Author's Notes:

Special Thanks to Propmaster for editing this one!
Also welcome him, as our new permanent story editor.

We had only been walking a bit further into Las Pegasus. The air was stifling hot and being in all my armor did not help one bit. Slowly, our group had grown quiet and Chifundo had gotten apprehensive. Occasionally my PipBuck clicked and we had to change direction, but Chifundo kept within line of sight of our path.

“I sense we were near, to the one Sparrow considers dear,” he called back as we heard voices up ahead.

Alguacil held up a talon while Quick Stitch pointed a hoof to a baby blue coated pegasus with his back to us. His armor looked like a lighter version of the combat armor that Nyota now wore. There was a symbol on it in white against the all black armor: two wings separated by a circle of stars and a E in the center, with the middle line of the E broken into a series of stripes. A second pegasus was next to the stallion, digging into a crate, and all we could really see of him were a set of daisy yellow wings sticking out over the top of the wooden box.

“Enclave,” Alguacil said out loud and looked to the rest of us.

“En-what?” I repeated very confused when Nyota stepped up.

“They are the ones who closed off the sky, pegasi who make our lives miserable and consider us no more than animals and savages.” He paused his explanation. “They usually shoot the vast majority of wastelanders they encounter on sight.”

Oh great, another set of ponies that are just as likely to kill us as talk to us. Well, I'm gonna do the stupid thing and try to go make friends. I looked at Alguacil, Corners, Chifundo and the others. We need a plan, let’s try out that stuff I read in the book I bought.

I took a few moments to examine our surroundings. For a start, there was not one intact building anway nearby. A sign next to overflowing dumpsters read: “Welcome to Las Pegasus.” Except the Las was X’ed out with red marker and New was put in its place. The two pegasi that were scavenging were doing so in the barely standing walls of a diner restaurant. The only clue to this was the cafeteria style counter that still stood in the center of pieces of wall no higher than two bricks stacked in any place. Off to our left was the main roadway and several most intact buildings were nearly 200 yards away.

There was a glimpse of movement there but staring for a while revealed nothing. Okay so we have several alleyways, mostly ruined buildings, and these two scavenging next to an old counter. Let’s think about this.

“Okay, listen up, I'm gonna go say hello, but I'm not doing it as stupid as I have before and end up getting shot.” I made sure I had the attention of all my friends before continuing, “Alguacil and Chifundo, get ready for covering fire if I need to run. Corners, be ready to pin them down, make sure they can't take flight or do anything stupid. Nyota, I don't wanna be able to see or hear you, but I want to know you’re there” I paused when I turned to Quick Stitch, “Quick Stitch, don't get shot, if this goes poorly we’ll need you to keep anypony we can alive. We don't wanna kill any of them if we can help it.”

Everypony grumbled considering my last statement, but did as I asked. I saw Alguacil and Chifundo had rifles out and had a bead on the pegasi. Corners looked locked and loaded, with machine gun barrels pointing out of the top of her box, while Nyota was suddenly gone. I felt his gaze upon me, but I could not see nor hear the zebra. Alright, here goes nothing.

I pulled my helmet off my saddlebags and slammed it on. EFS changed to display on the visor when I brought it down. The two dots in front of me registered as one grey and one red. Red is usually a very bad thing, right? I trotted right up towards the two pegasi, before a piece of wood gave under my hoof just far enough away that I could run up to them in one good bound.

They both popped up and looked at me. “Halt! Who goes—what the heck?” The pegasus stallion not digging through the box said, as he turned and started to raise his magical energy rifle my way before stopping. I recognized it as a model Sparkle-4, but slightly modified with a smaller caliber chamber and a cheaper plastic material than the usual composite.

“Kid, what are you doing here? This area is off limits!”

“Oh, I'm looking for somepony, maybe you could help me out?” I asked, and the pegasus looked at me like I was the ghost of Celestia asking for a glass of milk.

“What the heck, Silver Raindrop? Who are you talking to?” The stallion inside the crate asked. The pegasus shouted "OUCH!" and bumped his head on the top of the box trying to get out. The pegasus talking to me remained grey on my E.F.S. but the one inside the box turned to a red dot. Oh boy, please let me talk this down.

“Listen, kid, get out of here.” Silver Raindrop ordered. I couldn't make out a whole lot under his armor and helmet. His black visor obscured his eyes and any facial expression beyond a sour frown at me. It is so unnerving, talking to a pony when you can’t look at their eyes or face; especially with a laser rifle pointed at me.

I must be a hell of a sight for this pegasus. An incredibly heavily armored filly, touting a shotgun and several grenades on my duster. I'm surprised he hasn't fired a warning shot or something yet. I looked at him in a downright offended manner, and he looked back, surprised, before blushing under the brim of his visor. He shifted his head away to avoid my gaze.

“Oh come on, Sunrise! Win them over; surely they aren't bad ponies.” Pink rolled into view against my compass with a grin.

Let’s hope so Pink.

A radio squawk interrupted any conversation we were having for a moment. “Recon team three, anything to report?” The voice was that of a mare and she seemed very hostile to even her own squad.

Silver pressed a wing to his radio, “Yeah, some kid here says they are looking for some pony.”

“Kid? What kind of foal is it?” the mare shot back impatiently.

“Well armored dirt pony, ma'am,” he replied and his other wing went like it was going to salute.

Dirt Pony? That is just downright-

“Shoot her and be done with it,” the voice on the radio ordered with a stern finality to it.

Shoot me! Seriously? Just shooting a pony when you see them? What was this Enclave? Highly armed raiders?

“Alright, kid, you better get out of here, now.” Silver ordered me as he raised his gun; not quite aiming it at me but just in my general direction, ready to fire.

“Look, I just want to ask about a friend, maybe you give me a direction and I head on my way. How hard is it to be a nice pony to another pony?” I asked with a genuine shrug in his direction, hoping to diffuse our situation. My eyes didn't dart to the rifle in his hooves, just back and forth between is face and his own gaze at me.

The other stallion pulled himself out of the crate. His dot is still red, please turn gray or green. He stood up with rifle in his hooves, pointed it right at me and growled.

“Oh, fine, I'll do it!” The other pegasus declared, with a deeper grizzled voice. I didn't have time to move or react, as a beam of super-heated light punched right into my chest splashing against stubbornite chest plate now guarding my heart. I could see the line as the incendiary spell started to fade. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end while my chest felt warm, hot enough to make me flinch. I could feel the heat through the plating but a half second later I took a breath. I felt my heart beating still and my lungs filling with air, never have I been so relieved to hear my own heartbeat.

“What the flank? She didn't go down?” the yellow pegasus said for his final words as his head exploded. I winced and looked away, memories of Spring Bronco flashing to mind as some of the blood hit my hooves. I wanted to scream out for everypony to stop but all I could do was cower there and bite my lip in sympathy. Rifle shots echoed over the ratta-tat-tat of Corners' twin machine guns. I winced and looked away as another smaller caliber rifle fired, and I could hear the squelch of brains splattering onto the ground inches away from me.

The gunfire died down less than a second later and when I looked, the blood stains on the wooden crates told me all I needed to know. There was no movement from either of the pegasi, I bit my lip and wanted to move forward but couldn't.
They shot at you, they deserved it, right? There was no reason your friends shouldn't have protected you.

“Sunrise, they were going to be bad ponies. They shot you and turned down any invitation to talk with threats. They are also the ones who took Hot Cross Buns.” Pink declared and looked at me snorting as she ramped a hoof across the invisible ground under her.

No they weren’t! Whoever the yellow one was, was the one who tried to hurt me. SIlver Raindrop was being reasonable and didn’t want this. He even blushed when I stared him down! Pink, these aren’t bad ponies!

“Sunrise! You have to-” Pink snapped upright and looked at my E.F.S. pointing off at the rising number of red dots at the corners of it. “Get ready!”

I looked down at my E.F.S. and spun to the right to see nothing. When I looked back left, over a dozen red dots lit up the bottom of my display. Oh, that must be the others on the radio.

“Sunrise, you’re not readyyy…” Pink called out in a mockingly childish tone, just before the radio came to life and chirped at us.

“Squad three, report, we heard gun fire. Squad three? Private Silver Raindrop, report!” The voice of that impatient mare echoed off the decayed buildings around us. I hadn’t noticed Corners sneaking up while having my argument with Pink, till heard her voice, replying into the radio.

Oh, Corners, please no! Don't-!

“Hi! Everything is fine,” She started. She doesn't even sound anything like either of those stallions, oh no! “Your friends are, umm, dead. Please don't send any reinforcements through, everything is fine.” My jaw was on the ground as Quick Stitch stopped in his tracks beside me and mirrored my expression. “I swear we didn't do it, I promise we just arrived and they were dead. But don't send reinforcements, everything is fine.”

“Sunrise, you choose the absolute best and worst companions at the same time! I can't wait to see how this plays out!” The pink pony in my head declared while doing cartwheels across the EFS compass at the bottom of my screen. Everytime her hooves touched the compass marker another red dot appeared under it. That was a whole lot of red dots after going across the compass 4 times. There was a collapsed building that shielded the red blips that had just cropped up, when I heard the groan of ghouls.

Oh no, please no, not ferals. I don't think I can handle that right now.

Nyota was still completely beyond my senses, but I heard a rock cascade down a building and suspected that was his own way of expressing being stunned. Even the best laid plans never survive the wasteland. Yep, need to do more reading if we survive this!

“Are those feral ghouls? I think those are feral ghouls, yep. They look hungry.” Pink exclaimed at the top of her lungs as the first decaying, flesh-dripping-from-bone ghoul shambled into view dragging a hoof. At this point, it was like ruined buildings came to life, and beyond the cafeteria bar, ghoul ponies came out of every single nook and cranny of the destroyed city right before our eyes.

The dangers of approaching Las Pegasus were becoming more apparent with each passing second. Eight earth pony ghouls charged out at the two pegasus corpses just out of view of us, where the brain splatter and blood stains were. They began to messily devour on the corpses of the two pegasi we had just slain. My brain couldn’t register it all, like a scene straight out of ‘Night of the Unliving Ponies’ playing out in real life. I suddenly understood why the characters in the movie were staring, dumbfounded, as I did while others watching the movie would scream for ponies to run. You couldn’t run, you couldn’t act, it was all too surreal to process. Only raw horror and trembling fear controlled my pony brain, and because of that I was frozen.

My horror started to mount and I wanted to turn to vomit. You don’t do that to ponies! Please, no, is there no mercy, even in death? I understood now; ghouls were not alive as Alguacil taught me when we first met the feral ones in the trailer. They were beyond saving, and as much as I wanted to believe otherwise, he was right. If I was a decent pony, I had to put them down and end their suffering.

I continued stared in horror, transfixed upon the scene in front of me. Alguacil fired a shot from his rifle, as did Chifundo. I could see box pone's modded-up armored box trying move away from the corpses. My tail passed up two items: one molotrot cocktail and one apple-shaped grenade. I stared at them and then looked at Pink.The amount of perplexion on my face could have matched a zebrican code decrypter. I stared at the objects knowing exactly what do with them but not wanting to kill any pony with them.

“Trust me! It will work wonderfully to make this party really start.” She pulled out a multitiered pink frosted cake that had dynamite sticking out of for candles. “Everypony make a wish!”

I took out a lighter and lit the rag on the end of the bottle as I moved away, my teeth gripped the pin that was the apple stem. I used the lighter in my hoof to light the bottle and my tail reared back. With a flick of my head and tail, the pin to the grenade pulled both went sailing straight and true over the counter and the heads of the ghouls. One even jumped up at it like a dog trying to catch the apple bomb.

My body moved on its own at a full gallop closer to the ghouls! Oh no no no! Wrong way! My mind cried before my body was diving behind the former store front counter with my head firmly down, as the wave of fiery heat washed overhead.

I could feel the heat as the fireball just beyond the crates slam like a tidal wave of force. Even with cover my little body still ached and screamed from its impact. The crates blew apart at the top and lit on fire everywhere else. My head was firmly tucked into the corner of the island in the storm of deadly alcohol-wonderglue mix exploding into the air. Grenade shrapnel was slamming into the counter so hard that it actually penetrated the bar and smacked off my helmet, putting me into a daze. The impact cracked my visor corner and made the world slow to a crawl. Every part of me felt distant yet still there, like all the nerves were firing but no one was picking up the phone.

A dozen feral ghouls all shrieked at once, and then there was silence save for ringing in my ears. I looked behind me with my back against the over engineered furniture piece. I swear, I'm so happy for earth ponies engineering everything beyond what’s necessary right now. Nyota was standing in the open, having revealed his location, unsure if he should move to join me or retreat back. My heart raced to catch up as I started breathing again. The heat in the air was unbearable, the inferno next to me spread out much further than it should be. The haze faded and I started to rise.

I heard a feral to my left, and saw that Corners was frantically trying to fend one of the pony ghouls off of her box. My shotgun came into my muzzle, I got the grip in my mouth just right, and then it was like reality blinked, again! My hooves tripped over each other and I fell forward, while the gun came out of my mouth. I watched in horror as my tail reflexively went to catch the tumbling barrel that was moving to point at my own face, and then the weapon propped itself between the ground and my chest as my tail caught it. The gun let out a roar of pure rage, directed at its owner.

My chest plate exploded in pain and agony, and the wrath of a shotgun blast directly into my own form sent me flying into the counter as all the air was driven from my lungs. I slumped against the counter, shotgun collapsing right into the crease of my right foreleg and shoulder. The heat of the barrel burning on my flesh as I tried desperately to take another breath. I could feel bits inside me, shifting around. I knew something had penetrated.

Am I dead? Is this what dying feels like? Panic welled up inside, suppressed only by an inhale that brought new pains to me. My breathing stopped from the agony. My chest burned as I tasted blood in my mouth, my eyes strained to stay open. My heart wasn't beating at all, everything felt numb as I saw my own blood oozing from under the armor plates. Then I took in a breath and my heart suddenly began to pound in my chest again. The ringing in my ears stopped and all I could hear was the steady rhythm of pulses from inside refusing to die. I'm alive, oh dear Goddesses, it hurts, but I'm alive. My armor plating, it held. But it still hurts so much. The taste of hot metal hit my tongue, and I coughed once, propelling three buckshot balls out onto the ground from my lips.

The feeling in my limbs returned as the burning inferno of molotrot cocktail raged and chewed across the ground towards me. I gasped for any air and moved to suck in colder air than the fire was making. The a breeze opposite the fire and cover I had, washed over my body. The sound of wing beats filled my ears to the right. The ghoul and Corners were duking it out on my left. Rifle fire from a smaller gun, followed by a much higher caliber shot, re-awoke my hearing and replaced the ringing. I recognized it as Chifundo and Alguacil’s rifles firing in tandem. The ringing of the shotgun explosion slowly left my ears, replaced with the sizzle of laser fire and Corners’ machine guns rattling off a dozen rounds of ammunition.

The world came into focus: I could see four pegasi raining down laser bolts at my friends from the sky. Even the two who were just hovering hardly above the counter I was hiding under had opened fire. Pegasi rained down deadly lances of red that sizzled the air, silencing my friends’ rifles and pinning them down. Either they don't see me, or they are ignoring me.I need to get their attention! I know I have more armor than any of my friends. I stared in awe at the firefight of bullets versus magical energy rifling through the air. Chifundo was struggling to get off shots when six different red blasts threatened to turn him to ash.

Nyota had disappeared again, but there was a dead pegasus without a single bullet wound or explosive burn on him—only bruises around his neck. He was motionless. Alguacil got off one shot, only to have more shots returned than I could count, nearly blowing the dumpster he was behind apart. Corners racked the sky with gunfire to no avail, as pegasi dodged her fire, but at least they couldn’t shoot back without a hail of bullets flying from her at them. Quick Stitch was behind a building, firing blindly with the needler as fast as darts could be put in it.

My mind raced for an idea, a distraction to unpin my friends.. Do they think I'm dead? What was that reason they called Hot Cross Buns a dashite, was that because they referenced Rainbow Dash?

My tail passed me something from a three days ago, the bouncing betty motion sensor mine. “Go on! Let's find out if they can play frisbee! It shouldn't be powerful enough to kill them, just maim them bad enough to bring them down to you!” Pink shouted with a sadistic glee that could only be described as genocidal insanity.
I growled at Pink, then hung my head as I nosed the aim button. How do I get their attention? The mine started beeping, indicating it was arming.

“Call em Rainbow Dash! They will absolutely love it!” Pink clearly had some ulterior motive by the expression painted on her face, but she hadn't led me wrong yet right?

“HEY!” I shouted out at the twin pegasi who were firing lances of deadly energy at my friends, “Rainbow Dash wanna-be’s!”
I hurled the mine as I spoke, and the beeping got more intense until it stopped.

The first pegasus mare looked down. “Excuse me, you little—” she was cut off by the mine going into her mouth and starting to a different beep, not the arming one, the detonating one. The world slowed to a crawl as the two pegasi flying next to each other stared into each other's eyes. The mine opened, and in slow motion a large egg-like orb covered in spikes shot out into the air.

“Dammit, High Wind,” These were the pegasus next to the one who catch the mine as the flash of a new sun brightened the sky above us. The battlefield fell silent, and all firing stopped. That wasn’t a standard bouncing betty, it was an anti-squadron bomb. Made not to maim but annihilate an entire fire team in one blast. The wave of explosive force washed over me and shrapnel bounced off my armored plates. I shielded my eyes with a hoof, and I felt a weight in my tail's grip as my eyes returned to looking at where the two pegasi had been. Red and pink rain dropped all around me.

“Oh, Sunrise, I didn't mean to...” Pink didn't finish the sentence because I was screaming at her, out loud.

THAT WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO DISABLE THEM! Pink, are you insane? They... they... they... I couldn't think, I couldn't move, all I could do was stare as two beat up energy rifles bounced onto the ground next to me, while blood soaked into the brown leather duster covering my stable suit. I saw the reflection of flame in my visor and thought somepony was shooting at me now.

“Sunrise! Pay attention! Snap out of it, I got a—”

SHUT UP, PINK! That wasn't supposed to kill anypony! And now they're blown to— my thought never got to finish as I saw my tail holding a lit molitrot cocktail. The rag fuse was almost burned all the way into the bottle lip. My tail panic-threw it, right into the counter I was using for cover. The world erupted in pain, burning horrific pain.
I couldn't move. All my nerves were screaming in agony, while fresh blood sizzled off me and I felt just how sensitive my tail was. The pain seared all the way from the tip of my tail! Whatever stable-tec had done, my tail could feel just like a hoof or my mouth! I screamed.

“Stop, drop, and roll! Sunrise! Stop, drop, and roll!” Pink screamed out repeatedly, but all that came from me was incoherent screams of torment. My armor heated up, I could feel the searing of my body against the plating. I felt somepony bite my tail and that just elicited an even louder scream! My scream was just an incoherent wail that filled the air louder than any gunfire. Even my own ears range with my voice shrieking in pain at a pitch that could break glass. All feeling rushed back when I inhaled a mouth full of water.

The noise of laser fire faded as I was submerged, and I saw Quick Stitch standing over me, horn glowing while he pulled me back to the surface. I felt my body start to cool off and his horn continued to glow as my wounds closed. The burned flesh being regenerated off made my armored jumpsuit uncomfortably squishy inside. Oh dear Goddesses, is this what it feels like to hug a ghoul bare flanked? I shuddered when a flash in the distance brought a whole new world of pain to my chest. A sniper was shooting me, and they were looking for a chink in my armor to exploit.

My chest heated up, while the water Quick Stitch had thrown me into caused my PipBuck to click once, before the next bolt of death lanced at me. The pegasus sniper found his chink in my armor. Even as gunfire roared out nearby, my body shuddered as I felt something inside me resisting the sudden need to fall to pieces. It was like being pulled apart all at once, resisting the urge to just cease to exist as everything burned from tip of my nose to my hooves, all at once. I let out a silent scream of defiance, a final cry to demand to stay whole. Everything went red for an instant, while my vision flashed with the next laser bolt right at my eyes.

Am I dead? Did they disintegrate me? Is this what that it—OH, GODDESSS!” My vision came back into clear focus as I fell forward, my right foreleg not supporting me at all. In my vision, though, was a sight I didn't want to see: Quick Stitch bleeding from his flank and nose, two clear holes punched into his shoulder through his armor. He was losing blood quickly while his horn tended to me.

The sniper's scope gleamed once more, but she didn't get a chance to fire. Two cracks—one from a revolver and one from a light rifle—slammed into her body. The mare holding the sniper focused beam rifle took aim again, to finish me or Quick Stitch off. She screamed out as shot after shot penetrated her from the two rifles, followed by a stream of tracer fire from Corners. She fell to the ground and even a hundred yards away, I could see Corners hail of fire was bouncing off her armor, and only the rifles had penetrated. The pressure of fire, however, were driving the pegasus into an unrecoverable tail spin. The pegasus tumbled through the air, screaming in agony like I had, before impacting into the ground just out of sight.

Her death spiral drew my attention to something in the distance. I started trembling at what was in the distance beyond the sniper. With dirt flying out around them, two creatures emerged from the ground.

Their claws were as long as my PipBuck. Their teeth were jagged, and each mouth could easily swallow both my front or hind legs in one gulp. They were covered in scars, and their fur was growing wild and forming curls on the end. Each of them had eyes that narrowed into a slit instead of a round pupil, bloodshot and a sickly yellow. They were covered in pieces of metal for armor and their hulking forms could only be described as a nightmare on legs. If a diamond dog could be turned into a demon, that was what I was staring at.

They wore domed metal helmets on their heads with dozens of pronged spikes sticking out all over it, power gems glowing at the end of each spike. On each of their necks was a solid metal ring choker collar with a box and a light on it. Is that an explosive on their neck? I could see the tell-tale signs of explosives, something akin to a square grenade, against their throats. My body shook with fear as I stared at the two creatures. A new wave of pegasi—six in total—flew towards us, along with a string of zebras all sporting the Dashite branding described by Sparrow. The Enclave calvary had arrived, and they brought with them demons straight from Tartarus itself.

“Sunrise! The thing, the thing you rigged, get it out!” My leg roared with a whole new kind of pain, and when I looked, my tail had stuck a syringe of Med-X into it. As the appendage depressed the plunger, all my pain vanished in a second. My mind grew a bit hazy, and then everything cleared up. I couldn't feel any pain, and I barely registered the water against my hooves. I stood up, and while I noticed my leg was weak, I didn't feel the pain I thought I should.

Pink, I don't think that will be possible. I can't, I just killed two...

“SUNRISE! When I say do this we don’t have time or room to debate for morality’s sake! Because if you don't, all your friends are going to die! Yes, I lied! Get over it! Your stupid Old World hang ups are getting them killed! Push past it right now, or I’ll do it for you, and then you can deal with the consequences of what I do with your hooves!” Pink’s screaming ultimatum came with a dark presence in my mind. A presence I feared. I knew she was right deep down; this new presence threatened to dominate me if I didn’t do something. Everything in me screamed to try to beg for parlay, but knew it was futile all at once. Suddenly, the world around us seemed to grow slow, so slow that everyone froze. I looked at the HUD provided by my Eyes Forward Sparkle, and saw that the bar for S.A.T.S. was active.

When did I—

“You didn't, I DID!” Even the laser rifle bolts racing at my friends moved at a speed I could follow. Bullets in the air slowed so much I could count their rotations as they span from their rifling. The S.A.T.S. bar was burning slowing down, I didn’t have a whole lot of time.

I stared back at her. Pink, are you sure about this?

“No, Sunrise, but if you don’t do something, everypony you like dies. Now, I only have your tail, so you will have to work the bomb.” Pink replied, and as I looked at my inventory screen, I saw what bomb she was referring to. Out of all the grenades, molotrot cocktails, IEDs with sprinkles, even the Sparkle-Cola RAD bomb I'd made last night. 'Special-4 Fuse Configured' – 5 lbs.' I stared and saw Pink who was running and leaving glowing S.A.T.S. hoofprints in the dirt for me to follow. I locked the action in S.A.T.S. and it took over. I followed Pink, running through the remains of a pegasi, closing my eyes and trying to not think about how the insides crushed under my hooves.

I could feel duct tape coming out and strapping together my explosives to make this new bomb. Pink save the Sparkle-Cola RAD bomb, I thought in my gallop as I ran past pegasi firing, who stopped and stared in disbelief as I ran through their lines. Pink rolled her eyes, and I felt something returned to my saddlebags. More explosives were pulled and taped together in my full gallop. I held the improvised explosive tight against the small of my back while my tail worked to create a boom bigger than anything I’d ever imagined doing.

I saw Nyota choking out another zebra, as another zebra dashed out to stop me. Zebras? Where had they come from?

Why were they helping these pegasi kill us? The zebra mare in Nyota’s grip had her head explode in a hail of gunfire from Box Pone's machine guns.

Quick Stitch called out, “Sunrise! What are you doing? Your leg!” His concerns fell on deaf ears as Med-X drove me to ignore all pain.

“Push it aside, Sunrise. Show them the wrath of a desperate mare!”

“What is she doing?” Alguacil shouted out as I charged into the thick of every pegasus within 30 feet of the massive hulking demon sand dog.

“EVERYPONY! GET DOWN!” I called out, as I clipped a lighter against the fuse and my tail let the explosive fly. My hooves dug in and did a one hundred and eighty degree turn. My vision caught three additional zebras running towards us through the pegasi lines ahead of the demons. Their eyes went wide as the explosive flew past them. They dove for cover while I ran back towards my party. I saw the sniper whom had shot us, she was dazed, her armor had held in more places than I had seen before she crashed.

The mare was pressed back up against the building she crashed into. She was a soft looking sky blue mare. Her black armor did not match her mane or coat, the tips of her feathers colored rainbows along her wounded wings while her mane was a sweet autumn leaf color. Her wounds couldn't be ignored, though; they were seeping blood, and a pool of red was forming around her. The mare was lost, trying to stand only to fall down. Her helmet had flown off. Corners machine gun fire hadn’t penetrated her armor, just riddled it with bullets that stuck out like mini-caltrop spikes. I stopped next to her. My gut twisted and I felt an urge to help her. If I could get her clear of the blast, I could at least save her.

“Sunrise, no! You're not strong enough, and that explosive is everything you had left over turned into a cocktail of death! RUN!” Pink knew what I was thinking. How could she not.

“COVER FIRE!” I hollered out. My teeth gripped the armor of the pegasus and pulled at her. The mare only groaned in pain as she lost consciousness, and I couldn’t summon the strength to move her. Corners positioned herself just right to rain tracers along my flanks to not hit either of us, shooting through the thin remains of wall this pegasus crashed into.

“Sunrise, leave her! She doesn't deserve—” Pink started, but I wasn't about to hear it.

SHUT UP! I'm not killing anypony I can save! I don't have to kill her. I pulled on her again as the cracks of gunfire died down and the sizzle of laser beams went silent. My eyes were drawn away from the mare I was trying desperately save by a glare off something in the sky.

A pegasus in all black armor was flying straight up to the clouds. The armor was thick, segmented, and had a scorpion-like tail. Shadowbolt Power Armor? The Shadowbolts still exist? The snap of the jaws of one of those creatures caught my attention, as it picked up the explosive in its maw and darted into center of Enclave reinforcements.

They didn't get the warn—

“Sunrise! MOVE, NOW!” Pink screamed at the top of her lungs.

HELP ME!

“FINE! You're going to get us both killed!” My tail finally came around, singed as it was, and added its strength to the effort. The mare moved and moaned as her pain increased. I finally pulled her limp form onto my back. Even through the Med-X my leg screamed at the effort and threatened to just give out. I saw Pink pulling on my damaged foreleg, and swore I could feel some sort of support from her efforts. She somehow got me to move fast enough to reach the pool of knee-deep water Quick Stitch was standing in.

His eyes were wide in disbelief as I pulled the mare who had just tried to kill both us to the edge of the blast zone Pink estimated. He forced himself on top of my smaller frame, pushing me into cover as the mare fell under me. I struggled and wiggled to get my hoof to lift her head above water, before my PipBuck let out one click of radiation warning and the world went silent.

The blast wave sucked the air from my lungs and popped my ears. As the lip of the pool that had just put a fire on my body shielded us only slightly. The water evaporated under the intensity of the heat, and my body shuddered and rippled as every nerve rose above the Med-X to cry warnings of pain. The regeneration spell still holding me together sloughed off my dead flesh, and I felt my lips crack and eyes water till they bled. My leg felt like it might be torn off if not for being held down my Quick Stitch, and sandwiched against the wing of the sniper mare we were shielding.

“Whoooooo... that was bigger than any—WHOA!” Pink was blown from my sight as though the explosive could affect her. Dust kicked up around the three of us as we held tight to each other in the improvised fox hole, the puddle of water almost completely gone. My PipBuck clicked twice more, then stopped. The wave of destruction died down almost as suddenly as it began.

My ears were ringing, my body shuddered, and I tasted blood, ash, and... feathers? I saw there was a pegasus feather in my mouth, a black wing feather from the pegasus we were shielding. Oh please, by the Goddesses, be alive! I pulled her head up and the mare took in a deep breath. Wasteland, don't take this from me! “Quick Stitch! Patch her up, make sure she lives.” I ordered him and glared as he looked at the pegasus who had shot us both.

The stallion's features distorted in a mix of hate at the mare and surprise at me. I kept looking at him, glaring, as the earth rumbled under our feet. It stopped and I shook my head. “You can't say no to this one. Save her.” The cold determination in my words shook my friend to his core. He snorted and a bit of blood came out of his nose, but his horn glowed and a magical bandage started to wrap around her wounds. Be mad at me later, be a better pony than she deserves right now.

The rumble in the earth under us returned as I watched Quick Stitch work, and the battlefield grew silent. Alguacil, Chifundo, and Corners approached our forms as the two of us staggered to our hooves. With an effort that could only be described as Herculean, I got that mare back onto my flanks. The wasteland, however, wasn't going to go down without a fight, as the rumbling returned and intensified till the earth itself exploded just a few feet away from us.

Oh, please no, not another one of those—All thought was cut off by gunfire from Corners' machine guns, as the box moved with a purpose, and brown carapace flicked with sparks of bullet ricochets. Another scorpion, only this one wasn't like the rad scorpion we'd seen in the mine field, nor the small bark scorpions we'd run into. This was the brown-orange of the bark scorpion except it was massive, the size of a house.

It had pincers that could easily grab me and clip my entire body in half, from the chest to the rear flanks. Its stinger rose up, and the tip was larger than my head, and likely had enough poison stored in it to replace all the blood in a pony.

Alguacil opened up with his revolver, Chifundo worked the bolt on his rifle till it clicked, and Nyota ran back and lined up to charge it.

The creature turned to Corners and took a swipe with its pincers, ripping apart crumbling ruins on the outskirts of town and silencing our guns. There was no laser fire, either; all the pegasi were dead or had fled. How am I supposed to deal with something like that? Where did it come from?

“Ohhh, I know! It was drawn by the explosions! Ya know, because where there is explosions, there are ponies, and it eats those!” Pink squealed at the top of her lungs with a gleeful smile that I swore had a clown nose squeak to top it off. I just glared at the figment of my imagination in my vision.

How insane was she? Wait, was she a part of my own thoughts or not?

“Why am I having an existential crisis right now? That thing is about to turn you into a pony shish kebab!”
I turned and ran full gallop towards where we had arrived, the ground exploding behind me as the scorpion’s stinger slammed into the pavement and ripped it apart.

“You've gotta be bucking kidding me!” Alguacil shouted as the roar of bullets resumed. I agree! How many mutated creatures want to murder us? My tail pulled something from my packs: the sparkle-bomb. It fizzed inside the bottle as I stepped into SATS with a tap of my foreleg mid-gallop. My hooves slowed back to the ground and I queued the spell. The world sped up and my tail took a hard shake of the bottle; the contents started to fizz and my tail flicked the bottle at the scorpion, right on target. The blue fizzing bottle wanted to burst as the mixture inside started to go critical from shaking, right as the glass shattered on the scorpion’s carapace.

The roar of gunfire was silenced by the mini-megaspell detonation, accompanied with a small mushroom cloud. There goes the last of my class 3 explosives, I thought to myself as I watched the creature bathe in shiny baby-blue radioactive hellfire. The massive creature shrieked in agony as I continued to put distance between us, and Box Pone never let up her machine gun fire.

“Over here, you stupid wanna-be spider!” Corners shouted over the hail of high-velocity lead. I could see the hole, bigger than a pony, blown into the side of the monster's hardened chitin hide. Flames were kicking up around it, blue fire from the sparkle-bomb rising up over its head like a mouth of hell opening up to swallow the beast into the depths. But this beast was much bigger than the hellmouth and refused to submit!

Instead, chitinous legs thrashed, and it turned those hate-filled eyes upon my fleeing form. I could see the gash the explosive had torn in its side, orange blood leaking out. The carapace had been blown so wide open that Alguacil might have been able to fly inside the creature. No way it could survive the fire burning around it, cooking it from the inside out, but it wasn't dead; not yet. The brief moment we locked eyes was gone as the machine gun fire peppering into it made it turn its full attention back to Corners.

My leg was starting to swell with pain, beyond what the dose of Med-X could suppress. It had only been one minute since I injected myself, but the burned muscle under my armor, combined with the strain of a full-on gallop for my life while carrying an unconscious full-grown pegasus hadn’t done me any favors. Gritting my teeth and wanting to scream, I bolted past the firing line of my friends, and Nyota reached out to stop me.

I shook my head and closed my eyes. “I have to keep this one safe!” was all I could get out of my mouth through the agony coursing over the painkiller. I didn't want to know how much it was hurting without the drugs.

“What in the buck has gotten into you? Keep this one safe, are you stupid!?”

Pink, I have to be better than her; ponies aren’t suppose to kill each other. I have to give her another chance. Pink grew quiet and sat down on her flanks as a silent spectator to the scene now.
I saw the remains of a fallen-in building we had passed walking through the ruins of Las Pegasus. I darted inside. Please, Celestia and Luna, watch over me, let this building be empty. Inside it was dark enough that I clicked on the PipBuck light. I laid the mare down, as the gunshots and the roars of some other creature demanded I return to the fighting.

She's gonna be out for a while, I need to get back out there. My friends are facing the things from Nightmare Moon's own personal nightmare!

I took a few steps, shotgun held against my shoulder by my tail. I turned my head to check where we had come from: Nothing was there except the destroyed ruins of a once-proud suburb. I looked back to where the gunfire was coming from: One of the mutated demon dogs had emerged.The two monsters fought with a ferocity of two nightmares demanding dominance. The swiping of its claws made the scorpion turn and launch both pincers at the demon. He caught both of them in his claws bigger than my head and held his ground, driving his heels into the dirt. The fact that the Demon Dog was surrounded by blue and red radioactive hellfire only made that term seem much more appropriate. It was like I was watching a Cerberus from hell itself or the legends of old, trying to drag a monster into the Hades for its final judgment, while the monster refused to go quietly.

The scorpion’s stinger lashed out and penetrated the skull of the sand dog mutant. That metal helmet didn't protect it from the scorpions death strike at all. The Demon Dog’s limbs went limp, and it was only held up by the stinger’s raw mass. When the scorpion withdrew, the sand dog fell to the ground inside the fire, incinerating in seconds as a final grasp of hellfire shot into the air like a soul leaving the body. The scene was exactly what I would expect from banishing a demon back to the pit, as the Demon Dog turned to ash before my eyes.

Nyota turned to me, and took one step towards me before pulling off his eye patch, revealing the eye that saw the spirit realm. He handed it to me with a reassuring smile and a nod. “Sunrise, you're cute,” was all he said, and then turned away at full gallop towards the gun line holding the scorpion at bay. I stared in disbelief, a blush filling my cheeks that could be seen through the caked layers of blood. What are you about to do? Nyota, no, it just tore through a building. You can’t stand up to that… I couldn’t finish the thought, I couldn’t look away. I only could stare at the action like a trainwreck.

Nyota began to charge forward, past the gun line Chifundo, Quick Stitch, and Alguacil were formed in to try to put the monster arachnid down. Nyota kept going towards where this scorpion was doing battle now, engaging with Corners. Its pincers destroyed a home—one large enough to be where I'd lived in before the stable. Walls buckled and the entire building threatened to collapse, before the tail barb as big as a pony lashed through at the flashes of automatic weapons. Nyota leapt into the air, passing through the flames, and I could see the fire trying to burn its way into his armor just before he disappeared into the scorpion through the hole my explosive had made.

“NYOTA! What are you doing!?” I shouted, charging forward. Memories of what had transpired since I'd known him flashed before my eyes. His careful looking after me while I was working on the Sand Dog 3500. The way he kept shoving that hoof into my mouth to shut me up when I was rambling. Him leaping down the well to subdue and then save Mauve. All the events up to this point, including remembering last night, nearly two weeks outside the stable and being held in his hooves. The first stallion in my life to ever call me cute, disappearing into darkness and certain death.

The gunfire ceased as the massive creature thrashed about with renewed fury. We all stared in awe, and I felt tears rolling down my cheeks. I wanted to look away, only the shrieks of the scorpion and the roar of the fire around it, making the situation impossible to ignore. The ground trembled as Alguacil raised his revolver, and it clicked and clicked again. He needed to reload. I tried to pull the shotgun up, but found my will faltering, and it dropped to the ground. Nyota… no… I didn’t answer you yet. All my feelings overwhelmed any coherent thought; Pink was gone and I was alone. I felt like the world just got a whole lot smaller and worse off. Nyota, no, I can’t lose you, too! I fell forward onto my wounded chest and whimpered, while my eyes refused to leave the trashing beast’s death throe.

Corners moved her box and then opened fire once more. They were spraying round after round into the terrible creatures eyes. He's gone, he's cooking alive inside that thing's flesh! I felt my vision running red with rage, anger, and loss. I could feel my veins pulsing and threatening to burst as my heart beat with renewed determination.

“Sunrise, stop. Hold and wait.” Pink ordered from somewhere out of view.

WHAT!? Pink are you insane? Why would I do that? That thing just killed Nyota! I can never-

“Sunrise, I know I messed up earlier, but trust me this time?” Pink reassured and I felt my own tail moving away from the shotgun barrel and stroking the back of my mane. It only calmed the edge of my fury. Chifundo fired his rifle, and Alguacil had managed to reload. Quick Stitch was firing his dart gun, to little effect. I was the only one not shooting.
Moments passed and I watched, before a hoof emerged from the back of the Scorpion. It looked tiny compared to the scorpion at this range, but there was a hoof shooting up through the hardened carapace. Even Corners stopped firing as the creature screamed, and was cut off with the harshness of an artillery explosion, before it collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Another hoof shot out of the back of the creature’s armored hide. The fires around died down as Nyota's head popped out from under the chitin plating, his teeth holding some organ that he spat out, and it burned into charcoal in the dying embers of the fire from the sparkle-bomb. He drug his form out, half-digested fur clinging to his skin, coated with the blood of the creature. As Nyota pulled his way free, I felt a rush of new hope come crash over me. He’s alive! Oh thank the Goddesses, he’s alive! Now I’m gonna kill him! I took one determined step and my foreleg finally refused to work. I fell onto my PipBuck as the bone inside broke, and I fell onto my ribs in a silent scream while a mixture of emotions overwhelmed anything I could think or feel.

I noticed three zebras sneaking up on us when a rock rolled against my hoof. They now stood there, staring in awe at Nyota. Almost in unison they spoke one word: “Demon.” Chifundo trotted up to them nonchalantly, and started to talk to them in the strange zebra tongue. Are they not going to kill us? He even rhymed in it, not that I could understand a word. Just that his syllables somehow rhymed in that language too. I wanted to rush forward and hug Nyota while screaming obscenities at him, but all I could do was drag my leg slowly and use my PipBuck as a brace.

“Sunrise, the pegasus. Go check on her before she comes to,” Pink told me, and I grit my teeth. I turned my back to my friends and limped towards the building I had stashed the mare in.

“Quick Stitch, come on. I'll need a hand.” He stared at me questioningly before my tail made a hurry up motion at him. Inside the building, my PipBuck provided the only light. I took her scoped version of a magical energy rifle away by the gun strap, then her knife, and took her helmet off as well. Quick Stitch’s horn glowed and began working to stitch up the wounds while accelerating her healing. He may have even been making new blood for a mare that had tried to kill us both.

“Sunrise, are you sure about this?” he asked, looking at me as his horn finished its magic.

I cast the helmet aside. “No, but I know that if we hate them back, it will only justify their attempt to kill us.”

He blinked at me and shook his head side to side in surprise. “She nearly did kill us both! Your leg should have disintegrated! They tried to kill us just like—”

I spun to him and growled, the pain in my leg driving me to levels of rage I didn’t know I had. Nyota’s suicide attempt was still fresh in my mind as I put my blood-covered nose up to his and snorted harshly enough to force his eyes closed. “That doesn't make us better ponies, if we just kill them without mercy! I killed two ponies for sure today, I don't know how many didn't get out of the explosive blast, either! I didn't mean to kill anypony!” Tears washed my vision into a blur, feelings of wanting to tear myself apart added to mixture. I had killed ponies for the first time. At least, creatures I could consider ponies. Was killing molerats, ghouls, then raiders... was this just a natural progression into actually killing ponies?

“I'm a teenager! I shouldn't be fighting a war or killing anypony; no pony should be doing this. Now, make sure she is healed. Let me know when she comes to, I need to speak to her, and we need her alive.” I stomped a hoof into the debris under us to cut off any further conversation. I muttered under my breath, “Even if just for my own conscience to be at ease.”

“Sunrise you realize she might wanna kill you when she wakes up right?” Pink said to me as I glared at the mare shrugging in the bottom of my vision.

No, and I have no clue what I’m going to do with her once she is awake. I just hope she isn’t spiteful and actually grateful we went through the trouble of saving her.

“Well about that, ya see I might have a few ideas on the plan from here.”

Once I'd heard out Pink's plan, I studied the mare's features, while Quick Stitch stood and watched over his work. She had a surprisingly long mane underneath the helmet. The pegasus started to groan and my tail grabbed for the shotgun, shoving it right into her mouth. We stared at each other, my eyes full of spite and determination, while hers burned with hatred. Her wing revealed a steel apple with a red band around it. Her other wing set to pull the stem. Incendiary grenade, great. I figured I wouldn’t miss a hidden grenade, being the explosives expert. If I was gonna get her to talk, she would have to put that down.

“I just want to talk. I'm gonna take this shotgun out of your mouth and you're going to not pull the pin. You're going to hand that over to me, nice and easy, unarmed.” I ordered, and pressed the shotgun slightly further into her head. “Just nod if you understand. I'm not gonna hurt you if you agree to this.”

The tension mounted up as I could see her wing ready to rip the stem off the apple and let the napalm explosive fly out.

I don't know if we'll survive that explosion, or not burn to death after the fact. This mare certainly won't. What do I do?

“Ya know, the truth might actually work. That and some assurance you aren’t gonna hurt her.” Pink said rolling across my view and pointing at her with both hooves from top to bottom.

It only took a few seconds to piece something together and talk out of my flank, “Hey, don't be hasty here. I'm gonna pull the shotgun out and you hand me the grenade, with the stem still on it. No pony is gonna hurt you, you have my word.”

Slowly my tail pulled the end of the barrel out of her mouth and my tail kept it trained on her, ready to pull the trigger.
There was a trail of saliva between the end of the boomstick and our captives lips before she spoke. “Alright, I'm handing it over now. Stupid dirt pony.” Slowly, she passed the grenade towards me and I extended my good hoof, taking it from her, pin still inside.

Alguacil walked in as Quick Stitch let out a sigh of relief. I looked at him and gave Quick Stitch a hug, wincing as my leg wasn't quite prepared for the effort. “Alright, thank you Quick Stitch,” I whispered into his ear, while my tail stole another shot of Med-X from his saddlebags and used it immediately. He gave a questioning look as the rush of cool relief passed through my leg.

“When you're done, come see me,” he whispered back. “Doctor's orders.” The last words were audible by everypony in the room as the stallion walked out past our griffin regulator.

“Alright, Sunrise, I'm gonna interrogate her and take her ears,” Alguacil declared, taking out his revolver and spinning it into position. The mare glared at me with hate filled eyes, the glare clearly spelling out: you lied.

I grabbed his gun with both hooves, wanting to cry out in pain when my foreleg throbbed with pain through the painkiller. Instead, I used all my might to wrestle the griffin’s aim down. “No, I made a promise, we aren't hurting her!”

“Sunrise, darling, what in tarnation!” The griffin declared and scowled at me. I glared back, ready to draw blood. “I'm a regulator, she broke the law. The law says I take her ears after you’re done with her.”

I growled at him, “We need this mare alive, and I didn't go through all the trouble of saving her just to have you kill her. So, unless you're gonna shoot me too, we aren't hurting her.” As I spoke, I trotted between the two of them, facing down my friend while looking away from our captive. If the pegasus wanted to hurt me, now was her chance. Alguacil made a show of pointing his gun up to the half collapsed ceiling and slowly lowering his weapon into the holster.
I turned back to the mare, “We're gonna talk for a bit, understand?”

“I'm not talking to the dirt pony, I'll only talk to the bird brain,” she shot back with a stare at me that could have killed. Oh come on! I just saved your life you ungrateful racist!

Alguacil and I looked at each other then back at her, “Alright, fine. Alguacil, ask this pony her name and why they shot at us.”

Alguacil stared at me with a dumbfounded expression and raised a talon in a 'what' type of mentality. “If she won't talk to me directly, we'll do this. At least till she has some trust in what we say.”

Alguacil looked at the mare. “What's your name, and why did you shoot at Sunny?” I grimaced at him calling me Sunny, but I'd let Nyota get away with it, too. I felt like I was in over my head, making decisions no pony had business making: ones that meant life and death or would end friendships.

“We were under orders. Shoot any dirt pony or traitor down here that approached,” she looked to me and spat at my hooves. “Nothing personal, damn savages.”

I started to pull my own revolver and then stopped myself, No, she wants me to shoot her. Prove this stubborn pegasus wrong. I steeled myself against her antagonizing and kept my weapons holstered.

“Perhaps we have gotten off on the wrong hoof. I assure you, you'll be free to go, unharmed, even rejoin your ponies in the sky when we leave.” The pegasus didn't stop glaring at me, her eyes following every moment of my hooves and tail as I spoke. The amount of hatred there would make any pony feel offended, just seeing those eyes. “Now, can we talk directly?”

She didn't answer, and Alguacil pulled out his back-up pistol. I turned to stop him, when he fired a shot into the ceiling. He easily pushed me aside now that he saw me coming. He pistol whipped her across the muzzle and held me off with the other talon. I did everything in my power, but couldn’t push past him, like some bully in the schoolyard holding me off by the forehead. All I could do was watch in horror as he pressed the smoking, heated barrel of his backup revolver against the mare's nether regions. She howled then pulled his arm with both hooves. “More! Go on!”

“Alguacil! Knock it off and get out!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. The griffin withdrew the pistol and holstered it but did not leave the room. “Quick Stitch just patched her up. I didn't ask him to do that just to have you hurt her more.” The two of us stared each other down, my eyes glaring into his. Neither of us wanted to move or back down. I wasn’t sure I could trust him anymore, and I wanted to smash his face as hard as I’d done to Corners. The pegasus insults drove the two of us to be more angry than we should have been. Then, something unexpected saved us from blows.

“Alright, I'll talk to the filly.” Both of us turned to the mare with raised eyebrows and expressions of surprise. “If it will get me out of here faster, I'll talk to the damn child with all the high explosives.”

I sighed and looked away from Alguacil; I couldn't keep up with that regulator's stare, nor his anger. “Deal with it later. You need to get Hot Cross Buns and get out of here, Sunrise. You can talk to the griffin on the road.”

Dammit, Pink! Stop making so much sense! My attention fully turned to the mare and I moved so my body was between her and Alguacil again. “I'm Wandering Sunrise, what's your name?”

She sat her back straight against the wall at attention, “Private First Class, Black Hawk, Pegasus Grand Enclave. Alpha-7-7-6-Phi-8. 17^th Recon Squadron.” I saw a radio pulling up with the other wing, her hoof getting ready to push the broadcast button.

“Don't do that. Look, if you do that now, I'm gonna have no reason not to let Alguacil shoot you. Do you really think your friends will get down here to rescue you before he does that?” I said a short prayer to Celestia when I finished speaking, and she slowly lowered the radio, which I took from the mare. I tossed it into the pile of things I'd already removed from her.

“Alright, Black Hawk, listen. Where is Hot Cross Buns?” I asked and leaned in, hoping she had the answer. The mare bit her lip and didn't answer. “Look, that pink striped zebra led us here. Said Hot Cross Buns was really close before I started talking to your friends. Now, please, is he here and alive?”

The pegasus chewed her lip a bit and nodded. “Yes, he's alive. He's in the building that used to be the town hall, locked up with the rest of our prisoners.”

I let out a sigh of relief. We found him. We had managed something seemingly impossible.

“What prisoners?” Alguacil shot back, trying to step closer to the pegasus and finding my body in the way.

“We had to interrogate them about the weapon. We were told to get him and drag him back.” The mare took a breath and looked at us like she was expecting me to hit her. I motioned for her to continue. “He talked, and this morning I drew the straw to execute that traitor, but I wasn't gonna do it on an empty stomach or during daylight hours, so I was waiting till after dinner.”

Joy to the world, we made it in the nick of time. While I was enjoying Hearth's Warming dinner, that poor pegasus was being tortured. While I was puking up my guts and setting Chifundo up on a date, he was spilling his guts and convinced no one was coming to save him. I rolled my eyes to push my guilt aside and looked at Alguacil. The griffin huffed and started towards the mare again.

“Alguacil!” I shouted, and the room echoed with my voice. He stared at me and growled. I looked him in the eye, as deep as my vision could pierce into his soul. “Go find the prisoners they have and make sure Hot Cross Buns is tended to.”
The much larger regulator looked me over, from my tail up to my snout and then back into my eyes with his. The silence only made the tension thicker, before long I swore we were all breathing barely held down rage instead of oxygen.

“Sunrise, when you're done here, we're gonna have a long talk.” He stormed out past me before I could reply and shoved me aside, almost into Black Hawk, who slid against the wall to avoid touching me.

Corners walked in and the griffin stopped and snorted at her. “Out of my way.” The box pone shuffled aside. Alguacil stood there for a minute and then picked up the combat knife I had taken off Black Hawk. He slammed it down into the door frame hard enough that the old wood splintered and that part fell onto the floor. I lowered my head and was glad that was over.

“Corners, I have never been so glad to see you in all my life.” Corners smirked behind her box slit and gave a shrug.

“Listen, I need you to rig a box of some sort with a timed lock, can you do that? Do you have the junk you need for that?” I asked her placing a hoof against the side of the box.

She nodded inside the box and smiled. Then she set to work, looking around for a box within the two other rooms of the half-collapsed structure.

I took out a rope into my teeth, while my tail got my revolver and pointed it at her. She got up onto all fours and I moved in close, and within moments—just like Spring Bronco—her wings were tied to her body. I took the SMG and loaded it. “Now look, I'm gonna leave this and your radio in here, with a timer set for a little over two hours. Then, I want you to call up to your Enclave.” I paused and took a breath as I spelled out Pink's plan. “You're going to call them to come get you. Say you were injured in the explosion during a raider attack and just came to. You're going to tell them that Hot Cross Buns was killed in the crossfire with the raider band, and you're going to go home. Got it?”

Alguacil was still in the doorway, and he turned to give me a vengeful, angry staredown, his eyebrow twitching at me. It was the same look he gave when he mentioned raiders or slavers, and how much he hated them. He pulled a talon up and pointed at himself, then me, his claws making a talking motion between them, and then left.

Alguacil got out of my sight as Corners approached, with a suitcase that had the combination lock replaced with an egg timer. Ingenious, I thought to myself, and then looked at the other filly, giving her box a hug. “Alright, thank you, Corners. Now, can you give me a spare low caliber weapon, some ammo, food off one of the pegasi, and water?”

The box lifted and within a few moments of shuffling around inside, Does she have an entire store in there?, the items rolled from under the box. A 9mm submachine gun, a box of 9mm ammo, and the other things I asked for. “Thank you, Corners. Go on and go scavenge what you can, but make sure somepony is watching out for you while you do.” She giggled and started to shuffle out of our temporary interrogation room.

The mare stared at me, dumbfounded, the look on her face comical by the comparison of everything else that had happened today. “These are all for you when we leave. So just sit tight and wait, got it?” I repeated to snap her out of her stupor.

She shook her head lose and nodded, “Yeah, I got it, Sunrise. You're serious about giving me a weapon?”

I grinned and handed the 9mm to my tail. Without having to tell it what to do, the tail pressed the barrel against my side where the stubbornite plate was. There was a bang and a dull impact into my ribs.Then a twinge of pain I hadn’t expected, somehow I prevented myself from wincing. That hurt a lot more than it should have. The SMG pulled away, and I pushed a hoof against the impact point to hold a flattened 9mm slug out to the pegasus. “What I'm leaving you with can't hurt me in this armor. So, I'm not worried.”

The pegasus looked at me like I was a two headed cockatrice. She was clearly terrified of the filly that was just over her shoulder in height. I stuffed the items into the suitcase and then scribbled down a note. Pink's plan had one piece that I actually liked: the part where I was going to follow the example of Big Mac and Fluttershy.

Something hit me as I looked up at Black Hawk and that Enclave E on her armor called out to me. In a flash, I was in a memory.

I was standing in the rain, but mud wasn’t on my hooves, blood was. This was somewhere else... no, this was here, in the ruins of Las Pegasus. This very suburb, unchanged since before we arrived, save for the collapse of two more buildings.

This pegasus mare was pink with a bright orange mane. She was clad in the same armor like Black Hawk, except her brains were blown all over the ground.

What is this? When is this? My host looked down: it was me, with green coat and all. I was wearing the stable 43 jumpsuit and a shotgun dropped to the ground from my mouth. It was my shotgun from before we modified it for 12 gauge. Agony pulsed through me with each heartbeat. Something about this was all too real. Blood dripped from my snout and mouth; my blood.

A host of ponies I did not recognize rushed forward. Before I got a good look they became shadows, so that I could barely see anything other than darkness about them. I staggered towards them. A foreign but familiar voice of a mare called out to me, “Sunrise, oh no, Sunrise.” I fell forward into the Enclave pegasus. My vision looked into her blown out eye socket and the pony brain leaking into the mud and blood. Something inside gave when I fell, my lungs rasped and then refused to function. I couldn’t breathe. A blue earth pony in a filly scout uniform picked up my head.

I strained to get a view of the face, all I could make out were tearful brown eyes and an unkempt brown mane. A name came to my lips, my lungs deflating slowly and refusing to take in a fresh breath. “Coffee Stain…” The words felt strained just to get out; rapidly, my brain was disconnecting. Limbs grew cold. My whole body began to shake and shiver as my heart tried to beat and my lungs burned to work but couldn’t.

“Oh, Sunrise, please don’t, don’t go again.” Again? What do you mean, again? This doesn’t make any sense? How is this my memory? This is the wasteland? Why, why am I-

I was interrupted by a confused looking Chifundo and Nyota both poking my cheek and nose. The vision of the two friendly zebras was certainly more welcoming than anything else. I looked from one to the other, and they both let out a sigh of relief. “Sunrise, my friend, you were gone for a bit, perhaps you can tell us the reason behind it?” Chifundo said.

I shook my head slowly. “I wish I could really explain it. Let’s worry about that later, and get to moving.” I racked my brain to get the memory loose, and left the strange mare in there. I was wincing with every step, now, my right foreleg screaming like I was being tortured. “Chifundo, can you go see if those zebras are willing to help us now? And what the story is behind them and the Enclave?” Quick Stitch joined us outside and left Black Hawk in the ruined house alone.
“For prisoners, they have been most cooperative, I think with Nyota that was quite decisive.” Chifundo gave me a nod and turned with a flourish to trot back towards the three dashite marked zebras. “I shall work with them and their help implore, for that possibility, I think, they are more than willing to explore.”

I looked up at Nyota and Quick Stitch and I was immediately embraced into a hug. I gritted down on my teeth to bear through the agony that radiated from my thigh to my shoulder. "One of you, I don't care which one, needs to patch my leg. Alguacil is about to come out with a lot of rescued ponies. I don't want them to get demoralized by the fact that their rescuers are too badly hurt to protect them."

Nyota nodded and looked at Quick Stitch. "I think you should keep your magic prepared for a possible ambush," he said, then reached into his saddlebags with his mouth and fished out a potion. "Do you have a medical brace or splint?"
Quick Stitch Shook his head, and the unicorn's horn glowed with the soft, flickery orange I was familiar with. As he started to work, my tail put Nyota's eye patch back on him and gave the zebra something to smile about. "Save the potions for when we need them." He tipped his head towards my leg and Nyota picked it up with two hooves to hold it straight and steady. I felt the washes of energy as he mended the bone and forced my muscles to regenerate. "We're really going to have to get some extra padding for your legs if this keeps up, Sunrise."

While I was being healed, I peered across the ruins towards Chifundo and the zebras that he was speaking with. He noticed my curiosity, and cast me a reassuring smile and wave, but was too engrossed in discussing something with the zebras to stop and speak with me. I almost wished he would come and talk, because the healing was starting to hurt. At least from the expressions on the new zebra’s faces, they were certainly getting along. I thought for a second that Chifundo had even told a joke, because they were laughing together. Sharpness of pain brought me back to reality of my broken leg.

I could feel the bones inside moving—painfully might at add—back into place. Every little fragment gathered up one at a time and was put back into place. The muscle tissue was being forced to grow, and that hurt worse than any growth pain I'd ever endured. When the tendon was being mended back together, it felt like Quick Stitch was literally sewing flesh and sinew back into place, and my insides were his string to sew with. Of all the ways to hurt a pony, I never suspected that magical healing would be one.

I pointed with my other hoof to the PipBuck, and then to the leather gloves I'd gotten from the construction site. Then the pain of having a bone set shook me into a scream I only stifled by biting my lip down hard enough to draw more blood. Nyota worked to roll up the armor plating and expose as much of my right foreleg as possible.

“You still shouldn't be walking on that leg. I know you don't like it, but someone should probably carry you until we're sure you're fully healed." Nyota insisted, with grim determination plastered across his face.

My PipBuck had shielded my leg below the knee, but above, the scorch mark penetrated straight through armor, plating, and muscle, straight to the bone. There was a blackened hole in my armor the size of a carrot top. I looked at the PipBuck and had to strain my neck to check on the screen to see that it was fine and functioning. This whole time, Nyota was staring at me, expecting an answer. "I can rest it at camp tonight. Right now, just like the last time we rescued some ponies, they can't see how badly we are injured. Especially Black Hawk." Both stallions raised eyebrows at the mention of the name before my tail pointed back into the collapsed home, “The pegasus we captured.”

"Then allow me to carry you,” Nyota spoke, and I could hear the emotions spilling from his voice, and the tears he was fighting back. “You're not weak for accepting a friend's aid. You shouldn't be walking on that leg."

I let out a disgruntled grunt at Nyota and then looked at Quick Stitch. "How far can I safely run on it before you would be too concerned that I should get off it?"

Quick Stitch winced at the burned muscles his horn was working on. Even for him, MEW burns were no joke to fix, as his brow furrowed and strained to complete his work. The stallion wavered slightly in his concentration, speaking as the glow of his horn dimmed. "Ideally? Now. But your leg is set and the bone is healed." He nodded his horn towards the leg and tapped it, which elicited a yelp from my lips. "Just remember that the more you move it, the more it's going to hurt when I stitch it back together tonight."

"Please, Sunrise, pride will only hurt you more this time, the fact that we're walking away from this at all is more than impressive enough," Nyota demanded and set my leg down while stomping his hoof in the dirt.

"A lot of other ponies didn't. You almost didn't. I almost didn't." Looking back, Quick Stitch took note of the two black circles burnt on the left side of his armor and hoofed at them, trying to scratch under his armor. "The leg is fixed, but good as new is... beyond me, still. You'll need me to do some minor repairs every time you walk on it till the healing is done."
Nyota hugged me tight to his chest and whispered against my ear just loud enough for Quick Stitch and myself to hear him, "Let us help you, let your friends carry your burdens this day, Sunrise."

I looked at Nyota then craned my neck against his clinging legs to Quick Stitch, "We almost die everyday out in this hellish world. Look, Nyota," My tail pointed for me at the refugees emerging with Alguacil. All of our attention were on the ponies, especially a pegasus that looked like Hot Cross Buns, covered in injuries and part of his wing broken off. A motley group of ragged survivors were gathered around in various states of torture and neglect. There was another pegasus stallion, two female unicorns, two earth ponies—one a grandpa and the other a blank flank—and three more mare earth ponies, all three different ages. The curious one was a teenage dragon, larger than a full sized pony.

I had to stick to Pink's plan, or as close to it as I could. "This isn't about pride. If they are convinced we are in no shape to keep them safe, what is to keep them trusting us to keep them safe?"

"The fact that we already have, the fact that you're resting to make sure you're prepared for the possible fight to come, and the fact that we're leading them somewhere safe should be more than enough reassurance.” Nyota tried to make me understand. “That and the fact that we're not demanding payment for our services."

Our unicorn friend nodded in agreement, "On top of that, I'm going to go to each of them and make sure they're all healed up and ready travel before I go to bed." Quick Stitch let out a heavy-hearted sigh and hung his head. "I'm sorry to say it, Sunrise, but if we weren’t here to protect them, most of them would either be severely hurt or dead already..." He trailed off like he wanted to say something else, but didn't finish the sentence.

I grumbled under my breath and snorted at both of them, "Then who’s gonna carry that baby dragon? We'll have about an hour and a half at most before that timer I set lets that pegasus call and report the story she is supposed to feed them.” I looked from stallion to stallion, expecting an answer, and then stomped my hoof. Immediately I regretted that, as it just made my next words crack with the pain I was suffering. “We need to be at a full gallop until my PipBuck chimes up with whatever she says."

"On that leg? You simply cannot do that, if needs be I can carry you both," Nyota shot back and then booped my nose before inserting a hoof into my mouth. "You worry too much about image and not enough about yourself."

I am actually starting to like the taste of that. Should that be happening? My thoughts were lost at the feelings of how much extra effort he’d given to me. Wait, is he babying me? I shook my head and got the hoof out of my mouth.

“Nyota, I can take care of myself. Let me walk on my own.” I know I can’t, but dammit, I’m not about to let him baby me or treat me like a little filly.

Quick Stitch blinked at the statement, looking to Nyota, and over his shoulder to the rest. "Sunrise... That's a lot of weight to put on your own shoulders. I don't think any of us would ever actually bring another to harm, whether you were here or not.” Quick Stitch stepped up next to me and thrust his chest out like a soldier reporting for duty. “I can't pretend to understand why you're having so many doubts about yourself, but I'm with you, and I'm sure that the others would say the same thing."

I shook my head lose and got the hoof out of my mouth. "I didn't realize how bad Alguacil was till today, nor did I know that I could ever aim to kill anypony." I cast a glance at my tail, which had chosen this moment to go into hiding on the opposite flank. "Then my stupid tail threw that landmine, and the next explosive got easier, and easier, and... how easy it must be for all of you."

I paused and turned my gaze to Corners, who was scavenging stuff from the bodies. "I realized at some point afterward that Alguacil might actually kill Corners, just like he was about to do that pegasus I went out of the way to save."

Quick Stitch looked to at me. "I'm not going to lie to you. I know you don't agree with me when I say that there are some ponies that the Wasteland would be better off without." He frowned and surveyed the battlefield. "Killing another pony is never easy," he rubbed a hoof against his leg, not wanting to keep talking. "Even when you’re brought up to do it." When he got to Alguacil leading the ponies in our direction, he gave a false smile at the two of us. "Our gunslinger might be impulsive, but I don't think he'd ever just stop and shoot a pony." Squinting, he spotted the glimmer of the pistol at his hip. "Especially with that justice spirit whatsit he's got now."

Justice what? When did that happen?

“Later, Sunrise, we have things that have to be done right now.” Pink bounced into view now, pointed at a dry erase board with a series of instructions, and what looked like a buckball play drawn on it. “Focus on the plan!”

I looked over to the pegasus sitting just inside the doorway of the house I left her tied up in, "You didn't see him torturing that pegasus mare we busted our flanks to save."

"Maybe not," Quick Stitch rebutted, "but I have to believe that a Regulator would at least have restraint; for my own sake if nothing else."

I looked at Nyota now, and stared into his eyes so we could share what each other felt. I felt lost and confused, wondering if I had much choice left with what to do about the conflicts I had with my friends. "Any zebra wisdom? Because I'm open to suggestions. And I want to know I can rely you two to make sure Alguacil doesn't do anything that sends him off the deep end."

Nyota chuckled finally to break the tension. "Sunrise, if you're looking for zebra wisdom, you should talk to Chifundo. I'm not going to lie to you; Al isn't a typical Regulator... he's too zealous in his definition of justice.” He paused and set me down onto all four of my own hooves again, then puffed out his chest like Quick Stitch had done. “I will step in if necessary but I cannot say I blame him." I started to speak only to receive that hoof into my mouth again, as he said, "They attacked us with little to no reason. If they'd been willing to talk, everyone would still be alive.” I struggled to try to get the hoof out, only to have him hold it perfectly in place to keep my mouth shut. “But they've closed up the sky. They're the reason we only rarely see the sun or moon, they're the cause of all the rain and gloom, and they treat us like animals. We gave them the chance to be better, and they squandered it. It may get easier to throw the grenade, but it never gets easier to bear the weight of a life taken." He looked down at his other hoof, staring at the injury still there.

"The only reason I let you go after Sugarcube was because I felt it needed to happen, and I knew that there were plenty of us around in case it escalated.” I kept grumbling and tried to get loose, only to have him putting that other hoof onto my shoulder to get me to stop struggling. “I would never let any of us hurt another pony in any serious manner without stepping in."

Finally, I brought my good leg up and removed the hoof from my mouth. "I swear, I'm getting used to the taste of your hooves!" I almost shouted at him, then remembered to lower my voice back down. "No reason to prove them right. The pegasus gets let go, in one piece. I left a radio frequency with a time of 7:33pm that I'm suppose to listen to, in case she wants to talk, as well as a meal and that beat up grease gun we found in the tank." I took a hoof-free breath and smiled at him, with the signs of surrender written over my face. "I'll ride on your back, someone else will carry the dragon but ONLY if that mare leaves here without anymore torture or any reason to hate us. We also need to tend to the dead bodies somehow, but I'm not sure we can."

Quick Stitch bit his lip for a second, taking a glance around once more us as Nyota and I turned to him for ideas. "They're all kind of a mess at this point. I know it's not something everypony agrees with, but I've gotten into the habit of burning bodies." he trailed off, knowing that he was likely to get a retort from the earth pony.

Nyota looked at Quick Stitch. "Given the time we have left, we won't be able to do anything for the dead without neglecting the living. The pegasus will remain unmolested until we go. After we leave? It's up to her ability to survive in the wastes while she waits for her kin to pick her up."

At least they agree with me on this one and aren't fighting me on everything. Right, so we’re using Pink's plan, just modified slightly.

I looked around the buildings and saw a cellar door, which struck me with an idea. "Quick Stitch, would you consider putting pony bodies into a basement and burning the building down a good burial? That way they are under the rubble and underground?"

The unicorn blinked and looked clearly shocked. "I'd still say it was better than leaving a pony to rot. At least that way no animals would get at them, and they wouldn't be spreading diseases to make others sick. I'm not saying it's the best way, just that it is a way."

"I guess I'm the outlier in this instance,” Nyota spoke up and a smile had finally crossed his face. He gave a satisfied grin and I rolled my eyes, smiling despite myself. “Creatures die all the time and nourish the others either as meat, or as food for the soil to grow stronger plants. Burning and burying deprive one or both of vital nutrients... and again, we're on the clock. Unless you know some way to collect all of their pieces, it's better to let nature take its course."

Look at Nyota and then Quick Stitch. "It will have to do. Big Mac is reported to have buried the zebras he fought against and had somepony give them last rights.” I looked over at Chifundo, who was still talking away at the other zebras that had surrendered to us. I noticed a brand over their glyph marks: a cloud with a lightning bolt on it, like Sparrow had described, and it looked the same as the brand on Hot Cross Buns. The group of rescued ponies sitting around Alguacil and the last
zebra looked like a ragged group. To think, I would have been cursed to no end for pulling

“I think Chifundo can do that. If you can convince the other zebras to help us, it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to move all the bodies into that cellar and Chifundo can do a mass last rights. I'll make a grave marker, and Quick Stitch can get ready to ignite the place." I looked at the two stallions after I finished explaining my plan. "Maybe we can even convince Black Hawk to help."

Nyota shook his head and let out a gentle laugh. "I doubt she'll cooperate. Remember, we're no better than animals to them. At the least I can try to convince the zebras to help." He reached out ruffled my mane. That feels nice, I have to admit. "But, while we're busy, you find a shady mostly clean spot to rest. You shouldn't be on your hooves right now, unless you want me to carry you around with me."

Quick Stitch paused once more before turning to Black Hawk again. "I know you don't like it, but at least you can know that we did what we could in the time we had," he said quietly, before going to help collect bodies.

I leaned on Nyota with my bad leg and started to walk towards the other ponies. Time to get everyone else on board.

Fan Art of the week:

Notes:

Level 6 Achieved! +1 Earth Pony bonus Perk.
Demolition Expert - You can now cook off grenades and other explosives to make them detonate precisely when it is most advantageous. You can also now modify explosives blast radius to up to +5 yards or -5 yards with the help of a workbench.

EP bonus Perk - Explodee Mc-Gee! - You really really like the world to go boom! Gain +2d10 damage on any explosion you set off, even if they are environmental.