"Curses are artificial, fake magic. It's conjured with potions and incantations; all smoke and mirrors meant to scare. But curses have no real power, they're just an old pony tale."

“Greetings residents of the Chariot,” boomed the magically loudened, smooth voice of Marker, “for the longest time I have let you be, but I draw the line at harboring those who have wronged me and stolen what is rightfully mine.”

The booming voice stirred me from my dreamless sleep.  I’d been purged of much of my radiation after arriving back to The Chariot.  Though minor radiation poison persisted, it was better the the near death state I was in the day prior, and the clinic was low on Rad Away.  I had been well enough to be moved out of the hotel’s clinic and back to Nicky’s parent’s former room–now likely owned by Nicky.

The familiar voice that had haunted my dreams since our encounter the day after I left my stable made me question if I really was awake.  A slap to my face gave me the answer.  Yes, I was awake and yes, Marker was outside the hotel settlement.

Still sore from the past few days I forced myself to my hooves and peered out a gap in the boarded up window at the pony talking from down below.  He was a rather large and muscular looking unicorn buck.  His coat was jet black and he had a charol mane.  At my vantage point on the second floor I could not see his eye color.  For some reason my mind wanted them to be red since he was pure evil.  He was adorned in golden armour that covered most of his body and covered most of his body, most notably his cutie mark.  In its place on the armour was the engraved cutie mark of the goddess Celestia.  

By all accounts he would qualify as a desirable, which only made me hate him more.  It was unfair somepony so evil would be blessed with such good looks.  Unlike before I didn’t mentally hit myself for my judgements, anything to make me hate him more was a plus in my mind–no matter how petty the hate was.

“As you no doubt believe due to a slanderous radio DJ calling me a raider, I did not wanted to destroy a caravan heading towards your fine establishment  I just wanted to trade.” Marker went on, “I, however, was met with hostility.  They killed 6 of my kindly group of wastelanders.”

“That isn’t the story I was told.” The voice of another stallion, also magically loudened, said.

“Is it now?” Marker boomed, not a hint of anger in his voice, “Well did they tell you they stole something from me.  I was just visiting the caravan to get my rightful property.”

There was a moment of silence as neither voice spoke. A light drizzle began to fall from the blanket of clouds above, though Marker appeared to remain dry and if I’m not mistaken his body almost shimmered in the rain.

“Regardless of which story is true,” Marker spoke again, “I am giving you until tomorrow at sunrise to fork over the villainous caravaners–a red and caramel filly and a green and purple mare–and my stolen property.  Do that and I spare The Chariot, don’t–”

He trailed off for dramatic effect.

“Well, let us just hope it doesn't come to that.” he finished and turned back down the street before disappearing in a flash of magic.

***  ***  ***

“Manager, you aren’t honestly going to give into his demands?” Ollie asked as a group of ponies entered into a conference room off from the market hall with Nicky and I.

“Miss Factory,” a yellow coated, maneless, unicorn stallion with a braided black tail and a large cap cutie mark answered, “I understand your concern, and acknowledge you seniority on the hotel council, but we must think of the settlement as a whole.  The council must vote on the matter.”

“Umm...well...we...umm..could...think of...another solution.” a shy, purple coated, red maned earth pony mare with cleft lip whispered.

“Everypony take your seats, we have much to discuss.” Manager announced.

Six of the ponies sat down in raggedy chairs arranged around a horseshoe shaped table in the center of the room.

Manager cleared his throat, “I call this emergency meeting of the Chariot Settlers Council to order.  The subject of the meeting is whether or not to give Knick-Knack and Clash Coat over to the raider Marker to spare the Chariot.”

I looked around the room.  The six ponies that made up the council were Ollie, Manager, the shy earth pony, and 3 others.  The 3 others were a unicorn buck with a brown coat and light brown curly mane, a pegasus zombie-like thing, and a dog creature.  There were an assortment of vendors and residents standing in the back of the room.

“You know Ollie, the bald one is Manager, the purple one is Memorandum, brown coat is Bottle O’Jack, The ghoul is Setting Sun, and the hellhound is Beagle, but prefers to go by Bea.” Nicky whispered in my ear.

Well, I thought, Ollie already was considered desirable.  Manager could also be considered as such despite his age.  Memorandum...well she was in between, the majority of her was desirable, but as much as I hated to admit it, my stable would not like the deformity of her lip. The ghoul and the hellhound, much like Bucky were unclassifiable–I made a mental note to ask what a ghoul and Hellhound were later.  Lastly, Bottle O’Jack qualified as desirable, at least from what I could see from where I was standing.

“Miss Coat,” Manager called breaking me from my thoughts.

I subtly kicked myself for my judgmental thoughts as I trotted up to the center of the horseshoe table.

“Glad you are back with us.” He begun, “Now we know that Marker’s telling of the attack on the Junker caravan was not true, however we have no way to verify other facts a s true or false.”

He let out a heavy sigh, clearly hating the fact that he might need to side with the terrible raider.

“Did you steal from Marker?” he asked coldly.

“What?” I balked, “Four days ago I was in a stable!  I won’t perger myself by saying I have never stolen before.  It was something I had to do often in my stable to survive.”

I stamped the floor with a hoof angrily.

“She’s tellen’ the truth, Man’ger!  An’ before ya ask Ma’n’Pa never stole nuthin’ that wasn’t long abandon’ 2 centuries ago.” Nicky defended.

“Damned raiders are liers, big shock.” rasped Setting Sun.

“Ponies lie too.  Lie to protect loved ones. To little ones especially.” Bea said.

“Pearl and Junker were good ponies.  You dare speak ill of the dead!  In front of their daughter, no less.  You should be ashamed of yourself Bea!”  Shouted Ollie.

“Ponies lie.  Ponies always lie.  Ponies take.  Ponies kill.” Bea said angrily.

“Order! Order!” Shouted Manager, slamming a hoof on a dented part of the table.

I observed the body language of the 2 council members who hadn’t spoken yet.  Memorandum was glancing timidly at Ollie clearly siding with her, whatever Ollie’s opinion was, and Bottle O’Jack appeared to be on Bea’s side.

“All non-council members please leave.” Manager announced, “We must vote on the matter now that all known facts are on the table.”

***  ***  ***

Nicky and I met up with Bucky and Archer at the bar.  We took a seat next to them and Bucky taped a talon on the bar and the ghoul hellhound passed him 2  open sparkle colas that he intern passed then to Clash and I.  I picked up the bottle and took a swig of the carroty liquid.  I was surprised that that it was still carbonated and most of all cold.

“I’ve been meaning to apologize.” Bucky said not looking at me.

“For what?” I asked, “Saving me? Escorting me back here to the Chariot?”

“For nearly robbing you.” he said drinking what looked like a combination of sparkle cola and alcohol.

“To be fair, I was looked dead.” I said solemnly, “I would have been dead without your help.”

And should have been dead based on my last memory of my time in the Ironshod factory, I thought to myself.

“Still I should have checked you were dead before going through your stuff.” Bucky said sloshing his drink around in his glass, “When you spoke, I felt I’d tarnished my status as a noble griffon.  Bringing you back here safely was my way of regaining my nobility.”

“Well then, I guess I forgive you.  You have no need to stay here then.  Griffon Nobility restored.” I said knighting him with my pipbucked hoof.

“It isn’t that simple.” he said drinking the last bit of his drink, and placed a few caps on the counter before leaving.

The ghoul hellhound gathered the caps into an old apron and went over to serve another patron.

“It isn’t you, Bucky was part of a bad talon company, to him he will never be a noble griffon, but he can try.” Archer said.

I cleared my throat and tapped my pipbuck, silently asking for further explanation since I was a stable pony.

Archer shrugged, “You're going to have to ask him, he doesn't talk about it much.  The sad truth of the wasteland is we have all done things we regret.” Then he too walked off leaving Nicky and I at the bar.

***  ***  ***

30 minutes later we all met in Room 123.  Bucky didn’t seem to want to talk about his nobility at the moment, besides there were more pressing matters.

“The vote was a tie.” Ollie said full of sorrow, “3 for, 3 against.  Sometimes I wonder why there is an even number of council members.  Then again we don’t usually have a tied vote.”

“Indecision will not help anything.” Bucky said.

“Not like a decision would help anything.  Marker is a raider, they give you to him or not, he will destroy this place regardless.” Ollie said.

“Come on, think! there has to be some way out of this!” I shouted slamming my hoof into the side of my head repeatedly.

“I think I have an idea.”  Archer said.

“Yes, I’ll take anything at this point.” I said.

“Give yourself to Marker.” He said flatly.

“What?” we all said in unison.

“Ok hear me out.” Archer said, “But first, a small confession.”

***  ***  ***

I really didn’t like this plan.  Giving myself up to the murdering bastard that haunted my nightmare didn’t feel like a good idea–even if it was some sort of distraction.  Not to mention the untimely confession Archer had given.  Then I remembered Archer wasn’t his real name.

“My real name isn’t Archer.” Archer had said receiving a fearful glare from Bucky, “It is Bugz–well that isn’t my real name either, but it is the name Bucky gave me.”

He had paused and his horn began to glow.  A burst of magic exploded from his chest sending green fire up and down his body changing him into something else.  When the fire had cleared before us stood a skinny, black, pony-shaped creature that appeared as if his legs were all shot full of holes.  On his back were some light green wings, but unlike Bucky’s they were almost see through.  His head was mostly normal, except his eyes had no pupils.  They were just a kind looking yellow void.  He also had 2 large fangs that stuck out of his mouth which caused a lisp.  His mane, if you could call it that, was short and blue.  It also looked shot full of holes.  His horn protruded from his forehead like on a unicorn, but it had a huge chunk missing near the bottom and the top.  I had to admit, his name fit.  He looked like a pony-shaped insect.

“I’m a tsangthing,” Bugz had gone on, now adorning the lisp I’d heard Bucky’s mystery companion use, “I hath the abilthy tho tsange intho anypony.”

“So, You made the smart decision little ponies.” Marker said snapping me back to the present, “I honestly thought you’d go down with the ship, or well, Chariot.  How heroic for giving yourself up.

He then turned to the filly at my side, “Now, little filly, the property you stole from me?”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bucky taking a sniper’s position on the roof opposite the Chariot.

“Anythin’ that may’ve belonged to mah parents was left in the cart.” Nicky said bitterly.

Then everything at  Marker’s camp down the street went BOOM! Followed by the sound of gunshots.

“What the...” Marker begun, but was interrupted by a sniper shot though his body.

And by through his body–I meant right through it, as if it weren’t there–and right into my chest.  It hurt, but not as much as any of the previous gunshots.  I looked down at my chest.  I was glowing like it had when I left the stable and though the bullet had gone through, the skin around it looked almost cracked.

The green burst of magic next to me signified that Bugz had dropped his Nicky disguise.  The THUNK, THUNK sound that followed signified that Bugz had taken out Marker’s guards with his crossbow.

“Very clever, using a changeling in place of that filly. While others attack my camp.” Marker finally spoke up.

“Nots tho menthon the athathinathon athempth.” Bugz snared.

“Yes, that was your mistake. As you can see I can’t die.” Marker said.

His eyes began to glow red and a white ball of energy flew in from somewhere else in the city and struck the Chariot behind me.  The hotel erupted in in a giant explosion raining debris down all around us.  The Chariot had fallen.

Marker laughed menacingly, “I will be back for my property litle ponies, I’ll dimember you then–slowly.” he stated and he disappeared in a flash of teleportation.

***  ***  ***

We met back up in the sewer beneath the remains of the Chariot along with the other 345 residents of the Chariot all safely evacuated.  We gathered in front of a stable door.  Emblazoned on in the center of the of the door was the number 16.  

Some of the Chariot residents, mainly ones that were merchants, were loading large saddlebags and small carts with the contents of the stable, which had been turned into the Chariot storage.  Something about that bothered me.  Sure I had a terrible life in the stable, but it felt rude to just dismiss it as storage.

Among the crowd I saw a Ollie and an ash covered Nicky.  Leaning against the armoured bug-like hide of Bugz.  Upon seeing me and the hole in my chest Ollie rushed over and pulled out a healing potion.  I downed it and watched the bullet hole heal.  Was it just me or did it heal like a crystal growing?  I thought to myself.

“Clashie!” Nicky squealed almost as hyper as she was the first day I met her, “Yer glowing again, any reason why?”

“Not sure,” I shrugged, “it is one of the things I’d like to find out.  When I was found it was happy thoughts, after recent events I’m not sure.”

“Perhaps a mutation of some kind, you did fall into a highly irradiated area.” Ollie offered.

I heard a cough behind me and turned to see Bucky.

“I-I didn’t mean to shoot you.” he said apologetically.

“Its fine,” I said sheepishly, “how were you supposed to know he was an apparition.”

“True,” he sighed.

“Tho whath now?” Bugz asked.

I thought for a second, what were we going to do next?  We still needed caps for a recollector–well that is if we can find one.  Wait! Our caps!

“Ollie?” I asked turning to the pink unicorn, “Did we ever get our caps for the Ironshod job?”

Ollie’s eyes lit up, “No, no we haven’t.  When you fell into the radiation and we had to come back empty hoofed.  Then your return and the whole thing with Marker--”

“Manager!” I called trotting away from my friends, “Before you move on–where are you going anyways?”

The bald yellow unicorn was shocked to see my shimmering appearance, but once he realized who I was he answered, “Oh, we will use the sewers to get out of the city avoiding that monster, then Tenpony Tower.  Only safe place that could house so many.  Non-living ponies and creatures will have to find their own place to go. Though some have opted to stay in Stable 16.  What do you need?”

“I’d like to cash in a job, it was the one at Ironshod.” I stated.

Manager pointed to a group of ponies in maroon armour and so I headed over to them.  When I showed them the blueprints and ammo one of them got so excited she hugged me before letting me go and blushing.  Another went to their cart and handed me a bag of caps with 500 printed on it and a few with 50 printed on it.  As a bonus for my bravery they gave me a beam rifle.

“Oh, um you're too kind, but I can accept this without paying for it.” I said pushing the weapon away.

“Yes take it,” an old grey buck and the leader of the group rasped, “The gun runners deal in regular arms, magical energy weapons are of no use to us.  If you ever encounter any gun runner merchants tell them Sniper sent you and you’ll get a discount.”

I put the strap over my shoulder and trotted back to where my my companions were waiting.

“We are now about 650 caps richer.” I announced.

“Why are you collecting caps?” Bucky inquired.

“Ollie has a black opal that might explain this,” I motioned to to my shimmering body, “but since I’m an earth pony I can’t see it without a recollector–unless you know a memory spell Bugz–and to get a recollector it will cost caps.”

“No memory spells, but I may know a pony with a possible recollector.” Bucky said, “A collector of rare and unusual items from all over the wasteland. A recluse, who lives in Applewood, in the mountain behind the Applewood sign.”

“He lives in the hill?” Ollie asked.

“It was a MOA storage facility.” Bucky answered and when he noticed my confused look, he explained, “Ministry of Awesome, a wartime government branch–one of 6.  The MOA was run by the element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash.”

“They really don’t teach you anything in those stables do they?” Ollie chuckled.

“My stable was an interesting one,” I said, “I’ll have you explain more later.  We have a destination.”

I noticed a notification on my pipbuck, I tapped it with my hoof and read that “MOA Applewood Hub” was now marked on the map feature.  How the hey did it do that? I wondered.

***  ***  ***

A few hours later we were out of the sewers.  We walked cautiously along the road out of the city.  Bucky flew a few feet ahead of us and Bugz buzzed a few feet behind.  Both of them were keeping a look out for ambushes from both Marker’s raiders and other malevolent ponies.  We walked in silence, the only sound was our hooves on crumbling concrete.

To break the slightly uncomfortable silence I switched on my pipbuck’s radio.  A sweet melody of music flowed from the speaker.  There were no words, just melodic sound.  A few minutes later the song came to a close and DJ Pon3 begun to speak.

“Dear Celestia that mare sure can play.” he said, “That terrific arrangement was brought to by none other than Security herself.  She sure is a mare of many talents.  Now for some sad news out of Detrot.  The Finder trading post and settlement of Chariot has fallen.  Destroyed in a terrifying blast of arcane power cause by none other the the fiend known as Marker.”

He paused as if to think of how to phrase what he wanted to say next.

“But don’t worry kiddies, there is a silver lining or should I say a Crystalline one.” He said triumphantly.

My heart skipped a beat when I heard a mentions of what was likely me.

“You heard me right, the mysterious glowing mare, I’ve taken to calling Crystalline, was reported in the area.  She dealt a massive blow to Markers forces and even managed to evacuate the all 345 residents and merchants from The Chariot before it fell.”

I begun to blush furiously at the mention of what could only be me.

“Thank you Crystalline.  Keep fighting the good fight.  If you're ever in the Manehatten area I’d love to sit down for an interview.  Now here is the sultry sounds of Velvet Remedy.”  The DJ finished and music begun to play.

“Wow,” Ollie said, “You're becoming quite famous.”

“He–he didn’t even mention all of you!” I scream motioning to the group around me.

"Well, I don't mind." Ollie said trying and failing to comfort me.

"It just bothers me how he is somehow able to see what happens, but purposely excludes facts!" I screamed.

"Ponies need their heroes, Clash," Ollie said, "pay it no mind."

I shut off the radio.  Right now I think I prefer the silence, I thought to myself angrily.

Unfortunately, the silence didn’t last long as the sound of Bucky’s rifle filled the air dropping a green coated raider mare with a purple mohawk. I reacted quickly ducking behind a large rock since I still had no armour, though based on what happened when I was accidentally shot by Bucky, maybe I didn’t need it.

I looked to my left and noticed Ollie.  She sported a new looking shotgun, at least not the same one she had used before.  Clearly she had purchased a new one before The Chariot fell or had more than one.  I wondered what was so special about this one.  It had a bright red barrel and the rest was jet black.

A bullet ricocheting off the top of our cover brought me back into the moment.  I leveled my new weapon and cued up SATS.  Looking down the scope I cues up 2 shots to our attackers.  I was upset to realize that 2 shots were all I could use in SATS.

I released the spell and Time resumed.  BZZT, one of our attackers head was ripped off by a the first beam.  BZZT, the second one went wide striking the the wall next to the other attacker I had aimed at.

Ollie fired, her shotgun giving a high pitched whine before the buckshot left the barrel.  It did not look like regular buckshot.  It looked purple.  The buckshot struck the wall the raider used as cover.  Purple lightning arched between each piece of buckshot and the wall crumbled to dust, much to the surprise of the raider ducking behind the structure.

When he didn’t fire back I assumed his weapon must have dusted along with his cover.  Now I may not be the best shot when outside SATS, but the raider was staring in wide eyed shock, so I took the shot.  The laserbeam struck the raider in the chest and he slumped over dead.

The distant thunk of Bugz’s crossbow, a shot from Bucky’s rifle, and a BOOM of one of Nicky’s grenades called an end to the skirmish.

We all regrouped in the middle of our former battlefield, except for Nicky who went to loot the bodies.

“What weapon is that?” I asked Ollie in surprise.

“It is called Silici Scintillam Excudit,” She explained, “Found it in the Ministry of Arcane Science Hub in Detrot back in my old scavenging days.”

I was about to ask when she interrupted me, “The wartime ministry run by Twilight.  Fucused on the study of magic.  Basically Silici Scintillam Excudit, enchants ordinary buckshot with a disintegration spell.”

“Wish I had a weapon like that, my lack of aim wouldn’t be such a bad thing if I disintegrated whatever I hit.” I said nonchalantly.

“Well, the good news is those weren’t part of Marker’s gang.  They also weren’t raiders.” Bucky begun.

“Who were they–” I trailed off as I saw Nicky walked up with 4 ponies in tow, all wearing some strange collar.

“They were slavers.” Bucky finished.

“Thank Celestia these slavers didn’t set off the bomb collars.” Ollie said with a sigh of relief.

“B–Bomb collars!” I shouted, “Slavers!”

“The pithfallths oth the wasthtes.” Bugz said resting a hoof on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off and spoke “Why are the collars still on them?”

“Imma exploseve expert, but thes bombie thingies are very tricky.” Nicky said, “Not even Frag relly knew much ‘bout ‘em.”

Then I noticed the locks on the collars.  Locks I could deal with.

“Anypony have a bobby pin and a screwdriver?” I asked.

I was met by surprised stares from my companions and the the terrified slaves.

“I’m pretty good at lockpicking.” I said nervously.

Ollie opened her saddlebag and floated out the items I requested.  I immediately go to work picking the lock on the first collar. It was around the neck of a yellow coated, blue maned earth pony filly with a rake as a cutie mark.

The lock was rather small and very difficult to unlock.  A few minutes of fiddling later I found the sweet spot and the collar unlocked with a resounding click.

“Oh yeah!” I screamed pumping my hooves in the air, letting the collar fall limply around the filly’s neck.

I was so caught up in my mini celebration that I didn’t hear the beeping sound coming from the 4 callers until it was too late.  I felt both the warmth of Ollie’s magic and the coolness of Bugz’s magic as I was pulled back.  The collars exploded splattering me with gore.

***  ***  ***

I was in shock and unable to think.  I stared wide eyed at the gore and brain matter on my face and body.  Though directly in front of me beyond my hooves were the headless corpses of the for slaves that I had failed to save.  Just as I had failed to save Nicky’s parents, though this time I had failed due to action instead of inaction.

“Clath!” Bugz called to me, but he sounded far away.

I felt the odd feeling his leg’s exoskeleton on my shoulders as he begun to shake me.

“Clath! Thnap outs thove thit!” He yelled, still sounding distant.

I saw a healing potion in force its way into my mouth wrapped in Ollie’s magic.  The healing magic healing the injuries that had occurred to my ears being so close to the explosion and my full hearing returned.

“CLATH!” Bugz shouted again.

“I–I failed.” I said solemnly, “A–again.”

“There was no way of knowing that the collars would go off if one was unlocked.  The was probably some kind of deadpony switch that goes off if the collar can’t sense life in the pony.” Ollie attempted to comfort me.

Tears streamed down my cheak.

“Ya didn’t fail before.” Nicky spoke, “Ya sed it yerself, ya saved me. An’ ya didn’t fail he’e either. Ya tried.  Now ya can do betta next time.” And then the filly gripped me in a hug.

I took a deep breath as Nicky released her embrace and wiped my have with a hoof smearing tears, gore and dirt onto my face adding to what was already there.  Goddesses I needed a shower.

“Ok, lets keep moving.” I said.

We all begun walking again.  Bucky and Bugz took their place in front and behind us.

“Clashie,” Nicky said trotting up next to me, “Next time I’ll know how to deal wiff the bomb collars.  If anypony’s to blame fer the slaves, it’d be me.  I’m an exploseve expert. I shouldda known.”

“Thank you.” I said tussling the curly mane of the filly who whimed in protest.

***  ***  ***

As the sun begun to set behind the cloud layer Bugz and Bucky regrouped with us.

“An old friend of mine is hold up in a old lakehouse a mile or 2 up the road.  He is a traveling trader, so we’ll be able to to replenish our supplies and safely spend the night.” Bucky said.

“We don’t have much to trade.” I said.

“Well we have caps,” Ollie said, “though I did clean my room out at the the Chariot during the evacuation.  I have a few unique trinkets from my past I can bare to part with.”

I nodded, the SSE shotgun coming to mind as an example of such trinkets, though I doubt the arcane weapon was going to be for sale.

As we approached the lake house, my pipbuck begun to click slightly, but it wasn’t much more than the usual ambient radiation we’d been getting since the sewers.  I figured that it was due to the large body of water we were walking by.

Suddenly a gunshot flew over my head.

“Not another step, Miss Glowey, or the next shot won’t miss.” Came a voice.

“Don’t get your feathers in a bunch Gambados!” Bucky called back, “We all know you couldn’t hit an apple at spitting distance, featherbrain.”

“Oh, Bucky, sorry.” Gambados’s voice said, The front side of a griffon poked out the door frame, “Thought your friend was a ghoul or one of those Extra Equestrials DJ Pon3 talks about.  Didn’t want to take my chances.”

“Everypony, this is Gambados.  When you get to know him you’ll find he is a horse’s ass.”  Bucky said.

“Very funny Buckster,” Gambados said exiting the door frame completely revealing that his lower half was that of a dark green colored stallion with lighter green tail and an overflowing saddlebag cutie mark, “As Bucky so eloquently pointed out, I’m Gambados the wasteland’s only Hippogryph–at least the only one I’ve met.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Clash Coat,” I said,then motioned to my companions “You already know Bucky–clearly–this is Ollie Factory, the young one is Knick-Knack, and the cha–

“He knowth me alreathy tsoo, Clath.” Bugz interrupted.

“Ah, I see you're still hanging around with that love sucker, how ya been Buggie?” Gambados asked.

Love sucker, I wondered.  What in tartarus does that mean?  I made a mental note to ask Bucky or Bugz more about changelings when I got the time.

“Good.” Bugz answered, “Still no progress on my memories.”

“Well, that sucks. Now, no need to stand out there in the cold, come in.” Gambados invited us in.

Once inside we begun to look through our bags for anything worth trading.  Without thinking I took out the Drgonaquus Statuette.  When I did Nicky went wide eyed.

“Shit!” She shouted, “Fuck ya have that with ya! No no no no no, fuck!”

Tears appeared in her eyes and she darted out the door.  Ollie looked up from her things and begun to move to the door.  I held up a hoof to stop her.

“This looks like it has to do with the attack on her parent’s caravan, I’ll get her.” I said.

“Clash I know you to have gotten close, but I’m her guardian in her parents absence!” Ollie said firmly.

“I know, but do you know how this statue is involved?” I asked.

“No,” she admitted.

“Well, I do.” I lied, putting my bag on and putting the statue into it, then headed out the door.

***  ***  ***

I found Nicky on the decrepit dock that stretched out over the radioactive lake.  She was curled up in a ball sobbing.  I approached her and set my hoof on her shoulder.  I noticed her mane was completely straight and her colors were much more desaturated, almost grey in color.

“Nicky,” I said softly.

“It is all mah fault.” she whimpered.

“What is your fault?” I asked.

“Everythin’.” she said darkly.

“Now that isn’t true.” I said tenderly.

“But it is.” Nicky said finally turning to face me, her face wet with tears, “The attack on are car-EE-van, Chariot.”

She began sobbing again.

“I stole that statue from one of Markers camps.  I got mah parents killed, I got Tha Chariot destroyed.” she said through her tears, “For what? A goddesses damned statue!  It feels like it’s cursed or somethin’.”

I was about to respond when I noticed a dark figure getting closer to the surface of the water beneath the dock.  In a split second I grabbed Nicky in my hooves and rolled off the dock into the radioactive water just as a massive mutated monster tore through the rotting dock.

Beneath the water Nicky thrashed free from my grasp and swam for the shore.  Unfortunately, swimming was not a skill that was taught in the any stable and I began flailing to reemerge.  Not to mention that the creature was coming back for more.  Its large mouth clamped down on my rear legs and bit down.  The pain causing me to release the breath in my lungs.  Forcing myself to focus thought the pain.  I pulled out the dragonaquus statue and threw it at the the monster.  All it did was float slowly to its face, bounce off and fall into the water beyond.

I felt my vision go dark and the watery world faded away.

***  ***  ***

The next thing I felt was a set of lips set pressing against mine and a rush of air being blown into my lungs.  This was followed by several hard compressions on my chest.

“Come thon Clath, LITHE!” I heard Bugz shout.

His lips were placed once more on mine.  I was now acutely aware of his fangs pressing against my chin as more air was blown into my lungs.  I opened my eyes and coughed wildly forcing the water from my lungs.

“Thank the goddethesths, you’re alithe!” Bugz shouted passing me a healing potion.

I downed it and felt my rear legs heal. I was then passed a Rad Away which I also drank. I then became aware of the fight going on outside and remembered the the lake monster.  Against Bugz’s protest I grabbed my beam rifle and weakly headed out the door to assist in the battle.  Bugz Followed suit.

Once outside I could see that the creature was halfway out of the lake and so I could get a better look at it.  It looked almost prehistoric with it’s long neck and scaly skin.  It had a massive mouth full of sharp teeth–teeth I was all too familiar with.  It had large red eyes.  Its body had a set of large flippers above its hooves? I found it hard to believe that this creature was a pony.

Ollie was ducking behind a rock firing enchanted buckshot at the creature.  Bucky and Gambados were flying around the near the creature’s head exchanging shots with it while dodging its bites.  They were soon joined Bugz.

I could see a bunch of missing holes in the creature's side where Ollie had hit the creature.  There were a few broken arrows sticking out of the creature flesh likely from Bugz.  Though from the looks of it regular gunfire didn’t affect it.

Where was Nicky? I thought, then I noticed her hiding on the porch next to me.  I looked over to her she was rocking back and forth with a single hoof in her mouth.  Her eyes were wide and she was muttering “A’m cursed, A’m cursed.”

“No you’re not, Nicky.” I rasped firmly, breaking her from her shock.

“C–Clash?” She squeaked, “Yer alive?”

“Ye–” I sputtered as she knocked me over with a hug.

“Oh thank Celestia!” She wailed, crying into my chest.

“Nic-ky!” I said barely able to breath, “Can’t breath.”

She let go of me and blushed.

“Sorry, I’m just glad that you're alive.” She said wiping her tears.

“Me too,” I said, “Now I think I know how to kill this lake monster. Gather any grenades or mines you can find.”

The filly bounded into the lake house and gathered the explosives.  A few minutes later she returned.

“Bugz, Bucky, Gambados!” I shouted.

The 3 winged creatures flew away from the monster and landed on the porch.

“What?” Bucky asked.

“The creature appears to have an armoured skin, only Ollie’s weapon is one of the only to injure it.” I explained quickly and motioned to the grandes, “If you can manage to get these down its throat we may be able to kill it from the inside–We’ll pay you back for the  one we took from you, Gambados, once it is dead.”

“Allow me first cut of its corpse and we’ll call it even.” The hippogryph said.

I nodded grimacing at the thought of eating that creature.  My winged companions gathered the explosives and took to the skies.

“Hey ugly!” Bucky shouted at the monster.

He got attacked as a response, he threw in his grenades and flew away.  Bugz and Gambados followed suit.  Bucky motioned to Ollie as he turned to land on the porch.  She shot the creature one last time before retreating to the porch.  Once she got there the grenades exploded.  Spouts of gore shot from the gashes caused by Ollie’s gun.  With one final cry the monster died and begun to fall over.  Right on top of the lake house.

***  ***  ***

Footnotes:

Clash Coat: Level up

New Perk added: Counter Canter – Your fancy hoofwork (or agile flying if you are a pegasus pony) keeps you out of harm’s way. Opponents suffer a -5 to combat skills when attacking you.

Nicky: Level up

New Perk added: Past Sins – You admitted to your sins of the past and are better for it. +3 to barter and medicine.

Ollie Factory: Level up

Skill increase: small guns is now 25

Bucky: 25% to next level

Companion reveal: Archer is actually Bugz. All of Archer’s stats are now transferred to Bugz.

Bugz: Level up

New Perk added: Silver Tongue – +6 speech when talking to somepony for the first time.

New Spell added: Glimmer (rank 3) – You can disguise yourself as anypony for an extended period of time.  Now you can use this spell to look younger or older than your actual age.

Trait Reveal: Changeling Born – As a changeling you feed off the emotions of others.  +10 to DR and HP regenerates by 2 every 20 seconds when in the presence of close friends. DR is 0 and HP drops by 2 every minute when alone.

Companion Perk added: Cursed – Either you are are cursed or have just been experiencing a lot of bad luck lately.  Best find a good luck charm.  -2 to luck, but +3 to perception.

Temporary companion: Gambados – Level 10

Quest completed:

Gun Runner Run, I

Quest updated:

Ballad of a Crystal Pony – √ Look for any information in the wasteland on the mysterious glowing ability you have.

                               √ Find out what that pink mare knows about your mysterious glowing power.

                               View Ollie's Black Opal.

                   seek out the Collector in Applewood.

Marking Marker – Find out more about the raider Marker, how he becomes intangible and how his arcane attack works.

                      Find and kill the raider Marker.

Faction Status:

Stable 13 – Vilified

Marker’s Gang – hated

The Chariot Hotel – N/A disbanded

Finders (West Branch) – liked

Gun Runners – liked