We spent the rest of the day trudging through mud and the drizzling rain, and as the light began to fade the three of us were soaked through and miserable. All around us was open wasteland, and with an angry raider band somewhere in our wake, none of us were too keen on stopping just yet. But as the hours wore on, Jerry and I began to slow as exhaustion took hold.

“Sentinel, we need to stop,” I panted as I did just that, dropping to my rump in the mud for a quick breather. Jerry moved up next to me and collapsed against me, equally spent. “We can’t keep going like this.”

Sentinel stopped and glanced over his shoulder at us. After a long pause, he sighed and nodded. ‘Yeah, alright. There’s an old chargin’ station just a bit further, can ya make it there?”

“C’mon Jerry, I’ll carry you,” I said and lowered myself to the mud, too tired to ask what a charging station was. Jerry muttered something that sounded like an argument but obligingly climbed onto my back. I stood up and slogged after Sentinel as Jerry drifted into exhausted slumber.

Turns out that ‘just a bit further’ meant something more like a mile down the road, but we saw it well before then. A faint light was flickering beneath the large overhang that extended from the building, easily drawing our attention. Sentinel stopped, reaching out a foreleg to stop me as well.

“‘Ang on,” he said quietly. “Looks like someone else set up camp there.” He lowered himself to the ground and reached back for his rifle with a leg instead of with his magic. I watched groggily, unsure of why he was doing that. Cradling it between his forelegs he took the bit into his mouth and looked through the scope on top. He was quiet and still for some time before he lifted his head. “I only see one. And they don’t look ‘ostile,” he said as he used his magic to lift his rifle as he got to his hooves. A faint blue light washed over the two of us, picking us out easily in the darkened landscape. No wonder he was using his hooves, magic made us stick out like sore hooves. The closer we got to the building, the more I could make out in the flickering light of what appeared to be a fire barrel. Metal fixtures and snaking cables hung from the overhang, swaying in the breeze. The building itself was a ruin. The paint had worn away from weather and time, leaving the bare metal to rust. A single figure was moving around inside, casually tossing things out the empty windows and out into the covered area. When we were a few feet away, Sentinel stopped me with a hoof.

“Wait ‘ere,” he ordered, taking a second to give me a stern look. He then trotted forward. “Evenin’ traveler!” he called loudly. Jerry stirred on my back at Sentinel’s shout, lifting her head from my shoulder.

“Huh? Wuzzat?” she mumbled as she slid off my back and stood unsteadily on her hooves.

“Company. I think Sentinel is finding out if its good or bad,” I said as Jerry rubbed at her eyes. The figure in the charging station went still. Teal magic flared, bathing the interior and the figure in light and a strange looking rifle raised slowly. It sort of looked like a pony and wearing some kind barding that covered it from head to toe, even obscuring the face.

“I haven’t got any caps! So make like a parasprite and buzz off!” the pony yelled. The voice was gravelly and oddly muffled, but definitely feminine. Sentinel slowed to a stop, lifting the barrel of his rifle to point up and away.

“Easy now,” he called. “Not looking for trouble. We’re just lookin’ for some shelter for the night.”

“We?” she called back as she moved behind something in the building. A counter maybe? “How many of you?”

“Just three.”

There was a moment of tense silence before the mare spoke again. “You’re wearing the uniform! Are you-”

“Retired,” Sentinel answered quickly as he slipped his rifle back into its place on his back.

“Alright… But no funny business.” Mollified slightly, the pony shifted around the interior of the charging station and carefully stepped out into the flickering firelight. She was clad head to tail in some kind of barding that looked almost like plastic. Haphazard armored plates had been strapped over it, offering some protection. She was easily as tall as me, taller if I counted the spire of her horn that protruded from a mask that reminded me of Fricassee. Sentinel waved us over and Jerry and I approached cautiously.

“Thank you for the hospitality,” Sentinel said as he sat himself down near the fire. “My names Sentinel. These two are Free and Jerry,” he said, indicating each of us in turn. Jerry waved politely but was more interested in curling up near the warmth of the fire. She was asleep again in moments.

“Charming Dawn,” the mare said through her breather. “Formerly of the Ministry of Peace.” She lowered her weapon, some kind of strange elongated box, and moved closer to the fire. She stared at Sentinel for some long moments before setting her weapon down. A tattered and messy collection of papers bound only by hope in a cracked leather book emerged from her saddlebags along with a pencil. The book flipped open and she began to scrawl in looping curls.

“What’re you doin’ out here alone?” I asked.

Her head briefly turned towards me, her eyes hidden behind reflective goggles attached to her breather. “Research,” she said flatly, as if that answer should suffice.

“Um… what are you researching?” I prodded, trying to urge her to continue.

“The effects of magical radiation and taint on the native and non-native life of Equestria and beyond,” she muttered, not taking her eyes off Sentinel. “Tell me,” she said, addressing him for the first time since she’d started writing, “Did you become a ghoul here in the Badlands?”

I glanced at Sentinel, rather interested in knowing more about our guide as well. He shrugged. “Can’t really say. Was tryin’ to make my way north when I noticed it ‘appening,” he said. He looked over his shoulder as his horned flared and his rifle slid forward engulfed in magic. The mare and I tensed but he quickly unloaded it and set the magazine aside as he started to take apart the weapon. “I wasn’t worried about myself at the time.”

Seemingly content, the mare nodded and scribbled a few notes before turning back to me. “Hmm, you don’t appear to be mutated or tainted in any noticeable fashion. I don’t think you will help advance my research that much.” Her book snapped shut and disappeared into her bags once more as she returned her focus to Sentinel. She began to ask him more questions, but her voice was muffled to my ears. The warmth of the fire was so nice after marching through the wastes in the rain all day, and my eyelids were suddenly so heavy. I yawned and lowered myself down next to Jerry.

Just a few hours rest and I’d be good to go.

I was dreaming. I know I was dreaming because I’d just managed to successfully tell Jerry how I’d felt all these long years. I sat in front of her, eagerly awaiting her response when I grunted uncomfortably, feeling my leg being tugged out of position. I pulled half-heartedly, my eyes fighting to open as I struggled to maintain the delusion that I was still asleep. Each time I tried to pull my leg back, something tugged it back to where it was. After a couple of attempts, a raspy voice got after me.

“Stop struggling, this will only take a moment.”

I blinked my eyes, Charming’s masked face swimming into focus. She’d tugged my foreleg out from under me and was busily examining my pipbuck.

“What’re you-” I muttered groggily.

“Shh, I’m examining your personal information processor. Such poor device management. Outdated software. Clogged ports. Filthy screen. Half of the systems aren’t even working properly. It’s like you have no idea what you’re doing with a pipbuck.”

I sat up, doing my best not to disrupt her work as she floated a small set of tools from her saddlebags. I glanced over at Sentinel who, during the night had finished cleaning and reassembling his rifle and was now busily examining Charming’s... weapon? He was looking along the top of the strange, oblong box with an assortment of wires and labels I couldn’t even begin to identify. Jerry stood several feet away, practicing drawing her pistol out of its holster and putting it back. A sudden twist of my foreleg returned my attention to the strange mare working on my pipbuck. “So… um… know a lot about pipbucks?” I asked awkwardly.

She nodded as she worked a small tool into the nooks and crannies of the devices and scrapped gunk out. “Ghouls develop all sorts of hobbies. Helps keep the monster at bay,” she muttered, tapping a hoof to the side of her head.

“Oh, you’re a ghoul?” She nodded again. “Is… that why you wear the strange suit?” Sentinel sighed loudly, and when I glanced over at him he was shaking his head.

“Partly,” she muttered. “I was exposed to the necromantic agent dispersed at Canterlot. Its magical nature is such that it can meld materials together, both organic and inorganic, with but a slight exposure. Simply put, there is no longer a distinction between my clothing and my epidermal layer,” she said. I gave her a blank stare, which she didn’t seem to notice as she resumed her work. Sentinel, however, spoke up without ever looking away from the weapon he was examining.

“Pink Cloud melted her suit and skin together,” he replied flatly.

“Oh! Oh… I’m sorry,” I said.

“What for? Did you release the necromantic agent?” she asked.

“Well… no, but-”

“Then you are not at fault and as such do not need to apologize.”

I fell quiet for a few minutes as she tinkered with my pipbuck. Before too long though, the silence was getting to me and I needed to break it. “So… you mentioned studying something about... something?” I said, hoping to start a discussion.

“The effects of magical radiation and taint on the native and non-native life of Equestria and beyond, yes. I’m hoping to produce a bestiary for this new world we live in to help my fellow ponies survive,” she said, not looking away from her work.

“I see…” I muttered, “We might be heading towards Deepwater,” I said, sending a look Sentinel’s way. “Anything we should know?”

Charming’s head lifted and I swear I could see an excited gleam in her eyes behind her goggles, tinted with a bit of madness. Jerry, having given up on her practice, trotted over and sat down next to Sentinel, seemingly interested in the topic as well. “Typically, you have the usual problems; radroaches, bloatsprites, and feral ghouls. As you get closer to the Hayseed Swamp you start to encounter a more diverse spectrum of mutated life. Radigators are not uncommon. Neither are Bloodbugs. But you need to be extra wary of Reaper Worms.”

“Locals call it the ‘Ellscape Swamp now,” Sentinel chimed in. Charming glanced at him and then back at her pipbuck.

“Oh, I see. I’ll have to update my notes,” she muttered.

“Um, all of those things sound truly awful, but why do we need to be wary of the worms specifically?” Jerry asked.

“I’m glad you asked,” Charming said as her horn flashed. A jar emerged from her bags, shrouded in teal magic even as she continued to work on my pipbuck. Inside was a small stump about the size of my hoof, the end of which sprouted five antennae, floating in a pale green liquid. It didn’t look very worm-like to me. She floated it closer and dropped it in Jerry’s hooves, who lifted it and examined it carefully with a disgusted look on her face.

“It doesn’t look like much,” she muttered.

“That’s only the head of an adult specimen, and all that I was safely able to retrieve. They average about five feet in length, but I speculate that, if left to their own devices, they can get much bigger.” With Jerry safely holding the jar, the magic field surrounded the head inside, moving it about as Charming continued. “It uses these antennae to sense prey which, as far as Reaper Worms are concerned, is anything that moves. When prey is near it opens its jaws and attacks, injecting a powerful toxin, and burrowing into the prey’s flesh.”

I leaned closer to Jerry, examining the worm’s head. The five antennae were easy to spot, but these jaws she spoke of were not. “I don’t see the jaws,” I said, voicing my confusion. The magic surrounding the head receding, shrinking to the area between all the antennae. Two long, serrated digits peeled open, revealing the creature’s throat. At the end of the digits were two black stingers, not too different from a bloatsprite’s. I swallowed and leaned back from the jar.

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be going swimming… ever again,” I muttered.

“You’ve never been swimming,” Jerry said, peeling her gaze from the gruesome jar and giving me a quizzical look.

“I have to.”

“When?”

“That time Lash shoved me into a flooded tunnel to place the pump in the deepest part of the water,” I said, matter-of-factly. “My options were: maybe drown or definitely get whipped. So I took a dip.”

“I don’t believe it,” Jerry said as the jar lifted from her hooves and deposited itself back in Charming’s bag. “Where was I?”

“I think you were out doing what you do best,” I said with a shrug.

“I see,” Charming said, interrupting our discussion and drawing our attention back to her. “You’re from that slaver operation to the west.” Jerry and I exchanged looks but said nothing. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sentinel tense as if expecting things to take a turn. “I’m dreadfully sorry. It pains me to see the Equestria I love rot so. Be careful in your travels, do your best to keep that information secret. There are many that would see you as nothing more than caps to be made, even without knowing that you are hunted.”

The tension began to lift, and collective breaths were released. “Thank you for the inform-”

“Got it!” Charming said. Suddenly my vision flickered and strange bars appeared just at the bottom edge of my vision.

“What? What’d-” I said, my head shaking back and forth.

“Relax,” Charming said, magically gripping my head and holding it still. “Look at me.” I stared into the goggled eyes of Charming as she spoke. “The heads-up display spell takes some time to get accustomed to. But I assure you, once you are used to it you will wonder how you ever went without.”

“If you say so…” I muttered.

We parted ways with Charming not long after, warning her to avoid Ministry Town for the time being. Sentinel lead us down a cracked and half-buried road, moving at a quick, but steady pace. Jerry followed behind him, occasionally asking him a question about the wasteland, his time in it or places that we might one day see. I brought up the rear, doing my best to ignore the strange new… additions to my vision and, if I’m honest, struggling to figure out where to go. Sentinel was right, he couldn’t lead us through the wasteland indefinitely. Eventually, we’d have to figure out some place to go. And I didn’t know any place except...

“Baltimare…” I muttered.

Sentinel’s ears flicked and he held up a hoof to interrupt Jerry as he stopped and glanced back.

“What was that, kid?” he asked.

“I just… I remember,” I muttered, staring at the ground beneath my hooves as I grasped at the wisps of faded memory. “We were leaving Manehattan for a new life. A life in Baltimare. We’d stopped for the night. Less than a day’s travel from the city…”

“That’s when Fortune’s slavers found us,” Jerry chimed in, her ears flattening. “The three of us…”

“That’s a truly depressin’ story an’ all, but what’s it got to do with the ‘ere and now?” Sentinel asked as he moved his hoof in a slow circle in front of him, as if trying to draw the information out of me.

“What if you took us to Baltimare?” Sentinel and Jerry shared a look. A look I knew all too well. “What stupid thing did I say now?” I asked with a sigh.

“Free,” Jerry started, her tone cautious and gentle. “That’s a bit far.”

“How far could it be? That’s where Fortune got us all.” Again, they shared a significant look.

“‘E doesn’t know?” Sentinel asked.

Jerry nodded, a sad look on her face. “He never left The Dig before the other day.”

“What don’t I know?” I asked. The pair looked at me, then back at each other and then back at me as Jerry answered.

“Free, Baltimare is about five, maybe even six hundred miles from here.”

“Is that… far?” I asked. Jerry bit her lip and Sentinel sighed.

“Very. It’d take a couple of months to travel that far on hoof,” Jerry said.

“What?”

“‘S true, mate. It’d take us a bit ta trot there. And there’s a whole mess of bad between ‘ere and there.”

“But… how… I mean, we fell asleep and when we woke up-”

Jerry trotted over and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Free, they drugged us. You weren’t up by the gate like me. Over the years I’ve seen them bring in cartloads of drugged up foals. I heard Bruiser say they used some med-x mixture to ‘keep the little shits out’.”

“We’re… we’re that far?” I muttered. Sentinel nodded.

“We’re closer to the edge o’ Equestria than to Baltimare,” he said. “Once you head far enough south you ‘it The Dunes, and that’s ‘bout where Equestria gives way ta other places.”

“Well, there goes my bright idea. You have anything, Jerry?” I asked glancing her direction.

Jerry tensed, her eyes wide. “Me? W-well… I guess we could just head for Deepwater like you mentioned,” she offered, finding herself suddenly on the spot.

“That… might be difficult. Deepwater isn’t keen on lettin’ just anypony in. Not permanently. An’ not unless they can pay. An’ I’m guessing the two o’ you ain’t got much in the way o’ marketable skills for when your stack o’ caps dwindles.”

It was a fair point. I doubt my muscle and Jerry’s scavenging chops would be much help.

“Well, then it’s up to you,” I said, looking at the ghoul.

“What?” he asked, looking at me. He twisted to look at Jerry, finding a similar look on her face. “Since when do ya’ll listen to me?”

“Since you reamed us for not listening to you,” Jerry muttered.

“You said it yourself,” I said, pulling his attention back to me. “We don’t know what we’re doing out here. That’s why you’re here. Where should we go?”

After an hour, the cracked road we’d been traveling crossed over another. A large, rusted signpost had been erected in the center of the crossroads. Wooden or metal slats had been nailed into place on the post haphazardly. Crudely scrawled in white paint on each were names and arrows indicating a direction. Sentinel stood in front of it a moment and then turned to face us.

“Right, this’ll work. Pick a place,” he said, gesturing up at the signs.

“What?” Jerry said, echoing my own thoughts.

“Look, I signed on ta ‘elp you two get where you’re going. But ya don’t know where you’re going. That’s fine. It was… wrong of me to bite your ‘eads off about that. But I can’t tell ya where it is ya want ta go. You’re not slaves anymore. This choice you ‘ave ta make on your own. But,” he said gesturing back up at the signs, “I can make it a bit easier on ya. These are the major settlements in the Badlands. They’re all established and relatively secure. Pick one, and we’ll go there.”

Jerry and I lifted our gaze from Sentinel to look at the options available to us. There were, honestly, more than I was expecting.

Deepwater Gulch
Scrapyard
Fairway City
Coastline
Coltarado Plateau
Rust Rail
Ministry Town

There were more slats piled at the bottom of the post. I stepped forward and flipped over the top one. The name was faded, but I made out the name as being ‘Junction’.

“What happened to these?” I asked.

Sentinel glanced down and scowled at the pile. “Not every place can fend off the wasteland,” he said solemnly. He flipped the top-most sign over, revealing the barest hints of a name that had faded or been scraped away.

Jerry stepped forward and cocked her head at the signpost. “Well, what if we kept going to Deepwater Gulch?” she asked sheepishly, pointing in the direction the sign indicated. “We’ve talked about it enough that I’m kinda eager to see it now.”

Sentinel glanced over at me and I shrugged. I didn’t really have a preference other than being with Jerry. I looked in the direction she and the sign pointed. It was more shifting barren hills and the odd bit of misshapen scrub brush.

“Deepwater it is,” Sentinel said with a nod as he started down the road towards a mountain range in the distance. “They’ve got strict policies on citizenship. You need to be able to prove your worth to the settlement.”

“Well… I’m big and strong, and I can dig…” I muttered, feeling more than a little lacking in the skill department. “But that’s about it.”

“We both know how to farm a bit,“ Jerry chimed in. “The slavers had us doing it as foals.”

Sentinel nodded and smiled, if a bit sadly. “Those are all good things. We’ll throw in that ya got some caps to spare and that should be good enough if that’s where ya decide ya want ta stay.”

“What will you do?” Jerry asked. When Sentinel looked her way she glanced down. “When we get to Deepwater, I mean. What will YOU do?”

Sentinel shrugged and returned his gaze to the road ahead of him. “I’ll carry on, I ‘spose. Like always,” he said. “Til I can’t no more…” I heard him mutter afterwards. I thought about asking him what he meant but decided it was better to leave it alone. Sentinel was a mystery, but not one I felt was my right to solve. Jerry didn’t share my opinion.

“What does that mean?” she asked, quickening her pace to trot alongside him. “‘Til you can’t’, what do you mean?”

“I’m a ghoul, love,” he said, as though that would answer everything.

“So? You’re not a mindless feral,” she said, with a warm smile. “You’re still a pony.”

“Yeah,” Sentinel croaked. “Still a pony…” He shook his head and looked back to the road. “Come on. Time’s a-wastin’.”

“What else do you know about Deepwater?” I asked, moving up to Sentinel’s left as we continued down the road. “What’s it like?”

“Been some time since I was there myself, but from what I ‘eard around Vi’s, it’s not changed much,” he said. “As I said before, it’s nice. Full of good folk. They’re just a bit picky on who can stay. That’s why ya need skills. Farming is always a good skill. People need to eat. Digging is good too, since Deepwater builds into the mountains to keep safe.”

“That’s great, we won’t be totally useless!” Jerry whinnied excitedly.

Sentinel continued to fill us in on the few details he could recall as we trotted down the road. The stallion kept a brisk pace and more than once had to slow down as Jerry or I lagged behind. As we crested the next hill, he slowed his pace and scowled as Jerry and I caught up to him.

“Dammit…” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“What is it?” Jerry asked stepping up beside him. “What’s wr- Oh…” Her words fell off as she laid eyes on the scene. “Should we be concerned?” I trotted up on the other side of Sentinel, curious to see what it was that had both of them so distracted. At the foot of our small hill, just off the road, a small, concrete building had been built. It looked… new, lacking all the cracks and broken chunks that seemed to mar the other buildings we’d seen. A small stairwell led down into it and standing right next to that was a unicorn in clothing that looked disturbingly like Sentinel’s.

“Alright, don’t say anythin’. Let me handle this,” Sentinel hissed as he started down the hill towards the soldier, whose horn flared and his weapon slipped off his back.

“Hold, in the name of the Equestrian Armed Forces,” he said when we were a few feet away. This close I could see that the ‘soldier’ before us had to be younger than me and barely old enough to be considered grown. “You’re traversing an Equestrian toll road. I’m going to need fifty caps each to allow you to continue.”

“What in the name of the Goddesses do you think you’re doing, private?” Sentinel barked, his voice so suddenly loud that Jerry and I flinched away from him. The young soldier straightened instinctively but looked confused.

“S-sorry?”

Sentinel dashed forward, coming face to face with the colt. “You’re damned right you’re sorry! I asked you a question private! What. Do you think. You are doing.” he repeated, loudly and right in front of the kid’s face.

“S-sir! Toll road duty, sir!” the soldier barked, standing up straight and staring over Sentinel’s shoulder at nothing in particular.

“Toll duty? Whose shitlist are you on private?” Sentinel continued, now walking in a slow circle around the scared soldier.

“Sir, no one’s, sir.”

“Bullshit! I bet you made a right arse of yourself in front of General Ironclad ‘imself!”

The soldier shook his head but managed to keep looking forward at the same time. “Sir! No sir!”

“Don’t you lie to me, private!”

“Sir! Never sir!”

“What is your name you miserable dung heap?!”

“Sir! Private Kettlebell sir!”

“Private Kettlebell, eh? Well Private Kettlebell, where are the others?” Kettlebell opened his mouth but said nothing. “Son of a bitch, private! I asked you a question!”

“Sir! What others, sir!”

“Goddesses damn you, private! C’mere!” Sentinel roared. His horn flared and the front of Kettlebell’s uniform bunched up in it as Sentinel dragged him over to the bunker. “This is a four pony checkpoint, private! But you appear to be alone! WHERE. ARE. THE. OTHERS.”

Kettlebell again opened his mouth, and then shut it again. I’d seen slaves do the same thing when questioned as they fight to keep some secret. It never ended well.

“GODDESSES DAMN YOU PRIVATE! ANSWER ME!”

“They told me not to say!”

A quiet fell over us as Kettlebell bit his lip and glanced around nervously. He looked guilty, like he’d just betrayed somepony.

“Where are they, private?” Sentinel asked, his voice now calm, as though he hadn’t been screaming just a moment ago.

“Th-they went to Deepwater, sir. Told me to keep things held down while they went for a little fun,” he said, his ears drooping.

“New recruit, aren’t you,” Sentinel said. He wasn’t asking. Kettlebell nodded again. “Kettlebell, secure yourself in the checkpoint and do not come out until your comrades return. Let anypony who comes through pass. It’s too dangerous to stop groups alone. Understood?”

Kettlebell looked at the checkpoint and then back at Sentinel. “B-but sir…”

“Private,” Sentinel said, added a bit of edge to his tone. Kettlebell flinched, nodded, saluted and then retreated into the small bunker. The door locked a moment later with a resounding metal clank as Sentinel turned to us.

“What did I just see?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

“Conditioning. The army needs you to follow orders. First part of basic training is to break you so that when someone yells for you to duck, you don’t question it.” Sentinel said, glancing back over his shoulder. “Kid’s green as grass. Bark at him with enough authority and you can get’em, to do just about anythin’.”

Jerry scowled. “Sounds kinda like what the slavers did to us.”

Sentinel nodded slowly and then started down the road again. “Yeah… Yeah, it does…” he muttered. “C’mon. Deepwater’s only a couple hours away now. We can make it well before dark if we keep a steady pace.”

The mountains were… huge. I guess that seems kind of stupid, but it’s not like I could go and see them whenever I wanted. Porous ruddy rock rose from the ground, stabbing upwards before disappearing somewhere past the clouds. My neck ached from looking up so much, and I wondered if this was what Jerry felt when she talked with-

I bumped into Jerry’s backside, nearly knocking her from her hooves.

“Oof! Careful big guy!” Jerry said as I stumbled back a step, feeling my face begin to flush.

“S-sorry. I was distracted,” I said quickly. Jerry’s brow disappeared behind her bangs and then she fixed me with an almost predatory look.

“Distracted? By what, Free?” she half purred and half growled. Her tail swished just so and it took every ounce of my willpower not to fall for the bait.

“The mountains. They’re bigger than I thought they’d be,” I said, nodding my head at the spires of red rock. Jerry smirked and looked up at them.

“I keep forgetting you didn’t get to see the same things I did,” she said, sounding almost sad. “It must be… nice to see things with fresh wonder.”

“There’s the gate,” Sentinel called from up ahead. Jerry pranced in place excitedly before trotting over to stand beside him.

“Oh wow…” she breathed.

I trotted up beside her and took in the full view. The mountains we’d been walking towards reached up towards the cloud curtain. A metal fortification had been set up, cordoning off a small portion of the mountain, complete with the moving forms of guards patrolling the top. The mountain itself had been ripped apart by time, and a visible trench ran through it, twisting out of view. Rust coated gantries crisscrossed the divide, and as I continued to trace my eyes along the crevice I spotted balconies where more armed guards could fire down upon anyone foolish enough to attack the front wall. Now I understood what Sentinel had been saying.

“Right, no sudden moves. Guards are probably a bit twitchy from the other day,” Sentinel said, his logic brooking no argument from Jerry or myself. We trotted forward, making straight for the gates. The entrance to Deepwater was at the center of the wall, a single large door, not unlike the door we passed through to leave The Dig. As we approached a trio of guards appeared at the top of the wall.

“Welcome to Deepwater Gulch,” shouted a rough-looking, older, unicorn stallion. “What brings you fine folks here?” The two guards flanking him raised their rifles, taking careful aim at the three of us.

“I’ve got a couple of ‘opefuls looking for permanent residence,” Sentinel called, gesturing at the pair of us with a nod of his head. The old stallion fixed us with a discerning eye.

“‘Fraid they don’t look like they have too much to offer,” he said after a moment.

Sentinel scowled up at the stallion. “Kinda ‘ard for you to judge without a proper interview, ain’t it?” he called back, a growl just at the edge of his voice.

“Look, if your friends want in so bad they’ll need to prove themselves. We can’t just let any Harry Hardluck or Sally Sadstory in here, now can we?”

Sentinel let out a long low sigh as Jerry and I exchanged glances. “What ‘ave you got in mind?”

“It just so happens that one of our purifiers is on the blink. Need us a part to fix it. Only problem is that part isn’t exactly easy to come by. Need you fine folks to head over to the factory a ways down the road and see if you can scrounge up a new one.”

When he mentioned the factory, a small peg appeared on top of the compass at the bottom of my vision. As I turned my head to look down the road, the peg centered itself on the bar.

“What does it look like?” Jerry called, stepping up next to Sentinel. I returned my attention to them, noticing that the bar again shifted to the left of my vision.

“What are you doing?” Sentinel asked her.

“I’m a scavenger. This is what I do. But we can’t find something particular if we don’t know what it looks like,” she said quickly before calling back up to the guards. “We need to know exactly what it is we are looking for if you expect us to find it.”

The guard gave Jerry a strange look and then muttered something to the other two, who smiled. “Little lady, you realize that you would be the first pony to ask us just what it is we’re looking for?” he called, leaning forward on the wall.

Jerry’s brow furrowed and her ears twitched. “But… then how did anyone find what it was you needed?” she asked.

The guards laughed uproariously, wiping at their eyes. “They didn’t. We raided that factory ages ago. Took everything that wasn’t bolted down and some of the things that was,” he said, reached forward to bang his hoof against the front of their scrap wall. “Most folks come back sorely confused. It gives us an idea of what they have to offer our little settlement.”

“What sort of idea did you get from us?” Jerry asked.

The guard leaned forward, offering Jerry a warm grin that seemed just a little slimy. Jerry must have felt it too because she shied away. “You asked a very important question. That means you’re more’n just a pretty face. Ya got some brains. Brains are in short supply these days.”

“So… can we come in?” Jerry asked. The guard shook his head, and Jerry’s ears fell in disappointment.

“That’d be a no, but the good news is you folks seem competent enough that we can see what you got. Truth is, we really do have a purifier out. We need a new flange to get it operational again.” The unicorn’s horn sparked with orange magic and a large metal disc lifted over the lip of the wall and floated down to us. “Now, there’s a factory a bit to the north. We’ve sent a couple of our scavengers up that way to try and find it, but they didn’t return. Normally we’d send a couple guards up after’em, but with the recent bullshit with the Gouged Eye, I haven’t got anypony to spare. If you can find a flange to fix our purifier and find out what happened to my ponies, then I’ll put in a good word for you with Mayor Spring Blossom. Sound fair?”

Jerry glanced over her shoulder at Sentinel, who offered her a non-committal shrug. She scowled and then looked at me. This could be it. The turning point of our life. A chance to settle down somewhere safe and protected. A chance at a life, with her. I nodded. Jerry smiled a little and then looked back up at the guard.

“We’ll do it!” As she spoke, words appeared in my vision in vibrant green text. ‘New Mission: Fee for Entry’.

“That’s weird…” I muttered.

Footnote: LEVEL UP!

Author's Notes:

BAM!

Chapter 8 for all you lovely readers.

Featuring the debut of not only another location in the Badlands but a featured character!
For those of you who don't read my blogs, I have a habit of rewarding my active readers/commenters by adding them into my story in some fashion.

Fair Play got his in Chapter 5 and now, The Dragon Hunter gets his here with out delightfully crazy ghoul. Here are the specifics I was given.

Name: Charming Dawn

Gender: Female

Species: Unicorn - Canterlot ghoul

Description: She wears her armored NBC suit all the time, so no-one really know what she looks like under the mask, only that she has a tall lean body, taller than average compared to most mares, but smaller than stallions like Big Mac or Free in terms of body mass.

Her attire is a dull green NBC suit with pieces of combat armor attached to it. The mask is black, with two round filters at the sides and large blue round goggles.

She carries a modified Pipbuck to collect her data and record her audio logs, while her weapon is a laser rifle.

I did some research (mostly because I was not too knowledgeable on the subject) NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) clothing is actually outdated, having been replaced with CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear). I spoke with my editor and to fit the theme we altered it to CBRM (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Magical). Not that it comes up in the story, but there you go anyway :P

Dragon Hunter, I hope you enjoy it. Everybody stay tuned for the next update and thank you so much for following along!