I was in town one day looking for a gift for my sister, seeing as it was her birthday after all. I still hadn’t gotten enough caps to buy her the present I knew she wanted, a new combat knife. After much bartering with the mean merchant, I’d managed to get him to drop the price by two caps, out of three hundred. So I had to borrow some money from Doc but it was worth it to buy Sharp the perfect birthday present for an eighteen-year-old mare.

When I saw a plume of black smoke coming from the direction of my house, I threw Sharp’s gift in my saddlebags and was off. I flew as fast as my wings would let me, the pony in my head begging it to just be a bonfire. By the time I finally got there the whole house was in flames. No one in sight, I touched down on the snow. Oblivious to the cold and my own tears, I stepped closer, my emotions in a flurry.

My knees were shaking, my eyes were watering, and my mind was filled with too many thoughts to know what to do. By the time I made up my mind, a burning wooden support beam fell down blocking the door.

I ran over to the beam and pushed it, burning my hooves and jacket as I tried to move it. The heat from within the house was intense and the smoke was thick. I was forced to let go of the beam as it didn’t budge. I jumped back, my burns stinging in pain as I pressed my hooves in the cold snow. I screamed, not at the physical pain but at my weakness.

I quickly got up and ran back to the blocked doorway, tears running down my face. Still. I was filled with determination. Suddenly there was a flash and a big bang. I felt a pressure wave of heat and fire knock me away as the house exploded in a huge fire ball. I watched it slowly rise into the sky and illuminate the clouds, my head rang and my body tingled, darkness crept over me as I felt the inescapable urge to sleep.

I had a dream of a memory, or maybe it was just a memory. Me, my younger sister, mom, and dad, all having dinner together. But there was somepony else as well, a shadowy figure that looked older than my sister but younger than me. It tried to speak but no words came out of its mouth, or maybe I just couldn't hear them?

I don’t know when I awoke but all I could do was cry. Some time had passed as the fire began to smolder in a crackling pile of cinders. My head was pounding. I felt dizzy, lightheaded and my ears had a high pitched ringing in them. I looked around and saw I was under a tree. I rolled onto my belly and immediately winced in pain as I realized I had burns all over my body. My legs shook as I struggled to find the strength to try and stand, but once I did I stumbled like a newborn before falling over again.

After stumbling around I braced myself against a tree and used it as leverage to at least get on my rear legs, I looked over to the smoldering carcass of the house before resting my head on the tree and panting. I felt a trickle of something warm running down my nose and wiped it off. It was blood. My blood. That shock wave wasn't very good for my insides. I cried silently before running out of tears. After drying my eyes I looked up at the tree I was leaning against, there was a note stuck to it.

‘Bring us the Pip-buck in the basement or else!’ The note seemed to be made of leather, a sickly brown shade that felt brittle and wrinkled.

This brought back memories of what some raiders said when they attacked my family, this was a while ago and frankly wasn't something I'd like to remember.

But for some reason, I distinctly remember one of them shouting. “We’ll make your hide into leather!” Their voice filled with joy and glee at the sickening statement.

At this point, I backpedalled and fell on my rear as I realized it was pony leather! Shaking off the thought of my family being turned into a belt or bag, I turned it over with a stick to see an image of a map, from my house to their base. I stumbled to the smoldering carcass of the house I once called home. I didn’t bother looking for my parent's corpses, most likely only bones were left anyway, although I did have a small hope that they weren't home or got away before the fire.

After moving the carpet and some wood out of the way I found the door to the basement. Dad said to only go down there in an emergency, I guess this counted? It opened with a creak, darkness in front of me as I walked down the stairs. The smell hit me as I turned on the light. I really wish I hadn’t. It was the smell of burnt flesh and hair. I shakily opened my eyes, to the horror of a charred dead pony sitting up face to face with me, less than a hoof away.

Its skin was crispy black, teeth exposed and eyeballs missing, steam poured out of its mouth, nose and eye sockets, and its hair was gone. I was too scared to scream, I fell over onto my flank as I couldn't look away. My eyes watered as I took notice of the missing front leg. Just like my fathers.

My jaw stuttered and soon did my voice. "D-dad?!" My heart sank as I struggled to say those words, let alone look at his corpse.

Its bottom jaw fell off and I scrambled out of the basement, then out of the house, but not before tripping on a burnt skull with a bit of brittle black skin still sticking to the bone. I assumed it was my mother, there was no way to know if it was truly her, but it was a unicorn skull with a bullet hole in the head. I really hoped it wasn’t her, but I knew in my heart that it was. The disturbing thing was that her body was missing, there wasn’t even any bones left except her skull.

Part of me didn't even want to say it, but I couldn't stop myself. "M-mom!" I felt like I was the one who was dead.

I ran to the tree with the note and proceeded to vomit. I stared at what was my lunch no less than an hour ago, carrots and an apple. Swallowing the bitter taste of puke I braced myself to go back in.

I took a few breaths before repeating. "For my sister. For Sharp."

I got past mom's corpse, or what was left of it, and proceeded to walk to and down the stairs while zipping up and covering my mouth with my jacket. This time seeing a wide patch of dried blood going down the stairs as if someone was dragged or had crawled with a bad wound. Somehow I kept it together at the sight of my dad's corpse. I proceeded to look for the Pip-buck. There was a problem, my dad never had a Pip-Buck, at least that I knew of.

I kept looking around but there was nothing but food, water, ammo and a few destroyed guns. Maybe the fire destroyed the thing I was looking for, I didn't even know what a Pip-buck looked like. I guess I’ll know it when I see it. After I searched everywhere else in the basement I spotted something under my dad's rear. A floor safe, I mumbled to myself.

‘’Fuck Princess Cadence.”

I was going to have to move the body. I was going to have to touch it… him. Judging by the looks of it, it was going to fall apart as soon as I tried. I braced myself and walked over to the body. As quickly as I could I pushed it over. Charred skin peeled from the body’s rear as it fell over and onto the floor. there was a sloshing sound as it fell and cracking as it moved, it hit the ground with a crunch, like a bag of two-hundred-year-old chips.

Some skin was melted to the floor where the corpse had been sitting. The body burst open as the organs spilled out, cooked and steaming. Hot brownish red blood poured out the mouth and nose as well as what I assumed was gray matter coming from the eye sockets and ears. The whole thing released a foul odor of charcoal and odd cooked meat as it laid in a pool of blood.

I would have puked again at the mere smell of it, but instead only gagged as I didn't have anything to throw up. After I calmed myself down, I grabbed a piece of metal scrap in my mouth and walked over to the safe, not wanting to touch it. To my surprise, it was locked. Well, not really surprising seeing as it was a safe. I was about to leave so I could think of something, when I saw what my dad was staring at, written in dried blood was;

'Can't believe…. .killed… .mother… … … … ..Blood Rose… …, crystal… ….'

Some was smeared or burnt beyond recognition, but it was a clue. Rose? I've heard that name before. I put it off for now and checked on the safe again. I wasn’t very skilled in lock picking. I'd tried to learn but just didn't have the patience to do it. I left to go find somepony who might know.

I banged my hooves on the door of the doctor's house. Usually, he'd work the afternoon so it would be unlikely for him to be in at nine o'clock, but to my surprise, he opened the door. He looked shocked as he looked me over, light burns over my body, a nose bleed and I swayed in place as i struggled to stay upright. My eyes were still watering as I leaped at him for a hug. I didn't know him that well, but he was friends with my dad so I was sure he could help.

I choked before coughing out the words. "Doc! They're dead! My parents are dead!" My eyes teared up as I screamed. At this point I was making a scene, so he ushered me inside with a hoof.

We sat down and he grabbed himself a cigarette and me a healing potion, along with a small pill of my medicine. I sobbed on an old leathery chair in front of him as I took the open bottle from his red magical field and proceeded to drink it. Soon my ears stopped ringing and I didn’t feel dizzy. My headache subsided and the light burns over my body vanished. Magical healing potions really were amazing, able to heal almost any wound.

He took in a breath of smoke before speaking. "Tell me what happened." He was so calm. I told him everything that happened after I saw the smoke. He just nodded and followed along while I stumbled over my words, trying not to cry.

Eventually I got to the end. "And then I came here." I sobbed and rubbed my eyes, finally calming down.

His cigarette burnt out, so he put it in an ashtray and grabbed another one before looking at me and saying. "The code to the safe is thirty-two, nine, and twelve. But what are you going to do after you open it?" He tilted his head in curiosity,his mane shifting to cover his eyes.

He seemed to know more than he was letting on, but that was a good question. I sat there pondering what I'd do after I open that safe.

I took another deep breath before blurting out. "I…I'll save my sister!" I stood up, my eyes tearing up and my nose sniveling. I shut them tightly as my body shook.

When I opened them I saw his eyes were firmly locked on me, he didn't even blink before replying. "How will you? They’re bandits. They'll kill you after they have what they want." His composure didn't change one bit.

I shut my eyes at the thought of me dead in the snow. The pony in my head didn't like the idea of that at all. I heard Doc stand up and I opened my eyes. He proceeded to go to an old cabinet draw and open it. I leaned forward trying to see what was in it. he pulled out a gun and a cloth badge, it was a bird icon that was fully blue. I knew what the badge meant, it was a icon of my nickname that Doc called me. ‘Blue Bird.’

I tilted my head and asked, "What's that?" I sat down looking at the gun, it wasn't a rifle or a shotgun, no. It looked like a bulky pistol of some kind.

.

He levitated it onto a coffee table in front of me, before sighing. "A relic from a bad time." He frowned and lowered his head even more.

I looked at the gun closely, it had its magazine sticking out in front of the mouth grip, it was bulkier than a pistol. The parts seemed to be in good condition and the magazine was fully loaded. The name ‘Sydney’ was engraved on the side. I gave Doc a questioning look, and by the look I got back he had been waiting for that.

It looked like a struggle for him to answer that seemingly simple question, but eventually, he brought himself to do it.

"Sydney is a less painful memory…that's her SMG. Holds fifty rounds and is capable of burst or single fire." It appeared painful for him to mention that name, I saw a single tear run down his cheek. But he seemed to cheer up a little as he talked about the gun itself, even cracking a little smile.

I smiled a little as I looked at the gun, whispering. "Thank you, Doc." I don’t think he heard me. I did have one more question. "Will you come with me to save my sister?" At that point, I was feeling much better.

I even got a little smile back. "I wasn't always a doctor." He stated before his face changed from happiness to pain. It seemed almost painful for him to say what he wanted to say next. "But I promised never to kill again… I promised her." I could see he was lost in thought, so I slipped the SMG into my bag and stood up.

I bore a big smile and said. "I'm going to save my sister and get whoever killed my parents."

He sighed, breathing out smoke, seeing through my act. He smiled at me and said, "Try not to die, kid, I like you." There was sympathy in his voice, before a little chuckle afterward.

“Little blue bird. Ha, guess I can't call you little anymore, huh Bluebird?" He asked as he smiled and grabbed a shovel, I proceeded to walk out.

I stopped in the doorway, remembering a question. "Who is Blood Rose?" I asked, tilting my head. His face shifted to a serious expression.

"Trouble." He answered.

With that, I was off to save my sister. After I opened the safe and got Dad’s Pip-buck.

I rushed home, not liking the idea of keeping raiders waiting with my sister. Yet again I went down to the basement, for what I hoped was the last time. Dad was still laying there, I still didn’t want to believe it was him. This foul, distorted corpse. The smell still hung in the air. I quickly went over to the safe and started entering the code Doc had given me.

“Thirty-two, nine, and twelve”

With a pop and a click the safe unlocked and creaked open. Inside was a bag. I lifted it out and proceeded to get out of the basement. I dumped the contents into the snow and to my astonishment, there it was. Now I remember I have seen similar device on the leg of a lone wondered that passed through town one day. It was a bulky metal thing that went on your foreleg that had a little screen with buttons beneath it.

But that wasn’t the only thing that happened to be in the bag. Three glowing colourful crystal balls fell out as well. I had no clue what they were or what they did but i wasn’t going to leave them behind. After that I was truly off, nothing could stop me.

I lay dying in the snow as some raiders beat the life out of my sister, my body riddled with holes and my sister screaming for mercy. The raiders laughed, as one shot her in the head. They sat on her now a dead corpse, and I stared into Sharp's lifeless eyes. The black door behind them, looming ominously in place, the words survive being repeated, slowly fading away into nothingness.

I shut my eyes as I felt myself falling, quickly I opened them again. I was alive. I stopped my apparent free fall and continued to fly around in this blizzard. Now was not the time to be distracted with fear, I needed to save my sister. But first, I needed to find her, along with the raider base. I flew in the storm, barely able to see. The freezing wind was numbing my wings. The sting of the cold over my body and the chilling of my insides hurt with each breath. I was losing precious body heat by the second.

I became weaker and more tired with every second. It felt as if I was flying in wet cement. I was forced to land or freeze. The random snow storms were much worse when you didn't have shelter, this was the first time I'd been outside during one. Usually, we'd hide in the basement until it passed.

A shiver went up my spine as I remembered the horrors that had been waiting for me in the basement. I shook it off as the pony in my head was too cold to criticize or annoy me. Things seemed grim as I was lost in this damned blizzard. No sign of shelter or the raider base. I kept wandering blindly in the storm before collapsing. The cold and darkness crept up on me as my eyelids became heavier. Just before I was about to give in I was awoken by a growl.

It was my stomach. I was hungry, and I smelled something in the air, the smell of cooking meat. I stumbled to my hooves and slowly trotted towards the smell. Lo and behold, it led me to a building. It was from the old world, but it seemed to be mostly intact. I could see a chimney with smoke rising from it. They had heat and by the smell of it, food too. Above the front door were the words ‘Day care’.

Too cold to care, I fell onto the door and it caved in, crumbling away. I landed in something wet and warm. This place was heated. I stood up remembering I was looking for food. Oh, and a raider base. It was then that I opened my eyes to the horror.

Red everywhere.

Red on the ceiling.

Red on the walls.

A pool of red on the floor.

Red on me.

Blood.

I trembled as I noticed more and more horrors. The roof had dark crimson icicles, the peeling and cracked paint was the ruddy brown of dried blood. There was a pool of warm blood on the floor, a light mist over the top of it. It was lower than a normal floor. On an old cracked chalkboard on the front of the classroom were the words;

Along the walls and ends of the floor were intestinal tracts strung up like streamers, and hanging frozen eyeballs made a wind chime next to my head. The air was filled with the foul odor of blood, the smell of copper. I saw the guts move as a rat popped out of the end of an intestinal tract at my hooves. I shuddered in fear at the horror, too scared to even scream.

The floor was a slight incline that now held a shallow pool of blood, just in what appeared to be the main room, a classroom. Some parts were bubbling. There was a light mist over the pool, the cold air clashing with the heat from the pool. I’d no clue where raiders had gotten all that blood, or why and how it was heated but I definitely didn’t want to go for a swim.

But the creepiest thing by far was the ominous black door standing in the middle of the classroom. I felt its overpowering presence of fear crawl over me like centipedes. I tried to move even an inch forward and the door shook, creating waves in the blood. I could have been trapped by the door’s power forever, if it wasn't for the mission I was on to find the raider base and Sharp.

I'd found the raider base.

There was sinister laughter coming from a hallway on the other side of the room. I steadied my breathing and blinked, with that the door was gone. I drew my SMG, biting hard on the grip. I was about to fly over to the hallway when I was kicked from behind. I fell face first into the pool, my weapon fell out of my mouth as I slid along the floor.

In the hallway stood a young earth pony mare with no clothes. She was covered in scars, including her cutie mark. I stood up, now soaked in warm blood, it dripped from my wet mane and jacket. She stared at me, giggling and smiling, bearing sharpened teeth that now resembled fangs. She snarled at me before lunging.

"Meat!" She screamed.

I panicked and looked for my weapon, but it was under the blood. So I grappled with the mad pony. She tried to bite me as I held her a hoof’s length away. I was stronger and had the upper hoof, adrenaline and a will to save my sister. But then I slipped as she bit into my shoulder, through my jacket. The pain was excruciating, stupid dirty fighter.

I flapped my wings to stop myself from falling over, blood spraying everywhere. I then gripped onto her, flying us both upward. We slammed into a blood icicle, impaling her. Then we fell back down into the pool with a splash. She stopped biting me and I slipped out from under her now lifeless body.

It hurt to move my shoulder, but it wasn't bleeding that badly. My jacket was damaged but luckily it had a built in repair talisman and was already repairing itself. It was then that I heard some pony run down the hall, I quickly pulled out my sister’s present and gripped it in my mouth, it still had a bow on it.

I flew above the door frame before a stallion with a pistol ran in. Blood dripped down from me and onto his forehead, causing him to look up. I drove and slashed at his face before he could react, cutting deep into his face, causing him to drop the gun and scream. I landed quickly and spun around to cut his throat. Fresh blood sprayed over me as the stallion dropped down dead, or at least dying.

I finally had the strength to scream, not from fear, but from anger. "AGHHHH!" I screamed in his face as he stopped squirming.

I galloped down the hall, feeling anger and power surge through me. As my heart raced like never before, I felt good. But then there was a flash. My ears rang and my vision was spotty. I found myself on the floor and my front hooves hurt. I struggled to remember what happened. I think I tripped a booby trap.

A shrapnel grenade must have dropped down in the doorway I was running through. I must have dove onto my belly, covering my head with my hooves. I’d read about explosives and traps in magazines, so I knew it was bad, but I think it was more instinct than the knowledge that saved me.

From what I read, you can fill old balls with explosives and stick things you want in them for shrapnel, such as nails and other things to make a makeshift grenade. Pretty straight forward, but sadly I didn’t have the blueprints or explosive skill to even attempt it. But as of this moment I had more pressing things to worry about then how bad I was with explosives.

I tried to stand but the pain was too great, some of the shrapnel was still glowing hot. I heard a thud in front of me, walking up a set of stairs was a huge pony, covered in metal armor and a welding mask; It even covered his somewhat small horn. I mean it looked like a dent in the mask, but he was using magic ,so his horn must have been under there.

I wasn’t a professional unicorn anatomy, but given the size of his body, his horn was tiny. I think Sharp’s horn was almost double the length and hers was the same as Doc’s so at least to me they seemed average sized: I had seen others over time, but I never bothered to measure them.

Yet again I'm getting off topic: he was wielding a bloody cleaver in his brown magical field.

I gritted my teeth and mumbled, “Fuck me to the moon." The armored pony walked to the top of the stairs and dropped the cleaver, before going to a desk and pulling out a chainsaw. How the fuck did a chainsaw fit into a school desk?! "Fuck me to the moon!" I screamed as I crawled back to the other room.

The armored pony proceeded to start the chainsaw after a few pulls. As I kept crawling over my hooves to the other room, the armored pony started walking towards me as he cut the wall, chanting, "Meat, meat, meat, so good to eat, eat, eat!" Tears formed in my eyes as I crawled faster.

I screamed, "I don't want to become lunch!"

I finally got to the body in the hallway and began searching in the blood pool for the pistol, too scared to care about the blood. I panicked as he came closer, but finally I found the pistol. I gripped it in my mouth, the bloody handle was slippery. I quickly rolled onto my back.

The armored pony was right above me, chainsaw raised, he screamed. "Meat!"

I screamed around the handle as I opened fire. 'Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!'

I emptied the magazine, the bullets just bouncing off his armor. The gun clicked as I kept trying to shoot. He swung down his chainsaw and I thought I was done for, but there was a loud bang, louder than the revolver I'd used. My eyes were still focused on the pony in front of me, he groaned then fell to the side, his body landing with a thud and a splash. The chainsaw fell next to my head, digging into the floor and spraying foamy blood everywhere.

I took a moment to realize I wasn't going to die. I looked down the hall to see my sister, holding a hunting rifle. I shakily smiled at her, still crying, then fell back into the blood, too tired to care. Suddenly I got an intense headache, the strongest one in a long time. I didn't bother opening my eyes, I knew who it was, kind of.

My shadow finally spoke. "You killed two ponies, it was easy, wasn't it?" Although something seemed off about him, his voice was weaker than before.

My hooves ached as I opened my eyes. I felt extremely tired, as my vision came to focus. Sharp stood above me, she was smiling, and she was okay. She levitated some bandages and tweezers into my view. This was going to hurt, a lot. But then there was a flash of magical red energy and my eyes grew heavy.

"Sharp…" I felt myself fall asleep, with a smile on my face and tears running down my cheek. Tears of relief that she was okay.

Darkness all around me. I floated in quiet darkness until I heard a distant voice. "You killed two ponies and it was easy." The pony in my head repeated for the second time, the events of the fight replaying as a memory-dream, visible as bubbles in my mind.

I shakily replied. "I had to, to save my sister." I had some doubt. Not on why I did it, but on how easy it was for me to do. The pony in my head giggled.

"Hehe, excuses, you enjoyed it."

I glared at its smirking white mouth and yelled. "No, I didn't! It's survival!"

The shadow pony simply smiled back at me and replied, "Then why were you smiling the whole time?"

It was then that I awoke. I was lying in a bed, my shoulder and front hooves in pain. I tried to sit up but that made it much worse, so I stayed laying down. There was a smell in the air that wasn't blood. It was soup. Specifically, potato chip soup. I looked over to a fire and there was Sharp, cooking soup and hanging my blood soaked jacket, along with some towels. All this didn't stop the fact that I was worried about what the dark pony said. But at least I could take some comfort knowing Sharp was safe.

I watched my sister clean my jacket, seeing that she had altered it. She’d sewn the bird icon Doc gave me onto the left shoulder. She was placing some guns on a table, along with her present. I was trying to think of something to say, anything, but nothing came to mind. I wonder if she knew that mom and dad were dead. How could I tell her? I opened my mouth but no words came out, so I just watched her.

Looking around, I was most likely in the basement of the day care building. There was a concrete ceiling, walls, and floor. They all had major cracks running through them, but despite the weather and surviving the end of the world, I'd say this building was still doing great. There was some scrap laying around, some supplies on rusty metal shelves and an old wooden table.

I noticed a huge machine that was still running, even though it looked more rust and sheet metal then whatever it originally was. If I had to guess I'd say it was a heater converted into a boiler and it was probably what heated the pool above. An eerie red glow came from its grill as it shook and hissed, still hard at work to keep the cold out.

Sharp looked through my bag and took out the Pip-buck, then she also took out one of the weird colorful orbs and stared at it intensely. She then proceeded to touch the weird orb with her magic and fainted.

I gasped and yelled, "Sis!" I stumbled out of bed and crawled to her, she was still breathing, thank the goddesses. It was then that I saw she had removed the shrapnel from my hooves and bandaged my wounds. I smiled and looked at her. "Thanks, sis."

I pulled my blanket over her, then proceeded to change my bloody bandages. I was no good at medicine but I knew how to bandage things up. I was quite grateful for dad’s medical lessons. Not wanting to sleep anymore I stumbled to the table and sat down.

I was a bit of a gun nut, I enjoyed servicing and repairing guns. It took my mind off things, like my loss. I took the guns apart and proceeded to clean their parts. I used a screwdriver, rag and old oil can to disassemble the rifles.

I ignored the taste that used to make me puke, as I gripped the oily rag in my mouth and cleaned one of the guns that the raiders had owned. After I put them back together again, their condition much better than before. Then, not wanting to let my mind wander, I began working on an old radio I found lying on the floor until my sister woke up.

I jumped over to her, ignoring the pain in my front hooves. "Uhh, brother?" She said in a daze.

I grabbed her with my hooves and shook her, yelling, "Sis! What happened?!" As I looked at her worryingly.

She blinked a few times before replying. "Ummm." She blushed and pushed me off her, avoiding eye contact and my question.

It was then we were interrupted by the static pop of the radio sparking into life. We only got static, but at least it was working. I turned to it, to see if I could keep it running, I was interrupted by my sister. "They're dead aren't they?" Her voice was low and sad, the words piercing my heart like, well, the icicle pierced that raider. I kept trying to find the words to reply. In the end, I could saythe only thing that I could think.

"Yes."

The room went quiet for a moment. I tried to keep my mind from thinking about it, but I still ended up sobbing. I couldn’t tell her the details, that mom’s body was missing and dad was baked alive. The thought of all this made me start to shake. She put her hooves around me and gave me a hug.

"It's okay to cry." Her voice sounded just like mom’s. I remembered a time I hurt my hoof, she bandaged it up and gave me a kiss on the forehead. I held my tears back, trying to be brave, but mom saw right through me.

"It's okay to cry," she’d said.

I hugged my sister back and cried, cried and cried over and over again. I felt her tears hit my back. I don’t know how long we cried for, but eventually, we stopped and she let me go.

I was still rubbing my eyes as Sharp stood up and carried over my now cold bowl of soup. She proceeded to heat it up again.

"You need to eat brother." She was right, but how could I? I mean, I was hungry before I came in here, but the things I'd seen and done. How could I eat after that? How could she?

I had so many questions. Like how she escaped or how they had managed to catch her in the first place. But I decided those weren’t important questions at the time. So I thought of what was relevant.

I was about to ask her but then she interrupted me. "What next?" She asked questioningly.

I raised a brow and replied. "What do you mean, what next?" Somewhat confused at the question.

"What are we going to do now?"

I hadn't really thought about that, I was too focused on saving her to think about it.

But I assume revenge would be a start. "I don't know…have you heard the name Blood Rose?" I asked curiously.

She was surprised by my question, or more so that I was asking it, she shook her head a little and replied. "How do you not know the name?" I was clueless as ever, she simply facehoofed and took a deep breath.

"The wasteland is divided up into a number of clans. These clans control their respective areas and whatever is inside them. Out of all the clans, the biggest clan is called Blood Skull. That has been the clan we have lived under our whole lives. They're the ones that protect and run the towns around here. The leader of Blood Skull is called Blood Rose." This was easy enough to understand, except for the fact that one of them wanted to kill for my dad's old pip-buck.

I tilted my head. "But why would the leader of this Blood Skull clan want dad dead, or this Pip-buck so badly?" I crossed my hooves in annoyance, I didn't like mysteries. She rubbed her chin and thought for a second.

"I don't know, but we're not going to give it to him, right?" She looked at me, wanting reassurance, I just smirked back at her, as if she even needed to ask.

"Right, sis. Although we still don't have any proof it was Blood Rose."

This time, she crossed her hooves. "Wrong, after the raiders jumped me and brought me back here, I heard them say they were getting paid by Blood Rose." She looked away, I could tell she was not happy about being captured.

I looked away for a second to eat some food and by the time I looked back Sharp had put Dad's Pip-buck on her hoof. There was a click as she closed the casing around her hoof and a pop as a green light shined from the device’s little screen. We both looked at it as numbers and letters appeared on the screen, then a loading icon with a cute cartoon mare popped up, it was trotting as a green bar slowly filled up.

I swallowed a gulp full of warm soup and asked, "What are you doing?" Cocking my head a little. She fiddled with it for a bit before replying.

"I couldn't get it to turn on so I decided to put it on… But now… It won't come off." She smiled sheepishly as she tried to pull it off.

I almost fell back laughing, nearly spilling my soup, I face hoofed as she gave me an embarrassed smile. By the looks of it, we had two options. Wait and see what was on the pip-buck, or cut off my sister’s hoof, give it to Blood Rose and run. But we’d already decided. There was no way in hell we were going to let him get away with killing our parents.

Sharp eventually got bored and decided to touch another orb. In the meantime, I finished my soup. That was when I started to notice that Sharp had been out for a while. I tried to wake her up but it was no use, although she seemed to be okay. I mean, she was breathing. I went back to messing with the radio, but I couldn't get a signal, most likely due to the storm.

After that, I tried touching the first orb very carefully, but nothing happened. I rolled it between my hooves, waiting for Sharp to wake up. Then a bad roll sent the orb rolling under the bed. I went to grab it when I noticed a partly damaged book. I put the orb back in the bag and grabbed the book.

Most of the cover was burnt, but I could make out some of it. ‘Survival Guide…, Equestria…’ I was about to open it when Sharp woke up, she seemed a bit shaken this time. I flew over to her as I yelled, "Sis?! What happened? What are those orbs?" She got to her hooves and shook herself off.

She flushed and replied. "Oh, the orbs? They’re memory orbs. Memories are stored in them, as the name suggests."

Interesting.

"Memory orbs? Hmm, okay, how do I use one?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Unicorns only." She giggled.

That doesn't seem fair to everypony else. "Aww but that's not fair, at least tell me what happened?" I begged and whimpered. She rolled her eyes and sat down.

"I swear I don't know which of us is older at times? Ok, the first one was just some pony doing boring paperwork. The one I just came from was…"

The smile she had on her face melted away, I tilted my head again and asked. "Was what? Sis…?" She looked down, then at me, before looking me in the eyes and replying.

"War." The mood turned quiet, only the static of the radio and crackling of the fire was auditable.

I quickly changed the grim subject. "I found a book, a Survival Guide for Equestria, probably not much good here. Somepony should write one for The Crystal Empire," I said cheerfully. Sister tilted her head.

"Why do you call it that? It's no longer an empire." She did have a good point.

"True but it's still not part of Equestria or what's left of it. What would you call it?" I asked questionably. She pondered the question for a moment.

"Hmm? How's the Crystal Wastes sound?"

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.

"Not bad, not bad." We then both looked at each other and giggled.

Then I remembered, I looked through my bag but couldn't find it. Then I remember seeing it on the table, I stepped on my sore hooves. "OWW." I jumped back on my flank, the pain shooting up my front hooves.

Sharp came running to my side. "Are you okay? What are you trying to do?! You’re still hurt?!" I hid the pain and blushed, having a smug expression on my face. Sister raised a brow. "What?" She asked skeptically.

I pointed to the knife on the table. "Happy birthday sis," I replied with a smile on my face.

The room was silent for a moment then we broke out in laughter. For the night, we'd forgotten about the horrors of the wastes, of what happened to our home and family. But things were still ok, we had each other. Sister immersed herself in another memory orb. As for me, I started reading the book I had found. It was pretty useful. There was stuff about radiation, how it can make your eyes glow and mane itch, to scavenging tips and the do's and don'ts of general survival.

I skipped the locations section as it was no help for us here; Tenpony Tower, Splendid Valley, and Canterlot didn't mean a thing to anyone up this far north. Most everyone in the wasteland thought Equestria and The Crystal Empire were and still are separate, not because of lines on two-hundred-year-old maps. No, mainly because Equestria was worse off.

Apparently Equestria was hit with the brunt of the Zebra wrath. That and most of The Crystal Wastes radioactive contamination was buried by snow. But that doesn't mean it was much better. Most of the creatures in this book I'd never heard of like Radhogs and Manticores. All in all, the book was helpful and informative but not suited for the crystal wastelands.

I muttered out loud. "Somepony needs to make a Crystal Wastelands Version."

There was a crackle from the pip-buck, I looked at it as it now displayed a cartoony mare in a jumpsuit. The words ‘Stable-tech’ written above it in a logo, under that were some words.

Administrator access key required. Locked.

I knew nothing about technology, but even I could tell that wasn't good.

Finally, sister awoke from the memory orb. "Uhh, what’d I miss?" She sounded less groggy than the first time. My eyes darted away from hers as I tried not to answer, but there wasn't any way out of it.

"The pip-buck is locked." She looked shocked, I could tell she was going to blame me.

"You tried entering a password too many times, didn't you." Her voice sounded annoyed, no, disappointed.

Why did it feel like I did something wrong when I didn't even touch it. "I didn't do it!" I stated firmly. She just sighed.

"Doesn't matter now, can you unlock it?"

I shook my head. "I'm only good with mechanical repair, sorry." To think we could have found out the reason behind all this, but now it was locked.

We both thought of ways to fix it, the pony in my head suggested hitting it, but I shot him down before thinking of another idea. "Maybe we can find somepony to unlock it, what's the nearest town, besides Crystal Frost?" I asked optimistically.

She thought for a second before replying. "It doesn't really have a name, folks call it Slave Town."

"Slave Town?" I said sourly. I didn't like the sound of that. She shrugged and kept talking.

"Yep, it's a town made up of slavers. Slavery is its main business. It's in the name."

I'd seen slavers and slaves pass through town before. Didn't seem right that one pony could own another. My dad hated it too, though he'd always look at them with such sorrow and guilt. Doc always gave free treatment to passing slaves, while the fat shop owner gave slavers a discount. I asked my dad why no one ever did anything about it, he simply said. "Because it's legal, and if we did we'd be breaking the law that protects us."

I could tell that was controversial, though I never knew Sharp's opinion on the subject. "Sis, what do you think of slavers and slaves?" I asked.

"I can see how they help rebuild the world and order, they are important and needed in the wasteland," she said calmly and firmly. She could see I didn't like her answer and quickly added. "But that does not mean it is right. There must be a better way than rebuilding on the bodies of others." She sheepishly smiled at me, trying to brush off her first answer.

For all I've thought about it, I've never thought about the good slavers do, although the bad outweighed the good. Sister hopped in a bed next to mine, she had kindly given me the cleanest mattress, it was suspiciously clean in fact. "Why is this bed so clean? I mean it's nice, but it's a raider’s bed, I'd expect it to be a little dirty?" It even smelled fresh, not what you’d expect from a raider base with a small pool of blood upstairs.

I guess she predicted my question as she started talking before I even opened my mouth to ask more questions. "Oh, I used a cleaning spell. I'll use it on your jacket and bag tomorrow, now get some sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow." She then laid her head down and closed her eyes.

I chuckled a little. "I will," I whispered as I picked up the survival book again and kept on reading. Then a question popped into my head. "Hey sis, what was the last memory orb about?" I asked tilting my head.

She groaned and muttered. "Slave Town."

Author's Notes:

Last update 13/5/18

level up, level 2.

13 skill points awarded. 10 to repair, 3 to small gun.

Perk added, Tinker (1) Your repair skills increased by 10. Congratulations on fixing that radio, kinda.

This took a while, (6 months) but I think it's finally good ^^, it got changed and such, thx to the un-named people who worked on it ^^ anyway feel free to leave feedback and comments.
thanks to my awesome editors:
http://www.fimfiction.net/user/WeaponPrime https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Noble+Balance https://www.fimfiction.net/user/275628/EverfreePony
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/230688/Fair+Play