Chapter 8: Wings Are Fluffy
”Some ponies help for caps or ‘cause it's the right thing to do. She helped ‘cause the ‘bad ponies’ annoyed her."

Memories and visions floated through my mind like the ebb and flow of a tide. Recent memories of Lasso Ass’s caravan came to the forefront and I heard Willow speak as clear as the day we had talked. ”Sounds like a flower.”

The light crackling of a campfire drifted through my ears as the scent of poorly distilled alcohol filled my nostrils. An icy touch brushed against my cheek, causing my wings to fluff up as a shiver ran the length of my spine into my tail.

I smiled at the memory of the blue alicorn but it faded just as quickly as it appeared.

Only to be replaced with another icy feeling. One that ran deep through the core of my very being, right down to my bones. A chill that not even a roaring bonfire could melt away. Icicles practically formed on my nostrils with each labored breath, snow covered my barely exposed face and I felt little in my hooves or ears. Yet I pressed on, leaning into the howling wind with a thick scarf over my nose to block out the cold. Goggles covered my eyes to protect them from the wind and a thick armored dress kept me warm.

All of it did little. My pipbuck would have told me I was insane for being out in such conditions if it could talk. As it was, it warned that I was starting to get hypothermia with the image of a icicle covered stable alicorn filly.

Hyde’s spark battery had fared little better than I, having drained itself trying to keep the weapon in standby less than an hour ago. I had no doubt the submachine gun being kept in a fleece-lined scabbard would freeze solid if it was drawn. Flying was useless thanks to the biting cold freezing the leading edges of my wings, making them feel a hundred pounds each.

Knee deep snow surrounded me on all sides. The fierce wind blowing across my vision would make travel impossible were it not for a Pipbuck firmly attached to my foreleg. The only way I knew where to go in this desolate, ice covered hell was the waypoint I had marked for a vague ‘here be loot’ in the area I thought the Crystal Capital was.

No, not thought, I hoped the shining city was still there.

Something was calling me home like a beacon, a shining flare in the dark of the coldest nights. Or perhaps I was hearing things again. All I knew was that something compelled me to travel north. Surely the Empire did not survive the Last Day? If it had, then why hadn't they appeared since then? Were they waiting for something? Had they disappeared again and reappeared only now like the old stories mother had told me?

I don't know.

All I knew was that I was out in the frozen tundra trekking forward in the vain hope that I’d find something. Maybe I would find out who I really was before the war, but would I like my old self? Would one of us have to die? Or would the both of us co-exist in the same body? It was certain that we did not have the same personality. As one is a foal of the old world and one is a monster born of the wastes.

”You’re not a monster, Shock. You’re a pony.” Mudpie’s voice drifted into my mind as the image of the two of us floated into my mind. I was laying on my back staring up at her as she smiled down at me.

“What’cha thinkin’ about?” Sienna’s gravelly voice filled my ear. The filly sat right next to it on a table. It shattered my mind’s thoughts like a hammer smashing into a mirror and drew me away from my cold contemplation as I stared out the window toward the northern mountains, which from our distance could just barely be seen with snow covering the very tops.

I slowly looked over and smiled softly at the filly with a shrug. “The future,” I told her. Whether the future I was thinking about was true or false was another matter entirely. If it was true I would most likely die searching up north for home.

Merry told me the mule gave up the cure after a very short questioning session. I did not ask for details, but she told me I needed to do a job for her before she would relinquish it to me. And so, I sat with her and Sienna inside of a random store above ground.

“What about it?” Merry asked from my left. I glanced over my shoulder at the unicorn, my neck making audible pops and creaks. She had donned black leather armor reinforced with metal and an old royal guard helmet. At her side was a simple hoof-made post-war single shot rifle with a ‘scope’ on it made from scraps. The rifle looked like she had taken a chair leg, carved a groove for a long pipe barrel and added a firing mechanism to it. Though it ‘only’ fired .45 caliber rounds according to her.

“It's cold and bleak,” I said quietly. “And lonely. Everypony I know either leaves me or dies.”

Merry frowned deeply at me. Her eyes narrowed to fine slits as the mare puffed out what was left of her cheeks. “Knock that shit off! I don't wanna hear none of those negative waves, ya hear?”

I rolled my eyes and looked at Sienna. “Think you can stay here and help the guards to make sure the donkey isn't harmed by random citizens?”

Sienna’s ears folded back, eyes filling with water, lip trembling slightly in preparation to cry. “But… but you only stayed a day!”

“I know,” I replied, nodding. “How about when I’m an alicorn again you can introduce me to Old Joe, okay?” Giving the filly my best reassuring smile was about all I could do to relieve her fears. Well, that and pull her into a hug. She leaned into it and hugged my side about as well as she could.

“Perhaps he and I will cast the foal making spell,” I whispered, knowing it was impossible for a normal pony to even get an alicorn to conceive. If it would get the filly away from danger, I would lie. Though I felt like she would make me fulfill that promise.

Merry floated up a clipboard in her magic, flipped the page over and put on a set of ancient dusty spectacles that may or may not have belonged to her originally. “According to my map this town is about seven miles from city hall. But that’s not accounting for blockages or raiders.”

“That doesn't seem all that far?” I tilted my head at her.

Merry looked up from her map just long enough to push her glasses up a bit and sniff the air. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. If we travel light we can weave around and climb over the wreckage.” I nodded. Sienna let go of the hug and scampered off to go bug the guards, or stare at the donkey. I had no clue where she was off to, but she could take care of herself. In response to her running off.

Merry shrugged. “Need any supplies?”

I tilted my head in thought. I had Hyde on my right side, his power cell was about halfway drained no thanks to Dead Hoof. Axe’s Flashlight currently sat slung on my left side. The heavy radio pack on my back was a warm reminder that I had a wartime relic in my possession. All it did was crackle with static when I flipped it on. The barding I had taken from Lasso did not fit too well and the two wastelander weapons were useful for clubs, not to mention the useless RadAway I now possessed.

I withdrew my last syringe of Med-X and jabbed it into my foreleg with a quiet hiss to distract myself from the pain of the needle. “Yeah.” Almost immediately the flames burning in my joints began to die down from the medicine washing over them. I nodded at Merry. “I got shit to offload and need to get some more Med-X.”

She nodded in return. “Then follow me.”

Taking one last look around the shop showed me what I already knew: we had taken the donkey above ground where most of the town was. A non-ghoul earth pony was sitting at a desk, eyes shut and leaning against the wall. Around us lay many various trinkets and oddities that were supposedly enchanted with different effects, but there was a sign saying ’You Try it, You Buy It’ which did not prevent me from grabbing the nearest object with my magic.

The shopkeep was asleep, Merry was walking toward the door. There was no pony watching me at all. Nearest to me were various rings and necklaces ranging from mundane bottlecap ones to fancy gem studded jewelry fit for a Princess. The junk items were out on display while the fancy ones were behind thick glass that would take far too long to open and take something from.

Glancing at the ghoul, and then the shopkeep one last time to be sure neither pony was watching, I placed the bottle cap necklace into my bag. It was an old Sparkle-Cola bottle cap with a bright pink star in the center. Somepony had added a loop of string to tie it to some beads and more string, forming a semi-fancy, if a bit cheap necklace.

Since I did not wish to be around the store any longer than I had to be, I headed for the door as quick as I could without galloping. “Thank you for the potion, sir!” I said loudly to the shopkeep.

He snorted awake, quickly looking around for the source of my intrusive voice which he obviously found. He frowned at me, tipping the brim of his hat upward some. “Um. Anytime? Come back if you need something, alright?”

“Okay.” I smiled back at him and winked, leaving the dumbfounded shopkeep to hopefully not figure out he had also been robbed of a tiny trinket.

*** ***

And so, we had set off into the wasteland in search of a mystical place filled with a supposedly infinite amount of irradiated water, which I doubted was even truthful considering the donkey lied out his ass about everything else. Merry and I wandered forward toward the city limits, our hoofsteps echoing off the nearby buildings with each thunderous hoof fall.

Or, at least it sounded like thunder to my alicorn ears.

Merry spoke not a single word since we had left the store. I did not question her motives, not did I try to strike up a conversation. I doubted we had anything to talk about, aside from the Followers potion I had been promised by Tail Blade.

But there was no point in talking about it. Dead Hoof was a fool for even thinking I would agree to drink it, even if it could be reversed! I wanted a foal. Me to carry it. To give birth, to be a loving mother for a very special alicorn foal. One who would not know the oppressive iron hoof of the Goddess, as kind as she may be. She wasn't the most forgiving of ponies. A simple mistake and it’s ‘go do this assignment far away from me and the others’.

Neither would my foal know of the Destroyer and her friends. Though… the musical one known as Velvet wasn't too bad. It was by her, and the zebra known as Xenith, that we alicorns were able to reproduce. Something even the Great and Powerful Goddess could not provide.

“Maybe she isn't so bad after all…” I mumbled my thoughts out loud as we passed by what vaguely resembled an overturned wagon. I had scant paid attention to my surroundings, instead I focused on my thoughts. Which were running wild, rampant with insane ideas like the Destroyer not being all that bad for the overall livelihood of alicorns, even if she killed the Goddess.

Merry turned her head toward me ever so slightly, cocking it with a small tilt. “Who?” She asked just as quietly as I had said mine. Even that one simple word sounded like somepony with a sore throat asked it.

I shut my eyes and sighed, turning my head away from her, but kept my hearing focused on the ghoul. I wasn’t quite sure what to tell her. With Merry being a wastelander it stood a good chance that she already liked that mare, or maybe not considering the fact that after her adventure was done. There was no more easy radiation around.

“A… friend,” I replied with a lie. And to make it seem like truth, I spun it even more. “She has been coming on to me quite a lot lately, well before Dead Hoof gave me that stupid drink.”

“Don't you already have a coltfriend?”

Obvious answer was obvious. I shook my head. “No, not after he pulled that stunt. He even chained me to the floor because ‘I bite too much’.”

“Do you?” Her head tilted even more. Merry’s skin had so many boils, wrinkles, and missing chunks that she would be a hideous monster in a standard zombie storybook. And yet here she was, living on the razor’s edge between sane and feral. How she was deemed fit to live with others was beyond me. Maybe being around others is what kept her sane, hell even a hug could do it, I wasn't sure. All I knew, was that I had watched as she nearly went full feral in town and they acted like she does it all the time.

“You don't chain someone to the floor because you're afraid of them!” I whined, kicking a tin can toward nowhere. It bounced with a quiet rattle and slid to a stop next to a skeleton.

“There are times when you can, like for instance-”

“What?” I glared. “You're taking his side?! You even said yourself he didn't seem like much of a friend because he gave me that fake stallion potion.”

“Yes, well.” She shrugged. Then stepped around some rubble and hopped up onto the upside down wagon. “I was merely pointing out there were couples who do use chains and pain as part of their pleasure. Though, if you bite too much it sounds like he’s not into the pain part. Or you're biting wrong.”

“And what do you know about that?”

“Maaaany things. I could even teach you some tricks.” She winked, hopping off the wagon to walk next to me.

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head and wished I could flutter my non-existent wings. They needed to flap, to fly free, to carry me aloft. And yet I was stuck on the ground walking like a dirty earth pony without them, all because of Dead Hoof and his insane idea!

“No,” I grumbled. “We don't use pain for pleasure, or chains. He’s more into me screwing him in the ass with a rubber dick.”

Merry giggled at that. She moved closer to me, leaning against my side and resting her head on my neck. “And do you like doing that?”

I shoved her away with a bump of my flank before I stepped over a fallen light post. Then stopped to listen to my surroundings. I slowly looked around, searching for something, anything to change the conversation with, but… since I did not have a pipbuck I could not see something to shoot. Nor did I see much beyond Merry, a rubble building, a few wagons crashed into a small pile. I could have gone over to them and looked through their contents quite easily, but I remembered the wagon back on Oakwood many years ago. It was simple, unassuming, and a perfect trap that was nearly fatal for me.

There was no way in hell I was going to search those wagons, but then I saw something I hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

Sitting inside the ruins of one building and covered by quite a bit of rubble was a strange ‘box’. The box was angled at the sides with the top covered in stone and brick. The side facing me appeared relatively flat, but with a large round tube sticking out of it. The tube was quite short, about only as long as I was, pitted and rusted to the point I could not discern any coloring on it.

I tilted my head, ignoring the tapping on my side as I strode forward toward the wreckage. “Hey, Merry, do you see what I’m seeing?” I asked, turning my ears toward her.

“No? I see junk and rubble. What are you looking at?”

Stopping at the window where I saw the box, I saw that it was attached to the rusty remains of a large angled hull of a tracked tank. The paint had been weather worn and rusted, but I saw a few splotches of white. Feeling my heartbeat pick up, I shut my eyes and slowly reach a hoof toward the front armor plate.

“What is this?” Merry’s voice broke the moment before I could touch it.

I frowned, set my hoof down and looked at her. She had propped herself up on the window to get a better look at the vehicle. “A tank,” I replied to her. Then looked at it again, my eyes drifting up to the missing building roof where I saw what might have happened. “I think… what happened was that they drove in here seeking shelter and the roof collapsed on them. For whatever reason, they stopped here and died.”

“How does that kill a tank?” The ghoul looked at me, tilting her head and tapping the hull with a loud thud. “Seems pretty solid to me.”

“Well when you’re stuck and the crew can’t get out, they eventually die of starvation.”

“Oh…” She frowned. “I forgot about food.”

“Yeah… food is kind of important.” I jumped through the window and landed on the hull with a clang. Grabbing bricks and stone in my magic, I tried to shove them aside, but found they were far too heavy for that, so I pressed my forehooves to one of the larger chunks. Hind legs straining, I pushed my hooves into the metal as hard as I could and used all of my weight.

Yet it did not budge a single inch. I felt pain starting to creep up my legs and back as my hooves slipped on the metal. “Oh come on, you piece of shit!” I shouted at the stone, then hopped back and flicked my tail side to side, kicking with my foreleg.

“Come on, Lilly, let’s go,” Merry said, looking up at me with a small frown. “It’s clear this thing isn’t anything but a derelict.

“How can you not be curious about it?!” I whined. “It’s got a huge gun!”

“I’m gonna go check that out over there. You catch up once you’re done trying to look through the ‘tank’.” She tapped her ear before motioning down the road, my gaze followed hers and I saw that she appeared to be pointing far down the road near a subway entrance.

As I sat there staring out the window looking down the road, I heard the radio softly crackling in my ear. That warm, familiar static felt reassuring, comforting. I slowly floated down and sat on the tank hull, placing a hoof to my ear to listen for Radio.

”Hello, my old apricot,” a strange, familiar stallion’s voice drifted in on the static, almost imperceptible, but just loud enough to be heard. A quiet hissing sound picked up, increased and lowered back to normal.

I tilted my head, frowning as I turned it to the side and pressed the transmit button. “Synthie?” My voice was soft and each thump of my heart was like a hammer hitting the side of my head.

”Been a long time, huh? How’s our foal?” The voice chuckled, coming in clearer for just a moment before static overtook it.

My eye twitched at the reply. Quickly grabbing the earpiece in my magic, I ripped out and tossed it aside. “No! No! No!” I shook my head, holding a hoof to my forehead as the earpiece dangled in the air. “I must be going insane,” I whispered softly to myself.

Putting the earpiece back in its place, I tilted my head to listen in on the static. Though my magic felt like it was starting to run wild and flow upward toward my horn. Shutting my eyes and quickly holding a hoof to my forehead, I quickly tried to shake the feeling away.

“Goddess, I hate magic sometimes.”

“I don’t get it,” a pony said from in front of me. Blinking and opening my eyes showed me a flesh and blood pony standing there in a stable-suit of sorts with a pipbuck on their right foreleg. He was an earth pony with a comically oversized sword in a sheath at his side, a pistol in a foreleg holster and a submachine gun on his back. In one hoof was a bag that I wasn’t quite sure of the contents.

I smiled, nodding at his presence. “My horn regrew and now my magic is trying to unleash itself on anything, so I’m hearing odd voices on the radio.”

“Ah.” He nodded slowly. “Care to eat something then? I’ve got a bag of apple snack cakes.”

“I’ll pass.” I shook my head and stood up. “I’ve gotta get back to my friend.”

“What friend?” he replied, tilting his head somewhat as he put the bag away. I noticed that his grey mane said he was quite old, and his rich blueberry-like coat almost blended with the suit.

My smile slowly faded. The pony obviously did not know of Merry, but he was right. Merry wasn’t a ‘friend’ in the true sense. She was just an acquaintance. A pony I’d only met yesterday.

“A ghoul that was with me,” I told him, nodding.

“I, uh… hate to say this, but there was no pony with you,” he replied, shaking his head. “I’ve been following you for the last few hours ever since you left the town talking to yourself.”

“No, I was talking with Merry.” A frown crossed my face. “She left the store with me and-” My ear with the radio in it began ringing quite loudly, almost to deafening volumes. Clamping my eyes shut, I held onto my horn as it heated up to the point that it felt like it was burning and grimaced, waiting for the pain to dissipate.

It did not.

It grew worse, and worse as my magic slowly swirled inside me and moved toward my horn again. My heart rate increased with each passing moment, my breathing picking up. With a deep breath, I used the growing magic to rip the earpiece out again, quickly remove the radio and tossed it into the street.

The stable pony ducked as the radio pack flew over his head and slammed into the street, breaking apart at the rusted seams and sending the parts flying in a few directions.

I took a deep breath and shut my eyes, slowly letting the breath out. Then breathed in and out a few more times as my heart calmed down.

The stable pony was still there and frowning at me. “Throwing relics at me isn’t nice,” he said quietly.

“You’re telling me I was talking to myself. You’re wrong.”

“And you’re in denial.” He nodded.

“I am not!” I shouted, picking up a small brick and threw it in his direction.

He ducked and sidestepped again, frowning at me. “How about we start over? Hi, I’m-”

“I don’t care what your name is, you asshole!” Again, I grabbed another brick and tossed at him.

For a second time, the agile old earth pony dodged it by jumping to the side. Seeing as the bricks weren’t working, I drew Axe’s Flashlight and pointed it at him. He tilted his head and blinked a few times as I aimed right at his face

“I’m not insane,” I told him and frowned.

“Wanna go for a trot?” He asked, causing me to blink in confusion.

“What?”

“Do you… Want to go for a walk? Maybe get a bite to eat?” He shook the bag of snack cakes.

“What are you asking?” My frown grew even more.

“Wanna go somewhere else? As in, do you want to trot, walk, and eat with a new pony or would you rather shoot me for talking?”

The rifle was slowly lowered away from the stable pony’s face. I sighed deeply and facehoofed. “Where to?”

“I need your help with a job.”

“Of course… everypony needs my help with something. If it’ll distract my magic, I shall do so.”

He nodded and trotted off toward somewhere as he said, “Then hop off there an’ come with me.”

Is this what the Destroyer felt like when she was bugged by random ponies for help every thirty minutes?

*** ***

“This is your job?” I frowned as I took in the sight in front of me. We had gone down through the subway system Merry had pointed out earlier and now what sat in front of me was not at all what I was expecting. I expected to have to shoot something, maybe even beat a pony up, but no.

Nothing was ever that simple!

What sat in front of me was a large box of various items marked in zebra no less. Behind that box sat another box marked in Equestrian for shipping to somewhere in Ponyville. The floor was complete trash and flickering lights overhead made seeing much of anything in the room to be annoying, so my horn gave off its own steady powerful glow to let the magic flow out somewhere.

“Yes.” The pony nodded at me and stepped toward the nearest box. “I was hired by my stable to find a shipment of… well, it’s a bit embarrassing.”

I tilted my head and smirked. “Let me guess. Blow up mares?”

“No!” He quickly shook his head. “Toilets. See, our toilets are over two hundred years old and-”

I facehoofed. “Toilets?!”

“Yes! They are starting to crack and break. “It’s a very serious problem!” He nodded rapidly.

“So who are you?” Setting my hoof down, I looked at the pony and tilted my head the other way. “Just some random stable pony looking to make a name like the De-err… the ‘Lightbringer’?”

He muttered something in reply, which I could not hear, thusly I tilted my head the other way and frowned.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“I’m the janitor. Janitor Crescent, though many ponies call me Croissant because I always have food,” he mumbled quietly and looked at the floor. “Nopony believes me when I say this is a serious problem! I came here looking for toilets like the manifest said, but when I open the box I find guns. Not just any guns, but zebra guns!”

I leaned forward and peered into the box. True to the janitor’s word, there was an older zebra rifle wrapped in a cloth with the bolt and trigger appearing to be shiny new. Folding the cloth over the rifle revealed that there were three more next to it, and picking them up showed me that the entire box was stuffed to the brim with zebra rifles.

Perfect. Pristine. Zebra rifles ready for battle.

“Well that is…” my voice trailed off while I tried to comprehend the thought. Either somepony liberated them from the zebras and was shipping them to the Ministry of Wartime Technology for evaluation, or some zebra was planning a revolt.

“Can I have one?” I finally asked, joy creeping in.

“No,” he grumbled. “They’re zebra weapons!”

“And?” I looked at him, smiling as I held the four rifles close to me. “They are nice rifles. Better than my laser rifle.”

“No! These weapons are property of the…” he paused to lean over, peering at the side of the box for a few long moments to see the name on the side. I saw him mouth the words as more of a question, eyes narrowing. “Ministry of Awesome,” the janitor muttered in a voice told me that he was not at all happy with the name.

Who could blame the poor fool when somepony mislabeled a crate over two hundred years ago? I certainly could not! Their loss, our gain.

So I merely bowed my head to him. “Yes, and as a citizen of the wasteland, it is your duty to report any cache of rare weapons to the nearest gun hoarder for cap exchange. After all, caps make the world go round and you want to be a rich janitor, yes?”

“Huh?” He blinked in confusion at me, tilting his head to the side. “You're not making sense.”

Facehoofing, I floated the weapons back toward the box. I wanted to call him a fool, but I did not. Instead I sighed. “I was trying to make a joke. Look, how long have you been out of your stable?”

“Two weeks,” he replied quickly. “I know ponies use caps and I know red bars are bad. You gotta shoot ‘em sadly because they don't listen. Our stable’s been open to traders for years, but we keep the door shut mostly. Gotta keep the dirt out so we can fix it up good an’ proper.”

“Yes, well, any normal wastelander in your situation would steal… er, retrieve as many guns as they could from this crate at one time, take it to the nearest town and sell. Then repeat until the box is empty.”

He looked at the crate before looking at me again. “Ponies… Ponies use zebra weapons?!”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“That’s madness!”

“No,” I shook my head and smiled. “It's good sense. A weapon’s origin does not determine how good or evil it is. Take this rifle for example.” I drew Axe’s Flashlight and held it to the side a bit. “Where do you think it comes from?”

“Um…” he looked at the cloth wrapping around the body and tried to lift it up only to find more cloth. “A clothing store?”

“Good guess, but no.” I twirled it in my magic and gently set it down. “It is an Enclave weapon.”

“Enewho?”

“Pegasus?”

“There are pegasi alive still?! I would love to meet one! I heard their wings are so fluffy and give the best hugs.”

I frowned, tilting my head somewhat. “You are very new here…”

And probably going to die soon at his learning rate. If he did not know who the Enclave were, I was not going to tell him beyond what I did. Hell, I wanted to walk away right then and there with a gun or two, or three, or all of them firmly inside my shield. It was not like any weapon he owned could even dent it.

If I could cast the shield that is. Part of me wanted to see what would happen if I tried that exact scenario, but another part of me wanted to help Mr. Naive with his task, because I had never seen a pony risk their necks for… toilets. And because trying to cast said shield was nigh impossible for some odd reason.

“So what did you wanna do with the guns?” I asked quietly. “Keep them? I doubt you can carry-”

“Destroy them,” he replied, causing me to frown and glare at him. “What?”

“These are brand fucking new! Do you know how many would kill to find one working Zebra Rifle? Let alone a whole crate in pristine condition?!”

The janitor frowned and looked down, eyes darting side to side as he tried to come up with some type of a reply, barely making a syllable before stopping and gulping. Then he puffed out his chest and stood up straight to glare. “What makes them so special? You can't even carry them right. They ain't got normal grips!”

“For you, you put it in a battle saddle, earth pony. Once that is done you now have a weapon capable of firing three silent shot bursts that set your target on fire and burn them from the inside out.”

“That sounds horrible and makes me want to destroy them even more!”

“Welcome to the wasteland, fluffy pony.” I nodded and put Axe’s Flashlight away. “Where everyone wants to shoot me for no damn reason.”

“Well I don't wanna shoot you,” he muttered.

Glancing at him, I saw he had relaxed somewhat and was eyeing me with an eye of… I wasn't sure. It could have been sadness, or confusion, or he wanted to mount me. When I followed his gaze I saw he was staring at my flank, so I stomped a hoof against the stone with a loud clop. “Don't even think about it.”

“Huh? I was looking at your cutie mark!” He yelled back.

“That’s what they always say! Then when they look close they pull me under them and it's fun times for us both.”

“That's not why I was looking,” he whined. “I don't li… well I do like mares, but your cutie mark is strange. Why is it like that? A cook hat and spatula. Are you a stable pony?”

“It's a long, long story best left untold until I trust you more.” I nodded.

Something had been bugging me about the other box being there unopened by the pony. Sure the box was labeled in zebra, probably sent by a friendly zebra spy to one pony for study, I hope. But what made him know it was a zebra gun? His pippy or something in the other box?

Making my way over to the box, there were a few marks in the wood indicating he had used a crowbar to pry it open with pure earth pony strength. And marks on top from where his hooves slammed down on the top to close it tight again. A quick push with my hoof told me that it was securely locked down.

The janitor was eyeing me again, so I frowned at him. “Tell me what's in this box and I’ll let you get a much closer look at my cutie mark.” I shook my flanks slightly and flicked my tail side to side.

I sure as hell needed the distraction and relaxation that came from that idea. I was starting to get antsy around him, like each time I looked at him my heart rate picked up and thundered inside my skull.

“More bad zebra things,” he replied quickly. Almost too quickly. His eyes darted side to side as he took a step back and it his lip. “Honest.”

“I didn't ask if you were lying. May I see the crowbar?”

“Ee-no, sorry.” The janitor gulped again. “You don't want to open that box.”

“Why not?”

“Radiation. Lots of it.”

“I’ve got RadAway and Rad-x.” I nodded at him. Sitting down, I pulled a tin from my bags and popped in a Rad-X tablet, chewing the nasty flavored pill before downing it with a flat Sparkle-Cola.

“It's bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! You don't want to open the box! Something inside there is… It… I dunno what it is! It just feels bad, okay?”

I wiped my mouth off and tossed the bottle off to the side, watching as it shattered into many tiny shares. “Calm down, take a deep breath and think clearly. Describe what the contents were. I'm not going to bite you.”

He nodded, took a deep breath and held it for a few moments before speaking. “It's a device that emits rads and makes me sick just to look at. That crate is lined with a material to dampen the rad leak. Lead, I think.”

He looked back toward the door for a few moments, then looked at me. I tilted my head at him, wondering what he was seeing on his pippy. “So, can I lo-look closer at your... cutie mark? I told you what was in the box.”

“Give me the crowbar?” I replied. “I need to confirm it first.”

“No!” He whined. “That wasn't part of the deal!”

“You can stare at my ass as much as you want when I look inside the box, so please. Just let me sate my curiosity? I’ll go nuts not knowing what is in there.”

Frowning at me, the earth pony dug in his pack and tossed the item over, before galloping behind the nearest bench to hide. I shoved the blade in between the gap and wiggled it around until it popped.

When I peered inside I saw something that made my heart sink, and fill with joy at the same time. True to his word there was another box inside, but the lid had broken on the smaller box. Through the gap I could see an unholy combination of swirling pink magic over a pitch black void and rainbows that made my stomach churn. Peering into the void felt like peering into Tartarus itself. Clutching my gut, I took a deep breath and basked in the rads, my ears picking up the janitor’s pippy ticking not far away. Attached to the smaller box was a busted keypad and display most likely meant for opening it.

There was only one other box I had seen before which leaked warm radiation like this, and that was owned by an insane ghoul, which meant it was a balefire bomb. And that was good for the the ghoul town.

“Those rads are gonna kill us!” He yelled as I shut the box as quick as I could.

I nodded. Then shook my head. “Kind of. Just take a RadAway. Look, there is a town that needs irradiated water. We put this device inside their water supply to irradiate it.”

“No, absolutely not! That thing is dangerous. I don't know how it hasn't gone off in all these years.” Croissant peered over the bench at me and frowned.

I glared at him, a frown crossing my lips. “I will not fail my daughter!” I yelled back.

“I can understand that.” He nodded, not even flinching at the yell. He motioned toward the crate. “But think about what this device is, what it can do to ponies.” I looked at the crate. “The device is broken, leaking, yes, but who knows what happens when you expose it to water. It could go off. Would you want to be responsible for killing your daughter and half of Baltimare?”

I shook my head and facehoofed. “No. I don't want to kill Sienna. I want to see her smile again.”

“Then let’s bury this thing far from the city.” He nodded. “Let some other pony deal with it.”

“Is that what you do at your stable? You let some other pony deal with it?”

“No, we help each other for the betterment of the stable.” He held his non-pipbuck hoof toward me. “So let’s help each other, to make the wasteland a better place?”

I looked at the device again, my ears slowly folding back. “But how will I get water for Sienna…?”

“I can do that,” he replied, causing me to quickly look at him. The stable pony nodded slowly. “We’ve got a spare water chip at my stable. I could rig it up to dirty the water instead. It’ll ruin the chip for non-ghouls, but if you help me with this I’ll do it.”

Sighing deeply and nodding, I placed my forehoof on his. “I’m holding you to that. You don't want to go back on your word with me. Your death will be a slow and painful one.”

He gulped audibly and nodded, smiling sheepishly as he shook my hoof. “I’d like to stay living.”

“Good. Now how do we get this crate out of here?”

“I was hoping you’d know.”

Tilting my head in thought, I stared into the earth pony’s eyes and tried to think of a plan, but sadly there was only one plan I could think of. And that made me frown, which made him frown. “I know an alicorn with a caravan…”

“Oh.” He nodded slowly. “And where is this alicorn?”

“I need to contact him and find out, but he and We don’t exactly see eye to eye."

Truth be told I wasn't sure if I could even cast the spell, as it seemed most of my alicorn powers were unavailable to me. Before I could shut my eyes, Croissant stepped closer to me and smiled.

I frowned. “What?”

“Could, um… could I… look closer at y-your cutie mark now?” He nodded.

I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head. “You still want to?” My voice was quiet and as relaxed as I could get.

Croissant nodded firmly. “Y-yes.”

Tilting my head the other way, I gave him a sly smirk, my eyes drifted down toward his sheathe. “Is this your first time ‘looking’ ‘closer at a mare's cutie mark?” Was all I whispered as I looked up at his face again.

The color rushing to his face to turn it purple-ish in a blush and the slight shift of his weight, his tail flicking to the side said all I needed to know.

“Alright.” I nodded and slowly removed all of my gear, tossing it into a pile next to the crates.

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