Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPPBkGGvj1s

Anyway I'm back from my haitus. Had to get life in order.

There's plenty of camps between Ponyville and Canterlot, most of them relatively unsafe if the timberwolves are of any indication. However nonetheless they do make the march easier. We hadn't seen any thus far, mostly since we'd taken the direct rout to Canterlot. They like to avoid the road, military has a field day raiding those settlements for food and weapons. Of course they'll only mention the latter, although the food is more or less the incentive. We had happened by one of these settlements on a detour around a broken bridge.

The little commons was by a river that ran directly south from Canterlot. Most of the water, however, was undrinkable as it was because of the pesticides that plagued the few farms that operated under the Steel flag. However there was a large boiler in the center of the town, which was used to purify all that they could for drinking. None of it, however, was used for anything other than that. There were no baths or lavatories, all the business there was done in bushes or said river. This didn't exactly solve the problem with there being no baths, as the pesticides were not very friendly to the mane and coat.

There were guard posts set up around the area, most of which manned by scrawny young colts. None of them were older than 18. They all carried rusted rifles that appeared to be toys. Upon walking towards the gate they promptly turned me away, or attempted to.

"Look pal we don't want trouble, you just take yourself and the broad far away from here. If we see you again it'll hurt you much worse than it does us."

They sure were friendly, and Bellona certainly appeared to have a problem with the word broad.

"Look 'Pal', we're just travelers. We need a place to stay for a few days."

Noting the tone, one of the two guards seemed to ease off the trigger. The other was as steadfast as always. He was the one doing all the talking.

"Yea sure you are, and what's next you're gonna butcher us in our sleep?"

"How about this instead?"

I dropped the M16 in the dirt, they both now had eased off the trigger.

"You take it, so long as I get it when I leave."

They did a bit of a double take at eachother. Then somepony in the back began to shout.

"Green! Trance! What the fuck are you doing!"

It was a mare, an old one at that. However she seemed to be the one in control.

"Mama he was armed! We didn't know what to do!"

"Well did he make a threat!"

"No ma'am."

Like foals (which they pretty much are), they were back to being looked after by their parents.

"Then let the poor fellow in! He must be starving!"

"Yes mama."

They opened the gates, and behind it was an old mare with a bum leg. He had a hoof on a cane to make up for that. When she motioned for us to get in we were certain to follow suit. So with that we took our first step into civilization for a little while.

The towns name was 'Thronwahl', an interesting name to say the least. And telling by the looks of it, it'd actually been somewhat bustling. There appeared to be no more than 300 ponies living here in sheds and shacks, most however in tents. More than a few of these ponies looked to be other militants, hiding from their political machines. None of them batted an eye at us. I just kept moving forwards, I was told by the mare that most of the ponies here would be glad to have us if we made it worth their time. Bellona was less than thrilled, she didn't seem to be interested in living off of anypony.

However the old mare seemed to know her way around the place. Everypony just called her Mama and I suppose it'd have to suffice for the time being. She said there was a commons down the road. Anypony could stay so long as they didn't cause trouble, there was plenty of beds and food. Considering the town was a straight dirt road with a large wooden structure at the end, finding the commons was an easy task. We passed shoddy bars and restaurants, a few stores, and even a weapons shed. That was the interesting part to me, pretty much screamed 'Hey! We don't have any regard for our life, so come and take it!'. I suppose it was more or less meant to show the message 'We're armed, keep out of our way and we'll keep out of yours.' Both seemed like a poor choice.

"Hey Bell, wait here."

"What's up Crow?"

"I thought you had forgotten about that nickname..."

"Mare never forgets hon, never forgives either. What's going on?"

"The rifle we have won't cut it, not for long. It's running dry and the chances of finding shell casings or ammunition is slim to none for this thing. The machine pistol we found is the same story, .32 ACP doesn't show up a lot. We need to ditch these for something more practical."

"Hey, you know that thing was expensive right?"

"Look, I don't like it any more than you do but ask yourself this: What's the price of a life?"

She was silent to that, time to kill the mood with pointless facts that mean absolutely nothing nowadays.

"The price of a life, as agreed upon between the Equestrian Alliance, was 20,000 dollars. Your life is worth only 20,000 dollars. It won't even buy you a nice car if you think about it."

"Times have changed eh?"

"Sure have, now they're only worth a bowl of soup. Probably less."

The booth in question was a rugged shack on it's wits end with life. It was about to collapse and end it's miserable existence at any moment. It wouldn't take much for it to just go away. The pony that ran it was similar. An old stallion with a rust colored beard. His fur and mane were almost completely gone, he was completely bald.

We walked right towards that little booth, and I immediately realized that this would be a very unfair trade on my end.

"I'm looking to trade in these, what do you have?"

He did a bit of a double take, then looked from me to the weapons. It was a look of 'Where the actual fuck did you get this shit?' and 'Is this fucker serious?'. I was certain he was going to have a heart attack. He gave me this weak smile and nodded.

"Take what you like, what you see is what you get, I'll give you all the munitions I have for whatever you want as well."

"You really don't have to, just a bit is fine really."

"Oh no, I insist."

More than a weird tone, however moving down the aisle I realized there was some things that interested me. A wide variety of pistols, ranging in caliber. I saw a number of revolvers in the stake, mostly military surplus from over a hundred years ago. Another interesting find was certainly the one I was going to get. A old Prulish Makarov, essentially just a cheaper Walter PPK. It was just the right size, and 9x18 ammunition was increasingly common with steel. I knew my first purchase.

I kept looking around, I needed a few more things. Something for when things got personal. I was looking through when I found just the thing. It was on the shelf and I was certain it wouldn't be missed. It was a tiny 12 Gauge sawed off shotgun. I couldn't tell a make or a model, it was worn down but seemed to be in good condition. I pressed the lever and broke the shotgun, it worked nicely. The trigger was crisp as well, appeared to be a duel stage that started it's hammer on the left barrel and moved to the right, waiting to be reset by that lever. Shells for these were common so I took my guess that I'd like that as well. Not to mention it fit real nicely in my leather jacket's side pocket. If anything got nasty I'd have it on me.

The last was a full rifle, 5.56 was hard to find. 7.62 was another story. I looked along the walls and I found an AKM rifle right from a Steel armory. It was in relatively good condition to my surprise. Plus there were magazines a plenty for these. I depressed the button on the back of the dust cover and lifted it off. There was no rust on the spring or the bolt. Looking into the trigger assembly it looked relativity well kept, that is for both an AK and a rifle owned by Steel. There was dings in the stock wood, and a sling behind the counter. I made my trade, and the old stallion was generous in what he offered me.

"You're a soldier aren't you?"

"Excuse me?"

He caught me off guard as I turned my back to leave.

"Before the war, or perhaps during it. You were a soldier weren't you."

I turned and looked at him, right in the eyes. Something was off about this pony. I didn't understand his question.

"What does it matter nowadays?"

"Me and you, we are not so different after all are we?" He motioned to a chair, it was behind the counter and he asked me in. Even allowed Bellona. A surprising amount of trust for a pony he just met in a town like this. To be fair everypony was armed. An armed society is a polite one I suppose.

"What's it to you?"

"What it is to me is a legacy. You see I was a soldier for Equestria before the war."

"We're like wolves, aren't we?"

"Yes, I can smell you from a mile away."

"I was a Equestrian Marine back in Yakyakistan."

"Interesting. I was in the Equestrian army. I built wells for villages. I'm sure you saw us around."

"Yea plenty of you, hell five of you for every one of us. Celestia was on full damage control that whole time."

"Fuck, double damage control after we found that alicorn. Who would've known it'd end the world as we knew it."

"Tell me about it, this chat is nice and all but is there another reason you brought me back here?"

"Yes actually, I have a gift for you. You see we're not that much older, I'm probably only a few years more than you. The years, however, have been cruel to me. I want to give you something. You'll need it more than me."

He reached into a chest and scooted it over to me.

"Don't be shy, open it."

I pulled the chest open, a heavy and thick wooden lid protecting it from the elements. I looked inside and shot back up to him.

"I'm sorry, I can't accept this."

"I am insisting you do. Weapons were made to be held, to be used. I want you to use this."

"Are you sure about this?"

"One hundred percent, I've been waiting for a colt just like you."

I stared inside it. There were four grenades, a gas mask with a few filters, one pair of Multicam ACU pants that looked to be tight, and a CIRAS vest with wide pouches for most magazines. I looked back at him and down to the chest.

"Take it, do what I can't." There was a tear in his eye.

"The years have been rough haven't they?"

"You have no idea how much I want to leave this little shop and go with you wherever you are headed. Just to grab my old rifle, or any old rifle, and go back to soldiering. Some things were not meant to be, may God bless you son."

I looked back at him, right into his eyes. We were wolves, and wolves know their type when they see it.

The Multicam pants did, in fact, fit a half inch tight. This was, however, better than half an inch wide. I could make do. They did blend very well, making me very comfortable with the idea that I might need to scuffle with another pony soon. They were generation 3 style, built in kneepads for durability and safety. That was something I could appreciate. The CIRAS fit nicely too, however there were no bullet proof plates in it so I didn't count on it to save my life. Upon inspection of the gas mask there was a minor crack in the plastic on the left eye, however no abrasion that would stop it from functioning.

The Makarov pistol was relatively basic, it was essentially a simplified and smaller Walter PPM. Needless to say it did, in fact, deserve its praise for being a decent weapon. The Sawed off, upon closer inspection, really did not show any sign of where it was produced. It was certainly prewar, the machining of the barrels was rifled impeccably. There were, however, plenty of dings in the barrel and sand grains in the wood furniture. It did not feature a front sight, as that'd been lost when they cut the barrel off.

The AK was in decent enough shape. There was apparent rust on certain ends of the barrel and the front sight was chipped on the upper left end. The wood had heavy sand wear all over it, as if someone had dropped it out of a moving vehicle onto a desert. The charging handle had so much wear that it'd turned from a dark blued finish to a light grey.

I was already in bed by the time I'd inspected all this, and a nights sleep at the public inn was in order. There was food here too. As soon as morning would come that would be on it's way.