It hurt.

It hurt everywhere.

That was how the pegasus colt felt when he finally woke up. He had been tossed and tumbled as he was swept along the air currents before being thrown onto the banks of this isolated cloud. He was a piece of bright blue flotsam that was lucky to be alive. Yet even then, the dull roar of the air river behind him continued to send tendrils of wind that threatened to reclaim the young pegasus.

Slowly he got to his feet and climb higher up the cloud bank to safety. He put as much distance as he could before he dropped in exhaustion. He slept a dreamless sleep. Hours passed and he a wake again. He opened up his wings for the first time since regaining consciousness. It hurt but he could move all six limbs. Mercifully nothing was broken but the rough feeling on his wings meant he would need a few hours of preening to straighten his flight feathers.

Night had long fallen. The clouds were unfamiliar. He didn’t know where he was. The moon was absent from the sky. It was too dark to see. He was alone. He wanted him mom. Colts his age weren’t supposed to cry, but he wanted too and nearly did until he heard a voice in the dark. It was a filly singing.

Perhaps she could help him get home. He took a step towards her bright voice. He stumbled.. His tired legs tripped over uneven clouds in the dark.

The singing stopped. “Hey, what are you doing here?” The same voice in the dark demanded “You’re in the secret garden.” She said crossly.

“I can’t see you. Where are you?”

“I can see you just fine. Are you blind or something?”

“I’m not blind. It’s dark.” He reached to his right foreleg. He tapped at the computer, guided mostly by memory and touch but the machine stayed unresponsive. Its spark batteries were drained from the ordeal of keeping its owner from serious injury. “Do you have a light? My PipBuck is dead.”

“Maybe,” came her mischievous reply.

“Maybe? Why maybe?”

“Only if you Promise not to tell anypony. I’m not supposed to turn on a light in the secret garden.”

‘If that was all it took’, he shrugged his wings. “I promise not to tell anypony that you turned on a light in the secret garden. Pinkie Pie Swear.” He added. “Cross my heart, eat a fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He pantomimed the actions, closing his eye at the last moment before touching it with his hoof.

“Yuck, that is a nasty Promise,” she stuck her tongue at him.

Nevertheless nasty or not, it seemed good enough for her as a dim glow lit up. The weak light illuminated a filly with a brown coat and a green mane. She was no older than he was, about the age most ponies began getting their cutie mark.

“So how did you find the secret garden?” She asked.

“Not telling. You’re just going to be mean and laugh at me.”

“Am not.”

“Are too. You are a girl. And girls are mean.”

She walked up to him and looked into his eye in an unblinking stare. “I Promise I will not laugh at you for telling me how you arrived at the secret garden” Her tone was strange, flat and devoid of emotion. It looked creepy in the dim light.

“What was that?” A sudden unfamiliar feeling was rolling in his head.

“I made you a Promise.” She nodded her head. “Shadowbolts can never break a Promise, ever.”

That sounded something a little filly or colt would say. But she did ask a question and promised not to laugh. “I got caught in an air river.” There he said it and waited for her to laugh at him for being so stupid.

What happened next was unexpected. “What’s an air river?” She asked.

“You mean you don’t know? You’re a pegasus! An air river is that?” He pointed his hoof at the roaring air current whipping at the edge of the island of calm they stood on.

“My sisters and their friends ride the air river near my house. We are not supposed too. My moms and dad said it was too dangerous for children.” His gaze fell to his front hooves. “I wanted to show to my big sisters that I was a big pony too.”

“Pretty dumb.”

“I thought you promised not to laugh!”

She dropped onto her hunches. “Do you see a laugh on my muzzle?” She brought her two fore hooves to her face. “See, no laughing. I made a Promise and I can’t break it. But you should listen to your parents.”

“Do you always follow rules?”

“Well I do most of the time.” She shrugged with his wings.

“So…” He continued. “Do you live here?”

“Of course not, silly.” She smiled back. “I live in New Ponyville.”

“Where’s that?” He couldn’t see any lights on the cloud or even a single house. The air river seemed to surround the entire island with a constant low roar. It looked like they were on a deserted island.

“On the ground,” she replied.

”That’s instant death!” the blue colt exclaimed. The ground is full of radiation, poisons and monsters.”

The brown filly waved off the idea with her hoof. “Who told you that?”

“My teacher, Mrs Sunshower.”

“Has your teacher ever been on the ground?”

“I don’t know.” He answered uncertainly. “Maybe not.”

“Then how do you know the ground is instant death if you have never been there? It isn’t deadly and there are certainly no monsters. I don’t think your teacher really know much.. Want to see where I live?” She asked eagerly and pranced up and down.

“I don’t know. My mom said not to wander if I ever got lost. I think she is right about this. I should stay put until somepony finds me.”

“And you want to do that while in a Shadowbolt Secret Garden? Not going to happen.” She shook her head. “The garden is secret. You’re lucky that I found you and I’m not suppose to be here. Nopony will find you here.”

The blue colt grew irritated at the brown filly. “If you are so smart, where do you suggest I go?”

“Duh!” she rolled her green eyes. “Zephyr Skyport, silly colt. That is where all the Enclave pegasi hang out.”

“I’m not a silly colt.” He huffed. “And isn’t every pony Enclave?”

“Am not!” She said and stomped her right fore hoof to emphasize her indignation. “I’m a Super Awesome Shadowbolt, S.A.S, 3rd Sky Regiment!” She stated proudly while holding her head high. She glared at him once to make sure he knew his place and then turned to trot away.

‘What did that mean?’ He wondered.

“Well aren’t you coming?” she called back.

He shrugged and ran after her, following the light of her PipBuck. “Coming!” he yelled. It wasn’t long before he reached her. She was standing at the edge of the cloud. He came to a stop by her side. It was hard to see with so little light but she appeared to be busy getting into some kind of strange saddle.

“What’s that?” He pointed. It looked complicated with dozens of buckles and clips. How could she see with so little light?

“A harness.” She replied as if it was the most obviously thing in the world and that any pony who didn’t was obviously mentally retarded. She then pointed upwards.

Her tone was obvious to the blue colt. He didn’t like it much; still his eyes followed her hoof and came to rest on a cable that was anchored into a black cloud. It ran from there, over the cloud edge and into the darkness below.

“And that is a zip-line. That’s how we are going to get down.” She pulled out a second harness from the darkness.

“I don’t know. It looks dangerous.” He couldn’t see far with only the dim light of her PipBuck but his feathers told him that the air was churning. The air here was even wilder than air stream near home.

“That’s why we have a zip-line and a harness.” She threw harness on him and began strapping the colt in. “It’s easy. I Promise I’ll look out for you.” A sharp click followed as she snapped his harness to the zip-line. “Just a hop, skip and jump.”

“I don’t know.” He tried to back away but the couldn’t go far with his harness clipped to the zip-line

“Just move your little rump.” She sang confidently. “You’ll make it if you try.” She snapped her clips to the zip-line. “Just a hop, skip and…” then in front of the blue colt, she threw herself into the howling inky blackness. “Jump!”

The light of her pipbuck was gone. She was gone. He was along in the dark with only the mad howl of wind for company. He took a nervous step towards the cloud edge. The air at the edge was black. “You’ll make it if you try.” He recited slowly and nervously to himself. His legs grew tense. “Just a hop, skip and AHHHH…” he screamed as he vanished over the edge.

The winds howled around him with hunger. On instinct he snapped wide his wings and regretted it immediately. The terrible winds of the cloud curtain tore at his already uneven feathers and chilled the blood in his wings. He snapped his stinging wings shut and fell.

A dark shadow emerged from under him. It was her. Even in this wind, she was somehow using her wings to slow her descent.

“I forgot to ask, what’s your name?” She shouted over the roaring wind as he came near. “I’m Wind Dancer.”

“My name…” the wind cut him off. The wind snatched the filly in front of him and blew her hard. She whipped wildly about in the air, only her harness and clips to the zip-line kept her from tumbling away.

“I can’t hear you!” she yelled, not the least bit frightened that she was now flying upside down or that her life hung on the strength of three metal clips and a two century old cable. Somehow she was matching his speed, keeping their separation at a constant distance even in this ever changing whirlpool of gale.

He began again, louder this time. “My name is…”

**** ****

“Rain Storm! Wake up, we are here.”

I tapped the big lug on his shoulder. He turned away from me. He pulled his blanket over his head and continued sleeping. Yes, if you must ask, that blue stallion in front of me is my brother. He is the baby of the family, the only colt in the family of six fillies. He is the famous one amongst us, the music sensation.

His music was rocking the lives of young mares of across the Enclave. His critic slammed his performance for its ‘appalling lack of musicality’, ‘vulgarity’ and ‘animalism’. Maybe those ponies were right, but I as looked out of the sky-wagon’s window, the opinions of those music experts meant nothing to the churning rainbow of young mares outside, screaming his name.

Yup, baby brother wasn’t much of a baby anymore and was more of a heartthrob or lust muffin, depending on the mare you asked. I am not sure how he does it, but I am putting it down to his dynamic vocal style, his sultry looks and the way he flares his wings during his performances. Baby brothers should never ever be sex symbols. That is just wrong

I tapped my brother again. “Your adoring fans await you.”

If you were the superstar invading the bed room of countless mares, expect controversy. Its part of the job description. Old matron of society decried his impact on the morals of young mare. His concerts were already banned in ten cities. He needed a special permit in another four. It only increased his appeal and the number of mares visiting our home city of Zephyr to see his concerts. The forbidden apple tastes all the more sweet, as the saying went.

But enough of that, I had to get my brother up for his next event. I poked my bother in his ear. His head shot up. “I’m up,” he said loudly and got off the reclining chair.

About time I thought. I walked to the door and opened it. Star Jam, his makeup artist was already there waiting. “He’s awake.” I said.

“Didn’t tell you that I needed 30 minutes?” She was crossed. Under her glare my light armour didn’t seem enough to ensure my continued well being.

“He needed the sleep.” I played the concern big sister card. At least it was true this time. He did need the sleep and I was a concern sister. I have no idea how my brother could be so driven and keep up with his mad schedule. Most of the time, I needed that extra sleep.

Star Jam huffed. “We will be late.”

30 minutes later and now 10 minutes late, my baby brother emerged from the room. And by Princess Luna’s sweet horn, I stared at the sight that greeted me. Is this the power of makeup? Can a few powdered smudges here and there really do this? The stallion who stood at the door was dazzling. He looked so… so… oh the goddess…. I was beginning to feel hot under my armour and a bit uncomfortable. It had to be the air conditioning. Baby brothers had no right to be sex symbols. It was just wrong.

He walked into the corridor, greeting every member of his staff. He exchanged a few words with his personal secretary, a buck named Summer Heat. They must be going over the details of the evening’s concert. I trotted quickly up to my brother. According to protocol, security had to be out first.

The air stewardess opened the door of the sky-wagon.

Well, show time. I am not supposed to be one of my baby brother’s roadies… or road crew if you didn’t know the lingo. I am an Enclave soldier. Why is this happening to me?

I walked out, followed a hoof step behind by my brother. Several dozen camera flashes when up at the same time. It was no different from a flash grenade going off. My goggles immediately darken to protect my eyes. Below, my squad was already clearing a path. My Eyes Forward Sparkle (EFS) was all green. No reds. No hostile ponies, just a rabid crowd of mares who were waiting to turn this into a wild orgy. Yup, all they needed was to get their hooves on baby brother.

I descended down the ramp in front of my celebrity brother. “Enclave security. Step aside.” I waved my wings to keep ponies from entering the space my squad had cleared. Since when did Enclave personnel become personal security to superstars? I huffed with irritation and moved forward. It was all very well practised. My brother should just be a step behind me.

“Just another pony who’s eager to sign up to the Volunteer Crops. Nothing to see.” I muttered into the crowd. I didn’t even believe a word I was saying. The Rain Storm hasn’t been just any other pony in years…. I heard a scream and quickly turned around.

There was my brother kissing a sunny yellow mare. It looked like she was about to faint from the excitement of kissing her dream stallion. Cameras flashed.

Instant front page photo if I have ever seen one. I could even see the headlines. ‘Last kiss goodbye as music sensation Rain Storm leaves for the Volunteer Corps.’

“Yup, nothing to see,” I pushed forward to grab my brother. I couldn’t yank him by the tail anymore. He had grown just too damn big. Maybe I could grab him by the ear, and now that would make a great photo. ‘Music sensation Rain Storm has earful from crossed elder sister.’

“Rain Storm why do it?” A green mare yelled and shoved a microphone into his face.

Why do it? ‘Power and Bits my dear reporter’, that would have been my answer. Why else does any pony do anything? This is a publicity stunt orchestrated by Senator Rain or Granny Rain, our grandmother. It is all part of her ‘Outreach’ campaign. A pony would need to be deaf and blind not to notice the increasing public sentiment to go down and help our fellow ponies.

Where that sentiment came from, I don’t know. Maybe it was just a built up from generations of guilt. What I do know is Granny Rain has ridden that sentiment into power, first the city council then the Enclave Senate. That sentiment has kept her in power for decades now. She is famed for her efforts in the Enclave to increase the number of volunteer mission. She even made a proposal to establish a permanent presence on the ground, starting with a trial near Zephyr City.

Yeah, it sounds like Granny Rain has a bleeding heart for those poor sods on the ground. Her critics in the other cities even call her that, ‘Bleeding Heart’ Rain. I wonder why nopony ever remembers that Granny Rain was also the Commander ‘Firestorm’ Rain, the pony who crushed the last free Griffin city under her steel hoof of powered armour. The pony who ordered a massacre, an open secret that nopony in the military wants to talk about. Zebras and griffins were the monsters, not ponies, never us, the good pegasi. The reality of this farce is very far from altruistic.

My younger brother nodded his head and took a moment to answer the reporter’s question.

“If you mean, why join the Volunteer Corps? It’s because it is the right thing to do. There are ponies living beneath our hooves who need our help. It was the correct decision to close off the sky when the balefires fell. That decision kept our cities safe, it kept us alive. Now two hundred year later, the radiation has died down. The Zebras and their empire are gone. It is time we come down and help our fellow ponies.”

Another question followed after that.

The reporters surged forward. “Sky, Lightning.” I yelled over the Comm. System. “Keep the crowd one pony length from my brother!”

My brother seems to be enjoying this. Yeah he should. Not a care in the world while your big sister does all the grunt work keeping your blue hide safe. Did it ever occur to him that some crazed mare might just want to kill him? Or that Granny Rain has a lot more enemies than the Rain herd has hooves and we have a lot of ponies in our herd. It would hurt Granny Rain some if her favourite grandfoal got killed. I say ‘some’ as I am one of the few ponies who knows the real Senator Rain.

I neared my brother and was close enough to hear him speak.

“No, I don’t expect it will be easy.” My brother was speaking to the microphone of another reporter. “These are starving ponies that have lived their entire lives eating two hundred year old garbage. They will look at us with distrust and probably be wondering what are these apples we keep trying to give to them.” He paused and flashed a dazzling smile.

The crowd laughed. Work that crowd, baby brother. Shake it! Shake it! Show them what you have learned from being Granny Rain’s understudy.

“We will win their trust. It will not be today, tomorrow or even next year. But eventually, they will see us as friends. And decades from now, when the radiation has completely died down, the Enclave will lower the cloud curtain.”

I snorted. And then we will be one big happy herd again. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will awake from their deathless slumber. Everything will be rainbow and sunshine again. Yeah! Do you memorise your lines baby brother or do you really mean it? You are Granny Rain’s favourite and birds of a feather flock together. I don’t know where the truth ends and the lies begin, baby brother. I won’t even try. And frankly, I don’t see how we could help. Zephyr has been a net food importer for decades now. So how can we feed those starving sods if we can’t feed ourselves? That is one reason why Thunderhead, the biggest food exported has such influence. Not all cities are created equal. The math does not add up. Is this just to gather votes for the coming elections? Baby brother, are you doing all this just to help Granny Rain get re-elected?

My brother kissed another two mares, whispered something into the ears of a third that caused her to faint into the hooves of her friends. He shook hooves with two dozen other mares. He also answered two more question from the reporters. He did all that before going through the doors of the Volunteer Corps registration office.

Then he stood in line like any other pony. Yeah, right. Including myself he was surrounded by four armour ponies on this cloud level, another four on the level above and four more on the level below. Eight other ponies were outside watching the crowd.

Cameras flashed again.

None of us Security will be in any those photos. It’ll all be carefully edited prior to public consumption. I checked my Eyes Forward Sparkle for signs of hostiles then requested a random check-in from my squad. My ponies outside were keeping the crowd from going out of control.

As instructed by my brother, his staff started distributing free merchandise from several different stands. It was quite ingenious really. It broke up that one large crowd into several smaller ones which were easier to control. And with stuff in their saddle bags, some ponies where actually going home.

Baby brother was already striking up conversation with the ponies around him. They were looking up to him as he spoke. I was not so sure what he was talking about, but if I had to bet my hard earned Bits, it would all probably end with ‘Oh by the way, tell your family and friends to vote for Senator Rain. The name sounds familiar ‘cause she’s my gran-gran. She really believes in this hogwash of helping poor earth pony sods. Cross my heart, eat a fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.’

Blagh …

It took an hour before baby brother reached the registration counter. Most ponies would have considered that wait unbearable or at the very least an hour wasted. But not baby brother. He talked to every pony that joined the waiting line. He listened to their reasons for joining the Volunteer Crops, which in my opinion were mostly dumb reasons. But in short he got to know nearly two dozen ponies in that hour. And yes, there was that spiel about Granny Rain. So into the bag went two dozen votes for Granny Rain, and quite likely a lot more. Hurrah!

The mare at the counter looks up at my brother. The registration office had known for two weeks now that he was coming. She tried to act calm but her face was completely flushed. Ah, the awful downside of being a white pony. I grinned. He flashes her that dazzling million watt smiles of his as she tries to pass him a pen. Then suddenly out popped her wings! A wing boner! Oh my, the embarrassment.

Cameras flash but my brother has reared up and placed his fore hooves on the counter. His wings are thrown open to cover her. He made it a pretence to reach for his own pen. Unless those reporters were fast, all they got was his muscular back and his big blue wings. Damn, that picture was going to be on a poster by some mare’s, probably several mare’s bed. He signs the papers. There done and done. Baby bother was now an official member of the Volunteer Corps, the biggest waste of Bits on this side of Equestria.

I wonder if he was actually serious about returning to the ground.

We don’t talk about it. Our herd keeps it hush, hush, fearing that the neighbours would grow paranoid with whisper of contamination. That kind of rumour can destroy a family especially if were true. Baby brother’s first VC mission would not be his first time groundside. It was an accident of course. He had once before been down there as a colt. He fell into the air river beside our house and got swept away by the air current. Rescuers search for two day before calling off the search. No body was recovered and none was expected. A dead pegasus would have fallen out the sky to be pick over by the scavenger on groundside. Mom cried for a week before we had his funeral.

Then nearly five months later, in the early hours of the morning, mom got a call on her PipBuck. It was baby brother. He was alive and calling from the old Zephyr Skyport. For most families, it would have been an impossible task to petition the Enclave to send a rescue mission. Irreversibly contaminated, baby brother would have probably been put down on sight.

My family had a lucky break here. Dad had money and mom had influence in the Enclave, her own and that of her mother’s Granny Rain, General Rain. And just like that, with another phone call baby brother was back. He never spoke a word about how he survived those five months on the ground or how he reached Zephyr Skyport. Not that I blame him for keeping silent. Ground side is a bombed out wasteland. He probably survived those five months eating earth worms or something equally nasty.

My experience of the ground while on patrol was that of a dimly lit landscape of dead cities and endless dead fields. What ponies who lived in that hellhole would shoot at us for no other reason than that they could. We shot back obviously, but really why waste the spark charge? You got yourself distracted shooting at a bunch of sods when you should be concentrating on your rad counter. You never know if you were moments away from flying into a red zone… radioactive red zone. You would be dead within a week after that mistake. Just long enough to put all your things in order, see your mane fall off and lament about how dumb you were for not watching out where you were flying.

*** ** ***

“Flare! Flare your wings!” She cried and threw her wings wide and started backwinging.

“What?” He slammed his snout into her behind.

“My tail! That hurt! Watch where you are putting that snout!”

“What’s going on?” He pulled his face out of her tail.

“Hot spot! We need to slow down.” Her PipBuck began clicking.

“What? Where? I can’t see anything!”

“Less talk!” She cut him off. “More stop!” Her wings were beating harder than he thought possible for a filly or any pony their age.

He threw his wings wide and began to do the same. How could anypony hope to stop in these kinds of winds? To make things worst, the Zip-line was moving like a wild jump rope.

“Bank hard right when I tell you!” Her voice was urgent.

The Zip-line was whipping in the wind. It was moving left then it began to move right …

“Now!” She shouted.

He did as he was told. His wings beat hard in tandem with hers. Down below to his left, he saw a bright green light pouring out of a crater. What… it couldn’t be!

“Is that radiation?” He squeaked.

“Yup,” She somehow caught his whisper over the whipping wind. “An exploded tactical Balefire ordinance Mark 3. Pretty, no?”

“Are we going to die? I though you said the ground was safe!” He yelled at the filly in front of him. The hint of the betrayal he felt was evident in his tone.

“I said the ground wasn’t deadly.” She replied loudly over the wind.

“How is that any different?” He shouted

“Deadly means dead. Not safe, means well… dead if you are dumb. Like riding in an air stream dumb.”

He closed his mouth.

She then looked straight ahead, her eye unfocusing. He knew that look. She was looking up something on her PipBuck. “Drink some RadAway, we’ll be okay.”

“RadAway? What’s that? I don’t think I have any.”

“Don’t you know anything?”

He could hear her eyes rolling in her head.

“Just come to my house and I’ll ask my mama to give you some.”

“Thanks. I can pay you a few Bits for it.”

“Bit? You mean Caps.”

“No, I mean Bits as in money.” He stated.

“And I mean money as in Caps.”

“So what does a Cap look like?” The wind was dying down as they came closer to the ground. It made talking a lot easier.

“A Cap is a round metal disk with 21 crimps and ridges. You can sometimes find it on the top of unopened bottles.”

“You mean Caps as in bottle caps?!” The colt was taken aback “You use bottle caps as money!”

“Yes. Do you have any?”

“Maybe…” He copied her earlier tone.

She didn’t like that mischievous tone even if she used it often. “And why maybe?”

“Maybe, until you tell me how much does a Cap buy and if there are Caps with different values.”

“Okay. But I want five Caps for that Intel.”

“I get to pick the type of Cap.”

“It’s a Promise!” She tried to twist her head to look at him. “I can’t look you in the eye.”

“Why?” He asked. “It is already a deal.”

“We can’t make a Promise with without looking each other in the eye.”

He rolled his eyes. “We’ve already made a deal. You can look me in the eye once we reach the ground.” With only the dim light of her Pipbuck he could barely see her tail and the tips of her wings. “So about Caps.” He began

“Not telling until we have a Promise! We’re coming close to the ground now. We should start breaking.” She flared her wings.

He did the same. The wind at ground level was a lot calmer. It was such a stark contrast to the winds at cloud curtain level.

The landing was a lot easier than he expected. The only strange thing was the ground itself. It was all hard and unyielding. His hooves couldn’t feel any feedback from it either. It was like being a bit blind. It was going to take a little bit of getting used too.

“Could you help with the harness?”

She snorted. “Are you sure you aren’t blind?” She planted her hooves on his back and undid the clips with her tongue.

“Done, now about that Promise with those Caps.” Her stomach took that moment to rumble. She laughed a bit. “I missed breakfast. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”

It was in the middle of the night! The blue colt was shocked. She hadn’t eaten the entire day. He missed dinner and he was already starving. “I have an extra apple. You can have it if you want.” He offered out of sympathy.

“What’s an apple?” She asked.

His eyes nearly popped out. “This” He pulled out an apple from pocket bag around his neck. He bit off the stalk and threw the apple at her.

She caught it in her front hooves. Her wings were thrown back to help her balance as she stood on her hind leg. She looked down at the apple and let out a high pitched scream. She threw it back and dived into a hole and was followed by a wet muddy slosh.

He reared back, the same as she did. He caught the hastily thrown apple and transferred it to his mouth before falling back onto all four legs.

He walked up to the hole in the ground and peered down. It was too dark to see. Nevertheless he put down the apple and called into that hole in ground. “Hey, what are you doing in there?”

Her head popped out of the muddy water. “Why did you try to kill me?” She made a very strange sound in her throat and held her mouth open in a very strange toothy smile.

What a strange pony he thought. “Hey, don’t be an over sensitive filly. I threw you an apple. You caught it okay. It didn’t even hit you on the head or nothing.” He dropped his head down and took a bite into the apple.

“You’re eating that!” She cried in shock and stopped making that weird sound in her throat.

“It’s an apple.”

She got out of the muddy pool. She smelled horrible and mud dripped everywhere. He dropped to his hunches and pulled out his last apple. He held it as far away as possible.

“I don’t smell that bad.” She said.

“You smell like some pony died in that pool.”

She sniffed at her wings. “You might be right, actually.”

“You can have this apple if you still want it.”

She took the apple from his stretched out hoof.

From the dim light of her PipBuck he could make out that she was inspecting the apple between her two fore hooves. Just what she could see with so little light was just perplexing.

“It’s an apple. Just eat it!” He said when she was starting to take too long.

Gingerly she bit into the fruit. Juice squirted into her mouth and to the side of her lips. “It’s sweet!” The brown filly exclaimed and quickly began devouring the fruit.

It was alarmingly fast how she ate. His mom was right, the blue colt thought. From now onwards he was always going to finish his hay. He didn’t want to be a starving ground pony. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

The apple was soon gone. She looked at the apple core then back at him. “I wished you had more.”

“Well there are seeds in the middle of an apple.” The blue colt explained. “You could try planting them to grow an apple tree.”

“Really? And I could get more apples from this apple tree?”

“If you take good care of it.”

The brown filly was silent for a long moment, deep in thought. “I need to talk with Miss Sunshine. She takes care of our green houses.”

“Right,” he said. “And what about seeing your mom for that RadAway? Radiation remember?”

“And my Caps!” She looked at him. “You’re not backing out are you?”

“Nope, a deal is a deal even if we don’t have a promise.” He said with a sigh. He was more concerned about the radiation. Everything he learned said radiation killed ponies and here she was more concern about bottle caps. She was a strange pony and she smelled horrible. Until she took a bath, he was going to stay two pony lengths away from her.

“So where is your house anyway?”

------

Footnotes

Rain Storm

Trait Added:: Good Natured. Your attempts at first aid, doctoring, speech, and barter gets a +15% bonus. You get a -10% modifier to starting combat skills.

New Perk Added:: Hop, Skip and Jump. Having done something so ridiculously fear inducing as jumping off a perfectly good cloud into a nightmare of a howling storm that could easily tear a pegasus into feathers, you are now 60% less likely to hesitate when performing other acts of insanity like running of out a shelter while dodging bullets. Being scared can be fun.

New Companion Added:: Wind Dance, 3rd Sky Regiment. Super Awesome Shadowbolts are super awesome! While in the company of Wind Dance, the wastelands of Equestria rolls out its welcome mat and puts on a smile. Wild life is 120% kinder. Although she is slightly bossy and likes bottle caps just a little too much, there might be something more to her, just give her time. She might surprise you and you might surprise yourself.

Rain Drop

Career Going Nowhere:: You have questioned your career’s development and it isn’t what you had in mind when you were younger. Your Will-to-Live has decreased by 1%. You have a 1% chance of crying yourself to sleep.