Chapter 2: Old Bones
"Why does this feel familiar?”

Slowly, I awoke. The side of my head felt like a pony had stabbed an ice pick into my skull and was sawing at the other side with a dull bonesaw. Strangely, my mouth tasted like I had eaten shit covered in grease and dirt and my legs felt restrained, nor could I feel my wings. Their soft feathers did not brush my sides, neither did it feel as if I had fallen asleep on them, it was as if they were not there at all.

A strange bump tossed my head in the air before I could think about moving.

My eyes snapped open as my head slammed back into a wooden floor, causing white to blind my vision for a second. Letting out a muffled gasp, I laid there breathing through my nose while trying to figure out where I was. I attempted to open my mouth, but found it was nearly impossible due to a cloth being shoved into it.

A rainy sky blocked my view of the sun, so trying to discern the correct time of day was futile beyond just daytime. The alicorn owned carts were moving along a partially rubble filled road, tall buildings stretched skyward and groaned quietly on the wind. As I looked to my side, I saw why I could not feel my wings.

There were no wings. Dirty tan fur replaced my forest green coat and rain soaked muddy brown hair replaced my grey-green tail. The only thing missing was the shine and the grey in my mane.

I gulped at the sight and shut my eyes, praying to the Goddess that the change was just a dream. Of course, I got no reply. She never replied but it was okay, I did not mind. She was most likely saying hello to the other alicorns who were more important. Like Mudpie...

My muffled mumbling must have been heard by a nearby pony, because he said, "Ah, you're awake."

As I opened my eyes, I looked over at his purple face and nodded. "Yes. It is I, Lilium! Your cook! Now let me go." I explained to him, but it came out as muffled and incoherent mumbling.

The purple, whom I recognized to be Lasso, did not immediately reply. He stared at my back for a few long moments, then I noticed his gaze went to my cutie mark. I glared daggers at him in a failed attempt to kill the whelp with my eyes. "What'd you do with our cook?" he asked. A rather stupid question because I was the same pony.

I glared harder. "I'm her!" I shouted to no avail. Trying to use my mind to scream at him failed all attempts. Then, I was suddenly aware at how laughably stupid their plan was to keep me captured. I quickly untied my gag with magic and tossed it aside along with that disgusting cloth. But the horrible taste remained in my dry mouth. "I am your cook, asshole. This has to be a dream, right? Ponies don't up and change species overnight!" A pony used to be able to change species ]i]to alicorns, but no longer. A quick check of my hooves revealed they were all there and their attempt to keep me from moving were just as bad as the gag. "There has to be a rational reason for me reverting," I said as I untied myself and tossed the rope aside.

"I don't think you're our cook," Lasso drawled out. "You ain't no alicorn, yet you got the same cutie mark."

I rolled my eyes at his Captain Obvious observation. "Because I am the same pony. Look, Lasso Ass, I-"

"Overcart," he corrected, narrowing his eyes.

"Well you're a stubborn asshole, so it's Lasso Asshole." He frowned at my words. The purple alicorn levitated a double barrel shotgun out from below the seat and aimed it at me, cocking both hammers back with a noisy click. I grinned. "Overcart it is!" He nodded, but kept the shotgun pointed at me. "Lasso Overcart, you as well as I know it is possible for..." My voice trailed off as the gears in my brain wheeled around and slammed into an invisible brick wall. "Killing Joke! But… I’m not dead…? Why am I not dead?"

"I don't get it," he muttered. Overcart glanced ahead for a second before giving me his attention again. I looked around with a small frown and, oddly, found my stuff next to me.

I levitated a bottle of water out of my bags and unscrewed the top. "That's what I don't get either. I'd understand if I turned into a fish pony or filled full of holes, or even lost a leg, but there's nothing deadly about my current body. I’m just a normal unicorn." As I was about to take a drink of water, I looked cross eyed at the dirty bottle with its murky contents. Slowly, my mind clicked in place that the water was heavily irradiated. My eyes snapped wide open as I dropped the bottle of death and scrambled back. "No! How much…? Fuck!"

I quickly looked around, ignoring the confused looks as I attempted to find a Pipbuck, a geiger counter, something, anything, to tell me how much radiation I had! My breaths became short and my heart began pounding in my chest like a freight train as I sat there. All I saw were simple ancient ruins around us, the confused looks from Lasso Ass and those pulling the carts. My gaze locked onto one of the earth ponies pulling the cart behind us. He stared at me not with confusion, but with a smirk as if he were enjoying my fright.

I felt something cold touch my hind leg suddenly, causing me to start in surprise. A quick glance down and I saw what it was. It’d be fine if it were a hoof or even a weapon, but oh no.

It was disgusting water.

“Aah!” I jumped away from the evil water of doom as I tried flapping my wings, they failed. Instead of hovering off the cart, the hard concrete below reached out and caught me in all its unforgiving glory. Pain shot through the side of my head as I landed with a crack. I groaned as I rolled onto my back and stared up at the clouds for a quick second. My world swirled and I watched the tops of the buildings dip left, then jumped up to the right. They continued to sway as a faint ringing noise filled my ears, popped, and suddenly faded to nothingness.

The ponies pulling the carts stopped and started to gather around me like I was some side show in a carnival. Instead of bothering to say anything to them, I rolled to my hooves, ignoring my joints as they popped and cracked, and bolted for the nearest door. There had to be supplies inside one of the buildings. Ponies found things all the time, right? Right?! All I’d need to find was one thing of RadAway. Maybe more, but hopefully one would do it.

A purple flash ahead of me signaled one of the purple alicorns teleporting just in front of me. I lowered my horn in preparation to stab the insolent whelp. Just as I lowered my head, something green slammed into my forelegs and I went tumbling towards the door as the purple teleported away in a flash of light. I reached out with my forehooves and slammed them into the ground, slowly sliding to a stop on my belly.

"She seems confused," said a voice inside my head as a strange presence barged its way in. There could be only one reason for it, a green alicorn decided to say hello. I groaned as I sat up to brush the dirt off my nearly-almost perfect coat. "Why would she attack if she is the same pony?"

"Because he's an asshole and deserves a good stabbing," I grumbled, dusting the dirt off my tan forelegs. A look up showed four alicorns in front of me; a green, a blue, and two purples. It was an oddly familiar sight even though none of them were matched colors beyond the purples. That, and each alicorn wore some form of barding. "Look. I need to find anti-radiation medicine, now!"

The blue mare from last night looked over at Lasso Ass and tilted her head. I could hear faint whispering as her lips moved. Then, the green's obtrusive presence filled my head even more before I could try to listen in. "We do not need such things. You will have to make due until we hit the next town."

Her mouth did not move when she talked, yet I heard her perfectly clear. I wondered if I was that annoying when I used my telepathy. The green slowly nodded as if she heard my thoughts. Her reaction caused me to facehoof. "Right. Telepathy works both ways," I mumbled. "All I have to do is think."

"Correct." She looked over to the others who were staring at me like I was a freak. I looked to the strange blue and could feel my insides tingle while they died cell by cell every second we stood there talking.

"I need to find RadAway," I told the assembled alicorns, again. "I'm dying just like last time. I can feel it!" They looked at each other as the green's presence left my head. It was like a blanket being pulled away and I could suddenly think clearly again. "Please." My ears folded back. "Give me five minutes to look in this building. It's all I ask."

"You got two minutes," Lasso Ass said.

I quickly scrambled to my hooves and bucked the door in before galloping inside. Dingy and grimy decor greeted me as I started pulling drawers out of anything I could find with my magic, flinging them aside after a quick check. Papers, diapers, more papers and caps, a bullet and more caps, a fuzzy hat that I immediately placed on my head, but no RadAway.

"Where are you?!" I shouted as I galloped into the kitchen and tried to tackle the fridge. But bounced off it like a dog who had misjudged the couch and fell to the floor in a heap. With a deep frustrated groan, I got up and attempted to rip the annoying door off its hinges. It flung open, hit the stops and slammed shut again, the insides rattling quietly.

I rolled my eyes and quickly opened it with my hooves. In the center of the rack was something black that had once resembled a sandwich and gave off the most Goddess awful stench. If one were to give it eyes it might move forward and conquer the world. A nice warm bottle of Sparkle-Cola sat next to the sandwich. I ignored the disgusting food and floated the bottle in my magic as I inspected the rest of the fridge for alcohol or RadAway.

"Time is up," the green’s voice filled my mind, causing a shiver to run up my spine. "Return to the caravan."

I looked towards the door and jumped back, barely holding onto the bottle of cola as my heart leapt into my throat. Standing in the doorway was the green alicorn. Her eyes were like tiny slits and her wings were held slightly out from her sides. I gulped.

"I need more time," I told her, my eyes narrowing slightly.

"There is no more time. It has been one minute and fifty nine seconds exactly. Now two minutes."

"What...?” I blinked in confusion. “Were you counting or something?" She nodded. I set the bottle down and rolled it across the tile towards the green. She took it in her magic and put it away as her presence left my mind. “I don’t need this crap. All I wanted to do was help ponies.”

“You still can,” she said with her mouth. Her voice was almost too quiet, as if she hardly ever used it. I leaned on the fridge door and shut my eyes, sighing deeply. My body started aching all over and I felt like all I needed was a nice long nap. “I was told of a story from a pony named Tail Blade.”

Upon hearing that name, I partially opened my heavy eyelids. The green alicorn stood within touching distance while a rusty knife floated in her magic. I gripped it in my own magic and felt its light weight, which was perfect for chopping veggies with but not so much in combat as it wasn't balanced right. “Story?”

She nodded and took a few steps back. “About a lost pony.”

I glanced towards the caravan’s direction, then looked to the green. “What’d she say?”

The green also glanced towards the caravan and stayed there for a few moments before looking at me. “A lost green came to her. She was confused. Tail Blade was unclear.as to what her reasons were and I had to fill in the blanks. This green arrived in the company of a blue who seemed equally lost.” I frowned at her story. It seemed Mistress Tail Blade was telling ponies about me. A fact I shall have to rectify by knife point. “So Tail Blade took them under her wing and gave them shelter at no cost.”

I shut my eyes as I let out a deep sigh. “Why are you telling me this asinine story? What could it possibly have in common with my predicament?”

“Because that green also claimed she wanted to help ponies. Do you even know what it means to help a pony?”

I sat there and thought about it. And thought about it. After a few moments I opened one of my eyes and looked at her. “I would like to think I helped ponies on the island, but that’d be foalish to think I did. I was selfish."

“How so?” She sat down and I wondered whether or not the caravan had left already.

“I… I messed up badly, okay? By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. I had become something they feared and the island was lost.”

“It’s behind you, so move on.”

“I already know that,” I muttered and shut my heavy eyes. “I can’t look at the past, or future, because I am in the present. My actions now affect the now. The outcome of anything is uncertain."

“Look. Out of the other alicorns in her camp, Tail Blade personally recommended you for this job. Lasso and I need to speak with you tonight about it.” The green smiled down at me, which was unnerving when she showed me all her teeth. They looked filed to sharp points.

*** ***

"Now just wait a-" the stallion was shut up as a carrot flavored snack cake was shoved into his mouth by my magic. I walked along next to them with a bag floating filled to the brim with various preserved food. The pony stared at the cake for a second and started chewing.

I pulled another one out and offered it towards the other pony. "Any objections to a snack on the go?" I asked the barf colored earth pony with blood splatter for a cutie mark.

He took all of less than a second to decide before snatching it from my magic. I smiled at them and looked towards Lasso, my smile slowly faded at his frown. "They get one meal a day," the purple alicorn said with a small glare. "Can't you count?"

I was about to reply when my hoof suddenly kicked something and I felt my face fall towards the ground. With a cry of surprise, I slammed face first into the dirt and laid there as the cart moved on without me. As I pushed myself to my hooves, I looked around for the bag of food. It wasn't far away, its contents having partially spilled out onto the road. My magic dragged it over and I quickly put everything back into the bag.

"Hey," came a mare’s voice from behind me. I turned around and followed her slender blue legs to her concerned face. Her eyebrows were knitted tightly together. "Are you doing okay?"

I shook my head and adjusted my fuzzy hat. "No. I can feel my insides tingling and I keep thinking I'm going to glow any second. I need to look for RadAway now, not in a few days, but now." Slowly, I placed a hoof on my stomach and winced when a sharp pang of pain caused my skin to twitch. "It's not fun when you're insides rot out. I can just imagine the pain of having to take a crap."

"That's a bit too much information for me." she took a step back. "How about I fly ahead and get some medicine? I can be back within the day."

Her plan was sound. I tossed her two magazines and twenty caps from my saddlebags, every cap I had. "Trade those for as much RadAway as you can get."

"I will be back later tonight." She nodded and looked up at the cloudy sky as droplets of water hit my nose. It then occurred to me that she might have trouble finding us again, so I grabbed her hoof with magic before she could spread her wings. She looked down at me in confusion. "Yes?"

"How will you know where to find us?" I asked, catching sight of the final wagon of the caravan as it slowly passed by.

"Easy." The blue smiled. "I have the route memorized and Clockwork has our stops planned to the second. She's very good at timing our routes."

I did not doubt the green's ability to plan things that concerned timing. Another thought occurred to me of the naming nature, so I asked, "Can you tell me your name?"

"Willow." Was all she said. I let go and stood up, backing away so she could take flight. She rocketed into the sky without so much as a wave or a good bye, but our pleasantries had already been exchanged. As she flew off, I found myself staring at her flank and smiling at the view of her leaving. Her near perfectly curved flank flowing down the equally near perfect legs. The horn atop her head was thin like a sword at the distance watched her from.

Slowly, I began wondering why I found blue alicorns so appealing. Mudpie was a blue, Deadh Hoof is a blue, and so is WIllow… It was like they were a magnet and I was drawn to them.

As if to ruin my little moment, the green's obtrusive presence filled my head and I found my thoughts becoming muddled again. I slowly looked down as I clutched my head with a hoof. "It's rude to do intrude on a pony's thoughts like this," I said quietly knowing that she's hear me wherever she was.

The presence suddenly left and I could think clearly again. That was when I noticed her hooves at the top of my vision, so I looked up at her face and wondered how long she had been standing there. "She's taken," Clockwork said with her mouth. "So don't think about trying to get her into your tent."

My eyes narrowed as I glared at her. "She offered to buy me medicine and I accepted. Is she your marefriend?"

Clockwork shook her head. "She is Lasso's catch. Did you know you look almost as pale as death?" I nodded. My coat was something I was not interested in looking at, neither were the small clumps of my mane that randomly fell out whenever I touched it. Clockwork glanced around for a few seconds before looking down at me. "Did anypony ever tell you that you have cute eyes?" Her cheeks darkened a bit.

I took a step back as a shiver ran up my spine and into my horn. "Ew. No. I like stallions."

Clockwork shrugged as if my absurdly blunt reply wasn't at all hurtful. "I saw the way you were staring at Willow and assumed that you had an interest in those of the same gender."

"I'd prefer it if we never speak of this again. In fact," I levitated a knife out from its sheath at my side and held it up. "I'll shove this in your eye if you try to kiss me."

Clockwork looked at the knife, then at me and walked towards the carts. "That was an interesting reaction," she said to herself, but loud enough for me to hear. "I wonder what she is hiding."

I rolled my eyes as I put the knife away and followed her back to the caravan. We walked past the third cart with two alicorns riding atop it, I paid no mind to them, and headed for the second cart where I kept my stuff. Clockwork silently looked back at me as she walked, then looked ahead after a few seconds. "Why does your horn look like it is sharpened?"

I shrugged. "Why does your flank look like a watermelon?"

She stopped and looked at me in mild shock, eyes wide. I tilted my head as I trotted around her, not really understanding why she was surprised. "Did you just call me fat?" she asked with a slight whisper.

"No. I asked a stupid question to mirror yours."

“It was not a stupid question!” Clockwork growled.

Lasso jumped off his cart at the front of the caravan and started heading over. I tossed the bag of food onto the cart, then hopped in after it. "I just want to be fixed," I said quietly.

"What's going on here?" Lasso asked.

"Nothing," I replied.

The green glanced at me, then to Lasso and said, "We were discussing food and how it related to pony anatomy."

Lasso threw me a cautious look that said he did not believe Clockwork. As I looked down to the green walking along with the cart, I noticed that her cutie mark was a shattered clock. Something I'd have to ask her about one of these days. To avoid looking like I was interested in her, I looked over at my bags and opened them to make sure everything was there. It was, so I pulled out the Twilight statuette and hugged it tightly.

"I'll give ya five hundred caps for that," Lasso said almost immediately. I shook my head and hugged her tighter, causing him to frown deeply. "A thousand!"

"No. She's mine! Your grubby hooves cannot have her. Shoo." I dismissed the insolent whelp with a wave of my hoof. He looked to Clockwork for help, but she shook her head. "How far from a town are we?" I asked quietly as I laid down and shut my eyes.

"We'll be at the outskirts tomorrow night," Clockwork said as she slowly looked up to the sky. "If we stick to the schedule and nothing happens tonight."

"Don't tell me you believe her lies about our security," Lasso grumbled as he pointed a wing at me. "What's gotten into you, Clockwork?"

I drifted off to sleep as Clockwork mumbled something.

*** ***

Strangely, a memory appeared in my mind.

Mudpie's happy blue face as she laughed at me having told her a joke inside the Crescent Moon's engine bay. It was quite a silent memory, yet I could not clearly see her face. Regardless, I smiled at the small memory. That was when she looked directly at me, her face clearing up and changing from its normal demeanor. Her mane quickly became blood soaked as one of her eyes swelled up and shut. Her long exquisite horn broke off at the tip and a crack ran the length of the remaining horn. "Shock, you killed me,” she said as her skull began to crack and flatten on one side.

My eyes snapped open and she was right there staring at me in all of her blood soaked glory. She mumbled something I could not hear.

I quickly scrambled away from the face of the dead, bumping into something behind me. My breathing was rapid and ragged as my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark light. I saw Willow sitting where I had seen Sister’s face. Her ears were back and the non-flowing mane obscured half her face. It was then that I noticed something was tugging on my skin and fur on one of my forelegs.

"You were out all day," Willow said quietly. "We weren't sure if you would wake up or not."

"All day?" I mouthed at her as my breathing slowed down to normal levels.She nodded. I looked down at the thing tugging on my leg, noticing that it was some kind of device strapped with an orange cylinder the size of a syringe. "What is this?"

"A portable RadAway thing," she replied quietly. "It was all I could get."

"It's uncomfortable," I grumbled at the infernal device. "I wanted the packets." All I could hear around us was the sound of a quietly burning fire and ponies talking in hushed towns.

Willow sighed deeply. "The doctor said he didn't have packets. I had to buy that harness and three needles."

When she mentioned a harness, I looked over at her and frowned, then down at the device. Something about it was... odd, so I slowly I unstrapped it with my magic. The straps appeared to have loops for holding syringes, one such syringe being inside the loops. "Willow, how much do you know about medicine?"

"Um..." She looked at me as I floated the syringe holster up. "Absolutely nothing?" Willow sheepishly smiled and hugged her large blue wing wing quite cutely.

I wanted to yell, or even scream at her incompetence for treating me without knowing what it does, but I merely facehoofed. "Thanks for trying to help," I mumbled. She smiled widely at me. I pulled the syringe out of the holster and cringed as I injected its contents into my leg, then tossed it aside when it was empty. “Clockwork said Lasso and her wanted to talk with me. What was it about?”

"You'll have to ask Lasso about that when he wakes up. He was injured and they came back to the caravan." She looked down and frowned deeply. "Shivers is upset over the loss of Noose."

“Who?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Noose was a blue. She… died earlier.”

I nodded. The syringe holder was attached to my left foreleg the right way, with the loops facing out. Willow had said she bought three needles and I spotted three scabbed over holes in my lower leg. I assumed, or hoped, she managed to inject the other two into my bloodstream. Judging by the fact that there was no swelling, it seemed a likely conclusion. I prayed a quiet wish to the Goddess, that I'd have all my fur and mane in the morning.

Willow needed fixing. That much was certain. I took a very deep breath and let it out. "Willow." I took my fuzzy hat off and ran a hoof through my mane. As I looked at the mane covered hoof, I frowned and waved the hair off.

She looked up at me and tilted her head, blinking her curious eyes as her ears swiveled forward to give me her full attention. "Hm?"

"I am going to teach you the basics of first aid before you kill somepony with a needle." Her ears quickly folded back again. I motioned for her to rise. "Where are the others?”

She stood up and looked towards a small sky wagon that was laying on its side. A rib cage and bone pile rested on the ground below the harness, giving an indication as to where the owner ended up. "Lemon Drop and Shivers are over there." Then, she pointed at one of the carts where a sleeping Clockwork was. The green alicorn had a wing draped over a worker, which caused me to tilt my head a bit. "Over there are Clockwork and... I'm not sure who that is." She turned and pointed at a blob of blankets near the fire. "And that is Lasso."

I tilted my head even more. The more I found out about the caravan, the more it annoyed and confused me. "And what injuries does he have?" I asked to try to make some sense of what happened while I was out, and to distract myself.

"He, um... He... I'm not sure," she managed to tell me nothing. I went over to the blankets and glanced at Willow. She bit her lower lip and shook her head. "Don't. You'll wake him."

I rolled my eyes. A glow surrounded the blankets as I ripped them off the sleeping purple alicorn. Lasso snored quietly without a care. One of his wings was wrapped in a bloody cloth, his other wing missing a few feathers from what looked like an energy blast. He curled up into a ball as he shifted around and tucked his head under his mostly good wing. I stared down at the injured alicorn and one word came to mind.

"Cute," I whispered as quietly as I could and stepped back. Slowly, the blankets covered him again while Willow anxiously watched on. After that was done, I quietly moved away from him and rejoined the blue. "So, who bandaged him?" I asked her in a quiet voice.

"Clockwork," she replied just as quietly. "She’s our healer. Why?"

"Well." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, slowly bringing my foreleg up for Willow to look at the syringe holder. "You see this?" She nodded. "This is a syringe holder. It's a storage device, not a portable injector."

Willow frowned. "But I thought… It looked like…?" She sighed deeply. "Clockwork's better at medicine than me."

I nodded and set a hoof on her side. "Not everypony knows everything. I only know what it is because I used to have one a long time ago."

"Really?"

I nodded. "Look, next time a pony is injured. Please observe how Clockwork fixes them. It might save a pony's life."

Willow slowly smiled and nodded. "I watched her patch up Overcart. Bandages seem pretty easy."

"They are. You clean the wound and wrap it up. That's all there is. A healing potion is even easier. First, make sure they don't have any metal bits inside them, then get them to drink the potion."

"That is pretty simple." Willow flexed her wings out and smiled up at the cloudy sky. "I should get some sleep, but Clockwork said a pony-"

"I'll watch for a few hours." I told her. She looked at me for a second before nodding.

And so it began. The longest and most boring three hours of any pony's life: Guard duty. Willow went over and snuggled under the blankets next to Lasso. I went over to my bag of equipment, wobbling instead of actual walking, and opened my bag.

The contents were thankfully undisturbed, so I removed the ten millimeter pistol and checked it over. The badly engraved name on the side had some dirt in it and a few scrape marks on the slide showed the usual wear of rattling around in my bag with other metal objects. I partially pulled the slide back and stared at the top half of the bullet.

Somepony in wartime Equestria made an absolute killing on manufacturing weapons. The things were all over and ammunition was in every nook and cranny, not to mention supplying the military.

The slide snapped forward as I let it go. Slowly, I floated Shock’s grip into my mouth so I could bite down. Pain suddenly stabbed at my jaw like an an ice pick being shoved through, causing me to drop the pistol and hold the side of my mouth. The pain flared up for a second, then slowly died to a dull ache.

The pistol sat there on the damp ground as if mocking me and saying, "Hah, you can't hold me!" A low growl escaped my throat, but I did not lash out. Instead, I opened my mouth and gently probed the painful area with magic. It did not take long to find the area as it stabbed at my jaw when I gently touched a tooth near the back.

Shutting my eyes, I closed my mouth and waited for the pain to subside. "Why did this happen to me?" I whispered to myself as I opened my eyes, scooping the pistol off the ground with my magic. The side of the weapon's cold steel slide was placed against my forehead. I shut my eyes again. "Goddess, please hear Us," I said quietly so as to not wake the others, lest they freak out. "Your child is lost and confused by her current state. We fear that We are falling apart, turning into a hideous ghoul before We can reverse the hideous and imperfect change. Please, Goddess, give Us some sign that you are alive and well. The others say mean things. They do not believe in you, but We do. We cling to the promise you, the Great and Powerful Goddess, told Us before We became better. Please, guide Our hoof to the right path, give Us strength to carry on, and We will fulfill your grand vision of a perfect Equestria."

I opened my eyes, slowly looking up at the cloudy sky as a few clouds thinned out just enough so I could see that beautiful grey orb encased in a faint halo of light. Staring at the moon made my worries melt away and a sense of calm washed over me as the pain in my jaw faded to almost nothing. It was as if the Goddess heard my plea and chose this night to answer.

I had a strange feeling as if I had done this all before, and recalled the night when an impure wastelander had tried to use me as a pack mule. My old alicorn horn had skewered his heart and I had found myself staring up at the moon on a clear night sky. But, that was long since past and now I was a unicorn, again.

I looked down at my left hoof as fire light illuminated it. Pale tan fur grew along my leg, which was an oddly welcome sight. It was fitting in a way. I, Shell Shock the ‘broken’ green, have been given a third chance at redemption.

As I set the hoof down, I slowly looked over to the two cuddling workers, whom had fallen asleep in their loving embrace. They looked quite peaceful and normal if you ignored the rubble around them. I looked over to Clockwork next to the wagon, the green still had her wing over the other pony. She slept just as peacefully as the two workers and something occurred to me.

What is perfect? The Goddess was perfect, yet she still did not see the Destroyer, an imperfect pony, coming. Even our problem of only having alicorn mares was fixed by an 'imperfect' pony. I, Shell Shock, am broken and highly imperfect. Perhaps it is the key to achieving the goals set by the Goddess. We cannot achieve perfection without being imperfect.

Clockwork's words floated to my thoughts. "Do you even know what it means to help a pony?"

"I do not think that means what you think it means," Tail Blade had said when we were talking about the plan laid out by the Goddess.

Sister's voice floated in my head as her smiling rain soaked face appeared. "I believe in you. I know you might be a little slow on some things, but you really are a smart pony."

"Medical aid should be given freely," I had once said to Sister. "The Sisters of Unity will show them that alicorns are the future. We will destroy the Goddess's mortal enemies and alicorns will reign supreme."

My own words stung slightly, but I knew I was partially right, and every other pony was a hundred percent right. I knew the concept of helping ponies, but I went about it the wrong way. And with time comes change. A seemingly annoying change that brought something beneficial: All my enemies will think I've died or gone missing.

Smiling at my own thoughts for once, instead of being afraid of them, I stood up and headed over to Clockwork. She slept calmly and quietly, oblivious to my internal ramblings. "Clockwork," I said quietly as I approached her face and gave her wing a light tug with my magic.

She blinked awake as her wings folded up and shook, then folded against her sides. "Is it my time for guard duty?" she asked quietly so as to not wake her companion, whom I noticed to be a stallion, causing me to tilt my head in confusion. "What? Lasso wanted us to sleep in shifts after an aerial attack earlier," she said before I could ask her about the stallion.

I tilted my head. “Earlier attack?”

She nodded. “Some kind of metal flying machine with lasers. What'd you want?"

"Um, we need to talk about... things." I gulped and slowly rubbed the side of my jaw. She cocked an eyebrow in response. "About my change."

"Alright, let's talk." she nodded. Then looked down at the still sleeping stallion when my eyes drifted to him. Her horn glowed as a pair of magical shields surrounded his ears. "He'll sleep like a rock."

I nodded, leaving the hoof on my jaw. "I seem to be falling apart. First my mane, now my teeth." Clockwork frowned a bit before yawning quietly, ears were swiveled towards me. "I... I'm not sure how long I'll last before I turn into a ghoul."

"Are you sure that will happen? Not many do turn into ghouls from what I hear."

I looked down, my ears folding back as the thought of dying a painful death surfaced. "Look. I did some thinking and... you're right. I don't know how to help a pony like I originally thought, but..." I pointed my left hoof at the collared worker. "I'm not sure if that's helping either."

Clockwork looked at the stallion's collar as her brows knitted together in thought. She remained quiet for some time, as if my question caused her to debate whether or not she'll collar me too. Finally, she let out a deep sigh and facehoofed. "I guess not." Her horn glowed brighter as another field of magic grabbed hold of the stallion's collar. My eyes widened a bit as she pulled on the latch, causing the collar to click open as it dropped to the ground.

The stallion shot awake and pulled his head away from the collar. "I didn't steal those caps!" he exclaimed loudly, drawing a confused look from Clockwork and I. I tilted my head. He looked down at the collar, Clockwork, the collar, Clockwork, then me and back to the collar. "Wh-huh? What's going on?"

I finally noticed that it was a pale red stallion that I had fed the other day.. "I removed your collar," Clockwork said. "There is a favor I would like for you to do. Do this, and you can consider your debt wiped clean."

He instantly looked over at her with wide eyes. "Are you serious?" Clockwork nodded. "I'll do it! Anything."

Clockwork's lips curled up in a small smile. "Good. Please escort this mare to town and see that she gets to the doctor before midday."

"That's it?"

"Correct."

I rubbed at my jaw as the pain decided to surface again, then fade, then surface and fade again. Quite an annoying problem, but a minor one. "Thanks, Clockwork," I said quietly.

The stallion looked to me as he stood up. "Are you ready to go?"

*** ***

"Wait," I said, stopping to lean against the wall. My legs did not want to go on, they wanted to lock up so I could lay down and die. Slowly, my eyes shut for a few seconds, letting my thoughts whirl around as the pale red stallion waited for me.

When I opened my eyes, he was right there within touching range. His eyes looked focused on his task of escorting me, or they could have been thinking of something else, like killing me or leaving me for dead. I wasn't quite sure. The clouds did not decide to piss on us again, something I was thankful for. Instead, they slowly parted like a curtain to illuminate the ruins around us with a pale-gold glow from the sun.

Ruined buildings are ruined buildings. When you've seen one crumbling structure, you've pretty much seen all of them. Only these were quite tall and stretched towards the sky like claws from a gryphon, drawing my attention up and up towards the cloudy grey-blue sky.

"You have no idea how beautiful the sky is," I said quietly, my throat feeling like I had swallowed acid. "To not see it for so long..."

"Whatever," the stallion's contempt reply was laced with boredom. "I need you to keep moving."

I smirked, remembering a few weeks ago when I had said something similar to a maimed pegasus just before I shot her four times. "I wish I could, but you don't quite understand."

As I lowered my gaze to look at the earth pony, I felt myself grin. Why, I don't know. I just felt like I needed to. The whole situation felt terrible and funny at the same time. I'd be practically defenseless without my horn, no thanks to my teeth falling apart as well, so the ex-worker was my proverbial knight in shining armor.

"Are you alright?" he cocked his head to the side as he slowly brought a hoof towards my chin. "You're staring at me."

"Yes." A glow surrounded his hoof and began squeezing it tightly. His face scrunched up in pain as the pressure steadily increased to the point where it could almost crack his hoof, had I been an alicorn. "I was just thinking about my situation and how you're my savior. So, bold knight, care to tell this fair maiden thy name?"

My magic quickly vanished, causing him to gasp in relief and shake his hoof. "Surf," he quietly grumbled. "Surfing Chain."

"Nice to meet you, Sir Surfing Chain." My bones decided to pop as I took his earlier offered hoof in my own hoof and gently leaned down to kiss it. The hoof tasted like dirt. "I am Lady Lilium, your damsel in distress. Shall we head to town? A gift awaits you if you get me there in one piece."

His eyebrow raised up as confusion spread across his face. "I think my gift is freedom, which I already have. You have nothing to offer me."

“I think I have something you’d like,” I giggled a bit. “Unless you’re into stallions.”

“I’ll pass.”

"If that is what you wish, then that is fine." I pushed myself off the wall. Fire flared in my joints and a few areas felt like the bones were pinching together, so I gave each leg a quick shake to clear the feeling. My skin and fur felt stiff, strange, and nearly dead. It caused me to wonder just how long I had to get to town, and if it was too late or not.

Surf turned around and began trotting along the path he had set. I followed along behind him and watched the buildings around us. They were dull, as usual, but looked mostly intact. All they would need is a bit of paint, some new windows, and they'd be fine. A fact that made me wonder why ponies abandoned them in the first place.

My thoughts were broken by multiple not so distant pops, my ears swivelling towards them. "You hear that?" I asked Surf and kept listening to the pop, pop, pop of distant gunfire. Which was replied to by a short burst that sounded like a rapid fire weapon.

He stopped and looked towards me, nodding. "Yeah, but it isn't the the caravan if you're wondering. They're in a different direction."

I nodded. "I want to check it out. They might have RadAway."

"That's out of the way," he growled. "The town is less than a five minute gallop." It occurred to me then, that the stallion wanted for us to head to town as soon as possible.

With a deep sigh, I nodded my head. "Okay, let's head to town. I think I can survive five minutes of galloping."

He bolted away without so much as a reply, leaving a small rooster tail of water as his hooves pounded on the street. I smirked at his eagerness and walked after him, but it soon picked up into a light canter. My eyes were locked on his backside, hoping for the unavoidable flash he would not know he gave. As we galloped, the shadows and light moved around from the clouds above like a dance. Which made it quite difficult to even see if a pony was hiding in the ruins. My heart pounded against my chest as my heavy breathing matched the pace of my hooves pounding against the wet road. Surfing Chain galloped fast and was pulling away easily, but I would wait for him to slow down and be out of breath.

Then I'll mock him for being unfit.

As I followed the stallion, my brain decided to flip back to an earlier time long before the city was in its current state. Ethereal ponies and wagons grew out of the road as I galloped. They were silent, but the intents of their daily lives were clear; a pony waving hello to one pulling a cart, a pair of ponies idly chatting on a bench while waiting for the next skywagon to take them somewhere. All of them happy, yet oh so very dead.

Something vaguely tank shaped caught the edge of my vision, so I looked at it, but my forehoof caught on something as I cantered, throwing me head over hooves into the ground. I quickly tucked my hooves up and rolled with the momentum as the asphalt slammed into my body over and over until I slammed into something hard.

When it was over, I opened my eyes with a quiet groan and found myself upside down against a block, staring at a barbecued pony wearing a frock with an assault rifle saddle. "Hi," he said. "Have a nice trip?"

"No," I groaned. Surfing Chain was behind the ghoul and smirking at me. I shut my eyes again and waited for the pain in my back to subside. It did not, so I opened my eyes again. Regrettably, the ghoul and Surf were still there. "Where am I?"

"New Baltimare," the ghoul said with a chipper attitude. "Or what dock ponies refer to as 'The Outskirts'."

"I need a doctor," I mumbled to the ghoul, content I was to lay with my head on the ground and my flank in the air until I realized something about the position I was in. I rolled onto my belly, flopping onto the ground to stop showing my flank to the world, and shut my eyes. "I'm dying."

"You look pale," the ghoul stated the obvious. The familiar feeling of my fuzzy hat being plopped onto my head caused me to adjust it with magic. "And you're losing hair."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," I grumbled as I covered my nose with my hooves. "Where's your doctor?"

"Well, it was nice knowing you, bye!" Surfing Chain said rapidly as hoofsteps echoed off the buildings. I opened my eyes and saw his backside as he galloped away. It was then that I sat up and looked at what I had actually ran into, which was an improvised metal wall blocking the street. A glance up revealed an empty catwalk for guards.

I looked to the ghoul, who had yet to reply. "Where is the town doctor?"

He looked toward the gate and took a deep breath. "Doctor Gauze is on the third floor of the Baltimare Ritz. Entry fee into New Baltimare is five bits."

"Five bits?" I tilted my head, remembering that I had given every bit I had to Willow the day before. "I don't... I don't have five bits."

He shrugged. "No bits? We didn't want your business anyway."

A deep frown formed on my face. I unbuckled my bags and slowly slid them off. "Hang on. I think I have some bits left over."

He picked up his saddle's trigger and readied to bite it, which was a smart tactic. As slowly as I could, so he did not get spooked, I opened the saddle bag. Inside were my two pistols, the Twilight Spake statuette, my cloak, journal, a few knives, and ammo, but no bits. The ten millimeter pistol I had named Shock was withdrawn from the bag with my hooves, along with ammo. The ghoul's gaze went down to her.

"Will you accept a trade? I really have to see the doctor."

Slowly, as if the gears in his head were rusty, the ghoul stallion let go of the saddle's bit and held his hoof out. "Welcome to New Baltimare. You have two days before your payment has run out."

"Thank you." I smiled and dropped the weapon into his hoof, then pulled my bags back on.

--------------

Shell Shock: Level Up!
New Perk - What happened to you? Karma reset. Good Luck.

Fixed a few things that weren't in italics