“Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, when the lands were still green and the sky was still free, ponies lived in harmony with each other. All was safe and we wanted for nothing save for love and happiness. Equestria was growing at an incredible rate and with that increase in growth so did our need for resources increase. Before long trade negotiations fell apart with our neighbors and conflict broke out. It wasn’t until the infamous massacre of Littlehorn Valley that Equestria was pushed into all-out warfare for the first time in millennia. From there ponykind became corrupted, we traded peace, kindness and tolerance for fear, greed and hate.”

“Please let me go! I want to go back to Momma!”

“Silence foal! You belong to me now and you will be a good little one and listen! Now as I was saying; The Zebra nation attacked immediately and pushed us into an extreme, rapid industrial revolution. Equestria was forever changed after the assassination attempt on Princess Celestia and the rise of the ministries.”

“Why are you doing this? I wanna go home!”

“Impudent fool.” The sound of a hard slap followed by crying was heard. “I see you have no interest in the history of this land. So be it. We’ll get right to the point. I was in this very city the day the world was swallowed by dark magic. My wife and I were visiting her parents when she went in to labor and we had to rush her to a nearby hospital. I was forced to reschedule our appointment for admission to one of Canterlot’s stables while we waited for our child to be born. My wife was unconscious when the baby was born so it was I who held her for the first…and last time. For it was that day, the last day when megaspells destroyed the world. After the initial blast I was knocked unconscious. I woke up hours later to see the cold lifeless face of my wife. She never saw our child and I never got to say goodbye. To top off my pain I had crushed my little girl beneath me when I fell.”

“You can’t do this to me! Let me go! Please! You’re hurting me!”

“I can do whatever I wish with you. I’ve had centuries to endure my pain but you… you know nothing of pain…you are going to learn today.”

“What!? No! Please no! Leave me alone!”

“I’ve had everything taken from me. My child didn’t survive, why should you? Everything is gone. You are alone. Let it all end.”

“Mommy! Help me! Somepony pleas-ack!”

There were no more words only the sound of slaughter. The sound of calm exertion from the stallion, screaming, crying and blood hitting the floor. In mere seconds the on-air murder was done.

“Thanks for joining me listeners, stay tuned tomorrow for another ‘special guest’. This has been Lone Wolf Radio.”

That was what I woke to in the dead of night. I forgot to switch off the radio the day before and woke to a truly monstrous broadcast. Everything I had seen or experienced up to that point was overshadowed by the sound of a child being murdered, forever etched in my mind. I couldn’t recall seeing too many children save for the cart full of slaves on my first day. Which only made my anger grow. The Rangers would have to wait. Forgive me Winter, I have to stop this monster.

After waking and convincing Sunny and Grim of what I heard we unanimously agreed that we had to do something about it. The voice on the radio was a very rough, raspy voice which Grim and Sunny surmised belonged to a ghoul so that narrowed the search down.

“So what are we going to do about this? He could be anywhere.” I asked quickly.

“It could be a tough search, if he’s a ghoul then he doesn’t need food, water or even sleep. Can you track him with your PipBuck Sparks?”

“No I can’t unfortunately. Not on a signal that strong.”

“Hmm, let’s think on this a second. You picked up the frequency when we entered the ruins right? So he can’t be using a very powerful relay which means he’s within the ruins at least. What do you think Sunny?”

“I think his set-up is south of here. Slavers pass through the Shipyard every now and then and I don’t think he catches the kids himself so he’d have to be close to them.”

Grim tapped his claw on his head. “Huh, Sparks you’re a tech kinda guy yeah? It’s likely he’s piggybacking off a relay tower, do you think if we found one you could use that somehow?”

I actually wasn’t sure. Most of my adult life was spent repairing small bits of tech here and there in the stable. I didn’t know if my knowledge would translate to working with radio frequencies or not. That wouldn’t stop me though. I let a child die on my watch once, never again.

“I don’t know. We don’t have much to go on though, so we’re going to give it a shot.”

They both nodded their support and each held out a claw and a hoof. I copied their gesture and added my hoof to the circle so we were all touching. “Thanks for everything guys. I’m lucky to have friends like you.”

It was going to be a rough start as we set out into the night. I turned on my PipBuck’s built-in light spell and levitated my gun out, hoping that the light wouldn’t make us a target but preparing for it nonetheless. We made it about one block before we were stopped under a skywalk by the sound of fluttering wings.

“Don’t move!” Sunny whispered, holding out a hoof to stop us. “Turn your light off! Look, up under the skywalk…Bloodwings.”

I shifted my eyes upward and saw what she was talking about and hastily switched off my light. Hanging upside down under the skywalk were maybe twenty or so giant bats. They were absolutely gigantic, if one got it’s fangs into you it was game over.

“Follow me.” Grim ordered. “They must have fed already if they’re not out hunting.”

“I think you’re right.” I said, pointing ahead of us. Out in the street were the shriveled dry remains of three ponies and their Brahmin. We all crouched low to the ground to try and get away without waking the swarm. Whether through fate or poor timing a nearby billboard decided to finally give up its fight against the elements and fell in our direction. The bulk of the sign crashed through the shattered glass of the skywalk, shaking it enough to dislodge large chunks of concrete, partially dropping part of the walkway. Again through a twist of fate, most of the Bloodwings were crushed when half of the skywalk smashed into the ground below. The rest of the swarm was violently shaken from their slumber with some of them hitting the ground without enough time to react. The ones who were able to recover screeched angrily into the darkness. Then one looked in our direction and screeched loudly before flying at us at full speed with its eyes fixed on me.

“Run! Get to cover!” Sunny screamed as she jumped up and body blocked the Bloodwing before it could reach me. I was in shock. I watched Sunny flip head over hooves several times as the Bloodwing tackled her to the pavement, wrapping its wings around her. I couldn’t run away, I couldn’t let her die. Not for me. In that moment my fear was banished and I found my legs moving on their own. I started galloping towards where they would stop rolling as fast I could, levitating my shotgun out as I did. The Bloodwing reared back to bite Sunny as I jumped and slammed into its side, knocking it off of her. It stood up quickly and knocked me aside with one of its massive leathery wings. It pinned me to the sidewalk and opened its fanged maw to take my life. I still had my shotgun in my magical grasp which I shoved into its mouth and fired. The blast blew out the back of its neck and it fell off of me lifelessly. Sunny was there to help me to my hooves and pull me towards the alley that Grim was running down. The rest of the swarm was hot on our tails. Luckily the alley was too small for them to get in except from above. Some did try to get to us only to hit the ground just behind us, the alley restricting their wingspans.

“Where do we go!?” I cried.

“We need to get indoors!” Grim answered back.

I had left my shotgun in the mouth of the big Bloodwing and I doubted my pistol could do much damage to them so fighting them was out of the question. Several of them landed on the other side of the alley in front of us, blocking our path. Grim and Sunny started to slow down.

“Don’t stop! Keep running!” I yelled as I passed them, taking the lead. We grew closer to the Bloodwings and they snarled viciously awaiting their prey. I closed my eyes and focused as much magic as I could into my horn whereupon it ignited into a powerful ball of light. The Bloodwings squealed in pain and recoiled, frantically flailing about trying to get airborne. As they scattered I saw an open hole to the underground in the middle of the road.

“There!” I yelled pointing at the hole as I jumped down it. I caught myself on the ladder about halfway down. I looked up fearing the worst but was relieved to see that Sunny and Grim made it in. We all were standing around the bottom of the ladder panting heavily as some of the Bloodwings above us were desperately trying to get in the hole. They gave up before long and flew off.

“That was too close.” I said turning around to face my friends when I felt a hoof hit me across the face. I hit the ground hard, looking up to see what happened. Sunny was standing above me staring at me angrily.

“What the hell were you thinking back there!?”

“I…I was just-”

“Just what? Trying to help? Do you realize you could have died? You almost killed us both Sparks!”

“B-but I-”

“But nothing! I protected you and you came back for me. So many things could have gone wrong and then we’d have both been dead.”

“I…I couldn’t let you die Sunny…I… I need you.” I started to feel tears welling up in my eyes.

“I’m glad you saved me, Sparks. I can’t thank you enough for that but what you did was dangerous and stupid. You won’t be able to help anypony if you’re dead and I don’t want you to die for me.”

“But…I can’t just let you die.” I wiped the tears from my eyes.

“I’ve lived my life Sparks, sometime freely, sometimes as a prisoner. I don’t make life or death decisions lightly but I am ready to die for my friends.”

And with that Sunny was done. She started following the tunnel deeper into the ruins. I stood up and wiped away my tears again. I felt a gentle claw on my shoulder and received a soft look from Grim. “C’mon, we shouldn’t let her get too far ahead of us.”

After a while I was starting to regret my decision to jump into the sewers. Walking parallel to century’s worth of a stagnant stream of waste was especially draining. The alarmingly fast ticking from my Geiger counter didn’t help matters either.

“What an interesting smell you’ve discovered Sparks.” Quipped Grim.

“I’m sorry your highness, maybe you’d like to go back outside with the giant killer bats?”

I was still shaken from before. I didn’t know how to comprehend the fact that Sunny was ready to die for me. Maybe it was the idea of having her die at all that was what was bothering me. The thought of the wasteland without Sunny was something I didn’t want to accept or even fathom as a possibility. Even if the worse came to pass I’d still have Grim, although that made me uneasy too. I called him a friend yet we still know hardly anything about him. Watcher knew more about him and I’d have some questions for him myself should we meet again.

“Sunny do you know where you’re going?”

“Not really. I’m looking for another ladder to the outside or to where this shit drains out.” She looked at the stream of sewage in disgust. We kept following the tunnel for another hour or so before we finally found a ladder back up.

“Finally! I’ve forgotten what fresh air smells like.” I said with a smile.

“Don’t get your hopes up, I imagine there won’t be any ‘fresh’ air when get out.” Grim reminded me.

“Thanks smartass.” I rolled my eyes and followed Sunny up the ladder.

“Good news, we’re inside.” Sunny said from the top.

“Inside where?” I asked, slowly climbing the ladder.

I wondered why she didn’t answer me but when I got to the top and had a gun shoved in my muzzle, I understood.

“Out of the hole, all of you! Where the fuck did you smoothcoats come from?”

I recoiled in horror when I saw our captors. Three walking, decaying corpses were standing around us with guns drawn. They reminded me of a comic I read back in the stable when I was a colt called the trotting dead. Those monsters scared me to death when I was little but my mother always told me that zombie ponies didn’t exist but here I was, facing three of them.

“Ahh! Zombies!” I screamed, remembering my encounter with the same creatures when I was with Chestnut and jumped behind Sunny, cowering like a foal.

“We’re not zombies you bigot.” One replied, hauling Grim out of the hole. “If I wanted to eat you I wouldn’t have pulled a gun on you.” He assured.

They sounded like the stallion from the Lone Wolf Radio. With gravelly and raspy voices.

“Forgive him, he’s from a stable.” Sunny said looking down at me crossly.

“I don’t give a shit! How’d you smoothcoats get in here? That tunnel only leads back to the Baltimare monorail station and nopony makes it past the Bloodwings. So how’d you get here?”

“If no one makes it past the Bloodwings and we’re here then there’s only one conclusion isn’t there? We didn’t know there was a settlement here…wherever we are. So if you’d kindly show us the way out we’ll gladly be on our way.” Grim tried smooth-talking them.

“Don’t trust them Slipknot, they’re here to kill us.” The one to the left said.

The center one, who’d done the most talking was presumably the one in charge, looked unsure. He looked at me with an amusing chuckle. “Nah I don’t think they’re here for a fight. Look at that guy on the floor, that’s real fear right there.”

“S-So…you’re not going to eat us?” I asked, starting to get up.

“Not really into eating ponies, even if they are smoothcoats. Unless they ask me to...real sweetly.” He winked. “Name’s Slipknot by the way.”

“Could you tell us where we are?” Grim asked politely.

“Guns down boys, if they wanted to scrap they’d have done so by now.” The other two ghouls did as they were told as their leader loudly and hoarsely tried to clear his throat. “Sorry bout the poor introduction. We haven’t had good experiences with you smoothcoats trying to get in to the Mortuary.”

“Why would other ponies try to get into a mortuary?” Sunny asked with a look of confusion.

“No no no. Sorry I should have known you wouldn’t know. This is what’s left of the Baltimare General Hospital. We just call it the Mortuary now cause all of us here are ghouls.” Slipknot said with a dry chuckle.

Grim suddenly got very excited. “Are there any medicals supplies or equipment left? I need help with my wing.” He said eagerly, raising his injured wing to accentuate his request.

“It’s not really my call to let an outsider use our equipment. You’d have to talk to the boss for that. Want I should take you to meet her?”

“Yes please! Lead the way.” The trio of ghouls made their way up a nearby flight of stairs and Grim readily followed close behind them.

“Try to reel it in Sparks, most ghouls are just normal ponies, so to speak. So try to treat them as you would anypony else.” Sunny instructed as she too started to climb the stairs.

That was my first time seeing a ghoul up close and it was worse than I thought it’d be. It would be a challenge at first to treat them like normal ponies but I was going to try, they weren't monsters... Right?

The majority of the hospital, according to Slipknot, was collapsed and inaccessible and since they didn’t really need any amenities they had no need to venture out into the ruins. He said that they did have a way out and sometimes would take in other ghouls but didn’t deal with regular ponies very often. As we passed through a larger room filled with dozens of ghouls I started to hear whispers behind our backs. It was an understandable reaction in an all ghoul community. We were taken up another flight of stairs and to a small waiting room kind of area where there were more ghouls wandering about.

“Dr. Scalpel? These smoothcoats want to talk to you.” Slipknot addressed the room.

An elderly unicorn mare wearing a tattered lab coat turned and faced us.

“Slipknot did your brain finally rot away? You let smoothcoats in? How’d they even get here?” What was left of her grey mane was neatly tied in a bun atop her head.

“They came through the monorail tunnel.”

“Really? Hmm it seems we should block off the tunnel altogether now.” The mare said, adjusting her cracked glasses.

“Um excuse me?” Grim butted in. “I was hoping you could help me with my wing. I won’t be able to fly again without medical attention.”

“Hmph, I suppose if you’ve gotten this far you’re not here to make trouble. Come, let me have a look at you, though I admit it has been some time since I examined a wing injury.” She beckoned Grim to follow her behind a divider curtain.

“Dr. Scalpel has been here since before the war. If anypony can help your friend, it’s her.” Slipknot informed us.

That was amazing. Dr. Scalpel was alive when Equestria was still green and full of life. It was tragic and incredible at the same time. Incredible that she saw the world before it was reduced to cinders. Tragic to have to live in the remains of that world for centuries. Something about that caught my attention.

“Wait. How long do ghouls live for?”

Slipknot chuckled. “I’ve been a ghoul for sixty years now and haven’t aged a day since then. Well, except for my skin flaking off and my mane falling out. So we ghouls might live forever.”

“That’s astounding. I’ve been told that you don’t have to eat? Or sleep?”

“Sorta, we can still DO those things but we don’t really need to. But with every miracle there’s a curse to balance it. Hunger, sleep and radiation, none of it matters to us but every ghoul has a monster inside them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about going feral. We're all going to go feral one day but when that day comes? Nopony knows. It’s different for everypony. It’s a terrible fate, to have your mind devolve to a bestial level, to lose who you are as an individual and give in to the beast inside. I knew a ghoul back in the day who could feel it coming and while he could still do something about it he put a bullet in his brain. Can’t say I blame him, I think it’s what I’m gonna do when the time comes.”

“There’s no way to stop it?”

“No there isn’t, at best we can slow it down, maybe. We don’t actually know why or how it happens and it’s that fact why most of you smoothcoats treat us like shit. Why treat ghouls like equals when we’re all going to become monsters? It’s easier to shoot first and ask questions never. I didn’t want this, I didn’t ask to look like a fucking rotten corpse!” He scowled at his own story. Possibly lamenting his fate. “Sorry, guess sixty years hasn’t been long enough to accept it.”

I had no way to relate to something like that. I did my best to look sympathetic but all I had was more questions and I don’t think he wanted to talk about it anymore. Sunny wore a similar expression of sympathy, perhaps relating to having a monster inside. A bit later, Grim and Dr. Scalpel returned to us. For whatever reason she walked right up to me.

“I know who you are Harbinger. Your friend is definitely going to need my help and soon.”

“That’s great! So you’re going to help us?”

“No.”

“What?” Both Grim and I asked.

“I said he needs my help. I didn’t say I was going to help him.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not in the habit of helping outsiders even if you are some kind of hero. Your actions so far mean nothing to me, only your actions to come. An eye for an eye Harbinger, you help us and I’ll help you.”

I exchanged a glance with Sunny and she looked neutral as always.

“Ok, what do you want from us?”

“Very good. The hospitals spark generator was damaged when the bombs fell and our scrapwork repairs are no longer sufficient to keep it running much longer. We need a replacement.”

“Spark generator? We aren’t going to be able to find one of those outside of stables.” I was beside myself. Spark generators were supposed to produce energy indefinitely so they weren’t common across Equestria.

“Don’t worry about that. We already have a lead on where one might be.”

“Really?”

“Of course, you don’t run this place for two centuries without knowing a thing or two. I remember seeing an exhibit at the Museum of Technology that had one on display and last I heard it was still there. Here I’ll give you the coordinates.”

“This is great!” Grim Chirped. “Let’s hurry so we can get back to going after the Lone Wolf.”

“You’re not going anywhere Mr. Grim. If you value your wing you are going to stay here and let me help you.” Dr. Scalpel put her hoof down on the matter. “Now I’m putting some trust in you Harbinger, show me that you are who they say you are.” With that she beckoned Grim to follow her into, what I imagined, was an operating room.

“Are you with me Sunny?” I asked just to settle my own insecurities.

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” she said with a small smile.

I was glad she wasn’t still upset with me, or if she was she wasn’t letting it bother her like I was. With that I smiled with her and psyched myself up to go to the Museum.

“Room for one more on this expedition?” We both looked back at Slipknot who was adjusting his belongings and hefting some saddlebags on.

“You…you want to come with us Slipknot?”

“Sure, looks like you got an empty spot on your crew. Besides I have a stake in this too ya know.”

“What do you think Sunny?”

Sunny shrugged indifferently.

“I guess that’s a yes.”

“It’s not.” Sunny corrected.

“Well, it’s close enough.”

Slipknot nodded with a smile of his own as he began following us. After walking down the flight of stairs we came up back to the big area with all the ghouls. It was at that moment that I realized that Dr. Scalpel didn’t show us the way out. It was a good thing Slipknot wanted to come with us otherwise we’d have had find the way out ourselves or to go back through the tunnel. Slipknot led us through a veritable maze of rubble until we emerged from under a collapsed section of roof and into what looked like the hospital’s main entrance lobby.

“Very few ponies know how to get into the Mortuary. Most just look at the pile of debris and disregard it as a path. We also have sentries watching this room in case somepony gets too curious or another ghoul is looking for a safe haven.”

“How many ghouls end up wandering in here?”

“Not as many as you would think. We aren’t the only all ghoul community or so I’ve heard. It wouldn’t surprise me if a good number went looking for the other place. We aren’t exactly sitting in the lap of luxury here.”

We carefully walked to the big exit doors, wary of the thick layer of broken glass on the floor. The sun was just starting to rise behind the cloud cover, lighting the horizon with a dull red glow. We set off down the destroyed city streets toward the map marker on my compass. It was eerie walking down streets that were once full of ponies, so full of life. The fact that even nature couldn’t come and reclaim the city made the destruction that much more disturbing.

“Is it true what the Doc said? Are you the pony we heard about on the radio? The Harbinger?”

“I didn’t pick the title, but yeah that’s me I guess.”

“Then I’m sure you’ve heard this before but thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, really.”

“I think you misunderstand me. I honestly don’t care about what you did or why you did it. No matter what your intentions. I’ve seen ponies looking for any reason to put themselves out of this misery but you made them see that maybe there’s a chance for us to do something more than just survive. I think the title fits you perfectly.”

I don’t know if was because of the praise or the fact that I was having an impact on the lives of the wasteland without earning it. Something inside made me want to put a stop to it all.

“I wish I had no title. I haven’t done anything to deserve any kind of adulation from anypony. All I did was save my own ass. I’m not a hero or anything of the sort. Even some of what was said on the radio wasn’t true. I wish that nopony knew who I was. I wish I wasn’t put on a pedestal I didn’t deserve. I…I…” I trailed off, hanging my head low with my ears drooping down. Sunny looked away from me in shame as she was partly responsible for my ‘fame’. As much as I wanted to be a shining beacon of hope to the ponies of the wasteland, it just wasn’t the kind of pony I was no matter how much I wanted to be.

“Just give it time.”

I turned back at look at him confused. “What?”

“Nopony becomes a hero overnight. Give it time, you’ll come into your own and become the pony we all hope you are.”

After that nopony spoke a word. It felt like in a way that he was forgiving me. For what exactly? I didn’t know. Before, I imagined that I was taking on the disguise of a hero to spread hope through the wasteland. Now I realized that I could, with time and effort, become what I represented instead of merely pretending. Was I truly up to the task? Even I didn’t know.

As time went on I was still boggled just how empty the ruins were. Given what I’d seen so far, I figured there would be more small towns like Black Town or the Crater. The perpetual silence was deafening. We eventually came across a section of a monorail line that had fallen and made a convenient ramp for us to ascend. From atop the monorail line we were able to get a better view of the ruins and bypass a few roads that were blocked up by fallen buildings. Past some of the lower rooftops I could see Horseshoe Bay and the hulk of the Lunar Liner. I started daydreaming about whatever it was that occupied the boat as we made it to a small monorail station. I heard Slipknot yell something but wasn’t cognizant enough to understand what was said. I looked ahead of us at the monorail station that we were walking into to see several ponies scrambling around. I was finally snapped out of my daydream when Slipknot tackled me just in time for a bullet to whizz over us. Sunny ducked down behind a trash can in front of a bench and started returning fire. Slipknot helped me to my hooves and pulled me behind a shelter covering a set of benches. Sunny was separated from us on the right side of the rails while Slipknot and I were on the left. Slipknot held a heavy caliber pistol in his mouth as he covered the right side of the shelter. I followed his lead and levitated out my pistol and took point on the left side of the shelter. I should have been paying attention to my EFS because as soon as I peeked my head out a red-eyed pony with armor made out of a mailbox and a knife in her teeth clipped me and knocked me out of cover. Slipknot moved to help me but was forced to switch cover as several bullets were sprayed where he was. The red-eyed mare smiled madly and pounced on top of me, knife glinting menacingly in the light. I quickly levitated my pistol between us, opened the mail slot in her chest with magic, and fired three rounds into her chest. She died quickly and her armor pulled her forward which left me pinned under her corpse. An action that had no effect on the rest of her crew as I could feel and hear more bullets hitting the corpse on top of me, some tinking off its armor. Seeing little alternative, I seized the corpse with my levitation and used it as a meat shield until I could move to proper cover. I took my own advice and checked my EFS when I got behind a stone trash bin. I saw at least four more hostile markers nearby.

“Harbinger! Are you alright?!” I heard Slipknot call from two shelters in front of me. As he asked one of the markers disappeared.

“I’m alive! There’s three left!” I called back.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sunny gallop up the right side of the platform. As she closed in to where two of the raiders were hiding, they broke cover and tried to fight her with a barbed baseball bat and a pool cue fashioned into a spear. The bat wielding raider’s swing was easily blocked by Sunny’s hoof. She followed up with her other hoof, slamming it hard into his head, knocking him off his hooves. Sunny quickly swiveled around to face the one she knocked over and brought a hoof down hard on his windpipe. The raider mare with the spear cue recklessly took a stab at Sunny where she connected with Sunny’s shoulder and broke off a length of the spear. The attack was followed through with a strong kick to Sunny’s barrel which pushed her onto her back. Before I could do anything to help, Sunny picked up the fallen barb wire bat and smashed it across the raider’s face where the wire caught skin and viciously ripped a portion of her face clean off. I was keeping the last one suppressed behind cover as Sunny and Slipknot converged on her from both sides. As they got closer she turned to her right and had just enough time to put two bullets into Slipknot before he shoulder charged her over the metal guardrail to her death on the pavement below. We all grouped up around where the raider fell to lick our wounds for a moment.

“Hey.” Sunny said as she moved her head to the left and looking at the bit of pool cue lodged in her shoulder. I scrunched my nose in displeasure as I carefully pulled it out with my magic. She winced as I did and the hole was starting to trickle a little line of blood. I scrunched my nose again as I caught a foul smell in the air when Slipknot walked up behind me. I looked over my shoulder at him to see that he had been hit in the haunch and squarely in the chest. From his wounds dripped a dark green ichor that I guess replaced a ghoul’s blood.

“Oh geez, do you need a potion Slipknot?”

“No, not really. Just gotta soak up some rads and I’ll be fine. Got any painkillers though?”

“Here.” Sunny said as she passed him a syringe. He took it in his mouth, stuck it in his leg and pushed the plunger with his tongue.

“Ahh…that’s better. I could take on the fucking wasteland now.” He said with a grin, throwing the empty syringe over the edge. “Let’s pat these pricks down, see what we can take from ‘em then head inside.”

“Head inside?” I asked myself. I must have been daydreaming longer than I thought. After a quick look around the monorail station I saw that this particular one was attached to the Baltimare Museum of Technology.

I was starting to get used to patting down the still warm and bloody corpses of raiders…or so I thought until I started to get queasy. At the very least I was able to keep my stomach contents down so as minimal as it was it was still progress. We scrounged up an assortment of ammunition, chems, caps and two healing potions. We decided not to take their weapons because they were all practically broken.

“Alright, let’s head in there and get what we need. Stay alert though, I’m willing to bet there are more raiders inside.” Sunny said as we made our way into the Museum. The stairs down led to a decently sized landing with two kiosks for tourist information on either side. There were sets of stairs leading further down on either side of the railing. Suspended above the stairs was a most peculiarly shaped, rotor-propelled flying contraption that looked like it was made of peppermint. It was hanging vertically, only one of its support cables holding it aloft.

“What the hell is that thing?” Sunny asked, stifling a giggle.

I walked up to the edge of the landing and wiped the dust off of the information plaque and began reading out loud.

“This flying contraption was invented by Minister Pinkamena Diane Pie more than a decade before Equestria’s industrial revolution. Dubbed the ‘GriffinChaser MK.1’ it was powerful enough to carry one pony up into the clouds with a single propeller powered by four pedals. It is an important piece of technological history as it shows the engineering prowess of a single earth pony and what they can do with extremely limited resources. Today it remains a proud symbol of Equestria’s technological fortitude and gives us hope for our future.”

“That thing flew? And was pedal powered? Kinda makes you wonder how we didn’t win the war.” Sunny said.

“We did.” Slipknot added. “Unfortunately so did they.”

“You’re right about that.” I said dryly, looking out a window at the devastated Baltimare skyline.

I would have loved to see the museum in its heyday. All the displays of technology from the ancient times all the way up to the war. From ancient amulets enchanted with magic from a hundred unicorns, to an early prototype of arcane-technology in the form of the first PipBuck. Unfortunately many of the display cases and exhibits had been broken into and pillaged long ago. Only the metal information plaques remained to enlighten me to their once prized contents. Which boded poorly for our search. I hoped that the raiders were clueless to its value and left it alone.

Slipknot let out a long whistle. “This place is absolutely trashed.”

“I’d venture that this was one of the first places looted when the dust settled. I know I would have if I could’ve.” I said, my gaze transfixed on the tiny screen on my leg. “What wing do you suppose it’s in?”

“I don’t think we’ll be finding it here.” Sunny said quietly.

“I know that’s why I was asking…what…wing.” My mouth hung open in disbelief. Siting in a large, raised exhibit was the destroyed remains of the spark generator. The damage wasn’t old, in fact it looked as though the raiders, whenever they occupied this place, had been using it for target practice.

“How…how could they? Those idiots!”

“Keep your voice down Harbinger, let’s get out of here before more raiders show up.” Slipknot whispered, motioning back to the stairs we came down. I sighed and turned to join them towards the way we came when I saw a bit of inspiration. On the wall next to the stairs we came in on were directional arrows pointing to the other wings. The one I saw that gave me renewed hope was the one that read ‘Stable-Tec Stable Exhibit’

“Guys look!” I pointed my hoof excitedly at the sign. “There’s still a chance we won’t leave here emptyhoofed.”

“Get real Harbinger, what are the odds there’s a second generator here.”

“I worked in a stable for years Slipknot. To the best of my knowledge they couldn’t power one without a spark generator.”

“Yeah but there isn’t a stable in here genius, it’s a display.”

“I say it’s worth a look.”

“We don’t have time for this. Sunny was it? What do you think?”

Sunny looked at me, then the sign, then back to me. “I trust his judgement. If he says there’s a generator there, then there’s a generator there.” She gave me a little wink and smile.

I smiled back the best ‘thank you’ smile I could muster.

“I don’t believe this. Fine. Lead the way then Harbinger.” Slipknot said deflated.

I think I hit the nail right on the head with that idea because as we got closer, several hostile markers showed up on my EFS. Did that mean the demonstration stable was still livable? Either way we were going to have to fight to get there. We walked through the threshold of the stable door and into an exact replica of a stable’s hallway. The lights were still on and bright. This place was surreal. Stable 71 was like an eerie clone of my stable but this? I could close my eyes and visualize the hallways filled with ponies and suddenly I was home. As we got further in that comparison started to fade. It was clear that raiders called this place home. There was trash littered all over the floors and mutilated pony remains hanging from the ceiling on hooks. The smell in the hallway was making me gag.

“Glad what’s left of my nose don’t smell too good anymore.” Slipknot whispered as he saw my reaction. We turned around a corner and encountered another display of ‘Wasteland Art’. Nailed to the wall was the bisected corpse of a mare. Up and to the left was her front half and down to the right was her back half, still connected to each other by her intestines. I remembered how I thought I was getting used to gory scenes like this as I puked up everything I had in my stomach.

“Luna’s sake Harbinger! Keep it together.”

“What the fuck was that!?” I heard someone yell from around the corner. A look at my EFS showed two red markers heading towards us.

“They’re coming, that way.” I said weakly, pointing to the corner where they were coming from. Slipknot and Sunny crept up along the wall just before the corner. I didn’t even get a chance to see what they looked like before Slipknot plunged a knife into one’s throat. He went down to the floor with Slipknot on top, thrashing and gurgling as they fell. The second one had no time to react as he rounded the corner and Sunny jumped over Slipknot and grabbed the raider’s head between her hooves and viciously slammed it against the wall. His legs were twitching slightly as his body slumped against the wall, a small trail of blood running down it. Slipknot stood up from the raider he knifed and looked at the one against the wall. Blood was leaking pretty steadily from his left temple. “I don’t think you killed him Sunny. Look at his eyes.”

Sunny didn’t respond and walked past the both of them down the hall. I quickly followed behind her, remembering her advice about raiders. It was easier for me to just ignore him and let him bleed out. He wasn’t a pony, he was an animal…right? The demonstration stable was much bigger than I thought it would be, granting even more likelihood that there was a spark generator, even if it was just a small one.

“Where do we go from here?” Sunny asked, looking back at me.

“I don’t know, this place isn’t laid out like a normal stable. We’re just gonna have to keep looking.”

“Fine by me.” She said, kicking the little lever under her battle saddle that loaded it.

I was surprised at the lack of raiders in here, as the décor would suggest they were indeed living here. Aside from the ones outside and two patrolling the halls there was not much resistance. Which was made even better when we reached a door with a sign marked ‘Employees Only’. If that wasn’t the spot responsible for powering the demo stable then I don’t know where we would have to look. The inside of the room was laid out pretty sloppily, at least compared to my stable, with the spark generator being the most prominent thing in the room. With a raider mare in a scavenged suit of Steel Ranger power armor, minus a helmet, seated atop it like a throne.

“Now just what the hell do we have here? To what do I owe the pleasure of a fucking home invasion” As she spoke, two raiders I didn’t see on either side of the door trained their guns on us.

The mare atop the throne made little circular gestures with her hoof, urging one of us to speak.

“I…um…we are here for the spark generator.” I said quietly.

“The spark what?”

“Um…your throne.” As I spoke I could hear the sound of movement behind me. I looked back to see that the two guard ponies had taken the weapons from Slipknot and Sunny.

“Aha ha ha! You want my throne!? Tell you what small fry, if the three of you can beat me, Skullsplitter! In a hoof-fight then you can take whatever you want.”

“You’re not really giving us a choice are you?” Slipknot asked sarcastically.

“Don’t be ridiculous ghoulie, of course you have a choice. Either fight me or I can have my boys here paint my hallway with your brains. Your choice though, no pressure.”

“So our choices are die or die struggling.” Sunny reaffirmed.

Our host nodded and smiled like a child opening a new toy.

“Well then.” Sunny started. “Game on!” Sunny lunged faster than I’d ever seen her move before, laying a heavy hit across Skullsplitter’s face. She staggered back a bit, smiling darkly. She wiped the blood trickling out the corner of her mouth off and laughed.

“Got some fight in ya huh? This’ll be fun!” She yelled, going for a wide hit, which Sunny ducked. Her armored hoof hit the wall so hard it left a huge dent. Any hit from her was going to be painful and at worst, fatal.

“C’mon!” Slipknot ran to help Sunny, waving for me to follow. Slipknot jumped to try and hit her in the only place she was exposed. Skullsplitter batted him to the side where he collided hard against the wall. I had a small opening with which I used to fire a lightning bolt at her. The bolt hit her in the middle of her chest…to no effect.

“Haha! Nice try horn head! You ain’t getting through this armor that easy!” she laughed. She started charging at me, barreling over Sunny in the process. She closed the gap between us in a flash, picked me up and threw me across the room where I hit a row of lockers. All the air was knocked out of my lungs and the pain made it hard to draw new breath. I had spots in my vision and it was getting harder to keep my eyes open. I looked up at the lockers I hit to see two of the locker doors dented in and one of the locker handles was red with blood…my blood. Skullsplitter picked me up again and pinned me against the lockers.

“Not a whole lot of fight in you it seems, how disappointing.”

“Guess again bitch!” Slipknot ran up behind her and smashed a chair over her head. She growled in pain and kicked him in the chest with one of her rears hooves. He flew across the room and hit his back against a maintenance desk. She looked at his crumpled form and laughed as he started coughing up copious amounts of whatever constituted his blood. She turned her attention back to me with a hoof ready to shatter my skull. I remembered a similar situation like this I was in and did now what I did then. I backhanded her with my PipBuck leg using all of my remaining strength. The edge of the screen caught her hard in the eye, causing it to burst in her eye socket. She dropped me, reeling back screaming in pain, clutching her face as blood leaked through her hooves. I chuckled to myself, satisfied with the damage I was able to inflict. Sunny made it back to her hooves only to receive a heavy hit right in her muzzle. She fell back, hitting the floor with all her weight as Skullsplitter took a position over her.

“You fuckers are gonna pay for this. I’m gonna kill you slow but first I’m gonna kill your friends.”

I saw Sunny’s eyes open with a cruel look in them.

“Sunny…No…remember who you are.” I was in too much pain, I didn’t have the strength to yell. I saw the look on Sunny’s face turn into the one I saw when Red Asphalt was turned into paste. Downpour was back. Downpour drew from a well of strength she had no right to have and head-butted Skullsplitter, causing her to back off so Downpour could get back to her hooves.

“There’s a fire in you, you cunt. It’ll only make your struggle more pathetic.” Skullsplitter ducked her head low and charged Downpour, hooking a hoof between her forelegs and hind legs, lifting her off the floor and slamming her into the wall. Skullsplitter smiled triumphantly for a moment before she saw Downpour get up like her attack was nothing.

“You’re the one who’s going to suffer.” I heard Downpour say quietly.

“W-what are you!?” Skullsplitter shouted fearfully.

“You should have worn the helmet!” Sunny yelled at the top of her lungs and she darted forward, swept Skullsplitter’s front legs out from under her, and wildly clamped her teeth down on her throat. In one swift yank, the whole of Skullsplitter’s windpipe was ripped out of her neck and thrown across the room. Blood dribbled down Downpour’s mouth and neck, as she wore a haunting expression of sadistic glee. Skullsplitter grasped at her throat, drenching the floor in her blood. I didn’t know how she was going to die first, from blood loss or drowning. The two ponies at the door wasted no time with their retaliation.

“Boss!” One of them cried, worry obvious in her voice. Downpour switched her attention to them, eyes fueled by a madness that only death would satisfy. The two started unloading their guns at her. The shots she couldn’t dodge she tanked like she didn’t even feel them. She threw her body at the first one, smashing her body against the door. Downpour snatched the gun out of the guard’s mouth and turned on the second guard. Firing three rounds in succession into the guards head, splitting it like a melon. She quickly ran over to me and vigorously shoved a healing potion into my mouth. I eagerly downed the warm liquid and got to my hooves.

“Thanks Downpour.” I said as I ran past her to check on Slipknot.

I pulled out a healing potion as fast as I could and prepared to force it down his throat when he stopped me.

“Save it kid.” He started weakly. “Back’s busted, I ain’t gonna make it.”

“The hell you are. Sunn- Fuck! Downpour! Grab the spark generator and let’s get out of here!” Downpour was rifling through the guards corpses, gathering the weapons they took from us. She threw me my pistol and I caught it in my magic.

“Grab the what?” She asked with a raised brow.

“The throne!” I yelled pointing to the improvised throne. “Detach it from the base, take it with you and follow me.” I used my magic to gently lift Slipknot onto my back. I ran out the door and started down the hallway when the lights went off and were replaced by the sporadic placements of the spinning orange emergency lights. I could hear the heavy hoofsteps of Downpour behind me. After we ran back into the museum proper, all I could hear was our hurried hoofsteps and fast breathing. I was moving so fast, my only thought was getting Slipknot back to the hospital. In a flash we were back on the monorail line.

“Hehe…you said…you weren’t a hero…but look at you…”

“Save your energy *pant* Slipknot I’ll *pant* have you back at the *pant* hospital in no time.”

“You might not…think of yourself as…a hero…your friend too…I know I do right now.”

We had just made it down of the monorail line and back into the streets of the Baltimare ruins.

“You’ll be the hero…they say you are…in no time…Harbinger.”

“Please don’t *pant* call me that *pant* my name *pant* is Sparks.”

“Hehe…Sparks…thank you.”

I felt his body go fully slack.

“No…No no no!” I put every shred of strength I had into my legs and kept pushing my body as hard as I could. Soon the hospital was all that dominated my sight. I galloped through the lobby, ignoring the pain I felt from the shards of glass embedding themselves in the bottom of my hooves and carefully ducked into the path in the rubble. I ignored the ghouls inside talking and in some cases screaming at what just ran through the room. I mounted the stairs to where we met Dr. Scalpel and started yelling.

“Dr. Scalpel! Dr. Scalpel! Help!” She came running from a back room with a concerned look on her face.

“What’s with all the…Oh Celestia.” She whispered when she saw Slipknot across my back. “Follow me, quickly!” She led me around the corner and into an operating room and I levitated Slipknot on to the bed. I heard the sound of hooves behind me and saw two other ghouls walk in with tray on wheels with assorted surgical tools on it.

“I’ll take it from here, get out.”

I nodded and went back to the waiting room area and sat down. I sat staring at my hooves for a good while before Downpour found me.

“You know, for a place full of zombies you’d think they’d be used to seeing somepony with blood all over their mouth, hehe.”

I looked up and glared at her.

“Ok, I gotcha, not in the mood.” She held her hooves up in defeat, then sat down beside me.

“What did you do with the generator Downpour?”

“The heavy ass box thing you made me haul across the city? I dumped it in the big room with the other ghouls.”

I sighed in relief, at least something good came from the trip.

“Let me ask you something stable-colt, I didn’t expect to see you around my sister again after we met. So why? What do you see in her?”

Nothing about this situation was normal, having two separate relationships with the same pony.

“Sunny saved me once when I was in trouble. So I stuck with her for a bit to repay her. In that time I started to look at her as a friend. That was before I met you and I wasn’t going to abandon my friend because of you.” That was especially true now that I knew she was willing to sacrifice her life for my own for reasons that still eluded me.

“You’re alright stable-colt. I didn’t like you at first but I can feel how fond my sister is of you and you seem to be keeping her safe enough that I don’t have to step in. In fact, she let me out to kill that tin can bitch to protect you. I don’t know how much she talks about me but willingly letting me out? She’s never done that before. I want you to know how much she cares for you and that I hope you return the sentiment. Otherwise…” She drew a line across her throat with her hoof, comically sticking her tongue out.

I never thought I’d see Downpour like this. I thought of her as nothing more than an aggressive beast. Yet here she was opening both her and Sunny’s heart, so to speak. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I thought she was.

“Downpour…I…” I turned to face her to see that she had fallen asleep in the chair. I looked at the clock on my PipBuck and saw that it had been almost an hour since we got back. I laid back in my own chair and closed my eyes.

I was prodded awake by something pointy. I opened my eyes and saw Grim standing over me, his wing wrapped in bandages. As I sat up I saw Dr. Scalpel standing behind him. I jumped to my hooves and approached her.

“Slipknot…is he…?”

She nodded sadly. “He didn’t make it.”

My whole body slumped as I returned to my chair, my head in my hooves.

“There was nothing you could have done.” Dr. Scalpel said, placing a hoof on my back. “Don’t blame yourself for this, thank you for bringing him back.”

“The generator is down in the main room.” I didn’t want to talk about Slipknot’s death. I stood up and positioned myself by the stairs down. “Grim, wake up Downpour and let’s go.”

Grim’s face wrinkled into a frown. “She came out again?”

I nodded. “She shouldn’t bother us too much this time though.” I didn’t bother mentioning what she said to me. I just wanted to leave the Mortuary, its name actually seemed appropriate now and at the same time depressing.

“We can’t leave yet.” Grim said. Wrapping his good wing around me and turning me around. “I got to talking with Dr. Scalpel and she has something to show us.” He turned back to her, as if looking for permission to continue. To which she nodded back.

I shook Downpour awake, even if Sunny wasn’t here she should still see whatever Grim was talking about. She woke up with a yawn, rubbing her eyes. “What happened?” She asked.

“Downpour?”

“How long has it been?”

Sunny was back in control. Downpour must have relinquished control after we finished talking, that’s why she fell asleep. At least that made sense to me at the time.

“C’mon Sunny, we’ll talk about it later. Dr. Scalpel has something to show us.”

We all followed her down the same hallway I carried Slipknot through. We passed the very room I left him in. I looked in and saw a sheet draped over the hospital bed, the obvious outline of a body underneath it. I recoiled away from the sight and tried my best to put it out of my mind. We arrived at a similar looking operating room with another body covered by a dirty sheet. Dr. Scalpel walked to the side of the bed, carefully took the sheet in her teeth and pulled it away.

“Is…is that a bleeder?” Sunny asked.

A red flag was raised in my head. “Why is this here? HOW did you get it here?”

Dr. Scalpel shook her head. “Doesn’t matter how I got it here. What does matter is what I learned about them. I don’t know what this means…but have a look yourself.”

She carefully pulled back the top of its skull and showed us its brain. She wasn’t wrong, I had no clue what this was supposed to mean. Its brain was very clearly altered by somepony else. Bits and pieces here and there were removed and replaced with bits of tech. On top of it all, imbedded in the frontal lobe was a device that was glowing slightly. It worried me as it looked like a memory orb.

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know…but one things for sure, they aren’t natural. Something out there is creating them.”

Dr. Scalpel was kind enough to lend us what supplies she could as we set back out on our search for the Lone Wolf. Fortunately there was some radiation medicine in with it, I guess they couldn’t use it after all. I got to thinking about the bleeders. Sunny said that they had only been appearing in the last few years which ruled out some kind of pre-war mad science. Somepony or ponies who were still alive and active were littering the wastes with abominations in pony’s bodies. Maybe that was something we could investigate after I rescued my family, I’ve already taken too many detours as it was. I put in my ear bloom, hoping to find some kind of clue to locating the Lone Wolf. The signal quality was getting better so we were getting closer.

“So what happened at the museum?” Grim asked out of the blue.

“You mean how did Slipknot die?” I said evenly, cutting through to the real question.

“Uhh…yeah, I guess so.”

“We walked right into a trap. A raider in power armor jumped us and he died trying to help me.”

The look on Grim’s face became sad and forlorn. “Sorry for asking, I didn’t mean to upset you. I know what it’s like to have someone you care about die because of you.”

“Oh…I’m sorry Grim. Who did you lose?”

“I…I lost my little sister. Remember when I said I used to be a Talon merc? We were hired to take out one of the last slaver compounds in Whinnyapolis. My sister was stabbed with a knife coated in some kind of poison. Because the Talons don’t normally employ any kind of medics she didn’t survive the poisoning. There was nothing I could do to help her and she died in my arms.”

“Grim…I…I’m so-”

“Don’t be sorry for me Sparks. It was her death that inspired me to give up fighting as a merc and pick up medicine. It’s also why I left my home. Our Father took it just as hard as I did and when I told him I was leaving to be a medic he opposed me, said I should stay with the family. We didn’t part on good terms and that why I came down here. To distance myself. So don’t blame yourself for what happened. If there was nothing you could have done then there was nothing you could have done. All you can do now is learn from it so it doesn’t happen again.”

He was right, Slipknot’s death was out of my control. I just had to do better next time. I didn’t want anypony dying for me or because of me. I had to be stronger, I would be stronger.

We continued forward on our path as the sun started its decent below the horizon. We passed an old supermarket that had mostly been torn down. It looked like its walls had been ripped off to be taken and reused elsewhere. The only other thing of note was the bulletin board on the ground just by the doors. Most of the text had been worn away by time but a little bit could still be read.

‘Equestria’s coal supply has been cut off indefinitely in light of the Cataclysm that destroyed the Badlands. It has been universally agreed that the Cataclysm was a result of the Changeling Insurgency and Zebra forces. Further investigation shows…’

That was all that I could read. Suddenly I was vividly remembering what I saw in that one memory orb. I was an Equestrian soldier in the Badlands, or rather I was a changeling pretending to be a soldier. When I was captured I remembered seeing a changeling and a zebra looking at a map of all the megaspell silos in the Badlands. They had mentioned their ultimate plan. Were the Zebras so zealous that they would destroy an entire country? Over coal? I had some pieces to this puzzle but the rest would have to wait, if they ever appeared at all.

We didn’t have to travel much further to find out where the wood from the supermarket had been used. We made it to a large high voltage tower that had been turned into a makeshift building about three stories high. There were a few ponies patrolling around the perimeter with two spotlights scanning the area around the base of the structure. I saw several cages strewn about the area. The three of us crouched low and hid behind a crashed sky carriage.

“Safe bet says that’s the place.” I said quietly.

Grim made a ball with his claw. “Either way this looks like some kind of slaver op, I say we take it down regardless.”

As if on cue a pony stallion came out of the building, opened a nearby cage, pulled out an earth pony filly and took her back inside with him. Not ten seconds later did I hear the sound of the Lone Wolf coming through my ear bloom. “Welcome fillies and gentlecolts to another broadcast of the Lone Wolf Radio!”

“This is definitely the place, we’re going in guys and we’re going in hot!” Grim, Sunny and I didn’t need any more motivation and bolted out of cover, guns at the ready and started picking targets. After the first gunshot I heard the Lone Wolf start talking again.

“Seems like we have to address some hate mail. Sit tight sweetheart, I’ll be right back.” Grim and Sunny were methodically clearing the left and right sides of the building with killer efficiency while I ran right up the middle. The first floor of the structure contained only one mare who had obviously just been woken up by the fighting. She was in the middle of trying to put on her armor when she saw me and fired a sloppy shot in my direction with the pistol in her mouth. As she stumbled around, I seized her with my telekinesis, and threw her out the window. I didn’t stop to see how she landed and continued to the next floor. The second floor was entirely clear. I didn’t find any more opposition until I reached the last door that led to the third floor. Standing in front of it was the stallion who brought the filly inside. Seeing him up close was almost disheartening as he was a much bulkier pony than he looked from a distance. I refused to lose any momentum regardless of my foe as I charged up the stairs with the door just within my reach. I shot him with as strong a lightning bolt as I could manage which made his muscles seize up tightly. I remembered the pistol in my magical grasp and shot the big pony three times, twice in the chest, and once in the head. He slumped against the door, dead before he hit the floor. I struggled to push his corpse out of the way so I could open the door.

I took one step into the room and was viciously slashed across the chest with an improvised knife. The pain broke my concentration and my pistol was enveloped in another magical aura and thrown out the window. The room had very little inside it, a bed in the corner, a table in the middle and a ragtag tech setup for the radio. Sat in a chair in front of me was a larger than average unicorn stallion wearing an extremely dirty, faded suit and a monocle. I didn’t notice too many of the ghouls in the Mortuary with hair, so it must have been rare for a ghoul to have some. He had a light blue mane and fancy moustache. He was holding the filly in his lap with the knife held to her throat.

“You know it’s rude to barge in somepony’s home without an invitation.”

I moved as fast as I could to try and tackle him when I bounced off a magical shield.

“Now now, you shouldn’t try that again. I’d hate to deprive my listeners of story time.” He said cruelly, pressing the knife against the filly’s skin.

“Help me!” she cried, choking back tears.

“Stop! Don’t hurt her! Please.” I pleaded, getting back to my hooves.

“Stay tuned listeners, we’re going to have to go to commercial for a bit, I’ll be back after I deal with this muckraker.” He fiddled with a few buttons and dials at his radio console.

“Do you object to what I’m doing?” He asked, with look like he was genuinely surprised that somepony would dare try and stop him.

“Of course I do! What kind of monster murders children?”

“What kind of monsters allowed the world to be reduced to such a state? I’ll tell you who. Ponies. We had our chance with this world and we destroyed it and for what? Resources? Zealous fear-mongering?”

“So what? You would condemn an entire species for a past that nopony alive could have prevented?”

“Even if we survive to rebuild, we will only destroy it again. We prided ourselves on our tolerance and kindness but look what happened. Look how hateful we became. Look at the world we created, the world we deserve.”

“And who the hell are you to tell the world they can’t be better!? That we can’t rise above what was left for us!? I won’t give up like you did.”

“Ah…I see…You’re obviously an important pony to know.” All of a sudden the filly he was holding flung her head back as hard as she could, smacking the Lone Wolf right below his horn. He dropped his knife and tried to grab the filly as she leapt off his lap and ran to the corner of the room. That was my chance, while he was distracted I tackled him out of his chair. We both hit the floor and started scrambling for the knife. I hit him in the stomach as hard as I could and he coughed and grunted in pain, giving me the advantage in getting the knife. I had just picked it up in my magic only to receive a kick in the face. He got to his hooves faster than I could and he kicked me in the face again. He now held the knife in his magic but before he could slash me again, a glass coffee mug exploded against his face. I didn’t question where it came from and tackled him again, this time through the table in the center of the room. He created another shield around himself which pushed me off and away from him. I fell back against the wall and he came at me with the knife in his mouth instead of in his magic. Pure instinct took control of me and I shot him in the chest with a concussive blast of magical energy. He skidded back on his hooves and did not fall.

He snarled angrily and picked up anything he could with his telekinesis and started pelting me with a myriad of objects. A full can of sliced apples hit me right in the teeth and split my gums. As the objects continued to rain down on me, he lunged at me and brought the knife down. The knife, now that I saw it up close, was carved out of another unicorn’s horn. I brought up my forelegs to cover my face and the knife pierced right through my right leg. I yelled through my teeth as he twisted the knife deeper into my flesh. I didn’t know how well ghouls anatomically held up over time but hoped it was enough as I thrust out a kick to his crotch. He hunched over in agony as I got back to my hooves. I stood up as tall as I could on my rear legs and brought my front hooves down as hard as I could on his back. The Lone Wolf collapsed onto the floor under my attack. I excruciatingly pulled the knife out of my leg and drove it into the center of his back. His dry scream was horrible to listen to. He tied to stand only to fall back against his radio console. He smiled and looked at me through half lidded eyes as he pulled the knife out of his back.

“This is the only thing I have left to remember my wife.” He said, looking at the knife sadly. “Killing me won’t change a thing. The Wasteland is just waiting to mold another pony like me. Anypony can fall, everypony has their breaking point and somepony will take my place.” He looked at me with a challenging stare.

“Not if I can help it!” I countered. I let my anger flow through me. The Lone Wolf was surrounded by my magical aura, confined within a bubble shield. I put my all into the spell as the shield started to shrink. I closed my eyes and channeled all of my power into making the shield shrink around its occupant. I ignored the screams of fear and agonizing pain, the only sound I could hear was the smashing of bones and ripping of flesh. My head started to throb from the effort. I opened my eyes and saw the bright glow of my horn illuminating the room. My shield had shrunk to the size of a buckball, filled with a black and greenish-red mulch and my horn was glowing with three enveloping layers of aura. I grunted through my teeth as I tried to move the ball out the window. I gritted my teeth as I reached my limit and magical feedback exploded out from my horn disrupting my spell. All the gore contained in my shield erupted into its full amount, spilling a corpse load of bloody chunks and bone fragments onto the ground outside. I was unable to open my eyes due to the skull splitting pain in my head. My vision started to get blurry. I saw the shadowy form of the filly run from the corner to my side.

“Please don’t die! Help me! Somepony help!” The edges of my vision began to fade to black and the feeling of oblivion took me.

When I opened my eyes my again I was resting in the bed in the corner of the room. Grim and Sunny were in the room now, fiddling with the Lone Wolf’s radio set up. On Sunny’s back was the filly I had saved. Now that she wasn’t in danger I was able to finally get a good look at her. Her coat was white and her mane and tail were three different colors: pink, turquoise, and light blue blended together. She looked like a tiny Princess Celestia. The look on her face was heartbreaking. She was looking at the floor like she was barely holding back tears. She must have noticed that I was awake because her eyes grew to the size of saucers and her smile was brighter than anything I’d seen in the Wasteland.

“You’re awake!” She squealed, jumping down from Sunny’s back and trotting to the side of the bed. She stood up on her hind legs and propped her forelegs on the bed. Her smile quickly faded away.

“A-are you from the Shipyard?”

Grim and Sunny made their way over to the bed with her.

“Of course not sweetie, we came to rescue you.” Grim said, trying to put on his best reassuring smile.

“Really? But…where am I supposed to go?”

“I suppose you’re going to come with us.” I said as I pushed myself out of bed. On the radio console I saw my pistol that one of them must have recovered. I tried to use my magic to levitate it to me but instead it felt like a drill was piercing my brain from the base of my horn. The sudden pain made me scream and I fell back onto the bed.

“Whoa whoa, take it easy Sparks. You pushed yourself too hard, you suffered a magical burnout. You’re going to have to go without magic for a while.”

“Great…” I whispered through clenched teeth. I carefully got out of the bed again and looked down on the filly. “So, what’s your name princess?”

“My name? It’s Aurora Dawn.”

“Well Aurora, my name is Sparks. These are my friends, Grim and Sunny.” They each did a little nod as I said their name.

She shrunk a little under their gazes but still gave a shy wave. “N-nice to meet you.”

We all gathered what we could take and made our way down and out. Aurora passed me an old lunchbox. “I found this under the bed. There’s three glass balls in it, I don’t know what they’re for.”

I opened the box and true to her word there were three memory orbs inside, each labeled and with a corresponding note as well. The horn knife that the Lone Wolf used was also inside. I placed the box in my saddlebags, unsure about taking the knife. “Thank you Aurora, I’ll check these out later.” Or maybe I wouldn’t. Something told me that the memories of the Lone Wolf wouldn’t be fun to see.

We were about halfway to the Naval Academy when Grim slowly approached me and started to whisper. “What are we going to do with the kid? We can’t take her with us.”

“I know that Grim. I have an idea of somepony who can take care of her but until we are done with my stable we don’t have time for any detours.”

He nodded and accepted my decision for now.

I was almost thankful for the silence in our travel. I didn’t really know how to talk to a child and Sunny and Grim were talking amongst themselves in the rear. Aurora trotted up beside me, looking really nervous. “So…um…Mr. Sparks?”

“What is it Aurora?”

“Mr. Sparks…can I…um…stay with you?”

I immediately froze in my tracks so abruptly that Sunny and Grim ran into me. When we rescued her I hadn’t planned on adopting anypony. I looked down at Aurora and gave the world’s most unconvincing smile. I couldn’t be responsible for a filly, not out here.

“Uhh…no Aurora I… I don’t think so.” I said softly.

“Oh…ok…sorry…” Her head hung a little lower than before but she kept walking forward.

“Sparks…that was a little…”

“A little what Grim? Mean? I can’t take care of a child out here. Did you want me to lie to her, only to give her away later and make it that much more painful?”

“I’m just saying you have to be careful with children, sometimes it’s more noble to tell a small lie than to deliver a painful truth.”

Out here there were only painful truths. Better she learn that now.

By the end of the day we had made it back to The Naval Academy. Knights Flint and Freesia were still guarding the gate. Or at least that’s who I hoped was inside those metal suits.

“Look whose back.” Freesia said, presumably smiling under her helmet. “Any luck out there?”

I sat down and removed Paladin Sureshot’s dog tags from around my neck and held them out for them.

Knight Flint sighed. “I suppose we should have known this is what happened. Thank you for recovering these. It means a great deal to us.”

“It was the least I could do.” It was the only thing I could do.

“Elder Lions is busy at the moment but our proposal did reach him. He authorized us to give you this.” Flint held out some kind of device that looked like a modified PipBuck. “Plug this in to the door console and it should override the security for a short time. When you have concluded your business, please do come back. Even though he is busy now, the Elder expressed an interest in meeting you.”

“Of course, thank you. Thank you so much.” Freesia and Flint nodded to me as we turned around and made our way back home. My home. I don’t even remember the trip back to Stable 63. I was on a mission and nothing was going to stop me. Everything up until we reached the tunnel went by like a blur. I looked at the wooden door in front of me and then at the device in my hoof. “I’m coming home.”

I threw open the door and ran down into the tunnel with genuine smile on my face, my friends quickly following after me. When I got to the main door I couldn’t fathom what I was seeing. Grim and Sunny walked up beside me, their shocked expressions matched mine. Aurora took a few steps ahead of us looking puzzled. “What’s wrong? It’s just an open door.”

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Gunslinger – Through constant use, while using a pistol of any kind your chance to hit increases by 10%

Next Chapter: Chapter Ten: To Chase an Illusion Estimated time remaining: 27 Hours, 6 Minutes