My chest hurt. My head hurt. Everything hurt. I couldn’t move, it hurt too much.

I heard somepony crying. I think it was mom. Dad was saying something to her.

“It’s alrecht, love. Jist let it out.” He said.

“How can you be so calm about this?” Mom screamed. “She almost died, Sid!”

“Ah know tha’. There’s nothin’ Ah ken dae abit it, though. If Ah panic, Ah’ll just make it worse.”

I tried to say something, but I couldn’t find the strength to talk.

“This is all my fau-ha-haaault!” Mom sobbed.

“It’s nae yer fault, Zala. Ye didnae know.” Dad said in a low voice. “Don’t blame yerself.”

Mom sobbed something incoherently.

“Aye, but tha’ changes nothin’.” Mom mumbled something else. “But she’s nae dead. She’ll be fine suin enough.

“… saw the look on your face, Sid. You were scared too.” She sniffed.

“Eh… Ah’ll admit… Tha’ was a lot ay blood… but we got tae her in time, so it doesnae really matter, nao does it?”

I tried to speak again, and failed once more.

“I could have looked harder. I could have gotten somepony to watch her while I was gone.” Mom sniffled again. “I shouldn’t have taken her with me. She wouldn’t have-“

“Aye, and Ah should ‘ave paid attention when I was playin’ with magic. Ah might still have mah ol’ fur an’ cutie mark. Bit too late fer that, nao isn’t it?” Dad retorted. “Ye made a mistake, Zala. Nothin’ too serious happened.”

“Nothing too…” Mom’s voice suddenly took on a tone of anger. “Sid, she had a seven foot spike stuck through her chest. She had a collapsed lung. How is that not serious?”

“Zala-“

“Oh, and she also had seven broken ribs, two of which needed to be removed.”

“Zala-“

“And she had a severe concussion, a crack in her horn, several pieces of metal stuck in her-“

“ZALA!” Dad roared, something I’d never heard him do before. “Calm down!”

“…”

“Aam sorry, Zala, but yer goin’ tae give yerself an ulcer th’ way yer goin’.”

“You didn’t even know what an ulcer was until I told you.”

“Doesnae matter. The point is, when Diamond wakes up, she’s goin’ tae need help, and we cannae help her if we’re dwellin’ on what we coulda done.”

“M-mommy…” I croaked.

Within less than a second, I felt her hoof on my forehead, and saw her face in the corner of my vision. “Hey, sweetie, how are you feeling?”

“… hurts…”

“I know, sweetie. You… you…” She sniffed. “It’s okay, Diamond. You’ll get better soon. I promise.”

“… scared…”

Her ears twitched. “You’re scared? What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t do more than sniffle as I felt tears coming.

“Sweetheart, yer goin’ tae be alrecht. Ah swear it.” Dad said, entering my vision on the other side with a smile. “Ye’ll be up an’ abit in nae time.”

I sniffled again, and fell back asleep.
~~~~~

She glares at me from within her cage. I glare right back.

“Ye look pissed.”

“Do I?” She sneers. “Must be because I’M TRAPPED INSIDE YOUR CAGE!”

I simply stare at her.

“I’m going to get out of this, Knives.” She growls. “Whether you like it or not.”

I narrow my eyes. “Yer never getting’ out ay here.”

She grins widely, exposing her shark-like teeth. “We’ll see about-“

Knives, wake up!

01000101011100100111001001101111011100100011101000100000010100000110110001100101011000010111001101100101001000000111001001100101011011000110111101100001011001000010000001100100011100100110010101100001011011010010111001100101011110000110010100101110

“Bwuh…” I said.

“Wake up, Knives.” Stock gave me another shake. “Somethin’s wrong with Stripes.”

I stretched and cracked my joints, earning a wince from everypony but Raid, who was still puking over the side of our makeshift raft, and looked even more pale than he had when we got on. Zeed was sitting on the opposite side, an angry look in her eyes. Stock was standing right next to me, glancing worriedly at Zeed as she tried to wake me up.

“Wha’s goin’ oan?” I yawned as I rubbed my eyes.

The answer came in the form of a loud scraping sound, and the billboard started to slow.

Zeed growled. “We ran out of water, apparently.”

“Och, that’s a shame. Ah wanted tae sing a shanty.” I yawned again. “What time is it?”

“Do I look like I have a clock on me?” She shot me a glare, and turned to stare angrily at the remains of the flood.

Stock whispered in my ear. “She’s been acting like this for about half an hour now. She just, like, got all pissed off out of nowhere.”

“She’s probably had another mood swing,” I trotted over to my zebra friend. “Ye feelin’ alright, Zeed?”

She growled again. “No. I’m fucking tired.”

“Alright, alright.” I said. “Ah get it, Ah understand.”

“Graaagh! When the fuck are we gonna fucking get there? It’s been for-fucking-ever! FUCKING LUNA’S FLANK!” She yelled.

“Calm down, Zeed. There’s nae need tae get upset.”

“Calm down?” She spun to face me. She already had bags under her eyes. “How the fuck can I calm down? My dad might have been caught by slavers. You realize how bad that is, right? Right?”

“Ah know, Zeed, but-“

“And on top of that, I haven’t slept since we left Bladesville.” She bared her teeth in an angry grin. “Do you remember what that feels like?”

I winced. A few painful memories came to mind. “Aye. Ye know Ah dae.”

“Guess what else.” She let out a humorless laugh. “My cigarettes got wet, and I don’t know how! I haven’t even touched the water. So now I’m getting withdrawal symptoms too! Isn’t that nice?”

“Zeed!” I yelled, shocking her out of her infuriated rant. “Take a deep breath, and exhale slowly.”

She stared at me like I’d gone crazy. “How in the fuck is that gonna help?”

“Just dae it.” With a roll of her eyes, she inhaled deeply through her nose, and let the breath out through pursed lips. “Nao dae it again. And again. And again.”

We kept on doing that for about two minutes, until I saw her visibly relax.

“Goddesses, Zeed. Ye really need tae learn how tae calm yerself down.”

She harrumphed. “Says the walking rage-bomb.”

“And Ah still dunnae get angry as easily as ye. What’s eatin’ ye?” I put a comforting hoof on her shoulder hopeful that it would calm her.

She made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl. “I haven’t seen him in so long. I don’t even know if he still cares. He never really liked mom. I can understand why. She’s probably the stupidest zebra to ever live.”

I stared at her thoughtfully for a moment. “Sae, ye got pissed off ‘cuz ye started thinkin’ about yer mother.”

She sighed again. “Yes…”

“Don’t worry, Zeed. How could anypony nae care about their own foal?”

“Batch. Coral. Copper. Pike. Slip and Flip. Construct.”

I grimaced. “Eh… Alright, Ah’ll give ye that. But… just trust meh. Aam certain that he still cares. Hell, fer all we know he might’a been tryin’ tae get back intae th’ prison all this time.”

Her frown lessened, almost becoming a smile. “Yeah. I guess that’s the kind of thing he’d do.”

“Either way… Ye just need tae relax. Don’t stress yerself out, alright?” I patted her shoulder, and she sighed. “Dunnae worry. We’ll find him.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” She said, her face brightening up. “So… Now that we lost our raft, what are we doing now?”

Raid groaned and stood shakily. Some of the color had returned to his face. “Give me another minute. My stomach’s still churning.”

“Hurry up, Blue.” Stock snickered. “We don’t wanna deal with your problems too!”

The buck rolled his eyes, and started trotting down the street. “Okay… so… I don’t see any… unpleasant things, so I’m guessing we aren’t quite there yet.”

“What kind ay ‘unpleasant things’?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Corpses dangling from chains, blood smeared all over the walls, graffiti with enough swears to fill a whole ‘nother dictionary. Normal raider crap.” He began to trot down the street. “Either that, or possibly some kind of bone-totem or fence or… let’s just go with ‘anything that looks like it belongs to a raider’.”

“How about that?” Said Stock as we rounded a corner.

She pointed down the road at what appeared to be a corpse stuck on a giant metal spike, with its limbs held up by smaller spikes stuck through them in a similar manner. There was a lot of old, dried blood on the ground. The whole place was covered in a dense orange fog, much thicker than the mist I’d seen around the rest of Canturbury.

“Oh, goddesses that’s morbid.” I grimaced, thankful that I hadn’t eaten anything. “How did we nae notice that?”

“It looks like some-urp-pony gutted him,” said Zeed. “I think his spine’s show-urp showing.”

“Eeyup. That there be some raiders.” Raid said. “Oh, look! There’s another one.”

“Hey, shouldn’t there be scavengers around here or something?” Stock tapped her chin with a forehoof.

“Scavvers? In this area?” Raid quirked an eyebrow.

“No, no… I mean, like… crows. Vultures. I’ve seen them around most of Canturbury. Them and the roaches are practically the only surviving wildlife in the desert areas.” She looked around. “This is probably like a smorgasbord for them. So where are they?”

Then Zeed screamed in pain. I spun to see her holding a foreleg.

“SNIPER!” Raid roared. “TAKE COVER!”

“Sniper?” I balked. “But Ah didnae even hear-“

“Move! Move!” Raid shoved me behind the building as Stock did the same with Zeed, whose leg had already started bleeding profusely. “Stock, I think I saw a muzzle flash on the roof of that restaurant a block over.”

“On it.” She shot off into the air, alighting on the roof of the building we were hiding behind.

“You alright, Zeed?”

She grunted around the pair of tweezers she had in her mouth. She took a deep breath, and plunged the tool into the bullet-wound, and grunted in pain.

“Dae ye want me tae get that fer ye?” I asked with a grimace.

She shook her head, and yanked the tweezers out. I saw the bullet bounce off somewhere as she spat out the tweezers and immediately began pouring a healing potion over the wound. As the liquid began to do its work, she growled. “I just fucking fixed this leg.”

“Stick… I need a stick…” Raid muttered as he searched the ground.

Zeed and I gave him a confused look. Wordlessly, I pulled a light metal rod out of my mane and levitated it over to him. He took one end in his mouth and put his hat on the other end of it. “Thanks!”

Then he stuck it out from behind the cover of the wall.

The hat promptly sprouted several extra holes.

He pulled the hat back, grinning widely. “I didn’t think that would actually work.”

As soon as I opened my mouth to ask what the point of that was, several gunshots rang out from Stock’s position.

Everything was silent for a moment.

Raid smiled. “Sounds like she got ‘im.”

I heard Stock scream at the top of her undead lungs. “INCOMING!”

I head a whoosh noise. Then the street in front of me exploded. It was close enough that the force of the blast threw Raid into me, knocking both of us over. I was left with a loud ringing in my ears.

Raid said something, but I couldn’t hear it.

“WHAT?” I yelled.

“I HATE MISSILE LAUNCHERS!” He responded in kind.

Zeed let out a pained groan. “Owwww. What the hell just happened?”

Stock shot down from her position on the rooftops and landed in front of us. “Blue, we need to move!”

“WHAT?” He yelled as he got to his hooves.

“MOVE!” She screamed. “NOW!”

The two ponies helped Zeed and I to our hooves, and we all promptly galloped towards the building next to the one we were hiding behind.

I saw the ground near our former position explode several more times, before a loud whooping noise sounded in the distance, followed by cheering.

“Gaaagh! What are these guys, raiders or slavers?” Raid groaned. He rubbed his ears with his hooves.

“Pfft, what’s the difference?” Stock snorted. “There’s a shitload of them out there. They’ll probably make their way over here soon. They’re slow, though.”

“Wish we brought mines. Knives, can you get your ‘nade launcher ready?” He pointed down the street. “We’ve got incoming.”

I levitated the weapon off my back and floated it in front of me. Zeed began to check us for injury, having us all take a small sip of healing potion before drawing her pistol.

Then the Bone Eaters rounded the corner. There were about thirty of them, all wearing some variant of clothing constructed from auto-cart tires, metal spikes and something that looked like leather. Every single one carried some sort of melee weapon in their mouth or their magic, waving them menacingly and roaring challenges as they approached.

“Open fire!” Stock roared.

My first shot hit one of them right in the muzzle, though all it did was launch him into the pony behind him. The rest just trampled over their fallen comrades. Several beams of red light struck several more in the legs, causing three more to scream in pain and stumble. Raid and Stock, the former armed with his scatterguns and the former carrying a large rifle, managed to kill every target with one or two hits, though they took careful aim each time. By the time they reached us, there were about twenty left.

When they actually reached us, I drew my baton. It was then that I realized that I should have gotten a melee weapon that wasn’t broken. As a result of my hesitation, I got smacked in the face by a large club. Twice. It felt like it broke my jaw.

Desperately trying to ignore the pain, I spun around and bucked the attacking mare in the head, receiving a loud cracking noise for my trouble. Another pony tackled me to the ground. He was, for reasons I’d rather not think about, drooling profusely and had decided that the best way to deal with me was to climb on top of me and start beating at my face with his hooves. I held up my forelegs to protect myself, and started chucking anything I could lift telekinetically at him.

I heard Raid shout my name.

The Bone Eater was then promptly launched off me when two hooves crashed into his skull. Several shotgun blasts rang out as Raid lashed out at the others attempting to replace their companion’s position.

I popped back to my hooves and grabbed the nearest weapon.

Then something struck my back. Crying out in pain, I craned my neck to find that my previous attacker had almost instantly recovered, and had stabbed a knife into me, dangerously close to organs that might be important. As he back off, I stared at the knife, then at him, then back at the knife. With a snarl of irritation and a hiss of pain, I pulled the knife out, and brandished it at him.

He charged at me, and I jammed the Knife into his spine. Almost instantly, his back legs went limp, and he crumpled to the ground, screaming with rage. I charged the next pony I saw, a unicorn mare who was giggling madly, and had painted herself in the blood of her dead friends. She didn’t notice me until I leapt onto her and jabbed the knife into her shoulder. It took her a second to respond by stabbing her horn into my chest. With a scream of rage and a telekinetic kick, I brought the handle of the knife down on her horn, making a visible crack in it and causing her to shriek.

“Knives!” I heard somepony call. I think it was Raid, but I didn’t particularly care at the moment, nor did I care about the ball of reddish fire that had flown up into the air.

I charged yet another Bone Eater, cutting his throat open with the knife, grabbing his weapon from his flickering magical grip with my mouth, and driving the aforementioned axe into the foreleg of another attacking pony.

At some point, everything just became a blur of blood and anger, and within what could have been anywhere between a few seconds and a few hours, I found myself standing amidst about twenty corpses, panting, shaking, feeling incredibly tired, and covered in a lot of blood. I think most of it was mine.

I jumped when Raid put a hoof on my shoulder. “Knives, come on! They called for reinforcements!”

I tried to take a step forward, but slipped on a bit of… meat… and fell flat on my face. I couldn’t seem to get back up.

Raid had a worried expression as he looked at me. “Are you okay?”

“Tired.” I panted. “What’s happening?”

“Zeed and Stock are heading over to another building to hide. Uh…” He looked back down the street. “Can you walk at all?”

I tried to get back up, but my legs just gave out again. I let out a quiet whimper. Wordlessly, Raid gently picked me up and placed me on his back. He trotted as quickly as he could without dropping me or putting me in too much pain, until we reached what appeared to be a convenience store. Zeed and Stock had taken cover behind the front counter. The zebra guided Raid over to a table that had been cleared off, where he carefully deposited me onto it.

She began checking me over for injuries, pouring half a potion potion on the knife wound and a few drops on each of the other ones. Raid put another near my lips, and I greedily guzzled it down, still whimpering in pain. Then I gulped down another.

“Okay… So…” Zeed began. “Obviously, we’re not going through the front door.”

Stock scowled. “What are you talking about? That went great! We even have plenty of ammo left.”

Zeed deadpanned at the ghoul. “It’s going to take a couple of hours for Knives to recover. The potions only replace blood so fast.”

“Oh, she’s fine.” Stock scoffed. “Right, Knives?”

“I can’t even stand right now.” I groaned. “My head hurts.”

“Knives, your voice.” Zeed whispered.

“Too tired. Don’t care.”

“Awww, is widdle Knives hurt?”

I groaned again at the sound of her voice in the back of my mind.

Stock rolled her eyes. “Fine. When she’s back up again, we’ll take another crack at it. I’ll just take out the missile launcher this time.”

Raid facehooved. “Okay… I’ve thought of better plans than that. They’re just going to get another pony on their security. I think we should find another way in.”

Stock turned to him. If she had eyebrows, they would have been raised. “Another way in? That could take days.”

“Actually... My pipbuck picked up the name of the place.” He held up the device on his foreleg. “Apparently, that area had an office complex for one of the laboratories. Cryogenics, I think.”

“Ah thought that was in Common?” I coughed.

He shook his head. “No. A cryogenics lab was in Common. This is the… Raftwater? The hell kinda name for a town is that?”

“How does that get us in?” Zeed furrowed her brow in thought.

“All Canturbury labs have multiple entrances-slash-exits. This’ll be no exception.”

Stock eyed the stallion. “Blue, how in the fuck do ya know this much about Canturbury?”

“Because I paid attention during briefings, unlike you.” He replied evenly. “You’re eighty years old. You should have known better than to fuck around when regional information was given out.”

“Eighty years?” I asked incredulously. “How’re ye eighty?”

She shrugged. “Ghouls don’t age. And while I may be a relatively… recent ghoul, I’m still no different.”

“Most ghouls were made by direct exposure to balefire when the megaspells hit.” Raid pointed a forehoof at Stock. “Moron here, on the other hoof, got her stupid flank stuck in a weapons lab where some pre-war scientist had been trying to build a balefire flamethrower. Stock decided to screw around with it. It exploded. She promptly lost all of her skin.”

“Hey! I wasn’t the one screwing around with it! That was Cloud Thresher.” Stock huffed.

“That’s not what Comet told me.” The stallion smirked. “Anyway… She was also lucky enough not to go feral. So, here she is.”

“Can we get back to the matter at hoof, here?” Zeed sighed. “How are we getting in?”

Raid tapped his chin. “Stock and I will go and look for a map. Those usually have alternate entrances. Otherwise, we’ll keep our eyes peeled.”

Stock harrumphed, and flew out of the building.

“You two going to be fine alone?”

Zeed nodded, and Raid trotted out of the building.

“Oooh, Knives, he’s so gentlecoltly. Bringing you in here like that and being all gentle.” My striped friend said in a mocking tone. “You must be so happy.”

I groaned.

“Oh, just tell him already.” She said.

I blushed.

“It’s not like he’ll say ‘no’.” She continued, teasingly.

I tried to roll over and cover my face with my hooves.

“Fine. Suit yourself.” She sighed.

She started rummaging through the shelves of the store, standing on her back legs to get to certain things.

“How’s yer leg?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s fine. The bullet didn’t do much damage, and the potion took care of it.” She grimaced. “I’m just glad it didn’t break the bone or anything. I’d rather not have another broken leg.”

I grunted in acknowledgement.

“Aam goin’ tae try an’ take a nap.”

“Alright. I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”

49:74:27:73:20:61:6c:72:69:67:68:74:20:4b:6e:69:76:65:73:2e:20:53:68:65:27:73:20:61:6c:69:76:65:2e

“It’s a nice house,” mom says. “But I don’t think it’ll work.”

“Aye, but it’s pretteh,” says dad.

“What do you think, Diamond?”

“Huh? What?” I turn, startled out of staring at the flower pot.

Mom points to the door stuck in the tree in the picturesque forest. I can see the apartment through it. Inside the room, there’s a big, black hole.

“I asked what you think of the house, sweetie.”

“Uh…” I grimace. “That hole in the floor creeps me out. I don’t like it.”

I see dad being escorted away by two Guards through the massive metal trees.

“Love, Ah think Ah’ll be gone fer a while. Sorry abit that.”

Mom gives him a sad look. “Bye Sid. I’ll miss you.”

“Dad! Wait!” I reach out for him, but I can’t seem to reach. “Mom, we have to do something!”

I turn back to her to see her being held by four shadowy figures. They tear off her right foreleg, and she turns that sad look on me. “Sorry, sweetie. I wish I could have gotten you out.”

A flower of blood seems to flow from her throat as the shadows drag her back and toss her into the hole.

“MOM! NO!” I try and run towards the hole, but something is wrapping around my hooves and my throat. I can’t seem to breathe.

“This is all your fault you useless bitch.” She snarls in my ear. “She died because of you.”

I see her tail come up near my face.

I struggle against the shadows that are now gripping me.

They only grow tighter.

The tail-blade is right next to my throat.
Help me.
I keep struggling.
I can’t breathe.
Help me.
They won’t let me go.
Helpme.
Iscreamforhelp.
Itw0n’tcome.
Helpm3heLpme#e1lpmeh3lPme
59:6f:75:27:6c:6c:20:66:69:6e:64:20:68:65:72:20:73:6f:6f:6e:2e

I awoke with a gasp. I didn’t shoot up, but my heart was pounding in my chest at a thousand miles per hour. Within seconds, though, I’d already started to forget what I’d dreamt about. I was glad, at least, that it wasn’t just another conversation with her.

“You weren’t asleep for very long.” Zeed comments from the shelves on the far wall. She’d made a pile of packaged food in the middle of the room. “I think it’s only been about an hour.”

“Did Ah miss anythin’?” I asked as my heart started to slow down.

“Not really, unless you count my brief fangasm when I found Mysterious Mare-Do-Well #1.” She shrugged.

I got up and began to stretch, cracking all of my joints and receiving the usual grimaces from Zeed.

Raid burst through the door as I cracked the last vertebra, a huge smile on his face. “I found it! There’s a parking lot that leads straight to the lab. We can get in through there. They won’t be looking for us inside, so if we do this right, we can find out where the slave pens are and get everypony out. The Bone Eaters will be none the wiser.”

Zeed grinned the widest grin I’d ever seen her grin. “What are we waiting for?”

“Stock. She’s checking out the area. Should be back in a few minutes.” The buck replied. “And we still have to wait for Knives to recover, remember?”

The zebra blanched, and turned to me with a nervous chuckle. “Sorry.”

I smiled. “It’s alright. Nae harm done. Either way, Aam feelin’ fine.”

She frowned. “Knives, do you even realize how much blood you lost?”

“Enough that Ah had trouble standin’?”

“That’s a lot of blood, Knives.” She looked at me with an incredulous expression. “I think most of the potions’ magic went into replacing it.”

“Well Aam fine nao, so let’s get oan wi’ it.” I said. I tried to take a step forward, but Zeed stepped on some of the cables tied into my mane.

“Knives. Rest. Now. I still have some of that sleeping potion left, you know.” She said. “I’ll force it down your throat if I have to.”

“Ah thought ye wanted tae find yer dad?” I scowled.

She rolled her eyes. “I do, but I’d rather not lose my best friend while doing it.”

“I’d have to agree with that, Knives.” Raid said. He rubbed the back of his head nervously. “It would… be bad to lose you.”

I could feel my face heat up a bit. I turned away and hoped my blush wasn’t showing. Zeed had a cocky smirk on her face, so it probably was.

I cleared my throat in an embarrassed way. “Well… Alright… As long as yer okay wi’ it.”

~~~~~~~~

Green was amazed by the town. She’d never actually been in a city before. Bark had always just tied her to something in a hidden area when he was doing business in city limits, most likely to hide the fact he owned a slave.

She looked around at the glimmering lights of Foundry. The former college campus, as well as the nearby weapons manufacturing plant and most of the city between them, had been converted into one of Canturbury’s largest towns, and the one which suffered the second fewest attacks by raiders and slavers. The majority of the lighting was made up of thousands of Hearth’s Warming Eve lights which had, due to some logistical errors, been stored in a room intended for novelty cannonballs before the war.

Or so Green had heard from some of the other slaves when she was younger. At the moment, she didn’t care about that, she just thought that it was pretty.

“So, Green…” Wretch’s voice startled Green out of her admiration. “Do you have any idea where we could find information? I’m looking for something, but I don’t know where to start.”

Green balked. The pink mare was asking her questions. The filly wasn’t sure if they were trick questions or not. If they were, she would probably be punished. With a gulp, she spoke up. “Uh… I… I think that… Um…”

“It’s okay if you don’t know.” Wretch gave her a warm smile. “I won’t blame you.”

Green swallowed again. “Another slave… Zero… knew a lot. He said he worked for… bartenders… I think… Sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault.” Wretch gently stroked the filly’s mane. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

Green nodded weakly, and followed her friend into the nearest bar. The pink-coated black-maned mare went up to the bar and took a seat on one of the stools. Green sat in the one immediately to her left. Looking around, she saw that the place had a distinctly Appleloosan style to it.

“Excuse me,” Wretch said to the bartender, an old red unicorn stallion with a grey mane. “I was wondering if you knew where I could get some information?”

The stallion just stared at her for a few seconds. “Canned goods?”

Wretch blinked. “Huh?”

“Stable? Never seen the sky before?”

“Um… Yes.”

The stallion smiled. “That explains it. You’re speaking to a member of the Bartender’s Guild. We’ve got information aplenty, as long as you can pay for it. You looking for anything in particular?”

“I’m looking for somepony who can tell me about… Ah… I think they’re called ‘memory orbs’?”

The stallion blinked. “Memory orbs? Hmmmm… Excuse me a moment.”

With that, he trotted into a door behind the bar. The sounds of file cabinets being shuffled through could be heard over the old-timey piano music. A second later, he returned with a sheet of paper. “Well, I have a few bits of info about memory orb experts, but they’re mostly with either Spectrum or the Steel Rangers, and I doubt that either would tell an outsider anything about them… eh…”

He looked over the sheet a few times.

“Ah here’s something. Hmmm… Tell you what, miss… This isn’t really much to go by, but it’s still a start, so I’ll cut you a deal. It’s ten caps for the info, but you have to buy a drink too.” He smiled at her. “Gotta make something offa this.”

With a smile of her own, Wretch fished through her duffle bag for a sizable number of caps, satisfied that she should have enough, she turned back to the buck. “Just a gin and tonic, please. Do you want anything Green?”

The filly, who had been spinning around in her chair the whole time, jumped as she was addressed. “Um… could…”

She gulped. “Could I get… do you have… Brawnco?”

The Stallion quirked an eyebrow. “Huh… Not a common request. Any particular kind?”

“Green tea?”

Wretch stifled a giggle at the request, and the stallion smirked. “All right. That’s about sixty bits total. Including the info. I’ll be right back.”

A few moments later, he returned with the two drinks and a different sheet of paper. “Alright, I don't have much about him, but last I heard, he lives in The Mall, so you’re best off asking around there. The Mall is about… five days south of here.”

Wretch smiled. “Thank you very much mister…”

“Oh, how ruse of me…” He returned the smile. “I’m Barkeep the second, at your service.”

“Thank you Mr. Barkeep.”

“My pleasure. I hope you and your daughter enjoy your drinks.”

Wretch blinked. “Oh, she’s not my daughter.”

“No?” he quirked an eyebrow.

“No. I freed her from a slaver.” She sighed. “That’s just a horrible thing to do to another pony.”

He eyed her for a moment. “Most ponies don’t really care about that.”

“What? Why?” Wretch’s expression turned to one of irritation. “That’s…”

She growled to herself. “I’m not going to sit here while that goes on. I’ll do whatever I can.”

After a moment of confused surprise towards the mare's sudden anger, the Barkeep smiled. “Oh good. I guess that makes you the third anti-slaver I’ve met, after Mare-Do-Well and the Hearteater. I wish there were more like you out there.”

He let out a wistful sigh. “Well… I wish you the best of luck, miss.”

With a nod, Wretch and Green went back outside, the former slipping the can of Brawnco into her pocket.

-------

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives
Exp: 50%

~~~~
Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri
Exp: 70%

~~~~
Footnote 3: Raid (???)
Exp: 50%

`

Quests:
Active Quest:
O’ Father, Where Art Thou?: Infiltrate or assault the Bone Eaters’ base near Bladesville.
Other quests:
Sifting through the dust:
1)
Find information on the location of Ashes.
2)
Find information on the location of Obsidian Knives
3)
–Find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri
----

(Author’s Notes)

For some reason, the Wretch/Green section ended up a lot longer than I’d originally intended. However, I actually kind of like it this way. I’m not saying that it’s going to retain this length, but this one, at the very least, will.

-Delakirus

Thanks to Kkat for Fallout Equestria, and Somber for Project Horizon. Thanks to Matkingos for making sure this doesn’t suck as much as usual. Thanks to whomever reads this, and again, critiques are very much welcome.