The sun burned with the agony of a thousand headaches. My eyes squinted at the sky hatefully, choosing to scorn it over the one who woke me up early.

“What's this all about, Mek?” She had dragged me out from my bed for some reason, I had only gotten four hours of sleep.

She had led me to the control desk, Solar was eyeing one of his maps on the desk. A small built in box on the desk, not to dissimilar to the radio I saw the other day, was blaring some sort of message.

“-I repeat, we've run aground on some rocks near Steamgrasp and require immediate aid. Our supplies are limited and we're under attack by sealurks. This is Captain Storm Runner, of the Trinity, I repeat,-”

The message repeated. I looked to Solar, a mix confused and alarmed.

“What is that? How can we hear that?”  I asked, was it similar to the Bounty Broadcast? “Are they nearby, can we help them?”

“We can help,” Mek answered, “I assumed you'd want to help and had Solar point us in the right direction, we'll be there in less than an hour.” I nodded, glad for her consideration, and turned to Solar for my other two questions. Taking his cue, he filled me in.

“Most ships have a short range radio, ships in the IFA and other factions keep in touch on the open water with it. The range is limited but its possible to bounce messages between ships. See how we got that SOS? We can relay it from our position and any ship near us could receive it, and if you're interested, the Bounty Broadcast reaches most of the islands in the eastern seas.” Well, that sure seemed useful. Looks like it's going to take some time to figure out everything that comes with operating a ship.

“Did Peg Leg's ship have one?” I asked, I certainly didn't recall it having one. Solar shook his head.

“It 'mysteriously' broke shortly after I joined.” He was giving a small grin, “It would have been easy to fix, had they not been so rude to me.” Yep, don't mess with the navigator. “So, since the message is on loop, it's possible that the worst has happened, so I'd recommend against getting your hopes up.” And just like that Solar managed to drown my excitement with a dash of reality. The wasteland is not kind to ponies in desperate situations.

I heard the sound of somepony cheering and looked past the control desk to the nose of the ship. Tabben was standing on the bow of the ship, his horn glowing. Out over the water I saw Golden chasing a small orb of purple fire.

I watched quietly with a smile on my face. The orb was fast, and small, about the size of a potion; Golden was faster. she caught up to it and it exploded when she flew through it. In short order another ball of fire, this time blue, appeared near her and the chase commenced again. Golden was having fun, and Tabben had an honest smile on his face. I think this is the first time I've seen him truly happy, every time before, his smile was real, but his eyes, they never smiled. On this breezy morning out in the middle of the sea, they were smiling. This went on for a few minutes before I walked up to Tabben. As I approached his eyes stopped smiling.

I saw the now yellow ball swivel towards the ship, getting bigger as it got closer. Golden still chased it, as it got bigger its size obscured her, and I stopped moving to Tabben as I noticed that I was the fireballs destination.

Alarmed at the implications, I moved for cover. The fireball was faster, before it reached me it vanished, revealing a surprised Golden as she almost flew into me. Quickly avoiding each other, we collected ourselves before we both turned to Tabben.

“You could have gotten us both hurt!”

“That was sneaky Tabby!”

We screamed at him in unison, his smile greeted us back.

“All in good fun girls,” he said, walking over to us. “Now that we're all up here, how about we go over what we're going to name the ship. It's bad luck sailing on a ship with no name,” he suggested. Mek and Solar agreed with him and we all gathered in a circle on the deck to go over it.

“Now, the name of the ship has as much power as naming a foal, we need to choose carefully. As such, I recommend 'The Tabben'!” He suggested, which got unresponsive looks from the lot of us.

“I think the 'HMS Hyperspeed would be totally awesome!” Golden pitched, “Or maybe 'The Flash', oh! I know! 'The Lightning Bolt'! They're all awesome, and our ship is awesome, so we need an awesome name for our awesome ship!”

“If you want awesome, how about 'The Firestorm'!” Tabben tossed out.

“Whacha want us to do, burn to death? The name needs to be homely, how bout 'The Hospitality' or 'The Homebringer'?” Mek suggested, I was quite partial to those options.

“If we're out sailing the sea, following Rain's questions, maybe we need something more exploration based.” Solar started, “How about 'The Enterprise' or 'The Voyager'?”

“The voyager? That's sounds made up and stupid! Oh, I got a better one, 'The Defiant',” suggested the other buck.

“If Tabby gets to pitch that then I'd like to offer 'The Rusty Blur'!”

“How bout 'The Florentine'.”

“Why not 'The Challenger'.”

“Might as well call it 'The Ash-Tray'.”

“Or 'The Bullet', that's awesome too!”

Oh Celestia, please make it stop, I need a name, something to shut everypony up! Something homely that will give us safety and shelter from the seas. Oh, that's it!

“Enough!” I screamed, “We're calling it 'Shelter', okay! Just 'Shelter', nothing else, no fire-based exploring mess of awesome, just 'Shelter'. You all fine with that?” They had better be, or Celestia help me we were going to just call it 'The Ship'.

Mek nodded in agreement, and shortly after Golden did as well, although I could tell she thought it wasn't awesome enough. Solar didn't press the name and thought it was a good choice. Tabben looked at the others and frowned.

“Well, I'm still gonna call it 'The Tabben', you all can keep your 'Shelter'” With the name settled, he quickly moved us to something else before anypony could object.

“Everypony, now that we have the ship named, how about some practice?” Tabben suggested, I was still upset with him for almost hurting me and Golden. Golden didn't look forward to whatever practice entailed.

“Can we do something fun instead?” She asked, and I found myself whispering the same question in my head. Tabben rolled his eyes and gave out a drawn out sigh.

“Fine fine we can have fun instead, you two gonna join, I've got a game in mind.” I was suspicious of this 'game' but if he was inviting Mek and Solar then maybe it wouldn't be all that bad.

Solar and Mek shared a look. Mek joined us while Solar stayed at the controls, Tabben didn't seem to care that Solar was left out.

“Hey Yellow, since you're not playing, you can keep track of the score, it's safe to assume you've got the eyes for it right?” Tabben asked Solar in a typical Tabben manner, as in an unfriendly and condescending manner. Solar frowned but nodded.

“Okay girls, the objective is to hit as many as possible, Solar will keep count to make things fair, first to ten wins!” And with that Tabben's horn lit up and several small orbs of fire appeared all over the deck, and they started moving.  Golden didn't waste a minute and had her first orb in seconds, and me and Mek worked to not get upstaged by the filly.

At first I thought this game had Mek at a disadvantage, but there were several big orbs that didn't break when Golden or myself reached them, when Mek broke them they split into smaller orbs that went every which way, but she would always get two or three before they scattered.

As the game progressed, I noticed that there never was more than six orbs at a time, I guess Tabben's concentration was capped at six. I also wondered if he was rigging the game. Golden and Mek had twice as many as I did, and then the game ended, with Mek being the winner. My eyes met Tabben's and the smirk he gave me confirmed my suspicious.

The game had taken at least seven minutes to complete, the orbs had been hard to catch, for all of us. All three of us were winded, and I noticed that Tabben had been sweating as well.

“Now, that wasn't too bad was it, practice is important to everypony, make sure you don't forget it.” He said to us, his voice taking on some sort of sophisticated tone. Golden looked at him in surprise.

“That was practice? That was a game!” She declared.

“A game is the best kind of practice, when you have fun during it then you're more driven to do it again. All of you practiced your mobility, while I practiced my magic and concentration.” He said matter of factly, “Since we still have a little more time till we reach Steamgrasp, how about a new bout of practice, for me it will be target practice,” and as he finished several orbs of fire appeared over his head, and a wicked grin crossed his face.

He lobbed the fireballs at us, and we all moved to avoid it. We didn't ask for this, and he wasn't giving us a choice. Not too long after he started I was hit, the ball of magic washed over me and made me uncomfortably hot, it was far from pleasant, but it didn't hurt.

After getting hit by two more in short order I lost my temper and charged at him. He watched me approach and before I reached him a wall of fire appeared before us. Taking a leap of faith, I jumped through it, to find that he wasn't where he was standing a moment before! Surprise turned to alarm as I slid across the bow, trying to keep myself from going overboard.

I felt a sensation like lightning shoot up my spine as somepony's magic grabbed my tail and kept me from falling overboard. He pulled me back and let me go. Indignation and anger guided my hoof to his face and he staggered back several paces, rubbing his muzzle.

“Right, shows what I get for keeping you dry.” He muttered as he abandoned his magic, the game ending. Golden was put out that the fireball shower was over, Mek walked up and appraised me.

“You okay sweetie?“ I nodded to her. I had slapped him. Why? He was only trying to help. He helped, kept me from falling over, and I slapped him. I guess I let my anger get the best of me.

As Tabben walked to the lower deck, I noticed Solar give him a dark look. Did something happen between those two?

Looking forward, I decided to keep an eye out for our destination. I saw some distance away a cloud that was hugging the sea.

“I'm going to guess that Steamgrasp is another megaspell crater?” I asked.

“Ayup, it's what we refer to as a boiling strait. Most islands that were hit by that megaspell were completely destroyed, leaving boiling ocean as it sole indicator.” Mek informed me.

As we got closer, Solar had me guide us in while he flew up to get a better look at where the ship-wreck was. This boiling strait was smaller than the boiling bay, no larger than a kilometer, the steaming cloud didn't form a giant pillar, the vapor dissipated after reaching a certain height.

As Solar flew up, I saw from the corner of my eye Golden looking up at him enviously. I recalled that she mentioned off-hoof that she was afraid of heights. That would explain why I won the second race back at Rustic, and probably why she wasn't fond of the thermals in Sandstone.

Another thing came to mind, thinking back on our practice, Tabben seemed to be trying to lead Golden up more often than down. When they were playing tag with the fireballs, he would make the fireball climb. Maybe her fear disappeared slightly when her mind was focused, she seemed to fly pretty high when she was chasing the fireball.

Solar guided Shelter around the boiling strait, staying a safe distance away from it. As we rounded the blanket of steam I could make out a ship wrecked on a small collection of rocks and sand. That must be the Trinity.

The Trinity had a cabin similar to Peg Leg's. The ship itself was twenty meters long and and seven wide, since it was wrecked out of the water I could tell that it was ten meters tall, so probably two or three lower decks.

As we got closer Solar asked us to keep an eye out for rocks under the water. I noticed several and indicated as they came into our path, Golden helped out as well, she had the advantage of flying ahead to keep an eye out. After navigating a safe means to the rocky strand, I overlooked the wreck. We were close enough for my EFS to reveal a good number of red bars, and two yellow bars. I quickly turned to my companions and informed them as such.

“There are still two alive on the ship, but there's a lot of red on my EFS.” I told the others, sealurks shouldn't be that big a problem.

“Yes, and?” Tabben asked.

“And... we're going to go in there and save them?” I was confused by the inquiry. Tabben seemed disappointment, and rolled his eyes.

“Right, Yellow, stay with the ship, but don't park, circle around, stay still too long and you may be boarded by any sealurks swimming around. Golden, stay with Solar and guide him around the rocks. Mek, you're with me, taking point. We have a sealurk infestation, get your weapons and lets disembark.” Tabben commanded, and everypony followed suit, leaving me with my mouth hung open.

“Stop standing there like an idiot and get your weapons, we have two ponies to save and since you don't know how to take charge, I'm leading us in.” He said, breaking me out of my confusion and at the same time annoying me to no end. He commanded, and I followed. I couldn't argue with the reasoning he showed in his orders.

Going below deck, I got my barding back on and gathered Trust and ammo, I left my harpoon, I doubt it was serve me well in the confines of a ship. I couldn't stab with enough power to pierce their shells, I was better at slashing with it over stabbing, and sealurks didn't take much harm from slashing.

“You'll get the hang of it sweetie, don't let him get you down.” Mek reassured me as she was loading up her combat shotgun.

There were two ponies on this boat in a position to take charge, and that was Tabben and myself, and he's already proven himself more competent. He was having us practice our mobility to increase our survival, and he knew the best use of our abilities to handle the task ahead of us.

If I wanted to take charge, I would need to be capable of the same. If not having us practice, at the very least being able to determine a strategy for tackling situations like this. I needed to take charge, if he stays in charge, sooner or later he is going to order somepony to take some other pony's life.

Pondering this, Mek and I returned topside. Tabben had no weapons with him, I guess magic was all the weaponry he'd ever need. Still, I wondered.

“Tabben, how many can you kill before your magic runs out?” I asked, he seemed to have all sorts of tricks up his sleeves. If I was going to take charge at some point down the line, I'd need to know what we're all capable of, and what our limits are. He seemed amused that I asked.

“I can do my stare and burn spell three, maybe four times before I risk burnout, in my current state that would be two or three. I can do my fire illusion a good number of times, it's my easiest spell. My fireball and flamethrower spells deal a little more collateral than I like, but right now I could do four or five of either,” he replied, then added, “Glad somepony finally asked me, honestly, you'd think my magic was limitless, what with how I just throw it around all willy-nilly.”

“Is that uh, a normal amount of spells for a unicorn? I'm an earth pony, I'm not so familiar of what limits unicorns have when it concerns magic.” I asked, feeling like I was opening a can of rad-scorpions. I suppose ponies would assume his magic was without limits if they didn't know that a lot of his fire was an illusion.

“We'll talk about that after we've cleaned out that wreck.” he said, he eyed an outcropped rock the ship was drifting near, and after getting a running start, jumped off the ship onto it. Mek followed after him. Not wanting to be left behind, I effortlessly joined them.

There were no sealurks on the exterior of the ship, climbing some rocks we made it to the deck. Seeing nothing up top, Mek moved to descend into the ship but hesitated.

“Will you be fine?” She wasn't asking me, she was asking Tabben?

“As long as we don't overstay, I'll be fine,” he replied. Was there something wrong with going in the ship? Being enough for her, she descended, and we followed behind.

Oh, oh dear.

It smelled of rot and death, and sealurks. I felt sick and started to lag behind Tabben as we moved to the first floor. Small sealurk nests had been made in the side cabins, pony bones and gore were sprinkled on the nurseries like some sort of garnish.

Oh, comparing it to food was a bad idea. As I tossed what remained of breakfast onto the rusty floor, Mek walked over and comforted me. How were those two able to just stand here and not be bothered by the smell of gore? After collecting myself, I thanked them and apologized for making us wait. Tabben didn't have anything caustic to say on the whole thing.

Going deeper, we ran into our first batch of sealurks. Because of the layout of the ship, we were confined in a tight space, shooting over each other was risky. It all came down to Mek taking them out with her shotgun as they charged her. Her new armor was working wonders against the sealurks claws.

The second floor was a cargo hold, which made it more spacious. Half a dozen pored into the hold from the commotion we made fighting the previous, and a real bout took place. I fired without any hesitation. These were pony eating monsters, I wasn't going to feel sorry for killing them, not this time, or ever again.

With the ceiling low, I was unable to jump around, but I was still able to out maneuver the critters. Tabben stood and watched, taking out the two that singled him out. Since Mek and I were more up close fighters, I figured he avoided setting our targets on fire to spare us from the flames.

Six bullets later and the room was clear, I just finished reloading as another wave of sealurks came in, this time we had to deal with ten. I noted that this was also most of what remained of the red bars. Before Mek or I could get into the fray, a stream of fire blew past us and swallowed the hallway the sealurks were coming from with fire.

Though it didn't kill all of them, it did do a number on the survivors. Mek and I cleaned them up. With those final few taken care of, I saw on my EFS two yellow bars, and two red. We continued through the second floor, Tabben telling us to worry about scavenging after we've saved the survivors. He then commented that he was pleased I knew how to fight. Thinking on it, he had never seen me defend myself, I guess from his perspective, having me accompany the two had been a risk.

Leaving the cargo hold behind, we reached the bottom floor. The bottom of the ship was warped, metal cracked and broken, this ship wouldn't sail again. Mek eyed the room that I suspected was the engine room, but stuck with us as we came to the room with the red dots.

Tabben, for whatever reason, had us stop instead of simply barging in. He took a quick peak around the corner and let out a small curse.

“Hot-lurks.” He said ominously. Seeing my look of confusion he added, “Sealurks that have thermal sickness.” Oh, horseapples. Tabben considered the situation for a moment before giving us a plan, “I'll go in there and draw their first attacks, you two come in after I scream and finish them up before they get another go at me.”

I didn't like this idea, it had stupid written all over it, unfortunately, he didn't give us a chance to object, he rushed in. Shortly after he did I heard the sound of water spraying, and Tabben letting out a rather sacrilegious curse.

Diving out of the corner, right behind Mek, I saw the hot-lurks. They looked very similar to sealurks, besides the fact that they had fire billowing from their claws, and they were literally letting off steam.

Since they were distracted, I picked one and Mek picked the other. I didn't hold back with this monster, I unloaded four shots into its face plate. When its skull exploded from the barrage, I felt a wave of heat radiate from it and backed away quickly.

Mek had less success than I did, the beast turned to her, its face partially destroyed from her shotgun blasts. It thrust its claws at her and fire spilled out. I let out a scream, as the fire started to wash over Mek, I saw Tabben hop in front of it, pushing Mek out. As I started to move to Mek's aid, Tabben's words made me stop.

“Finish it!”

I turned and hoped two bullets would be enough. It was. The hot-lurk collapsed, dead. Its blood oozed onto the rusty metal and I noticed that the metal was starting to glow red from it! I moved to Mek and tried to get her out of the room. She had put the fire out, but she had small burns all over her, and her armor needed to be removed, it was searing her coat.

Looking back at Tabben, I saw to my surprise that he was completely unharmed by the fire. Although I did notice that his eyes were giving off an ember-ish glow. He stayed in the room, watching me help Mek.

“Will she be all right?” He asked, his concern genuine.

“I'll be fine, you need to get out of here Tabben!” Mek answered before I could, she was not fine, compared to Tabben anyway. Tabben considered us for a minute. He then walked over to us, as he got closer I felt heat radiating from him. Wait a second.

“You have thermal sickness?” I asked, he nodded.

Thermal Sickness. It was the name given to victims of megaspell taint derived from the boiling straits. Tabben was tainted, just as I was. My particular taint didn't have a name, it wasn't common enough to have one, or if it did, I have yet to hear of it. Thermal Sickness is relatively common in the eastern seas.

Victims suffer from heat absorption, and heat generation. As their bodies generate heat, it's absorbed. And if their bodies absorb too much heat, they degrade into fire-ghouls. They become walking abominations of fire, they suffer eternal pain from the burning, and in their insanity, often burn and destroy everything around them. There are methods to release heat absorbed, but if too much is absorbed to quickly, then degradation is certain.

I saw now why Mek was concerned about Tabben going into the ship. Come to think of it, Tabben had slept on the deck last night. Closed in spaces are dangerous for anypony suffering from TS, heat builds up in closed spaces and increases the amount absorbed.

“Tabben, you need to get outside, before you overheat.” I ordered him. TS was common enough in the seas for my mother to have written a good deal on in her notes. If Tabben overheated, Mek and I would be caught in the inferno.

Tabben eyed the other end of the room, the two yellow bars were right behind a sealed door. He looked back at us. He levitated some water from the hall we came in from, I saw that it was steaming from his magic! He threw the water against the sealed door and we all saw it evaporate violently against it. Oh.

“I think our survivors are not in a position we can save them from.” Tabben pointed out, his voice sounded... older.

“The two of you go back up and out. Your little pipbuck radar, what color am I?” he asked me.

“Green”

“If you stop seeing green in the next two minutes, leave me for dead.”

Mek and I both denied him in unison, I did so verbally, Mek tried to hit him, but she only managed to hurt herself, before her hoof connected she pulled it away sharply, new burns appearing on it. Tabben smiled at us.

“Oh how the ladies worry about me,” his smile faded, “Get out, or you'll both die.” He commanded us. I saw in his glowing eyes the truth. We needed to get out of here. I got up, and tried to bring Mek with me, but she refused to move.

“Tabben, I don't want to lose you.” She was glaring at him, her voice steady and constrained, “Promise me you'll come out of here alive.” It was clear to me, and to him, that Mek wouldn't move without his promise. Tabben gave a bitter smile.

“Sorry, I only make promises I'm certain I can keep,” turning to me, he didn't order me, he asked of me, “Get her out of here.” With that, he proceeded to the sealed door. As he got closer the room got hotter and hotter as he released the heat his body generated, we needed to get out of here.

Mek was watching Tabben go, shock evident on her face. I grabbed her by the tail and pulled hard, bringing her back to me, she looked at me, her expression hallow, as if something important had been lost, and she absentmindedly followed me. The room was beyond hot at this point.

Prompting Mek ahead of me, I yelled over my shoulder a message to Tabben, words that I hoped reached him.

And we climbed out, going up didn't make it any cooler, the heat was radiating through the floor. Mek seemed to have gained some semblance of survival because she started running, and after chocking through the second floor we made it to the first. The cargo in the hold was on fire. The ship was no longer safe, I endeavored to get us back outside out onto the nearby rocks. I glanced to the ships bow to see that the two yellow bars were now red, the green still shined brightly in my vision. I wondered how Tabben intended to deal with those two ponies, who were undoubtedly fire-ghouls at this point. Fire-based magic doesn't harm fire-ghouls, did Tabben intend to use telekinesis?

Making it back outside, the scorching sun was a cool blessing compared to the oven we abandoned. In the safety of being outside, I whispered a prayer for the buck we had left behind.

I saw from our vantage that the entire bottom front of the ship was glowing red. The two red bars dissipated. I stared at the green bar for several tense seconds, but those few seconds felt like an eternity.

Suddenly, a section of the ship's hull started to melt, like wax, forming a pony sized hole in the bottom of the ship. Standing in the opening was Tabben, he trotted out, his eyes glowing orange, light shining through his cinder scorched robe. He looked around and saw our ship, and us. After seeing where his comrades were, he let forth what I could only call a cataclysm of heat.

A column of air, water, and rock were incinerated off in a direction away from everypony. Water in the sea instantly turned to vapor, and the rocks in the path were melted to shape the cone of intense heat he expelled. When the steam parted, Tabben lay on the ground, unconscious. I let out a big sigh of relief, he hadn't degraded on us.

“Tabben!” Mek yelled, and she ran down to his side, I followed behind. Mek stopped about ten yards away from his collapsed figure. I couldn't blame her, catching up to her, it was scorching down here. The ships hull was still glowing from the heat. To my surprise, Mek wasn't finished.

Tabben was wrapped in a purple aura of magic. I saw the glow mirrored from Mek's disheveled hair, she was trying to pull Tabben to us. Her horn glowed brighter, not use to the exertion, and slowly, he was dragged to us. As she brought him closer, she took some steps away from all the heat. When he was close enough to be safety moved, I approached, and discovered he was cool to the touch, relatively speaking. At this point Mek abandoned her magic, drained, and picked up Tabben on her back.

We made our way back to Shelter, our response to the SOS having been a disastrous waste of time. Besides being unconscious, Tabben looked completely fine.

“What happened to Tabby, and what happened to the ship, oh, are you three going to be fine?” Golden had flown over to us, Solar was guiding the ship to where we originally left from.

“I'm going to need a potion or two,” Mek started, “and my armor is gonna need some cleaning, and Tabben has some apologizing to do. Once he wakes up.”

“I, I think we're going to be fine.” I answered, “Lets get out of here and back on course.” Salvaging that wreck wasn't an option now, considering what Tabben did to the ship.

“What happened, are you okay?” Now it was Solar's turn for the questions.

“Uh, Tabben has TS, he overheated and almost got us all killed. Can we get going now?” Mek chided, her poor mood evident to all.

Solar, not wanting to rock the boat, bit his lip and got us out of there. We lay Tabben on the deck, wanting to check his wounds I made to remove his robe, but Mek stopped me.

“Keep it on, it protects him from himself.” she said, “He didn't get hit by any of the sealurks, so he should be fine when he wakes up. Besides, I doubt you could help heal him. I'll be with my engine, when he wakes up, tell him to talk to me.” I left the robe alone, but wondered how it survived when metal had melted from the heat. She doubted I could heal him? One of the possible side affects of TS was being unable to heal from potions, was that what she was referring to?

As she went below deck, Solar and Golden wished to be filled in, and I obliged. Not too long after I finished recounting events, Tabben awoke. Solar was back at piloting the ship, while Golden had gone below to prepare lunch for everypony. Our eyes met, and he smiled, his eyes smiled as well.

“'You must be terribly incompetent if you can't control your own flames?'” He quoted the last thing I said to him, “Fair enough, congratulations, you've earned one free question.”

“One free question?” I asked.

“That one doesn't count, ask me any question you'd like and I'll answer it to the best of my abilities, honestly, you've earned one.” I say what he needs to hear to save his life and I get one question out of it? This buck sure is stingy.

Well, I had a question, what did I want to know...? Oh, I knew what, but I didn't want it to count.

“This isn't my 'one question' but the two in the sealed room, were they... ghouls?” I asked, he nodded. Killing them was a mercy, even I knew that.

“This isn't it either, how did you survive that? I'm no expert on TS, but you should have fallen to a fire-ghoul from that.” He sighed, clearly bothered by all the questions that we not 'the one question'.

“Would you be surprised if I told you that was the third time I've flared? I was afflicted when I was a colt, I've lived long enough to manage it, for the most part. I didn't think I'd get out of that one, but luckily the two survivors were not as hot as they could have been.” So it was luck and experience? I hoped to never see him flare again, we could have easily burned to death from that incident. I moved on to my real question.

“Tabben, why do you hate Wildcard, she's your mother after all.” I wanted to know his reasons. I doubted they were as simple as Solar and his relationship with his father. He rolled his eyes at me!

“I've already filled you in on that one, you stupid filly. It's all in her name! She is always someponies pawn, how do you think that makes somepony like me feel? The fact that my mother is a giant tool? I guess I could mention more, such as how she left me in the care of strangers in pursuit of her talents. Or how she always tries to wrap me up in her business. But it's probably the fact that she named me, names have power, and I loathe the name she gave me. I hate it and can only hope it dies with her when she perishes.” His breathing was hard and he was radiating heat, but it looked like he was finished fuming his feelings on the matter.

“That doesn't count as your question, but I almost feel like making it count since you're such a dunderhead,” he paused for a moment, considering me, “But, you got Mek out of there, and saved her, so ask away.” Oh, I suppose I should feel flattered that he chose to not punish me for my stupidity. This damn buck.

Okay, with a list like that I can see where he's coming from. And from listening to it, it sounded more like he was disappointed, rather than loathing of her. I considered it a good idea to not point that out to him. He mentioned me getting Mek out of the mess, I did want to know what kind of history those two had.

“How did you and Mek become friends?” Friends, a word I was familiar with, but never understood. Two individuals who enjoy being around each other. Actually, I think there's more to it than that, Tabben and Mek were friends, but Mek always seemed to be upset at him, for obvious reasons. Even though they tended to be at odds, the both seemed to care for each other, each in their own way. I think, that Mek and I were friends as well...?

I'd have to ask her just to be sure.

Tabben nodded his head, as if he had been expecting me to ask that one. Wait, had he mentioned Mek earlier to goad me into asking about how they met? Oh that's several kinds of unsettling.

“Okay, I'll answer that one, but not right now. It can wait till later.” Oh come on! If that's how its gonna be, I'll see to it that he gets whats coming to him.

“Oh, by the way, Mek wanted to apologize for earlier, you should go down to the engine room and talk with her.” I lied to him, as straight as I could.

“Oh, so she realized she was being a stubborn fool for staying when I was melting down, this I have to hear,” and with that, he went below deck. As his head disappeared below, a grin grew on my face, its presence so honest and powerful that my face started to ache. I could swear I heard the 'bomp' from all the way up here.

Now that I was alone on the deck, I found myself thinking about the SOS. We went to check out something in the wasteland, and we got nothing to show for it. It seems to be a common theme in the wasteland, considering my track record. It would be nice to get a break sometime, I mean, from what I gathered from Mek and Tabben, those sorts of endeavors can be profitable. I guess I just have poor luck for running into such profits.

Joint Facility 3 at least had some potions and a healing talisman. All that we got from the facility was just used up to heal Mek's burns. I let out a long sigh.

“Something the matter?” Solar asked me, almost making me jump. Turning to him, I recomposed myself and answered.

“Just thinking that I have no luck when it comes to finding fortune in the wasteland. Go save a boat full of ponies, almost get burned to death by thermal sickness. Go to a safe house, almost lose two fillies. Check out an old world research center, get a bounty tossed on me. I've got terrible luck.”

“Well, at least you have a ship full of ponies that don't mind sailing with you.” Solar pointed out, and he was right. Wait, had he just counted the good for me? That brought a smile to my face.

“Yea, at least there's that, thanks Solar,” I replied, which seemed to make him happy.

Golden arrived with lunch, a mix of carrot crunch and some unidentified plant. It tasted surprisingly good.

“Tabby and Mek were arguing, so I thought it would be safer to stay topside. What's SaddleSands like, never been there.” She asked us, I gave Solar a look.

“Uh, its a small fishing village that attracts anypony that's willing to risk their lives for some caps. There's an old Equestrian facility on the island that hasn't been fully cleared, a lot of robots in it. I admit, I'm a little curious about it,” he said, “Anypony with a gun and the nerve goes there to collect some robot scraps. The facility always seems to replace its robots, which is why it hasn't been fully cleared out.”

“That sounds kind of cool, is that why we're going there?” Golden asked.

It was probably PA Lab 1, guess we're in for fighting robots.

“Yea, that's probably the place, we're going to have to deal with those machines, but if we make it out alright, we'll have plenty of scrap to sell.” I said with bravado. It was going to be dangerous. Tabben's magic wouldn't be as effective against machines, and I doubted they would fall for his illusions, “Solar, will you be coming with us? Somepony that knows robotics would be a big help going in.” I asked, hoping he was up for getting shot at.

“If it's robots, I don't see why not. I'll need to tinker with my grenades, convert some over to spark grenades. Mind steering the ship while I do that, we should be there in two hours.” I nodded to him and he went below deck, passing Tabben as he did, they exchanged a look of dislike before passing.

“Just so you know, my magic is burnt out.” Oh, that's not good. Burn out for unicorns happens when they overtax their magic, it takes time for their magic to return, sometimes hours, sometimes days.

“How long will it take to recover, can you use firearms?” I asked him, going into a robotics facility without him would be rough.

“A few days to be back at my peak, I can fire small guns, but my experience is limited to the times I've suffered burnout, which isn't common. If you really need me for something, we can always wait a few days.” He offered, I shook my head.

“We can assume that Wildcard is gonna send somepony after us, and she would probably check out PA Lab 1 first, since its the one we're most likely to check first. Which we are. We need to check it out and leave as quickly as we can.”

“I guess I'll just have to pick up a gun and make myself a target. I'm not staying behind, we all may as well go, the more the merrier.” Well, at the very least he could follow behind us and watch out for Golden. The idea of leaving Golden and Tabben on the ship came to mind, but I doubted he would go for it, and I didn't want to argue with him and Golden at the same time, I wouldn't win.

Golden looked happy that she was going to join us, guess I should start hoping for the best, and expecting the worst.

A fishing village huh, I guess fishing is the major source of food, considering the zebra town and SaddleSands. It's a good thing rad-away is so common, or ponies wouldn't be able to survive off of the sea, there's only so much pre-war food lying around before it runs out.

“There's a shark ahead of us.” Tabben pointed out, seeing the white shape ahead of the ship, I maneuvered around it. Our ship was fast enough to outpace the sharks, we just had to avoid running right into them.

I spotted the island an hour and a half later. It was a small island, about the same as my own island, but it rose higher out of the sea, sort of like a small mountain piercing the waves. Getting closer, I saw that the rocky island had a structure built on top of the small peak, probably PA Lab 1, nestled on the shore was a village with a small pier, but something was off. Some of the buildings were a blackened mess, and there was a large ship anchored off the shore.

“Golden, get the others up here, we have trouble,” I commanded.

“Pirates,” Tabben clairified.

The ship in question was the same make of Peg Legs, but I could tell it had two gun turrets on the deck, that ship looked capable of sinking other ships.

Golden flew below deck and returned in short order with the others. I wanted to take charge, but I wasn't ready for it, not yet, and not for this. Maybe when we landed, but in a naval battle? I lack the know how needed to command that.

“How should we go about this?” I asked my crew.

“I'd start by attacking the ship,” Tabben pitched, “most of the crew is likely to be on the island considering the ship is anchored. We take their ship, we get their haul and their means of leaving the island. From there, we back around and sneak onto the island in the dead of night, and kill every single one of them.” I liked every part of that plan besides the tail end.

“I'd say we take their ship, run it aground, anchor ours and take the fight to them, none of that waiting around till night rubbish,” was Mek's idea.

“We should bombard the enemy from a safe distance and take them out with their own weapons, that pirate ship is bound to have explosives on it,” Solar suggested.

“I think we should turn the boat around and give them a chase, because they've hauled anchor and are working to intercept us!” Golden pointed out. Wait, what!?

We all looked off the bow to see that the pirate ship was turning to us. Our time to plan has run out! Tabben didn't wait for us to wipe away our surprise, he took charge, again.

“Right, Yellow, when they get close, bombard them with grenades, aim to take out their steering, but wait till we lure them away from the island.” Tabben said, giving an order that fit the situation. The rest of us didn't have any guns fit to take down a ship, and Tabben's magic was spent. Good thing we have two fliers.

As we lured them from the island, Solar flew high into the sky until his coat blended in with the light of the sun. We avoided their fire, they were slow and big, and were easy for us to avoid. As it looked as though they were going to give up, an explosion went off at their stern, and the ship stopped turning.

Solar returned shortly after the pirate ship lost steering. We passed the ship, giving it some distance, and moved to what remained of SaddleSands. Tabben's plan got the ship stranded four kilometers from the shore, a distance we were comfortable with.

We tied up at the dock, and Mek went below to fiddle with the engine to make sure our ship couldn't be stolen. I gave Tabben one of the guns Golden had stolen from the SAF officers and told Golden to stay hidden and be careful. There were probably still pirates here.

Looking to the others, I finally took charge.

“Solar, I want you to play lookout, if we get shot at, flush out our attackers, mind for enemy fire and don't stay still. Mek, you've got point, Tabben, watch our backs. We'll move from building to building, I want pirates incapacitated, please avoid lethal shots. Our goal is to first find survivors, then remove the pirate problem. Understood?”

Mek and Solar nodded their heads, Tabben responded with a sly grin before he nodded as well. With that, we moved out.

Golden and Solar were gone in a blink, Solar wasn't as fast as golden, but as long as he didn't hover, it would be hard for any shooter to get a shot on the pegasus. Moving from the dock, the town was simple in layout, two rows of buildings down a single street, we moved to the left side and kept an eye out. My eyes focused on my EFS.

After moving two buildings into the town, red bars appeared, and we were being shot at. I heard bullets bounce off Mek's armor as we took cover. Thinking to get around, we moved to the back of the building, but enemy fire found us from there as well. After a minute of us waiting pinned, the fire stopped and we made our move.

Charging the position the pirates shot us from, I was surprised to see them do the same, I suppose they ran out of ammo. There were six ponies total, Mek crashed into the first two like a wrecking ball. Opting for my harpoon, I lined up several hits with SATS, disabling one of them with several ligament cutting slashes. Tabben fired at one with every bullet in the clip, his aim was poor. The pirate was killed by the barrage.

With four of them taken down, the two remaining saw how this battle fared them, and ran from us, but not before leaving several grenades behind!

“Grenades!” I shouted, and moved to get away from them as Mek and Tabben did the same.

The grenades went off, sending all of us flying. The three that were injured were killed in the blast. The blast also caught the two pirates that were running, but they were unarmored and fared as well as we did. As in not too well at all. I was knocked off my hooves and slammed into the side of the building. Everything felt hazy as I struggled to my feet, before I could move to check on my crew, something connected with the back of my skull, and I collapsed.

A cold sensation followed by trouble breathing woke me up from my trauma induced sleep. Sputtering the water from my face, I looked around.

I was chained over some sort of table, belly down, I saw that Mek was chained to a nearby table as well. Tabben was in a sealed cage in the far end of the clearing. We were outside, behind the town, and to my disgust the table I was chained to had blood caked on it, especially around where the chains bound my hooves.

Mek and I had our armor removed, Tabben still had his robe on, he was looking at us with a cold neutral stare, but I could tell there was a fire lit inside those eyes. What also caught my attention was the buck with the bucket that had just splashed me. Standing next to him was a mare wearing a very big hat and some sort of fancy clothing, a sword hanging from her side. She sort of reminded me of Peg Leg.

After quickly taking this in, several things occurred to me. I was scared, worried, and pissed. I had gotten caught. AGAIN. I took solace in the fact that neither Golden or Solar were to be seen, the hope for a rescue keeping me from completely losing my mind.

The buck went to Mek and splashed her good, waking her up and causing her to curse the buck. He bucked her in the face, which caused Mek to curse him again, which got him to hit her again.

“Stop, please!” I yelled, pleading, at him. That got me a face full of pain for my troubles, which caused me to pass out. It didn't last long however as he splashed me again with water to wake me. To say this was bad was an understatement.

“Speak out of turn again and I'll let him show you what happened to the rest of the mares in this village.” The captain said, I assumed she meant that she killed them, but I got the suspicion that there was something more to it. For some reason, Ruby saying I 'wouldn't be for it' echoed in my head.

“Now, which one of you is the captain of the yacht?” The pirate captain asked us, I quickly informed her it was me, I didn't want her to harm the others looking for an answer. She scoffed at me.

“You're the captain, if you're the captain than I'm the goddess Luna in the flesh!”

“Which you're not, not for a lack of trying, you're a dazzling one all right, I'm the captain.” Tabben interjected. She walked over to Tabben, appraising him. Tabben had managed to get the attention of the buck that bucked us, I took the opportunity to see if there was anything we could make use of. I doubted they were aware that Mek was a unicorn.

Looking around, I saw our things on the opposite end of the clearing from Tabben. Mek was close to that pile. Mek noticed the look I gave her, indicating the pile, and she nodded her head.

“The one and only, it was my idea to destroy your ships rudder, pretty clever no? I suppose that's why you've kept us alive? Need a new, working ship to leave this place and don't know how to get ours up and running.” Tabben divvied out, the captain was both annoyed and impressed.

As they talked, Mek got Trust from my bags and brought it over to me. Before it reached me it was shot from Mek's grasp.

“Boss, the orange one is a unicorn!” looking to the voice, I saw a pony with a rifle overlooking the clearing from one of the buildings. The captain walked over to me and picked up Trust in her mouth.

“Well well, still got some fight left in ya, still though, you were gonna try and take me down with this piece of crap? Look at this piece of shit!” She spat it out and balanced it on her hoof as she appraised it, “Can you see yourself being killed with a gun this crappy? I wouldn't even put down my favorite rad-roach with this rusty turd!” she put Trust back in her mouth and walked over to Mek, placing it against her head. “Still, guess a piece of shit like this is perfect for dealing with you.” Before she fired, Tabben stopped her.

“She's our mechanic, kill her and you won't be able to get the yacht going!” He screamed, which made her pause, she then smiled.

“She doesn't need her horn for that.” I stared transfixed, hoping that my suspicions of Trust were true and not some fantasy I conjured up. Placing the gun against Mek's horn, she pulled the trigger. There was no boom, or click. She laughed.

“The hammer didn't even fall, piece of shi-” she moved away from Mek as she said it, and when she did the gun fired, the recoil caused the gun to lodge deeper into her mouth. Surprised, she tried to spit it out, it fired again, and she started choking. The buck moved to help her, Trust fired again, catching the buck in the chest, he dropped before he realized that his heart was gone.

An explosion occurred from where the pony with the rifle was, Solar! I felt somepony moving near me and saw Golden unlocking the chains, she must have gotten the keys during the commotion. As I freed myself the pirate captain rammed into me, her face blue, her eyes bloodshot. She then rammed into the table, trying to get Trust out of her throat, and she succeeded.

As the captain wheezed in a fresh breath of air, I picked up Trust, trying my best to ignore the saliva and mucus it was slathered in. As I brought Trust to bear on her, she rolled over to where Mek was, whipping out her gun and planting in against her head. Golden winced back away from Mek, who she was trying to free.

It was the pirate, or Mek. The look of fear in her eyes matched the fear in mine, she didn't want to die, I didn't want to lose Mek. No, it wasn't just fear in her eyes, there was also hatred. The wasteland had me pinned. Kill the pirate to save my friend, or lose Mek, and have somepony else kill the pirate.

I knew she was already dead, Tabben would see to it. She knew she wasn't going to get away from us alive. She had hope, it was the only thing keeping her from killing Mek right now. I didn't have time to think about this, each second counted against me, but I couldn't act. So I had an idea. I went into SATS, and used the spells time slowing characteristics to buy me time to think.

If I kill her, she won't be the last, I'll have blood on my hooves, and it will never wash. It'll be the blood of scum, but blood all the same.

I see, I want to stay clean, I don't want to be the pony responsible for ending the life of another. If I don't kill her, then instead of scums blood, it'll be Mek's blood. I don't want to be responsible.

Wanting to remain pure in the wasteland, I guess it's too much to ask. Tipping the scales wouldn't be easy, and I'm not a big enough pony to pull it off without getting myself dirty.

May Weather betrayed me to tip the scales, she probably has blood on her hooves too. Tabben, Mek, Ruby, Solar. They killed to protect me. They see the evil in their actions, and still do it, to protect me from the monsters of the wasteland. Their hooves are dirty in blood too, its arrogant of me to want to remain pure at their expense.

I look at that purity and use it to put myself above the wasteland. It's a poison, how can I lead my crew while thinking I'm better than them? I can't, they'll either abandon me, Tabben, or die to protect my arrogant purity, Mek, Solar, Golden. Is purity worth the life of my friend, my crew?

I decided to trust my gun to the decision. If it fired, or if it didn't, I would take responsibility for the outcome. I toggled four shots, first two for her gun, last two for her skull, and ended SATS.

Trust fired three times, clicked once, right, six shots, reload. Her gun was destroyed, and with her brain perforated, the pirate captain died. I think I understood why Trust fired this time. Regret. I would regret taking this life. It saved Mek, but I would still regret it. Regret was doomed to fall upon this choice, damned if I do, damned if I didn't.

Once upon a time, that pirate had been a filly. She lived the life she had that led to this moment, where some blue pony with zebra stripes killed her. Somewhere along the line, she made the choice to kill, which led to two bullets in her head. She had lived in the wasteland, become the captain of a ship, and it all ended with two bullets. Its cruel, how resilient, and how frail we are.

Standing there, staring at her corpse, smoke billowing from Trust's barrel, I couldn't help but wonder. Was that how I was going to go out? Some pony I didn't know the name of, putting me down after threatening a friend?

Mek and Golden were looking at me, Golden with shock, Mek with concern. There was blood on my hooves, that will never wash away. Try as I might, the tears streaming down my face wouldn't wash it away. But at least Mek was safe now. Being free of the chains, she held me close and stroked my mane, my tears broke way into open sobbing, Trust fell to the dirt. Golden looked like she wanted to comfort me, but she shook her head and went over to free Tabben.

I wondered, had Mek cried after her first kill, what about Tabben, Solar? It's not right for ponies to kill ponies. Damn the wasteland.

Tabben and Solar walked near us, seeing me sob into Mek's embrace, Solar looked like he wanted to say something comforting.

“Thanks for saving our friend,” Was what Tabben had given me. Our friend, Mek was a mutual link of happiness between Tabben and myself, and I saved her. His words were kind, and I held on to them. Tabben grabbed Solar and whispered something to him, and they both left us. At Tabben's call, Golden joined them.

After some time passed I was too tired to cry. I looked at Mek, her face was a mess, and it made me laugh. Laughing hurt, my face was a mess too. She looked at me in confusion before she to started laughing as well. It hurt, but it was cathartic, we leaned into each other and laughed ourselves hoarse. After our fit of laughter died down, she appraised me.

“Now sweetie, ya gotta let me save you sometime, this is getting right embarrassing. That's twice in one day that you've saved me, ya know.”

“I think we can chop that up to Trust, I wish I knew this guns story, its almost like its alive,” I eyed the gun, just what was it? “I'm glad I didn't lose anypony today,” I added, “I just wish I didn't have to kill to do it. The wasteland makes killers of everpony.”

“There are some things that cannot be helped sweetie, just lift your head high and hope that tomorrow will be better.” There was a small pause before she continued. “Well, that's enough tears and laughs, there are things we need to do,” I nodded in agreement.

Turning to the ruins of SaddleSands, we began to look for any survivors.

Tabben insisted I look around the town with my EFS while him and Solar cleaned up the mess the pirates left behind, and I was too emotionally drained to offer an alternative. With Mek by my side, we wandered around the outskirts of the town, but the only bars on my EFS were of my crew.

“There's nopony else here.” I told her, she nodded and seeing a pillar of smoke rising from the center of town, led us to the rest of the group. Tabben and Solar had made a funeral pyre for the townsponies. The bodies of the pirates had been left to the side, to rot in the open or dumped in the sea, I wasn't certain which.

All five of use watched the pyre burn, nothing was said, nopony had any words for the dead. Sitting there in front of the fire, I felt I needed to add something. So I hummed my song. I couldn't find the note. I wanted to find the note, but it escaped me. Still, I sang regardless.

As I hummed my song I felt myself start to drift away, and before I realized it, the heat of the fire disappeared, the somber atmosphere vanished, and darkness washed over me.

I stood at the center of SaddleSands, a funeral pyre burned before me. My crew wasn't by my side. Looking around, I saw nine ponies looking at me, grinning sadistically.

The pirates approached me as I realized that I was in the lobby.

And Zerkash was nowhere to be seen.

Footnote: Level up. Lvl 7.

New Perk: S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Training(1) –  Agility +1. You're agility is beyond normal, you give fast pegasai a run for their caps!

Skill Note: Small Guns (50) Next Chapter: 7. Souls and Machines Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 4 Minutes