I opened the door. “Hi Silver. Is it time for us to go back to work?” I was not very happy about having to go back to work.

“Yes it is. Spitfire had a few more things she wanted us to do. Most of those have not arisen yet and Rose and Stone have decided they have a few things they want done.” Silver trotted in the door.

I shut the door and trotted over to a chair. “What exactly do they want done?” I sat down in the first chair I came to.

“Well Rose said we need some scrap metal for a few repairs around town. The bandit groups surrounding this place have been dealt with but the larger outposts need help to be secured so they don’t fall to the raiders in the future.” Silver took a seat on the couch.

“Onyx and Demo know a thing or two about fortifying things. Onyx did upgrade my armor with his own hooves. I don’t doubt that Demo helped him with that. They can help to fortify those outposts. As for the scrap Harmony and I can go out and do some exploring or if you’ve got a mission for us we’ll see what we can find.” I grabbed my saddlebags off the wall.

“We don’t have many missions that you need to go on so you could probably just explore the wasteland for a while.” Silver thought for a few seconds. “I would suggest going to large prewar cities. There might be some pre-war technology that you could salvage. I would suggest Canterlot as one of the better places. It might be a bit in ruins since it would have been a major target for megaspell strikes, but it would be a good a place as any to explore.”

“Are there any dangers we should know about before we go out and explore?” I looked to the stairs as Harmony trotted down.

“Rose has gotten reports of a new sort of contaminant in the air from her scouts. The scouts call it taint. It is almost like radiation but more deadly. If you are in exposure with it too long anything that you are wearing will stick to you and can’t be removed. So if you do find any then try to avoid going through it and if do have to go through it remove anything that you’re wearing.” Silver waved Harmony over.

“So what are we going to do today honey?” Harmony took a seat next to me.

“Well we don’t have a specific mission so we can go out and explore the wasteland as we see fit. So where do you want to go?” I had Aurora pull up the holographic map.

“Aurora would you please highlight some of the larger cities?” Harmony was looking at the map and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Of course.” Aurora designated a few places that used to be large cities. “These were the largest cities before the great war.”

Harmony looked over the map and narrowed down her choice. “Well I like the sounds of Las Pegasus and Canterlot. Aurora do you have anything on the danger level of either place?”

Aurora appeared next to the map in her holographic form. “I have reports that Canterlot is covered in taint. As for Las Pegasus I have very few reports about the situation down there. Either location will have it’s dangers but if you really want to explore a trip to Las Pegasus would be ideal.” Aurora pulled up a few statistics on how long it would take us to get to either place.

“Well which place sounds good to you my gorgeous wife?” I turned and kissed Harmony.

“Well I’ve heard stories about Canterlot before the war. I heard it was a really cool place but I’ve always been a gambling mare. So let’s roll the dice and head for Las Pegasus. Maybe we’ll visit Canterlot one day.” Harmony jumped from her chair into my lap.

“Are you gambling on whether or not I’m going to play with you? Or maybe you’re gambling on how long we can stay like this before one of us can’t take it any longer.” I smiled as she turned around to face me.

“Or maybe I just like this spot. It is quite comfortable here. Might be the spot I sit from now on. And I counted on you playing with me at least once more before we leave to go to Las Pegasus.” Harmony kissed me.

“Well you two do have time before you need to leave. An hour at the very most though before you need to be out the front gate and on your way to Las Pegasus.” Aurora disappeared with the map.

“Well we have an hour.” I thought for a few seconds. “I don’t think that’s long enough to have a lot of fun. Why don’t we get our armor on and start making our way down to Las Pegasus?” I tapped Harmony on her flanks.

Harmony smiled. “Well you aren’t playing fair. You know that turns me on. Why did you have to do that and tell me we can’t have fun.” It was always really cute when Harmony whined.

“Oh you hush. You can get some lovin’ when we set up a place to sleep for the night. Now come on we need to get our gear and some camp making supplies together before we go.” I lifted Harmony off of me and set her down on the floor.

“I’ll grab our gear how about you go down and talk with one of the merchants. I would suggest avoiding the brightly colored store unless you want to be freaked out.” I took a few steps up the stairs.

“And why would you avoid that particular store?” Harmony was holding me back with her magic.

“I went in there to buy a few new guns and some ammo and the store clerk was extremely weird. He freaked me out and put some sort of trance over me to get me to buy some guns. But if you want to go see for yourself I won’t stop you. Goodbye for now my love.” I waved Harmony goodbye and trotted upstairs.

We had our suits of armor standing just inside our door just in case we needed to grab them quickly. I slid my suit on and levitated Harmony’s downstairs. I saw a flashing light appear on my HUD. I opened it up and saw it was a video marked in a language I could not read. I clicked on the video and played it.

Aurora appeared blocking my view of the video. “Uhm I don’t think you want to watch that video.”

I made Aurora disappear and continued watching the video. I watched for about five seconds before realizing that Aurora had been taping Harmony and I while we had sex.

I dropped the video down and pulled Aurora back up. “Would you mind explaining that video to me Aurora?” I was a little bit angry and a little bit turned on.

Aurora sighed. “When you’re suits go into sentry mode they have cameras that I can use to record footage and share it with you if the need arises. I hadn’t gotten to moving that video into a personal folder.” Aurora kicked at the air she stood on.

“So you’re telling me that you have videos of us having sex. Where do you store all of that footage?” I started rummaging through the files in my suit.

“I have a folder that I store it in so I may watch it when you do not need me. Give me one second to pull up the folder.” Aurora was looking down in shame.

“Why do you have all of this? What would you call this?” I looked through the hundreds of videos Aurora had of us.

“Most ponies before the war would call that clop.” Aurora kept her eyes on the ground.

I started watching one of the videos. “So why do you have all of this clop of us?”

Aurora sighed and dropped the video so she could look into my eyes. “I have it because I want to be a pony again. I’m just a conscious mind that has been stored in your pipbuck. It has been about two hundred or more years since I had an actual body. I long for the touch of a mare. I long to feel anything again. All I’ve had for this entire time is the sight of ponies who I was not able to make physical contact with.” A few digital tears rolled down her face.

Aurora pulled up the option for me to delete the videos. I thought for a few seconds before cancelling the delete process.

Aurora stopped crying. “Why didn’t you delete them? They deserve to be deleted and so do I.” She began to cry again.

“Hey Aurora you listen to me. I will allow you to keep those videos, if and only if you allow Harmony and I to watch a few of them. They turn me on quite a bit and I think Harmony might enjoy them.” I exited the folder.

Aurora smiled a small bit. “I forgot that ponies can be forgiving and kind. I guess it’s just been a long time since I was last truly equine. The videos allow me some semblance of being alive and having my own body again. Thank you for being so kind to me Midnight.” Aurora flicked out of existence.

I smiled and grabbed the rest of the gear Harmony and I would need for the trip. “I won’t lose my equinity and become a monster. I have to find my own ways to stay myself and keep my friends around. And hey as a side note could you only keep the really good videos of us? I think of few of those might not be the greatest videos to watch.” I pulled up the folder to see Aurora deleting some of the shorter videos.

“I found a few that I would describe as not very exciting and or pleasing to watch. I’ve already started to clear out some of the library so that I can record some better videos.” Aurora deleted a few more videos.

“So what have you two been talking about?” Harmony trotted into the room in her armor.

“Does she have the videos too?” I closed down the video folder.

“Yes she does. Do you want me to show her some of the videos?” I saw a little flick of electricity go between Harmony and myself.

“Yes please Aurora. I think she would like to see a little bit.” I rearranged the gear in my saddlebags while Aurora showed Harmony a few clips.

“Ooh. So it seems Aurora has been recording us. I like the looks of a few of these videos. Wait why are you deleting some of these?” Harmony had her eyes forward watching Aurora.

“You do need some room in your libraries for important details. Midnight has more because she wears a pipbuck but that doesn’t mean we have infinite storage capacity. So I have to delete the less exciting videos.” Aurora transferred herself back over to my suit.

Silver trotted in the door behind us. “You two should probably heading off soon. The trip down to Las Pegasus is a long one and you don’t want to get caught outside after dark. If you hurry you can reach one of the small settlements that have been abandoned.” Silver trotted back out the door.

“Well Harmony we can stop and watch a few of those after we find a place to set up for the night. So let’s go.” I tried unsuccessfully to kiss Harmony through my helmet.

Harmony giggled. “It does help if you don’t have a helmet on when you try to kiss me.” Harmony grabbed my hoof and led me downstairs.

Onyx and Demo were looking over the plans Silver had hoofed them. Onyx nodded and rolled the plans up before putting them in his saddlebags.

Harmony dragged me out the door and we trotted down to the front gate. The guards saluted us as we trotted by and opened the gate so we wouldn’t have to wait for it to open. We trotted out the door. I stopped and put a waypoint for Las Pegasus on my HUD.

I looked over the map to see the house Silver spoke of. “Alright we have a house that we can rest in for the night about seven hours travel from here. We should have plenty of time to reach that before the sun goes down.” I started my trot towards the house Silver had pointed out.

Harmony and I trotted for around three hours passing the time by listening to the radio. DJ-PON3 didn’t have too much interesting news but he had apparently started to follow us on our journey.

“This goes out to the ponies who saved New Appleloosa. Thank you. The latest reports say you all have just survived the terrible place that is a changeling hive. If you get the time stop by my studio I’d like to do a live interview with you. That is all for now my little ponies and now some music.” The music started playing and I turned the radio down.

“You know there is just something about listening to the same eight songs over and over again that just make the wasteland more enchanting. I used to hate listening to the same eight songs on an endless loop when I was in the stable. Out here it’s different. Those eight songs are better and carry me along.” I looked over to see Harmony had stopped.

“Do you want to stop for a few minutes? I really don’t want to continue walking for another few hours unless I get some rest.” Harmony sat down and took off her helmet.

I sat down next to her and took my helmet off. “Well we do have about six hours worth of daylight left and we should only need to trot along for another three or four hours.” I checked my pipbuck. “Says here we should arrive in less than an hour. Maybe Silver was off in his guess of how long it would take us.” I turned to Harmony and was surprised by a kiss.

“Well I hope we get there soon. I want to stop trotting for a while.” Harmony seemed off.

“Were you watching some of those videos Aurora recorded? You just seem to be a little bit out of it.” I grabbed ahold of one of her hooves.

Harmony stayed quiet for a few minutes. I was happy to hear her speak. “No I haven’t been. I’ve just been thinking about a lot of stuff lately.” She had a tear at the corner of her eye.

I got as close to her as I could. “What’s wrong?”

Harmony sat there not talking. Something was extremely wrong I wanted to know what I could do to help.

“Harmony please tell me what’s wrong.” I shook her a few times.

“I’ve been thinking since you asked me to get married about what I wanted out of life. And then Rose announces that she’s pregnant and will be having a foal sometime in the near future. I guess I’ve just been thinking about how you and I can never have a foal. It makes me kinda sad that I’ll never have a foal that you and I can raise.” Harmony kicked at the ground.

I thought for a few seconds before saying anything. “I hadn’t thought about that. I can see why you would be sad though. The more I think about things the more I actually want to raise a foal with you.” I hugged Harmony.

Harmony waited a few seconds before hugging me back. “Maybe one day we’ll find a way.”

I have no idea how long we stayed there like that. To tell you the truth I didn’t care about anything but the mare I had my hooves around.

“I hate to ruin the moment but we really should get a move on. You two have been sitting here for about half an hour and we still have some distance to cover before we reach the first safe place to set up for the night.” Aurora appeared next to us.

I didn’t let go of Harmony. “Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you totally did just ruin the moment.” I sighed. “You ready to go a little bit farther Harmony?”

Harmony let go of me and got to her hooves. “Yeah I’ve had enough time to sit here and relax. Let’s go.” Harmony grabbed her helmet and put it back on.

I grabbed my helmet and slid it on. Aurora was working on something but I couldn’t tell what because she disappeared as I went to look at her. I pulled the map up and took a look to see how long we would need to walk to get to the shack.

“Aurora are these numbers correct? It says we only have about another thirty minutes to trot before we reach where Silver waypointed.” I zoomed in on the spot Silver had marked.

Aurora appeared again and looked at the map. “Well I don’t think the programming of your armor or pipbuck are off. So the map shouldn’t be wrong about how far you have left to go.”

I closed the map. “Well then I guess we can take things slow if we want.” I watched as Harmony trotted forward.

I galloped to catch up with her. “Hey Midnight. How far do we have left to go?” Harmony kept her pace.

“According to the map we have less than half an hour before we reach our first stop.” I thought about pulling the map up so we could both see it.

Harmony reached out to my pipbuck with her magic and turned the radio on. “The music does make things a little better out here.”

We continued on listening to the radio until we reached the shack that Silver had pointed us towards.

In the front yard of the house was a small shack that I wasn’t sure what was in it. Out behind the house a few beat up target dummies were laying on the ground in pieces. Out next to the house was a gravestone that I was intrigued by.

I trotted over and read the name on the gravestone. “Here lays Rose. The greatest pony I ever had the pleasure of knowing. May she rest in peace and be escorted to the Summer Lands.” I knelt down and paid my respects to this unknown pony.

Harmony trotted up next to me. “I wonder why he sent us to this place. Maybe he knew this Rose before she died. I’m going to go see what’s in that little shack.” She trotted over to the shack.

I got to my hooves and followed her. Harmony opened the door and a wave of heat hit us. Inside the little shack was a fully functioning forge that looked like it had been used recently. On a small bench in front of the fire was a sword that had been split into three pieces.

I picked up the three pieces and put them into my saddlebags. “Maybe Silver knows how to put this sword back together. I figure we can bring him back a few things.” I looked at the walls for anything that could be of use.

“Well Spitfire did leave Silver a functioning forge to use. He probably has most of the tools he needs in New Appleloosa. But if we find anything of interest we can bring it back for our friends. After all we are going to a city where you could win big.” Harmony grabbed a few tools off the walls and slid them into my saddlebags.

I stepped out of the shack and trotted towards the house. “Well we should probably set this place up for the night. I don’t know about you but I don’t want anything creeping up on me while I sleep.” I pushed open the front door.

The inside of the house was not in great condition. The first thing I saw was a table that had been overturned in a puddle of blood. A small pistol sat on the ground in the puddle of blood along with a few prints were a pony had been kneeling.

Harmony trotted over to a door off to our left. She opened the door and waved me to come over to where she was. The room she had entered was a small bedroom with a bed sized for a small stallion in the corner.

“You don’t think?” I stared at the bed in the corner.

“I bet this was. I bet he didn’t want to come back here. Rose must have been his mother or somepony special to him. I don’t like the sounds of staying here tonight.” Harmony looked outside to see the sun setting. “But it looks like we don’t have a choice.”

We both got out of our armor and set up a place on the floor to sleep. This place was a small bit creepy to me but I knew we only had to stay here one night.

“Just one night.” I curled up close to Harmony and drifted off to sleep.

My dreams that night were filled with the ghostly figure of a ghoul pony. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as she went from what seemed like a normal enough pony to her becoming feral. I would have woken up but something kept me held firmly in my dreams watching this mare. Near the end of the night I saw a smile cross her face and she slowly faded from my sight.

I woke up when Harmony shook me. “Midnight did you see her too?” Harmony looked into my eyes.

I nodded. “If you mean the ghoul mare then yes. I saw her in all of my dreams just out of the corner of my eye. Right before I woke up she smiled and faded from my sight.” I shuddered.

Harmony nodded as she got to her hooves. “I don’t know why but the house feels empty now. I don’t really believe in the supernatural but maybe we helped her to move on. Whatever it was the house feels empty and happier.” Harmony slipped on her armor.

Aurora appeared next to my armor scaring me. “Well I do have video evidence of the entire night. I would like you both to watch the video I recorded last night.”

I slid my armor on and nodded for Aurora to play the video. The video played and out of the corner of my eye I saw her. The mare was standing there watching us. She smiled and stepped towards where we slept.

“Aurora fast forward to the end of the night.” I waited for the video to go back to normal speed.

Aurora returned the video to normal speed as the sun started to peek through the windows. The mare stood over us and mouthed something that I thought might have been ‘Take care of him’ before disappearing.

“I will.” I don’t know what possessed me to say that but I felt better saying it.

“Let’s go Midnight. We have a long ways to go before we reach Las Pegasus.” Harmony trotted out of the house.

I smiled and trotted after her closing the doors behind me as I went.

Las Pegasus was still over a day's trot away and we had already gotten a late start to the day. I looked at my map to see how long Aurora had calculated the trip to take. By her calculations we should arrive in Las Pegasus in about two days.

“Aurora is there a quicker way to get to Las Pegasus?” I looked around the map.

Aurora appeared on the map. “Well if we travel down the river we might be able to knock some time off the trip. The only problem being the wildlife in and along the river are not so nice.” Aurora started through the wildlife databases.

“What type of creatures live near the river?” I looked for the scarier looking creatures as Aurora scrolled.
“Manticores would be one of the main threats. Pushed out of the Everfree Forest they have taken up home wherever they can.” Aurora rotated the manticore around so I could look at it.

“Yeah that would be a bit of a problem. Anything else we should be worried about?” I started scrolling through the archives.

“Nothing else should be too much of a problem. Mole rats and radroaches would be the next biggest problems. Nothing a few bullets from any of your guns couldn’t kill.” Aurora pulled the database away.

“What do you say Harmony? Do you want to take a romantic river trip?” I bumper her with my flank.

“Well as long as it gets us there quicker and I don’t have to walk I’ll be fine. So which way do we have to go?” Harmony waited for the map to appear.

I pulled the map up and pointed north of us. “We should have to trot for about ten minutes before we reach the river.” I gave the map a second look before turning the hologram off.

Harmony started trotting north and turned on my pipbuck’s radio. DJ-PON3 was on with the news.

“Hello my wasteland friends. I’ve been given reports that the stable dweller is headed down Las Pegasus way. Listen kid, that place is deadly. But I think we can strike a deal. If you retrieve something for me then I can get you back into Tenpony. I’m sending you a message through your pipbuck.” I turned off the radio.

I opened my pipbuck to see a new message waiting for me.

It was an audio message. “Hey Midnight. I need you to retrieve a signal enhancing dish for me. Some of the ponies in the wasteland cannot receive my news and die because of it. The dish will be in a museum based around pre war technology. If you do return with it then I can get you back into Tenpony Tower. Signed the one and only DJ-PON3.”

“Well if we get back into Tenpony we can get married and maybe we can actually have a place to stay. What do you think Harmony?” She didn’t respond. “Harmony.”

Harmony had taken a seat next to the river. “I like the sounds of getting back into Tenpony but I’m not sure we’ll get to stay. I did kinda endangered the entire place. I think we would get a week at most in the tower and we’d have to make the most of it.” She kicked a stone into the water.

I took a seat next to her. “One week would be all we would need to get the things we want to do done. We’d just have to do things a bit quicker than we usually would.” I pulled both of our helmets off.

Harmony looked at me. “Yeah you’re right.” She kissed me. “Now let’s find a boat and make our way down the river.”

Aurora appeared as a hologram. “There is a boat that will ferry ponies around for a hundred caps or so. And if you would look to your right you would see it coming down the river.” Aurora pointed up the river.

Sure enough a boat was coming down the river. The captain waved at us and dropped down a boarding plank. When the plank got close Harmony and I jumped onto the boat.

“Welcome aboard me river boat. Where are ye two headed this fine day?” The captain jumped down to us.

“We’re headed for Las Pegasus. Can you get us there?” I took a seat on one of the ships chairs.

“Well I can’t take ye right to Las Pegasus but I’ll take ye lassies in as close as I can. Now we just have to work out the payment. Usually I’d ask ye two to entertain the crew but it seems you ar married looking at those rings on your horns.” The captain pointed at our rings.

“Harmony would you be okay with sharing a few of the videos with them?” I was already loading a few of the videos.

“Well I would be okay with it but. Captain what kind of entertainment do you seek?” Harmony tilted her head sideways.

“Let me take a look at some of those videos ye got.” The captain reached for my helmet.

I backed away. “Aurora can you project the videos onto that wall?” I pointed at the wall behind the captain.

Aurora said nothing and started playing one of the better videos on the wall.

The captain looked for a few seconds before nodding. “That will do just fine. Most of us haven’t seen many ponies in a while. Always helps when we can get somepony to give us videos like this.”

“Do you have a place for me to upload a few of these to?” I trotted towards the cabin of the ship.

The captain stopped me from entering. “I do have a computer but I’ll need to bring it out here. Ye mares don’t want to go inside of that thar room.” He pointed to the room I was headed towards. “The crew can be a little bit grabby at the sight of booty. If ye catch me drift.”

“Alright. Just bring the computer out here so I can give you a few videos as payment for our ride.” I decided on three videos to give them.

The captain nodded and trotted through the door. A few minutes later he returned with a functioning computer for me. I plugged my pipbuck into the computer and transfered over three videos.

“There you go. That should cover the payment for our trip. Do you have a place for us to sleep or should we set up a place on the deck?” I trotted back over to the chair I had been sitting in.

“The trip should take us less than a day lassie. Ye should be off me boat before the sun goes below the horizon. Just sit back and relax while we take a trip down this here river.” The captain climbed the steps back up to the wheel of the ship.

I put my helmet on the bench next to me and patted the seat on my other side. Harmony trotted over and sat down next to me.

“Are we going to do what DJ-PON3 asked us to do?” I wrapped a hoof around Harmony.

“Well even if we only get one week in Tenpony that will be plenty of time for us to get married and have our honeymoon. I suppose we could stop by the museum that PON3 told us to go to. We don’t have a time limit that we are under so we can still explore as we see fit.” Harmony turned and kissed my cheek.

“Do you want to have a foal someday?” I turned my head to look at Harmony.

“That is a difficult question to answer. Yes I do want to have a foal that you and I can raise as our own. Then again I’m not sure whether or not that I want to raise a foal in the wasteland. We’ve both seen the horrors that the wasteland can unleash upon us at any time it chooses.” Harmony looked down at the deck.

“Yeah we have seen what the wasteland can send our way, but we’ve gotten out of every single situation well enough. As long as we are together you and I can do anything. So if you do really want a foal to call ours then we’ll see what we can do to make that dream a reality.” I hugged Harmony.

“Yeah I know.” Harmony hugged me back. “You always know exactly what to say. Except for when you get flustered because of me.” She nibbled on my ear.

I gave her a little moan before pushing her off. “Save it for later. I don’t want to give these ponies the live action view. Giving them videos is good enough and that’s the way it shall stay.”

Harmony shook her head and turned on my radio. A romantic song was playing. The song was coming to a close and DJ-PON3 took back over.

“Well my wasteland friends wasn’t that just sweet. Alright and this next one goes out to a pony named Rose who has just returned to her coltfriend after five years serving.” DJ-PON3 kept it quick and sent us right back into music.

I took my armor off. “Harmony would you like to dance?” I offered my hoof to her.

Harmony though for a second before removing her armor. “Yes I would.” She grabbed my hoof.

I didn’t know much about dancing but I had gotten myself into this and there was no way I was going to back out of this now.

The music crescendoed just as we stepped away from our armor. It was abundantly evident after ten seconds that I had no damn clue what I was doing.

Harmony giggled. “Asking me to dance when you don’t know how? I like that, but are you sure that you wouldn’t rather just sit and listen to the radio?” She spun me around.

I waited until I had a better sense of direction to answer. “I asked you to dance and I’m going to give you a dance.” I misplaced a hoof and fell onto my stomach.

Harmony pulled me to my hooves. “Well if you insist on dancing then I’m going to teach you.” Harmony took a few steps back from me.

I stayed on my hooves and waited. “Are you sure I can learn to dance? Seeing some of the stuff you were doing I’m not to sure about my own abilities.” My legs shook a little bit.

Harmony smiled. “Of course I can teach you to dance. You’ll need to know at least two or three dances before we get married. Now then please be quiet and observe.”

For the remainder of the trip Harmony started teaching me how to dance. At the end of the river trip I was starting to get better at dancing.

“There you go. You’ll be dancing with me in no time at all.” I tripped for the hundredth time. “Maybe not.” Harmony giggled.

I got to my hooves and took a seat. “Ow. I didn’t think learning to dance would be this painful.” I had a few bruises from where I had fallen when the boat hit a wave.

Harmony took a seat next to me. “Well learning to dance on a boat like this isn’t the best way to learn without falling a few times. Or in your case I guess close to one hundred times. Nevertheless, I said you will learn to dance and you will before we return to Tenpony.” Harmony put a hoof around me.

I winced. “Be a bit more gentle please. I’ve got bruises all over my body and it hurts a lot.”

Harmony retracted her hoof. “Sorry about that love. Would it make it better if I kissed it?” Harmony leaned in a gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I felt like being a little snarky. “I have a few places for you to kiss.” I said that louder than I had intended.

“Oh so you want to be a naughty mare for me tonight? Well I suppose I could do more than kiss those places.” It was the ear nibble that got me.

I shuddered. “You know just how to do that to get the best effect.” I stopped thinking about my pain.

Harmony smiled. “Well of course I do. I know just how to work your body to get the best responses and sounds out of you.” Harmony continued to nibble on my ear.

If things had continued for much longer I think I would have begged Harmony to take me right there. Fortunately and unfortunately the captain dropped the plank and anchored the boat.

“Alright lassies. This be as far as I can take ye. Enjoy yer stay and hurry back.” The captain waved to us as we stepped off the boat.

I put on my helmet to see Aurora watching videos. “Aurora.”

Aurora changed to being in a standing position and smiling at me. “What do you need Midnight?” Aurora pulled up a list of possible actions.

“I need you to pull up the map and tell me how far and what direction we need to go.” I waited as Aurora fumbled through the list.

“Here you go.” Aurora pulled up the holographic map. “You have about a fifteen minute trot to the east of here before you reach the outskirts of Las Pegasus.” Aurora didn’t make eye contact with me.

“I did say you could watch those videos. You don’t have to be ashamed of that.” I smiled. “I understand that you want to be a mare again and not just some computer based version of one.”

Harmony and I began trotting east. “Fifteen minutes until we reach the outskirts. How long until we reach the museum that PON3 wants us to visit?” Harmony glanced at the map.

Aurora zoomed in on Las Pegasus and placed a way point. “This is the museum where you need to head. Some of the streets leading to it are covered in rubble that you won’t be able to get over. Highlighting shortest route. Now.” The shortest route was a twisty one.

“Any dangers in our way?” Harmony looked at a few buildings.

“The city is void of raiders as a danger. Manticores don’t roam the city during the daytime so you won’t have any problems from them. I just worry about the mutants.” Aurora pulled up the creature database.

“Mutants? Like mutant ponies?” I watched as the entries flew by.

Aurora eventually stopped on a pony like creature that was a sickly green with no fur. “These are Mutants. They are mutated ponies.”

“What caused this?” I looked at the sickly creature before me.

“Some genius back before everything went to shit decided to do some experimenting and try to force ponies to evolve into the greatest killing machines ever. After a few tests they realized what they were doing was terrible but by order of Celestia herself the project was pushed forward.” Aurora shuddered.

I read the information on them. “It says here that they don’t possess magic or the ability to fly. Did they only experiment on earth ponies?” I kept reading.

“No. They experimented on all ponies they could get their hooves on. Their evolutionary virus caused those with magic to lose their innate ability to use it and those with wings to lose their ability to fly. They were terrible experiments.” Aurora disappeared into the depths of my files.

“Who lead such a horrible project?” I closed the database.

Aurora pulled up a few more files for me to look at. “Twilight was the one in charge of the group who did these experiments. She and a few of her friends were leaders when it came to the war. They all did things they regretted and it’s because of Twilight that I no longer have my body.”

I scrolled through the files learning about these ponies. I found their lives to be interesting to say the least. I saved the files in a folder that I could access easily so I could continue reading about these ponies later.

We had just come into the outskirts of town when I heard the roars. “What was that?” I pulled out my boar rifle.

Aurora pulled up the picture of a manticore. “Possibly a manticore if we’re lucky. If not we might be dealing with a behemoth.”

“What the buck is a behemoth?” I ducked behind cover.

Aurora would have told be but it was quite evident when a pony well over five times the size of Harmony and I combined smashed through a pile of debris. “That is a behemoth. Use the Revolving Sun and those special bullets and torch this bitch.”

I pulled out the Revolving Sun and loaded the special ammo Spitfire had given me. I tossed the gauss rifle over to Harmony and rolled out of cover.

I hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the behemoth before I rolled out of cover. The behemoth was a sickly green with some of it’s muscles pulsating as it walked. I aimed the Revolving Sun for a headshot and let a bullet fly.

Instead of a usual bullet what came out of my gun was a ball of bright white. The bullet traveled much slower than I had expected it to. The behemoth moved just enough that the bullet didn’t melt it’s face entirely. I watched as the bullet skimmed it’s face melting the flesh down to the bone.

The behemoth took a few steps back before roaring again. It started after me. Each strep cleared so much ground that I had to begin galloping just to avoid getting crushed to death.

I aimed the Revolving Sun again and fired twice more sending two balls of light towards the behemoth’s chest. The first one found it’s mark hitting the behemoth square in the chest. The second ripped through the leg of the behemoth driving it to the ground.

I rolled out of the way as the behemoth fell to the ground. The ground shook and I was thrown forward a few feet. I turned around to see Harmony firing into the behemoth’s chest.

I trotted over to it’s head and put the revolver right between it’s eyes. “Goodnight, you son of a bitch.” I pulled the trigger sending a ball of light through the behemoth’s skull killing it.

“Well that gun works well, but you did lose four of your ten shots killing it. Try being more accurate next time.” Aurora flashed the number six on my HUD.

“Shut up. I can delete all of your clop anytime I want to.” I dismissed the flashing number.

“Fine but unload the good rounds and save them.” Aurora appeared on my HUD.

I opened the cylinder of my revolver and dumped out the empty casings and took the two full rounds and slid them back into the box. “There are you happy Aurora?” I practically threw the box back into my saddlebags.

“Yes I am. Now then since this idiot busted through that wall we have a much quicker route to the museum.” Aurora pulled up the map.

The museum was now only a five minute trot away. “Alright then let’s get a move on and find a place to sleep for the night. The sun is already setting.” I looked to see the sun on the horizon.

“Well a place to sleep yes but for you it will be a dance studio. You still need to learn a thing or two about dancing.” Harmony climbed over some of the rubble.

“Yeah don’t remind me of my horrible attempts at dancing.” Aurora pulled up a video of me dancing.

“I thought you might want to see this.” Aurora was giggling.

“Dammit Aurora. Just for that I’m going to restrict your access to the clop.” I pull out the folder.

“No please don’t I’ll just get rid of this video.” Aurora quickly deleted the video.

I smiled. “I knew you would. Now then unless anypony has objections let’s get to that stupid museum.” I crawled over the rubble and rejoined Harmony.

Not many of the original buildings of Las Pegasus were still standing. Many had been destroyed and what little remained was charred and crumbling.

I could see the museum and it was the best looking building here. Only one of the walls was charred and most of the windows hadn’t been shot out. As we trotted closer I could see scratch marks along the outerwall. Hanging above the main entrance was a pair of foot long claws.

“What are these?” I pulled the claws down off the wall.

Aurora appeared. “Those are Diamond Dog claws. A small pair.” Aurora pulled up what information the database had on them. “They are predatory creatures with claws sharp enough to slice through your armor.”

“And it would do you well to come with us.” A sharp pair of claws entered my vision.

“Midnight don’t do what you’re about to do.” Harmony had a similar set of claws around her helmet.

“Fine.” I let go of my shotgun.