got kicked out by her own kind.” She tapped her beak with a claw. “Kinda like a fallen angel, I guess.”

I pursed my lips as I remembered the stubs that used to be her wings. Dear Celestia, that was cruel. I heard from my mother that a pegasus without wings was like a unicorn without a horn. Or anyone without legs.

“Why … why’d they do that to her?”

The griffon shook her head, shrugging.

“She doesn’t like to talk about it. Never once did she tell us what happened. I don’t think I want to know – it takes a lot to get kicked out like that, I heard. Usually they just kill you … but taking off your wings …” She winced, unfurling one of hers. “Makes me mad how someone could've done that to her. If I lost mine ... I’d rather be dead … like the pegasi who were lucky enough to not get thrown down here.”

I lowered my eyes to my hooves. Wherever they were, if I was a pegasus, I wouldn’t want to come down here either.

Gail played with the radio’s tuner again, trying to pick up a signal. She sighed and gave up.

“So you said you’re tagging along with us for a bit?”

I found a holster lying on the floor and gestured to her if I could use it. Gail nodded, and I strapped it across my chest, stowing my pistol.

“Not for too long, I hope. I have a few things to do on my to-do list and I’m running out of time,” I added, with a hint of urgency. I was beginning to wonder when they were going to start their next contract.

“And what’s that?”

I sighed, hoping that I wouldn’t have to explain that to everyone I met. I watched her for a moment: she looked like someone I could trust.

“My stable’s Water Talisman broke, so I was planning on hitching a ride up to Poneva with you guys to find a replacement when your crew’s done with their contracts.” I stared at my hooves. “Six of us went out of those doors … and I’m the only one who’s still alive. I’m all they have left.”

Gail's eyes turned soft again. She lifted a paw - and hesitated. I looked up at her and said nothing as we stared at each other in silence. A tiny smile grazed her beak.

I felt her paw rest gently upon my shoulder.

She thought for a moment. “Well you’re in luck, because we’ve only got two contracts left unfinished. They’re pretty easy, I guess, so it won’t be too much of a hassle for you.”

“What kind of contracts? I mean, what are we going to do?”

The griffon made her way to another table and began reassembling a rifle she oiled up earlier.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to meet a caravan over by the old railroad station about ten miles out from here and escort them back to Dusktown. Then we’re going to lay down some good ol’wasteland justice on some pony-murdering zebra scum.”

My ears perked at that last part. I remembered the graves I saw earlier that day. The first time I ever heard about zebras was in a history book detailing their war that tore across Equestria. Images of a grisly looking pony with stripes, red eyes, and a menacing mouthful of serrated teeth came to mind when I heard that word.

I gulped. ‘They couldn’t possibly … actually look like that, right?‘

We went upstairs to the bar for some water, and found that everyone else was asleep. I pointed a hoof out the still darkened window.

“Well ... when’s tomorrow, because it seems like it's always night time to me.”

Chapter 3 - Dust and Echoes - Pt III

‘So this was morning, huh?’

I sat in the back of a wagon being pulled by some grotesque two-headed cow thing, chewing my pistol’s mouth bit. Morning, apparently, was noticeably brighter than the afternoon or the evening. Gail said something about DJ Pon-3’s channel being more coherent in the mornings when the skies cleared up somewhat.

I looked up to the clouds and winced, swallowing bile down my throat. ‘Yep, they were still there.’ I guess what made mornings in the Frozen North different was that you could see the clouds. When complete, total darkness fell upon the land, then it was night. It was still rather gloomy outside, and likewise, equally as depressing.

My breath fogged up in front of my face as I stared out into the distance. A light snowfall sprinkled us with bits of powder, and for once since I left my stable, I felt like I was going to survive out there. There hadn’t been a whiteout in twelve hours. That was good sign.

Behind us were three other wagons full of supplies and a hooffull of trader ponies that seemed about as apprehensive about traveling through the snow as I was.

Gail’s winged shape hovered over the caravan, her battle rifle scanning the distance. She flew ahead and back, calling out reports to Night Sky as she scouted out the path in the distance. The others kept an eye out for anything coming in from the sides or behind.

Sprinkles nudged me with a hoof and motioned for me to look outside the wagon.

“You see that?” she asked, pointing her hoof out into the distance.

I could barely make out what looked to be a dozen small shapes prowling through the snow.

“What are those things?” I asked, squinting.

“Those’re wolves,” Sprinkles replied, unpleasantly. “Well, they used to be. Now they’re bloodletters. Nasty little critters that hunt in packs and attack anything that moves.”

I narrowed my eyes at the creatures as they disappeared behind an exceptionally large snow drift.

“Well why aren’t they attacking us?”

“Because they’re not stupid.” She gestured to her rifle. “There’s too many guns and too few of them, anyways,” Sprinkles added as the creatures stalked within eyeshot once more.

“Eh, they’re just wolves. Can’t get any worse than that right?” I said with a chuckle.

She looked at me sternly.

“There’s also Snow Devils. Pray to your Goddesses you never see one, because they’re tough, and they don’t go down too easily. Used to be bears, I think. They’ve got claws that can rip through the armor of this wagon.” I remembered seeing those odd looking skeletons at the bottom of the den Amber Fields fell into. Then I remembered the extra pair of jaws that poked out of their mouths. I shivered.

“Okay … so, we've got mutant wolves and bears. Anything else I should know about?”

She gave me that stern look again.

The sound of gunfire in the distance stole the words from her lips. Someone whistled ahead of the caravan before Sprinkles could continue, and Gail’s winged silhouette swooped down to land in front of us as the wagons pulled to a stop.

“Furies ahead; they were in the middle of burying themselves in the snow when they saw me.”

Night Sky swore under her breath.

“How many?”

“I counted about a dozen, maybe more. They’re on their way here, now,” Gail replied, gripping her battle rifle tightly. She took to the skies once more, shouldering the weapon and scanning the drifts.

“Alright everypony, form up! Get those wagons in formation!” Night Sky called out to the others who were coaxing the two-headed bovines to their places. Within a span of twenty seconds, the four wagons formed up into a square, with each of the mercs including myself, and five trader ponies ducked under their heavy metal frames.

I crouched next to a trader unicorn with a shabby looking shotgun held in his magical grip.

“Hey,” I said, leaning against the wagon.

“Howdy.”

I looked over the wagon and didn’t see any furies. I figured that I’d wait for the others to call them out.

“You’re not from around here are you?”

“Nope,” I regarded him expectantly until he continued.

His eyes widened for a moment, and he chuckled, realizing that we were having a conversation. “I stopped by New Appaloosa for a few sales and a couple bargains. Headin’ back up to Poneva to stock up on some agristuff.”

By agristuff he probably meant food. Real food, I hoped. I cringed at the thought of the vat-grown vegetables and gene-modded apples I used to eat at my stable.

“Poneva, huh? Have you been there before?”

He nodded, “Eeyup.” Well that pony seemed to be a pony of few words.

I frowned at him, waiting for him to continue.

“Well … I’m not from here, either. Came out of a stable not too long ago,” I said, waving my PipBuck. “What’s it like?

His eyes widened at that. “Yer one of them stable fellers! I don’t suppose yer one of them ponies from Stable 2, huh?”

“What? U-uh, no. I’m not,” I said, awkwardly, remembering DJ Pon-3’s fragmented broadcast.

“Oh,” he harrumphed, sighing.

I snorted, “Hope I didn’t disappoint you too much. I’m from Stable 91.”

“Nah, there’s just all this excitement down south ‘bout somepony clearin’ the routes of raiders over by Ponyville.”

“Yeah. I heard …”

“Sorry, heard ‘stable’ and I got ahead of muhself,” he said, holding his hat to his chest. “Well anyways, I’ve been to Poneva a few times. It’s a purty nice city – if ya don’t mind all the gangs and rampaging hooligans and such.”

‘Well fuck,’ I was hoping something more on the lines of ‘jolly, helpful folk who like to organize community events’, instead. ‘But I’m in the wasteland,’ I thought, rolling my eyes, ‘How much more can I expect?’

“That’s good to know, I guess. I was planning on heading up there too.”

The unicorn nodded. “Well for a first timer, pay the toll at the gates and ya probably won’t have no problems," he added, still nodding.

Probably.

I just sighed.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” I picked up my pistol awkwardly in my mouth, slobbering all over it like a mangy dog. The stallion frowned at me.

“Why’re ya holding it like that?”

“My horn ishn’t working right,” I said, struggling through my mouth bit.

His eyes widened as if a lightbulb just flashed over his head. He pumped his hoof into the air, grinning.

“I might just have what ya need, boy! Talk to me after we tussle with these here raiders. I might have something that can help ya.”

Before I could reply, a bullet whizzed past us and blasted skyward a plume of snow behind me.

“They’re here! Everypony, on your hooves!”

Night Sky shouldered her assault rifle, standing upon her hinds.

I chewed on my mouth bit and peeked over the wagon. My EFS blinked red. I saw them. The ponies – no, the furies poked their heads over the snow drifts.

Their deranged laughter filled the air.

The blizzard howled past my ears.

I was running. The gnarled trees blurred past me.

‘Hahahahaha - HAHAHAHAHA!’

'RUN, RED - RUN!'

...

‘No.’

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt.

I turned around and my forehooves clopped against the wagon’s steel frame. I stared out into the drifts as the snow furies rose up from the snow, their whooping cries chasing after my pulse as it pounded in my temples.

Those were the monsters that slaughtered my friends.

I wasn’t going to be a victim.

Not again.

Crack!

A shot pinged against the wagon’s hull a few inches away from my head and I ducked back down.

I closed my eyes and panted through my mouth bit. I needed to make it through that. Alive.

Gunfire erupted between both sides as Bone Charm loosed his saddle-mounted light machine gun, sending the furies diving for cover. Gail swooped overhead, lancing the furies with her battle rifle.

I looked over the wagon and saw a fury's head explode. It was like watching someone hurl a melon at a wall. Thought there wasn’t much pony left. Just chunks of wet melon splattered across the snow.

I swallowed bile down my throat.

“Dear Celestia,” I murmured.

Bone Charm’s machine gun clicked empty. A handful of the furies, brandished axes and machetes, and galloped across the snow towards us. I tensed as their unnerving, deranged laughter echoed through my ears.

The furies that stayed behind had the sense to cover them with gunfire. More shrieking bullets ricocheted off the wagon’s frame a few inches from my face. But this time, I didn’t duck. Something caught my eyes.

I narrowed them at a fury who was just watching the ensuing firefight. Without even a giggle or a curse, it just stood there. Observing. A bullet clipped my collar.

‘Fuck!’

“Here they come!” I heard Sprinkles shout.

I poked my head over again and threw on my training wheels. I marked a target and SATS plotted a firing solution.

Glowing teal markers flashed across the closest fury’s torso and legs.

I tongued the trigger.

The fury took the first few bullets to the chest. He staggered, a grin widening across his face - then my shots blew out his legs.

But he didn't stop.

The stallion clambered towards me, screaming through bloody teeth.

He wouldn’t stop.

“Celestia … how do you kill these things?”

“Shoot ‘em till they’re dead, dumbass!” Bone Charm snarled.

‘Fucking …’ I tongued the trigger. The 10mm rounds bucked in my teeth -

And I missed.

“C’mon partner, pony up!” the trader shouted, blasting apart a fury that came too close with his shotgun.

It just wasn’t the same without my magic.

My eyes caught sight of a submachine gun as it levitated around the corner. The trader saw it too. He was closest to it. The stallion turned just as the glowing, magic-wreathed weapon flashed.

I dove into him, throwing him to the snow.

Bullets kicked me in the ribs.

I wheezed as they punched the air out of my lungs. “SHI - ACK!” I crashed into the snow gasping ragged breaths.

The fury poked her grinning face out from around the corner. Then it exploded in a blast of buckshot. The familiar taste of vomit washed into my mouth.

Panting for air, and with tears in my eyes, I staggered out of cover and took aim once more.

A fury’s nose booped into mine.

“BOO!”

I screamed and felt my pistol kick in my teeth. She slumped on top of me, a demented grin still stretched across her face. I whimpered, struggling to heave her off of me when another fury rounded the corner. My tongue twitched and my shots went wide. The fury whooped, cackling as he took a wild leap, machete swinging for my throat.

I shut my eyes and flinched, waiting to feel the cold touch of steel rip across my flesh.

My eyes flew open just as Gail’s shadow swept over me.

CRACK!

The fury’s throat exploded in a splash of gore. He choked and sputtered, wrapping his hooves around the ragged hole in his neck.

I lunged at the dying fury and jammed my pistol in his mouth.

CRACK! I shook my head vigorously, snarling as the blood flicked off my muzzle. A rusty steel helmet jerked into view. The fury that was wearing it – the one that I crippled earlier - scrambled hungrily after me, brandishing a cleaver and threatening to take my kneecaps off because I apparently took his.

SATS plotted a firing solution through his skull. I watched in horror as the bullet ricocheted inside his helmet.

His head fucking exploded.

I exhaled sharply, swallowing the vomit that hiccuped into my throat.

My ears perked. Hooves plodded behind me. I whirled around just in time to get nicked by a unicorn mare’s glowing switchblade. Its icy edge painted my cheek red with my blood. I winced and side stepped. The mare galloped past me and slammed into the wagon’s frame.

“I’M GOING TO MAKE YOU MY LITTLE GELDLING!" she snarled, snapping her teeth at me as she lunged.

I spun around and flung my hindlegs back. My hooves connected with her chest, and she careened into the wagon once more. I leveled my pistol at her and yanked the trigger back.

It clicked empty.

‘Oh.’

“SHIT!”

I patted down my vest for another magazine. But she was up on her hooves before I could ram it home. “Come on – ”

The fury charged.

I clenched my eyes shut and threw my forelegs in front of me. I caught her head between my hooves. With a snarl, she threw me into the snow - and I drove her face through the powder. I stumbled away, hurling myself into the wagon’s frame and hoofing in a fresh magazine.

The mare tore her head out of the powder, spat out bloody snow and came at me again, snarling like a rabid animal.

I slipped into SATS, and the world seemed to slow around me as my PipBuck calculated math faster than she could move. I tagged her head, and for the longest of heartbeats, I somehow found myself staring into her murderous, black-veined eyes.

They were a lovely shade of blue.

‘Goddesses …’

Those were supposed to be the windows to her soul. But gnarled black veins boarded up any glimpse of the equinity within. The equinity that made a pony … a pony.

She might have been beautiful once. Her delicate white cheeks. Her soft muzzle. Her long, slender neck. But I was too distracted to give them more than a passing thought by the caked-up blood splatters that I knew couldn't have been hers.

Down the length of her coat, through her mangled trousers, I saw that her cutiemark was that of a colorful bird. I wondered, for a moment – ‘Who was she? What was she before she became … that? Was she a bird-keeper? Or maybe she had a marvelous voice?’

I gulped, struggling to queue my shots. Instead I studied her face - her cracked, bloody lips curled with an uneven, demented smile.

I wondered ... was there still a pony beneath that madness? Was there any sense – any reason for – for the carnage around me?

Those maniacs, those degenerates – those were the creatures that skinned Star Glint alive. They blew up Amber in our faces when they could have just killed her and been done with it. They hacked Twirl to pieces like a piece of meat.

They tore Dew Drops apart before my very eyes.

‘Hahahahaha - HAHAHAHAHA –’

I tagged her legs.

The bullets ripped through her and she tumbled from her useless legs into the snow at my hooves. The pale mare let out a tortured moan, thrashing her bloody limbs through the drifts.

“Stop!” I shouted, hoarsely. But she wouldn’t listen. I threw myself over her, pinning her bloodied legs to the snow. Tears streamed down the pony’s grimy cheeks.

“Why are you doing this!?”

The black veins in her sclera receded for the briefest of moments. I heard her murmur something incomprehensible.

“ANSWER ME!”

“I … I …” she whimpered. The pony grinded her teeth and clenched her eyes shut. Her face contorted into an agonizing grimace as if something was ripping her apart from the inside out.

Then her eyelids flew open.

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” she shrieked, a web of throbbing, black tendrils raking across her eyes. She drove her switchblade into me and I screamed through my mouth bit.

My pistol flashed in her eyes.

Her head flopped back into the snow. Blood and brains pooled out the hole in the back of her skull, her lifeless blue eyes gazing blankly back at me. I watched, ripping the switchblade out of me as the black veins receded once more.

“What the fuck are these things…” I murmured, touching the fury’s pale face.

I heard someone scream behind me and turned just in time to see Sprinkles get gutted by a rusty machete. He twisted it, and ripped it out of her with a brutal squelch.

I entered SATS and snapped a shot at his head. My holographic footlights stuttered - and I missed.

“Shit!” I gawked at my depleted SATS charges. I clenched my jaw, watching the fury raise the machete to cleave Sprinkles’ head off. It fell, and in the time it took for me to scream, the fury’s torso blew apart in a hail of machine gun fire.

His carcass danced with the storm of lead, ragged holes tearing across his flesh until he crumbled into the snow like a mangled ragdoll. Bone Charm, his machine gun smoking, screamed for me to duck, and I heard the stomach-churning sound of bloody meat being ripped apart behind me.

I turned and a perforated fury mare splattered next to me, nicking me with a hatchet. I cried out - stumbled back - and collapsed next to a writhing, gory Sprinkles.

“R-Red Dawn!” she spat through a mouthful of blood, clutching her chest with both her forehooves in an attempt to make the bleeding stop.

It didn’t.

The blood was draining from her face.

“My bags … health … potion …”

I bit my lower lip, hoofing through her belongings and pulling out the reddest looking health potion I could find. I tipped it into her open mouth and she gulped it down and all the blood in her throat without another word.

Being injured like that seemed like second nature to her.

I exhaled with relief as her flesh stitched together before my very eyes.

“It’s not over yet,” she growled and spat blood into the snow. Sprinkles reared up on her hinds and shouldered her assault rifle. I frowned as her rifle’s flashing muzzle rewarded her with a distant scream.

An unsettling grin stretched across her face.

I hurried away back to the trader and stumbled into him just as he was cramming his shotgun into a fury's snapping teeth. Blood splattered all over my chest.

I closed my eyes and let out a trembling breath.

“They’re feisty ‘lil shits ain’t they?” I heard him shout over the gunfire, pumping his shotgun. “Ain’t nothin’ like the raiders back at home!”

“That’s because they ain’t,” Bone Charm snarled, feeding a fresh belt into his machine gun’s chamber.

I opened my eyes when I felt something land between my hooves. It started to smoke.

I opened my mouth to scream -

But Sprinkles just snatched it up with a hoof and flung it back the way it came.

“Give a raider what she wants, and she’ll leave you alone,” she said, as a bone jarring explosion sent a cascading shower of gravel and snow over our heads. “Give a fury what she wants, and she’ll eat your face.”

“I’LL FUCKING EAT YOUR FACE!” some insane bitch screamed at us in the distance.

Bone Charm yanked his bolt back.

“You gotta kill ‘em or they won’t stop.”

I peeked over the wagon and saw a plume of gore fountain into the air – the result of Gail’s terrifyingly exceptional aim. The gunfire dwindled for a moment as the furies ducked under the snow drifts.

One fury stood up, and galloped out into the open, screaming like a mad mare. Gail flew circles over us like a hawk, waiting for the right moment to stop, shoulder her rifle, and –

CRACK!

A ragged hole exploded out the fury mare’s chest. The furies laughed as her lifeless corpse collapsed into the bloody snow.

I narrowed my eyes as another snow fury galloped into the open. I could see the yellow, broken teeth of his demented smile.

Gail’s shadow swept over him.

She took aim, and I saw his grin widen.

Furies rose up from the drifts and shouldered their rifles.

Night Sky screamed:

“Shit – SHIT - cover her! GAIL!”

Bone Charm and Sprinkles sprang to their hooves. But it was already too late.

Bullets punched through her in a burst of feathers and blood.

She spun out of the air and careened into the drifts, painting a red arc across the snow as she tried to scramble to her feet. The furies cheered madly, bursting out from behind the pale dunes and galloping after her.

I blinked and saw Lightning Twirl plummet into a mob of giggling psychopaths. I watched her disappear beneath their falling blades.

My jaw clenched.

And I leaped out of cover.

“GAIL!” I cried, galloping towards her.

She clutched her bleeding chest, wheezing ragged gasps as she tried to crawl away from those murderous animals.

For a second I wondered what the fuck I was doing as I pounded through the snow downwind a hail of gunfire.

I barely knew those mercs. I shouldn’t have cared about whether they lived or died. All that mattered was surviving so that my stable could live. I’d sacrifice all those poor, surface dwelling scum if it meant that everyone in my stable survived.

I’d sacrifice them all if it could bring my friends back.

If I died right then and there, all the hope my stable had for survival would have died with me.

But I kept going.

I wasn’t going to let Gail become a victim. Not like my friends. Not like me.

My pulse hammered inside my temples faster than I could put one hoof in front of the other. Pounding straight for me was a fury with a vicious, spiked club.

SATS flashed across my eyes. I blasted apart her chest. She collapsed - screaming past me. I didn’t even lose a single step. I galloped harder - I closed the distance.

Gail cried out as one of the ponies tried to drag her away. I swore under my breath, and snapped into SATS. My shots blew out the fury’s legs from under him. He opened his mouth to scream as I spun around and hurled my hindhooves into his face.

I overextended. Bones broke against my hooves. There was a disgusting snap as I severed his spine.

“HOLY SHIT!” Gail squawked.

That’s exactly what I thought when I fell on my ass wide-eyed and panting.

“Red Dawn - head down!” I heard Bone Charm roar.

A bullet struck me in the back, pancaking against my vest and slamming me face first into the powder. That was painfully convenient because Bone Charm laid down a wide arc of machine gun fire over my mane that sent the furies ducking for cover.

Those that didn’t were torn apart in the stream of lead, laughing in dying ecstasy. I forced myself to my hooves, sputtering through a mouthful of snow before stuffing my face with Gail’s feathers. I groaned, dragging her away from the carnage with my head bowed low as bullets shrieked over me.

Hollow bones or not, she was heavier than I thought.

Night Sky and Sprinkles leaned out of the wagons and kept the furies’ heads down when Bone Charm’s machine gun ran dry.

I was almost there - until someone tackled me into the snow.

A fury howled into my face, spraying my muzzle with fetid ropes of spittle. I tried shoving her away, but she had me pinned down as she levitated a metal apple before my eyes. She cackled, biting off the pin and releasing the lever with a metallic chink!

It began to puff smoke. Horror drained the blood from my face.

Bullets slammed into her, but she didn’t drop. The crazed mare stabbed her hooves into my throat, squeezing the life out of me, even as her blood dribbled out through her yellowed teeth and onto my face.

I choked, my eyes rolling to the back of my head as I battered her face with my hooves in vain. She didn’t relent.

Black veins began rooting their dark tendrils in the shrinking tunnels of my eyes.

“HAHAHAHAHA –”

‘No.’

Something snapped inside of me.

“I ... won’t ... be ... A VICTIM!” I screamed, and swung a foreleg into her horn. The fury yelped. Her magic flickered - and winked out.

The smoking metal apple dropped to the snow.

I heaved her over it.

There was a skull-splitting CRACK - then nothing. In a flash, the world around me exploded in a roiling plume of shrapnel and gore. The blast jarred my insides. It rattled my bones. It hurled me a foot off the ground - and I landed in the unrecognizable remains of the mare’s chest cavity.

I forced myself to my wobbly hooves and stumbled away in a hazy daze, trailing gore and viscera between my rickety legs. My hoof slipped in the mare’s steaming innards and I squelched into the bloody snow next to Gail’s writhing body.

I found one of her wings and proceeded to haul her back to the wagon. The adrenaline in my veins was abating and I could feel my jaw slackening, my legs tiring, my lungs struggling to fill with air through Gail’s feathers and my teeth. I dragged her through the blurriness of my eyes, refusing to give in, refusing to die so easily.

Those snow furies made my friends and I victims before – and I wasn’t about to let them make me one again.

With a final, exhausted cry, I heaved her behind the wagon formation and spat out a mouthful of her feathers before collapsing next to her, gasping for air. Gail’s talons raked at my barding as she writhed and kicked her legs, choking on her own blood. I didn’t even seem to notice as my head spun and I tried to blink away the shock of being blown up for the second time in the last few days. I couldn’t even make out the plume of feathers that was supposed to be on her head through the fog that clouded my eyes.

I did all I could for her. So I rolled over and heaved the contents of my stomach underneath Night Sky’s wagon.

The gunfire had died down by the time I regained the strength to sit on my haunches. When clarity did return, I found that the others were already attending to Gail’s wounds. She hacked up splotches of scarlet that melted through the snow, clawing at her ribcage in a vain attempt to slow the bleeding as her lungs filled with blood.

“H-how - how bad is it?” I sputtered in between breaths.

Sprinkles knelt next to me, resting against her assault rifle. “As long as it went through her, she should be fine.”

“Look for an exit wound,” Night Sky said to Bone Charm, jostling the wheezing griffon. He rolled her over, and Bone Charm let out a breath of relief when he saw the bloody splotch on the other side.

Flopping her onto her back, Bone Charm wrenched her mouth open and levitated a potion to her beak. Gail clenched the potion in her talons and gulped it down. She moaned, curling up into a ball and heaving her chest violently to fill her regenerating lungs.

The steel-faced stallion just stared. I met his eyes and pursed my lips as we looked at each other for too many seconds. I expected him to berate me; I probably would have too, risking my life like that.

But he nodded once, and attended to his adoptive daughter.

“You ain’t so bad,” he muttered, "Not so bad for a stable pony.”

A thin smile stretched across my lips.

I knelt next to the convulsing griffon. Gail tipped her head up to see me and smiled painfully through her bloody beak, reddish spittle dribbling down her neck.

“Thanks –” she gasped raggedly for a breath of air, “– Red… can I call you that?”

A narrow smile reached across the corners of my lips, my heart warming.

“That’s my name.”

She looked overjoyed. “I owe you one, Red,” Gail rasped, laying down flat on her back, her breaths stabilizing.

“You don’t owe me anything,” I murmured. I didn’t think I would've been able to survive that had the other mercs not jumped in. A darker corner of my mind told me I shouldn’t have risked my life for that griffon, let alone for a bastard like Bone Charm.

But the gratefulness that widened across her beak and the relief in the grizzled unicorn’s eyes trickled white paint down the narrow black walls of my conscience. I stuck my tongue out and hoofed a rogue feather out of my mouth. Then I spat out a few down feathers too.

“That was probably the closest I’ve ever had to tasting chicken,” I smirked.

Gail’s struggle to contain her laughter resulted in a fit of ragged, wet coughs.

“You’ve still got a few feathers on your back,” I said, folding my legs across my chest. “That’s all that matters.”

She just sighed, unfurled her wing and preened at her bloody spots. “I guess you’re right. You sticking around for some more?”

I looked out into the snow and around us. Dead ponies lay strewn about across the snow drifts, probably doomed to freeze where they fell. Not too far from our wagon formation, I frowned at a crater with half a pony lying in it.

“I ah …” I didn’t have enough in my stomach to hurl again. I’ve had the urge to do that too many times that day. It seemed too easy for those mercs.

I shivered. It shouldn’t have been that easy for me.

My frown turned to a glare as my eyes panned over the pale coat of the fury I tried talking to earlier. Those weren’t ponies. Those were monsters. Furies. And I wasn’t going to be another one of their victims. Not while so many lives rested on my hooves.

I figured that if I was going to survive, I couldn’t hesitate. Hesitation was going to get me killed.

I rubbed my hooves together in the snow, trying to clean the blood off my legs.

“Whatever gets me to Poneva,” I said, softly.

The sound of hooves crunching through the snow behind me made me jump. I clenched my mouth bit and almost shot the trader in the face as he approached.

“Whoa nelly, you’re a jumpy one, ain’t ya?” he said with a wry grin.

I exhaled heavily. “Sorry, thought you were one of those…” I glanced at their mangled corpses, spitting out my mouth bit “… those psychos.”

He nodded and levitated out a strange blue bottle out of his saddle bags.

“Listen here, kid, ya saved my ass earlier - and I ain’t the ungrateful bastard.”

I shook my head, waving it off with a forehoof.

“I’m sure whatever you’re paying Night Sky will cover it –“

“I never said that Night Sky mare saved my ass –” He tipped his hat at me. “I said you.”

I frowned.

“Well, I suppose it’d be rude,” I muttered, pursing my lips. The blue liquid swirled gently inside the shot glass sized bottle. “What is it?”

He pointed a forehoof at my horn, “It’s called Sparkle. Makes your magic stronger. Should boost you up good – might even bring yer magic back for a bit. Ain’t as helpful as a week of rest, but it might do ya good if ya use it in a pinch.” The unicorn floated it to me, balancing it on my nose. “But I said, use it in a pinch. This ain’t no potion ya just drink and forget.”

I scrunched my muzzle and tossed my head back, catching it in my mouth. I snorted, amused with myself. I wondered if I could live as a glorified earth pony with a horn for the rest of my life. I squinted at the bottle in between my teeth, sloshing around its contents.

‘Nah.’

“Then ... what is it?” I asked.

He leaned against the wagon, giving me a stern look. “I just told you. It might bring your magic back. For a bit. And not much longer.”

“Sure,” I said, nodding my head slowly. Craning my head over my shoulder, I dropped it in my saddle bag. “Thanks!” I said with a nervous smile.

“No problemo,” he drawled, starting back to his wagon. “I’ll leave it to ya mercs, then.” He paused. “I didn’t even get yer name, boy?”

I zipped my bag closed, and turned to trot back to the caravan’s lead wagon.

“Red Dawn," I said, glancing over my shoulder.

“Name’s Duster, and nice to meet ya, Red Dawn. Might see ya again one day after this,” he said, plodding through the powder. He glanced over his shoulder. “Might not.”

I paused for a moment.

‘Huh?’

I waved at him as we mounted up on our wagons, trying furtively to suppress the apprehensive look on my face.

Chapter 3 - Dust and Echoes - Pt IV

We dropped Duster off at Dusktown and headed further north on our wagon, this time, with Bone Charm pulling it. Goddesses, was that stallion strong … especially for a unicorn. We weren’t even following a road. Bone Charm pulled us uphill through a broken, rugged path. I couldn’t see the usual wagon lines in the snow – but the earth beneath us was heavily trodden with hoof prints.

The skies had darkened significantly since the last I saw it. I slept for most of the way, and so did Gail. The griffoness, however, was still napping.

I yawned, rubbing my eyes with my forehooves. Looking around, I noticed everyone was still armed. I wondered why we were packing so much heat, given the contract we were pursuing.

Sitting in an alcove in the wagon’s frame was a metal tube. Several rocket propelled grenades rested against it.

“What the hell is that for?”

Night Sky sat up from the wagonbed. “It’s just for diplomacy.”

“Diplomacy?” I glanced at the launcher’s carrying case, reading its label.

I snorted, “Sure. Your kevlar-plated barding really screams ‘compromise’.”

She chuckled, letting out a long, drawn out sigh. “I know you’re new to this wasteland shite, but zeds aren’t exactly the kind of blokes to just lift an ear to us ponies.”

“I’d imagine. We fought a war with them.” I sat on my hind legs, eyeing the labels stenciled on the rockets. ‘HE-I’, I read along the crimson munitions.

“Not we. We never fought them. They’re the ones still fighting us,” Night Sky muttered, closing her eyes.

“Could’ve sworn the war ended 200 years ago,” I murmured. A widening mass of snow covered pines crept closer and closer as the wagon made its way through the snow. “What exactly are we doing out here?”

Bone Charm glanced at me over his shoulder.

“They killed Lumberjack and his colts two weeks ago while they were out looking for firewood,” he muttered in his gravelly voice. “Killed ‘em … even the colts.” Bone Charm shook his head and continued, “One of the boys made it back to town, barely alive. Said that the three of them walked in on a bunch of zebra loggers and got attacked on the spot for trespassing.” Bone Charm’s tone chilled me to the bone. “We’re going to pay them a visit and find the pony murderin’ son of a bitch who done did it.”

I wrapped my forelegs around my chest.

“So the five of us are going into zebra territory with the possibility of provoking more of them ourselves?” I cocked an eyebrow. “That’s smart. You know, there’s bound to be more of them than us. And you make it sound like they won’t just hand the zebra over.”

“That’s why diplomacy’s on our side,” Night Sky chuckled grimly.

I wondered what the ‘HE-I’ stenciled onto its case meant.

Sprinkles loaded a magazine into her assault rifle and drew it across the path in front of us. “They come to our land, our Equestria, hallowed by our dead, plant their flag down, and settle it when everypony’s gone. Then, on top of that, they go around killing anypony else that so much as breathes their air.”

My jaw clenched at that. ‘Just what I needed to hear,’ I thought, ‘More pony killing monsters.

I looked out into the distance. ‘Is this what Equestria’s come to?’

I wondered if the zebras in our textbooks were true: striped, red eyed, shark-toothed killing machines. The last part, at least, seemed to match Sprinkles’ description.

“They sound no better than the snow furies,” I sneered bitterly.

Night Sky met my dark eyes. “I’d say it’s about time we taught those grotty little shites a lesson.”

She leaned against the wagon’s frame. “We ponies just want to survive out here without stepping on anyone’s feet. The bloody zeds have raided Dusktown’s shops in the past, and I’m not about to let those striped fucks make our lives harder than they already are.”

A plume of smoke drifted lazily into the sky above the pine trees in the distance. We were near.

I counted the rounds in my magazine.

“Let’s find this bastard.”

The others were silent after that, loading their weapons. I poked Gail with a forehoof and she shook herself into lucidity.

“We there yet?” she yawned, putting on her battle saddle.

Night Sky got to her hooves and peered over Bone Charm’s mane. I frowned, an incredulous look stretching across my face. I expected the same weather-beaten, corrugated masses that made up Dusktown’s buildings.

But before us was a small circle of gnarled, wooden cabins surrounding a smoldering bonfire. There wasn’t a single mote of light in those cabins. I would have thought the zebra village were dead if there weren’t equine shapes milling about outside in their tattered, inadequate clothes.

The ramshackle village was overshadowed by an icy cliff face that stretched its wind-swept boulders over their shacks, like a roof that was halfway there.

The zebras noticed our final approach. I expected a hail of bullets. Instead, they scurried inside their homes, slamming their doors shut. A zebra mare herded her foals inside her cabin, meeting my baffled stare for the briefest of moments before slamming the door closed behind her.

“Arses out,” Night Sky ordered as the wagon came to a stop just outside the village. "Let's get this over with and get paid." The mercs dismounted, Bone Charm shaking off the wagon’s harness before rummaging through the wagon.

I kept my eyes on the village, chills running down my spine at how empty and dilapidated the shoddy buildings looked. Not too far from our wagon and underneath the shadow of the cliff face, were several rows of lonely gravestones.

While everyone else was grabbing their weapons, I just stood there, unsure of what to do with myself. I turned to look at Gail, and saw that her eyes were devoid of … of anything in particular.

Everyone had this grim, glazed over look that sent shivers down my spine.

“Bonehead, I want you up on that cliff with the RPG. Gail, circle the village from the air. Both of you know what to do,” Night Sky said chillingly. She turned to face me. “Red Dawn, you and Sprinkles are with me.”

She glanced over her shoulder as a group of zebra stallions came out of the cabins, regarding us expectantly. “Bonehead, Gail, take your positions. You two –” She nodded at Sprinkles and I. “Follow my lead.”

I gulped as we slogged through the knee-deep snow. I hoped I wasn’t wrong. I hoped those zebras were feral beasts, just waiting to murder us when we turned our backs on them or looked away. They just stood there, shivering with dark looks in their eyes as they watched us approach.

We trotted up to the largest of the cabins, with an entourage of zebras waiting for us on its front porch.

“Wotcher, zeds!” Night Sky grinned, trotting up to the mob.

A middle-aged zebra stepped forward. “Not too close, pony!” he growled. The other zebras brandished underappreciated handguns and warped blades.

“Whoa there lads, we’re just here to find someone we’re looking for.” Night Sky’s foreleg twitched visibly as her hoof almost reached for her assault rifle.

The zebra in charge, I assumed, narrowed his distrustful eyes at the heavily-armed mercs.

“There were five of you when you came.”

Sprinkles gave him a shady grin. “Oh they’re still here, don’t you worry ...”

The zebras shifted uncomfortably on their hooves. A younger stallion who looked about my age shifted his gaze away from me in fear. I wasn’t even visibly armed.

“I think you zebras know why we’re here,” Night Sky began, taking a few steps towards the group. Most of them glared at her menacingly. A few of them took a step back. “One of you zed bastards killed a few ponies from Dusktown. Murdered a stallion and his two boys. I was hoping you’d tell me where I could find him?”

Zebra Leader’s jaw clenched. The others looked at him, but no one said a word.

Night Sky scoffed, “Seeing as how you zebras don’t like to mingle, I can’t think of anywhere else he might be.”

Their leader looked at his hooves, shaking his head, slowly.

“He’s here,” he said, in a quiet voice.

"Oh yeah?" she chuckled. Night Sky looked somewhat relieved, as if she took a difficult job only to have the workload halved. “We’re here to take him into custody.” Her expression blackened. “He’s coming with us.”

The zebras exchanged grim-faced looks as their leader shook his head.

“He did nothing wrong, and he is not going with you ponies.”

My eyes caught a black shape at the top of the cliff, a long tube like weapon hovering in the air beside it. A winged silhouette circled above us like a carrion bird.

“I don’t think you quite understand,” Night Sky began, evenly. “I didn’t ask.”

The aged stallion stomped his hoof in the snow, the stallions behind him jeering at us in their alien tongues. “And I said no! He didn’t attack them.” He narrowed his eyes at us. “He was carrying home firewood when those thieves threatened to steal them!”

I shifted on my hooves.

“That isn’t the story I heard,” I said out loud. The zebras looked at me with distant hope in their eyes. Night Sky and Sprinkles just glared at me.

“Remember that these aren’t your trees, zebra," Sprinkles shot him a baleful look that spelled out murder. “That firewood didn’t belong to him.”

“Fuck you ponies!” a stallion shouted, stabbing his shotgun into the air. “Leave us alone!”

Another jutted a foreleg at us accusingly. “You take, and take - you leave nothing for us!”

“These trees, this land – it belongs to neither of us,” Zebra Leader said, sweeping his foreleg across the trees. “We cannot survive this winter without fire. These trees keep us alive - and you can’t deprive of us of what isn’t yours.”

Night Sky grew impatient. “I don’t give a shite about your trees – I want that zed, and I want him now!” she snarled, baring her teeth.

“No,” he told her, evenly. “He hasn’t done anything wrong. Go back to your Dusktown and be happy that nobody else had to die. Leave us alone, and do not come back.”

“Night Sky …” I murmured, noticing the foals staring at me through the windows.

She shook her head, smirking. “I’m no goody horseshoes, zebra. I’m a mercenary, and I’m getting my caps either way.” Night Sky snorted, craning forward her neck and smiling wickedly. She said, in a low voice, "Don't make us take him from you.”

The zebra stallion did not take that kindly.

“You … you would kill us?” he began, his voice trembling. The zebras crowded around him, baring their teeth. “Don’t be foolish, pony!”

To my shock, my eyes widened as the zebras stood up on their hinds and walked toward us – something I’ve never seen a pony do for more than a few seconds – aiming at us with the weapons curled between their hooves.

I gulped.

“You ponies wouldn’t dare!” a stallion snarled, brandishing a rusty axe as he strode towards us on his two hindlegs.

I took a step back.

“They are outnumbered – we kill them now!”

“Oo – patayin natin sila!” said another agreeably, glaring at us.

Zebra Leader held out his forehooves and held his kin back. “Hindi! No one else needs to die.” He turned to us, pleadingly. “Don’t do this, ponies, it isn’t worth it! Think of our foals!”

“I’m going to ask one more time," Night Sky said, nonchalantly. She hoofed her assault rifle, undaunted by the zebras who each now stood an entire head taller than us. Sprinkles did the same. “Give us the damned zed, and we’ll be on our way.”

My breaths were shallow and far in between as they stared gravely at one another, murmuring in their alien tongues. Just when I thought it was going to end in a bloodbath, a young stallion pushed past the zebras.

“It was me,” a mare’s trembling voice murmured. I narrowed my eyes at her. ‘Her?’

Her zebra kin shouted at her, trying to pull her back.

“Grasya!” the elder stallion yanked her away from us.

The young mare shrugged him off, standing at the edge of the porch.

Goddesses.

She didn’t look older than fifteen or sixteen.

“Just take me with you and don’t hurt anyone else … please. Let’s stop this madness.”

The zebra leader gawked. “No, you are not going anywhere!” he shouted, stepping in front of the zebra. He held her close. “You know what they will do to you!”

Night Sky grew impatient. Her voice trembled with mounting frustration. “Hand her over, now, and we’ll be out of your mane,” she ordered. Sprinkles looked like she was fighting the urge to pull the trigger.

“Look around you, you ponies! See our village – see our poverty! Have you no shame, living in your Dusktown while we freeze to death in the snow?” he snapped. “Too many of us died this winter, and if we lose any more … when the Tempest comes … our village will surely die! We have too many tools and not enough zebras to use them.” He wrenched Grasya away with a forehoof. “You’re taking from beggars, can’t you see?”

Night Sky and Sprinkles looked at each other in exasperation. They didn’t care.

“Leave our village – leave, and don’t come back!” the zebra growled.

The mercs chambered rounds into their rifles.

One of the zebra stallions racked his shotgun’s slider.

“NO!” Zebra Leader shouted to the others as they started forward. “Huwag mo silang patulan!” But his words did nothing to calm them. “This is what they want! Don’t give it to them!”

The zebra shouldered his shotgun.

Zebra leader flung his forehooves in front of him. “NO -”

Night Sky tipped her head to the side.

CRACK!

My heart skipped a beat.

The zebra’s head exploded in a shower of bone and gore.

Warm chunks splattered across my face.

An explosion ripped through the hut behind them, and I watched as the night turned to day. The jarring shockwave blasted apart its walls and tore down its ceiling, hurling zebras off their hooves. Grasya’s eyes widened at me in horror. I watched as she disappeared beneath the collapsing debris.

I opened my mouth to scream – and Night Sky and Sprinkles sunk their triggers back.

The zebra with the shotgun convulsed – screaming, ragged, bloody holes exploding across his entire body. He took a bleeding step forward before his chest blew out in a splash of gore, Gail’s black form sweeping over us.

“Stop!” I shrieked over the gunfire, blood streaming down my face as the zebras collapsed into the melting, crimson snow. “STOP!”

But they didn’t.

Zebras stumbled out of the flames. Their coats sloughed off and their manes burned away with every step they took, collapsing to the snow to smolder and smoke like discarded, overcooked heaps of meat. Those who made it out in time before the fires could engulf them galloped away from the inferno to safety.

But Night Sky swung her rifle wide to meet them. She mowed them down. Every single one of them.

The mercs cut them down with short, controlled, well-placed bursts.

It was target practice.

It was a massacre.

I covered my ears with my hooves and sank into the snow, shrieking my throat raw. But my voice and hooves alone couldn’t drown out their horrifying, agonizing screams as everyone burned and died around me.

Everyone. Burned. Butchered.

All the while, explosions ripped across the village. Some tried to flee, only to be crushed beneath the rubble – or gunned down as they fled. Others simply ceased to exist as Bone Charm sent rocket after rocket shrieking into the village.

And another, and another.

CRACK!

Another zebra to feed the flames.

Something broke apart inside of me. The world around me seemed to quake as a scream fought its way to my throat.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?” I wailed, tackling Night Sky to the ground.

“Get the fuck off me, Red Dawn!” she screamed, bucking me off of her.

“You killed them!” I howled, galloping after her with my horn bowed forward. “YOU FUCKING KILLED THEM –”

She sidestepped and held out a foreleg – and I slammed muzzle-first into the snow. I rose to my haunches. And stayed that way. Wicked firelight danced across my blood-drained face.

A cabin exploded to my left, showering my huddled form with gravel and debris. Small shapes scrambled out of it as its roof began to collapse.

The mercs turned to face them.

My heart nearly skipped a beat.

‘No.’

Night Sky lifted a hoof.

And the foals scrambled away, shrieking into the night. One of the fillies stopped outside the porch as her brothers and sisters fled into the darkness.

The gunfire stopped. Heads turned. We watched in suffocating silence as a zebra mare, charred from head to toe, stumbled out of the cabin.

Her eyelids were fused shut. And yet she knew when she heard her daughter’s voice.

She fell to her haunches beside to her, saying not a single word as the filly wrapped her little legs around her mother’s charred trembling body. She wept, burying her muzzle into her mother’s blackened, flaking coat. I watched as the mare with the burned out eyes slowly drew her daughter close and squeezed her tight, her shoulders rocking with agonizing sobs.

The filly threw her head back and let out an anguished wail that shook me to the core. She hugged her mother close. Her mother … butchered and cooked like a piece of meat.

She screamed until she screamed her throat raw. She screamed until her mother’s trembling legs stilled. Until her mother’s limp body slumped into snow.

Dead.

Another zebra to feed the flames.

All around me, the hellish inferno devoured the town, painting my coat white with its cruel glow. I stared into the flames with watery eyes and the flames stared back, the dying shrieks of zebras echoing distantly in my ears.

The flames told me that I was wrong.

Night Sky told me that I had to be willing to do anything I could to survive … but not like that! Goddesses, not like that! Those zebras – they had sons and daughters and husbands and wives – those mercs – those monsters were no better than the snow furies that slaughtered my friends!

How could I have just stood there and watched!? I watched as those monsters slaughtered everyone, and even then, my hooves were drenched with their blood.

I knew then that there was something monstrous about people who did nothing. People who did nothing as evil carried out its work.

I … could have done something. But I didn’t.

I just... watched.

‘… you’ve got to do what you need to do, Red Dawn,’ Night Sky’s voice echoed in my thoughts. ‘Maybe even if that means you live and some poor sod doesn’t …’

‘Whatever it takes…’ I heard myself say.

I clamped down on my pistol’s mouth bit and leveled it at Night Sky, toggling SATS. ‘I won’t be like her!’ I screamed inside of me, ‘I won’t let the wasteland turn me into a monster!’

Night Sky’s weapon flashed sluggishly as glowing teal crosshairs coalesced before my eyes. I watched. The world seemed to slow … and so did the zebra on the other end of Night Sky’s assault rifle. Tracers speared through her body as she tipped forward, threatening to topple into the drifts.

I mashed all my SATS charges and tagged Night Sky’s fucking head until they were spent, my tears glistening in the fiery glow.

My firing solution was true. But my conscience was not. My body tensed, and I hesitated. I simply couldn’t do it.

It was no use. I’d join the zebras if I did.

I let go.

I let go, and watched the zebra tumble end over end into the snow in a heap, leaving a ragged trail of blood behind her. Blood pooled around her, her legs twitching uncontrollably as she perished. Then nothing.

It was over.

We were done.

And so were the zebras.

Only the moaning of crumbling, burning wood remained. I stood there, unable to move, unable to rationalize what those ponies did.

I fell to my haunches, my crooked shadow billowing across the snow. Bathed in the cruel firelight, my conscience cried out in purgatory.

Gail crunched her paws into the snow behind me. The shadow of her winged form engulfed mine.

“Ready for Poneva, Red?” she asked, cheerily.

I crawled across the snow to the zebra mare that Night Sky gunned down. She was still breathing, taking ragged, shallow breaths as she teetered on the edge of life and death. I knelt over her, cradling the mare’s head in my hooves.

“I’m … I’m sorry ...” I whispered, holding her gently as she sputtered and choked. She pawed desperately at my cheek with a hoof, smearing her blood across my face. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know they’d do this … I’m not a monster … I’m not like them … please …”

I felt her hoof grasp my collar, her grip withering away as the seconds beat by with the waning pulse of her dying heart. We locked gazes for the briefest of moments.

Then the mare gurgled through a mouthful of blood. Her fluttering brown eyes met mine before they blinked for the last time. They stared back, lifeless and blank as I held her limp corpse.

Dead.

I hung my head low, trembling uncontrollably.

“What’ve you done … what’ve you done Gail? What’ve you people done …”

She didn’t answer me, her white feathers glowing a fiery orange.

“Was it worth it? Was it worth the fucking caps?”

She looked at her feet.

“You’re right … you’re no victim, Gail,” I said to her, my voice faltering. The griffon came to me, resting her claws on my shoulder. I shook her off, standing to my hooves.

“You’re a monster.”

She turned her head away from me, gazing into the flames. "I … I ..." her voice trailed off into silence.

I left her, trudging away from the funeral pyre.

Goddesses. I believed in them. I believed that they were right, that anything was worth doing to survive ... even if it meant that people died and I lived.

‘Was this what it took?’ I asked myself. ‘Was this going to be my life?’

I didn't know anymore.

But Night Sky was right about one thing: I couldn't escape it. That wasn't going to be the end of it. I realized then that if the wasteland didn’t kill me, it was going to kill my soul.

I followed them that far.

And that was as far as I was going to go.

‘Anywhere but here. Goddesses … anywhere but here.’

Footnote: Level up.
New Perk: Rapid Reload – All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster than normal.

Chapter 4 - Bad Pony - Pt I

Even in the distance, I could still see their village burning. Behind me, it was a dimly glowing ember in a sea of shifting snow. Their screams permeated my thoughts. Night Sky’s words blackened my conscience. It wasn’t right. They murdered those zebras, and they’d do it again if they could.

At the end of the day they’d get their caps.

I trudged through the fetlock deep snow, and at the end of the day, my hooves were still be empty. They did what I could not and could never have. They were doers. They were survivors.

And I was still a victim.

I made the choice of walking away from my only safe means of travel to Poneva.

I chose to be a good pony – at the cost of my stable. Every hour, every day spent out there was another day sheared off my stable’s lifespan. I wasted my time – I wasted their time! I threw out the window the time I spent with those mercs, all because I chose to have a conscience. All because I chose not be a monster.

All because I chose to be a good pony.

A darker part of my soul reasoned with me. I should have stayed with those mercs. I probably would’ve been in Poneva by then. I’d have a water talisman in my hooves and I’d be able to return to my stable, close those doors behind me, and forget about everything outside.

I threw my head back and screamed in frustration, stomping my hooves into the snow. I would have sacrificed those zebras a hundred times over if it meant my stable lived! Those surface dwelling scum shouldn’t have meant anything to me!

There was nothing left on the surface to save.

There was a reason why we never opened our doors … and the wasteland was it.

My stable … my stable was my world, and my world was my stable. I didn’t belong outside. My bloodshot eyes absorbed my surroundings: there was nothing but the chilling breeze as it blew powder over the pale dunes all around me. I was in the middle of nowhere.

Again.

All because I chose to be a good pony. The first ponies I met slaughtered my friends. The next group slaughtered an entire village of zebras. Was there anything that made those two groups different? What use was there being good if everyone I saw, everyone I met … wasn’t? It’d be a disadvantage. It’d make me weak.

It’d make me a dead pony.

For a moment, at Dusktown, I had hope. Hope that the darkness that wouldn’t leave that land didn’t blackened the hearts of everyone. I knew then as I plodded across the ashen drifts, that there were monsters in all of us.

There was a monster inside of Gail.

I knew that there was one in me too.

For hours that felt like days, I slogged through the snow as the faint twilight of day became darker and darker like light waning through the crack of a closing door. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, and in the distance – watching me were a dozen hunched over silhouettes, stalking through the falling darkness.

Bloodletters.

I tried counting them, but the wind that swept across the drifts distorted their dark, canine shapes with gusts of powdery snow. They blinked red on my EFS at least two or three at a time, before fading away from my range of detection. They followed me, close enough to see me, but not close enough for me to see them.

It didn’t take sapience to know that there was one of me, and a hell of a lot more of them.

I didn’t know what to expect – I didn’t want to know what those creatures could do. I gulped. I needed to find shelter, or someplace I could wall off or hide in.

If that could even stop them.

The pace of my hoofsteps quickened.

I looked behind me once more. Their shapes bobbed and slunk in the distance … following me.

I approached a steep incline and slid carefully down a massive hill of snow until I felt my hooves sink into the powder. My momentum pushed my hooves deeper – until they clopped dully against solid stone. My PipBuck told me that I entered a different zone. The Crystal Highway.

‘Thank Celestia,’ I thought.

At least I was getting somewhere. I glanced over my shoulder and didn’t see a single bloodletter behind me. But just because I couldn’t see them, didn’t mean they couldn’t see me.

‘Oh fuck.’

My eyes darted across the snow, scrutinizing the jagged cliffs that loomed over me. I was standing in a wide crack in the earth. For miles behind me, and miles ahead me, the canyon stretched onward. Winding through it was an eight lane highway that ran off in both directions.

I glared at the hill over my shoulder. It was too steep to climb back up.

There was no way out. All that was left was a lonely highway that hopefully led me to Poneva. So I started walking.

I glanced around, my PipBuck’s teal glow illuminating the graveyard of overturned, melted autowagons before me. Their blackened, twisted metal frames were like skeletons, littering the snow by the hundreds for miles upon miles – far beyond what my eyes could see.

And yet I could still walk among them, through them, around them. I would’ve thought that the highways would be packed bumper to bumper as everyone fled from the falling bombs. Spring Song knew. She and her family knew that the balefire would come … and yet they didn’t try to run.

Those ponies and their autowagons didn’t try, either. It was as if they didn’t even known what was coming.

I absorbed with my bloodshot eyes the vast expanse of melted wagon frames, and the shattered lane dividers, and the fractured bones that poked out of the blackened debris. I tried to imagine a different world. I tried to imagine what the world looked like before the world burned.

Around me flashed lanes of bustling autowagons, rumbling up and down the asphalt roads – a normal business day in Equestria, just like in the books.

Life had been going on as usual.

Life had been going on as usual when the balefire ended all life.

I blinked, and all I saw was a grim reminder of the wartime past. With nowhere to go but forward and back, I slogged onward through the snow-buried highway, passing under the pitch black shadows of fallen bridges and the tattered cliffs that hung over me.

Lightning Twirl’s words echoed in my head, ‘Follow the highway, and you’ll get somewhere.’

That somewhere, I prayed, was Poneva.

I trudged onward, following a long wagon-sized path that was bulldozed through the steel graveyard. It looked like a stampede plowed through the lanes, knocking aside and crushing the twisted metal skeletons against the shoulders to make room for traveling wastelanders.

But the snow there looked like it hadn’t been touched in ages. The powder was fresh.

The only trail I could see was the trail I was leaving behind me.

By chance I came across a wagon that was flipped over so that one set of its blackened wheel spokes was pointing skywards. I lowered myself to my chest and peeked underneath it through the gutter between its hull and the snow that buried it. With grim curiosity, I waved my PipBuck at its mouth and caught a flash of white.

I started digging. I dredged the hole deeper into the gutter, sweeping the freezing powder away until I could see inside the pitch black interior of the overturned wagon. The light of my PipBuck’s screen parted the darkness like curtains on a stage.

Skeletons. Four of them.

Some of the bones were too small to belong to that of a full grown mare or stallion.

My expression went grim as I stared into the wagon’s charred contents. There was not a single piece of luggage in sight. They didn’t know. Goddesses, how didn’t they know?

I gulped down a heavy lump in my throat as I stared at a small, half-buried shape in the snow. It was a foal.

‘Mommy …’ whispered a tiny voice from the shattered, grinning skull that peered up at me.

‘NOOO!’

I leaped to my hooves and banged my head against the wagon bed. My PipBuck flashed. Shadows loomed over me.

I shrieked – squeezed my eyes shut, and scrambled out of the darkness, my PipBuck’s beam flashing against their broken bones, painting their dying, anguished shadows against the wagon’s innards. I wrenched myself out of the darkness, gasping frantically for my breath as I kicked my hind legs away from that cold metal coffin.

I stared into the darkness with wide eyes, the screams of Spring Song’s foals slowly fading away into the breeze. I sat there as the wind wept a solemn song, my heavy breaths hissing through my lips with wisps of white vapor. Many shuddering seconds passed before I finally made my way back to the wagon and, with my forehooves, swept them over the gutter, filling it with snow.

I left the wagon behind me. I didn’t look back.

Once more I began the long walk down the lonely highway, into the darkness as the snowfall thickened. I stopped every now and then to pan my PipBuck’s teal light across the frigid snow swirls. Even inside the thick fabrics of my barding, I was cold – but inside, I was even colder. Desperation was all that was keeping me going. That road would take me to whatever end awaited me. I just knew it.

If waiting for me there wasn’t the salvation my stable needed, I didn’t know if a life outside was worth living. The dead called out to me to join them. The memories of Spring Song and her foals still haunted me even after I buried them. I knew they weren’t real. They were long dead. But I couldn’t stop shaking.

I was soft, like putty, and the wasteland was leaving its marks.

The night was now pitch black. It felt like I had been walking for hours, alone, when a yellow light shined upon my flank. It engulfed me in its glow, painting my shadow against the drifts.

I turned wearily, my right foreleg held over my eyes, shielding them from the glare. My pupils contracted as a large black mass with a strobe light trained upon me approached. Its rumbling engine was getting closer. I gulped a heavy lump down my throat as I stood my ground, unsure what to expect. As the autowagon closed in, several silhouetted equine heads bobbed in my direction.

The black mass stopped. I waited for their maniacal cackles, for a hail of bullets, hell, maybe even a rocket propelled grenade. Instead, eight ponies hopped over the wagon’s sideboards, the vehicle’s light still trained on me.

I reached out with a trembling foreleg and flashed them with my PipBbuck’s beam. Eight hooded ponies in thick snow barding trotted toward me. Held in their mouths or hooves, or floating next to them were an assortment of automatic weapons. To my grim relief, they weren’t furies. But for some reason, I didn’t really feel very relieved.

A stallion with a machine pistol trotted up to me, my apprehension reflecting dully in his battered black goggles. I didn’t dare to make any sudden movements.

“Lookit what we got here,” he said as I shielded my eyes with a foreleg. “Where’re you headed, boy?” the unicorn stallion drawled.

I gulped, taking a step back, narrowing my eyes at them.

“What does it matter to you?”

The sound of someone yanking his weapon’s charging handle pushed me another step back.

“Just wonderin’. Not that many ponies go this way up to Poneva on hoof. In fact, not that many ponies go up this way to Poneva at all, let alone by themselves.”

I snorted. So that road did lead to Poneva after all. “Well, no shit,” I murmured. “If you knew already, why’d you ask?”

The stallion glanced over at the others.

“Thought that since we was headin’ that same way, you might like to hitch a ride with us,” he said, reaching out with a foreleg. He grinned under his hood.

I shook my head, backing away carefully. “I won’t be going anywhere with anybody …” Every hoofstep I took back, they took another forward. “I can make it there myself.”

“Come on, boy. It’s dangerous out here, bloodletters and haunters and furies and such. It ain’t safe out here on your own.”

“No,” I said, firmly. I made it that far by myself, and I was intending on keeping it that way. Alive, alone, and away from those ponies, whoever they were.

I turned and started to trot the other way.

His grin widened as he shook his head.

“Hold on, wait a sec!” he said, throwing a hoof around my shoulder. I glanced over – and he was so close. So close that I could see the scratches in his goggles.

“Stay the fuck back!” I growled, shoving him away from me.

“Hey – hey – hey!” He smiled, standing on his hind legs and holding his forelegs in the air. “I was just gonna say that you remind me of somepony.”

I clenched my jaw. I didn’t have time for bullshit.

“Oh really?”

He nodded at me, nickering, “Yeah, yeah, you ponies know this guy too, right?” He fell on all fours and turned to the others.

They nodded, creeping towards me.

“Mhm, I’ve seen him around,” said a mare as she unslung a battle rifle from her back.

The ponies leveled their guns at me.

“Yeah, he’s that one slave.”

My eyes widened. “N-no …” I stammered, “I’m not a slave!”

They all laughed at me, the other stallion approaching me with a long metal chain.

“You are now,” he said with a wide grin.

I froze. My mouth opened and closed with words I couldn’t find the courage to say. My eyes flicked to the holster that was slung across my chest.

“No,” I said, backing away. “I don’t want to hurt anybody,” I pleaded with them; I didn’t want any more blood on my hooves.

The mare laughed, “Hurt!? Hahaha – you’re surrounded, colt.”

In my mind I begged them to leave. I begged Celestia to make them go away. I didn’t want to kill. Again.

I eyed my holster.

The unicorn pony chuckled, taking a menacing step toward me. “Don’t even think about it,” said the stallion, levitating his machine pistol to my head. “You’re coming with us whether you like it or not.”

My lungs ached. Then I realized that I was holding my breath.

I closed my eyes for a moment, and when they fluttered open, I exhaled, slowly. They couldn’t stop me. I wasn’t going to let anybody stop me.

“Fuck. You.”

I leaped into SATS.

CRACK – CRACK – CRACK!

The stallion’s goggles exploded inward. The pony with the shackles dropped dead before he could even scream. My third, aimed at the mare with the battle rifle flew wide.

‘Shit.’

“You son of a bitch!” she snarled. My eyes widened as they slung their weapons.

They wanted me alive.

I tongued my mouth bit, my pistol discharging the last of its magazine as a stallion wrenched it out of my teeth. In a whinnying frenzy, he spun around and bucked me in the chest, punching the air out of my lungs. I staggered to my hooves – and the mare careened into me from the side, slamming me into the powder. Hard.

I screamed, ramming a hoof into her throat. She threw her head back for a moment, choking for air before I threw a haymaker into her nose, peppering my muzzle with her blood.

I blinked away the scarlet and snarled like a cornered animal.

“FUCK YOU!” I cried out as I bucked her off of me. I heaved myself away, kicking up snow beneath me as I scrambled for my fallen pistol – a breath away from my hooves.

‘– won’t – be – a victim –’

Someone kicked it away.

“NO!” And a hoof slammed into my face.

I tried to rise to my hooves, only to be grabbed by the shoulders and hurled back into the snow. I screamed and flailed as the stallion and the mare pinned me to the ground on my chest, my forehooves held behind my back.

“NO – GET THE FUCK OFF!”

I looked up and a mare with blue goggles rushed toward me, a carbine levitating beside her. She looked down, clenching her teeth.

“Sugar Rum, do it!” the stallion screamed. Her lips pursed. And she slammed the buttstock of her carbine into my skull.

Stars exploded in my eyes. Blackness overtook my senses.

That lull in consciousness was all the time they needed. With a dull clank, I felt the cold touch of frozen metal trap both my fetlocks.

I laid there in a heap, beaten and overpowered. There was nothing I could do.

“No …” I whimpered, as they rolled me over on my back, a chain tugging against my forelegs. ‘This can’t be happening …’ A rivulet of blood trickled down my forehead and over my brow as they dragged me back to their wagon.

In that moment, I lost everything. Dew Drops’ scarf, my family pictures – everything in my bags - my holster and my gun. I lost the only thing worth living for in that wasteland. I lost what Night Sky and her crew washed their hooves in blood to keep.

“You did us a favor,” the mare with the battle rifle said into my ear. I looked up into the wagon bed and half a dozen weary eyes peered back down at me between the metal bars of a steel cage. “Now the cut’s split between the six of us.”

I was fucked. Fucked. All because I decided to keep my dignity and walk away from those mercs. My only safe passage to Poneva.

Everyone in Stable 91 was going to die, and it was all my fault.

I was Red Dawn. I was a victim.

‘Now I’m a slave.’

Chapter 4 - Bad Pony - Pt II

I stared down at my hooves as I sat in the back of a rumbling trailer.

I was getting to Poneva after all.

In shackles.

I sat on my haunches, chained to an overfilled, cramped cage with six shivering, miserable ponies like me trapped within. I couldn’t look. I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to imagine myself like one of them.

They didn’t either.

It had been hours since I was taken. We rumbled down that long stretch of highway at a steady pace, as fast as their makeshift, jury-rigged autowagon could take us.

This, sadly, was yet another thing that Night Sky was right about. Slavers. I should’ve stayed with them. Ponies like me didn’t last too long out there, I came to realize. It’s why my friends didn’t last long. It’s why I wasn’t going to last long if I didn’t make it out of there soon.

As bleak as my situation looked, the only thing running circles around my head was – ‘how the hell was I going to get out of this?’ I lived to see my friends die, and walked away from certain death three times so far. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

It was my choice to pick up where my friends left off when the fucking wasteland stole them away from me. I could’ve chosen to tell Night Sky to fuck herself and just crawled into that grave I dug for myself. But I didn’t. If even that choice was taken away from me, I was already dead. Night Sky told me I didn’t get to choose the easy way out.

But if I was going to die, I was going to die saving my stable. Not for those ponies. Not for those fucking slavers.

I looked up and Sugar Rum, the mare that beat my skull in with her carbine, was watching me behind her blue goggles.

I shot her a baleful look that promised death. Sugar Rum held my burning gaze for a few heartbeats. She wasn’t smiling, but I wanted to tear her fucking face and her stupid goggles right off. With a snort of icy air, she turned away, panning her flashlight across the road.

I grinded my teeth together and eyeballed the autowagon’s backseat where they threw my bags. I narrowed them at the black shape of my holster.

My hooves wriggled helplessly against my shackles.

“Think we can sell any of them to Red Eye?” one of them asked, sitting inside the autowagon with a hoof resting casually on one of its steering levers.

The mare sitting next to him with the battle rifle just chuckled.

“Nah. Red Eye needs backbreakers. Not these poor little shits,” she scoffed, glancing over her shoulder and meeting my eyes.

I just glared at her.

“The plantations’ll take ‘em. East Eden’ll take any of ‘em. Hell, I think we can even make a comfort horse outta that one girl back there.”

My eyes finally wandered through the steel bars. I shouldn’t have looked. What I saw made my blood boil. The ponies within were battered and bruised. Some had black eyes. Others had bumps on their heads or patches of coat missing. One of the mares had a bloody, blackened behind. She was lying on the wagon floor with glassy eyes, not staring at anything in particular.

“Sunny Days would love her.” She hefted her battle rifle, leaning over her car seat at the other slavers. “I know we did.”

The fuckers just burst out laughing.

I clenched my teeth, glaring at the slavers with eyes that promised murder. One of them saw me and just kept laughing. They didn’t give two shits about what I thought of them as they drove the wagon through the debris-littered highway. But they were still shitheads. I wanted to see them burn for what they were doing to us.

I pinned my ears back, shaking my head as their boisterous laughter made my heart race. They just kept laughing at that poor mare. Laughing at the mare who was lying at the bottom of cage, broken and ravaged.

All but one of them.

“Come on Sugar Rum, I saw you looking at her pretty little flank!” Rifle Mare chuckled, grinning from ear to ear. “We all know you’re a filly-fooler!”

Sugar Rum kept staring over the sideboards at the jagged cliffs.

I kept staring into the cage. I couldn’t look away. Those ponies … they …

Each had a collar wrapped around their necks – wired collars that blinked with a pulsating red light. My expression darkened as one of the ponies met my eyes.

“What the hell are those things?” I murmured.

“Bomb collars,” said a mare with bandages around her chest.

My eyes widened. Horror flashed across my face.

“Goddesses … w-what did they do to you all?”

For several heartbeats, nopony answered. An earth pony in tattered snow barding pushed past the others, limping to the cage’s bars. “Took me while my daughter and I were scavenging for food,” he answered, faintly.

My jaw clenched. His filly was nowhere to be seen. “Your daughter …”

He looked at his hooves, then back at me with swollen, bloodshot eyes. He blinked furiously, shaking his head as they welled with tears. “They took me … and left her behind.”

I brought my trembling hooves to my face, my heart aching inside my chest.

“Why …” I asked. It was a question that didn’t need an answer. A question that couldn’t have had a real answer.

But they answered it anyways.

“Didn’t ya hear? East Eden can never have enough slaves,” another stallion croaked. He was missing several patches of coat. Curved scars lacerated his bare flesh.

I looked at him with grim curiosity. “What the fuck is an East Eden?”

The mare with bandages wrapped around her chest crawled to the metal bars. “They’re a plantation in Poneva. They need slaves to plow and harvest their fields.”

“They’re going to put us to work and work us to death,” growled the earth pony.

The mangy stallion shook his head. “That ain’t true. I heard they feed ya and put a roof over your head.”

“Bullshit!” the earth pony hissed. “They don’t give a fuck about any of us! Look at what they did to her!” He pointed a forehoof at the mare with the bloody flank. “And those bastards left my filly for dead!”

“Better than bein’ dead …” the mangy pony murmured.

My ears perked and my body went stiff.

“Three meals a day, and a bed to sleep in. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.”

My jaw dropped in horror as the mare slowly nodded in agreement. “Better than what I ever get … I scavenged everyday for something to eat before these slavers found me. Sometimes I’d go a few days or a week without something in my belly.”

A unicorn with a broken horn in the back of the cage turned his eyes low. “I’d do anything … anything for a bite. Just … something to eat,” he added, “I’m so hungry.”

The mare and the mangy pony nodded together, their wilted ears drooping pathetically.

“They’ll take care of us …” the mare whispered. “We’ll live. We’ll live …”

I stared at them with wide, bloodshot eyes. “What …?”

They all turned to look at me.

“WHAT!?” They cowered behind the bars with bleak, desperate eyes. “How are you okay with this!?”

None of the ponies said anything. Not even the earth pony. They were as beaten and hopeless as the frozen wasteland.

“You can’t be fucking serious?”

“You’re a stable pony,” the hornless unicorn began, eying my PipBuck. “You don’t know what it’s like out here … you don’t know …”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head furiously as he continued.

“You’re lucky if you eat once a day. You’re a king if you eat twice.”

“No. No … no – no.” I glared at the pathetic little pony. “This?” I said, pointing a forehoof at the mare with the bloodied flank. “This isn’t right. And nobody should be fucking okay with it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said a mare.

My ears jerked towards its source, and I slowly turned my head to face her. Sugar Rum was staring at me behind her blue goggles.

I trembled, a sneer tearing across my lips.

“It … doesn’t … matter?”

“East Eden’s better than out here,” Sugar Rum began. “Better than being dead.”

I started towards her – but my chains yanked me back. “You piece of shit … nothing out here is better than being dead.” I glared out into the distance. “I learned that the hard way when I left my stable … but you fuckers, you slaver pieces of trash make this world shittier than it already is.”

I stood to my hooves, pulling my chains as far as I could until I could see my ragged reflection in her goggles.

I whispered in a low voice, loud enough for her fucking ears to hear, “How do you live with yourself …”

Her goggles gave away nothing of the pony beneath.

Several long seconds passed until Sugar Rum finally replied, her voice trembling.

“It’s a business … you get paid … and when you get paid, you can put food on the table. If I don’t do this, my family will starve.”

“IT’S NOT WORTH IT!” I snapped. I remembered Night Sky – Gail – the village of burning zebras. I screamed into her face as if they were standing there before me. “It' s not fucking worth it! But you fuckers, you sick FUCKERS – that’s all it is to you, isn’t it!?” Sugar Rum turned her head away from me and stared off into the distance. My voice lowered as I craned my neck towards her.

“It’s just for the caps, isn’t it?” I grinned, mockingly. I glanced at the poor mare with the ruined flank, then back at Sugar Rum. “Look at me.”

She didn’t.

“LOOK AT ME!”

Her goggles turned shakily towards me like an unoiled machine.

I pointed at the glassy-eyed mare at the bottom of the cage. “You see that? Is that what you do? Is that … that work … worth it? How’d you like it if somepony did that to you?”

The slaves were as speechless as the slavers. I didn’t think they’d seen anyone mouth off to a slaver like that before. Sugar Rum looked at her hooves, and muttered something incomprehensible.

“What?” I said, slowly, “What the fuck did you just say?”

“I-I … I …” she stammered, choking on her own words. Sugar Rum sniffled, bowing her head for one dark moment. Her blue goggles turned to face me, and I saw the hatred in my own reflection. “I … don’t care. I-I don’t care.” She stared off into the distance. “I don’t fucking care …”

I closed my eyes and hung my head.

She didn’t care. She didn’t. Fucking. Care.

I collapsed upon my haunches in silence as the wind howled around me. No hope. There was no hope for those ponies. No hope for the wasteland. If only the balefire had just done the right thing and killed them all.

“Hey …” someone whispered. I looked up and into the cage. The ponies huddled within parted aside. The ravaged mare was looking straight … through me. “Thank you … you’re right: this isn’t okay,” she said, distantly, “But there’s nothing … nothing you can do now.

“There’s nothing any of us can do now …”

I looked down at my hooves. Maybe she was right. I wasn’t getting out alive. Neither of us were.

My chains were cold, cold steel. No amount of pulling, yanking, or bitching was going to save me now.

From the darkness, several octaves higher than the moan of the wind howled a creature that sounded nothing like anything I had ever heard. Sugar Rum straightened out, levitating her carbine over the wagon’s sideboard, her ears perked.

I heard it again, a blood-curdling, unnatural howl that shook my resolve. It roared from the darkness like a demon hound screaming out from the gates of hell. I pressed my back as close to the trailer’s sideboards as I could, the slaves inside the cage huddling together in fear. Fear. I thought I knew what it felt like to have fear.

I swung my head in every direction, trying to find the source of that hellish howling. But another creature roared with it. And another. And another. From the darkness they howled in unison – from every direction. With each quaking second that passed, another joined the nightmarish cacophony.

Then I saw them. Goddesses. There were so many of them.

Rising up from the ridgeline’s jagged cliffs were a dozen black shapes in all. Each hunched silhouette was as large as a third of the wagon’s frame. Each hunched silhouette was twice as large as a full grown stallion.

One of the slavers jumped to his hooves, a machine pistol in his mouth.

“BLOODLETTERS!”

“STEP ON IT!” Rifle Mare ordered, banging her hoof against the wagon’s sideboard. “We need to get the fuck away from those things!”

The driver nodded, and punched his hindhoof into the pedal. The wagon’s engine moaned as we accelerated.

But that resistance – that unwillingness to sit there and die set the creatures off. The prey was escaping.

And they needed to feed.

With a deafening roar, a bloodletter bounded deftly down the slope and hurled itself towards us, claws outstretched.

But it crashed into the drifts in an explosion of gravel and snow. The autowagon groaned onward as fast as a horse could gallop. It was behind us now. But there came echoing through my ears a mad howl. The bloodletter blew through the snow shower – loping explosively toward us. Faster than us. It wasn’t done with us yet.

I saw its coat – as white as snow. It was closing in, now. I could see its hungry, soulless eyes. I watched it as it snapped its yellowed teeth and snarled through its frothing mouth.

Seconds crawled by as the accelerating autowagon screamed into my ears. Then the beast threw its head back. It unleashed a bestial shriek that drowned out our engine’s feeble cries.

Somepony thrusted a rifle barrel over my shoulder.

“PUT ‘EM DOWN! DON’T LET ‘EM GET CLOSE!”

I ducked as everyone scrambled to take aim.

Gunfire lit up the night.

Chunks of the bloodletter’s flesh blew off its body as the battle rifle’s high caliber rounds tore into it. It yelped, faltered – snarled and didn’t lose a single step as more of the immense, white beasts leaped into the fray. I covered my ringing ears with my hooves and watched helplessly as their wolf-like silhouettes bounded down the hills from every side.

We were being surrounded.

One of the slavers beamed our path with the autowagon’s strobe light.

There was a flash of white – and I screamed as one of the bloodletters flung itself in front of our wagon. It squealed, and all I heard was a sickening crunch as the wagon flipped over – end over end – hurling away screaming ponies left and right -

The wagon crashed into the snow and the world around me exploded in a flash of violet magical fire.

The impact catapulted me violently into the air as the wagon smashed into a snow drift, throwing up showers of ashen powder. I thrashed my limbs through the air, the wind howling past my ears as I screamed for my life – and the chain around my fetlocks yanked me back down to the earth in a blur of flailing limbs.

I careened into the autowagon’s shattered frame, my forehead smashing through a ruined plank of wood. I stumbled to my hooves in a daze, blood running down my face.

All around me, ponies screamed. Only this time, it wasn’t a village burning.

Littering the snow were the broken remains of the slavers’ autowagon. The magically-powered engine was burning. And so was the driver. His motionless body, charred from the head to hoof smoked gruesomely in the wind.

Most of the others fared better, as the rest of them scrambled desperately to their hooves. One of the stallions burst through the debris, limping out into the open in the violet firelight. He looked at me. And I looked at him.

Then a bloodletter smashed into him.

It snapped its jaws around his throat and hurled him into the powder with a splash of arterial red. He didn’t even get a chance to scream.

I scrambled away. Screaming. Screaming as the creature tore into him, ripping from his ruined, mangled carcass a mouthful of bloody pony meat.

“Goddesses – oh my Celestia – Luna’s fucking grace!” I screamed as another bloodletter joined it and fought the other for the pony’s meaty limbs. There came a third, but it stopped, realizing that there wasn’t enough meat for the three of them.

A low growl rumbled inside its throat.

It saw me. It saw me. The bloodletter cocked its head and found the smell of my fear tantalizing.

It bared its wickedly sharp teeth and bounded toward me screaming for my bloody flesh. I turned and galloped away – but the chain yanked me back to the ground.

The bloodletter pounced. I felt its paws crash into me. It punched the air from my lungs and drove me deep into the snow, pinning me beneath it with the bulging, rippling muscles of its forelegs. I whimpered helplessly as I felt its claws dug into my barding.

It dropped its jaw, howled into my face, and snapped its teeth towards my throat.

I held out my hooves – and my chains shattered between its teeth. My eyes widened at my forehooves – free. But not for long. The beast snarled – spat out the broken links and dove back into me. I hurled my hooves into its throat and held it back with all the strength I had left … whimpering helplessly as I poured into my legs all the hope and desperation the wasteland hadn’t taken from me yet.

Its yellow teeth snapped a breath’s length away from my muzzle. Its black-veined eyes glared into mine.

It was too strong. I was just biding my time.

I was going to die.

It roared into my face, spraying my muzzle with ropes of thick, disgusting spittle. I smelled its breath. A breath that reeked with the stench of a vomit and rotting flesh. I could see chunks of ragged meat poking out between its teeth.

Pony meat.

I screamed.

With a nightmarish screech, the bloodletter threw its head back. The flesh of its muzzle throbbed. Swelled. Popped. Its lower jaw snapped wide open – torn and distended as its howls escalated into deafening, ear piercing shrieks.

Then its head began to twitch. It widened. And widened.

And its head ripped open.

It exploded outward – only its head didn’t come apart. With a gurgling hiss, a long, writhing proboscis erupted out from the fleshy hole that was its throat between its four dripping, quivering mandibles.

“HOLY SHIT – WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING!?”

The bloodletter rumbled a throaty growl, its fleshy gray proboscis widening to reveal rows upon rows of serrated teeth. It, about as long as my outstretched foreleg, snaked into the air as I held back the rest of its body with my faltering strength.

I bared my teeth and screamed helplessly into its snapping mandibles, trying to wrestle the beast off me. But my muscles were burning. It was getting closer. It was too strong.

And I was too weak.

I stared into its soulless, insatiable eyes. A web of black veins bulged and throbbed around its sclera. It pushed. And pushed. And pushed.

My legs wobbled, and ached.

I faltered.

In a heartbeat, my limbs slackened. It fell upon me.

I shrieked as blood splashed onto my face and onto my chest. It tore into me, ripping me open. I lay there screaming – bleeding out.

But the blood wasn’t mine.

The mutant abomination let out a dying shriek and slumped on top of me with a dozen ragged holes pouring blackish blood out of its head and throat. I wrestled it away with a faint groan, and saw Sugar Rum’s carbine smoking.

She lowered her weapon and flung my belongings at me. I looked at her, painted in thick, steaming blood. Sugar Rum nodded once, levitated her gun, and continued firing. Two of the remaining slavers galloped towards her, unleashing their automatic weapons upon the bloodletters as they stalked toward us.

I slipped on my holster, threw on my saddlebags, and wrapped Dew Drops' scarf around my neck. Somepony screamed behind me, and I whirled on my hooves.

‘Goddesses … no.’

Three bloodletters circled the cage, snarling … biding their time knowing that their prey was lying helplessly upon a silver platter before them. All they had to do was pounce.

The ponies huddled together inside. Trapped. They were but a single corpulent breath away from a gruesome end.

“HELP! SOMEPONY HELP US!” the bandaged mare begged.

“GET US OUT OF HERE!”

“The cage!” I pointed a hoof at the ponies that were cowering within. “We need to help them!”

The slavers looked the other way. Sugar Rum galloped towards me.

“The key – find the key!” she screamed.

I panned my PipBuck’s light across the snow and spotted something shiny. I kicked my legs towards it - and a howling bloodletter landed in front of me.

It thrashed through the drifts.

I watched as the key disappeared beneath the shifting snow.

I lost it.

I lost.

“NOOO!” I cried as I yanked the trigger back. It crashed into to the snow and slid to my hooves in a trail of gore.

Dead.

Like the slaves.

I turned my head and saw the bad go to worse. The ponies screamed as a bloodletter wrapped its jaws around one of the metal bars and yanked. The cage slammed into the snow on its side, pinning the creature beneath and hurling the ponies on top of it. They landed against the bars in a shrieking heap, and the bloodletter’s head split open, snaking its writhing proboscis through the bars.

It ripped into the mangy pony’s throat.

The veiny proboscis tore off a huge chunk of flesh – stripping flesh from bone, and he collapsed against the metal bars at the other end of the cage. Within seconds, the bloodletters outside tore him apart through the bars in a gory frenzy of snapping teeth. He screamed in silence, his throat shredded to the bone as they broke his legs and ripped them off through the bars.

I shook my head vigorously, a cold sweat pouring down my face as the sounds of bones breaking, of flesh tearing – of their gurgling cries for help yanked me underwater. I drowned in their agony, lowering myself to the snow and cradling my head in my hooves, closing my eyes and wishing there was something I could do. Something.

I tried to do something. I tried to help them. I tried to shoot those monsters. I stood to my hooves and yanked the trigger back. My bullets plunged deep, but did nothing as the beasts shrugged them off, unfazed in their enraged, mindless state.

“Dear Celestia … SOMEBODY HELP THEM!” I pleaded in desperation.

“Fuck ‘em,” the slaver mare with the battle rifle shouted back.

I froze.

“WHAT?!”

“FUCK ‘EM! Let’s get the fuck outta here!”

“YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!” I roared, swinging my pistol to face them. Then I heard the ravaged mare inside the cage scream. I turned. My eyes widened as the bloodletters tried to pull her through the bars. They couldn’t. They tore her head off instead, lapping at the fountain of blood that splashed all over their white coats.

As I stood there watching, the slavers turned and galloped away.

Everyone except Sugar Rum. We stood there and watched. We watched the feast.

The bloodletters tore into those defenseless morsels, devouring them alive – their shrieks dying beneath the beasts’ nightmarish howls. Whoever hadn’t already died pleaded for death as limbs tore, bones broke, and entrails spilled. The earth pony fell to the bottom of the cage, clutching his eviscerated innards as proboscides fought against his gory forelegs in an effort to yank away his intestines.

I started towards them, and paused.

It was no use. They were already dead. The beasts snarled and barked as they fed. I listened to the squelching of shredded pony meat. The disgusting pops of disarticulated bones. The gurgling cries of the dying ponies as the bloodletters devoured them alive.

I heard everything. Listened to everything as their screams echoed in my thoughts, clawing at the white walls of my conscience – staining them red … cracking the walls with every vicious, hungry snap.

I reared my head to the sky, yanked at my mane with my hooves, and screamed for Luna’s grace.

Everyone I tried to help slipped away from my hooves. Everyone.

With a whooping screech, one of the beasts leaped towards us. It pounced upon Sugar Rum, clawing through her throat with its razor sharp talons in one fell sweep. She stumbled backwards upon her hinds, her forelegs wrapped around her throat, blood spurting through her hooves.

I said nothing, numb as SATS guided rounds through the bloodletters head until my magazine clicked empty. Sugar Rum collapsed into the snow, her lifeblood melting through the powder around her.

I fell to my haunches beside her, and held out my hooves. She just swatted them away, shaking her head.

“You …” I whispered.

“Sorry – I’m sorry ... the shit I've done ... the ponies I've killed ... you’re right … not worth it,” she choked, blood running down her lips. She hoofed one of her chest pockets, and pulled out a frayed slip of paper, holding it out to me with a bloody hoof. It was an aged photograph of a golden yellow pony, a mare with braided blonde locks, and two pale coated twins.

“Take it … please …” she rasped. I slipped it into one of my vest pockets, nodding gravely. Sugar Rum lifted her blue goggles and pulled off her hood, revealing the golden-coated pony underneath. She gazed up at me with her watery blue eyes as the light within them began to fade.

“The slaves …” I began.

“I’ll take care of them …” Sugar Rum croaked. She levitated a small tube, and flipped it open. A detonator. “Go. If you find my daughters … my sister … tell them I-I … I went out … a good pony.”

I nodded. Shell shocked. I touched her cheek with a forehoof as tears welled up in my eyes.

I stood to my hooves and started forward … but I hesitated, glancing over my shoulder. Sugar Rum sat up, firing her carbine into the night.

I turned and kept going, no longer wanting to look back as I chased after the two remaining slavers. They hadn’t gotten far. I saw, splattered across the snow, a stallion, his carcass nearly pulled apart into two, and his viscera spilled across the melting drifts. Around him were two dead bloodletters, their cratered heads painting the snow red.

The other mare was on the ground, wrestling with one of the beasts.

“Help!” she begged as its proboscis chomped down on her shoulder and tore out a chunk of meat.

My horn glowed. My pistol lifted into the air. But I hesitated.

A part of me just wanted to keep running. I watched as she struggled, entranced. I felt it again. The darkest corners of my mind whispering to me. Telling me to run.

‘Why …’ I thought. ‘Why should I help you?

The night lit up for a brief moment with a resonating crack, silencing the dying screams behind me. Then a single gunshot echoed into the night.

My ears rang as I clenched my eyes shut.

‘Why …’

Only the bloodletters remained. I exhaled a shaky breath and opened my eyes.

SATS fixed me a firing solution. Bullets plunged into its coat, tumbling through its chest and exploding out the other side. It paused to scream, and the mare bucked it off her.

She scrambled to her hooves and broke off into a full on gallop, bloody hoofprints trailing behind her.

“C’mon, c’mon!” she shouted. I followed.

The road disappeared behind us as we scrambled up a steep hill of broken asphalt. We approached an ancient recharging station, with an aged, blackened sign that vaguely read ‘Mane 7-Eleven’. Not too far behind us, the bloodletters closed in.

Rifle Mare bucked open the door and we charged in, not caring what might be lying in wait within. I slammed the door behind us and scrambled inside. The mare pushed a half-disintegrated shelf in front of it, bits of blackened miscellanea spilling from its shelves as we heaved it into place.

For good measure, we heaved against the door two more – but even then, we were only delaying the inevitable. Outside, our horrible deaths awaited us. We were going to be eaten alive by those mutant abominations. The door rattled and quaked, the wooden barrier threatening to snap. It splintered and tore open, and the enraged, black-veined eye of a snarling bloodletter glared back at us.

“Shit! These things are fucking strong!” the mare screamed, backing away from the barricades. The door bucked inward once more with a jarring slam, and one of the shelves fell over in a heap of shattered wood and metal, kicking up a shower of ash from the floor.

The slaver turned to look at me, levitating a pistol from her holster.

“If we make it out of this, I’ll let you go.”

My expression darkened. We were going to die, and that was what she was thinking. To her, I was still just another slave. She left them behind for dead – for bait so she could escape, and didn’t give a single shit.

And I knew that she would do it again – to me … just … to save … her skin.

She … she cared only about herself. I stared at her with a disturbing calmness that would have frightened me if I was looking in a mirror. I shivered once beneath my barding.

Then nothing.

In that moment, the bestial roars outside, my heaving chest, my pounding temples – they all faded away into a grim silence.

Cold black paint trickled down the pockmarked walls of my conscience. I let the floodgates part.

I decided that only one of us was going to make it out alive.

I learn from my mistakes. I don’t make the same mistakes twice. And you know what?

Good things happen to bad ponies.

“W-why are you looking at me like that?”

I slipped into SATS.

Her knees snapped beneath her like wooden planks with satisfying, wet cracks.

She let out a horrifying scream as her pistol discharged into my kevlar vest.

I felt nothing.

I watched with an icy stare as she crumbled to the floor.

“Y-you SON OF A BITCH!” she wailed as I spun around and ran the other way. One of the shelves went down in a deafening crash of splintered wood. She crawled across the floor with her useless forelegs and leaned against the final barricade, holding it against the door for her dear life. Outside, the monsters rammed their bodies against the door behind her.

“NO! Don’t!”

I galloped away from her. I didn’t lose a single step.

“DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!”

She was sobbing now.

“PLEASE!”

I didn’t look back. The doors smashed open and their carnal, bestial roars echoed behind me. They tore into her, the sounds of her flesh tearing – her bones breaking … they crashed against my ears like waves on a seashore as the bloodletters ripped her apart.

Limb. From. Limb.

I bucked down the backdoor and galloped out into the snow, the mare’s frantic, gurgling screams dying away behind me. My hooves pounded into the drifts, kicking up showers of powder as I ran for my life.

My life.

I ran until the Mane 7-Eleven disappeared behind me in a under a blanket of thick snowfall. For what seemed like hours, I galloped on until my legs gave out beneath me and I collapsed into the snow. Out of breath, I wheezed for air, filling my lungs with biting cold oxygen that reminded me that I … I was still alive.

I struggled to my hooves and looked up. A sign. I beamed it with my PipBuck’s teal glow.

Welcome to the City of Poneva.

Population 5,390,000.

I stared up at the sign in disbelief, my breaths coming in and out as coughs. I held out my forelegs and hugged the sign’s metal posts, gasping for breath. I wheezed, fell to my haunches and threw up acid, because I had nothing left to heave. I slumped to the drifts, curled up into a ball, writhing as my stomach churned and my head spun.

I inhaled deeply and exhaled, my trembling breath slowly dissipating into the frozen darkness.

A wide grin slowly stretched across my face.

“Ha … ha …” I breathed. “Hahaha ... hahahaha ...” I closed my eyes, threw my head back and laughed. I whooped with maddening hilarity until my cackles turned to chuckles, and my chuckles turned into cries.

I choked on my trembling sobs as warm, fresh tears welled out of my weary eyes. I wept into my hooves, my tears mingling with the dried crimson that splattered my face, turning red, and seething down my cheeks in dark rivulets.

I sat on my haunches in the snow, staring off into the distance, my heart racing, my lungs heaving, and my body shuddering.

The huge, towering skyscrapers of Poneva rose up above the dim suburbs and into the clouds, lights and distant signs twinkling into the night as far as the eye could see.

‘I made it, Dew Drops, I made it.’

‘I’m alive. I won.’

That was all that mattered.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Mare Killer - In combat, you do +10% damage against female opponents. Outside of combat, you'll sometimes have access to unique dialogue options when dealing with the opposite sex.

Author's Notes:

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Chapter 5 - One With None - Pt I

In solemn quietude, I followed a battered wagon, Dew Drops’ blood-speckled scarf billowing behind me in the chilling breeze.

Across the broken, half-buried road, the wind blew gusts of swirling snowflakes that clung loosely to the soiled fabrics of my battered barding. Beneath my vest’s kevlar plates, my bruised, livid flesh ached, sending sharp stabs of pain through my chest with every trembling breath I took.

I was exhausted. There wasn’t a single muscle in my body that wasn’t sore. Every step was a step made with aching exertion.

I glanced over my shoulder, and saw far-flung groups of ponies trotting distantly behind me, having merged back into the Crystal Highway from another road that bypassed the canyon I nearly died in several hours ago.

That other road must’ve been the one Night Sky and the others would’ve taken. The route I would’ve taken with them.

I sighed. It didn’t matter anymore.

Several miles away in the distance, Poneva’s tattered skyscrapers, towers that may have been taller once, loomed over the fallen city like tombstones, somber reminders of a better age. An age thrown away by the same ponies that preached their damned friendship across Equestria.

I looked around at the cold indifferent faces that passed by as wagons and ponies trotted past me. Where was that friendship now?

I certainly had none of it left. Nobody left.

I exhaled a trembling breath, and willed my legs to keep moving. I was almost there. I could already see the city walls and make out the pony-shaped silhouettes standing upon its ramparts.

Well, ‘walls’ was the closest word I could think of to describe what encircled the city. Erected between the city’s roads were immense, patchwork, junk-made obstructions that blocked off open roads between Poneva’s high rises, and barricaded intact buildings. Silhouettes hobbled across ramparts of junk and ladders that hung over the streets between the boarded up derelicts.

What with the terrors that lurked outside in the wilderness, it wasn’t too surprising that they decided to just build a huge wall to keep the monsters out.

Somehow, I was convinced that behind those walls, life was somewhat safer than life out there, despite what Duster told me. Hooligans and gangsters or not, I preferred to be shot at by other people, not eaten alive by some mutant abomination from hell.

My heart fluttered with distant hope. ‘Maybe,’ I thought, ‘Just maybe, I’ll survive this.’

All around me, the ruins became denser as I approached the city walls.

The blackened rubble and dilapidated metal skeletons that lined the streets were all that remained of the city’s surrounding suburbs and countryside. Off in the great distance beyond Poneva’s walls stretched only ruin.

As remote as Spring Song’s woodland cottage was, even it was not far enough to escape the infernal hellfire that scoured the earth. I wasn’t sure if it was possible for balefire to reach as far as it did. Poneva city rose up around me for hundreds of miles. It sent shivers down my spine thinking that one single bomb… one bomb could’ve destroyed so much. There had to be more than one …

It was hard to believe. But so was everything else I had seen so far in that frozen hell of a wasteland.

I sighed, glancing around me.

Snaking along the road that lead to the city gates was a thinning trail of shivering ponies. I paused for a moment and glanced over my shoulder. Behind me and around me, and at a cautious distance trotted ponies from all walks of life. Traders and their wagons full of machinery, medicines, canned foods, and the occasional firearms rattled past me. I shared the road with the infrequent slaver wagon which I met with a burning glare that turned away heads – slaver and slave alike.

I bared my teeth through an amused grin as a slaver with an assault rifle eyed me up and down and trotted to the other side of the wagon bed.

If it wasn’t the hatred in my eyes that was leaving them with their tails tucked between their legs, I wasn’t sure what was. I sure as hell didn’t scare Sugar Rum’s crew much when they tried to take me. I wondered what made things so different that time?

A wagon full of wayward travelers peered down at me from behind the sideboards of their rickety contraption, and shot me strange, ghastly looks. I narrowed my eyes at them and they looked away or busied themselves with invisible doodads in lame attempts to lose my attention.

One mare, as she led her pack animals through the snow, took one look at me and mouthed ‘holy shit’, before quickening her pace.

‘Why the hell is everybody looking at me like that?!’ I thought, ‘Did I step in shit or something?’

Those ponies looked like they just saw a ghost.

I grumbled irritably as I plodded through the snow, their awkward stares tearing at my already frayed nerves. A wagon groaned past me to my right. A colt wearing a hat too big for his head ogled me with wide eyes.

I gave him the friendliest, most innocent grin I could muster. But my smile capsized when he let out a terrified squeak and ducked underneath the wagon’s sideboard.

"You little shit …" I grumbled.

I caught someone staring at me in my peripherals. I spun around and jabbed a hoof at him.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT?”

He swatted my foreleg away and pelted me with bottlecaps. “S-shit, just take my damn caps and leave me alone!” he cried, galloping away from me in horror.

“Yeah, fuck you too,” I muttered, a hoofful of caps now resting in the snow before me. “These are mine now.” I stooped over as ponies continued to avoid me, gathering up the caps in my hooves while mumbling obscenities.

I exhaled a shuddering, exasperated breath of mist and stopped for a moment to rub my weary eyes.

My hooves came away from my face encrusted with brittle crumbs of dried blood. I glared at my trembling hooves with grim, dark eyes. Down my chest, I saw that I was painted with it. Blood. Everywhere. My barding was a canvas of dark red splatters, grisly bits of hardened gore, and vicious bullet holes that perforated my chest.

If they knew that my barding was bulletproof, they might not have thought that I was some kind nightmarish zombie pony.

Hell, even my mane sported splotches of contrasting dark reds.

‘Yay. Highlights.’

It made my stomach churn. I wasn't sure what blood was mine, or who it belonged to. All I knew was that some of them were stains that couldn’t be washed away.

I remembered that mare I murdered. How she begged. Sobbed. Cried.

I remembered how easy it was to just walk away.

In my mind I tried to rationalize it. I tried to justify it – I kept telling myself that I never would have survived that massacre had I not done what I did.

Bait.

That was how I used her. She was bait. But she was a slaver, a shitty excuse for a pony. She was a bad pony, and bad ponies needed to get what was coming to them.

But then I wondered: what did that make me? Maybe she too had a family, a family who was wondering where she was and if she’d ever return home to put food on the table.

Like Sugar Rum.

I clenched my eyes closed and cradled my head in my weary hooves. The doubt slowly faded away as my mind reclined into chilling tranquility.

She was a slaver. Maybe she deserved to die.

I sighed a trembling, misty breath and watched it dissipate into the frigid breeze. I turned my gaze to my hooves, avoiding everyone’s frightened eyes … and kept walking.

In my weary state, I couldn’t risk attracting too much attention. I couldn’t risk getting into another fight. I could feel it … feel it in the throbs that clenched inside my skull. I was hungry and exhausted. My blood sugar was low and I was running even lower on ammunition – not that I needed to put a bullet in somebody, then and there.

My impeccable fashion sense was keeping most of them away from me, anyways.

I keyed my PipBuck’s inventory and scrolled through the belongings I logged in my saddlebags. Aside from my tools, which included my spade, twelve 10mm rounds and one health potion were all I had left.

I wasn’t even sure if I even had any fight left in me.

I didn’t want to fight unless I really had to. I was still a glorified earth pony with a horn for fuck’s sake. I needed to rest.

But most of all, I still had a promise to keep.

I couldn’t let Dew Drops down – I couldn't let my stable down.

A mile later and several minutes spent trying not to look at anybody in the eye passed, and Poneva’s corrugated walls and decrepit skyscrapers began to tower over me. I felt like I reached the gates to salvation. I was so close. So close, that I could feel the weight of a water talisman resting upon my hooves. I held up my right forehoof and gazed at it longingly, my leg shaking uncontrollably as it hung in the air, empty.

As I approached Poneva’s gates, I walked alongside a lonely wagon. It was noticeably different from the rest of the jury-rigged or built-from-scratch wagons that rumbled around me. It looked to have been a work of impeccable craftsmanship. Once.

The dark purple paint that covered its metal panels were stripped away in many places, scored by blades and gunfire. The low hum of a fusion core engine within reminded me that it wasn’t just some jury-rigged wreck.

I looked inside the wagon and what I saw startled the ever-living shit out of me.

“What the hell …” I murmured, as a black-coated pony met my stare. I gave him a wide-eyed look over and saw that he was a pegasus … except instead of feathered wings tucked at his sides, black leathery bat wings were folded behind him.

He stared through me with blank, shell-shocked eyes, his muzzle resting upon his hooves as he leaned out of the wagon to watch the snow drifts and ruins pass by. If the pony was in any way repulsed by my appearance, he wasn’t going to tell me. The callousness of his gaze sent shivers down my spine.

I turned my head low and chanced a glance at the pony’s face once more. He, like the other ponies inside the wagon had piercing, vividly-colored eyes, bat wings, and fuzzy, elongated ears that dwarfed my own.

The bat ponies looked worn to the bone, like they’d been through the depths of hell and back – but not without hell leaving upon them its marks. Many of them sported vicious scars that stretched down their muzzles to disappear beneath their frayed barding.

I didn’t want to imagine what sort of monster could have hurt them that way. Some wounds looked to be deliberately shaped, as if they were tortured, toyed with, or made to suffer at the hooves or talons of some laughing, insidious creature.

I wanted to relate their scars to snow furies … but from my experience, they were more of a force of nature than they were calculating torturers.

Inside of their battered wagon, the weary souls huddled together in silence as it rumbled along the road. Seeing people like that really made me question if I truly understood what suffering meant.

I slowed my trot to a walk and trailed behind them as they neared the gates. I spotted ponies standing on the side of the road. The bat ponies slowed as the others took notice. They trotted towards the wagon as it approached.

We came closer, and I saw that they were wearing matching barding.

Those ponies – with not a single mare among them, were garbed with an assortment of reddish headwear or barding, from scarlet bandannas wrapped around their muzzles, to do-rags tied around their cropped manes. Others simply wore barding that was of a shade relative to the color red.

‘How cute,’ I thought, darkly.

Unlike all of the ponies around me, they were all armed. Armed with guns that looked newer and better maintained than the weathered, and in some cases, tattered clothes on their backs.

One of the red ponies galloped back to the herd of unruly stallions with a bag of jingling caps. They erupted with boisterous laughter and shoved each other around, trying to get their teeth on that pony’s coins.

The pony stumbled away, spilling his caps before getting into a full on brawl with another. He bucked the pony away from him and swept up his booty, stuffing it into his saddlebag.

‘What fucking idiots,’ I thought. Those guards were far from conventional. Though I wasn’t even sure if the professional tone the word ‘guard’ had with it could even apply to that rabble. When I thought of a guard, I thought of Lightning Twirl in her well-pressed uniform and snugly-fitted kevlar vest.

But those ponies? Bullies – thugs – scum would’ve been even more appropriate.

I remembered what Duster said to me at the caravan: pay the toll, and you probably won’t have any problems. Probably.

One of them, visibly irritated by his empty hooves, turned his glare to the wagon of bat ponies and drew his shotgun, a devious grin stretching across his face. I stepped off the road and slunk back into the darkness. I couldn’t afford to get myself dragged in another massacre.

I had been doing a lot of that since I left home.

I pulled off Dew Drops’ scarf and slipped it gingerly into my bags. Its white stripes would give me away if someone shined a light on me – and I couldn’t risk that. Not in my current state. I lowered myself into the snow, shivering against its icy touch as I slid one hoof in front of the other.

My brown coat and dark blue barding melted into the night as I stalked through the snow and ruin beneath the shadow of Poneva city. I crawled, as quiet as the shallow breaths that slithered out through my cracked lips.

I paused, lying prone behind a broken retaining wall and peaking over the debris-littered snow drifts. Letting out a trembling breath, I scrutinized the red-garbed ponies that approached the wagon with narrowed eyes. They crowded around it like radroaches swarming a fallen morsel.

“Hey!” one of them shouted, raising a hoof to the wagon. “Pay up, or get the fuck out!”

I watched quietly, holding my breath as a bat pony mare dismounted and dug through her pockets. A hoofful of jingling caps fell into the hoof of a glaring red pony.

The toll collector glanced at his hoof, and snorted. He stood there, eyed the mare up and down, shook the sack of caps, and held her stare.

My eyes widened as he threw it to the snow.

The bat pony’s jaw dropped. “What!?”

He leaned in, baring his teeth. “You’re a hundred caps short, bitch!”

“I-I thought the toll was twenty-five caps!" she stammered in her strange, foreign accent. Her winged kin peeked over the sideboard, chattering with one another in hushed voices.

“The toll’s whatever the fuck I say it is, you bat-winged freak.” I glared at him as he stood on his hinds and folded his legs across his chest. “Now pay the fuck up.”

“Those are all the caps we have left …” she murmured.

He just threw his head back and laughed in the mare's face.

“We gonna have problems, bat girl?” the stallion growled, shoving her into the wagon’s sideboard. She grunted as the vehicle shook against her.

I clenched my jaw.

“Please ... all we want is to find shelter from the Tempest!” she pleaded, cupping her forehooves together. "We can’t survive out here … please – keep the caps – just let us go!"

The collector snorted as his cronies approached, “So ... you bat pony freaks think you can short change the Blood Brothers?” The gang of red ponies swarmed together, crooked bats, rusty pipes, and firearms in tow. They laughed, hefting their weapons and snorting madly – hungry for a fight. “Alright boys – show ‘em what happens to people who fuck with the Blood Brothers!” the stallion cried as the mob of barking red ponies surrounded the wagon.

Mares screamed inside as the reds prodded the ponies within with the ends of their weapons as if they were a gaggle of exotic zoo animals. The bat ponies huddled together and batted them away, frantically.

The guards that mounted the ramparts swung their floodlights to bathe the growing commotion in glaring, white light. The line of travelers behind them backed away, keeping a considerable distance between themselves and the firefight that was sure to erupt at any moment.

Perfect.

Fuck their tolls. Fuck those ponies. Fuck them and their stupid, red outfits.

It was the perfect opportunity to slip away unseen. I closed my eyes and listened as the cursing became shoving and the shoving became swinging. Bats and pipes banged heavily against the wagon’s sideboards as they threw punches and shoved each other away.

Perfect.

I crawled through the charred, concrete ruins.

I imagined myself crawling through the pipes at engineering … crawling beneath the steam clouds on the day my life made a turn for the worst. Head down, eyes forward. Head down, eyes forward. I was going to make it.

I stuck to the darkness like a shadow stuck to a body.

A voice cried out into the night. I froze.

“You fucking freaks!”

I peered through a crack in a retaining wall and saw a red crunch into the snow. The bat ponies hissed as the stallion’s brothers hauled him away, kicking and cursing.

His brothers reached for their guns – and a bat pony stallion rose up from behind the sideboards.

The reds stumbled upon their hooves. Some took a step back. Clenched between the bat pony’s teeth was a strange, bladed pistol that glowed with a dull green hue.

“Stay back! I mean it!”

CRACK!

Ponies screamed. I almost jumped out of my skin.

“Yeah – haha, stay down, fuckers!” a red shouted, his assault rifle smoking in the breeze as the bat ponies ducked for cover.

I shook my head. Things were falling through their hooves too quickly for my own comfort. My window of opportunity was closing. Fast. For some reason I found myself hoping they didn’t take the easy route and just shoot those ponies dead.

I could only hope that they’d take their sweet time. Distracted.

I lurched forward, not wanting to linger, crawling through the snow beneath a charred windowsill. I reached out with a foreleg and felt my barding tear.

Pain shot through my legs as stalagmites of icy, melted glass stabbed through my unarmored hind legs. I clenched my jaw, stifling a curse.

My ears perked. Hoofsteps plodded towards me. I curled up as close to the wall as I could, cringing as glass dug deep into the livid flesh beneath my coat. Half a foot of concrete away on the other side, two blood brothers propped up their bleeding comrade against the windowsill.

One of the reds snickered, “That little fuckface gotchu good, didn’t he?”

The other spat blood into the snow. “Fuck off – them ponies got some crazy zebra-jitsu bullshit!”

“They ain’t zebras, dumbass – they’re just bat ponies.”

“Well, no fuckin’ shit, asshole. But that prick hoofed my face twice before I could even count once!”

‘Idiots …’ I mouthed as I glared down the line of ruined suburbs. Twenty yards. I was about twenty yards away from the gates. A carpet of inviting darkness coaxed me onward. I shook my head, grinding my teeth as the ponies outside continued berating each other.

That damned glass and those stupid shitheads were going to get me killed.

“Alright – alright everypony! Settle down!" the collector shouted over the rabid reds. His brothers ignored him, cheering over the screaming bat ponies as they shook the wagon from side to side. “I said settle down!”

They didn’t.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” He blasted the snow at their hooves with buckshot.

They got the message and backed off, lowering their weapons and muttering things about the collector’s mother. In the relative silence, I narrowed my eyes through a crack that ran down the wall, trying to see past a pair of hooves.

“Ain't got the caps, eh?" A sick grin stretched across his face as he ran a hoof down the mare's neck. “Tell ya what: you find something else to pay me with and I’ll let y’all in.” She winced, craning her neck away from him as he chuckled softly. "I always did wanna know what batd pussy tasted like." He reached a hoof into her barding’s collar below her chin, and parted it slightly.

She swatted away his foreleg, cursing him in her foreign tongue as the stallion’s brothers cheered him on.

“Take it off, batbitch!” I heard one of the reds outside the windowsill shout.

I reached out with a foreleg and pulled myself forward.

Glass shattered beneath me. I clenched my eyes closed and swore under my breath as chunks of broken glass stabbed into my barding.

“The fuck was that?” one of the blood brothers hissed, leaning over the windowsill. I dug my back as far into the charred concrete as I possibly could like a startled radroach.

“Come on, lil filly, just one kiss!” The mare threw her forelegs in front of her and shrieked as he slammed her into the sideboards and planted rough kisses against her neck.

“GET OFF ME!” she shrieked – and shrill cries erupted into the night. The mare’s kin shot out of the wagon and into the air, beating their wings frantically. They barked at each other in their strange language as the blood brothers whooped and cursed.

There was going to be blood. And I needed to get out of there – fast –

“Ey Rocky, hoof me your flashlight. Thinkin’ maybe I heard somethin’ back here.”

A black pipe levitated over the window.

Goddesses. No.

My heart nearly skipped a beat. ‘Fuck!’

I swore under my breath and dragged myself forward.

CRACK!

‘Shit!’ I threw a glance over my shoulder.

Somepony outside screamed. Then silence. I peered out of a crack in the wall.

The toll collector was lying in a heap, a glowing spike of superheated metal jutting out between his eyes.

Everyone fell silent as the stench of burnt hair and cauterized flesh dissipated into the breeze. A bat pony snarled, beating his wings and baring his canines with that glowing pistol clenched between his teeth.

“You bat pony FREAKS!” someone roared.

And all the gunfire in the world erupted into the night.

The flashlight plummeted into the darkness, cracking against my ribcage as the brothers galloped off. I exhaled a jet of air as I bit my tongue and drew blood.

That was my chance. I paused, and peeked my head over the rubble as the brothers pumped lead into the wagon’s frame. I watched the bat ponies duck below, the wagon’s paint and hull chipping away with every spark, with every flash – with every bullet that blasted into its thick frame.

Horror flashed across my face. I wanted to help them somehow. Somehow. But if I did, if I rose up from the rubble, guns blazing, I knew that there wasn’t a single damned way in the world I’d make it out of there alive.

There I was, again … watching helplessly as more ponies died.

But they were as helpless as I was.

I was horrified to know, that if I had to choose …

I’d choose me.

And I chose to get the hell out of there … while I still could.

Snow kicked up behind me. I darted across the rubble, ducking into the darkness of some derelict ruin. Gunfire flashed through the shattered windowpanes and painted my shadow against the ruin’s bare walls. The world blurred past me as every throbbing fiber of my being, every sore muscle, every hypoglycemic blood vessel in my body focused on reaching the gate.

Alive.

I heaved myself over a collapsed doorway.

I didn’t even notice the blood brother that was loitering outside.

My eyes widened as I blundered into him and tackled him into the snow. We wrestled around in the darkness as he screamed for help.

“Get the fuck off me!” the young stallion cried out, trying to draw his pistol.

I swatted it out of his hooves, the weapon landing a foot away in the rubble.

“Stop!” I hissed at him as I bashed him across the skull with a forehoof, silencing his cries. “Be quiet – I don’t want to kill you!”

He bucked me off his chest – clawing at the snow in desperation – trying to hoof his fallen pistol with a dazed look in his eyes.

I growled and threw myself on top of him. If he didn’t stop screaming, he was going to get me killed.

He was going to get me killed.

“You – mother – fucker!” I snarled as I dropped my hooves onto his face again and again, my mind reeling as fresh blood peppered my muzzle.

“H-help!” The pony shielded his battered face with trembling hooves.

In my peripherals I caught sight of the bat pony wagon – surrounded by half a dozen bloodied corpses. The bat ponies within unloaded with everything they had with terrifyingly pinpoint accuracy, cutting down any red that they saw.

That momentary segue was all he needed. Hooves slammed into my gut, summoning bile to my throat. Without a moment to spare, he wrestled me to the powder and trampled me beneath his hooves as he leaped to all fours.

Whipping his mane back, he screamed over the gunfire, “H-help! Runner! We got a –”

I bowed my head and galloped straight at him.

My horn plunged into his gut.

I wrenched my head away and ripped out of him in a splash of bloody gore. He stumbled backwards onto his hinds, whimpering helplessly with wide eyes, stunned – stunned as he clutched the ragged hole in his stomach.

He gasped for air and dropped his jaw. I knew what he was going to do next.

I didn’t even give him a chance to scream.

Not again.

I tackled him to the snow. The stallion writhed beneath me, knocking his pistol away into the darkness.

I felt my hooves wrap around his throat.

“Shut up … shut up ...” I hissed into his muzzle. He batted at me with his faltering forelegs, unable to scream as he gasped and choked. “SHUT. UP.”

I squeezed. I squeezed, and squeezed. Tighter, and tighter. His hooves pawed and flailed at my muzzle as I crushed his windpipe and cold sweat ran down my face.

My muscles tensed. My forelegs trembled. My heart quaked faster than I could breathe – but I didn’t stop.

Stars flashed in my eyes. A dull ringing invaded my senses. All I could hear was my quaking heartbeat and my frantic breaths. Dark veiny tunnels closed in around me, my face contorting into an anguished grimace as my lucidity plunged into the darkness … drowning like a ship sinking beneath the waves of a frozen sea.

I lost myself in his terrified eyes, the eyes of a pony who knew he was going to die. I gazed at the reflection that stared back, its teeth bared, its coat bathed in blood, and its darkened face sneering madly.

I felt nothing. I thought nothing. The stallion moved his mouth but I couldn’t hear a thing. Not. A single. Thing.

It only made me squeeze harder.

“I … won’t … be … a victim …” I heard someone whisper, distantly.

Muzzle flashes illuminated the darkening windows of his bulging eyes as his life ticked away with every suffocating second that dragged by. My hooves dug deep, tearing into the flesh of his throat. He wept a rivulet of blood that streamed down his cheek … down my hoof as I squeezed … and squeezed … and squeezed.

“You can’t stop me. Not this close. No one can stop me, now …”

It was over as fast as it began.

It was over before my brain even registered it.

Through the dark, veiny tunnels of my eyes, I gazed back at his bleeding, agonized stare. I collapsed onto my haunches over his lifeless corpse, peering down at my trembling hooves in horror. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I stumbled to my ungainly legs, taking shuddering gasps for air that did nothing to slow the pounding in my chest.

I bowed my head and saw in the darkness, beneath my hooves …

A pony.

There was a hole in his chest. There were bruises around his throat. There was a puddle of blood pooling around his still, unmoving corpse.

I almost wanted to scream.

But instead I cried. I sobbed hysterically, staring at my bloody hooves as I realized that …

That I did that ... I did that.

I murdered another pony.

I shook my head furiously, trying to clear my mind as I stumbled through the snow in a daze. I didn’t want to look back. I should’ve kept going. I should’ve kept galloping towards the gates while I still could. But I didn’t. All I could see was that stallion lying dead in the snow.

Dead.

Far away, in another world nearby, the gunfire and screams were nothing but muffled bass drops beneath the ringing in my ears. There was a distant crash – and a bang. I turned and with my glassy eyes, I saw blood brothers stumbling away, rubbing their eyes, or cradling their heads. Some simply lay in the snow, dead.

In the confusion, I watched as the wagon puller leaped over the sideboards and yanked the wagon into the air.

I followed their wagon into the sky and into the darkness with my blank stare.

They made it.

But I needed to make it, too.

I snapped out of it, shoving to the back of my mind everything that scraped against my thoughts like hooves on chalkboard. I tore my eyes from the dark clouds. And ran.

No one could stop me. I galloped out of the darkness and across the final stretch as the blood brothers screamed at the dissipating fireworks display in frustration.

By the time they returned to their posts, frustrated and with empty hooves, I was already gone – melted away into the darkness.

I wiped away a single tear as I followed the shadows to salvation.

I stood at the center of a snowy intersection.

Ponies, clad in tattered, dirty barding trotted past me and around me like a stream parting around a stone. Their eyes, turned low, paid no attention to the filthy, shivering stallion that stood among them. Because I, to them, was nothing but another poor pony – like everyone else in those dark slums.

I gazed across the street with my bloodshot eyes, taking in my gloomy surroundings. They glistened dully in the ruddy red and yellow lights that flickered weakly in the snowfall.

Jutting out of the dirty snow were small, smoke-wreathed eateries – stalls and shanties that stank with the bitter, stomach turning stench of burned meat and over-steamed cabbages. All around me were hovels and gnarled concrete ruins that reeked with more than just the stench of vomit and alcohol, sporting flickering neon signs that barely clung to life, spelling out ‘liquor’ or ‘grub’.

I turned my head high and reality skewed inward as if the entire world was collapsing upon itself. I trembled uncontrollably beneath my blood-caked barding as the colossal, concrete ruins of the old city loomed over me, threatening to crush me underneath.

Distant gunshots, echoing shrieks, and pleasured moans coalesced into an uncomfortable ambience that scratched and scraped at my thinning sanity. There were too many people. Too many voices. Too many in one place.

My head was going to explode.

Whereas night outside Poneva's walls was silent, eerie, and haunting, night in Poneva was a claustrophobic mess of flashing lights and revolting sounds that made me physically ill.

Poneva was an alien world. But I was the alien. Any semblance of normality that my heart once held dear – warmth, comfort, safety – all of it was swept away, suffocated and trampled beneath the cold, grimy hooves of the underworld ponies that trotted past me. Poneva was the final nail in the coffin, a coffin that I felt powerless to escape.

I felt like I was going to be buried alive.

I took a step forward, and my hoof crunched through glass. The shards broke around my hoof, scattering dozens of jagged fragments across the dirty snow. For a haunting, dislocated second, I caught my reflections – warped and distorted across the broken glass.

My chin trembled at the disheveled wreck of my former self – my mane grizzled, my coat darker in some places with filth and dried perspiration. And the blood. Oh Goddesses, the blood … it was everywhere, all over me, staining my barding, my flesh …

… my soul.

I stared at my reflections, my chin quivering as I tried to swallow my tears.

‘That can't be me,’ I thought, ‘That ... that thing ... that monster can't be me. It just can't. I'm Red Dawn. Apprentice engineer. Shift C. Serial code F03RD82996. Stable 91.'

The monster glared back. A mad grin stretched across his lips.

‘I'm Red Dawn,’ I kept telling myself, ‘Apprentice engineer. Shift C …’

But he knew. His bloodshot eyes told me that I was wrong. Everything was so wrong.

‘I'm Red Dawn. Apprentice engineer. Shift... Shift C. Serial code... F... 0... 3...’

My reflections. My bloody barding. Those furies. Zebras. Slavers. Slaves. That blood brother. They all mocked me in silence.

"NO!" I hissed through clenched teeth, stomping the glass shards until the ghosts broke apart and died. "Not me..." A forehoof ran against Dew Drops' scarf as hot tears streamed down my cheeks. "You're not me..."

Chapter 5 - One With None - Pt II

My stomach grumbled.

I eyed longingly at a flickering neon sign that said ‘diner’, before flames crept up the wall beneath it. Blinking for the last time, the sign popped and exploded in a dull flash. My eyes fluttered closed as the acrid stench of smoke filled my nostrils. I cupped a hoof over my mouth as I relived a memory that had been branded into my conscience not too long ago.

Zebras or not, it was all the same. I could still hear them screaming.

The diner’s walls crackled and moaned, fires raging within. Wooden beams snapped and collapsed, feeding the flames as the fire slowly consumed every inch of the restaurant. Outside, ponies dragged out charred crates of miscellanea, aluminum cans tumbling about. One pony just stood among the throng, staring quietly as the building burned. She must’ve owned the place. Or, used to.

She watched as those ponies fought among each other for the canned food that spilled onto the snow.

The frenzied ponies, clad in grimy, tattered barding, fell upon an opened crate of foodstuffs, tearing into it like wild animals and spilling its canned innards into the snow. Even if they were hers, there wasn’t much she could do to stop them. Nobody else bothered to stop them anyways, as they broke into the crates and scurried off with whatever hadn’t already been burned to ash.

I kept telling myself that Poneva was probably one of the last bastions of civilization in the Northern Wasteland.

But the looters just kept looting. That was what was left of civilization – and that shithole of a city was the biggest concentration of it.

Not far from the burning building, ponies in collared, jet black businesswear watched the shop burn as they clanked glass bottles and took long drinks.

One of them took a rag, stuffed it in one of the bottles, and lobbed it through one of the shop’s broken windows. The splash fed the fires within, and the inferno exploded outward, spilling out of the windows like a cup running over. The looters yelped like frightened little dogs, scurrying away. One of them rolled around in the snow, his clothes trailing smoke.

The black-clad ponies trotted over to the quiet mare. One of them bucked her in the chest, and she collapsed face down into the drifts. The pony donned her wide-brimmed fedora and spat into the snow; the others did the same, and left her there without another word.

They heaved a soot-covered safe into the back of a wagon before the ponies departed, their job done and their treasures stowed away. The mare didn’t turn to see them leave. She just buried her face in the snow, her shoulders rocking with muffled sobs.

The fire’s cruel glow made my mind numb. My hooves were even number as they plodded through the fetlock-deep powder. The looters had left with their treasures by then, leaving the mare to lay there alone and abandoned with nothing left. I glanced at her, and saw that she hadn’t moved an inch.

Sighing softly, I stopped at one of the near-empty crates, staring at its spilled innards. Aluminum cans were scattered across the snow, leaking a brownish, half-solid slurry. I dipped a hoof into a puddle of pasty brown sludge, brought it to my nose, and hesitated.

It looked like poop water to me.

I clenched my jaw, and took a whiff. Nope. Beans. Old, ancient, botulism-riddled pre-war beans.

I shook my head as my stomach groaned achingly for food … for something … something that wasn’t just snow. I was getting desperate. I’d nearly passed out earlier, and a steady, pulsating headache impaled my brain with rail spikes every time a hoof made contact with the ground beneath me. But as Night Sky said, there could be no rest – not even for the weary.

To keep going would kill me. But to sit there and wait for my horn to flicker back or wait for my insides to stop churning meant another day crossed off of 91’s life span.

I opened my saddlebags and dumped inside the few cans that hadn’t been trampled over. For a moment, I hesitated as my languid gaze crawled down my vest.

My barding was still covered in blood.

With a heavy heart, I clamped my teeth around the brim of a squashed can, shaking out as much of its contents as I could, and stumbled towards the flame.

Skirting the fire’s edge made my skin prickle. Sweat began to trickle down my face as I approached a wooden beam that fell into the snow outside, its surface blackened and smoldering with hungry flames.

I sat beside it, scooping up some snow with my can, before nudging it in the fire. I watched the snow melt with a disturbing calmness in my eyes.

I kept telling myself that I wasn’t a murderer, but the gory shell that covered my shivering flesh said otherwise. I needed to wash it off. I wanted to wash it off before the blood settled and stained even deeper than the clothes on my back.

I killed that blood brother. Gored him with my horn and choked him to death with my bare hooves.

If that was what Night Sky meant by doing whatever it took to save the folks back home, then my life wasn’t the only thing I feared to lose. I remembered it in shattered shards of icy memories: his face as I blundered into him, the pain I felt when he bucked me in the chest … my horn dripping with his blood … my hooves tightening around his throat …

The rest was lost to blackness and hysteria.

‘Out here,’ Night Sky’s voice whispered inside my thoughts, ‘Killing is just another part of living …’

My heart shuddered with disgust. I gulped down the lump in my throat, shoved it away into the furthest corners of my mind, slammed the door shut, and locked it behind me.

I rubbed at my temples with my hooves, letting out a long, drawn out sigh. I fished the can out of the flames with a long piece of cardboard. It spilled across the snow. I nudged the can with the tip of my hoof until it stood upright, too hot to hold in my hooves. I waited for it to cool.

I stood to my hooves and hesitated. I could feel eyes on the back of my head. I glanced over my shoulder.

The mare was sitting there on her haunches, staring right at me. She might have been watching me that entire time as I picked through what few there was left of her store. Her livelihood. The job that put food on her table.

I just stared back. For a while, neither of us said anything. I didn’t have much left to say. And she didn’t have much left.

I shook my head and retreated back into the darkness with my can of half-melted slurry. Climbing atop cold shanties, mounds of frozen detritus, and discarded scraps, I found a place where I could be alone. Away from the burning shop, away from that mare, there was a shed that sat atop an abandoned building overlooking the shanty town below. I inched my rump onto the cold sheet metal beneath me in an attempt to ease the strain on my sore muscles. Trembling jets of wispy mist hissed through my lips as I finally lowered myself to the floor. With a long, drawn out sigh, I shrugged off my saddlebags.

I placed the can of slush between my forelegs and narrowed my eyes at it with all the focus I could muster. Nothing – except for the riveting flash of agony that speared through my skull. I fell forward onto my forehooves, dry-heaving into the metal. When the pain subsided, I winced as warm tears welled out of my eyes.

A foreleg came to my muzzle to wipe away them away, but instead, they came away red with blood.

I grumbled quietly and fetched the can with a hoof, pouring its contents down my vest. The slurry ran lazily down my body. With my other hoof, I scrubbed away as much of my bloody shell as I could. The breeze raked against my wet barding, and my body convulsed with violent shivers. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to see any of it. All that blood.

When I finished, my clothes were lacerated with darker shades of blue where the blood settled in. I at least managed to clean most of it off my kevlar plates.

It’d have to do.

I huddled in the back of the shed, wet and shivering, and gazed out into the ashen snowfall. From up there I could see a bright light glowing distantly through Poneva’s crumbling skyline.

Actually, it didn’t really seem so far. I could see its amber glow poking through the skeletal skyscrapers and around their rough, weather-beaten corners. Sitting in filth and darkness, I realized that the light was just over horizon. Light meant life. Light meant machines. Light meant technology – maybe even a water talisman … maybe even a warm place to spend the night.

I needed to get there.

Not all of Poneva was razed to the ground when the bombs fell. The light told me so. Some survived. Stable-Tec had to be one of them.

I needed to find out what that light was. I needed to find Stable-Tec. But first … I needed to eat.

Reaching into my bags, I pulled out a bruised can of beans. I brought it to my lips and clamped my teeth down on the lid’s tab, and pulled. With a dull plop, the lid tore off and the smell of old beans wafted into my nostrils. I tipped the can into my mouth and the frigid, chunky sludge dribbled onto my tongue.

I chewed and swallowed, too tired to worry about the unwholesome taste of expired slime slithering down my throat. Within minutes, I downed its entire contents, my stomach’s whining abated … for the time being. Exhausted, and with my belly finally full, I laid down, yawning as I rested my chin upon my hooves.

I thought that maybe I’d rest for a bit … just a few minutes with my eyes closed …

‘No!’ I couldn’t rest. I couldn’t waste anymore fucking time!

But … I was just so tired. My aching body begged me to sit down and rest, pleading with me to take a break.

‘Just a few minutes,’ I told myself.

I yawned once more. ‘Just a few …’

My eyes fluttered closed. I lay there, my exhaustion slowly reclining into a livid slumber. Lying there beneath the waning light of consciousness, I tried to imagine a place that wasn’t … there. Anywhere but there. The wintry wasteland slowly faded away … it faded away as I remade Spring Song’s world in my vision, letting my weary mind escape into a place far … far … far away.

Fields of verdant, green grass rippling in a gentle breeze. The protective gaze of an amber sun. The endless expanse of a blue, cloudless sky.

I felt considerably warmer, even as the cold breeze whispered down my neck. It whispered … it faded …

The murals … I remembered murals painted across B-Block’s walls, the awe-inspiring landscapes of a world that once was beautiful. Beautiful. It was just beautiful.

Lost … I found myself lost in an undulating sea of grass. I gazed out into the distance, following the gentle curves of the rolling green hills that swept across the earth as far as I could see.

I raised my head to the bottomless blue sky and sighed softly. There, I bathed in the warmth of a guardian sun that caressed my cheeks with its golden sunshine.

I could see the sky – and not a single dark cloud hung over the earth to ruin that perfect day.

Perfect. There was not a single thing in sight that could ruin the perfect world around me.

Not a single thing.

Hooves plodded behind me. My bright eyes gravitated to the mare I loved.

Dew Drops ran into me at a full gallop, and I took her into my forelegs, spinning through the grass as she buried her muzzle in my chest. We fell on our hooves and I was taken aback by the beauty of the mare that stood before me. The sun illuminated her gentle face and her eyes reflected brilliantly like diamond jewels, encapsulating me in their tender gaze.

Dew Drops giggled once, brushed her teal mane out of her eyes, and gave me a long kiss, wrapping her forelegs around me and hugging me tight as if she hadn’t seen me in ages. It might as well have been, because I returned the favor tenfold, pausing only for a moment to take a shallow breath of air, before parting her lips with my tongue once more.

I took Dew Drops’ hoof as we trotted through the grass, the tall stalks of grass parting before us as we giggled, loving each other … and loving the world around us.

We entered a clearing. There, a picnic basket on a red-checkered blanket was waiting for us. We enjoyed our lunch of hay sandwiches and carrot juice and laid down on the soft, cool grass, watching fluffy white clouds float by.

I rolled over beside her, and our lips met as the sun began to set, a line of magnificent, amber light parting down our muzzles as the moon took to the skies and bathed us in its pale moonlight. Crickets chirped, and buzzing yellow fireflies zipped over the grass.

She rolled me over onto my back, whispering that she loved me as she nibbled playfully on my ear and I planted kisses upon her neck.

“… hahahaha …”

My ears perked. The midnight blue skies shuddered as if a hoof clopped against the glass behind it. Dew Drops’ expression flickered as I reached her jawline. With her panting breaths hot against my muzzle, I silenced her euphoric gasps with a kiss, caressing her tongue with mine.

In the distance, barely audible beneath the crickets’ chirping, a faint voice whispered …

“Hahahahahaha …”

The world shimmered around me.

I sighed, closing my eyes as I waited for the crickets to resume their chirping. I didn’t care. I let the distant laughter pass unheard through my ears as she lied down on her back. I lowered myself over her, touching her scarlet cheek with a trembling forehoof. I gazed dreamily into her tender gray eyes … her voice whispering to me softly … inviting me onward.

“DD … I –”

A sharp twinge shot through my skull.

“Hahahahaha …” Closer. Hooves plodded through the grass. Cold sweat trickled down my face.

I shook my head vigorously, telling myself that I couldn’t let anything get through … ‘I couldn’t let anything ruin this …

‘Not a single thing … not a single thing … could ruin … this …’

“Hahahahaha … hahahahaha …”

Nearer. Hooves crunched through the brush in the closing distance.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus. My eyes fell upon Dew Drops’ face, her expression unchanged as she waited for me to say the words I needed to say.

I didn’t want that night to end. I loved her so much. There were only three words … three words that I needed to say … but they continued to escape me as the hoofsteps crunched ever closer.

Her lips moved … asking me something. What was wrong … the voices. The crickets stopped chirping. The wind stopped blowing.

What was wrong … her lips moved, but all I could hear was the laughter in the distance … their psychotic … mindless laughter.

“DD … I-I …” My vision unfocused – blurring. I whimpered, blinking furiously as my vision flashed with splashes of red.

A voice whispered from the brush …

“We’ll cut you up good …”

“No …” I whispered as my shoulders rocked with sobs. Dew Drops was still beneath my heaving chest, her startled eyes staring through me, her jaw dropped as she saw something behind me that I couldn’t. Something that I didn’t want to see.

All around me the grass withered and died. Black clouds drowned out the moon. Icy veins broke apart the earth.

A thousand pounding hooves trampled through the snow. Closer.

“I’ll fucking skin you alive …”

Closer. Their laughter quaked the earth beneath me like voices screaming behind a window.

“Hahahahaha – HAHAHAHAHA!

“NO! DD, I –“

“I’LL FUCKING SKIN YOU ALIVE!”

I blinked.

My heart skipped a beat. A ragged gasp tore out of my lips.

Dew Drops was lying beneath me, her head tipped slightly to the side.

Blood was pooling out of her shredded throat. I cradled her head as I peered into her glassy eyes. They stared back. Staring into nothingness. Wide, inert, lifeless dead eyes, the light within them gone … gone, gone, GONE –

… gone.

“DD? … DD! DD!” I shook her frantically with my blood-caked hooves. “N-no NO!” I screamed as the frozen earth quaked beneath us and insane laughter filled the air.

“DEW DROPS, PLEASE! GODDESES, NO – SAY SOMETHING!”

“HAHAHAHAHA – HAHAHAHAHA!”

My bloodshot eyes shot open – and my paradise shattered like glass. My hooves fell away from under me, into the darkness – into the wasteland.

Hoofsteps thundered behind me, and I swung my head over my shoulder.

My saddlebags were gone. An equine shadow bounded away from me across the rooftops as I swept my foreleg over the floor where they used to be.

My eyes darted over my shoulders frantically, batting at my neck –

‘Her scarf – Dew Drops’ scarf!’

Gone.

“STOP!” I screamed with burning, teary eyes as I galloped after him. We raced across the shanty town’s rickety, scrap-metal rooftops, forty feet of frozen air between us and the slums below.

All it took was one wrong step. I swore that it wasn’t going to be me.

He scrambled to a stop, several feet before a ledge.

“You’ll pay for this …” I growled.

The pony looked over his shoulder and I met his eyes with a look that promised murder. He inched back. Forward. And took a giant, running leap.

My jaw dropped. ‘Son of a bitch!’

I skidded to a stop inches from the ledge, and saw him roll across a rickety canopy that cratered beneath him. He stumbled to his hooves, shooting me a desperate glance as I took a hoofstep back and hurled myself over the edge.

“GIVE THEM BACK!”

My fall crushed the sheet metal beneath me.

Three words. Three words were all I needed to say.

“G-give them back …” I whimpered as I heaved myself back to my hooves.

But they weren’t enough. That pony just kept running.

I hounded after him into a third-story alleyway, the skyscrapers’ orange lights flashing across my eyes between the shanties. Ponies dove out of the way, spilling over carts full of scavenged materials and refuse that clattered behind us in our wake.

He jumped over a cart sitting in the middle of the alley, and I plowed through it. He ran around a herd of loiterers, and I blundered through them.

Nothing could stop me. Nothing could take her away from me … again.

A mare sifting through a cart of bent cans screamed as the pony narrowly sidestepped past her. I shoved her aside, spilling her tin treasures across the snowy, weather-beaten deck. It didn’t matter. All I cared to see was that stallion galloping away from me.

I blinked. Snow furies dragged Dew Drops into the darkness. I winced as their laughter echoed inside my thoughts.

It only made my legs pump faster.

We reached the end of the narrow alleyway, my hindlegs kicking up showers of dirty snow. The pony ducked through a shanty’s door and kicked it shut behind him. I flung it open and charged through the doorway, a family of huddled ponies screaming past me as the pony hurled himself out the back door and I barreled through it.

“STOP! NOW!”

“No!” I was close enough to see his tattered barding and his scratchy, brown mane. “I need this!”

Another ledge blurred closer. That pony knew Poneva better than I did. He vaulted across a gap between two rooftops, landing on the other side with a slight stumble before recovering fast enough to take another leap. He was getting away.

I leaped, bounded, and flailed, swearing under my rasping breaths as chunks of dirty snow and black ice plummeted away from my hooves – four stories to the bottom. Sheet metal pounded rapidly beneath my hooves – until my eyes widened at what I saw in the closing distance. I slowed as we approached a dead end. A dead end for the both of us.

All that was left was another rooftop – twenty feet away, across a ravine that fell into the darkness below. But he didn’t stop.

The pony screamed his voice hoarse.

And he took the leap.

‘Dear Celestia,’ I mouthed as he throttled across the gap, forelegs outstretched, hindlegs kicking through the air with my saddlebags trailing behind him. He was going to fall. He was going to splatter across the streets below … and take Dew Drops ... my friends ... Mom and Dad ... everyone I loved away from me.

The sheet metal cut his screams short. He slammed into the rooftop, skidding violently across the frozen metal before landing in a heap.

There was a pause in my madness.

During the time that passed as I approached the precipice, I saw myself splatter across the pavement in twelve different ways. I saw the world spinning end over end as I tumbled to my gruesome death – pancaked across the asphalt like a squashed radroach.

‘I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. Goddesses – I’M GONNA DIE –‘

My hooves left the sheet metal beneath me.

Flying.

I was flying – soaring through the air like a pegasus pony. The weathered metal rooftop at the other end of the gap seemed close enough to touch as time slowed and my entire existence became devoted to reaching it.

Snow furies cackled their maniacal cries, their snarling, psychotic cacophony echoing distantly in my ears …

“Hahahahaha … hahahahaha …”

‘Not again,’ I thought, ‘You can’t take them away from me.

‘I’ll save them. I’ll save them all.’

I held out my forelegs, letting the chilling breeze carry me upon my flapping wings. I caught the frozen winds beneath my feathers and sailed across the gap. Nothing could stop me –

Except gravity.

My imagination swam – reality violating my senses as I looked down, and the world below me stretched on into infinity. A maw of frozen metal parted beneath my thrashing hooves, threatening to swallow me whole.

Falling.

I was falling – careening over the edge, flailing my legs, and screaming at the top of my lungs. The world raced by me like a fleeting memory – the ledge at the other end of the gap far beyond my reach.

I wasn’t going to make it.

I threw out my forelegs, stretching them out as far as I could, my joints screaming frantically at me that that was as far as my forelegs could go. But it wasn’t far enough.

The weather beaten ledge was less than half a hoof’s length away.

And I missed.

A mortal, ear splitting shriek erupted from my lips.

“FFFFFUUUUU –"

My face careened into the sheet metal wall.

Stars exploded in my eyes and my vision swam away from the light of clarity, my ears ringing like a tolling bell. My hooves scrambled blindly for purchase, but I skidded down the wall, plummeting back to the earth.

CRACK!

I felt the ligaments in my right fetlock shred like paper. My hoof caught itself between two rimy layers of twisted rebar and I broke my own fall with a violent snap.

“CELESTIA!” I hissed.

White hot agony shot through my veins – my fetlock shrieked in torment.

With an anguished grunt, I forced - I willed my left foreleg to reach higher. Higher. I found a ledge, and I clung to the deformed rebar for my life.

The rooftop, past a series of twisted metal beams and sheared steel, was nearly a foreleg’s length above me. Its ledge reflected dully in my teary eyes as I reached out with my swelling right hoof. My nerves cried out in pain as I jammed my throbbing hoof into a gap within the twisted, steel face. I kicked, and kicked – I kicked my hindlegs inward – trying to get a grip. My legs flailed and pawed at the frozen metal, my hooves scraping away layers of frost as my left forehoof came to meet my right.

I reached out with my left once more and faltered. The muscles in my right leg screamed, locking up - wavering through the storm of agony that throbbed through my veins.

But then I heard her. Dew Drops’ screams echoed distantly in my ears.

“NOOO!”

I threw my right hoof over the rooftop’s edge, then my left – my right – my left – and, with a kick and an anguished howl, I heaved myself onto the weather beaten deck.

I stood to my hooves. My pupils contracted. An immense skyscraper loomed over us, lighting me ablaze with amber light. I wheezed and took a step forward. There he was: at the other end of the rooftop, the stallion’s form was silhouetted against the skyscraper's fiery glow.

He wasn’t getting away.

The skyscraper gave light to the hatred that burned in my eyes as I locked gazes with the pony who took everything away from me. Once more, I found myself staring into the eyes of a pony who knew he was going to die.

He backed away, his jaw dropped as he stammered in horror and disbelief. He took one step back, and I took another forward. A rivulet of blood trickled down my forehead as I shambled after him, my horn bowed forward.

“Holy shit …” the pony murmured.

I growled, craned my neck and yanked my pistol from its holster.

“You’ll … pay for this …” I growled, limping towards him. “No … more … running ...”

Behind him was a seven story drop into the frozen depths of Poneva’s underworld.

But he didn’t seem to understand that I was right.

The pony shrugged off my saddlebags, my belongings clanking dully against the shanty’s roof.

“A-alright! Alright! Th-there, j-just ...”

He took another terrified step back.

One step too far.

“… just leave me alone – AH!”

My eyes widened. The stallion slipped.

He fell over the edge, screaming as gravity dragged him to his gruesome end. I raced after him, my fetlock aching as I reached the ledge and peered downward.

And there he was: hanging from a single hoof, his tattered barding billowing in the wind.

I gazed down at him ... and my heartbeat slowed. I felt it again. The calm. The quietude. The silence before the headsmare’s axe.

The pony stared back up at me in desperation. I felt my mouthbit loosen between my teeth. I watched his eyes, as tears welled up from inside of them. I watched. And I listened. His bloodshot eyes told me a tale of a poor pony scraping through the filth, day by day, taking whatever food he could scavenge or steal.

The pony’s weak, trembling limbs told me that chase burned what little energy he had left. The bones that poked out of his emaciated body spoke of days gone by on an empty stomach.

His hoof looked like it would give out any second.

But I just stared ... a chilling calmness in my eyes. His mouth moved soundlessly, but all I could hear was the sound of his head exploding like a melon as he splattered against the pavement. I came to realize that his life hung not at the edge of that steel rooftop, but from my own hoof.

I blinked once, and a snow fury stared back at me. The black veins in his demented eyes bulged as he screamed in utter silence.

His laughter echoed through my ears. His psychotic, mindless laughter.

The blood of my friends stained his coat and the ragged fabrics that were wrapped around his trembling flesh. He took them from me. And he would never ever take them away from me again.

I watched in slow motion as his hoof slipped, his frantic eyes widening for the last time. Madness and death ran their chilling hooves down my spine and I shivered beneath my coat.

'No,' I thought.

No one else needs to die.'

I leaped forward and caught his outstretched foreleg between my hooves, crying out weakly as my sprained fetlock jolted my nerves. He weighed less than I thought he did. With an agonized moan, I pulled him up and yanked the pony back over, heaving him onto the roof at my hooves. The stallion fell to his gasping chest, his limbs splayed out at his sides as he wheezed for air.

Tucking my pistol into its holster, I watched in silence as he stood upon his rickety legs.

“Gods … y-you saved my life …” he murmured weakly, meeting my glassy stare. “You saved me …” he repeated, looking down at his hooves as tears streamed down his grimy cheeks. “Why?”

It was a question I didn’t answer.

“I’m … I’m sorry …” he began, “I-I saw you walk from that place with those cans … I needed them so bad. I needed them ..."

I stared at the poor pony for what seemed like an eternity.

Then I limped to my bags, wrenched them open – and rolled out three cans of pre-war beans, the only food I had left. They tapped against his hooves as he wiped his eyes. He nearly collapsed to his haunches. His eyes darted to mine, his mouth moving, but not a single word escaping his quivering lips.

“Take them,” I exhaled simply, my voice hoarse.

He gawked at the cans at his hooves once more in disbelief.

A painful smile barely grazed my lips. “Go ahead. You need them more than I do.”

The pony’s head bobbed up and down, repeating my words in his head. Until it registered that I wasn’t going to shoot him, he nodded once more, fetched the cans in his hooves, and tucked them into his clothes.

“Thank you,” he whispered softly, his eyes not leaving mine once as he bowed his head and slunk away.

But my eyes didn’t follow. His hoofsteps dissipated into the wind, and I was alone on those windswept rooftops once more. I limped to my bags and fell to my haunches, exhaling laboriously as my sprained fetlock sent a torrent of burning agony through my leg.

I parted my saddlebag’s flaps and fetched a health potion. It was the last one I had. I popped its cap and gulped it down, sighing softly. I could feel my torn ligaments stitching back together with every beat of my heart. I dipped a hoof into my bags and pulled out Dew Drops’ scarf, hanging it from my neck as I pulled out the two frayed photographs within.

I stared at them for what seemed like an eternity, my mind numb and my expression blank. I stared in chilling silence as the wind moaned a somber tune, my friends' cheerful laughter echoing distantly beneath its lonely breeze.

I could discern each and every single one of their voices in the wind before their laughter melted away, drowning into the howling darkness.

My hooves began to shake. I clenched my jaw and pursed my lips. A tear trickled down my cheek as I tried to keep a straight face, tried to suck them back in. But my shoulders rocked with sobs I couldn’t contain any longer.

I hung my head quietly, my face darkening and my tears glistening in the orange light.

It was just in my head. All of it was.

As I stared down at my friends, their faces frozen in time, I relished in the life I lived with those ponies, cherishing their memories, the sweet and the bitter, the hilarious and the disappointing, the successes and the failures.

I had their photographs, I had her scarf … and yet I didn’t feel any different. I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save her. I failed them all.

But a voice in the back of my head told that I had failed them from the very start.

Ever since I got my cutie mark, I neglected my friends to develop my skills, putting off the hours we could have spent together to tinker, to fix, to learn ... to be alone – and now I had what I fucking wanted.

I took them for granted – most of all, I took her for granted. And I wasted everything. They died without knowing how much I appreciated their friendship. Dew Drops died with so much love to give. And I didn’t deserve a single second of it.

I didn’t even get to tell Dew Drops that I loved her … one last time.

Three simple words that I could’ve … should’ve told her a long time ago. But that time was long gone.

They were torn away from me – out of me, leaving wounds that I tried so hard to wrench shut. The simple thought of them made my heart bleed. Again, my wounds were open, and I was bleeding out once more as my tears poured down my face.

I shook my head in denial, shaking away the tears that welled out of my bloodshot eyes. I gazed glassy-eyed at my family picture, saw my mother’s face and thought, ‘Would she be proud of me if she saw me now?’

Would she be proud to know of the things I did to reach Poneva? The ponies I killed? All those snow furies I cut down without giving a single shit? What about all the friends I lost … what if she knew that I wasn’t strong enough to save them? That I wasn’t strong enough to save the mare that I loved?

I dropped their pictures into my bags and curled up into a ball, burying my muzzle in Dew Drops’ scarf.

That dream I had of her … it felt so real. Her coat, her flesh, the taste of her tongue – it felt. So. Real. That awakening, that rude perversion of reality into my weary imagination was a violent one. It stole her away from me, and I chased after her.

I almost ended up killing someone. Again.

And still, the mare of my life was dead. I watched them tear her apart, just like I watched those zebras, and those slaves and did nothing.

I was fucking useless.

Dew Drops told me that with my friends, we could accomplish anything. But they were gone.

Gone.

Without them, without her, I was nothing. I was only one. And I had none. All of it was too much. I wasn’t strong. I was a fucking weakling who’d only survived that long by luck alone – lucky that other, stronger people had killed and died to get me that far.

I hated it – hated myself for being so pathetic, for being such a little bitch.

I hated everything around me. The wasteland, the snow, the city, the snow, the people that lived in it, and oh – the fucking GODDESSES-DAMNED SNOW!

I sobbed, my eyes heavy and swollen.

There comes a point when you run out of tears to shed. I reached that point.

I just lay there in somber quietude.

I rolled onto my back and stared up into the dark skies, too tired to weep. In silence, with only the wind and the distant Ponevan ambience whispering in my ears, I peered up into the black clouds that hung above the frozen earth, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw a light.

A small dot, a hole, opened up in the sky, and out poured a weak beam of yellow light that encapsulated me in its radiance. Even though I had never seen it before in person until then, I knew exactly what it was. It was unlike the orange artificial glow that washed over me ...

It was pure. Unadulterated. Sunlight.

And just like that, it was gone, as fast as it came. If I was right, the sun was still there – just beyond the cloud layer. Just beyond the darkness.

I saw it … and I knew. It was still there.

Celestia and Luna had raised and lowered the sun and the moon for thousands of years. I wanted to believe that they too were still there. But after what I had seen so far, it hurt to think that maybe Bone Charm was right. That they were dead – and so was all the good and all the hope in the world.

But I wanted to believe … in something. I wanted to believe that there was still hope.

I remembered the look on that stallion’s face when I pulled him back up. I saved his life, in more ways than one. I made the wasteland a slightly better place when I gave him those cans.

Maybe … maybe that was why the sky opened up.

Maybe that was why the sun was still there. Because there was still hope. Still goodness in the world. Somewhere. Somewhere … in … me.

Somewhere in the wasteland, there was hope.

Just like the sun, it might've be hard to see, but it was there, hidden behind all that darkness. And for the most miniscule of moments, I saw it through the clouds, and the darkness, and the madness.

It was still there.

I read once in a silly foal’s book, that the night was always darkest before dawn. It was clichéd, I know, but the darkness around me had to mean something, it just had to – because it was pretty fucking dark.

My head rolled across my shoulder and onto the chilling sheet metal, my darkened face turning to the light. I forced myself to my haunches and gazed up at the Ponevan skyline, and at what few skyscrapers there were that still glowed with light.

Ever since I had climbed up there, I had never even taken the time to simply pause and look around me. I was so focused on getting my bags back, that I never noticed what was staring at me in front of my face the entire time.

The closest skyscraper, towering over me with its amber radiance, caught my eye. And so did the immense neon letters that hung from its titanic, concrete edifice:

World Tree.

But beneath the refurbished neon lights, I saw something else. Something that I had seen stenciled onto almost everything I had, growing up. It was written in raised concrete, just barely visible beneath the World Tree tower's glow:

Stable-Tec.

I stood to my four hooves, the skyscraper’s lights painting my shadow across the rooftops, and my mane, my tail, and Dew Drops’ scarf billowing in the wind. I wiped a hoof across my face, and sniffled, the tower’s radiance burning like firelight in my widening, teary eyes.

I remembered what I had asked Dew Drops, the night before she died.

‘Are we going to find a Water Talisman?’

The answer to that question was less than a mile away.

I reached out with a hoof.

It hung before me, empty. But perhaps not for long.

Hope. It was so far. It was so far … far beyond my reach. But in that moment, as I gazed onward into the light, I felt it. For the briefest of moments, I thought that maybe … just maybe …

… I might just be able to go home.

My eyes fluttered closed as hung my head.

I never really believed in hope. That might’ve been why I couldn’t see it.

All my life I simply did things and waited for the consequences or the results. Then, I knew, that all the hope my friends had … the hope that Dew Drops held in her heart culminated to this.

She was always right. She was smarter than I was, and even in death …

Dew Drops was still right.

We would find a way …

And I found it.

Footnote: Level 4
XP: 1050/1700

Chapter 6 - Six Thousand - Pt I

My heart pounded inside my chest. I lost sight of the tower as I crawled out of that dreary, slummy shanty town, its light disappearing behind Poneva’s broken skyscrapers. I clambered over a mound of frozen debris, my hooves scrambling for purchase. Chunks of rubbish fell away from my flailing limbs as I struggled to catch a glimpse of the skyscraper’s amber glow once more.

“Come on, come on!” I muttered, throwing a hoof over the concrete mountain that was blocking my path. With a heave and a grunt, I yanked myself up and over and a shaft of orange light painted a smile across my face. There it was.

I stood upon my four legs atop the hill of snow and rubble, Dew Drops' scarf billowing behind me in the breeze. “Finally!” I gasped, grinning madly at the brightest light I had ever seen in the wasteland. I stared up at it, mouth open with awe. The last I had seen it, I was seven stories above the earth. But from down there … I felt even smaller as I basked in its radiant glow like a curious, buzzing insect.

Never before had I seen something so bright. Never before had I seen anything so immense. I raised my head to the sky, trying to see the tower’s peak. I couldn’t. It might as well have been holding the sky aloft –

My head tipped forward.

“Son of a –”

I toppled over, tumbling end over end down the snowy embankment.

"BIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH -"

I punched a twelve inch deep outline into the snow, wincing at the dull pain in my ribs. I pushed myself to my haunches and found myself staring blankly into the headlights of an oncoming wagon.

My eyes widened as its lantern's glow hurtled closer and closer.

I was sitting in a damned intersection.

“Fuck!” I hissed, leaping out of the way as the wagon puller barreled past me.

I turned my head into oncoming traffic and my ears drooped.

"Fuck."

Headlights flashed in my eyes. Snow showered over me as I hurled myself away from another wagon.

I landed on my hooves. And sunk. It didn’t even take a single heartbeat for another wagon to come plowing towards me. I tore my hooves out of the snow and sidestepped – feeling the rush of its frame slice through the air next to my cheek.

"FUCK!" I wheezed as I thrashed my legs desperately through the fetlock deep snow.

A horn blared at me, its groaning honk blaring closer and closer.

“YOU STUPID SHIT!” somebody shrieked as I cursed and leaped out of the way, my swear jar getting heavier by the second.

'Wow - I'm getting pretty good at this!' I thought, a wild grin stretching across my face as more headlights flashed across my face.

Then a wagon ran into my flank.

It clipped me like a bad haircut, hurling me off my hooves and slamming me into a guard rail. A mare screamed as the wagon careened into the railing and the sound of a box of nails crashing against a concrete wall erupted into my ears.

Then nothing. Just the sounds of ponies power-walking away and wagons rumbling past.

Not a single pony stopped to see if the wagon puller or myself was okay. I wasn’t surprised. I lifted myself off the ground and limped across the snowy sidewalk with the wind knocked out of me as ponies hurried away.

A pair of yellow hindlegs wiggled and bucked through the snow, but the rest of the pony that they were attached to remained to be seen. I cocked a brow at the rusty assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols that were strewn across the snow-swept sidewalk.

I reached for the pony’s legs and hesitated when I saw the strange shape spray-painted against the wagon’s sideboard: a pair of angel wings sprouting out of a downward arrow. A plume of snow showered my muzzle as the pony kicked her legs once more.

“I’m going to regret this,” I muttered as I yanked her out of the drift. One second later, and I was panicking and she was on top of me with her pistol jammed inside my mouth.

“YOU! YOU FUCKING STUPID SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING DOING RUNNING THROUGH THE TRAFFIC LIKE THAT – YOU DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS FODDER FUCKER!”

It was rather difficult to reply with the barrel of a firearm lodged between my teeth. “I’m … shar …” I struggled, trying desperately to formulate a response that hopefully wouldn’t get me killed.

She parted the amber hair that fell over her bright orange eyes as she craned her neck and glared into my own. For a second I thought she was going to paint the snow pink with my brains, until she snorted a jet of mist and loosened up. Her brows flattened with exasperation and she yanked the pistol out of my mouth.

“Grrr … you’re helping me clean this up.” I sat up on my aching haunches and rubbed my lower jaw, wincing. “Fodder fucker …” the mare added as she trotted to the fallen weapons. She swung her head at me as I sat there, trying to pull my shit together.

“WELL?!”

“Sorry. Sorry about your wagon.” I scrambled across the snow to clamp my teeth around a horribly maintained assault rifle. I tossed the rifle back into the wagon like a piece of trash with a dull clank. They might as well have been. Those things would’ve blown up in your face if you tried shooting them.

Another rusty piece of scrap metal clanked in the back of the wagon. I stooped over and snatched up another rifle with my mouth. I was about to drop the weapon into the wagon bed when I saw that winged emblem again.

“Whash dat?” I asked through my teeth.

“None of your fucking business, just –”

She turned to look at me and narrowed her eyes at the way I slobbered all over the rifle in my mouth. “You fucking retarded or something?”

I spat the rifle into the wagon, groaning, “Look, I’m sorry about all this, but can you please stop calling me names?”

She groaned. “I mean, your horn, why’re you not using your magic?”

“Uh – well, my horn’s –”

She waved me off, tossing the last rifle into the back of the wagon.

“Whatever, I don’t really give a shit,” the earth pony snorted as she threw on her harness. The mare lifted a hoof but hesitated for a moment.

She glanced over her shoulder at the salty face I wore, and sighed a cloud of gray mist. “Sorry about that, I can be pretty rotten sometimes. Just running a little late on my uh ...” The mare looked at the rusty firearms in the back of her wagon. “My business. Next time, don’t run through the fucking street like a … fodder fucker. Might get yourself killed.”

“Yeah, thanks for caring,” I muttered as she returned to the road, not looking back. My haunches stung where her wagon ran into me, but, needless to say, I was closer to the Stable-Tec tower than I was several minutes ago.

I was just thankful she wasn’t like one of those assholes at the gates. Didn’t look like one, but… she nearly killed me.

I shook my head vigorously. I couldn't die. Not that close. I couldn’t let my excitement get a hold of me again. Earlier, I was overcome by the possibility of going home. Even after, my legs were still shaking. Even standing in the streets once more, I could still feel the warmth of the tower’s orange light upon my face.

No amount of thumbs could help me get a grip over myself. Not with the possibility of going home just a stroll down the road. I gulped, and started walking.

As I approached, the great stature of the Stable-Tec tower became more apparent; though it was not by far the tallest, it was undoubtedly the brightest. Unlike the dilapidated, dimly lit apartment buildings and skyscrapers around me, the Stable-Tec tower – or the World Tree tower, was the brightest light in the city as far as I could see.

It was a glowing lighthouse in an ocean of darkness – and it wasn’t a surprise: it was built by Stable-Tec. Looking at it was like traveling back in time 200 years. The tower looked virtually untouched by the balefire, apparently subject only to the passage of time as the centuries dragged by.

It was a titan of concrete and riveted metal, raised high above the street upon a tremendous estrade, and accessible only by a flight of wide stairs that narrowed the closer you got to the top.

I stared in awe, my legs trotting onward as if with minds of their own.

“Watch where you’re going!” some stallion grunted as I bumped into him. I didn’t even apologize. I was too busy admiring that beautiful tower.

The ponies who trotted past me paid no attention to it, as if such a marvel of engineering was just another slab of concrete in the snow. To them, it probably was – but for me? For a stable dweller who has seen nothing but white walls and poop water pipes his entire life? That tower was the most magnificent thing I had seen since I stepped a hoof out into the wasteland. And it was probably one of the last of its kind, one of the last reminders of a time when Equestria was great.

I cantered up a flight of narrow stairs that led to the bridge an entire story above me, and found myself standing before the tower and all its glory.

Weaving through the wagon and hoof traffic that slogged through the ashen streets, I finally arrived at the tower’s front door. I panned my gaze up the icy concrete steps that led me to the collapsed remains of an ancient revolving door, minus the revolving part.

I took a step forward, but hesitated. There was nobody outside. I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that nobody - but me - was walking up to the tower either.

I shrugged. It was my only way in. Gulping a lump down my throat, I tried to muster the most confident face I could as I walked up the steps. As my hooves clopped against the top of the stairs, I peered through the revolving door, and my heart nearly skipped a beat.

The lobby was dilapidated. Abandoned. Black outlines of furniture were all that remained of whatever had once furnished that empty lobby. I looked down, and shifted my hooves.

A layer of ashen dust had settled upon the the floor inside. It looked like nobody had been in there in centuries. I might as well have been the first to step inside since the bombs fell, because the floor and the walls and the ceiling all still had that blackened, charred look – just like everything else in the city.

That empty lobby belied the radiance of the tower above. The warm glow of civilization was nowhere to be found.

I bit my lower lip so hard I almost drew blood.

The balefire had blown through the windows and obliterated everything inside. There wasn't a single sign that anything had ever occupied that burned out lobby.

It looked just about as dead as the rest of the wasteland.

A sick feeling churned in my gut. 'This can’t be possible,' I thought.

There were lights just outside.

I paced back and forth, fruitlessly checking and rechecking the bare, balefire-blasted walls around me.

Nothing. There was fucking nothing.

I punched a hoof into the floor.

"Goddesses - damnit! This is a fucking joke! You’ve gotta be kidding me – you’ve gotta be fucking –”

I bit my tongue and sighed, lowering myself to my haunches and running a trembling hoof through my mane. It didn't make sense. The lights outside said someone was home, but the lobby told me that no one’s been home in centuries.

"Son of a bitch ..."

I tapped my forehooves together anxiously, my eyes darting to the walls around me. I let out a ragged breath and stood to my hooves.

Everything that led directly into the rest of the building was missing. No doors. No stairs. No elevators ...

No sign that anything had ever existed.

A light bulb flashed in my eyes.

'Nothing ... just like it should be,' I thought.

Walking to a bare wall, I reached into my saddlebags and drew my spade. I narrowed my eyes at the wall's icy surface as I scraped at it inquisitively, chipping off a chunk of frost. Beneath it, I uncovered a bulkhead of blackened steel.

I should’ve known. The people who built that place were the same people who built my stable. The entire ground level floor was contained – isolated from the rest of the tower.

Just like it should be.

Feverish curiosity possessed my limbs as I ran my hooves frantically across the walls, shuffling along the charred concrete floor on my hind legs. I remembered that even my stable's doors had controls to open it from the outside.

If the tower was built in the same way, then there had to be a way in - a control panel, a secret button - something! My hoof ran over a bump in the frost, and I exhaled sharply. It was a small, cylindrical piece of metal.

I pressed my face against it, peering inside - wondering if it was some sort of eye hole - or maybe a camera?

I cocked an eyebrow, tapping it with a forehoof.

It flashed red.

"Yow!" I cried, leaping away and rubbed my now blinded right eye.

“You are trespassing on private property," said a mare, her voice echoing from the ceiling. "Leave the premises immediately, or we will be forced to remove you."

The sound of machinery whirring to life behind me made the hairs on my coat stand on end. I swung my head frantically over both my shoulders and my heart nearly skipped a beat. A dozen turreted weapons folded out of the ceiling behind me. Their rotating energy casters exuded a magical, violet glow.

I cleared my throat, trying not to flinch. "W-what the hell are you doing with those?"

"Leave immediately, or we will be forced to remove you," the mare repeated. My eyes crept to the floor. I gulped at the sight of the gray dust beneath my hooves.

It wasn't dust.

“No, no - this can't be happening!” I planted my forehooves against the wall. "Listen – please – I–I really need your help -"

"Everyone needs help,” she said, cutting me off. “If you need food, you’ll find our agents at the Old Bank District.” The mare paused for a moment, thinking. The energy cannons glowed even brighter. “Leave the premises, immediately, while you still can."

I shook my head and supplicated myself before that red light with my forehooves outstretched. “No ... no - no – I-I can’t do that!” I stammered. “You don’t understand – I came all this way from –”

A shrill, mechanical whine emanated from behind me.

"No ..." I murmured as the blood drained from my face.

“This is your last warning.”

My breaths came in and out as frantic gasps

“Wait - please! Don’t do this –”

The energy turrets' rotating barrels screamed to life.

“Three,” droned the mare's voice as a violet glare engulfed the lobby.

“N-no! You have to listen to me!" I cried.

“Two.”

Magic arced violently across the turrets' accelerating barrels.

“Please!” I begged, sparing one final glance over my shoulder.

“One.”

Violet light flashed in my eyes.

“STOP!”

The turrets decelerated to a groaning halt, and a rivulet of cold sweat ran down my face. I closed my eyes and bowed my head as the lobby darkened in the heavy silence that followed.

“Please …" I whispered, my voice trembling, "My stable … our water talisman's broken. Our purifier got destroyed ... we need help, or we're all going to die."

The red light flickered yellow.

“Let him in,” said a different voice – a stallion.

There was a long, hesitant pause.

“Sir?” the mare asked, dubiously.

The stallion’s voice crackled over the comms. “Take a step back, please – away from the camera so I can see you,” he asked … or was that an order? He must’ve seen the anxiety in my eyes. I looked like I was going to drill a hole into the floor with my shaking.

“It’s okay … you’ll be alright. We won’t hurt you,” he said softly in a voice a parent would use to comfort a frightened child.

I blinked, trying to quiet my gasping breaths. He was talking to me. I obeyed with a terrified look on my face, my pale face glowing dimly in the violet light.

An eternity of quaking heartbeats passed – and the stallion’s voice crackled over the speakers once more.

“Let him in.”

“Sir, I don't think ...”

“Let him in.”

The yellow light blinked.

“... yes sir.”

I gulped a lump down my throat, my eyes darting back and forth as the turrets retracted into the ceiling and the light flickered green.

The wall of ice before me rumbled and cracked. I took a cautious step back, as layers of ancient frost broke away and the machinery on the other side groaned to life. A grating, mechanical shriek echoed through the empty room and a chunk of ice almost eight feet wide crumbled apart before me.

Out pushed forward an immense, yet familiar cog-shaped door. A grinding metallic shriek quaked the floor beneath my hooves as the cog spun 360 degrees and retracted back into the wall with a resounding thunder clap.

Then the door began to part open.

Billowing clouds of pale mist seethed out of the widening divide before me. I held a hoof over my eyes as a white strobe light flickered blindingly through the clearing fog.

I took another step back, wiping away a bead of cold sweat.

‘This is it.’

A gray mare stepped forward into the light, and said, “Let’s go, stable colt. Mister Sterling would like to speak with you.”

My eyelids fluttered as I entered into the glare of the harsh white light. I quickly adjusted to the same color of pale fluorescent lights that had illuminated the hallways of Stable 91 my entire life, and possibly the last 200 years.

Flanked by two security ponies and the mare whose voice nearly condemned me to death, I trotted into a flickering vestibule that didn’t look like it had been used in centuries. It probably hadn’t, as my hooves kicked up poofy clouds of dust that mingled with the mist lingering around my legs.

It was dust that time. I was sure of it. At least I hoped.

One of the security ponies sneezed, sniffling. “Haven’t been through here in ages,” she muttered.

I cringed wondering if she just snorted somebody’s remains.

A grating metallic groan echoed behind me as the cog rolled back into place with a floor-quaking slam, sealing that place off from the outside once more. Inside, it was utterly silent except for the hoofsteps that clopped in our gaits.

If it wasn’t for that Mister Sterling, I would have been another speck of dust swirling around outside that door. I let out a long and drawn out sigh. My legs were still wobbling beneath me. And it didn’t help that I could feel them staring at me. The two security mares that flanked me exchanged sideways glances, murmuring about how I looked like somebody they knew.

I tried not to look, but I caught one of my escorts staring at me and she quickly turned the other away, focusing upon the door at the far end of the hall. I gulped. I realized that I was still gasping for air.

The gray mare at point stopped in front of me, and took a good look at my face. She glanced at the other two ponies, then back at me, inquisitively.

I nearly shrunk beneath her stare. The earth pony mare was half a foot taller than me.

“What’s your name, kid?” she half-asked, half-demanded in a gruff voice.

I took a deep breath, running a shaky hoof through my dirty mane. “My name’s Red Dawn. I’m from Stable 91.”

She nodded to herself, snorting, “You don't look so good, kid.”

“You nearly incinerated me!” I snapped.

She met my eyes with a hard stare.

“If it wasn’t for that PipBuck of yours, I would’ve thought you were a God-damned snow fury or something,” she growled, eyeing the stains on my underclothes and the bullet ridden, blade-scored, wasteland shit-on kevlar armor that clung to my chest.

“Hell, if it wasn’t for Mister Sterling’s generosity, I probably would’ve dusted you anyways.” My muscles tensed as she leaned in close so that we could see eye to eye. “Let me be straightforward with you, Red Dawn: if you try anything, and I mean anything stupid, we’ll mop the floor with you."

She cocked her head at me.

"Are we clear?”

My eyes narrowed at the holstered energy pistol that was slung around her neck. I took a deep breath, clenched my jaw and nodded.

“Crystal Empire clear,” I muttered, bitterly.

“Good boy. And If you really are from Stable 91, then it’d be a real shame if you got atomized after coming all this way. God knows the shit-heap you climbed over to get here.”

I felt the urge to say something I’d regret, but I held my tongue. She didn’t even know half of it.

“Both of us can agree on that,” I muttered instead.

She tipped her chin up and held out a hoof, saying, “Before we go on inside, I’ll need you to give me all your bags, guns, knives, explosives – anything that you’re carrying. I’ll need to search your bags, too.”

My entire body went stiff.

"My ... bags ..." I whispered.

The mare snorted. “What's wrong, kid? You act like I'm gonna strip you down or something."

“Maybe he ain't so proud 'bout what you'll find down there,” one of the security mares drawled, bumping the other on the shoulder as they laughed. My face went redder than my mane.

“Relax, kid. It’s standard procedure for visitors here at the World Tree Company. Just need to make sure you aren’t gonna try and die a martyr, or something,” she said, resting a hoof on her energy pistol.

I groaned, rolling my eyes, “Do I look like I have bombs on me?”

She shrugged, holding out her hoof once more. “Let's find out.”

I glanced at the ponies on either side of me, and saw that they had their hooves planted on their holsters too.

'My bags ...'

I reached over, hesitating as my hoof hovered over the straps. I gulped a heavy lump down my throat. I nearly killed myself trying to get them back ... hell, I nearly killed someone else.

I shook my head, closing my eyes.

“Alright,” I whispered.

I sat down, shrugged off my bags, and lowered them to the floor between my forelegs. I parted theirs flaps and froze. My friends. Their frayed photographs caught my eyes and pain flickered across my face.

The gray mare saw the ghosts that haunted my bloodshot stare.

Her hoof lowered and so did her tone. “You’ll get them back,” she said softly, in a voice I didn’t think she had.

A moment passed and I nodded, slowly. I stared down at the floor and pushed my bags away from me before hoofing over my pistol, barrel down. My muscles tensed as I felt hooves pat me down from head to hoof. Afterwards, the two other security mares proceeded to reach inside my saddlebags, poking through my belongings.

I cringed – hard – as one of the mares commented on how cute I looked in my foal picture.

“Excellent. Then we shouldn’t have any problems. Mister Sterling never has any visitors ... well, any visitors that aren't threatening to hang his head over the ramparts outside, at least. If he thought you were a threat, he wouldn't have stuck his neck out for you like that.” She snorted. "Don't look like you got it in you, anyways."

I glared at her.

She paused for a moment, then jabbed a hoof at me, lowering her voice. “But don’t think for a single moment I’ll let you off easy. Get in, get what you need, and get out.”

I growled, “Are you like this to everybody? Or do you just really like me?”

She narrowed her eyes at me so hard that I felt like she was going to crush me between her eyebrows.

“I hope to God that nopony else saw you walk in, because I don’t want anyone else thinking they’ll get special treatment,” the mare sneered.

I sighed, “If I’m some kind of threat, then why’d you guys let me in?”

“Wasn’t me. Wouldn’t have let you in even if you were being chased by a swarm of haunters.” She waved a hoof, dismissively. “Mister Sterling crawled out of a stable like you did; he probably felt bad for you or something.”

I cocked an eyebrow at that. I wondered how many stables existed in the north. 91 couldn’t have been the only one.

She nodded to the ponies that flanked me, and they seemed to ease up a bit. “By the way, I’m Dapple Gray, Chief of Security here at the World Tree Company, and I’m in charge of keeping this slice of sanity safe.” She turned to hoof a control panel.

“Safe from what?” I asked, half expecting her to say ‘you’.

Her foreleg hovered over the door’s controls, a half smile creasing her lips.

“Why, from everyone else, of course.” Dapple Gray tapped the panel in front of her and the door rumbled and shook, its internal mechanisms sliding and rolling into place.

“You’ll see why.”

The door swung open and a glaring white flash engulfed me. I gasped as I stepped into the light, shielding my eyes, inhaling only to have my brain go haywire at the aromatic, alien scents that flooded into my nostrils.

My eyes widened and my pupils dilated. It smelled ... edible. It smelled ... good. More than good.

It smelled fucking orgasmic.

My entire body quivered with electrifying euphoria as an orgy of mouth-watering scents rutted my virgin senses. Dapple Gray led us across the mezzanine to a veranda overlooking the stories below.

But I wasn’t exactly following her at that point. Instead, the scents spirited me over to the railing where they happened to be standing, the fruity fragrances intensifying the closer my nose came to the stone balustrade.

One level down, lab-coated and jump-suited ponies led formations of tracked robots that towed behind them dozens of carts filled to the brim with ….

'Dear Celestia.'

Fruits and vegetables.

My senses practically jizzed all over themselves.

Containers as wide as two ponies with their legs outstretched and as tall as a stallion on his hinds overflowed with mouthwatering hauls of golden apples, and succulent oranges, and bright red tomatoes, and 'Goddesses,' I thought, 'Are those strawberries?!' Among them were even more exotic fruits I thought I’d never see with my own eyes.

The names of many of those decadent morsels were lost to me. Some had names that were right on the tip of my tongue – and good Goddess, did I wish that they actually were.

They were supposed to be extinct.

But I was wrong. Goddesses, was I wrong.

My escorts snickered at the wide-eyed, slack jawed expression I dribbled with. I uttered the only words I could put together.

“Bwa-hahhh … unnf …” A thin line of drool trickled down my lower lip and I shook my head vigorously, wiping it dry as I blinked my eyes back into focus.

“W-what is this place?” I whinnied as I realized that the tower’s floors extended far beyond what I could see above me and deep into the earth – thousands of feet below.

Alternating tiers of mezzanines, bridges, and floors descended into the tower's depths, flickering with flashing yellow lights as swarms of robot cart pullers hustled across. Other balconies were illuminated by fluorescent beams where employees lounged on their lunch breaks.

“Is this a factory? Farm? Robot factory? Robot farm factory?”

Dapple Gray puffed up her chest and swept a forehoof across the floors below, saying, “This right here – this is the heart of all innovation in Poneva - the North’s breadbasket - Chancellor Puddinghead’s winter stash - the Garden of Eden.

“We’ve got seed stores to last an entire nation the size of Roan for years, and so much pre-war tech just sitting here that everypony wants a slice of the pie. If it wasn’t for Mister Sterling, we wouldn’t have known how to grow or use any of it.

“The folks back at Stable-Tec left us a going away gift when the world ended, but it was Mister Sterling who opened it for us.”

“That’s incredible. I-I’ve never seen so much fresh food - so many robots - so much of … of everything,” I droned on breathlessly as I stalked a crate of breathtakingly yellow banan… 'bananas? And … are those pineapples? What the hell are those spiky things?' I wondered.

There were too many questions to ask. The little hamster that scurried around in circles inside my skull was struggling to decide on whether to ask them - or to drool after a crate of strawberries that sat on the floor invitingly, alone and with nobody around to eat them.

A robot lifted it into a trailer and lugged it away.

"Don't go ..." I whined. The three mares sighed.

"Ahem." I licked my lips before asking, “What don’t you grow here?”

Dapple Gray just shrugged casually, vaguely amused at my blabbering.

“I’m just here for security. King Egghead and his team of eggheads upstairs do all the research. Well, resurrecting, as Mister Sterling likes to call it,” she chuckled. “They’re bringing back all sorts of good stuff from the old world up there.”

Dapple Gray patted down her uniform, tipping her chin back slightly as she gazed down upon the massive, clanking procession of labor bots below. “We ship food throughout the North, and as far South as New Appaloosa. We’re the third largest source of food in all of the Northern Wastes. Hell, probably in all of Equestria.”

“You-wh-huhh?! Third. LARGEST?” I gasped. “This place is HUGE!”

I stared off into the flashing distance, unable to even fathom the scale of their yields.

Dapple Gray snorted. “We’ve got stiff competition,” she said, biting her lower lip and resting a hoof on her energy pistol. “Big competition, rather.”

She cocked her head at me when she noticed that I wasn't listening, too busy panting – drooling – and wagging my tail at a crate of golden yellow apples with wide, puppy eyes.

Dapple Gray coughed. I blinked, and looked around.

"Oh," I murmured, realizing that they were still there.

"Anyways ..." she continued, "We've got big competition, and those bastards really don’t like competition.”

I peeled my focus from the cornucopia of mouthgasms and caught the sternness in her eyes.

“When the other plantations want something, they fight for it - and maintaining a monopoly on food in the wasteland is apparently something worth dying for to them. They want to put us out of business, even if it means destroying one of the only good things left in this wasteland.” The mare pushed herself off the parapet and nodded to my escorts.

I cocked my head at her. “What good would that be?”

“Food, Red Dawn. Unlike in your cozy little stable, there isn’t enough of it in the wasteland. Even with the three plantations, maybe even including what few sorry tiddlywiddly slivers of land there are left in Equestria that can sprout healthy crops, it’s still just barely enough.

“Now you know why we can’t just let anypony in. Now you know why we can’t have our doors wide open. We can’t risk losing … all … this,” she trailed off, leaning over the edge. “For all I could’ve known, you were one of them, trying to get inside.”

“What? Did my bloodied up barding give it away?” I scoffed with a sly grin.

She chuckled, folding her legs across her chest. “Don’t give me any ideas. I might just find a reason to buck you out the door.”

I just rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“I can’t risk letting anypony ruin what Sterling’s started. Can’t let all of his work go up in flames,” she vowed, her neck straightening even further than what I thought was equinely possible.

I cracked a thin smile at that. I thought I detected a hint of admiration in her voice.

“You sound like you’re very fond of this 'Mister Sterling',” I scoffed.

“And you ask too many God-damned questions,” Dapple Gray snapped suddenly, as the two guard ponies exchanged smirks. “We’ve dillydallied enough. The big egghead’s probably wondering if I ended up roasting his esteemed guest with laser fire, or something.”

We stepped into an elevator and Dapple Gray tapped its flashing buttons, our destination gleaming the brightest. The elevator rumbled once and began to ascend with a whirring lurch.

I watched quietly as the floors dinged by, hoping that, after all I heard, Mister Sterling was just as generous as Dapple Gray.

Chapter 6 - Six Thousand - Pt II

The elevator dinged and the doors parted open. Dapple Gray led me across the hall to the only room on the 91st floor: the penthouse suite. We walked past rows of hanging picture frames of what had to be notable members of the Stable-Tec corporation.

I paused for a moment to look at a picture of three mares, one with a yellow coat, another orange, and the third white, holding each other’s hooves up high before a cheering audience. Behind them, a projector casted an image of a newly built Stable door, labeled with only the number ‘1’.

'Stable-Tec – On a Crusade to build a better tomorrow,' said the plaque beneath it. It took me a moment to recognize just who those mares were … I had seen them before in the textbooks at school. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle – the founders of Stable-Tec. How could I forget the very ponies that designed all the stables in Equestria?

I looked closer, craning my neck.

Dapple Gray cleared her throat, and I snapped out of it, cantering up the hall to catch up with them. With me in tow, we arrived at Mister Sterling's executive suite. As I watched Dapple Gray approach the door, I found that my heart was drumming against my chest. I felt a little sweaty, too. I trembled – not from fear, but from sheer anticipation.

I took a deep breath as the mare knocked on Mister Sterling’s door. Seconds passed, and a thin line of sweat trickled down the side of my face.

The door opened and a tawny unicorn stallion stepped out into the hall to meet us. He saw me first, catching my uneasy stare. His eyes flickered with perplexity as they turned to see me. One of his eyes was red. The other glowed with a soft green light, a long scar running down his brow over his eye.

Quickly composing himself, the stallion, older than his one good eye showed, creased his lips with a curt smile, opening the door wider. The faint sound of whining mechanical servos whirred beneath his shabby white lab coat as his slender frame stepped out into the hall.

“Sterling, sir,” Dapple Gray said, straightening her spine.

He brushed her shoulder with a forehoof and her posture wavered, somewhat.

“Thanks, Gray.”

He turned his weathered face to me, seized by a peculiar warmth I never thought I’d ever see in the frozen wasteland. “Hmm,” he murmured, studying me as he tapped a hoof to his chin.

“I’m the guy who runs this place," he said with a smile, scratching at his short white mane, "But people call me Mister Sterling.” He held out a hoof to me. I flinched as if he was drawing a knife. It was just a simple hoof-shake. But no one out there had ever been that kind to me until then.

His polite smile widened, but it only gripped my heart with hesitation. “What about you, my boy? What’s your name?” At least he didn’t call me colt, or kid - like everybody fucking else. He seemed like a nice guy … but …

I took his hoof, cautiously, and shook it. “My name’s Red Dawn,” I replied, unable to remove my eyes from the unnerving pair of multicolored orbs that were holding my stare. “I’m from Stable-”

“91,” he said suddenly, plucking the words right out of my mouth. I stood there with my lips parted open, confounded. “I never thought I’d see the day when those doors would open,” Mister Sterling intoned. One of my hooves came to scratch at the number painted on my right shoulder pad. It was muddled with a dark red stain that I forgot to clean off.

“I never thought I’d see the day …” he trailed off wistfully.

My hooves shifted uneasily beneath me.

“Uhh … have we met?” I asked, sheepishly.

He thought for a moment, even though I knew the answer to my own question.

“We will soon, I suppose.” The aging pony held the door open for me, and motioned me inside. “Well, come on in. We’ve got something to talk about, don’t we?”

Suspicion stifled the movement in my legs. I found it hard to trust a pony who knew more about where I was from than anyone else in the entire wasteland.

I glanced at Dapple Gray, who was giving me that stern ‘I’ll break you if you try anything’ look again. Nodding slowly, I stepped inside his office as Mister Sterling leaned out the door to have a few words with Miss Gray.

While they spoke, I glanced around his penthouse office, curiously. Soft yellow light casted shadows against the ancient, graying walls and the dark hardwood floor.

Potted plants, filing cabinets, and tables stacked with glowing terminals and flickering monitors furnished Mister Sterling's personal suite. A staircase led to a wide mezzanine with a couch, drawers, closet, and a bed that must’ve been there since the bombs fell.

Hanging from the walls were pictures of ponies in pre-war garb. One was of a pair of stallions tipping their hats to the newly built Stable-Tec tower – nearly the same as it was when I saw it outside.

Looking past the half-mooned desk at the center of the office, I peered through a wide, panoramic view of the dim, flickering city below. I trotted toward the window and placed a hoof against the glass.

It struck me that Poneva was much much bigger, once. City lights – indicative of life – grew sparser and farther in between the further I stared out into the distance. Beyond a gloomy graveyard of skeletal high rises, I saw only an opaque curtain of night.

The heart of darkness. The heart of Poneva city. Out there, there was only darkness. The city limits had shrunk severely ever since the bombs fell, but where there was light, there was life. Even so, it was shocking to see so much of it in one small place. It was nothing but a horseshoe shaped glow that faded away into the black distance.

I wondered how many people lived out there.

The office’s door closed, and I heard hooves clopping towards me against the hardwood floor. “Six thousand souls,” the old pony said. I heard him before I saw him. Whirring mechanical servos sighed as he came to a stop beside me.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw the stallion looking out the window, too. “Six. Thousand. That’s how many people call this city their home.” He turned to me, asking, “You don’t see those numbers anywhere else in the wasteland do you, my boy?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I replied, simply, running a hoof through my messy mane. “I haven’t been out and about for too long.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have been able to tell you were new to the Northern Wasteland,” he said. “You look like you’ve seen it all.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, and sighed.

“I’ve seen enough."

I saw his gaze gravitate to meet my reflection’s gloomy eyes.

“And still, enough won’t ever be enough until you’ve finished what you came out here to do.”

My ears perked, and I met his weary gaze.

“You did mention that something happened to your stable? Your … water talisman?”

I let out a shallow breath, nodding. Mister Sterling turned and leaned his back against the window, folding his legs across his chest. “Stable 91,” he trailed off, touching his chin. “You're a long walk from home, Red Dawn.”

I snorted, the light in my eyes darkening as a humorless smile creased my lips. “I spent most of it running, not walking, Mister Sterling.”

He broke his gaze, turning his head away from me to stare out the window and into the dark city.

“I know how rough of a place the wasteland can be for a stable pony …” he trailed off, looking at his hooves.

A PipBuck with a dim teal screen encased his left foreleg.

“So you are from a stable?”

He nodded as I frowned at the way he was avoiding my eyes. “You remind me of myself when I left mine.” He lifted his a metal foreleg, its servomechanisms humming as he laid eyes upon his prosthetic hoof.

“Alone. Bloodied. Searching for something,” he trailed off.

“That why you tugged on Dapple Gray’s leash?” I smirked.

The stallion went silent for several heartbeats.

His servomotors yawned as he shuffled on his hooves. “I knew 91 would open its doors one day. But … I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting you to be the only one."

Mister Sterling studied my face as my ears wilted like dying flowers. I could hear my nightmares rattling behind the closed doors of my mind once more.

He finally looked me in the eyes.

“What happened … how bad was it?”

I clenched my jaw, leaning against the window. “Not too bad. Yet. Our water purifier had a meltdown and it took our water talisman with it.”

His gaze wavered for a moment as he glanced off to the side, his mouth open in silence. “That’s why you’re here,” he said, not asking.

I nodded.

“Then you couldn’t have possibly left alone …” He blinked and went silent. I looked at my hooves and his eyes softened. “Oh … no … I’m so sorry.” Mister Sterling said in the gentlest of tones, “They were your friends, weren’t they, my boy?”

My jaw clenched as I let his question sink into my heart. I hesitated, breaths refusing to enter my lips.

“Six of us. We came out here looking for a new water talisman.” I muttered, “I’m the only pony who made it this far. I’m the only one left.” I looked up and Mister Sterling was thinking quietly once more.

I remembered – vividly – the shattered fragments of scrap metal that had remained of our talisman. The pipes shrieked. They exploded over my head like gunfire. I clenched my eyes shut. I remembered the way Amber Fields died. Remembered Lightning Twirl falling out of the sky. Remembered the chain of explosions that silenced those screaming slaves.

They were but flashes in my eyes.

I could hear them again. The snow furies. Fresh in my mind like blood that wouldn’t dry out. I cupped my mouth with a hoof, gasping quietly as Dew Drops' screams and their laughter faded away.

Mister Sterling caught the ghosts that haunted my dark eyes. I tensed as he laid a hoof onto my shoulder, nodding slowly, and telling me, without words, to take all the time I needed.

I looked away, staring at the floor beneath the gentle weight of his hoof. I closed my eyes for a moment, loosening up, the pony’s hoof still resting upon my shoulder. I opened my mouth to continue, but I clung to the words that hung from the tip of my tongue, inhaling sharply.

“We’ve all lost someone,” he said, echoing Gail’s words. Night Sky’s words. “I … believed that I’d lost everything I loved when I stepped out that stable door.” He squeezed my shoulder with a hoof. “But you, my boy, still have everything to lose.”

“I want to go home,” I murmured, thinking of Mom’s warm smile, and her loving, feathery hugs. “Though I’m not quite sure if I can anytime soon.” I bowed my head, my mane falling before my eyes.

He remained silent, nodding to himself in the somber quietude that followed. “And you’re hoping that I can give you what you came here for?”

I stared at him, trying to read his face. Trying to gauge his reaction at what I’d say next. He already knew.

“Come on,” he said, finally, trotting away from the window. “I’d like to show you something. Maybe I can raise your spirits a bit, my boy. And please, just call me ‘Sterling’.”

I hesitated as he started toward the door. He paused, glancing at me over his shoulder as he waited. I exhaled a breath I realized I’d been holding, and trailed after him as we exited his office to take another elevator ride several floors down the tower.

With an audible ding, the doors parted open and my nose crinkled at the same overwhelming scents that I smelled earlier. Only this time, they were far more intense. And I saw why.

Sterling beamed with pride.

"Welcome to the Hanging Gardens of Poneva, Red Dawn."

My eyes widened.

Towering above me, upon dozens of tiers of hydroponic gardens were trees, hanging vines, and green stalks – their fruits hanging proudly from their thick branches or blooming from their lush tendrils.

Networks of irrigation piping wove through the brush, trickling sparkling freshwater directly into their submerged roots. I followed Sterling down a hanging walkway between groves of apple trees.

Unlike the ones at 91, those apples were a mouthwatering shade of yellow, the same ones I was admiring on the first floor. Sterling looked over his shoulder and saw the curiousness in my eyes and decided to humor me. Brushing past a labor bot that was inspecting the arcane machinery around us, he picked an apple from a branch and floated it towards me.

I looked at him, unsure as he placed it in my open hoof.

“Go ahead: have at it,” he said, smiling.

With an audible crunch and a spray of delicious apple juice, I took a bite and swallowed. My retinas dilated to saucers as liquid heaven made sweet, sweet love to my taste buds and dribbled down my chin. 'Good Goddesses …'

It was as if Luna just squirted inside my mouth.

'So that's what she tastes like,' I thought.

Sterling chuckled as I took another bite, and another, and another. Before I knew it, the apple was gone, and I was puppy eyeing the ravaged core that rested upon my hoof.

He chuckled, “You got a little something on your lip."

I licked my lips ravenously and wiped away a stray apple chunk.

“Wow, this is fucking amazing!” I gasped. Sterling’s smile only widened.

I blinked and I cleared my throat, my cheeks reddening. “Sorry, I mean, they’re just … so … guh-hooooood.” A labor bot rolled before me and plucked the apple core from my outstretched hoof.

Sterling snickered, dismissing my outburst with a wave of a hoof. “That’s exactly what I thought when I had my first.” He sighed, looking up at the hydroponic gardens that hung above us. “They’re called ‘Golden Delicious Apples’,” he told me as my stomach grumbled. He picked two more, one for me and the other for himself. He tossed me one and I caught it between my teeth, its juices trickling down my lip.

“I think they’re my favorite,” I said, relishing in the sweet aftertaste that lingered on my tongue.

“They’re my favorite too. Heh, and Goddesses, whoever named them that named them right.” The old pony chuckled, plunging his teeth into the golden orb that floated in his levitation spell. I stopped chewing for a moment when he said Goddesses. That was the first time I’d heard someone other than me say that word out there.

“At 10 caps per pound, these are the cheapest apples in all of Poneva. Ponies scramble for these when my agents cart them out into the markets.” He took another bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Six thousand souls.” Sterling waved a hoof above him at the gardens that stretched up to the ceiling. “All this? Everything you see here? It still isn’t enough for everyone.”

I looked all around me, eyeing up and down at the hydroponic … plantation around me. “How is that ... possible?” I murmured.

Sterling led me down the catwalk, nodding at a pair of lab ponies that trotted past us. “Tell me, Red Dawn, what was your job at Stable 91 before you left?” the old pony asked.

“I was … I’m an electrical engineer.” I was going to say an apprentice engineer … but … “Yep. Electrical engineer,” I added.

He chuckled, “Well, you're not an arcane engineer ... but still, you must know a thing or two about water talismans, right?”

I thought for a moment, a sly grin barely grazing my lips. “Of course,” I replied. Thankfully, that wasn’t a complete lie. I knew a thing or two; I just didn’t know everything there was to know about them like Dew Drops did. She was the arcane engineer, after all.

“What can you tell me about them?” he asked.

I gave him the textbook definition. “Water talismans use purification spells to produce freshwater.”

I crunched into my apple, chewing victoriously.

He nodded as we trotted across the catwalk. “Indeed. The water talisman is an intricate lattice matrix of quasicrystalline superconductors that, when introduced to an expurgation spell, focus and replicate it exponentially, generating an arcano-distillation field to thaumaturgically purify a liquid or aqueous substance for consumption.”

I stopped chewing. Sterling turned to my muddled expression, my mouth open so wide that he could see the half-chewed chunks drooling from my lower lip. I gulped, smiling sheepishly. That was a mouthful.

Sterling laughed. “Well, of course any stable engineer would know that!” he added as I stared at him blankly. “Don’t worry, I had to learn that too when I was an engineer at my stable.”

That bastard was testing me.

“Yes, of course,” I murmured. The pony snickered as we trotted along the catwalk.

“I was able to learn more about those talismans when I arrived here. This facility was one of the premier R&D centers for agricultural research in Equestria back in the day. Many of the botanical, biological, and arcanomechanical technologies used to grow and sustain plant life were developed here.”

What with the immense gardens and groves that towered over us, I wasn’t surprised.

We stopped at the center of the room overlooking a massive cylindrical machine that seemed to stretch up and down from and into the floors above and below us.

“Holy hell,” I muttered, unable to fathom the amount of work it must have taken to put the whole machine together.

It was gargantuan. It would take a several minute long trot to navigate around its entire circumference and a long elevator ride to get to the machine’s base. Pipes, branching out of the metal trunk, formed a vast network of piping that fed the hydroponic gardens.

“Any idea what this beauty is, Red Dawn?”

I touched a hoof to my chin. “It reminds me of the water purifier back home.”

“That’s because it is. This facility was used to research and develop new strains of fruits and vegetables that could be grown without conventional farming techniques.” He nodded to himself, saying, “You might know of a few, like the white apples grown in your stable - like in many standard configuration stables throughout Equestria. But they needed something to provide water for all their plants,” he said, marveling at the beauty of the arcane engineering before us. “It only made sense that the first water talismans were created and used here.

“During the war, Stable-Tec, with help from the Ministry of Arcane Science, researched the applications for advanced Crystal Imperial superconductor gems, which was the standard in the Empire at the time –”

“The Ministry of ... ?”

Sterling chuckled, folding his forelegs over his chest as he leaned against the railing. “You didn’t pay much attention in your Equestrian History class did you, my boy?”

“U-uh, sure I did. It’s just been so long.” I never thought I’d have to hear about the Ministries again after I graduated. I hated Equestrian history - but I passed that class. Passed, not aced - like I did with the rest of my classes.

They’re the ones who blew up the world, anyways.

Fuck'em.

Sterling cocked an eyebrow at me as I brooded, silently.

“Well the M.A.S did just what their name suggested," he continued, "They researched and developed new magical spells. They’re the ones who invented the mass expurgation spell, or the purification spells used in conjunction with water talismans.”

I nodded slowly. Again. “I knew that.”

“Unlike the flawed, reverse-engineered zebra talismans that Equestria used in mass-produced talisman designs, water talismans were built by unicorn scientists for quality over quantity, using imperial gems that were guaranteed to increase their efficiency and output ten-fold.

“Here, they developed the very talismans used in every single stable in Equestria, field testing them through their hydroponic agriculture research.”

My eyes lit up. “I-if they made them here, then you must have enough talismans to last hundreds of years!”

“Well,” he began, tapping his hooves together. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at me anymore. Again. “Water talismans were made in labs, not factories. They were constructed by hoof in batches, tested, and shipped, before another batch was given the green light to begin assembling.”

He paused, severity hardening his features. My ears drooped, my enthusiasm slowly dying away.

“The last batch of twenty never left its testing phase when the balefire came.” He averted his gaze to the water purifier. “That batch is currently being tested as we speak.”

I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, exhaling a breath I just realized I was holding in. “Wait, what? They’re being tested?” I scratched my mane incessantly, grinding my teeth. "Can't you stop the test? You don’t need twenty water talismans to feed this plantation, do you?” I gulped a lump down my throat as my heart fluttered with apprehension.

Sterling bit his lower lip. “This water purifier was built to test several water talismans simultaneously. Take one out ... and the machine ends its testing phase.” He looked at me with a grave expression. “It was already on when I first came here.”

I clenched my jaw, hoofing my face. “Well what’s that supposed to mean?” I whinnied.

Still unable to hold my apprehensive stare, he continued, “Many of the systems were offline and irreparable when we converted this facility into a hydroponics plantation. End the testing phase, and the purifier may not be able to run another test –”

“Please!” I snapped, suddenly, stomping my hoof. “Can you help my stable or not?”

The weary old pony bowed his head to his hooves.

“I’m sorry Red Dawn ... if I stop the test, the plantation will fall apart.” He chewed his lower lip, and shook his head. “No. I can’t help you.”

'No,' I thought as my legs wobbled beneath me and my head started to spin. 'No, no ...

'No.'

“WHAT!?" I screamed, trembling as my heart quaked inside my throat. “You … you can’t?”

He shook his head. “No,” the old pony said firmly, once more.

'No. No? NO!' I collapsed against the railing, hanging my head over the edge as rivulets of sweat burned against my forehead.

Something shattered inside of me.

“Everyone in my stable is going to die …” I murmured desolately, staring into space with vacant eyes. “Everyone in my stable is GOING TO FUCKING DIE!”

Sterling took a step towards me.

“I’m sorry Red Dawn … I really want to help you –”

“BUT YOU CAN’T! YOU WON’T!” I shrieked, bowing my head as if ready to charge, “Your fucking plantation is worth more than other people’s lives!”

“Red Dawn –”

“YOU'RE ALL THE SAME! I SHOULD’VE KNOWN YOU WERE IN IT FOR THE CAPS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE – ”

“BE QUIET!” he roared.

I fell on my haunches, gasping for breath, my eyes widened to watery saucers.

“Six thousand souls, Red Dawn,” he said, his voice trembling. “Six thousand – and all this … all this isn’t enough. Our yields are hardly enough to feed less than a thousand ponies. But it’s all we have. We’re the only source of large-scale free labor in all of Equestria.

“We’re a clean business. A fair business. We pay our employees. We sell modestly. The other plantations – they don’t! They enslave ponies to work in their fields. They fund gangs and pay mercenaries to fight their wars and do their dirty work, and guess who’s caught in the crossfire?”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head.

“Us. You and I. The mom and pop's store down the street. The orphanage around the corner. Everyone who lives in Poneva is either a tool waiting to be used or fodder for their goons!” The weary old pony sat before me, looking me in the eyes.

“But so long as everyone can eat their food, so long as everyone can do their drugs, people will just looking the other way while they kill, and rape, and steal!

“Cut our production, and people will keep putting caps into funding more crime, more extortion, and more slavery in the north – in Equestria."

He held my shoulder, and I peered into his eyes. They flickered with sadness as he squeezed me gently with his hoof. But he blinked, and the severity returned to his stare. “People are trying to fight them. We are, too, in the ways we can. We’re trying to win this city back. But if we let them win … the entire north will become their playground.”

I shook my head, whimpering as I refused to believe it ... to believe that he was right. My stable would have to die so that six thousand would live. Six. Thousand.

My heart screamed that the 194 ponies back at home meant more to me than anything or anyone else in the world. Sterling – Gail – Night Sky – they could all go to hell with those six thousand for all I cared!

“I really want to help you,” he said, softly, “I know what it’s like to lose everything. To leave everyone you love behind ... But there’s more at stake here than just ... one ... stable. I’m trying to make this city … maybe even this wasteland a better place.” He pleaded with me, “You have to understand …”

I didn’t say anything as I lowered my head to my hooves. I couldn't … I just couldn't .... I just gave up.

I slammed my hooves into the floor as I rose to my fours.

“I wasted my time coming here. Wasted everyone’s time.”

I thought that maybe I’d just find someplace to die in the wilderness. Maybe I’d just run into a bunch of snow furies and get flayed alive. I didn’t care anymore.

I turned, and walked away.

“Red Dawn, wait -”

I kept walking.

“RED DAWN, STOP THIS INSTANT!” he shouted, and I froze. “Don’t walk away from me when I'm talking to you, my boy.”

“I’M NOT YOUR ‘BOY’!" I screamed, tears welling out of my eyes, "AND I’VE GOT NOTHING ELSE TO SAY TO YOU!”

Sterling clenched his jaw, pain flickering across his face. But he didn’t stop.

“Well I do,” he said firmly. “I can still help you!”

“Why?!” I snapped, glaring at him. “Why do you shake my hoof, just to push me away!? Why do you care about me? My stable?!”

Sterling's ears drooped as he looked at me with sad, weary eyes. “Because I was a stable pony - just like you,” he told me. “Because I lived in a stable … just like yours. Three hundred lives are still lives to save … what would I be if I simply chose one or the other? If I can help other ponies, I’ll do everything I can to try.”

“There’s no point …" I muttered. "I’ll find another way – I-I’ll search the entire wasteland if I have to!”

The old pony snorted, chuckling darkly. “You’d be wasting your time. No one would give up a water talisman as easy as I would.”

“As if I haven’t wasted my time already!” I screamed, baring my teeth. “It’s over, Sterling …”

Sterling grabbed both my shoulders, and shook me. Hard. “It’s. Not. Over! If I can replace those water talismans with something else … something ... better, you can have them all.”

I shrugged him off and sneered, “Oh yeah? With what?”

“The other plantations purge their water with old world machines – maybe even magic that no one else has ever heard of or seen. If we win … if the World Tree somehow took their land, those machines - that magic, we’d have enough food to feed the entire city, all six thousand souls … the settlements outside … maybe even the entire north.”

“Somehow …” I muttered, burying my head in my hooves. “SOMEHOW?” You’re betting my stable’s life on a … on a ‘SOMEHOW’?”

“If we beat them … I’ll be able to give you more water talismans than you’ll ever need – enough to last you hundreds of hundreds of years.”

My eyes widened. “I-is that a promise? Hahaha!” I chuckled mockingly, a cruel, bitter grin stretching across my lips. “Dapple Gray told me how much bigger they are, how much more dangerous they are, and you want to steal from them?

“You’re either dreaming too big or you’re fucking insane, Sterling!” I screamed.

I paced back and forth restlessly, sweat trickling down my forehead. “I’m running out of time. They’re running out of time,” I said, trying to lower my voice. I couldn't.

“I don’t need your hypothetical BULLSHIT! I need solutions – now!”

The old pony stared back at me in silence.

My eyes fluttered closed and I hung my head. He reached out, and I flinched, batting away his hoof as he tried to keep me from shaking. “I’m sorry Sterling …” I sobbed, seeing the pain in his eyes, “But how … HOW CAN I SAVE THEM!?”

I held my breath, trying to keep myself from coming apart. But I couldn’t. I let out a quaking sob. I let out another. Another failure. Defeated. Again. I leaned over the railing, strands of my disheveled mane falling over my eyes.

“What the fuck am I going to do now?” I whimpered softly, cringing at the intangible agony - the despair that writhed inside of me. I went there thinking I’d find hope. Thinking I’d find salvation.

I didn’t find shit.

“How … Sterling,” I began, my voice trembling and uneven, “How can I choose them over the ponies I love? My mom … my stable… I can’t … I-I just can’t! If you can’t help me now … then ... then it’s already over.

“I promised them that I’d find a talisman. Please … I can’t choose … I can’t betray the dead ..." I sniffled. "Six thousand ponies … shit! If letting my stable die is right, then I don’t know what right is!”

He closed his eyes and I turned mine away. We stood there in silence as the water purifier hummed in the somber silence.

Sterling's voice gently parted the curtains between us.

“If you won’t do it for us, do it for your stable. Your … family. Do it ... because there’s no other way.”

I covered my eyes with a hoof, shaking my head vigorously.

“BULLSHIT! There … there has to be another way!” I cried as he watched me in silence.

“M-maybe I could look for one of those dead stables … take theirs.”

“If looters haven’t already,” Sterling murmured, plucking the words right out of my thoughts.

“Fuck! Maybe m-maybe … maybe I could go south, find someone,” I babbled, “Someone … someone …”

He just stared at me, saying nothing even as I fought to shrug off the thoughts that screamed exactly what he wanted to tell me. I couldn’t bring myself to accept that he was right ... that there was no other way ... that I had to bet my mother’s life on someone’s dream.

I would move entire mountains to save her – to save them all! If there was even the slightest chance, I’d wrench the earth apart to find one! If there was even a chance …

But what would I be if I turned away from my only chance – even if it was the smallest one there was … the only chance there was left to save Mom, to save my home …

My heart was tearing itself apart - torn between two worlds, a nightmare, and the other, the only world I’d ever known.

I whimpered, cradling my head in my hooves. The old pony was right. There was no other way. A tear slaved down my cheek.

“How can I trust that you won’t just fuck me over? How can I trust you won’t just fuck my stable over?”

The pony gave me a hard stare.

“I can’t make you trust me, my boy. But I’ll be damned if I can’t make you trust that you’d be doing the right thing.”

“The right thing,” I chuckled, shaking my head.

It was the only thing I could do.

And I’d do anything – anything – to save my stable.

“My hooves are tied,” I whispered, uttering a curse beneath my breath as I shook my head, slowly. “But I can’t go home empty-hoofed. If I can't, I might as well just die ...” I turned to him my pathetic gaze, my eyes watery and bloodshot. “How?” I asked, finally, “How can we stop the plantations?”

“The resistance,” he answered. “We’re not alone. No one ever is. The Orphanage, the Fallen Angels – we’re all working against the slavers. But they’re the ones on the front lines, the ones who do the real work.”

“The what? The Orphanage … the Fallen Angels?” That emblem I saw on that orange mare’s wagon started to make sense. “How … how can I help? How would I help? I’m just one pony.”

Sterling grinned. “You don’t look like the type to sit around in a lab and do what we do here,” he said, as I fidgeted on my hooves. “Find them. Join them. I don’t know where, but that’s what you need to do.”

I hesitated for a moment, narrowing my eyes at him. “Why the hell don’t you know where to find them? I thought you worked with them?”

He shook his head. “The Orphanage keeps their safe houses a secret to protect themselves from everyone else. They’re afraid of snitches and moles stabbing them in the back.” Sterling gestured me to follow him as we made our way back to the elevator.

“I … I would’ve thought the city would be more supportive of them,” I murmured.

But I knew that Poneva was a brutal, uncaring place. Only the strong survived. Everyone else was a victim.

“They’re just … afraid,” Sterling said, softly. “Say or do anything that makes the plantations tick, and they’ll find you. Make you pay." He snorted, "They’ll even pay you to change teams.”

The elevator dinged from floor to floor.

I chewed on my lower lip, uncertain. “What if they don’t even need me?” I asked, quietly, staring at my hooves. I wasn’t a fighter. I was pathetic. All I had done so far since I left home was run.

So I wondered: what use could I be to them?

Sterling shook his head at me. “There’s too few of us and too many of them. No, they need everyone and all the help they can get,” he said as we reached the ninety-first floor. “But we have what it takes to win. The plantations built for themselves a time bomb waiting to explode. Sooner or later ponies are going to get sick of them. All we need to do is push the right buttons.”

“I’ll still need to find them,” I murmured. I blinked, and groaned, hoofing my face. “What about the Angels? Do you at least know where the hell they are?”

I followed him to his desk where he took a seat in a chair behind it. He gestured for me to take one too. “I don’t deal too much with the Angels – all I know is that they’re ... somehow on our side, too. They’re very clandestine. They’re aggressive. Standoffish. Dangerous. The Orphanage calls them terrorists. Me? They’re just another part of the resistance.”

“I ran into one today,” I began, running a hoof through my mane. “Ran her wagon off the road …”

“You’re lucky she didn’t kill you, my boy.”

“She almost did.”

The old pony chuckled, darkly. “You’re better off looking for Salacity’s Orphanage. We give them portions of our yields to support their relief missions throughout the North. They’re good ponies, Red Dawn. The kind that just want to make this wasteland a better place.”

“Where would I start?”

“Ask around Old Town. There’s bound to be someone who knows, there. Check the inns, bars – places ponies frequent. The wasteland’s a very small place.”

My hooves came to my face, rubbing the bags beneath my tired eyes. Soon, I thought, if the wasteland kept it up for me, I’d be looking too old for my age just like Sterling.

“Do you really think they can be stopped?" I stared at my hooves. "This ‘resistance’ sounds pretty … dislocated.”

Sterling folded his legs across his chest.

“We can do it,” he told me. “I’ve dedicated my entire life to this place, to these people … I’m in too deep to think otherwise now, my boy.” The old pony looked away for a moment.

“The Orphanage and the Angels might not agree on some things – on how to deal with the plantations, but their goals remain the same." A warm smiled stretched across his cheeks. "That, at least, is worth fighting for.”

I chuckled softly. He really did believe that. I wasn’t sure if I could ... but seeing that the look on his weary face … hope. He had hope. In a place like that, hope was for dreamers ... and Sterling was one of them.

But out there, I knew ... I knew that dreams were better than reality … better than that nightmare … more so if someone could make them become a reality. If there was hope for the wasteland, then it lied within ponies like Sterling.

I sighed, rubbing at my weary eyes. “Then I’d better damn well start looking. Soon,” I said, finally, narrowing my eyes out the windows.

“It won’t be easy, Red Dawn.”

“It’s the only way,” I muttered. “But I want to know what I’m getting myself into. What about the plantations?”

He rested his hooves upon the table in front of me, leaning toward me. “The East Eden Company’s led by Winter Blossom. She and I … we were business partners once. Didn’t like the way I ran things, so she went ahead and started her own. She attracted the Blood Brothers gang and hired her own private mercenary army. She’s charming. Vindictive. A savvy businessmare.”

“Her own fucking army?” I blurted out. “What the hell am I getting myself into …”

“Then there’s the Sunny Days Company. Alder Blaze runs the drug business in Poneva with the Silver Horseshoe Society and the Palomino mafia; he likes a good smoke. Likes it a lot. More than other ponies. Get in his way, and he’ll smoke you too.”

He stared at me the way my mom did when I told her I was going to leave the stable. “You need to be careful out there.”

I cocked my head. “You seem to care a lot about a pony you just met.”

Sterling lowered his eyes to his desk.

“I was just like you when I was younger. No one gave a shit about the lone stable-dweller.

“I found out the hard way that the closest thing to being cared for was to care for someone else,” he said, his smile bittersweet. “You made it this far. The least I could do is lend a hoof to a pony who went through hell to get here. Otherwise, your journey would’ve been for nothing. And I know what it’s like to be in vain.”

I stared at him quietly, my ears drooping. “I … thank you," I whispered. "When those turrets opened up on me, I thought I was doomed. Thought my stable was doomed. You saved my life.”

Sterling gave me another faint smile and looked down at his hooves. “You … remind me of someone I used to know. He was a lot like you. A hard-headed kid. A good kid.”

My bloodshot eyes softened. “What happened to him?”

Sterling stared down at his forehooves.

“I left him behind when I left my stable.”

A long silence hung over us as he sat there. A part of me waited for him to say more. He didn’t.

Sterling just sighed, resting his muzzle on his hooves. “Us stable ponies have to stick together. We’re a dying breed out here in the wasteland. Not too many stables have been opening their doors … those that do … those that do haven’t always been coming out alive.”

“How’d you know?" I asked, "About Stable 91, I mean?”

The stallion paused for a moment, meeting my eyes before replying, “My terminal’s connected to Stable-Tec’s monitoring network. This facility was used to keep track of progress on the north’s stable construction projects. I know everything from project specs, equipment, population size, which ones are currently online … which ones aren’t, and so on, and so forth.”

“Fair enough,” I said, peering into his multicolored eyes. A few moments passed by in silence until he looked away. “Time isn’t on my side, Sterling. I need to go. Now.” I said finally, standing up from my chair. “I don’t have time to just sit around.”

“Indeed. Before you go, I’ll radio Dapple Gray to pack you some supplies. Fresh food – fruits, a few potions.”

I nodded quietly. I needed all the help I could get - all the help he was willing to give. The pony trotted to the door, holding his PipBuck to his muzzle. “Wait here while I ring her up.”

Several minutes later, Dapple Gray and the same security ponies that escorted me earlier were outside the door, and Sterling was chatting with her outside. She didn’t sound too happy. Something about packing lunches for stupid kids. I rolled my eyes – but in the process, I caught sight of the terminal sitting on his desk.

I hesitated. Sterling seemed to know a lot about the stables in the region. He seemed to know a lot about 91. I clenched my jaw as I eyeballed his terminal. A part of me didn’t want to do it, but the other wanted to know more about that peculiar pony.

I wondered, 'How did he know I was from 91? How did he know so much?'

My hooves found themselves upon the terminal’s keyboard. He’d left it on. I scrolled through its contents, glancing over the monitor every now and then as I clacked away on the keyboard.

I craned my neck, keeping one eye on the door and another on the screen.

<REGIONAL ARCHIVES>

Clack.

'There we go,' I thought.

REGIONAL ARCHIVES

Stable 91.

Stable 95.

Stable 98.

Stable 103.

Stable 105.

Stable #$%$

S$@!& #^&&

*$@^ & #$%

I pursed my lips as I entered the very first entry, noting the gibberish at the bottom of the screen.

< Stable 91. >

Stable 91 Goal Summary

Narrowing my eyes curiously, I clacked a hoof on the keyboard.

ACCESS DENIED.

'Damnit.' I frowned, wondering what it meant by ‘goal’. For what other purpose was my stable built besides keeping everyone alive when the bombs fell? It was a fallout bunker, not a lab experiment.

My eyes took a furtive glance over the terminal’s screen, and Sterling was still chatting away outside. I didn’t have time to linger.

I decided I’d check out the next entry. Clack. Snippits of information, and some more gibberish flashed before my eyes.

I gulped and kept scrolling down.

Stable 91

Starting Construction Date...

#$%#$#@#$

E%$#$% Const%&$##%$ %ate..

##*&%@#%#

Maximum N#$#ber of Occu&ants...

300

#$%@@$% Control Sys#$#

#$%#@#

Pri#$@ P%w#r Supply...

Ge##ral Arc%$#%s Spark Gene%#tor

#eco%##%y @#we# S$%%&#...

%$#$

N%# St#$&#%# Equi%$&#t...

#ou%d &qu%&$%nt (item%&$ in $#&o #3%##46-2A)

Musical%^#$$#&*@#$&^$*&#&*^$^#&**29

#(&$^&((#*$&^^&#&))(*#$&8-012*(*^#^$*

St&tus …

I scrolled down to the bottom and entered the final entry. I needed to know how he knew.

<St&tus …>

Clack. The screen flashed and I glowered at it, swearing under my breath.

****ERROR****

File Corruption Detected.

Please Reinstall Operating System Software.

I stared at the monitor, perplexed. I returned to my seat and reclined in the chair, pondering curiously the tawny pony whose head was still outside the door.

He lied.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Educated - You gain two more skill points every time you advance in level.

Chapter 7 - Pony Feathers - Pt I

I never did get used to the cold.

Shivering briskly, I pulled closed the worn black peacoat that I found in a dumpster, buttoning it over the kevlar plates of my security barding.

The black fabric and the cuffs around my fetlocks were worn and frayed from use. I was impartial to … looting. I wondered if that was the right word. Or was it scavenging? Whatever it was, there was a bullet hole through the fabric over my heart.

Whoever that peacoat belonged to last wouldn’t be needing it anymore.

With my back against a wall, I looked across the flea market, ponies trotting from stall to stall, canned food, and other goods clanking inside their bags or held in their mouths. Shivering, I brought to my mouth an apple that Dapple Gray had packed for me, and took a chunk out of it, letting the juices calm my frayed nerves. I had been awfully restless since my meeting with Sterling at the World Tree.

I shook my head, telling myself that I shouldn’t have had my expectations so high. I should’ve learned my lesson the moment I stepped out into the wasteland – no, when I first stepped out that door. I expected too much of the wasteland. I had been wrong about everything so far.

Everything.

I realized that if I had my pistol on me, I would have pulled it on that pony.

But how stupid would that have been?

Fucking stupid. But I tended to be full of stupid whenever I got desperate, or whenever I put my mind to something. I remembered Gail, and how I galloped through a hail of bullets just to save her feathered ass. I was desperate to save the one person I could have called a friend. And at that moment, desperation was as overwhelming of a feeling as the chilling bite of the frozen wind.

In desperation, I had taken risks. My friends and I, even the overmare took risks coming out there in search of a talisman. They were desperate. So was I. But where did those risks take me? Back to square one with a few brushes with death. Saving Gail from those furies was a risk … but I kept asking myself: was she worth risking my life for?

No. Not those monsters.

But I wondered: were those six thousand Ponevans - the six thousand that Sterling was trying so hard to save - worth risking my life for? As I walked those icy streets among those damned ponies, I got my answer.

Little. By. Little.

For the last two and a half days, I had spent most of my time searching for the Orphanage and the Fallen Angels. I didn’t have much luck.

‘Please don’t say that out loud. Palominos might hear you ...’

‘Are you trying to get us killed?’

‘How do you wanna leave? Door, or window?’

Those ponies couldn’t tell an apple from an orange, because apparently to them, ‘door’ meant ‘window’, and ‘Orphanage’ meant ‘death-sentence’. And I couldn’t find the resistance unless someone at least kicked me in the right direction.

Just not out of a window.

But nobody wanted to help. Nobody. Not one person wanted to talk about the resistance. The resistance that was apparently trying to save their sorry asses. They were afraid of the Palomino thought police kicking down their doors for saying the ‘O’ word. The name of the beast – the plantations’ and their lackeys’ – the Palominos’ worst arch enemy: the Orphanage.

So there I was, watching ponies walk by with my back pressed against a cold concrete wall, munching on an apple. I figured that eavesdropping – or rather, observing people from a safe distance was better than asking them in person.

It’s not like anybody noticed me anyways. Hunched in the corner there I looked like any other wasteland hobo. All I was missing were the bugs crawling under my skin and the crack baby I never had.

Most people were too busy not giving damn about anybody but themselves to see the disheveled wreck eyeballing them from the corner.

“Five caps,” said a pony, clopping her hoof against a stall counter.

The mare behind the counter swept the cans of cram away. “I said ten! This ain’t a damn charity, lady!”

“Come on! Seven caps, then? My foal’s gotta eat!”

She groaned. “And I gotta make money, okay? Eight caps, or no crammy cram at all.”

“Damnit. Fine, here.” The sound of caps jingling and cans tumbling into a bag made me sigh.

She was right. It wasn't a charity. There wasn’t a single damned charity in that city, because nobody was willing to give any of their shits. My ears twitched in another direction, and I found myself unable to give a shit, either.

“H-h-hey brony, h-hook me up, ‘k-kay?” I watched a frail, maneless pony barter for his goodies.

A pony in a trench coat leaned in towards the chemhead as he trembled uncontrollably, scratching at his mangy coat like a flea-ridden animal.

“Geeze, that’s the fourth time this week. You can’t get enough of this shit, can you?”

“GOD – FUCK – SHIT!” he screamed, slamming a hoof into the snow. “D-don’t tell me h-how to live my f-f-fuckin’ life!” He got up in the pony’s face. “I-I-I-I need my FUCKING DASH!”

The other rolled his eyes, shrugged, and opened up his coat, levitating out a syringe.

“Sure, just keep the caps coming – and try not to kill yourself. Gonna need more of those.”

My ears drooped as I shook my head and sighed out a jet of mist. I took another bite out of my apple, chewed, and swallowed.

Those were the people Sterling wanted to save.

So far that day, I’d seen a lot of stupid shit. The highlights of that particular Tuesday included: a drunken bum fight between at least a dozen crossfaded hobos, a mugging that involved a pregnant mare and her groceries, a godlike pickpocketing spree at the marketplace (which was actually pretty cool) – oh – and I even walked in on some stallion giving somebody head in a not so private alley.

A dark chuckle seethed out of my lips. 'Welcome to Poneva city,' I thought.

Those were the people Sterling wanted to save.

I believed that there was a reason why they hadn’t progressed beyond anything but a megaspell-blasted Stone Age: because they simply didn't give a shit.

I slid down the wall to my haunches, sighing. I wondered, 'What if these people didn’t even want to be saved? What if they weren’t even worth saving?'

So I sat there, the unnerving Ponevan ambience raking against my frayed nerves, wondering if it was a waste of my time. Wondering if I was going to end up empty-hoofed once more.

But it was the only chance I had left. Sterling expected me to believe that saving those scumbags was the right thing. Then he lied to me about my stable. It wasn’t a about whether or not he could be trusted. It was about the tiny little sliver of hope that still remained for me.

The tiny little sliver of hope for my stable.

I would’ve believed anything he said at that point – because it was all I had left to believe in.

But what did that make me? A sheep?

No. It made me a very, very, very, desperate sheep.

A sheep that just wanted to go home.

Scanning the market languidly once more, I spied a pair of ponies in winter coats not too far from where I was sitting. They looked to be arguing as one of them, a mare in a peacoat stood there quietly while the other shouted at her. The mare shook her head, taking off her fedora to scratch at her mane in frustration as he kept mouthing off.

Then she snapped. The mare shoved the stallion to the snow in a shower of powder. He slowly rose to his hooves as the mare continued to berate him – all the while I was trying to hear what she was saying.

I couldn't.

That fucking chemhead to my right kept blabbering about how good dash felt when he stuffed it down his asshole.

“KEEYEAAARGH! Just a pump to the rump, as I like to say. F-f-flooows better that way, - hehe - i-i-if ya know what I'm sayin’ …”

“Nah. All I do is sell this shit,” said the dealer. He snorted, giving the ragged chemhead who scratched at his coat incessantly a grinning look over. “Not even once.”

I growled, frustrated, my ears twitching as I tried to hone in on what that mare with the fedora was screaming about.

Then another mare’s voice pierced the night.

“DARKNESS!”

'What the hell –' I cringed, pinning my ears.

I fumbled with my apple as the mare, her voice keen and serrated like broken glass wracked my vulnerable ear drums. She screamed hysterically into the night, “I have seen the face of the abyss and it comes to swallow us all in DARKNESS!”

I swung my head to face a gathering herd of ponies at the center of the flea market. I sighed in exasperation.

'This better be good,' I thought.

The mare’s keening shrieks pierced the night once more. “The darkness hungers for your souls! It will consume you from within and without!” She reared upon her hinds and bellowed, “It comes! It comes, and you are all doomed to drown beneath the COMING DARKNESS!”

I stuffed the half-eaten apple into my bags and trotted over, pushing past the crowd to get a glimpse of the ragged, dark-eyed pony that stood upon a tattered podium of crates and rubbish.

“Oh, not this shit again,” somebody whined, shaking his head.

“What’s going on?” I asked no one in particular.

One pony stood up on her hinds and lobbed a dirty snowball at the mare. "Shut up, you crazy bitch!”

The crazed mare shook the dirty snow from her face, unfazed. “FOOLS! Can’t you feel it?” She reached out and smacked a pony upside her face.

“Can’t you see it!?” she cackled, swinging her hooves around her and up into the ashen sky. The mare gazed into the crowd and for the briefest of seconds, her eyes stared into mine … and through them. Then she smiled at me, as if she’d seen me before, as if she knew something I did not.

A glacial chill skittered down my spine.

“Yes … can’t you see the black paint trickling down the walls all around you?” She was still looking at me. “It is already here … just outside … waiting for you to let it in. And soon, it will come. It will come and the darkness will know you!”

In my peripherals, I noticed a pair of hazy teal orbs watching us from the darkness. No. Not watching us. Watching the mare. I had seen those eyes before. The forest outside Spring Song’s cottage.

My focus shifted when a pony next to me snorted, shaking his head. “Che palle ... this is a fucking joke.”

“Forget about it! I’ve seen that pony around town, scaring everypony with her ghost stories.”

To my left, some mare squeaked, "I don't know, I've been through the inner city lately, and somethin's been riling up all the freaks out there." She glanced at everybody around her and shivered. "Even the blast shadows ..."

I looked at her, confused. I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Yeah, I barely made it back here alive on my last prospecting job,” said a mare in mangled barding. “Something’s making them tick; it’s never been this bad.” The vicious tears across the fabric of her coat and the limp on her left hind leg made me wonder …

To my right, "Them mutants and furies've always been riled up! Hell, just us bein’ here riles’em up. Nuthin's changed!"

The mangled mare glared at him. “Have you been outside the city lately?”

The doomsayer wore a disturbing grin across her face, unsurprised as the mob argued among themselves. I could tell that that bickering was what she was expecting.

“Don’t you mooks know?” some stallion scoffed. “The world ended two hundred years ago!”

The crazed mare just cackled hysterically, as if their words were simply the shallowest, most hilarious things she had ever heard.

“This world won’t end again. Only reborn in DARKNESS!" She jabbed a hoof at the crowd, swinging it to and fro. "You larcenists – hedonists – adulterers – you will be paid in the wickedness you have wrought! This entire city will!"

Hooves wrapped around her from behind, trying to pull her off her podium.

“That’s enough out of you …” a mare growled.

“Get your filthy hooves off me!” She bucked her off the soapbox, standing upon her hinds. The crazed mare cried out into the night, “This city, and all the cities after it will be the first example – suffering the vengeance of ETERNAL DARKNESS!

“DARKNESS IS COMING, YOU FOOLS! Soon you shall bear witness to the darkness inside your hearts - MADE MANIFEST!”

The mare wrapped her hooves around the Doomsayer's throat. "Shut your piehole! You’re scaring ponies away, see? You don't wanna bring the cafones here to calm things down, do ya?"

That choked their jeers away. Everyone fell silent.

Not too far from the crowd, at the other end of the market, black clad figures in fedoras were watching us from the distance.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that some of the unamused stall owners had their legs folded across their chests. Others tapped their hooves impatiently against their stall counters, irritated.

On one of the larger stalls, more like a giant mobile store, I saw the words 'Sunny Days Company' stenciled onto a flapping plastic banner. The yellow, smiley-faced sun that was their logo didn’t quite agree with the ponies that stood behind the counter. One of the vendors was speaking with a black-hatted gangster. His fedora tipped up and the pony underneath stared right at us, annoyed.

The vendors weren’t making money. They didn’t like that. Not one bit.

A pony in a gray wintercoat pushed past the mob and stood before us. The crowd took a step back. He was the stallion I was eavesdropping on earlier. The one who got his ass kicked by that Palomino.

"Hey you clowns – beat it! All o'ya, scram!" he shouted.

The pony glanced at the gangsters assembled near the Sunny Days stall. “The mob ain’t got time for chit-chat. So beat it, before you bring them over here and they shut you all up, ya dig?"

An air of panic swept through the crowd. Heads turned to him - then to the Palominos who were staring them down from across the empty, empty stalls. “Forget about it … I’m outta here,” a pony croaked, and everyone scattered, leaving me standing awkwardly and by myself at the center of the market.

“Yeah, that’s it, buy your cram,” the pony in the gray wintercoat said. A mare eeped as he shoved her away. “Less talking, more shopping! Go on, get outta here!

“And you,” he glared at the doomsayer, jabbing a hoof at her. “Beat it!”

The doomsayer just smiled at him. And in the corner of my eye, I felt her eyes fall upon me. I squirmed beneath her stare. Then she gave me a knowing smile.

She left, finally, stopping for a moment, and sparing me one last glance before slinking into an alleyway and back into the shadows from where she came. I gulped. I wasn’t even sure what scared me the most, that ‘darkness’, or the fact that that mare had looked at me.

At least it was quiet again. I could hone in on the sounds that I actually wanted to hear. With his back turned to me, I spied on the pony in the gray wintercoat as he glared at that dark alleyway for several long seconds. My ears perked and swiveled in his direction.

There was no way in hell I was going to follow that mare. But him … I was curious.

A jet of a mist snorted out of his nose. He shook his head, lifted a hoof and started walking away. He paused, and spared another glance over his shoulder.

She was gone.

The stallion cocked his head slightly at the gangsters who were beginning to take their leave, any threats to their business resolved and dispersed.

He looked around, did a double take over his shoulders, and sighed.

A few seconds passed. All was clear, for now. For him. He quickly left the scene. I followed, weaving through the reassembled crowds of shoppers, trying to keep my eyes on him as he pushed past nervous looking ponies.

He stopped and peered over his shoulder. I looked away, whistling as I dug absent-mindedly through my saddlebags. By the time I felt his eyes leave my direction, he was almost gone, and I struggled to maintain my distance. He sped up with every moment that passed.

I wondered what he was hiding. He didn’t want any of those Palominos near there. Who wouldn’t? But unlike the rest of the cowards around me, he was trying to keep them away - and anything that could bring them running.

He might’ve been with the resistance.

Several times he paused feverishly to see who was behind him. Several times I pretended to be doing anything but following him. While casually eyeing a stall-owner’s canned wares, I watched in my peripherals as he turned a corner, disappearing into an alleyway.

'What is with these fucking people and alleyways?' I groaned inside my head.

I pursed my lips, hurrying after him. Taking a shallow breath, I crept along the wall and peeked around it where I saw the stallion standing before three others. They all shuffled upon their hooves, nervously.

“I want you to keep those saps from bringing more trouble our way, ya dig?” he said to them. “Barely made that herd leave … we can’t risk attracting any more of Avelign’s toy-ponies to come back here and see if we already got her -”

A mare cleared her throat. “U-uh … Grifter, about that …” she began, nervously.

There was a slight pause.

“We couldn’t find her. She moves too damn fast!” said a stallion too thin for his outfit.

The one named Grifter growled, “She’s just one damn pony!”

“I nicked her wiff muh heater though, but she’s a slippery filly!” whined a big, dumb looking stallion.

Grifter’s eyes widened. “You - you did what!? I thought I told you boneheads to keep your bullets off of her! I want her alive, damnit!”

“But I-I was aimin’ fer her leg –”

“It doesn’t matter where you were aiming you moron! Boy, if you killed her … oh damn, it’ll hurt me more than I’m gonna hurt you!” Grifter groaned, facehoofing, “Did she drop the caps at least?”

The three shook their heads. “I ... I think she still has it," said the mare.

“Pony feathers! At this rate I won’t have the caps to pay Avelign after what happened last night!”

There was a tense pause. Then the thin stallion snickered, nudging the mare playfully. The dumb looking one just stood there, confused.

“You – what!? Shut your cocktrap, will ya, Twiggy!?” Grifter fumed. “If we don’t pay her what we owe, she’ll make us all disappear - for good, ya dig?!”

The dumb stallion raised his hoof, nervously. “M-maybe we can go lookin’ fer her again?”

Grifter just covered his face with a hoof.

“Shit! She’s probably long gone by now … damn … you know, sometimes I wonder if you morons are even on my side, since you do the complete opposite of everything I tell you to do!” Grifter shook his head. “Probably why she got away, too,” he growled, grinding his teeth. "Probably why you couldn't find her ..." The stallion looked over both his shoulders, before whispering, “I bet she had help from the orphans!”

My ears perked. 'Did he just say ...

'THE ‘O’ WORD?'

Big Stupid’s eyes widened. “Orphans!?” he gasped, grimacing as he shuffled on his hooves like he had to pee.

“Shush, stupid!” the mare hissed, clapping a hoof over his mouth. “You don’t want the boys outside to hear you saying that - or you’ll end up like Pomo from last Tuesday!”

The skinny one, Twiggy, sighed, “Oh come on, Dahlia, we don’t even know if it was them for sure. Might’ve even been those crazy Angel fuckers doing it.”

Grifter shook his head. “The mob’s been cleaning up the streets lately … but that Pomo was a wild one. Maybe she was cheating on the mob ...”

“Well, at least Dawdleshoes over here’d never cheat on ya,” said Twiggy, pointing at the dumb one. “He’s too fuckin’ stupid.”

The mare named Dahlia sighed, “And why in Equestria wouldn’t we be on your side? It’s our heads on the block too.”

“Because Pomo wasn’t the first!” Grifter snapped. “I heard Dolce’s been shooting up her own boys … something’s killing 'em from the inside … and there’s no way in hell I’m getting between those crazies and that heap o’dirty laundry.”

“I heard about the rumors,” Twiggy whispered. "Those orphans got strings to pull all over this place. But all that? All that killing and burning - that can’t be them …”

“Forget about it ...” Dahlia began quietly, dabbing her hoof in the snow. “The orphans don’t kill people like that … they don’t do ‘killing’. At least, not like that."

Grifter tapped his chin, apprehensively. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s not like them. But something fishy’s been going on around here, and after hearing that crazy bitch and her ‘darkness,’ I don’t know who or what’s behind -”

His eyes darted over his shoulder and met mine.

'Oh.'

I ducked back into the shadows.

“Come outta there – slowly!” he shouted.

The sound of them chambering guns made me flinch.

I poked my head out from around the corner.

“What the hell are you doing, kid?” Grifter demanded, inching towards me with the others in tow.

“Uh-uh …” I stammered.

'Think, damnit, think!' I didn’t know what to say, and I knew that whatever I was going to say next was either going to buy me a bullet or buy me some time.

An awkward smile curled across my lips.

“I-I saw you talking with a Palomino earlier – was wondering what all the commotion was about.”

He chuckled nervously as I took gratification in the fear that flashed in his eyes. It worked. “The fu … big whoop – w-what's it to ya? Did they set you up for this?”

“Not enough to get me shot, I promise – and no,” I answered forcefully as I eyed Grifter’s armed ponies. “But from what I’ve learned, the Palominos are so primal that they only snap at loud noises.” I chuckled nervously at the gun barrels that were aimed at my chest.

“Saw you shouting at one earlier and she went apeshit and pounced … so I’m surprised she didn’t come back for seconds after all that monkeying around that happened out there, earlier.”

They just stared. Tough crowd.

“Praymaul?” asked big stupid Dawdleshoes.

“He means like brutish, dummy,” Dahlia hissed. "Hah, kinda like you."

Grifter glared at me. “How do ya you wanna die, kiddo? Fast or slow?”

“I don't know ... but it seems like saying the ‘O’ word would kill me faster than you guys could. Heard it’s a trigger word for something awful.” I jabbed a hoof at him. “And you guys have been talking a lot about it."

Grifter lowered his voice. “Orphanage?” He blinked, biting his lower lip.

Not too far from us, the ponies that had only just begun to resume their usual activities were starting to back away again, avoiding that alleyway like a bad smell.

“You oughta not talk so loudly, kid, or you might bring more of my good friends this way. Something I’d really like to avoid,” he trailed off, darting his eyes over my mane to see if those gangsters were anywhere.

“Hey, you ponies said it – not me,” I said, smiling crookedly.

“How’s about I shut him up, boss?” asked stupid Dawdleshoes. I frowned at him.

Grifter held up a hoof. “I don’t want to start another fuss and attract anymore of those boys, so don’t go aiming for the leg again, ya moron.”

“Listen, I wasn’t spying on you or anything,” I confessed with a chuckle, trying to laugh my nervousness away with their guns jammed in my face. “Honest,” I added. “You just look like someone who can help me …”

“Really? Kid, I got better things to do than foalsit some sap like you.” He turned and motioned to his lackeys. “Alright boys, back to work –”

“Wait - please. I need help,” I insisted, “You guys don’t have much of a problem talking about your rumors, but everybody else starts choking up whenever I mention the Orphanage. Why’s that?”

The pony snorted a jet of mist as the others exchanged glares. I could taste the bitterness in his voice as he groaned. “They’re just a bunch of rats, kid. Nopony likes 'em.”

Inhaling softly, I muttered, rolling my eyes, “Well, I can’t really dislike people I know nothing about.”

He glanced around, anxiously. “Shut up, will ya? Quit yakking about things that’ll get ya killed, ya dig?” He chuckled, shaking his head as he turned his back on me and started walking away again.

“No – no, go ahead, just not anywhere near me or my business, okay?”

I sighed. “Oh come on!”

He shot me an irritated look over his shoulder. “Forget about it – I’m not ‘coming on’!”

Twiggy snickered, beating his hoof at Dahlia like he was beating someone off.

Grifter snapped, “You two shut it! And you!” he growled, jabbing a hoof at me, “All they do is make the plantations tick. And if you don’t pipe down, those peacoats are gonna come on over here thinking you’re one of those damn rats,” he said, nodding to the three behind him who started a few steps toward me. “And since you won’t quit talking to me, they’re gonna stick me in the icebox with you too!"

I facehoofed.

“You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that same old shit today,” I growled. “And frankly, I don’t give a fuck. If you can’t tell me anything about them, then please, for the love of Celestia, point me to someone who can!”

The stallion stepped up to my muzzle, our faces mere breaths apart.

“How about I point you to a meat-grinder, kid?” he growled.

I gulped.

His voice was but a whisper. “You don’t wanna be in the know about the Orphanage, kiddo …” The pony’s eyes darted back and forth as he spoke. “The reason why people don’t like talking about 'em is because the Palominos have been yanking out weeds around these parts, and anypony they think is sleeping with the Orphanage gets wasted - and I’m not dunking my hooves in that mess.”

“Forget about it!” Twiggy and Dahlia both agreed.

The stupid one looked a few minutes late.

“Forget about what?”

Grifter just rolled his eyes. “Shutup. All I’m trying to do is keep my black-hatted compari from thrashing around, ya dig? Usually ends up with a few dozen ponies in bags. Usually in little bags, and it’s really bad for business. Bad for my business,” he said, glancing over his shoulders at the flickering lights at the other end of the alleyway.

“You were watching me earlier, huh? Well you saw just that, only I was lucky to walk away without missing a hoof or two.”

I let out a long and drawn out sigh.

“It’s hard to make good bank when they’re carving up the place looking for weeds to rip out all the time, ya dig!? And I’m not letting somepony help them ruin me even more!”

I smirked. “You really must be swimming in the deep end if you’re in trouble with those guys.”

He shook his head furiously, fear sweeping across his face. “No – no – no – no! You can’t say that out here … not with them watching … or listening …. me and my boys got nothing to do with the Orphanage. My sitch got nothing to do with those damn rats. I don’t want to lose my job, okay?” The pony looked over both his shoulders, hoping no one heard me. He muttered, his voice barely audible, “I damn well just about did, earlier.”

“Then why do you have beef with those gangsters?”

He shook his head with a sour chuckle. “Listen kid, it’s none of your business. And, right now, I really got worse things to deal with right now than play a twenty questions with some crumby tough guy. So beat it – before my boys beat you off!”

Grifter’s eyes widened. “Fuck!”

Twiggy burst out laughing. “HAHA - OW!” he cried as Grifter slammed a hoof into his face.

A wry grin forced its way across my cheeks. “Worse things, huh? Then you can take care of this Palomino problem of yours yourself right, tough guy?” I scoffed, “Your ‘boys’ couldn’t even take care of one pony.”

Grifter clenched his jaw and the laughing stopped.

He craned his neck toward me, and I felt the air in front of my face heat up like a furnace. A snort of hot air burned against my muzzle and I trembled inside my barding as sweat beaded up on my forehead.

I then noticed the gun tucked away beneath his winter coat.

'Shit.'

His foreleg crept up his chest, the pistol mere inches away from his reach. I gulped and watched his hoof inch ever closer.

He bumped my shoulder instead.

“Well I gotta hoof it to ya – you are one big-balled palooka,” the pony laughed at me as I fought with my own pulse. He wrapped a hoof around me and yanked me close, laughing at me. I laughed back at him. Nervously. “Level with me, kid. You offering to help me or something, or did they send you here to watch me squirm?”

I glanced over my shoulder, noticing that ponies were watching me. “They? I’m not a gangster. I’m a merc from New Apploosa,” I lied. “I’m just looking for answers.”

He cocked an eyebrow and released me. I almost tripped up on my own hooves.

I exhaled, realizing that I was holding my breath. “Maybe … I can help you help me?” I said, forcing a smile.

“Now why would I want help from some nobody like you?” he and his boys chuckled.

“Because this nobody has the balls to talk about the Orphanage in public the way I am right now,” I snapped, “So do you think I really give a shit if the Palominos try to stop me?”

He snorted, nodding with an amused grin stretching across his cheeks.

"If you're looking for answers, then you're talking to the wrong ponies, kiddo ..."

I took a step towards him. “No. I am. You seem to be willing to talk more about the Orphanage than anyone else in this Goddesses-damned town is willing to say - I don’t know why, and I don’t care.” I took a deep breath. “I need to find them. And frankly, between this Palomino problem, those moles, and these missing caps of yours, I’d say you’ve got your hooves full.”

The time that ticked by as he thought to himself in silence chipped at my already thin patience. Grifter nodded slowly, looking me up and down with a shifty look in his eyes. He stomped a hoof into the ground, an uneven grin widening across his face.

“You three, leave me with this palooka. You know what to do.”

It took a moment, but his boys nodded, slipping their weapons into their coats before starting down the alley, out the way I came. I kept one eye on my EFS and the other on the pony standing before me.

Grifter simply gestured for me to follow him.

He led me back into the market, walking down a row of glowing stalls, the warmth and light of smoking cooking pots warming my flesh slightly and the smell of burned meat wafting into my nostrils once more.

“Say, what’s your name, kid?”

“Red Dawn.”

“Yeah? And I’m Grifter,” he said, finally and formally introducing himself to me with an unceremonious bow. “So whaddya want with the Orphanage, kid? Got a bone to pick with ‘em? They steal your sweetroll?”

“I have my reasons,” I said, simply.

“Forget about it! Hell, everypony’s got a bone to pick with the Orphanage, nowadays. The Palominos aren’t an exception.” He nodded to himself, thoughtfully. “Yeah … you’re right. I do know a bit about the Orphanage. ” He walked up to a stall and plucked a bottle of Sparkle-Cola off the counter, dumping caps into somebody’s wary hooves.

The stall owner’s bodyguard gave me a sideways look.

He led me away from the market, and into another quiet alleyway. “I’ve dealt with those rats before. I used to work for them, actually. I was a courier. Ran supplies up and down their hideouts – but I left, because, ya know, I couldn’t go anywhere without getting shot.”

I nearly jumped when he swung the bottle into the wall, shattering it with a crash. A magical field wrapped around the soda pop popsicle, picking the orange shape clean of glass. He licked at the frozen treat before smiling curtly. “But you know, if you wanna die so bad, I’m not stopping you. But you gotta help me first, kid, because I won’t see the end of this day if I can’t get my friends outta my mane.”

“It looked pretty bad.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “You don’t even know half of it, kid.” He paused, grinning to himself. “I owe my friends a sum of caps ... kinda like everyone else in this town. If I don’t get it to them by the end of today, I get to disappear, ya dig?”

“Disappear?” I asked, uneasily.

“It’s kinda like being dead.” I looked at him blankly. “Because it is.”

“Oh. Well fuck.”

He chuckled dryly, giving the popsicle an apprehensive lick. “Exactly, kid.”

“If it gets those fuckers out of your mane, then I’ll give you a hoof. But you need to help me, too.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. There was a peculiar look brooding in his eyes.

“Of course, I’m no welcher … especially to ponies who give me a hoof. You get me out of this mess, I’ll point you in the right direction.”

“Finally,” I breathed, “If it gets me what I need.”

The pony thought for a moment, nodding to himself as he gnawed on the frozen soda. “Some sorry bastard took my dues and now I can’t pay up.”

I frowned, almost feeling sorry for him. Out there, caps bought a lot of things. Life was one of them.

“What do I need to do?” I asked, darkly.

“I’ve got half of my morons out here in the market, making sure no idiot pisses off anymore of Alder’s stallponies, and the other half making sure nopony messes things up over at my joint.” He shook his head, swearing under his breath. “And half really isn’t that much. Which is why I need you doing what my boys are too stupid to do."

He stomped a hoof into the snow. “All I need you to do is to get me my damn caps back. I was just about to pay my dues, and this damn broad comes right ahead and swipes my money right from under my nose!”

The pony craned his neck towards me and glared, growling through his teeth. “Find her. Bring her back. Alive. And with the money, otherwise I’m dead, and so are all my boys.”

My expression darkened. I remembered how that Palomino had tossed him around like a rag doll. Only the worst was in store for him if he didn’t get his money back.

The burning shop and the black-suited ponies came to mind. I was well aware of what they were willing to do to teach a pony a lesson.

I really didn’t want to see another burning building.

“I’ll do it,” I said, sternly, my jaw clenching. “Where can I find this pony?”

“She’s a unicorn. Red coat, red and white mane. Like a candy cane – hell, that’s her name: Candy Cane. She ain’t so sweet like one, though. Candy Cane’s a double-crossing whore … she’ll stab you in the back if she gets the chance, ya dig?”

I snorted, “Sounds like a real piece of work.”

“Forget about it!”

“Wha … why?”

Grifter just sighed. “It’s a saying, kid. Like - ‘I agree’.”

“But you’ve used it to disagree, I think …”

“Yeah - it means that too.”

“I … I still don’t …”

He rolled his eyes. “Anyway, she robbed one of my customers while she was paying up at my place, and ran off with my caps. Without that payment of hers, Avelign’ll make me pay extra – double – maybe even triple of her cut – and I can’t afford that.” He cringed, rubbing his foreleg anxiously. “Maybe even extra-extra.

“Last pony who saw Candy Cane was her. She might be able to point you to where that bitch ran off to.” The stallion took out a scrap of paper and a pencil, and scribbled down on it some notes, before hoofing it to me.

They were directions, with an address at the bottom.

“My morons were having issues with catching her. But you don’t look like a moron ... so you might just have a crack at getting her before my peacoated friends get me.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you, kid,” the pony said, with a grin. “I need that money before it gets too dark, so meet me back here when you find her. I’ll be here, waiting on the chopping block.”

“I’m on it,” I said, turning the other way, my eyes still on the note.

Grifter's voice echoed behind me. “You might just be the one who can save me and my boys from becoming fertilizer at Sunny Days.”

Chapter 7 - Pony Feathers - Pt II

I walked up the steps wearily, the thought of getting punted out of a window again muttering to me in the back of my head. Lifting my PipBuck to my face, I eyed my EFS. Two people inside.

After doing a double take over both my shoulders, I brought a hoof to the door and knocked twice, steeling myself for a buck to the face or a gun to my mouth. But neither of those came. I checked the piece of paper and glanced down the block of ramshackle homes.

Each house was a ruined hand-me-down from the past, their breached ceilings and crumbling walls patched up with metal plates or nailed shut with planks of warped wood. There wasn’t a splotch of color anywhere – just like the rest of the city. And the wasteland.

On my way there, I nearly lost myself in that lonely maze of dilapidated dwellings. There, the sounds indicative of life were drowned out by the wind, moaning through the gnarled steelworks that rose up above me. Something was suffocating the liveliness of that place, and I just couldn’t put a hoof on it.

I had seen it in the marketplace – the fear in everyone’s eyes when a certain word was said or a certain name was mentioned. There, in that quiet neighborhood, it was everywhere.

I pressed my ear against the door, my face darkening as the light bulb that hung above it flickered and died for a moment. I heard something. Cocking my head, I peered into the lacerated glass of the eyehole just above my muzzle.

“Oh shit …” I heard someone whisper.

I pursed my lips and knocked again.

Hooves clopped against the door on the other side and a mare squeaked, “H-hello?”

“Hi, I’m looking for …” I glanced at the note I held in my hoof. “Daintybelle? Are you Daintybelle?”

There was a long pause. “Y-yes, yes that’s me. What do you want?” the mare asked in a trembling voice.

I cocked an eyebrow as I spoke.

“I need to talk to you,” I said, tucking the note into my chest pocket.

Another anxiety ridden pause. “Right now,” I added with a sigh.

Hooves scrambled behind the door, and a second later, it creaked open, and two terrified eyes stared back at me.

“Who’s that?” I heard a stallion shout from the other end of the house. The mare glanced over her shoulder, closing the door slightly.

“N-nopony important, dear!” She gulped, muttering, “I hope …” Daintybelle poked her muzzle out the door, her eyes darting back and forth as she checked and double-checked that I was alone.

I looked over my shoulder absent-mindedly and saw nobody. She caught sight of the pistol holstered around my chest, biting her lower lip.

The mare gave me a sheepish once over as a heavy breeze blew our way, my black peacoat and DD’s scarf flapping in the wind. “W-why are you here? D-did I do something wrong?” she stammered.

“I just need to ask you some questions,” I replied, watching her every feverish move.

She gulped, looking a little pale as she nodded slowly. The mare pulled her winter coat closed and stepped out the door, shutting it quietly it behind her.

“Listen … if this is about earlier …” she whispered, biting her lower lip as she glanced over her shoulder at the door. “I was going to pay – I swear! I’d never swindle anypony … never, ever – ever.” She looked up at me, shaking. “Please, you gotta believe me!”

She acted like it wasn’t the first time we’d met – or at least the first time she’d ever been in a situation like that.

“Wait, what –”

“Come on …” she whined. “Please, I swear to God I’m telling you the truth! I-I’ll pay double this week, if that’s what you want,” she pleaded with me.

The wind ruffled my peacoat, and the light bulb above us flickered once more. I opened my mouth to reply, but she beat me to it.

“I’ll … I’ll … I’ll do anything,” she whimpered, turning slightly and lifting her tail. “Just don’t make me disappear!”

My eyes widened at that.

“No – you got me all wrong!” I rested a gentle hoof upon her shoulder consolingly in an effort to calm the trembling mare. “I’m not one of them.” I paused, choosing my words carefully. “I’m a merc. All I want is my caps and the faster you can help me, the faster I’ll be out of your mane,” I said, trying to sound like Night Sky. A lopsided smile stretched across my lips. “I’m not here to make you … uh … disappear.”

The blood returned to her face, and she sighed with relief, leaning against the door.

“Oh thank God … I thought you were one of them, and ...” She shook her head, still tense. “Never mind. What … what do you need?”

“I just need help finding the pony who mugged you.” Her expression flickered for a moment. Then she nodded. “Do you know a pony named Candy Cane?”

She froze, her ears perked. The mare was wary of the sound of hooves shuffling behind the door. I watched her eyes dart frantically to her side as she pulled her hood over her head.

“No, I don’t,” she replied, nodding her head at me.

I lifted a brow, regarding her with uncertainty. Then my eyes forward sparkle blinked with a blue dot.

Someone was listening to us. Her husband.

I expected her to turn around, open the door, and reassure him that she wasn’t in danger. But she led me away from the doorsteps so that we faced the street. That conversation was apparently supposed to be between only us, and us only. She probably didn’t want him to worry.

I gave her a sideways look as the mare’s eyes darted to the door … again … before continuing.

Daintybelle's voice was barely audible over the wind.

“S-shit -” she hissed. “I thought ...” Daintybelle feigned composure, asking, “You’re with Grifter, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

The mare pursed her lips, and nodded back, slowly, as if the answer to my question physically pained her. I cocked an eyebrow as she whispered so that only the two of us could hear, “Yes, I do. She … st-stabbed me last night.”

I eyed, gloomily, the dried splotch of crimson that had stained deep into her winter coat. “She tried to kill me … she … she tried to kill me.

“Then she took my caps and ran off with them before I could pay him. Pay Grifter. I was going to pay … but she had a knife! Said she’d cut me if I didn't hoof them over! But … but she cut me anyways ...” Daintybelle shook her head, shaking uncontrollably. She repeated, “I was going to pay … I swear. I told you … I was going to pay. But she cut me … You … believe me right?”

I sighed with growing impatience.

“Yes. Now do you know where I can find her? Did you see where she ran off to?”

She nodded, uneasily.

“Y-yes … s-she went out a window. She’s fast, you see? I saw her heading to the Old Factory District, I think ...”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“You think?”

She nearly jumped.

“No … I-I know.”

Nodding to myself, I asked, “I don’t come here often. I’m sort of new to this city … came here from down south. Where’s the Old Factory District?”

Daintybelle’s eyes darted away from me once more.

“J-just follow the main road east of the brothel – the Sultry Scullion – and you’ll get there,” she whispered in a voice I barely heard. “I go there often. Down the road I mean, it’s by the market.”

The door behind us cracked open, and a stallion peeked outside. Daintybelle didn't turn.

The stallion asked, “Is he …?”

“No. No he’s not.” Daintybelle replied, keeping her eyes trained on me. “He’s helping me with … what happened yesterday.”

Her husband’s apprehension allayed somewhat as he slowly holstered his pistol in his coat.

“Those fucking Palominos … why can’t they just piss off?” he grunted, stomping a hoof in the snow.

“Palominos?” I cocked my head at Daintybelle. “Wait … this Candy Cane mare’s a Palomino?” Her husband looked like he’d never heard that name before.

Daintybelle blinked twice.

“Y-yes. She works for them ..."

I glared at the snow.

“Candy Cane, eh?” her husband muttered, “Damn Palominos … how’re we supposed to pay them their damn tax if they already took the money we owe?!” He shook his head. “After nearly killing my wife here, one of their boys came around here earlier, wondering why we were late this week. I fuckin’ wonder why …”

Daintybelle dabbed her hoof nervously in the snow.

I narrowed my eyes at him and growled through my teeth, “Tax?”

Her husband grumbled bitterly, “Protection money. We pay them so they don’t run us out. So the Blood Brothers or the Pikes don’t run us out … and take our things.” He chuckled, grimly, “As if there’s anything left to take from us anyways … we don’t got much around here. Not anymore ...”

I uttered a dark chuckle, rolling my eyes.

“Why even steal from ponies you’re already taking from?”

“Hmph.” Her husband folded his legs across his chest. “They’re a real hooffull of shit, that’s why!”

“I don’t understand why you ponies don’t just kick them out,” I said, “You don’t have to deal with their shit …”

“If it was that easy …” the stallion began, trailing off. He shook his head. “If it wasn’t for them keeping East Eden’s hounds outta this part of the city, I wouldn’t even pay them a single cap. But this isn’t the first time they’ve tried taking more than what we owe …” He turned to Daintybelle. “I’m thinkin’ that Candy Cane mare that mugged you was the same pony that tried wringing us out last week, too.”

Daintybelle hesitated, nodding quickly as she stared at her hooves in silence.

“Is ... is she going to be okay?” I asked.

Daintybelle trembled uncontrollably as her husband wrapped a leg around her. I watched curiously as her shivering refused to abate.

She was mortified.

He looked at his wife with soft eyes, rubbing her shoulder with a hoof. She just shied away from his gaze.

“Daintybelle’s still shaken up after what happened yesterday. She nearly bled out.” The mare hung her head in turmoil.

I stared with dark eyes, shaking my head at the bloody hole in her coat.

"Fucking Palominos ..." her husband began, "Someone oughtta teach those thugs a lesson."

Daintybelle's eyes widened.

“You shouldn’t say that out loud –”

“NO! I’m tired of this! God-damned tired!” Daintybelle wrapped her hooves around him, but he shrugged her off. “I swear I WON’T let those bastards HURT YOU AGAIN!”

“HEY!” I shouted abruptly, and the two fell silent. “I’ll find this mare. I’ll find her. I’ll make her pay,” I said, as I unholstered my pistol, checking its safety.

Daintybelle’s husband gave me a cold hard stare before nodding.

“Thanks … and good luck. I’d keep that heater hot if I were you … those Palominos like to play dirty.”

I nodded at him, but my jaw clenched as I remembered Grifter’s orders.

'I needed her alive.'

Daintybelle watched me as I left, following me with anxious eyes.

She cupped a hoof over her mouth and turned away.

I barely heard her voice whisper beneath the wind.

“They like to play dirty alright …”

I walked along a well-trodden, frozen road, cracked and broken by centuries of ice and countless hooves. Rising ominously before me was the immense, confusing sprawl that was the old industrial district. The titanic, blocky metal faces of ancient manufactories, once the lifeblood of Poneva's industry, were now as dry and inert as the ponies that were probably buried right beneath me.

But where there were once busy sidewalks and wagon-clogged streets, there were only weary wastelanders and scrap metal shops. Those shops, built around heaping piles of scrap and possibly useful junk, bought and sold scavenged parts and scavenged machines. Doodads of all kinds of doods and dads were on sale at every corner.

Naturally, with people being attracted to shiny things, other shops would spring up nearby too. A few eateries, thrift shops, gun shops, a blacksmith, and even a potion shop were built into the remnants of factory buildings that hadn’t collapsed. While more densely packed than the market I was at earlier, that place was far more pleasant. We were certainly farther away from the Palominos’ turf, and I couldn’t see any black hats anywhere.

Shivering briskly, I joined the ponies that wandered the swap-meet, glancing every now and then at a shiny part that caught my attention or some piece of machinery that I had never seen before. Everybody’s attention seemed to be drawn elsewhere, however.

‘Lucky me,’ I thought.

‘She was just here.’

A pair of ponies were scrutinizing with grim curiosity a trail of blood that had frozen into the tracks of some wounded pony. The trail was erratic and suggestive of a painful limp. Some of them weren’t even hoofprints. Every now and then there was an imprint of a shape vaguely reminiscent of a pony punched into the snow. Big dumb Dawdleshoes had shot her in the leg after all, it seemed.

One such imprint lied just outside of the potion shop’s door.

I trotted up to the pair of onlookers. My ears perked.

“What happened here?” I asked, eyeing the pony-shaped crater.

“No idea,” replied a mare, who dipped her hoof in the bloody slush. “But it’s been here for a few hours now. It’s frozen solid.”

I tapped my chin with a hoof. “Do you know anybody who might’ve seen whoever did this?”

A stallion pointed a hoof at the door to my left, a meticulously hoofpainted sign that said, in a vaguely understandable language … ‘la … booteele … magic’ … rocking gently in the breeze. “We’re right outside Madame Mistelle’s shop. She probably saw what happened,” he said, shrugging.

Thanking them, I trotted past the two, and pushed open the potion shop’s door. As I soon stepped inside, I was struck in the face by an atmosphere entirely different from the one outside.

It was warm in there.

I blinked several times as I took in the room around me. I hadn’t felt warmth against my coat ever since I left my stable.

At the far end of the shop, there was a fireplace … without firewood. Magical firelight danced across my face as I walked past a series of shelves stocked full of colorful potions and strange concoctions that didn’t really look safe to drink.

A heavily-accented, robotic voice droned behind me.

“Greetings, sir, bienvenue à La Bouteille Magique.”

“HOLY SHIT!” I gasped, backing away from the floating, four-armed robot. My flank bumped into a shelf and a potion tumbled to the floor. In a blur of chrome limbs, the robot lashed out at me –

- and caught the potion an inch above the floor.

“Do be careful, sir, you quite nearly bruised your hindquarters,” its flanged, synthesized voice said politely. The hovering robot’s frighteningly long two-pronged arm replaced the potion back on the shelf before retracting back into its metallic shell.

“I-I-I’m …” the word ‘sorry’ was lost on my lips as an alabaster mask ambled into view.

“I do apologize, Monsieur Melanger can be rather inconspicuous at times,” said a mare’s voice. Her ornate mask fascinated me as well as the strange accent that complimented her startlingly pleasant voice. “He tends to catch ponies unawares – with good intentions, I assure you,” the mare added in the silkiest of voices.

A unicorn mare in a faded, yet elegant dress foxtrotted down the aisle towards me, bowing her head at me and lifting her dress with a curtsy. “I am Madame Mistelle. Welcome to the Bouteille Magique, where you may purchase from a vast selection of potions to your fancy!” The rosy lips over where her own lips should’ve been smiled with genuine hospitality. Though it was impossible to tell what face she really wore beneath that mask.

I stared at her for a moment, bewildered by the masked mare.

“I … uh …” I cleared my throat, trying not to make uncomfortable faces at her strange, ornate mask. “Do you own this store?”

“Own, no. But I do preside over the exchanges that occur here, so perhaps it would be appropriate to say yes,” she cooed, her soft, long brown mane bobbing gently upon her shoulder. “I do not think I have seen you here, before. I often watch the ponies outside during my breaks, but I have not seen your face.”

‘Well I can’t see yours,’ I wanted to say as I stood there rubbing my leg uncomfortably.

“Why is it that you look so anxious?” she asked, reading the lines on my forehead.

I watched the green eyes that glistened behind her eyeholes nervously. “Sorry, I’m just … no offense, but why are you wearing that mask?”

Her head cocked slightly at me as if I had just said the strangest thing ever. Then the unicorn gasped, and went stiff.

She dabbed at her chin, rather … adorably. “Oh! This mask?” She ran a hoof against its pale surface, uttering a soft, ladylike chuckle. “I sometimes forget that I am wearing it. Forgive me if I startled you; most ponies who see me are used to my peoples’ anonymity. It is merely a tradition in my culture to wear one when around others.”

‘A tradition?’ I wondered. I didn’t know it was tradition anywhere in Equestria to wear masks like that. I’d never seen that in any of our books either – but then again, I never did pay much attention to Equestrian history …

I cleared my throat, straightening out the discomfort in my face.

“You’re not from here?” I asked.

“Hmm,” she began, “Well, I was born an Equestrian but raised a Rôānian. My family was originally from the nation of Roan, but they have lived here since before the Great War.” My eyes widened at that.

Nowhere in my life had I even heard about a nation called Roan. Nor did I know that there were other nations on this continent besides Equestria and the Crystal Empire.

It struck me just how limited and hoof-picked our history books were. “Roanian?” I played with the word on my tongue. “Where I come from, all we ever knew was Equestria. I’m sort of new here,” I began, lifting up my right forehoof. She saw my PipBuck and nodded, thoughtfully. “My name is Red Dawn.”

She probably smiled behind her mask. “Ah! A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Red Dawn!” Madame Mistelle purred, curtseying once more. “I assumed you were somepony else. I confess: I was actually shocked by your lack of knowledge. You wear the coat of a Palomino soldier - what they call a ‘made pony’, but you do not strike me as one.”

I cocked an eyebrow.

She muttered, the sting in her words belying her mask’s polite expression, “You do not carry yourself like a deceitful rogue.” She cupped a hoof around her mask’s lips, giggling softly. “You are far too polite to belong to such a clan of traitorous brutes.”

Madame Mistelle let out a couth sigh.

“Alors,” she purred, her civility returning, “How is it that I can help you, Red Dawn?”

I stared at her … face … the only thing visible beneath it all were her green eyes.

I couldn’t get my mind off that mask of hers. It was like her voice was trying to match the face she wore. Or maybe that face was trying to match her voice. Hell, it creeped me out speaking to an inanimate expression that grinned at me even when her tone implied that she wasn’t. For all I knew there could have been a mutant beast beneath that mask.

Or a stallion.

I shivered, blinking away the images in my head. “I was wondering if you knew anything about the blood outside your store?”

“Mais bien sûr … there was a remarkable amount of commotion outside, not too long ago,” she replied in her charmingly foreign accent.

My ears perked. ‘May ben, what?’

Madame Mistelle uttered a couth whinny. “A pony came through here while I was holding the door open for Monsieur Melanger as he carried in today’s shipment of reagents. She was fleeing somepony and – oh goodness, and I saw the blood! My, she was injured! I offered her a health potion to which she generously accepted before returning to her course!”

Celestia, was she wordy.

I pursed my lips, trying to hide my exasperation.

“You saw her? What did she look like?”

She touched her chin, pondering for a moment. “She was a unicorn, with the most sumptuous mane of red and white, and a coat of maroon, like a bottle of fine rosé de pomme. Pretty she was, but I had not the chance to ask her from whom she was running. She was in quite a hurry.”

“I’d imagine so …” I muttered.

“Excusez-moi?”

I cleared my throat, smiling sheepishly. “Oh, nothing. I was just going to ask if you saw where she ran off to?”

Madame Mistelle nodded, murmuring to herself as she recalled. “Indeed, I did.” She cocked her head so that her voluminous brown mane bobbed in front of one of her eyeholes. “Are you a friend of hers?”

“No,” I growled, “She mugged a pony earlier today and nearly killed her. I can’t let her get away with that.”

The tone of Madame Mistelle’s voice belied the smile upon her face. “Did she now?” the mare murmured softly. She shifted on her hooves in what I perceived to be thought. “She was indeed fleeing from something.” Madame Mistelle swept her delicate mane to the other side of her face as she turned to Monsieur Melanger. “Apportez-moi mon monteau, s’il vous plait.”

“Très bien, Madame," the robot droned before returning with a coat slung across one of its long, spindly arms.

“Merci. Please follow me,” she said to me, buttoning up her winter coat before starting for the door. “So you are a mercenary?”

I thought for a moment, but shook my head. “No. I’d just hate to see her ruin someone’s life over a bag of caps.”

“How noble of you.”

“It’s just the …” I almost said, ‘the right thing to do’. I frowned at that. “It’s just that bad ponies need to get what’s coming to them.”

Madame Mistelle uttered a terse chuckle.

“Were it so easy, my friend. But the fine line between good and bad is rather blurred,” she intoned, her voice almost a whisper. My ears perked curiously, as she enveloped the doorknob with a green magical field. “Most ponies do not trust my kind. They think we are all … ‘bad ponies’ … the Silver Horseshoes usually keep to their own. But I am an exception, I suppose.”

I froze.

I remembered Sterling mentioning the ‘Silver Horseshoes’ to me a few days earlier. I also remembered them being mentioned in the same breath he mentioned the Sunny Days Company.

My muscles twitched slightly as I decided against reaching for my holster.

She worked for the plantations. The same one the Palominos murdered for.

But she was … helping me?

I shuffled nervously upon my hooves, my brows furrowed.

“So you’re a … uh … Silver Horseshoe, huh?”

The unicorn glanced over her shoulder. “Yes …” Madame Mistelle replied, rather drably. “To foster better relations with our Equestrian peers, I’ve volunteered to preside over this shop.”

I wasn’t sure how much more my brows could scrunch together. I wondered what kind of strain there was between her kind and ours that made mending it so necessary. But so long as that robot didn’t impale me, any hostilities she might have held for me – having Equestrian blood and all, were either well hidden behind her mask or virtually non-existent.

It really was as if she was trying to be the ‘good pony’ her kind apparently wasn’t.

We trotted outside, Madame Mistelle’s magic lifting her dress delicately above the snow. A few yards down, she stopped and pointed a hoof. Stretching off and into the distance was a labyrinth of blocky, rusted over buildings and blackened smokestacks.

“I followed her here, fearing that she would collapse from exhaustion. She did instead keep running.” She lifted a hoof at the broken asphalt trail that led into darkness. “Down this road I saw her disappear, amongst the abandoned General Arcanics factory complex. Such are buildings with many places to hide; I would be utterly shocked had she not taken refuge in one such location.”

There weren’t many lights down there.

‘Great.’ My eyes glazed over the immensity of the factories beyond. “She could be in any one of those, huh?”

Madame Mistelle turned slowly to me with her ever-smiling visage. “She may be. I hope I was able to help.”

I shrugged off a shiver that ran down my spine as I eyed her mask. For all I knew she could have been sneering at me as if I was about to walk into an ambush.

I stared at her for a moment, trying to discern her body language. But she stood entirely still. Madame Mistelle was virtually unreadable. I wondered if she was leading me to a trap.

The polite smile on her mask told me otherwise.

I smiled back. “Yes, thank you.”

"Tout le plaisir est pour moi,” she cooed, politely.

I didn’t have idea what that meant, so I just gave her another sheepish smile and started down the road.

I paused and looked over my shoulder. “I wasn’t expecting a Silver Horseshoe to help … anybody. I’ve been told that you guys work for Sunny Days?”

Again, she was silent. “Some of us do,” Madame Mistelle replied. The mare waved me goodbye.

“Alors, au revoir – et bonne chance – good luck, friend.”

I nodded, trotting down the broken road.

“Dis! Red Dawn!” I turned as she waved a hoof at me once more. “Do be careful, now. The Silver Horseshoes have yet to reclaim all of the industrial district’s manufactories.” She glanced at Monsieur Melanger. “Not all of their security systems perished when the megaspells came.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again.”

I snorted, gazing into the cradle of Poneva's industry. The balefire hadn’t left much alive when it came. Even a long ways away from ground zero, Spring Song’s cottage was still destroyed.

How much worse could it have been in the city I assumed that the zebras were actually targeting? Almost everything around me that hadn’t been renovated or jury-rigged was a burned-out husk.

How bad could it be?

Chapter 7 - Pony Feathers - Pt III

The smell of combusted cloth and ozone permeated the air.

“Bad! Bad – very bad!” I screamed as a violet bolt of magical energy screamed over my shoulder. The temperature outside and in was supposed to be below zero.

And yet everything around me was melting into molten slag.

The security-bots were getting closer.

Energy cannons shrieked behind me, their blinding muzzle flashes illuminating the factory like an epileptic light show. Energy bolts punched smoking, melting holes into the walls and floor as I made a mad dash for cover.

I heaved myself over a blackened, unopened crate - and landed in someone’s crumbling skeleton. The blackened bones shattered beneath my weight. I would’ve screamed if I wasn’t already panicking from the lasers bolts showering over me.

One beam flashed across the top of my head, splitting the ends of my red mane.

“AHH – hot, hot, hot! FUCK!” I patted out the small fire that was beginning to burn my scalp. With my hair smoking and the floor on either side of the crate a molten slag, I started to think that there wasn’t going be a way out of that mess.

“Damnit!” I hissed, as their lasers burned through the air, “Don’t those things ever overheat!?”

“DIE, ZEBRA SCUM,” a robot droned as its energy casters whirred and screeched a barrage of violet bolts of crackling magic.

In an instant, the world around me flashed. The crate atomized behind me and I fell flat on my back, hooves in the air into a pile of glowing, incinerated matter.

The laserfire stopped.

I rose to shaky hooves, looked up, and saw half a dozen tracked robots with smoking energy cannons rolling towards me. Upon the robots' heads were … what I hoped weren’t pony brains, spinal cord and all, contained within cylindrical glass cases.

I clenched my mouth bit and eyed my horrifyingly low ammo count. I’d found out earlier that those damned tin cans were unfazed by body shots. SATS was my only ticket out of that soup sandwich.

I couldn’t shoot them where it hurt without my training wheels.

Thankfully, whoever designed those robobastards didn’t put too much thought into protecting their only weak point: their brains – or installing a functional IFF.

‘How clichéd,’ I thought.

A flanged, metallic voice droned from the smoke and darkness.

"Confirm: E.K.I.A?"

I stepped out into the open. “H-hey there, you guys,” I called out to them, my mane still smoking. I lifted a shaky hoof, beaming them with my PipBuck’s glow as the boiling heat beneath me began to dissipate. “I-I’m actually a pony, not a zebra, so if you could please just –”

"Negative. Tango is still active. BURN STRIPED SCUM." A curse slipped out of my lips as their weapons screamed to life.

The touch of white hot death seared past my left flank as I dove for cover behind a forklift. It sparked and melted away, bearing the brunt of the magical onslaught. At the rate it was withering away I knew that it wasn’t going to hold for long. Now with my ass smoking too, I double-timed it for the closest door I could find. The tin cans raced after me. They were gaining on me – fast. I could hear the roar of their engines scream closer and closer.

The world lit up with streaks of teal as I slipped into SATS mid-gallop.

“You will not escape, zebra intruder –”

"I'M NOT A FUCKING ZEBRA, GODDESSES DAMNIT!"

My pistol kicked in my mouth, and its brain case exploded in a shower of gray matter. It stuttered and went limp – only to be plowed out of the way by the rest as they revved after me, lasers flashing.

But no matter how many I put down, another came screaming to take its place. That factory was crawling with them, and as laser bolts flashed across the factory floor, the number of shadows that lurched across the walls reminded me of how wrong I was before I’d arrived.

It was bad. Real bad.

One violet beam flashed on high, and the shadow of a tracked tin can painted itself briefly against the floor in my path. I nearly stopped in my tracks – only to find that it wasn’t in front of me.

It was above me.

The shrieking uproar of metal being sheared in half pierced my ears. I jerked my head upwards and saw the shuddering catwalk that hung precariously over me.

A raving robobrain raced across it.

“Z-Z-ZEBRA – ZEBRAZEEEEEBBRAAAAA –”

“Fuck.”

The robot fell first.

It careened into the floor in front of me, still screaming. In a dull explosion of shattered limbs and liquefied brains, it perished. Slimy gray matter splattered onto my face and metal fragmentation nicked my bare flesh.

Then the air suddenly felt a few thousand tons heavier.

I heaved myself out of the way just as the catwalk careened into the floor behind me, quaking the earth beneath my hooves. A massive plume of debris erupted into the ceiling, blinding my eyes and every howling death robot around me.

A painful groan rasped out of my lips. I lay there spread-eagled and coughing beneath the smoke, blood streaming down my face. Pulling back my splayed limbs, I tried to sit up - but something yanked me back down to the floor. I jerked my head back, ready to deplete my SATS charges into whatever robo shit for brains had clamped down on my tail.

It wasn’t.

It wasn’t a robot.

My tail ... my tail …

It was trapped beneath the catwalk.

“Fuh … fuh … f-f-f ...”

“VISUAL REESTABLISHED. ENGAGING.”

The catwalk blocked their path. So they just started melting through it.

I pulled. And pulled. And pulled. Sweat poured down my face and chilled instantly in the freezing air. I could see the flashing violet glows getting closer and closer through the dust and darkness.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, OH FUCK – THIS!”

I cried out, tucked in my legs, and bucked as hard as I could against the catwalk behind me.

I didn’t even realize I was screaming as I ripped – tore – and shredded myself free.

I didn’t have to look to know that my tail was gone.

My ass was on fire.

I tossed a few hundred bits into my swear jar as just about every swear word in the books howled through my teeth.

I screamed my throat raw and galloped to the first door I could find. A sign above labeled it ‘Maintenance’. It didn’t matter where I went. I slammed into the door and wrenched it open, tumbling inside as my hind legs slammed it closed.

I glanced up with stars in my eyes, and found that I wasn’t alone.

“– no, come on – come on!” I heard someone hiss.

I saw the streaks in her curly mane first. They were red and white … like a candy cane.

“Candy Cane?” I breathed, eyes widening.

She was in the process of jamming a hairpin into a door’s lock and feeling for its innards with a screwdriver when she swung her head around to see me.

“Oh no.”

With a violent twist, she forced the lock and bucked it open.

“STOP!” I scrambled to my hooves and nearly slipped upon an empty potion bottle as I bounded after her and out the door.

“Get away from me!” the mare screamed, her horn flashing silver. A shelf packed with maintenance supplies crashed to the floor at my hooves. I leaped over it – and a lightbulb exploded against my skull. I blinked away flecks of blood, clenching my jaw and galloping after her as she yanked down light fixtures in my path.

Glass shattered beneath my hooves as I shrugged off bulb after bulb. The hall was getting shorter.

She turned a corner and stopped, her back against a wall. I could see the defiance etched upon her face.

“You won’t get away with this!” I screamed, and lunged after her, hooves outstretched.

But she threw herself out of the way at the very last moment and my face greeted the concrete wall with an audible thump. Stars exploded in my eyes and I barely noticed the blur that was her tail as she pounded her hooves farther and farther away.

Candy Cane found the door at the other end of the hall, her magic glowing around a screwdriver as she picked at the lock with a bobby pin. I struggled to get to my hooves, but collapsed once more in my daze.

That was all the time she needed. Candy Cane shoved the door open, glancing over her shoulder before disappearing outside. I shook the stars from my eyes and hobbled after her.

“Fucking …” I murmured, rounding the corner only to see her halfway down a flight of stairs leading to the factory floor.

Too bad I needed her alive.

My eyes followed her across the factory floor. I let out an irritated groan. Stretching out into the factory’s depths was a network – no, a mess of assembly lines and conveyor belts. And she was going to disappear inside of it.

I bounded down the steps after her, skipping four at a time – nearly smashing my skull in as I slipped and rolled down the last five. By the time I was up again, the mare was already twenty yards away from me, galloping as fast as she could across the factory floor.

“INTRUDERS DETECTED,” dozens of synthesized voices shrieked in unison. “ENGAGING DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS – WEAPONS FREE.” Red lights flashed, and from the metal alcoves in the walls rolled out more robobrains.

They revved after us, their twin-linked energy casters glowing like demon eyes in the darkness.

I groaned, “You’ve gotta be SHITTING me!”

A robobrain veered into my path, blocking any view I had of Candy Cane. My muscles tensed and my eyes clenched shut.

I slammed my body into its metal frame, its arms flailing, energy weapons flashing. I felt the skin on my face prickle and burn as its energy casters hissed and erupted with violet spellfire on either side of my cheeks.

With a defiant scream, I jammed my pistol into its brain case and yanked the trigger back.

CRACK!

Gray matter and reeking fluids dribbled down my face. I heaved the robot away from me, and found that Candy Cane was even further away. I was losing her fast.

To my surprise, she leaped onto the conveyor belt, unassembled parts and debris scattering to the floor in her wake. I pounded after her, tossing aside everything in my path. With the automated machines blocking the robots’ line of fire, their computers couldn’t plot any firing solutions.

Good for the both of us. Until the lights on the machines flickered to life and the conveyor belt began to move.

My eyes widened as I saw the gray shimmer around her horn fade away.

“ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!?”

She shouted back, “You’re crazy for following me here!”

The darkness gave way as the factory sprang to life, my eyes blinded for a moment as the lights overhead drowned us out with a flickering white glare.

Then I saw it. I wished that she had just kept the lights off.

A massive, chomping maw of steel devoured the unassembled parts before us and pancaking them into different shapes.

I was about to get butchered by an oversized cookie-cutter.

I watched as Candy Cane dove into its groaning maw. Then it slammed closed.

“Luna’s fucking grace!”

It opened once more and all that came out were more metal parts.

I stood there frozen on my hooves – but the conveyor belt just kept rolling.

‘Oh no.’

“FUCK. EVERYTHING.”

I closed my eyes, threw my hooves in front of me, and dove forward. Utter darkness fell over me. Metal pounded against metal, and a shrill ringing screeched into my ears.

Then the machine opened once more and I was outside – the stub that was my tail just barely an inch away from being caught between its teeth.

Candy Cane glanced over her shoulder, her eyes widening. I suppose she thought that that should’ve killed me.

I glared at her as she galloped away.

A rivulet of sweat trickled over my brow.

“Are you fucking serious …” I murmured.

And she leaped off the conveyor belt.

Nearly half a story below, she landed, scrambling onto another. I made another jump, and barely stuck my landing beside a cylindrical case about the size of a stallion’s torso.

Coming in fast was a machine that bolted onto the cases the metal parts that had been shaped from earlier. I saw Candy Cane duck into one of the tin cans as six different machines impaled the shell to oblivion.

My stomach ached as I imagined one of those bolts driving into my chest. I swore under my breath. My metal coffin awaited me. I crawled inside and cringed. The machines roared as they screwed and tunneled and bled out my eardrums with their bolt drivers. Now completely and utterly deaf, I heard nothing but the ringing in my ears as I hurled the tin can off of me and sent my hooves pounding across the conveyor belt in the shrill silence.

With the mare leading the way, she cleared the path for me as she tossed aside metal shells in her path. But a machine that was supposed to tip the cylinders upright scooped her up from behind and dumped her onto her face.

“Fuck -”

Cold metal slammed into my face. The machine scooped me up off my thrashing hooves and dumped me back down onto the conveyor belt. I panicked - and slipped off the edge.

Screaming, I hung from the conveyor belt twenty feet above the factory floor for my dear life with a single hoof as it dragged me along the line at a full on gallop. I threw my left hoof high and found purchase, wrenching myself up and over.

I stood there – eyes widening, seconds away from another automated death trap. The machine roared closer. It shoved parts off the assembly line as its other half sparked and shuddered.

I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hooves.

The machine slammed into me, hurling me off the assembly line to fall to my death. But a swinging mechanical claw broke my fall. Then another conveyer belt. And another machine. I tumbled through the air in free fall and slammed onto the floor on my back, my body beaten, bruised, and aching. I cursed under my trembling gasps, wondering if I’d broken anything.

I lay there questioning how I was still alive.

A painful moan gathered my attention elsewhere as I rose to my hooves. Candy Cane had landed a stone’s throw away from me.

“Give up!” I panted, ejecting my pistol’s mostly spent magazine and tucking it into my pocket.

Candy Cane scrambled to her hooves, and half limped, half ran away.

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” she cried.

I loaded my last magazine and entered SATS.

I tagged her legs ... but my firing solution was taking too long to calculate. She was fast. Too fast. If I missed and struck her chest, she’d die. Then I’d never find the Orphanage. I threw off my training wheels and snarled after her.

We neared a wide, shattered window pane that lined the entirety of the wall on that side of the factory. She’d do anything to escape. I wasn’t surprised when she hurled herself into the window pane and sent it crashing into the snow outside.

Without so much of a pause, I leaped after her, rolling down a heaping mound of snow that had nearly buried the concrete wall behind me.

The mare punched a deep outline into the drifts, the powder breaking most of her fall. My flailing limbs threw up showers of snow as I struggled to rise to my aching four legs. But she beat me to it. Growling in frustration, I lunged after her, trying to chomp down on her tail, but she lashed out with her hind legs and blinded me with a hail of ashen snow.

I sputtered, spitting the powder out of my mouth and shaking it off my muzzle.

She was already on her hooves, and limping away from me.

I snarled, “It's over Candy Cane!”

I slogged after her in the knee-deep snow, my PipBuck’s light flashing across the drifts. Her heavy, panicked gasps and my irritated murmuring were the only sounds among those abandoned lines of storage containers.

She knew the end was near.

Candy Cane finally collapsed, wheezing for air to fill her lungs – but that didn’t stop her. She crawled. She crawled away from me, her tail disappearing around a corner.

I made the turn and watched as she dragged herself across the snow ... in vain. A stack of crates, piled high above our heads made the alleyway between the storage containers on either side of me a dead end.

Candy Cane threw herself against the wall behind her. She peered up at me as I approached, my pistol drawn.

“Please … let me go,” she begged, tears welling up in her eyes. Her eyes. I locked my burning gaze with hers and stared into her watery grays. Her steel gray eyes.

All my anger dissipated like an evanescent dream.

I froze, with another mare’s name upon my lips. Shivers ran down my spine as she spoke.

“Don’t make me go back … please … don’t make me go back … just tell Grifter and his Palominos I’m dead,” Candy Cane sobbed pathetically, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. A lock of her curly red and white mane fell over one of her eyes as she hung her head, weeping silently. “I’m dead … tell them I’m dead …”

“Wha … what are you talking about?” I uttered, trembling on my hooves.

She looked up at me in desperation with defeated, teary eyes. The mare parted her mane with a shaking hoof.

Around her neck was a collar. It blinked red with every second that dragged by.

‘Dear Celestia.’

“You … you’re a slave,” I whispered, the hairs on my coat standing on end.

“If you want the money … please … just take it … take it and let me go!” she begged through trembling lips, reaching into her jacket.

A sack of jingling caps landed in front of me.

I could only stare, frozen upon my hooves as Candy Cane’s shoulders rocked with miserable sobs. She wept into her hooves, shaking her head and wiping them away only for more to stream hopelessly down her cheeks.

Doubt ran circles around my head. My right eye twitched as I struggled to stay aloft on my own four hooves.

Candy Cane's trembling voice broke my heart like glass.

“Don’t make me go back … I-I don’t want to go back!” she begged between her quaking sobs. “I don’t want to go back anymore … No more - PLEASE! Don’t make me go back there! They’ll hurt me … again and again!”

I lowered a trembling hoof to the snow and picked up the sack of caps. Candy Cane went silent. I looked up and saw her staring at me with her teary, anguished eyes. Her steel gray eyes.

A second passed as I lost myself in her hauntingly familiar gaze, entranced.

Distraught. Disturbed. I clenched my eyes shut as my stomach churned and my head spun.

Then a shrill cry shattered my rapturous state.

“I WON’T LET YOU TAKE ME BACK, YOU FUCKING CAFONE PIECE OF SHIT!”

Candy Cane hurled herself at me, a knife enveloped in her magical grip.

I slipped into SATS.

My hindhooves bucked into her chest.

Candy Cane slammed into the wall of crates behind her before crashing into the snow in a writhing heap.

“NO!” she wailed as I threw myself on top of her, pinning her flailing limbs into the snow.

“NO – NO – NO!”

The mare shrieked with everything she had left.

“NOOOOO!”

Candy Cane thrashed beneath me, screaming like a frenzied, cornered animal until she screamed her throat raw and her muscles burned out. Nearly a minute passed, her heavy gasps for air barely audible over the howling wind.

She let her head roll across her shoulders, laying her cheek in the snow. The buttons on her winter coat was torn loose, revealing beneath me the ribs of her heaving, naked chest.

“Just … just do it …” she rasped in between breaths. “Just do it …” Candy Cane clenched her eyes shut and whimpered softly … shivering ... unable to shed anymore tears in her weary, pathetic state. She just lied there, pinned to the snow beneath my hooves. She didn’t resist. She didn’t utter a single word ...

… not a single word as she parted her hindlegs beneath me.

A horrified gasp escaped my lips.

I lifted my hooves off of her slender, trembling legs. She was broken. And I was afraid that I’d broken her too. I touched one of her forelegs, her leg too thin to fill her entire sleeve, one too many sizes big for her. One was bloodied and bandaged tightly where Dawdleshoes had shot her. Even now unhindered by my weight, she could do nothing but lie there.

Defeated.

I stared down at the sobbing mare with wide eyes. The bomb collar continued to blink. Every flashing pulse was a quaking flashback to my meeting with Sugar Rum’s crew.

Slavers. Slavers. Slavers.

She was a slave.

“What are you?” I still asked, unable to believe the thoughts that screamed at me inside my head. I closed my eyes, covering my face with a hoof.

There was only silence. I opened them, and Candy Cane was still sobbing quietly, snow clinging to her disheveled red and white mane.

“I … I’m a pony … I’m a pony … not a fucking … slut. Not a … whore. Not a slave. I’m a pony. I’m a fucking pony …” she wept, her voice trembling.

I blinked away the tears in my eyes as her cries echoed through my ears. All that time I was chasing … a victim. A victim. It tore me apart knowing that I would have murdered her if I wasn’t trying to take her alive.

I was after the wrong pony. I was helping the wrong pony.

Grifter was a slaver. A Palomino. A liar … a manipulative scumbag sack of pony garbage!

And to think I was going to exchange information for another pony’s life! Candy Cane’s life ...

I touched her face with a hoof, gently rolling her head to face me. Candy Cane’s eyelids fluttered open.

“I’m … I’m not one of them,” I told her. “I won’t hurt you.”

She closed them once more. “You’re lying … you don’t know how many times I’ve heard that … how many times they’ve hurt me anyways. You don’t know … you’re lying …”

“NO!” I shouted, suddenly. She shuddered beneath me, her bloodshot eyes widening. “I’m not a fucking Palomino … they lied to me. Grifter. Lied to me. He said you mugged – mugged his customer! Daintybelle said you stabbed her – tried to kill her! I ... I thought you were one of them!” I cried, my chin quivering as my blood began to boil.

“He fucking lied to me, told me that if I brought you back, he’d help me … I … I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not like them. I’m not a monster.” I looked into her eyes, pleadingly. “Please believe me … I won’t hurt you.”

She sniffled, wiping away the frost that had formed upon her cheeks. I collapsed to my haunches, my head hung as I stared blankly at the ashen snow.

All of it … everything Grifter told me was bullshit … it was all fucking pony feathers. As I sat there in turmoil, Candy Cane’s voice pulled me back into the light.

“I … I believe you …”

The mare sat down in front of me, staring at the snow under her hooves with desolate eyes.

“What’s your name … I mean you already know mine,” she asked.

“Red Dawn … my name’s Red Dawn. I’m sorry, Candy Cane … I-I didn’t know. Goddesses damnit … I didn’t know.”

She nodded, quietly, running a hoof through the snow.

“Daintybelle … you spoke with Daintybelle, didn’t you?”

I looked up at her and nodded.

“She was a regular customer at the Sultry Scullion … she really liked me,” Candy Cane began, distantly. “Daintybelle always chose me … she has a husband you know? Says that I … I can make her feel better than her husband can. She … she really liked me. She’d always pay extra to … to … ” she looked away, shaking her head as she teetered on the edge of breaking down into tears once more.

I cradled my head in my hooves. “That … two-faced whore … she lied to me.”

“I got tired of it …” Candy Cane sighed softly, her voice hoarse. “I got tired of all of it … so I decided I’d leave. I stabbed her … took her caps … and ran …”

She looked up at me with uncertain, watery gray eyes. “So … now what? What … what are you going to do to me?”

I said nothing as my blood boiled in my veins. My head spun so fast that I wanted to puke. I stared at her bomb collar, watching it blink with every burning second that ticked by. A shallow breath escaped my lips, and I hung my head, trembling with rage.

I’d already made up my mind before the thought even came to my head.

“I’m going to bust you out of there.” I looked her in the eyes. “For good.”

Candy Cane snorted, shaking her head hopelessly. “What makes you think you can? I’ve escaped so many times but they've always been able to find me ...”

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve escaped at all, because you still have your collar on,” I growled, quietly. Candy Cane looked at her hooves. “I know what those things can do …”

“They’d never pop me," she whispered, "They’d never just throw me away like that … not while I can still ...” She shook her head, vigorously. “That’s why they’ve always brought me back.”

I fell silent, hatred seething within me.

“I’m going to get that collar off of you,” I said, softly, barely containing my rage.

“How?”

“There’s a detonator. Grifter has to have one. If there’s a detonator, he can make it pop. If there’s a detonator, I can make it go dark.” I slammed a hoof in the snow. “I just have to take it from him …”

Candy Cane shook her head. “You’d never get that close … his guards, they’ll put you down before you can even get close to him.”

I held up my right foreleg. “I have a PipBuck. I can drop all of them at once with its targeting system.” I clenched my eyes shut, shaking my head. “… I’ll make this right …

“I’ll make them pay.”

I brooded in silence as she sat there, wiping her weary eyes for what seemed like hours.

“You … you’d do this for me?” Candy Cane shook her head, wistfully. “You don’t even know me … I-I don’t even know you.”

“Has anyone ever tried to help you escape?” I asked.

No answer.

“Anyone?”

Still nothing.

“Then believe me … I’ll help you … because no one else will.”

Candy Cane stared at me in silence. All I could hear were her sobs as she began to weep.

“You’d do this for me? Y-you really would?” she cried, distantly.

I hung my head in solemn quietude. Those zebra villagers … I let them die. I watched as those mercs slaughtered them all. Those ponies that Sugar Rum’s crew enslaved … I let them die. I watched as those blood letters slaughtered them all.

I wasn’t going to let Candy Cane be another person that I could’ve – should’ve saved.

“Yes. But you have to trust me … we would need to go back.”

Her eyes widened.

“No …” she whispered, clenching her eyes shut.

I held her shoulder with a hoof. “I’ll need to get close to him.”

“No … no please …”

“Candy Cane …” I touched the collar around her neck, its red light flashing in my eyes. “It’s the only way to get that collar off of you. Even if you run, even if you leave the city … you’ll never be able to get away. As long as you have the thing around your neck, you’ll never escape.”

She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Okay … okay … I want to be a pony, Red Dawn … I want to be a pony.”

Candy Cane sat there as I rubbed her shuddering shoulders. I closed her winter coat, and she hugged the fabrics close to her chest.

“You already are. You just have a bomb collar around your neck.”

I led Candy Cane through the market, the Sultry Scullion not too far away, its colorful, flickering neon signs only adding fuel to my fire.

There he was. The liar. The Palomino. The grifter.

“I have her,” I said, approaching the stallion and his three henchponies.

“Ah, there’s the big-balled palooka! Look at him – how’d a small pony like that wrangle that wild mustang when a big boy like you couldn’t?” He chuckled, grinning at dumbass Dawdleshoes. “Heh, maybe I might just hire this colt and put you on mop-duty?”

Twiggy and Dahlia laughed, and the idiot stallion grumbled something incomprehensible. It didn’t matter. All I was doing was planning ways to put bullets through their heads.

Grifter cocked his head at me. “Why the long face, kid?”

“I … I went through a lot of shit to get her back,” I muttered through my teeth as I twitched the stub that was my tail. My eyes narrowed at him. “Don’t forget about our agreement.”

He laughed, and so did his henchponies.

“Forget about it! I told you – I’m no welcher … I help ponies who help me, ya dig?” He reached into his chest-pocket, and held out a slip of paper to me. “Saw that PipBuck of yours, so I figured you could make use of coordinates better than directions.”

I took the piece of paper and stared at it. Now I had what I was looking for. I glanced over my shoulder at Candy Cane who was staring at her hooves in quietude.

“Well? Hoof her to me. And the caps, too.”

I looked at Candy Cane and she looked at me. I nodded, and she began to walk toward them. So far so good.

I reached for my chest pocket, tucking away the note in my left, and grazing the pocket on the right. Just above my pistol’s holster. I gulped.

Six dark shapes trotted down the aisle of vendors. Their black hats hid their eyes.

My heart sank.

Grifter turned and the same mare who’d wailed on him when I first met him had returned.

“So what’s it gonna be, Grifter? You got the caps or no?”

My heart started to beat faster than I could breathe.

Candy Cane saw the fear in my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. I got ‘em, Dolce. Hold your fuckin’ horses.”

Grifter donned his fedora and held out a hoof.

“I need those caps, Red Dawn.”

SATS illuminated the world around me. I glanced at my charges … then I glanced at their heads. Ten of them. There were ten of them, one of me, and six rounds in my magazine.

I was going to take a risk. For Candy Cane. I thought of Gail. I thought of how I galloped headfirst into that hail of bullets just to save her. But it wasn’t my own efforts that had saved Gail’s life. It wasn’t luck that had kept me from dying.

I didn’t have ponies like Night Sky, Bone Charm, or Sprinkles to cover my sorry ass.

There, my strength was laughable. There, luck wasn’t on my side. Neither were any ponies.

But I promised Candy Cane that I would … I … I promised Dew Drops that I would save our Stable. I couldn’t do that dead. I bit my lower lip so hard that I drew blood. Even if I did put Grifter and his guards down, I wouldn’t have had enough bullets to drop the rest. It would end in a bloodbath, with my blood mingling with the rest.

I was screwed … no … Candy Cane was screwed. And I was going to screw her over. 'No … no … no … Goddesses ...' I shook uncontrollably, screaming inside my head, 'There were only supposed to be four of them, damnit!' I glanced at the firing solutions in my queue.

A rivulet of sweat trickled down my face.

Grifter and his dogs were instant kills. A shot through the head for each … but the rest ... I eyed the automatic weapons slung around their necks.

I gulped. It would be suicide.

Candy Cane was gazing at me expectantly. Expecting I’d pop into SATS and slaughter them all. Expecting I’d free her like I said I would.

In the past, I had taken risks ... to save Gail, a griffon I hardly knew. There I was again was as the past repeated itself – this time to save a mare I hardly knew.

But saving Candy Cane wasn’t a risk … it was a death sentence. Not like that. Not with so many of them.

I left the quietude of my thoughts. As my hoof dipped into my right pocket and yanked out a sack of caps, I met Candy Cane’s stare.

"I'm sorry ..." I whispered.

The bag plummeted into Grifter’s outstretched hoof. I watched as Candy Cane’s steel gray eyes widened. Her jaw dropped as all her hope shattered and fell away from her hooves. Something within me broke too when I heard her voice.

“Red … Red Dawn?” she whimpered.

Grifter looked overjoyed. “Thanks, kid, heh. You just about saved my hide,” he grinned.

I stared at my hooves.

“Red Dawn … what … what are you doing?”

My jaw clenched as I looked away, unable to say a word. Unable to look her in the eye.

“… you … you said you’d …”

I clenched my eyes shut. “I’m sorry.”

“No … no! You promised! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD!” she wailed, “YOU FUCKING LIAR! YOU’RE ALL THE SAME! YOU’RE ALL THE SAME, YOU SON OF A –”

“Oh shut your cocktrap, ya fuckin’ broad,” Grifter growled, hoofing her collar’s detonator.

He punched one of its buttons. Candy Cane fell to the snow, screaming in agony as violent electricity arced across her body.

Her flashing silhouette reflected dimly in my eyes as I stood there, uselessly.

“YOU – LIED – TO ME!” Candy Cane wailed.

Grifter turned, hoofed the black-hatted mare behind him the caps, and flipped the off switch. Candy Cane lay limp in the snow, her clothes smoking.

“Alright! Haul her fine ass back to the Scullion. She’s going back to work as soon as tomorrow comes.”

“No …” I murmured as the Palominos started away from me. “Damnit …” My hoof trembled as I curled it around my pistol’s holster. “Goddesses damnit …”

I stared grimly at the snow as my hoof slid back into the ashen drifts. The darkest corners of my mind told me that it was going to be okay.

I had what I wanted anyways.

I shook my head vigorously, damning the voices that reassured me in my thoughts.

I promised Dew Drops that I’d save our stable. But I wondered: how the hell could I save the 294 ponies in my stable if I couldn’t even save just one pony?

I kept telling myself that that wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

'I’ll find a way to make this right,' I promised her.

But Candy Cane would have to wait. And so would Grifter.

I turned, and I walked the other way.

Footnote: Level 5
XP: 1270/2500

Chapter 8 - The Out-and-Out - Pt I

“You couldn’t save me.”

She glared through me, my muddled reflection glistening in her chilling, gray eyes. The agony in her words bled me out more than the bullet holes across my chest. I lay at her hooves, my life blood pooling across the snow.

“YOU COULDN’T SAVE ME!” she wailed as a blizzard engulfed us both.

I held out a hoof to her but she swatted it away. “I’m sorry … DD … I …”

“Failed. You sorry little fuck up … you failed us all. You ran … I saw you run. You let us all die.”

“Dew Drops …”

“YOU LET US ALL DIE!”

The blood drained from my face. “DD… w-why? I tried … please …”

She craned her neck to the bloodied, shivering heap at her hooves.

Dew Drops murmured, her voice trembling, “You tried … you tried …” A cruel grin stretched across her bloody lips. “Just like how you tried helping those slaves… or how you just stood there and let those all those zebras die.”

I froze, my heart skipping a beat as her words sank deep into my heart like a frozen blade driving into my chest. I could do nothing but whimper and sob as the agonized screams of zebras, and ponies, and my friends coalesced into Dew Drops’ gravelly voice.

“You ran.”

I shook my head as if my life depended on it. “N-no – please, it wasn’t like that … I … I … I didn’t …”

Her chilling breath choked away my words, like a bed of icy needles pressing against my throat. I could smell the stench of spilled innards and rotting death about her.

The dead mare whispered into my ear, “You’re a coward … a fucking coward.”

“I’m sorry … Dew Drops … I’m so sorry,” I sobbed. “If I had another chance … I’d … I’d …”

“Fail. Again.” She reared up on her hinds and dropped her hooves onto my face. I cried out weakly as they slammed into my muzzle – “Again! AGAIN! AND AGAIN!” Blood trickled down my forehead and out of my nose, freezing against my bruised, shivering flesh and staining my coat black.

I struggled to my hooves, gasping a raspy breath only to collapse pathetically into the snow before her.

“Dew Drops … why … why are you doing this to me? This isn’t like you … stop … please … I … I love you…”

She levitated an icy, warped machete, lifting the blade over my shivering form.

“Dew Drops – please! I love you –”

“No,"she whispered, “You failed. You couldn’t even save the ponies you cared about. You couldn’t save me. You can’t save anyone. Not even our stable.” The grin she wore upon her ghastly, corpulent face squeezed the air from my lungs.

“Heh…” she chuckled as I let out a pathetic sob. “You can’t even save yourself.”

“No …”

She swung the machete into my neck.

“NO!”

I flung my hooves in front of me, gasping for my breath as sweat froze against my forehead. I lay there for what felt like hours, rocking back and forth in silence.

I opened my eyes … finally, truly awake.

I was still curled up beneath the corrugated roof that stretched over my head. Three stories above the slums below, I watched the snowflakes seethe past me.

Still shaking, I gathered my bags and hugged them close, nuzzling Dew Drops’ scarf.

Tears welled up in my half-closed eyes as I tried to still my trembling body.

Minutes passed, my wheezing breaths barely visible in the darkness of my shelter.

Every setback was a fuck up in my book. Every pony … every zebra I had been helpless to save so far was a fuck up.

I didn’t want Candy Cane to be another bullet on that list.

My muzzle, a barely perceptible outline against a curtain of darkness, tipped slightly as I saw a pony leave the brothel. A stallion.

If I ever found out that he touched Candy Cane in any sort of way I swore to the Goddesses that I’d remember him and that I’d find him. Not too far from the Sultry Scullion I lay in wait. For most of that day I had been there, crunching on an apple or two as I watched ponies leave and enter the brothel.

I hid among the remains of a collapsed building, wedged deep between its rubble like another chunk of debris. I shifted a little bit, stretching my hind legs slightly.

I glanced at the screen and the clock told me that it was 0100.

Another hour passed by, and the stream of ponies dwindled until nobody entered or left at all. Only a changing of the guard. I’d watched the guard change every three hours for nine hours. I switched on my PipBuck’s light, smothering the glow with my left hoof.

Two of the guards I saw outside were ponies I’d seen before.

My eyes darted to the entrance. Dahlia shooed away Dawdleshoes and leaned against the front doors, lighting a cigarette. I watched as the large stallion shuffled back inside.

There were six guards. Grifter told me yesterday that he had half of his boys outside with him and the other half at the brothel. I just hoped his math was right.

I wanted to wait there for another hour and see who they’d swap out next, but Goddesses, my legs were aching. It felt like they were going to atrophy. But my stupid legs were the least of my worries.

Candy Cane.

Not a single minute had passed when she hadn’t crossed my mind. I didn’t want to imagine the things they’d done to her … or the things she’d been forced to do in the confines of that filthy place. My jaw clenched as I let my chin rest against the frozen concrete beneath me.

I exhaled a trembling sigh. There was some intangible thing about her that bothered me. And the more I thought about it, the more horrifyingly absorbed in it I became. Steel gray. Her eyes were the color of frozen steel. It sent shivers down my spine as I remembered vividly the last time I saw those eyes.

They weren’t the first pair of teary grays that had widened at me in desperation.

When I first met her gaze ... I thought that I had seen a ghost staring back at me.

I stuffed my face with a hooffull of chilling powder, jolting myself back to reality.

I’d had enough of sitting around.

My muzzle broke the stagnant pool of darkness that had settled over me. I stuck to the shadows, gliding my flank across the cold pockmarked wall as I inched along the edge of a fallen office building. I stalked the perimeter of the brothel, out of sight and as quiet as a radroach.

There was a back door around the building. It was only a matter of sneaking in unnoticed.

The flesh on my face prickled as I bounded past a burning trashcan, my shadow dancing against the walls around me in the firelight.

I neared a small, empty lot behind the brothel, walled off with metal panels and lit with the flickering glow of more burning trashcans. As I approached, I glanced at my PipBuck, keeping track of the blips that blinked on my EFS. At least seven inside. Several dozen more outside, somewhere in another building or milling about in the snow. But for now, I was alone as I approached the empty lot.

My EFS blinked as something began trotting my way.

I stopped in my tracks and ducked behind an overturned dumpster as a stallion, one of Grifter’s henchponies, trotted by. Curled against his body with one of his hooves was a bag of garbage. He walked past my huddled form, yawning as he stood on his hinds and tried to dump it into an open dumpster a few feet away from me.

The bag slipped from his hooves and tumbled to the snow, scattering filthy rubbish across the snow.

“Blech…” he sneered, hoofing a used condom off his chest as he gathered the trash and used toys into his hooves and tossed them into the dumpster.

The stallion picked up one half of a purple … dildo … rolling it around in his hooves.

“How the fuck do you even break one of these things?” he muttered, gagging as he tossed the broken phallus into the trash. Rolling my eyes, I thought about sneaking past him while his back was turned.

I eyed the machine pistol slung around his neck and shook my head. I didn’t want to risk getting caught. As I stared, a blankness settled upon my gaze. I thought for a moment, ‘Maybe I could just kill him.’

Then I blinked, frowning at myself as I shook my head once more. I bit my lower lip as he began to whistle a tune that was barely audible beneath the pounding in my temples.

I pressed my back harder against the wall. A quiet breath exhaled from my lips as I closed my eyes and waited for his hoofsteps to disappear. The sound of a gate closing and a door slamming behind the fence followed soon afterward.

Slipping out of cover, I followed his tracks, my shadow sweeping across the wall’s corrugated metal panels. I came to the gate and found that there wasn’t a knob, a latch, or anything to open it with. Frowning, I pressed my forehooves against it and pushed.

It rattled, but didn’t budge.

“Son of a …” I glanced over my shoulder, squinting through the glares of the burning trashcans. The coast was still clear.

The gate must’ve been locked from the other side. There had to be another way. But as I searched the wall’s perimeter, I found everything short of a way inside. I tried climbing over, but barbed wire and broken glass blocked my path.

Back again at square one, I tried heaving the gate open again.

“Come on …” I murmured, trying to force it open with my hind legs. Sucking in a breath of air, I heaved and pushed and heaved and pushed - but the thing simply refused to open.

I groaned, panting for my breath and I slid to my haunches, leaning against the door. I lowered my irritated eyes upon my PipBuck, bringing my right leg to my face. Another hoof came to toggle the device’s brightness, but something else reflected against its glossy screen. Something flashed in my eyes.

I turned to my left and caught a shaft of light glimmering through a small crack in the wall.

I rose to my hooves and studied the opening, about two inches in length and an inch in breadth. I brought an eye into the light, peering inside through a layer of rusty chicken wire.

That was my way in.

I glared at the brothel’s backdoor, lit by a flickering gas lamp that reflected brightly in my eyes.

I shifted my gaze and saw to my left the latch that opened the gate from the inside. I muttered irritably to myself, wishing that my horn was working. If only I had my magic, I could’ve easily gripped the latch and opened it from the other side …

'My magic …'

My eyes fluttered to my bags and a lightbulb flickered to life inside my head. I lowered myself to the snow and opened my saddlebags. Beneath a hooffull of apples and a few health potions, I found a peculiar bottle of sparkling purple liquid resting at the bottom.

‘Sparkling … sparkling … sparkling …’ I repeated inside my thoughts.

I lifted the vial of Sparkle to my muzzle and narrowed my eyes at the drug as I sloshed it around inside its bottle. If it wasn’t for its faint violet glow, I might’ve mistook it for a sample of some lab-borne energy drink from back home, or a bottle of grape juice if I’d ever seen one.

It certainly looked … tasty. I peered into the hole above me and watched as the slender stallion poked his head outside. He blew out the lamp and plunged me back into the darkness. I sat there with my back to the wall, holding the bottle of sparkle close to my chest.

I had no idea what terrible side effects that drug carried with it. But I knew one thing: I needed to get through that damned gate.

I yanked out the cork with a pop and emptied the sparkling vial into my mouth, gulping it down to the last drop. I sat down and waited, a fruity aftertaste lingering upon my tongue. Too many long seconds dragged by, and I narrowed my eyes at my horn in irritation.

I waited for a shimmer, an arc of electricity – something.

Nothing.

“What the hell!?” I hissed, stomping a hoof into the snow.

Lightning erupted inside of me like a spark battery going haywire.

It surged through me, shocking me from the inside out as every nerve ending in my body ignited with electrifying agony. I doubled over, wheezing and choking through clenched teeth as I fought the inferno burning up inside of me. I writhed and convulsed, digging canyons into the snow with my trembling hooves.

Then everything flashed white.

My eyelids flew open and a chunk of snow tore itself out of the drifts, enwreathed within my magical grip. I blinked, and the snowball flung itself away from me and into the darkness. Far away, I heard glass breaking and a mare scream.

“Well fuck …” I trailed off, a wide grin stretching across my face.

I rose confidently to my hooves and peered through the chicken-wired crack in the wall, squinting my eyes into the darkness. I could see the latch.

For unicorns, that’s all it took.

Sparks of magic arced across my horn as it gave off a crimson glow.

Clack.

The gate swung open.

‘Back in the game,’ I thought as I drew my pistol without raising a single hoof. With my weapon hovering close, I shut the gate closed and trotted to the backdoor, testing the door knob.

Without resistance, the door parted open. Closing it quietly behind me, I slunk inside and into a narrow, dirty corridor. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of cigarette smoke, sweat, and a long, rough night.

The brothel was barely lit. A hoofful of flickering light bulbs overhead vomited ruddy beams of yellow light onto my chilled flesh. Creeping through the hall, I noticed that the walls were plastered with posters of scantily-clad mares in very exposing positions.

One poster depicted ... a mare inserting a … Goddesses … I hadn’t even known that ponies could put things in that hole. The poster said in huge bold print, ‘PLOT DEVICE’; at the bottom, it screamed, ‘WATCH FOR THE PLOT!’

I pursed my lips and tried not to look as I began to sense an uncomfortably warm sensation growing between my legs. I shook my head vigorously. That place was filthy, abominable, and terrifyingly unsettling.

Pornographic material was unheard of at ’91.

I followed the corridor further into the brothel and found myself behind a stage, curtains and all. Long metal poles stretched up and into the ceiling. Flickering strobe lights lined the floor and hung over stage, hanging from the rafters.

I poked my head through the curtains and out into the room, spotting a few dozen tables, benches, and a bar stocked with bottles of colorful drinks at the other end of the room. In the flickering rainbow glow of dim, neon lights, the three ponies lounged at the bar, pouring each other drinks and puffing on smokes.

“So, read any good books lately, Twiggy?” one of them yawned.

“Eh. I did finish Dark Edge 2,” I overhead him say. Twiggy glanced over at the corridor and I ducked back into the shadows. “Bad guy wins, world goes to shit and everyone dies - the main character goes to the moon and dies again for the ninth time, but this time he somehow comes back as an immortal Star God or some shit.”

His friend narrowed his eyes at him.

“Then he fucks the only other Star Goddess in the universe that everyone worshipped in the first story, and they live happily ever after. Except for the rest of the world which is still shit, because the bad guy still won.”

The other stallion blinked three times.

“That sounds fucking retarded.”

Twiggy sighed, reclining in his chair and tipping his head back.

“Forget about it.”

I pressed my back against the wall as they chattered sleepily, hoping they’d stay distracted by their boredom for a little longer. I bit my lower lip, counting to myself the ponies I’d seen so far. Six. There were six plus Grifter. He only had three with him when he was staked out at the market. He had said that was only half.

I prayed that his math was right.

Down the hall to my left were private rooms where countless debaucherous deeds beyond my virgin imagination had been committed.

I came upon room after room after room – all of them, thankfully empty. Reaching its end, I found a door that led into a different section of the brothel.

More rooms. I trotted up to each, reading the names that were stenciled upon each door. Stellar. Buns. Iris. Nine others.

I pressed an ear against a door, and I heard someone snoring softly on the other side. The entire hall surprised me somewhat; the dormitories inside were slightly warmer than the rest of the brothel. It was a nice sunny day in there in comparison to the frozen hell outside.

They had a roof over their heads, and a bed to sleep on, and a warm place to escape the blizzard. They even had armed guards. I remembered what that one mangy pony had said when I was being hauled off to Poneva in chains, not too long ago.

‘They’re going to put us to work and work us to death.’ the earth stallion had said.

‘That ain’t true,’ replied the mangy pony, ‘I heard they feed you and put a roof over your head…’

A trembling sigh seethed out of my lips. I knew how horrible the wasteland could be. The blizzards. The snow. The monsters outside. I could still hear the bloodletters howling inside my head.

Maybe he was right. Maybe a life in there … maybe it was truly a life better than a life outside. I could relate. I lived in a stable my entire life, sheltered from all the shit that was festering and curdling outside 91’s door. I wanted to live in one again. I wanted to go home.

But I stared at the posters that plastered the walls.

These mares were getting fucked one way or another.

‘No. Never. Not like this, I thought in grim silence. They had everything they needed, more than what most ponies could say they had out there – but for what?

To those slavers, those mares weren’t even people. Just tools. And once they were broken, well … I remembered what happened when Sugar Rum flipped the switch. I remembered the sounds their skulls made when they popped.

My blood began to boil as I listened to Buns’ soft breaths behind her locked door. The Scullion needed to burn – all four of its filthy walls – burned to the ground. I wanted to see balefire wipe it all away.

No longer wary of my hoofsteps, I found myself at one end of the hall to the next, searching for Candy Cane’s name. Then I found it. Eyeing the name ‘Candy’ stenciled upon the door, I pressed my ear against it and listened, carefully.

Nothing. She wasn’t inside. I clenched my jaw and wondered where else she could’ve been.

Lying in a ditch with a hole in her head. Or without a head at all, her collar detonated.

I shook my head even harder that time. ‘No. No, they wouldn’t do that,’ I reassured myself.

I hoped to Celestia they didn’t … I hoped to the Goddesses that I wasn't too late. I gulped down the dreadful taste of another failure, bitter upon my tongue. Sweat beaded up on my forehead as my skin prickled with shivering apprehension. I thought for a moment, switching my pistol’s safety on and off as the seconds ticked by.

I needed to find her.

I pushed onward, stalking the brothel’s halls as I left the dormitories behind me. I inched the door closed and left its aura of chained comfort. Outside in the hall, the unforgettable wasteland chill returned to rake at my flesh.

Trotting down the dim corridor, I saw that there were two doors, one to my right, and another at the other end of the hall. The slit beneath the door to my right glowed with a dim light. A shadow passed over it for a second as someone milled about inside.

I ducked into the shadows instinctively, holding my breath. But no one came trotting outside. Exhaling thankfully, I hugged the wall, peering around the corner once more.

It was just me, my gun, and the darkness.

I slunk to the right and leaned against the door’s frame, listening to whomever was moving around inside.

“- 435, 436, 437,” I heard Grifter count. There was a short pause. “Uhh ... uhh... Fuck! Lost count.”

I played with my pistol’s safety.

Off. On. Off. On. Off. On … I sighed. Off.

Not yet. I glanced over my shoulder and trotted to the door at the end of the hall. I pressed my ear against it and listened. Nothing. I wrapped a magical field around the door’s knob, and turned it slowly. It clicked, and I pulled it open.

The chamber was pitch-black; I could barely see an inch in front of me. But I could feel the northern wasteland air. I might as well have been standing outside, because I was shivering once more beneath my security barding and my peacoat.

Glancing around, I saw to my right, a barred, yet open window that welcomed in the glacial winds like eager house guests. My ears perked as I listened.

Someone sniffled.

My PipBuck beamed a shaft of teal light before me, parting the darkness.

A mare held a hoof to her face to shield herself from the glare.

“Candy Cane?” I breathed, trotting up to the bars between us.

She squinted through the light. “Red … Dawn?” The mare’s eyes widened and her mouth opened to speak, but her words were lost upon her lips. She ran a hoof through her curly red and white mane, blinking her eyes vigorously as if I wasn’t really there.

“I … you … you came back,” she whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. “You came back for me … I thought …”

“I left you behind? No. I promised you I’d bust you out – for good,” I told the shivering mare. “What are you doing in this place?”

She smiled weakly, her face pale. “I was thinking about asking you the same thing.”

I panned my PipBuck’s light across the room, and saw only cold, bare tile and steel bars. Glaring at the frozen concrete that surrounded us, I concluded that that was her punishment for escaping: to sit in a frozen, bare chamber, exposed to the elements with nothing but the skin on her back.

“I’m getting you out of here, Candy Cane,” I told her, trotting up to her lonely cell.

A moment passed as she sat there freezing to death, her pale, miserable flesh shivering beneath her frost encrusted coat as if she was going to bore a hole into the floor.

I really wanted to hug her.

I stared at my hooves, and whispered, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it earlier … I didn’t know there’d be more of them -”

“It’s … okay. You’re here now. I wouldn’t want anypony throwing their life away for me again.” Candy Cane wrapped her hooves around the cold steel bars between us. “It … it means a lot to me,” she said, looking me in the eye as she smiled faintly. The mare pursed her lips, wrinkling her brows. “How, exactly are you going to get me out of here?”

I thought for a moment, frowning.

“I didn’t think I’d actually get this far…” I confessed, scratching my mane.

Candy Cane chuckled softly, leaning against the bars. She tapped her chin, thinking until before her eyes darted to mine. She pointed at my bags. “Do you have a screwdriver? Any hairpins? Anything thin or pointy I can use?”

I stared at her for a moment, wondering what she’d need those for. Then it struck me. I remembered her picking locks at the factory yesterday. My eyes narrowed at the lock on the cell’s door.

She wanted to pick it.

Nodding quickly, I levitated out everything I had carried with me since I left ‘91. The first thing I yanked out was a screwdriver. ‘I’m an engineer, of course I have a screwdriver,’ I thought. ‘As for the other thing ...’

I rifled through my tools. Screws, bolts, lug-nuts, wires, a soldering iron, several types of wrenches, ratchets, screwdrivers, pliers -

My hooves came away, empty. I fixed an irritated glare at the lock as I sat there with a screwdriver floating in front of me.

Candy Cane bit her lower lip, thinking. Her head swung in every direction, searchingly. Then something caught her eye. She pointed a hoof at a cabinet at the furthest corner of the chamber. "There ... pry a nail out of it; I have an idea."

Cocking an eyebrow, I did as she asked, hurrying upon my hooves. I studied the poorly built cabinet - an amalgamation of charred wood and scavenged materials. I spotted a rusty nail head and stabbed at it with my screwdriver.

I struggled for a moment, trying to get the tool's head beneath the nail's. Prying for purchase, I forced the nail out of the wood a little less than half an inch. It was buried deep. My levitation magic wasn't strong enough to tear it off outright.

I eyed it hesitantly, figuring I could pull it out myself. I sighed. That thing was a tetanus shot waiting to happen. I leaned forward and clenched the rusty finishing nail between my teeth. I wrenched my head back and ripped it out of the cabinet in a plume of splinters and shattered wood.

I spat out the rusted sliver of metal and hurried back to Candy Cane’s cell, levitating to her both the screwdriver and the nail. I watched the mare get to work.

Her eyes lit up with renewed hope as she bent the nail’s tip into a rough, L shape. The mare was certainly in her element.

She poked her muzzle between the bars and floated out her newly-fashioned torque wrench, working it into the lock as she turned it carefully with the screwdriver curled in her hoof.

Clank.

I watched her with amazement as the bars swung open, a thin smirk stretching across her pale lips. Impressive.

She looked like she was struggling to hold back a triumphant grin as she floated back my screwdriver and tucked the wrench inside her mane. Then there was a long pause. She stared at me in silence, her eyes welling up with tears.

“I-I really didn’t think you’d come back for me.”

I said nothing as I drew my pistol, checking the rounds in its magazine. All I could do was give her a quiet smile.

“Now … now what?” Candy Cane asked faintly.

I shrugged off my peacoat and wrapped it around her. Her gray eyes widened at me as I held her forelegs and gently guided them into the open sleeves. My hoof lingered upon her shoulder as she stared into my eyes. She was so cold.

I blinked when I realized I was staring back. Averting my gaze, I buttoned the peacoat across her chest.

"Thank you ..." she whispered.

I sighed, rubbing at my weary eyes. “Don't thank me yet." I started towards the door, "We still need to deal with Grifter."

I noticed that she still hadn't budged an inch as I swirled my magic around the doorknob.

“What are you doing?”

There was another long pause.

"Why … why me?” she whispered, finally.

I fixed my gaze upon the door.

“I can’t save them all.”

She cocked her head at me. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“We’re wasting time …” I began softly, pressing my ear against the door to listen for movement outside. Nothing. I sighed, as she remained where she stood.

There was an uneasy silence between us. I wanted to answer her, but I honestly didn’t know why I was actually there … why I was risking my life to save that pony.

I didn’t need her. I didn’t need to come back for her. I could’ve just walked away. I had what I wanted, anyways. But … why?

Maybe it was because I wanted to spite Grifter for what he did. Maybe it was because I wanted to spell out a big ‘fuck you’ to the Palominos. Maybe it was because it was the right thing to do.

When I woke up in Dusktown, I would’ve traded the entire wasteland just to get my friends back. Standing there in that dark, cold room, I told myself that I still would’ve done the same.

But I knew that the world didn’t work like that.

Sterling’s voice echoed in my thoughts.

‘The closest thing to being cared for was to care for someone else.’

I grinded my teeth, frustrated with myself and annoyed at her for standing there with that pitiful look on her face.

“I don’t know,” I murmured. “I don’t know ...”

“I’m not the only mare here…” she whispered.

“Candy Cane, believe me, I’m aware.”

“There are others who’ve been here longer than I have.” Candy Cane sniffled, hanging her head. “I don’t deserve this.”

I glared at her restlessly.

“You don’t have a choice … I don’t. Save yourself or no one at all,” I said over my shoulder before glancing at my EFS.

The mare hung her head, her curly mane falling before one of her eyes. “I wish I could take the others with me,” she whispered.

Dew Drops’ bloody face flashed before my eyes. I shook them away, vigorously, growling, “What’s the point in thinking about saving them if you can’t even save yourself?”

Candy Cane hung her head and sobbed, injured by my words.

I exhaled softly, turning slowly to face her.

“Candy Cane … they’re your friends … aren’t they?”

“Some of the only friends I have left,” she whispered.

“Well you can’t save them if you’re still in chains.” She just shook her head and stared at the floor as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Candy Cane?”

Silence.

“Candy Cane …” I curled a hoof around her shoulder, squeezing her gently. I thought for a moment. “When you and four others are in separate cages, and only you have the tools to pick their locks, who do you free first?”

The mare shut her eyes and bit her lower lip, shaking her head. Candy Cane thought for a moment, her brows furrowing.

“I’d … I’d have to free my ... myself,” she murmured. “I would need to pick my own lock before I could get to the others.”

I forced a smile. “Exactly.”

The mare stared at her hooves, her shoulders rocking with silent sobs.

“Candy Cane …” I murmured. I was giving her another chance at life – like Night Sky did to me. And there was no way in hell that I was going to let her waste it … not for Iris, not for Buns, not for anyone else.

“We’re running out of time, here … why don’t you just save them too when you have the power to actually do that?”

Candy Cane sighed.

“You’re right … you’re right Red Dawn.” She lifted her head, parting her mane with a hoof. A lonely spark of determination flashed behind her eyes. “I … I will.”

I started towards the door once more. “We need that detonator, or else all of this is just a waste of time.”

She followed closely without saying another word as we left the chamber. I checked my EFS, and found that no one had left their rooms. I checked and rechecked my pistol as we waited on either side of Grifter’s door.

“What’s the plan?” she whispered.

“I’ll pull my gun on him – make him give me the detonator.”

Candy Cane nodded, uneasily. “What happens after that?”

“Then we run.”

She smirked as if I had just made a dumb joke.

“They’ll be on us as soon as the first shot’s fired.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then we run faster?” She looked at me, her eyebrow raised. “Well, you got a better plan?”

Candy Cane nodded, “This building wasn’t a brothel before the war,” she began. “It was a motel. There’s a patio right outside Grifter’s office. That’ll be our way out.”

“Alright … let’s do this.”

I turned the doorknob, and it swung open with a drawling creak.

Chapter 8 - The Out-and-Out - Pt II

Grifter was sitting at a desk, counting caps as we stepped inside.

He looked up, frowning.

The stallion saw me first. “What the fuck are you doing here!?” he demanded. Then his eyes darted to Candy Cane. “And what’re you doing with her?”

I nodded at Candy Cane as she closed the door behind us and locked it. She levitated the door’s security bar into place with a clank.

“Give me the detonator, and we’ll go quietly,” I said evenly, my horn glowing with a crimson sheen as I jabbed my pistol at him.

“The detonator …” he trailed off, tapping his hooves together absent-mindedly as he stared off into space.

I snapped, “Don’t play dumb, Grifter, you son of a bitch. I know you have one for her collar.”

He folded his legs across his chest.

“Why? Whaddya want with the girl?”

“It doesn’t matter to you.”

“Believe me kid, it does, because she’s mine, not yours.” Grifter folded his legs across his chest. “You’re with East Eden aren’t you?” he asked. I didn’t answer. “Hmm … you’re not a Blood Brother. Too competent. But you are stupid.” Grifter sighed, straightening his back as he sat on his stool. “You must be a Pike then, right? You gotta mix of stupid and competent,” he added, clopping his forehooves together.

“I’m the pony with the fucking gun,” I said, baring my teeth at the bastard.

“Heh, you really are a big-balled palooka.” He leaned over his desk, staring down the barrel of my pistol. “Do you know who you’re fucking with?” Grifter glared at me. “Do you know who you’re fucking with?”

I snorted, “Frankly, I don’t give a shit.”

Grifter just laughed. “Kid, you better! You fuck with me, then you fuck with the Palominos. You fuck with the Palominos, then you fuck with Avilign Crème. You fuck with Avilign Crème …” he chuckled to himself, nodding. “She’ll fuck you up bad, ya dig?”

I glanced at Candy Cane who was behind still me, standing by the door.

“Unlike everyone else in this shithole of a city, I’m not afraid of you.” I bared my teeth as I stared gunfire into his eyes. “And I’m not afraid of the Palominos.”

Candy Cane’s eyes widened.

Grifter laughed as if that was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard, banging his hooves on his desk. “You’re not afraid of the Palominos? Even I’m afraid of them!” He gave me a menacing grin. “You know you’re gonna die, right? You’re spelling out your own death sentence, ya dig?”

“I’ll fucking blow your brains out …” I said, my voice trembling.

He threw his head back and laughed.

"Listen, I know you don't got it in ya, kid."

Grifter just sighed, lifted his hoof and slowly tipped my gun to the floor. I just clenched my teeth as he spoke.

"Hehe ... kid ... this is about earlier, isn’t it?” He nodded at Candy Cane. “That bitch wouldn’t stop screaming about you after we brought her back. Had to lock her up to quiet her down.”

I grinded my teeth together. “You lied to me.”

He shrugged. “Me? A liar? Forget about it. I never lied – she did mug Daintybelle, you know? I only told you what you needed to know.”

“Give me the fucking detonator!”

The stallion folded his legs across his chest, cocking his head at Candy Cane. “No no no. How about you tell me what the fuck you want with that whore?”

I jabbed my pistol at his face.

“I’m breaking that pony out of this shithole.”

He tapped his chin, thinking. “If you’re not a Blood Brother, a Pike, or with East Eden …” he clapped his hooves together. “That’s it! You probably got a taste of that fine broad! You wanna break her outta here so you can have her for yourself – ain’t that right?”

My magical grip tightened, but I said nothing.

“Nah, you don’t want her. You don’t want Candy.”

She clenched her jaw, glaring at him. Grifter chuckled, resting his chin on a hoof. “She doesn’t like that name, ‘Candy’. That’s because they like to call her ‘Candy Cunt’.”

Grifter leaned forward, looking me in the eye.

“You wanna know why?”

My magical aura deepened to a blood red.

“Because her cunt’s like a candy store – all the boys and girls wanna come inside.”

Candy Cane’s sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes as she started to shake all over. My heart pounded inside my chest, pumping boiling blood through my veins.

“You know how many stallions – no, mares she’s slept with? Do you really want to help a filthy slut like that?” He cocked his head at me, grinning.

I shook my head, his voice slowly fading away as every sound in the room became nothing but muffled voices behind a hazy glass window.

I let out a shallow breath.

Grifter smirked, reclining in his seat. “You lay one hoof on that whore, and your leg’ll practically melt off.”

I lunged at him, dragging him over his desk.

“I’m done hearing you talk, GRIFTER!” I screamed, and whipped my pistol across his head. Hard. He yelped as I shoved him back into his chair, only for him to tip it over and crash head over hooves into the hard, concrete floor.

He pulled himself back up, leaning against the desk.

“Alright, alright, I’ll hoof it to ya – hold your fuckin’ horses! You could’ve just asked nicely …”

Grifter reached into his desk, rubbing his head as he opened a drawer and held the small black tube in his hoof.

“Now hoof it the fuck over,” I snarled, jamming the pistol in his face.

He smirked. Then his horn glowed.

“What the fuck are you –”

Something heavy crashed into the back of my skull. Stars exploded in my eyes as shattered porcelain tumbled away from my mane. I fell forward, my eyes rolling to the back of my head, slamming my face first onto his desk before collapsing to the floor in a heap.

“RED DAWN!” Candy Cane screamed.

Grifter flipped the switch.

Lightning arced across her body as she screamed in agony, thousands of volts of electricity shocking her into submission. The smell of singed flesh and burnt hair wrenched me back to clarity as I scrambled to my hooves. My horn flickered to life and my pistol slid shakily toward me.

Grifter was on me in a matter of seconds.

A hoof connected with my horn as he slammed my head back into the floor with a jarring thwak! Darkness threatened to take me. Far off in the distance I heard my pistol clatter back onto the floor.

Then I felt his hooves crash into my face – again and again – every blow sapping the clarity from my eyes. I glared through a lens of hellish red as blood streamed down my face and bathed my world in blood.

I lashed out with my hooves and punched him in the throat. He rasped, his eyes widening.

I didn’t give him another second. I roared, threw myself over onto my chest and bucked my hind hooves into his ribs. I felt my hoof connect with bone and he cried out, hurdling away from me. There was a CRASH and his screams were cut short as he careened into a bookcase in an explosion of splintered shrapnel and tumbling books.

I struggled to my hooves, stars flashing in my eyes – and collapsed once more, reaching out with a hoof to snatch my pistol off the floor. My scarlet aura wavered, but Grifter dove into me. The world blurred away as he hurled another hoof into my skull. My magic winked out and I collapsed to his hooves.

Someone banged on the door.

“Hey boss, what the fuck’s going on in there!?” I heard Dahlia shout over Candy Cane’s screaming.

Grifter stumbled to the door, detonator held in his magical grip as I forced my eyes open and rose to a knee.

“Some sorry mother fucker –”

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I screamed, bowing my head at him.

I charged.

His eyes widened as my horn punched into his chest, my momentum ramming him into the wall by the door with a sickening crunch. I ripped out of him in a splash of gore and threw myself into him before he could scream, tackling him to the floor in a snarling frenzy.

Grifter’s magic flickered and died away, and the detonator rolled across the concrete.

My horn flashed in his eyes as I yanked a chair off the floor and swung it towards his writing body. He rolled away at the last minute – and it exploded into a million pieces.

“You fuck!” I snarled, planting a hoof into his chest and levitating a wooden leg over my head. He shielded his face as I hurled a vicious swing.

Thwak!

Thwak!

Thwak!

His jaw dropped as he screamed for help – but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in my ears as I sent the leg crashing into him again, and again, and again – until it broke across his body with a distant CRACK.

My eyes darted to the splintered wooden stake held before me.

“We’re coming in there, boss!” a stallion screamed behind the door as it began to rattle and buck.

Grinning through bloody teeth, I flipped it splintered side down, the broken leg’s grisly spikes dripping with blood.

“I’m not afraid of you, or your Palominos, you piece of shit!”

I didn’t even give a single fuck as the door’s frame began to rattle and shake. I lifted the wooden stake into the air to plunge it into Grifter’s pounding heart.

A devious grin stretched his bloody lips. His hindleg crashed between mine. I yelped, crying out Celestia’s name as he shoved me off of him. I stumbled upon my hooves for one single agonizing moment – and he ran into me head on.

Grifter slammed me into a wall and –

I lapsed out of consciousness. I blinked, and blinked again, and all I could see in the stars that were flashing in my eyes was Grifter. I tried to fight him.

But the world was spinning. Blood spilled down my face. My vision blurred in and out before my hooves as I fought helplessly against his. He had me pinned.

I felt a cold blade press against my throat.

“I’m gonna make you beg, punk.”

I spat blood into his face.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He held me up against the wall by the scruff of my neck and yelled into my face,

“I’M GONNA MAKE YOU BEG, YA HEAR ME? YOU’RE DEAD YOU FUCKING MOOK, YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD!"

"HEY!”

We both turned. Over his shoulder, I saw Candy Cane, her mane hanging before her eyes, and my pistol and its magazine enveloped in her silvery magic.

“You …” Candy Cane murmured. She swept her mane out of her face, her cold, steel gray eyes gleaming with icy malice at the monster whose hooves had made her suffer for far too long.

“I’m not afraid of you either …” I heard her slam the pistol’s magazine back home with an audible click. “Not anymore.”

He snorted, laughing, “You wouldn’t … you’re just a fucking slut with a loud mouth.” He reached into his pocket with a hoof. His eyes widened.

“Where is it …?”

Candy Cane floated out the detonator with a triumphant smirk. She leveled the pistol at Grifter as he swore under his breath.

“You fucking whore …”

Candy Cane fell silent.

“No … I’m the pony with the fucking gun.”

CRACK!

Grifter cried out, and we both slid to the floor.

“BOSS! WHAT THE FUCK!” someone screamed behind the door.

“Red Dawn!” Candy Cane galloped to my aching body and yanked me to my hooves. “We need to run – now!”

Grifter writhed on the floor in a growing pool of blood. I trampled him underhoof as I eyed the sack of caps sitting on his desk. I clenched my jaw and swiped it away with a hoof. I turned to leave, but not before sparing him a passing glance.

“Why don’t you finish him off?”

Candy Cane glared at the bleeding bastard, saying nothing.

The door exploded inward and the security bolt banged loudly against the floor.

“Shit! They fucking shot him!” Dahlia screamed as she and five other ponies dashed into the room, a submachine gun floating beside her.

Dawdleshoes pushed past her and reared up on his hinds.

“KIIILLL ‘EEEMMM!”

“Now we run!” I cried out as they took aim. Candy Cane yanked me by the foreleg and dragged me to the other side of the room, slamming open the patio door.

The ponies opened fire.

And out into a snowstorm we galloped.

The staccato bursts of automatic weapons fire flashed dully through the stormy night as we galloped against the blizzard’s blinding winds. Candy Cane ran, and I followed. I couldn’t see more than a dozen feet in front of me. But I didn’t stop – not for a single second as bullets shrieked past us.

I could feel them tearing apart the snow around my hooves.

“WHERE ARE WE GOING!?” I shouted over the winds that whipped past my face.

“Just follow me!”

“DON’T LET ‘EM GET AWAY!” I heard Dahlia scream in the distance.

I threw my head over my shoulder, and saw that their flashing gunfire wasn’t too far behind. Thankfully it was impossible to see clearly through the howling snowfall. I could barely make out the silhouettes that galloped after us.

They were spraying. I was praying.

But I didn’t pray hard enough.

Something tore into me.

Fire engulfed my insides as a bullet punched a ragged hole through my flesh. My kevlar plates, barding, and flesh parted before it as lava erupted into my chest cavity. I curled up in reflex and crashed into the snow, sending up a plume of bloody powder.

My screams left my lips and it seemed as if they would never stop coming. Neither would the blood. I cried out Candy Cane’s name, but my voice was lost beneath the wind as she disappeared in the blizzard.

“Candy Cane!” I wheezed, blood streaming down my lip. I struggled to my hooves – and a bullet punched out of my right foreleg in a burst of gore and torn fabric.

I screamed.

She was going to leave me behind. I lifted a hoof, trying to crawl away as bullets shredded the snow around me.

She was going to leave me behind.

I couldn’t blame her. She was free. It was all that should’ve mattered to her.

And I was going to pay for it. I wondered once more why I even came back for her.

And still I couldn’t find an answer.

'You idiot,' I screamed inside my head as tears of agony welled up in my eyes. 'Now they’re all going to die.'

I whimpered and swept a foreleg across the snow as I tried to pull myself to my four hooves, only to paint the snow red with an arc of blood. I clenched my stomach with a gory hoof, hacking up blood onto the frozen earth. ‘Get ... up ...’ I begged myself.

"Red Dawn, get up – get up!"

Someone wrenched me to my hooves. Candy Cane curled a hoof around my left foreleg and pulled. Hard. I slung a leg over her shoulder as she dragged me through the drifts, trailing blood through the snow behind us. My eyes darted back and forth, blurry, ruined buildings falling away from us as we raced down an abandoned street.

Candy Cane’s voice echoed distantly through my ears.

"Come on! Don't stop for anything!" a ghost screamed as black tunnels closed in around me.

‘Hahahahaha … hahahahaha …’

I could hear them screaming. I could hear her screaming.

“ … RED DAWN!”

"Dew Drops?" I murmured through a mouthful of blood.

"Almost there!"

I squinted through the writhing shadows in my eyes as the echoes faded away, my face pale and my nerves shrieking at me with every throb of my still pounding heart.

There was a lull in the storm and my eyes widened as the road fell away into the darkness twenty yards in front of us.

“W-where’s the road!?” I wheezed, the leg that I had wrapped around her chest beginning to slip.

She didn’t answer.

I felt a bullet clip my shoulder.

“Candy Cane – WHERE’S THE ROAD!?”

“There is no road! We’re going to need to jump!”

‘Jump?’

“I asked you this before – and I’ll ask you again,” I rasped weakly, as the end of the road drew near. “But … ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!?”

“Trust me – we’ll be okay!” I heard her shout back.

“Candy Cane!”

“You have to trust me!”

I glared through the snowflakes that whipped past my face. ‘Goddesses. No.’ Countless feet below us, I could see only darkness.

“CANDY CANE!”

“JUMP!”

The road flew away from our hooves – and we tumbled into the howling darkness.

I screamed, but all I could hear was the wind whipping past our faces as we hurtled into the abyss. Seconds felt like hours. I was falling. And falling. And –

I dive-bombed into the drifts, my momentum driving me through the snow, smothering my screams inside the shifting black tides.

I dug with all the energy I had left, fighting to break the surface even as the snow vowed to bury me alive. My muscles were burning out, and every second I spent lucid was another second spent in agony as my warmth and my lifeblood leaked out of my chest with every frantic beat of my draining heart.

My forehoof broke the surface. Then the another. With a gurgling groan, I pulled myself free and flopped onto the frozen, black dunes. Gasping weakly, I tapped my PipBuck once, and bathed the snow around me in teal light.

Candy Cane burst out of the snow next to me, gasping for breath. She scrambled to ungainly hooves and shook herself vigorously, showering me with snow.

“Where the fuck did they go?!” a voice echoed over the streets on high.

“Turn that light off!” Candy Cane hissed, flinging herself onto my PipBuck. It was attached to the leg they shot. I bit my tongue to suppress a moan as she wrestled my bleeding limb into the drifts.

“They fuckin’ jumped!” I heard Twiggy gasp.

A thin smile creased my bloody lips. As my emptying veins starved my brain of oxygenated blood - blood that was pooling around me, a veiny tunnel of blackness closed in, sapping the clarity from my eyes.

“Seriously?” Dahlia said, distantly, “They fucking insane?”

“Doesn’t matter … they’re dead.” Someone kicked a rock down into the darkness. I felt it kick up a plume of snow next to me. “Nobody could’ve survived that. Fuck ‘em, anyways. Slippery bastards.”

My legs slackened as Candy Cane peered upwards.

“Candy … Candy Cane …” I gurgled through a mouthful of blood.

She turned and her eyes widened.

“Red Dawn – you’re bleeding!”

“Yeah … it’s kinda what happens … when you get s-shot.”

The mare rolled me over on my back and grimaced at the hole in my chest.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” she hissed.

I felt her heave me onto my side.

“Too … busy … trying ... to keep up.”

She clenched her jaw.

“No exit wound,” she murmured gravely, chewing her bottom lip. Her eyes darted worriedly across my pale features. “I’ll need to extract the bullet.”

I slurred, in my fading consciousness, “Ex … extract? W-what?”

“Your saddlebags – I need pliers, tweezers – scissors – something!” She dragged them out of the snow and rifled frantically through them. But that wasn't my tool bag she was rifling through. Unable to speak through the blood that was filling my mouth, I reached out for my tools, parting its flaps as I levitated out a –

My head exploded from the inside out.

The horn atop my skull flashed with violent magical sparks before going dark as a million stars went supernova behind the darkness of my eyelids.

I cried out, my eyes rolling to the back of my head and fell limp in the snow, blood trickling out of my nose.

“Red Dawn!” I heard Candy Cane scream over the howling storm, shaking me desperately.

‘It’s called Sparkle. Makes your magic stronger,’ I heard Grifter say, ‘Should boost you up good; might even bring your magic back for a bit …

‘For a bit.’

‘For … a … bit …’ I thought, distantly.

My body screamed for darkness to take it.

I heard a voice echo faintly in my decaying consciousness.

“Red … to extract … bullet …”

I blinked my eyes furiously in an attempt to return to clarity. But I felt something cold enter the hole in my chest, fishing around my innards – worming its way into my gut.

The last thing that I remembered was a muffled scream as it thrummed inside my chest.

Then darkness washed over me.

Chapter 8 - The Out-and-Out - Pt III

I gasped for breath as my eyes fluttered open to find a pony sitting beside me, her head hanging over my chest. She opened her eyes and smiled languidly, her thick, curly, candy cane mane billowing in the wind.

Her hooves held my left foreleg over my chest so that we both could share the light of my PipBuck.

I regarded her with dull surprise. She had the detonator. She could’ve just disabled her collar and left me there.

“You’re … you’re still here,” I whispered, blinking away the grogginess in my eyes to see her.

Her smile widened somewhat. “I thought I’d see you through.”

I groaned, a dull pain pervading my hazy senses. My stomach felt … tight, as I tried to expand my lungs for air. I glanced down my gory chest and found that Dew Drops’ scarf – bloodied and worn, was wrapped tightly around me.

My eyes widened.

“I had to use your scarf to stop the bleeding. There was just so … much … blood. We’re lucky you didn’t bleed out on me,” she told me, touching my chest gingerly.

‘DD’s scarf …’ I brushed it with a hoof as gently I would with Dew Drops’ mane.

“I’m sorry … I might’ve ruined it.”

I shook my head. “It’s … it’s fine,” I lied. It was the only thing I had left to remember her by. And now it was ruined.

My head shook once more, with grim finality. It had stopped the bleeding. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs, and Candy Cane was proving to be an extremely resourceful mare … making a tourniquet out of the only article of clothing she could afford to remove without either of us freezing to death.

I hid the sullen look in my eyes as I asked, “What … what did you do to me?” I twitched my hind leg, eyeing the gaping hole in my barding. It felt whole, and less … bullet-ridden.

Candy Cane pointed at my stomach. “Punctured digestive tract. Severe hemoptysis and internal hemorrhaging inside your chest cavity. You also had a hole in your right leg. You’re lucky that one went through. You’re even luckier that neither of the bullets struck any vital organs or arteries." She rubbed her gore encrusted hooves through the snow. "I had to dig a little bit to pull out the one in your chest. I needed to extract it before I could administer any potions,” she began, eyeing DD’s blood soaked scarf.

“I hope you don’t mind … but I had to look through your bags for health potions. I didn’t have any on me, otherwise. No magic could’ve healed around that bullet, either way.” Candy Cane levitated out a frighteningly large, blood caked 5.56 round. The mare smiled somewhat as she held the bullet in her magical grip. “Want to keep it as a souvenir?”

I snorted out a jet of mist, vaguely amused as I let my head roll into the powder.

“Nah … I’m good.”

Sterling was right about me needing those apples and potions after all. I lifted my head and cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Where’d you learn to do all that?”

Candy Cane stared at the ashen snow for a moment. “It’s certainly been a while … but I was a nurse before … all this.”

“Thank you, so much,” I breathed, weakly.

“I learned a lot from my father,” she said, chuckling, “I guess you should thank him instead.”

I snorted, laying back down in the snow.

“I would if I met him.”

Candy Cane fell silent as the grin faded away from her face. She looked at me gravely, and then at her hooves.

“Oh … I’m sorry.”

“He taught me a thing or two about battlefield surgery,” she began, as if I hadn’t said anything. “I hope you don’t get an infection, though. I had neither the means nor the time to sterilize your pliers before I could use them.”

“It’s fine … I’m alive … for now. That’s all that matters.”

I peered upward. The rooftops of ancient buildings poked out of the snow beneath us like broken headstones. We were sitting inside of a massive sinkhole, no doubt caused by the balefire bomb's quaking aftershocks.

Candy Cane caught my upward gaze.

“How the hell are we still alive?” I murmured.

Candy Cane sighed, “We’re lucky to have been caught in that storm.”

”Lucky?”

She stuck a hoof through the snow. “If you dig far enough, say ten-fifteen yards, you’ll hit concrete. It’s better than falling face first into solid stone, really.”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered. I hadn’t known you could call being stuck in a snowstorm ‘lucky’ until then.

“Glad I was right, though,” she nodded to herself, hanging her head as she closed her eyes. Candy Cane looked about ready to collapse. She wasn't the only one. I don't think I'd ever been skull-tapped that many times in a single day. Despite the ever-present pain that was throbbing inside my skull, the dull twinges inside my chest cavity, and the lightheadedness of blood loss, I was still somehow able to stand.

With stars in my eyes, I rose to my four hooves, crunching through the now unyielding snow drifts. She heard my shuffling and turned her head to see me.

“What are you doing?” she asked as I reached for the detonator.

I squinted at it carefully, glancing at her before tapping a button on its surface. Her collar whined – and went dark, the pulsing red light on its shell fading to black.

She realized she was holding her breath, and let out a trembling sigh.

“Thank you …” she began, but stopped when she saw me fishing through my saddlebags. “Now … now what are you doing?” Candy Cane asked.

I retrieved a wire cutter and a screwdriver, and started toward her.

“Red Dawn, what are you going to do with those?”

“I’m taking that thing off your neck.”

She held out her a hoof in between us, shaking her head.

“I-I’m fine with it around my neck … it can’t explode anymore.”

“Candy Cane –”

“Red Dawn, please, you’ve done enough … I don’t want to risk tripping the explosive,” she said quickly, backing away from me.

I looked at her pleadingly.

“Candy Cane … do you really want to keep that thing around your neck? It might not be able to detonate remotely, but that bomb is still hot.” I took another step toward her, and she took another back. “Whenever you look in a mirror, do you really want to see that fucking thing?”

She froze, trembling, her chin quivering as she stared, teary-eyed into the snow. Candy Cane’s hoof crept up her neck to touch the collar that was still wrapped tightly around her throat. It was a mark.

But it wasn’t permanent. “I was an engineer at my stable … I still am.”

“I-I don’t suppose you know anything about bomb disposal?”

I sighed. “No … though I’d imagine it’s like cutting a machine’s power supply so that it can’t work anymore.”

She shook her head furiously. “No ... no! It’s not the same! If you cut the collar’s power supply, it activates its failsafe and pops anyway!” Candy Cane shook me pleadingly with horror in her eyes. "I've seen it happen so many times ..." she cried. “Red Dawn, I think I can live with it … it's like it's not even there!"

“That’s because you’re used to being a slave. You might be free now, but you’re still in chains!” I glared at her, and she glared at me. “Besides, you have a fucking bomb tied around your neck for fuck’s sake … isn’t that enough to make you want to have it removed?”

She cut canyons into the snow with her hoof, shaking her head incessantly.

“CandyCane ... you told me to trust you earlier. And I did, and we survived because you had a hunch that there was powder down here.” I tucked the tools into my chest pocket and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Now you have to trust me.” I thought for a moment. “I can fix this …”

I always have. I was the Goddesses-damned fixer pony for Celestia’s sake.

Candy Cane gazed at me hopelessly with her uncertain, bloodshot eyes.

“You’re sure?”

I nodded. “I can do it.”

“You’re 100% positive?”

I clenched my jaw. “I can do it.”

Candy Cane chewed on her lower lip, staring at her hooves.

“I can do it ... but only if you trust me.”

She looked up and stared into my eyes, her entire body trembling.

“Okay,” she breathed, “Okay … but be careful.” Her horn glowed with a silvery sheen and a hovering orb of white light materialized over her head.

I nodded, but didn’t say another word as I curled a hoof around my screwdriver and slowly loosened the collar’s screws. Delicately, I used the tool to pull apart the collar’s casing.

I peered into its innards and spotted a black wire within. I inched the shell apart, watching as the wire straightened out.

As it straightened out. As it straightened –

‘Fuck!’

I let go just a millisecond before I pulled it taut. I could hear her whimpering faintly over the pounding in my temples.

I gulped. That was the trigger. The tripwire that detonates the bomb.

This time, with one hoof, I parted the collar’s case with my screwdriver as my wire cutter slowly descended into the wiry crack. I squinted through the shadows, positioning my right forehoof slightly so that Candy Cane’s magelight could shine through.

What I saw made me gulp.

That … wasn’t the tripwire.

Or maybe it was. I didn’t know, because there were three other wires. Black wires. And they weren’t color coded – and all four of them were tie-wrapped together.

One of them was the tripwire. The other three belonged to the circuit.

It was insane.

I wondered what shit for brains of an electrician completes a circuit without indicating which wire was positive, negative, or ground. They’re supposed to be color-coded.

Normally, when you wire a circuit incorrectly and the relay is connected to a light bulb, you get shocked.

But with that collar … you’d lose a hoof. Or both.

Or a head.

There was no way in hell it was assembled by hoof. Nobody could’ve been dumb enough to wire a circuit like that. Not without mixing up the negative with the positive and walking away without a few missing limbs.

I thought for a moment.

I realized that the device couldn’t have been utilizing a direct circuit, because it’d detonate if the circuit was severed. There had to have been some kind of mechanism inside that pulled the tripwire anyways if the circuit went dark.

‘Shit.’

I wondered how much worse it could get. I shook my head. The last time I entertained that possibility, I got mobbed by a horde of robot sentries. I shook my head even harder and sighed.

All I needed to do was cut the wire that wasn't part of the circuit.

I needed to geld that tripwire.

With another gulp, I lowered my wire cutter into her collar, biting my lower lip as I scrutinized the black wires.

I pounded into my mind again and again the fact that if I severed the circuit manually, I’d do the dirty deed myself.

'Boom.'

I clenched my jaw so tightly I nearly popped it out of its socket.

I lowered the wire cutter inside.

My eyes darted back and forth between the four wires.

I chose one wire among the cluster of black death-sentences – wire Alpha, and followed it deep into the collar’s shell. A curse hissed between my teeth as I exhaled frustratingly. It and the other three, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta looped around the circumference of the collar as one single coil of black wires. But what mattered to me was where they ended.

The cluster of wires terminated beyond my line of sight. I shuffled on my hooves, trying to get a better look, and found that the cluster separated at the collar’s radius. My teeth grinded together as I cursed the manufacturer of that death device once more.

Bravo and Delta were split in such a way that they formed a confusing black knot with Alpha and Charlie, further obscured by the shell’s uneven shape.

“Red … Dawn?” Candy Cane whispered.

I ignored her as I tried to focus, studying the loose knot of wires – trying to figure out which wire was which. In the wasteland's eternal night, it was near impossible to tell which wire went where. Black wires inside of a black shell weren’t exactly the easiest to differentiate even with Candy Cane’s magelight.

I closed the collar and retrieved another screwdriver from my tool bag. This time, holding it open, I used a screwdriver held in my left hoof to play with the knot, prodding it in an attempt to separate them enough for me to tell which one was which.

After several minutes of checking, rechecking, and poking, I found that Charlie was connected to the inside of the collar, while the others separated and looped around the collar’s circumference.

It had to be the tripwire.

My eyes marked Charlie for a gelding.

I replaced my left screwdriver with a wire cutter and slowly descended upon Charlie, my tongue poking between my lips as I tried to concentrate. One wrong move could bend the casing in two – pull the cluster taut, and splatter me in Candy Cane’s brains. One wrong snip could paint me red just as easily as the latter.

I hesitated – inched toward it – hesitated and inched some more. I paused, my confidence bobbing up and down like a ship sailing a turbulent sea as I tried to think it through, as I tried to reassure myself that that was the one, that that was the –

“Red Dawn?”

I jerked away from her.

“SHIT!”

I looked down. The wires. My hoof. It trembled as my screwdriver held the collar open for my eyes to see the wire that was pulled taut within.

It was Charlie.

A thin line of sweat streamed down my forehead. I let out a breath I realized I was holding in. I could feel Candy Cane's anxious gaze upon me.

The wire was bent upwards, half of its length nearly yanked out of the shell itself.

‘Dear Celestia.’

“Fuck. I-it’s fine,” I stammered, sweating like I was staring down the barrel of a gun. “I can do this … just hold still, and let me focus.”

I glared at the collar, Candy Cane’s light orb beaming down the crack. My eyebrow cocked at what I saw. With Charlie yanked out of place, I saw the other three with renewed clarity in Candy Cane’s magelight.

“Alpha, Bravo, Delta…” I whispered, prodding them with my wire cutter. ‘Which one, damnit?’ I screamed inside my head, ‘Which one!? “Alpha, Bravo, Delta…”

“Red Dawn …”

“Candy Cane, please – shut up for fuck’s sake!” I snapped, silencing her before she could say more. I gulped and tried to still my shaking hooves.

I shifted my right foreleg. 'There'. All four terminated in the same general area, curling downwards and into the device. But with Charlie out of the way, I could easily see what exactly they were connected to without all four’s shadows getting in my way.

Beneath the wires were two shapes – a large cube, and a smaller cube: the smaller one was what I presumed to be the wire separator.

The wires looped through it, separating them individually. Only the pony who designed it knew which face separated what – the positive, the negative, the ground, or the tripwire. A wire – strung through the fifth face connected the separator to the larger cube, which I concluded was the bomb itself.

“What the fuck,” I murmured.

I checked and rechecked, tracing the coil from one radius to the next. My eyes scrutinized the collar’s entire circumference. There was no fifth wire. There couldn’t be one.

That meant that the fifth was either Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, or Delta – strung through the separator and connected to the bomb to serve as the mechanical detonator … the trip wire.

There was only one way to find out.

Replacing my wire cutter with a pair of pliers, I sighted wire Delta. I glanced at Candy Cane, eyeing me nervously as she shivered inside her peacoat. A layer of frost had formed over her forehead where sweat had beaded up and solidified in the frozen air. Her hooves shifted beneath her as she fiddled with a chunk of ice in an effort to keep her mind off of being decapitated.

“Alright … let’s do this.”

I clamped down on Delta.

Streams of sweat traced lines of clean brown coat across my grime-encrusted face. I glanced at Candy Cane once more. She was watching me kill her. I closed my eyes.

And pulled.

Candy Cane squeaked, whimpering as she felt her collar jerk slightly.

Nothing. The wire that connected the separator to the bomb didn’t move an inch. I gulped. I pulled Charlie earlier. So that left two of them. My pliers hovered between Bravo and Alpha.

I wiped away the sweat from my face with my sleeve so that it wouldn’t freeze. The last thing I needed was to shiver from not just apprehension, but from the cold, too.

I watched Candy Cane as she clenched her teeth and trembled upon her hooves.

Tears were runnning down her cheeks. She knew that she could die at any moment. It'd have been a lie if I'd told her she was going to be okay.

It was a fifty-fifty chance I’d pull the wrong one. But those were the best odds I’d ever had since coming out there. They were the only odds I had left to take.

I clamped my pliers around Alpha.

“Red Dawn!” she cried out.

I yanked the wire taut.

Her screams echoed out into the city.

I would have screamed too if I hadn’t realized that Alpha belonged to the circuit.

Candy Cane stared at me, trembling uncontrollably.

There was only one wire left.

I took a deep breath and curled a hoof around my wire cutter, lowering it into her collar. I held my breath, my hoof trembling uncontrollably as the two blades wrapped their edges around the final wire.

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want Candy Cane’s skull fragments ripping into my eye sockets. My mouth clapped shut … I didn’t want her brains splashing into my mouth, either. I imagined her head exploding, splattering me with gore and gray matter as doubt began to scrape incessantly at my thoughts.

I took a deep breath and held it in.

I curled the wire cutter closed.

Snip.

CRACK!

I screamed.

And nothing. Nothing. My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. I waited as my racing heartbeat slowed to a trot. I opened my eyes, and Candy Cane's terrified gray eyes widened to saucers.

I looked down at her hoof and saw that she had crushed the chunk of ice beneath her.

She slowly turned to face me, her trembling threatening to drill herself into the snow.

“W-what d-did you do?” she stammered, breathlessly.

I said nothing as I took my screwdriver and undid the collars screws, wrenching it apart, dismantling it, undoing the mark of her slavery.

It crunched uselessly into the snow.

We stood there next to each other for what seemed like hours as Candy Cane fought with her brain to process what just happened. Her eyes darted back and forth between me and the bomb collar that lay at our hooves, dumbfounded.

She exhaled suddenly, rubbing her eyes vigorously with her hooves, clearing away whatever hallucination inducing grogginess she thought was plaguing her clarity. Then her hoof slowly crawled up her chest, reaching for her neck. Her hoof stopped just below her throat – as if her collar was still there.

Candy Cane touched with delicate disbelief the matted indentation that had been trapped beneath her bomb collar. She rubbed at her flattened coat, her breathing intensifying as she struggled to grasp that it wasn’t there anymore.

That her chains were broken.

“I’m ... free …” she whispered, rubbing a hoof against her gnarled hide. “I’m finally free …” Candy Cane turned to me, slowly, fresh tears welling up in her eyes. “You did it,” she murmured. “You … you really did it.

“YOU DID IT!” she screamed, running into me with the force of a charging stallion. Candy Cane hugged me, squeezing her legs tight around my chest as she wept into my coat.

“I … I did it …” I murmured as I lifted a leg and wrapped it around her too. An ecstatic grin slowly stretched across my face.

Candy Cane pulled away, her face and my neck soaked with her tears as she held my shoulders with both her hooves. “Thank you so much … thank you – thank you – thank you!” she cried, “You saved my life … freed me from that horrible place and my collar … I’m finally free … I’m finally … FREE!”

She yanked me close and hugged me some more. The tighter she squeezed, the harder it became to suppress the warm, victorious laughter that fought its way through my lips. I stared off into the ashen clouds, praying for a sign. Praying for the Goddesses to tell me that I had finally done good.

“Thank the Goddesses that’s over with."

I wrapped my other leg around her and hugged her tight.

“Thank you … so much,” Candy Cane whispered, her tears glistening in the silvery magelight. “I never thought I’d ever be…” She paused, growing fond of the word she hadn't used to describe herself in years. “I never thought I’d ever be free … again. Again … it’s been five years. Five. Years. I-I never thought …”

She looked away, shaking her head. The mare brushed her matted coat, trying to fluff it up to no avail.

Candy Cane gazed at me with teary eyes. “I’ll never forget … I’ll never forget what you did for me, either … thank you, again.” She hung her head silently and dabbed at the snow with her hoof. “I wish there was some way I could repay you, because my words can never be enough.”

I lifted her head up with a hoof. “Don’t even mention it. Seriously.” I smiled, chuckling, “You’re free now. That’s all that matters.”

The mare swept her mane out of her eyes, wiping her face vigorously with her sleeve.

“Is it though?” she murmured, with uncertainty.

I said nothing, wondering the same thing as she touched her neck gingerly like she had never seen her own coat before.

“Now what?” I asked, quietly. “Now what will you do?”

Candy Cane looked at her hooves, thinking.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I don’t know. Most of my friends and family are either dead or in slavery. Most of them probably think … I’m dead …” Candy Cane sniffled, strands of her mane falling before her eyes. “I don’t know … I don’t know what I’ll do, Red Dawn.”

We stood there, a bleak silence hanging over us as she stared at the ashen drifts with empty eyes. I thought for a moment, tapping my chin.

“Maybe … maybe you can come with me?” I said.

She cocked her head at me.

“Come with you?”

I nodded, saying, “I can barely survive out here on my own.” I stared off into the sky, watching the gray clouds hang over the frozen earth. “It’s a harsh world out here. It’s even worse trying to survive out here alone.”

I pulled Dew Drops’ scarf from my chest, flecks of dried blood fluttering to the snow. Pursing my lips, I wrapped it around my neck, solemnly.

“My stable lost its water talisman a while ago. So my friends and I came out here to find a replacement … without it my stable will die,” I told her.

Candy Cane nodded, knowingly.

“What happened to them?” she asked, her gaze softening.

“This scarf … it’s all I have to remember my friend by. She … she was taken by snow furies. So were the others. We were ambushed, and butchered because we weren’t ready for what was outside those doors.

“Ever since then it’s just been me, and my gun, and this scarf against the entire wasteland.” I uttered a grim chuckle, “It seems like that, at least. I barely hoofed it to Poneva alive.”

“I’m so sorry about your friends …” she whispered, staring down at her hooves, “And your scarf …”

I shook my head. “She would’ve wanted me to actually stay alive to finish what they started, anyways. I have you to thank for that.” I thought for a moment, running my hoof through my mane. “You seem to know a lot about this city – this wasteland. Maybe you can help me?”

“How?”

“I ran into Grifter while looking for the Orphanage. He promised that if I helped him, he’d give me the location of one of their hideouts. He gave me this.”

I eyed the coordinates he gave me, opened up my PipBuck’s map, and pointed at a map marker.

The mare’s expression turned grim. “No … no you don’t want to go there.” She poked my PipBuck’s screen with a hoof. “That’s a metro tunnel overrun with feral ghouls.”

“Feral … what?”

She shook her head. “You would’ve walked there to your death. They would’ve ripped you to pieces.”

“Son of a bitch …” I was a loose end. That cafone bastard tried to kill me.

Candy Cane cocked an eyebrow.

“What … what do you want with the Orphanage?”

“When I arrived here, I found a water talisman … well not exactly. I spoke with the head pony at the World Tree.”

Her eyes widened at that.

“You met Sterling? He never lets anyone inside the World Tree.”

I nodded. “He’s been working with the resistance to take down the other plantations. He wants his hooves on their tech; apparently they can purify water without water talismans.”

Candy Cane frowned, adding, “It’s always been a mystery how they can yield so many crops without the equipment the World Tree has.”

I paused for a breath, and continued. “Sterling says that if he had their technology, he wouldn’t need water talismans anymore. But that’d mean that the plantations would need to lose them, first. And if they did, he’d be able to spare me one or two or thirty of his water talismans.” A hopeful fire burned in my eyes. “He could give me enough talismans to keep my stable going for centuries.”

“Would he really just give up all his water talismans?” Candy Cane asked. “Those things are as rare as moonrocks.”

My expression turned grim. “It’s the only chance I have left. Without this talisman, everyone in my stable is going die. For all it's worth, I’d do anything … anything to save them all.

“I figured I’d join the resistance. Sterling said they always need hooves to keep the movement running. They’re the ones fighting the damned plantations, after all.”

I sighed, wearily.

“My stable doesn’t have much time. I’ve been around the city. No one gives a shit about the plantations. No one wants to do shit about them,” I spat. “At this rate, hell will freeze over twice and my stable will be rotting a mile below the earth. I can’t sit around on my hooves and waste my time – waste my stable’s time, waiting for the city to roll over.” I pursed my lips, and stared at her with a grim resolve.

“I want to join them. I want to join the Orphanage … and … and help them do … something.”

“The Orphanage, huh?” she whispered, intrigued. “And you want me to help you find them, then?”

I gave her a gloomy chuckle.

“I don’t want your help … I need your help. I can’t do this alone.” I looked at her hopefully as the harsh wasteland wind buffeted our disheveled manes. “If we join the resistance, we’ll be able to save all your friends at the Scullion. We’d be able to save them all.”

Candy Cane’s eyes glistened with distance hope.

“If I join you, you need to promise me … promise me that we’ll save them too.”

Something powerful ignited behind her eyes as she clenched her jaw and glared balefire into the snow.

My eyes widened as a different mare growled, mist jetting out between her bared teeth, “Promise me … that we’ll put an end to the Palominos. If we die, I want to die doing the right thing. Now that I’m free, I won’t stand by and watch them force anymore people into slavery.

“I want to tear them down, Red Dawn. After everything they’ve done to me … I-I … I …” she shook her head, tears welling out of her eyes. She sniffled. “No … I won’t be like them.” Candy Cane stomped her hoof into the snow and bowed her head.

She looked up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I want to help people. Can we do that?”

I lowered my eyes to my hooves, a long breath whispering out of my lips.

Help people. Help the people of the wasteland. The same people who turned me away when I was trying to look for the only source of good in that wintry shithole.

Most people didn’t even care about the plantations. Many couldn’t give a damn if the guy next to them was dragged away into a ditch and shot in the head. They were content with that life so long as they could keep on living.

But Candy Cane was different; I wanted to admire her. I wanted to admire her heart. She had the kind of heart that got people killed. It was a heart like that that nearly got me killed. Good things never happen to good ponies.

And yet there she was, still standing. Maybe not for long. But there she was …

The difference between Candy Cane and I was that the resistance was just a means to an end. Everything I did was for my stable. But because of that little diversion with slavery, I’d risked the lives of nearly three hundred ponies for just this one mare.

If I died, all hope for my stable would have been lost. I wondered once more … why?

Why? My heart rationalized that it was simply the right thing to do. But my brain wondered, ‘What kind of stupid fucking logic was that?’

I could’ve died.

Again.

But it didn’t matter to her. She was free. She could've done anything she wanted … but she wanted only this: to help people, people that didn’t even want her help.

She had hope that the wasteland could turn around, even if she was the only person doing the turning. She was the hope nobody wanted.

I saw it in Sterling, and now I was seeing that in her.

I held out a hoof.

“We will,” I said, finally. “We will … I promise. Even if it kills us.”

Candy Cane took my hoof and shook it, a determined smile stretching across her lips.

“Thanks, Red Dawn.” She thought for a moment, pursing her lips. “I … don’t know where to find the Orphanage,” she confessed, hesitantly. “But I do know this city. I’ve escaped from the Scullion so many times that I’ve had the time to explore almost every nook and cranny in the outer city, and some parts of the inner city. All I need is a point in the right direction and I can take you there,” she said, smiling hopefully.

“I know somepony who was actually in the Orphanage,” Candy Cane chuckled. My brows furrowed as I cursed Grifter’s name under my breath. “She runs an inn in Old Town. She can probably tell us how to find them.” The mare noticed the dark circles around my bloodshot eyes. “Maybe she’ll even give us a place to stay for a bit.”

I really needed a break. Not a nap, not a few hours of shut eye. No. I needed to rest.

“You know her?” I asked, wobbling on my hooves.

She reached out with a hoof and held me still.

“She and her family took me in once ...” Candy Cane nodded to herself, smiling. “She’s a good mare.”

‘Finally,’ I thought. I was finally I was getting somewhere.

“That sounds like a plan.” I sighed, rubbing my eyes. “Much better than asking random people on the street, that’s for sure,” I muttered, bitterly.

I looked around us, panning my PipBuck’s light across the shifting white dunes. We were in a massive sink hole.

“Well … first of all, how do we get out of here?”

Candy Cane peered up and into the city above us, her eyes darting back and forth, searchingly. She lifted a hoof and pointed at the rooftops that poked out of the snow. Rooftops that were high and close enough to jump in between.

‘Oh Goddesses,’ I moaned inside my head.

Candy Cane smiled.

“I have an idea.”

Footnote: Level up.
New Perk: Guerilla Pony - Your sneak attack criticals with revolvers, pistols, carbines, and submachine guns (whether guns or magical energy weapons) all inflict an additional 20% damage.

Author's Notes:

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Chapter 9 - A Cold Hearth - Pt I

I half limped, half stumbled through the snow, trying to blink away the stars in my eyes as Candy Cane led me up a lonely street.

For hours she navigated the streets for me, turning corners or leading me through dark, dimly lit underpasses that tunneled through the collapsed city. Every twist and every turn were detours she steered through with absolute confidence. It became apparent to me that she had been through that place countless times.

She led, and I followed closely in silence. I wasn’t exactly the kind of pony who reveled in small talk, so much of the walk up till then had been a quiet one. It seemed like she wasn't, either. Candy Cane would spare me a few curious, furtive glances every now and then, but besides that, no one said a word.

We were still just two strangers.

Our pace was beginning to slow, however, all thanks to my exhausted state. A wheezing breath erupted from my lips, and I stopped for a moment, falling to my haunches, too tired to continue onward.

Candy Cane heard the hoofsteps behind her stop, and swung her head around to see me lying there in the snow. She knelt next to me, and I heard her speak for the first time in nearly an hour.

“What’s wrong?” she said, her voice nearly a whisper.

“Just ah … heh …” I chuckled, face-hoofing tiresomely. “I’m just feeling a little under the weather, right now.” She gave me a worried, yet exasperated look. My bitter sarcasm was lost on her. Being hurt in any sort of way didn’t seem like a laughing matter to her. But it took a certain level of clarity to act like my usual self.

It felt good to know I wasn’t actually comatose.

She regarded my long, weary face with soft eyes. “That detour we took out of that sinkhole was rough …” she sighed, dabbing a hoof in the snow.

'My, she was a mind reader,' I thought.

After that stunt we pulled off to heave ourselves out of that hole in the ground … Goddesses. I never knew I could rock-climb.

“No-no, it helped get whatever blood I have left in me flowing,” I said, grinning at her as I lay at her hooves. My muscles ached and my eyes begged me to shut them closed. I nearly passed out in that sinkhole. I felt like passing out right then and there.

It was difficult to do anything after getting my ass beat in a brawl, getting shot twice, and getting my head torn apart by yet another magical burnout.

“We can’t stick around for too long,” Candy Cane said quickly and quietly, double-taking over both her shoulders. “This part of town belongs to the cafones.”

“Lovely,” I crooned, staring blankly at the snow. A yawn parted my cracked lips, and I winced as I inhaled a breath too large for my lungs.

I looked up, groggily. “Didn’t you hear them, earlier? They think we’re dead.”

She crossed her right foreleg over her left. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Okay … but let me just lie here for a bit,” I groaned, the snow biting deep into my livid flesh.

'Sleep. I sleep here now.'

“Red Dawn, you shouldn’t be lying there …”

Her words passed through deaf ears as I lowered my chin into the pale. I clenched my eyes shut and shuddered violently. “Damn that’s cold.” My eyes fluttered open at the mare’s hooves. “It’s alright,” I murmured faintly as I shivered in the snow. “The cold reminds me that I’m still alive.”

She knelt beside me and laid a hoof on my forehead, muttering to herself. Her hoof was icy cold against the boiling surface of my flesh, and I shivered at her touch. The look she gave me suggested that whatever she saw was not good.

“What’s the diagnosis, doc?” I chattered through my teeth.

“High fever. Likely caused by your magical burnout.”

She pursed her lips, conjuring a glowing orb of light. Candy Cane cupped a hoof over one of my eyes and levitated the orb in front of the other. My eyelid twitched sluggishly, closing slightly, but my retina didn’t dilate.

A flat “Ohhhh …” seethed out of her lips.

At least when she found something bad she didn't berate you like Doctor Stitches did. Because what she saw in my twitching eyeball didn't seem too good either.

She exchanged hooves and tested the other. Candy Cane looked at me and clenched her jaw.

I groaned, “Isn’t it just wonderful being a glorified earth pony with a horn?”

“You just need to rest. Sleep it off. Just not here, Red Dawn.”

I sighed, letting my head roll back into the snow.

“Can … can you still walk?"

I shook my head free from the drifts, cringing as that only worsened my headache. "Sure,” I winced. “I can do you a few squats if you want, doc.”

“I’m a nurse, Red Dawn,” she said, somewhat annoyed by my pain induced quips.

With a foreleg and a swirl of her gray magic, the mare pulled me back to my aching hooves. We stood there in the snow in silence as she probably wondered what in the Goddesses’ names was she going to do with me. I was deadweight at that point.

She hung her head and let out a long, drawn out sigh. The irritation faded from her face as her eyes softened once more. Candy Cane touched my shoulder with a tender hoof, before pointing down the street. “Come on, we’re almost there,” she whispered. “I’m sure you’d prefer a mattress to a gutter full of snow?”

I squinted around me. I was standing in a gutter. I shifted my weight and felt trash and frozen filth crunch beneath me.

I sighed, smiled faintly, and peered into the mare’s gentle, gray eyes.

“Whatever puts me to sleep the fastest, I guess. That is, if hypothermia doesn’t get me first.” She frowned at that, but motioned me to follow her with a swish of her swirly red and white tail.

As we plodded through the snow-swept streets, the uncomfortable silence between us was beginning to settle in again. But that was alright, I was too tired to care in the first place. But Candy Cane’s gait slowed so that we were walking shoulder to shoulder.

“How long have you been out here?” she asked suddenly, glancing at me.

I thought for a moment. I wasn’t even sure … at that point it'd felt like I'd been wandering that wintry wasteland for months – no – years now. The bags under my eyes and my grime encrusted … everything … made me feel as if I had been away from home for an eternity.

In the stable, there had never been a day when I hadn’t had a shower, or three full meals a day, or nine hours of undisturbed sleep. It felt like an eternity since I had lived in the comforts of Stable 91.

I stared longingly at the snow that crunched beneath my hooves.

“Too long.”

Candy Cane hesitated, looking away for a moment. She parted her mane as it bobbed in front of one of her eyes. “You … you look like you’ve been through so much in such little time.”

I caught her looking at me expectantly in my peripherals as I stared onward and into the dimly lit street. “Ponies died, and I lived.” I gulped down the lump in my throat. “That’s all …” I muttered with grim uncertainty.

The mare turned her troubled gaze away from me and we slogged through the shifting drifts in silence. Candy Cane’s pace began to quicken, and so did mine.

Nearly ten long minutes later, she stopped in her tracks and we found ourselves standing before our final destination. The inn, I supposed.

“Is this the place?” I asked Candy Cane.

She nodded as I trotted up to the door. The inn was a quaint, cozy-looking two story building with windows that glowed with giddy, dancing firelight.

At least that’s what I imagined it may have looked like two centuries ago. A creaking metal sign hung over the door. Etched into it was ‘The Warmhearth Inn’.

Didn't look too warm to me.

As I walked up the icy, blackened steps, I peered curiously through the boarded up windows that swatted away any suggestion that there was life behind that door. I raised a hoof to its thick, battered wooden surface, and knocked.

A few seconds passed, and the only sounds that we heard were the distant wagons and the sound of hooves crunching through snow behind us. The only light that shined upon my face was a dim, flickering light bulb that was begging to be put out of its misery.

I felt the cold touch of snowflakes whisper across the back of my neck. Things were freezing up again. The wind sighed, moaned, and snow began to fall once more.

I didn’t want to be outside anymore.

Glancing over my shoulder, I mouthed to Candy Cane, if she was a hundred percent certain we were at the right place. The mare nodded.

So I knocked again.

This time, a speakeasy door slid open and two navy blue eyes narrowed back at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but the pony cut me off.

“We’re closed,” a mare told me, before the speakeasy door slid shut.

My face turned sour. I lifted a hoof to the door and knocked again. The speakeasy door opened once more.

“Hey! I said we’re closed, okay? So scram!” the mare shouted through the speakeasy door before slamming it shut.

I sighed, glancing over my shoulder at Candy Cane.

“Well isn’t she a ray of sunshine,” I muttered.

Candy Cane sighed, before she took my place and knocked.

“Goddesses – I said we’re closed –” a mare hissed, but her voice was lost on her lips.

She saw the mare standing next to me first.

“Candy Cane ..?”

I shifted on my stool, a rickety, neglected old thing that creaked underneath me, like the floor underhoof. A fine layer of dust had settled upon the lonely bar I sat behind. Resting my legs upon the counter, I kicked up a small cloud of dust that roused from my cracked lips a sneeze.

Behind it on a long rack were rime encrusted bottles by the dozens. Most were empty. There wasn’t a single drink in that place that could relieve even the most lightweight of drinkers in the inn’s deplorable state.

Sniffling, I heard hooves clop upon the creaking wooden boards behind me. The innkeeper passed by a cold hearth – lonely and unlit as she made her way, sluggishly, to the bar. Candy Cane, who sat next to me, rubbed her hooves together briskly for warmth, glancing wishfully at the empty fireplace.

Even inside, it was still cold. The bite of the northern wind was trying desperately to penetrate the walls of that place. It scratched again the boarded up windows like an animal begging to be let inside.

The innkeeper trotted past me, but not before shooting a careful gaze my way. The mare regarded me – the stranger – with apprehension, noticing the gun holstered around my chest. My presence was making her edgy. I probably should’ve stowed my gun away.

“I’m really sorry you have to see me like this, Cane,” the mare began, still keeping an eye on me. “Sorry to see my place like this. A lot’s changed since I saw you last … the last time they took you, I …” she paused, pursing her lips. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

Candy Cane smiled. “It’s been too long, Summer Smiles.”

Summer Smiles sighed as she closed her eyes, and hugged her, squeezing her tight. Letting go, the mare turned her eyes to the floorboards.

“Heh, well I don’t smile so much anymore.” Summer Smiles sighed, brushing her blonde braids with a hoof. “The inn’s been closed for nearly a month now. The cafones’ve been stepping up their game, and making us lose ours.” She shook her head before resting it upon a hoof. “It’s gotten so bad that my sister and I have been living from bottlecap to bottlecap.”

“What happened to your savings?” Candy Cane asked.

Summer Smiles glared at the bar’s counter-top. “It’s … we’re … the cafones upped their prot taxes. I’ve been using it to pay them. Though, most of it was used up when my sister lost her job and had to find a new one.”

“That’s awful … why do they keep doing that?”

Summer Smiles snorted, shaking her head. “They don’t need a reason to, they just do.” She spat, “Bastards … all of them.” The mare noticed the bitter look upon my face as they spoke of the gangster menace.

Those Palominos were sucking the life out of that town.

The two sighed. Candy Cane looked all around her at the unkempt walls, her gaze falling upon the dusty staircase that led upstairs.

"How are the girls? Your sister?" Candy Cane asked.

Summer Smiles hesitated for a moment, no doubt watching me in her peripherals. With one eye on Candy Cane, and another on me, she leaned forward and rested her hooves on the counter.

"Doodle and Hops have gotten bigger since you last saw them,” Summer Smiles said, proudly. She chuckled. “To me, it's like they haven't grown older at all. Same Doodle, same Hops.”

Candy Cane’s tired eyes flickered with cheer. "What about Hops? Her ... legs?"

Summer Smiles shook her head. "She was born that way, Cane. There's no healing genetics."

Candy Cane clenched her jaw, her ears drooping.

Summer Smiles looked at her hooves. "You disappeared for two years. Doodle and Hops always wondered where their Auntie Candy Cane went. I could never bring myself to tell them what happened to you ..." the mare said, softly. "I really never thought I'd see you again."

Candy Cane sat there in silence.

"They'll be glad to see you, Cane," she added, touching her hoof. Candy Cane salvaged a smile out of that. It felt a little warmer in there seeing her face light up like that.

"What about your sister?"

She glanced at the door. "She hasn't been around, lately. Went off on an assignment ... she's still out there. I don't know where, though." Her brows furrowed with impatience. "If she doesn't come back soon, I won't have any more caps left to put food on the table. And I can't leave the inn to find work ... not if it means leaving Doodle and Hops behind."

“It just keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?” Candy Cane murmured.

Summer Smiles blew a puff of dust off the counter, sighing. “You think you’d get used to it, living like this.” Her gaze found its way to meet me. “You never do.” Summer Smiles made her way behind the bar, and tapped her hoof on the counter. “I’d get you two a couple of drinks, but …” she looked over her shoulder, sparing the empty racks a dismal glance.

“It’s okay. At least we’re out of the snow,” she said, softly.

"Out of the snow ... huh." Summer Smiles looked at Candy Cane strangely. "How'd you get out this time?"

"I had some help," Candy Cane said, smiling faintly.

Summer Smiles blinked, cocking her head at me. “Really? I’ve been wondering: who’s this stallion you brought into my home?”

“Of course you have, you’ve been watching him like a hawk since we got here,” Candy Cane chuckled.

Summer Smiles shifted nervously on her hooves. It’s not like she wasn’t making it obvious.

Candy Cane grinned. “Relax, Summer. He’s not going to bite your leg off.”

She scowled back. “Oh you know stallions … they’re good at biting, and leaving marks. Just look at my sister: two foals and a stallion nowhere to be found.”

I laughed nervously as Candy Cane hung her head. Summer Smiles wasn’t the only pony in the room that has had a problem with stallions. Candy Cane – more so than anyone else I currently knew.

“My name’s Red Dawn."

“Red Dawn ...” Summer Smiles nodded, studying the arcanomechanical device wrapped around my foreleg. "You’re from a stable, Red Dawn?"

"Yes ma’am," I nodded, stifling a yawn as I tapped my PipBuck with a hoof.

The mare cocked an eyebrow, perplexed.

"Heh, there are very few ponies around the wasteland with those things around their legs." Her voice turned sour. "I can imagine why," she added quietly, glaring at her disheveled, pitiful surroundings.

She imagined right. Beneath the earth, stable ponies slept in their stables while ponies like Summer Smiles and Candy Cane remained trapped outside, helpless and cold. I thought back, sifting through generations of Dawns and Roans, thankful that my great, great – great something grandparents had been chosen to live in Stable 91.

It began to occur to me, that despite the terrible things I'd seen so far, no one was luckier than stable-dwellers like me. We had lived in a stable for most of our lives while the world outside went to shit. I sighed. Better there than the wasteland, of course.

Summer Smiles asked, "So what's a stable-pony like you doing out here, anyways?"

"Just wanted some fresh air, I guess," I said, dryly.

She snorted, vaguely amused. "Are you one of those ponies from Stable 2? The one everypony keeps hearing about on the radio?"

That was the second time someone's asked me that.

"Uhh ... no. I'm from Stable 91, about sixty or seventy miles out from Poneva, I think."

"That's a pity ... Stable 2's the only stable I've heard of that hasn't let out anything but dust and skeletons." The mare folded her legs across her chest, looking sure of herself. “Something bad must’ve pushed you out.”

I nodded with a dry chuckle. "I've been told that a lot. We're going to be like the others soon enough, I think. Our water talisman broke. Now we've got two months to live. Well they, really. I ... we ... my friends and I - we left Stable 91 to find another."

Summer Smiles glanced at Candy Cane. There were only two of us, and only one of us had a PipBuck around our legs.

"Your ... friends?" she said, softly.

"They're dead now.”

The mare blinked, expecting me to say more. I didn't. All she got was an exhausted stare that pleaded to be put to sleep.

I hadn't told anyone what had happened that night. What had happened to my friends - how Star Glint was skinned alive ... how Amber Fields was blown to pieces ...

How they tore Dew Drops apart before my eyes.

The pain in my head, the anguish in my thoughts – they raked and scraped against the inside my skull, screaming for escape. So I grabbed them by the scruffs of their necks and stuffed them back into the closet where they belonged.

A grim silence hung over the three of us as I sat there, unmoving.

Summer Smiles studied my weary eyes, and the grime that covered my face, and the blood that caked my chest. Candy Cane was about as bloodied as I was. But most of it was mine.

"You ... you two both look like you've been through hell."

I scoffed bitterly, hanging my head, "I guess that's one way of putting it."

“Well if you’re on this mission of yours, then what’re you doing with Candy Cane?”

She and I exchanged uncertain looks.

Summer Smiles’ eyes narrowed at me when I didn’t answer. “How'd you meet her?” she asked, warily. “It’s not everyday somepony walks in with somepony like Candy Cane."

I felt the weight of Candy Cane’s stare upon me. She parted her peacoat's collar, folding it down flat so that Summer Smiles could see the matted, red coat beneath.

Her eyes widened.

"Your collar – i-its – it’s gone?"

Candy Cane smiled ecstatically.

"He saved me, Summer ... he freed me from the Scullion ... and he took the collar right off."

Summer Smiles’ eyes widened. “He … Goddesses …” she leaned over the counter, reaching out with a hoof to touch the matted indentation where her collar used to be. She rubbed the patch of fur, tenderly, stricken with disbelief. “How? You removed – you did that?”

I nodded, slowly. “It wasn’t easy," I said with a sigh.

“How’d you do it? I-I mean, how’d you make it past the cafones?” she stammered, breathlessly.

Candy Cane rubbed her bloody hooves together, tipping her head at me.

“We nearly died,” I told her. “Well, I nearly died. Those Palo … those cafones wouldn’t let up.” I explained how I snuck into the Scullion, then our confrontation with Grifter, and our flight from the brothel. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. When I got to that part about the sinkhole, she just about lost it there.

“You’re crazy.”

I chuckled at Candy Cane. “That’s exactly what I told her.”

Candy Cane looked away, smiling faintly.

“Though it’s because of her I’m still alive.” I pointed a hoof to my blood-caked chest as Candy Cane fixed her unassuming gaze to the floorboards beneath her. “One of those cafones got me. Candy Cane pulled the bullet right out."

I could vaguely remember the touch of cold steel worming around inside my gut.

“Barely,” Candy Cane said sheepishly, still staring at her hooves. “You almost bled out.” She played with her curls absent mindedly, frowning as she said, “I’m out of practice. It's been too long since I've had a patient, let alone somepony as wounded as you.”

I chuckled dryly, my grim expression belying the cheeriness in my voice. “We’ll be traveling together soon, so I’m sure you’ll get a lot of practice.”

Candy Cane chuckled dryly. “Then there’s going to be lots of roof hopping to do if you’re going to be traveling with me,” she smirked.

I wheezed out a nervous laugh.

“So, you two are traveling together?”

We turned to each other simultaneously.

“Yes … I promised I would,” she said, her gaze still upon me.

The other mare frowned at her. “I would’ve imagined you’d want to settle down after … you know?” Summer Smiles said, gingerly.

Candy Cane thought for a moment, laying her forelegs on the counter and resting her chin upon them. “Sure, I’m free. But what about the others? My friends? I left them behind, Summer. I don’t deserve to be free any more than the other mares at the Scullion.

“I have nothing else to do with my life, anyways ...” Candy Cane turned to me once more, saying, “Red Dawn wants to join the resistance. He wants to help us … and I want to help him save everypony else I left behind.”

Summer Smiles shifted uncomfortably on her hooves.

"I thought he was looking for a water talisman?"

I nodded. "I still am. And I found one ... or several. Well … not exactly."

I told her about my meeting with Sterling Sprocket and the promise he made me. She was about as surprised as Candy Cane was when I told her about my meeting with the World Tree’s head pony, and our deal.

And how the only way I could make it happen was to join the resistance.

Summer Smiles clenched her jaw, the idea of such a thing making her antsy.

“I want in. I can't just sit around and do nothing while my stable dies."

Candy Cane spoke up. “So do I. That's why we're traveling together. We need to find them."

Summer Smiles cleared her throat, scoffing. "The ... the Orphanage?" she asked, as if she didn’t hear that right.

Candy Cane narrowed her eyes at her, knowingly.

“We need your help.”

Summer Smiles’ eyes darted over to mine as a wave of realization washed over her face.

“So that’s why you brought him here …” she murmured. “You … you told this pony? He knows?”

“Yes –”

The mare leaned over the counter towards Candy Cane. “I really don’t appreciate that, Cane. They wouldn’t appreciate that. You know this …”

“I-”

“What were you thinking!?” She lowered her voice and glanced at the windows. “If word gets out that I was with the Orphanage, they’ll kill us all! And the fillies! I thought I could trust you!”

"You still can!" Candy Cane pleaded with her. “If he was with them I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now. If he was with East Eden, he would’ve hauled me over to their place.” Candy Cane glared at her. “I wouldn't have agreed to help him if I didn't think that he was a good pony, Summer.”

My heart fluttered at that. If only she knew the things that I did to get there … that mare I left for dead. I shot her in the knees and left her to die – and that blood brother I murdered with my bare hooves ... I murdered him. Both of them.

I looked at my hooves. The agony that lurked behind the closed doors of my mind was trying to claw its way out again.

A darker part of me told me that Candy Cane was just a stepping stone to saving my stable. That darker part of me told me that I needed her help; she would get me to where I needed to be … and that was it.

But I pushed it away, disgusted with its incessant murmuring.

Slowly but surely, my mind descended once more into a somber quietude.

I told myself twice and steeled myself for acceptance.

I wasn't a good pony. I was just a homesick pony with a home to save.

Summer Smiles caught the apprehension that haunted my eyes, and smirked. She wasn’t buying Candy Cane’s 'bluff' about me. I wasn’t either.

“I know he saved your life and all, and you might think you owe him something, but … you’d trust that pony with your life?” She asked, as if I wasn’t there. “Our lives? You might’ve just endangered my entire family –”

Candy Cane cut her off, “He went through hell to save me – he nearly died.” She looked away. “He did all of that for me … and he doesn’t even know why.” She turned to me but I avoided her gaze. “He was willing to help a complete stranger … there aren’t that many ponies like that around anymore,” Candy Cane said softly. “You know that. You’ve seen it.”

Summer Smiles nodded, slowly, her gaze still fixated upon me.

“I do,” she murmured. “I have …”

Silence hung over us as she tapped her hooves nervously on the counter. She eyed me hesitantly.

“I’ll … I’ll think about it, okay? If they find out … and they take me … I don’t know, Cane. Doodle and Hops won’t have anypony to care for them.”

“But … what … what about your sister? They're her fillies, after all.”

Summer Smiles shook her head.

“She hasn’t come back from her job yet,” she murmured, distantly. “Soon, my savings will run dry and nopony will be able to feed them anymore. She was the one paying the bills after all …” Summer Smiles stared past us at the door. It seemed like she had been doing everyday ever since her sister had left. “Sugar Rum’s been gone for almost two weeks now.”

I froze. Sugar Rum. Sugar Rum. Sugar …

'Goddesses.'

I remembered her. The screams, the sounds of flesh tearing. Then the pop. The simultaneous pop of half a dozen bomb collars.

And then there was a crack.

And she was gone. The mare, the mare that stayed behind to put down those tortured slaves left behind those three: her sister, and her two daughters.

'Why …' I asked myself, 'Why didn’t I recognize Summer Smiles until now?'

“Red Dawn?” I heard Candy Cane ask as the blood drained from my face. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“I …”

I inched off my stool, trembling, and stumbled to the door where I had left my bags. I lowered my head inside of them, searching for Sugar Rum’s family photo. The one she gave me as she bled out into the snow.

I returned to the bar, my eyes unable to leave that haunting photograph. I turned my distant gaze to Summer Smiles and her eyes darted to mine – then to the frayed, blood-caked photograph I held in my hoof.

“W-what’s that?” she asked … but she already knew.

I stared at the four ponies – the family whose smiling faces were frozen in time. Sugar Rum was sitting next to her sister, Summer Smiles, a blonde, blue coated mare, as she wrapped her forelegs around her two pale-coated daughters. Lowering it, I saw that Summer Smiles was standing alone.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

I said nothing as I gave her the photograph.

The mare stared at it desolately, her hoof trembling before her muzzle. She blinked and blinked, unable to look away. Unmoving, her eyes drowned silently beneath the horror that drained the blood from her face. They saw every speck of blood, every splatter of dried crimson that sullied the aged photograph.

The photograph of her sister. Her family.

A trembling hoof touched her sister’s frozen smile, her eyes darting to the door, and back, to the door, and back.

Summer Smiles finally met my numb gaze, her eyes widening and her chin quivering.

“Why … w-why d-do you have this?” she croaked, her voice faltering.

I looked at the floorboards, and she knew. Goddesses, she knew. I opened my mouth once more, but couldn’t find the strength to say the words I needed to say.

She slammed a hoof into the counter.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS!?”

I hung my head, shaking it as beads of cold sweat formed upon my forehead. Again and again, I heard the resounding gunshot that took Sugar Rums’ life.

CRACK ...

“Sugar … my … my sister …” Summer Smiles lowered her quaking hooves, clenching her eyes shut as she held onto the counter for her dear life. “Goddesses, please …”

Candy Cane sat there unmoving, mouth open but unable to give voice to the horror that was fighting its way to her lips. She looked at me with teary eyes, unwilling to accept what she was hearing. “You don’t mean she’s …”

I just nodded my head.

The mare froze. She froze as if she were staring into the headlights of an oncoming wagon – staring through me, through the door – searchingly. Searching for the sister she refused to believe was lost.

Then it hit her. It struck her. Mangled her. Tore her apart.

“No …” she whispered, her shoulders quaking. She stumbled backward into the empty bottles behind her, running her trembling hooves through her mane as she stared upward into nothingness. “No … no, no, no, no …” Summer Smiles lowered herself to the counter. “Why …” she cried.

“WHY!? Her foals – Goddesses, what about her foals!” Summer Smiles clenched her eyes shut, trying to suck back in the tears that refused to stop pouring. But it was in vain. “She can’t be … dead … my – my sister … my only sister. She’s … dead …”

I hung my head low, her sobs echoing through my ears and shaking me to the core. It had happened so suddenly. One second, Sugar Rum was next to me – and the next she was curled up in a pool of her own blood. The bloodletters … the wasteland, it stole her from her daughters – her sister – just like how it stole from me almost everyone I loved.

The sound of a filly’s voice broke me from my rapturous state.

“Auntie? What’s wrong?” a girl asked. I turned and, looking down at us from the top of the stairs at the other side of the room was a filly, her coat an alabaster white.

'Goddesses. No.'

Summer Smiles struggled to compose herself. She couldn’t tell them. Not now. The mare wiped her bloodshot eyes vigorously, her breaths coming in and out as broken sobs.

“Doodle – go back to your room,” she told the filly, struggling to abate the trembling in her voice.

The filly looked at us, terrified. Another pair of eyes peered over her shoulder, and I found that another pony was clinging to her sister’s back.

“Who … who are they?” the other asked in the same voice.

Summer Smiles croaked, “Hops …”

“Auntie –”

“GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM, NOW!” she screamed, and the twins scrambled back upstairs.

Summer Smiles slammed a hoof on the counter once more as her anguished grimace ran wet with fresh tears.

“Damnit … I shouldn’t have done that. The last thing they needed to hear was that … Their mother’s dead, for Celestia’s sake. I need to be strong ...”

Candy Cane clenched her jaw and tried to swallow tears of her own as Summer Smiles threw her legs around her and cried into her mane. She pulled her close and squeezed her tight, weeping until their cries died away into shuddering sobs.

I looked away, unable to watch.

“What happened to her?” Summer Smiles choked. “How … how did she … how did she go?”

I eyed Candy Cane and hesitated. Sugar Rum was a slaver. I wasn’t sure what she’d think if she knew Sugar Rum was a slaver … she never would’ve befriended those ponies if she’d known.

But I relented. Summer Smiles deserved to know, whether or not Candy Cane liked what she was going to hear.

“She and her crew … they … they picked me up. Chained me to the back of their wagon with the other slaves …”

Candy Cane slowly turned her teary gaze towards me, her embrace loosening for a moment as her ears perked, unsure if she heard me right. She nearly let go and dropped Summer Smiles' head onto the counter.

“As we were heading up to Poneva, we were ambushed by bloodletters. They … they butchered everyone.” I bit my lower lip, shaking my head. “Sugar Rum stayed behind with the slaves. She gave me that photo … she wanted me to tell you that she went out a … a good pony.”

A ragged sob forced its way through Summer Smiles’ lips, and she broke down into tears once more, burying her face into Candy Cane’s chest.

“A good pony?” she whimpered, as Candy Cane squeezed her gently and ran a tender hoof through her mane. But she made no attempt to hide the horror of betrayal that was creeping across her face even as her friend wept into her hooves.

I nodded, solemnly. “The other slavers ran away. They left the slaves to die in their cage. The bastards left them to the bloodletters so that they could escape.” Their horrifying, blood curdling cries echoed distantly inside my thoughts. I cupped a hoof around my mouth.

“A bloodletter got her …” I remembered her throat, the grisly scene replaying itself over and over in my head as I touched Sugar Rum’s pale, bloody cheek.

“She was dying. She stayed behind with the slaves as those monsters tore them apart, and … and she put them out of their misery.” I finally met Summer Smiles’ bloodshot eyes, struggling to hold her gaze as I forced myself to continue. “Then Sugar Rum did herself out … before the bloodletters could.”

Summer Smiles whimpered into Candy Cane’s peacoat as she brushed her mane with a shaky, uncertain hoof.

“Summer … I didn’t know Sugar was … a slaver,” Candy Cane murmured, her voice trembling.

With a shuddering sob, the mare pulled away from her, shaking her head.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you … please - please please ... you have to understand ... We needed the caps – we needed to feed our family!” Summer Smiles sniffled pitifully as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves. “She was a good pony … a good pony until the end, Candy Cane. She never liked her job ... she hated it! But it was all we had ... it was all we could do.”

Candy Cane exhaled a breath she had been holding in. She shook her head, her curly mane tumbling over her teary eyes. The mare wasn't sure what to think, and for several long seconds, she sat there unmoving as Summer Smiles stared at her pleadingly. To my surprise, she took Summer Smiles’ hoof in hers and squeezed it tight.

“I … I know she was,” Candy Cane whispered, her voice trembling. “She was the pony who found me half dead in the snow when I first escaped.”

I lowered my eyes to the floor. She had been standing right next to me. I had tried to save so many people that day. But I didn’t. I couldn't.

“I’m sorry … I should’ve seen that animal coming,” I began, but Summer Smiles cut me off.

“But she chained you to a wagon!” She looked away, ashamed.

I shook my head.

“It wasn’t like that. I knew she was different … she wasn’t like the others. When they captured me … she .... she didn’t look like she could do it ...

“She killed a bloodletter that was going to eat me alive. I owe her my life.”

Tears began to well up in my eyes, but I fought them off, steeling myself as I clenched my jaw, tight.

Summer Smiles struggled to wipe her cheeks dry, her tears refusing to wane. “It’s … I’m just glad somepony was able to tell me. Usually ponies just disappear here, and nopony ever hears from them again. For the last two weeks I thought she was going to be one of those ponies … lost, and nobody knowing how she died.”

The mare found the strength to reach over the counter and touch my hoof. “Thank you … for telling me. At least now I know how she went out. About what she did right.”

But utter hopelessness returned to her voice, and her eyes turned low. “Without her, we won’t be able to pay our dues. We lived off of her paychecks …” She cradled her head in her hooves. “And nobody comes here anymore, not with those Palominos sweeping up the streets.”

Summer Smiles sat hunched over the counter, her eyes bloodshot with tears. “I don’t know what I’m going to do … the foals … Goddesses, the foals.”

Hooves banged against the door behind us.

We shot to our hooves as Summer Smiles turned pale and stared, wide-eyed at the front door. We watched it in an uneasy silence as the seconds began to tick by.

Then knocks came again, as assertively and insistently as the last.

Summer Smiles staggered to the door, wiping her eyes furiously with the sleeve of her winter coat. She sniffled once, glanced over her shoulder, and told us to get out of sight. So we hid behind the counter as the door creaked opened.

I peered around the counter, my brown coat barely discernable in the darkness behind the counter.

'Son of a bitch.'

Black hats.

Chapter 9 - A Cold Hearth - Pt II

“Nice to see you again, Summer Smiles!” a mare greeted whimsically, tipping her hat.

Summer Smiles glared at her, cracking the door open wide enough for me to see the mare’s face. The two gangsters behind her craned their necks over her shoulder, trying to get a good look at Summer Smiles.

One of them whistled. He liked what he saw.

Summer Smiles bit her lower lip, folding her collar against her neck to hide the blue of her coat. The two cafones snickered at each other as she closed the door slightly.

My hoof crawled up my chest to rest upon my pistol’s holster. But Candy Cane’s hoof beat mine to it. She shook her head at me and I swore under my breath.

Peering over the bar, I saw the Palomino mare cock her head at Summer Smiles.

“Why the long face, Summer Smiles?”

One of the stallions stepped forward and said grinned. “I can give her something to smile about!”

“Pipe down, will ya?” the mare hissed, shooting them a murderous look. They cleared their throats and eyed the floor.

‘Pigs,’ I thought.

She smiled politely once more as they fell silent. “Sorry, they’re new. Unblooded, sorry little young’uns.”

Summer Smiles scowled at them, growling, “It doesn’t matter to you, Dulce.” She planted one hoof on the door and stretched out a foreleg to the doorstop.

Dulce laughed warmly, “Forget about it - of course it doesn’t!” She craned her neck, peering into the inn. But Summer Smiles tip-toed on her hind hooves, leaning in front of the opening, and blocking her view inside.

Giving up, the mare cleared her throat, smirking as she straightened her neck and brushed down her peacoat. “Eh, well, I think you know why we’re here.”

They exchanged brief stares before the mare chimed in once more.

“We gonna have a staring contest here, Summer Smiles? I didn’t come here to play games.”

“No … you didn’t, did you?” Summer Smiles tipped her head at the automatic weapons slung around their chests.

Dulce gawked at her own submachine gun as if she had just realized it was there. “Oh my, this little thing?” she chuckled, prodding it with a hoof.

Summer Smiles glared at her.

“I’m the only pony between you and my fillies.”

She snorted, “The only thing between us and your fillies – no – this inn of yours, are the caps you owe us.” Dulce leaned against the railing outside the door, her accomplices wearing crooked grins.

“Oh, it’s pretty cold out here,” she said frigidly, giving her a hard stare. “We might just step inside for a bit, maybe warm ourselves up by the fire - ya know, maybe check out those caps of yours.”

Summer Smiles gulped as the mare planted a hoof on her submachine gun.

“Because I know you have ‘em.”

The mare cracked a dangerous smile.

“So whaddya say, Summer Smiles?”

I gulped. Candy Cane bit her lower lip.

“T-that won’t be necessary.”

“I hope so,” the mare replied, sparing her submachine gun a glance. “I hate scaring little kids. It’s just such a shitty thing to do, wouldn’t you agree?”

She glanced over her shoulder at her boys.

“Forget about it!” they both laughed.

Summer Smiles’ eyes darted back and forth as she tapped at the doorframe frantically.

“Can … can you just give me a break? Just this once? I’m never late on my payments … I … I’ll get you the money next week.”

Dulce shook her head, pursing her lips contritely.

“Girl, you know I can’t do that,” she whinnied.

The muscles beneath my barding tensed as I saw her glance back inside.

“I …” Summer Smiles gulped, pushing more of the door between her and the Palominos outside. There was a loud thump as the mare outside planted a hoof on the door’s surface and stopped her short.

“I think we need to go inside … maybe say hello to the family,” she growled. “Whaddya say, boys?” The two stallions grinned and shivered briskly.

The mare threw her head over her shoulder and nodded to herself.

“Last chance, Summer Smiles.”

A silent second passed. So the mare tried pushing the door open. But Summer Smiles leaned her weight against it.

“Oh, Summer Smiles …” Dulce sighed as she glanced at her boys. The two stallions grinned at her beneath the shadowy brims of her black hats.

My hoof jumped for my holster. So did Candy Cane.

“Red – ” I shook her free. “Red Dawn!” she hissed as I drew my pistol.

Candy Cane looked me in the eye.

“They’re going to hurt her!” I growled – but she clapped a hoof over my mouth.

“Don’t,” she spelled out for me. “Red Dawn – don’t!” But I wrenched away from her, gun in hoof.

Candy Cane clenched her jaw. I glared back. I said nothing as I stared at my pistol’s safety and Summer Smiles pleaded for them to leave.

“Please … I don’t have much left,” she begged. “How am I going to feed my fillies?”

“Not our problem,” Dulce snorted.

“You have to understand!”

“Oh, I understand Crystal Empire clear, Summer - and you do too!” The mare jabbed a hoof at her. “You owe us, and you’re gonna pay us!”

“I can’t … I-I can’t!”

Dulce shook her head. “I know you have a bag up there somewhere, Summer. I saw it that last time we were here.”

Summer Smiles was shaking all over.

“There isn’t much left!”

“Oh? Then we’ll take whatever you got,” the mare hissed. “You’re a neighborly mare, aren’tcha? You’ll help us anyway you can, am I right?”

“No!” Summer Smiles tried closing the door shut.

But the mare outside threw herself against it.

“Think of your girls, Summer,” she hissed, “You don’t want them seeing what happens to ponies who don’t pay what they owe?”

“Just leave us alone!” she cried, struggling to force the door closed.

“We keep this place safe, Summer!” Dulce growled, heaving her shoulder into the door, “Maybe your girls won’t be so safe sleeping in their beds tonight!”

The Palomino thumped her hoof against the door, trying to force it open. But the door wouldn’t budge. Summer Smiles wouldn't budge.

“Don’t make this hard on yourself, Summer Smiles!”

“Please!”

“Quit fucking around!” she screamed back.

Summer Smiles moaned as she heaved the door closed. She was so close. But the two stallions outside stepped forward.

The door crashed open, hurling Summer Smiles into the floorboards.

My ears pinned themselves to the sides of my head. I sprung to my hooves -

But Candy Cane forced me back down.

“They’ll kill us all!” she hissed at me.

“Fuck!”

Summer Smiles screamed as she slammed into the floor.

I grinded my teeth and peered around the bar, my headache returning as my temples hammering inside my skull. I glared at the three black hats that stood in the doorway. Dulce looked down at Summer Smiles, shaking her head.

She snorted, leaning against the doorway with a foreleg.

“You’re makin’ this real hard for yourself, Summer.”

Summer Smiles moaned pathetically and rolled onto her back, a thin rivulet of blood trickling down her brow.

Dulce tipped her black hat over her eyes, and chuckled.

She glanced over her shoulder, sighing, one eye gleaming beneath the shadow of her fedora.

“Come on, boys. It’s cold outside.”

“WAIT!”

My heart leaped inside my throat.

“WAIT!” Summer Smiles shrieked. She scrambled to her hooves. “Wait here. I have the caps … please just wait. Here.”

Dulce glared at her.

“You have five minutes.”

Summer Smiles said nothing as she pushed the door closed.

“FIVE MINUTES!”

She stood there for a moment, trembling upon her hooves.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Hooves slowly clopped across the floorboards as Summer Smiles made her way upstairs. She stopped at the foot of the stairs, looking back at us in turmoil, cornered as if there was a gun to her head. There would be one soon if she didn’t deliver. Another fraction of her savings was going to be spent paying those bastards the money she didn’t owe them.

I pressed my back against the bar, clenching my jaw as I heard her hoofsteps fade away upstairs. My eyes flicked to Candy Cane’s, and she followed my movements warily as I brought my PipBuck to my muzzle.

Grifter’s voice echoed in my thoughts.

'… 435, 436, 437 … Uhh ... uhh... Fuck! Lost count …'

I’d lost count of what I had in my bags as well, Grifter.

I sifted through my inventory. Not too long ago I trampled Grifter beneath me and stole from him a sack of caps. There had to be hundreds in there. My PipBuck confirmed my suspicions. Nine hundred and twenty caps. I had nine hundred and twenty caps logged in my inventory.

Why I snatched it off his desk, I didn’t know; it seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe it was to spite him? To tell the Palominos that that money wasn’t theirs? That they were a bunch of thieving parasites?

My eyes slowly left my PipBuck’s screen, firm and resolute.

It didn’t matter now. They stole that money.

And now it was time to give it back.

Candy Cane’s jaw dropped, speechless as I bit my teeth around the bag’s neck and yanked it out of my bags. Words were lost on her lips as I held it in the air before me. She had never seen so many caps at once.

“How – where … how much?” she murmured with wide eyes.

I shrugged, jingling the caps inside.

“Enough.”

Summer Smiles hoofed it step by painful step downstairs, a bag of caps jingling between her teeth. Fresh tears were streaming down her rosy cheeks as she made her way down the steps, each creak in the floorboards like a stake driving into her gut.

That must’ve been some of the last of her savings.

I knew what she was thinking. 'How were those two fillies going to eat?'

I waved a hoof at her as she reached the bottom, and motioned for her to come closer. She trotted toward us, uneasily. Then I held out to her the bag of caps.

The mare stopped in her tracks, her small pouch dangling precariously from her mouth. Summer Smiles gasped.

Her bag tumbled to the floor and erupted in a shower of bottlecaps.

“What’s going on in there?” Dulce demanded as she swung the door open with a hoof. The freezing winter breeze blew past her, showering the floorboards with fresh powder and welcoming in the wasteland wind.

Summer Smiles appeared oblivious to the winter storm that was blowing into her home. It didn't matter. Not at that very moment.

“What …”

I held my leg out farther. “Take it.”

Her eyes darted to my hooves, then mine, clenching her jaw. Summer Smiles' mouth said no, but her bloodshot eyes said yes. She needed it. For her sister's orphaned children.

“Summer Smiles!”

She swung her head to the door, broken from her trance like state.

“I’m gettin’ real angry!”

Summer Smiles wiped her eyes with her sleeve and sniffled. “S-sorry. I … I just dropped my bag. Give me a minute.”

She knelt down beside me, biting the heavy bag, gingerly. Her teary gaze met mine, and she hesitated, narrowing them at the spoils that she clenched between her teeth. I cracked a faint smile, and nodded.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered.

I looked her in the eyes.

“You need it more than I do.”

She pursed her lips, looking like she was going to break down into tears once more.

I didn't need shit like that to get what my stable needed. I didn't have to pay taxes, and I didn’t have kids to feed. I was adamant that she take it.

I sighed when she didn’t. The damn bag was starting to get heavy.

"Go on," I said, softly, with a sheepish smile.

For the first time since we'd arrived, I saw it in her eyes. A sliver of hope flickered behind the windows to her soul. Something inside of her pushed her onward. She needed it. Her sister's ... her foals needed it.

She took it from my open hoof.

Summer Smiles rose to her fours, trotted to the door, and gave the sack of caps to the Palominos outside. There came an astonished gasp as Dulce seized her spoils and shook, her ears perking at the sound of the glorious jingling – music to her ears.

“This … this is … a lot," Dulce gawked. She cleared her throat, composing herself. The mare glanced at Summer Smiles as she shuffled nervously on her hooves. “Give us a few minutes. We’ll count this up for ya. We ain’t a bunch of welchers,” she grinned courteously, hoofing the bag to her subordinates. Her eyes never once left Summer Smiles’ apprehensive face. “One hundred caps, boys.”

I was expecting the cafones to take the whole damn bag and scurry off with it.

But they didn’t. A few minutes passed as the Palominos counted their money. When the deed was done, they unceremoniously dumped Summer Smiles' dues into a saddlebag. Dulce smiled courteously before hoofing her back the sack of caps, one hundred caps lighter.

“There ya go,” she said graciously, tipping her hat at her, and turning around to take her leave. "I'm glad we didn't have to do something neither of us would’ve liked." The looks on her subordinates' faces begged to differ; they looked to be itching for a firefight.

Or for a taste of Summer Smiles.

“Like … likewise,” she choked, sweat freezing across her forehead.

The mare held the bag in her hoof, frozen, and unable to speak. She looked on, distantly, as the Palominos started down the steps.

“You be a good girl, now,” the mare called over her shoulder as Summer Smiles pivoted around sluggishly and shoved the door closed with a rear hoof. The inn was colder now, and a pile of hoof-trodden snow lay before the door.

But there was a different kind of warmth melting the ice between us all.

The two mares stared at me in silence. I caught Candy Cane’s gaze, and saw that she was wearing that same look she’d worn when I dismantled her bomb collar.

“Thank you, Red Dawn,” Summer Smiles began, making her way to the bar, still shaking. "Now they'll leave my family alone for a bit." She laid the bag of caps down on the counter and pushed it towards me.

I shook my head, and slid it back, much to her surprise.

“It’s yours now,” I insisted. She just stood there. So I nudged it toward her with a hoof when she didn’t budge. “I … I think you need it more than I do.”

She parted the bag’s lips, and peered inside. It was a decently heavy bag. It was hers now. But she still couldn’t believe it.

Summer Smiles looked at me for a moment, before asking again, “Why are you doing this?”

It bothered me because I didn’t know why either. I thought - finally out of the moment, realizing that I could’ve used those caps to buy myself rations for a week, or maybe some ammo for my pistol. Maybe even a new bulletproof vest, which I desperately needed. A part of me was regretting that decision, now.

Those caps – my money – my loot – could’ve funded my journey.

My journey. For some reason, I was growing fond of helping out random, unimportant ponies. Like … Candy Cane? Summer Smiles? But somehow, everyone was important to someone.

Even me.

I thought, 'How was helping Summer Smiles going to help me?'

When I didn’t answer, she pursed her lips and asked, “How much is in there?”

I poked it. It was still about as heavy as it was when I took it out of my saddlebags.

“Eight-hundred and twenty caps.”

Summer Smiles curled a hoof around its neck, her leg trembling.

“This’ll last us months …” she murmured. The mare blinked, and shook her head. “I can’t take this. It’s not mine.”

I sighed, growing irritated with her stubbornness. Kindness seemed to be an alien concept in the wasteland. "If you don't want it, I'll just leave it there. I don’t want it weighing me down when I’m jumping off buildings with Candy Cane,” I smirked, glancing over at Candy Cane whose astonished grays continued to stare through me.

Our host just stood there, quietly, trying not to look at the bag. So I nudged it again, and again, and again, until it banked precariously off the counter’s edge and she was forced to hold it with her hooves.

I smirked.

With a sigh, Summer Smiles finally relented, clutching the bag tight.

She regarded the bag of caps with grim relief. "Thank you, Red Dawn. Doodle and Hops can eat for a while longer now, thanks to you." The mare paused, hesitantly. "Candy Cane might just be right about you," she murmured, looking away. "There aren’t that many ponies who'd just give out caps like that around here."

"Eh, they weren't mine to begin with. I stole them from the cafones."

That left her dumbfounded and speechless. Several long seconds passed and she shook it off and brushed my foreleg with a hoof.

"Goddesses bless you, Red Dawn. Sugar Rum would’ve kissed you for this …” I shrugged, my lopsided smile stretching across my left cheek.

“I need some time to think about this. The Orphanage I mean." She turned to Candy Cane. "I … I don't suppose you two were planning on staying here for a while?"

"We were hoping we could." Candy Cane held out a hoof. "If you'll have us, of course?"

I couldn’t help but notice as Summer Smiles' name finally matched her likeness. The mare cupped Candy Cane’s hoof in hers as she smiled.

"I could never say no to you ..." Summer Smiles said, softly, still holding her hoof. She blinked, let go, and fixed her gaze upon me. "Not to either of you," she added. “It’s the least I can do.”

She cocked her head at me and eyed me from head to hoof in the silence that followed. My brows furrowed as I wondered why she was looking at me like that. Then I realized that I was swaying back and forth.

I was starting to feel ticklish in the noggin again. I let out a languid sigh, and rubbed at my tired eyes.

"I'm sure you'd like a place to sleep,” I heard her say.

“That would be wonderful."

Candy Cane held my shoulder with a hoof to still my swaying. "We won't be here for long,” she said. “We don't want to be a burden."

"No worries … please … stay – stay for as long as you'd like." She glanced at the door one last time. “It’s the least I can do for an old friend … and a … maybe a new one, I think.”

I averted my gaze from hers. I knew what she was thinking.

But I still didn’t believe it.

But seeing someone smile … seeing someone in that frozen hell smile made my livid flesh and the graying soul beneath just a little warmer. It felt …

… good. For some reason I’d almost forgotten how that felt. The frozen wasteland air made people numb.

But it felt good seeing Summer Smiles, well, smile.

Still, it was far from being a good day. At least for her. If we took her up on her offer, I was certain that she couldn’t be burdened with our stay. With her sister gone, she had more important things to worry about than a stranger sleeping in her home.

"If you'll let us stick around, I could pool whatever caps, food, or supplies I come across," I added.

Candy Cane nodded. "We'd like to pull our own weight," she offered. "It'll be like old times …"

The mare exhaled with a sigh of relief, hugging her. "That's more than I could’ve asked for." She paused for a moment and scanned the bar with a sour look in her eyes, her savings still scattered across the floor. She let out another sigh, this time scorning the dusty, neglected walls around her.

"This place is just despicable. Sugar would’ve hated to see you coming back to my inn like this. I have empty rooms upstairs, but I haven't cleaned them in months ... ever since I closed this place down, I kind of just forgot about everything we didn’t use."

I waved it off with a hoof. "Whatever you have, we’ll take it. I've been sleeping in metal boxes for the past week. Any bed to lay in is a bed nonetheless."

Candy Cane bowed her head. "Anything is good enough for me.”

Summer Smiles nodded, hesitantly, grumbling under her breath. She wanted the best for her guests.

“Let’s get this pony upstairs before he drops dead,” Summer Smiles chuckled at me.

"Huh?” I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

“He’s been beat up pretty bad.” Candy Cane touched a hoof to her chin. “How he’s still standing, I don’t know.”

“After that sinkhole, I don’t know either, Candy Cane,” I said, rolling my bloodshot eyes.

Summer Smiles waved us forward. “Come on, I’ll show you both to your rooms upstairs.”

“Let me just get my bags.” I trotted over to the door where I left them and enveloped them in my magical grip.

Stars exploded in my eyes.

Fire shot through my nerves - my brain - and I careened face first into the floorboards.

I scrambled and flopped around like a fish out of the water, clawing at the floorboards - my face - something warm trickled down my muzzle -

My eyes shot open and I saw through a pair of darkening windows painted with blood.

I fought the urge to scream as Candy Cane galloped to my side.

Someone beat me to it. Summer Smiles’ scream was a petrol bomb that blew up the inferno inside my skull.

“What the hell’d you do, Red Dawn?!”

I couldn’t answer. There was a drillbit in my brain, and every agonizing second that ticked by it drilled deeper. I groaned, my limbs twitching erratically as my consciousness threatened to sleep forever.

“I’ll never get used to being an earth pony,” I wheezed as the two mares wrenched me back to my hooves.

I saw Candy Cane glare at me through my bloody, squinted eyes. “You don’t have to be …” she said. “Don’t go around trying that until after you’ve slept this thing off!”

“What’s wrong with him?” Summer Smiles asked, wincing.

“He has magical burnout,” she said, grunting as she propped me up against the door behind me.

I gasped for breath, clenching my eyes shut as my brain melted inside my skull. A burnout was like having a muscle cramp. But inside your brain. And I was getting sick and fucking tired of that useless horn of mine.

I shrugged them off, irritated with myself. “It’s … I’m okay. I can … I can walk.”

I took a feverish step forward and nearly fell on my face once more, prompting Candy Cane to lean up against me. A long, drawn out sigh wheezed out of my lips.

"Fucking … stupid horn … let’s try this again,” I murmured as I started for my saddlebags. But Candy Cane held out a hoof in front of me.

“I can get those for you –” she began, but I waved her off and reached for them myself. This time, I curled my hooves around my bags’ straps and hurled them over my back with a grunt.

I looked up, and found that the two mares were staring at me again.

“What?”

Summer Smiles covered her face with a hoof, muttering to herself.

“You’re getting blood on my floor.”

I stumbled around in almost complete darkness, the only light coming from the open door that led to the hallway behind us. I shuffled blindly across the floor, and ran into something solid.

Whatever.

The heavy obstruction that greeted my face with an audible thump rattled and shook. I was too tired to care. All I wanted to do was to find the bed that was supposed to be in that room.

A light switched on, and the obstruction revealed itself to be a dresser. Glancing over my shoulder, I caught Candy Cane’s worried stare, her hoof hovering over a switch on the wall.

“Thanks.”

Candy Cane watched, silently, as I set my bags down next to an old bed that lay beneath a shuttered window. I could hear, faintly, the wind moaning outside.

The air inside was chilly, but thankfully not bone-gnawingly freezing like it was outside, especially with the storm blowing over us. I was glad I was inside that time.

The room was furnished with a table with an uneven leg, a dresser that was missing a drawer, and a cracked mirror. I didn’t bother looking at it. It didn’t take a mirror to tell me that I looked like shit.

I felt like it too.

I was a sorry sight to look at. Candy Cane knew it. She’d toweled me down earlier with a wet rag to clean up the blood. But I still looked like shit, and I really needed a bath.

“I think I got it from here,” I told her as she stood in the doorway. But she didn’t move an inch. The two mares had helped me upstairs, because I was apparently too loopy to walk up a flight of stairs on my own.

Summer Smiles had left to check on the fillies, but Candy Cane had stayed.

I rummaged through my bags, pulling out my Stable 91 jumpsuit. It was clean. I hadn’t worn it since I’d left home. And I wasn’t about to wear my bloody security barding to bed. I ran a hoof up my chest and curled it around the zipper beneath my collar. I frowned, Candy Cane’s shadow still stretching across the floor next to me. I glanced over my shoulder, head cocked.

The mare just stared at me, slightly confused. I coughed and Candy Cane blinked twice.

“Oh … I … okay,” she said, looking away.

‘You can leave, you know,’ I wanted to say. Whatever. I sighed and shed my battered barding. My teeth chattered, rifling the inside of my skull and joining the dull pain that throbbed in my head. I wondered how long it’d take for me to grow out my winter coat. Everyone else but me seemed fine without being bundled up indoors.

With a zip, I slipped into my blue and yellow jumpsuit, the number '91' emblazoned onto my sides.

I turned, and found myself unsurprised. “You’re still there,” I chuckled, as Candy Cane turned her head back to me.

She smiled, faintly. “I’m just here to make sure you don’t fall on your face again.”

I sighed and flopped onto the bed with a groan, laying my head down on the pillow. My eyes fluttered closed. Soft. The blankets were cold beneath my flesh, but the bed was soft. It had been a while since I’d lain down on something like that. I almost felt like I was back at home. Almost. Almost.

I took a deep breath and imagined I was lying in my bed. I imagined Dew Drops lying next to me, snoring softly as I closed my eyes and began to drift off into a peaceful slumber.

Then I felt the air above me shift. My bloodshot eyes flew open and I eeped.

Candy Cane was staring down at me.

“Shit …” I murmured, tucking my legs to my chest as she placed a hoof on my forehead.

“Your fever’s gotten worse since I last checked. Give me a minute.” The mare trotted away, disappearing outside. She returned shortly after with a wet towel, which she draped over my forehead. Candy Cane sighed, “There. Is it cold?”

I shivered, pawing at the blankets under me before pulling them over my numb flesh.

“Y-yes,” I managed, as I felt my headache begin to wane.

“Good,” she murmured, relieved. “That should cool you down. I don’t want you having a meltdown inside that skull of yours.”

“Thanks, doc,” I said, staring up at the ceiling.

She stood there for a few heartbeats, looking like she had something to say.

“What you did earlier … I’m glad Summer Smiles didn’t have to give them her caps. Doodle and Hops mean the world to her,” she whispered.

I sighed, wishing she’d just leave me be so that I could sleep. I mustered through my headaches a lopsided smile, and nodded, but the towel slipped down my face. Candy Cane chuckled, somewhat amused, and tugged it back onto my forehead. I shivered, my muzzle wet with icy water.

“You made me a pony again, Red Dawn,” she said, tenderly, staring into my heavy eyes. Candy Cane nudged my shoulder with a hoof.

“So I’ll help you become a unicorn again.”

I had already fallen asleep by the time the light flicked off and the door creaked closed.

Footnote: Level 6
XP: 250/3450

Chapter 10 - Never Work Alone - Pt I

Dew Drops and I worked side by side, digging our hooves and tools into the machinery that jutted out of the long hall’s steel wall. I finished lubing up the hydraulic water diverter and reached for a wrench to tighten its bolts. But it slipped from my hooves and clattered to the floor. It took more than my magic alone to tighten one of those things, and that mess wasn’t really helping.

Industrial grease was made to lube up machinery, not people. You could've slid my entire body horn-first up a centaur’s ass if you tried, and the bastard wouldn’t have even broken a sweat.

“Fuck.”

Dew Drops spared me a quick glance over her shoulder as she reconfigured the pressure control system to my right. She chuckled, glad that she wasn’t me before returning to her work, her clean hooves clacking loudly against the terminal’s keyboard.

“Didn’t you bring any towels?” she asked, still staring into the terminal screen.

I swung my head to my saddlebags with my hooves crossed. Then I saw that all our towels were bathed in grease. So were my bags.

'Nice.'.

I sighed, muttering, “Yes …”

She didn’t even have to look to know that they were all dirty.

“Any degreaser?”

My left forehoof came to tap my PipBuck’s controls. But I stopped myself at the last moment, glaring at the sticky black hoof that hovered over my PipBuck’s glowing, teal screen.

'Nope.'

Didn’t want to grease up my PipBuck too. Celestia knew that an unlubed PipBuck might be the only thing stopping me from slipping down a poopy, pony-sized pipe.

I figured I’d check my inventory the old-fashioned way. Not like it mattered. My bags were as dirty as I was, anyway. I pulled them close and rummaged through them, tossing our slick towels against the wall and fumbling for the rest.

My ears drooped.

“I think I left it in the supply room,” I murmured, face hoofing. “Fuck,” I swore under my breath at the slimy guck that clung to my face and swore some more when I peeled my greasy hoof from my face.

“Fuck!” I snapped, jumping to my hooves and – "Shit!" I slipped on a black skid and flopped on my belly.

I was going to need a new swear jar.

I stood up on my hinds, glaring at the black Red Dawn shaped puddle of goo that was splattered across the floor.

“Great – just great!” I groaned. “You know what – I don’t even care anymore. I don’t care!” I cried, lathering the black goo all over my chest.

I actually cared immensely.

Dew Drops finally glanced her head over at the squishing sounds I was making with my wet jumpsuit.

“Hold on a ‘sec.” She tapped her keyboard one at time and gave me her full attention. “Do that again – but slower this time,” she grinned, winking at me.

I swiped at her muzzle with a greasy hoof instead.

“H-hey!” she giggled, wrinkling her nose.

I sighed, plopping down on my rump. “I wonder why the MAS didn’t just make a greaser talisman or something.”

“Hmm, out of the budget, maybe?”

I laughed bitterly. “They made incinerator talismans, air-conditioning talismans, water talismans – everything but greaser talismans,” I whined. “How convenient.”

“Looks like you’ll have to go back and get some degreaser.”

I cocked my head at her. “Go back? That’s four levels above us!” I cried.

Dew Drops rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, you big baby. I’ll go with you, then,” she yawned, lowering herself to her forehooves to stretch, summoning a pop from her back. “I need to get the blood flowing in these legs of mine, anyways. We’ve been down here for hours now, haven’t we?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I sighed, pouting like a pony princess with a big muddy stain on her dress.

“Well, the day’s not getting any brighter, come on!” Dew Drops trotted down the hall, motioning me to follow her. I lathered my hooves through my once red mane, loathing the trail of black horseshoes I was leaving behind me with every step I took.

“We’re in a stable, DD. I don’t know what ‘day’ looks like,” I mumbled. “All I know is that there’s a fifteen minute walk ahead of us.” I glowered over my shoulder. “And a lot of cleaning to do.”

We had been there all day trying to fix our level’s water pressure. Everyone else in our shift had already clocked out and gone to bed.

Still, everyone in B block was having limp dick water pressure, because the terminal controlling it on that level was all kinds of fucked. Everyone at B was probably wondering what the hell we were doing.

I sighed. I couldn’t wait to shower all that guck off at 1.5 gallons per minute.

“Well Red, as your teacher, it’s my job to accompany you and guide you along this long, long road.” She paused for a moment, smirking. “To become the best engineer you can be.”

I chuckled, crassly.

“Right. Thought you were gonna say that you’re here to guide me ‘to the fourth floor.’ Fuck me if I forget how to walk,” I drawled, rolling my eyes.

She grinned, bumping my flank with hers. “Of course! Momma Dawn wouldn’t want her little boy to get lost on his way home, now would she?” Dew Drops leaned in and tried to peck me on the cheek.

“Hey!” I snapped, my cheeks reddening beneath the sludge. “I’ve got shit all over me!”

Dew Drops lunged forward and scored a glancing blow with her lips.

“Now I do too!” she laughed.

I clenched my jaw and stared at the floor.

“Screw it,” I mumbled, thankful that the black slime was covering my blushing cheeks. “I could’ve went up myself.”

Dew Drops smiled smugly. “Oh come on, it’s always great to have some company.”

“DD, I don’t need you to hold my hoof … okay?” I looked away. "I forgot the degreaser.” I narrowed my eyes at the mare. “So I have to get it.”

The mare looked straight on ahead as we trotted down a long, wide hall.

“Besides, if you stayed behind, you could’ve finished your work on that terminal. Then we wouldn’t have to be down here for much longer.”

“I wouldn’t have to be down here much longer,” Dew Drops corrected me.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “That’s a good thing, you feather-brain.”

She chuckled, “For me, yeah. But what about you? It’s lonely down here.”

An exasperated groan hissed through my lips as I shook my head, my greasy, plastered mane flopping around and splattering the floor with muck.

“Lonely … sure. I’m only here because I’m your apprentice, anyways.”

Dew Drops looked at me for a moment. Then her ears drooped as she lowered eyes,

“Shit … I didn’t mean it like that, DD …”

She sighed, shaking her head. “I know you didn’t. Yeah, the engineering board assigned you to me but I’m your friend and we’ve always done everything together.”

“But DD ... you don’t even need me down here. I’m the one learning from you, after all.” I snorted, “You can probably redivert the water to B-Block with one hoof and troubleshoot its terminal with the other hoof. And not just with your forehooves. I mean, with your hind hooves, too.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re down here with me for a reason. And that wasn’t because I could do it myself.”

I just laughed at her.

Dew Drops glowered at me. “You act like I’m the Masked Matter-Horn or something!”

“Yeah, but you are. You should be in the classrooms lecturing ponies on bipolar arcanomechanical systems, not getting your hooves greasy at engineering.”

“Mhm.” She groaned, “I’ll start teaching bored teenagers when I learn how to shit rainbows and fart pixie dust.”

I smirked. “Bet you know how to do all that, too.”

Dew Drops wasn’t smiling back. She stared at the floor as our hoofsteps echoed down the hall.

“I … I can’t, Red. I can’t do everything by myself, no matter how good you think I am at doing things,” she said, softly. “I know how to reconfigure a heating talisman to a cooling talisman – but then what? What happens when I’m not at engineering, doing what I do best?”

“Sleeping? I only see you go to your room twice a day.”

She shook her head again. “Oh, Red … it feels … great being with you guys. You guys make me feel needed, wanted – cared about. It takes two to tango. I can’t feel that way alone.”

Dew Drops narrowed her eyes at me as I stared onward down the hall.

“But you … you always go back to your room between breaks.”

“Because I always have a lot of things on my queue!” I cried in protest.

“Ugh, RED! You just don’t get it, do you!?” she snapped.

We both stopped in our tracks as I peered into her glaring eyes.

Dew Drops blinked, shook her head, and looked away.

I frowned, staring at the floor. None of us moved an inch. Not one inch until I put one hoof forward and started walking once again with Dew Drops trailing behind me. We followed a tight, multi-tiered stairwell that ascended to the top, in silence. A few quiet minutes passed and we stopped outside the elevator doors.

I tapped its controls and waited for its car to arrive.

The elevator door opened and we stepped inside. I stared at the elevator’s control panel for a long time, my hoof hovering over the button to the sixth floor.

“Red … don’t you … don’t you ever feel … lonely?” she finally asked me.

I thought for a moment, biting my lower lip.

“Do you?” I asked quietly.

She smiled at me, peering deep into my eyes.

“Not right now.”

A blue forehoof crossed over mine as Dew Drops tapped the number six, holding my gaze. My eyes darted away from her as the elevator car became remarkably warmer.

We shared that ride together in silence for the next forty seconds as the heavy, industrial grade elevator car ascended up the floors.

We never made it up that elevator.

As much as I would have loved to stay … I didn’t … and thinking about it now, I wished that I could have. But I never made it. I left her in that elevator just like I left her out in that blizzard.

I was awake.

My eyes fluttered open at the sounds of hooves clopping against the creaky wooden floorboards. I rolled over away from the muffled voices that were trickling into my droopy ears.

“… burned out,” I heard Candy Cane say, her voice somewhat familiar in my senses as they slowly began to wake. “Girls, he’s just really tired,” she explained to the ponies I didn’t know were there.

Another voice, this one too high pitched to be that of a grown mare, whined, “He’s been sleeping for like five days now!” Whoever that filly was, she was close. Like, yelling into my ear, close. “Doesn’t he get tired of – uhh – being tired?”

“Two days, Doodle. He’s been sleeping for two days, now,” Candy Cane corrected the filly.

Somepony prodded my chest with a hoof. I let out a muffled groan as I buried my muzzle in my pillow. But that did nothing to hinder the hooves that assaulted my ribcage with their merciless jabs. A raspy breath struggled out of my lips as I rolled over in bed. I crammed a pillow into my face in an effort to stifle the poking and the muffled voices that wouldn’t leave me alone.

A voice, gentler and quieter than the last squeaked, “Uh-uh … Mister Dawn?” She sounded a lot like Doodle. It must’ve been her twin sister, Hops.

“Grrr … he’s not waking up!” Hops squawked, her voice cracking. Wait. No, that wasn’t Hops. It sounded more … well, agressive. Like an angry squirrel, if I’d ever heard one. It was Doodle again. "You've been here forever!"

“I guess he’s still sleepy …” Hops murmured, nervously.

I heard hoofsteps clops furiously against the floorboards.

Doodle’s voice cracked viciously, “Okay, that’s it! You wanna do this hard way?” I heard her stomp the floor with a hoof. “We’ll do this the hard way!”

Candy Cane’s voice cut in, “Doodle, wait –”

Hooves slammed into my chest. I sat up, biting my tongue as I choked back a string of curses that struggled for a way out of my throat. For the sake of the children, I merely thought of punting the filly off me instead.

Doodle or Hops – one of the two was crushing my chest with her hooves, grinning at me with Sugar Rum’s blue eyes.

“Wake up, sleepy head!” she shouted at me, her voice like broken glass to my ears. “It’s morning!” I groaned, and let myself fall back onto my pillow, staring blankly at the ceiling with a somewhat renewed sense of clarity.

'Morning,' I thought, 'Morning?' The dim glow of candlelight was all that illuminated my dim room. But it was still dark outside. I wondered, how in the hell those ponies could tell if it was morning or not if it was always night time!? But then again, I didn’t know what morning was … or what the sun looked like … but still!

I batted at the air, eyes still half-closed until the filly groaned, stepped off my chest and walked over to the edge of the mattress. I sat up and looked out the window. I was vaguely amused to find that it was a cool, midnight blue outside.

One of my ears perked as Candy Cane cleared her throat. I panned my gaze across the room and over the monster filly who was prancing impatiently in place at my bedside.

Clinging to Candy Cane’s lower neck and lying upon her back was Hops, her hind legs dangling from sides.

So that meant that the filly that had stomped my chest in was Doodle.

“Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast! Come on, everypony!” Doodle cried, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me violently. With a furious whinny, she hurled herself off my bed and onto the floor with a loud thump.

Candy Cane swung her head between her legs as the filly scampered between them and out the door, leaving us three to the fading echoes of her one-pony stampede. I turned and cocked an eyebrow at the other pale filly that clung to Candy Cane’s back.

Hops grimaced and hid behind a thick curly lock of Candy Cane’s mane before we could even make eye contact.

“Um ... so ... how long have I been out?” I asked Candy Cane as she cooed comfortingly into Hops’ little ear.

“Two days, Red Dawn,” she answered, reassuring the little pony who was still inching her head into her mane.

“Two … days? Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“I was that tired?”

She nodded, “Apparently so; you didn’t even wake up once. You were completely and utterly exhausted. Almost comatose.”

Well, I certainly felt refreshed.

I blinked and saw Hops staring at me again. When I caught her eyes, she turned them away and buried her muzzle in Candy Cane’s mane once more.

“Is she … um, okay?” I asked, rubbing my forehooves together, nervously. Little kids usually had the tendency to stare at people for no reason. I never knew how to react whenever I’d meet the blank stare of some dribbling toddler … but Hops was no toddler. She, like her monster foal of a sister, was reasonably sapient.

Candy Cane smiled once more, ruffling the filly’s mane with a gentle hoof.

“She’s just a little shy.”

The soft spoken filly murmured something through a mouthful of Candy Cane’s mane.

“What was that, Hops?” she asked the girl.

More quiet murmuring. I frowned at them both, but that only made her whimper some more.

Candy Cane chuckled, “You’re going to have to speak louder, Hops.”

“Can we go downstairs now?” the filly asked, one of her blue eyes showing through the strands of Candy Cane’s hair.

“Of course we can, you’re probably starving right now!” she chuckled, looking at her, then at me.

I stared down my chest and heard and felt my stomach grumble.

“Ohh …” I groaned, wincing.

“That means you too, Red Dawn,” Candy Cane said, sounding like my mother. “You’ve had nothing to eat for two days. You should join us.” The mare turned and started for the door, but glanced over her shoulder. “Summer Smiles made applesauce and carrot juice.”

'Applesauce? Carrot juice?' My tongue moistened at the thought of a bowl of applesauce. I rolled out of my bed, stretching out my limbs in a series of satisfying pops. I held my breath and stretched out my spine – “Ahhh …”

I was surprised my legs hadn’t atrophied. I didn't know it was possible for anybody to sleep that long.

I walked over to the broken mirror across the room. I stood upon my hinds and peered into it, running a hoof through my mane with a yawn. I blinked, pausing for a moment. I frowned into the mirror, eyeing my reflections. Something was off. Different.

There was something wrong with me.

I drew my hoof away from my mane and stared at it, scrutinizing it. I leaned into the mirror, eyeballing my mane – my face – my neck.

Goddesses. Not a hair out of place. Not a single hair was out of place. I was clean. I was clean. I dropped to all fours, reached for my collar and yanked the zipper down. My chest.

My entire body. Clean. Spotless.

Even my mane looked brushed.

The blood drained from my face as realization dawned upon me.

I couldn’t have gotten cleaned up by myself. 'That means' … I gulped. The inn was filled with mares. And … someone cleaned me up … some mare saw me … my …

“Oh, fuck.”

Hooves clopped in the doorway.

Candy Cane poked her head inside.

“Red, are you coming?”

“Hrk!” I nearly jumped out of my skin. I swung my head around and saw her standing there in the doorway. “U-uh – uh yes,” I stammered, blood rushing to my cheeks. I watched, suspicion fluttering inside my chest, as I watched her face for an awkward smile – a knowing stare – a wandering eye.

Nothing.

I gulped. “Yes … I’m … coming.”

Candy Cane stared at me for a few seconds. I looked down, and my zipper was still halfway down my chest. My hoof flew to my zipper and I yanked it back up to my collar, a stupid, lopsided grin stretching across my face.

“Okay …” she said, somewhat confused. “We’ll be downstairs.” And she was off.

I watched her tail disappear out the door, my face turning blue. I gasped for air, letting out a breath that I realized I’d been holding it.

“Oh, Celestia …”

I’d seen pictures in the history books – ponies walking around with their backsides uncovered. That was then. This was now. At least in my stable, we wore clothes all the time. And underwear. I was glad that Candy Cane and everyone else I’d seen so far were wearing trousers. Probably because it was cold.

I suppose it was to prepare us for the frozen world above, but it did wonders with imagining what was under someone’s jumpsuit … and made the idea of someone seeing what was under mine, a nightmare.

The only other mare that had seen me naked was Mom. And Doctor Stitches.

But Candy Cane … I grimaced – half remembering her dark silhouette standing in the light of the doorway as I slept.

'Candy Cane saw me naked.'

'Candy Cane saw my dick.'

I started down the hall outside and down the stairs, my shadow dancing against the walls in the candlelight. I kept telling myself that Candy Cane was a doctor, and that it was just as normal and uncreepy as Doctor Stitches giving me a physical. It was the only time Stitches wasn’t a complete stooge during an office visit.

As I climbed down the stairs I remembered that Candy Cane was a nurse. I also realized that my headache had subsided. Must’ve been how I was able to make that distinction.

Then I smelled the applesauce. My nostrils twitched as the scent spirited me downstairs and into the dining area. Sitting at one of the seven tables was Candy Cane, Doodle, and Hops, as Summer Smiles hung a pot of steaming goodness from her mouth. She saw me and smiled, setting the cauldron down upon the table.

“Good to see you, Red Dawn!” she said, somewhat cheerily as the fillies eyed the applesauce hungrily. I could hear the forcefulness in her voice. The pain in her eyes was still there.

Looking at the fillies’ smiling faces, it became apparent to me that she hadn’t told them the truth about Sugar Rum’s fate. She hadn’t told them that their mother was dead.

I suppose it was for the best. Summer Smiles wanted them to be happy.

“I thought I’d treat us all to some fresh food …” Summer Smiles began, pouring the fillies their bowls before pouring two more for Candy Cane and I. “We have enough caps to eat at least twice every other day now, thanks to you.”

I shook my head, staring down at the steaming bowl of sweet, sweet applesauce. “It smells amazing …” I murmured, suppressing a drooling grin.

“Auntie makes the awesomest applesauce, ever!” Doodle neighed, before lunging at her bowl.

“‘Most awesome’, darling,” Candy Cane corrected her.

Doodle stopped an inch above her bowl, frowning until she was cross-eyed.

“Most awesome applesauce, ever!” she added, opening her mouth to lap at the bowl of applesauce.

“Doodle! Wait a minute, young lady!” Summer Smiles snapped, frowning at the filly. “We haven’t said grace.”

Hops chimed in, her voice as soft as ever. “We haven’t said grace since Mom left …”

Summer Smiles stared at the filly, quieted by her innocent remark. She gulped down the lump in her throat.

“For old time’s sake … let’s say grace before we eat. We have to thank the Goddesses for this blessing …” she said, eyeing me, then the applesauce.

“Summer Smiles …” I began, quietly, but she shook her head and took the fillies’ hooves. I lifted my open hoof. Candy Cane just stood there as if she hadn’t heard Summer Smiles say a thing.

We all looked at her in the corners of our eyes. She just stared at her hooves, quietly, waiting for us to continue.

If she was thinking what I was thinking, then I wasn’t sure what to do, either. Back at ’91, I didn’t pray to the Goddesses as much as I think I should have. I looked at Candy Cane, who wore a distant, bitter expression upon her face.

It didn’t look like she did either. At all.

I wasn’t sure if I’d ever even heard the prayer Summer Smiles said next. It made me realize that the religion many of us followed at home was noticeably different in practice outside.

The two fillies echoed her as they prayed. “Dear Princess Celestia; Dear Princess Luna; thank you for blessing our table with family, friends, and the food that we are about to share because of your wondrous, eternal works.”

I felt Summer Smiles raise my hoof, and I did the same as they finished their prayer. “To the Eternal Princesses; your faithful subjects, amen,” they said, together. Not even a second passed after we unhooked hooves when Doodle attacked her bowl in a frenzy of blurring white coat and splashes of yellow applesauce.

I looked back at Candy Cane and watched as her distant expression faded away. At the sight of Doodle’s famished frenzy, the darkness in her eyes caved in to a warm glow.

Candy Cane smiled.

“Doodle, you’re making a mess!” she giggled.

“It’s been awhile since they’ve had anything better than cram or canned bread …” Summer Smiles intoned. I shivered. Canned bread. I remembered the disgusting, tube-shaped, sludgey monstrosities they stored deep inside ‘91’s warehouses. It’d probably be what my stable-mates would have to eat if I didn’t hurry up and get them their water talisman. I pitied them. But I pitied Summer Smiles’ family even more.

Summer Smiles folded her legs across her chest. “I’ll let it slide, this time.” She glared at the filly. “Do you hear me, young lady? Only this time.”

Doodle nodded, her cheeks bulging with applesauce, before she swallowed and gobbled up some more.

Hops, a unicorn, levitated a small spoon and dipped it into her bowl, making an effort to not make any sort of noise whatsoever. She didn’t even let the spoon touch the side of the cracked porcelain bowl.

I looked down at my breakfast, wondering how much it had cost her. The mare noticed I hadn’t even disturbed the surface of my applesauce.

“Eat up, Red Dawn,” Summer Smiles told me, “You haven’t had anything in days.”

I nodded, blankly. Honestly, at that moment, despite my empty stomach, all I could think about was my stable. It was like a pain in my gut that wouldn’t go away. Two days. I hadn’t done anything in two days. Two days. Two days of their rations, gone. All because I was sleeping.

“Heh … right,” I said. I took a spoonful of applesauce down my throat, but the usually orgasmic flavor of golden delicious apples was lost on me. The recently underused bile in my stomach wasn’t the only thing that was eating me up on the inside. Swallowing, I wondered, ‘When is Summer Smiles going to make up her mind?’

'When was she going to hook us up with the Orphanage?'

Somepony cleared her throat, and my eyes darted to the mare sitting next to me. Candy Cane had noticed the turmoil in my stare.

“How are you feeling?”

I turned to her and almost met her eyes. I hesitated and fought back a blush at the mare and her professional, medical hooves. I sighed. I was at least relieved she wasn’t asking what I was thinking.

I finally turned to see her.

“My head isn’t hurting as much anymore, thankfully,” I replied, running a hoof through my brushed mane. I dipped my spoon into my applesauce, before narrowing my eyes up at my horn.

“But I’m not so sure about this bony, vestigial thing on my head.” I was afraid to try it out. I was getting tired of bleeding out of every orifice.

“Oh, it’ll get better, Red Dawn,” she reassured me, as I lifted the spoon to my lips. “You might just need a little bit more rest, maybe a more few days, even.”

My spoonful of applesauce froze in mid-air.

“A few more … days?” I asked, my voice wavering.

She narrowed her eyes at me.

“I don’t want you walking around with a headache, you might have an accident and hurt yourself again.”

Summer Smiles nodded, thoughtfully. “You were really, really loopy when we took you upstairs two nights ago.” She chuckled, “You hit your head on the steps on the way up.”

“I … I don’t remember any of that,” I murmured.

“Exactly," Candy Cane said, "You couldn’t even think straight. You need to rest and keep your head down for a bit … If you’re going to be traveling with me, I’d rather have a conscious pony watching my back than an unconscious one.”

I shook my head, my ears drooping. “You don’t understand,” I began. “I’m running out of time. My stable’s running out of time, and the more time I spend just sitting here …” I trailed off.

“You should listen to her, Red Dawn,” Summer Smiles remarked. “She’s been at your bedside almost by the hour for nearly two days now, trying to keep your head from exploding.” She glanced at the mare who was staring at her bowl of applesauce in quietude. “Don’t ruin all her hard work by hurting yourself some more.”

I sighed, shaking my head once more. I pulled up my PipBuck, eyeing the date at the top of my screen. It’d been almost a week and a half since I left home. I looked up from my PipBuck, my face alight in its teal glow as I caught Doodle’s curious eyes.

“You’re from a stable?” Doodle asked through a mouthful of applesauce.

“Yes. I’m from Stable 91,” I replied, nodding solemnly. “It’s not too far from here. Maybe sixty, eighty miles out?”

“Ohhh, so that explains the glowing Pip-thingy around your leg!” she grinned. My eyes glanced at the PipBuck that was wrapped around my right foreleg.

“Oh this little thing?” I asked, raising my leg for her to see.

Doodle nodded, excitedly. “Well what are you doing out here? My mom says that ponies have it good down there.” The filly looked around her. “Better than what we have here in this dump. Mom says ponies who go inside stables never come out.”

Summer Smiles frowned at her, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“For good reason, I think,” I said, rather quietly.

Doodle looked saddened, the ravenous scourging of the applesauce in her bowl slowing to a halt. “Do you miss your home?”

I looked down at my hooves.

'Home …'

“Everyday, Doodle. Everyday.”

She pursed her lips. “Don’t you want to go back?”

I chuckled, softly. Candy Cane and Summer Smiles were watching me silently. “Of course I do! Of course I want to go back.”

“Well what’s stopping you?”

For a moment I felt like I was at the emergency meeting at ’91 again, standing before the Overmare and hundreds of my other stable-mates.

I exhaled a trembling breath. “I can’t just go back. Not yet. Not until I’ve finished what I started out here.”

“Oh …” she trailed off, staring down at her bowl. A heartbeat passed, and her face lit up again. “Well … maybe when you go back, you can take us with you!?”

I stared at her, my mouth suddenly dry. I wouldn’t be going home for a long time.

Summer Smiles clopped her hooves together.

“Now, Doodle, you’re asking too many questions. Red Dawn still hasn’t even finished his applesauce yet.” Doodle groaned, rolling her eyes. “Maybe when he has a full tummy you can ask him some more, okay?”

She nodded, disappointed, and proceeded to finish her breakfast. I figured that I should've done the same. The applesauce was delicious, but my mind was trailing off elsewhere, off to places and to ponies I wished I could see again.

Stable 91 was my home, but that inn was the closest to a home I was sure I’d ever have in the frozen wasteland.

Chapter 10 - Never Work Alone - Pt II

When we finished, Doodle and Hops – well, Doodle, really, were ready to go and do whatever annoying little children do.

Summer Smiles rose from her chair. “Candy Cane, I’ll get the dishes. Why don’t you go take the girls upstairs and play for a bit?”

Candy Cane’s ears perked, her smile beaming.

“Alright, come on Hops, let’s go upstairs,” she told the filly, levitating her onto her back as Doodle scampered up the steps. Summer Smiles took our bowls and started toward the kitchen behind the bar.

I watched her for a moment as she walked away, hesitating, briefly. Then I chimed in, “Do you need help?”

Summer Smiles laughed, almost dropping the bowls she had carrying on the tray around her neck. “Do stable ponies even do their own dishes?”

“Well, I …”

Her grin grew wider.

“Uh … that’d be a big fat no,” I said sheepishly, as she shifted on her hooves. “It can’t be hard. It’s not like I’m trying to refuel a flux capacitor or something,” I insisted.

Summer Smiles’ gave me an amused smirk. “Well I’ll be damned … a stallion who wants to do dishes.” Summer Smiles motioned me to follow her.

“What, stallions don’t like doing the dishes around here?”

“Eh, speak for yourself, stable boy,” she laughed. Summer Smiles waved her hoof to and fro, saying, “Most I’ve seen would rather just kill and screw things.” She smirked. “I mean, if we’re talking about the Blood Brothers, that’s all they’re good at.” Summer Smiles tugged at a bucket of melting snow on the counter and poured it into the sink. Some of the slush still remained, and it sunk to the bottom of the chilling water.

I chuckled, darkly. “I ran into a few of them on the road to Poneva. They’re a bunch of pricks.” I remembered the unruly gang of red-clad stallions. Pricks. All of them. Summer Smiles was grinning at me again. I snorted, “What, is that your image of what a stallion’s supposed to be like?”

“Well, I never said that,” she began, hoofing me a rag and a bar of soap. “I did say if we were talking about the Blood Brothers.”

I took the rag and wrapped it around my hoof, before dunking one of the bowls into the slushy water. From the moment I walked into her home, I had a feeling that mare didn’t like stallions too much. “Well, say we’re not talking about the Blood Brothers. What are wasteland stallions like?”

She chuckled. “I don’t know everything about what you stable ponies do, but if I got a cap for every stallion that’s tried to rob me or sleep with me, then I’d be the richest damned pony in all of Equestria,” she said, splashing a bowl in the sink before lathering it with soap.

Well Summer Smiles was a rather pretty mare, to be honest. I could see why that’d be the case.

“All the big merc bands and all the big bad baddies are led by mean, pony killing, pony screwing bad boys.”

“You seem pretty passionate about that, Summer Smiles,” I said, cocking my eyebrow.

She chuckled, bitterly. “Sorry, heh. I just grew up with a lot of girls in the family. Not a single boy where I’m from, except my father. He always wanted a son … poor pony never did get one. He always talked about how he wanted one to keep the family’s name running.”

Rinsing off the bowl she’d been working on, she placed it on the counter on top of another rag. “So Sugar Rum became the boy in the house and left to go do merc work because I was meant to run this inn and make cram sandwiches all day long from one stupid traveler to the next.”

She sighed as she began soaping another bowl. “That’s the wasteland life, I guess.”

“You wanted to be a merc too?”

“Goddesses, no,” she sighed. “I just wanted to be out of the house, doing my own thing.” Summer Smiles sighed again. “The only mares I’ve seen who do anything big are Winter Blossom and Avilign Crème. But then you’ve got Red Eye’s power trip in Fillydelphia, Mister Topaz and Deadeye with their raider army, Sterling and his ultra-advanced pre-war tower, Alder Blaze and his huge plantation, and Captain Foxtrot leading one of the most powerful merc bands in Equestria, and blah, blah, blah.”

Summer Smiles pursed her lips, frowning at the sink. “What are Winter Blossom and Avilign Crème if not blips on the radar compared to those bad boys?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure Winter Blossom could attest. She has her own private army, apparently.”

“Yeah? And Sterling has an army of robots and a tower built to withstand a Goddesses’-damned balefire bomb!” Summer Smiles scoffed, “He’s been around since I was a filly, and nopony’s ever bucked down the World Tree’s doors since – well – ever.”

“Well if it was built by Stable-Tec, it’s bound to be bomb proof.” I dunked another bowl in the water. “Back at the stable we had an Overmare. It was pretty traditional, I guess. For a mare to be in charge, I mean. We’ve always had an overmare.”

“That’s how it should be.” She paused for a moment. “That’s how it was back in the day.”

I gave her a bitter laugh. “Well, like some sour old bastard told me in Dusktown, Equestria’s not the same Equestria it was two centuries ago.” I sighed, “Being out here for two weeks has made me realize it’s in no shape to return to it, ever.”

She nodded, regretfully. “It’s the sad truth. We’ve got monsters wandering the streets, pony or not, and no sun or moon or sky. This place is fucked … and everypony knows it. That’s ‘cus everypony’s been fucked by the wasteland in one way or another ... ”

The mare noticed that I’d stopped scrubbing. I let out a breath I was keeping in with a sigh. She was right about that.

Summer Smiles nodded at me, knowingly. She didn’t even have to ask about what I was thinking. Grunting, she dunked the large cauldron she used to make the applesauce and started scrubbing. “What was it like in your stable?”

I thought for a moment. “It was ... different … better. It was good there. We had it good at ’91.”

“Had?” she asked me. I nodded, solemnly. “I’m sorry about your stable,” Summer Smiles said, softly, “It must’ve been better beneath the earth than up here getting picked off by carrion.”

I told her about daily life in the stable, how we had an orchard and hydroponic gardens, schools, and all the good things you’d never find above ground.

Summer Smiles gazed hopelessly at the freezing water that sloshed around her hooves.

“I wish I could give Doodle and Hops a better life. Better than … this,” she said, looking around her. “When Doodle called this place a dump … she was right. This place is a dump. This entire wasteland is a dump. It’s a miracle my sister and I’ve been able to keep them from swimming in shit for so long. Usually kids their age lose their innocence earlier than that. They don’t know how to shoot a gun, they don’t know how to fight to kill - hell, they don’t even know how to fight …” Summer Smiles shook her head, swearing under her breath as she flipped the cauldron over and began lathering its outer surface with soap.

“My father was a stable-dweller. He came from Stable 95, a few hundred miles or so out of Poneva. He told me the same things you told me. You didn’t know how to fight or kill in places like those … there just wasn’t any need for such horrible things. Me? I’ve always wanted to live in one. Sugar Rum has always wanted to live in one.” Summer Smiles gazed at me earnestly. “I know Doodle wants to live in one too.”

I finished with the smaller dishes and placed them on the counter. “Ah, Doodle and her questions ...”

“She wasn’t joking when she asked you if you’d take us with you back to your Stable, Red Dawn,” Summer Smiles giggled.

I snorted, chuckling softly. “There aren’t that many ponies I’ve seen out here that want something better. Everyone else I’ve ran into in Poneva was just completely fine freezing out in the shit-stained snow.”

“She’s an adventurous little filly,” Summer Smiles giggled.

I snorted, an amused look stretching across my face. “She’s definitely something else. She nearly stomped in my rib cage this morning.” We both laughed as we finished the last of the dishes.

Summer Smiles sighed, rinsing a pot clean, her smile fading away. “I just wish I could make it happen … those girls deserve better than this.” She looked at me with troubled eyes. “A lot of ponies do.”

“There just aren’t that many ponies who want to do something about it,” I said, leaning against the counter as she finished in the sink.

There was a long, silent pause. She pulled the plug at the bottom of the sink and the dirty water began to swirl down the drain.

“Candy Cane …” she murmured. My ears perked. “Tell me again ... why are you traveling with Candy Cane?”

“I need her. I need her help. She knows this city and how to survive in this wasteland better than I do,” I replied. “I wouldn’t last a few days out in the snow by myself.”

Summer Smiles nodded, resting her hooves on the counter as she stared contemplatively at the tiled wall above the sink. “You sure about that? You look like a pony who can take care of himself.”

“No … I made it here by chance, by pure luck. I’ve nearly died four times now. I can’t do this alone.”

“Neither can she,” the mare said. “She needs you as much as you need her.” Summer Smiles turned her eyes low. “When she came here two days ago, she looked at me differently. I was a stranger to her again … the things she’s been through, Red Dawn … they’ve changed her. She isn’t the same mare I saw so many years ago. She’s changed so much.”

“How long have you known her?” I asked.

“Sugar Rum picked her up half dead in the snow five years ago. Brought her back here and we nursed her back to health. Cane lived with us for almost a year. The fillies loved her, Sugar Rum loved her … I … loved her. Then she disappeared and never came back.

“We had a long talk yesterday, to catch up on the time we lost. She’s changed, Red Dawn. She’s harder, more calloused … more scarred. This wasteland … it ruins people. It ruined Candy Cane. She needs help. And you and me? We’re all she’s got, whether you know her as well as I do or not.”

I gulped and hung my head. When my friends stepped out the stable doors, we too were responsible for each other. But I let Amber Fields down. I let Star Glint down. I was afraid to lose another pony I cared about to that nightmare, let alone Candy Cane who’d already lost so much.

I thought back to when we were praying earlier, and the brooding look she had on her face. It was as if she couldn’t stand the mere mentioning of the Princesses, let alone pray to them.

Summer Smiles stared at me, a sliver of hope glowing in her eyes.

“You know how to use a gun?”

I nodded. Well, sort of. I was a terrible shot without SATS. I couldn’t lead moving targets for shit.

“Good. She’s like family to me, Red Dawn. With my sister dead, she and the girls are all I have left. You’re traveling with her now, so keep her safe. She doesn’t have that many friends anymore. You and I are the closest she’ll probably get … and I think you’re a good pony.” I looked down at my hooves, wanting quite badly to disagree with her. “I don’t think I’ve seen any since I met Candy Cane,” she murmured.

The mare pushed my chin up with a hoof so that we could see eye to eye. “You keep her safe,” Summer Smiles repeated, “Or she’ll disappear like she did two years ago.”

When we finished, I was left to my own devices. I sat in my room, inspecting my gear, my clean sets of jumpsuits and my security barding, my pistol, and whatever ammunition I had left. As I studied my pistol, trying to remember how to take it apart to clean it, I heard giggling in the room down the hall.

I stuck my head outside, and looked through the cracked open door at the end of the hall. I saw the pirouetting shadows of Candy Cane and the two fillies as they laughed and danced and enjoyed the innocence Candy Cane had lost.

Those two fillies were the only joy she had left in her life. Because everything else had been wrenched away from her and replaced with terror and suffering. But that was the wasteland. And the wasteland was everything but a better life, or a happy place, or a place to call home.

I returned to inspecting my pistol, but I left the door open, their warm laughter echoing down the hall, and into the room, and through my ears.

After dinner, I tried sleeping, but found that I couldn’t. I guess those forty-eight hours of beauty sleep rejuvenated everything but my horn. I rolled around in bed, staring at the ceiling, and listening to the wind howl outside my window. Everyone else was asleep. Summer Smiles, the girls, and Candy Cane. Or so I thought.

Among the lonely, frozen wind that moaned outside, I could hear, faintly, the sounds of pots banging downstairs. I closed my eyes once more and tried to get some shuteye.

'Wait.'

My eyes shot open. There was someone downstairs, my body trembled with a cold sweat.

I cracked my door open and squinted through the darkness; everyone’s doors were closed. Everyone else was asleep.

Someone was downstairs. Someone was inside the inn.

I stumbled to my bedside dresser in almost complete darkness and pulled out my pistol and its holster, wrapping it around my neck. I stepped a hoof out the door and I saw that the lights were off downstairs. I gulped, flipping the safety and chambering a round. Gun drawn, I started down the steps, my mouthbit clenched between my teeth.

My eyes darted to my EFS. For good measure, I entered SATS and scanned the area in front of me. I bit my lower lip. Negative hostiles. The only blips on my EFS were the four ponies upstairs. But then again, my EFS couldn’t tell me who was at what elevation …

'But … who?' I wondered, 'Who the hell was down here with me?'

Frowning, I reached the dining area and beamed the bar with my PipBuck’s teal glow. At the far end of the room, yellow shafts of light spilled out of the kitchen’s doorway and into the darkness of the empty bar. With my mouth bit still clenched, I approached cautiously as the person inside the kitchen continued to rummage through the cabinets.

I stacked up around the corner, my heart pounding in my chest, ready to pump someone with lead. I gulped. And spun into the doorway.

“Candy Cane?” I gasped, narrowing my eyes at the mare whose head was jammed into the innards of the cabinet under the sink.

She eeped, jumped, and banged her head beneath the sink with a heavy thump. Candy Cane moaned and wrenched her head out of the cabinet and fell flat on her flank, rubbing her head painfully as her eyes darted toward me.

“Red Dawn? What … what are you doing down here?” she asked, eyeing the pistol clenched between my teeth.

“I - uh, I was about to ask you the same thing,” I stuttered, relieved that I hadn’t stitched her up with bullets.

Candy Cane groaned, wincing as she rubbed her aching head.

“Shit … sorry about that ... I thought someone broke in or something,” I said under breath, holstering my pistol.

The mare thought me crazy.

“That door’s got a three inch metal bar over it, a chain, and a deadbolt. Not even I can pick through that. Well, maybe the deadbolt, but the rest …” she trailed off. “You’d need a minotaur or a bomb to take that door down.”

I chuckled sheepishly. “Well that’s reassuring. I can sleep at night without being afraid someone’d rob or put a knife through me.”

I flipped my pistol’s safety and holstered it, and held out to her a hoof. She stared at me for a moment, a thin smile creasing her lips before she took my hoof with hers and I pulled her to her fours.

“Thanks,” she breathed.

“You going to be okay?” I cocked my head at her as she rubbed what I hoped wasn't a bump on her head. “I’m sorry I scared you, I didn’t know you were down here.”

“It’s okay … I didn’t think anypony would still be awake at this time,” she confessed, tapping her forehooves together.

I glanced at my PipBuck’s screen. 0221 hours. I narrowed my eyes at her once more.

“Seriously, what are you doing down here by yourself?”

The mare fixed her gaze at the cabinets around her, avoiding mine.

“I was just organizing the pots, the dishes, and the silverware,” she replied in an even, casual tone.

I wasn’t sure how much narrower my eyes could get.

“At … at this time of the night?”

She shrugged, staring at the tiled floor.

“I don’t see why not,” Candy Cane replied, tersely, not meeting my eyes. In quite a hurry, she trotted to a cabinet and the sounds of pots being dragged across wood and tile returned to invade my eardrums. “I thought the blizzard would drown out the noise.” She glanced over her shoulder and smirked. “Guess I was wrong.”

I snorted, “Heh, well, I’m usually just a light sleeper.”

Candy Cane grunted as she pulled something heavy beneath the sink. Exhaling and wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead, she sat up once more.