Waking up to the noise of metal groaning, waves crashing against the hull, I slumped out of bed and noticed that Ruby was asleep nearby. Leaving without disturbing him, I went to the engine room to see if Mek was awake.

I came upon the engine room to find her looking over it. The engine was a mess of moving parts humming and clanking together with enough volume to make my head hurt. I cleared my throat and she took notice of me. She put the wrench in her mouth down.

“Something I can help ya with?” She asked me.

“I was just curios, how does it run, you've said you've been with this ship for seven years, what's it like living on the same boat for that long?” I was wanted to know more about this mare, she had abandoned her old crew, but left them the gift of water. It made me curious, and my curiosity was more of a problem than not at times.

“Well, this is a propeller engine, spark generator powers the spells on the rotors, causing rotation of the propellers. Ship was made to run continuously, but considering its over two centuries old, ya gotta keep an eye on it, make sure nothing clutches up.” She explained, she had a loving eye as she was talking about the machine. “Stay out of here, and if ya have a really good reason to come in here, stay away from the rotors, you can really hurt yourself on them if ya don't pay attention.” She warned me, considering how violently they moved, I didn't doubt it.

She looked over the engine for a minute before realizing I hadn't left. She looked a little embarrassed as she notices she only answered my first question. The fact that she was embarrassed put me at ease, and I smiled in return.

“Right, sorry. Honestly, I'd say it's like being home, I've always lived on a ship, it's stranger to not be on a ship. Well, for me at least, can't say the same about everypony.” She answered, before I could follow up, one of the rotors died down, “Ahh shoot, gotta fix this, head on out, we can talk more after I've patched this up.” With that she got her wrench back in her mouth and went to work. Not wanting to be in her way, I left her to her work.

I went topside and winced at the sunlight. I let out a groan of pain as my eyes quickly narrowed, my head throbbing. I was not a fan of the sun, it always greeted me with a headache in the mornings.

After adjusting to the day, I looked myself up and down and was alarmed to see blood dried to my coat. Why didn't Mek say anything- actually, considering how dirty her coat was, it made sense that she didn't point out how messy I looked.

I went below deck and grabbed the nearest rag I was going to trust to the task, went and got it nice and wet with irradiated sea water on the deck, and proceeded to clean myself up. My pipbuck letting out little clicks to inform me about the small amount of radiation I was exposing myself to.

Sigh, radiation.

It wasn't a problem back on the island. Before the drought rain was common, and rain water was radiation free. I presume that there's some water below decks in storage, but I figured it would be wasteful to bathe with it. Feeling a little cleaner, I inspected myself.

Three pink circles, one on either side of my chest, and another on my left foreleg, were the only evidence of the wounds I had taken last night. I was surprised, Ruby's magic was incredible. Looking close I already saw some light blue fur had begun to grow in those marks. I guess I managed to avoid getting scars from all that. Guess I can add that to the good.

I considered taking down my ponytail, but decided against it, without a brush my gray mane would become unruly in quick order. So I kept the ponytail, and tried to get leaves and other debris that had settled from, well everything that happened yesterday, out of it.

With my personal concerns out of the way, I took in my surroundings. Checking my EFS I saw that we were heading south. The breeze carried the familiar fishy smell of the water past me, my eyes took in a clear, cloudless blue sky, today was a beautiful day!

To the west was a small sand dune, barely big enough for a couple of rocks and sealurks to scuttle on. With no clouds to direct me to Equestria, I followed my EFS east.

No clouds meant that the ship was far enough away from Equestria to avoid seeing the cloud blanket. When the bombs fell, the pegasai closed the off the skies over Equestria with a wall of clouds. It was something I could see at the edge of the horizon back on my island, but from here its nowhere to be seen.

I could only wonder what that must be like, living without the sun or moon. I wouldn't mind so much not having the sun burning my eyes every morning, but the idea of not having the moon greet me in the evenings was dampening.

Spotting Solar in the cabin, controlling the ship, I trotted over, hoping that this verbal encounter would be far less stressful then the ones last night. In the daylight I noticed that his mane was dark green, slicked back and kept short. Huh, last night I thought it was black, but I guess not. His cutie mark was a compass with the needle pointing between east and west.

“Morning Solar, how are things?” I forced a hearty hello, he gave me a very condescending look in reply. “I mean, uh, hi?” I weakly rephrased. This was already going swimmingly.

“How about you start with your name, you never gave it to me last night. Then we can go on to talk about how screwed we are.” he said, and then added, “Like how we pissed off Peg Leg, of all pirates, and left him with water so he could live long enough to hunt us down.”

“Uh, right, I'm Winter Rain, just call me Rain, and you shouldn't just assume that he'll hunt us down.” I needed some optimism to wash down yesterdays events, and Solar wasn't helping. “He'd first need a new navigator, and a ship, and a means to finding us, I mean, Equestria is a big place...right?” It's possible he could hunt us down, but not likely. “You should try counting the good over the bad Solar, it's better for your health.”

Solar sighed.

“So that island with the freaky magnetosphere was your home right? How long?”

Magneto-what? Did he even use that word right?

“Yea, that was my home for as long as I could remember, well, until last night anyway,” and there went what little optimism I could mustered up. Well, at least the conversation was moving, so I tossed a question to him, “How'd you find it?”

“Peg Leg wanted to go there after stiffing the old buck, wanted to see what was so important to be worth 2000 caps,” he answered. So Ruby was looking for my island, and he knew my mother. Did Ruby know something about my father? “Couldn't use the compass to guide us, had to find a marker on Equestria's shore and sail a straight line from it, when night fell the stars guided us the rest of the way.”

Almost losing myself in thought, something he said had me confused.

“Caps?” I asked quizzically, I recalled that Ruby said the pirates were going to sell me for caps. Was that a currency or some sort of goods?

“You don't know what caps are?” and coming to a realization, he turned to a pile of devices left near the wheel. “Anything from this pile you recognize?”  I shook my head and his shoulders slumped at my reply. “Right then,” he pulling things out of the pile, and some things from his saddlebags, and spread them out on the floor and taught me their names and purpose.

And little over an hour later I now had a better understanding of commodities in the wasteland.

One, I was terribly ignorant of the items needed to survive in the wasteland. Sure there were healing potions. But there was also RadAway, a syrup used to clean the body of radiation, and Rad-X, a pill that helped lower the accumulation of radiation. Also, food, the most common form of food in the wasteland was two century old leftovers or meat from the creatures of the wasteland. The idea of eating meat was not appealing to me.

Two, there are robots, mechanical weapons that can move and talk, in certain places in the wasteland. Solar seemed to like robots, a lot of what he had was old robot parts that he 'intends to get around to doing something with'.

Three, bottle caps from soda drinks were currency, and 2000 caps was a large sum. The drinks in question being sparkle cola. A soda that is usually lightly irradiated but tastes good, from what he told me. He didn't have any to offer me.

Four, weapons, guns, lasers, mines and grenades, to name a few, and that's what he had with him! The implements to kill other ponies left me staggered, he found it funny that I understood megaspells but was in the dark about the day to day methods of killing.

Solar had been very patient with me when going over everything, and seemed to enjoy educating me, on the explosives and robot parts in particular. I was eager to learn all he had to offer. I always wanted to learn more, but there's only so much a pony can learn on an isolated island.

“Where did you get all this?” I asked. I wondered why he would need to sign up with pirates if he was this well equipped.

“I got them from the cargo hold, figured since we're not giving the ship back, everything in the hold might was well be ours, waste not want not.” I saw nothing wrong with that, stolen ship, stolen cargo. He passed me a small gun, a pistol, he told me. “You should carry a weapon. I can show you how to use it.” I looked at the tool alarmed, I'd probably accidentally shoot myself with the damn thing.

“I'd rather not have anything to do with guns, so I'll pass.” I'm afraid of having it. Having the means to kill a pony with a pull of the trigger, nopony should have that power, certainly not me. Solar looked to want to push the issue, but didn't. Seeming to be done with the lesson, I asked, ”So, how did you end up joining a crew of pirates?” He looked up from his things and turned towards me, and answered after thinking about it for a moment.

“I am a navigator, navigators are an integral part of the crew. They make sure that the ship gets to where it needs to safely and all that kind of stuff. Navi's are in short supply these days, so getting a job is kind of easy.” He paused, it looked like he wanted to be upset, but he just sighed it off.

“So you couldn't because...?” I inquired. Solar flapped his wings and nodded to them. “Because you can fly, no, because you're a pegasai?” I followed up. He nodded. “Because they closed the skies over Equestria? That shouldn't matter out here right?”

“It's because I can fly,” he corrected, “If a ship gets wrecked or sails into a boiling strait, the crew will die, and it would be the navi's fault. Who'd want a navi who could fly away if that happened? No honorable captain in Sandstone wanted my skills, especially since I'm still new at this.”

Well, that was understandable, Must be hard to get experience for the job if that's how everypony sees it though.

“It had to be navigation?” I asked, he nodded.

“Sort of a family calling, my father and brothers are navigators, to some of the more renowned ships in the equestrian seas. I'm the only pegasus though, something about my great great grandfather being one making me one as well.”

“...and the pirates?” I asked, Solar sighed at my persistence.

“A means to get away from it all. Join a band of pirates, stay till I got enough caps to make it alone, and abandon the sea for Equestria. At that point my father didn't care if it was a pirate ship or a fishing boat, as long as I was navigating. I mean honestly? He didn't care if his son was with pirates as long as he was navigating? I couldn't stand to face him anymore.” After saying that, Solar started to pack his things up, I assumed the conversation was over, but he added, “I didn't intend to stay with them long, turn a blind eye to a bad deed or two until...”

“Yea, look how that turned out.” I chided, and then asked, “And what about now, will you sell that pile, get your caps and run away? I mean, I suppose I wouldn't blame you if you did, now that you also have Peg Leg as motivation to run- err, fly to Equestria.” The prospect annoyed me, I wanted to see my father, he wanted to run away from his. I know it wasn't my business, but I was still curious.

“I... I don't know, we'll see what happens with you and Ruby, he has a plan, and I'm sure you're involved.” After a couple of moments he asked, “So, you've lived on that island all by yourself right? For how long?”

“Eight years by myself... I'm not sure how long I've actually lived there.” I responded, “Why do you ask?

“Just thinking, you're pretty sociable for somepony who's been isolated for so long.” Solar pointed out. He paused and looked at the pistol he was about to put back into his bags. “You sure you don't want this?” He asked, offering it to me again.

Ruby walked into the cabin from behind Solar.

“You should take it,” Ruby said, and Solar jumped into the air, caught unaware by the old bucks presence, “it can save your life, or ours if need be.”

Solar continued packing his things, the pistol included.

“Since you're awake again you can navigate. Keep us two miles out from shore. Stick to this island, Sandstone is on the other side of it. If you see any large fins following the ship, throw the bait overboard. It's behind the cabin. I'm going back to bed,” and with that Solar, disgruntled, left us alone, to my disappointment.

Looking out the side, I failed to notice that the ship was now sailing parallel to a long island with cracked, dry dirt, with sandy hills far inland. So, Sandstone was on that island, must be big if it's still going to take a day to reach the city. The island had no visible life on it, no green, no safety. Not quite Equestria, but it certainly was a wasteland. I could only wonder in apprehension at what dangers remained unseen.

My gaze, following the island back to behind us, I saw through the back window, and noticed that the 'bait' was Rusty's corpse.

“What in the name of Celestia!” I exclaimed, taking a step back and almost falling over from shock, “What are we suppose to be using her as bait for!?”

“Megalodons, large sharks. You saw the teeth marks, the ship can handle one fine enough, but we can't risk anypony being knocked into the sea when it nudges the ship. I believe the idea is, feed it the corpse, and it'll leave us alone, probably,” he guessed.

Okay, calm down Rain, the reason is sound, if morbid, just calm down, lets move the topic to something else.

“Sooo, you knew my mother, and my father too I assume, is that why you came to my island?” it's time for some answers.

“Indeed, I came to the island to get the both of you, by request of your father.” Well, that certainly surprised me, “When your father found out about the drought he sent me to rescue you and your mother.” He paused for a moment to clean his glasses before continuing, ”Now I am to escort you to your new home in Tenpony Tower. Tenpony is a ways away and this rusty relic will not be enough to get us there, I intend to get us proper transportation as soon as we arrive at Sandstone for Friendship city, after which we'll be traveling overland to Tenpony in Manehatten.”

His words washed over me, a fountain of questions and emotions were boiling over, but I managed to deliver probably the most important question.

“Where is he?” I asked Ruby, “I want to talk to him, where is he?”

“Afraid I can't answer that, can't have you running off after him. I have to keep you alive, and as unharmed as I can, away from your fathers business, and get you to Tenpony Tower. Once you're there you need not worry about the dangers of the wasteland, you'll not have to worry about killing anypony. You can return to the cozy, safe life you had before yesterday.” That... actually sounded appealing. Getting shot was anything but fun. Just keep my head low and I'll be back on the safe and steady, still, I'd have liked more answers.

“However,” he continued, “we're not at Tenpony yet, so you'll need to be prepared to defend yourself. Go below to the cargo-hold and get yourself enough supplies to hold out for several days. Pack Rad-X, RadAway, Healing potions, food and water. Then when you're back up here I'll show you how to shoot.” With everything he told me buzzing around in my head, I absentmindedly went to the cargo-hold and did as he asked.

Having left everything behind at home, I had to get myself new saddlebags. The hold had plenty of Rad-X and RadAway, but a sparse amount of healing potions. I also packed the broken brace, with some more twine so I could make use of it again if needed.

Couple minutes later I had saddlebags full of things meant to keep me alive, and proceeded back on deck. Just for Ruby to levitate a pistol to me and have me start shooting at a target he held up with his magic.

Under the suspicion that I'd be saving myself an earful if I did as he asked, I practiced shooting the pistol... after I made sure the guns grip was clean. The pistol was a little bulkier then the one Solar had offered, with a longer barrel and rotating chamber of six bullets.

Having the gun in my mouth felt awkward, pulling the trigger with my tongue even more so. The crudely drawn pony facing forward, blowing in the breeze twenty steps away, taunted my poor aim. Four cracks of thunder later my mouth and ears were aching, but to my surprise I was able to hit the target with two of the shots, only one of them actually hit the pony, but it was better than nothing!

Recalling my pipbucks features, I tried out SATS and was surprised when time seemed to stand still. I saw a percentage chance to hit the target, a disappointing number below forty percent, and toggled a shot. Noticing that I still had some magic left in the spell, I toggled three more shots, and when SATS ended I was surprised when I fired the gun in quick succession four times. Two BANGs, followed by two clicks.

Revolvers. Six shots, then reload.

Reloading with my hooves was a frustrating hassle, and Ruby insisted that I spend more time practicing reloading over shooting. Knock the used casings out of the chamber, slide in six bullets into the chamber, one at a time. I dropped bullets several times and had to do it over a bucket to keep bullets from rolling into the sea.

Over and over again, my hooves ached with the repetition. I was under the impression that revolvers were more of a unicorns gun, the pistol Solar offered me had a clip, which I'm guessing would be easier to reload over loading the bullets individually. Working with the repetition, I thought about what Ruby told me.

Father knew about the drought, but he didn't seem to know that mother had passed away. That would mean that he was aware of the weather patterns tied to my island and picked up at the lack of rain. He didn't want me dragged into whatever his responsibility was. I wanted to know why, I need to talk to him, help him if I can, and tell him about mom.

My stomach decided to voice its opinion on the matter of my father, loudly. Getting a look from Ruby, I blushed as I asked, “Mind if we take a lunch break?” He nodded and moved below deck for a couple of minutes. Fishing through my saddlebags I found a box of food I had found down below and had packed into my bags.

Called Captain Carrot Crunch, it had some regal looking pony with a large hat not too different from Peg Leg's holding a bowl filled with small, dried carrots. On the back I noticed in small print “Good for 200 years or your bits back!” Raising a speculative eye too nopony in particular, I opened it and tried the dried carrot flakes.

On my island, there was grass in the meadow, leaves if I wanted something different, and some berries that made me sick if I ate more then a couple. Not a good pallet for variety. So I can safely say that this is the most delicious meal I have ever had!

Two minutes later the box was empty, my stomach ached and I regretted nothing. I had three more boxes of that in my bags, as well as several boxes of Sugar Apple Bombs, I'd make sure to try those next time! Looks like I have something to add to the good side of having to leave my island after all.

Letting my stomach settle, Ruby returned and seemed to notice something ahead and went into the cabin. I felt the wind shift direction as the boat started to move away from the coast.

“Something the matter?” I asked, concerned.

“A zebra town was up ahead, gonna give them some distance, don't need to welcome trouble.” Ruby replied.

Looking up the coast I spotted a settlement with a stone pier and two, no, three stone structures, a little bigger than my own shack. I also saw a small hoof-ful of vessels docked on the pier, about a fifth the size of our boat.

“Are zebra's trouble?” I asked. “The war between ponies and zebras ended when the bombs fell, right? What good would come from holding a 200 year old grudge?” Ruby sighed at my question.

“It's complicated, in these parts zebras and ponies are more cooperative than on the continent, but the Remnants live on some of the islands. The Remnants are a make-shift tribe that chooses to continue the war, they'll kill anypony, or anyzebra that gets in their way. For the other tribes, it varies, out here it's either the Atori or the Eschatik, both are reasonable for the most part. There's also the chance that some of them are pirates.”

Well, if there are ponies like Peg Leg and his crew, I guess it makes sense that there are zebras of a similar persuasion. Pondering this, The boat turned back to a parallel course with the shore, now eight kilometers out instead of three.

I noticed off the left side of the ship, about ...ninety meters away, a long white figure under the water, about ten meters long. Seeing the figure made me stand up in alarm. I assumed that was a megalodon, it's size was as intimidating as I would have imagined. I pointed it out to Ruby.

“Oh, guess we should get to throwing the bait over.” Ruby said, and he was moving to levitate Rusty when he noticed the megalodon turn away from the boat, swimming away from us. “Huh, guess I'll keep an eye out to see if it returns.” Putting Rusty down, he returned to me and we were about to continue my lesson.

“Are those sharks common?” I asked, it was an impressive fish. I'd like never have to see one again.

“In the deeper waters they are, they're a big risk for smaller boats. Nothing for us to worry about though.” Ruby answered.

“Now, You're pipbuck should have a feature called SATS on it, I think you used it on the target I had earlier?” Ruby asked,  I nodded, “I want you to target me with SATS, you should see something different.” Before I could point out how bad an idea that was to him, his horn glowed and a emerald barrier formed between the two of us. He also had a pistol levitating to his side.

Are all unicorns this capable? I certainly hoped not, I'd probably never stand a chance against one in a fight! Getting on my hooves and switching to SATS, I saw what he meant. I could target separate limbs, and even the weapon he was floating. The chance to hit was also separate for each part, his body being the highest, his horn the lowest. Setting up four shots for his pistol, I left SATS and fired off, and too my surprise the last shot broke threw his shield and knocked the gun out of his telekinesis. The rapid fire made my mouth ache all over again.

“With your pipbuck and some practice you'll not have to worry about killing anypony, disable their methods of attack and you can coax your foe to surrender. What you do with them after that... varies with the situation.” I bet he wouldn't be this nice if I wasn't my fathers daughter, but I still needed to give him credit. I'd have to apologize to Solar later for declining his offer to teach me.

“Thanks for teaching me that. I still don't intend to kill anypony” I quickly added, “but this will, uh yea, so thank you for that.” Knowing what I know now, would events have played out differently last night? “So Ruby, question for you, If I'm surrounded by eight or so thugs while unarmed, what do I do, got some secret technique you can teach me that will take them all down?” He shook his head.

“Only skill and luck will save you from that situation, so I can only recommend practicing to defend yourself when you can. I'd also suggest avoiding such circumstances from happening in the first place, by planning, and not getting caught.” With his eyes glancing out to sea, he added, “We have company heading our way, one ship. Don't say anything unless you're addressed, okay?” I nodded as he slowed the ship a little, I should probably do as the scholar asks.

Looking towards the village that we had passed during the shooting lesson, I saw a small rusty vessel heading towards us at an impressive speed. From what I could make out, I saw a single zebra on it, and as the boat got closer I noticed his forward left hoof was actually a peg leg. A weapon, a harpoon I think, with a rope attached to the other end, was resting near him. The zebra had scars over his forward legs, and he was keeping an eye out on the water instead of our ship. At least he was until he got close enough to board, assuming he had some means of climbing the three meter difference in height between our boats. This being the first zebra I've encountered, I had to wonder if scars were common, they definitely made him look fierce.

“What business do you have with us? Have we strayed into your hunting ground?” Ruby asked as I watched with a curious look.

This close I saw that the zebra's boat was being moved by a jet of water flying out of a small device strapped over the side, another talisman, a water talisman from the looks of it.

“Indeed you have, fool of a pony, didn't nopony tell you to stay out of this strait? You're being hunted, by Thousand-Smiles.”

Thousand-Smiles?

“This ship can handle a megalodon, so your concern-” Ruby said before being interrupted.

“No, foolish pony, your boat is rotten wood to Thousand-Smiles. It will be sunk before sundown. I've come here to offer salvation to two of your crew, the beast is too slow to chase down my vessel.” The zebra said.

“...Right, so if this shark is too much for my ship, I assume small arms and explosives would do close to nothing to it?” The zebra nodded, Ruby let out a bothersome sigh.

“I didn't want to have to use this, but it looks like I don't have too many other options, I mean, unless you care if Mr. Zebra takes us both back with him?” I gave him a hard glare at the suggestion, we'd end up abandoning Mek! He smiled at my glare.  

After that, he pulled a small box out of his barding and opened it with his magic. Inside was a small round multicolored thing, as he pulled it out it started to give off a faint radiance. The zebra looked alarmed.

“Where did you get that?” the zebra asked.

“Not your concern,” Ruby replied. His horn glowed brighter and a light emerald shimmer wrapped itself around the small thing. “I've enchanted the egg to detonate five seconds after being submerged with sea water. I assume you have experience with this beast.” Ruby asked the zebra. The zebra nodded, and Ruby continued, “In that case I'll entrust this to you, when the opportunity arises, feed it to Thousand-Smiles, please don't waste it, or I'll be terribly cross with you.”

As Ruby levitated the small orb to the zebra, something caught my eye. Some distance behind the ship was a fin poking above the water, a large white shadow attached to it under the water. My blood ran cold as I realized it was triple the size of the one I spotted earlier, it was as big as our ship!

“It's behind us!” I shouted, I didn't want to be on the water anymore!

Ruby and the zebra glanced towards it and acted, the zebra set his engine running and moved across the front of our ship, circling around. Ruby headed to the cabin and I heard the engines roar with vigor, the ship turning quickly, aiming for the shore. Looking back to where Thousand-Smiles was, I saw nothing.

“Rain, throw the bait over!” Ruby ordered.

Driven by the power of his words, I scrambled to move the corpse. Not for lack of trying, but Rusty was heavy, and the deck was slick with water and blood, it took some time to get the body overboard.

I saw a large mouth, somewhere around nine meters wide open before me, Rusty was swallowed instantly. I stumbled back and let out a scream as the large maw bit onto the back of the ship, the part I was just standing on. The megalodon wasn't even two paces away from me. Huh, if we had kept that small colorful orb, this would have been a very opportune moment to use it.

“Shoot it!” Ruby barked, his order snapping me out of the fear of almost being eaten alive. I saw to my alarm the metal of the hull start to bend, the metal was ripping and stretching from the sharks strength! I pulled out the revolver and moved to the side of the mouth, looking for something worth shooting at, I went into SATS and toggled four shots into the monsters eye.

BLAM. BLAM. Click. Click. Damn! How frustrating! I should start using SATS in bursts of three!

From this close, I didn't miss, but I was still put off that it took two bullets to destroy the eye. The ship was suddenly dragged down a meter and I fell over, dropping my gun. As the monster let go, the ship bounced back up, sending me tumbling back. My head hit the side of the cabin, and my gun slid past me and into the sea.

The engine stuttered for a moment before continuing its roar. No, it was roaring louder now. I guess Mek figured out what was going on. Thanking Celestia that the engine still worked, I turned towards the cabin and saw the shore several kilometers ahead slowing getting closer. I was paralyzed by a thought.

We're not going to make it in time.

Now's not the time Rain, get your head in the game or we're dead. Getting up, I moved to Ruby's side.

“I lost my gun, but I took out one of its eyes.” I reported. He quickly glanced at me and locked the ships wheel. He move out of the cabin and I followed, using his magic he pulled out the rusty gun I saw him pocket last night and gave it to me.

It was a revolver, its barrel and hammer completely rusted, the chamber looked clean though. On the handle of the gun was inscribed 'Trust', I gave Ruby a concerned look.

“Its a good weapon, don't let its condition fool you.” Not arguing with him, I quickly loaded it and got ready for the next attack. I was surprised by how well it loaded despite its apparent condition.

“What is going on up here!?” Looks like Solar finally decided to check in on us, his eyes were bloodshot from being rudely awoken.

Looking around it seemed that Thousand-Smiles was thankfully distracted with chasing the zebra's boat, with any luck our zebra helper will end this shortly.

“We're being attacked by Thousand-Smiles, he almost bit off the back end of the ship!” I shouted, pointing at the megalodon. Solar responded with his mouth hanging open, eyes wide, following Thousand-Smiles.

“Solar, you can fly, stop looking stupid and get out there! Shoot that damn thing with everything you've got, help keep it distracted!” Ruby barked out.

“R-right!” and Solar fished out some grenades and flew over to the beast. A dozen explosions and two minutes later Solar returned. “I don't think the damn thing even noticed, I'd need something bigger. Give me a couple and I can whip something up!”

“Don't worry about that, the shark isn't going to give us a couple.” Ruby nodded ahead of the ship, the shore was a kilometer away. I noticed this because I had been keeping an eye out. Shortly after Solar returned the megalodon had dived.

“I think... it's going to come up from under us.” I said, dread echoing in my voice, and Ruby merely nodded. Before I could brace myself, the ship heaved up, a loud groan rumbling through the hull, the sound of the engines giving off one last sputter, then grow quiet. I was knocked off my hooves and rolled out of the cabin, into the side rail... and past the side rail right into the sea.

My pipbuck beeping about radiation being the least of my worries, looking behind me, I saw the ship was almost fully out of the water, Thousand-Smiles saw me with its good eye and the ship swelled back into the sea, foaming water sending me farther from the boat. I guess it didn't like having lost an eye to me.

Oh horseapples.

Knowing that any in moment I was fish food, I looked around for something, anything to save my hide and saw to my surprise the zebra's boat moving towards me as fast as it could. Suddenly feeling vertigo and renewed terror, I looked down into the water and saw a large white field growing beneath me. I felt myself fall deeper into the sea as two walls of teeth appeared to either side of me, at the same moment I felt pain erupt from my front leg. Before the mouth could close me off from the land of the living, I was pulled out, hard, by the harpoon that had been thrown into my leg, the rope attached to the harpoon leading back to the zebras boat as he pulled me closer.

Thousand-Smiles leaned in my direction as its head fell back into the sea, and with a large swell of water, sent me into the zebra's boat, the churning water causing the boat to shift hard, knocking the zebra out.

“Foolish pony, you'll get us both killed!” the zebra sputtered out.

“You didn't have to save me, but-” I winced at the pain in my leg, “- thanks...?”

“Zerkash,” he said.

“Winter Rain,” I replied.

With that, he pushed me, hard, sending me back far enough to avoid another swallow of teeth. Zerkash, and his small vessel, disappeared into the maw, his peg leg shattering between the teeth, the rope of the harpoon severing.

He died to save me.

From the shattered remains of the boat I saw the prismatic egg hit the water and float in my direction, the emerald sheen around it disappearing, it started to glow brighter. If I wanted to spare anypony else of being Thousand-Smiles lunch, I needed that egg, and I had five seconds before it did whatever it would do to end the shark.

I swam to it as best I could, and caught it in my mouth, it pulsated as I picked it up, and my radiation ticker started to climb as the egg's glow increased. Everything in my vision turned emerald and I was suddenly being lifted out of the water, Ruby! Thank Celestia he was saving me! Looking down I saw Thousand-Smiles rising, fast!

It breached the water. It's teeth climbing to either side. As if in SATS, everything seemed to slow down. It's maw opened, filled with countless glistening teeth. I rose in the air, at the same pace as that thousand tooth smile. A prismatic pulse of light washed my gaze, and turned my neck sharply, tossing the egg as hard as I could into the welcoming smile beneath me. The mouth closed to greet me, the mouth sealing seamlessly together. I felt the air rush past me, the jaw having shut half a meter below me.

And then everything sped back up. The megalodon fell towards the boat, I yelled a warning to Ruby, but it didn't reach him in time. Thousand-Smiles hit the side of the ship, Ruby lost his focus and I started to fall. A light, brighter than the sun, and as colorful as a rainbow, swallowed half the beast, and part of the ship, the part Ruby stood on. Blinded by the light, I closed my eyes, looking away, and I heard a roar only a monster could make.

The explosion hit me, my side washed in agony I never knew existed, coat and skin burned. I felt bones reverberate and the air was forced out of my lungs from the concussion of the blast. I was sent flying. I could count the seconds before I hit the water, the burning redoubling as saltwater washed over me, the air being forced out of my lungs a second time. With the combined blow to my nervous system and respiratory system, I passed out.

It was dark, turning on my pipbucks light, I found myself in a fleshy room. The walls were pink and wiggling, there was wooden debris on the floor, as well as some large teeth and some flakes of metal, the air smelled sickly and slightly poisonous.

Looking up, I saw a squashed point in the flesh that I assumed was the entrance. In the room was a zebra, Zerkash, scar-less and with all his legs intact, peg leg free. He was looking at a part of the fleshy wall. When my eyes followed his gaze I saw a door appear in the wall, a door made of metal, with a rusty latch, with some writing above the latch.

Only the golden note shall allow entrance.

I trotted to the door and tried to open it, to no avail. Zerkash smiled at me and moved to open it himself.  To my surprise, it did! Looking down the way, the hallway past the door was unlit, there was another door at the far end, light leaking from it's corners. I attempted to go into the hall, but he stopped me, and shook his head.

Foolish Rain, you still live, and are thus not invited.

He started to trot down the dark hall. And I felt alone again. That feeling that nopony would ever find me, that I could just disappear without a trace, started to eat at me. I didn't want to be left alone, especially while in this monsters stomach, so I called out to Zerkash.

He came back to me, a curious look on his face, and when he walked past the threshold and into the meaty room, he looked surprise. He looked from me, to the doorway, and back to me.

Well, that certainly is peculiar. Are you sure you want me with you?

I nodded. If I could keep his company, I wouldn't want to lose it to whatever lies down that hallway. I was a selfish pony, I suspected that what lie past that door was better then this chamber, but I still wanted the zebra to stay. As I nodded, the door closed by itself, and the room started to move and squirm. I was alarmed when something caustic started to seep from the walls. Feeling something drip from the ceiling to my side, I saw some of the the acidic fluid start to burn me, and I screamed in pain.

Zerkash put his hoof on my side and the pain ended. Pulling out the multicolored egg, its light burned the acid, and the fleshy walls, leaving both of us untouched. The light grew and grew until all I saw was white, and something else. In the field of white stood out a strange glyph, almost like a harpoon silhouetted by the moon. I realized that's what Zerkash had as his cutie mark. No, I could feel him correcting me. His glyph mark.

You should wake up Winter Rain, sleep to long and you'll succumb to the poison.

I coughed out and gasped in pain. Moving, I shuffled off some sand and winced as my leg was pulled against something embedded in it. The harpoon was still stuck in my leg, the handle was solid metal, it looked like I could push the harpoon through the wound without cause too much damage. Carefully getting the harpoon out of the sand, I had to dig myself out as I was half buried when I awoke.

Assessing myself in the moonlight, the left side of my body and legs were a scorched mess, I saw blood crack under the sandy scab, my face, neck and flank were not burned. My pipbuck told me I was also in the red for radiation poisoning, and decided that was the biggest problem to address, sucking down all the RadAway I has stored earlier.

After the first three, which put me in the yellow, I gave some time for the chemical to work through my body before drinking more. During this I forced the harpoon out with a small yelp and pored a little bit of a healing potion on the wound. It took me at least an hour to get myself into a stable and healthy condition.

Taking some time to heal also meant having some time to think. Ruby saved my life. He saved me last night, even though I didn't ask for it. He saved me when he taught me how to use a gun. He saved me when Thousand-Smiles almost had me. And I suspect what he taught me will save me several times in the future. And now he was dead, and to my surprise, it saddened me.

I wouldn't assume he survived that blast, the egg went off inside the monster, and the eruption still cascaded out, almost killing me. The ship and Ruby were right next to the blast. I held no doubts to his death. I could tell myself he died working to fulfill a task, that it wasn't anything personal. What I was actually telling myself was that he died because of me.

And not just Ruby. Zerkash would still be alive had I been quicker, more aware, less of a damsel who needed to be saved. Zerkash had also saved me three times, twice when I was in the water, but the first time being when he came to our ship. He had been a hero, coming to our aid, and asking nothing in return. And I had gotten him killed. Oh great, I could feel the tears making their approach.

Count the good. Okay, so a lot of ponies have been saving me, who have I saved? Oh horseapples, counting the good isn't going to help with this one. Were there other ponies who have saved me that I didn't know about? What had my father done to keep my island safe?

My life isn't worth the lives of so many others, I needed to change the scales. But to do that, I needed to be stronger. Needed to be more self reliant. Needed to take action.

On my island, when I was alone, my own actions determined my survival, and though is was mostly easy, there were rough patches. Storms risked destroying my shed. Occasionally sealurks, bipedal crustaceans as tall as a pony, would fine their way ashore that needed to be driven off. I'm capable of taking action, so I will, the scales need to change.

Coming to this conclusion, I finished downing my last RadAway, unfortunately I didn't have enough to get back to completely clean, and hoped that minor poisoning wouldn't cause any unfortunate mutations in the time it took for me to find more. I was also now out of healing potions, and I still wasn't in tip top shape. The burns were mostly healed, but it was going to leave a nasty scar if I didn't find another potion soon, I'd rather not have a nasty scar.

Being out in the wilderness by myself, I'd be lucky to survive the night. Count the good. Still alive, managed to not get eaten by a megalodon, three times, helped kill said monster, and I have enough food and water to last a few days. I need to track down Mek or Solar, or both, both would be best. They're probably in the same situation as me, if we work together, we should be able to... talk about what we should do. I doubt they'd help me get to Tenpony, but maybe they could help me reach Sandstone.

Not seeing anything from this part of the shore, I picked up the harpoon and climbed up to a higher vantage point to see if I could find any traces of the ship or its crew. Reaching the top of the tallest sand dune I spotted, I planted the harpoon into the sand and scanned the beach.

To the north, the direction we came from, I could make out something big and dark resting on the beach, a source of light resting near it, and to the south I couldn't make out anything. I was glad to have something to work towards. To the east I thought I saw something sticking out from above the sand dunes in the distance, some sort of raised elivation?

Eyeing what was probably the ship or the carcass of Thousand-Smiles, I picked up the harpoon in my mouth and trotted out into the night, moving north, the sea to my left, inland to my right. Considering it was in the same direction as the zebra town we past, I added it to the good count.

As I walked my mind replayed the moment Thousand-Smiles was killed by the blast. That beast effectively stole from me the best chance I had at returning to a safe and stable life. Destroying the ship, and getting Ruby killed, meant my odds of reaching Friendship City were low. Well, I bitterly thought, at least the beast died for what it took from me. Pulling myself from that line of thought, my eyes combed the beach ahead.

Once I have taken appraise of what I'm trotting too, I'll head to the zebra village and inform them of Zerkash's death. It was the least I could do. As I moved closer to my destination, I heard the faint echo of thunder from ahead. No, not thunder, gun fire. I galloped with concern, trying to catch sight of the source.

Galloping past a dune, I saw the wreck of our ship, lit by a campfire near a large melted hole in the side. Mek was fighting against an alarming number of sealurks! Wait, was that actually Mek? The pony had a weapon in their mouth, but was also levitating a gun to her side, shooting sealurks in between dodging the crustaceans charges. I was pretty sure Mek was an earth pony, I supposed wrong.

My EFS was filled with seven red bars, and one green. Tip the scales. Throwing the harpoon towards the sealurks, I switched to the rusty revolver and charged in there. I knew from experience how ineffective melee weapons were against a sealurks hard shell. Sealurks were predators, I aimed to kill, I lacked the resources or time to scare them off, and Mek looked injured, doubt we could run away, and beasts can't be reasoned with. I had no choice but to kill. I didn't want to lose another pony.

Despite throwing the harpoon, they hadn't noticed me yet, so I took the opportunity and got in the thick of it. Sealurks are slow, but can move with great speed when they charge, however the course of the charge cannot be changed and thus easily avoidable. Running around past one that had just finished its charge, I got within two steps of its face and went into SATS. Setting up three shots right for its mouth plate, I was surprised that two shots killed it, and SATS didn't seem to fire the third shot, I guess it considered the target, its face, no longer available.

With surprising grace, I quickly turned to the next nearest sealurk, it turned to the source of the new gunfire and got two SATS assisted bullets for its attention, taking it down as well. Adrenaline and purpose guided my actions, I wouldn't let sealurks, of all things, get the best of me.

During the bout I found myself appreciating the fact that I was half as heavy as I should be. It made my movements quicker! I never fancied myself a slow pony, but these sealurks seemed even slower than the last time I dealt with them. Being lighter meant getting hit harder, so I just needed to avoid getting hit!

I heard something collide behind me and saw that Mek had tackled a lurk that was charging my flank. She levitated her shotgun to its face plate and after two clips made the sealurks skull an accessory to the sandy beach.

The four remaining sealurks backed off for a moment, still surrounding us. Mek and I stood side to side. I took appraisal of Mek's condition, she sported several cuts on her legs and side, bleeding an alarming amount. She was breathing hard, probably exhausted from the battle. Looking around us I was surprised to count almost a dozen sealurk corpses. Mek was clearly built of tougher stuff than I.

That time looking would have been better spent reloading. The four charged at us. I jumped to the side and crouched low, causing one lurk to trip over me, the other missing me entirely. I heard a strange crunch behind me and saw that Mek had picked up the harpoon in her mouth, in favor of the wrench, and managed to get one of her attackers to impale itself on it. Well, melee weapons had always proven useless to me anyway. She fired at the other one, but the faint click told us both that we were in trouble. Well, in more trouble.

Working the revolver while watching the two sealurks that charged me, I managed to get three bullets in before the one I dodged came back for me. Two bullets later its corpse crashed into me, pinning me to the ground. I heard a snap and a small cry of pain from Mek.

Looking to her, I almost staggered when I saw that the lurk I tripped had caught her back leg in its claw and caused it to bend in an unnatural way. Mek bucked the sealurk away with her good leg as I crawled out from under the corpse. Bullets carried by her amethyst magic were loaded into her gun and she popped two shots into her other attacker. I finished off the one that broke her back leg before it could cause any more harm.

With the threat gone, Mek collapsed, and appraised me.

“Well, didn't expect a rescue from a missin crew member.” She brought out a healing potion and sighed, “Last one,” she admitted, and she hovered it over to me.

“Oh, good idea, let me take care of your wounds, I have some medical knowledge.” I said reassuringly. She looked a little confused, then skeptical, but allowed it. Poring the potion over the more threatening cuts, getting ones that had gotten through her utility barding, I saw that her cutie mark was a wrench with a red heart, same color as her mane, inscribed on the handle. Glancing at her mane, I saw that it plumed forward slightly around her forehead, I guess she had a small horn hidden under that plume. I managed to save up half of the potion before turning to her leg, I bit my lip and said, “I'm going to need to set the bone.”

She looked at her leg and winced.

“Oh dear, well, let's get it over with.” She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. I have never done this before, so I was a little worried. Taking a deep breath, with a jerk, I set the bone and winced when I heard a sickening noise. Mek let out a loud part curse, part scream, and got something out of her utility bag, a small syringe with Med-x written on the side, and injected it into her leg. I then gave her the rest of the potion.

“I thought ya wasn't suppose to use a potion to fix broken bones?” She asked, after I insisted she drink.

“Despite common belief, a potion can mend broken bone. However, if the bone isn't properly set when the potion is taken, it will mend in a broken fashion. If that happens, the bone will be stuck that way, and the patient will be crippled for life.” I informed her, good thing my mother left those medical notes. She seemed satisfied with that.

Doubting that half of a potion would be enough to fully mend the bone, I pulled out my broken brace and made due of it, patching her leg as best I could. Finished tending to Mek, I recalled my own condition.

“Have any spare RadAway?” And to my relief she levitated a couple over to me.

While stomaching two more RadAways, we moved to the campfire next to the ruined ship. The night was silent for a couple of minutes.

“So, any idea what happened to Solar?” I asked to break the silence.

“I don't know,” she replied, “One second I'm wonderin why the engines were set to full and suddenly the entire engine room shrunk by half a foot. I figured we was running from something and gave the engine everything I had. Couple minutes later the whole ship heaves, the engine dies, there's a big colorful boom and then we're taking on water!” She paused to pull out some bandages from a crate resting nearby and handed them to me. “And before I could prepare to go down with the ship, we ran aground!”

Wait, She intended to go down with the ship?

“You intended to go down with the ship?” I asked, taken aback. Clearly filling her in was going to have to wait. Wait, was that why she had given me her only potion?

She looked embarrassed at that, I don't think she intended to mention that part.

“Well... yea, this ship has been my life for seven years, I was content to sink with it.” Talk about growing attached to an object! She continued, “But now its like this,” gesturing to the ship, “it'll never sail again, the frame is bent around the middle, and the hole would be almost impossible to seal. This ship is spent, I wish it had sunk.” There was a glisten in her amethyst eyes as she said, “A ship wrecked aground is deprived of rest at sea.”

“You know there are other ships right, I mean, there are other ships right?” I quickly remanded, “Just because you've lost this ship doesn't mean you can't work on another.”

“There is no other ship that would replace this one, its where-” She caught herself, almost sobbing. “No, there is no other ship in all the seas for me.” Considering how little I knew about this mare, I found myself completely under equipped for this conversation. Still, I needed her if I'm going to survive any amount of time in the wasteland. I can't back down now, after what I've been through the last two days. No, its not just that. I want her to live,  she wanted to die. I was being selfish, but I needed to risk the present for a better future. I pressed forward, she needed to move on.

“So what then, you're gonna set yourself to live in its carcass until sealurks kill you in your sleep one night?” I harshly asked. She nodded!

I didn't like it. I didn't like that she was going to give up her life for such a silly sentiment. I didn't like that somepony I liked was going to just give up on living. I also didn't like that if she stayed like this then I saved her life for nothing. The scales needed to shift.

I surprised myself by bucking her to her side, it was almost like hitting a rock, but she did fall over.

“Get over yourself, it's just a rusty hunk of junk that you owe nothing to, I didn't save you just for you to-” She bucked me back, I was sent back a couple meters, my head spinning. Before I could collect myself she was standing over me.

“That 'rusty hunk of junk' right there was my life! And now I've lost it! Don't ya dare think that you can understand what this means to me!” she yelled as she threw me at the ship, I thudded painfully and slid down the side. Well, so far nothing broken yet, but I was easily getting some new bruises for this.

Wobbling to my hooves, I glared at her.

“Its just a ship, there are other ships out there. You say I don't understand, maybe you should tell me why. Or is it you think I don't know anything about loss?” she hesitated, I pushed on, “For such a tough mare, you sure are weak, wanting to just up and die like this. What you need to do is take a moment to count the good. But since you clearly can't do that right now, I'll do it for you! The ship is more intact than not, and even if its impossible to fix, maybe you can salvage what's important. You're still alive, which means you can work towards fixing everything or looking for some other ship to get attached to. And you have somepony who's trying to save you, even if that somepony has to get pummeled against a giant rust bucket to get some sense in you!”

She glared at me, daggers in her eyes. I glared back, concern hidden behind anger.

“Why do ya care?” she asked.

“Because you're the most likable mare I've met in the past two days, and I need you if I'm to survive out here,” I said calmly, gesturing to the wasteland, I added, “yesterday morning, I had the option to give up and die of thirst, or to risk the present for a better future. Maybe you should try the same, say goodbye to this wreck and walk towards tomorrow. If this wreck is the saddest thing to happen to your life, then once you drag yourself away from it, you need not worry about anything sadder. Yes, there's still room for the 'second saddest moment in your life', but at least then you can look back at your saddest moment and think to yourself 'I got past that, I can get past this'.” She looked from the ship to me, indecision written on her face. “Listen to me,” I pleaded, “I have lost a great deal, I have to keep counting the good, because if I don't, then I'll end up counting the bad, and there's been a lot of bad. Nothing good comes from counting the bad. Please don't make me start counting it out for you, just to get my point across.” I said, tears gathering in my eyes.

She stared at me for what felt like minutes, considering my words.

“I need some time alone.” She said, trotting into the ship, looking over her shoulder she added, “Thanks for caring, and sorry for throwin ya around.”

After she left I collapsed on the ground and took in a deep breath. That hurt, and was terribly stressful. If I wasn't mad with her I would have broke down during my rant, I almost did at the end of it. I guess, after losing what I have, I didn't want to see her break herself over this.

Sigh.

First my father, then my mother, then half my body weight, then my home, then Ruby, Zerkash, and possibly Solar. As long as I live, there will be something to lose, something to be stolen from me. After the effort I just put into talking and rescuing Mek, I would definitely be depressed if I lost her as well.

Count the good. I've met so many ponies these last two days, some good, some bad, and some somewhere in between. I smiled to myself. The moon was out, almost halfway in the sky, tonight would be a good night to sing. Even though I wasn't home, I still had the moon, and that would be enough to bring music to my voice.

I went into the ship, my steps were quiet and drowned out by the ocean waves. Wanting to take stock and be ready to leave in the morning, I looked to see if any supplies remained when I heard Mek talking. Curious, I went over to the engine room.

“-the crazy mare actually tried to beat some sense into me. I think she's right, its time I said goodbye.” I heard a sob from the room and suddenly felt like I was some sort of intruder. “I should have done this six years ago,” as she continued I quietly turned around and left her alone, hearing, ”I'm sorry sweetie, I promised I wouldn't cry, guess I'll-” and I trotted out of hearing her. I locked her words away someplace out of sight in my mind, it's personal, I shouldn't pry anymore into it.

I went back to scavenging what I could, restocking my supply of RadAway, as well as finding some named chemicals that seemed to temporarily enhance the user. Something I'd have to look into later.

Being out of healing potions, I did the next best thing and used the bandages Mek gave me to cover up the burns covering my left side. There was no doubt about it scarring now, but I couldn't help but hope that the bandages would bring about some miracle.

After wrapping myself up, I went to the top deck of the ship. A light layer of clouds were in the sky, thin enough to brighten the night sky with a light blue blanket. The clouds illuminated a ring around the moon, the edges of the ring holding the whisper of a rainbow. The sight brought a smile to my face. Sitting on the back end of the ship, looking out over the sea, the waves lightly illuminated by the moonlight, I started humming.

My song was different tonight, the sound was the same, but the feeling behind it was different. I felt a longing for the sea, the thrill of fishing the big game, and the satisfaction of returning home to the ones I loved. I found the difference odd, but not unwelcome. The song went on for a long while before dying down in my throat. My aches and bruises nothing but a bad memory.

Turning around I saw Mek sitting a couple paces behind me.

“That sounded very nice dear, but I think next time you should try it with words.” she suggested, and I blushed with embarrassment.

“I've tried that before, its not the same song when I add words, so I just hum.” I replied, then with a concern look asked, “So, are you staying?” She shook her head, to my relief.

“I'll be leaving with ya, but in the mornin, we both could use some shut-eye.” Saying that, Mek moved to get some things together. I worked to prepare for sleep.

I returned to the campfire and snuffed it out. I then went to where the the harpoon and wrench lay in the sand, forgotten when I took care of our medical needs. Reloading my pistol, I took the weapons back above deck, and seeing Mek up there with two blankets, I closed the hatch behind me. I lay the wrench next to Mek and prepared for bed.

I held out the rusty gun I'd used to kill several sealurks. Trust written on the grasp, I recalled how earlier in the day I was telling Solar I didn't want such a thing. The damn thing was useful, I begrudgingly admitted to nopony in particular. So am I suppose to call the gun Trust or something? Well, if it has a name, it would be rude not to. And as I slipped Trust into my saddlebags, I noticed it show up under my weapons tag in my pipbucks inventory. Trust: value - 2 caps. Right.

Putting rusty old guns out of my mind, I thought about the events that have happened over the last two days. Despite it all, I was still alive, I hoped that would be the case the next time the moon was full.

Footnote: Level up. Lvl 3.

New Perk: Six Shooter Focus (1) – You reload 50% faster with Revolvers and Magnums, and 25% faster with all other pistol types.

Next Chapter: 3. Stripes Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 15 Minutes