“My story?” I asked.

“Yes, yes, how did you end up here with us? If we’re friends, we should be honest with each other, right?” said Night Star insisting me to tell them everything.

Fucking hell, there’s no way I’ll come up with a story while being this drunk. I can’t just tell them about everything, can I? Sweet Celestia, just make them not turn against me.

“Well… for starters my name isn’t Sour Peach…” - I began telling my life. - “It’s Cold Blood.”

“...and you know the rest of it.”

I’ve told them everything. From what life I had as a filly in the camp, to how I met Pink Wink and became the leader, and how did I lost everything, even my left eye, how did I got my cutie mark and how did I end up finding them.

They’ve just looked at me in silence. I didn’t know what else to say or what do they think about me now.

“Well,” finally after a while Skybright stood up and said something. His look was dark and angry. - ”I don’t know who this Blueberry you want to kill, but I know for sure what you are, and what we’re gonna do.”

Fucking celestia oh her throne. I knew I shouldn’t tell them everything. Fucking beer, and fuck me being drunk, I should've known.

Sky got really close, his face was still dark. My heart was pounding and I was like hell.

“You’re a friend, and we’ll help you with your little revenge, this is the least we can do, right?” Finished Skybright and gave me a wink, then laughed.

“You… you do?” I asked, still shaking.

“Of course, we’re a team now,” said Viney.

“Even if I’m a raider?” I asked.

“Who cares if you were born and raised as one, if you’re helping other ponies,” said Night Star.

“But I lied to you, and everything I did was just to have my revenge on that fucking bitch, Blueberry,” I said.

Noone said anything for a few seconds.

“Lemme ask you something, ‘Cold Blood’, was it?” - Asked my name Night Star. I nodded back. - “If you’ll finally kill her, what will you do, kill us as well? Become a lonely raider who fights alone and will probably just die as everyone’s enemy? Or maybe you’ll stay with us, stop crying about your past and start a new life?”

Holy fuck, he’s right. I never even considered what will I do after that, and he has a point. Every raider group would just kill me, not that I want to join any again. This is my only chance to be in a group with ponies that don’t want to kill me.

“I’ll… I’ll stay with you,” I replied.

“Yay, welcome to the team,” said Viney, jumped up and hugged me. Again, this hug thing. It feels good, but really weird. Maybe I’m just not used to it.

The Sky and Star stood up and joined the hug, and after a good half minute of just hugging we sat down again.

“So, how did you end up together?” I asked.

“Ohh, it all started when…” Viney began to tell their story.

Sky and I lived together our entire life pretty much.

We were born in New Appleloosa and lived there for a really long time. We were besties at that point, we did everything together. I was always up for all kinds of adventure, while Sky was always holding me back, trying to explain things like “it’s dangerous,” and so on.

One day somepony new came to town. She had raider armor and was half dead. At first I found it really strange and got scared, because I thought that raider is gonna kill us when she wakes up.

In the end we asked Calamity and he said that she wasn’t a raider, but only had a raider armor with blood caked on it. Later when she thankfully woke up she did great things. Saved a lot of ponies, which in fact made her to be banished from town, because we way more ponies to care of than the settlement could handle. We didn’t see her for a while after that. Calamity went with her aswell.

Life went on, and not so long after that we started to hear great things from them. They saved a lot of ponies, fought against raiders, slavers and so much good things. We’ve been told that this world was hell, but then she came and showed us that it doesn’t take much to change the world. You could say she brought light to this world. That’s how she got her name actually, Lightbringer. Her name was Little Pip when she was in New Appleloosa, so that probably was some hero name.

At one time, suddenly the clouds went away and we could see the sun again. It turned out that it was her doings aswell, but something happened to her, because we never heard from her again.

As a filly, it made my whole life turn upside down. I wanted to be in her steps, to help others and change the world. Sky told me that I was stupid, and I’d give up on it soon… but I didn’t. I kept asking Sky if we could leave that place and do what’s right, but he rejected me, saying that we weren’t ready for the world outside Appleloosa. So I started to train. Shoot targets all day, train my body, and improved my magic. I even learned some basic healing magic. My parents didn’t support that idea, but that didn’t stop me. On the other side, I had to take on some jobs, because I spent all my caps on bullets.

Years passed, and I got pretty good at things, and I even forced Sky to train with me sometimes, even though he wanted to work as a shopkeeper himself. I told him that he doesn’t know when will he has to defend himself, so he should atleast try it.

Once, when I felt ready, I told my parents that I’ll go away, and after a lot of arguing, they finally gave in. I said goodbye to everyone and asked Sky one last time if he’d join me, but he rejected again, no matter how hard I tried.

When I left the border of the settlement, I felt sad, and alone without Sky. I was sure he’d come with me, because we were so good friends, and in the end I wasn’t wrong. A few minutes after I left, Sky stopped me and said that he’s coming with me if I’m completely sure about this. He brought some food, potions and weapons with him.

I was really happy when I saw him, and about that’s when I really started to love Sky.

We headed to the west, towards ponyville, because we heard that some raiders settled down. I was sure somepony in need of help will be there.

When we finally got there, we really did find raiders, so we attacked them. At that time we were just following the saying in Appleloosa, “Shoot first, ask later.” There were five raiders, so we tried to sneak in instead of just charging in. We managed to kill two of them, but the third one screamed for help before we could put him down. Thankfully only two remained and we killed both of them without much of a problem. Sky did get hit on his foreleg though, but it wasn’t serious. I could heal it in no time.

We didn’t find any kidnapped pony there, but we still decided that it was a success, because who knows when would they start capturing ponies.

We did loot the place though, and found some weapons in good shape, ammo and even some food.

Then we decided to go north, for no particular reason. You never know where will be somepony in need of help, so there still was a chance of finding someone in the middle of the wasteland.

Instead of that, we found a Stable. Stable 153 to be exact. Surprisingly, when we tried get in somepony began to speak through a speaker. She made sure if we’re friendly and then opened the stable door. From there a mare was waiting for us surrounded with guards.

She told us that she’s that stable’s overmare and they’re in need of supplies. We said that we can help and she promised anything a stable can offer in return. Which was pretty much health care, a place to stay and eat, and they even gave us a Pipbuck. The overmare asked us if we wanted a third member with us, because they already had someone to scavenge outside. We wasn’t sure why would he ask us that, but then she explained that he was scavenging the whole time alone and got into a few pretty bad situations, so he doesn’t want to go alone anymore, and nopony was willing to go with him. And that’s how we met Night Star. He was born in that stable and was trained to be a dweller, like his parents were.

Things got pretty straight forward from there on. We went scavenging and helping anypony we found in the meantime, then went back to the stable to rest and get healed occasionally. Maybe you think it gets boring after a while, but I really enjoy doing what’s right.

After a week or so Sky confessed his love to me and that’s how we’ve been. Night Star gave some weird look at first when he heard, but then said that me and Sky fit to each other.

A few months later we were scavenging at Horseshoe Tower when Steel Rangers attacked out of nowhere…

“...and a bit after was when you showed up,” said Viney finishing her story.

“Oh, I see, I’m sure you’re a great team,” I said after a while, trying to break the silence.

“We sure are, huh?” said Viney.

“It’s getting pretty late, we should find a shelter,” said Skybright and yawned.

“I just moved to a house nearby the other day, it’s not much, but we could stay there,” I said.

“That’d be nice,” said Night Star.

We left the fire and I lead them to my home, thankfully I remembered to tell the about the few traps I set up, so we avoided them without anypony getting hurt… when did I started to care about that, I have no idea.

Upstairs we laid down on the mattresses and fell asleep.

Footnote: Companions Unlocked! (Green Vines (Viney), Skybright (Sky), Night Star (Star))

They’ll trust you and fight alongside with you until you don’t do anything that they don’t like.