Rose laid a few maps out on the table. “I don’t know exactly where they're coming from, but what I do know is that they’re getting into the city in massive quantities and it needs to stop!”

I looked at a few of the drugs laid down on the table before us. “So what? You want us to find out where all of these drugs are coming from and then kill the ponies responsible?”

“That is exactly what I want Midnight. I’m tired of dealing with these ponies whacked out on so many drugs they couldn’t tell their plot from a hole in the ground.” Rose slammed her front hooves on the desk.

I caught a glimpse of a can of mintels. “Ok. Do you have any leads.” I grasped at the tin with my magic.

Harmony tore the tin away from me and tossed it out the closest window. “Don’t even think about it.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Now I have a general idea of where the drugs are coming from. I’ve had a few of our pegasi do recon and one pony has been travelling between here and an abandoned city. He leaves with a briefcase full of caps and returns with enough drugs to put the entire town on it’s plot.”

I looked at the map on the table and tried to locate the city on my pipbuck. “I don’t see a town anywhere near where the maps say it should be.”

“Aurora.” Harmony tapped on her helmet.

“I’m looking for it. Give me a few seconds. Here it is.” Aurora laid a virtual map over the top of the map on the table.

Without a doubt there was a town where Rose had said. “Whatever. So that’s where the drugs are coming from?”

Rose nodded. “I’m not one hundred percent on that but it seems like the most likely place for them to be coming from.”

I programmed in a waypoint on my pipbuck. “Alright then. We’ll head there right away.”

Rose rolled the maps up. “All of you should go. My recon squads haven’t brought back very good information. We have no idea what kind of danger might be out there.”

I nodded and trotted towards the door of Rose’s office. “Come on Harmony.”

Harmony trotted fast to catch up with me. “Well I guess this gives us a bit more time to practice your dancing.”

I sighed. “Yeah. That.”

Harmony tisked at me. “Fret not my love. Now that we are on solid ground you won’t fall as much. And even if you do I’ll be right there to catch you.”

Onyx was hovering above me. “So…. I hear we might get to see you dance. That sounds interesting.” That stupid smile I saw occasional was plastered on Onyx’s face.

I pushed him down to the ground with my magic. “Nope. You will see no such thing. Now go bother Demo or something.”

Onyx snickered. “I was just fooling around Midnight. We both know you can’t dance.”

I punched Onyx in the shoulder. “And why is that?”

Onyx tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow at me. “Remember the one and only dance you went to in the stable?”

I thought for a few seconds before slamming Onyx to the ground. “Don’t remind me about that.”

Onyx pushed me off. “You asked how I knew and I told you.”

Harmony dragged me away from Onyx. “Care to explain that?”

I shook my head furiously. “No.”

Harmony nodded. “Fine. Would you like to hear a few tales of my experiences out here?”

I realized only know that I didn’t remember asking Harmony about her past. I guess I just had a problem with the past. “Sure.”

Harmony age 8

It was a typical day in Appleloosa. A group of raiders had been seen camping outside for the past few days. Something was wrong though. The entire group of raiders had left without giving us trouble.

“Do you think we’re safe? Maybe they left because they don’t know what we can do.” A few of the local foals were talking about the raiders.

I stayed close enough to hear what they talked about but not close enough to be asked to join in. I was a bit shy when it came to meeting new ponies. There were rare circumstances where I saw somepony and immediately had no problem talking with them. It was usually the fillies about my age I had no problem talking to.

“Harmony what are you doing out here?” Mom was standing over me.

I kept my voice to a whisper. “Hi mom. I was just listening to the other foals talking.”

My mom shook her head. “Harmony you really should learn to talk to the other foals. They won’t bite.”

I peeked my head around the corner to see the group trotting away. “It’s not getting bitten I’m worried about.”

Mom picked me up with her magic. “Well come on let’s see if they want to play.”

Knowing mom there was absolutely no way I was getting out of this. “Ok.”

Mom carried me along until we caught up with the other foals. Usually they would be playing tag or something but today they had just decided to sit around.

“Hello. Would you mind if my daughter came and played with you?” Mom set me on the ground.

I tucked myself behind of one of mom’s legs.

The other foals talked amongst themselves for a few seconds before they nodded. “We don’t mind. What’s your name?”

Mom pushed me out to meet the foals.

“My names Harmony. I’ve been wanting to play for a while but I’ve been too shy to ask.” I glanced at the foals occasionally.

The colt took it all in tow. “Well Harmony it’s nice to meet you. Let’s go.” The colt turned around and trotted away with the other foals.

Mom pushed me along. “Go and play honey. Just be back before five.”

I smiled weakly and waved. “Ok mom.”

I looked between the group of foals and mom for a few seconds before going with the foals. I trotted quickly to catch up with them.

“So what are we going to do?” I kept pace with the colt who was the leader of the little group.

He shot me a glance and then pushed me into an alleyway. “What we’re going to do is something you must tell nopony about.”

I shied away from the colt. “What are we going to do?”

He smiled. “We’re going to go outside of town and go join the raiders.”

I shook my head and stared in awe. “Wha.. What?”

“Life around here is boring we want to live not just survive. If you don’t want to then you’re not going anywhere ever again.” The colt motioned to another foal in the group.

The filly he had motioned to pulled out a switchblade and stepped towards me.

“So. Do you choose to join us or to die?” The colt held one hoof out across the filly’s chest.

I ripped the switchblade away from the filly and slashed at the air in front of the group. “Stay back. I won’t hesitate.”

One of the colts reached out with his magic and took the switchblade back. “That’s not going to work.”

“Don’t kill her. Maybe we can get somepony to pay for her.” The leader stepped towards me.

I lowered my body into a fighting stance. I hurled myself at him and swung my right hoof at his face.

He ducked and slammed me to the ground. “What do you think that was going to accomplish?”

I had a blade to my throat. “What do you want from me?”

The colt above me laughed. “We want you to join us. And if you don’t I’m going to rape and kill you.”

I sat there staring at the colt for a while thinking and hoping. “I’ll join you.”

The colt smiled and let me up. “I hoped you would.”

I watched as one of the foals was hurled down the alleyway. She came to a stop with a broken neck at the end.

My mom stepped into the entryway to the alley. “You’re going to step away from my filly or I’m going to kill you all.”

The colt with the switchblade galloped towards my mom. It all happened in a blur and the next thing I knew I was sitting next to my mom who was wielding the switchblade.

The last two of the foals stared in fear at my mom. “This is the life you’ll get if you seek to be raiders. Remember this day if you ever think of becoming raiders again.”

I didn’t know what happened so I just hugged my mom and didn’t let go.

Present day Midnight’s POV

Harmony had just finished telling me more about herself. I knew that I knew oh so little about the mare who I was engaged to. I looked to the sky to see the sun was getting down towards the horizon.

“Maybe we should find a place to hold up for the night.” Silver looked around and pointed towards a building. “That place will do for the night.”

The building used to be an old school from what I could tell. The second floor was missing two of it’s walls and the roof had collapsed leaving behind sharpened rebar.

I push on the front door and it fell off the hinges. The inside of the building looked to be somewhat safe. I really hoped that the rest of the building was reinforced with rebar.

Silver pushed further into the school looking for a suitable place to set up camp for the night. Eventually he stopped in a small commons area.

Three classrooms surrounded the small area. “Harmony and I’ll take the room on the left. Demo and Onyx can take the room on the right.”

“What about Silver?” Harmony started setting up a small camp fire.

“Like I said before I can stand not sleeping for the night. I’ll keep watch for anything that might wander in.” Silver went and took a seat in front of the third classroom door.

I nodded. “Alright thanks Silver.”

“No problem. Anything to protect my friends.” Silver said nothing more as he attended to a few things.

The rest of us sat around the fire for a while talking and eating a small portion of our food.

I checked my pipbuck to see what time it was. “It’s getting late. We should probably go to bed.”

Harmony and I headed for the room we had claimed.

Onyx and demo headed to their room and Silver extinguished the fire and sat in the dark.

Silver’s POV

The others had gone to sleep. Well gone to bed not to sleep. I couldn’t hear much from them but I knew neither group was sleeping.

Something felt off about this place. I wasn’t sure whether it was the thought that fillys and colts had died here or something else. Maybe it was a small bit of both the more I thought about it. I shook the thoughts from my head.

I liked the darkness. I fit in here. When all was dark I blended in to the point where most ponies couldn’t even tell I was there if I was standing a foot in front of them. That made me feel calm and at ease knowing I could always retreat into the darkness and hide.

A few floorboards creaked somewhere towards the entrance to this area. I couldn’t see anything but I kept my ears open and listened carefully for anything else.

No noises except those of the two groups of lovers flooded my ears. I relaxed again and continued to sit in the relatively silent night.

I liked times like this. I got to sit back and reflect upon my life and think of the many things that I still wanted to do.

As of late my life had become a whole lot more complicated than I ever thought possible. I knew I still wasn’t completely over the loss of my adoptive mother. No matter what, I knew that somehow she was still watching over me. Guiding me to do what was best.

I had a foal on the way with the love of my life who I hadn’t seen in forever. Many thoughts swirled in my head about this. What was I going to name the foal? How was I going to protect it from the wasteland? And how could I be a father to this foal? All my life I had been trained to be a killing machine and not somepony who lived a simple life as a father.

“Oh shit. What am I going to do?” I sat and stared at the floor for a few moments.

A set of floorboards off to my left squeaked. I snapped my vision towards that spot and listened. Whatever was making those floorboards squeak knew how to avoid being caught.

I hoped that it was just the building settling down with the new weight of ponies walking here again.

As time went on the floorboard squeaks got closer and closer to me until they were within range of my wings.

I light up my horn and made the area around me glow a vibrant blue color. I looked around for whatever was causing the noise but found nothing.

I let my guard down just a little bit and that’s when it happened. A small rag was pressed up against my muzzle and as I breathed in my vision become blurry and I slipped out of consciousness.

Midnight’s POV

Harmony and I laid in bed together just listening to the other breath. It was very nice for once just to sit there and not worry about anything except for the mare you had your hooves wrapped around.

I had my muzzle buried into Harmony’s chest. I listened as her heartbeat started to slow down as she recovered.

I had been hearing the floorboards squeaking every now and then and assumed that Demo and Onyx were doing something. Now everything was quiet and I heard the floorboards creak and a very light thud as something slid to the ground.

I paid no attention to it and sat there cuddling Harmony. I could have stayed like that for the entire night and I would have had I not heard what started off as quiet moaning. After a few minutes moaning the likes of which I very rarely heard were happening.

“You hear that right?” I shook Harmony a little.

“Yeah I do. We should probably go check that out.” Harmony rolled off of the table we were laying on.

I followed shortly behind her. When we opened the door I couldn’t see anything so I used my magic to relight the fire in the center of the room.

Standing there in the middle of the room was Silver. Below him lay a zebra mare. They were ... connected.

Silver’s POV

After getting knocked out all I could hear was moaning coming from on top of me. I have no idea how long I was out for but it felt like an extremely long time.

Eventually my eyes opened up again and I was greeted by the familiar sight of darkness. A heavy weight was on top of me so I rolled over.

My brain was starting to getting moving again and I felt something. A warmness down in my nether regions I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I looked down just as the fire got relit behind me. I stared into the face of an exhausted zebra mare laying below me. I stared for a few seconds before tracing my eyes down her body and towards my own.

I was really hoping what I thought had happened hadn’t. I slowly traced my sight backwards until I could see that my fear was true. This mare had drugged me and raped me while I was out.

Midnight whistled. “You just going to stand there or are you going to finish the job?”

I looked between the mare below me and Midnight a few times before retreating from the mare who I was inside of. “You were really just going to stand there and watch? What the buck is wrong with you?” I heard a slight pop as I stepped backwards.

Midnight shrugged. “I’m never sure about your faithfulness to one pony. I thought you and Spitfire had sex a few times. And after Rose came to New Appleloosa looking for you I figured you two probably bucked.”

I shook my head. “We’ll discuss this later. For now I’m going to kill this stupid bitch.” I put the blade of my wing against her throat.

The mare simply smiled. “I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”

“And why not motherbucker?” I sneered.

“You’re in possession of a sword that has been torn into pieces. I know how to return it to it’s former glory.” The mare pointed towards Midnight.

“What sword do you speak of?” I lifted the blade an inch away from the mare.

The mares smiled faded. “I speak of a sword capable of slicing a pony cleanly in two and coming out without a stain on it. A blade of pure light that can harness the sun and turn the tide of battle.”

I knew what blade she spoke of. “Where did you find the Knight’s Bane?”

Midnight floated the pieces to me. “I found it in your old home. We grabbed some gear for you to use at your forge and found the pieces of it.”

I looked back down to the zebra. “You get to live until you fix my sword. After that I’ll let the others decide your fate for your crimes.”

I pulled my wing back to my side and moved away from the zebra.

The mare simply nodded her head and got back to her hooves. “When can I get started on fixing that sword?”

I thought for a few moments avoiding eye contact. “Midnight give the sword pieces to Onyx and Demo. They can escort this bitch back to New Appleloosa.”

Midnight floated all three pieces in front of herself. “Are you sure about that?”

I nodded. “Demo and Onyx have the least amount of armor out of any of us. We have no idea what we’re trotting into and I would prefer to have a smaller chance of losing somepony.”

Midnight nodded and slid the sword components into Onyx’s saddlebags. “Alright. Onyx as soon as the sun rises head back to New Appleloosa and make sure everything is ok.”

Onyx nodded and yawned. “Fine. But for now I’m going back to bed.”

Midnight nodded. “Sounds like a good idea. Silver are you going to sleep?”

I shook my head. “Tonight shows why I don’t sleep in places I’m not comfortable with. Let your guard down for one second and everything goes to shit.”

Midnight’s POV

After the sun had come up Onyx and Demo departed for New Appleloosa. Silver, Harmony and I all continued forward towards the city.

I checked the map again. “It says we should be getting close to the city. But I don’t see anything.”

Silver looked around before nodding. “We’ll find it.”

“How do you know that?” Harmony looked at the map.

“Same sort of technology used to hide where I trained from the public eye. With any luck that waypoint is in the center of town and we’ll walk through the shield in a few minutes.” Silver eyed the area in front of us.

We kept trotting forward. I kept looking around for anything that might give me a clue as to where this city was.

Silver whistled. “Over here.”

I watched as Silver trotted through an invisible wall and completely disappeared. “Well that’s interesting. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Silver stuck just his head out of the invisible wall. “Are you two going to stand there all day? We have a job to do you know?”

I trotted through the barrier. Inside was a small city that was mostly destroyed. “Why would anypony want to keep this place hidden?”

Harmony shrugged. “Beats the shit out of me. Let’s just take a look around and see if we can find the pony responsible.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow dart across the street. “You saw that right?”

Silver nodded. “Ready your guns. I’m not sure what that was. Could be anything.”

I pulled out my 44 magnum. “It went into that alleyway.”

We moved slowly towards the alleyway. When we reached the entrance to the alley we saw nothing.

I trotted further into the alleyway. About halfway down there was a small slip of paper stabbed to the ground.

I picked up the note and read it. “Welcome. Welcome?”

Silver and Harmony stood next to me looking at the note. “What the buck does it mean by welcome?”

The voice of a stallion sounded behind us. “It means many things.”

A lightsource made the stallion a silhouette. “Who are you?”

The unicorn stallion spoke. “My name does not matter. What matters is you stop following this drug lead. It will lead you to death.”

Silver stepped forward. “You want to try and kill me?”

The stallion laughed. “I don’t seek to kill you. An alicorn such as yourself might be helpful to my cause.”

I shook my head. “What?”

The stallion thought for a second. “You’ve been doing a good job at killing the raiders who harass me for my drugs. So I propose a deal to you.”

Silver took a step back. “Oh do tell.”

The stallion chuckled. “You stop following me and I stop sending drugs to New Appleloosa. That way both of us get what we want and nopony has to meet an untimely doom.”

Silver looked back to us. “What do you two think?”

I looked into Harmony’s eyes. She nodded.

I nodded. “We’ll accept.”

The stallion nodded. “Good choice. I really don’t like killing ponies unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

The stallion began to fade. “Oh and one last thing.” He tossed a bag our way. “Take these you might need them.” And with that the lightsource dimmed and the stallion faded from existence.

I stared at where he had been for a few seconds. “That was weird. Wonder what he left us?”

I picked up the bag with my magic. I looked for an opening but didn’t find one. I grabbed a small chunk of sharp metal laying nearby and cut a small hole in the bag.

The contents spilled onto the ground and I was amazed at what I saw. “Are those all stealthbucks?”

On the ground was twenty stealthbucks. They looked a bit different from the ones that I was used to seeing.

I levitated one up and read it. “Stealthbuck mark 2.”

I flipped it over and a note was attached. “These should make you a bit more stealthy. I gave you enough to last most ponies a lifetime but I have a feeling you’re going to burn through these quickly. Signed R.F.”

I shrugged. “He didn’t kill us and we shouldn’t have a problem with the drugs anymore. I guess we can go home now.”

Harmony deposited the stealthbucks in her saddlebags and we started the journey home.