She had to be honest with herself, she was nearly 100% certain that she wet herself when the first laser impacted her armor. Everything had been going so well, and she was so sure the whole plan would go off without a hitch. And to everypony's immense surprise, it wasn't her but Croce who spoiled the ambush.

Now he was pinned down on top of a small rooftop as Lexi shouted into the short wave radio to tell Oso what had happened, and apparently Pony's still had ears, ears that could hear a scuffling Griffon ready to pounce. It was mere seconds before three of the Raiders were shooting up at Croce, throwing grenades up barely leaving him time to push them back, another two were blasting lasers at Lexi as she whimpered behind a corner.

"Just sit tight... I'm on my way, but I'm konking Croce for this one..." Oso's voice like always was rather calm. Lexi nodded, not quite remembering that Oso couldn't see her nod over the radio.

But just as Oso signed off moving from the primary ambush point to them, Croce growled into the radio. "Shit! How the fuck did she see me? I just knocked like a single pebble, this is bullshit!!" His talons raised waiting for the next grenade. It popped up and he instantly swatted it back down nearly catching just a touch of the blast. They were carefully timing them, trying to get them to detonate just as they cleared the rooftop. Lexi was just happy they weren't throwing grenades at her.

"Mud pony! Listen very carefully! I need you to shoot at them, just fire up SATS and get back in cover quickly I can't get out of here without that big one turning me to ash!" He grumbled readying for the next grenade, but he really didn't want to wait. They had already been getting very close, they'd have it any second and if he left without a distraction, the large earth pony mare down below with the duel gatling laser battle saddle would dust him in an instant. "Just get a shot or two in! Aim for the big one!!!"

Lexi spared precious seconds hyperventilating before she clicked her armor into overdrive and popped into the alleyway and activating SATS. She didn't care what was what or who the 'big one' was. She just went from left to right queuing a body shot for each enemy until the spell didn't have any more juice. Still panicking and nearly losing her mind, she executed the attacks. In slow motion she watched the bullets fly. The Raider mares were not all wearing armor, but it didn't really matter. The bullets almost all missed, save for two, and the first of those just had the bullets ping off of thick armor on her rump, the second just barely grazed the mare, taking off a bit of her ear.

She could already see Croce in slow motion just barely taking off. But panic started to seep into her as the slow motion didn't stop. She wanted nothing more than to pop back behind the corner and never pop out again, but just then she saw something that surprised her.

It was him again, she didn't notice him slipping in, but the same unicorn in his dingy trench coat, his heavy revolver aimed straight up arching down, leveling just inches away from one of the mare's heads. Lexi was overjoyed that she had somepony on her side , but she was also absolutely horrified as the revolver went off and the mare's head exploded into a burst of splattering blood and gray matter.

She blinked and he was gone, and just as fast she kicked herself back behind the corner, triggering the armor to return to its normal power draw. Only having it active for mere seconds. And less than a second after that Croce came bouncing and flailing around the corner, his wings smoldering and a bloody red and charred mark on the joint to his left wing.

"Balls that hurts!" He cringed digging through his bags for a potion but the loud clinking made him seize Lexi by her armor and spring forward as the grenade went off. The armor was heavy, even for him, and especially for him while he was injured. He only got her about five feet away and behind some crates. Luckly for them both, Lexi landed with her back to the explosion and Croce in front of her.

The old crates might as well have not existed as the blast decimated them and showered her armor with heavy splinters that thankfully did close to nothing. "Can we go home now?" Lexi barely managed to whimper, she would look back on the day and likely be surprised she even managed to whimper that.

"Come out little birdy... Don't worry, we'll clip your wings and you can be our pet!" To Lexi, the raiders didn't sound crazy, just very disgruntled.

"Fucking ponies..." Croce downed the healing potion and hefted a grenade. Unlike the mares around the corner, Croce's talons gave him the finesse that hooves lacked. Pulling the pin, he counted carefully perhaps a little too accurately as Lexi's heart rate went up even more watching the apple shaped grenade sit in his palm for what seemed like hours before he finally hurled it at the mares. "YEEEET!

The grenade bounced off of the wall at a good angle and Lexi swore she heard a mare yelp as if it hit her in the eye before it went off. She made a mental note to not go around that corner again. Her body felt numb and distant, even when Croce grabbed her and practically yelled at her, apparently he had asked a question, then again, now he yelled at her and she still didn't hear it. His open palm smacked her over the head bringing her back.

"Does your pipbuck show any more of them!?" He growled as Lexi blinked, just barely dropping out of her stupor.

Looking down at the display she noticed a bar still around the corner, then two more. She turned until the bars were in front of her. Croce cursed loudly as Lexi's pupils shrank. The bars were in front of her, and so was a very heavy set mare in armor with two gatling lasers mounted on her battle saddle. Just behind her there was another mare, a mare missing her ear with a very angry expression on her face.

"Oh we are going to have some fun with you!" The heavy mare smiled down at Croce who visibly cringed. Lexi could see the internal conflict, like a little Croce named Pride Croce squabbling with Survival Croce over what to do next. But what was just as scary for Lexi, despite how much she scooted back as the heavy mare's hoof inched forward smoothing over her chin. "And you... we are going to have a lot fun with you..."

This was one very small moment where Lexi almost preferred to just get shot. But as she watched the same hoof pull back, ready to knock the daylights out of her, a shadow cast over them and she saw exactly how and why they had noticed Croce when the ambush was spoiled.

The shadow had barely even been the slightest of things to notice in that slight moment, but the now one eared mare shot her gaze skyward and began to unload with the one beam rifle attached her battle saddle. But the flash of brown was just a little too fast, and far too durable. The beams of red lanced forward and burned into the bulk of the giant Griffon, but Oso rushed in, barely skimming over her and then somersaulting upside down into her. The one eared mare was astoundingly fast and escaped Oso's first grasp, then barely ducked under his heaving horizontal swing which pinned the much larger mare against the brick wall with the bladed end of his weapon, but the third arcing swing resulted in his grasping talons seizing her by the neck. She was fast, but had not expected something as big as Oso to be so relentless in his movements.

As if it were a toy, Oso tore the beam pistol off her saddle and then as she started to savagely scream and swear some sort of vengeance on him, he grasped her face clenching her jaw shut. He gave a sad sigh, despite the many laser bolts that had burned into him, he looked into her eyes with a distant sadness. "I'm sorry..."

Lexi's eyes widened and she jerked her vision away at the wet loud pop. She could hear the body hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Swallowing, Lexi barely managed to open her eyes and seeing the twitching and spasming body on the ground as well as the one pinned to the wall with the bladed scythe like pick through the heavy mare's head made her clench her eyes shut again.

"There might be more..." Croce started and Oso nodded.

"Secure the payload, I'll see to the little one." Croce nodded and took off as Oso nudged Lexi to her hooves and helped her away from the bodies. "You ok?"

Lexi could still feel her shivering, but she nodded. "Y..Yeah... I just... I ... I don't think I'm going to get used to it."

"Yeah... but you did pretty good all things considered... at least from what I can tell." He tried to smile but a single pop of Croce's pistol and the small red bar on her Eyes forward Sparkle blinking out sent her back to clenching her eyes shut.

Oso just sighed and looked about. Popping a berry he gave a sigh, patting her head he stood up. "We'll be back in just a moment, we will need to move fast." She heard him trot down the alley until his wings spread, the first flap almost hid the sound of his weapon pulling from the mare's head and her body rolling to the ground. She didn't see him wiping the blade clean over a patch of armor on his leg. Oso was large, but he was very efficient.

It took her another few minutes to stand up. She utterly refused to turn around and look back down the alleyway. She had to do a lot of pretended not to see things as she made her way out to where Croce was standing. She instantly spotted something she was almost certain she had seen earlier but not been sure of. The cart the mares were guarding was being pulled by two very heavily bound stallions. Their manes cut short, a series of burns and scrapes, it was very clear that they had been extremely mistreated, and perhaps been through some other rather degrading mistreatments.

Lexi sat mostly in a daze as Oso cut the stallions loose, they didn't stay for long. From the looks on their faces before they bolted, they looked to be surprised that Croce and Oso didn't just kill them, and the way they looked at Lexi seemed to imply they would never really want to lay eyes on another mare ever again.

"This haul of garbage is going to make a bunch of ghouls like us?" Croce poked at the crate. Everything around it on the cart was just burned out only barely salvageable garbage.

"No, that garbage is going to hopefully help them forgive us for being on the same side as Tyrin..." Oso seemed a bit stressed just thinking about it, so Lexi decided against asking.

However, Croce either didn't pick up on the stress or more likely, didn't care. "What did he do?" Croce didn't look up from the junk as he asked.

Oso grumbled to himself near angrily. "Tyrin is very opinionated.... scratch that.. EXTREMELY opinionated. He said something they took exception to and we haven't been able to return in a long while..." He looked over to Croce and shook his head before tying the severed binds from the cart to his armor and he quickly began pulling it. "Same problems we always have..."

Lexi popped up next to Oso keeping up easily. She was very happy with the armor, it wasn't nearly as tight and uncomfortable as before and she accurately felt like somepony else was walking for her. "So... I mean.. I don't want to make it awkward, but... um... how long have you guys been doing this?" Lexi leaned in trying to catch Oso's eye.

He spared her just a second of eye contact, the wheels of the cart were horrible and he was more dragging it than pulling it on its wheels. "Most of my life... most of our lives... well, accept for Yin..."

"Oh? Is he new to the group? Or... well.. heck, what is he?" She kept pace with him but the way he sighed and slightly picked up the pace showed that perhaps today wasn't a good day for talking. After all, Croce did ruin the ambush and ask questions that Oso didn't want to answer. But she was asking questions too, but she figured her questions were a little less aggravating. She sighed and slowly sank back, letting the cart pull further ahead.

"You should probably ask him, and not me." Oso continued forward, the tone of his voice clearly stating he was trying not to be angry. But something was eating at him more so than normal. But she found something to take her attention away from it and give him some space.

She spotted a small case wedge between two pieces of the burned garbage heaped up on the cart. Snagging it she happily looked it over. It looked like a small case for glasses, her hopes went up, until she opened it to realize it wasn't glasses, but identifying the contents made her hopes skyrocket again. The container really was a glasses case, a very fancy glasses case, it even had a silk interior, nearly two hundred years in the wastes did little for its exterior, but it was still in one piece.

She looked them over, four of them two blues, a pink and a yellow. They just sat there looking pretty, as if they were waiting for her to pick them up and try them out. She peeked back then forward, Oso steadily pulled the cart and Croce flew overhead. He still looked like he was struggling a little, the feathers had not fully returned from where he took a beam or two. Picking up the pace she nudged Oso who looked down at her. "Hey, um... I don't wanna bother you too much, but can I sit on the cart and use one of these?"

She hefted the box and he looked closely before shrugging. "Sure, but if you wake up in a hole or gutter, stay low until we come back, it probably means that I threw you there for cover."

She flinched, thinking of him simply chucking her across the street. But in the end, she nodded and climbed the cart and sat firmly on the crate. She fiddled with her bags and finally managed to pop out the wires and tangled mess that was the recollector that Earl had given her. She took a bit longer to fit it into her pipbuck but when it was fixed into place she lay on the box looking over the little spheres. That was when she noticed a few things, firstly the box was in terrible shape. Despite the excessive aging damage to the case, she could still identify another fabric, the patterns of damage suggested that the case was inside a bag which was torn open on debris which effectively trapped pieces of the fabric of the bag into the soft fuzzy fabric over the case. It wasn't important, but she did like finding such things out.

She tilted the case and noticed smudged writing on the underside. She could only just barely make out what was very likely 'If found please return to:' Then she could only just barely read off an S and P as the first two letters of the name. It was extremely elaborate fancy calligraphy, but the ink had clearly gotten wet. More than likely it had been dropped on the ground and rained on for dozens of years. She plucked up the pink orb and plugged it into the recollector. There was a soft buzz and the world whisped away.

She wanted to blink, to pinch herself to see if it was real. But he was there, just staring at her with possessive bedroom eyes. She knew him, she knew him shamefully well. Her heart raced as he leaned forward and planted a kiss on her lips, had this not been a memory her nose would likely be fountaining blood, not just because of the kiss, not just because of how handsome he was, no... Because she knew him very very well. All the mares she worked with knew him very well, he was Lexington Steel a VERY famous adult entertainment star.

She felt her body move, embracing him and going with the motions. But her mind was on fire. Finally, horny Lexi was winning, logical Lexi was just standing there with a blank unregistering face, there was literally nothing that she could do or say, this was happening. She didn't know who the pony was who put this orb in here but she was extremely thankful. She remembered hearing news of the entertainment industry talking about such programs to use the memory orbs, she never thought that they would succeed with the overwhelming majority of unicorns across the nation being drafted or hunted down for research jobs. She never thought that there would be anypony left to make memory orbs for the entertainment industry much less specifically the adult entertainment industry. Not only that, but the owner of the orbs must have been extremely well connected to simply get an entertainment orb so easily, especially one with Lexington Steel himself.

As the act began she could feel herself look over at a mirror, almost as if for a better view. She instantly spotted another famous pony, the pony she was for lack of better words 'inside' was a mildly famous pegasus mare in the same business. But she couldn't remember the name and she didn't notice the wings, and she had to be honest, she didn't care in the slightest, finally she could just sit back and let something good happen to her.

She sighed, extremely happily, her eyes fluttered open and panic shot through her. Her mouth was taped shut and she was in a very dark room. She instinctively struggled to find that her armor was not on her, but confused she quickly found that her 10mm was still strapped to her back and her legs weren't bound. Clearly Croce and possible Oso had done this, looking about she quickly noted that the orbs were all gone as well. She tore off the tape with some effort and was about to shout up a storm when she heard voices.

She leaned in to hear the heated words. Clearly she could hear Tyrin, this implied that they were in the fort. But she would ask later why she was gagged and thrown into what she guessed was a closet.

"They are fucking cowards and you know it!" Tyrin sounded very angry, angry enough for Lexi to not want to leave the closet.

"I don't care, if we do this you can't come. No matter how right or wrong you are, your mouth gets us in a lot of trouble that your crazy powers can't get us out of. That's probably why the wolves jumped at the chance to deal with us through Lexi instead of you." Oso's words were surprisingly forward, she had never heard him so assertive towards Tyrin.

"If you want me to stop calling them what they are, try telling them to stop... and you!" She heard a loud crash, far too loud to be a simple bottle or chair smashing about. Tyrin had apparently thrown something very heavy at what she was convinced was Croce. "Wipe that fucking smile off your face. This is fucking private!"

"Hey! I'm just here to protect the stupid mud pony... Me listening is just a coincidence." He chuckled then let out a yelp as a massive boom echoed and Croce's squawk was followed by a panicked "The literal fuck?!? You just shot at me with a fucking grenade!"

There was the distant sound of chugging before Tyrin growled again. "It was a warning shot you little shit!"

Oso's voice pinged in with what actually sounded like annoyance. "Tyrin! Go drink more, Croce, go check on Lexi. I'll get the wagon ready."

She could hear Tyrin growling and complaining as he went off further away, the sound of empty bottles shattering and heavy objects crashing about got further and further away before she could just barely make out the sound of Oso's voice in a near whisper. "Just let him get drunk, he'll pass out and we'll go, we just got to get Lexi. It's been two hours, she's got to wake up soon."

Croce shuttered, not so quietly grumbling. "I just hope she's done, I couldn't take all the moaning and whispering. The hell was in that memory orb?"

Lexi went stiff and bright red, not even able to squeak, even as Oso answered. "Oh you know damned well what was on the memory orb. Don't pretend it's something else."

"Sure... but can we like... throw her in some water first or something? I'm NOT carrying her after that." As they closed the distance she swore she could actually could hear him making a disgusted face.

"Of all the souls present, you are literally the only one qualified to carry her, remember what you WOULD have done had I not interrupted." Oso's chuckle was nearly cut short when Oso grunted, obviously throwing a punch at him which he easily ignored.

"I was almost dead! I didn... I.. It was... SHUT UP!" Flustered Croce clearly wanted to forget that day in the snow.

The argument would have continued had Oso not opened the closet and both Griffons stared blankly down at the little earth beet red pony staring up at them. "Oh..." They both seemed to say in unison.

She shifted just barely. "C... can I... um.. can I have the memory orbs back?"

Oso's surprised features turned to a scowl. "No... no more memory orbs unless we are out of the field and you are somewhere very private for an extended amount of time."

He almost had trouble looking at her as he grumbled the new rule. Croce nodded and nonchalantly added. "You squeal very loudly..."

Oso glared at him as if he just didn't want to remember it, but more than anything Lexi's cheeks burned bright red and her eyes forcefully glued to the floor. Logical Lexi forcefully tried to push any other thought into her mind than her tossing and turning loudly enjoying a first class ride on the Lexington Steel Express while her friends had to literally carry her to wherever they currently were and were so bothered by it that they had to tape her mouth shut.

"We don't have time for this... go get ready, your armor is over there. We are heading to the ghouls in an hour, be ready or we are putting you in a box for the trip." Oso grumbled as he turned about. Croce too left but he didn't go far. He fluttered his way into a small makeshift nest of boxes and small amounts of loot he appeared to pick out from the building. Lexi scuttled over to where she found her armor. She felt like she had been shot, this was far more than just a little embarrassing, the day had gone from amazing and stress relieving to a very high degree all the way to the horribly embarrassing realization that her friends were likely carrying her with no choice but to listen to some VERY private moments.

Scooting under the armor she stood up into it and hooked her Pipbuck up letting the armor close around her. Mumbling and not exactly ready to go talking to the Griffons just yet, she sat down next to her shame cupboard as some of the Lexis began calling it. But as she sat pushing a small rock around with her armored hoof, something caught her eye. It was no real cause for alarm, but the cupboard had a bobby pin in it. Curious she pulled it out.

"Maybe they had to pick it to stuff me in there..." But then she thought, Oso was more likely to just rip the door off and cram it back, and all Croce knew about lock picking was what he learned through her, which wasn't all that much, and Tyrin? She shivered, Tyrin would have rather thrown her off a cliff or shot her rather than even look at her longer than two seconds much less help open a door.

The little mystery confounded her for a few moments but she stood up and started around the camp as Oso tied the 'gift' for the ghouls to a better cart. It looked as though he had gone through and sorted out all the garbage, even cleaned up some of the gear. The little team they seemed to have going was very efficient, but she felt it was most likely all Oso, she never figured a creature as big as him would be so dedicated to his work, but everything did seemed to be done with so much attention to detail, it almost reminded her of her mother. But then again, he didn't seem that anti social, and Tyrin was the alcoholic of the group. She started to think of all the Griffons as different parts of her mom, but stopped. The whole idea just made her sad and angry.

"H..hey.. Croce?" She didn't look up at his little nest, but she could hear him constantly tinkering with his guns.

"What?" His answer was a little aggressive, but that wasn't irregular.

She chewed her lip, almost as if she didn't figure she would get this far. Almost as if she only spoke his name to see if he was willing to speak to her, she didn't quite know what to say. "Um... What were your parents like?"

Looking up at him for a moment she saw him just scoff and roll his eyes. "They were like parents, raised me and booted me out of the house at 12. Nothing special..."

There was an odd aggression in his voice, she didn't want to focus too much on it. "It's ok if you don't want to talk about it..."

"Ok, good... I don't." He grumbled and started scrubbing at his gun with a small brush.

It was disappointing to see him so unwilling to talk, but she didn't press it. He was already rather angry at her for possibly a dozen and a half reasons she wasn't yet aware of. So she just sat looking back down and pushing the same rock with her armored hoof.

"We are ready, let’s go!" Oso's voice gave her a bit of a jump. But she got up and started towards the cart. Oso had replaced the reins with a push bar and a small shield of scrap metal. But the space between it all was too small for him.

"Who's gonna pull the cart?" She looked it over and noticed Croce already leaving the building.

Oso walked beside her giving her a firm pat on the back. "Have you ever heard the phrase 'Being Voluntold'?"

Easily putting together the words told and volunteer, she grimaced. At least she had the partial power armor. It took only a few seconds for Oso to get her into the little cart to pull it, other than having to do manual labor, she did feel a little better knowing that even if it was mostly the armor, she could actually perform manual labor. Poor pre end of the war Lexi would have died of exhaustion just getting into the harness without the armor.

"Cheer up little one, we all have our parts to play in life. Right now, the little cog in the great machine that you are is just to pull the cart and not get shot." He chuckled and gestured for her to follow.

As they left, Lexi couldn't help but look back and wonder what kind of a role Tyrin had in the 'great machine' Oso mentioned. All he seemed to do is make big decisions for the group and get really angry between getting drunk. Her mind rolled over the group trying to line it up and take a look from other perspectives, But she didn't have much to go on. How long had they been doing all this? Tyrin himself looked like he was somewhere around 50 or 60 years old, Oso looked to be in his mid thirties, Yin was a tree and she couldn't even start to guess at Earl. With no cutie mark she wondered if he was even a pony.

The group seemed to have a specific drive, something about their plan was bigger, much bigger than just surviving. She remembered back at the big Griffon saying the those three words that drug her into the group. 'It's worth it'. The look in his eyes didn't just convince her to join the group. Looking into his eyes, she really believed it, in that short moment, a strange hope had entered her and she really believed it. She didn't know what their plan was and it wasn't that she doubted them, but it was almost like if they were building a 'fix everything' button and they could just miracle the last 200 years away.

She snorted feeling the wagon's wheels clunking about, getting caught on various bits of debris. It wasn't a problem for her with her armor, but she did wonder if between her and Oso they could program the armor to pull the cart without her. But then she stopped, imagining getting attacked when she wasn't wearing it. Every battle was terrifying to her, but with the armor, battle was just a little less terrifying. She quite liked the armor, it felt more than a little protective. She smiled looking back at how it covered her. The inside was contoured to her figure, cupping her hips as the outside was shaped to deflect bullets and shrapnel away from her at various angles without creating a weak point in the armor.

She squinted, something was off. Slowing down she tested what she figured the problem was by jumping. It wasn't an impressive jump, But sure enough. The harness clanked loudly. "How did you get undone?" She struggled to reach up to fit the harness back into place but was having a bit of trouble.

"Hey! Oso, the harness popped open, can I get your help?" She squirmed as she started forward a little faster. Oso was just a little ways off and turned about when he heard her.

He trotted up slowly, looking the harness over. The thing connected to her armor in three places with rings hooked over small points in her armor before a larger flexible piece of material folder over her rear clasping at her sides over her flanks nearly smooshing her bags. The flexible piece had popped free and was riding up. Oso looked it over and shrugged before securing it.

"It should be good, but if it gets loose again, you'll just have to get used to it for a while, I'm going to get up there for a bit and scout out the path ahead with Croce, you should be fine, there's nothing in the area, and if we see anything we will come rushing back ok?" He gave her head a pat and shot off before she could answer.

Huffing she mumbled, not quite sure about what but started going again. Pulling the cart as she watched the massive Griffon fade as a spec in the distance against the cloudy sky. Oso was more than just muscle, his every action showed a small kindness, even if he had a set amount of patience that ran out a little faster than she would have liked. He had other talents and seemed to be a decent guy, even if he had his secrets.

She pouted loudly. Every one of them had secrets, she would have had secrets if she wasn't so boring. 'Then step up! be ambitious'. Lexi slapped the ambition label on that Lexi, she hoped to see more of her. As she watched the little Lexis in her head bounce about and debate, she nibbled her lower lip. She thought of Logical Lexi, the core and more dominant part of her personality. Logic, it was the hinges and joints of the universe, or rather the understanding of the hinges. She remembered her mother taking a carefully folded piece of paper, repetitive flawlessly symmetrical folds. Watching the paper fluctuate and implode on itself within her mother's magic. 'This... this is the universe. It's so complex and can do almost anything. But...' Her little eyes widened as she watched the paper practically crumple up. '...Chaos, disorder can be intimidating, it can throw you for a loop certainly. I mean look at this... but then... look.. look closely. not a single new fold is made... No matter how scary chaos is, the universe will always follow it's own laws, just like this paper will always default to it's own pre grooved folds.'

Lexi smiled, her logical side was nearly as old as she was. Logical Lexi was something she depended on a lot, a true gift from her mother. She smiled picturing the interior of her mind, as the Lexis squabbled and debated, Logical Lexi stood on a pedestal above the rest. Others would speak and step up, but Logical Lexi was queen of the castle.

She smirked picking up her trot when there was a soft pop. She looked back at the harness having come loose again. "... Well screw you too!" She grumbled wondering if she should stop and fix it. Such an effort would require her to stop and get fully out of the harness before getting back in little by little, much more difficult if Oso wasn't there with her.

"Maybe Oso is more muscle than brawn..." She hummed looking back. He was rather knowledgeable, he always had an answer of some sort, but for all that, his talon made harness apparently just sucked.

She picked up the pace and grumbled as she felt the harness sagging looser and looser. "Everypony has their spot, Tyrin is... I don't know.. the angry drunk soldier? Oso, the heavy hitter support, Yin... um.. tree I guess, Croce..." She gnawed at her lower lip trying to keep her memories from reigniting her heat. "Yeah... Everypony... bu..." She stopped and blinked. The question did not inspire confidence. What was her spot in all of this?

The Susi said they needed her. Oso had offered her a spot, but was that out of pity? Why was she here?

Her trot slowed and she fretted. Logical Lexi within her was split in dozens of directions, but mostly trying to figure out if she was allowed along for pity reasons, or if she really was needed.

"No!" She shook her head aggressively. Oso's words, he meant it. 'It's worth it.' She was here because she could in some way make a difference, she just didn't know what yet. She huffed and grumbled as the stress built. Her mind rolled along, annoyed by the now flapping harness tugging annoyingly at the spots in her armor.

"I want my memory orbs..." She grumbled looking down at the metaled hooves as she trekked along. She wanted another ticket to the Steel express. Her eyes clenched shut and she quivered, she really really wanted the memory orbs.

Her eyes snapped open at the soft sound of weight on gravel just barely audible over the sounds of the cart. Something was just a little ways away out of sight. She froze, all her thoughts flew out the window and she floundered for a weapon. But strapped into the harness she would have to turn not just her body but the whole cart just to get her battle saddle guns aimed. She started to panic as she struggled to get the cart detached from her armor.

A part of her screamed that it was just a noise, nothing to worry about, but Logical Lexi hounded and pounded it into her mind. 'Rhythmic movement, four separate sources of noise, close together, off set by only foot or two, consistent almost exclusively with a full sized quadruped creature, no repeating noise means it either stopped moving or noticed it's own sound and is being more careful.'

The tension in the air was almost too much, it was like the world was holding its breath with her. She struggled with the harness until she moved to struggling to get her pistol out, wanting so badly for Oso or Croce to just jump out and rescue her.

"You just don't give up do you?"

Lexi blinked at Croce's voice, then flinched as gunshots rang out streaking just over her head and hitting the ground beside her. Oso burst from the underbrush, his charge was so direct and powered, he quite literally back handed an old transport cart out of the way before smashing and rolling about as if he was just rolling around in the dirt before he heaved and smashed his talons into the wall, and right there. A pony took form out of nothingness. A trench coat and fedora wearing unicorn, hissing through his teeth at the excessive force being thrown into him as he was pushed into the wall by the giant Griffon.

"Easy there mate, I didn't mean no harm to the lovely little dove..." His hooves raised even as the magic of his horn began to glow before Croce popped down and forcefully reached into his coat and pulled the Mysterious Stranger's revolver from it's holster.

Cramming the barrel into the Stallion's eye, Croce squinted almost as if he really wanted a reason to pull the trigger. "Really 'mate' then why all the sneaking and stalking?"

Oso nodded silently as slowly, his talons began to constrict over the Unicorn's chest making him audibly wheeze. But with a sudden blink, Lexi's mouth dropped open in a moment of realization as she looked at the pony who had saved her at least twice.

"It... it's you!"

Footnote: No level achieved

No perks, but the Griffons kinda look at you weird now.

This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat, Fallout Equestria Pink Eyes by Mimezinga and Fallout Equestria Project Horizons by Somber; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.

Author - Sanguine Eyes

Chapter editor - Currently N/A

Earl: Concept artist, Proof reader.

Nick Valentine: Artist

Author's Notes:

^w^ Imma try and get more chapters out more often.

Thank you for sticking with me, I hope you like this one.