Wake up.

It was slow, but everything began to come back to me out of the darkness of nothing. The rush of memories flooding into my mind felt overwhelming, and I screamed as everything came back all at once. What had happened that day with Violet and Hispano mixed with the sensations and disorientation of waking up. I dashed myself against the restraints that held me in the darkness, using all of the might I could muster to break free of it.

With a gasp, I attempted to throw myself upright as my eyes flew open. My hooves were jerked back by the leather straps that held me down to the medical bed I’d been laying in, and my heart hammered relentlessly at my ribcage. I was filled with a profound confusion, and frantically looked around in panic to make sense of what was going on.

“Good, you’re awake.” Buck spoke sternly as he sat at my bedside. “You’re alright, just breathe.”

I listened to his soothing voice and tried to do just that. Breathe. My heart was racing a mile a minute as beads of sweat rolled down me in trickling rivers. The ebbing pain in my head dulled slowly, and my aching muscles relaxed as I sat there looking down at the bindings secured around my deep blue forehooves. As I did, only half my bangs fell down into my vision, and it was then I began to understand that something was off. Even without a mirror, I could feel that one side of my mane and coat on my skull had been completely shaven. As I tried to comprehend what had happened, I realized that none of it mattered, not with what I now knew.

I… I couldn’t believe it. Not only was Hispano having the wrong idea about me my fault, but Hardcase was a changeling? And Violet…

“Night, look at me.” Buck’s soft words stripped those thoughts from my mind. Reaching his paw up, he gingerly cupped under my chin and pulled my muzzle toward his. Slowly, he leaned forward and pressed into a kiss that put every worry of mine to rest, and flushed my cheeks with warmth. I melted under his affections, feeling myself relax and calm all at once more than any painkiller or sedative ever could. “Oh that’s just what I needed…” He moaned as he broke the kiss, seeming to savor the moment just a bit longer as he straightened himself out.

Slowly, I laid myself back into the hospital bed with a sigh. “What happened?” I asked, feeling momentarily dizzy as the rush the kiss must have given me reached it’s peak. Wow, it must’ve been some pretty great painkillers they put me on. I’d never been worn out from such a simple action like that, let alone around Buck.

“Actually, Night.” Buck sighed as he shifted on his haunches, standing up at his full height to tower over me. “I wanted to ask the same thing. However, I’m running short on time.”

I looked up to him as his expression shifted from his normal caring gaze, to one of sharp annoyance. Lifting his massive paw, he spread his claws and reached down, slipping them around both sides of my neck as his paw pressed down on my chest. I was going to ask what he was doing, or what he meant by what he said. Before I could even get a single word out, he pushed his palm down, and I found the air forced right out of my lungs.

“Buck…” I whined, reaching up and pushing at his paw as I tried to draw in as much air as I could. Panic flooded my mind as I tried to do everything I could to get his paw off of me. Struggling against the hoof restraints on my bed, it was only an exercise in futility as I pleaded with him. “Please… I can’t breathe...” Why was he doing this!? What was wrong with him!?

“Where is Boxer?” Buck grunted as he leaned over me. Slowly, he pushed down harder against my chest, forcing a whine from me. “I will kill you, Night, unless you tell me what you did with him.” He snarled and I felt every ounce of hatred press against me. “ I know he was caught in Carmacks, but he never came back, and I know you had something to do with it.” Looking into his eyes, I couldn’t see a single ounce of regret in them. Nor could I see any sort of doubt or hesitation. What I did see, was an anger and focus that Buck had never held in his eyes with me.

Buck’s two triangular ears perked, and as if they alone guided him, he turned his attention toward the door. With a forceful push, he stood himself up again, dragging his claws down my chest as he made his way to the door. With a prolific slam, Buck threw the door open and took off into the bright hallway.

Choking and coughing, I sucked in as much air as I could before font’s of pain sprang from my barrel. Looking up, I found three deep gashes running down my whole body. Blood trickled and filled out the wounds before spilling down my sides and onto the yellowed old bedsheets. Painkillers be damned, I screamed as the sensation of being sliced into hit me all at once. Whimpering, I writhed and cried out as nothing about any of this made sense to me.

“Night!” Buck called out, the pain in his voice was almost as sharp as the pain I felt right then. “No no no!” He whined, his voice getting closer before he slid himself into the doorway. He paused as his own wide eyes matched mine. As he stepped inside the room, my mind reeled and pushed me to get away from him. Fear took over and pushed any rational thought out of my mind as I struggled against my bindings to get up and run despite my injuries. “Night, you have to calm down!” Buck called out as he quickly rushed over to the cabinets on the wall and rifled through them like a madpony possessed.

No, I couldn’t calm down. The pain in my injured chest flared as I tugged and pulled at the restraints, and tears ran down my cheeks from both the pain and the frustration. Fucking seriously, the straps wouldn’t let me go, and I had to get out of here before he killed me!

“Please, you have to calm down!” Buck snapped as he turned and hastily approached my bed. I cried out as he closed in, shutting my eyes tightly and crying as I waited for him to just finish me off. Why... why would he do this to me? I loved him! How could he be so cruel…

The pain in my barrel began to ebb away, and was replaced with the sensation of cool water running down it.

“Just hold still…” Buck’s rhythmic breathing and soft voice accompanied the feeling of my flesh knitting itself together. He… he was helping me? “Night, what happened?”

Wait, what?

Opening my eyes, I looked up to him, finding his worried eyes trailing tears of his own down his muzzle. The soft pop of the cap on another healing potion made me jump. Carefully, Buck moved his claws and poured its contents down the last of the major gashes across me. As soon as it was closed, Buck gave a sigh of relief and took a stumbling step back.

Raising his paw, he ran it over his head before sitting down hard on the floor next to me. “Who did this to you, Night.” He asked with a cold and foreign look on his eyes. It wasn’t like before, where he had that cruel focus, no, this was more like the thousand yard stare he’d had when we talked at the front gate. But… it was worse, because right now he wore a look of regret and fear across his face.

“It…” I spoke, choking up as I was afraid to say anything that might set him off. Could I really risk him lashing out again? What if he didn’t mean to do it? Maybe… maybe he was just angry that I was always getting into trouble. No, Buck values my honesty, and maybe he’ll be happier if I just tell him the truth. “It was you…”

“What?” That snapped him out of his far off look. A dozen emotions flashed across his face before it ended with a rage filled snarl that made me cringe again. “Salt.”

I gasped when I processed just how much that fit. That had to be it. His odd question, the focused look…

The kiss.

“I-I’m sorry.” I whimpered as I felt all the tension and fear drain away all at once. With those gone, my body collapsed back against the hospital bed. I can’t believe I almost just blamed Buck for that. How could I have even thought he was Buck!? How bad of a coltfriend do I have to be to not even realize it wasn’t really him!? Maybe Buck should be angry with me...

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry.” Buck sighed. “I was told by one of the nurses that there was a medical emergency that they thought I could help with.” Slumping down against the floor, Buck curled himself up slightly. “I should have known not to go, she didn’t smell normal at all. I should have stayed here to protect you.”

It wasn’t his fault. Salt didn’t have to be this way, he didn’t have to copy any of us at all. The fact that he keeps doing it was a mystery to me, but I think it’s because somehow he enjoys it. Rage began to build up in me like kindling to fuel a bonfire. I… I can forgive so many things, but this time it was too far. He didn’t get to imitate the one thing in this wasteland I have left to love and trick me into fearing it. I was going to find Salt and I was going to make him give me some goddess damned answers.

“No.” I grunted and pushed myself to sit up in the now blood soaked bed. After the trauma with my head, the shit Salt did to my body meant I would have probably been happy with never moving again. But I had other ideas, I had tons of other ideas in fact.

“I’m tired of nearly getting killed.” Looking right at him, I watched his expression swing from one of worry, to one of profound regret. “Everything down here has been one travesty to live through just to reach the next. But I’m the only one who hasn’t adapted yet, Buck. I thought I was ready after going back to Four Peaks. I thought I was ready after I shot Shimmer back there in the schoolhouse, but I finally get it. I can’t be afraid of death anymore. It’ll happen when it happens. Neither of us will have a say in it, and you might not be able to stop it no matter how hard you try.” I really hoped that it wouldn’t happen any time soon, but with how things around me tended to fall apart on their own, it was something that I couldn’t afford to worry about.

“I…” Buck began, hanging on his own words as he didn’t really know what to say. “Where’s all of this coming from so suddenly?” He looked hurt, like I’d been the one to rend open his chest and leave him for dead. “Is it because I wasn’t here?”

“No, not at all.” I couldn’t tell him about what I’d remembered. About the underground facility, about the truth of who Hispano or Hardcase actually are, or even how Violet wasn’t who we thought she was. Still, he deserved an answer, even if it was simply reusing his own point from up at the gate. “Because worrying about each other every day won’t ever stop until either we die together, or one of us goes first. And I don’t intend to waste any more time sitting around on my flank waiting for it to happen.” Tugging my forehooves up, they stopped sharply when the straps around them went taught. “So, you’re going to help me out of these bindings so we can get to work.”

“What are you doing?” Buck asked as he slowly picked himself up off the floor. “You need to rest, more so with the fact that you’re on medication and you’ve lost some blood.” Pointing to my hooves, he shook his head. “Those are there to protect you from the convulsions. Even with that chip removed from your head, you might still have unforeseen complications, Night. Staying in here for the rest of the night is for your own protection.” As much as I was glad to hear that the chip was gone, the damage has already been done, and now was the time for damage control.

“A lot of good sitting here has done in ‘protecting me’ so far.” I forced out a laugh as I tugged at the straps around my legs. “And who care’s if I’m still sick, or hurt, or whatever? More than likely, I’ll just be back in a bed like this by the end of the day.” My words forced Buck’s ears back, and he looked away from me like I’d just accused him of not loving me. “No, don’t deny it. Bad shit’s going to happen whether I’m in here or out there. But I’ve realized that even though this shit happens, somehow, I keep getting through it. I know that one day that luck will run out, but so far, I’m a survivor, and it’s about time that I took advantage of that.”

I wanted to cringe at using what Violet said to me in that facility as an example, but she was right. Misfortune may follow me, but I always found a way to the top of whatever shit I got into. I don’t know why, but I know now that it was part of who I am. Maybe… it had something to do with what Lilac Lace had been talking about. I really wish I could have gotten more clarification on it before we left because I’d like to know if this is what she’d meant about who I’ve been all along.

“It’s foalish to dismiss everything that’s happened so easily, Night.” Buck sighed, but still reached up and pawed at my forehoof. “But you’re right. I thought the wasteland would be different. Admittedly, I thought it would be a better place than this.” As he spoke, his gaze shifted, and I could tell by his smile that he was thinking of his time back home. “I’d known it was going to be dangerous when I agreed to set out, and things probably wouldn’t go well. But I never thought it would be as stressful as it’s been,” Looking softly up to me, his smile did more for me than he could have ever known. “But you’re what’s helped carry me through it, and I can’t do it without you.”

Reaching my other forehoof over, I cupped over his paw. “You know I feel the same way. This has been more of a nightmare than anything. But, there has been good to come out of it so far.” I was happy to see him smile at me again as he slowly turned his eyes back to me. “I love you, Buck, but I need your help with this. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but together, we can bring some good back into the wastes. Starting with finding Salt.”

Reaching over, Buck carefully started to undo the straps that held me in the bed. “For the record, I don’t want you to go out there yet, Night.” After undoing one of the straps, he reached over and put his paw softly on my chest. “I know you want to find Salt, but you can’t just go running off after him, even with my help.” Leaning down, he looked me right in the eyes, revealing just how much trepidation he was feeling about everything at the moment. “Night, I know you’re angry for what he did…”

“You’re damn right I’m angry.” I snorted with a smirk. Using my now freed forehoof, I carefully pushed his paw off of me so that I could start to fully get up. “Which is why we are going to find him and make him finally give us some goddess damned answers. About what he wants, what happened in Four Peaks. Everything.” Reaching over, I hoofed at the strap that held my other forehoof down. “After he gives us what we want, we’re going to turn him over to whoever runs this town. I couldn’t care less what they do with him at that point.” Unhooking the strap, I grunted and yanked my other forehoof free, happy that I could finally breathe a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t be forever strapped to this deathbed.

“Once Salt’s dealt with, then what?” Buck asked as he stepped back.

It was a good question. Salt was just something I wanted to deal with right now, and I hadn’t really given ‘what next’ a thought. Then again, the lack of forethought pretty much sums up everything I’ve done while adapting to the wasteland so far.

“Then... we go get the thing that Spitzer wants.” I replied, shifting myself on the bloody bed and wiggling my way toward the edge. Actually, what needed to happen was probably a lot more simple and straightforward than I’d been thinking. “Then we deal with getting the Hauler repaired. Then we get back on the road, and deal with Galina, Solomon, and finding the Ark.”

Flapping my slightly bloody wings a few times, I rolled myself over and pushed myself up into the air. I dipped for a moment as I adjusted to the odd weight distribution I had due to the missing leg. But the lower weight meant that my wings were strong enough that I could hover for a moment without straining too hard. Spinning myself back around to Buck, I found him looking up to me with both a sense of profound worry in his eyes, and what I wished more than anything was a flicker of hope.

“Now,” I pointed across the room where my battle saddle was hanging on the wall. “Help me get geared up. We’ve got a changeling to find, and I know just the griffon with the eyes to spot him.”

After using one of the shower facilities there on the Mercy, I was glad to get out of that place again. My body was sore, but for once, my wings were rested and more than ready to take me into the air. The brisk, cold night air was refreshing, and helped to wake me up. I’d need all the focus I could get if I was going to finally get some goddess damned answers out of Salt.

“You know,” Hispano cooed as we flew over the various rooftops of the houses on the rim of Destruction Bay. “to a talon, those new scars would make you even more attractive, which I can agree with...” I deadpanned as she licked at her beak slowly. “Though, I’m not going to lie, the new manecut… it makes you look a bit butch.”

“Focus, Hispano.” I grunted, tweaking my wings to bank over and head down the main road leading toward the pier. Salt was still around, I just knew it. He could be anywhere, and we needed to remain vigilant. “Remember, keep an eye out for anyone from our crew. He’s going to pop up as one of us again sometime soon.”

“Fine, it’s just so boring.” Hispano sighed as she curved through the air with me. With a few extra flaps of her wings, she overcorrected herself and dove. Before she got too far down, she flared her wings, twisting herself up and around again. Putting her talons around her gun, she pulled it close as she started to corkscrew around me as we passed over the wheelhouse of the ferry restaurant.

Looking ahead to the dock, I could see the lumbering form of Buck walking back along it with Hardcase. If Salt was smart, he’d hide in Spitzer’s place, where Buck couldn’t sniff him out. Then again, there was bound to be dozens of places like that in this town. Even with my ‘limited’ pony sense of smell, the scents of wood fires, rusting metal, and too many various chemicals to count, all intermixed together in the salty seaside air. Plus there was the fact that this place was almost too peaceful, and it had started to give me an unsettling familiar friendly tone to that of Klondike This place might have been friendly and peaceful, but who knew if Salt was the only monster this place hid in the shadows.

“There.” Hispano spoke up, pointing her talon over toward a large blocky building across town before sharply winging over and dipping down.

Twisting my wings and folding in my legs, I followed her down, snapping my tail in line as we picked up a bit of speed. The cold night air whipped along my body as we both dipped lower in the air. The various poles and masts of ships rushed past as we leveled ourselves out over the ruins of the lower city, shrouded in the darkness that seeped between the city lights.

Some of them whisked past us fast enough that had we hit them, we’d have most certainly died. I however wanted to live by what I’d told Buck about misfortune finding me. Accepting that things could end for me at any time was freeing, and I could only smirk at knowing that.

Flaring our wings, Hispano and I began to slow ourselves. She looked back a few times, adjusting herself to my odd pace of slowing flight. With a wide smile across her beak, she nodded and led the two of us into a wide bank around over where she’d pointed to before. With a few hard flaps, the two of us braked enough that we came and landed on a bent mast of one of the old shipwrecks nearby.

“I told ya, you’ll get ya money, ya dig?” What looked like Happy Trails waved his forehoof dismissively to a group of three of the largest earth ponies I’d ever seen. “I just... need more time is all.”

“We know you were planning on skipping town without paying. You mules are all the same sort of halfbreed lowlifes. Always trying to scam good folk out of caps.” One of the earth ponies spoke up with an accusational point of his hoof. The yellow coated stallion wore a rag over his red mane, and the dark sunglasses that obscured his eyes didn’t do much to hide the large scar that ran from his muzzle to his ear. “Lucky for us, we heard you’ll be staying in town overnight due to an accident.”

“We need to get him out of there to see if he’s the imposter or your real crewmate.” Hispano whispered over to me. Looking over at her, I found that she’d been focused on the massive brick of a pony who’d been talking. “Follow my lead and try not to break character.” Character? I wasn’t quite sure what she had in mind, but so far, she’d known what she was doing far more than I did down here.

Adjusting herself, she swung Suiza around in her talons and flared her wings. Leaning forward, she let the air catch under her wings as she dropped off our perch. Following, I cringed as my wings dropped me faster than I’d have liked. The ground rose up to meet us, and as she touched down lightly, my hooves slammed into the ground. I grunted as I braced myself, barely managing to stay upright as we landed and caught all four of the stallions off guard.

“Evening, Boys.” Hispano cooed cooly, leveling her enormous gun at the group. “How nice of you to have held my bounty until I could get here.”

“Get lost, Talon. There’s no bounty for you here.” The yellow coated stallion laughed before stepping up beside an incredibly nervous Happy. Looking over to me, he gave a hopeful smile that felt a little too genuine to be something Salt could have given me. However, that smile came before the silver hoof blade pressed against his neck from the stallion next to him. “This stallion belongs to Mrs. Tapit now.”

“The bounty for his head claims dead or alive,” Hispano sighed as she turned her gun slightly and pointed it directly at the yellow stallion. “So my associate and I are ready to collect either way.” Turning to me, she nodded quickly at my saddle. Balancing on two hooves, I flicked my saddle bit up and into my muzzle. “However I’m fairly certain that being dead isn’t how you’d like Mrs. Tapit to have the three of you returned, so I suggest you all take a step back and release him into our custody.”

To give them a bit more incentive, I pulled back on the trigger of my sub machinegun and racked the bolt. The loud clack as the first round chambered visibly shook one of the stallions around Happy. With an angry glance, the yellow stallion in charge glared at the scared stallion and gave off a grunt. I knew that while this was supposed to be an incredibly tense situation, I couldn’t help but smile from around my bit.

From the back of my mind, some insane part of me begged them to make a move so I could just open up on them. While those dangerous thoughts faded quickly and were replaced with the fear that I was slowly turning into a raider, I knew why I felt this way. I truly was tired of being the victim always ending up on the wrong side of misfortune, and I’d to everything in my power to keep from being like that again. Thankfully, it didn’t look like it would come to that right now.

“Fine, you’re all off the hook for now, but you’ll be sorry you did this.” The stallion smirked as he took a step back, waving off the other two lugs with him. “Mrs. Tapit doesn’t take kindly to having outsiders like you two messing with her business, so I’d watch your flanks from here on out if I were you.”

Turning, the three stallions galloped down the street and off into the night. Breathing a sigh of relief, I spit the bit of my saddle and looked over to a very confused, but smiling Happy Trails.

“Thank the goddess you two came along!” He laughed before trotting up to us. “You have no idea how…”

That was as far as he’d made it before Hispano lunged for his forehoof. With a yell and a spin of herself, Happy went airborne over her head and was slammed down on his back. Before he had a chance to react more than giving out a whine, Hispano’s talon was wrapped around his throat.

“Tell us,” She snapped at him, “are you the real one, or the changeling?”

“What the hell was that for?” With wide eyes, he struggled against her hold. “I didn’t do shit to you! Bombay, what in the hell is going on!?” Looking over to me, I studied him as his eyes wandered over my body. Between my half shaved mane and the new scars across my chest, he must have wondered if I was a whole different pony, because he stopped fighting against Hispano’s hold. “What happened to you, Bombay?”

“Don’t play coy.” Hispano hissed before squeezing with her talons. “Prove to us you’re the real you.”

“What? How?” He grunted before coiling his leg up under Hispano. Giving a sharp kick to her side, Hispano only gave a meager wince from the hit. “Fuckin let me go, bitch! I don’t even know you!”

“Answer her question willingly, or I’ll shoot the answer out of you.” I spoke up and lowered the barrel of my gun down at him. While part of me hoped that this wasn’t the real Happy, I wasn’t going to use the bit in my muzzle and risk making a stupid mistake. Still, it felt good to be the one in control of a situation for once. “How do I know you’re the real Happy?”

“You bought me that new Uke back in Carmacks.” He grunted, glaring at me as Hispano kept him down. Even though he’d stopped struggling, I could see the tension in his body building. “I said we were even for it! Is that good enough?”

I met Hispano’s hesitant gaze with one of confidence. “Only Happy would know that. It’s him.” Nodding, I pulled the gun away from him and sat down. “What the hell are you doing out here, Happy?” I watched as Hispano pulled back from him and held out her talon to help him up. Angrily, he refused, simply rolling himself over and getting back to his hooves. “I thought Delilah had you opening the safe.”

“Yeah, well, I got bored.” He grumbled as he brushed himself off and straightened out his floral print shirt. “So I went down to the Brothel for some fun.” As soon as he’d said that, I facehooved hard. “What? We’ll probably be here all night anyway, so what’s the harm in going out and having a little fun?”

As on point as she’d been since I met her, Hispano jabbed a talon at him. “Those three meatheads didn’t seem like they were here for ‘fun’.” Crossing her talons, she took a seat next to me and glared at him. “Based on what they said, let me take a ‘wild’ guess at what was going down, pompadour-head.” Adjusting her flight cap a bit, she cleared her throat out. “You went to the brothel, where much like you’ve done in most of the towns on this trip, you figured you’d get the best treatment even though you couldn’t afford it.” As she spoke, Happy’s smug expression quickly shifted to one of indignance. “That’s because you normally leave before paying, because your group would be out of town before anyone got too wise of it.”

“Hey, how would you… who the fuck are you to judge me anyway!?” Happy grunted and held his muzzle high. And just like that, out came the facade he wore around others, stupid accent and all. “Ya’ just some uptight feather-broad with too much time on ya’ talons. Ya’ dig? A square like you don’t know me.” Reaching up, he flipped the collar of his shirt up and hunched himself into it like he was hot shit. And honestly, that kind of pompous attitude wasn’t something I’d needed after a day like today.

“No, but I know Hispano well enough to trust her.” I sighed before forcing my eyes shut and pressing my forehoof against my temple, hoping to force back the headache I could already feel coming on. “So cut the shit, Happy. Did you, or did you not leave before paying.”

“I…” He began, only to catch himself as he scrunched up his muzzle. “I don’t need any judgement from you, Bombay. I’ve run this scam before and I’ll keep running it once we leave this place. I’ve just gotta lie low until we go is all.” Turning himself down the street, he put his muzzle up again, this time with a smile. “Thanks for the help anyhow.”

I grumbled as an annoying thought bubbled up in my mind. “Where do you think you’re going, Happy?” I called out, making him freeze up. “I don’t need you wandering off to where Salt can just take you hostage, or copy your form.” My words made both him and Hispano look at me like I was crazy. “You’re staying right here with us.”

“Nah.” Happy smiled before hoofing at his pompadour gently, pressing down some errant hairs that had cropped up on the expertly coiffed mane. “You two have fun playing pretend bounty hunters. I’ve got better shit to do with my night.” Giving us a little wave, he really thought he would get off that easy.

“Alright.” I shrugged. “Guess I’ve got no choice but to tell Delilah about this little incident.”

“You… you wouldn’t do that!” Happy gasped as he spun himself around. Each step back over toward Hispano and I made his face turn redder with anger. “My mom doesn’t need to know a damn thing about this, and you aren’t going to tell her. Ya’ understand?” Stepping up and prodding at me, he snorted as I didn’t even care to move. He could be mad all he wanted, but he had no say in this.

“I won’t have to if you stick with us.” I watched as he deadpanned at me. “Think of it this way; instead of cutting through that bolt, you’re helping us find the changeling that’s been ruining my life more and more each and every time we run into him.” Reaching up, I gave him a pat on the shoulder as Hispano and I turned to head down toward where Buck and Hardcase were back in the harbor. “Besides, it’s better this than me telling Delilah about what you were really doing.”

“Good to see you’re learning the art of blackmail, Dum Dum!” Hispano giggled before hopping up into the air and taking off at a good clip into the dark night sky. Looking up, I blinked a few times and waited for the quick flutters to return. Sure enough, Hispano came back down and landed next to me again. “Right. Your friend there can’t fly.”

“Nope.” I sighed and waved to Happy. “Come on, let’s get walking.” Stepping forward, I nearly tripped over Hispano, who’d backed herself into me.

“Uh…” She said, pressing herself into me and raising her talons into the air. “Guys?”

As she spoke, I noticed a large moving mass coming towards us down the street. Squinting, I tried to make out what it was, but didn’t have a chance to make out too much before the group passed under one of the old street lamps. Well shit...

“You know,” The large yellow stallion from before called out. “I was going to let your shit slide for tonight.” As he walked forward, he was followed by another ten or so ponies. Even in the dim streetlamp light, I could see they all wore battle saddles or had weapons of some sort with them. “But lucky for you, I reconsidered. Mostly because I brought some more friends back with me.”

I’d been itching to fight earlier, but two on three would have been a fight Hispano and I could’ve handled. This many however… this wasn’t a fight we’d walk away from if we started it. Which is probably why Hispano had simply raised her talons and given up.

“Well, I did not see that coming.” Hispano sighed. “Go ahead, the bounty is yours.”

“Nah, that’s not good enough.” The stallion spoke up as his friends spread out, forming a circle around us. “See, Mrs. Tapit doesn’t like being ignored by outsiders in her town. So you’re going to come with us quietly so that she can see if you’re some sort of threat she’ll need to put down, or just colossally stupid for trying to pull this shit on her turf.” As he gave us his best shit eating grin, I resisted the urge to facehoof for fear of getting shot to pieces. “Personally, I hope it’s the former, so I can put you two gals down myself for making tonight a pain in my flank.”

“Goddesses, I should have just stayed on the hauler…” Happy grumbled as he walked up beside me.

“Isn’t that the understatement of the evening.” The stallion grunted. “Now, get walking.”

So much for Destruction Bay being the friendliest place around...

We’d been stripped of our weapons and led all the way down to the edge of the harbor, far behind the rear of the monolithic battleship that sat towering into the night sky from where we walked along the harbor berm. All the way at the edge of the harbor, beached up along a good length of the hillside, was a long, cigar like tube. I’d seen pictures of submarines in the history books, but some part of me made me think they weren’t supposed to be oriented the way this one was. Oddly, it looked like it had rolled over once it hit land, and stayed with it’s belly pointed longingly out toward the sea.

The proud, but rusting metal conning tower that should have been on top of the old world boat, created a squat entrance that the whole group of us entered one by one. Crawling into the dark interior of the old ship, I looked around as I was led alongside a rusting ladder toward another squat entrance a few feet further in. Crawling through the rusted open hatch of this one, I was greeted with a cavernous room. Well, more cavernous than it probably was two hundred years ago. The old machines that used to line the walls had been long removed. In their place among the thousands of tubes on the inner hull, hung strings of lights and dozens of wooden crates that nearly lined the crude metal dividers that now segmented the interior of the ship.

“You, you’re with me.” The yellow stallion we’d been following grunted before he forcefully gripped at my foreleg. Yelping, I did my best to keep up at a hobble as I was dragged through another sideways bulkhead away from the others. We walked over some more old plywood flooring that creaked disconcertingly under my heavy hops. Again, without hesitation, he pulled at me and swung me into a cage that looked like it had been built into a broom closet.

“Alright. You’re going to sit pretty until Mrs. Tapit figures out just what to do with you.” He spoke up with a snarl. With a squealing clang, the door to the cage slammed shut. Turning around he moved over toward a large set of lockers on the far wall. He tossed all of our gear inside, and slammed the door shut before walking away without another word. As I sat in an area only slightly bigger than myself, after a few minutes of being alone, I started to worry again. Not just about my current predicament, but about everything.

No! I refuse to spend my time worrying. The Night who’s a confused Enclave citizen is no more. I’m going to get out of here, because I’m a survivor. Hell, I may not know just how ponies act down in the wasteland, but that means that they don’t know how I will act either. I just need to find some advantage.

Looking around myself, I didn’t find much to work with. The only thing that I had in here with me was a damp cloth in the back corner or my cell. With nothing else to work with, I hoofed at it. It felt… sticky, and I almost wanted to just toss it from how it stuck to my forehoof. Bringing it closer, I went to unfurl it to see how big it was overall. The second I did however, a powerfully vile smell struck my muzzle.

Nearly retching from the smell, I reflexively tossed the rag away from me. With wide eyes, I watched as the damp rag sailed between the iron bars of the door, splatting down on the plywood floor a few feet away. With a sigh, I forced my eyes shut and tried to stay positive. Okay, I need a new plan...

“Hey.” The voice of the stallion who’d shoved me in here startled me onto my three hooves. As he trotted over, he glanced at the rag on the floor before giving me a look of annoyance. “Mrs. Tapit want’s to see you.” He gave a heavy yank at the iron door, and it opened with a squeal. “Get moving.” He said, pointing down toward another squat door at the back of the room we were in.

I was escorted through a maze of different rooms. Groups of ponies just as grizzled and large as the Yellow stallion behind me slept in bunks, worked on weapons, or sorted through various crates that had been stacked among the rooms. My curiosity was getting the better of me as I hobbled along, and the urge to ask what all this was about was getting hard to suppress. But I bit my tongue. I just had to go with things for now.

At what had to be at one end of the ship, I was led through one last squat doorway and into a well lit, lavish looking bedroom that looked like it had been lived in for years. In it, was two ponies standing just inside the doorway, and two in the middle of the room chit-chatting. One of which smiled brightly as he saw me escorted in.

“You!” Dizzy Rays spoke up, tipping his sunglasses down his muzzle as he talked. “You’re Violet’s crewmate, right?” Laughing, he broke away from the cream coated mare he’d been talking to. “I’d heard you guys were in town when I flew in tonight, but I never expected to see you here!” Reaching out, he shooed off the lug who’d been escorting me and curled his hoof around my neck. “Here, let me introduce you to my employer, Mrs. Tapit.”

“Take your leave, Dizzy.” The mare I’d overlooked before spoke up. “I have business with this pony.”

Mrs. Tapit herself was a commanding unicorn. It was plainly seen in everything from the pristinely pressed pinstripe suit she wore over her cream colored coat, to the sharply trimmed jet black bangs that swung out like curved knives from the rest of her bowl cut mane. Her piercing green eyes focused on me like there was nothing else in the room around us, and the taught smile that pulled across her muzzle instantly put me on edge.

As Dizzy left through the doorway behind me, he shut the door as he did. The loud bang it gave made me jump on my hooves, and my heart raced in my chest. I could tell myself I wasn’t going to be afraid anymore all I wanted, but it didn’t mean I still couldn’t feel that way when shit like this happened. I just needed to focus and put my hoof down to take some assertion of my situation and get back some control.

“W-why am I here?” I asked, cringing at my own voice as it wavered. Why was it that everything sounded alright in my head, but when I went to actually do something, I ended up looking like a goddess damned foal!?

“Straight and to the point.” Mrs. Tapit laughed and nodded at me. “I like that. It shows that you don't think about much. And to give you an answer, you’re simply here because you're the pretty one, honey. And do I have a job for the pretty mares like you who end up on my ship.”

“What does being pretty have to do with anything?” That sent up a million red flags in my head. Having some unscrupulous mare with a setup such as this ask me to do a job was less than assuring that things were going to end well tonight. Thinking about the fact that she supposedly operated the brothel here in town, only served to send shivers up my spine about what exactly she’d be having me doing.

“I’ve been watching you three.” Mrs. Tapit laughed and point over into the corner of her room. Sitting above a metal desk, was a set of terminal screens. Each of them showed a fuzzy image of somewhere on the ship, sitting for a few moments before flickering and showing the view from another camera. She huffed when the camera switched over to a view of Hispano. She was sitting in what looked like the engine room, locked in a cage that seemed like it was built more for a small animal than a griffon of even her limited size. Along with her, were a couple of stallions holding her at gunpoint.

“You see, the griffon who came in with you?” She spoke her words with the slickness of oil, and it made me wary to listen to anything she said. “She's the smart one out of you three. I can tell because she’s been biding her time, watching her surroundings for an opportunity to strike out. So she gets to stay in her cage… for now.”

“The Mule?” She spoke again sharply as the camera flickered over again, showing off another closet like room. This one had the image of Happy knocking on the walls with his hooves like he was trying to get somepony’s attention. “He'd sooner run off the moment I let him out of here, rather than do the job I have in mind.” While there was no sound, I could tell that he was speaking nervously to nopony in particular. “Though, it's a pity. I was looking forward to taking a leg from him as payment for what he owes me. But with your leg as it is, I don't have to.”

“My... leg?” I asked, looking back at my stump.

“That's right, sugar. I know lovely looking mare’s like you aren’t generally gifted in the intelligence department, so try not to strain your pretty little mind too hard about it.” Mrs. Tapit giggled. Her horn lit up with an aura of magic, and from over by her bed, she levitated a shiney chrome rod and rubber lined cup. Without even asking, her magic grasped around my stump and yanked it sideways. As she did, she quickly moved the metal object over and pressed the rubber cup up against me. With a firm push, the rubber gripped around my stump, and the power of suction held the oddly shiny pegleg on.

“See, what I need from you is simple. You put on this leg and go visit a friend of mine over on the Mercy. Tell ship security that you’re there to see Dr. Tibia, and she’ll send you over to Dr. Kaio once she sees your ‘special’ leg there. Dr. Kaio has been holding a, shall we say, ‘prescription’ for me. She’s to put the container inside the hollow space in the leg and then you’re to come right on back to me. A task that easy can’t even be screwed up by somepony of your... limited intellect.”

This didn’t seem right. “So… I just pick up whatever she has for you.” There’s no way this job could be that simple. “Then you'll let us all go?” I asked, putting my weight down on the odd pegleg I’d been given. It was… odd to feel something there again. I know I’d only been missing my leg less than a day, but even now I could tell something was once again off with my balance.

“You'll go to Dr. Kiao, and return directly back to me with the bottle inside the leg. Understand, sugar?” Mrs. Tapit fluttered her eyes and gave a sultry laugh. “Or was that actually too hard for you to understand? Maybe... I should give you some incentive to go?” She said, looking over to the terminal screens again. I watched as it displayed the frantic looking Happy, and then back to Hispano in her cage.

“Fine. I’ll do it.” I grunted.

“Excellent.” She smiled at me and spun on her hooves with a light twirl. “Oh, one last thing…” She sighed, coming back down on all fours with a light touch. “I’ll be listening through my ears in town as you run this little errand for me. If you so much as try to run or cross me… I’ll know about it, and your friends will find themselves a few limbs short by the time you end up crawling back to me.” Giving a soft giggle, her piercing eyes were far too bright for somepony talking about casually dismembering her prisoners. “Kay?”

Nodding, I turned myself around and hobbled back toward the door.

“Y’all hurry back now!” She called out as I pushed the door open, and slipped back out into the cavernous ship.

*clip* *clop* *squick* *clip*

The flight over to the Mercy wasn’t hard, nor was getting security to direct me toward the level I was supposed to find Dr. Tibia on. What was hard, was walking on this stupid pegleg. The suction was almost too strong as it squeezed at my stump, and everytime I put pressure on it, it jabbed at what was left of my leg bone. While I could mostly trot again, this leg was not worth the inconvenient feelings it gave me.

“Bombay?” The familiar voice of a stallion called out from down a hall I passed. Stopping in my tracks, I turned around and walked myself back around the corner. When I did, I saw Double Drum smile and wave me over. “I’m glad you trotted by, I…” He paused as his eyes fell onto the shiny pegleg strapped onto me. “Where did you get that? Did Mrs. Tapit give that to you?”

Well, there goes any sense of this being an easy job. But I couldn’t really ignore the question and just walk away. I had to say something and hope that he was on board with all this.

“Yes, I’m supposed to go see Dr. Tibia and Dr…” I began, but found Double Drum’s hoof shut my muzzle forcefully.

“Look, I’m not one to judge who you get into bed with in this town, but I don’t want to know anything about it.” He grunted, looking around the hallway for anypony around. “This town is already on edge enough after the Enclave attacks, and the Road Crew doesn’t need any internal trouble connecting us to scum like Mrs. Tapit. So whoever else you’re here to see, I don’t want to know about it.”

I nodded, prompting him to take his hoof away. “I’ve got no choice. She has my friends held captive.”

“Let me give you some advice.” He kept his voice low, and from the way he leaned toward me, I was pretty sure that Mrs. Tapit had ears everywhere like she’d insinuated. “Most of the ponies in this town? They don’t like Mrs. Tapit.” If somepony like Double Drum was wary of what he said around here, that had to say something about the kind of mare Mrs. Tapit was. “Doctors like Tibia are only working for her because they’re indebted to her. Few of the ponies here on the H.M.S. Mercy likes the fact that their drugs are being carted away for sale to junkies, but until Mrs. Tapit is dead, nothing is going to change.” That… was a hell of an insinuation if I was understanding him right. As he stood up, he reached over and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “Do with that information as you will. But if you’re close and you’ve got a shot, you’d make a lot of ponies happy around here. Mutterings on the street is that she’s aiming to take the town soon, so the sooner she’s out, the better.”

As he walked off, I wasn’t sure what to do with that. My hooves were tied as it was. I needed to do as she asked to get Hispano and Happy back, but… I wasn’t entirely sure she’d give them back so easily. Besides, what did he expect would happen? I’d just walk in there and kill her, like it was just that easy to do?

Shaking my head, I looked down the hallway where Double Drum had been calling me from, and found a sign hanging down from the ceiling. It was a guidance sign that said that Dr. Tibia’s office was in one of the rooms down this hallway. Trotting down the hall, I quite quickly found the small office with it’s door open.

Poking my head inside, the entire room was a mess of wooden crates and prosthetic limbs. From simple wooden peg legs, to complex plastic and metal prosthesis, there were synthetic body parts scattered all over the various desks and crates in the room. As I looked over them all, a pink flank wiggled and caught my attention from inside one of the boxes toward the back.

“Hello?” I asked. When I did, there was a squeak as the mare in the box jumped slightly. A pair of bright purple eyes behind thick rimmed glasses popped over the wooden rim of the crate. As they did, a frizzy orange mane poofed up into a giant sphere around the top of the mare’s head like a big fuzzy ball.

“Hello!” The elated earth pony mare gasped as she hooked two plastic looking hooves over one edge of the box. So, she had missing limbs as well. “One moment, please...” She began to say as she hopped up and tried to pull herself out of the box. As she did, she gave a quick second hop that sent her bounding out of the box with more ease than I thought possible. With a set of soft clicks against the metal floor, a pair of black, curved strips of metal bowed slightly under her… rear stumps.

“Your... legs are missing. All of them.” I stated the obvious so painfully that I cringed.

“What!?” She gasped, turning herself around in place a few times. “My legs? Where’ve they gone?” Grumbling, she sat down on the floor and slumped. “Ugh. I hate when the go walking off like that on me. Guess I’m stuck testing these forever…” She wiggled one of the plastic prosthetic legs. As she did, the light whine of the motors inside it caught my ear. “Hah, nah, I’m just kidding.” She smiled and waved me in. “I’m Dr. Tibia, what can I do for you today?”

Giving her a smile of my own, I trotted forward into the messy room. Looking around, I started to wonder if there was actually something in here that could help me walk normally again. “Wow, did you make all of these yourself?”

“Yes and no! I work with my friend, Crystal Harmonium to build…” She began, but caught herself when she looked at the pegleg I wore. “Oh. You’re here for that.”

“Hey… it’s not what you think.” I sighed, losing all the confidence I had only a moment ago to the awkward shift. “I’m here for the job in order to help my friends out of some trouble.”

“Alright.” She sighed heavily as she pulled herself off the floor. “Give me a few minutes and you’ll be led to Dr. Kaio.” Walking over to one of the messy desks in the room, she shoved a crate on it to the side before hoofing up an old telephone set onto the desk. Picking it up, she hoofed at a few of it’s buttons before putting it up to her ear. “Yes, this is Dr. Tibia. Can you send Jean in for an escort down to Dr. Kaio? Thanks.” As she hung up the phone, she hung her head for a moment, simply standing in silence.

I needed to change the mood of this before I changed my mind about doing this whole job. “How did it happen?” I asked, speaking before thinking again.

“What?” Dr. Tibia grumbled.

“How did you lose your legs?” I said as my mind just now caught up with itself to tell me that maybe this was a sensitive topic for her. Though, then again, I’m sure she get’s this question all the time…

She laughed. “Hardly any visitors ask me that these days.” Sitting down hard, she looked a bit deflated. “Normally I’m just supposed to take measurements and feed them into Crystal’s manufacturing machine. It’s all ‘Who cares about you, where’s my leg at?’ and ‘Why haven’t you finished it yet?’. Not even a ‘how are you doing today’, not from any adults at least.” Slumping forward, she planted her head firmly onto her desk, making the phone jump slightly from the hit. “Nopony wants to know about Dr. Tibia these days.”

“Well, you said I’ve got some time.” I said, taking a seat as well. “Tell me about when it happened.”

“Hah. When it happened.” Picking herself up off the table, she snorted, eyeing me over with a hesitant curiosity. “Any other day I’d make up some fantastical story about it. Truth is, it’s a birth defect. I was born with this defect, and have never had any legs. It’s why Crystal and I get along so great, actually.” Squinting as she studied me over, she canted her head a bit. “Say, didn’t I just see you laying in a bed around here earlier?”

“Yeah. Came in for a check up on my leg.” I shrugged and looked down at the metal leg stuck on me. “During it, I had an implant in my head get screwed up so they had to remove it.”

“Ah, you’re the one Double Drum came by and mentioned I presume?” She leaned forward and took a closer look at my leg. “And now you’re out working for Mrs. Tapit hours later?” Rolling her eyes, she cocked her eyebrow. “That’s one hell of a recovery speed.”

“It’s not my choice. She has some of my friends captive, and this is the only way I get them back.” I didn’t exactly want to explain this to every pony I met down here. If Mrs. Tapit really did have ears everywhere, I didn’t want to risk her thinking that I was telling everypony I knew. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

From down the hallway, an odd chiming rang through the air. Perking my ears, I listened as it got closer. Oddly enough, the closer it got, the bigger the smile on Dr. Tibia’s muzzle grew.

“Well, why don’t you come back here when that’s all sorted? Crystal Harmonium and I can get your measurements and make you any sort of leg that you want.” She looked at me, giving me a nod. “Provided that is, that you make it through whatever you have to do for Mrs. Tapit in the first place.”

The jingling chime was matched with a set of light and quick hoofsteps coming down the hallway. Getting to my hooves, I turned around to find a larger than expected… thing nearly fill up the whole oversized doorway. My ears folded back as the overbearing figure gave a heavy huff, and I sat down hard.

“Ehy there, Dr. Tibia! I’m here for that escort!” The female… whatever this was, stood almost as tall as Solomon did. A stocky, rust colored body supported by four large cloven hooved legs was almost intimidating on it’s own. But the way she seemed to nearly vibrate on those hooves reminded me of Hispano-like energy levels. The sheer size, plus that boundless energy, made this... thing the most frightening thing I’d seen on this trip so far. And that was saying a lot having met Buck, Rosie, and some of the other Snow Dogs!

“What… are you?” The words slipped from my muzzle, but I was too far into shock to have stopped myself anyway.

“I’m Jean! Doctor extraordinaire! Well, doctor in training at least!” She smiled proudly before wrinkling her broad, square nose at the end of her muzzle. “No, wait, you asked what I am. Silly me!” She gasped and smiled at me. “Oh! You’ve never seen a moose before, Eh?”

“Jean, focus please.” Dr. Tibia called out as she trotted over to my side. “You need to run this mare down to Dr. Kaio, alright?”

“Yeah, you betcha!” Jean flicked her large flat ears and shook the metal wind chimes that hung from them to give a jingle. Nodding, she bounced on her hooves hard enough that I could feel the metal floor flex and strain under her. “Come on, Mister! I’ll show you the way!” Turning around, she trotted off down the hall while the chimes on her ears echoed oddly off the metal ship walls.

“She’s a… mare.” Dr. Tibia sighed as Jean walked away. “She’s still young, but she’s got a lot of heart. So give her a bit of a break if she makes some mistakes… or tries to talk your ears off on the way there.”

“Will do.” I nodded, offering a nervous smile to Dr. Tibia. “If I may ask… why does she wear wind chimes in her ears?”

“It’s not for her, it’s for the rest of us. Believe it or not, Jean is a smaller moose for her age. Even so, she’s… not always quite aware of her comparative size to us ponies, and for as big as she is, she can be quite light on her hooves. The chimes mostly help us know that she’s somewhere around at the moment so we don’t accidentally get in her way.” She nodded before pointing to the door. “Anyway, good luck with your job, and I’ll see you back here soon. I hope.”

“So I says to Hemlock, you can’t have the long face, that’s my job!” Jean snorted as she giggled at her own rendition of a story about ponies I’d never meet. “Isn’t that just so funny, eh?” Looking down at me, she seemed to expect an answer about whatever it was she’d been going on about. Sadly, I didn’t exactly have one.

“I… don’t know?” I sighed, following her through what felt like a labyrinth of hallways. The layout of the Mercy was even more confounding than the Inuvik was! “This place is so big. How do you know where to go around here?”

“Oh yah, that’s easy.” Jean nodded, making the chimes on her ears clang together noisily. “It’s cause us moose are psychic, dontcha’ know?” Offering as bright a smile as she’d worn so far, I honestly couldn’t tell if she was lying or not… “Ah, I’m just joking with you. Though, it would be pretty neat, Eh?” She laughed before going back to bouncing on her hooves. “So anyway, my gal pal Banana Bonanza and I were talking the other day...” Celestia, did she ever stop talking!? Or stop being so energetic and happy all the time? Or stop being so very, very tall?

Yeah, I don’t think I’d ever complain about Hispano’s antics again after this. The only thing worse than this would be...

My legs locked up as a nightmare scenario played out in my head. Note to self, never let Hispano and Jean into the same room. Ever. Forever. If I at some point ended up being that unfortunate, I’m pretty sure I would explode from the raw energy radiating between them. Actually, I’d probably explode twice, once for each of them.

“Oh hey, we’re here!” Jean gasped as we stopped just short of a sealed bulkhead door. “Guess that’s it for the escort then! You’ll be fine on your own from here, eh?” She laughed before wrapping her massive cloven forehoof around me. “Don’t get lost in there, ya hear?” It was hard to hear her over the creaking that my ribcage gave as she nearly squeezed me to death. I wanted to object to the forceful hug, but all of the air had been pressed out of my lungs…

After a few moments, mercifully, she let me go, and I sucked in a large lung-full of air.

“Sure…” I said, slowly catching my breath as I looked into the large room ahead. “Thanks for the escort.”

“No problem, Mister!” She smiled and waved. Just how did she know I was a stallion? “Just call me again if you need to head anywhere else onboard, or end up lost somewhere in the ship, eh?” Giving an excited wave of her forehoof, she laughed and spun around. I watched as she quickly trotted back off into the maze of hallways in this place. Well, that was certainly… something.

Giving a shrug, I turned to the door and grabbed onto it with my forehooves. The locking mechanism slid open a lot smoother than I’d expected it to. The maintenance on this ship must have been phenomenal for these doors to open this effortlessly. Pushing the metal door open, I was almost blinded by the lighting inside.

The hum of working machinery filled the air, though as my eyes adjusted, I found that it was a lot quieter than I’d have expected it to be. Enormous glass boiling vats towered along two sides of the expansive and open room. White and red pipes zigzagged and looped around between each of the five different odd looking machines lined up on each side of the room. Bits of each were emitting steam or glowing with magical energy as the off grey liquid in the closer tanks became darker and more purple the further through the system it went. They culminated down the line in a pair of glass tanks that held a shimmer to it, looking like oversized health potions at a glance.

“Excuse me,” A voice of a mare called from the far right wall inside the room, prompting me to look over to it. A zebra in a blue and white colored lab coat was glaring at me through a pair of clear plastic safety goggles. “Potion production is off limits to patients, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Without caring to give me a second thought, she brought up a clipboard she held in her hoof and began to look between it and the machine she stood next to.

“Are you Dr. Kaio?” I asked, really hoping that I didn’t have to explain myself again to somepony in here. At this point, I was pretty sure that by now, either Hispano was trying to escape her cage, or Happy was pleading to sacrifice her life for his own release.

“Yes.” The Zebra sighed as she deadpanned. “Look, we’re getting ready to perform some critical repairs. Can you come back at a later time if you need something?”

“I’m afraid not.” I said bluntly, pushing my way inside and trotting over toward her. She looked quite surprised that I’d just walk in like that, but same as the others had, she grumbled when she saw the chrome pegleg.

“Fine. Follow me.” She rolled her eyes before trotting behind one of the large machines. Trotting past all the odd machinery, I was led to a small room off the back wall. Looking in through the small window, I could see that the whole place was completely spotless. Two desks with neat and orderly stacks of paper on it sat inside, one even held a brightly glowing terminal on it. A microscope and set of medical instruments rested on a shelf along the back wall, each one looking spaced to be exactly the same distance apart. Lastly, in the far corner, was a tall and boxy electronic machine, not a speck of rust or smudge of dust was on it’s pristine silver exterior. She was definitely the tidy one compared to Dr. Tibia.

Following her into the office, I froze as a set of hooves reached up from under the desk next to the door. The short, cream colored young unicorn stallion gave a yawn as he crawled out from under it. He’d had a white and blue lab coat similar to the one Dr. Kaio was wearing draped over him like a blanket, and from the unfocused look he gave, I could only assume he’d just been napping.

“Is it time for the next maintenance cycle already?” The stallion spoke through his yawn before levitating over a pair of thick framed, round rimmed glasses. Affixing them to his muzzle, he glanced over at me momentarily before looking away. I watched as his vibrant, curly red mane stood on end as he nearly jumped and looked back at me. “Woah! Where did you come from!?”

“Calm down, Balmy.” Dr. Kaio grunted as she sat down in front of the terminal and started typing away on it. “Go finish up tuning the condenser’s spell matrix for me. I’ve got some business to attend to.”

“Yes, mother.” He nodded before wearily trotting around me. Mother? He didn’t look like a zebra at all! I watched as he squeezed passed me out the door, and didn’t take his eyes off of mine until he’d passed the window and disappeared into the machine filled room.

With a few rough taps on the terminal, I turned my gaze back around in time to see Dr. Kaio pull herself back up and walk over to the silver machine in the corner. With a few beeps and boops, a mechanical grinding from inside started up. It came in rhythmic tones, and after a moment, a yellowed sheet of paper ejected from a slot just wide enough for it to fit through. Snatching it roughly from the slot, Dr. Kaio walked it over to me and stiffly held it out for me to grab. Reaching out, I grabbed the paper in my hoof, feeling confused.

“I don't understand, I was told I'd be getting a container.” Turning, I lifted the chrome pegleg up for her to see it again. “For this thing.” Oh, this was not good. I could just feel this already going sideways on me...

“I know.” She grunted, rolling her eyes and sitting down in a huff. “But what she asked for, I can’t deliver.” Reaching out, she flicked at the paper in my grasp. “Tell her that I’m sorry, but it's the best I can do.” Pointing to the door, she glared at me. “Now that you have it, tell her that I don’t care what she thinks, we’re even. Good luck with your new job! Buh-bye! Now get the hell out of my laboratory.”

The best she could do? “I see.” I grumbled, clenching my fetlock around the paper. I could just see how this would go down if I returned without what I’d been told to bring back. Mrs. Tapit probably wouldn’t release Hispano and Happy, and I’d have to do another job for her. And between fixing Bertha and finding Salt, that was something I didn’t have time for. “You know what? No, that’s not good enough. I refuse to leave until I get what she sent me for.” Forget the idea of letting them go, who knows how she’d hurt either of them if I didn’t come back with what she wanted.

“Do… do I have to call security down here?” Dr. Kaio huffed in disbelief. “Look, I don’t care what kind of junkie you are. Why don’t you go earn a living like us normal folk and get a job that doesn’t have you running drugs for a bitch like Mrs. Tapit? Hell, why don’t you do this whole town a favor and just hit the road, and take that cunt Tapit with you.”

I don’t know what it was, but something in me snapped with that. It was probably something connected to how I didn’t want to worry about dieing and the like from earlier, but I’m not going to lie. When I snapped? It felt good.

“I’m doing this because she has my friends hostage. Friends, who I need to do my actual job out on the road, where chances are, you’ve never been!” I spat at her. “I don’t need some high and mighty stripe, sitting on her cushy fucking flank, presuming to know jack shit about me!” Throwing the paper at her, her expression shifted to one of outrage. “And because I don’t like working for her anymore than you do, why don’t you do us both a fucking favor, and fill the goddess damned prescription or whatever she wanted so we can both be done with her forever.”

“Because I told you, it’s impossible!” She nearly screamed back at me. Grabbing the paper in her forehoof, she threw it back at me before pointing at it. “She wanted me to break down just what’s inside Chill! I did that for her. But replicating it? Hah!” She laughed, throwing her hooves in the air. “There are ingredients for that drug that don’t exist. I may be the best goddess damned chemist on this ship, but even I’m not good enough to begin to understand that compound. So unless you want to magic it out of thin fucking air, I can’t make it.”

Picking the paper up, I uncrumpled and read it over. Thirty one percent Triticum Aestivum, twenty nine percent Sucrose Disaccharide, twenty percent Dextroamphetamine, sixteen percent Sodium Bicarbonate, three percent Methylamine, one percent... unknown compound?

Facehoofing myself, this was going to be a big fucking problem.

“See, I can’t do shit for you.” Dr. Kaio grunted before forcibly crossing her hooves. “I’m sorry about your friends, but you’re just going to have to suck it up and be the bearer of bad news. I can’t help you.”

Goddess damnit. Why did shit always have to go sideways on me? Couldn’t I just get one, tiny break for once?

“Actually… I might be able to help after all.” Dr. Kaio spoke up softly. “You have to deliver that leg directly to her, right?” The tone of her voice was far from what it had been only moments ago. Even before looking up at her, I could tell that she had a devilish grin spread across her muzzle. “Don’t you understand, this is perfect!” Looking up at her, I found her bright green eyes empty of the rage they once held. She gave out a soft laugh as she reached up, twirling at her curly black and white striped low hanging mane.

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow.” I spoke up slowly. What did I just get myself into… again?

“You said it yourself.” She lowered her voice to a whisper as she stepped forward. “You deliver that leg, and we’ll both be done with her, forever.”

Oh, hell no.

“Look, I know what you’re going to ask, and the answer is no.” I grumbled. Really, she expected me to agree to walk in there and kill Mrs. Tapit? Just like that? “I’m not a fighter, and even if I were, that would be suicide to try to kill her in her own ship.” I’m not against killing somepony as hated and controlling as her, I’m just against dieing while doing it.

“What if I told you that I had a way to let you just walk in, kill her without retaliation, and then let you walk out with your friends?” She smiled, scooting herself close to me.

“I’d say I don’t know why you’d even think that was possible.” Leaning away from her, I couldn’t be so sure she didn’t snap, and she’d just gone batshit crazy on her own. Then again, maybe it was something to do with all the chemicals she’s handled, or maybe some of them probably turned her brain into mush. “If it were possible, don’t you think somepony would have already tried it?”

“No, nopony has been able to get close to her, and no belongings are allowed around her even if you do manage to get close.” Using her forehoof, she reached down and grasped around the chrome pegleg. “But this? She expects you to bring this right to her. It’s too important for her to trust to anypony else.” With a stiff yank, she pulled the leg right off of me with a ‘pop’. I struggled to readjust my center of balance for a moment, but managed to keep upright as Dr. Kaio turned and trotted to her terminal with a smile.

“If I can synthesize a dizapancuronium canister, outfit it with an aerosolizer, and then stick it in the leg for you to deliver? We’d be in business.” She began to speak quickly, “I’d have to inoculate you with a healthy dose of Tension, but that way you wouldn’t be affected by the bulk of the gas.” Pausing, she put her hoof to her chin and looked worried for a moment. “Though, even though the ship is airtight sealed, the method of delivery would have to be fairly uniform and unrestricted to ensure as little resistance from her goons as possible. You’d have to find a centralized place where it could be distributed among the whole ship.”

“Diza-what now?” I blurtted out as I hobbled over toward her. “Listen, I don’t really know what you’re saying, so could you please put it in simpler terms?” While I didn’t know what she was talking about, the horrible pit in my stomach had at least left for the moment, so that had to count for something, right?

“I can fill the leg with knockout gas.” She rolled her eyes before going back to typing on her terminal. She was putting in coding to the machine almost as fast as Hispano worked at the terminal back at the facility under Cannon City. “So long as you can find a good way to distribute the gas in a large open area they can’t seal up, the entire ship would be asleep before they even knew they were under attack. Then the rest is easy. Find a weapon, finish her off, and drag your friends out of the ship. Simple.”

“That’s… great.” Putting them all to sleep was a great idea, and I bet that if I could get it under those weak old floorboards, they couldn’t stop it from spreading throughout the whole ship. I just saw one, teeny tiny flaw with that plan. “How am I supposed to kill her when I’ll be asleep as well?”

“Oh, you won’t be asleep. Tension is an old world combat drug the zebras used early on in the great war. It’s meant to overstimulate the adrenal gland to dangerous levels in order to keep the user awake and moving.” Giving a few final strokes of the keys to her terminal, the machine against the wall gave a ominous humming sound. Pushing herself away from the desk, she walked over to the machine with quick steps before hoofing at a panel on the side. Opening it up, she hoofed out a long syringe, with an even longer needle on the end of it. As if the look of the needle wasn’t bad enough, the pitch black liquid inside sent a shiver up my spine.

“With this much Tension in your bloodstream, you’ll pretty much be immune to the gas for an hour or so. The gas might take some time to dissipate, and while it’s around, it’ll quite quickly neutralize the Tension in your bloodstream while in proximity of it. So you’ll have to get all the way back to her ship fast, and work quickly once inside. Alright?” Giving the needle a little flick, it dribbled some of the off pitch black inside down onto the floor. “For now you shouldn’t worry about anything like that and just focus on the job.”

Sure, because that was ever so calming to hear. You’ll only be around ponies who will rip off all your limbs if you fuck this up, Night. Yeah, no need to worry about that at all...

“Now, it’s been awhile since I did any triage duty. Let’s see if I can recall any of my anatomy lessons from my early med school days.” She sighed, curling her fetlock around the oversized syringe. “The problem is, I can’t quite remember which side of the body a pony’s heart is on…”

Celestia help me...

Author's Notes:

Thanks again to Kkat for writing the incredible original story, Fallout: Equestria, as well as letting us all use it as our personal wasteland playgrounds.

Also, a big thanks to TheFurryRailFan for all of his help in doing edits! Seriously, I can't thank him enough for being there over these last few years and helping out with either ideas, or just giving feedback. Thank you, man.