Much to my surprise, the cider tasted like apples.

Oh laugh if you must at my discovery. Lily certainly did, much to my embarrassment. But I had never imbibed alcohol recreationally before that night. I was expecting an atrocious flavor akin to the ghastly chemical aroma I associated with the sterilizing wipes I had used in the Stable’s clinic, not the sweet and fruity flavor that washed over my tongue amidst a swarm of fizzy bubbles.

“Ready for another round, you two?” Sequoia’s bushy mane bobbed up and down as she trotted jauntily to the side of our table, still beaming pleasantly.

Lily smirked as she ground the remaining nub of her cigarette into an ashtray. “The way she’s hitting that cider, I think you’d better bring her two.”

I started, lowering the bottle back to the table and dabbing at my lips with a hoof. “Oh! E-Excuse me! I wasn’t expecting…” My hoof reached up to brush my mane aside as I made a painful admission, “I don’t have any caps.”

Lily’s pierced ear twitched, and her eyebrow rose dangerously. “You’re trying to hire a merc without any caps?”

My hooves tapped together sheepishly as I looked up at her. “I… was hoping that we might be able to come to a suitable arrangement.”

Lily’s grin returned, wrinkling the delicate black lines spiralling across her face. She turned to our waitress, “Bring us both another round and put her drinks for tonight on my tab, Sequoia. We got business to discuss.” Sequoia nodded congenially and cantered off before Lily looked back to me and asked, “What you got in mind, babe?”

I sighed, hoping that I wasn’t about to lose this opportunity. “Well, you’re right. I can’t afford to pay you upfront. Not yet.” A thought occurred to me, something I should have tried to figure out much sooner. “How many caps do you usually charge for this sort of thing, anyway?”

Her wings lifted beside her as she shrugged, “Depends on the job. Depends on how hard I have to work to keep you safe. Depends on how many ponies you want dead.” Her smirk took on an unsettling and wicked overtone as she locked her eyes with my own. “Depends on how much fun I have while killing them.”

My jaw slackened at those words. She was a pony who would kill for fun. For her own amusement… She would do worse, as well! I had seen it in the way she had toyed with the raider outside of Mareon after blowing his horn off! Goddess, was that what the wasteland had been doing to us?

A wry chuckle escaped her lips before she took another drink of her beer. Setting it back upon the table, she folded her hooves underneath her chin to lean forward and ask innocently, “You do realize what you’re getting into, right? I mean, you don’t hire a mercenary to water your begonias.”

“I know. I…” I had to wonder if this was really what I desired. There was no turning back if I accepted this course in life. I’d be forsaken in the Goddess’ eyes and besmirching the honor of my medical training. It was one thing to diagnose the sickness of the world, but to actually take up the scalpel in my magic and prepare to cut… Would Mother and Father have wanted this?

There was no emotion in her eyes. No grief or joy or excitement or lust in her voice. She simply asked for confirmation, as if the matter were no more complicated than deciding on beans or corn for dinner. “So go on. Say it.”

My lip quivered as my thoughts raced. This path would be a boon, for both my sister and myself. What right did I have to not take it? I couldn’t deny my sister’s wishes any more than I could deny my own.

Even with my pain the tears wouldn’t fall, instead welling in my eyes only enough to blur my vision but never enough to spill over my face. The shallow pool of my anguish felt a single bubble rise out of its murky depth, and my rage gently boiled through to the surface.

Mizani had said that eyes were windows to the soul. What was there to see in the blood-red irises before me? What did she, in turn, see in mine? My first words were as a quiet confession; as if in my foolishness and ignorance of this world I believed I had something to apologize for. It was a simple sentence, and yet capable of lifting such a great burden. “I want them dead.” The tiniest of gasps escaped my lips before I tried to swallow it back down. It was as futile a gesture as any of my failed attempts to reign in my heart’s desire.

Lily nodded, her gaze never leaving my own. The brutally simple acknowledgement combined with her intense stare provided all the encouragement I needed. My true feelings had finally found an ear other than my own, and I had finally found the strength to voice them. I had found in her eyes what I had been searching for: sympathy.

My hooves rose anxiously to the table as I pleaded my case to the judge, jury, and executioner sitting across from me, allowing the raw and pent-up emotion of every tragedy I had faced to provide all the evidence needed for my claim. My words began slow and soft, but every passing moment lifted more of the burden from my being and prompted me to simply give in to that terrible ecstasy. “I want them dead. I want them to hurt and then I want them to die! Slavers took my people! Griffins killed my Father! And raiders desecrated and burned everything that was important in my life!” Heads were turning to stare across the room, but I paid them no attention. I needed to admit this; as much to her as to myself. This was a confession; more cathartic than any admission I had ever made. And Luna help me, I was making it to a complete stranger. “All I have left is my… my sister.” My voice softened momentarily at the thought of Nohta, matching the dying din of the cantina, but the flames within my breast had already taken hold. My last words were shouted as I broke down before Lily’s piercing stare. “And neither of us deserved anything like this! I want everyone that had a part in this to pay for what they’ve done to me!”

The saloon had noticed my shouting, honestly it would have been odd if they hadn’t. Nopony within the establishment made a sound. The only movement was a single bottle of beer floating in a cloud of magic, only just visible out of the corner of my eye as my face fell into my hooves.

Lily didn’t condemn. She didn’t mock me for my display. She only stared silently, drinking in my emotional outburst in lieu of her forgotten beverage. Her only discernible responses were the barely noticeable way that the corners of her eyes fell and the outraged way that her voice shouted at the tables next to us, “Go back to your drinks assholes! This is between me and her!” The hurried scuffling of chairs barely edged out the returning din of excited voices and clinking glasses.

I felt like I should have been sobbing. I felt like the tears should have been pouring down my face like babbling streams of grief. Instead the only displays of discomfort emanating from my body were the twisted grimace that had forced itself upon my face and the small sniffles that never graduated to full on sobs.

Lily’s voice was soothing and comforting; it was the same erudite tone she had used after I had killed Powder to keep her safe. “Hey, hey listen to me.” I obeyed that simple command and raised my wet eyes to meet her own, hoping against reason that she might be able to shield me from the harsh world one more time.

But instead of acting as my shield, she chose to give me a sword. Her hoof pointed across the table as she spoke quickly to reason with me. “All of what you’re feeling right now? All of that anger and grief? That’s good. That’s noble. That hate means that you care. Hold onto that.” The barest hint of unchecked rage seeped into her voice as she struck her hoof against the table. “Don’t you dare let that go, Candy.”

“I never wanted this. I never wanted any of this!” I buried my face in my hooves once more, trying to will the tears to come. I still wasn’t crying… I begged the Goddess; pleaded with her to let the tears come. But no matter how hard I squeezed my lids shut, nothing came. My body refused to entertain my grief any longer.

Lily was insistent. Despite this being my personal problem, she was acting as if someone had wronged her. “Candy, look at me. This world doesn’t give a damn about us. The only way to get what you want is to tell this world to go fuck itself; you’re not putting up with its shit any more. If you go down this road then there’s gonna be a lot more blood on your hooves than that one bitch rotting outside the town gates.” She let the weight of her words sink in before asking in a gentle but determined voice. “Are you willing to kill for what you want? Can you do that?”

“I…” That was it, I realized. I’d have to seek my solace in other emotional avenues. I remembered my sister’s question beside a midnight fire. I remembered her devotion to simple pragmatism for the sake of survival. I remembered the way I had felt beside a fire underneath a moon peeking out from beyond the clouds. But most of all, I remembered the pain of losing Father, the indignant and righteous fury that burned within my breast, and the solemn vow I had made to help as many as I could so long as I still drew breath. If this was the path that Luna had set for my life, then I would walk it. The time for pitying myself was over. It was time to act.

I sighed heavily, and my eyes hardened as I steeled myself for my answer. My voice was cold and rigid at first, but quickly built in passion as the flame fanned my emotions onward. “I am. The ponies and griffins that did this are filth. They deserve to die! The world would fare better in their absence!” I slammed a hoof on the table, resulting in a satisfying thud as one of our empty bottles fell over and rolled while I continued, “I want my revenge!”

Lily’s response was to lean back in her chair and rub a hoof between her eyes as she chuckled. “Spirits damn it, Margie. You set this up good.” The cavalier response took me off guard, irritating me greatly. I was about to rebuke her when she leaned into the table and jabbed her hoof at me in an accusatory fashion. “You’re on a revenge quest? You? The doctor that saved all those ponies without asking for a single fucking cap in return? The scared little filly who was nearly brought to tears when she killed a raider just to keep me from getting a little dinged up?” Gone was the furious serenity that I had seen earlier, replaced with a questioning and judgemental glare. “Are you really ready for this?”

She dared question my resolve? After all that I had told her? After every painfully embarrassing emotion had splayed itself across my features for her to see? I couldn’t hold back the irate frustration that leapt into my voice, “They destroyed my home, took my people, and killed my Father! What other motivation do you think-”

She held up a hoof, silencing me. In a voice of deepest calm, she spoke plainly, and without emotion. “I’ll do it.”

My lips moved, but I was too shocked to speak.

She continued, taking advantage of my silence to whisper in that eerily calm voice. “I’ll do it. I’ll take the job. No payments. No caps up front. Just cut me in on the loot so I can keep myself stocked on ammo.”

I blinked, stunned, and stammered out a confused question. “W-Why?”

She raised her bottle in a cocky toast, even as the crestfallen corners of her eyes betrayed an inner heartbreak. “You said the magic word, sweetheart. I got a soft spot for good folks who’ve been wronged.” She took a long draft from her bottle, downing most of the beverage before placing it back on the table and nearly whispering, “And the desire for revenge is something I can relate to all too well.”

She leaned forward in her chair, bracing a hoof against her knee as her wings stretched out behind her. “But… there’s a catch, Candy.” I found myself staring intently at her while she reached for the little box of cigarettes on the table. “See… I don’t work with anyone unless I’m absolutely positive I can trust ‘em. So we gotta get past that first.”

This was my chance! I nearly had it! I couldn’t let it slip through my hooves now! I could already feel the flames of my anger dying as the winds of curiosity scattered the coals. “W-What do you want?”

Dragging the box to the edge of the table, she used her hooves to procure one of the smokes and pin it in place behind her ear, speaking as she worked. “I got a system, see. Been using it for years now. The way I see it, there’s really only three good ways to get to know somepony.” She stopped fiddling with the cigarette and eyed me across the table. “Now, I think they’re all good fun, but I always let the other pony decide which way we figure each other out.”

A test then. That made sense, and I was always good at tests. I nodded quickly, eager to be on with it. “What do I have to do?”

Lily’s eyes roamed over my body uncomfortably. Her arrogant grin returned in full force as she spoke, “For your sake, I’m gonna recommend that you not take this one. Option one is for us to fight each other. No weapons, just hooves.”

I scoffed as my face wrinkled in disgust. “Fighting? Really? How does that let you know anything at all about somepony?”

She leaned in and whispered to me in a sage tone, “You’d be surprised at how much you can learn by watching how somepony moves in a fight. They come alive, then. It’s like they finally realize that nothing else in the world matters. Everything they are is laid bare.” She leaned back in her chair and grabbed her drink between her hooves, “You just have to know how to look for it.”

I rolled my eyes, “Hmph. I’ll pass.”

She took another swig before depositing the nearly empty bottle back on the table and grinning widely. “Good call. There’s only one way I want to mess up that mane of yours, and fighting ain’t it.”

Confused, I cocked my head to the side and furrowed my brow. But before I could puzzle out the meaning of her words she continued with a bit more excitement in her voice, sounding remarkably like a foal unwrapping a birthday present. “So, that leaves us with the other two options. Option two is simple. We get shitfaced together.” She held her beverage up in a toast in my direction, taking another long drink before setting the empty bottle down and grinning smugly in my direction. “I tell Sequoia to bring out the good stuff and then drink you under the table.”

I snorted derisively. “Alcohol, seriously?” Surely there was a better way to establish trust than mutual imbibement of socially accepted poison.

She just grinned and shrugged, “The truth comes out when you’re plastered, sweetheart. Everypony knows that.”

I was almost afraid to ask at that point, but felt the need to soldier on. “And… option three?”

She grinned wickedly as her wings began to stretch behind her. She slowly leaned over the table as her crimson eyes bore into my own uncomfortably before tracing down my side. I shifted warily in my seat and curled my tail a little tighter into my lap, feeling rather like I had inadvertently backed myself into an unfamiliar corner.

In a sultry murmur, she offered up her last suggestion. “Oh, this one’s my favorite. I take you upstairs and fuck your brains out.”

My mind froze. My jaw dropped. Heat flooded my face. It was a full five seconds before I managed to stammer out a shocked response. “W-W-What? You want to fu- THAT!? Mares don’t do that with each other!”

She blinked in confusion as her lips pursed in mirth, and failed spectacularly to hold back her amused snort at my expense. An indigo hoof rose to her face before she reared back from the table, laughing hysterically and beating her wings against her chair’s back. “Bahaha! You… you think…” Her other hoof clutched her barrel as her entire body continued to convulse with her bellowing guffaws. “Ha ha! Oh… oh shit! My fucking sides…”

The nearby tables were looking at us again; wondering what the commotion was, no doubt. I crossed my hooves in front of myself, pointedly staring at the wall while my embarrassment continued to build. Lily calmed marginally a moment later, wiping a tear from her eye as she chortled and stared at me with an aggravating grin spread across her tattooed face. “You fuckin’ serious!? Ha ha! Oh fuck…”

I huffed as my mind made up for lost time. “There’s no need to mock me with such ribald depravity! Your licentious sense of humor isn’t helping anything!”

Her chuckling died off as she leaned over the table once more and continued to tease me in her husky voice, “Candy, I’m not even gonna pretend that I know most of those words, so I’ll focus on the ones I did understand.” I turned to eye her warily, hopeful that she’d simply apologize and reveal the real third option.

Instead she batted her lashes and cooed seductively, “I ain’t joking, sugar. You ever been with a pegasus? Come upstairs with me and the only words you’ll be able to say will be ‘oh,’ ‘fuck,’ and ‘yes.”

Goddess… She… She wasn’t joking at all, I could see it in her eyes. My mind flailed nervously, desperately clutching at the first straw I could find to dissolve the tension that hung in the air and buy time. “H-how would we… how would that tell us anything at all?”

She got up from her chair, and slowly circled around the table to close the distance between us. Her voice was a breathy whisper of purest melted chocolate, “Because whenever I’ve brought you to the edge I’m gonna hold off until you tell me everything I want to know.” That smirk returned to her features as my breath caught in my throat. Nopony had ever looked at me like she was doing. How close was she going to get to me? She batted her lashes one more time as she closed the gap. “You don’t need to fight it, sugar. I’ll take care of you.” She held a single hoof halfway between us, waiting for me to take it. “Come on. Let’s g-”

“Don’t fall for it, sweetie.” Luna had sent my savior in the form of our waitress. “Yeah, she’s got a nice flank, but she’ll love you and leave you just like that!”

Lily finally relented, rolling her eyes as she groaned and flapped her wings aggressively, and turned to the red and green mare setting our drinks on the table. “Sequoia, you are such a plot block!”

I finally had a chance to breathe, gasping to fill my lungs with the smoky air as the two of them squabbled. Sequoia was setting our next round on the table, rattling off an increasingly long list of names that I didn’t recognize. With every name Sequoia’s glare grew a little harsher, causing Lily to recoil slightly as she bore the brunt of the verbal assault.

Lily was only becoming more and more exasperated with every added moniker. She leaned towards our waitress in a conspiratorial manner and spoke in a hushed whisper. “Sequoia, come on! I told you that us getting together was gonna be a one time thing!” She accentuated her words by taking to the air and flapping her wings with gusto, “I’m not the kind of pony to stay in one place! You knew what you were getting into!”

The two of them continued to bicker and argue over their scandalous tryst, oblivious to the shocked questions racing through my mind. This entire town was crazy! I couldn’t help but wonder how many ponies there were that thought this way. Did Margarita think… Oh Goddess, she hadn’t been joking earlier either! And she had set me up with…

“Option two!” I shouted decisively, draining the last remnants of my old cider and taking up the fresh one in my magic. “I’ll take option two!”

Lily landed to face me, looking extremely disappointed. Sighing heavily in resignation she turned to Sequoia and muttered, “Two more bottles of beer, two more ciders, one bottle of Stalliongrad, and two glasses for shots.” Sequoia trotted off to retrieve the order, and Lily shouted at her as she slid back into her chair, “And give us some privacy this time!”

She directed her attention back to me, taking her beer between her hooves and grumbling, “Well that killed the mood.”

This was all so different from what I had expected! How could they be treating such a salacious act as if it were the height of normalcy!? In my confusion, I latched onto the only explanation that made sense. This all had to be some sort of elaborate prank! Margarita was getting me back for the misunderstood glance in the clinic! Or… or maybe I was simply thinking too much. I didn’t really have enough information to make any sort of judgement at all.

Curiosity got the better of me, forcing the question from my lips even as the blush on my face grew to an uncomfortable level. “Do mares really… with other mares?” A wry snicker from another table reminded me to keep my voice down. I shuffled in my seat, raising my good hoof to cover my face as I slunk into the chair and tried my very best to turn invisible.

Lily pulled her cigarette from behind her ear, lighting it in another fluid motion of hooves and flame. “You seriously didn’t know that?” Her eyes studied me as she inhaled slowly. Her eyes never left mine as she blew a dissipating plume off to the side and raised a single eyebrow. “Forget the stable, which rock did you crawl out from under?”

But… But the Lunar Mandate wouldn’t allow for… I couldn’t help but stutter as the pegasus before me confidently defied something I knew to be a simple truth. “Th-that’s not how… There are rules against…”

The smoke curled away from her hoof lazily, disappearing against the background of her wild mane as she snorted derisively at my beliefs. “Ain’t no rule against having a good time, sugar. This is the wasteland. You find love in whatever hooves, wings, or claws will hold you.”

My brow furrowed in confusion. “Claws?”

She nodded calmly, “Sure. I hooked up with a griffin a few years back. He was fun for a while, but he always wanted to be in charge. Doing the same thing over and over just gets old.”

“I didn’t think that ponies and griffins…” I groaned and rubbed my temple as I remembered the topic at hoof. “Ugh… Luna would be mortified at the contents of this conversation.”

For whatever reason, she found sufficient cause to giggle at that. “Heh, that’s kind of a weird way to look at it.” She took a swig of her fresh beer before continuing, “But if Luna were still alive then I’m willing to bet she’d be a lot more pissed about some of the other shit going on right now.”

My curiosity was piqued. “Such as?”

She puffed on her cigarette again before asking, “I’m getting the feeling you don’t really know what’s going on in the wasteland lately, do you?”

Was it really that obvious? I sighed in frustration, the corners of my mouth falling with my admission. “My ignorance is being made more apparent with each passing moment, it seems.”

She nodded, rubbing her chin in thought. “So you need somepony to tell you what’s going on. You’re not just looking for a merc to fight for you, you’re after somepony to travel with you, teach you a few things, and watch your flank.” Her head tilted slightly as her eyes drifted downward, a sly grin creeping over her face. “I can certainly do that.”

Wait… “That was innuendo, wasn’t it?” My tail curled into my lap again as my voice rose in agitation. Every indignant breath that left my lips helped push the slowly encroaching smoke back to Lily’s side of the table. “I… What I don’t need is somepony making lewd comments and bawdy suggestions every few moments!”

A third voice cheered playfully just behind my shoulder, “Atta girl! Show her who’s boss!” I started, turning my head to see our barmaid with her discolored tray and an assortment of bottles balanced upon her back. Sequoia moved past me, and began placing the bottles upon the table as Lily leaned into her chair and threw a foreleg over the back casually.

Lily was shaking her head and puffing on her cigarette, muttering inaudibly under her breath, but Sequoia ignored her to smile and wink in my direction. “Girl like you doesn’t have to settle for a tribal, you know. There’s a perfectly nice gentlecolt over by the bar that-”

“Sequoia!” Lily slammed a hoof against the table, causing the glasses and bottles to gently clink together. “Why don’t you go talk to that buck then? Get lost already!”

Sequoia’s muzzle rose haughtily in the air as she huffed and turned to walk away. “Hmph. Be sure to pay your tab before leaving, Lily.”

Lily shook her head and shrugged apologetically in my direction. “Sorry. If I had known that mare was gonna be this much trouble I never would have…” Her crimson eyes drifted to the side, following the waitress as she left. Her head tilted before she bit her lip and sighed. “Actually, yeah I still would have. Dem earth pony hips, y’know?”

I rubbed a hoof against my temple as I scowled. “Are you always so vulgar?”

Her eyes returned to me before she smiled and continued her teasing. “Sweetheart, that’s part of the deal with me. I never turn down an opportunity for a good time.” She jabbed a hoof in my direction as her grin widened. “And you can act all indignant if you want to, but I know what I saw in those baby blues.” She ground her cigarette into the ashtray and winked lasciviously at me. “You’re not fooling anypony.”

Oh, Goddess… she was starting to flirt again. This mare was relentless! There had to be some way to get her to stop! I stammered, searching for the words while trying to avoid her eyes. “W-Why do you keep doing that? You don’t have to-”

Her sultry murmur silenced me, drawing my eyes back to hers like a magnet to steel. “You are absolutely adorable when you blush, sugar.”

Heat flooded my face as my eyes shot wide. “C-Can we progress to the- to this trust exercise?”

She chuckled, waving a hoof dismissively in my direction. “Fine, fine, have it your way.”

Her hooves reached out to the large bottle, tilting it with practiced precision to pour a measure of the clear liquid into the small glasses. “Okay,” She began, a tinge of excitement entering her voice, “to do this the right way, you can’t use magic. You gotta take the shot glass in your lips and throw your head back! And since we pissed Sequoia off, she brought us a warm bottle. So you’re gonna wanna drink this shit quick. Warm vodka sucks.”

I shook my head, pleading with the dirty ceiling in a low whisper. “Luna help me…”

“Haha! No amount of praying is gonna get you out of this one. You ready? On three.” She lowered her head to her own glass, grinning maniacally as she waited for me to do the same. Resigning myself to my fate, I took the small glass between my teeth; though not without feeling rather awkward and sheepish.

Lily tapped her hoof against the table’s surface thrice in quick succession, and on the third tap I lifted my head to allow the horrid taste of charcoal filtered alcohol to wash over my tongue. I nearly gagged as the foul liquid reached the back of my throat, and only just managed to swallow it down before my face contorted in displeasure. The vodka burned a wretched trail down my esophagus as my body shuddered in reaction, and as I extracted the glass from my lips in a scarlet bubble I couldn’t help but gasp for air. The fading taste of alcohol evaporated from my exposed tongue while Lily giggled at my discomfort.

She waved a hoof at one of the bottles sitting in front of me. “Ha ha ha! Drink some cider, quick! It’ll wash the taste out!”

My magic found the suggested bottle in front of me, and without thinking I upended the beverage. Cool, delicious, apple-flavored relief drowned out the vehemently putrid flavor of the vodka, and I was finally able to speak once more. “That was utterly foul! Why would you ever drink that!?”

Lily cackled in glee, clutching her barrel with both hooves and flapping her wings wildly against the back of her chair. “To get drunk! Duh!” Her hooves grabbed the bottle of horrendous liquid and began pouring out two more shots. “Don’t worry. The first one always goes down hard. After five or six more you won’t even care about the taste!”

“Five or six?” My eyes widened in apprehension, and through a dusty window I caught a glimpse of light in the sky. The moon was peeking out from beyond the clouds again. As I took the shot glass between my lips once more, I couldn’t suppress the thought that The Goddess was having a bit of mischievous fun at my expense.

My scientific foray into the cumulative effects of imbibed alcohol on my mind and body had yielded startling results. Not only did the vodka’s flavor become less abhorrent with every successive drink just as Lily had predicted, but the little beeps and boops from my Pipbuck were absolutely hilarious. Bereft of any music and feeling the desire to listen to something upbeat, I had taken to flipping through the tabs and fiddling with the settings of my Pipbuck; giggling at my own melodic ingenuity. The corners of my blurring vision turned the most delightful shades of blue, green, amber, and white as I played my little fetlock-mounted instrument. Unfortunately, the tiny letters and numbers in the interface were becoming difficult to read unless I concentrated really hard on them, but the adorable little unicorn mare on my screen looked to be very happy. Especially with the animated bubbles popping over her head and the dopey grin plastered across her face.

I’m not entirely sure if I imagined that last bit or not. My memory of that night is somewhat fuzzy.

I wasn’t the only one amazed by my musical brilliance. Lily was giggling softly as she complimented my prowess; her speech still as articulate as when I had first entered the bar. “Ha! You are absolutely plastered! Are you sure you got all of that?”

Having just finished playing a particularly satisfying set in the electronic tones of my Pipbuck, I turned back to one of the two indigo pegasi sitting across the table and nodded emphatically. “Of coursh! I am fully capable of carrying a convershation while conversating. Red Eye runsh Fillydelphia!”

Both of the pegasi answered me, each mimicking the movements of the other as they lit up a pair of cigarettes and grinned in perfect unison. “Yep. He employs one of the Talon merc companies as enforcers to keep all the slaves in line.”

I continued eagerly, feeling rather like I was a filly in Ms. Happilee’s classroom again. “And the Shteel *hic* ‘angers-”

“Mostly just care about collecting tech.” Both of the Lily’s puffed on their cigarettes and nodded as they leaned back into their chairs. “I’m surprised you turned down their offer.”

It took some concentration on my part, but both of the blue mares soon fused into one pegasus before me. I smiled at the confirmation of what I was about to say, even as my brow wrinkled in confusion. “Why zat?” I leaned forward into the table, supporting my heavy head with a hoof against my cheek.

She gestured towards me with a hoof before shrugging with her wings. “Eggheads like you usually love that sort of shit. Why didn’t you take the offer?”

My eyes closed as I shook my head and tried to steady myself against the table. Of course, with the table moving from side to side that was rather hard, but I bravely persevered for the sake of scientific advancement. “Ugh… no. That’s… I couldn’t do that to Nohta. She deserves more than *hic* more than that. And besides... Bright Eyesh didn’t give us a choice. We’re lucky to be alive.”

She chuckled, even though I wasn’t trying to be funny. It was nice of her to try and make me feel better. “Ya, I can’t believe you got away. You should be dead.”

The frankness of her assessment took me by surprise. I leaned back into my chair and held a hoof to my mouth to stifle my giggles. “Haha! Yeah… We need a lot of help!” Reining in my amusement, I sought an opportunity to better prepare myself for the future. “Anything else I should be ‘ware of?”

Lily shook her head and spoke in a dismissive tone. “Nah, not really. Most folks avoid this desert like the plague. There’s not really that much out here to draw anypony in.” She puffed on her cigarette again before adding, “Besides, with as smashed as you are I’ll be surprised if you remember any of this anyway.”

Despite my drunken stupor, I recognized that something didn’t add up. I reached a hoof out to gesture at her, managing to only knock over two empty cider bottles as I pointed. “So whabout you? Why’d you come ‘ere?”

Her face fell in an odd mixture of emotions I couldn’t quite make out. “I’m… looking for somepony.” She downed the last remnants of her final bottle of beer and fixed me with a surprisingly intense stare. “Hey, how about we get out of here? You look like you could use some fresh air and we still have a job to do for Margie.”

Oh Goddess, I had completely forgotten about that! I pushed myself into the back of my chair and blinked several times as the room spun around me. “Wharwedoin?” I held a hoof to my head, trying to steady the room as Lily slid out of her chair and donned her saddlebags.

Sliding her revolver into a holster slung low across her shoulder and slinging her rifle into position along her back, she turned back to see me still swaying in my chair. Chuckling again, she hooked a hoof around my own and pulled me out of the chair; steadying me so that I didn’t fall over. Her voice playfully chastised me as she coaxed me to my hooves. “Come on, lightweight. This way. And grab the vodka! The night’s not over until the booze is gone!”

Lily tossed a small bag of caps on the table amidst the bottles and lifted my saddlebags onto my back as I wobbled and levitated the vodka from the table in my shaky magic. She nodded her head towards the door and explained our task. “We’re gonna send a message. Remind this town of what’s going on and who’s got their back while we clean house at the same time.” I followed closely behind her, gracefully bumping into three or four of the chairs and tables that jumped into my path.

I inspected the nearly empty cantina as I stumbled behind her. Only a hoof-full of patrons remained; every one of them sitting alone as they nursed their drinks. Sequoia, Willow, and another serving mare were busy wiping down tables as the bartender cleaned a glass. Lily flared a wing in his direction, and he tipped his hat in response. At the movement of her wing, I was presented with an unobstructed view of the single white flower adorning her flank. Remembering the recent fiasco brought about by inspecting another mare’s cutie-mark, I quickly focused my attention on the floating bottle of vodka and asked, “Clean housh?”

She stopped at the swinging doors, holding one open for me as she nodded in the direction we were headed. “Kill a few raiders. Beat some info out of the last one alive. Use that info to help you out.”

My ears perked up as I stepped onto the crumbled asphalt of the main road through town. The night air was cool enough to shock some clarity into my fuzzy mind and send a slight shiver through my underdressed body as I gasped and questioned her. “Raidersh? We… we’ll be *hic* fighting?”

She was laughing again as she trotted up on my right and slowed to match my shaky gait. “Haha, no! You won’t be fighting. Just me. You just sit there and look pretty, okay?”

I couldn’t help but grin at the compliment, even if I knew she was wrong. “You- you don’t have to… You really think I’m pretty?”

The broken road crunched under our hooves as she winked at me. “Hell yeah. You’ve got a serious ‘sexy nurse’ thing going on. And the way you healed those folks after the attack was pretty cool. Doctors are hot.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. Rather than answering I opted to focus my gaze on the crooked yellow lines painted on the crumbled road, using them to guide my path through the moonlit town. A cool breeze blew my mane to the side, washing over my coat and coaxing another shiver from my chilled body.

Before I knew what was going on a blanket of feathers and steel had draped itself over my side, pulling me into the warm pony walking alongside me.

I gasped at the sensation of cold blades along my barrel, and shoved Lily away with a hoof. “What are you doing?”

Her wings fluttered as the black whorls on her face twisted with her perplexed gaze. “Keeping you warm.” She shrugged as if her intent should have been obvious. “I don’t want to wait around any more, I’m ready for some action.”

My eyes widened in shock. She couldn’t be serious! “Wh-What!?”

Lily stared at me as her brow raised and her head cocked to the side in confusion. After a moment she broke down in a fit of laughter, stomping a hoof against the road as she cackled at the sky. Calming herself, she wiped a tear from her eye and raised her hooves defensively in front of her. “Ha! Uh, ya… Shit, that came out wrong. Let me try again.”

She raised a hoof to her chest and spoke earnestly, “I’m your bodyguard now, right? If you catch a cold then I’m gonna be guarding a sick mare in bed, and that’s just gonna be boring. I don’t want to have to wait until you’re better to get started on this job.”

She sat on her haunches and adjusted the rifle slung across her back with a wing. “Look, as much as I’d like to, I’m not gonna make a move on you right now. You’re drunk as all fucking tartarus. And sexing up a mare, no matter how cute she is, while she can’t think straight just isn’t honorable. No Thunderhooves is gonna do that. You don’t need to worry.” Seemingly as an afterthought, she added with a cocky grin, “Besides, you’d probably just pass out as soon as I got you in bed anyway.”

I pursed my lips as I tried to understand her words. Curiosity won out over my other emotions. “Thunder- *hic* -hooves?”

Lily nodded. “That’s my tribe’s name. I’m a Thunderhooves pegasus.” She continued in a tone that was half-comforting and half-chastising, “Hey, I’m supposed to keep you safe, right? Then let me do my job. You don’t want to get sick, do you?”

My mane fell in my eyes as I examined the road and contemplated her offer. I reached a hoof up to brush the pink strands out of the way as I tried to think of a suitable answer.

She stepped closer to me, adjusting the rifle on her back once more but making no overt signs of intended physical contact. “Trust goes both ways, Candy. You gotta trust me if we’re gonna be putting our lives in each other’s hooves.”

She did have a point. I had already lain useless for several days on end, and certainly didn’t relish the thought of being bedridden again so quickly. I nodded slowly, “O-Okay.”

She smiled and turned to the side, lifting up a wing and waiting for me to join her. Another shiver galloped through my body, providing ample encouragement as I stepped under the improvised blanket that wrapped itself around my barrel. The feathers and steel were still cool to the touch, but the pony they were connected to was warm and soft like a blanket.

She continued our advance through the town, guiding my wobbly gait as she pulled me alongside her and spoke in a calming tone. “See? No big deal. I’m just keeping you from getting sick. We’ll get you some barding tomorrow morning so I don’t have to literally take you under my wing.”

I grinned sheepishly as she pulled me closer to her. The embrace wasn’t exactly a hug per se, but it did feel nice. And it had been a long long time since anyone besides my sister had hugged me. I cleared my throat and whispered apologetically. “Thank you. I shouldn’t *hic* snapped.”

I felt the ripple of laughter echo through her body as she snorted in amusement and dismissed my apology. “Don’t sweat it. I have sorta been making passes at you all night. It’s understandable.”

My eyes fell on her exposed chest and neck, “Aren’t you cold, too?”

She shook her head lightly as we walked together. “Nah, I’m a pegasus. We don’t get cold as easy as you earthers and unicorns. We used to build cities in the sky, after all.”

Her words drew my attention to the wing draped over my side, and the glinting blades that stretched out along her feathers. With the moon’s light catching them, I was able to discern just how many pieces of razor sharp metal lay directly along my exposed body. Every primary and secondary feather had its own blade covering its leading edge, and the foremost portion of her entire wing was encased in an articulated cutting surface that ended in a hard stabbing point jutting out from her first feather. I found the weapon oddly beautiful in the way it combined form and functionality, even if I was mildly confused as to how she could fly with the device. And more than mildly uncomfortable with its proximity to my naked flesh.

A sliver of my anxiety creeped into my voice as I questioned the wisdom of our precarious position. “That ish a lot of blades. You’re not going to slip and cut me, are you?”

She chuckled at my question, raising her head in a cocky expression. “I’ve been training with Love and Tolerance since just after I got my cutie-mark, sweetheart. I only cut what I’m trying to cut.”

A tiny ray of moonlight passed over us as we turned down a smaller road that had fared no better than the main highway. “Are you going to *hic* cut the raidersh?”

Lily nodded before glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. “Cut, shoot, maybe bash in a head or two. It’ll be fun. You just lay low and let me handle it, okay?”

We were walking straight into a fight, and for the first time since the Caravan I wouldn’t have Nohta at my side as I did so. “If we’re gonna be fighting, I’d feel better if my sister were with us. She’ll be crossh with me when she learns what we’ve done without her.”

Lily’s face twisted in a smirk as her wing gave me a little squeeze, “Your sister, huh? Is she as cute as you?”

What!? “No!” I jabbed a hoof into Lily’s shoulder, prompting her to lift her wing and release me from her grasp while my slurred words echoed off the ancient structures all around us. “No! Absholutely not! Direct your lasshivvv… your lasssivivvy… your lewd suggestions my way if you musht! But Nohta *hic* off limits! I’ll not have you pestring her with-”

Lily held her hooves before her and snickered at my reaction. “Wait. Hold up… That is what sets you off? I can embarrass the shit out of you all night if I want to, but I just barely hint at doing something with your sister and you finally grow some balls?”

I stomped a hoof on an intact bit of road, nearly falling over as I no longer had a warm body to lean into. My thoughts did a marvelous job of jumbling themselves together in a confused heap, producing a rather embarrassing exclamation before my inebriated mind could sort them out. “She… You… I don’t have balls!” Heat flooded my cheeks as I realized the words that had left my mouth. “Oh Luna…” My face flushed crimson as my hoof covered my lips.

Lily fell onto her haunches, flapping her wings to maintain balance as one of her forelegs covered her laughing face. “Haha! Oh… oh shit!”

“It’s not funny!” My tail swished angrily as I glowered at her.

Her giggling fit died down as she rose to her hooves and pointed a single hoof in my direction. “You’re cute when you’re mad.”

I ground my hoof into the rubble of the road, furrowing my brow in frustration as I pleaded with her. “You just… No flirting with Nohta, okay?”

She closed her eyes and raised her hooves in a pose of purely angelic innocence. I could nearly imagine the halo glowing above her pierced ear and wild mane as she nodded. “No hitting on the little sister, I got it.”

I took the opportunity to drive home my point. “Promish me.”

She remained seated on her haunches while her forehooves performed a series of gestures I wasn’t familiar with. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

I cocked my head to the side, unsure of what I had just witnessed. “What?” Couldn’t she already fly? And who in their right mind would waste a perfectly good cupcake?

She pulled her hoof away from her eye and winked at me, “It’s an old swear, sugar. I promise. Now gimme that vodka, we’re almost there and I’m dangerously sober.”

I eyed her warily as I floated the bottle over to her in a shaky bubble of magic. She snatched the bottle out of the air and upended it in her hooves. My eyes widened as I watched her drain the contents until only a few drinks were left.

Lily lowered the bottle and wiped her muzzle with a hoof as her wings flapped excitedly behind her. “Ahh! Good shit!” She held the bottle out to me, shaking it lightly as she grinned. “Here, kill it off if you want. We’re almost there.”

Well, I reasoned, there wasn’t any sense in letting it go to waste… I lifted the bottle from her hooves and brought it to my lips, taking a healthy swig before the wretched taste caught up to me. I swallowed down the vile substance and floated the rest of the bottle back to her as my hoof dabbed at the coolly evaporating moisture on my lips; an interesting contrast to the warmth spreading through my belly. “Ugh… I can’t get the taste off my tongue.”

Wordlessly, she took the bottle in her hooves and downed the last remaining dregs. Nodding appreciatively, she packed the bottle into her saddlebags where it clinked against more empty glass. She trotted back over to me and threw her wing over my shoulder. Lily thumped her hoof against her chest, and in a voice that I was certain would carry into the homes surrounding us she boldly declared, “There! Now we’re sisters of the bottle! Truly, a bond that cannot be undone!”

I snorted before I could stop myself, and at her playful wink, devolved into a fit of giggles. “You… You’re ridiculoush!”

Lily only smiled and continued guiding me down the road. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, babe.”

We rounded another corner, finding a row of pre-war houses with peeling paint and windows full of spider-web cracks. Nearly every house had a wooden sign propped up in the front yard; each one depicting a different colorful picture. One was a poorly painted bottle of pills. Another: a fairly good rendition of a revolver. Yet another sign showed a delicious looking and brightly colored donut, complete with sprinkles and a cup of coffee on the side.

Lily’s tone turned serious as she glanced at me out of one blood-red eye. “So… What’s the deal with your little sis?”

I sighed and shook my head, “Ponies aren’t typically very fond of her. I’ve been trying to keep her out of harm’s way ash much as possbull. But… ”

Lily’s gaze returned to the row of houses before she answered casually. “Well, maybe you should rethink that.”

I huffed, positively perplexed at the suggestion. “What? Why would I ever do that?”

Lily flapped her free wing as her blood-red eyes questioned me. “She’s a grown mare, right? Able to make her own decisions? She helped you kill The Pyro and get away from Bright Eyes, sounds to me like she can take care of herself. Give her a little freedom, see how she handles it.”

“She… I…” Had I been babying my sister? She had certainly proved herself capable of acting on her own when she, ah… acquired the medicine for my treatment. And as loathe as I was to admit it, I had needed her to do that. She had found the only acceptable route; the lesser of two evils, as it were. Perhaps it really was time for me to start treating her as an equal.

Lily shrugged her shoulder, staring at the next house down the road. “Just something to think about.” The two of us stopped in front of a small house with a wooden porch and candles burning in a large window. The sign propped up next to the door was a stylised heart containing a series of joined distaff and spear symbols in every possible combination.

My eye’s widened as I realized where I had been led. “Is this… Did we come to a...”

Lily nodded, “Yep. It’s gonna be a real shame to shoot up the best brothel in Mareon, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.”

I saw an opportunity to finally gain the upper hoof on my companion. I nudged her in the ribs with a knee as I smirked. “Ahem… best?”

An excited grin spread across her features, “Oh yeah, totally the best. This is where I learned how to do the Trottingham Tickler and the Fillydelphia Fiddler in the same night! This place is great!” I shook my head and rolled my eyes as it quickly became apparent that my little plan had backfired spectacularly.

I raised a hoof to my head to rub my temple. “You… I was… Dear Luna, do I even want *hic* know?”

She pulled her wing away from my side and leaned her rifle up against the wooden sign, adjusting her revolver’s holster as she winked at me playfully. “Well, if you had taken option three you already would.”

Heat blossomed in my cheeks once more as I covered my face with a hoof. Lily chuckled to herself, then flapped her wings excitedly as she looked at the house and rubbed her chin. “Alright, so here’s the plan. This place is a haven for members of The Bard’s gang. This should be pretty simple; that whole gang is soft. Most of them are completely worthless in a fight. We’re gonna take ‘em down and beat some answers out of the last one breathing.”

My vision was becoming unfocused as I stood in the chilly night air. A subdued flow was overtaking the world again, causing everything to drift slightly to the left before snapping back into its proper place. “Are you shure ‘bout this bein’ the right place?”

Lily nodded emphatically, and for the first time that night I detected a slight slur to her speech. “Totally. Margie did her research. She even paid off Crossfire to change his patrol route through town for us. No guards to make things messy. This is gonna be a cakewalk.”

I sat down, noting how amusing the numbness in my lips was. I fought through the ensuing giggles to ask a pressing question. “But how c’n you be shure this is *hic* right place? What if Margarita was wrong?”

She scoffed at my question, stretching out her wings and popping her neck. “Margarita? Wrong? I’ve only ever known her judgement to be wrong once. She’ll be right about this, don’t worry.”

Memories of a hastily gulped potion floated to prominence in my mind. “Are we… we talkin’ ‘bout *hic* shame pony?”

She grinned; a terribly patronizing expression that I instantly loathed. Her voice was smooth and calming as she spoke. “You don’t have to go in with me if you don’t want to. But I owe Margie a favor, and I can’t leave town until I do this.”

My pistol jostled in its holster as I stomped my hoof and stood up on wobbly legs, “No! No, I… I owe her, too. I’ll help. I’m just retishent to be fighting. ‘Specially without Nohta here.”

“Well, don’t worry. You won’t be.” I frowned as she jabbed a hoof in my direction. “You’re a lightweight; drunk as hell. You probably couldn’t hit a barn door as much as you’re swaying.”

The world was spinning in an almost pleasant manner, and a comfortable warmth had spread through my belly. My shoulder didn’t hurt in the slightest, and even my magic was returning; if slowly. Truly, the only problem in the world was just how casually my winged companion had dismissed my combat prowess. I vowed then and there to show her just how capable I was!

The infuriating pegasus in front of me was sitting calmly and waiting for my response with a lackadaisical grin plastered all over her smug face. But unbeknownst to her, I had worked up an elegant response that was as scathing as it was subtle. “I… I could too! I could *hic* so many barn doors! You don’t even… After we do thish, can we get shomething to eat?”

Her features softened as a genuinely warm smile replaced her standard smug grin; and then she surprised me. A gentle chuckle bubbled out of her throat. Not a snide, snarky, or smug cackle carrying the sharp edge of cockiness. Not a rough guffaw poking fun at my ineptitude or embarrassment. Just the comfortable and light-hearted sound of real mirth that one would share freely with close friends. “Haha! Yeah, food sounds great! Relax, sugar, all I need you to do is keep one of ‘em alive long ‘nuff for me to get some info.”

She stepped closer to me, and asked in a voice of earnest curiosity. “If I shoot one of ‘em in the leg, can you keep ‘em from bleeding out?”

My mind was torn between the realization that she wanted me to heal a raider, of all ponies, and the comprehension that she was attempting to develop an actual understanding of my capabilities. I quickly realized what was more important, and responded accordingly. “I… You wound me! I’m the best docotorr in this town! Of course I can do… What are we doing?”

She winked and stepped closer to me. “Just follow my lead, okay?” The world suddenly tilted off kilter, but an indigo hoof against my shoulder held me steady long enough for the spinning to stop. Lily cocked her head to the side and asked, “How’s your acting? I have an idea.”

I sensed an excellent opportunity to prove just how capable I could be. I threw my head back, glued my eyes to the sky, and held a hoof to my heart as I expounded on my exceptional dramatic résumé. “My...acting skills *hic* phenommmnamel! One time... even got the role of a tree in my classh play!”

She flapped her wings excitedly, no doubt revelling in the good fortune of being accompanied by a star such as myself. She removed her hoof from my shoulder to resume scratching her chin while her pierced ear twitched. “Well, I need you to look excited but embarrassed. Can you do that?”

The world spun vehemently as I nodded my head and tried to respond, “I...” But now that I was free from the vice-like grip of her comforting hoof, I soon found an appreciation for just how hard the ground was when it came into contact with my posterior. Looking about myself, I came to a profound understanding and voiced my discovery with no small measure of wonderment. “I fell down! Haha!”

Lily shook her head as we laughed together. She offered me an indigo leg, which quickly found purchase around my white fetlock, and pulled me back up to my hooves. As the world finally stayed still at the zenith of my ascent I realized that her questioning eyes dominated my field of vision, and that her muzzle was inches from my own. I quickly extracted my hoof from her own to cover the blush that flooded my cheeks as I turned my head and snickered at the realization that I was completely and hopelessly inebriated.

Lily was ecstatic, flapping her wings and cheering as she pointed at my face. “There! That! Do that!”

I found that if I studied the ground at my hooves, it was much less likely to spin out of control. “D-Do what?”

Lily was grinning from ear to ear, “Be cute!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I was forced to make an admission. “I… I don’t know how to do that!”

She draped her wing over my back once more, pulling us together side by side and guiding me straight up to the house’s door. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go. And whatever you do, don’t say anything.” I nodded in agreement as I was all but forced to lean into her body to keep my balance, and tried to rein in the tittering fit that ensued from my amusement at the absurdity of the evening.

She rifled through her packs and pulled out a small plastic bottle. Unscrewing the cap, she tossed two yellow-orange tablets onto her tongue and chewed quickly. At my questioning gaze, she smirked and answered plainly. “Buck. Never fight fair if you don’t have to.”

Lily reached up to the door with a hoof and rapped on it loudly. I could hear movement on the other side as somepony undid the numerous latches and locks securing the portal from the outside world. Before they were done Lily craned her neck around to place her lips an inch from my ear, and whispered in a sultry murmur, “How about a kiss for good luck?”

My hoof found my face again, desperately trying to hide the intense reddening of my cheeks as I turned away from her and snorted at her forwardness. At precisely that moment the door opened, revealing a devastatingly handsome ivory unicorn stallion with piercing emerald eyes set in a welcoming but questioning gaze.

Lily wasted no time making her move, though her words were slurred quite a bit more than earlier and she seemed to be having some sudden trouble keeping her head aloft. “Hey there stud! My marefriend and I are in need of a shtallion! She’s got an itch needsh scratching and my tongue can’t reach it! Care to help a couple ‘o desperate maresh out?” She finished her spiel with a firm squeeze of her wing, eliciting a tiny squeak from my lips as I as gasped in surprise. Dear Goddess, she was so salacious! It was all I could do to stifle my nervous laughter behind a hoof.

A corner of the stallion’s mouth turned upward as he stepped to the side and gestured for us to enter. “Sure thing, girl. You want some ‘help’ too?” Luna forgive me, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the way his corded muscles rippled underneath his coat. His eyes caught my own, and for the briefest of moments I honestly believed that my face was going to catch flame. A muffled trill of amusement chimed through my throat as I turned away and brushed my mane out of my face.

Lily and I stepped over the threshold together, and my hooves found cool tile underneath of them. Despite the gentle motion of the spinning house, I was able to discern the general layout of the building’s interior with a cursory glance. Directly to my left was a large wooden dining table and kitchen, but the rest of the living space was decorated with only the finest in slightly ruined upholstered furniture, classy wooden and glass dinnerware cabinets, a single glass coffee table adorned with bottles of booze and cocktail glasses, and a not-so-shaggy brown carpet that looked as if it had lain down in defeat about a century ago.

Lily nodded her head and spoke in a voice that was perhaps slightly too loud for being indoors. “Oh, I need lotsh of help! Lots and lots! She’s good with *hic* magic bu’ shometimes that just can’t cut it, y’know?”

A purple eighth note floated away from the stallion’s horn before bursting with a pleasant sounding ring. “That’s what we’re here for, ladies.” Two more stark-white unicorns, one male and one female, slinked into the room wearing nothing more than confident smiles and bedroom eyes.

An ivory earth mare, this one wearing striped pink and black form fitting socks, followed a moment later to nibble at the first mare’s neck and murmur seductively, “Mmmm, I love repeat customers.” Even with the copious amounts of alcohol, that was too much for me to handle. I pointedly stared at the table and tried to remember why in Equestria I had willingly walked into a bordello, of all places.

Lily stuck her bottom lip out and pouted. “Oh, is that... *hic* ish that everypony? You don’t have any more stallions? More mares would be nice too, for that *hic* for that matter.” Her hoof dug into her saddlebags, procuring a bulging sack that jingled and jangled with the universal siren call of bottle caps. She nudged at my side with a hoof as she cooed next to my ear, “I’m willing to pay extra if you show her a really good time!” Goddess, she was trying to embarrass me to death!

The first stallion walked into my field of vision and shrugged, never taking his eyes off of me even as he answered Lily’s query. “Sorry doll, this is the whole shebang. The rest of us are out of town.” His horn lit up, gripping my saddlebags in a dark purple glow. “Why don’t you let me take that for you?” My tail curled around my flank at the sudden magical touch, but without any acknowledgement on my part he slid my bags underneath Lily’s bladed feathers and set them by the door.

“Oh… Thish is it?” Lily snorted once in wry amusement, and every pretense of her drunken charade evaporated just like vodka from my lips. “Well, this is gonna be quicker than I thought.”

Lily’s wing lifted from my body, and at the abrupt cessation of physical contact I looked to see her staring hungrily at the ponies in front of us, a wicked grin quickly spreading across her face. Without taking her eyes off the quartet of, ah… ladies and gentlecolts of the evening, Lily spoke in a husky whisper, “Sorry about this, Candy.”

Without any further warning her forehoof found my shoulder and shoved hard, flinging me across the room and behind the wooden table, where I landed on my side with an inelegant grunt, “Oof!” My head was still dizzy, and the room was spinning like a top, but the cool tile felt surprisingly good against my wounded shoulder. It also felt good against my cheeks, washing a comfortable chill over the remaining blush covering my face. Lily was supposed to be the best, right? She knew what she was doing. I decided that laying still for a moment to let the world calm down wasn’t an altogether terrible idea.

The first stallion cried out in alarm. “Whoa! What’d you do-” *Blam* Lily’s revolver roared, blasting a wretched hole into the stallion’s leg. He fell over, shrieking and clutching his knee in agony, “Oh FUCK!” I had a nearly clear view of him through the forest of wooden table and chair legs as he writhed and squirmed on the floor, smearing his blood over the carpet as he struggled to keep his wound elevated.

The other two mares and remaining stallion gasped, their eyes wide in shock as Lily launched herself in their direction. All I could make out from my angle were the bright colors and fuzzy shapes that flashed through the kitchen’s furniture; rearing white legs, fluttering blue wings, and arcs of splashing crimson. Somepony was laughing hysterically, as if she had just heard the funniest joke in all the world. Somepony else was screaming. It didn’t take long for me to change my mind about lying still.

I pushed myself to my hooves, listening to the sounds of breaking furniture and shattering glass. Blood was already splattered across the floor, pouring freely from the many cuts slashed through the earth mare’s shoulder, neck, and face. From the look of things she had thrown herself into a hutch, smashing through glass and wood in her attempt to avoid Lily’s blades. Her jaw was set in a mix of rage and shock as her hooves slid futilely over the splintered door of the hutch. The blood dripping down her muzzle had soaked into her socks, and all she was managing to do was smear scarlet all over the wooden door. Her companions were even worse off than she.

The standing stallion reared back in surprise, and the double-buck Lily had intended for his face caught him squarely in the ribs. He flew into the glass coffee table with a pained grunt, scattering liquor bottles and shattering the table with an uproarious clatter. The shards of glass from the table and broken bottles clinked and crunched against each other as they ground together underneath his body. For the moment he was incapable of doing anything more than howling and cursing in agony as the shards bit into his skin.

The unicorn mare had thrown herself to the floor, covering her face and horn with her hooves and screaming like a frightened filly. Lily seemed content to ignore her completely, and instead focused her attention on the second stallion. Even as he was struggling to rise from his bed of broken glass Lily’s revolver roared in the confined space, punching two gargantuan holes through his torso to splatter the wall behind him in a thick film of crimson.

The earth mare finally gave up on her attempt to pry the door open and simply smashed through the thin wooden barrier with a single hoof, dragging out a blocky pistol with a long magazine. She shouted a frightened plea to her companion. “Serenade! You have to run!” As Lily and the terrified unicorn glanced back to the earth mare, she slammed the ammunition into the weapon, knocking the gun askew in her mouth. The blood that flowed from her forehead and into one of her eyes would surely hinder her aim, but at that distance…

“Lily!” I screamed, bracing myself against the table and trying to focus my magic on my pistol. In my inebriated state, I found that simple task much harder than it should have been. Out of time, I threw myself to the floor behind the table and hoped that the many table and chair legs would be enough to protect me from the incoming gunfire.

Lily noticed the pistol just in time to duck low as the earth mare’s weapon blared repeatedly, sending a flurry of shots careening into the walls and furniture in a haphazard barrage of lead. The gun’s reports reverberated off the walls in a series of thunderous roars and accompanying flashes as the mare’s head jerked back from the excessive recoil. Flaking paint from the walls, splinters of wood and porcelain from the cabinets and my table, and little tufts of stuffing from the sofa jumped into the chaotic fray like drunken revelers at an overly enthusiastic Full Moon party. I could only thank Luna that I was left unscathed, even if I felt guilty for doing so when I noticed the fresh bullet wounds in Lily’s legs and shoulders.

The very instant that the mare had run out of ammunition Lily took to the air, shoving herself off of the floor with her newly bleeding legs to launch herself at the socked pony. Covering the distance with quick and powerful beats of her wings, she hurled herself into the earth mare and sent the two of them toppling one over the other on the floor as Lily resumed her maniacal laughing. The empty pistol dropped to the ruined carpet, seemingly forgotten by all as Lily discovered the only capable fighter in the bunch. When the pair rolled into the ruined hutch, their tumbling stopped. The earth mare was on top.

Her wounds were still bleeding profusely over her enraged face and off-white body, scattering little droplets of crimson all over the carpet and leaving messy streaks of red to mingle with the blood already in Lily’s fur and feathers. She held Lily’s throat against the floor in her weakening grip as the blood from her shoulder poured down her socked leg to moisten Lily’s chin, and reared up to raise a hoof above Lily’s smirking face.

Even as the hoof crashed ineffectually into Lily’s smug grin, the pegasus never ceased laughing. “Ha! C’mon Ballad! I know you like it rougher than that!” Lily twisted underneath the mare, and a blue blur of feathers flashed upward to plunge into the earth mare’s stomach. Ballad’s eyes shot wide as a deluge of ruby flowed down Lily’s wing. With the tiniest of movements of her wing, each of them wringing its own pained grimace from the gasping mare’s face, Lily slowly rose from the floor. The earth pony hobbled sideways in an attempt to escape the pain, futilely grasping at the bladed feathers sunk into her abdomen as Lily maintained the distance between them.

Lily took a moment to survey the carnage around her, ignoring the subdued choking sobs coming from the pony she had impaled. I stood up and joined her in a quick inspection of the room from my vantage point at the table, noting the sobbing Serenade that was still crying into her hooves on the floor. The remaining stallion still couldn’t do much more than grunt and curse Lily under his breath. For a moment, the violence had died down. I took the opportunity to wrestle my pistol from its holster, holding it in my teeth the way Father had showed me so long ago.

Lily brought her lips close to the earth mare’s ear and whispered, “I’m just here for answers. You don’t have to die for The Bard, you know.” Lily nodded in my direction as she added, “My girl can fix you up.” A wound of that severity would certainly tax my abilities to their… Wait… What did she say? When did I become anyone’s girl!?

Ballad’s answer was strained as she hissed through grit teeth, “Fuck you, Lily… I always knew you were sick in the- GAH!” Ballad was cut short as Lily twisted her blades around in the mare’s gut like a corkscrew.

Lily continued to whisper in a voice that was far too calm. “Does Serenade know where The Bard is?”

A quiver ran through Ballad’s lips, and a pair of tears mingled with the blood on her face. Her hoof dug and prodded at the blades fruitlessly while her ragged breath blew little flecks of blood away from her lips. Lily only moved her wings with miniscule adjustments in response, keeping the earth mare in a constant state of agony. With every minor twitch Lily leaned a little closer to the mare, tilting her head as if to examine the emotions playing across Ballad’s face. I couldn’t help but imagine that she was savoring the pain she was causing this pony.

After several excruciating moments Ballad craned her neck back to the paralyzed unicorn mare and whispered, “I’m sorry, baby.” Serenade’s jaw fell as she stared at Ballad in horror.

Lily’s response, however, was not at all what I had imagined it would be. She extracted her wing from Ballad’s stomach with a sick squelch, allowing a scarlet waterfall to pour out of the ivory mare, and gripped Ballad’s bloodstained cheeks between her blue hooves to shout in her face. “Are you fucking serious!? Are you that much of a coward!?”

Ballad’s vitality was quickly waning, evidenced by the gasping words that left her throat. “Don’t… wanna… die…”

Lily’s answer was as quick as it was vicious. She jerked the mare’s head towards her own face, clenching her teeth over Ballad’s left ear and savagely ripping the appendage away from Ballad’s skull. The ivory mare found enough strength to shriek in agony once more as Lily spat the flap of fur and skin on the floor at her hooves.

Lily snarled in disgust at the mare. “Too fucking late.” Her hooves left Ballad’s face as she spun in place to face Serenade, her wing sweeping cleanly through Ballad’s unprotected neck. The lifeless head of the earth mare thudded against the carpet as blood spurted over Lily’s back and wings, but Lily’s reaction was nonchalant to the point of callousness. She disregarded the body slumping against her own completely, as if it were beneath her to heed such a small inconvenience.

Serenade gasped as her friend’s body fell at Lily’s hooves, and she finally found the resolve to act. Her horn flared with a brilliant emerald light, illuminating her enraged features as a corresponding cloud of magic floated the pistol off the floor. Another emerald bubble quickly retrieved a fresh magazine from the hutch and reloaded the weapon.

Lily was too far away from her! She couldn’t react in time! I slipped into S.A.T.S. and prayed to Luna to guide my aim for my companion’s sake once more.

The first lance of pink energy flew harmlessly above Serenade’s head to singe the wall. The second melted the carpet at her hooves. Just as she gasped and turned her weapon in my direction my third blast impacted with her shoulder, burning a deep hole into her alabaster coat and filling the room with the awful stench of charred flesh. Her pistol faltered in her magical grasp, the barrel dipping low as her eyes shut tight in an agonized grimace, and Lily used the opportunity to make her move.

Lily bolted past the mare, digging her hooves into the carpet to stop her burst of motion as I cut off my assault. She raked her wing against Serenade’s unprotected barrel, neck, and face, rending deep gashes along her ivory body that weeped blood like rivers of liquid ruby. The pistol fired uselessly into a nearby couch and thumped against the carpeted floor as the pony fell to her knees, wide eyed and gasping throatily in pain like a fish out of water. Coincidentally, I couldn’t help but note how her new wounds bore a striking resemblance to blood-soaked gills.

Lily slowly turned away from the mare, allowing Serenade just a few more pained moments in life before she bucked out with her hind legs. Lily’s back hooves connected with the kneeling mare’s ribs with the resounding crack of breaking bones as Serenade was thrown into a nearby dinnerware cabinet, shattering the wood and glass as it rained down on her ravaged body. She lay still as her life’s blood seeped out to soak into the already horrendously stained carpet.

Lily turned to smile at me over her shoulder. “Thanks babe. Looks like I owe you another drink.”

I reholstered my pistol, thanking Luna for blessing me with my Pipbuck and all of its amazing features, and grumbled, “If every night of drinking with you ends *hic* bloodshed, I think I’ll have to passh.”

“Sparkle-Cola and makeouts then?” Her blood-splattered grin was as insufferable as the playful way she swished her tail behind her like an excited puppy.

I rolled my eyes as I groaned, “Lily…”

She winked in my direction as she smirked. “We’ll see how it goes.” I shook my head in response, and turned my attention to the scene that lay before me.

My mouth hung open as I surveyed the carnage wrought by my new companion. The blood of her victims was everywhere; splashed against the walls, dripping from her feathers, and pooling on the floor. Broken shards of glass, splinters of wood, and little tufts of stuffing from the couch littered the room like debris left from an explosion. In a matter of moments, she had killed three ponies and left one completely incapacitated and whimpering in agony; and she wasn’t even out of breath. But the most disconcerting thing of all was her nonchalant reaction to the violence; a simple and contented nod of her smirking face as she assessed the remains of her savage assault.

My shaky legs carried me to the table, allowing me to brace myself against the wooden surface as I tried to keep the devastated room from spinning. The incapacitated stallion was still whimpering and moaning on the floor, uttering foul obscenities as he cursed Lily through clenched teeth. I rubbed my temple, noting how much more comfortable it was to only watch the world spin through one eye instead of two.

Lily took the opportunity of the relatively calm moment to light up another cigarette and nod in my direction. “There ya go, Candy. Lesson one: if you know you gotta fight, then be brutal, be quick, and be relentless. Fuck their shit so hard they can’t even remember how to fight back.”

My mind had sobered considerably in the wake of the slaughter. I gulped air as my racing heart approached something resembling a normal beat, and nodded back to her. “D-Duly noted.”

Lily crouched over the bodies of the fallen ponies, flicking her wings over their heads and snipping off their left ears for the raider bounty. She snatched up the pistol from the floor, stuffing it into her packs before sauntering over to the wounded buck as the shards of broken glass crunched underneath her hooves. She grasped his shoulders in her hooves, taunting him in her arrogant voice with a simple statement as she blew smoke in his face. “You’re bleeding.”

The stallion was less than amused with her summation. “No fucking shit I’m bleeding! You shot me in the fucking leg, you bitch!”

She shrugged and spoke without even the barest hint of sympathy in her voice. “Yep. It’s your own fault though. You’d have never gotten shot if you didn’t work for The Bard.”

Still clutching his leg, the unicorn groaned in response. “Ughhrr… What!? The fuck are you talking about!?”

Lily ignored the buck to stare into my eyes. “Hey Candy, you can keep him alive, right? I don’t want him passing out from blood loss before we get some answers.”

I bolstered myself to use my magic and nodded. “I-” A purple burst of magic gripped my pistol, yanking on the strap that held it in my holster.

Lily slammed her hoof into the stallion’s horn, interrupting his spell and causing him to cry out in fresh agony as she ground the hard edge of her hoof into the sensitive magical appendage. Scowling ferociously, she lowered her head to shout directly into his ear as her cigarette fell to sizzle in a pool of blood. “Try it again, asshole! Please try it again! Give me a reason to break your fucking horn off!”

The buck’s only response was to groan and whimper as he grit his teeth against the pain. Lily seized the opportunity to grip his shoulders in her hooves. Before he could react she had pulled him upright and slammed him onto the table’s surface in front of me. She had positioned his horn over the edge of the table, and had reared up to her hind hooves as she lazily flapped her wings and pressed her weight down on his precariously placed appendage. She half growled, half yelled into his face. “Is that what you want? Is that what it’s gonna take to make you talk?” I could only stare and marvel at her behavior, trying to recall what she had said about somepony’s true nature shining through in a fight.

The stallion was squirming on the table, his wounded knee all but forgotten in favor of his futile attempts to pry Lily’s bloodied hoof from his horn. “Oh, fuck! What do you want from me!?”

Lily ignored him, glancing back to me and speaking in a startlingly calm and collected voice. “How’s he doing, doc? Think he’s gonna live?”

The unicorn’s eyes latched onto me, wide in terror as he shouted. “She’s a fucking doctor? She can’t even stand up straight! What the fuck is wrong with-”

Lily mashed her free hoof into the stallion’s muzzle, bloodying his snout and effectively silencing him. Contempt mingled with indifference in her voice as she continued to taunt the pony under her hooves. “You talk way too much about shit I don’t care about.” Looking back to me, she added, “You’re up, Candy.”

My eyes traveled over the red and blue legs holding the stallion down, and I winced in sympathetic pain. “Sh-shouldn’t I heal you *hic* first?”

Lily smirked condescendingly, only just barely failing to conceal the pained wince that was creeping onto her face. “Me? Pfft… I’m fine. This hardly hurts at all!” After seeing my incredulous stare, Lily continued in a bewilderingly flippant tone, “Trust me babe, when you’ve been through as much shit as I have, this is nothing.” I could only blink in response, watching the blood drip over her fetlocks. She chuckled at my silence, and added quickly, “Plus, you know… Vodka helps. A lot. Just heal me up later, okay?” I had to massage a temple at her behavior, but did as she asked and turned my attention to the stallion on the table.

In spite of my own apprehension regarding what we were doing, I understood that a life would be lost should I delay any longer. I nodded, allowing my spell to sputter and fizzle twice before the magic took hold and poured into and over his body. The pressure on my horn and face was painful enough to pierce the veil of my inebriation, bringing a tiny measure of clarity to my thoughts, but they were nothing compared to the searing agony exuding from my leg. I cleared my throat and offered up my diagnosis. “He… No artrees hit… The radiush is mossly okay. Carpus *hic* messed up. Metacarpalsh too. I think his-”

Lily furrowed her brow and snorted in amusement. “Uh… Candy? I was asking about his leg.”

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. “That’s what I’m talking…” Understanding struck home a moment later. “Oh! I… I need to dig out the bullet. And his knee is messed up.”

Lily’s eyes shot wide with giddy excitement as she lowered her muzzle to taunt the stallion. “You hear that big guy? You got shot! This doctor says your knee is messed up!”

One of his hooves managed to shove Lily’s hoof away from his muzzle, allowing him to scream an infuriated response. “No fucking shit! You shot me in the goddess-mmph!” Lily’s hoof slammed back into place again, silencing him once more.

She giggled into his ear, still applying an uncomfortable amount of pressure on his horn. “Looks like your adventuring days are over, huh?” Lily’s face suddenly scrunched up while she shook her mane and shoulders, as if she were shivering from the cold. “Heh, I felt that one.” Lily chortled to herself before looking back to me. “So can you keep him alive?”

I pursed my lips and furrowed my brow, nodding even as I made a small concession, “I can probly shtop bleeding. But… magic’s not recovered enough *hic* keep him from re-opening the wound. And I’m not shtrong ‘nuff to fuse and reposition the bones and carrtlage. He’ll need a potion or bandage or-” My tongue seemed to be staging a coup in my mouth, adamantly refusing to form words properly. I was overcome with the urge to apologize for my incoherence. “Oh Luna, I shimply cannot speak at all!”

Lily shrugged nonchalantly, winking at me as she tapped her hoof against his horn painfully. “Don’t worry about it, babe, we don’t want him running off on us anyway. Just keep him from bleeding out.”

I placed my hooves on the table next to the buck’s squirming legs, looking him in the eye and pleading, “You… you have to shtay shtill, *hic* ‘kay? I gotta… gotta get the bullet…” The stallion's wide and frightened eyes flitted about the room as if he were looking for any viable alternative, but finally landed on my own. I was able to witness the precise moment when his eyes turned from a near-feral panic to hopeful resignation. He shut his eyes tight and lay motionless save for a tiny nod of his head.

I laid a gentle hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder, trying to calm him just as I braced myself for the coming agony. I concentrated as well as I could, using my spell to find the tiny fragments of metal that hadn’t passed completely through the stallion’s leg. Tiny telekinetic fields lifted those flattened shards and jagged flakes of lead past raw flesh and sinew as the unicorn grunted in pain. I felt every shard leaving his leg, as surely as if I were extracting them from my own shattered knee. Finally, a weak healing spell mended the veins that I had scratched and fused the flesh together before I severed the magical connection and nodded to Lily. The unicorn would need a proper medical examination soon, and a leg cast at the very least, but he would live provided he sought aid quickly.

I stared into his eyes, feeling more than a little guilty for what had transpired that evening. “You need a healing potion. Are there any around here?” His head, still being pressed firmly against the table by Lily’s hoof, nodded pointedly at the cabinets underneath the kitchen sink.

I swayed gently to the side as I made my way over to the indicated storage space, and managed to open the door after fumbling with the handle for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time. “Ahh, here they are.” Retrieving the two standard healing potions within, I turned around to float the bottles to the table.

Lily removed her hoof from the stallion’s face just long enough for me to administer him far too small a dose. He drank greedily of the healing potion before Lily tilted the bottle away from him and stated coldly, “That’s enough. No need to waste good potion on bad ponies.” He was left gasping for breath as the blood from her hooves dripped over his face to push the potion away. I frowned at the interference of my medical duties, but couldn’t think of how to argue on the unicorn’s behalf.

Instead my eyes drifted over Lily’s indigo fur, stopping at each of the bleeding holes in her body. “I shtill need to tend to *hic* your wounds.”

She waved me off cooly. “Later.” Lily leaned in close to the stallion’s face, speaking softly. “Alright asshole. I know who you work for. What I want to know is where he’s at.”

“Fuck you! I don’t know what-” Lily’s hoof slammed into the wounded pony’s gut, silencing him and causing his eyes to bulge in pain.

Lily pulled her hoof back to inspect it nonchalantly before berating him further. “Please, by all means. Keep lying to me. I’ll keep hurting you, and the good doctor here will keep patchin’ you up. And you and I can do our little dance all fucking night.” In a voice that was cold with indifference, she asked again, “Where’s The Bard?”

The buck spluttered, spitting out his words quickly in a trembling voice. “F-Fancy Lick!”

I covered my mouth with a hoof; every bit of trepidation I felt at how this stallion was being treated vanished like smoke dissipating into clean air. He really was a raider. I glanced to Lily, noting how the bone in her ear bobbed up and down almost as if it had a mind of its own. She had been correct. Or rather, Margarita had been correct and Lily had simply trusted her judgement. And now that trust had just exposed a serious problem within Mareon’s walls. The town suddenly felt even less like the safe haven I had once believed it to be.

Lily let out a dissatisfied huff, ruffling her feathers while she griped, “You… Damn it! I know that’s a lie, you jackass!”

My brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

The unicorn was squirming and whimpering under the pressure of Lily’s hoof on his horn, but she ignored him to complain to me. “That was total brahmin shit! I didn’t even get to cut on him!” Her crestfallen pout was incredibly pitiful as she whined further. “I was gonna get me an ear, too…” Lily shuddered lightly as she winced in disappointment.

The terrified sobs of the buck on the table caught my attention once more. I lifted my hoof to plead with my winged companion. “Lily… I think that maybe he’s telling-”

“No, no I got it.” She casually waved me off with a wing before lightly dragging her feathers across his bruised ribs; allowing him to feel the sharp steel scratching at his hide. “Alright, I’m only gonna ask one last time before this gets messy… Where is The Bard?”

The stallion squirmed and stammered. “I-I just told you!”

Lily chuckled to herself, shaking her head as she chided him. “I was kinda hoping you’d say that.” The wicked grin from earlier returned to her face as Lily winked in my direction. “Heads up, Candy.”

“What!?” I scarcely had time to gasp and step to the side before Lily dug her hooves underneath the stallion’s forelegs and beat her wings powerfully. She drug his flailing body off the table, knocking the wooden chairs to the floor, and used her leverage to fling him through the brothel’s front window. Fresh blood and shattered glass flew through the air as the unicorn shrieked in terror and agony, landing with a crashing thud against the house’s wooden porch.

His moans and grunts mingled with the tinkling and crunching of broken glass as Lily nonchalantly took the opportunity to peruse the raider’s unguarded refrigerator. I sat, stunned once more at the sudden and casual violence, while she dug through the ancient appliance and pocketed bottles of booze. After a moment, she extracted her head and tossed a plastic bottle of water in my direction.

The bottle impacted against my exposed chest, and my hooves fumbled to catch it while Lily chuckled softly and lifted a hoof to her face and tilted her head back to pantomime the drinking of a beverage. “Here, babe. You’re a fun drunk, but you’re gonna have a wild hangover tomorrow.”

She sauntered over to my saddlebags, lifting them off of the floor and offering them to me with a hoof. “Come on, he’s almost ready to crack. I just gotta work on him a little bit more and we’ll have a lead on your raider problem.”

“I…” Luna was testing my resolve, I was sure of it. How could I set right all these wrongs if a little spilled blood, and raider blood at that, made me uneasy? This pony had made his choice, and now he was reaping the fruits of his labor. “... okay. But not before you let me treat you.”

“Yeah, okay. He’s not going anywhere.” She sat primly in front of me, cocking her head to the side in an impish grin while the raider outside moaned in agony. I tried my best to ignore his pained vocalizations as I moved closer to Lily, raising my hooves to her wounded shoulder and slipping into my spell once more.

Oddly subdued pain bloomed across my legs and shoulders, causing me to wince as my hooves ran through her fur, but none of the wounds held my attention nearly so well as the entirely alien sensations coming from the phantom wings sprouting from my body. Before, when I had checked on a sleeping Lily at the behest of Doc Flannel, I hadn’t felt anything like this. The difference between her wings when asleep and when awake was as clear a contrast as night from day. I could feel every new muscle aching to be let loose, every unfamiliar joint screaming to stretch itself free, and every sensitive feather follicle twitching at the tiniest of hitherto unnoticed air currents. With a start, I realized that the flowing air was the breath leaving my gaping mouth.

“Your hooves are soft.” Lily’s smooth voice broke me from the reverie of discovery.

I stammered, taken aback by the bemused look in her eyes. “I-I’m sorry, I um… I’ve never *hic* never treated a pegasus before.”

The corner of her mouth lifted upward as her face broke out in a smug smirk. “Take your time, babe. Enjoy the sights. Not like I’m bleeding out here or anything.”

A hint of blush creeped over my cheeks as I remembered what I was doing. “R-Right…” I focused on the bullet-wounds, extracting the flattened bits of lead that had bitten into her hide with my magic. Four pieces of metal fell to the floor with sharp rings against the tile, each accompanied by a bravely stoic refusal from Lily to acknowledge the pain we both felt with their removal. Soon enough her blood was mottling my hooves with splotches of scarlet. As I moved from wound to wound, I saw the sheer number of bullet, knife, and other indiscernible scars lying just underneath her fur. I failed to stifle a gasp as I imagined what her life must have been like.

Lily didn’t put up any resistance when I instructed her to drink both the whole potion and the remainder of the one we had given the buck. After her wounds had closed she smiled encouragingly, thanking me with a simple head nod before stepping through the door to resume chasing her quarry. I cleaned myself off with the sink and donned my packs to follow her outside.

Ponies were beginning to filter into the street, nearly all of them armed with at least a pistol or knife. A few of them were floating assault rifles in vibrantly colored bubbles of magic, painting the crumbled roads and houses in a rainbow of vivid light. Several ponies wearing scratched and dinged sets of combat barding were trying to settle the frightened herd down, but were mostly ignored as the throng craned their necks around the guards to inspect the bleeding stallion slowly dragging himself into the road.

Lily reclaimed her rifle and glided over to the raider, giving the peacekeepers ample cause to turn their backs on the gathered crowd and face her. A familiar lavender mare rushed over to Lily and the unicorn, skidding to a halt as Lily pinned the stallion’s tail to the road with a hoof. I managed to mostly keep my balance as I stumbled towards them and sipped on the liberated water.

The mare with the little pink and yellow boxes hanging from the sides of her barding was floating a small submachine gun in her forest-green magic as her eyes darted to and fro. “Lily! What the fuck is going on? We heard gunshots and- Oh shit! What happened to him?” I couldn’t help but think that she looked quite a bit different without bloodshot eyes.

Lily smiled and waved jovially with her free hoof, “Hi Purple Haze! Gimme one second, I’m doing your job again!” As soon as she was done talking Lily slammed her hoof into the unicorn’s withers, eliciting a terse grunt of pain as his bloodied chest was pressed against the asphalt.

Purple’s pale-blue mane was whipping back and forth past her eyes as her attention was dragged from the stallion on the ground to the pegasus flipping him onto his back. “Lily! What the fuck are you-”

“WHERE’S THE FUCKING BARD!?” Lily smashed both her hooves into the stallion’s face, screaming in a voice laced with unchecked hatred.

The buck finally snapped, his words bubbling past the blood in his mouth as he whimpered. “S-Spursburg! He’s in… in Spursburg! Don’t k-k-kill me! I... I’m sorry!”

I wobbled with as much grace and poise as I was capable of while downing the rest of the water, ambling up to the trio just as the stallion made his confession. Purple Haze was staring dumbfounded at what had just transpired. Lily only shook the stallion’s head against the road and continued yelling in his face. “WHAT ELSE? WHAT’S HE DOING!?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” His blood splattered against her hooves and muzzle with every terrified syllable.

“ANSWER ME BEFORE I SLIT YOUR-”

“I DON’T… don’t know….don’t... ” The stallion’s voice devolved into sniveling whimpers as he lay underneath Lily’s snarling face.

Lily glowered at Purple Haze as she stepped away from the stallion, giving him one final kick in the ribs for good measure. “You got spies in your town, Haze. Take care of it, or I will.”

The buck continued to whimper at our hooves. “Mercy… please… forgive-”

“Forgiveness?” Lily cut him off, her voice absolutely dripping with contempt, “You think you deserve it after you sold this town out and got all those ponies killed?”

Snot and tears were mixing with the blood on the buck’s face as he whimpered. “Please… please… I won’t do it again, I swear!”

Lily lifted her voice, calling out to the crowd that had gathered in the street. “Can anypony here really take that chance? Does Mareon want to have this bastard open the gates and let his crew waltz back in here again?”

Angry shouts and confused murmurs mingled together in the throng of voices that rose in response. Being as close as I was to her, I could finally see Lily swaying gently on her hooves and flapping her wings to maintain balance. Her inebriated state was lost on the crowd, who only fed off her energetic display to feed their growing outrage. I stood still; torn between compassion for a wounded pony and resentment for an individual that had most certainly played an integral part in the attack on the town.

Lying at my hooves was a fiend responsible for the violence visited upon the town. He was indirectly responsible for a portion of my own guilt and grief, and directly responsible for the dozens of fresh graves in the town’s cemetery. His hoof reached out to me as he begged for healing, but instead of aiding him I retracted my hooves and backed away; disgust wrinkling the features of my face.

Purple Haze turned back to the crowd, trying to pacify the angry mob as best she could. “Everypony calm down! We’re not just letting him go! He’ll sit in a cell until Sheriff Dry Wells figures out what to do with him!”

Lily’s voice was a breathy whisper spoken through grit teeth as she pinned the stallion’s legs underneath her hooves once more. “But he wants forgiveness.”

Purple caught Lily’s utterance, and turned back to her with a fearful recognition that I didn’t comprehend. “Lily… Don’t…”

Lily held a wing to my chest, gently easing me backwards and away from the buck. Her eyes flashed with that malicious grin one more time as she spoke directly to me. “He asked for forgiveness. I’m gonna give it to him.”

Purple shouted as Lily bit down on the revolver in her holster. “Lily wait!”

*BLAM*

My ears rang from the proximity of the gunshot. ‘Forgiveness’ might not have been as loud as The Worm, but it proved no less effective at turning the raider’s head into crimson jelly. A hushed silence hung over the crowd as everypony registered what had just transpired. The only movement was that of errant moonbeams gently brushing across stunned faces. I couldn’t help but feel that The Dark Mother was teaching her children a harsh lesson; one I intended to take to heart. The tranquil moment finally broke when an elderly mare stomped her hooves on the road in applause. Some members of the crowd followed suit and began cheering for the blood that had been spilt, others simply spat on the ground and turned to walk away from the scene.

Purple was yelling again, “Damn it, Lily! You shot him in the head!”

Lily breathed deeply as she retracted her wing, using the blade on her first feather to etch a tiny notch into the bit of her weapon. She holstered her gun and finally turned to acknowledge Purple Haze, shrugging unapologetically. “Just a little.”

Purple clopped a hoof angrily on the asphalt, swishing her short blue tail behind her. “How are we gonna interrogate that son of a bitch if he’s dead?”

Lily snorted once, her tone completely casual. “Go ask Half-Moon if you really want to.” She lifted a hoof to her muzzle and called out to the dispersing throng of ponies. “Or better yet, just sit on your haunches and let MMMM take care of shit like it always has!”

Hushed whispers and excited utterances rippled through the herd of ponies behind the guards. “MMMM? Did she just say...”

Lily’s wings flapped excitedly, flicking little droplets of blood all over the road as she shouted and swayed over the ivory corpse at her hooves. “Mmhmm! That’s right bitches! Margarita’s Mercenaries, Munitions, and Moonshine is back! Nothing can stop the booze!”

Purple smacked her face just underneath her horn, groaning in agitation. “You’re drunk, Lily.”

Lily laughed off the accusation, throwing her hoof around my shoulders. The two of us nearly toppled over before she corrected and dragged us both upright. “Ha! Little bit. I had to get to know my new friend here before we set off together.” I couldn’t help but grin at her word choice, trying to stand a little straighter as I took strength from the statement.

“New friend?” The guard’s eyes looked me up and down before recognition set in. Purple jabbed a hoof in my direction, still speaking in an agitated tone of voice that made me rather uncomfortable. “You’re the doctor from a while back. Did she drag you along for this?”

I furrowed my brow, taken aback by the insinuation that I was some foal to be led by the hoof. “I… I *hic* of my own-”

“That’s right. It was all my idea.” Lily cut me off, tapping her hoof against my shoulder as she leaned against me. “I got drunk and dragged her along for one last job, but she didn’t have any part of it. I was working on behalf of MMMM to expose a raider threat to Mareon. Now I’m under her employ to go kill even more raiders. The law can’t touch me.” Lily stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at Purple. I couldn’t suppress an unladylike snort at her foalish antics.

Purple Haze sat on her haunches and rubbed her temples between her hooves. “Fucking… Ugh!” She jabbed her hoof at me again, her glare clearly betraying her frustration with the situation. “Your name is Candy, right? Someone was looking for you earlier.”

I cocked my head to the side, “Shome… who?”

Purple rose to her hooves, picking her steps around the body that was oozing blood into the street, and closed the distance to stand a pony’s length away from me. “Big guy. Flew in from the north earlier today. Said he was looking for a prissy unicorn doctor with a pink mane and a short bitchy mare wearing a black cloak.”

My jaw dropped. Surely I had misheard her. I shook my head, trying to bring some clarity to my thoughts. “E-Excuse me… you shaid that he flew in?”

Purple nodded, “Griffin merc by the name of Bram. Had plumage darker than his armor.”

No… No no no, Luna please no. My hoof found my lips as my eyes scanned the road at my hooves. The griffins… they were coming to finish the job!

Lily’s hoof pulled me a little closer as she asked incredulously, “You let a Talon just fly into Mareon?”

Purple sighed and glowered at Lily for a moment before deigning to speak. “Well with the new raider laws that you just love love love so much, I can’t really do anything to a mercenary willing to help out, now can I? I swear, it’s like you think that binding my horn is a good thing…”

I shook my head again, I needed information and didn’t have the time to sit idly by while these two ponies quarreled with each other. My voice rose as I pleaded with Purple. “Where is he!?”

She pursed her lavender lips and shrugged, “I didn’t like the look of him, and I remembered how you helped all those folks. I told him you went west.”

My face fell as I breathed a ragged sigh of relief. “You… thank you.”

She snorted and jabbed her hoof at me again, “Just don’t make me regret lying to a Talon, okay? I’m in no hurry to get eviscerated.”

A drawn out groan sounded beside me as Lily threw her head back to the sky and grumbled. “Shiiiiit… Purple, I’m sorry.” Lily removed her hoof from my shoulders and poked at my saddlebags. “Candy, show her what you showed me earlier.”

I furrowed my brow in puzzlement, “What?”

Lily nodded, but sighed wearily. “When we were talking about your home. And who you found there. Go ahead, Purple should be the first pony to see this.”

Confused, I flipped open the top of my packs and dug through the contents with my hooves. Did she mean the grenade Margarita had gifted me? The garnet Nohta gathered from my stable’s library? I hadn’t even told her of the mysterious orb from Luna’s statue… Oh! Of course! Shiny black leather draped itself across my hoof as I produced The Pyro’s gas mask, holding it up for the guard’s inspection. Purple’s reaction was immediate and intense. Her eyes bulged in their sockets as her jaw fell. Magic erupted from her horn, and she ripped the mask from my grasp.

Startled, I called out to her, “H-Hey! Wait a sec-” Only to fall silent as I felt Lily’s hoof on my shoulder again. Her tattooed face shook gently before she nodded to Purple, and I turned to watch the mix of emotions playing out over the guard’s visage.

Her submachine gun had been holstered while she floated The Pyro’s mask inches from her hard eyes. Purple’s breathing quickened as a look of pure hatred overtook her features. Her teeth were grinding together almost as hard as her hooves ground into the broken road beneath her. For a moment I thought she was going to rip the mask to shreds, but then the snarling rage turned to shaking anguish. Her grit teeth parted, allowing her lip to quiver underneath eyes that were quickly welling with tears, and her face finally fell into her shaking hooves as Purple’s entire body shook with unabashed heartache.

I had no idea what to say, or if I should even speak at all. Instead, Lily was the one to slowly walk over to Purple and embrace her, allowing the mare’s grief to spill over her shoulder and mingle with the blood coating her wings.

I floated the forgotten mask back into my packs as Lily comforted the sobbing guard, rubbing her indigo hoof through Purple’s short blue mane. Lily’s voice was soothing as she spoke to the mare. “I know you have a soft spot for Sheriff Dry Wells, but sometimes even his law has limits that just hold justice back. You know that better than anypony, Haze.” Lily held the sniffling mare’s soaked face between her blue hooves and stared intently into her wet eyes. “This is what MMMM company can do for Mareon, Haze. Go talk to Margarita. You don’t have to fight against what you know is right; okay? Mareon needs you to mare up and do the right thing.”

Purple nodded, wiping her face with her hooves as she pulled away from Lily. Her eyes fixed on me before she asked in a trembling voice, “Who’d she take from you?”

I couldn't bear to meet her gaze, instead opting to focus on my Pipbuck in an attempt to hide the wetness welling in my eyes. My right hoof brushed against the screen as I responded in as truthful a whisper as I dared, “Everypony that was left.”

Lily joined me again, speaking forcefully mere inches from my face. “We need to not be here. Soon. We can’t leave yet. But as soon as we can tomorrow, okay?” I nodded. I had no intention of staying still whilst homicidal griffins scoured the town for clues as to my whereabouts.

Lily looked back to Purple over her shoulder. “Can you come up with another lie if the griffin shows up?”

Still brushing the tears out of her eyes, Purple took a deep breath and steadied her voice, “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

Lily tilted her head down the road and began walking, “C’mon Candy, let’s get you back to Margie’s place so I can go clean my gear and think of a plan.”

The crowd had already dispersed, leaving Lily and I to turn our backs on the few armored guards and dead raider still in the road. We walked in silence for a moment before Lily reached into her packs and procured a small bottle of clear liquid adorned with a red label. Unscrewing the cap, she took a small sip and offered it to me, “That went way better than I could have hoped for.”

My magic lifted the bottle from her hoof, bringing it just a few inches from my lips. “Better? That poor mare was reduced to tears. And you… You killed that raider when he couldn’t possibly fight back. Lily, that wasn’t fighting. That was murder.”

She nodded her head, eyeing me out of the corner of her vision as we continued down the street. “Yep. Sure was. You got a problem with me killing bad guys?”

The moon’s light was reflected off of the container hovering inches from my eyes, reminding me of the vow I had taken underneath its cool glow. “I… I suppose not. I’m not sure if what you did was right, but I can’t help but feel that it was what needed to have occurred.”

Lily grinned beside me, lighting another cigarette and inhaling deeply. “You and I are gonna get along just fine.”

I mulled that over for a moment in silence, hoping that she was right. I sipped from the bottle absentmindedly, enjoying a refreshing minty-sweet flavor that rolled over my tongue. “Oh goodness! What is this?”

She took the bottle back and sipped again before hoofing it back to my magic and explaining, “Peppermint Schnapps. Go easy on it, it’s hard to come by. And it’s stronger than you might think.”

I raised an eyebrow in question. “Oh? So it’s special? What’s the occasion?”

She blew a plume of smoke out to the side and spoke around the cigarette dangling from her lips. “Thought you could use another drink. You were shaking when Haze mentioned the griffin.”

“I… I was?” I offered the bottle back to her after taking as ladylike a sip as one can manage while drinking straight from a bottle of liquor.

Lily shook her head, taking another sip from the bottle and whispering soothingly. “Don’t worry. Talons are big and scary, but they’re in it for the money; they’ve got no heart. No one fights as hard as someone with a purpose. Even if that purpose is just to survive.” Her eyes locked with mine in a sincere stare as she hoofed the bottle back to me. “We’ll get your revenge. I promise.”

“Thank you. I... “ I scanned the road at my hooves, pondering what to say. How exactly do you thank somepony for promising to help you end lives? “Thank you,” I finished lamely. I took another small sip of the heavenly beverage and floated it back to her. “You said that all of that went ‘better’ than it could have? How so?”

She puffed on her cigarette, exhaling a plume above our heads as we rounded a corner. “Well, I got to slice up some of the last raiders in town and we made a big ol’ scene in front of a crowd and let ‘em know that Margie’s back in business. We just fed two birds with one scone.”

I blinked in confusion and opened my mouth to correct her, but she continued before I could speak. “And thanks to you and that gas mask we just might have gotten the best guard Mareon has to consider joining Margie’s crew. If Margie starts off by recruiting a combat medic like Purple Haze, she’s gonna get loads of fighters looking to sign up. I’d say that whatever debt you had with Margarita should be paid in full if Haze walks in and asks her for a job.”

I thought about her words as MMMM Company’s headquarters came into view. Lily spat the nub of her cigarette out and ground it into the road with a hoof as we stood outside the building. “Alright, I’ll be back in the morning.”

I turned to her, “Don’t you want *hic* meet Nohta?”

An uncomfortable grimace twisted the elegantly curving lines on her face. “It’s late and I uh… I don’t want to drip blood all over Margie’s place. Plus I’d rather save that conversation for the morning anyway. I’m not looking forward to seeing Margie again so soon after what happened.”

I cocked my head to the side, unsure of her meaning. I only wobbled a little bit before I regained my balance. “Pardon?”

She rubbed the back of her mane as she grinned sheepishly. “Let’s just say that I’ll be acting a little differently when the sun’s up, okay? Go drink some water and pass out. We’ve got a big day ahead of us and the whole town is gonna go nuts as soon as you turn in the bounty for The Pyro.”

She turned to leave, glancing over her shoulder as she flared her wings. “I’m looking forward to this job. Should be a lot of fun. And if you really do want to go after everyone that’s done you wrong then I’ll be glad to call you my friend.” She chuckled as she turned away and took to the sky, “Shit… I need to get out of here. Damned schnapps is making me sappy.” Without another word she flew off on shaky wings, leaving me smiling at her word choice.

I lingered outside for a moment, gently swaying in front of the door and staring at the moon as it peeked through the cloud cover. The world was starting to sway again; courtesy of the schnapps no doubt. The pleasant feeling of inebriation coursed through my body as I suddenly realized it was far too cold outside to stand around like a fool, and with a final glance to the moon I opened the door to Margarita’s abode and stepped over the threshold.

I entered the house and promptly stumbled to the side, knocking over a hat rack. I turned around to find an amused yet surprised looking Margarita sitting at the kitchen table and drinking from a squat little glass of light-yellow liquid with lime wedges garnishing the rim. I quickly voiced a slurred apology and made to fix the mess I had created while she silently giggled and stared at me. After I had readjusted the hat rack I turned around to find Nohta standing mere inches away from me and silently staring.

I gasped, “Gah! Nohta... You shcared me! You really shouldn’t sneak *hic* on people!”

She scowled back at me. “Damn it, Sis! Where were you? We heard gunshots! What happened?”

I waved her off with a hoof, trying to assuage her worries with calm confidence. “Oh, I was with *hic* new traveling companion. She’s rather odd, but I think you’ll like her.”

Nohta continued, cocking her head to the side as one of her ears twitched, “Are you alright? You were gone for a long time.”

I nodded emphatically as the world began to slowly spin to the left once more. “Mhmm, great! Feel great! Made a new friend, had a few drinksh, got into a fight, drank shome more. Feel great!” I realized that I was speaking perhaps a bit too loudly, and lowered my voice, “Think I know what we should- *hic* -what we should do now, too.”

Her eyebrows furrowed together as she questioned me. “Huh? What is it?”

I raised a hoof in an explanatory fashion, all the better to lecture my little sister more effectively, and proceeded to teeter precariously on my still-healing leg’s compromised balance as I let loose with one of the most profound things to ever come out of an equine’s mouth. “I think we should get something to eat.”

My marvelous wisdom was not lost on my sister, who raised a hoof to her face, probably concealing her unabashed pride in having so wise and elegant a sibling as I, and followed up my suggestion with endless praise. Or perhaps it was sarcasm, I couldn’t really tell. “Oh yes, that’s a great idea, Sis. What exactly should we eat?”

My eyes fell on the refrigerator behind Margarita as the green mare convulsed in soundless giggles. “Something fried... or sweet.” In my enlightened state, I suddenly had a great revelation. “Wait… Why not both? Are there any of those pre-war fancy toast packsh around here?”

Nohta’s adoration went straight through the roof at my timely suggestion. So astounded was she with my ability to discern the most practical way to solve the worst of problems that she began to openly worry for my well being. Despite my drunken stum- er… graceful navigation in the direction of the refrigerator, she was trying to usher me towards the sofas; attempting to corral me like an overbearing but doting mother looking out for her foal. “Ugh! I should have known you’d come back drunk when you said you were going to the saloon. I guess I just expected you to hate the taste and come straight back. Didn’t think you’d be completely smashed.”

She was perhaps being a bit over-protective. I’d have to let her down gently with a small fib. It was sweet of her to worry, but honestly, I’m a grown mare! “Nohta! I am not drun... ebriated! How dare you accuse your elder sister of such lowly, degenate“ *hic* “-havior!”

“Okay Sis, I was wrong. You’re not drunk. You can hold your liquor with the best of ‘em.” Her contrite eye roll showed me just how sorry she was, and like the bigger mare that I was, I instantly forgave her.

I stumbled towards the refrigerator on wobbly legs as Margarita continued to grin and follow me with her amused eyes. I nodded proudly, “Indeed! My friend showed me how to- *hic* -how to do it!”

Nohta followed closely behind me, readjusting the chairs that had the audacity to leap into my path before I knocked them over. “Who is this ‘friend?”

I was able to steady myself by leaning against the refrigerator and peering inside at the treasure trove of edible foodstuffs as I answered Nohta’s query. “You’ll meet her tomorrow. She’s nice. Dangeroush. Flirty. Nice. Why is the room spinning? Room’s don’t do that. Or maybe they do on the surface... things are sho weird up here. They keep doing things they’re not supposed to.” Margarita was slapping her hoof against the table, her entire body convulsing in muted laughter.

Nohta raised an eyebrow at my astute powers of observation, but she was all smiles when she spoke next. “Oh wow, I’m tired! Aren’t you tired, Sis? Bet that nice soft warm bed in the other room sounds really good right now huh?”

I huffed, closing the refrigerator and ambling towards the table. “I know what you’re doing, Nohta. Won’t work. I’m -mune to reverse *hic* -chology. I’m going to bed, and there’s nothing you can do to shtop me!”

No doubt terrified of the prospect of not getting to spend every waking moment with her elder sister, Nohta began to plead for me to stay with her. “That wasn’t... uh, I mean. Oh no! I had so many things I needed to talk to you about! Like, uh, things... and stuff.”

I did feel a little guilty about placing my own selfish desires above the needs of my sister, but surely any problems she had could be dealt with at a later time. “Things and stuff *hic* -ery important, but they will just have to wait for *hic* -morrow morning, Nohta. Good night, sister.”

I stumbled around Nohta and passed Margarita at the table, stopping when I remembered Margarita’s beverage and realized what a lovely opportunity I was about to pass up. A wicked grin overtook my features as a deliciously vengeful idea popped into my head. Something bumped into my tail as I performed an elegant pirouette to face my green host, and I think I heard Nohta drop something on the floor behind me, but whatever my sister had managed to break was inconsequential; my eyes were on the prize.

I slowly slid Margarita’s glass across the table in my magic, and spoke in as intimidating a voice as I could muster, “And as for you, oh ‘Drinker of Other People’s Potions!’ This is what you get! I’m *hic* going to drink your lemonade!”

Margarita’s eyes went wide as she scrambled to reclaim her beverage, but I had downed the entirety of the sweet drink before she could rise from her chair. She sat still as her jaw fell, blinking as she resigned herself to an inglorious defeat at my hoof.

I sat the glass back down on the table, noting an uncomfortable twisting sensation in my stomach. “That… that lemonade had a bit of *hic* twang to it.” I smacked my lips, detecting a hint of burn in my throat as Nohta facehoofed and groaned. Looking to Margarita, I asked, “That… tashted like regret ‘n shame.” Remembering the name of the pony to whom I was speaking, I had a startling and altogether much too slow revelation. “Margaritash have tequila in them, right?”

Margarita nodded, pursing her lips as she stared at me.

“Tha’sh right,” I poked a hoof at her to accentuate my point, “...tequila goes in the Margarita… Not the Candy.” The rumbling in my belly grew to a crescendo as I whispered behind my hoof, “Oh goodnessh…” I’ll spare you the details of what came next, but suffice it to say that vodka, cider, schnapps, and tequila taste even worse coming up than they do going down.

Ahh, there we are. All caught up and past the worst of the embarrassing details. Now where was I? Oh, right…

I was ripped from the blissful, soft caress of Luna’s embrace only to be- Oh who am I kidding? You remember all of this. I just told it to you! Let’s see if we can’t speed this up a bit. Shall we? That morning I was the lucky recipient of an excruciating headache, a direly parched throat, intense nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, a thirst I couldn’t possibly imagine ever being able to quench, and for reasons that escaped my immediate powers of deduction a complete set of stiff and sore muscles and joints. Honestly, I felt as if I had gorged myself on rotten fruit and proceeded to run twenty miles through the baking desert only to slam myself headfirst into a steel wall.

Let me make this very clear for you: mornings are awful, vile things. Any true Selenist will look upon that unholy time of day with enough rancorous disdain to mirror the savage sun’s terrible countenance as it bounds over the horizon to begin its vicious rampage across the heavens. Mornings are the time before the brain has the capacity for thought, the desire to satisfy anything other than base needs, or the wherewithal to even keep one’s eyes from fluttering awkwardly as you try to force them open. And don’t even get me started on finding the resolve to drag yourself out of bed to face another day when you know full and well just how comfortable and inviting the warm bedsheets feel clinging to your body like disappointed lovers begging you to not leave them.

I’ll admit it. There are more than a few things in this world that I actively despise. Mornings are one of them. Mother was of the same opinion, and on more than one occasion when I was little and she was home the two of us would share silence at the kitchen table over freshly brewed mugs of tea in the early hours of the day. Those mornings were… Well actually those mornings weren’t so awful, I suppose.

But that morning! Goddess! That particular morning was far beyond the realm of simply being unpleasant. That morning I was truly in pain, truly in agony.

I had been poisoned.

With alcohol, of course. Did you think I meant the radiation? Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you. Though now that I think of it, the list of symptoms is rather simil- Oh nevermind. On with the tale.

Truly, having my body ravaged by radiation was awful, but it at least didn’t come packaged with the unfortunate understanding that I had willingly subjected myself to such torture. Radiation poisoning made me question how close I had come to death, but that hangover… Goddess, that hangover almost made me wish that I had died.

My parched lips parted as I croaked out in a raspy hiss, “Water… For the love all things shrouded in your beautiful night, Luna, point me in the direction of water!”

Despite the pounding in my skull that was doing a marvelous job of muddling my thoughts, I still possessed the presence of mind to vaguely understand that it was morning. That simple fact was bad enough, but it was only made worse by the insurmountable agony and crippling nausea that gripped me like the very claws of death. My eyelids fluttered feebly as I tried to close them shut; a pathetic attempt to block out the terribly blinding light raging through the uneven slits of dirty window blinds to skewer my retinas.

I rolled over in the bedsheets, allowing my body to play out its savage civil war struggling for control of my actions. My head argued to stay put and pray to Luna to take me back into her care in an attempt to sleep off my discomfort. My cracked and aching throat and riotous stomach pleaded for succor in the form of liquid relief. As I dragged a hoof across my eyes and down my cheeks I only knew that whomever would win this titanic battle, I had surely already lost.

“By The Dark Mother… I’m never drinking again…” Ahh… The promises we make in times of distress; so easily forgotten as soon as we no longer find ourselves under duress.

The need for water won out over my need for sleep. I dragged myself from the bed to stand on aching hooves while trying to navigate the overly-bright room with my squinting eyes. I was uncomfortably aware of the fact that I couldn’t remember going to bed the night before. Or even taking off my saddlebags and pistol holster, for that matter. There were only vague recollections of emotions, like wisps of smoke wafting through my mind in a gentle breeze. I felt certain that the previous night had involved quite a lot of embarrassment, and was dreading the reminder I was sure to get from whomever had been present for my antics.

I groaned in pain and resignation as I shoved open the door to the rest of the house and was immediately assaulted with a deluge of horrid illumination. In the moment before I shut my eyes against the pain I recognized Nohta sitting at the kitchen table. Every audible hoofstep against the floor felt like an admission of guilt and shame as I allowed the base need for water to guide me in her direction.

I had just made it to the table when Nohta’s exasperating voice screeched by way of greeting. “Twice! You threw up on me twice in two days, Candy!” Well that explained some of the embarrassment, at least.

My hoof pulled open the refrigerator and extracted a bottle of water as I moaned in a mix of agony, nausea, and humiliation. “Ughhh… ‘M sorry…”

“You should be, Sis. I had to clean us both off after that and apologize to Margie for you. You couldn’t even talk after you threw up.”

I covered my face with a hoof, both to hide my shame and to protect my eyes from the savage light. “I… I don’t even remember… I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever. I tried to tell Margie that you don’t ever drink, but I think she was just upset that you gulped down her booze; not that you barfed.” Nohta cast a glance towards the stained sofas and racy magazines before whispering conspiratorially, “I get the feeling that some of her old crew used to drink pretty hard around here anyway. She’s probably used to it.”

Shaking my head, which proved to be a terrible mistake, I slowly pulled a chair out at the table. I winced in pain as the legs scratched at the floor. “Doesn’t matter. That sort of uncouth behavior is completely unacceptable.” I rubbed my temples as I sat at the table and whimpered. “I should apologize to her myself. Where is she?”

Nohta looked up from her colorful bowl of Apple Sugar Bombs and mutated fruit and nodded in my direction as an uncomfortable tinny rattling noise sounded next to my ear. I shut one eye against the throbbing in my skull and swiveled my head see Margarita’s lime-green face set in an amused grin. She was gripping a small metal tin can with a scratched painting of a smiling zebra on the cover between her teeth while she raised an eyebrow playfully in my direction.

I had no idea what she was trying to convey. Truthfully, I thought that she was simply having some fun with me by way of her infernal improvised maraca. I gripped my pounding head between my hooves as I groaned and turned away from the noise, but she tossed the tin on the table in front of me and prodded my shoulder with a demanding hoof.

I winced as the metal impacted against the wood. “Margarita, I’m terribly sorry about… whatever it was that I did last night. But please… not so loud.”

Her hoof shook me in my chair, prompting me to open my eyes and see her pointing at the tin and then at myself. I re-examined the tin, but was still perplexed as to her meaning.

“Mintals? What?” Either my breath was atrocious, which was a distinct possibility that I couldn’t disregard, or she was telling me that I was being incredibly obtuse. Or perhaps both.

Margarita rolled her eyes, flipping open the tin with a single hoof to reveal the pink tablets that lay within. My nose wrinkled in disgust at the sight of them; they looked chalky and unappealing.

Nohta voiced her concern through a mouthful of cereal and fruit. “Wait, you want Candy to take a chem? For a hangover? Seriously?”

Margarita nodded to my sister before popping one of the tablets into her own mouth and chewing. She jotted down a quick note and slid the paper in front of me. “Just eet wun. You will feel bettur.”

Despite my misgivings about the mixing of chemicals, the pain I was in provided ample encouragement to take any avenue towards relief. And who else would know how to cope with a hangover better than a pony with an alcoholic beverage on her flank? I eyed my sister apologetically as my horn sparked to life. My magic was flowing freely and unobstructed thanks to Mother’s potion and some rest, but the concentration required for the simple spell did exacerbate my headache in an awful manner. Hoping that Margarita was right, I floated one of the tablets to my mouth. I was right about the texture, but the taste was sufficiently saccharine to appease my taste buds.

I couldn’t meet Nohta’s irritated eyes. I held my head in my hooves and stared downward at the table beneath my front legs while my body shivered. The effects of the drug were as intense as they were immediate; the throbbing between my ears dulled, the nausea subsided, the desire to go back to bed faded, even the agitated sounds of my sister’s cantankerous mastication became mildly pleasant.

I was suddenly blissfully aware of just how good I felt. The silken strands of my mane cascading down my neck and spilling over my hooves tickled against my coat with an electric tingle. The dark grain of the wooden table-top popped in my vision, starkly contrasted against the light-brown background as the colors in my vision bloomed. My ears perked upright, twitching towards every tiny noise in the house as the world sang an opera to which only I was privy. The smells of gun oil and citrus fruit assaulted my nostrils with renewed vigor, melding together in a wonderfully fragrant and unique bouquet. It was, to put it simply, amazing.

I lifted my head, blinking my eyes while I witnessed the world as if for the first time. Margarita’s complacent grin was the first thing my eyes fell upon, followed shortly by Nohta’s aggravated scowl. My horn flared to life, snapping the tin shut with a satisfying metallic ring. The magic coursing through my horn felt like a warm shower of water flowing over the appendage.

I opened my mouth to speak, but paused as I ran my tongue over my dried lips to wet them. Abandoning the desire for communication, I instead grasped my water with magic and drained the bottle down my throat. I couldn’t help but feel as if I were swallowing a cool mountain river as the clean liquid rushed over my tongue. I pulled the bottle away from my lips, noting how my gasping lungs felt like a set of great bellows stoking a forge.

I stared at Margarita, wondering how I had never noticed the subtle hints of crow’s feet creeping onto her face or the way the house’s lighting seemed to dance playfully in her eyes. Shaking my head to rid myself of distractions, I spoke as earnestly as I could manage with the overwhelming sensations of the world assaulting my body. “Please, never give me one of those ever again.” Both Margarita and my sister balked at that, and I took the opportunity to elucidate. “It is entirely too easy to comprehend how someone could become completely and hopelessly addicted to these. I appreciate your desire to help me overcome the hangover, Margarita, but I’d rather suffer through the consequences of my own poor decisions than be stripped of my powers of volition.”

After shooting me a small look of guarded incredulity Margarita smiled and nodded in acceptance, but Nohta’s scowl had only twisted with added confusion. “Sis, you’re acting weird.”

My gaze turned to my sister’s beautiful, scarred face. “The sudden juxtaposition of agony and bliss is most startling, but other than my regret for letting you down I feel completely fine.”

The scowl fell from Nohta’s face to be replaced with worry. “I… what?”

I leaned into the table, piercing her with my stare as I spoke, “I shouldn’t have taken the chem. I apologize for my bout of weakness. Please take the opportunity to learn from my mistake.”

Before my sister could respond, there was a knock at the door. Nohta threw her hood over her face as Margarita got up to answer.

A wan smile overtook my face as I whispered to Nohta’s shadowed features. “I care for you deeply, sister. You’ll be just as good a fighter as Mother one day, but you’ll never reach her level if you have to rely on chemical enhancements.” I wasn’t entirely sure how or why I had chosen to say that, but at the time it just seemed to fit the moment. Nohta’s hooded face stared at me underneath the black cowl, but other than a slackened jaw I was unable to interpret her reaction.

Margarita opened the door, allowing a gust of wind to gush through the doorway. An indigo pegasus was sitting outside the door, rubbing the back of her silvery-white mane as her tattooed face twisted into a cross between a pained wince and an apologetic grin. Margarita pursed her lips and tapped her hoof as she waited for Lily to speak.

“H-Hey Margie.” Lily’s voice was cautious as she tapped her hooves together in front of her chest, but gained steam as she spewed forth her words in a hurried deluge. “I uh… I did the job for you last night. And… and I’m really super duper sorry about what happened a couple weeks ago. I shouldn’t have just run off at the first hint of something like that and I know that you’re probably still crazy upset because I wasn’t there when you needed me and I’ll try to make it up to you and I can totally wait outside if you want me to and-”

Margarita rolled her eyes and threw her hooves around the startled pegasus’ neck, pulling her into an embrace over the threshold of the house. Lily’s apologetic exclamation was cut short as her surprised eyes bulged in her sockets. Her blue hooves slowly rose to wrap around Margarita’s green frame, and the two of them held the hug for a few moments; completely unconcerned with their two observers still sitting expectantly at the table. Margarita eventually pulled away, nodding towards the kitchen table and clearing a path for Lily to enter.

Lily bounded inside the house, her grin widening with every step, and gasped when she saw my curious face. “Candy!” Her wings fluttered with her excited gait as she rushed to the table, adjusting the rifle slung across her back and grinning widely. “How’s the hangover, babe?”

“Lessened considerably, thanks to Margarita.” My hoof waved between the pegasus and my sister. “Nohta, Lilly. Lily, Nohta.”

“Oooh, hey there short-stack! You must be the little sister! I love to make new friends! Especially cute ones!” Lily became a blur of blue motion as she rushed towards Nohta and nearly tackled her out of the chair. Nohta was held helpless in Lily’s iron grip as the excited indigo menace squeezed her mercilessly, knocking Nohta’s hood away with a tattooed cheek to expose her striped face. Lily’s eyes widened a second later, matching Nohta’s startled expression, but her voice remained upbeat and cheery as her tattooed cheek continued to rub happily against Nohta’s scar. “Oh wait… no option three for you, Candy’s orders. And you don’t look like an option two kinda gal; zebra’s can’t hold their liquor. They just get all blushy and stumble around a lot. I’ll give you option one later, but we need to mosey.”

“Ahh! Get off me you crazy bitch!” Despite my sister’s raucous protests and wriggling struggles, even her gargantuan strength proved insufficient to divest herself of the vice-like hooves of our new companion. She settled for a stuttering and confused query. “I-I’m not short! What are you-” Nohta’s hooves slithered between Lily and herself, and she managed to pry the pegasus a couple of inches away from her, “-talking about?”

Lily grinned manically as she released Nohta and waved a hoof dismissively in the air. “I’ll explain later, squirt. Hurry up and eat so we can do some shopping!” Lily’s eyes widened as she noticed the tin on the table, and her ears perked up as she turned to Margarita and exclaimed, “Margie! You’re busting out the good stuff! Did you show Candy my trick?” Margarita nodded as she sat back down at the table and smiled.

Lily continued speaking to Margarita far too quickly, bouncing in place as her flapping wings nearly lifted her from the floor. “Aww! I was gonna show her that! My tribe basically invented the PTM hangover cure!” Margarita’s only response was to roll her eyes and shake her head, but Lily continued as if the lime-green mare hadn’t just disagreed with her. “Yeah, I was gonna take one myself like I normally do in the mornings, but I figured they got a right to know what they’re getting into.” Nohta gave me an incredulous and irritated look, which I could only answer with a barely suppressed giggle, before she pulled her hood back over her eyes and began straightening out her cloak.

I turned from my sister; curiosity piqued at the mention of medicine. “Lily, you have a medical condition? You didn’t say anything about that last night.”

Lily beamed elatedly as she cocked her head and blinked innocently. “Yeah I did, you silly filly! It was right after our sixth round of shots and just before you got distracted by those two hot bucks making out at the table next to ours!”

“I- I what!?” I can assure you that I have absolutely no recollection of that. To this day I’m still of the opinion that she was embellishing her tale.

A retching sound preceded my sister’s exclamation. “Oh, gross!”

Lily jabbed a hoof in my direction as she continued to smile widely and flap her wings excitedly. “Ooh ooh, yeah! That’s it! Your face looked just like that!” At Lily’s words my hooves rose to feel the heat emanating from my face.

Lily’s blue hoof dabbed at her chin as she continued to improvise her surely fabricated story. “Actually, that sort of explains why you wouldn’t remember. They were pretty cute together.” Lily sat on her haunches, flaring her wings behind her and holding a hoof to her chest, “Well then, I’ll just have to tell you again! Prepare to be edumacated!”

I just barely caught the subtle ear twitch underneath Nohta’s hood, but I could practically feel the questioning glance she shot my way. I shrugged and shook my head at her before returning my gaze to Lily’s theatrics, concealing my burning face with a hoof and praying to The Dark Mother that Lily wouldn’t embarrass me further in front of my sister. Margarita was holding a hoof to her face as her body shook with her amusement.

Lily began to elucidate with gusto, her eyes peering far behind us as she dramatically exclaimed, “Far and wide across Equestria I have traveled, seeking many things! Ponies, answers, good fights, better booze, a really kick-ass hat…” Her lips pursed in a little pout as she glanced above herself, but she continued a moment later, “...but one of the few things I knew before I left my tribe was that I, Lily Belle, am a hero! And a hero is not a hero without her trials! I have faced-”

“Just get on with it already!” Nohta’s abrasive interruption cut the pegasus off, and I shot a timid grin towards my sister for encouraging a timely end to Lily’s shenanigans.

Lily’s wings fell back to her body as she calmed down and rolled her eyes. “Sheesh! Fine, fine… I haven’t really figured out what most folks call it. Some folks say that I’m ‘Touched by Luna,’ others say that the proper term is ‘Kissed by Luna.’ I prefer the second one, ‘cause it doesn’t make it seem like I got molested by a dead goddess.” Her face scrunched up in disgust as she wiggled her hooves in front of herself. “Ugh… That would just be creepy.”

My eyes widened and my ears stood on end. She had held my curiosity before, but now she truly had my attention. I had never known of any medical conditions named after Lady Luna, and the Stable’s medical training had been downright encyclopedic in how it covered all ailments, both magical and mundane. I had even been forced to attend a brief seminar detailing all the symptoms of the Feather Flu, for Luna’s sake!

My voice rose to match my climbing eyebrows as I scratched my chin and stared at Lily in bafflement, utterly perplexed as to this new illness. “Kissed by Luna? What do you mean? Is it contagious?”

Lily’s blue hooves rose defensively in front of her barrel. “Okay, so hear me out. No, you can’t catch it. It just kinda came at that super special time when I started noticing colts and fillies and my wings started feeling all prickly and standing on their own and then sometimes I’d have to go find a special magazine and-” Her eyes shot open as she paused, “Uhh… right… rambly bambly, sorry. Basically, I’m fine at night. No worries. I’ve got control of everything and know what to do. But during the day I can get to acting a little weird. I’m just hoping that I don’t burst into song, haha!” Lily chortled to herself while I glanced questioningly at Margarita, but our hostess only grinned while twirling a hoof next to her head.

Right… Margarita had said Lily was a little unstable in our earlier conversation. But then, she had also recommended her to help Nohta and I out with our various problems. My eyes returned to Lily as I asked, “So, you have a neurochemical imbalance that you’re attempting to self-treat with a highly addictive mental stimulant?”

Lily grinned widely, “I have no idea! But Mintals kinda level me out during the day.” She blinked, staring at me for a moment before she continued in a light and jaunty voice. “Being this happy may look like it’s fun, but it’s not!” I had no idea what to say to something so preposterous.

Lily cocked her head to the side, lifting a hind leg to scratch at the outrageous mess of hair that passed as her mane. She was oddly pensive as she noted, “Actually, now that I think about it, it feels kinda like I’m two ponies living in one pony’s body.”

Nohta jabbed a hoof in Lily’s direction as she questioned me. “This is who you hired to protect us? She’s fucking nuts! We don’t need somepony like her to watch our flanks out-” Nohta was silenced by the small paper plane that flew into her chest from across the table. Reading the note, she pulled her hood back to furrow her eyebrows in Margarita’s direction. “Seriously? The best merc in the desert? You’re kidding, right?”

Margarita shook her head without a trace of sarcasm or mirth on her face. Nohta swallowed and licked her lips, “And you trust her, Margie?” Margarita’s response was a somber nod of her head while she held Nohta’s questioning gaze with steadfast eyes. Nohta inspected the last remnants of her breakfast before turning back to me. “And do you trust her, Candy?”

I gazed at Lily, who was positively beaming from her recent praise and adulations from Margarita. “She… seems genuine, Nohta. And you know as well as I do how capable she can be in a fight.” I looked back to Nohta, “Furthermore, she has a level of familiarity with the local area that neither of us possess and is more than willing to help us with our problems. All of our problems, sister.”

Nohta’s brow furrowed. “Even the other mercs? Isn’t there like, a code or something against that?”

Lily’s demeanor changed from an overt show of joy to sorrowful commiseration as she spoke directly to Nohta. “Candy told me about the griffins. I’m super sorry about that, bee tee dubs. I know what it’s like to lose folks you care about like that.” She rose to her hooves and spat in a hoof, holding the leg out to my sister. “But I’ve got no problems with going on a turkey shoot. When we catch up to them, I’ll let you kill the one that got your dad. I promise.”

I blinked in disgust at the gesture, but Nohta stared at the hoof with fresh anger in her eyes. She finally got out of her chair, spat onto her own hoof, and slammed her leg into Lily’s, speaking in a low and determined voice. “No, Candy was closer to Dad than I was. She gets that kill. I want the one that got Dust.” I was more than a little impressed with the resolve in her voice, and how quickly she had given the opportunity for her revenge to me. But I couldn’t deny that I was happy with the arrangement.

Lily finally took to the air, hovering just a few inches from the floor on quick wing beats that blew Margarita’s crumpled up and forgotten notes in every direction as she cheered. “Yes! Now we’ve got a proper adventuring party! Fighter, mage, and thief! This is gonna be awesome!”

Lily jabbed a hoof in my direction as her eyes widened, “You do your science-y and magic-y and doctor-y things,” that same hoof tapped Nohta on the shoulder, “...you do your sneaky and beat-y and loot-y things,” she returned her hoof to her chest, “...and I’ll do my stabby and shooty and fly… uh… fly-y things! We’ll be unstoppable! Unless we get stopped. That would suck, but I’m sure we’ll be okay!”

I shook my head and grinned in a mix of exasperation and amusement, “Lily, loathe as I am to suggest you continue your regimen of questionable self-treatment, perhaps you should take one of your pills now.”

Lily waved my suggestion off with a hoof and confident grin. “Nah, that boat already set sail. But don’t worry, she’s coming back into port first thing tomorrow! And even if you don’t like her then there are plenty of other ships in the sea!”

Baffled by the enormous non-sequitur, garbled logic, and fouled up idiom, my mind settled on attempting to rectify the lesser of the many problems facing it. The barest hint of a sly grin crept across my face as I took the opportunity to correct her. “I believe the proper version of that expression is ‘fish in the sea,’ darling.”

Genuine puzzlement overtook Lily’s features as her jaw slackened. Her wings quickly folded at her sides, making it look as if she had somehow deflated. She cocked her head to question me in a foal-like manner, “What’s a… fish?” I felt one of my eyes twitch as I smiled blankly in response.

Nohta scoffed at our new companion. “Seriously? You know about boats but not fish?”

I ignored my sister, stirred to action by the almost comically pitiful pout that leapt across Lily’s face in response to Nohta’s derision. My brow furrowed as I struggled to come up with a suitable explanation. “It’s like a… bird that… flies through the water.”

And just like that the pegasus was all smiles again. “Oh, well that’s silly! You don’t want to get in the water! It’s totally irradiated and everything!” She waggled her eyebrows as she grinned maliciously in my direction, “Besides, whenever my feathers get wet I just get horny ‘cause I know I’m gonna have to preen ‘em.” Wait… Was she doing that on purpose?

It was my mouth’s turn to drop in confusion. I shook my head and groaned as I buried my face in my hooves. “Lily… There is indeed such a thing as too much information. Weren’t we discussing your medicine?”

Her eyes shot wide open. “Oh, right! I’ll tough it out for the rest of the day and get back on schedule tomorrow. No more willy nilly silly filly Lily after today. I just need to stock up on more chems.” Lily gasped loudly, holding her hooves to her startled face. “Shopping! We need to buy stuff!” Her startled face turned to glare at Nohta, “Why haven’t you gotten Candy any armor yet!? She’s a walking target!”

Nohta stammered, “I… I was gonna-”

Lily landed and threw a hoof around Nohta’s neck to pull her into a sisterly embrace, “No worries, short-stack. Your old auntie Lily Belle is on the case!” Nohta groaned as Lily continued, gazing into the distance and speaking determinedly, “We just gotta turn in that bounty for The Pyro and use the caps to grab some barding! I’ve got it all worked out! Just leave the thinking to me!”

As Nohta grumbled and resigned herself to the unsolicited hug, Margarita slid a note in front of me. I turned to see her smiling face before reading the missive. “I gave yu sum moar ammo and too moar grenaids. Thanks for deeling with the raidurz. Yu arr welcum bak heer any time. Lily noes wut she is talkeeng abowt, but don’t let her do all the thinkeeng. She can be dum as hell, sumtimes.”

I made sure to thank Margarita for her hospitality, as did Nohta while she finished eating. After a flurry of packing and hurried goodbyes to Margarita the three of us left MMMM headquarters and made our way to the center of town. Lily lead the way, prancing through the streets with noticeably more skip in her step than the previous night and waving cheerfully at nearly every passing pony she saw. Most of them grumbled and rolled their eyes at her greeting, but her enthusiasm was unwavering. Only a hoof-full of ponies seemed happy to see her, but even they made quick apologies before hastily returning to their tasks. Nohta and I walked in silence behind her, allowing Lily to dominate the conversations and guide our advance through the town.

The Sheriff and Mayor’s office was a large pre-war house set just across the street from the saloon. The bounty board in its yard was filled with various requests for mundane tasks such as collecting pelts or fruit from the desert, but was still dominated by the four pictures of the prominent raider leaders; Psyker, The Outcast, The Bard, and The Pyro. We stepped past the board and walked directly up the small path leading to the house before Lily barged directly through the front door without even breaking her stride.

Her jaunty voice called out to the house as Nohta and I followed in her wake. “Meriff! I got bounties to collect on!”

A gruff and rumbly voice answered from deeper inside the well cared for abode. “Lily!? I told you to stop calling me that! My name is Dry Wells!”

Lily followed the voice as she taunted Dry Wells in a voice oddly reminiscent of Nohta’s practiced antagonistic tones, “And that’s just the best name for the mayor of a town in the desert, isn’t it? You’re not fooling me, Meriff! Pay up!”

I followed after Lily as she shoved a creaky door open and strode inside the office. A rugged looking dark-brown earth stallion wearing an enormous ten-gallon hat and a dusty leather coat sat behind a desk that was covered in paperwork, twirling the magnificent mustache that clung to his upper lip like an overgrown squirrel. He had very obviously cared for his facial hair with all the devotion one would normally give to a newborn foal. Little beard-combs and tins of mustache pomade adorned the shelves and bookcases in the office next to dog-eared books, reminding me of the disastrous attempt Father had made at growing facial hair for that one memorable week.

The tiniest of forlorn smiles curled the corners of my mouth upward at the memory of scraggly hair on Father’s lip that evoked so many eyerolls and frustrated sighs from Mother. That smile widened infinitesimally as I recalled my then baby sister, unable to recognize Father’s face behind the thick whiskers, bursting into tears at the sight of him. I could still remember the scent of shaving cream from all those years ago when I sat perched on his shoulders and watched his reflection in the bathroom mirror shear the offending bristles away. He had asked if that was better. My chin had dug into his mane when I nodded in response.

It was much more pleasing to think back on my old memories of Father than it was to dwell on what had happened to him. The pain of having him ripped away from me was still fresh and raw, greater even than the agony I felt when my flesh had been literally torn from my body and swallowed by an undead abomination. But it was healing, if slowly. And besides, I was already doing everything in my power to honor his memory.

The monstrous mustache bobbed up and down with each word that Dry Wells spoke as he rose from his chair and greeted us, setting his hat on the table. “Well now, I didn’t expect you to be coming with company, Lily. G’mornin’ ladies. I’m Dry Wells, mayor of Mareon. Sheriff too, when the need arises.”

I smiled as I returned the greeting. “My name is Candy, and this is my sister Nohta. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dry Wells.” Given the nature of who I was speaking to, and the cloaked figure at my side, I chose to omit my last name lest I betray our true nature.

Lily had apparently opted for expedience, choosing to upend one of her saddlebags onto the mayor’s desk. Dozens of clipped ears spilled out of her bag to stain the paperwork with little droplets of mostly congealed blood. I wrinkled my nose at the untidy mess my companion had just created while she tapped her hoof against the bag to coax a few more ears that had stuck to the bottom onto the heap on the desk. The barest glint of metal shone out from inside the pile, but before I could get a better look Lily snatched it away to stuff the object back into her packs.

Dry Wells pursed his lips in consternation as he dug his hat out from the pile, “It’s easier to count them if you just do it one at a time, Lily.”

Lily flapped her wings and pouted, “But this way I get to make a big dramatic showing of how awesome I am!”

The stallion held a hoof against his face and shook his head, sighing, “You certainly like to make a showy mess of things, I’ll give you that.” He gestured towards a couple of chairs with a hoof while he donned his hat, “Make yourselves comfortable, ladies. This will take a while.” He started separating the ears from each other, counting them as he made another pile on the other side of his desk.

“Actually, my sister and I have a number of ears to exchange as well. And…” I floated The Pyro’s gas mask into the air, hovering it over the large pile of Lily’s trophies, “...this.”

The stallion fell back into his chair, staring at the mask as his hooves reached out to grasp the mask from my magic. He turned it over in his hooves, inspecting every inch of the leather before he turned back to me with recognition dawning on his face. “Well I’ll be… You’re the doctor from a while back, right? And now you’re here with this?”

I eased myself into the offered chair, noting how uncomfortable it was. “Yes, I am. And I have.” A small smirk crept over my lips as I took in the incredulous look on the mayor’s face. I nodded at Lily as I continued, “My companion here wanted me to throw it in your face and shout for money, but a lady must always act with grace. Even if she is… ah… accepting payment for taking a life.” Nohta poked at one of the chairs before deciding to sit on the carpet instead.

Dry Wells twirled his mustache with a hoof, “I see. Well, thank you for that. I’ve had enough things thrown at me this morning already.” He turned to glower at Lily again, “Like resignation letters from Mareon’s finest.”

Lily shrugged, flaring her wings and speaking with mock innocence. “Hey, it’s not my fault if Haze saw what a joke your little goon squad is. She and you both lost somepony to The Pyro and you wouldn’t do anything about it!” She jabbed a hoof at Dry Wells and sneered, “This one’s on you, Meriff!”

The bushy mustache on his lips twitched in agitation, “My name is Dry Wells. And what was I supposed to do, Lily? Send Mareon’s guards outside of our walls? It’s a police force, not a militia.”

“And that’s why MMMM is better, pbbbt!” Lily crossed her hooves in front of herself and blew a raspberry at the mayor. Once again, I couldn’t help but giggle at her foalishness.

Dry Wells resumed twirling his mustache while he spoke, “Yes, Purple informed me that MMMM is up and running again. I assume that her decision to abandon the law in favor of rampant vigilantism had something to do with The Pyro’s death?” He threw the mask on the pile of ears in disgust. “She also informed me of another little problem within our gated community.” He shook his head before continuing. “The Bard? Really? As if we didn’t have enough problems, now we have spies inside the town?”

Lily folded her wings, giving me the impression that she had calmed down quite a bit. “Every member of The Bard’s gang has one thing in common. You know what you have to do, Meriff. Make it happen.”

He glared at her, a sliver of anger finally entering his voice as he refused her advice. “I am not going to lock up every pony inside Mareon that happens to have a white coat. That’s blatant discrimination, and as mayor I will not allow that within my town.”

“Right, right… ‘cause you’re absolutely chummy with Half-Moon, aren’t you?” Lily’s wings twitched on her back, causing the nearly invisible blades to clink against each other. Her voice was dull and flat as she looked Dry Wells in the eye and made her case. “The Mayor has to look out for the good of the town, right? Sometimes that means stepping down and letting The Sheriff protect ponies. Word’s already out about The Bard’s spies. Folks are gonna get restless around anypony they start to suspect. If nothing else, you need to lock those white-coated ponies up for their protection.” She placed a hoof on his desk as her voice dropped to a low whisper. “The Mayor can’t do that. But the Sheriff can.”

Dry Wells leaned across his desk, resting his chin on folded hooves. “Am I to take that as a threat from MMMM against more of Mareon’s citizenry?”

Lily sat on her haunches, grinning smugly. “I don’t know, you’d have to talk to Margie about that one. I’m on a private contract now.”

The Mayor sighed, laying his hat on the desk next to the pile of ears and reaching into a drawer. He pulled out a large silver star and pinned it to his coat. The Sheriff growled as he retrieved a revolver from his desk and slung the holster over his shoulder, “You’re a real bitch, you know that?”

Lily shrugged and smirked, “Not everypony loves me. What’s a mare to do, right?”

The Sheriff moved one last severed ear from the original pile to the second, and threw a large bag of caps as well as two smaller ones at Lily’s smug face. “Take your fucking caps and get out of my damned office. And don’t let the door hit your tribal ass on the way out.”

Lily stuffed the jingling bags into her packs and chuckled. “Haha! There’s the cheery son of a bitch I was hoping to talk to!” Lily glanced at me as she pointed a hoof at Dry Wells’ face, “Isn’t it cute how his mustache wobbles from side to side when he yells?”

Dry Wells slammed his hoof against his desk. “Get out! Or I’ll do as you’re asking and lock your companion in one of my cells.” He glanced in my direction, “You know, for your own protection.”

Nohta was on her hooves before he finished his sentence. She slammed one of Mother’s horseshoes into the rim of the desk, shaking it on its legs while she snarled, “Not gonna happen.”

The room came alive with the sound of mechanical whirring noises from each corner. Automated turrets sprung from the ceiling as four targeting lasers trained themselves on Nohta’s hood. The Sheriff’s eyebrows furrowed in a questioning gaze as he stared at my sister’s shrouded face, “What was that, girl?”

Lily’s white mane was a blur as she drew her pistol and took aim at The Sheriff. Two of the targeting lasers danced over her face in response. Everyone within the room was deathly still. I certainly hadn’t anticipated this!

I slowly rose from my chair, laughing nervously, “Nohta, please darling. There’s no need to stir up unnecessary trouble. This stallion is only acting in Mareon’s best interests, after all.” I walked to the desk, placing a hoof on my sister’s shoulder to gently ease her back into a sitting position on the floor. “And Lily,” I turned to the blood-red eyes of my new companion, “certainly he’s not going to take me into custody. I was with you when you exposed the entire threat to the town. Not to mention that I’ve hired you to help me kill The Bard! If I were one of his gang members then I’d be doing an astoundingly awful job!”

I wasn’t even sure how or why, but my little speech was having an effect. At the time I was speaking as quickly as my mouth would move, letting the ideas form as I made them up. It is quite the odd sensation when ponies listen to you when your words typically go ignored, isn’t it? Something we can all relate to, I suppose.

I rounded on the Sheriff, speaking calmly, “And as for you, I’m afraid that all I can offer is more troubling news for Mareon. When my sister and I were dealing with The Pyro, she made mention that the raiders have made a pact with slavers. Another group with whom I am on, ah… bad terms, as it were. I believe that Mareon is in danger, but my interests lie entwined with the continued safety of the town.”

I continued, watching the realization take root within Dry Wells’ eyes as I improvised. “MMMM company is not up to full strength yet, Sheriff, and you said yourself that Mareon’s guards can’t venture outside of the walls. Who else is available to take care of this troubling alliance of morally depraved degenerates?” A simple movement of my head flipped the curls of my mane over my shoulder, even if I wasn’t sure what had prompted me to do so. That same unexplained intuition called to me again, and I felt a curious expression that I wasn’t familiar with force itself onto my face. The Sheriff's eyes widened in response.

I curled a corner of my mouth upward as I realized that, whatever I was doing, it was working. “You need me to deal with your problems as much as I need the freedom to seek my revenge. Would you really keep me from doing what we both know needs to be done?” Call it blind luck, intuition, simple chemical enhancement, or whatever you like, something was telling me what to do in order to get what I wanted, and I was more than eager to allow that inner voice to guide my actions. I tilted my head at what I understood to be just the right angle, pushing my bottom lip out and furrowing my brow in just the right way… The effects were as immediate as they were devastating.

The Sheriff’s eyes were glued to my own pouting face. To my side I heard the sound of metal sliding into leather, and Lily’s voice whispered behind my back. “Oh yeah, she’s totes on the mints.” Nohta groaned in response.

Dry Wells slid a hoof under his desk, and a moment later the turrets slid back into concealment. His eyes stayed fixed with mine as he resumed twirling his mustache and leaned back into his chair. “The Bard has been known to work with slavers. The Outcast, though… his gang kills them on sight. I hate to admit it, but Outcasts are one of the major reasons Red Eye hasn’t been able to push into the San Palomino.”

“Now go ahead and tell her how you know that!” Lily’s voice was giddy with excitement.

The Sheriff spared her a quick and reproachful glance before turning to me and admitting. “As Sheriff, I authorized for a few select members of The Outcasts’ gang to trade freely with Mareon for ammunition, medical supplies, and foodstuffs.”

My eyebrows raised at that, prompting him to quickly continue, “This was all before the attack. Everypony knew that The Pyro was scum. Thank you for killing her, by the way.” He nodded his head in appreciation before speaking further. “But the bounties for The Outcast and The Bard were more for official show than to actually encourage anypony to kill them. Just the law putting on a brave face so ponies didn’t forget it existed.”

The Sheriff scratched his chin absentmindedly as he continued, “Before the attack, The Bard never bothered us besides flooding our streets with chems and pussy.” He cringed slightly as I pursed my lips, but soldiered on. “Ah, pardon my Fancy, comes with the badge. The Outcast, though… He was the only raider I’d ever call a boon to the town. Adamant’s not a half-bad pony, and that buck has a chip on his shoulder for slavers. He’d never work with them.”

Lily chimed in behind me, “Some of us might have even called him ‘honorable.”

“Before the attack,” Dry Wells shifted in his seat uncomfortably as he answered her, “...I would have agreed with you. Now I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing.”

I turned back to Nohta, “Did we mishear The Pyro? Do you remember her words?”

Nohta rubbed her chin with one of Mother’s horseshoes, “No, I remember. She said that Psyker dealt with the slavers. I’m pretty sure that was somewhere around the time she started talking about how she was gonna eat us.”

“Fuck!” I turned back to see the Sheriff sighing heavily into a hoof. “I fucking knew it… Psyker’s playing her hoof; playing her gangs against each other. I’ve got no choice but to lock up the town now. Nopony in or out. We can’t take chances.” Dry Wells looked me up and down from behind his desk, “If you’re honestly planning on doing something useful out there, then you’ve got my full support. Your best option is to go after The Bard first. MMMM company fucked up by going straight for Psyker.” He cast a stern glance in Lily’s direction before looking back to me and tapping his hoof against his desk. “You need to tear Psyker’s infrastructure apart before you take her down. If you can kill Elegy, then his gang will fall apart on its own, and you might learn something about whatever slavers you’ve got a problem with.” The Sheriff snorted once in derision before adding, “His gang would be the easiest to take down in a fight anyway.”

Lily chuckled behind me, “True that! Most of ‘em don’t even wear barding! Hint, hint!”

“Ahh yes, we really should be moving on, shouldn't we?” I grinned behind a hoof before nodding at Dry Wells and apologizing, “Sorry for all the trouble earlier. I do hope that your plan can keep the town safe.”

The Sheriff pulled up a small wooden chest from underneath his desk and shrugged as he opened it, “So long as Bright Eyes or Psyker don’t personally come a knockin’ on our gates, we’ll be fine.”

Digging through the chest, he pulled out a pad of official looking papers and scribbled a quick signature before tearing one away and speaking directly to Lily. “You and I don’t get along at the best of times, girl. You’re reckless, unpredictable, and you have no appreciation for well-groomed facial hair.” I found that last bit to be a rather odd way to assess somepony’s quality of character, but I chose to stay quiet while the Sheriff continued. “But I know I can count on you for one thing.” He shut the chest and stared at my companion. “On your tribe’s honor, are you taking the fight to the raiders?”

Lily flapped her wings once, rattling the blades against each other noisily. “Duh. We just need supplies before we head out.”

He held the note out to her, “Then consider this a down payment so you don’t pour ears all over my desk again. Take this to the buck at the general store. I’d advise you to get the lady here some barding so she’s not traipsing through the desert in her skivvies.”

Lily smiled as she took the paper, “That’s the plan. Keep a seat at the bar warm for me, this’ll be over before you know it.”

She donned her packs and strode out of the room quickly with Nohta close behind and grumbling underneath her hood. I turned to follow them, but the Sheriff called out to Nohta just as my sister had stepped past the door. “Your voice… What’s underneath the hood, girl?”

Nohta froze in her tracks and turned to face him, but kept silent. Dry Wells rose from his chair and stepped around his desk as I stood in the doorway between him and my sister. He spoke again, slowly, “That’s a zebra cloak. I can detain a filthy stripe just as easily as I can a pony. Lift your hood, girl.”

I felt that same pull to act and braced my right hoof against the door frame, peering into the Sheriff’s eyes just as my sister’s chest brushed against my knee. The tiniest of smirks curled a corner of my mouth upward as my horn flared and unholstered my pistol. I whispered softly as the red light of my magic cast dancing shadows across the room while I gently shook my head. “To quote my sister, Sheriff, ‘Not gonna happen.”

His teeth ground together as his eyes fixed mine with an icy stare. “Get out of my town. Kill the raiders and I might consider letting you trade with us. We’ve got enough fucking stripes here already.”

Lily was by my sister’s side as soon as she noticed we had been delayed, “What’s up? We got a problem?”

Nohta’s voice was rigid with barely checked anger as she whispered menacingly underneath her hood. “One of these nights, you’re gonna wake up noticing a chill in the air and a flutter in the shadows. You’ll feel cold, but you won’t know why. You’ll feel like you’re not alone, even though you locked all your doors. It won’t be until you get up to piss that you’ll know how close my blade was to your throat.” The Sheriff’s eyebrows furrowed together as he cocked his head to the side in silence. Nohta craned her head across my knee as she pointed a hoof at Dry Wells’ face. “I’m taking that mustache.”

By The Goddess, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Lily laugh as heartily as she did that day.

Once all of that unpleasantness was past us (and once I was able to convince Lily to stop rolling around on the floor as she cackled at the sheer terror on Dry Wells face), the three of us walked a short ways down the main road to the general store; another pre-war house that had been repurposed into a place of business. Nohta opted to stay outside to both vent her anger by grinding loose chunks of asphalt against the road and out of fear that the shopkeeper might recognize her from the last visit she had made to the store. I argued for Lily to stay outside to watch over her, but Lily insisted that she be present while I haggled with the trader. She was only slightly too quick to assure me that it wasn’t just an excuse to watch me try on barding. Luckily for my sanity, that last little tidbit was whispered while Nohta was well out of earshot.

The store was stocked with metal shelves containing a menagerie of items both useful and frivolous, but lacked any discernible strategy for organization whatsoever. Entirely different calibers and types of ammunition were heaped together inside wooden barrels. Pre-war packets of oatmeal were stuffed inside an ancient quad of roller skates. A broken toaster lay defeated on its side before an invading horde of pink lawn flamingos. But at the very back of the store, just behind the counter and the stallion waving furiously for our attention, were sets of barding and weapons hanging from hooks in the walls.

Lily was still convulsing with barely suppressed giggles as we stepped inside the store. “Okay, I had my doubts at first since she’s kinda like, all quiet and came off as super serious. But I’m starting to see why you love your little sis so much.”

Her laughter was quickly proving infectious. I had to purse my lips and bite my tongue to not fall into my own giggling fit before I replied. “She certainly has a way of honing in on exactly what most bothers somepony, and it can occasionally be fun to observe her practicing her craft.”

Lily and I proceeded past the shelves and walked up to the stallion. Just as I was about to greet him, Lily slapped the piece of paper we had just received on the counter and exclaimed in a terribly faked accent, “I’ll buy it at a high price!”

The stallion blinked in confusion as he read the Sheriff’s note of store credit. “Uh… buy what?”

Lily hoofed over another note, “All of the ammo in these calibers you have, a week’s worth of food and clean water, one sleeping bag, any Dash, Med-X, Buck, PTMs, Rage, Stampede, and Pink Sand you’ve got, all the health potions you can spare, two bottles of whiskey, a carton of smokes, and that.” Lily pointed a hoof at a set of simple brown leather barding above the buck’s head. “Also, I’d like to try on your hats.”

The stallion’s ear twitched as he raised an eyebrow, “Oh… so basically everything. You gonna need a bag for that?”

Lily’s wings fluttered beside her as she grinned pleasantly, “Can you gift wrap it too, smartass? I like pink bows!”

“Give me a minute to put all this shit together.” He turned to leave, grumbling as he walked into the back-room of the store.

The front door opened behind us, and I turned to see a pair of familiar faces walk into the store. The unicorn stood by the metal shelves and greeted me, his bright yellow face breaking into a wide grin as he spoke. “Candy! You made it! Glad to see you up and about, girl!”

“Ah, Cheddar! What a pleasant surprise!” My own feature’s brightened with recognition. “I was hoping to see you before I left. I wanted to thank you for what you did for Nohta and I.”

Cabernet followed closely behind her husband, a genial but decidedly neutral expression covering her burgundy face. “Hello, Candy. Who’s your friend?”

Lily stepped forward just enough to place a hoof on the ground between Cabernet and myself, ruffling the bladed feathers on her back so that the metal tinkled like tiny bells. “Sup. Name’s Lily.” From my angle, I was just able to see the guarded smirk on her indigo face.

Cabernet’s eyes flitted from Lily’s to my own, and then her face lifted as if in realization. “Oh… oh!” Lily’s grin widened as she snorted once, her wings twitching against her sides. Cabernet continued a moment later, nodding her head lightly. “I see… Well, I’m just here to see if the shopkeeper would like to buy any of my books. Cheddar’s senses are telling him we’ll be here for a while longer and we could use the caps.”

The expressions on their faces were most curious. Lily was suddenly acting as I had imagined a bodyguard would act, but why was she doing so around an unarmed and friendly Cabernet? She had been nothing but kind, courteous, helpful, willing to lend a sympathetic ear and… and… Oh Goddess…

I lifted a hoof to Lily’s shoulder, “Ahh… Lily? Could I speak to them alone for a minute?”

Lily turned to me and flared a wing in front of us, concealing our faces from the ponies as she whispered, “You sure? You tensed up when they walked in.”

“What?” My brow furrowed with my confusion, “No I didn’t.”

She nodded knowingly, giving me a cocky little grin. “I’m a damned good bodyguard, sweetie. I pick up on that stuff.”

My face fell as I scanned the floor, “I just… I need to apologize to her.”

Lily’s eyebrows rose as if in appreciation while she cooed. “Huh… Really? Now that I didn’t see coming.”

I shoved a hoof into her chest, “Whatever it is that you’re thinking… No. It’s not like that. I just need a minute.”

Lily withdrew her wing, “I’m here if you need me, sugar. I’ll handle the haggling, but you’re not leaving here until we get you some barding, and you gotta try it on to make sure it fits right. Got it?”

I nodded, “That’s fine. I won’t take long.”

I walked to the stallion and mare, putting on the most gracious smile I could muster. “I really am thankful for what you did for us, Cheddar. My sister informed me of what happened after I blacked out. We owe you our lives. How is little String?”

“String’s good. Probably driving Merlot and Brie nuts right about now, actually.” Cheddar chuckled nervously, then rubbed the back of his mane uncomfortably. “But uh… about that night… I didn’t really give your sister all the details.”

Puzzled, I raised an eyebrow in question. “Oh?”

Cheddar glanced at Cabernet, who gave him an encouraging head nod. He swallowed and looked me dead in the eyes as he spoke. “Look Candy, we didn’t tell your sister this when we let her know what happened. She comes off as a bit angry and unstable, but you seem a might bit more understanding than she is.” He licked his lips and furrowed his brow before continuing, “After you fell down trying to drag her away, that glowing mare was about to hit you with more of that light she was flinging around. We… I figured that it musta been some nasty stuff to knock you out, and since you were already down…”

He shook his head, cursing under his breath before his eyes pleaded with me. “Look, I’m grateful as all get out for what you did with String, but I can’t go rushing in to get myself hurt over a couple of corpses.”

“I… see.” I mulled that over for a moment, but couldn’t fault him. He needed to look out for his son, after all. I nodded my head, whispering soothingly. “It’s okay. I understand. But if that’s the case, then what actually happened?”

His ears gave a feeble flop atop his head before he took a deep breath and explained. “That mare was just about to finish the both of you off when something happened out west. A damn pillar of white light in the middle of the desert, like the moon just plum fell outta the sky. Looked like it came from out past Coltsville. Darndest thing I ever did see.” My head cocked to the side as my jaw slackened. That had to have been the Rangers. At least some of them had survived the ghoul horde. But what had they done? What hornet’s nest had my sister and I truly stumbled into?

He nodded solemnly, continuing to whisper. “Just as soon as it happened, that glowing mare stopped attacking you and booked it for that light. And I don’t mean she was walking around all hoity-toity like she was before. She fucking hauled ass; took every ghoul that could still move with her and galloped like her life depended on it. Whatever that light was… it was important to her. And I reckon the timing saved your lives.” He shrugged as his ears twitched, “I figured you oughta know the whole truth. You got any clue what it was?”

I shook my head, “Thank you for telling me the whole story, but I’m not sure. The Steel Rangers had some powerful armaments at their disposal. Maybe it was a weapon of some sort? Or magic? Both? I don’t know.”

Cabernet’s smooth voice chimed in, “Steel Rangers? I thought your sister said they all died?”

I frowned apologetically, “That… was a bit of an assumption on my sister’s part. Based off of what Bright Eyes was doing, I must admit that it did seem somewhat plausible at the time. Nohta and I didn’t stay to watch what we both assumed was going to be a slaughter.”

Cheddar sighed as his eyebrows wriggled above his eyes. “Well, I reckon that whatever nastiness got cooked up that night, it’s all on the other side of the river. That bomb might as well have split this desert in two, girl. My family don’t have a choice but to go north to Manehattan now, but we’re stuck in Mareon until all this raider business blows over.”

An idea popped into my mind, and I grinned at Cheddar. “You know, if you need to trade for weapons or food, I know a mare who grows her own fruit and has a veritable armory in her possession. She um… she can’t talk, but as long as you can look past her horrendous spelling Margarita is a rather pleasant pony to be around.” My grin morphed into a slight grimace as I turned to Cabernet, “And uh… I think that she might be a bit more, ah… receptive to certain things than I was.”

I couldn’t quite place the expression that graced Cabernet’s visage. It was an odd mix of surprise, disappointment, and appreciation. Cheddar’s face, though, was only mildly frustrated as he glanced between his wife and I. “Damn it, Cabby! You know I don’t mind, but you gotta tell me when you get with a mare! That’s the deal!”

Cabernet rolled her eyes and pursed her lips at Cheddar, “Cheddar, nothing happened! Little miss ‘well-read’ here was more oblivious than you were before we started dating.”

Cheddar blinked blankly before he grinned and chuckled, “O-oh… Heh. That bad, huh?”

I rubbed a hoof above my foreleg uncomfortably, “It seems I was painfully unaware of what’s proper and decent out here. Each new revelation regarding social mores is coupled with ever increasing heights of embarrassment as I continue to make a mule of myself.” My mane fell in my eyes as I winced at the deep-red face in front of me, “I’m sorry Cabernet, I know what it feels like to be ignored when you… Well, when you’re trying not to be.”

Cabernet regarded me for a moment before she smiled warmly and flipped open one of the bags at her sides. Pulling out a hard backed purple book with dog-eared pages and a flimsy spine, she asked, “Do you like spell books? I was gonna sell this one, but you should have it.”

My jaw slackened at her reaction, and I waved a hoof before myself to decline her offer. “I... I can’t. I already owe you both so much and-”

She laid the book on the floor between us. “Just take it, Candy. And thanks for the tip.” Her grin grew as she whispered to her husband, “Come on Big Cheese, let’s go talk to this Margarita.”

He rolled his eyes playfully as he allowed himself to be led towards the door. “Ugh… Citrus and cheese do not go together, Cabby.”

Cabernet shrugged as the two of them slinked through the door, “Well maybe we can find you a taco or two instead.”

A trickle of heat crept into my cheeks as I held a hoof to my face and groaned. I absolutely had to get out of Mareon! There had to be something in the air to pervert ponies minds so severely! I sat there, waiting for the blush to fade and hoping that whatever commotion I had just sent Margarita’s way wouldn’t make her upset with me.

“You have fun friends.”

“Gah!” I shrieked and turned to find a tattooed face grinning mischievously at me from underneath a black stetson. “Lily, you nearly gave me a heart attack! You’re as bad as my sister!”

She nodded her head towards the back of the store. “Come on, we got this stuff settled. Just need to get you into some armor and then we can go.” Without another word she turned to head towards the counter and the tan earth buck on the step ladder pulling down sets of armored barding.

I held a hoof to my chest as my heart settled down. “Right… Okay.” I pursed my lips as a troubling thought occurred to me, “Lily, you had better not be using this as an excuse to ogle my posterior.”

She froze in her tracks and looked back to me over her shoulder. A sly grin wrinkled the black whorls on her face as she replied, “Well… if I wasn’t before, I’m definitely going to now, silly!” She turned back to yell at the buck, stomping a hoof against the floor for emphasis. “Hey now! Don’t bother with that metal stuff! That’s too heavy for her! We need leather so she can move fast and show off those curves!”

I whimpered into a hoof, “Goddess save me.” My eyes fell on the aged purple tome on the floor, and I scooped up the book Cabernet had left behind to read the cover in a low whisper. “Teleportation: A Comprehensive Guide To Apparition, Blinking, Folding Space-Time, And Other Means Of Instantaneous Travel Over Distances Both Long And Short.” I flipped the book over in my hooves, scanning the pages that fell open underneath my muzzle.

Father had promised to teach me how to teleport. We had even made plans for practice sessions once we were outside of the Stable. I had the opportunity to learn how to use the spell now, but I’d have to teach myself… I held the tome to my breast, hugging it close. Cabernet had given me a far more treasured gift than she had known. When Lily called from across the store to ask what was taking me so long, I wiped the wetness from my eyes and hurried to join her.

Sliding into so many different sets of leather barding proved to be an arduous task; especially with Lily’s counsel. She decided that two of the sets I tried on were the wrong color, spouting some nonsense about shades of brown and accents. The tan buck could only glower incredulously when she inquired as to whether he had any outfits in a, and I quote, “Nice, soothing pink.” Even I had to raise my eyebrow at that. Pink armor sounded like an astoundingly terrible idea in a firefight. Her ensuing giggles left little doubt as to the lack of sincerity in her request, however.

After I surmised that the fifth set of barding was probably intended for a mare with a, ah… more petite figure (and don’t you dare make a comment about that), I found Lily’s gaze glued to my flank. Nearly a full day’s worth of potion-aided recovery had given me back a substantial amount of arcane strength, and I’m quite sure that the cans of pickled beets and creamed corn that collided with her head and proceeded to chase her around the store got my point across; even if she was cackling wildly as she made her retreat.

She finally stopped galloping through the aisles, much to the shopkeeper’s relief, and threw herself at my hooves as she exclaimed, “Wait! It’s not what you think!”

I raised an eyebrow, halting the descent of preserved justice just before it could smite her upon her new accessory, and asked, “Really? How so?”

Her blood-red eyes pleaded with me from the floor as she pouted. “Your cutie-mark! I’ve seen it before! Only, it wasn’t pink like yours.”

The memories of the night before were more than a little hazy, but I could distinctly remember confiding to her that I had a glyph-mark. I surmised she was still trying to protect my heritage from the prying ears of the harried shopkeeper. I cocked my head to the side as I questioned her, “Where?”

She dusted herself off as she climbed to her hooves. “Couple places. One of ‘em is pretty close. Stop hitting me and I’ll show you!”

I stuffed the cans into my packs, throwing her a warning glare. “No more staring at my flank.”

She pursed her lips in a pout, “But it’s such a nice-”

“Lily!?” One of the cans was back in my magical grip, floating over her head.

“Okay, okay! Sheesh!” She waved a hoof at one of the crumpled piles of armor on the counter. “Just go with that tan set, it’s a good one. Not too heavy for you, and the added layers will help deflect blades and absorb some of the force from bullets. It’s more important that you try to keep from getting hurt than it is for you to wade into the thick of it. Leave that to me and your sister.”

We finished up the dangling ends of our transaction and left the tan stallion to clean up his store as best he could manage. My barding was a little snug, but not uncomfortably so, and the extra layers along my shoulders, chest, and barrel did seem to provide a sense of protection I had been without for far too long. Manticore leather was a surprisingly supple and comfortable form of wasteland armor. I only wished that I had been capable of slipping into the armor without having to ask Lily to cut the left sleeve short to accommodate my Pipbuck.

We stepped outside to find my sister poking her hoof at the driveway by the side of the store, leaning up against the grill of a motorwagon. She turned around when she noticed us, and trotted up in front of me to tilt her head and inspect my armor.

She raised a hoof, and jabbed out quickly at my padded chest. The dull impact rocked me back on my hooves, and I cried out in alarm. “Gah! Nohta! What was that for?” I rubbed my chest with a hoof as I glared at her.

Her voice was calm and level underneath her hood. “Did it hurt?”

“I…” Well now that she mentioned it… “No… No it didn’t. I’m more surprised than anything.”

“Good.” She nodded in appreciation. “I like it. It’s simple. Practical. It’ll work fine.” She turned to find Lily sitting in front of the motorwagon and scratching her chin with a hoof. “Are we ready to go, feather-brain? I’d like to get out of this shit-hole town and back on the road.”

“Almost, kid. I just want to check up on Half-Moon before we leave. I think you’ll like him.” She cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow in a curious expression, gesturing towards the beaten down motorwagon with a hoof. “What do you think of the old Workhorse?”

Nohta snorted underneath her hood, “Somepony actually named that rustbucket pile of trash?”

Lily’s ear twitched as she ambled over to the vehicle. “Yeah, check it out! A little TLC and she’d probably be back up and running in no time.”

Nohta’s tail swished derisively, “TLC as in ‘Totally Lost Cause?”

“Bah! You’re hopeless!” Lily took to the air, turning quickly in the air with a powerful flap of her wings and poking at a dirty headlight with a hoof. “Candy, what do you think?”

I walked past my sister to better inspect the old freight hauler, noting the cracked windows, flat wheels, and bent frame of the hole filled trailer. “Well… I’m certainly no expert on pre-war automobiles, but the word ‘jalopy’ comes to mind. The idea that it might work is certainly… interesting, but I can’t imagine that it will when it’s in such an obvious state of disrepair. I’m sorry, Lily, but why did you want to know?”

She continued prodding at the headlight as she grinned, prompting the lens to come loose and throw itself to the ground like a rat deserting a sinking ship. Lily either didn’t notice or chose to ignore that, and continued to smile widely as she explained, “I always kinda liked the idea of fixing her up and taking her out for a spin. I asked the shopkeeper what he wants for the old girl, but he’s asking way too much. Like, five thousand caps.”

Nohta shook her head. “You want to buy this scrapheap? Are you serious?”

Lily landed on the hood and patted the rusty metal underneath her hooves lovingly, “Aww, don’t talk about the old girl like that! Sure she’s no Flamborghini or Super-Speedy 9001, but who wants a flashy two-seater that’s gonna run out of juice before you even make it to the next town when you could have a sweet loot hauler with enough strength to get you there and back again ten times over? And yeah she may be a tad old, but look at her. She’s as feisty and full of spark as ever!” Lily’s hoof smacked on the hood, causing the remaining headlight to fall onto the ground with an uninspiring thud. “If I had the caps I’d buy her just to have something to tinker with in my downtime.”

I raised my eyebrows in appreciation as I inquired, “You know how to fix motorwagons?”

Lily shrugged, her wings rising above her shoulders to accentuate the gesture. “Eh… not really. I can take care of my guns just fine, though. How much difference could there be between one machine and another?” Her eyes lit up in a maniacal grin, “And think of just how cool it would be to bolt a fifty-cal on top of the trailer and ride into a raider camp guns blazing!”

Nohta slapped her face with a hoof and groaned. I chuckled as I shook my head, “Lily… that sounds like a very good way to wind up dead.”

She flared her wings and lowered her head, pawing at the hood as if she were ready to pounce on somepony. “But it would be a great way to go, right?”

I rolled my eyes as I grinned. “Who was this ‘Half-Moon’ that you wanted to meet? That name sounds oddly familiar...” My eyes scanned the ground as my thoughts began to wander off on their own.

Lily’s eyes widened, “Oh shit! That’s right. Follow me.”

The walk through town that followed was a long one, and full of little discoveries for my wandering eyes. The further from the center of Mareon we got, the more dilapidated and pitiful the houses became. Eventually the pre-war structures gave way to ancient mobile homes, then vaguely house-shaped shelters comprised of sheet metal plates, and finally railcars pulled in from Goddess knows where. By the time that we had reached the scrap metal shelters the crumbled road had given way to a dirt path being trampled by groups of colts and fillies playing foalish games. Everywhere around us was litter and discarded salvage; though some of it did serve a purpose. Metal barrels had been sliced down the middle to be laid on their sides and converted into simple grills for cooking. Cracked mirrors and flattened aluminum cans surrounded tiny gardens to reflect the feeble sunlight towards scrawny vegetable crops. These ponies may have been impoverished, but they were nothing if not ingenious and resourceful with what little they had at their disposal.

The ponies that lived on the outskirts of town were also, to put it mildly, filthy. Earth ponies covered in dust and grime tended the gardens and worked in teams to raise new shelters. Unicorns covered in grease and motor oil sifted through the engines of ancient motorwagons and electrical generators, looking for useful parts. A small mare that I at first mistook for a filly was walking amongst the workers and hoofing out food and drinks. She wasn’t accepting any payment in return.

Lily’s voice was wistful as she explained to Nohta and I, “This is my second favorite part of town. The ponies here are extra super friendly, once they know you can be trusted.” She spoke directly to me as she added, “And since they’re too poor to pay any of the Mayor’s taxes, the Sheriff ‘forgets’ to route the guard’s patrols through here. They have to look out for themselves. Like a big family.”

I rubbed a hoof against a temple as I winced. The world had taken on a slightly fuzzy and dull quality while my body’s niggling aches and pains returned to pester me with every hoofstep. The mostly healed wound in my shoulder disagreed with my recent activity, but for the large part even it’s seemingly incessant and painful reminders were dying down.

I pulled a bottle of water out of my packs and sipped gingerly. “That’s noble of them.”

Lily smiled as she led the way through the hubbub of racing foals and busy mares and stallions, occasionally flaring a wing or brushing a hoof along the black brim of her headwear at one of the passersby. “It reminds me of home.”

“Are they racist pricks here, too?” Nohta’s voice was a low growl underneath her hood. I rubbed my good shoulder against her as we continued to walk side by side.

Lily shook her head. “Don’t think so. They never gave me any problems for being a tribal, anyway. I’d keep the hood on though, just in case.”

I took another drink before asking, “So, if this is your second favorite part of Mareon, where would you rather be?”

Lily snorted, her body convulsing with little giggles. “The Prickly Pair. Definitely.”

I pursed my lips and wrinkled my brow, “Are you really such a fan of alcohol that you’d rather be drunk than surrounded by ponies whose company you enjoy?”

Lily closed her eyes and blew a raspberry over her shoulder in my direction, “Pbbt… Did I say that? No. I like these folks. A lot. But no matter how much they remind me of my tribe, it’s just not the same as getting whiskey drunk and headbutting a buffalo.” I couldn’t hide the bewilderment from my features as she laughed and continued, “Especially when he’s just gonna laugh at you and get you a beer when you wake up.”

I shook my head, completely flabbergasted. “What in Equestria would possess you to bash your skull against a buffalo’s?”

She waved me off and shook her head as she chuckled, “Just one of the weird customs of The Thunderhooves. I’ll explain later, but we’re almost at Half-Moon’s hut.”

Half-Moon’s “hut” turned out to be a layered structure of aluminum sheets resembling a large tepee. A small garden of herbs and vegetables grew in tilled soil at its side, accompanied by a large covered plot of blue flowers growing in the shade. White and black paint that looked like it had been dabbed onto the aluminum with a hoof formed strange runes and patterns I wasn’t familiar with. And one of them…

“Sis…” Nohta was staring at the cross and spiral just above the entrance to the structure as she whispered in my ear. “That’s your glyph.”

My lip quivered as I stood underneath the mark. I glanced at Lily, who smiled and nodded her head towards the beads hanging on strings in the entrance. She poked her head through the beads, holding the black stetson atop her head in place with a hoof as she did so, and cheered to the inside. “Moony! How’s my favorite zebra doing?”

A deep voice shouted from inside the hut in an exotic accent that I couldn’t place. “Lily! Come in, girl! It be bad juju standin’ in doorways. Yuh gotta choose one way or anudda.”

Lily pulled her head back out of the beads and winked at me, “Come on. Let’s get your fortune read.”

“Bah! Girl, yuh know I don’ be doin’ dat no more! Dem ponies don’ be buyin’ me exotic magic act, just me brew! Who yuh be bringin’ to me ‘ouse?”

The three of us stepped cautiously through the hanging beads, and my nostrils were assaulted with a deluge of alien aromas both pleasant and foul. The heady scents clouded my mind and dulled my senses, lending a sense of powerlessness that I didn’t appreciate to being inside the overly warm hut. A massive cauldron sat prominently in the center of the open space, bubbling with a faintly glowing green mixture as tendrils of fragrant steam snaked over the roiling liquid. Colorful wooden masks and bulging leather pouches hung from the walls next to a wooden desk with beakers, flasks, and pipettes on its surface. A simple hammock was hung between two wooden support beams in the back, surrounded by piles of leather-bound books and a small wooden chest. And off to the side, sitting cross-legged on a small cushion with a welcoming but inquisitive expression, was a zebra.

He looked… nothing at all like Mother. His eyes were a piercing and deep blue, and his body was covered in dark fur that was only occasionally broken by the solid white stripes that covered his ribs, legs, and face. His ivory mane was cropped short in a fuzzy and disheveled line darting between his ears and down the back of his neck to his withers. An eclectic assortment of wood and gold trinkets hung around his neck, clinking against each other with every movement the buck made. As he stood to greet us, I noticed the glyph along his uncovered flank; crooked white lines radiating out from a solid white circle like teeth on a sawblade.

He smiled and bowed his head, raising his hoof to his heart as his rumbly bass voice reverberated off the walls, “Ponies be callin’ me ‘Alf-Moon ‘cause dey can’t be pronouncin’ me real name. ‘Ow can da last shaman of da Loa Tribe be ‘elpin’ da four o’ yuh now?” I wasn’t sure if he was speaking so slowly for our benefit, or to give him time to remember how to speak Equestrian. Either way, the slow pace and deep tone of his voice made me think of boulders sliding down mountainsides.

Lily trotted over to the cauldron and took a whiff of the fumes, flapping her wings appreciatively. “Grumpy and I figured that you guys oughta have a thing or two to talk about since you’re all stripey and everything! We’re about to set out on a job and it would be super awesomazing if you could talk to my friend here about her mark!” Lily turned and sat close to the low fire underneath the cauldron. “Her name is-”

“Yuh know beddah dan to be skippin’ yuh medicine, Lily.” Half-Moon cut her off with a chuckle, nodding his head towards my sister and I. “Dis be Candy Stripes. And dat one be little Nohta.”

My jaw fell as my eyes widened, and I felt Nohta tense at my side. She planted a hoof on the dirt floor and nearly shouted, “How do you know our names!?”

He chuckled to himself, closing his eyes as he raised a hoof in a placating gesture. “Yuh be ‘avin’ yer mudda’s fight in yuh, girl. An’ yuh be wearin’ her cloak on yuh body.” He opened his eyes as he stared at my sister. “But I be wonderin’ if Nadira spoke true. Do yuh have her face, as well?”

Nohta was silent and still for a full five seconds, her expression unreadable underneath her hood. Finally, she sat on her haunches and pulled the cowl back from her face, exposing a look of guarded curiosity splayed across her features. She swallowed back her spit before stating, “I don’t know. You tell me.”

Half-Moon slowly closed the distance between Nohta and himself, his eyes never leaving my sister’s. Neither of them even blinked as he pulled one of her hooves away from her hood and grinned, “Been a long time since I be seein’ someone so beautiful in me ‘ouse, girl. Welcome.” His bowed his head again, brushing his lips against her hoof before pulling back to grin at her surprised face.

I stood frozen, indecision robbing me of my ability to act. This didn’t sit well with me at all; I was far too uncomfortable with the look in that buck’s eyes. But returning memories of Lily’s suggestion were staying my hoof and holding my tongue in place. I eventually resigned myself to letting Nohta take care of this on her own.

She was holding her breath, and stayed silent as her eyes flitted between Half-Moon’s. He nodded slowly, releasing her hoof from his grip and speaking in a low whisper as he examined her face, “Yuh look just like ‘er. ‘Cept da eyes. Yuh be ‘avin’ more ‘ate in yuh soul den she ever did. Temper dat anger wit love, girl, or it might be all yuh ever know.” He turned up a corner of his mouth and added in a barely audible whisper, “Let me know if yuh be wantin’ some ‘elp wit dat.”

Nohta’s eyes scanned the floor as she let out the breath she was holding. I couldn’t be completely certain in the darkened interior of the hut, but I thought that I could just detect the faint hint of blush on her cheeks between her stripes. I was suddenly intensely aware of the fact that no one had ever even hinted at what this stallion had just suggested to my sister. I didn’t have much more experience in dealing with that sort of thing than she did, but the urge to intervene was growing quickly. Luckily, I didn’t give in to my rising desire to place my hoof in the buck’s face.

Lily chimed in from the cauldron with an elated and cheery voice, “Pfft! Short-Stack’s plenty of fun already, Moony! She doesn’t need to listen to some crazy alchemist, she just needs to get out there and wreck some shit, right Squirt?” Nohta was uncharacteristically silent, nodding her head absentmindedly as she sat on her haunches and pulled her hood back over her eyes. I could just see how Lily’s face twisted into an evil smirk at Nohta’s subdued reaction.

Half-Moon smiled at Lily’s playful jabs and turned from my sister to peer into my eyes. I grit my teeth together and tried to not glare at him, but given his recent salacious proposition to my sister it was rather difficult to keep my protective instincts at bay. His own eyes returned my hard gaze, and he nodded once before whispering while staring me down.

“Yuh be walkin’ a fickle path, girl.” He raised a hoof to point at my chest. “Yuh got da fire in yuh ‘eart, but yuh be needin’ da ice in yuh veins ‘fore yuh use it.” He pulled back as I blinked in confusion, trying to make sense of his words. Walking slowly to his desk, he opened a drawer and spoke to Lily while shuffling his hoof through tiny glass bottles. “Lily… Lily… Yuh be bringin’ a bokor to me ‘ouse, girl. She be gettin’ it bad, too. From all da angles at once, look like.”

Lily was as clueless as I was, shrugging her wings and grinning expectantly, “Uh… That’s a good thing, I hope?”

He pulled a few small vials, each filled with a different vibrantly colored liquid, from his drawer and started mixing them together in his beakers and flasks. “Be just what we need.” Setting his little concoction over a fire talisman almost identical to the one Mother had kept, he opened another drawer and pulled out a few dried blue leaves, crumpling them together between his hooves before tossing them into a small stone bowl. Using the heated spiral glowing on the talisman’s surface, he lit another leaf and tossed it into the bowl as well. He waved a hoof through the resulting wispy blue tendril of smoke, coaxing it towards his face as he inhaled deeply.

Lily smiled and cocked her head before asking, “So what about her mark?”

“Patience, girl. I be gettin’ to dat.” He turned and smiled at Nohta and I before sitting beside Lily and his cauldron. “Nadira tol’ me ‘er eldest be ‘avin’ a glyph-mark. But I be wonderin’ which glyph it be?”

I stepped forward, “A pink cross, with a spiral in the middle. Like the rune directly above your door.”

Half-Moon nodded, holding his hooves together in front of his muzzle. “An’ yuh be wantin’ to know what dat mean?”

I shook my head, confident that I already understood. “Mother told me that it was the sign for healers.”

He nodded his head again as he walked over to a small chest by his hammock. “Mmm… It be da sign for shaman, medicine mares, witch doctors, and...” He flipped open the chest, and my eyes widened as his hoof held up a polished skull, “...necromancers. All o’ dem be ‘ealers, in dere own way.”

My brow furrowed in disgust, and my mouth fell at the suggestion of a magic so foul. This zebra… he couldn’t be serious! Mother hadn’t said anything at all about… that! I glanced at my sister, hoping to find some hint in her body language that would mirror my levels of revulsion and incredulity. Instead all I saw from Nohta was an inquisitively cocked head as she stared at the skull in silence. Failing to find any degree of like-mindedness on the matter from Nohta, I instead turned to Lily.

My new companion’s expression was even worse than my sister’s accepting silence. Lily was raising her eyebrows in appreciation as she smiled at the zebra, nodding contentedly as if she had just found the book she had spent hours searching for in the library. I was suddenly keenly aware that I was the only one in the hut who had any notion at all of just how wrong the zebra’s assertion was.

I redirected my gaze to Half-Moon, hoping that I could find a way to redirect a conversation that I was completely unprepared for. His eyes pierced mine over the bone as he asked, “Did Nadira teach you da ways?”

The hazy smog within the hut was muddling my thoughts. I took a deep breath and stared disgustedly at the skull as I explained. “Goodness, no! Not… that!” The small chemistry set on the desk caught my eye, and I took the opportunity to latch onto it as a lifeline. “But I do know a bit about the rest. I inherited her alchemy set.”

His eyes squinted in disbelief before he placed the skull back in the chest and locked it. His voice was calm as he asked, “Den why am I da one who be makin’ Nohta’s mask?”

I shook my head, “What?”

He walked back over to the desk, removed his brew from the flame, and sprinkled what was left of the leaves into the mixture. The liquid bubbled quickly, and let off a puff of sparkling green vapor before turning a uniform luminescent ivory. He poured the viscous goop into an old pickle jar and screwed a lid on top of it before hoofing the jar to my sister. His tone was solemn as he explained, “Bess be walkin’ careful in dis town, girls. Da moon and da sun be revealin’ more ‘ere dan anywhere else.” Lily grinned sleepily at his cryptic words, nodding her head with an erudite expression on her face while I rubbed my temple and sighed.

Nohta took the mixture and carefully placed it into one of her many pockets, then nodded her head and questioned the zebra. “What do I do with this?”

“Rub it on yuh face when da weight of dat cowl be too ‘eavy to carry.” Half-Moon turned to me, smirking, “Yuh best be usin’ it sometime, too. Be a good idea to let dem ponies see you wit a clean face.” He chuckled to himself before adding, “Tribals… Dream be one of da smartest unicorn’s I ever met. But I ‘eard beddah ideas come out da back o’ brahmin.” The mention of Father caused my eyebrows to furrow with regret and pain, but Half-Moon only perked up and craned his neck to peer through the swaying beads in his doorway. “Where is Dream Chaser? I ain’ be seein’ dat buck in too many moons.”

Nohta’s head dipped underneath her hood just as my face twisted into a grimace. I shook my head, fighting back my rising emotional distress. “He… He’s not…”

Realization dawned on Half-Moon’s face. He glanced at Lily, who nodded as she grit her teeth and glared at the ground. Turning back to us, the zebra sighed and whispered, “Den I hope him moon be guidin’ him way. Don’ be gettin’ yourselves ‘urt tryin’ to avenge him. Dat only be upsettin’ him spirit.”

Nohta pawed at the dirt floor, whispering from underneath her hood. “Dad wasn’t a member of your tribe. Or even a zebra. How do you know what his spirit wants?”

Half-Moon shook his head and closed his eyes, speaking with a somber voice. “Don’ madda what tribe him belong to. We all da same. Your soul came from da same place as mine. Same place as Dream. It be goin’ back dere, too, ‘fore comin’ back to da world.”

All this talk of Father was getting to me. And the smoky haze that dominated the interior of the hut wasn’t helping. I rubbed my hoof against my face and sighed. I could feel the wetness building in my eyes, but through my blurry vision Lily’s face caught my attention. She had been watching me out of the corner of her eye.

She quickly rearranged her melancholy expression into a playful smirk, taunting Half-Moon with a flippant verbal jab. “Come on Moony, you still spouting that reincarnation junk? You know as well as I do that it’s a load.”

Half-Moon snorted, turning to the pegasus and grinning. “Lily… Even you ain’ seen da spirits like I ‘ave.” He raised an eyebrow as he questioned her. “Dem ghosts still walkin wit yuh, girl? Gotta let dat go. It be eatin’ yuh up ‘fore yuh know it.” I took the opportunity of Half-Moon’s distraction to wipe the welling tears from my eyes.

Lily rocked her head back and forth in an impish display of insolence while her smirk widened to a full-on grin. “I’ve only got the one, and he’s doin’ just fine, thanks.”

The zebra nodded at Lily before asking, “How yuh stay, Grumpy?”

She removed her hat and scratched at the bone pierced through her ear, and held the hoof in front of her. “He’s still grumpin it up pretty hard. I guess being dead puts a bit of a damper on your mood, but we’re hangin’ in there.”

Half-Moon’s eyes gazed at the air just above her hoof, “Glad to ‘ear. Yuh bess be takin’ care of our fren, boy.”

Nohta and I shared a confused glance, both of us utterly oblivious as to what Half-Moon and Lily were discussing. I had ascertained so far that Lily was a bit… odd. But now both she and the zebra were talking of ghosts and reincarnation and… I shook my head, remembering Mother’s warning that the zebra wasn’t entirely sane.

Lily ran her hoof through her silvery-white mane before securing her chapeau in place and rising to her hooves. “Well, it’s pretty cool that you folks know each other and all, but we’re running out of time if we want to get out of here before word gets out about The Pyro…” She cocked her head and grinned at the zebra, digging through her packs to produce the empty vodka bottle from the previous night and a small bag of caps. “Hey Moony, can I get some ‘B Brew’ before leaving?”

Half-Moon tossed the bag of caps on top of his desk and submerged the empty bottle in the cauldron with a pair of tongs. When he pulled the bottle out, the mixture inside glowed a brilliant shade of emerald. He wiped the container clean with a dirty rag and gave it back to Lily. “Walk careful wit dese two, Lily. They be all dat me ‘ave left o’ me fren.” He smirked as he added, “An’ stop mixin’ dat brew wit vodka, girl, it ain’ a cocktail!”

“Hah! Says you! This goes great with booze!” Lily stuffed the brew into her packs and trotted through the hanging beads. Nohta nodded her head once in Half-Moon’s direction and followed Lily outside without another word.

I turned to leave, but paused at the exit and looked back to Mother’s friend. Regardless of his actions or intent towards my sister, the zebra standing before me was a link to my past. What could he teach me about Mother or her people that I had never known? I pawed at the dirt floor as I swallowed my pride. “It was… nice making your acquaintance, Half-Moon. I’d like to continue our conversation when we return to Mareon.”

A genuinely warm smile covered his face as he responded. “We and I be at yuh beck an’ call, girl. Still owe yuh mudda more dan me can give.” Half-Moon bowed his head and held a hoof to his heart once more as I turned to follow Lily and my sister.

The desert air was immensely refreshing after being cooped up in the fragrant smog inside the hut. The three of us walked in silence towards the northern gate, which gave me ample time to clear my head and contemplate Half-Moon’s words.

He had known Mother; that much was certain. But why was he so different from her? Mother had never talked about a tribe, only that her grandparents had come from Stable Three. If they had come from the same place, then why was his accent completely different? What were the herbs in his garden and why had I never seen them before? There were only two explanations that made sense: either his ancestors had come from a different stable than Mother’s, or they hadn’t come from a stable at all. I wasn’t sure what to think of that, but his heritage didn’t hold my attention nearly so well as what he had to say about my glyph.

Shamans, medicine mares, and witch doctors I could understand. All of them healed the sick or provided guidance to their people. But necromancers? Goddess, it didn’t make sense! Dread curiosity mingled with self-disgust in my gut, twisting my innards into knots as I pondered what my mark truly meant. But neither the apprehension nor the revulsion matched the creeping fear that climbed my heart like choking vines as I realized that whatever the truth was, Mother and Father had kept it from me.

I wracked my memory in an effort to dredge up every lesson about alchemy, every casual conversation regarding Mother’s people or the ancestral homeland, and every painfully blissful memory of Mother and Father gazing into each other’s eyes while calling each other by their pet-names for one another. Nothing held the answers I sought. And now that both of them were gone…

My magic pulled Mother’s book out of my bags, floating it before my face as I walked behind Nohta and Lily. The Overmare had forbade Father from allowing me to read it while in the Stable, but why? Hadn’t I proven myself a capable and kind doctor through years of arduous study and faithful practice?

Mother’s book was my best link to her, and if there was any truth at all to what Half-Moon had said, then surely Mother had left some hint or note within its pages. I knew in my heart that my parents had loved me far too much to keep something that important from me. I just had to remember Luna’s first truth, and peer into the darkness until I came across something honest.

Before I could even re-read the foreword, I was interrupted and given a stark reminder of Luna’s third truth. Lily’s lighthearted and cheerful laughter was soaring over the heads of the nearby ponies as she floated backwards in front of Nohta on easy wing beats. “Come on! I promise that she’ll have fun-a-fun-fun!”

And to complete the absurd cosmic coincidence with Luna’s second truth, Nohta provided a great example of loyalty to me. “Ugh! What the hell, Lily? You’re so fucking gross! I’m not gonna help you get under my sister’s saddle, that’s just fucked up!” It was a good thing that I still had the book in front of myself; it provided a very convenient cover for my embarrassed face. Neither Lily nor my sister seemed to hear the desperate pleas sent through my clenched teeth for the both of them to quiet down.

Lily landed in front of Nohta, throwing her head back and opening her mouth wide to suck in a huge breath before prancing in place and speaking far too quickly with her absurd amount of enthusiasm. “But we’re going out on a really important quest and we have no idea what’s gonna happen! She should live it up while she has the chance! What if a big ol’ rock falls out of the sky and squishes her? You don’t think it happens but I’ve seen it!” She gesticulated her hooves wildly to better illustrate the more colorful parts of her story. ”Smush! Splat! Kapow! And then everything explodes! And all of a sudden everything is… and I… I…” Lily had managed to squeeze out all of her insanity with one deep breath’s worth of air, but now she was left staring past Nohta’s face at nothing in particular as her mouth worked silently.

“I…” She blinked and stared into the distance blankly; a sudden mix of revulsion and panic sweeping through her features before she groaned and dragged a hoof across her face. She took a deep breath and sat on her haunches, reaching underneath her hat to pull out her cigarettes and lighter.

She winced at me as she lit up. “I didn’t sing, did I?”

“Huh?” Nohta’s voice sounded as confused as I felt.

Lily rubbed the back of her mane with her free hoof and exhaled a plume of smoke, turning to my sister, “Oh, hey there Short-Stack. You must be the little sister. I’m Lily.”

I furrowed my brow and placed the book back in my packs. “Lily? Are you alright? We’ve been through the introductions already. We were just about to leave Mareon.”

Lily’s pierced ear twitched as she sighed. “Shit… of course we have.” She shook her head and moaned into her hoof. “Gimme a second. The transition hits harder when I don’t take my meds.” Looking back to my sister, she jabbed a hoof in the air and stated simply. “Nohta. That’s right.”

Nohta’s ear twitched under her hood. “You forgot my name? How fucked up are you?”

Lily’s eyes lit up with a childlike glee as she grinned and puffed on her cigarette. “Not so fucked up that I won’t be able to beat your ass later tonight. You up for a sparring match?”

Nohta cocked her head to the side as she raised a hoof in front of herself in a wary gesture. “Wait, what? You really want to fight me? Why?”

Lily inhaled of her cigarette once more, and her chuckles jettisoned short and lively puffs of smoke out of her nostrils while she nodded. “Hell yeah I do. Your sister’s the medic so she gets a free ride here,” Lily shot a quick wink in my direction at those words before turning back to Nohta. “...but I need to know just how hard my back is gonna hurt after I have to carry your dead weight across the desert.” Lily glanced back at me and added in a husky voice, “Of course, I won’t turn down a massage from a pretty mare to make me feel all better…”

Nohta snorted once, regaining Lily’s attention, and stomped a hoof on the ground as her tail swished underneath her cloak. She sounded absolutely delighted as she spoke in an excited whisper, “Oh, it is on. I am gonna love kicking your ass.”

Lily’s wings flared behind her as she grinned broadly at Nohta. “Good! Been too damn long since I’ve had a real fight! But save it for later tonight, we gotta get out of town while we can.” Turning back in my direction, Lily looked me up and down before inquiring in a jocular voice, “What? You couldn’t have picked out anything skimpier?”

I rolled my eyes at the suggestion. “I’ll remind you that you recommended this ensemble.”

Lily’s face twisted into her signature smirk as she winked at me. “C’mon, let’s get moving.” She turned and strolled casually through the gate, making faces at the guards she passed. Once again I couldn’t help but snicker at her foalish behavior, covering my grin with a hoof as Nohta and I followed our new companion.

As we moved past the few armored guards at the northern gate to set hoof once more in the wide expanse of desert surrounding Mareon, I couldn’t help but think that Mother and Father would have been proud. For better or worse, Nohta and I finally had a path set before us and a clear goal in mind. And for better or worse, I had made a friend.

Footnote: The Party Levels Up!
Welcome to Level 7!
New Perk!

Tough Hide (Rank 1 of 2): The brutal experiences of the Equestrian Wasteland have hardened you. You gain +3 Damage Threshold for each rank of this perk you take.

New Spell!

Teleportation: You have gained the ability to instantly travel short distances in the blink of an eye at the expense of magical power. More power can be used to teleport further, so long as you don’t burn yourself out before reaching your destination. You are capable of bringing along a single pony (or zony) for the magical ride, so long as you have the arcane energy to compensate. Try not to appear halfway through any walls, Doctor!

Bookworm Bonus: Efficient Teleportation: When teleporting alone you only require half the power normally needed to do so. This bonus is only active when wearing light or no armor.

Skills Note: Magical Energy Weapons 25
Skills Note: Survival 75

Nohta gains a Perk:

Iron Hoof (Rank 2 of 3): Nohta’s getting better at recognizing when to throw a kick, and when not to. That intense focus shines through in battle, giving her unarmed attacks a further +5 damage per strike.

Footnote: Lily Belle has joined The Party! “Where am I? Is someone talking? Did someone put something in my drink again?”

Lily Belle: “Hey, that’s my name!”

S 6
P 6
E 5
C 4
I 4
A 9
L 6

Wild Wasteland: Lily has seen some things, man! Lily is a little... off, compared to the normal wastelander. Her encounters are sometimes more random or silly than normal. Luckily she is not faint of heart, or serious of temperament. “It’s a good thing, too. I mean, are you seeing what I’m seeing? What the hell have I gotten into?”

Kissed by Luna: As a nighttime pony, Lily is more alive when the sun goes down. Her Intelligence and Perception gain +1 (5 and 7) during that darker half of the day, but suffer -1 (3 and 5) penalties when the sun is up. “Oh come on… I was totally hung over and without my meds! You can’t judge me for acting like myself! Right?”

Tagged Skills: Firearms, Melee, Repair

Lily’s Perks:

Accumulated Tolerance (Endurance): Lily’s bold lifestyle has hardened her against the dangers of the wastes. She gains a permanent +1 bonus to her Endurance for a total of 6.

Power Hour: Lily’s learned how to fire quickly and reload on the fly! She reloads all weapons 25% faster.

Wisdom of the Spirits: Lily trained long and hard during her time with her tribe. That training honed her mind as well as her body. Lily gains +3 skill points at each Level Up.

Clever Prancer: Through agility and reflexes, Lily has become deft at striking where it hurts while preventing her enemies from doing the same. She gains an additional 5% chance to score a critical hit while her enemies suffer a 25% penalty to their chance to critically hit her. This perk is only effective when she is wearing light or no armor.

Gallop ‘n Gun: Lily’s high-speed style of combat has honed her accuracy while on the move. She only suffers 50% of the normal bullet spread with mouth-fired ranged weapons while walking, running, or flying.

Lily gains a perk:

Lead Barrel: Lily’s gotten used to life in the wastes and the necessity of scrounging up food and water when she can. Luckily her stomach can take the abuse she heaps on it. All radiation that she would normally receive from irradiated food and drink is reduced by 50%.

Author's Notes:

And just like that, the party grows. Our little team got a new addition as well. Stevepoppers has kindly lended his eyes for a bit of pre-reading before Wr3nch and I push each chapter out. That ought to help put my mind at ease regarding little typos and whatnot.

Wr3nch, as always, proved extremely helpful with his many suggestions. This chapter ended up a bit longer than I expected, and his advice kept me from going (completely) insane. I’d be lost without a bit of help here, and I owe my crew a huge thanks.

Thanks for all the covering fire, guys!

Another big thank you to KKat, for giving all of us this amazing sandbox for our imaginations. And of course, thanks to all the folks who have worked on MLP or Fallout.