"Ponyfeathers!" Twilight cussed at hearing Spike's words. "Spike, follow the blood trail! They could not have gotten far!"

Spike barked (as others were present) and ran. Twilight checked her ammunition and went to follow her assistant...

Distant sounds of gunfire erupted on the eastern side of the village.

"The fuck?" Cranky Doodle cocked his shotgun.

"Consarnit!" Applejack swore, looking at the corpses of dead attackers. "Twi, these guys are armed way better than the locals, we can't just leave them!"

"Tartarus damn it!" Twilight swore.

I can't abandon Sunset, but I can't leave the villagers against superior opponents either! Think, Twilight, think, what should you do?

She looked in the direction where Spike ran to. The small dog was already barely visible in the night.

What should I do, what should I do?

"Applejack," the lavender-skinned girl declared, "you and Rarity help defend Donkey Stopper. I'll follow those who took Sunset."

"I am not letting you go without sniper coverage!" Rarity said firmly. "I am with you!"

"Rarity, Applejack needs your help more than I do!"

"No Ah ain't!" the blonde girl replied, her voice distorted by the helmet's vocoder. "Ah can take care of those varmints! Just hurry an' go get Sunset!"

"I..." Twilight hesitated, and then said, "alright, fine, we'll risk it. Rarity, come on!"

Sunset could not get a hold of her surroundings.

A rifle's butt to the face knocked her to the ground, and she managed to bang her head pretty hard against the ground; even with the helmet on it, the aftershock was rather nasty.

To add insult to injury, the assailant saw it fit to add several more hits to the face that did not help the situation.

Then she was hoisted and carried outside.

She vaguely heard some shouting and clatter of the guns, but the words were incomprehensible and the staccato of gunfire dulled into a constant dum-dum-dum. While Sunset could distinguish the weapons by the sounds of them firing to a certain extent, she was not able to do so now.

That annoyed her.

It also annoyed her that she could not get the annoying dancing lights out of her eyes, that her face and head hurt, and that the combat fatigues that her captor carried stunk. She did not want to guess why it stunk.

She understood pretty well that she was taken prisoner, but...

Who are they?

Before she could ruminate, a crack sounded in the distance. Then something splattered on her, and she felt that the person carrying her was falling down...

...and that her head was about to meet the ground.

Throwing her profanity filters out of the window, Sunset snarled in her mind:

Oh, fuck me.

Thud.

Blackness.

Twilight's breath was running wild. In her fear and near-panic, she did not breathe properly while running, which caused her respiratory system to feel like it got burned by something. She was also feeling discomfort near her diaphragm, and she had an urge to spit some mucus that collected in her throat - which she did several times already.

By contrast, Rarity was acting more composed, although the rigidness of ex-fashionista's posture indicated that she felt the stress of the situation as well. Every now and then, Rarity looked down the optical sight to ensure no one would get the jump on them - and to check if Sunset's kidnappers were close enough to be seen.

Spike easily picked Sunset's trail. Whoever picked her up apparently did not bother to stop her bleeding, which played in their favour. Another factor that helped them was that Sunset was not bleeding heavily, judging by the small amount of blood that Spike could smell on the ground.

After a chase that seemed to last for eternity, although it lasted merely for eight minutes...

...crack.

"Stop!" Rarity shouted.

"What's wrong, Rarity?!" Twilight shouted with impatience.

"Drop down and don't move!"

Not fully understanding the reason for Rarity's orders, Twilight still lay down on her stomach and became still. The alabaster-skinned girl activated her Stealth-Boy and disappeared from sight.

"Rarity, what's happening?" Twilight asked again.

"That was a high-caliber rifle shot," Rarity's voice was quiet and very close to her; apparently, she positioned herself close to Twilight. "We must be very careful. If that's an enemy sniper, we're at a heavy disadvantage. I am ill-equipped to deal with high-caliber ammunition, so we need to be very careful. The enemy might get us and we won't even be able to see them."

"How bad are high-caliber rifles? And what caliber are we talking about?"

"We're talking about fifty-cal, or 12.7mm if you prefer, and these rifles are anti-materiel, which means that they were designed to take out light vehicles. Our armour is nigh useless against it, these bullets can easily pierce your Commissariat model, and my scout-sniper infiltrator armour might as well be paper against it."

"Oh ponyfeathers," Twilight cussed.

"And if they have a thermal visor - which is unlikely, but possible - they can easily detect us."

"Double ponyfeathers. Can you see anyone, Rarity?"

"No, much to my frustration. Either they have a Stealth-Boy or they are positioned on a tree somehwere or they are beyond the line of horizon."

"What wouldn't I give for an eyebot right now."

"I agree, darling."

"What should we do now?"

"Crawl forward and don't rustle the grass too much, I'll try and see where the sniper is."

"Easier said than done," Twilight grumbled under her breath, so that Rarity would not hear her.

After several agonizing minutes, Spike told them that he smelled more humans and blood ahead - and Sunset among them. Rarity looked through her optical sight, making out the outlines of bodies on the ground.

"Twilight, I see no humans standing there. Only... bodies," she said quietly.

Twilight's heart sank.

Oh no. Please don't let it be what I fear it is!

Throwing caution out of the window, she stood up and ran forward. Even the prospect of imminent death from a possibly hostile sniper did not deter her as she reached her destination.

The scene in front of her almost made her gag.

Several humans, dressed similarly to those killed near the border of Donkey Stopper, were lying haphazardly, dead from extremely traumatic and deadly wounds. Some had their limbs torn off, some were missing their heads, and some just had very big holes in their bodies.

Sunset was lying under one of these bodies - fortunately, relatively unharmed. The blood droplets that belonged to her were caused by a gash that was about to clot soon, and not by a severed critically important blood vessel. Twilight quickly checked the pulse on Sunset's carotid artery, sensing the flow of blood there. Seeing that her friend's chest was rising and falling, the alicorn-turned-human sighed in relief.

She's alive. Thank Celestia.

"Hey!" a gruff voice shook her out of stupor. Quickly turning around, Twilight saw two unfamiliar men pointing their assault rifles at her...

...crack.

A moment later, the head of one man splintered into a gory mess of blood, skull fragments and torn-apart brain matter, making blood flow upwards out of now-exposed carotid arteries.

"What the..." the second man turned into the direction of the shot...

...crack.

...and he screamed, dropping his weapon, as his whole arm just flew away from his body. He screamed and withered around, clutching his shoulder, until he lost consciousness and bled out. Twilight only stared at the messy scene in front of her in shock.

Then it occured to her that she could easily be targeted, too.

Snapping out of stupor, she fell down, bringing her laser rifle up, checking for threats, not knowing whether the unknown assailant would be next. Rarity was somewhere close, covered by Stealth-Boy's cloaking field, but would she be able to see the unknown sniper?

Seconds turned into minutes while she gazed into the night, looking for the mysterious sniper, until Rarity de-cloaked.

"Useless," she said, "whoever that sniper was, they either retreated or are not interested in killing us. Come on, we need to pick Sunset up and get back to Donkey Stopper."

"Who were these people?" Twilight asked Cranky Doodle as Matilda treated Sunset's minor wounds. They were in the former teacher's house again, winded but mostly unharmed.

As it turned out, Applejack could easily handle herself with some support from the locals against the attackers. Whoever the enemy was, they did not expect a girl with a minigun and in a suit of T-72d power armour. And since they were reckless enough not to try and hide behind cover, Applejack quickly showed them why taking cover was the Rule Number One for engagements.

As of now, the blonde ex-farmer was in the house as well, looking at her friends and her old teacher.

"Gangsters," Cranky said. "They belong to the gang ruled by a crime lord known as Ivy Mortis."

"Ivy Mortis?" Twilight spoke the name. "A strange name. And how many people does this Ivy Mortis have in his gang?"

"Her."

"What?"

"Ivy Mortis is a woman. It's her gang."

"Oh."

"As for your question, probably around four or five hundred. But that's enough for her to keep control of Freemare."

"She's in charge of Freemare?"

"Sort of. Freemare does not have a designated ruler, and several gangs compete for controlling it. Ivy's gang is just the strongest one, and she's willing to kill anyone who defies her. She has a nickname of a Queen of Freeside. Last I heard, she likes it."

"Typical arrogance," Sunset huffed from the bed she was lying in. "Give a person some power and fear to feed on and they'll feel like royalty."

"You'd know about that one, wouldn't you, Shimmer?" Cranky gave the fiery-haired girl an evil smile.

"Why you old..!" Sunset stopped before a curse word slipped past her lips, and instead laughed wryly, "You really won't let me live it down, will you?"

"I'm an old fart that remembers your queen bee days, so no, not gonna forget it."

"...I wasn't going to say "fart", actually."

"You were thinking about it."

"Was not. I resent that accusation."

"Resent it all you want, you're not fooling me, Miss."

"Alright, back to the topic," Twilight interfered. "Why would they attack Donkey Stopper?"

"Well..." Cranky went silent for a second, then said, "it was protection money, most likely. You see, the previous leader of the village made a contract with Ivy Mortis; rather foolishly, in my opinion. He wanted to rule this village as he saw fit, but in order for Ivy not to interfere, they agreed upon a sum to be paid monthly. Thing is, that guy died pretty quickly, as no one liked him that much. However, Ivy wasn't keen on letting that cash prize go, and her goons succintly pointed out that, no matter what, Donkey Stopper owed her protection money. And if we don't pay it, she'll send her goons here to make a ruckus and kidnap someone for ransom."

"Ransom?"

"Yes. She doesn't do slave trading, thank heavens for small mercies. She's not interested in that, and in any event, competing with Trade Sixty-Six is quite hard."

"Oh... and what if there's resistance? Have you ever tried to repel her attacks?"

"Tried being the operative word. We can't effectively resist her goons. Even if we killed a couple, she mostly dismissed that as unfortunate, since she could recruit more if needed. She never sends valuable lieutenants for this task, only disposable goons."

"Is there a way to stop this? I mean, you having to pay protection money?"

"Unless someone else can pay five thousand caps a month for us, I don't think so. One could try and ask her, but if you think she'd want to lose us as an income source, unreliable as we are, you're gravely mistaken."

"I'm not naive enough to think Ivy Mortis would just refuse. I thought we could think of a compensation, or a compromise."

"Talking her into a compromise would be hard... although, as far as I know, she is not unreasonable. If you've got something worthy of her time, she will listen. We thought to offer her to let her people stay at Donkey Stopper in exchange for a reduced price, but none of us are currently fitted to go along the Little Pony Walk to Freemare right now."

"Well, should we find ourselves in Freemare, I think I can pass your offer along," Twilight said.

"We would be grateful. Now, you girls should rest - you have a long way through Maretonia."

The offer was met with no objections.

The next morning, around 11 o'clock, the girls were well-rested and ready to leave, when Twilight mentioned an unknown sniper that took out the goons sent by Ivy Mortis.

"There are rumours about a group of people that are sick and tired of the mess that gangs and slavers do around these parts, with Brotherhood of Steel and Flameswords only messing up further," Matilda replied. "No idea who they are, but they are somewhat similar to Daring Duo in the outlook. They have attacked gangs and Trade Sixty-Six repeatedly, and even a patrol of Brotherhood of Steel, if I'm not mistaken. They have already obliterated several minor raider gangs, but they are far away from being able to reliably hit Ivy's gang or Trade Sixty-Six."

"Do they have an established name?"

"Not yet. I think they aren't that famous here."

"I see. Thank you, Matilda, and you too, Cranky. We greatly enjoyed your hospitality."

"Stay safe out there, kiddos," Cranky said. "Wastelands are dangerous."

"Don't we know it..."

With these words, the four girls and Spike left Donkey Stopper.

Before the apocalypse, Maretonia had strategic importance as one of the centers of weapon and ammunition manufacturing of the UFE. Another city that had similar importance was Stalliongrad, and when Eastern Gambit of TODC saw the city engorged in a heavy and desperate battle against the rapidly advancing TODC forces, Maretonia's significance only increased. In fact, several factories were evacuated from Stalliongrad to this very city.

Although many factories lying within the boundaries of the city were utterly destroyed now, one could still find some surviving stocks of weapons and ammunition, ranging from standard firearms to plasma weaponry - although Brotherhood of Steel had already pillaged every stock of high-technology weapon they could find, so hunting for energy weapons there was a lousy prospect anyway.

Still, valuable loot could still be found here. Which meant that everyone that had the will to risk their life and limb would come here.

And fight against anyone who would compete with them for valuable armaments and ammunition.

That's where Twilight, Sunset, Applejack, Rarity and Spike found themselves.

While they were no strangers to urban combat by now, they still did not like it, for good reasons.

The first battle they had to fight involved super mutants holed up in a makeshift elevated camp, having them at a disadvantage. That disadvantage was quickly nullified, however, when Applejack flinged a high-explosive grenade she had picked earlier, taking out one of the supports. The crudely-built defensive construction fell, and in an ensuing chaos, the ogres were gunned down like radroaches.

By sheer luck, the only damage they suffered were slightly damaged armour plates.

The next battle was less fortunate. Because of a destroyed building that blocked their original path, the girls had to take a detour through one residential area. Unfortunately, said area turned out to be occupied by a raider gang that held onto the area, and a firefight ensued where the girls had had to hole up in one of the buildings.

Hiding behind half-destroyed walls, they exchanged bullets with raiders. Rarity cloaked with her Stealth-Boy and went to the nearly-destroyed upper floor, picking a relatively good position for a sniper. Applejack could not use her minigun effectively due to the fact that the windows were higher than where the minigun's barrels would be, and hefting the six-barreled weapon up would mean exposure to hostile fire. As such, Applejack exchanged the minigun for the LMG she had not had a chance to use yet and unleashed 7.62mm storm on anyone daring to expose themselves. Twilight and Sunset used their assault rifles, the former trying to emulate marksman's tactics, while Sunset was a bit more liberal with her firing.

Sensing that the girls were not as easy prey as it seemed, the raiders changed their tactic by bringing out heavier munitions they have scavenged from somewhere. Twilight screamed in fear as one man unleashed a 25mm grenade from a personal grenade launcher and dropped onto the floor, curling into a fetal position in fear. The grenade exploded on the street, several splinters flying inside but doing no harm. Sunset growled in frustration and gave Twilight a hard kick to the shin, prompting an "Ouch!", a stream of cuss words and a promise to banish Sunset to the moon and snapping the Princess of Friendship back into action.

The second grenade landed closer to them than they wanted to, and as Twilight was firing out of the window to take out one of the raiders, one splinter cut her across the right cheek.

"Ouch!" she shouted, jerking instinctively back into cover.

"Ya hurt bad, sugarcube?" Applejack shouted from her position.

"I'll live!" Unless the splinter is laced with poison, Twilight though ruefully.

In the meantime, a raider appeared with a rocket launcher. Noticing the threat, all girls who were on the first floor unloaded their magazines at him. Most of the bullets missed, but five or six hit him in vitally important areas, and he stumbled in place before falling. However, his trigger finger spasmed, and he unwittingly sent a rocket in the direction of Rarity.

Before it exploded, they heard a yelp of fear, and then they saw Rarity fall down in front of their position. She landed with a crack and howled in pain, clutching her right ankle joint. Applejack jumped outside, firing her LMG one-handed blindly, hoisted Rarity none-too-gently and shoved her through the window before getting back.

Twilight bent down over the fashionista while Sunset kept firing on the enemies and Applejack reloaded her LMG. From one look she understood that Rarity landed badly and dislocated her ankle.

"Ow, ow, ow," the alabaster-skinned girl complained as Twilight carefully prodded near the joint area. "Twilight, careful, please!"

"Rarity, you need to bite down on something," the lavender-skinned girl ignored the complaints.

"What, exactly?"

"Your fingers," Twilight showed her how exactly to do it.

"Oh my, it's so unsanitary," Rarity whispered, but did as ordered.

"Alright, I should be able to snap it into place," Twilight declared. "On the count of three. One..."

She applied pressure in points specified by the book on emergency first-aid in the battlefield she had read when recovering in Brotherhood's bunker.

Finally, that knowledge came in handy, she thought.

Snap! The dislocated limb snapped back into place.

"UNNNNNNNGH!" Rarity moaned in pain as she bit down on her fingers, noting with unpleasantness that she actually drew blood.

"Better fingers than tongue," Sunset remarked from her place.

"Oh that makes me feel so much better, Sunset," the alabaster-skinned girl replied sarcastically.

"Hey, it's quiet," Twilight voiced her surprise at not hearing any more gunfire. "What's the matter? Did they run?"

"Nah, the varmints all kicked the bucket, it seems," Applejack replied, reloading the LMG and hoisting it onto her back again. "Ah couldn't see anyone retreating. Bit off more than they could chew, those raiders."

"Alright," Twilight said, "I need a couple more minutes to treat the joint with medicines from AMFAK-10 and then we can move, provided someone will carry Rarity."

"Ah could, but who'll carry the minigun?" the farm girl asked.

"Drat, did not think about that. Sunset, do you think we both could support Rarity so she doesn't need to bother her leg?"

"Worth a try."

"May I ask why we are in a hurry to leave?" Rarity inquired.

"With the ruckus we have caused, someone may descend upon this place like vultures. We should only pick the loot we need as quickly as we can and leave. I don't fancy another fight if I can avoid it."

"Point taken. Can you help me stand, then?"

The quartet of girls with Spike acting as a forward scout continued their track through the ruins of Maretonia. The looted ammo from the dead raiders partially compensated their ammunition expenses, and not far from the place of their fight, there happened to be a hideout. Sunset made a guess that they had encountered a minor gang that managed to get their hands on a higher-grade weaponry than expected of a raider gang, and everyone concurred. In any event, the hideout was empty, and they helped themselves to ammunition reserves and medicines scattered around. To Twilight's displeasure, it appeared that the raiders actively abused Jet and some other military-grade combat drugs, but Sunset considered it good, since the stack was actually theirs now.

"Better have it and not need it, and in any case, drugs bring caps," she said, pocketing Med-X and Psycho syringes.

Some time later, when advanced regenerative medicines kicked in, Twilight decided it was safe for Rarity to walk on her own. The former fashionista walked with a slight limp, but did not fall behind and did her duty as a sniper with the same efficiency and dedication as usual.

As they moved along the street with ruined homes, they noticed a patrol of four Paladins of Brotherhood of Steel. The Paladins noticed them, too...

...and opened fire of them.

"Shit!" Sunset cussed. "Twilight, can we tell them somehow that we aren't enemies?!"

"Working on it!" Twilight furiously rummaged in her pocket until she found a magneto-optic data disk with Brotherhood codes. Inserting it into her Pip-Boy, she set the integrated radio to Brotherhood frequency and shouted:

"This is Knight Sparkle to Paladins attacking me in Maretonia! Blue on blue action! I repeat, blue on blue!"

The fire stopped, and then everyone heard a response:

"Knight Sparkle, or whoever it is on this frequency, this is Paladin Forthwind. Are you accompanied by three more females, one of them in power armour?"

"That's me alright," Twilight responded.

"Come out of cover and don't make any unexpected actions. That's an order."

"Whelp, I guess we better obey," Twilight said, showing herself. Other girls followed her example, standing nervously as the Paladins came closer.

"Alright, the codes are authentic," Paladin Forthwind said. "Why aren't you in Brotherhood uniform, Knight, who are these people with you and why is one of them in what obviously is Brotherhood's power armour?"

"My mission requires that I do not openly declare my allegiance to the Brotherhood," the lavender-skinned girl replied, "thus I don't wear any gear with Brotherhood sigil on it. The people with me are my allies that I had fought with before joining the Brotherhood, they're helping me to maintain my ruse of being a leader of a small independent group of Wasteland wanderers. And one of them is in power armour due to the deal made between the Elder of the Northern Chapter of the Brotherhood and the leader of a settlement known as Appletown in order to mitigate the conflict between Brotherhood and Appletowners."

"A deal?" the Paladin said, disbelieving. "What sort of a deal?"

Aren't you a curious sort? "The suit was left to her by a Brotherhood Paladin who was unjustly exiled in absentia and stabbed in the back by his own people but survived. If Appletowners were to help Brotherhood in acquiring spare suits of power armour, then the Elder would relinquish the claim on the suit my ally is wearing. As you can see, both sides honoured their part of the deal."

"Hmmm. It irks me that I have to believe that story without being able to check myself, but we don't have time. What mission are you on, Knight Sparkle?"

"To gather data on possible location of Flameswords' main base. We were heading in the direction of Ponyville."

"I see. We apologize for firing on you. We're heading back for our temporary outpost not far from Straightlane. You'd better come with us."

"Why not to Straightlane?"

"The Hooffields' gangs have attacked the place in overwhelming numbers. Reinforcements are unavailable, so the best we can do is to avoid their attention."

"Hooffields?" Twilight asked, surprised. "The surname sounds familiar..."

"Hooffields and McColts are two of the most powerful gangs here, with only Ivy Mortis superior to them. They are enemies of the Brotherhood, but, unfortunately, are numerous enough to be a threat to us, so we need to come carefully."

"Hooffields are still there?"

"As far as we can tell, yes, and still in overwhelming numbers. Even with eight of us we would be outmatched."

"Drat," Twilight said. Her sense of justice began warring with strategic thinking.

I can't leave those people without help!

The enemy has overwhelming numbers, remember?

So did Adagio.

Adagio was arrogant, and you had the advantage of being on the defensive. This time, however, you will be the attacker, and you can't assume that this gang will be as incompetent as White Knives were, or did you forget how well-armed that two-bit raider gang was? You are hopelessly outmatched in this case. You should not pick battles you cannot win.

But to let the people suffer at the hands of the gangs?

You cannot save everyone.

The last thought pierced Twilight's heart like a lance. Gritting her teeth in overwhelming frustration, she turned to Paladin Forthwind:

"OK then. Please lead the way, sir."

The temporary outpost, as it turned out, was located near an old police station, which had fortifications like concrete blocks and barbed wire in front of it. As Palain Forthwind explained, the police station was a constant target of attacks when riot suppression operations were in full swing in Maretonia, and said suppression was finished only shortly before the Day of Burning, so no one was able to remove the fortifications.

The police station itself held no more value even in terms of defense: its architectural style was old and badly suited for bunkering down, the building suffered some damage from the shockwave, and looters almost tore it down, so it made more sense to settle among the fortifications built with intent to cut the rioters from the station.

The outpost itself had nothing but some ammunition, food and water supplies and two automated sentry turrets installed in two chokepoints, their .50 caliber good enough to deter anyone who thought that looting the outpost was a good idea. Paladin Forthwind sent a special signal in order to make turrets recognize Sunset, Rarity and Applejack as "non-hostile" - otherwise they would have been torn to shreds.

As for Forthwind himself, he and his subordinates proved to be rather amicable once their suspicions of Twilight and her company were alleviated, and Forthwind even took some time to scratch Spike's belly (to the latter's discomfort and Twilight's and Sunset's amusement). The image of a hulking soldier in power armour scratching a dog's belly was somewhat comical, but nobody laughed at the Paladin.

Apparently, like Flash, he has a good rapport with his soldiers, Twilight concluded.

When they arrived, they decided to stay put for two hours to have a moment to eat and rest. Everyone took out their ration packs and proceeded to prepare their MREs for digestion - Twilight stubbornly refused to use the verb "cook" and "eat" in regards to MRE - and dig into the flavourless nutrients. As they did, a conversation started. Forthwind asked Twilight about her adventures and how she found herself within the Brotherhood. When the alicorn-turned-human finished with her story, all four Paladins were left impressed (as far as the girls could tell, not seeing the soldiers' faces), and congratulated the girls on doing "a damn good job for a civvie", which was taken as a compliment.

In return, Forthwind told a little about himself. He, like Twilight, found himself in the Brotherhood only after the apocalypse, and neither he nor his men were even Mechanized Infantry to begin with. Once they served for a year in the Brotherhood and successfully completed several important missions as Knights, they were promoted to Paladins and taught to wear T-72d power armour.

Twilight asked several questions about the Brotherhood in general, Elder Sierra, Star Paladin Stahlmesser, the relations of Western Brotherhood Chapter with Elder Aegis, the threat of Flameswords and the Future-Tec complex that still could not be accessed.

Forthwind, as it turned out, was pretty loyal to Brotherhood's ideals, although he was not as quick to dismiss the common Wastelanders (or tribals, as some Brotherhood members called the outsiders derisively) as a lost cause.

"Raiders and slavers are a damn blight, and if the whole Brotherhood were to mobilize to wipe them out, I would be among the first to join in," he said. "But thinking that all outsiders are stupid is kinda too far. Sure, they might not know how to disassemble and reassemble a laser rifle or how to operate a warbot, but that does not make them any less smart. But I don't think we should just let anyone have a piece of surviving pre-apocalyptic tech without knowing what it does and how it works. There are still samples of dangerous technology or experiments lying around that we cannot let fall into hands of anyone."

He also spoke highly of Elder Sierra and Stahlmesser, and even Elder Aegis. When Twilight mentioned how Stahlmesser dismissed Aegis as a man with a weakness for grand gestures, Forthwind said:

"Well, Aegis is kind of a black sheep in the Brotherhood, and he is unwilling to tolerate his position, so yeah, he does kinda have that vibe. But I think that, for all his faults, he is a decent man, if very slow to trust."

"Why is he a black sheep in the Brotherhood?" Twilight asked, munching on a piece of something that was supposed to be meat in an MRE.

"While he has been loyal to UFE in general, he did not like the government or its decisions, and did not hesitate to criticize them openly and loudly. Problem is, the longer the war went, the more displeased he was, and some of his words could be interpreted as unpatriotic. Also, he was one of the few officers who supported the idea of making a peace treaty with TODC along with devising a combined effort to battle the energy crisis even after Manehatten Massacre, and thus ran afoul of Commissariat. Since many in the Brotherhood are ex-military, such past does not bring much popularity, especially in Western Chapter - almost every man of ours is a war veteran - and he has to compensate for that. So if he appears unapproachable initially, it's probably since he has to play ball with Brotherhood's modus operandi, or High Elder Gear will have his behind."

"I see," Twilight said. "He mentioned once that he and his soldiers were also attacked repeatedly, due to the fact that the military had participated in riot quelling and earned some hate because of that."

"That is a factor that would play to his initial stand-offish attitude as well. But since you earned his respect, he should be more approachable to you, right?"

"Kinda, yeah."

As for the Flameswords, Forthwind's position was rather hostile.

"They have betrayed their oaths to the Brotherhood, killed our comrades, including some of the men I served with, and have been officially exiled. I don't care why they did it, if we meet, they die," he said curtly.

Apparently, the schism runs deep, and Forthwind is driven by revenge, Twilight concluded. He'd better not know that I want to hear Flameswords' story as well.

When it came to the Future-Tec complex, he said:

"If we managed to get there, the boon would be enormous. That complex must still have surviving samples of advanced technology, since the complex was not targeted by nuclear bombs. More than that, if there are blueprints, there is a chance that some tech can even be rebuilt, if it does not require any complex assembly tech or something. And the complex itself makes for a very good base Just imagine how great it would be if we were to capture it!"

"I'm imagining," Twilight asked.

"Alas, Thunderfire turrets won't allow for it. The security system in that complex is crazy as Tartarus," Forthwind sighed. "And warbots will be a problem as well. The only more or less reliable way to enter that complex was to find someone who did work in that facility - the facial recognition systems should let them in - and have them let others inside, but we haven't had any luck finding such a person."

"Yeah, that would be a problem."

Before they knew it, the impromptu lunch was finished and everyone was ready to go. Forthwind and his Paladins had to return to the main base, so they bid goodbye to the girls and went on their way as Twilight, Sunset, Rarity, Applejack and Spike went further along to Marehoof. Twilight made sure to deactivate her Brotherhood codes, in order not to gain any attention from any Flameswords that could ahve been in there.

Failing her mission was not an option that bode well for her own plans of grasping a tiniest chance of returning to Equestria, if there was one in first place.

Fortunately, the girls avoided any unwanted attention, and by the evening, after two scuffles with wild radscorpions and mole rats, they arrived to the gates of Marehoof.

Now, it was the time to rest and to decide which path they would take from there.

Route 25 or Little Pony's Walk?

Author's Notes:

Funny thing - not long ago, I received a comment asking me when I would update this story. I said, "probably within two weeks", while thinking, "holy shit, it's that long since my last update".

Then a respite in my work happens and I am able to cram enough words for this bridge chapter to be complete. Pony of Buffy Fire, thanks for the proverbial kick

Yes, it's kinda short - I didn't plan on writing a 10k in first place - since its purpose was to introduce more players that should play a role in Western Wastelands arc and show a little more of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Next chapter will deal with Marehoof proper, and give an answer as to which of the two possible paths to Ponyville the girls will take. No idea on when it comes, honestly. My job tires me enough to send my writing dojo to clinical death.

Thoughts, comments, criticism are welcome in the comment box. Stay tuned!