“Diamond?”

It was so dark. I could barely see.

“Diamond, can you hear me?” Cried a familiar mare.

I couldn’t move, my whole body hurt when I tried, I felt so dizzy.

“Did ye find her?” A stallion called out from near me.

“No! Oh goddesses. Obsidian, what if she’s-“

“Calm down, love. She’ll be alrecht,” the stallion interrupted. “We Knives ur tough.”

There was a sharp pain in my chest and back. I could see that something was sticking out of me, something long and sharp.

“Wait… Ah heard somethin’,” He was getting closer. “Sweetheart? Is that ye?”

I tried to speak, but only managed to make a weak wheezing noise.

“Ah think Ah found ‘er!” There was the sound of metal being moved around. “Make as much noise as ye can, sweetheart. Aam commin’ for ye.”

“D-daddy…” I managed to squeak out. I could see a hint of blue light as my father pulled away the debris covering me.

“Goddesses… Zala! Get somepony ower haur quickly!” he shouted behind him. His horn began to glow bright blue, illuminating the coal black stallion with the green mane. “There ye are. Diamond, can ye hear me?”

I nodded.

“Can ye move?”

I shook my head. He bit his lip as he looked around and began moving more of the debris until my whole body was exposed. He caught sight of what was in my chest, and his eyes widened in horror.

“No… Oh goddesses, no…” His eyes became filled with tears. “Don’ look sweetheart. Yoo’ll… Yoo’ll be…”

He let out a sob. “Yoo’ll be okay, Diamond… Ah promise ye will… Ah jist need ye tae hold on, alecht? Sweetheart? Diamond? Stay with me! Diamond!”

And then I faded away…

~~~~~

Though the initial shock had passed, I was still awed by the sight of the Northwestern Safehouse. I’d expected it to be something along the lines of a small shack in the middle of the desert, but in reality, it was a large structure in the middle of a halfway destroyed city, in the middle of the desert.

Most of the ground was covered in rubble from the concrete corpses of office buildings and apartment complexes. Some automatic carts were scattered about the streets, as well as some pony-driven ones, many with their skeletal drivers still attached to the harness. A light orange dust seemed to coat everything at around knee level, most likely from the similarly-colored mist that seemed to hover just above the ground.

At the present moment, though, I was distracted by the continuous itching in my eye socket. I kept biting down on my hoof to keep myself from scratching at the bandage, which mostly only served to get me strange looks from both Zeed and Trowel.

Zeed was currently sitting atop the cart, her still healing leg making long treks difficult for her. The cart itself was relatively small, but was still large enough to carry a surprising amount of junk.

“You okay?” She asked. “You’ve been doing that a lot…”

“Mmm fnn,” I said around my hoof. “Dnn rry bbt mmm.”

As she looked at me with a raised eyebrow, the sensation passed, and I put my hoof back on the ground. “You know we can go back and get the auto-doc working again, right?”

“Aye, but Aam not exactly goin’ tae trust th’ damn thing nao am ah? ‘Sides… Ah don’t see ye gettin’ yer leg fixed in one ay those things.”

She looked like she was about to say something, but stopped herself. She pondered for a moment. “Point taken. Is it painful?”

“Nae. Ye remember when Clothesline put itchin’ powder in our uniforms a few years ago? It’s sort ay like that.”

“Yikes… That bad? Luna’s moon, I hated that. We practically had to beg the Guards to-“

“WILL YOU TWO STOP BABBLING?” Trowel screamed back at us, keeping his eyes forward. “I’m sure you both enjoy reminiscing, but I’m trying to make sure we don’t die out here!”

“Ooh, somepony’s grown a stick up their arse…” I replied indignantly. “What the hell is yer problem?”

“My problem,” he hissed, fixing a glare on me. “Is that this place could have any number of threats hiding in any number of places. That’s just pony-based threats. This city-corpse you see around you? Yeah… I hear there are ironwolves in the area, and I’d rather not have to deal with a pack of those damn things while I have nothing but shit weapons back there. Now be quiet, I’m trying to listen.”

I stood there for a moment, rubbing my chin in deep thought, pondering his words as he slowly trotted away. “What’s an ironwolf?”

I was answered by a loud scraping noise in the distance, like someone had stuck a bunch of bolts into a blender and set it to puree … It almost sounded like howling.

Looking back at Trowel, I noticed that his eyes were wide with terror. Zeed, still on the cart, was looking around frantically in an attempt to see what the sound was. Trowel looked like he was about to have a heart attack, his eyes were fixed on something overhead. His voice was less than a whisper. “Shit…”

I followed his gaze to see something moving atop one of the broken buildings. It almost looked like a pony; four legs, head, ears. The similarities ended there. Its tail was a massive whip-like thing that resembled a steel cable with a knife tied to it, its greyish skin was slightly reflective, and its eyes were empty, glowing things in its skull.

Trowel began to move slowly forwards, not taking his eyes off the creature. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…”

“Ah assume that’s an ironwolf?” I whispered. “Doesnae look tae threatenin’.”

“Packs of three,” he whispered back. “There’s more around here somewhere. We. Need. To. Leave.”

“It’s gone,” Zeed was standing on her hind legs to get a better view, pointing with her good leg at a smaller skeletal building near the ironwolf’s former perch. “It went over that way.”

“RUN!” Trowel screamed as he bolted through the city. The sudden movement of the cart knocked Zeed flat on her face. Almost immediately, several more ironwolves shot out of the broken buildings, two of them went after Trowel and Zeed, while one charged straight at me.

As it leapt, I managed to duck past it, its claws inches away from my face, only to get hit in the chest by its tail. I cried out in pain as the metal blade on its tip sliced through my orange utility barding and my skin, colliding with a few of my ribs. The thing continued on into an autocart behind me, it’s apparently significant weight making a huge dent in the vehicle. Pushing past the agony, I pulled out the shock rod from the Safehouse, and it emitted a quiet hum as I held it in my magical grip.

The ironwolf stood back up, making that metallic howl again. It stared at me, slowly advancing, its tail whipping back and forth with an ominous swishing noise. I held the baton at the ready.

Before I could even twitch, its tail shot forward, the tip piercing deep into my side. I suppressed a scream and brought the baton down before the ironwolf moved away.

As soon as the rod touched the thing’s skin, arcs of electricity began playing over the surface, moving instantly across the creature’s body in all directions. It started twitching violently, the tail ripping bloodily out of my side, causing me to gasp in pain.

I brought the baton down on the ironwolf’s head repeatedly as it writhed. It sounded like banging two pans together.

Eventually, I managed to make a decently sized dent in its skull. I stood as straight as I could, smiling with my triumph. Almost immediately, my face fell, as I heard a loud crash. I galloped towards the sound as fast as I could.

A few gunshots resonated through the ruined city.

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, adrenaline pushing out my pain.

When I found the cart, it had been toppled on its side. A variety of junk, food, and mostly broken weaponry was scattered all across the ground.

One of the back wheels had been obliterated, nothing but a splintery stump remained. Zeed was frantically scrambling for something that could do a bit of damage, but everything she picked up did nothing of use, and two ironwolves were advancing towards her. I could see no sign of Trowel.

I charged into one of the beasts stalking Zeed, knocking it onto its side. The other one yelped in what I could only assume was surprise.

It stood for a moment, looking back and forth between Zeed and me, before lunging at me with its tail. I ducked to the side, taking a swipe at the appendage with the shock baton, failing to hit as it retracted in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, the things screeched in pain as a bright red beam of light entered its eye with a loud zorch.

I heard Zeed squeal in delight, and saw her with something that looked like a box in her mouth. Before I could ask what just happened, I felt a sharp pain across my back as the ironwolf I’d tackled slammed its tail into me, and I dropped to my knees. On a whim, I threw the baton at the beast. It struck right in the chest, the sparks flowing all over its body as it twitched violently.

The baton slid away a few feet on a particularly violent spasm, I picked it back up with telekinesis, and turned to the injured ironwolf.

It growled viciously at me, slowly backing away. I heard Zeed shooting at the one I’d just downed.

My target bolted into a building. I followed. Zeed called after me, but I ignored her. I was pissed, these things tried to kill me and my best friend. I wasn’t about to let one escape.

“Well done Knives! I congratulate you on your rage, it suits you!” She snickered in the back of my mind.

“Shut up and stay in th’ cage.” I growled.

I followed it up the staircase at the far end of what must have been a hotel lobby. Several flights I ran, adrenaline keeping me from tiring out.

Finally, there it was, standing between me and the wall. I could tell it was scared, it paced back and forth in a panicked manner, trapped in a corridor which simply ended in the open air. I took a step forward, my baton sizzling with its electrical charge.

The creature stepped back to the edge, snarling at me.

I took another step.

Its tail lashed at me, cutting into my face, but I continued anyway.

I took another step.

The building began to groan.

Nearly two centuries of decay finally took their toll, assisted by the combined weight of a large creature and a stupid pony. The floor gave way, and I fell through, the creature falling beside me. We smashed through several floors until I finally came to a stop, while the ironwolf continued downward. I ended up on my face in the ancient dust, dazed and groaning in pain.

“Knives? Are you okay?” I couldn’t quite tell where Zeed was, but she sounded pretty far away.

I groaned in response, opting to simply lie on the ground.

“Knives, whatever you do,” She said as calmly as she could manage. “Don’t. Look. Down.”

I drew a blank on what she was talking about, so of course the first thing I did was open my eyes. I regretted it immediately.

My panic flooded through me as I saw that I had come to rest on a narrow ledge jutting out from an intact wall. Just before me was a massive drop. I tried to push myself against the wall, to get as far away from the edge as possible, but it didn’t help. I couldn’t look. I couldn’t see the fall which would surely kill me the second I look down. I had to stay still and not move. Don’t look at the endless fall from which I knew I would never recover.

My heart pounded violently in my ears. My body shook in terror. I was losing it. Already my body was going numb while my head started swimming.

The prevalent thought in my mind was that I was going to die, splattered across the ground. I knew that any second the ledge would break away, and I would shatter on the ground with it. My breath was short. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna-

“Knives, it’s okay. It’s okay,” somepony said from my left, but the words barely registered in my brain.

Nononononononononononnonononononononononono, help help help, I don’t wanna fall, I don’t wanna fall, I just want to get away-

“Shhhh, it’s okay. Just relax,” She said gently. “Knives, I’m going to get you down, but you need to relax. Just breathe, okay?”

I took a deep breath. The dizziness let up for a moment. My heart was trying to burst from my chest, my guts were twisting about inside of me. I couldn’t open my eyes, not when the drop was there, not while I was about to fall to my end.

“Knives, I know you’re too scared to move, but I need you to trust me, okay?” She cooed beside me. “I’m going to try and break the wall down. Just keep breathing.”

Another breath. There was a strange sound, one I’ve heard before. The wall behind me fell away. I screamed and covered my head with my hooves. I don’t wanna fall, I don’t wanna fall, I don’t wanna die…

“Knives? I need you to come to me. Just follow my voice.”

I knew her, that I could trust her, that she could help me. I tried to move, my shaking legs finding purchase on the ground. I followed her. My stomach churned.

“That’s good. You can open your eye now. It’s safe.”

I did so. Zeed was standing in front of me, a look of worry on her face. I let out a sob and leaned against what was left of the wall, retching. Tears flowed down my face. After a few moments, Zeed touched my shoulder. I hugged her.

“You’re alright, Knives. Let it out,” She said.

My fear seeped out through my tears. I realized how hard I was shaking, how quickly my heart was pumping. How lightheaded I was, that I could barely stand. I felt so cold.

It felt like forever as I cried into Zeed’s shoulder. When I felt I could move again, I pulled away.

“Feel better?”

I nodded and gave her a weak smile.

“Think you can take the stairs?” Her eyes were filled with concern. “We can stay up here if you don’t.”

I considered this, but I wanted to get back on the ground, so I forced myself to head down, with Zeed close behind. Several times I caught another glimpse of the open air, and my shaking intensified, but with Zeed’s help, we eventually managed to make it to the ground level. Relieved, I collapsed to the ground just outside the entrance. After giving me a few healing potions and making sure that I would be fine on my own, Zeed went to try and find Trowel, keeping me in sight all the while. I just sat where I was and tried to control my still-panicked heart. Nervously, I looked up at the building. I saw where I’d been just a while ago. I’d only been on the second floor, having fallen from the fifth. From the looks of it, Zeed had destroyed the wall to get me down. With a gulp, I shook the thoughts out of my mind, and shakily trotted towards the broken cart.

I found Zeed looting through the junk. She’d put Trowel on a pile of sheets, he wasn’t moving. I raised my eyebrow at her.

“What?” She asked.

I kept giving her the same look. Though my voice was hoarse, I managed to croak out a single word. “Trowel?”

“Oh, he’s fine. Just a slight concussion from the crash. He’s unconscious right now, but nothing serious,” her brow furrowed. “I’m more worried about you. You’re still shaking, are you sure you’re okay?”

I found it hard to meet her eyes. I let out a sigh and looked at the ground. “It’s just… After I… well…”

She removed herself from the junk pile and limped over, wrapping her good leg around my shoulder. “What’s wrong, Knives?”

“Ah dragged ye out here. Ah panicked and threw ye out th’ door. Ah didnae even think… And nao yer stuck helpin’ me with mah buckin’ mental problems…” I sighed again. “Aam sorry.”

She stared at me for several moments, her expression one of confusion. Then she burst out laughing. I gave her a look of confusion. “What?”

“First off, Knives, I know how bad you are with heights, and honestly, I’m happy to help get you out of that. After all, what are best friends for if not to help you out of a state of pure, all-consuming, mind-numbing terror?” She shot me a cocky smile. “And second off, you’re blaming yourself for that? Knives, if I was thinking straight I would have ran straight out of there! You did me a favor! I had nothing in the Prison at all, remember? Neither did you, come to think of it…”

“How did Ah do ye a favor?” I looked at her in an incredulous manner.

“Well… Allow me to take this opportunity to puff up my ego for a bit. You remember how the Guards ‘punished’ those who would ‘defy their law’?” She said, a hint of bitterness entering her voice at the mention of the Guards.

I nodded. “Exile. Throw ‘em out and never let ‘em back in. Why?”

“And now we’re outside now, right?” She was grinning like a madmare. Usually, that look meant she had a strange idea. The last time she’d had that look, I’d ended up covered in chicken feathers. I never figured out where she got them…

“Okay… Are ye goin’ somewhere with this?”

“Think, Knives! How many ponies do we care about that have been exiled? How many ponies have we longed to see again, but couldn’t because we were trapped inside?” Her grin widened even further.

I pondered for a moment. I knew many ponies that had been thrown on their flanks into the wasteland. I could remember about half of their faces, but three of them stood out in my mind.

“My dad… Your dad… And…” I trailed off as my eyes widened and a smile spread across my face. My earlier panic drained away completely as I realized what this meant.

“Yes! We can finally look for Ashes!” She proclaimed with a giggle of delight. “If anypony could survive in this miserable place, it would be her! We could bring the Tunnel Rats again!”

I grimaced at the name of our old foalhood gang. “Uh… maybe not th’ Tunnel Rats part… Aam pretty sure neither she nor Ah would particularly enjoy that little reminder…”

She waved a hoof at me and scoffed. “Details, details. We’ll work that out when we find her. Oh…”She bit her lip nervously. “If we find her. It has been almost three years, after all.”

“She’s probably fine, Zeed. She wasnae exactly fragile…”

“I know, you’re right, but…” She blinked a few times, then frowned. “Oh great, I’ve gone and made myself depressed again.”

I tried to find a way to change the subject. I saw the box she’d had during the fight, and saw an opportunity.

“So what’s that thing?”

Almost immediately, her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face. “It’s awesome is what it is! Can you believe it? It’s an actual laser pistol, and it works! I can’t believe I found one.”

I chuckled slightly as she started babbling about her new toy. “Zeed, you are such an egghead.”

She drew herself up with mock dignity. “That’s High Queen of eggheads to you. All eggheads bow down and worship me as their- Oh, hi Trowel. How long have you been awake?”

He was sitting on the pile of blankets, eye twitching in irritation. He managed to croak out five words. “Do. You. Ever. Stop. Talking.”

She pretended to think for a moment, loudly hmming and haaing. “Nope.”

He growled in irritation as he began piling junk onto a particularly large sheet, tying it up and throwing it over his back, the end held in his teeth. “Whatever. Let’s get going.”

“We’re gonna carry all this crap?”

“No. I’m going to carry all this crap. You two are going to get far the fuck away from me the second we get to the Mall.”

“So, where exactly is-“

“AND NO TALKING!” He shouted.

~~~~~

Three more hours we walked through the ruined city, Trowel still watching every single shadow as if it would jump out and attack at any second. Zeed was limping along at a surprisingly fast rate for somepony with a broken leg. I only had one thought on my mind.

“Wasteland life involves a lot ay walking’ doesn’t it?”

“Yes. What did I say about talking?”

“Don’t dae it?”

“What are you doing now?”

“It.”

“Then stop.”

“Goddesses, what in th’ buck’s eatin’ ye? Ye weren’t this bad yesterday.”

“We were relatively safe yesterday. Now we’re out in the open wastes where anypony or anycreature can run up and snuff us easily. How many times do I have to tell you to shut up?”

“One thousand, three hundred and two,” Zeed snarked, receiving a glare in response.

His eye twitched again. He started muttering under his breath. “Almost there. One more block. Just keep going and you won’t have to deal with them any longer.”

We turned the corner to find a street that was remarkably intact, compared to the rest of the cracked asphalt that coated the roads. At its end was a very large structure, also remarkably intact, although it looked like something had cut the top part of it clean off. It was covered in broken signs of various sorts, most of which had fallen to the ground after a few decades, but one bright blue neon sign was still standing just above the entrance.

What surprised me, though, was the fact that several gleaming white turrets stood spaced evenly along the wall facing us, armed with chainguns. As we approached, they tracked our movements, slowly turning as we trotted up to the entrance, a series of sandbags had been set up in front of the large glass door, and a cherry red unicorn mare with a similarly colored mane sat in a chair behind them, reading a magazine.

She looked up at us and yawned. “Heya Trowel. Haven’t seen you in a couple of months. Traveling with companions now?”

He grumbled something as he trotted around the sandbags, and into the mall. As we tried to follow, the mare stopped us with an outstretched hoof.

“Woah, woah… Who the fuck are you?” She said with an eyebrow raised. “I know who he is. He fuckin’ lives here. Now, you two may have come here with him, but I don’t know either of you. So, name and business?”

I stared at her for a couple of seconds in confusion. “Uh…”

“I’m Zeed. My friend here is Knives. We’re looking for work,” She thought for a moment. “We’re also looking for somepony.”

“Work, huh? Well, I guess that’s a good enough reason. I’m gonna take a wild guess here and say you’re both canned goods. Amirite?”

We both nodded.

“Hmm. Tell you what, I’ll let you in as ‘freelancers’. Won’t let you get very far into anything, but you’ll be able to move around. Just tie these where we can see ‘em.” She handed us a pair of long cloth strips, both fluorescent green in color. “If you’re looking for dirt, try the Bartender’s Guild. They usually got good intel. For weapons and armor, try the Soldier’s Guild. Food, go to the Chefs. Etcetera, etcetera, you get my point. Most of ‘em are pretty obvious. Don’t start any fights, don’t do anything stupid. Have a nice day.”

With that she went back to reading her magazine.

Zeed gave me a questioning look. I just shrugged and tied the cloth around my head, on top of the bandages covering my eye socket. If I have to wear it, might as well use it to keep my mane out of my face. Zeed tied it loosely around her neck.

The inside of the structure was huge, especially with the roof and second floor apparently destroyed. About half of what had once been stores before the Great War either continued this purpose now, or had been converted into a living space. Almost every one that remained a store had some form of illuminated sign near the entrance. I briefly wondered where they had all come from, until Zeed poked me in the shoulder.

“Huh?”

“What are we doing first?” She asked, looking around nervously. “Where do we start?”

“Ah was under th’ impression that ye were th’ one with th’ plans.” She shook her head. I shrugged. “Fine. Let’s see about a job first. Ah doubt that information of any kind is free.”

“Okay then.”

We stood there. Unmoving. Slightly overwhelmed and a bit confused.

I realized then that I had only the most vague idea of what I was doing here.

“Hey there!” Shouted a voice from my blind side, making me just back and yelp in surprise.

“Why does that keep happenin’?” I moaned. “Aam never gonna get used tae this am ah?”

“Uh… Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. Name’s Raid,” said the dark blue buck with a peach mane. He wore a leather jacket with a strange contraption on his sides, with scatterguns strapped to it. “You folks are freelancers, right?”

Zeed responded cheerily. “Apparently! I guess that’s why we’ve got the green things. Why?”

“Are you doing any jobs right now? I could really use some help.” He sighed and pointed to a black strip of cloth tied around his upper right foreleg. “You see, I’m a newbie in the Soldier’s Guild, and they’ve given me this particularly obnoxious job.”

“And that job would be?”

“I need to clear the roaches out of generator room number fifteen. They’re huge fuckers, and they keep swarming me. So, I figured I might as well try and get some backup, if only to just get it done.” He shrugged. “They won’t give me another job ‘till it’s finished anyway.”

“So ye need us. Alright, what’s the pay?”

“Three hundred caps each. Paid on completion.”

Zeed blinked at him a few times. “Did you say ‘caps’?”

He looked back and forth from me to her, then raised an eyebrow at the both of us. “Canned goods?”

I responded with a ‘yup.’

“It’s about… uh… Thirty bits, I think. Either of you got a pipbuck?”

Zeed smiled and chirped, “I don’t even know what that is!”

“O…Kay…” He gave her an odd look. “That’s fine. I’ve got one of my own… So, are you in?”

Zeed patted the laser pistol strapped to her foreleg and grinned widely. “Fuck yes,we’re in!”

~~~~~~~

“Raid, when ye said they were huge, Ah didn’t think ye meant this!” I screamed as I swiped at the leg of the monstrosity before me with my shock baton. The five foot tall roaches were significantly larger than I’d expected. “Ah thought ye meant radroaches!”

Raid and Zeed were firing on another roach, slightly larger than mine. Raid was biting down on a bit connected to the contraption on his sides to fire the twin shotguns, Zeed’s red beams slamming into the insect’s carapace, as she grinned madly and cheered repeatedly. “They were radroaches last time I looked! I didn’t expect the damn things to get bigger!”

“That’s what she said!” Zeed laughed as she blasted the head off the giant roach, which was immediately replaced by another roach. “WOOO! This is awesome!”

“What the hell is wrong with her?”

“A lot ay things. Just let her have her fun,” I replied as I bashed in the head of another big bug. “Goddesses, how many of these things are there?”

“Last time I counted, fifty. Then again, they were only about three feet tall last time I checked, so I have no idea.” He punctuated by blasting another colossal cockroach’s abdomen open.

“Where,” smack. “Did,” crack-sizzle. “They,” smack. “Come from?” Squish.

“Maybe the generator’s leaking,” Zeed suggested in a happy sing-song voice as she cheerily fired her laser at another immense insect, giggling all the while.

“Well, we could probably fix that too. I don’t suppose either of you know how to fix a type one generator?”

“Ah dae.”

He gave me a look of surprise. “Seriously? I was kidding. Wow. More caps to you, then.”

I was about to make a witty retort when Zeed burst out singing.

My little roachie, my little roachie,
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah,

My little roachie,
I used to wonder where your head could be,
My little roachie,
Until it splattered all over me.

Big-ass coakroach,
Tons of fun!
Blast you apart,
You won’t last long!
Burning lasers,
Are such a treat!

And Raid’s shotgun makes it all complete!

Oh, my little roachie,
I won’t stop until you’re all dead!

“That’s just…” I failed to stifle my laughter as I saw Raid’s disturbed expression. “Does she always do that?”

“Only when she’s in a really good mood. Sadly, that’s nae very often, but it usually lasts fer a while.”

“I think she’s killed, like… Fifteen of them. Solo.”

“More than me. Ah’ve only got three down,” I looked around myself for a second. “Acshully, Ah think they’re all gone…”

“Well, my E.F.S. is clear, so there’s none around this area. We still need to check the generator room though.” He turned around and began to trot down the badly lit corridor made from some dark metal. “Let’s get this over with. I long to get out of here.”

Zeed bounced past him, skipping and singing humming to herself. I was starting to feel her infectious good mood, and couldn’t help but smile and hum along with her.

“Well… The generator room isn’t far, now.” Raid took a look at his pipbuck map. “We’ll probably find another swarm at some poi- Oh dear Celestia!”

Sitting in the middle of the corridor was the mother of all roaches, staring at us, about a hundred more of its brood sitting behind it. I let out a quiet ‘eep’.

Then Zeed charged in, happily screaming like a madmare. “Let’s do it!”

~~~~~~

The orb followed the pink one through the orange mists and sands of Canterbury, its own black mists swirling calmly within its glass shell. The pink mare continued her ranting for a long time, until a flash of gold appeared in the distance. Noticing this, she telekinetically drew her weapon, and charged after it, giggling madly.

“0h y4y! 3yE’m g01ng 2 mAke 5um n3w f2i3nd5!”

The orb followed slowly. Keeping a long distance between them. As the pink mare neared the location of the flash, she found her weapon wrenched from her magical field by a dark yellow glow. A golden stallion with a white mane stood before her, his horn aglow, and a calm smile on his face.

“Ah,” he said in a pensive tone. “One of you, I see. And where might you be going miss?”

The pink mare giggled, her pupils little more than pinpricks in an ball of blood red. “1’M (lo7he5l1ne! t3h 8uzZ1ng pu11s me! Wi1l u b3 m4i fr1eNd?”

The stallion laughed. “You know, I think I will be your friend. Tell me little one, do you come from the Prison?”

Instantly, the pink mare’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded. “I hur7 her. 3ye th1nk 1 kil13d her. Eye d1dn’7 w4nt 2, bu7 the n0is3 t0ld me 2! eYe waNt3d t0 s4y i’M s0rRy…”

“Don’t worry, young filly. I don’t blame-“ He spotted the orb full of black mist, and a smile spread across his face. “Well, miss Clothesline, I think you have a follower.”

There was a flash of gold, and he appeared next to the ball, and swiped it up with a single hoof. He peered intently into it, as though it’s swirling contents held meaning to him. He let out a single, loud laugh. “Oh, dear Benchie, I thought you were cleverer than this. Trying to use my own tricks against me? bad form good sir. Bad form.”

With that, his horn glowed brightly, and the dark yellow color enveloped the orb.

A second passed.

The orb dissipated into Canterbury’s orange mists, and the golden one smiled.

“Well then, miss. I believe there is someone we need to meet. Come along.”

“mAi n4m3 i5 c10Thes1in3! W1ll u b3 mY fr1End?” She replied as she trotted along beside him with tears in her eyes.

~~~~~~~
Footnote 1: Diamond Knives
Level up! (3)
Melee: 50
Repair: 43

Perks:
Intense training: +1 strength. Strength is now 4
-----
Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri
Level up! (2)
Energy Weapons: 40
Medicine: 45

Perks:
Swift learner: You are indeed a Swift Learner with this Perk, as each level will give you an additional +5% bonus whenever you earn experience points.
~
Active quest:
Bugs in the basement: Clear all of the radroaches out of the generator room.

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 note)

It’s me again! Happy to see me? Too bad, ‘cuz I’m here anyway.

If you’ve decided to continue reading this, I thank you.

“Sigh, why did it take you so long to do this chapter? It’s no longer than the others, yet took three times longer! Whaddafuq?”

Well my good non-existent friend, that is because I am an idiot, and scrapped this chapter three… no… wait… four times before I was satisfied.

“Four times? Shouldn’t it be better than this, then?”

Probably, oh figment of my depraved imagination. Probably.

Thanks to Kkat for Fallout Equestria, and Somber for Project Horizon. Thanks to whoever reads this, and again, critiques are very much welcome.

P.S.: Didja like the song? Didja? Didja? DIDJA? HUH? HUH?
Oh, and the next chapter may or may not be from Zeed’s point of view. I’m not sure yet.
Why? I dunno, I just feel like it might be.
Why am I telling you? I dunno, I just feel like it.