“Son? Can we talk for a moment?”

The young colt tensed up, turning back to look at the entrance to his room. In the doorway, the looming shadow of the colt’s father stood.

“I just… well, you know my leave ends tomorrow. I just wanted to have a little… one on one time with my boy before I go. A real stallion-to-stallion talk.”

“Yes, sir.”

The stallion nodded, walking in and taking a seat next to Canvas’ bed.

“So, uh…” Bullseye rubbed his neck, struggling to find the right words. “I saw your friend earlier today. Windy, right? He was asking me if I could give him some sharpshooting lessons. Truth be told, I’m not sure he needs them, but…”

Bullseye stopped, noting his son’s lack of response. For a moment, the two remained silent.

“I was talking to your mother earlier.” Bullseye finally stated. “She told me that… well, that you asked her if I…”

The stallion stopped, his words seeming to die in his throat. All of a sudden, he leaned forwards, placing his hoof on Canvas’ shoulder.

“You know I don’t hate you, right?” the stallion asked. “I know I’m rough on you, and your sister, but that doesn’t mean I hate you. I just… I know you could do great things, Canvas. You’re a good kid, with a lot of potential for greatness, to go out in the world and do great things. I just feel like somepony needs to give you the right push, like my father did for me.”

“I-I don’t want to be a soldier, if that’s what you mean.”

“I know, I know.” Bullseye sighed. “You don’t really like fighting. There’s more to the Enclave than just fighting, you know. There’s the feeling of being a hero, the adoration of countless others, and…”

The stallion paused, watching as his son started to bury his head in his bed sheets.

“…of course, there’s also some non-combat roles.” Bullseye added. “There’s, uh… there’s the R&D division! The techies pretty much never see combat. Or the PR guys! They make all the posters and commercials for the Enclave – your painting could be very useful there.”

“R-really?” Canvas sat upright. “I-I could paint for them?”

“Absolutely!” the stallion responded. “You’d be painting great pictures, pictures of the soldiers getting ready for battle! Pictures of the Enclave battleships! Pictures of the Wonderbolts, doing all kinds of aerial maneuvers! You’d like that, right?”

“That…” Canvas smiled. “Yeah, that’d be alright, I guess.”

“Great.” Bullseye smiled back, standing up. “I have to go pack up my things, Canvas. It’s close to your bed time, so you should start getting ready for bed.”

“Yes sir.”

“Okay.” The stallion paused for a moment, before backing out of the room. “Goodnight, Canvas. I… I love you.”

“I love you too, dad.”

With that, the stallion closed the door, leaving Canvas alone once again.

I have no idea what I’m doing.

So there I was. I had finally reclaimed my freedom, and as soon as I found a radio transmitter of some kind, I’d be on my way home. But as I walked along, I realized I didn’t have any clue how to do that. Where would I find a radio? How? Temper had been the one making the decisions on where to go before, but now I was free. Where I went was my call. But I didn’t know the wasteland, how should I know where to go? It almost made me dizzy just thinking about it.

M-maybe I should take a moment to get my bearings. Where exactly am I, anyways? I started fiddling with my PipBuck, getting back to the map screen a moment later. Now that I was outside, I had expected the map to be completely useless, but to my surprise, it did actually show a decent map of the Wasteland. It had even marked the areas I’d been to before this – the Everfree Forest, Stable 6, even…

…

It called it the “Rainston Ruins.”

I shuddered, pushing the memories out of mind as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, that was all that had been marked. Even though the map showed miles and miles of wide open space, not one other city or town or whatever they had down here was marked, except the places I’d already been to. Some good that did me.

Well, I might as well pick SOMEwhere to go. I took a quick look at the area around me, a generic slice of wasteland, complete with hills, dead plants, and what might have once been an old shack, but had long since been reduced to nothing more than a pile of rotting wood planks. I looked way off into the distance, trying to find some kind of landmark to go towards. There were a couple ominous white towers around, but if they were what I thought they were… no. I’d heard enough enclave horror stories about those. Maybe one of the mountains? I’m no mountain climber, though. I’d rather not misstep and go tumbling off a cliff. Still, it wasn’t like there were a lot of landmarks still standing, so between the mountains and… those, I’d rather try my chances with rock-climbing.

Mountains it is. I paused, taking a brief moment to survey what I had on me (a task made incredibly simple thanks to a PipBuck feature that somehow knew everything in my saddlebags). It seemed I’d gotten better at keeping supplies now compared to when I first left my house, though not by much. On the health side, I only had a few miscellaneous things, like bandages and the Med-X stuff. I had a couple cans of beans to eat, plus at least four Sparkle Colas. I had the Artisan, but as far as ammunition went, I’d only grabbed twenty-five pistol rounds and seven shotgun shells. Add in about a hundred caps, and that was all my supplies. Well, and my armor. And the Holodisk, of course.

It wasn’t much, but it would be enough to get me most of the way there, I figured. I’d probably have to stop and rummage for more supplies along the way, or else just ration what I had really well. With a plan in mind, all that was left was to pick a mountain. I stood up, turning my head to find a- GAH!!

At some point during my inventory management, a large flying robot somehow managed to sneak up behind me, and was now staring me in the face. I screamed, jumping away and rushing for cover behind a rock. With very slow movements, I peeked out from my rock, taking a closer look at the robotic thing.

Whatever it was, it was weird. It looked a lot like the bloatsprites, with a large spherical body and spindly mechanical legs. However, in place of the large bulbous eyes of the bloatsprites, this robot had something more akin to shutter shades covering the whole front of it. The robot hovered on large mechanical wings, drawing nearer with every flap.

“Sorry.”

I jumped again, startled by the robot’s tinny voice.

“Back off!” I yelled out, quickly grabbing the Artisan and taking a hesitant step away. “I-I don’t want to fight you!”

“God, I hope not!” the robot replied with a laugh. “That’d be a poor way for us to meet.”

“Uh… r-right…” I said, more asking than stating. Slowly, I returned my gun to its holster. “Wh-who are you?”

“A friend.” The robot answered. “You can call me Watcher.”

“Watcher?” I said, tilting my head to the side. I felt myself relax a little bit. It wasn’t shooting at me, so I felt inclined to believe it. “I’m… I’m Canvas.”

“Well then, it’s nice to meet you, Canvas.”

“Y-yeah…” I replied, standing awkwardly for a moment. I thought about asking for directions to a town, but suddenly, another idea popped into my head. “Hey, uh, do you know if there’s a radio transmitter somewhere around?”

Watcher paused, his body fluttering in the air with a mechanical hum.

“I just, uh,” I said, laughing awkwardly. “Well, I’m not really from down here. I-I was trying to see my friend, and-”

“You fell from the sky.”

I blinked a couple times.

“Y-you know?”

“I’ve been watching you for a while, Canvas.” Watcher replied. “Uh, not in a creepy way.” He quickly added. “I see everything that goes on in the Wasteland, and it’s not every day that a pegasus just falls out of the sky. I’ll admit, I lost track of you for a bit, but I’ve been watching at least since you left the Everfree. It took me a-”

“Wait.” I interrupted. “Back up. You’ve been watching me since I left the forest?”

“Yeah.”

“So…” My eye twitched ever so slightly. “So then you saw me get captured by Temper?”

Watcher paused.

“I, uh… yeah, I saw that…”

“And you didn’t try to help?”

Watcher’s voice went dead silent.

“I mean, you did just say you were a friend.” I continued. “And if you are, then you must have done something to help me get free… right?”

“I…” Watcher’s voice was hesitant, the robotic orb slowly edging backwards. “You have to understand, robots like this aren’t as durable as they look, and other ponies… well, they don’t tend to help as much as they used to.”

“So you just left me?!?” I shouted. “You saw me get captured, watched me get dragged around by a psychopath, watched as she forced me to murder creature after creature after pony after pony, and you didn’t try to help once?!?”

“I get that you’re upset,” Watcher responded, “But please, be reasonable! Terrible things like this happen in the Wasteland all the time, I can’t afford to help everyone. It’s not like I was specifically ignoring you. I’ve seen hundreds of ponies get captured before-”

“How is that any better?” I snapped. “What, now I’m just the most recent victim of your inability to help? Did you tell all of them you were their friends too?”

“Don’t act like you know better than me!” the robot snapped back, lunging forwards slightly. “I have my reasons! If I could save every last pony who suffered here, don’t you think I would? But I can’t. I just… can’t.”

I turned around, looking away from the robot as it floated silently behind me.

“I’m sorry.”

“Whatever.” I muttered. “If you’re not going to help me, then go ‘watch’ something else.” Slowly, I started to trot away from the metallic creature.

“You were wondering about a radio transmitter, right?”

I paused. Slowly, I swiveled my ears back towards him.

“Yeah?”

“There’s an old airship, from before the megaspells fell.” Watcher explained. “It crashed down northeast of here, up by an old lake. All those old ships used radios to communicate, so it’s likely they have a transmitter there. It’s not far – just over those hills.”

I turned back to face Watcher, my eyes slowly widening. For all the shit I had gone through, things were finally looking up for me. I mean, I had gotten free, found an Enclave radio frequency, AND there was a radio transmitter nearby! And all in one day! Even with my irritation for Watcher, I couldn’t help but feel a smile gracing my lips. It’s about time luck finally decided to cut me a-

“You should probably expect a fight, though.”

“Huh? What-”

Before I could get my question out, Watcher made a violent popping sound and started to fly away, a steady polka tune coming from the robot instead of the tinny voice I had been speaking to. I stared in bewilderment, watching as the robot slowly disappeared on the horizon.

Well… that happened. I sighed, looking down at the map on my PipBuck. To my surprise, there was a new marker – “Hummingbird Wreckage.”

Wha, but… oh, forget it. I sighed, looking off in the direction my PipBuck was pointing me. Just over those hills, huh? I can manage that.

I was a little surprised when I finally got to the wreckage. The mass of metal and tarp was sitting next to a lake of some kind, the land sloping down towards the tilted machine, the back end of the ship sunk into the ground and the once air-filled balloon now limply hanging off the side, partially submerged in the eerie waters. But that wasn’t what was surprising.

See, when you think of an airship, you usually think of one of those massive cruise blimps, the ones built for thousands of ponies, or one of the Enclave’s Cloudships, the gargantuan battleships they have at the ready for once they’re prepared to take the fight below the clouds. In other words, you tend to think of airships as being… well, big. But looking at the wreckage… let’s just say “hummingbird” was a pretty accurate name.

I paused for a moment, glancing down at my gun holster. Watcher said something about a fight, didn’t he? I’d rather avoid fighting but… well, with any luck it’d just be animals. With a sigh, I pulled out the Artisan, gripping it in my mouth and slowly started making my way towards the flying machine.

As I carefully maneuvered around differently sized chunks of the wreckage, I tried to imagine what it must have looked like in its heyday. The paint was faded and chipping now, but I imagine those purples and whites must have looked gorgeous. I could even make out some faint golden detailing – such regal colors! Off to the side, I spotted an old flag fluttering in the breeze, trapped beneath a wayward piece of wreckage, further highlighting the gold/purple/white motif. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for some paint and a brush right now! I’d-

BANG!!

“AUGH!!” A sudden pain in my wing snapped me out of my imagination, and I sprang for the nearest cover I could find (in this case, the rotting husk of a tree). I took a look at my wing, gritting my teeth as I felt the bullet wound burn. I glanced at my radar, trying to find the source of the gunshot. The radar pulled through, showing a single enemy, positioned directly opposite my cover. I focused on my wound for a moment, and with no potions left, I instead pulled out a bandage, wrapping it around my wing to stop the blood as best as I could. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do for now. With the bleeding stopped, I turned my attention back towards the Hummingbird. I risked a quick look at my attacker, barely poking my head out from behind the tree, only to pull it back as another bullet grazed my ear, a whizzing rush of air following with it. I didn’t see much, but I saw enough. The gunner was in the blimp’s cockpit, taking potshots through a hole in the window.

“HEY FUCKER!!” The pony hollered, a stallion from the sound of it. “BEEN A WHILE SINCE I’VE HAD SOME TARGET PRACTICE!! COME ON OUT, I’LL MAKE IT NICE AND QUICK!!”

If it’s all the same, I would much rather your aim NOT get better.

I racked my brain for a moment, trying to collect my thoughts. This seems hopeless. How am I supposed to compete with a sniper? Maybe I should just leave, find a transmitter somewhere else. Yeah, there’s gotta be other places with equipment like that, right? Like… this ship isn’t the ONLY place in the Wasteland with a radio transmitter… right?

“YOU THINK THAT THING’S GONNA KEEP YA SAFE?” The sniper called out. “YOU’VE GOTTA COME OUT EVENTUALLY!! LET ME GET A FUCKIN’ SHOT IN!!”

I clenched my teeth, trying my best to ignore the sniper’s quips. But he did make a good point: I couldn’t keep hiding there. Even if I decided to look somewhere else for the transmitter, I’d have to leave my cover, which put me in just as much danger as trying to get closer did. Dammit… well, in that case I might as well stay here. And if I’m staying, then I need to come up with a way to get past that sniper. I obviously can’t shoot him, he’s too far away. And if he could hit me from that far, then I probably can’t sneak away either.

“THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING BACK THERE? JUST COME OUT, GET IT OVER WITH!! I PROMISE IT’LL BE QUICK!!”

Grah! What do I… Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. I reached into my saddlebags, pulling out the first thing my hoof touched. I looked at the object in my hooves, and then immediately put the holodisk back and reached for the second thing my hoof touched. A can of beans. Much better.

In one fluid motion, I tossed the beans out to the left of the tree, and hesitated for just a second before running out to the right.

BANG!!

The ground was showered with muck as the can of beans exploded, the bullet tearing into the can and covering the area with soupy, delicious slime. I spotted the stallion again, his gun slowly shifting its aim back on me, but before he could get another shot in, I had already made it behind more cover (thankfully, the wreckage provided a lot of that).

“Mother-!!” the stallion cursed. “YOU THINK YOU’RE REAL FUCKIN’ CLEVER, DON’T YOU? TRY THAT AGAIN, COCKSUCKER!! I DARE YOU!!”

I looked around, careful to keep my body behind cover all the while. I glanced over to the side, spotting the trapped flag I’d seen earlier, still desperately trying to escape its hundred and fifty year imprisonment in the wind. Wind that I suddenly realized was blowing directly towards the sniper.

Maybe it was time to free it.

I wouldn’t be able to get close enough to release the flag by hoof, so I slowly lined up the Artisan’s sights on the fluttering cloth.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!

In an instant, I unleashed hell on that flag, puncturing the cloth in a vague grouping near the base. I heard the stallion laughing, a cackling laugh that filled the air around me.

“YOU MISSED, FUCKER!!”

*rrrrip*

The flag suddenly tore free of the wreckage, sailing through the air and directly into the window of the cockpit. The stallion’s laughing stopped, and he cursed, trying to pull the sheet away from him. With the sniper blocked, I made a mad dash for the side of the Hummingbird, searching for some way inside. It didn’t take long – a large portion of the hull was missing, offering free passage to the ship’s interior. Quickly and quietly, I slipped inside.

Ok… ok, I’m in. Th-that wasn’t so bad. Next step: find the radio transmitter. Easy… right?

I snuck around inside the blimp, hiding behind a couch built into ship’s hull. I glanced around, taking in my surroundings as best as I could. From the looks of it, the ship had once been a private luxury ship. At least, I’m pretty sure normal ships don’t have bars built into them. The walls were lined with couches, once covered in pretty red leather, but now mucked up with blood, grime, and something I desperately hoped wasn’t semen (although the stench made me strongly suspect it was). The floor of the ship had bones of various sizes scattered across it, some with bits of rotting meat still clinging to them. Along the center of the room, a few tables stuck up, bolted into the floor and covered with the same filth as the couches.

“Hey Crackshot, the fuck’s going on out there?”

“Leave him. Nopony ever comes out here. It’s probably just another bloatsprite. So as I was saying…”

I tensed up, quickly glancing towards the voices. On the other end of the room, I could see two ponies, dressed up in armor much like Temper’s. In fact, they both looked like Temper – not exactly like her, obviously, but the same sort of motifs. Haphazardly thrown together armor, wild hairstyles, plus added scars for good measure. The two of them, a unicorn mare and an earth pony stallion, seemed unaware of my intrusion, if their conversation was anything to go by. With an extremely quiet deep breath, I started to creep forwards, careful to stay out of sight whenever I could.

Then I noticed the cage.

Right next to the raiders (I assume they were raiders, anyways) sat an impressively sized cage, sort of like the ones pegasai would keep their pet birds in. Except this one was much larger, easily able to fit a fully grown pony inside. I could tell because there was a fully grown pony inside.

I paused briefly, staring at the mare in the cage. Instantly, a number of images flashed through my mind, some showing the mare being thrown into the cage against her will, others showing her struggling to break free of it. However, amongst those images, I saw one imaginary figment that stood different from the others. An image of me, unlocking the cage, freeing the mare from captivity.

Were I not trying to stay hidden, I’d have sighed. I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, but… well, I couldn’t just leave her there!

“Ugh, why are we even waiting here? Nopony comes this far out of town. Besides, I’m hungry. Can’t I just eat her already?”

The caged mare froze, her face taking on a confused expression as she slowly processed the raider’s words. Suddenly her eyes widened, and the mare started backing into the corner of the cage as far as she could.

“Fuck no!” the unicorn spat, slapping her partner across the face. “You already ate the other one. I think I’d like to spend a bit of… quality time with her first…”

The unicorn raider grew a disturbing grin on her face, causing the caged mare to whimper and turn away.

Then the caged mage locked eyes with me. I froze, the two of us staring at each other for a moment while the disgusting conversation continued in the background. Her eyes widened, and she started to open her mouth, but I quickly brought the tip of my wing to my mouth, signaling her to keep quiet. She stopped, closing her mouth and glancing between me and the raiders. Hesitantly, she gave me a subtle nod, her eyes pleading with me to get her out. I gave her my own nod in reply, slowly making my way from hiding spot to hiding spot as the mare’s captors continued their conversation.

“What good would fucking her even do you?” The earth pony asked, “Neither of you’ve even got the dicks to fuck with!”

“We’ve got horns, dipshit.” The unicorn countered, tapping hers with a hoof. “Have you seen this beauty? I could fuck a deathclaw with this, and I bet hers could do me wonders.”

The caged mare whimpered again.

“Why do you even need her?” The stallion groaned. “I’m hungry as shit, and you’ve got two ponies who actually have dicks right here, ripe and ready for fucking.”

“Hah!” the mare let out a loud laugh, wiping away a tear from her eye. “You two retards? I’d rather soak my head in brahmin piss.”

“Well,” The stallion spat, stepping dangerously close to his partner, “Who’s to say we’d give you a choice?”

Oh God they’re talking about… no, no, don’t think about it. Just keep sneaking, stay out of sight…

“Back off, Muscle.” the mare practically growled, pointing her knife at the stallion. “You forget, I’m the one calling the shots around-”

*crack*

I froze, my eyes darting down at the floor, spotting a few bits of a shattered bone under my hoof.

“Huh?” The stallion’s ears flicked in my direction. He stood up, grabbing a baseball bat at his side. “Who the fuck is that?”

FUCK- Plan B! Plan B!

“D-don’t move!!” I shouted, jumping away from my cover and aiming the Artisan at the earth pony. “I’ll… I-I’ll shoot!!”

For just a moment, the two ponies held still, their eyes slowly beginning to widen. Then they both burst out laughing, the mare practically falling onto the ground as she struggled to breathe. I felt warmth flush through my cheeks, glancing over at the caged mare. She winced, groaning and putting a hoof to her face as she watched my pathetic holdup attempt.

“Get… oh, fuckin’ hell, gimme a second…” the unicorn laughed, slowly getting back to a standing position. “Get him, Muscle!”

The stallion wasted only a moment for chuckling, and then immediately lunged at me with the bat. I flinched, jumping back to avoid the attack. All of a sudden, I felt something under my hoof, and before I could readjust, I slipped, falling to the ground with a *THUD*. I groaned, trying to pick myself up, but as I looked forwards, I saw the raider stallion looming over me, reeling back with his bat. I felt my breathing accelerate, my eyes focusing on the weapon as it began to swing towards me. In a panic, I tried to line up my aim, and-

WHAT THE FUCK- Time suddenly slowed down to a crawl, the world around me going in slow motion as I struggled to move. All of the PipBuck indicators disappeared from my vision, instead being replaced with a text box that filled most of my field of view. With little other choice, I quickly read over the text, catching something about a “targeting spell” and “chance to hit.”

A-alright… so this is some kind of PipBuck combat thing then? I let myself relax slightly. I must have activated it by accident, since this… spell thing… hadn’t shown up during Stable 6. The text box went away, and as I looked over the raiders, a few indicators appeared, highlighting their individual limbs, giving each limb a different percentage. With time slowed down to a crawl, I took a few moments to figure out how exactly this SATS thing worked.

A few prolonged seconds later, and I’d managed to piece together the basics. By looking at a certain limb and thinking about shooting it, the spell would prepare that limb to be shot at. I could prepare multiple shots, but the spell only had a finite amount of... “AP”… whatever that was… anyways, a finite amount of AP it could use, and every bullet used a bit of AP. Furthermore, I could ready shots on multiple opponents if I wanted to.

All that is to say, it used freaky dark magic to slow time and help me aim. By all accounts, that should have been the coolest and most useful thing ever – I’d be able to think through any attack I made, waste less bullets, and just all-around be better able to survive the Wasteland.

Unfortunately, none of that changed the fact that it was still me pulling the trigger. Even if this spell could put a bullet in the head of anyone I saw, I still had to want the bullet put there. The magic didn’t make me any less of a murderer, did it?

I stared for a moment, watching the two raiders slowly inch closer and closer. I glanced over, looking at the mare in the cage. The conversation between the two raiders played back in my mind. Images of the events they were describing started to play on loop, first of the caged mare being torn apart and eaten, then of the unicorn, plunging her horn repeatedly into the caged mare’s-

If not for the SATS time-freeze, I’d have shaken my head to clear the images. I stared down the raiders, a fire building up in my chest. I finally made my choice, readying a shotgun blast on the stallion and two bullets on the mare. Just before I activated the spell, I hesitated. Did I have to do this? I could try to just hit their legs, incapacitate them. They didn’t have to die, did they? Could I really kill these ponies?

The image of the unicorn violating the caged mare sprang to mind once more.

…yeah, this time, I think I can.

I’m not sure how, but I released the spell, and the effects were almost instantaneous. I automatically bit down on the Artisan’s trigger, releasing a spray of iron shrapnel into the stallion’s face. As he careened to the side, I locked my sights on the mare and fired two successive shots into her chest, each one scoring a direct hit around her shoulder.

As soon as the second shot hit, time sprang back to normal, the stallion collapsing in a heap as the unicorn cried out in anguish. I glanced at the stallion, struggling not to vomit as one of his eyes rolled across the floor and brushed against my hoof.

“Oh, you’re dead now, fucker!!” the unicorn shouted, causing my attention to snap back to-

Gah!! I barely had time to duck before a kitchen knife flew over my head, taking a few strands of my mane along with it. I tried to bring up SATS again, but then realized I had no idea how to actually do that. Ducking below another knife swing, I lined up the Artisan’s sights the normal way, aiming for the mare’s chest.

BANG BANG!!

The unicorn flinched back, one bullet bouncing off her armor and another piercing through the gaps in said armor, embedding itself deep into the mare’s chest. As the blood started flowing from the wound, the mare stumbled forwards, the knife dropping from her magic and clattering to the floor. She made a lunge at me, but I sidestepped out of the way, and the unicorn collapsed on the floor, twitching for a few moments before she went completely still. I turned away from the corpse before any bad thoughts could enter my mind.

“Woah…”

I flinched at the noise, spinning around and pointing the Artisan to defend myself. Then I realized the speaker was the caged mare. I blinked a few times, then lowered my aim as it slowly dawned on me that I almost shot the pony I was trying to save. That would have been bad.

The mare shrunk back, obviously put off by being held at gunpoint. But she quickly composed herself, letting out a sigh of relief. In an instant, she rushed up to the bars of the cage and gestured to the lock.

“Please, help me!” the mare pleaded, clutching the bars. “Get me out of here!”

I was hesitant for a moment, but slowly, I nodded, holstering the Artisan and approaching the lock.

“Where’s the key?”

“The stallion had it, I think.” The mare replied. I turned, starting to pull items off the raider as the caged mare watched. “You’re not with the Enclave, are you?”

I paused for a moment, thrown off guard by the question.

“Uh, no… why?”

“Well, you’re a Pegasus, and most of them…” the mare trailed off, seeming to lose herself in thought for a moment. All of a sudden, she gasped. “Are you that pony DJ Pon3 mentioned?”

“I, uh…” ah, got it! I finally found the key, grabbing it and approaching the cage again. “I-I don’t know who that is, sorry.”

“Oh...”

I put the key in the lock, feeling a satisfying *click* as the key turned. I pulled open the cage door, and the mare slipped out. Once she was out, she stopped, a smile gracing her lips.

“Thank you,” she said, the relief clear in her voice.

“Uh…” I coughed, “Y-you’re welcome. Look, y-you should get going, I don’t know how many more Raiders there are here. I-I’ve got… other stuff, I have to do, alright?”

The mare looked at me, tilting her head slightly and furrowing her eyebrows.

“Just go, miss.” I repeated, walking forwards and going through the door to the cockpit. “I’ll be fine, I-”

“Gotf yu, fucka!!”

I spun my head around, staring in horror as the sniper jumped at me from around a corner. I panicked, quickly trying to reactivate SATS, but the sniper was quicker, ramming into me and knocking me back against a wall. I grunted, trying to get back to my hooves, but as I did, the sniper jumped on top of me. With a swing of his head, he lunged, plunging a knife deep into my shoulder. I felt a sudden surge of pain shoot through me, screaming as I collapsed onto the ground. The sniper grinned, painfully ripping the blade from my body. For a moment, he just stood there, seeming to relish in my agony. My breathing became ragged, and I glanced at the wound, wincing at the outpouring of blood.

I blinked a few times, struggling to stay focused through the pain. I looked to the side, and just to the right, I could see what I had been looking for – the Radio Transmitter. So close…

“Habve fun in hewll, yu- ack!!”

All of a sudden, the knife jerked from the stallion’s grip, a faint purple-y glow surrounding the weapon. I turned my head, watching in fear as the caged mare lifted the stallion’s knife through the power of her magic. The stallion, finally turning his attention away from me, charged at the caged mare instead, murder filling his eyes.

To my surprise, the mare proved a much more able fighter than she looked. Even though the raider got a couple good hits on her, the majority of his attacks seemed to miss entirely, with the mare simply jumping out of the way. Within moments, the ex-captive had turned the knife against him, and within a few moments more, his body was sliced to ribbons. I started to stand up, but the pain was too great, and I stumbled back to the floor. I tried again, desperate not to leave the girl in danger, but it was no use. I was too weak, I couldn’t help. Slowly, I looked to the side, my eyes stopping on the transmitter.

303.05. I placed a hoof on the machine, deftly tuning the device to the channel I had gotten from the holodisk. Instantly, I could hear voices coming from the other side of the line, nameless soldiers reporting various things to each other. I reached up with my other hoof, my breathing heavy and ragged from the pain, and pulled the microphone as close to my mouth as I could.

“H-hello?” I asked, “Please, i-is there anypony there?”

The voices on the other end of the radio went silent for a moment.

“P-please,” I begged, “Is this the Enclave? I-I need help!”

“Who is this?” a voice suddenly spat. “Identify yourself at once!”

I’m not sure whether it was joy or fear, but my heart skipped a beat at the words of the soldier.

“M-my name is Canvas.” I said, the words struggling to escape my lips as I fought against the knife wound. “P-please, I need help! I-I was trying to return something to Windspeed, but-”

“Civilian,” the soldier interrupted, “This is a private Enclave channel. You are not authorized to use it. If you do not get off this frequency we will be forced to place you under arrest, and-”

“W-wait!” I yelled, getting straight to the point. “I-I’m trapped in the Wasteland!”

That shut the soldier up.

“W-Windspeed left this disk at my house, a-and I went to return it to him, b-b-but then there was this dragon, a-and… my wing’s broken, I… I-I can’t fly! P-please, help me! I-I can’t get back home!”

The soldiers remained silent. I winced, falling to the floor as my body grew weaker. I glanced back at my knife wound. That’s a lot of blood…

“Please…” I pleaded. “H-help me…”

“Citizen,” the soldier replied slowly. “Remain calm, and stay where you are. We’ll send someone down as soon as we can.”

I smiled, my body losing all feeling as I collapsed in a heap. I did it… All I have to do is wait... wow, I’m still bleeding… didn’t know ponies had… that much blood… but it’s fine… I’m going home… I’m just… gonna… rest for… a…

Uunngh…

“Is he going to be alright?”

Ssshh… five more minutes, mom…

“Please, Miss Shell. I deal with injuries like this on a daily basis. Now if you’ll excuse me…”

Hey, I said ssshhh… Slowly, I opened my eyes, blinking a few times as light started to flood my vision. As my eyes started to adjust to the light, I immediately noticed a number of things. The first of which was pain. Well, maybe pain isn’t quite the right word. Soreness would be more accurate. Just this mild discomforting soreness all around my body, though a few spots hurt much worse than others. Primarily at the base of my left wing.

The second thing I noticed was that I was lying face down on a table. Why was I on a table? Ponies don’t go on tables. Tables are for food, or papers, or... I don’t know, but certainly not ponies. And I was definitely a pony, not papers.

The third thing I noticed was that my clothes were gone, a large number of bandages covering my body in their stead. I felt like a mummy, but that was silly. Everypony knows mummies are dead. And I wasn’t dead. I hurt far too much to be dead.

The fourth thing I noticed (and really, I should have noticed this first) was that I wasn’t in the Hummingbird anymore. I wasn’t quite sure where I was, actually. The room I was in looked like it had seen much better days, with light seeping in through the walls and cracked drywall shoddily trying to hold the whole room together. The floor was made of some kind of tiling, a faded off-white color that had been littered with cracks and scuff marks over time. As for the contents of the room, there really wasn’t that much. On one wall, a chalkboard sat with diagrams of bones and organs drawn onto it. Off to my side, a small roll-away cart sat with various medical tools on it, but that was just about all the room had to offer (well, and the table).

I turned my head, groaning as I tried to bring myself to my hooves. It took me a couple tries, but I did eventually get into a standing position, albeit one that made my head swim. I could see a door in the corner, so I started making my way towards it. At least, until a unicorn stallion in a lab coat stepped through it. That startled me enough to stop.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” The stallion said, adjusting some glasses at the bridge of his muzzle. “Don’t move too much. You should probably lie back down, unless of course you enjoy being in agonizing pain. Wouldn’t surprise me, seeing how much of a beating you seem to have taken.”

“Where…” I groaned, rubbing my head and keeping my eyes on the stallion. “Where am I?”

“In my clinic.” The stallion said, very matter-of-factly. “Three Arrows Clinic, to be precise, Mr…?”

“Uh, Canvas.”

“Mr. Canvas.” The stallion nodded, scribbling something down on a piece of paper. “I’m Dr. Serum. I’m sure you-”

“Doctor?” I cut off Serum, a light bulb suddenly turning on in my head as I shifted to face the stallion. “C-can you fix my wing? Please, I’ve been-”

“Calm down, calm down.” Dr. Serum said, raising his hoof defensively. “Please, allow me to finish. As I was saying, I’m sure you have a lot of questions. However, I’m a very busy pony, so let’s deal with this quickly, hmm? Now please, lie down on the table. And try to keep your wings still.”

I paused, my eyebrows furrowing a bit as the doctor moved around me. All of a sudden, the doctor’s horn started glowing, and I jumped back. From across the room, he levitated a piece of chalk over, quickly drawing a few images on the chalkboard. Slowly, I crawled back onto the table, laying down on my stomach as per the doctor’s instructions.

“You’re quite lucky, Mr. Canvas.” Serum said, pointing to a drawn diagram of my body (well, I assume it was my body, anyways). “If Miss Shell hadn’t carried you back here, you’d likely be dead right now. Multiple skin lacerations, internal hemorrhaging, bone fractures, severe blood loss, startlingly high levels of radiation… it seems like you’ve been held together by rad-away and healing potions alone.”

As Dr. Serum explained the multitude of problems with me, he circled various parts of the chalk diagram, and within moments there seemed to be more circles than pony.

“A-and my wing?” I timidly asked.

“I’m getting there.” Serum erased the diagram, muttering something about “impatient bastards” under his breath. I started to retort, but all of a sudden, the doctor lit up his horn. I froze, my vision locking onto the horn. I shook my head, attempting to listen to the doctor. But no matter how much I tried not to, my eyes kept drifting upwards, focusing their gaze on that horn.

W-what’s he doing? My thoughts started to run wild with images of blackened energy, flowing from the unicorn’s horn and entering my body. Is he… h-he didn’t use magic on me when I was asleep, did he? He did, didn’t he? Th-that can’t be good… what happens to ponies who’ve been touched by dark magic?

The doctor raised his eyebrow, scribbling a few more things on his notepad. Slowly, he floated a large photograph of bones of some kind in front of the chalkboard, gesturing to it with his hoof.

“To be perfectly candid,” he continued, “It’s a miracle that wing is still attached to your body. You somehow managed to break nearly every bone in it, and the ligaments at the base have been all but torn to shreds. One wrong move, and you might never fly again.”

I froze at the doctor’s words. All of a sudden, I became very aware of every single twitch and movement my wing made, each one feeling like it would pop my wing right off my body.

“W-well, can you fix it?”

The doctor smiled, floating the picture away.

“I’d be a piss poor doctor if I couldn’t, now wouldn’t I?” I smiled at that, though my smile vanished a moment later, my eyes widening as the doctor lifted a few tools and bandages in his evil magical grip. The tools slowly lifted into the air, as if possessed by demons, the doctor acting as their demon lord. In my mind’s eye, I could see the doctor’s face, his eyes glowing with an eerie yellow light. The demon tools slowly floated towards me… I shuddered. The way those things were moving, it was… unnatural. Like they were watching me, waiting for the perfect moment to gouge out my eyes, rip up my organs, and-

“Sir, is something wrong?” The doctor asked, snapping me out of my self-imposed trance. “Apart from your physical health, I mean. I’m well aware how much is wrong with that.”

“N-nope.” I responded meekly. “I’m f-f-fine.”

“Right…” the doctor squinted at me, but nevertheless went on. “I already took care of your more immediate health concerns while you were unconscious, and I managed to set the most recently broken bones. However, a few of the bones seem to have broken much earlier, and were set improperly.”

I cringed, recalling my momentary first aide in the forest.

“Unfortunately, that’s going to require a bit of correctional surgery.” Dr. Serum said, beginning to fill a syringe with a small, purple fluid. “I’ll have to set them properly before a healing spell will have any further effect. And yes, that means I’ll need to re-break the bone.”

“What?!?” I yelped, jumping up and clutching my wing in my hoof. “A-Are you sure that will help?”

“I know what I’m doing, sir.” The doctor stated, rolling his eyes and suddenly injecting me with the syringe. “Please, lie down. Now, count backwards from ten, and I’ll answer any other questions you have when you finish.”

“Wha… uh, a-alright.” I furrowed my brows, placing my head down on the table. “Ten, ni-”

“-ne, eigh… whahuh?”

“Never gets old.” I heard the doctor chuckle. “The surgery’s done, and was a perfect success, as usual. You should be safe to fly in just a few days.”

Damn, that was some powerful anesthetic… wait…

“Th-the surgery’s done?” I stammered. “You were… y-your magic was… i-i-inside me?”

“Well yes.” The doctor responded, raising his eyebrow. “That is how surgery usually works. Wouldn’t be much of a point if I just stared at your wounds. Don’t worry, I made sure everything was put back where it was supposed to be. Assuming you pegasus folk have the same anatomy of us normal ponies, anyways.”

All of a sudden, I felt nauseous. What all did he do to me? Oh God, he might have rearranged my guts! I quickly brought my hooves to my belly, feeling around as best as I could. Well… I-I guess they don’t FEEL rearranged, but… I paused, taking a moment to look over my body. Nothing looked out of place… nothing felt out of place either... actually, I felt better than I had in weeks. Maybe… maybe he didn’t do anything bad?

Slowly, I let out a sigh. Ok, not evil then. J-just scary as all Tartarus. Like most doctors. But with magic.

“The exit’s to the left, your belongings are in the closet next to it.” The doctor stated, gesturing to a door off to the side. “Try not to get too beaten up again. Or at least don’t waste my time with it again.”

“What?” I stared at the doctor in confusion for a moment. “B-but I’m still confused. How did I get here? What happened to that mare in the cage? And now that I think about it, don’t I need to pay you? I’m-”

“I know I said I’d answer your questions,” the doctor interrupted, “But truth be told, I couldn’t care less. As far as payment, Miss Shell, for whatever reason, decided she would cover the cost of your surgery. You should probably ask her about the rest of your issues, she’ll know more about it than me. Now get out.”

I started to protest, before giving up, sighing and grabbing my stuff from the closet. Geeze, whatever happened to good bedside manner? With my belongings recovered, I pushed through the door, the doctor’s parting words rattling in my head as I left. Miss Shell? How am I supposed to… find… woah.

Ok, I wasn’t quite expecting what I saw when I exited the clinic. Instead of stepping out into an open patch of Wasteland, I was instead greeted with the interior of a much larger building. Judging from the sheer size of the room the clinic had opened into, it must have housed something big at some point – large machinery? Maybe storage crates? Well, whatever it had held, all that remained now were a bunch of catwalks, spanning from wall to wall in a fairly uniform pattern. I turned around, realizing that the entire clinic had been built into a single room of the building as a whole. In fact, looking around the rest of the area, there seemed to be a lot of that motif going on. All along the walls, doors and entryways stood, with multitudes of stylized and cobbled-together signs marking what the room had been repurposed as. Cafés, a bar, general store… aside from how worn, depressing, and broken it all looked, it was nice. Like a tiny Wasteland version of New Cloudsdayle.

Oh, and of course, there were ponies. Throughout the building, a number of earth ponies and unicorns milled about, going to the stores, chatting with each other, or just walking around. I looked off to the side, spotting a few colts kicking a ball around some tin cans. For a moment, I just stared, watching the kids play with their ball and listening to the adults conversing in the background.

It was surreal. I’d seen a Wasteland settlement from afar back when Temper had me in her clutches. But now I was in one. A proper town. In the Wasteland. One bigger than Rai… that other place. And aside from the post-apocalypse décor, it looked… normal.

Focus, Canvas. I shook my head, venturing further into the town. I need answers, so I need to find this Shell lady. I glanced around, looking at the variety of ponies and rooms-turned-buildings, without so much as a clue for where to start. Slowly, I approached one of the townsfolk, who smiled and nodded at me.

“Uh, excuse me?” I asked, the pony stopping in place as I spoke. “I-I don’t suppose you could help me out for a moment? I’m looking for somepony, the doctor said her name was Miss Shell, but I don’t-”

“Ah, that’d be Kernel Shell, I imagine.” The pony interrupted, nodding his head. “Nice filly, that one. We were all so worried when we heard the Raiders got her! Glad she’s back safe and sound. She works at the repair shop, over on the west wall. Can’t miss it.”

I blinked a few times.

“O-oh, uh… thank you!” I replied meekly.

“No problem.” The pony smiled, waving a hoof at me before continuing on his way.

A civilized area AND somepony helpful? Am I really still in the Wasteland? I sighed, glancing down at my PipBuck map to… huh. Just like with the Hummingbird, now there was a marker pointing me towards the repair shop. Even though the stallion had only given me vague directions, and not even a name or description of the place.

Magic... I just don’t get it.

I shook my head, focusing on the prospect of answers and heading towards the repair shop. It didn’t take long to get there, and the stallion was right – I don’t think I could have missed it if I tried. Various bits of gray sheet metal and rusty brown scrap had been mounted around the outside of the shop, making the outward facing wall look more like a machine than a building. A few of the pieces of metal had even been shaped into fairly cartoony depictions of common tools – hammers, wrenches, a few screws – each one placed somewhere eye-catching. And to top it all off, a large sign hung above the door, proudly proclaiming the store’s name; Fixer-Upper (“for all your mechanical and technical needs!”).

Impressive, at least as far as the Wasteland was concerned. Hesitantly, I made my way through the entrance, stepping inside the shop. Immediately, I felt a sense of déjà vu – the place looked almost exactly like the Stable 6 repair station, down to the tables of junk and the lifeless, faded gray walls.

“Hello, welcome to Fixer-Upper, what do you want?”

I turned, the gravelly voice startling me as-

“ACK!! GHOUL!!” I jumped back, quickly ducking down behind a table. Slowly, I peeked out, staring at the monster. The monster who was standing behind a counter. And not attacking me. And giving me a deadpan, irritated expression.

“Well fuck you too, breather.” The ghoul said, keeping his gaze locked on me as I stood up. “Did you need something fixed, or are you just here to sling racist insults at me?”

For a moment, I simply stared at the ghoul. It slowly dawned on me that it didn’t seem intent on eating my brains. Which didn’t make any sense. Why wasn’t it trying to kill me? I mean, technically “Celestia” didn’t outright try to kill me either, but she wasn’t really… all there. And this ghoul didn’t seem to be crazy, from the look and sound of it. He seemed… normal.

“Well?” he spat. “If you don’t need anything, then it’s fully within my right to kick your ass out of here.”

“I-I, uh…” I felt my cheeks flush with warmth, a picture flashing to mind of myself in a dunce cap. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean… I-I’m looking for a Miss Shell? Uh… K-Kernel Shell, I think?”

The creature stared at me, his eyes narrowing to the point where I doubted he could even see out of them. I started to sweat, trying to give him a polite smile. For a few moments, I thought he was about to eat me whole. Finally, he groaned, pointing a hoof deeper into the room.

“In the back.” The ghou- uh, I mean… the nice, civilized stallion grumbled.

I nodded, giving another meek “sorry” before trotting to the back of the shop. Once I’d passed a few more tables of junk, I found myself at a door-less entryway, currently decorated with a number of multi-colored wires, all tangles together to make oddly hypnotic patterns around the opening. Above the door frame, the wires converged to spell out the word “technician.” Or at least, I assume that’s what it was saying. The second “c” had come undone.

“H-hello?” I called into the room, taking a hesitant step forwards. “Miss Shell?”

“Just a moment!” a mare’s voice called back. “I’ll be with you in a second, I just need to… ah, there we go!”

The sound of rustled objects and humming electronics echoed around the workspace as I stepped inside. Like the rest of the store, the room had tables of junk all around, except the junk in here was all more electronic looking, with wires and circuit boards sticking out. The room was significantly smaller than the outside store, too – barely even half the size, if I had to guess. It almost looked like it had been repurposed from a simple maintenance closet… although, the more I thought about it, it probably had.

“Now then, how can I…”

I turned my head, finally spotting the owner of the voice – a cream-colored unicorn with a long, sepia mane. Wait… I know her! The mare in the cage! I hadn’t really paid too much attention during the rescue, but there was no mistaking it. The same hair, coat, those lavender eyes… it was without a doubt the same mare.

For a while, the two of us just stood there, eyes locked on each other, neither one of us willing to break the silence. I tried to think of something to say, but my mind went blank, unable to even think of where to start.

“You’re…” the mare started, taking a step forwards. “You’re the one who saved me, right?”

“Um…” I fidgeted, ruffling my feathers a bit. “Yes?”

Slowly, she nodded, letting silence fill the room once more. With little else to say, I stole a look at her cutie mark – strangely, it looked more like writing than a picture, forming a sort of semicolon and parenthesis, like… well, like this:

All of a sudden, she lunged at me, and I flinched away at first, thoughts of evil unicorn dark magic rushing through my mind. At least, until I realized I wasn’t in pain. The mare threw her forelegs around me, squeezing me in a tight hug. I froze, my brain shutting down for a second as I tried to figure out how to respond.

“Thank you!” the mare said, a hint of relief in her voice. “I know I said that before, back when you actually got me out of the cage, but still, thank you!”

“Ah, I, uh, y-you’re, uh, welcome?” I stammered. “I-it’s no big deal, really.”

“No big deal?” The mare laughed. “You practically killed yourself, just to save me! I’d call that a pretty big deal.”

“So, uh…” I coughed, pushing the mare off of me. “I-I’m guessing you’re the ‘Miss Shell’ I’ve been looking for?”

“Yep!” the mare beamed, taking a step back. “Kernel Shell, at your service! Mind if I grab your name as well?”

“Uh, sure…” I paused, furrowing my brows, “Wait, no, I mean no… I-I mean, like, no, I don’t mind, not like no you can’t...” I sighed, reaching out my hoof. “Canvas. It’s Canvas.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Canvas!” Kernel replied, grabbing hold of my hoof and shaking it for all it was worth. “How can I help you?”

“Well, I-I was hoping you could tell me what happened after…” I paused, unsure if mentioning the raiders would trigger any bad memories. “Uh, after I passed out.”

“Eh, not too much, to be honest.” Kernel shrugged, turning and beginning to fiddle with some piece of electronics at her side. “Once I killed the last raider, I came back to check on you, and you were lying on the ground by the radio. And I figured since you saved me, I could at least return the favor by saving you.”

“Alright…” I nodded, flinching back as Kernel suddenly levitated a screwdriver past my head. E-easy, Canvas. She seems nice, so… sh-she wouldn’t use dark magic for evil things… r-right? I kept my eyes on the screwdriver, just in case.

“So yeah, I put you on my back – you’re much lighter than you look, by the way – and carried you back here.”

“Got it…” I replied. “Oh, uh, thanks for doing that. I… well, I’d probably be dead if you hadn’t.”

“Like I said, it only seemed fair.” Kernel laughed. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure you’d last the trip to Three Arrows, you were in pretty bad shape. But you did, and it looks like the doc fixed you up pretty well!”

“Yeah…” I muttered, recalling the rude doctor. “W-what is this place, anyways? I’m, uh… I-I’m not really from around here.”

“I could tell.” Kernel replied, giving me a playful smirk. “A real Wastelander would never think they could hold up a raider.”

I blushed, quickly trying to hide my face with my wing. Kernel giggled, turning back to her work.

“Well anyways, this is Three Arrows, probably one of the nicest small town settlements left in the Wasteland.” Kernel said with a grin. “Most of the ponies living here are ponies who don’t want to deal with the harsh realities of the Wasteland proper. At some point way back, one of those kinds of ponies found this recycling center, and since it’s both big and easy to defend, that made it the perfect spot to set up shop. Oh, hey, could you pass me that circuit board?”

I continued nodding, listening to Kernel’s explanation. And then a moment later realized she had asked me something.

“Oh, uh yeah.” I reached out, grabbing hold of the circuit board in question and hoofing it to Kernel. “Here you-”

“Oooh!” Kernel suddenly let out a squeal of delight, ignoring the circuit board and instead grabbing my hoof itself and examining my PipBuck. “A PipBuck! Oh boy, I haven’t seen one of these things in ages! Why didn’t you tell me you were a Stable pony? Which Stable did you grow up in? How recently did you come out of the Stable? Oh, I have so many questions! Did-”

“Ack!” I tensed up, finding myself suddenly pulled forward as Kernel took my PipBuck – hoof still attached, mind you – and, after magically clearing away some junk, placed it on the table in front of her. “S-slow down! I-I’m not a Stable pony, alright? I was exploring Stable 6 and… well, there was this big machine, and long story short, now I have a PipBuck.”

“Fascinating…” Kernel cooed, looking over the PipBuck as best as she could.

“I, uh…” I coughed, watching as the mare tried to turn over the device without twisting my foreleg. “I don’t suppose you have any way to take it off?”

“Afraid not, sorry.” Kernel sighed. “Removing a PipBuck takes special keys, ones I haven’t been privy to for a long time.”

I let out a sigh of my own. I guess it really IS a part of me now.

“Hey, how come your PipBuck doesn’t have a Geiger counter on it?”

“Huh?” I blinked a few times.

“Well, the PipBucks I’ve seen all have a Geiger counter on them, to warn you in case you get super irradiated.” Kernel explained, casually starting to fiddle with a small piece of my PipBuck. “But yours doesn’t. There’s just this little metal cap thing where it’s supposed to be, see?”

I looked at the piece Kernel was fiddling with. I didn’t have as good a knowledge of what PipBucks should look like as her, but I did have to admit, it did seem like it was designed for something to be put there.

“It’s so odd,” Kernel continued. “Why would they just take out something like that?”

Are you happy, Stable-Tec? You’ve killed us all!!

I shook my head, suddenly remembering the last words of Ball-Peen.

“I, uh…” I coughed, “I did find a holotape, inside the Stable. The pony on it… h-he said something about Stable-Tec letting radiation in through the vents, but-”

“Oh, of course!” The unicorn said. “The Stable experiment! They must have disabled the Geiger counters then! I mean, if the ponies realized they were being irradiated, that defeats the purpose of the experiment, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah…” slowly, I nodded. “Yeah, I-I guess that makes sense.”

“Hmm…” Kernel tapped her chin thoughtfully. All of a sudden, she levitated a screwdriver over to my PipBuck, causing me to flinch away. I kept my eyes locked on the tool, watching in silent fear as her dark powers maneuvered it into position. With seemingly precise motions, she started tapping the screwdriver along the base of the metal cap. Then, with a quick and forceful pound, she hit the end of the screwdriver, jamming it directly into the high-tech wristwatch. I jumped, starting to protest, but just as I opened my mouth, Kernel grabbed the metal cap in her magic, and with a sharp tug, popped it clean off, revealing a small numbered dial.

“Aha, I knew it!” Kernel grinned, tossing the metal cap deeper into the room. “The Geiger counter’s still there! They didn’t completely remove it, they just hid it! Say, Canvas, I don’t suppose you’d mind holding your hoof still for a few minutes, would you?”

“Huh?” I sat there, blinking a few times. The way this mare worked, I felt like reality was whizzing past me, and I had a hard time keeping up. “Uh, what for?”

“I can’t get your PipBuck off, but I think I can re-enable the Geiger counter.” Kernel explained, already grabbing some more tools in her magic. “If I recall correctly, I should be able to access some of the inner workings without removing it. It’ll be tricky, to be sure, but possible. That is, if you’re okay with it.”

An image flashed through my mind. Myself, slowly transforming into a ghoul as I obliviously wandered through a cloud of radiation.

…wait, why would that happen? I’m going back home soon, when would I even get the chance to-

The ghoul-me suddenly lunged forwards.

“Yes! Yep, go ahead, fix it, I don’t mind, do it quickly if you can.”

With one last grin, Kernel pulled out all her tools, floating them around me as she went to work, tinkering with the device.

It was something else, watching that mare work on my PipBuck. My knowledge of technology was pretty much limited to basic operation of Terminals and, more recently, how to guess a password. But even as I tried to pull away from every unnaturally floating tool, wire, and electrical thing, I was able to see the mare’s movements, and it was clear that she was on entirely another level.

“Aaand… done!” the unicorn stopped, screwing a panel back in place and setting her tools down. “Give it a test, let me know if it works!”

“Um, how?” I tilted my head to the side. “There’s not any radiation in here.”

“Hmm… oh!” Kernel lit up, her horn flaring to life as- GAH!!

“Sparkle-Cola Rad!” she smiled, levitating a bottle right in my face. “Now with extra radiation!”

Jeeze, don’t… wait, really? Hesitantly, I reached out and grabbed the floating purple-red bottle of soda in my hooves. Sure enough, right there on the label – made with “an invigorating touch of radiation.”

“They really sold this stuff?” I asked Kernel, slowly taking the cap off. “And they didn’t get anypony killed?”

“It’s not lethal.” Kernel rolled her eyes. “Well, no more lethal than alcohol, anyways.”

Point taken. I shrugged, sipping down the drink, unsure of what to expect. The first thing I got was the flavor of radishes filling my mouth, a flavor that thoroughly convinced me to stick to non-rad cola (seriously, ponies drank this stuff?). The second thing I got was a little clicking sound, accompanied by a floating-in-my-vision display similar to the one on the Geiger Counter in Stable 6, warning me that I was taking in about 10 rads.

“It’s- ech, hold on.” I turned away, wiping my tongue on my foreleg to try and get rid of the taste. “I think it’s working.”

“Awesome!” Kernel cheered, giving a slight laugh. “It’s funny, I was prepared to have to reroute power, hack a bit to enable the Geiger Counter functions, maybe even have to reprogram the visual displays myself if the code had been deleted, but all I had to do was solder a couple wires and uncomment a few lines! Never expected for Stable-Tec to be so lazy with something like this, you know?”

I blinked, slowly nodding at the mare’s words.

“I love playing around with advanced tech like that. Thanks for letting me toy with it!”

“No problem.” I smiled, turning and starting to trot away. “I, uh… I guess I should probably go-”

“Oh, wait!” Kernel yelled after me. “Let me show you around town! I could really use a break anyways, and it’s the least I could do for you after you saved me and all, so…” Kernel trailed off, smiling at me expectantly.

“Thanks, but I don’t…” I started to decline the offer, wanting nothing more than to leave behind Three Arrows (as well as the rest of the Wasteland) and get home as quickly as possible. But the more I thought about it… the doctor said my wing still needed a few more days to heal, and even then, I had to wait for the Enclave to send somepony down to rescue me. One way or another, I still had an unknown amount of time that I had to stay down here. Why not enjoy that time safe and sound in the one place in the Wasteland that wouldn’t kill me on sight?

“...you know what? Sure.” I replied, smiling. “I’d love to see more of this place.”

Kernel gave me a big grin, quickly putting away all the tools around her and rushing towards the store’s entrance. I followed behind her, my pace slowing as I passed by the ghoul at the front of the shop.

“Lugnut, I’m taking my lunch break!”

“Whatever.” The ghoul replied. I’m not even sure he heard her – his attention seemed to be taken up giving me an intense death glare. I shuddered, quickly exiting the store, and giving a few more sorrys, just for good measure.

“Kernel?” I asked, once we were a good ways away from Fixer-Upper. “W-why is there a ghoul in that-”

“Oh, Lugnut?” Kernel replied, cutting me off. “He runs the store. He can be a bit gruff at times, but trust me, he’s got a heart of gold underneath that mushy exterior.”

“That’s… that doesn’t really answer my question.”

“Hmm?” Kernel looked at me, cocking her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, the last time I saw a ghoul, it was kind of…” I struggled to find the right words, momentarily worried that Lugnut would appear from thin air if I said the wrong thing. “Trying to eat my flesh.”

“Ooooh, I get it.” Kernel nodded in understanding. “You’ve only seen feral ghouls.”

“Feral?”

“Well sure!” Kernel smirked. “I’m sure you’ve already figured this out, but when ponies take on too much radiation all at once, their bodies deteriorate very quickly, to the point where they look like the ghouls we know today. Now, for most ghouls, that’s where the story ends. Sure, they’ll still look a little gross and nasty, but on the mental level, they’re no different than any other pony.”

“But then-”

“BUT, for some ghouls, their bodies aren’t the only things affected.” Kernel continued. “Their minds also rot, and over time, eventually they can’t think like a normal pony can. They start acting more like animals, attacking anything that moves, eating other creatures, you know. Like zombies! Actually, they might be better than zombies – they get healed and strengthened by radiation, which is probably the best advantage you can get here in the Wasteland. See, ghouls tend to hang out in radiation dense areas, and as far as I'm aware, the amount of radiation absorption of ghouls is theoretically infinite without any loss of bodily function. I'm not sure if the absorption is proportional to the healing, but then again, I'm-”

“Ok!” I interrupted. “Alright, I get it. Some ghouls are good, others are bad. Got it. Thanks.”

“No problem!” the cream-colored mare said, smiling as she started to pick up speed. “Come on, there’s a lot of Three Arrows to show you.”

I sighed, following after the mare as the tour of Three Arrows began.

“But yeah, long story short, preservatives last a lot longer than anypony thought they would.”

The next few hours of my life were, for the most part, confined to a formula. Kernel Shell would show me something, I’d ask her a question about it, and then she’d spend a good couple minutes explaining some aspect of the Wasteland to me. After Kernel had shown me pretty much every door on the north and east walls, I’d suggested we try getting something to eat, a notion which led us to a restaurant of sorts on the west wall, not to mention a whole lesson on what kinds of food were available in the Wasteland, and why most of it was still edible after more than a century of sitting in magical radiation.

“And, uh…” I coughed, shifting slightly in my seat. “Y-you don’t eat, uh… meat, do you?”

“Well, not usually, no.” Kernel replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. “Most ponies can’t digest it properly, so we tend to avoid it, but… well, I’d be lying if I said most ponies haven’t tried it at least once.”

Kernel suddenly glanced over her shoulders, looking both ways before motioning for me to lean in closer.

“Don’t tell anypony,” the unicorn whispered. “But I don’t think I could live in a world without bacon.”

I leaned back, my jaw dropping as I tried to imagine Kernel tearing into a pile of meat. I couldn’t, and every time I tried I just made myself slightly more sick.

“So what about you?” Kernel asked, relieving me with a change of topic. “I’ve been talking so much, but most of what I’ve said is fairly common knowledge. If not a Stable, then where are you from that you don’t already know all this?”

“Ugh.” I groaned, placing my head down on the table. “That’s a long story that I’d like to end soon.”

Kernel cocked her head to the side, sipping on a Sparkle-Cola the restaurant owner had brought her.

“See, like I said before, I’m not from around here. I live in New Cloudsdayle – up there.” I said, pointing a hoof up towards the ceiling. “Above the cloud layer.”

“Really?” Kernel asked. “What’s it like up there?”

“It’s…” I paused, unsure of how to respond. To me, above the clouds was nothing remarkable. It was civilization, nothing more. But I realized that the pony sitting in front of me had likely never seen anything like that. To her, civilization was this place we were sitting in – a broken mess, but a functioning one, relatively safe from the dangers just outside. How do I even begin to describe normal life to somepony like that?

“It’s like…” I struggled to find the right words for what I had in my head. “It’s like the war didn’t happen. Nothing is destroyed. No one walks out their door wondering if they’re going to get shot. No one worries about being safe when they go to sleep.”

“Your food.” The restaurant owner interrupted us, hoofing over two plates of what was very obviously half a box of Yum Yum’s Deviled Eggs and a few potato crisps. I gave my plate a blank glare.

“And we get to eat food that hasn’t been sitting in a cardboard box for a hundred years.”

Kernel giggled, grabbing a couple potato crisps and popping them in her mouth. I sighed, taking a few bites of the food in front of me.

“That sounds so nice…” Kernel sighed, taking another quick sip of soda. “So why are you down here?”

“Not by choice,” I nickered. “I was visiting a friend of mine, but through some crazy act of Tartarus itself, the day I decided to visit him was the day a fucking dragon decided to attack the clouds. While I was trying to get away from it, it kicked me in the wing, and I ended up falling-”

“I knew it!!” Kernel interrupted, slamming a hoof on the table and startling me into choking on a deviled egg. “You ARE the pony DJ Pon3 mentioned!!”

“W-what?” I sputtered, coughing up the food in my throat. “W-who’s DJ Pon3?”

“Hey Crabapple!” Kernel called out to the restaurant owner. “Turn on Pon3’s station!”

The pony running the place nodded, and a moment later the area was filled with the beautiful sounds of violins and a mare’s voice. I sat still, entranced by the soothing music as it played. I hardly paid attention to what the mare was singing about, but her voice… if I had just sat in a room listening to her voice for all of eternity, I’d have died a happy stallion. As the song started to draw to a close, I felt sad. Don’t go, miss pretty voice… Can’t you just sing a little more? I’ll-

“HELLOOOOOOO WASTELAND!!”

I jumped, startled by the sudden intrusion of a brash, male voice cutting through the music.

“This is DJ Pon3, bringing you the latest news from the world outside!”

Kernel laughed, eliciting a grumble from me as I picked up my own Sparkle-Cola and took a few sips, my newly fixed Geiger counter clicking steadily with every gulp.

"Now, before we get on to the juicier stuff, I've got a quick update on last week's report. You all remember, the one about the pony that fell from the sky?"

I spit out my soda, showering the table with a sticky, carroty mess. I was on the radio. Why was I on the radio?

"Well, if you don’t remember, that happened. Anyways, seems our fallen angel was recently spotted heading towards a raider den north of Three Arrows. Now angel, if you're listening, I usually recommend staying AWAY from Raider holes, especially if it’s your first time in the wasteland. And that goes for the rest of you listeners out there, too! Raiders are bad news, so don’t go looking for them just so you can play hero. But if you do, at least make sure you can handle yourself in a fight, alright?"

"And now, on to the good stuff! First off, it looks like the self-proclaimed Raider King Ironsights has set his sights on..."

The DJ continued his news report, but I couldn’t focus on that – I was too stunned at what he had already said. That radio host… talking about me. Me. Why was I important?

“Wow, speak of the devil, huh? That was you, right?” Kernel asked, her eyes practically glimmering with amazement. “You’re the pony that DJ Pon3 was talking about?”

I was barely able to manage a response. She wasn’t wrong, but… me? I was still having a hard time believing it, it seemed so… bizarre. Slowly, I gave Kernel a nod.

“Oh, that’s so exciting!!” Kernel tried to keep herself from squealing. “I heard about that last week, but I never thought I’d actually meet the fallen angel himself!”

“P-please don’t call me-”

“So what was it like?” Kernel interrupted. “How did you fall down here? I mean, ponies fly down from up above a lot, for better or worse, but you’re the only pony I’ve ever heard of falling down here! How did you survive? Did it hurt? Oh, and I heard you fell into the Everfree Forest! Is that true? How did you get out of there alive? That place is a deathtrap!”

“H-hey, slow down! I-”

“Sorry, I just… ah, I have so many questions! What have you been doing since you fell? I mean, the report was a week ago, so you must have been doing some cool things in the meantime! Fight any cool monsters? Nab any treasures? Meet any interesting ponies?”

“I… well, ‘interesting’ wouldn’t be my first choice of word to describe her, but-”

“Ooh! It was a mare? Even better! Was she pretty?”

What.

“What was she like?” Kernel went on. “Did you like her? Did she like you? Did you kiss? Did you fu-”

“Okay!” I interrupted, my cheeks flushing red. “That’s enough about me, don’t you think that’s enough about me? I think that’s enough about me. Why don’t we talk about something else? I’m sure there are lots of fascinating subjects that have nothing to do with me.”

“Huh?” Kernel blinked a couple times. “But-”

“Please?” I begged. “I’m here, safe in Three Arrows, and that’s all that matters right now. The last thing I want to do is think about all the horrors I’ve seen these past couple days.”

“Oh, fine.” Kernel pouted, plopping back into her seat. “But I still want answers to my questions later, alright?”

“Sure thing.” Not on your life.

“Great!” The mare quickly magic-ed her food out of the way, leaning forward and propping her hooves on the table. “So, anything in particular you want to talk about?”

I paused, taking a moment to consider the question. Is there? Kernel had already told me pretty much everything there was to know about Three Arrows, so nothing on that front. Maybe more about the Wasteland? Some potential threats? But I was on the verge of returning home, and most of the Wasteland’s horrors don’t apply in the Equestria Skies. But then-

“Kernel!! There you are!”

My ears perked up, drawing my attention to- ACK, GHO… wait, no, bad Canvas. That’s Lugnut. He’s not a zombie.

“Oh, Lugnut!” Kernel gave a slight wave at the ghoul’s approach. “You on break too?”

“Kernel, you’ve been gone for an hour!” Lugnut hissed. “You said you were only going on a Lunch break!”

“Well yeah!” Kernel smiled. “I am at lunch, am I not?”

“Ugh…” Lugnut turned, his gaze suddenly shifting towards me. “You! Are you wasting my employee’s time out here? Who are you, anyways?”

“I, uh, C-Canvas, Mr. Lugnut, sir.”

The stallion glared at me, with a look that gave Temper’s stare a run for its money.

“Listen here, Color. I run a business. Businesses need employees. And employees can’t do their job if you sit around here wasting their time. Got it?”

“G-got it.”

“Good.” The ghoul grumbled, turning his head to the side. “As long as I’m here, did you fix the electrical panel yet, Kernel? I get that you were… gone for a little while, but a lot of ponies have started complaining.”

Kernel froze for a moment, pausing mid-bite. Slowly, an awkward smile crept onto her face.

“Oh, yeah, that thing…” Kernel forced out a laugh. “Of course I finished that already! I wouldn’t forget something like that. That’d… that’d be irresponsible. But, uh, don’t worry! It’s already done!”

“Hmmph.” Lugnut grunted, “Finish your lunch, and then get back to work.”

“Yep, uh, bye Lugnut!” Kernel replied hastily, waving the stallion off. With a final glare, the ghoul turned, trotting off into the town. Kernel kept waving until Lugnut disappeared around a corner, at which point she suddenly leapt away from the table, tossing a few caps on top of it.

“Ok, quick detour from the tour.” Kernel spat out. “I need to go fix a thing that I probably should have fixed earlier, once I’m done we can go right back to the tour. It’s just on the outside wall of Three Arrows, it won’t take long.”

“Oh, uh…” I backed away slightly, getting up and setting a few caps of my own on the table. “Th-that’s fine. I’ll, uh… I’ll just wait in here until-” OH GOD WHAT’S HAPPENING

Before I could finish my sentence, I felt myself being lifted off the ground as a shimmering purple light surrounded me. I started to panic, my wings flaring out – Augh! That still hurts! I jerked my head to the side, looking at Kernel and watching her horn produce the same colored light.

“You’re coming with me,” Kernel replied, “I already got captured once this week, I’d rather not make it twice. Besides, I need somepony to talk to while I work.”

“Wha- gah!!” All of a sudden, the mare started walking, and I was hastily pulled along in her magical embrace. “Wait!! Please, uh, stop? P-put me down? Kernel?!? PLEASE?!?”

It was no use. Escape was futile, leaving me to writhe in terror as I was pulled away from my food, back towards the harsh wasteland outside.

“Damn, they really did a number on you, didn’t they?”

I’d flailed and flapped around in a panic, but ultimately no amount of struggling made Kernel let me go. After a while, I gave up, simply letting the mare pull me outside and to the electrical panel, where she finally released me from her evil magical grip. A part of me wanted to just run right back inside, but I figured Kernel would just grab me and hold me in place again. So instead, I simply waited, watching quietly as the unicorn pulled out a few tools, preparing to go to work. Soon enough, she had started tinkering with the electrical panel, all sorts of wires and circuits poking out from the rusty box of metal as she worked.

“S-so, uh,” I said, breaking the silence. “You’re a technician, huh? What’s that like?”

“Yup!” Kernel smiled. “It’s pretty fun, if mostly uneventful. Usually, if something in town is broken, the townsfolk get Lugnut to – oh, Lugnut’s a mechanic, I should mention – anyways, they get him to fix it. And he’s really good at fixing stuff, but some things are a bit too complicated for him. Mostly anything with wires or a screen. So if one of those breaks, that’s where I come in!”

“You seem to be good at it.” I smiled, watching in fascination as the mare magically soldered some wires together.

“Thanks! I’ve been working with tech like this ever since I was a little filly.”

“Seriously?” I raised my eyebrow skeptically. “In an irradiated wasteland?”

“Trust me, there’s a lot more working technology than you’d think. Robots, magic weapons, PipBucks, you name it. Heck, I’ve yet to find a vending machine that doesn’t still have power.”

“Really?” I said, my eyes widening a bit. “Not a single one? It’s been over a century since the megaspells, how do they still have power?”

“That’s what I want to know!” Kernel sighed. “I swear, it’s like they’re taunting me! Taunting me with their sweet, beautiful inner workings… But one of these days, I’ll get them! I’ll figure out the source of their power! And then… oh, just think what I could do with that knowledge…”

“I guess.” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “Uh… you know, I was wondering… if you don’t mind me asking, how did you get… captured? By those raiders?”

“Oh, that.” Kernel sighed, gesturing to the electrical panel with her tools. “You can thank this little guy for that wonderful experience. Did I already mention what this thing does?”

I shook my head no.

“Well, it’s nothing super important on its own. Just a circuit breaker, a relay point for some of the town’s power.”

I blinked a couple times as Kernel paused to focus on her work.

“That sounds incredibly important!” I neighed.

“Not really,” Kernel shrugged. “It only controls the lights, and even then only the lights for the north wall. We have a secondary generator inside the building for the more important stuff. Anyways, one of the townsfolk said their lights were on the fritz, so I went and checked it out. The switch wasn’t working, but the lights seemed fine, so I figured the problem was with the panel.

“Turns out, I was right! I came right out here, and there was this huge gash across the front of the box – you can still see it here, see?” I nodded, looking at the torn covering for the panel. “For a moment, I thought some kind of animal had attacked it, but before I could think about it too much, WHAM! Something hit me in the back of the head, and I blacked out.

“I don’t know how long it took me to wake up, but once I did, I was – hey, pass me that screwdriver, will ya? – I was locked up in this cage. I started looking around, and there was another pony there too… well, at least, parts of another pony. Mostly just his body. Naturally, I started to panic, looking at the room outside the cage, and I saw those three raiders. The big guy… what did the girl call him, Muscle? Well, he was chowing down on what looked like a pony’s legs. Then I realized the body in the cage with me was missing its legs.

“I remember I started screaming, trying to use my magic to get free, but the other raiders kept shooting at me – not hitting me, mind you, just shooting at me – and eventually I stopped. I didn’t want their aim to suddenly improve, you know? Plus, in all my flailing, I’d tired myself out, so I couldn’t even use my magic to steal the keys. Well, not without them noticing, anyways. And then…”

Kernel paused, tapping her chin for a moment.

“Well, after that you showed up.” Kernel said. “I guess you already know the rest.”

For a moment, I stayed silent, unsure of how to properly respond.

“I-I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Don’t fret about it.” Kernel replied nonchalantly. “I got a hell of a story out of it, huh? Oh! I wonder if I could get my story on the radio too! That’d be so cool!”

I blinked a few times.

“You know,” I said, furrowing my eyebrows, “For somepony who just went through something most ponies would consider traumatizing, you seem pretty, uh… chipper.”

“Do I?” Kernel tilted her head slightly. “I hadn’t noticed. Besides, how should I act? Scared? Sad? There’s not a set of rules for how a pony is supposed to feel after certain events, is there?” Kernel paused, giving a quick gasp. “Oh jeeze, I didn’t break any emotional rules, did I? Nopony told me!!”

“I-I, uh…” I sputtered, confused by the mare’s sarcasm. “N-no, there’s no rules, but… w-well, those ponies, they were… they were planning on doing terrible things to you, right? A-and you seemed pretty scared at the time, so… why aren’t you shaken at all? Why are you so… happy?”

Now it was Kernel’s turn to blink emotionlessly.

“Why wouldn’t I be happy?”

“Huh?”

“Well, I’m not in danger anymore, am I? I mean, sure, when I was locked in the cage, I was scared, because I didn’t have a way out, and I might have been killed, eaten, or… worse.” Kernel gave a slight shudder. “But now I’m not. I’m safe and sound, back in my home, and just a little bit smarter for having lived through it. So why shouldn’t I be happy?”

“Because… ok, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be happy, but you must have some bad thoughts and memories still floating around your head, right?”

“Well sure, but why does that matter? Am I supposed to dwell on the bad memories? Retreat into a corner and never come out? That’s silly. If everypony acted like that, nothing would get done. We’d all sit at home, worrying and feeling sad about everything that has happened to us, and everything that could happen to us. I can’t think of a much worse existence than that.”

I sat still as Kernel smiled, returning to her work. For a little while, I just stood there, silently staring as Kernel worked. It was almost funny. With maybe the exception of Windspeed, I don’t think I’d ever met somepony with as cheerful an outlook on life as Kernel. And in the Wasteland, no less! A part of me wanted to laugh, acknowledge the irony of the situation.

“Hey,” Kernel spoke up, “I know you said you didn’t want to talk about yourself any more, but there was one last thing I was curious about.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you’re not from Three Arrows, or any other Wasteland settlement. If you’re from above the clouds, then you’re probably not a mercenary either. And yet, you snuck into that airship and saved me. Why?”

“Well…” I started to rub the back of my neck. “Truth be told, I wasn’t really there to save you. That just kind of… happened. Along the way.”

“And I’m glad it did!” Kernel smiled, turning from her work for only a second. “But that only tells me why you weren’t there.”

“Yeah,” I nodded slowly. “So, I mentioned that I broke my wing right? When I fell out of the sky?” Kernel gave me a nod as she worked. “Well, with a broken wing, I wasn’t able to fly, which meant I couldn’t get back home. Fortunately for me, this… robot, thing, told me that there was a radio transmitter on the airship, which meant I could send a message to the Enclave to come and save me. Lucky, right?”

Kernel stopped, a frown forming on her face as she took in my words.

“The Enclave?”

“Yeah…” I raised an eyebrow at Kernel’s reaction, but then it hit me. “Oh, duh! You probably don’t know who they are! See, up above the clouds, we-”

“No, no, I know who they are.” Kernel cut me off. “Most ponies in the Wasteland know who they are.”

“Oh.” I blinked a few times. “Really? That’s surprising, they-”

“And everypony who does hates their guts.”

…what?

“Those bastards…” Kernel hissed, her voice losing all of its usual cheery demeanor. “They harass us honest-working Wastelanders on what may as well be a daily basis. Wiping out smaller settlements, warring with the Steel Rangers… always claiming they’re gonna ‘make Equestria better’ while they slaughter anyone they don’t like. Bunch of self-absorbed cowards, if you ask me. I can’t believe you pegasai live with those monsters.”

“W-what are you talking about?” I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “The Enclave hasn’t been on the surface in years! They only ever send scouting squads down below the clouds, and they’ve certainly never made contact with the ponies down here.”

“Yeah, sure they haven’t.” Kernel rolled her eyes. “And I’m sure all those outposts they have down here, all the ones that indiscriminately murder Wastelanders on sight, those are just scouting squads too?”

“Indiscriminate… what?” Now I was thoroughly lost. “Are we even talking about the same Enclave? Our Enclave is focused on the betterment of ponykind! All ponykind! They wouldn’t just go around killing Wastelanders for no good reason. Th-this must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“If you say so.”

“I know so.”

For a few moments, the two of us just stared at each other, neither one willing to say anything else. It irritated me that Kernel would so casually slander the Enclave like that. I may not be as Enclave gung-ho as Windspeed, but I still had my national pride. And to say such awful things… it was ludicrous! Killing Wastelanders? Setting up Outposts? The Enclave know how dangerous it is down here, with the monsters and the raiders and the pois… ok, not the poisoned air, the Enclave scientists had clearly been misinformed on that front, but still! None of Kernel’s accusations even made any sense.

The silence held for a long time. Finally, the mare let out an annoyed sigh, shrugging her shoulders as she finished up work on the panel.

“Well,” she hesitantly responded, “If you do intend to have those guys find you, then you probably shouldn’t hang around Three Arrows for too long.”

“I… huh?” I furrowed my eyebrows, pulled off track by a new line of thought. “B-but Three Arrows is nice, and safe. Why-”

“If they’re as good as you say they are – and they aren’t, by the way – but if you think they are, then they’d be looking for you around where you sent the distress call, not all the way out here. You’ll probably want to camp out back around the airship, and soon, or you risk missing them entirely.”

“I… but…” I struggled to form an argument as Kernel quickly packed up all her tools, stuffing them in a pouch at her side. Finally, I relented. “Dammit, you’re right.”

“I usually am.” Kernel nodded, taking a few steps towards me. “Listen, opinions about the Enclave aside, I’ve got nothing against you. You did save me, after all, so you can’t be too bad. But I’m telling you, those guys coming to save you? They’re not as nice as you seem to think they are. So, if you change your mind and decide to stick around, I’ll make sure there’s a place for you here in Three Arrows.”

“Thanks,” I replied, trying my best not to rekindle the argument. “But I don’t intend to stay here for even a second longer than I have to.”

“Suit yourself.” Kernel shrugged. “I mean, if I had someplace as nice as you claim to go home to, I guess I wouldn’t live down here either. Just… stay safe, alright? And thank you again for what you did.”

I nodded, waving Kernel off as she trotted back inside Three Arrows. Slowly, I turned, looking back out into the hills of the Wasteland. With one last look at my PipBuck to make sure I was going the right way, I started walking.

God damn, how far away WAS Three Arrows?

Three Arrows had turned out to be much farther from the Hummingbird wreckage than I’d thought. I’d been walking for a few hours, and if my PipBuck was to be believed, I was still a good couple miles from the wreckage. As I climbed up dusty hill after dusty hill, I hoped I wouldn’t have to find some place to set up camp before I could get there – every moment I wasted not at the Hummingbird was now a moment that I could squander my rescue.

I wish I could have waited in Three Arrows, I thought with a sigh. I turned my head, glancing back in the direction I had come from – the town was well out of sight by this point. As I started to look away, I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye. I stopped, turning to face the movement, as a surprisingly familiar face approached. Or rather, a familiar orb of metal.

“Oh. You.” I turned away, eager to leave the robot behind.

“Hey, don’t be like that!” Watcher called out, floating up alongside me. “I said I was sorry, didn’t I?”

“You did.” I groaned. “Right before you sent me to infiltrate a raider base.”

“I also said to prepare for a fight.”

“Oh, so you knew it was a raider base.” I nickered. “And yet you still sent me there.”

“I did.” Watcher replied. “But that was all. You were the one who actually entered the ship. I never made you do that.”

“Huh?” I furrowed my brows. “What are-”

“At any point, you could have turned around, walked away, found a radio transmitter somewhere safer. And yet, you didn’t. You fought your way in, you saved that mare, and you got what you were looking for, while getting rid of some of the filth of the Wasteland.”

“I… wait, saved…” slowly, I felt a few puzzle pieces begin to click in my mind. “Watcher, did you know that Kernel was being held prisoner there?”

“I see many things in the Wasteland.”

“I choose to take that as a ‘yes’… then, you… did you send me there to save her?”

Watcher remained silent, a steady mechanical hum coming from the flying metallic orb.

“Thank you, Canvas.” Watcher finally responded. “That’s all I wanted to say. You may have helped secure Equestria’s future.”

“What do you-”

Too late. Before I could finish, Watcher once again made his dramatic exit – a loud “pop” followed by polka music. As the robot once again vanished into the distance, I nickered softly. Dammit, does he always do that? I mean, seriously, in the middle of my question? What a-

KRA-KOOM!!

I jumped, starting to rush for cover as a loud, thunderous boom filled my ears. My eyes darted to look towards the source of the sound, when I saw… something. At first, it just looked like a small dot, moving against the backdrop of clouds in a line. Slowly, though, the dot started to get bigger, more details revealing themselves as it did. The distinct pony shape first, then the stark blue colors…

I felt a rush of air as the pony flew past me, and I covered my face with a wing to keep dust from entering my eyes. I looked back up at the figure, now skidding to a halt along the Wasteland floor, kicking up even more dust as it landed. Through the dust, I saw a pony-shaped shadow turn towards me, moving forwards with slow, deliberate steps. As the dust began to settle, I finally saw the pony, my eyes widening as I took them in. Blue armor, lightning bolt detailing… but more importantly, a messy purple mane and turquoise muzzle.

“W… Windspeed?”

At first, the pony said nothing, cocking his head to the side ever so slightly as he looked at me. But slowly, I saw the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile.

“When I said you needed to go outside, this isn’t quite what I-”

He never got the last word out. By the time he had reached the end of his sentence, I had already thrown my hooves around his neck, squeezing my friend in a tight hug. In an instant, every tear I had held back came flooding out, and all I could do was stand there, crying on Windspeed’s shoulder. Every pony I’d killed, every wound I’d sustained, all the torment of Temper’s training… all of my pain and sins poured out of me in one long, sustained moment of relief.

Windspeed paused, momentarily stunned by my action. Slowly, I felt his legs wrap around me, accepting the hug as I continued to cry. For a moment, I felt like I didn’t deserve it. After everything that had happened, I didn’t deserve to be saved. I started to push away, but that only made Windspeed hold me tighter.

“I…” I sniffled, tears still flowing from my eyes as I tried to form a sentence. “Th-the things I did… I-I didn’t mean to… I-I-I had to, Windspeed, I-I just-”

“I know.” Windspeed said. “It’s alright.”

I couldn’t be certain, but amongst everything, I thought I heard Windspeed crying too.

I don’t know how long the two of us stayed like that. Windspeed continued to console me as I let every emotion pour out of me. Eventually, I stood up, relinquishing Windspeed from my grip as he did the same.

“Canvas,” Windspeed asked, watching me try to compose myself. “What the fuck happened to you? Your mom only reported you missing a few days ago, and then suddenly we get a distress call from the Wasteland? What, did you just decide you felt like dying as painfully as possible?”

“I-I can tell you about that later.” I chuckled, wiping my tears away. “C’mon, I’ve been down here more than enough for a lifetime. It’ll be nice to sleep on a real bed again.”

Windspeed didn’t move. My chuckling started to die out, turning into awkward laughter at my friend’s silence. Suddenly, Windspeed’s mouth turned up in a smile again, and he let out a short laugh as well.

“Heh, yeah…” Windspeed coughed, folding up his wings as he motioned over his shoulder. “Uh, hey, can we walk? Just… just for a little bit?”

I stared at Windspeed as if he had suddenly grown three heads.

“Really?” I said incredulously. “You want to walk here?”

“W-well, I, uh…” Windspeed coughed again. “I’m sure you have quite a story to tell, right? We could just walk for a bit, talk about-”

“Windspeed, there will be plenty of time to talk once I’ve got clouds below my hooves again.”

“Yeah, but… I thought you'd like a chance to just talk.”

“Well yeah, I would.” I replied with a laugh. “But not when something could come along and kill me at any moment.”

“Canvas, I-“

“Seriously, Windspeed, can't this wait? C'mon, lets-”

“CANVAS!!”

I froze, my ears folding back as I looked at my friend. His lips had drawn up in a snarl, his wings flaring out for just a moment. The area went silent, my eyes locked on Windspeed as he tried to compose himself. A few seconds later, he gave me an uncomfortable smile.

“Canvas, please...”

I stared at Windspeed, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. This isn’t like him.

“...alright…” I said, more asking than anything. “Let's just, uh... walk.”

Windspeed nodded, slowly starting to trot as I followed beside him. We were both quiet, waiting for the other to break the silence, neither of us willing to do it ourselves.

“Canvas,” Windspeed finally spoke up, “I, uh... I have to ask you something.”

“Y-Yeah?” I stammered, “What's that?”

Windspeed paused, rolling his hoof as he tried to find the right words.

“What do... I mean, where...” Windspeed sighed, turning around so his whole body faced me. “How did you find that radio signal?”

Oh.

“Uh... w-well, you know how it is, dude, you-”

“I'm not asking as your friend.” Windspeed interrupted. “I'm asking as an officer in the Grand Pegasus Enclave.”

I flinched, my ears folding back again. It wasn't like Windspeed to be this serious, even on duty. I sighed, ready to own up to my actions.

“I-I'm sorry.” I blurted out, “I... I looked at your holodisk. Th-the one with O.D. on the front. I didn't want to, and I-I knew it would get me in trouble, b-but I had to! I-I had to get a message to you, because my wing was broken, a-and then I got captured, and... I-I'm sorry, Windspeed!”

“You read the debriefing.” It wasn't a question.

“I'm sorry.” I repeated. “I know that’s breaking some kind of law… I-I'll go quietly, I won't cause any trouble.”

“Right...” there was a slight waver in Windspeed's voice, one I couldn't quite place. “Uh, could you... just, just wait here for a moment, alright?”

Slowly, I nodded, and Windspeed forced a smile. He trotted away from me, bringing a hoof to his ear as he started talking. I could only barely make out Windspeed's side of the conversation from where I was.

“Sir, I've made contact... yes... yes, he...”

Windspeed went silent for a few moments. I thought back to the holodisk, recollecting the warning. “Any unauthorized ponies found accessing or attempting to access this data will be detained…” I-I don’t wanna go to jail…

“Sir, I don't... but...”

I started to shift uncomfortably. M-maybe Windspeed won’t even turn me in. We’re friends, right? He wouldn’t…

“Please... don't...”

More silence. W-well… well, maybe the Enclave will cut me some slack… i-it was just survival, you know? Wrong place, wrong time… I-I didn’t really have a choice. As I watched, Windspeed lowered his head ever so slightly.

“...yes… yes, sir.”

Windspeed lowered his hoof, turning to face me once more. His helmet covered most of his face, but I could still tell he was looking at the ground rather than at me.

“So, uh...” I coughed, reaching a hoof behind my neck. “A-are we all set to go?”

Windspeed said nothing. Slowly, his head tilted up.

“Do you know why I'm here?”

For a moment, I furrowed my eyebrows, before laughing nervously.

“What kind of question is that? Y-you're here to save me, right? I-I sent a distress call, so-”

“Canvas.” Windspeed interrupted. “By order of the High Council of the Grand Pegasus Enclave, my mission objectives are as follows: Locate the pegasus who sent the distress call, find out if they know anything related to Operation Optic Delve, and...”

Windspeed faltered, his voice cracking ever so slightly. A moment later, his voice returned.

“And eliminate them.”

I felt my pupils shrink. In an instant, twin magical rifles extended from the sides of Windspeed's armor, each one aimed directly at me. I stared at Windspeed, confusion overwhelming me as I saw a few tears start to leak from underneath his helmet.

“I was sent here to kill you.”

Author's Notes:

Level up

New Perk: Quick Draw – Stick ‘em up! Quick Draw makes all of your weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster.