Darkness. Yet again I was in shadowy limbo. Surprise, surprise, Dark was there. I pouted and looked away, before grumpily asking. "What do you want?"

He smiled at me and said, "Good job."

"Wait what?" I tilted my head in confusion.

He rolled his pure white eyes and replied, "You heard me."

"Umm, thanks, I think?" I said, tilting my head with a questioning tone in my voice.

He just chuckled. "What? Is being nice out of character for me?"

I blushed and sheepishly nodded. I must admit this was quite strange, maybe it was blood loss.

"You saved Candy's life, nothing there for me to bag on," he said as he put his dark,shadowy hoof on my shoulder, feeling cold on my coat.

"But I put her in danger!" I shouted in anger that was more directed at myself, swatting his hoof away.

He just gave me a sympathetic smile. "But you also saved her."

"Are you feeling alright? You normally aren’t, well, nice?" I asked in a worried tone.

"Hehe, my job is to make you face things you avoid, to bring up concerns. The reality," he said as he floated around me, chuckling lightly.

"Are you really?" I questioned, confused.

He stopped behind me and laughed at my question. "Then what do I need to be concerned about?" I asked as I turned to look at him.

He simply sighed. "I was going to let you off easy, but if you really must know..."

A bubble floated up, within that bubble was Candy's music box. "Let's start with this."

"What? Candy's music box? What about it?" I asked questionably.

"It's a quick fix for your emotions, but it's not a permanent one," he said frowning.

"What do you mean?" I asked, missing the point.

"I mean the more you use it the less it'll be effective. You can't just use it to overcome your emotions, because they're still there." He said

Suddenly there was a dull pain in my chest. A bunch of bubbles began to float up around us, all showing things from the past. "You've accepted the fact you've enjoyed killing."

Some of the bubbles began to pop, flashing in light as they faded away into the darkness. "What else is there?!" I was starting to get annoyed by all these things.

"Many things, much more to come. For example, the fact you're happy to be free, free from your parents." Dark said with a smirk.

"What?! I loved them!" I yelled.

"I never said you didn't, but you hated being caged," he said calmly.

I glared at him angrily, before yelling. "We're done here!" I turned away from him and started to float away but suddenly he appeared in front of me.

"There's still the matter of that other thing?"

"Uhh, fine what is it?" I sighed as I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly the remaining bubbles all changed to images of Candy Fluff, all different moments from my memories. From the first time I met her, all the way to the turret incident. "Candy?! How's she bad?!" I yelled, still very confused.

"I didn't say she was."

"Then what about her?" I asked as I glared at him.

"What do you want for her?" he asked as he began to slowly turn upside down.

I just tilted my head even more, still very confused.

"Why did you keep her with you?" At this point, he was sideways.

"What else was I going to do? Abandon a young filly?" I looked at him skeptically.

Suddenly the orbs changed to when I was helping Candy escape from Slave Town. The slavers and guards shooting and chasing us as I carried Candy in a bag.

"You endangered her."

"I saved her!" I yelled back.

Suddenly the orbs changed to my latest memories, the one where Candy was staring at a green ball of death in fear.

"After putting her in danger," he replied, a sly little smirk growing on his mouth.

"I'll save her again!" I snarled at him.

"You may have been her hero today, but heroes are no good if they're dead! Who'll save her tomorrow then?!" he yelled back, gripping my jacket with his hooves.

I couldn't look him in the eyes as he was staring me down. Eventually, I gritted my teeth and pushed him away with a hoof. With my head bowed I sniveled and yelled, "I'm not a hero!"

"Why not!" he yelled.

I looked up at him, my eyesight blurry as I was on the brink of tears. "Because! Heroes are strong! Brave! And don’t hide behind little fillies!"

"What are you hiding from?" he said as he floated closer.

"M... myself! I'm not brave or strong! I...I c…Can't survive on my own!" I stuttered, not really wanting to say it.

The memory orbs changed to when I was lost in the blizzard, trying to find my sister. I was so scared back then. He placed a hoof on my shoulder and all the orbs changed to images of my sister.

"She can help you survive, so why Candy?" he asked.

"Because." I sniveled and wiped my nose. "She can't help me from surviving after. After this is all over….she can’t fix me." I whimpered, hugging myself.

"But you're not broken?" he said.

"Aren't I?" We both looked down to see my hooves covered in blood. I looked into his fearful eyes and saw my reflection. Behind me was the black door, less than a hoof away.

My eyes shot open, flooding my vision, yet again, with a flash of light. I was staring at the daytime sky. Well the daytime clouds anyway. You could always tell because they'd be a bit brighter than the night time cloud cover. I didn't even try to move my body as I couldn't even feel it. Instead, I looked around to see I was back at where we had set up camp the other day, as well as the fact that I was in a sleeping bag. I saw Candy sadly poking the smoldering remains of a fire. I looked at her, pondering if it was right for me to keep her with us.

I mean we were going to kill a warlord, as well as what other dangerous stuff that would come up along the way. Could I really keep my promise to keep her safe? Especially when I'm the one putting her in danger, and for my selfish reasons. Maybe it would be better to find her a home. I'm sure Doc won't mind looking after her, at least until this was all over. In the end, I couldn't make up my mind. Annoyed by the subject I decided to cough to get Candy's attention.

Her face went from distant and contemplating to radiant as she saw me. "Star!" She yelled as she flew to me, her eyes tearing up with joy. I simply smiled as she cried next to me. "I was so worried about you!"

I waited for her to let it all out. Eventually, she stopped as I caressed her cheek.

"I found something," she said, her voice a little weak. Before I could ask, she pulled out an old piece of paper and began to unfold it. I looked at the yellow stained paper and wondered what it was. Eventually, she opened it and to my surprise, it was a crude drawing of a family of three ponies. A big dark green earth pony with blue eyes and a blue mane, a pink pegasus with green eyes and a purple mane and a little filly pony with an orange coat, green eyes, and blue mane.

I was about to ask if she drew them when I saw the names and text written in the ponies color. Silent Times was green, Last Meal was orange and Pink Pop was pink. Also above the green big pony was the words. 'You got to break a few eggs to make a cake.'

I smiled. "What a cute little drawing. Where'd you find it?"

Candy proceeded to fold the drawing carefully and put it away. "In that stable building. I also found a letter in here a few minutes ago, but I haven't opened it yet. It's rude to open other people's mail."

I gave a light chuckle, that family drawing cheered me up, it also got me thinking about my parents, which made me feel sad. "I miss my parents," I said, on the verge of tears.

"Tell me about your parents? What were they like?" Candy asked, seeing I was sad.

I gave a light chuckle and began to talk. "Well, there's my mom, she was a black unicorn pony with a spiky orange mane, and a flaming piece of coal for a cutie mark. She was good at starting fires to keep us warm. She was always so loving and caring. But the thing I remember most about her was her eyes; they were a rich gold color. Sharp has the same eyes, so every time I see her I can't help but think of mom." I smiled as I remembered all the loving memories I had of my mom, I really did miss her.

Before I could start getting all teary eyed, I asked Candy a question. "Could you please tell me about your parents?" I said as I tried to sit up, my body still completely unresponsive.

"Oh, um ok," She said as she sat up next to the bed. "Mommy had a beautiful lemon yellow mane, a light yellow coat and aqua green eyes. Her cutie mark was a stick of butter and a green half cut lemon. Her name was Lemony Butter. She was the kindest and nicest mommy ever. She loved to help people. So she'd try to get the pegasi to help everypony down here, but that didn't make her popular. I do know she used to work with lasers and gems. Did you know any laser based weapon uses a magic gem that converts the energy from the ammo into a focused superheated beam?” I shook my head, although I had read something about that in a magazine. “She left after a fight with dad."

She went quiet, I could see she was losing herself to her memories, so I decided to speak. “My dad, on the other hoof, was a bit more complex than us. He was a worn old stallion, had a gray goatee and graying mane that used to be dark blue. His coat was light blue. He was a great dad, he provided for us, loved us and always kept us safe." My mind trailed to all the times I saw dad struggling with his prosthetic limb. He'd always try to hide the fact that it burdened him, he was stubborn that way.

Candy giggled. "My daddy on the other hoof was a big, strong, gray coated pegasus with a thick black mane and sharp red eyes. He had a black fighter jet as a cutie mark. He was a General in the Enclave and the strongest, best daddy ever. His name was Jet Black." She seemed happy to reminisce about her parents.

I, too, became lost in memories of my parents. From the times my dad taught me to shoot, to when mom was trying to teach me how to skin a rabbit, both good and bad memories brought about feelings of regret and sadness, but also joy. I loved them, I miss them. There was no way I'd be glad they're gone. But if they were here I'd still be stuck in Frost Crystal and Candy would still be a slave.

Candy and I teared up. We were about to release the waterworks when there was a knock at the door. We quickly wiped our puffy eyes as Sharp walked in, some bags floating next to her. Candy gave her a sour look and proceeded to walk back over to the fireplace. Sister ignored it and walked over to me.

"H...hi Sis," I said as I cringed back. Sharp had an ‘I'm going to kill you’ look.

I was surprised as she hugged me suddenly. Pain shot through my body, but it felt like a numb kind of pain, not too bad.

"You idiot!" She was trembling as she continued to speak. "I was so worried about you!"

I embraced her hug and held her close, ignoring the pain. We just sat there hugging as I didn't know what to say. Eventually, sister pushed me away and smiled.

"I'm glad you're ok, brother. I'll make us some food."

Candy walked away from the fire as Sharp trotted closer. She gave Candy a bad look, and Candy avoided eye contact. I could feel the tension from all the way over at my bed.

"What's going on with you two?" I asked, arching a brow.

They both turned to me with anger and annoyance filled faces and shouted, "Nothing!"

I cringed back into my bed and decided to leave it at that. I had a lot to think about. Like what I wanted to do with Candy. Did I really want to drag her through all this revenge crap? I didn't want to just drop her off at Doc's, and I'm sure there are no orphanages in this frozen hell. Plus I'm not sure if the Enclave would take her back? I pondered on it until I got frustrated and decided to put it on hold.

"Hey sis, what did we get from the ruins?" I asked as I painfully turned to my side.

Sharp put down an old pot she was dicing vegetables into and trotted back over to me, putting out her hoof for me to look at her Pip-buck. "An audio file and hopefully, the key." She said with a slight optimism in her voice.

I smiled at her and proceeded to activate her Pip-buck, this time getting past the locked Stable Tech door icon as it opened up. Yet again a stream of numbers and letters ran down the screen in the green text before ending abruptly.

Sharp shivered a little before a green pony appeared on screen, trotting. We looked at it as I turned the nob with my mouth and it moved from one hoof to the other. Hooves, body, and head all showed one hundred percent, above that were some bars stating Stat, Inv, Data, Map and Radio. I clicked inventory and the screen switched to a sub-tab named Weapons. In that tab, was sister's Laser Musket, a 3D image of one on screen next to it and a condition bar under that. By the looks of it, it was in bad shape. I’d have to fix that later. The next tab was Apparel. Within there was my sister's new security chest piece. I double clicked it with my hoof and sis pulled it out of her bag.

"What the?!" She gawked as we stared at the security armor enveloped in her red magic glow. She most likely scavenged it from the guard in that building before. "I didn't do that?" she proclaimed as she put it away.

I pressed it again and yet again her horn glowed and out came the armor. She proceeded to put it away again, and again I pressed the icon. She just glared at me and I blushed as she put it away again.

The next sub tab was Aid, which unfortunately was pretty empty. Same with the next few tabs Misc., Junk, and Mods. On the end was Ammo. By the looks of it, we had a few bullets left over: some 10-millimeter rounds for my SMG and energy cells for Sharp's crank rifle. We skipped Data for now and moved to Maps. There was another loading icon with a trotting pony in a jumpsuit. The pony vanished and more text came up.

We looked at the world map setting. It had an arrow and a small patch of land exposed, although the rest of it was all grayed out. I decided to switch it to area map and the screen zoomed into our location, detailing the inside of the old war post office.

Sharp whistled. "Nice."

I just gave an agreeing nod and we switched to the Data tab. Hopefully, now we'd be able to get some answers. To our surprise, there were two things there. One was an audio file with the title. 'Babs Seed’s audio log one' and what seemed like a program or something titled, '1st Key.' We clicked on it and the Pip-buck made a beep sound, we tried it again and yet again another beep, probably signifying we couldn't access the key program yet?

"Agh, stupid mysteries." I proclaimed and proceeded to sulk.

Sharp giggled and I gave a look over at Candy, who paid us no attention. The mystery of girls, something that no stallion had figured out. I shrugged off her cold shoulder and saw Sharp waiting for me, wanting to play the audio file she'd found.

"Do it," I said, smiling at the chance to learn something.

Static, then cracking and popping noises poured out of the Pip-buck. "Agh, finally some free time to myself," some pony said, in an accent I had never heard before. "These schmucks have been working me to the bone. Every day I'm going to another site, for Stable Tech. Testing and checking to see if it's suited for a stable. Couldn't the Crusaders have sent me somewhere a little more tropical? But it's about time the Crystal Ponies get some stables. Not like anyone would ever have to use them, hopefully. But why Apple Bloom insisted on getting the same building as last time, I'll never know. Probably nostalgia? Whatever."

I had no clue who that pony was, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was probably Babs Seed. But all in all, no big overarching mystery, except for the same building quote. But I'm sure this wasn't really important. I looked over to Sharp, she'd already disregarded the message. We moved over to the last main tab, Radio.

Two channels appeared, one was named Kindly and the other was called Rose. We clicked on Rose and a crackle of static poured from the Pip-buck, followed by a voice.

"Good morning, this is umm Rose Radio? Right? Yes, I think. Umm anyway just letting everypony know that our glorious leader will pay one hundred caps for any sprite bots brought in. Really a hundred? I wish they'd pay me that much, I wish they'd pay me at all." The voice then coughed as the radio pony kept questioning what he said, obviously lacking in charisma and self-confidence.

"In another news, other news, more new. Agh. There was a commotion at Slave Town yesterday. A pegasus was stolen by another pegasus and a unicorn. Hmm, not a lot of detail in the description, umm there must be more. Ah, here it is, yes. The pegasus was wearing a snow jacket and has a white coat and blue hair, and he also had a shooting star cutie mark. Isn't that the pony Kindly was talking about?"

Sis turned it off as we stared at each other, there was a small cough from behind Sharp and we turned to see Candy balancing two bowls of soup on her wings. Sharp levitated a bowl over to me and I held it in my hooves, staring at my reflection in the brown soup filled bowl. None of us seemed like we wanted to talk about anything. Particularly, my bounty.

Sharp and Candy finished their soup before me and were waiting for me to finish. I wasn't eating slowly on purpose, the food wasn't too hot and tasted quite good. No, I was eating slowly because I was watching Candy and Sharp eye each other before looking away as the other looked. I could feel the uncomfortable and angry vibe these two were giving off. Something clearly had happened between the two of them and I was going to find out what.

"What's up with you two?" I asked casually as I drank my warm soup.

Both of them glared at me before giving me a cold shoulder and yelling. "Nothing!" That froze me, and just after I had such nice warm soup. Too bad the meat was soured by whatever was going on between these two.

I shrugged off their attitude and asked out loud. "What's the deal with those posters?"

Both of them cocked their heads at me in confusion, to which I responded by pointing my wing at the 'Ministry of Fun' Poster from before.

Candy stepped forward. "Those are just promotional posters from the ministries."

At my flat expression, Sharp sighed and replied for me. "You have no clue who they are, do you?"

One short little head shake later and an annoyed frown from my sis, Candy began to explain. "Well The Crystal Empire was run by the royal family, but when the war broke out there was too much for them to do and they became overwhelmed. So they formed a ministry system to take over some aspects of the war effort, such as science and morality." She finished, gesturing to the poster.

"This is what you get for not paying attention in class," Sharp grumbled.

Before I could even reply I was cut off by Candy Fluff. "There are schools down here?"

I immediately shuddered at the memory of the 'school' before answering her question. "Home schooled."

"Star here was a slacker, so it's only natural he grew up to be a bit of an idiot," Sharp said while rolling her eyes.

"I resent that." I pouted.

"That was pretty smart of them."

"Actually they just ripped it off of Equestria." She then gave a shrug. "But it worked, I guess."

"Yeah, the world blew up, great job ministries," I said sarcastically. "So, umm, tell us about the Enclave, its history." I must admit this seemed more interesting than dad made it sound in the lessons.

"Oh, um ok." Candy tapped her hoof on her chin as she thought of where to start.

"How about how it was founded," Sharp suggested.

"Ok, well long ago before the bombs fell there was a ministry in charge of the northern pegasi, The Ministry of Badassitude."

"There is no way that’s a real word." Sharp interrupted.

"Is too, now let me finish. Anyway, about a week before the bombs fell the M.O.B. leader and her whole team went missing. Usually, they made a big spectacle about their missions but the last one was secret, apparently. So with no leader and no backup leader when the bombs fell, the northern pegasi decided to copy the Equestrian pegasi and fled into the sky." She finished and simply shrugged off the missing details.

I tapped my chin with my wing and looked up at the gray sky through a hole in the roof. "Why didn't they ever come back?"

Both Sharp and Candy seemed surprised with my question. "I don't know, they always told us it was too savage down here and that we had to wait for things to become more civilized."

"If they tried to force order then there would have been chaos. Too soon and everypony would have been against them, too late and they wouldn't be needed or wanted," Sharp answered, saying it as if waiting to help was a good thing, but I did see her point.

I frowned. "I guess you're right."

The two of them went back to being bitchy at each other so I decided to take a power nap as Candy and Sharp seemed to do their own thing.

Yet again my dreams were of a dark limbo in my mind, and the dark shadow pony floating in front of me, waiting for me to ask him for advice. I didn't really have any other pony with whom to talk. Sis would have said to just leave Candy at Doc's or ditch her. I needed a neutral opinion. Although I'm not sure if asking for advice from a voice inside my head was really the best call.

"What should I do about Candy?" I asked skeptically.

He smirked as those damn memory bubbles began to float up from the darkness. Images of Candy began to appear on the murky surface.

"What do you want to do?" he replied in a cryptic manner.

I pondered the question over, thinking about it carefully. What did I want to do? I knew I wanted to keep Candy safe but.

"I'll-" Suddenly the shadowy pony’s hoof pressed to my mouth to stop me from replying.

"You have a chance, a chance at a new life, a better life. I know deep down in your heart that you're not an avenger," he said with a sympathetic tone in his voice.

"But sis and Blood Rose? Surely I can't abandon my sister?" I countered, doubt in my voice as I was unsure of myself.

"The only reason you're going after revenge is because of her, but are you ready to pay the price of revenge? Even if it's Candy?" He gave me a light smile before continuing. "Your sister is old enough to fight her own battles. So it's Candy or revenge?" He slowly faded away as he placed his hoof on my shoulder.

I was left in the void, surrounded by memory bubbles showing bits from my life. One of them showed the times Sharp and I used to have pretend knife fights with sticks. She always won thanks to her magic. We were so young back then. The rest of the bubbles showed less happy memories, mostly me and my sister drifting apart to the point where she was almost a stranger to me.

I awoke and began to sit up and turn to look at sis. She was checking her laser musket over before noticing me. I gave her a 'we need to talk look,' and she frowned, seeming to have known this was coming.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the air was filled the sound of machine gun fire and bullets. All three of us dived onto our stomachs as the barrage of bullets seemed to never end. Sharp and Candy crawled to the back open half of the building. I, on the other hoof, did the less smart option and crawled towards Sharp's crank gun. The only problem was the bullet fire had shattered the centuries-old windows.

"Fuck Luna!" I yelled out in my head.

As I crawled belly first over the shards of glass, grunting as they cut into me. Just when I thought things were getting better, a bullet knocked over the cooking pot that was still boiling hot thanks to the fire. I stopped for a moment as I looked at the hot soup pour over my path to the gun and mix with the glass.

"Fuck Luna to the moon and back!" Yet again another one just for my head. Yeah, I know I'm not the best at swearing.

I crawled through this painful mixture, the glass crunched like, well, glass. My pain filled mumbles were held in my mouth by the grinding of my teeth. But none of that was audible to anyone but me due to the loud sound of bullets colliding with concrete.

Eventually, I reached the gun and then I looked over to Candy and Sharp. Candy was shaking as she stared at a gun I assumed Sharp had given her at some point. I then looked around for Sharp to see her standing tall, galloping over to the door. So I crawled to the wall and eventually got next to her. It was then that I realized the bullets were coming through the windows and that the door and walls were still holding. So pretty much as long as we stayed away from the sight of the windows we were ok.

"FUCK!" This time that wasn't in my head, I'd just yelled it out. Ironically I yelled it out just as the machine gun fire stopped, so they knew we were still alive and I'd just sworn out loud.

The reason I was annoyed wasn't the fact we were being shot at. It was the fact that I'd just crawled through the glass and was bleeding through hot soup for nothing. But I had bigger things to worry about than soup in my blood or the soup related burns, although I must admit I smelled tasty.

Sis and I each slowly moved to one of the two windows on each side and peeked out. Outside stood about twenty fully armored ponies, all carrying weapons and wearing different armor. I'd have mistaken them for raiders if it wasn't for the lack of blood on them or the fact that they'd stopped shooting. I froze as I saw who had been the ones shooting. It was the three Lily sisters, their M-60's barrels glowing a hot crimson red. We were heavily outnumbered and outgunned by a group of slavers and bounty hunters, although I did find it a bit flattering that there were this many.

"Come on out! We just want the pegasuses!" Demanded a buck from the crowd. "Pegasi." Somepony from the back of the crowd corrected him.

"We promise not to hurt you too much," one of them said while snorting.

We didn't reply, instead, I watched them as Sharp took and charged the crank rifle. By the looks of them, the three sisters were reloading. I'd assume that if we surrendered, they may do sexual stuff to us and that sis may get away. But there was no way I was going to hand over Candy, plus I really didn't want to be raped by those three she-devils.

I turned to ask sis a question. "Maybe we can negotiate?" By the time I turned to look at her, she was already aiming out the window and just shot somepony. So much for a diplomatic solution.

The other ponies laid down suppressive fire as we ducked behind the walls again. This was bad. I went to get my bag which was in the corner opposite me when suddenly a bullet burst a hole in front of me. I was so close that I got concrete dust on my face. I just stopped then and crawled back to the door with sis. More and more holes appeared through the walls. As for the door, it was vibrating and rattling. It sounded like heavy rain and I could feel the bumps starting to make slowly growing indentations. Sharp wasn't able to even get a shot off thanks to the amount of suppressive fire we were under.

I turned to her and started shouting, as that was the only way we could hear each other over the gunfire. "Get Candy out of here, I'll hold them off!" I knew there was no way all three of us would make it out of here, but I also didn't want to break my promise to Candy. She deserved a better life than this. I'd have chosen her over revenge. What good would taking a life do, if you could save a life instead.

Sis simply nodded and headed back to Candy. She was huddled in a ball, scared out of her mind. Sharp went to comfort her and I closed my eyes. it felt like I was trying to make up for a wrong I had done. Maybe it was me feeling bad about killing or maybe it was the fact that I lived most of my life for myself. Sure I saved my sister, but even that was for myself. I just didn't want to be alone.

I wondered why this was all happening, but accepted I'd probably never know. I found myself coming back to the question of why I smiled when I killed, and yet again I couldn't come up with an answer. I wondered if I was smiling right now. I probably was. Then I felt tears running down my face. Oh goddesses I didn't want to die!

Then I felt something hit me in the chest with a thud and remembered the energy turret, imagining a green ball of plasma shooting through the door and me. My heart skipped a beat as I began to fall, that is if I still had a heart. I didn't really know, my whole body had gone completely numb. I felt my limp body collide with the cold hard cement floor, but something was different to when I laid dying in the Stable Tech building. My body didn't feel cold. I opened my eyes to see my sister standing over me, her horn glowing crimson as she looked at me with no expression.

I didn't know what was happening. I couldn't talk, or move. Sharp lifted me up with her magic and placed me on her back. I could see that I hadn't been shot and in fact was just numbed, like when you've been in the cold too much. Sharp carried me past Candy, I looked at her as she frowned and looked down, avoiding eye contact. I saw what she was looking at, a gun. Oh goddesses no! Not me, take her instead, save her! Sharp lifted me onto the roof through the hole, then proceeded to lighten herself with her magic and jump up. I desperately tried to talk, to scream, to move but nothing happened.

I could see down through one of the holes in the roof. Candy was sitting in the middle of the room, looking down as more and more bullets tore holes through the walls. The fighting had kicked up dust and snow, which glimmered in the air all around her. The door amazingly managed to hold back the onslaught of bullets, but then there was a sound like thunder. It roared above the gunfire, and when it was finished there was only silence. I'd no clue what could have made that sound but it probably wasn't good.

But all of that was irrelevant. The new and large hole in the door was irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was Candy. We could hear the sound of their hooves on the snow as they approached, louder was my heart beat. All I could do was stare at Candy, begging her in my head to not do it. Tears ran down my face as I raged inside. A tear hit her head and she looked up with a face filled with pity and acceptance. I saw her lips move as she said something but I didn't hear it. She simply smiled up at me, with her sweet innocent smile.

I saw the gun under her chin, she held it between her hooves and had her wing tip on the trigger. Time seemed to slow down as I saw her push on the trigger, a single tear running down her face. I screamed and thrashed and raged on the inside. The fact that my body wouldn't respond made me angrier.

But my rage was frozen with the sound of a hammer hitting a round, the click before the bang.

The noise seemed to echo throughout the world as the image of Candy's smiling face was gone. I watched in horror as her body fell to the ground with a thud. She was gone. She was dead and it was my fault. I was stuck in a limbo as I stared down at her lifeless body.

The ponies outside muttered something as they had stopped. That didn't matter now. A magical feeling washed over my body and I felt motion return to me, but I still felt numb. I heard the clink of something being dropped onto glass and the sound of somepony pouring a drink. Cold glass pressed onto my shoulder but I didn't dare to look. The door creaked and opened slowly, some pony remarking the fact that it wasn't even locked.

They all walked in at this point, seemingly displeased about Candy's death. It was around then that I looked up at Sharp Shot, she was pushed back by what I assumed was an angry expression. In her magical grip was a shot glass with some clear drink in it with a small black blob resting on the bottom. She was distant but hurt. I didn't know what she wanted to give me but I knew it had to be relevant. We didn't need words as she could tell that I wanted revenge and she was offering it.

I didn't hesitate as I sat up and grabbed the drink, wolfing it down right away. The drink was alcoholic and burned but it was nothing compared to what came next. The black glob stayed in one piece as I swallowed it, but as soon as it touched my throat it burned. It felt like I had just swallowed flaming glass shards as the substance slid down my throat. My body shook as I felt a choking sensation, an unnatural feeling of pain pulsed through by body.

My stomach turned and involuntarily tried to rid itself of the black substance but instead of it coming up I ended up dry heaving. I covered my mouth with my hooves so the dozen or so ponies wouldn’t hear me. I moved my hoof away and saw a light spray of blood where I had choked. I looked at Sharp with confusion as I wasn't sure if this drug was going to kill me or help me. But she had a sadistic smirk on her muzzle. I began to wheeze as the pain changed into a burning intense stabbing feeling, it emanated throughout my whole body.

I opened my mouth to speak but was suddenly pushed backwards by my sister. I fell in the hole and next to Candy's corpse, my body shaking and sweating. The dozen ponies looked down at me in surprise, but I still looked up at my sister, my vision blurring, and fading. I saw her drop the knife I got her. It landed between me and Candy, sticking into the floor. The ponies around me spoke but I could only hear my heartbeat.

I didn't know what was happening to or around me. But I felt a smile grown on my face as the world went dark and I blacked out. I wanted to destroy this world, these ponies, myself. Rage... I had so much rage. Rage at myself, rage at my weakness, rage at this world, rage at these ponies, so much rage. Luckily I had the perfect outlet laying right next to me.

My body felt numb, my eyes heavy and my breathing shallow. I tried to think. What happened? What was the last thing that happened? And more importantly, who was I? I groaned as my head felt cloudy. Thinking hurt. Well it was never my strong suit. I decided to just lay where ever I was and just breath. I was content with just breathing this cool winter air. I felt my chest rise and fall, a soft aching pain spread through my body. Eventually, I worked up the strength to open my eyes.

Gray, gray cloud cover. Did I ever mention the fact that I hate the colour gray? It's so boring and overused. It's not even a true colour, it's a tone. Besides the clouds I could see my cold breath. Hehe, I liked my cold breath, it made me feel like a dragon breathing smoke. But despite my cold breath, I didn't feel cold, or hot? Just the feeling of me breathing and a light pain spread out throughout my body.

I decided to watch the sky, seeing as I didn't have the strength to even wiggle my wing. I watched the ever-shifting gray clouds, knowing it had to be night, based on their particular shade of gray. I could see a sliver of silver moonlight break through the clouds every once in awhile, and based on how bright it was, I'd say it was a full moon. It was such a calm night, nothing but the sound of my breath on such a clear night, not a snowflake to be seen.

But like peace, the silence was too ever fleeting. The sound of fresh hooves stepping on snow sounded next to me. The crunch of hooves on snow drew closer and closer. I didn't know why but my heart began to race and my clouded mind turned into a storm. I tried to move but my body refused to budge even a feather. I tried to scream but my voice was a whisper. When I shook my head it simply fell down onto a jacket that was draped over my body.

I forgot about the approaching danger and stared at the jacket. It was a blue, white and orange snow jacket. It felt important and calming. Then I saw it, an icon of a little blue bird stitched onto the shoulder pad. I couldn't take my eyes off the bird, the blue bird. The storm in my head faded as I focused on the bird. Bluebird? Was that my name? No? It didn't feel right?

I thought slowly, where did I see this before? Where did I get this? I felt like it belonged to me, like it was an important part of me? But why? Doc? Red Cross? He gave it to me when I went to save someone important? Who was it I went to save? An important mare friend? A special somepony maybe? No that’s definitely wrong? Probably a sister? Yeah, it was my sister, what was her name? Shark? Shank? Sharp! Her name was Sharp Shot, my mature little sister, we were traveling and I freed a slave… Candy?!

I lurched to my hooves in a burst of energy as I remembered. Candy was in danger! Unfortunately, my energy lasted a moment and I collapsed into the snow in a surge of pain. I groaned on the cool snow covered ground as I looked at the sound of the hoof steps. It was Sharp, she was standing in front of me. As soon as I saw her I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Her sad yet distant expression confirmed my worst fears... Candy was dead.

The memory slammed into me like a sledgehammer. Candy looking up at me with that happy expression, tears running down her cheeks as she accepted death. Her lips moved as she said something but before I could remember what, the sound of a bang startled me out of my memory. I didn't want to remember any more than that, so I didn't.

I sniffed and sniveled as my eyes began to water. Sharp came to my side and helped me upright, putting the jacket on my shoulders to keep me warm. I shut my eyes as I felt the warm liquid run down my face, the sound of my tears hitting the snow being the only sound audible. Then suddenly I felt hooves wrap around me in a hug, I froze for a minute before I started sobbing uncontrollably, my pain filled wails destroying the silence.

By the time I was done my throat felt raw, but I felt a lot lighter inside. Sharp pushed a bottle of pure water to my lips and I drank it, the feeling of cold water flowing down my throat was quite soothing. Although I felt weak, my body was doing much better. All sense of feeling was back and my pain physically had all but subsided. Although my mind still felt a little fuzzy.

I looked around, we were on the side of the post office building. I took a step towards the front of the building, where the doors and window were. Sharp placed a hoof on my shoulder and shook her head. "Don’t."

I stood there and looked at the corner, my legs shaking a little, before nodding in agreement. I didn't need to see what happened. I didn’t need to know, or want to know either. I followed my sister's lead as we walked away from the building, up to a hill. I saw our stuff and more, laying at the base of a long dead tree. Sharp most likely scavenged it from the remains of the attackers.

"Blood Rose legalized slavery for his clan and everyone in it. He runs it like a business, making money off the pain of others. He's the reason Candy was in that cage." Her words were simple, yet they angered me so.

We made our way to the top of the hill and I saw it, a freshly dug grave. My anger faded as I saw dirt and snow was mixed together, before a flimsy wooden plank that served as her tombstone. Carved into it were her name and age.

To one side of the plank was the combat knife, looking worn but ok, and on the other side was Candy's music box. We didn't say a word, we just sat before the grave and looked at it. I saw the full moon approach the horizon, the only times you get to see the whole moon is when it sets or rises.

Eventually, the silence was broken by Sharp. "Will you settle for the wasteland and run away, cry, to be forgotten in time? Or will you rise to face it and its challenges, making them never forget the pain they've caused?" She floated the music box to one side of me and the knife to the other.

I took both onto my wings and turned around, facing the sunrise as Sharp still faced the setting night. I lowered my wing and let the music box slide into my pocket as I took the knife in my mouth and bit down on it. "They'll remember all the pain they've caused, all the pain the wastelands caused. No more tears. I'll never let them forget the pain they've caused and they'll never forget me. They'll remember me, for centuries."

Author's Notes:

Last update: 13/5/18

The wasteland giveth and the wasteland taketh away.

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Noble+Balance https://www.fimfiction.net/user/275628/EverfreePony
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/230688/Fair+Play
Thank you sooo much for making this 1000 times better and 20% cooler.