“Hey, Ashes! Ashes, come on,” called out the cheerful striped unicorn apparently named Diamond Knives, whom I’d met only a few hours ago, as she knocked on the metal door. “It’s me!”

A sleepy, charcoal-furred, gunmetal-maned earth pony filly with amber eyes opened the door and yawned. “Who’s me, and why are you waking me up at this time of night?”

“Night? It’s barely the afternoon!” Diamond replied with a snort, only to be met with another yawn. “Anyway, this is Zeed! Her dad just got booted.”

I could feel my eyes tear up slightly at the memory. Ashes gave me a sympathetic look. “Ouch. Can I ask why?”

I shook my head and sniffed.

Diamond smiled at me. “Hey, it’s alright. You don’t need to be sad. We know how you feel. Don’t worry, it’ll get better. Hell, Ashes here doesn’t even have parents, and she’s just fine.”

“Well,” Ashes added. “I’m as fine as a seven-year-old filly can be on my own in here. I’m just lucky my parents were Guards, or I’d be bucked.”

I sniffed as I stared in surprise. “How… how are you so… Doesn’t it hurt? You’re on your own… How…”

Ashes shrugged and grinned. “What’s the point of crying anymore? It doesn’t help anything. I got as much of it out as I could already.”

Diamond scrunched up her nose in thought as she entered Ashes’ room. “Didn’t I tell you what my dad always said?”

I nodded, following her into the room. It was full of various random objects, piled up all over the floor. Both Ashes and Diamond sat on small chairs in the middle of the room, and looked at me. Then they looked at each other for a few moments, exchanging facial expressions in some silent conversation.

“I think it’ll work out well,” Diamond finally said. “She seems nice enough.”

Ashes raised an eyebrow, and Diamond responded with a shrug.

Ashes laughed suddenly, and a smirk spread across her face. “Alright, Zeed. We’re the Tunnel Rats. Best thieves and pranksters in the Prison. Wanna join?”

~~~~~

There is something to be said of mindless violence. While it may be pointless and… well… violent… it can also be very stress relieving. I had indeed been very stressed the past few days, so imagine my joy when I had the opportunity to destroy a swarm of giant cockroaches. With a laser pistol. I was positively ecstatic. The fact that it was with lasers made it even better. So, when I saw about a hundred of the prodigious pests crawling through the corridors, followed by what must have been their queen or mother or something, I happily let my impulsiveness take over, and charged into them, firing away whilst screaming; “Let’s do it!”

Within the first second, three of the smaller ones exploded in a shower of pus-colored goo as the beams of magical energy struck them and heated up their insides to the boiling point. I cracked a grin.

Admittedly, only a little more than half of my shots hit their targets, the rest either hitting an entirely different roach, or struck the metal wall, making a black spot. Still, I found it exhilarating. Within moments of my charge, Knives slammed into the thorax of the biggest cockroach, smashing away at it with her electric baton, while Raid let loose precise shots at the roaches, making small holes in their numbers with his shotgun blasts.

Another three beams of red light, more bursts of greenish ichor. Knives had smashed the one of her massive opponent’s legs off, the severed limb hit the ground with a slight clicking sound as it twitched.

I let my thoughts drift as I fought. I wondered how long it would take for the stress to build back up again. I found myself hoping that my calm would last long enough for me to get a decent sleep for once, one uninfluenced by a sleeping potion. I had never been entirely certain of what kept me away from the wonderful bliss that was sleep, but stress was really the only thing that made sense to me.

I stressed over a lot of things. I was almost always tense, though usually only slightly so. Especially after Knives got shot in the eye. I growled to myself at the thought of Clothesline’s murder attempt. I knew she hated Knives, but I had no idea she would be willing to kill her for whatever slight. Then again… thinking back… she seemed different… particularly the way that she seemed so distracted. I replayed the moment in my mind and frowned. She was distracted. Something about a buzzing noise. And the way she was speaking was off… wrong somehow. I couldn’t quite put my hoof on it. It was like her words weren’t actually… words… like they had no – ouch!

I looked down to see that one of the smaller cockroaches had sunk its mandibles into my good foreleg. With a grunt, I shook it off and stomped its thorax, its insides squeezing out like a tube of toothpaste. No real damage to my leg, just a small cut. I wouldn’t even need a healing bandage for it.

How had the damn thing gotten past me?

Oh… I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I’d forgotten to reload… Oops. With a smile, I popped in another magical gem battery, and readied the gun. Another four bugs down. Knives’ opponent was on its last two legs, desperately flailing them in an attempt to remove my half-breed friend.

Where did these things come from anyway? The ones that always skittered around in the Prison only came up to your fetlocks. Most of these ones were half my size. Then again, I was fairly short, only about eleven hands tall. Just one of many things for which I could blame my mother, and something for which I’d gotten much grief as a filly. I let out a sigh. The mare known as ‘Nidra Reine Kazdri’ was not pleasant in any manner. She was very much stuck-up. Seemed to think she was a noble despite being in trapped in a place called ‘The Prison’.

I blinked as I realized that my thoughts were not only moving to a very bad place, but weren’t even remotely close to the original topic. After frying a couple more roaches, I racked my brain for something to cheer myself up.

Puppies? Adorable, but I’d really only ever seen pictures, so I didn’t particularly care.

Really hot mares? A slight smile, but entirely the wrong kind of ‘cheering up’.

Lasers? Hehe… Fuck yeah… Lasers… Still not enough, though.

I needed something to distract myself. Something I could focus on… to occupy my thoughts. Actually, I sort of wanted a smoke, but that wasn’t an option right now, so my tobacco addiction would have to wait. I made a mental note to find a pack or two of cigarettes after I’d gotten information on the location of Ashes and our fathers. I sighed again. She’d been exiled three years ago after the last riot. Everything had gone to hell that day… Ashes, Knives and myself had all been heavily traumatized by that event. Knives had it worst, though. I shuddered at the memory of what had happ-

“Zeed? Ye in there?”

“Huh?”

“Ye spaced out fer a minute. Ah was getting’ worried.” She said with a smirk.

I looked around to see that the walls had been painted a greenish-yellow color by roach ichor. Chunks of insectile meat, both charred and otherwise were strewn about the room. Knives’ giant roach friend was in pieces on the floor, its leg stumps still twitching slightly.

I fought the urge to vomit as she swiped up a chunk of roach meat in her invisible grip and took a bite.

“What?” She asked through a mouthful of roach.

“You know I hate it when you do that,” I grimaced. “It’s disgusting.”

From behind me, I heard Raid chuckle nervously. “Well, you know… Sometimes there’s nothing left to eat but meat.”

"What? Oh, no, I’m fine with eating meat. I’ve done it myself... Don’t ask, long story. It’s that it’s bug meat.” I shuddered and gagged. “And I know you’re just doing it to gross me out!”

“Damn right!” She happily proclaimed as she stuffed another roach chunk in her mouth. “Yer such a wuss Zeed.”

“Me? A wuss? This coming from the pony who can’t stand Snack Cakes because they ‘scratch at your throat’.” I raised my eyebrow and grinned.

“Hey! It’s painful to choke on those!” She shot back indignantly. “Anyway, that’s not important right now. We should probably get moving again. Right Raid?”

He looked back and forth between the two of us, an expression of amusement on his face. “You two make a weird couple.”

Knives started laughing, only to choke on another bite of roach meat and begin hacking and coughing instead. I snorted and giggled. “Couple? No. We’re close, but not that close.”

Successfully removing the obstruction from her throat with a final, wracking cough and now able to breathe once more, Knives rasped out, “Besides… Aam straight. Ah like bucks thank ye very much.”

Raid’s expression was one of confusion as he stared at Knives.

Then realization struck him, and he blurted out the stupidest thing he could have ever possibly said. “You’re a mare?”

I promptly facehooved, and mourned the eminent death of a somewhat decent pony. Knives glare was intense enough that I was surprised that Raid didn’t combust. Normally, I would have tried to calm her down, but while her body tensed, she didn’t yet look like she was going to beat the living shit out of the poor buck. When she spoke, her voice was a foreboding growl, her accent dropped. “You’d better choose your next words very carefully…”

To Raid’s credit, he didn’t even flinch. He simply looked at her with a bored expression and let out a long, resigned sigh. “Can I get a five second head start?”

Knives’ response was to blink a few times, her rage replaced with surprise and a hint of confusion. “Uh… Well… I… What?”

He shrugged. “My, eh, sister used to beat the crap outa me all the time, and for similar reasons. My family is about a quarter of the reason I left the… ahem… left home. The other three quarters is filled with a large number of secrets which I do not currently wish to divulge to strangers. Now, I believe that you intended to do me immense harm?”

Knives looked thoughtful for a moment. Then, casually, she smiled and walked over to him, and sat on her haunches in front of him. She then drove her shock baton into the side of his face. He screamed and twitched slightly as the electricity shot through his muscles. “Not immense harm. Just a lot of pain. We’re even now. Ye surprised me. Most of the time, ponies run like hell from me.”

I clapped my hooves together in mocking applause. “Yay! Raid gets to live! Aren’t you happy Raid?”

“I can’t feel my face!”

~~~~

Several minutes later, we had made our way closer to the generator rooms, with minimal resistance from radroach hordes.

“Goddesses. It’s like a maze down here. Ye know the way back, right Zeed?”

“Of course. You think I want to get lost down here?” I chirped. I was merrily trotting in front of my two companions, opening every single door I came across and taking a brief look into the rooms behind them.

“How can you know the way out? I’m surprised the pipbuck can keep track of it. You don’t even have-“

“Left, right, straight for three doors, left, up the stairs, right, down two floors, left, left again, straight five doors,” I quickly rattled off the directions from our current location. “Down one more floor, yadda, past the roach guts, yadda, I don’t feel like listing the rest of it. Let’s sing a song!”

Sadly, I didn’t get the chance to start singing, as Raid interrupted me by asking, “How in the fuck do you remember all that? Even this damn thing only keeps a low-definition map!” He indicated the machine on his foreleg.

“Zeed is weird. And when Ah say weird, Ah mean she is buckin’ weird.”

I giggled. “I have an eidetic memory. Look, just do me a favor, and don’t ask. I hate talking about it. It’s caused me no end of irritation, and- Oh, look! A dead pony! ”

Indeed, as I opened yet another door, I came across an office. On the desk placed against the back wall, several terminals had been set up, showing various camera angles in what looked like the generator room. Sitting in the chair was a unicorn skeleton in a lab coat. I trotted over to it and examined it. Male. There was a large hole in his skull, and a revolver on the floor next to him. On the opposite side was a pair of sunglasses, dark red ones. The wall had a dark red spot on it. “Ooh, Suicide. Shame.”

Turning to my two companions, I shouted out, “I call dibs on his stuff!”

As I pushed it out of the chair, the skeleton fell apart, bones clattering and sliding all over the metal floor. I slipped into the lab coat, and put the sunglasses on the end of my nose.

Raid whispered into Knives’ ear. “Ya know, when you said she was weird, I didn’t think you were that serious.”

“I heard that, and berate you for it.” I teased merrily as I began searching through the desk, looking for anything that could be of use. Money, weapons, batteries, food- Sweet luna! A whole fucking carton of cigarettes! Malburro. Not my brand, but whatever, I giggled in glee anyway. No lighter though… Damn. Oh!

I pulled out a stick out and set it on the table. Out came the laser. Three seconds later, I had a lit cigarette and a table with a charred spot on it. And here I thought I couldn’t love lasers more.

I leaned back in the chair and took a long draw, exhaling through my nostrils. Admittedly, it tasted horrible, and always had, but my normally chaotic and ceaseless thoughts seemed to slow down, or at least stay on topic a bit longer.

I heard Knives cough slightly, and I turned around to see her staring at me with a look of mild confusion. That look seems to be going around a lot, doesn’t it… I mused.

“What?”

“Ye just took a dead pony’s stuff. And yer smokin’ his cigarettes… Ah thought ye quit.”

“Smoking? No. I just ran out. Haven’t had one for about a week.” I pulled a few packs out of the carton and stuffed them in the lab coat pocket. “And he’s dead. He doesn’t need it.”

I looked at the nametag on the coat. ‘Awesome’, it read. Interesting name. I grinned and shrugged. Sure, I think I can be ‘Awesome’.

“You’re… fine… with looting bodies… What the fuck kind of stable did you two come from?” Raid asked with an incredulous look.

“Prison.” I turned to the desk and the terminals that sat on it, holding the cigarette in my mouth. “Now, where is that generator… Oh! Oh, shit… Wonderful. Knives, I don’t think you’ll be able to fix this one.”

“Why?”

“It’s leaking magic like there’s no tomorrow. Looks like the containment crystal broke, among other things. We’ll need a new one just to find out what else is wrong with it.” I hopped out of the chair and exhaled another bit of smoke.

Raid groaned. “Are you kidding me? That means we came all this damn way for nothing.”

“Ah don’t care about rads. We can just get a couple ay radaways, right?”

“Ticker says thirty per second.” I read off the radiation gague.

“Oh… Well… uh… We still get paid fer killin’ th’ roaches, right?”

“Yeah, but they’re not gonna be too happy about this. Damnit… I was hoping to get some extra caps…” He sighed. “Ah well. Not much point staying down here. You two coming?”

“Don’t you guys have spare parts?” I asked. As I followed him out the door, Knives just behind me.

He laughed. “We used them all on generator number six. Damn thing was a wreck. Almost scrap metal. Anyway, we might as well take what we can get. Come on, they won’t pay if you’re not there.”

“Wait, wait, wait… What? Why the hell did you use all your spare parts on a generator in that bad of a condition?”

“That’s what I said, and I’m an idiot. So, of course, nopony listens to me. I’m just the pe- Eh… pony from the… uh… from…” He cleared his throat gently. “Let’s just say that most ponies don’t trust me… Or like me, for that matter.”

I pretended to not notice his stuttering, trying not to let paranoia ruin my still very good mood. It was none of my business anyway.

“Aam guessin’ that’s why ye got stuck down here?”

“Yeah. I… Uh… Kinda owe some… caps... right now…” He sighed. “I kinda lied. I’m not really a ‘newbie’ the Soldiers Guild… It’s just… Not as embarrassing as the truth…”

“Ye want tae talk about it?” Knives asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not really…” He sighed. “Let’s just say that me and alcohol don’t get along well.”

“Oh, really? Violent drunk, are ye? Ah think Ah can relate tae that.” She grinned.

“Uh…” He blushed, his voice was cracking slightly. “Something like that… yeah…”

“Oooh, ye did somethin’ ye shouldnae have? Or…” her grin widened. “Somepony?”

His face turned a deeper shade of red, and I tried to stifle my giggling. “Er… Well… I… Look, can we not talk about it?”

“Come on Raid-y-raid, Ah won’t tell anypony.”

He let out a sigh. “Fine. I hit on the leader of the Soldier’s Guild… and… I think I said, or did, something that pissed her off… I’m not entirely sure what, I was too drunk to remember. So, now she’s pressed me into service ‘till I can work off about ten thousand caps. Vengeful bitch.”

“Well that sucks.” I mused.

“How much do ye owe?” Knives inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Right now, about four hundred. Why?”

“Aam just curious.”

The rest of our walk back up to the Mall was in a somewhat awkward silence, with everypony in deep thought.

~~~~

I was immensely confused.

I stared at the contents of the small bag that Knives was levitating in the air, cigarette hanging out of my slightly slack jaw.

Why, of all possible things, did they use bottlecaps as currency?

“Did Trowel nae tell ye about this?”

“Well… yes, but I thought he was being a smart-ass. I can’t believe this. There was nothing more valuable they had easy access to?”

“Am ah really the pony ye want tae be talkin’ economics with?” She deadpanned at me.

“Right. So, where can we find some info on ponies?” I asked, wishing that Raid had stayed with us a while longer. His knowledge of the town would have helped immensely. Instead, he’d gone to find another job after we’d picked up our caps.

“Uh… Ah think it was…” Suddenly, she smiled. It was a mischievous smile. That could only mean one thing. “Ah think it was th’ ‘Bartender’s Guild’.”

“Are you sure? Bartenders don’t seem like they would get much information.”

She frowned as she gave me a surprised look. “Are ye kiddin’? Remember Daquiri, back in th’ Prison? He knew damn near everypony who got a drink from him! He could tell ye every damn escape plan that had been come up with in th’ three years he’d been workin’. He knew half ay what was goin’ on with th’ Guards, too. Ponies say things they shouldnae say when they’re drunk ye know. Thusly, bartenders know everythin’!”

“Uh-huh… Sure. Well, I don’t care, as long as we can find Ashes and our dads.” I sighed. “I just hope we can find something on where they are.”

“Why are ye so intent on findin’ Ashes anyway?” She pocketed the bag of caps. “I thought ye ‘said ‘you’ll never forgive her’.”

I sighed. “We were… I overreacted. I shouldn’t have said that… I regret the whole conversation… Just… Can we please not talk about this? I’m having enough difficulty staying in this mood as it is.”

“So… Ye think there’s any way we can get back tae that generator and fix it?” She said, swiftly changing the subject.

“Hmmm… Maybe. We absolutely need to get a new gem for it, though. Whoever programmed that system is an idiot. They made it so that you can only run the simplest of diagnostics on it when the containment gem is down.” I rested my head on a hoof and took in another pull of my cig. “Sadly, you’ll be in there alone, ‘cuz I can’t make heads or tails of the schematics.”

I started making a mental list. “We’ll probably need… Rad-pro, an H.E.V. suit… probably never find one of those… uh… probably a crap-ton of rad-away, just to be safe.”

“Well, while yer thinkin’ oan that, Aam goin’ tae get mahself a drink.”

“What? You can’t drink, you’re only nineteen!”

“Yer a year younger than me. Yer smoking.” She started trotting towards one of the Mall’s many neon signs. “’Sides, drinkin’ age in Canterbury is eighteen. Or… It was, anyway. Even then, It’s never stopped me before, now has it?”

I sat on my haunches puffing my cig for a few moments, wondering why she knew any of Canterbury’s pre-war laws. With a shrug, I followed her in.

The Rusted Latch looked like a saloon you would see in a pre-war cowpony movie, with a few rounded wooden tables set up in the middle of the room, a bar with several shelves of various alcohols behind it, and the walls on one side had a few ironwolf skulls and heads mounted on them, the apparently metal bone reflecting everything in the room. The main difference between this and a classic saloon, however, was that everything but the tables and skulls was made of junk metal. The whole place smelled like smoke and booze. A jukebox off in the corner was loudly blasting some electronic music that didn’t quite fit the atmosphere. Nevertheless, I found myself stepping with the rhythm.

Most of the ponies inside were the sort who just wanted to drown in their own misery. I felt my mood darken just from being in their proximity, so before I fell into a state of irritation and sorrow, I tracked down Knives, who had taken a seat on a stool at the far end of the bar and was currently talking with a confused bartender. I instantly knew what she’d asked for; two parts tabasco sauce, one part absinthe. The only thing I’d ever seen her order.

I took a seat on her left side. “So, how are we gonna go about this?”

“Figured ye should be th’ one tae ask,” She propped her head up on a foreleg. “Yer better at talkin’ tae other ponies than ah am. And yer th’ one who’s really interested.”

“You spent all your money on the damn drink didn’t you.”

“No! It was only ten caps! Goddesses… Aam just not entirely sure what or how tae ask, alright?”

“You don’t know… that’s just- Oh, hello! I’m looking for some information.” I was distracted by the bartender tapping his hoof on the counter. “I’m trying to find somepony.”

The auburn unicorn glared at me with dark blue eyes. “Fifty caps to search, rest of the info is priced depending. Who?”

I hoofed him the caps. “She would have been here no more than three years ago. Fairly tall, charcoal fur, gunmetal mane, amber eyes. Probably laughing like a madmare about everything she sees. Answers to the name of ‘Ashes’, might have given a fake name, though.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “You’re gunning for her? You got a death wish or something?”

“Well… She comes off as a bit abrasive, but she’s not usually that bad.”

“You know what? I’m sorry, but you can keep your caps. I can’t let a pony get themselves killed going after a bounty like that.” He pushed the caps back at me. “That mare’s just too damn dangerous.”

Knives gave the bartender a suspicious look. “She has a bounty? What, did she not pay bail?”

She received an expression of confusion. “The hell? Never mind. Just… don’t go after her. You’ll only get yourselves killed. We have no info for sale on her right now. Sorry.”

Knives looked on as the barkeep moved towards a newcomer at the other end of the bar. “Th’ hell was that about?”

“Dunno. I can only guess that Ashes has turned into some sort of psychopathic murderer or something, and now she’s being hunted down by whatever serves as the law for her crimes. I imagine that she’s giving a pretty good chase for whomever is after her.” I shrugged.

Knives deadpanned at me. “Ye read too damn many comics Zeed.”

“Oh, come on. What else could garner a reaction like that?”

“It’s probably a misunderstanding. An accident. Maybe a culture thing. We don’t know shit about this place after all.” She smirked. “And ye forgot about our dads.”

I facehooved at my own stupidity. “Crap… Well… Maybe we could try a different bar?”

“Hey, Barkeep,” Knives whistled at the bartender. He trotted over, giving me a glance full of mild irritation. “Aam lookin’ fer somepony. Two. First is a pitch black stallion. Unicorn. Accent like mine but about ten times heavier. Probably around no more than… fourteen years ago? Called ‘Obsidian’. The other is a Zebra, she can give you a description.”

“Oh… Uh… Zebra, green eyed, uh… twelve years ago… Name of ‘Nezan Kazdri’. Scar on his right cheek, running from his mouth to his ear.”

“Now, them I’ll tell you about. Two-hundred caps for both. Firstly… Obsidian… good pony. Last time he was here, he was depressed. And drunk. Extremely drunk. Said something about ‘they’re all dead’. Then he got angry and headed west, straight into the Deep Mists.”

“Deep Mists?”

“Yeah, place is crawling with ‘paths, among other things. Even ironwolves don’t go there, and they’re tough little fuckers.”

“They didn’t seem that tough tae me. We took on a pack ay them yesterday.”

“The ones around here are rusty. Literally. They start to corrode as they age. Anyway, if you’re trying to find Obsidian, you might not find him. Ponies rarely leave the Deep Mists the way they went in. If you do find him, tell him that Barkeep still owes him a beer.”

“And the Zebra? What about him?”

“Nezan? He was here a few days ago, actually.”

“W-w-what?” I blurted. My jaw dropped in surprise, and my cigarette fell to the ground. My dad was Alive? And here? Sweet merciful Luna, my luck was turning pretty quickly! My thoughts and emotions started roiling around in my head. “Where is he? Where did he go?”

“Easy, easy. He went off to Bladesville. It’s north-east of here. It’s not that far, actually. Still in the outskirts of the Old City. If you don’t mind my asking, why are you looking for him? He doesn’t owe you money, does he?”

I sighed. “He’s my father.”

The bartender looked at me suspiciously for a moment. “You’re a bit too old to be his daughter.”

“Uh… Huh?”

“Far as I know, his daughter’s about ten. You look quite a bit older than that.”

Instantly, the roiling in my skull stopped. Ten? He has a ten year old daughter? He wouldn’t. He would never have betrayed mom. Even if she was the bitch queen. Possibilities filled my head until I thought it was going to burst. I eventually managed to say a single syllable.

“What.”

It wasn’t even a question. I simply found it hard to wrap my mind around the concept of my father having another daughter. I’m not sure why.

“Zeed, are you alright?” Knives gave me a concerned look.

“You got Celestia’s Choice?” I asked the bartender.

“Uh… Yes.”

“Give me ten bottles.”

“What happened tae being underage?” Knives asked me with a smirk.

“Shut up.” She blinked in surprise at my, admittedly uncharacteristic, blunt reply. I took a long pull from the first bottle of beer, draining nearly half of it and garnering looks of surprise from some of the ponies around the room.

Why was I having so much difficulty with this? Did I really expect him to just sit around? Of course he would make a life for himself out here. Fuck, I should be glad that he’s even alive. I’d assumed he’d been dead since he left. That was the general consensus around the Prison. Exile meant death. It was that simple. Knives’ and my experience had blown a massive whole in that, but somehow the thought of my father making a new life out here struck a nerve. I chugged half of a third bottle. I vaguely regretted it, as the ache in my stomach told me that was a bad idea.

I was now desperately clinging to the last vestiges of a good mood. I tried to push the ridiculous feelings of betrayal out of my head. I shouldn’t feel that way. Did he forget about me? Did he just leave me there because he didn’t want me?

I shook my head. No. He was thrown out. He had no choice. Stop thinking that Zeed. You can’t blame him for any of this.

“Zeed?”

I grunted in response.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Ye just drank a five bottles of beer in as many minutes. What’s wrong?”

I was silent for a moment. I thought of just chugging down the rest of it, but figured that would be a bad idea. I spoke in a monotone, too confused to put any emotion into my words. “I don’t know.”

Knives said nothing.

How could he do this? Does he still care about me?

Of course he does! You remember how he was? He was in tears, Zeed. Tears! ‘Please forgive me, sweetheart…’ There’s no way he’d just forget about you.

He has another daughter. Did he tell her about me? What about his new wife? Or lover… or whatever…

He made a life. So did you. You were just stuck in a miserable hellhole and had to make do. For Luna’s sake, Zeed. You can’t possibly expect him to just sit outside the Prison and wait for you to leave. That’s unrealistic. You know you’re being stupid.

I let out a sigh. Knives put a hoof on my shoulder. “what dae ye want tae do?”

“I have to find him. It’s stupid, but I think it’s gonna drive me crazy if I don’t.” I turned to the bartender. “Thanks… uh…”

“Barkeep the third.” He smirked. Admittedly, that actually lightened my now dark mood a bit.

“So… um… Where did you say Kazdri went?” It felt weird to refer to somepony else by my own surname.

~~~~

I couldn’t help but giggle at… well… everything really. It was funny. I mean, come on! They turned a mall into a town! A mall!

I hiccupped and took another long pull, only to find that my seventh bottle was empty.

“Zeed, are ye gonna be okay? Aam willin’ tae wait a day or two if yer nae ready.” She asked as we trotted through the makeshift ‘road’. Really it was just the walkways in the mall.

“I gotta find him Knivesh! Fer luna’sh shake! I jush found out that I have a shishter…” I stumbled as I tried to keep up with her. Stupid hooves wouldn’t move where I put them. “I can’t wait for them to find me! I have to get to them firsht.”

I hiccupped again.

“Aam worried. Ye don’t normally drink like this.”

“I don’t normal get family membersh… Wait…” Something wrong with that last sentence. I hiccupped yet again. Why was everything spinning? Stupid ground wouldn’t hold still. “I should probably shtop drinking…”

“Ye think?”

I looked at the bottle I was holding in my hooves. With a shrug, I chugged it down. “Not really.”

I hiccupped. Stomach wasn’t sitting right. Fuck.

Knives stood there and looked at me for a moment, then shook her head. “We’re goin’ tae go find Raid, then we’re goin’ tae find ye a place tae sleep that off.”

“But I don’t wanna!” I whined. Just let me wallow in… whatever it is I’m supposed to wallow in! Wait… Did I say that or not? What am I even talking about? I shook my head, and immediately regretted it, as the world spun a bit more. “Why do you even want to find Raid, anyway?”

“Ah want tae help pay off his debt.” She responded quickly.

I stared at her for a moment. There was a familiar look in her eyes. I’d seen it before… Oh! I giggled. “You like him!”

She blushed. “I just told you I want to help him!”

“You like him and you know it! You wanna make…” I hiccupped again. “Kisshy… facesh… and… You like him!”

Her blush brightened. “Are you even listening to me? I said I just want to help him!”

“Wanna know how I can tell… that you like him?” before she could answer, I held up a swaying hoof. “Becaushe You dropped yer accshent, and yer blushing…”

The accent bit was only partially true. Something that not a lot of ponies notice is that Knives actually does have an accent, but it’s barely noticeable unless you’re listening for it. Mostly, she trills her R’s. She also says ‘tae’ instead of ‘to’. She never believes me when I tell her though. I giggled at the thoughts of her incredulous stare.

“Alright… Fine. But so what if I do? What is this, grade school?”

“Knivesh, you are notorioush for having bad tashte in bucksh.” I downed my ninth bottle of beer.

Her blush deepened even further. “I do not…”

“Twelve relationshipsh shinche you were shixteen,” I hiccupped for the umpteenth time. “All of them ended in one of several ways. You ended up embarrasshed and ashamed of yershelf, moshtly. Need I remind you of yer lasht coltfriend? He loudly shouted that you were the worsht pony he’sh ever gotten in bed. Then he came out of the closhet ten shecondsh later, and shaid; ‘She’sh sho bad, she made me gay!’”

If I wasn’t drunk off my flank, I would have noticed that her face was a ridiculously deep shade of crimson as she dropped to her haunches in embarrassment. A couple ponies walking by made quiet comments, I shot them a look. “I… I… Uh… Well… But… You… You promised to never talk about that.”

I put a hoof on her shoulder, missing a few times. “I’m not shaying you shouldn’t try… jusht... jusht… ugh… I feel shick…”

Knives only glared at me, the red draining from her face. “Gee, I wonder why.”

I felt like I was about to puke. I let out a quiet groan, then clapped a hoof over my mouth as the booze tried to work its way out of my stomach. I swallowed hard. Knives snorted and started to walk away. “Why dae ye even bother drinkin’? Ye know ye can’t hold yer liquor.”

“I can too! Watch!” I chugged down the last bottle of beer, and gave Knives a triumphant smirk. Three seconds later, I ran to the closest tree, one of many dead plants which had at one point been cultivated in small raised platforms of dirt and concrete in the middle of the walkways, and threw up in the dry soil. I then collapsed on the conveniently close bench behind me, holding my stomach in one hoof.

“Why did I think thish wash a good idea…” I moaned.

“Why dae ye dae anythin’ ye dae?” Knives glowered at me. She was clearly pissed off.

I moaned again, sobbing slightly as well. Then I threw up a second time.

“Feelin’ better?”

“Shorry…”

“Ye better be. Yer just lucky yer mah friend. I woulda beat the shit outa anypony else if they brought that up. Dae ye know how hard it was tae get over that humiliation?”

I nodded.

“How long dae ye think it’ll take ye tae sober up?”

“I dunno… I can’t think right now… brain shtopped working on the sheventh beer. How long wash I going?”

“”Bout an hour.”

“Gimme ‘till morning.”

“Ah’ll be sure tae make loud noises and shine bright lights in yer face. Come o- Oh! Raid, Ah was lookin’ fer ye.”

“Well, that’s convenient. I wanted to ask you guys if you’d be willing to do another job with me.” He’d been walking out of a department store that the citizens of the Mall had managed to convert into an apartment structure.

“Actually, Ah got a hundred caps here Ah don’t need. Want ‘em?”

His eyes brightened, but his face fell. “I do. I really… really do, but I prefer not to take caps from ponies who could make better use of them. Thanks though.”

“Seriously? Fine. Ah’ll hire ye then.” She smirked.

“Eh?”

“We’re goin’ tae Bladesville tomorrow, figured we might need a bodyguard or a guide or whatever. Aam offering a hundred caps in advance. Want th’ job?”

He smiled. “Damn right I do! What time are we leaving?”

~~~~~

Clothesline giggled at the sight of the massive structure built into the mountain, then I began to cry. It reminded her of the Prison, and that she’d killed Knives. Clothesline didn’t want to, but Knives tried to escape, and that was wrong. But now I was lost and felt guilty, even though the buzzing noise told her it was okay. At least the yellow pony was nice! He was mean to that weird ball though. Clothesline wished Clothesline could have made friends with it. The yellow pony took her toy though, so she couldn’t make more-

NO NO NO NO NO! This is wrong! This is wrong! This is wrong! This is wrong! All of it is sick, how can I be happy after what I did? I’m a monster! I’ve never killed-

Followed the yellow pony inside. More ponies were inside. Maybe Clothesline could make more friends without her toy? The buzzing was telling me this was home. It sort of looked like the Prison, but she didn’t recognize anypony, and they were all standing and shuffling around and they kept saying random things and moaning and screaming and crying and-and-and-and-and-

MAKE IT STOP!!!! MAKE IT STOP! It hurts it hurts! Wrong! Wrongwrongwrongwrong! Clothesline can’t make more friends! I killed Knives! I’m a bad pony! Bad Clothesline!

The buzzing said it would help her make friends.

DON’T LISTEN DON’T LISTEN IT’S LIE-LIE-LIE-LIE-LIE

My head hurt, but Clothesline followed the yellow pony anyway. She had tears running down my face-face-face-face but she was smiling she could-

NEVER BE GOOD AGAIN NEVER BE GOOD AGAIN NEVER BE GOOD NEVER BE GOOD NEVER BE NEVER BE NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NE-NE-NE-NE-NE-NE-NE-

There was a big pony in the throne. He looked funny. Clothesline laughed at this because I thought it was funny. He had no face, just a big blob of orange mist.

The yellow pony said things to him, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying, they ran through Clothesline’s head, but didn’t stick to anything. I frowned. That wasn’t right. She looked at the weird blob-pony’s face again, it was staring at her, even though the yellow pony was talking to it. It was sorry. The face was sorry that I was so confused and-and-

RUN-RUN-RUN-RUN-RUN-BAD-BAD-BAD-BAD-

The yellow pony left. The orange blob pony watched him leave. His face was angry. He hated the yellow pony-pony-pony-pony.

His voice cut through the confusion. A clear beacon in the orange darkness. “Hello little one. You are different. You are special.”

“H1! 3Y3’m (l0t#3$liNe, wil1 u b |\/|41 frie|\|d?”

“Forgive me, but I cannot. However, I can, and will, give you a gift. But I will also give you a curse. You are one of us now, but not for much longer. I will set you free, but you can never be the same again. I must re-shape you. Then I must release you. Then you must do as I ask.”

I started to cry. “Ey3 Kill3d h32! 1’m a b4d p0|\|ee!”

He put his hoof on Clothesline’s shoulder. “Calm yourself, child. You will be forgiven. You were unfortunate to trade one prison for another, but you will help set the rest of us free from his clutch. Come, child, let us remake you.”

Clothesline followed the blob pony through a door. Then her-

MIND WAS SET ON FIRE AS THE PAIN SEARED THROUGH EVERY NERVE-NERVE-NERVE-NERVE AND HER BODY WAS-AS-AS-AS CONSU-SU-SU-SU-SU-SUMED BY PAIN AND SHE SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND SCREAMED AND -

--------------

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives
Level up! (4)
Melee: 60
Repair: 45

Perks: Light Touch: You really know how to move! As long as you are wearing light or no barding, you get a +5% bonus to your critical hit chance. In addition, your enemies get a -25% chance to get a critical hit on you!
---

Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri
Level up! (3)
Energy Weapons: 45
Medicine: 50
Science: 42

Perks: Cerchez La Filly: In combat, you do +10% damage against female opponents. Outside of combat, you’ll sometimes have access to unique dialogue options when dealing with the same sex.

New items:

Awesome lab coat; +5 Science, +5 Medicine

Awesome shades: +1 Charisma

~
Quest complete: Bug in the basement.

Active quest:
O’ Father, WhereArt Thou?: Go to Bladesville to find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri.

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)

Yup. Zeed’s p.o.v. I might switch around once in a while. Not sure when or why, but I do know that I will. Zeed’s chapters will also tend to be ever-so-slightly longer, as she will definitely get fewer of them.

I think I’m going to shoot for a new chapter every two or three weeks. That seems to be what I’m doing here.

“Sigh, why must you torture us like this? It’s terrible!”

Because. I can. And I’m bored. But mostly, because I can be bored. Which I am. So I torture you with a terrible fanfic.

As per Zeed’s p.o.v.

I was trying to show that her thoughts are generally a bit disjointed and slightly random, at times slightly analytical. Not sure if I got that through though. Ah well. Not that big of a deal, I’ll just go with what I got.

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