"You eyeballin' me?"

Me and my apparent daughter stepped into the house that was near the base of the hill that I had seen earlier, and my friends; including Tuner, who was put back in the power armor, followed.

Her sentry rolled in through a separate doorway in the side of the building, which was wider.

It smelled of alcohol and cigarettes in here, and the place was a mess, but at least we weren't in the rain. Though, there were some leaks in the roof. There was a puddle of water on the floor in a corner.

My daughter sighed as she muttered to herself behind another cigarette.

"That's another one..." She pulled a metal bucket from a stack and put it down under the leak, before turning to us. She took a pull off the cig as she regarded the lot of us; me, primarily. "Casa de casa or some shit..."

Para's eyes went wide as she swore, and I saw him start to dig into his pocket. I bapped his shoulder quickly, to which he looked over, meeting my glare.

"Don't you dare throw rocks at her..."

He took his hoof back out of his pocket slowly, before standing on all fours again.

My daughter - whom didn't give me her name yet - regarded the two of us coolly for a short while, before looking back at everyone else.

"Rest a soul. Or not. I don't care." She shrugged as she took another pull, then exhaled. "But my dad and I have a lot of catching up to do. So here's the rules. Restrooms are outside. Don't shit in my house. Don't piss in my house. Don't cum in my house. Don't fuck in my house. You gotta do that, do it out there." She pointed a hoof to the door.

She seemed to know some things... that worried me about what she went through...

"There's food in the fridge, but I'd prefer it if you ate your own pile of horse shit, before eating what I've scrounged up. You wanna sleep? You got options." She pointed a hoof to the options as she read them out in a deadpan. "Couch. Floor. Closet. Outside." With that, she bucked the door behind her open, revealing a bedroom. I saw a double sized bed within, in the center. Regarding me, she nodded her head behind her, to which I started to step closer. From there, she looked to the rest of the party again.

"Oh, and... don't mind the dead guy in the closet. I forgot to clean that up."

Everyone turned to each other in dead silence as I walked in. I closed the door behind me with my metal hoof.

She sat up on the bed, taking her jacket off and tossing it on the floor.

"So..." She started, looking me up and down. "You're him, huh?"

I nodded.

"Charger Surge."

She took another long pull off her cig, before blowing smoke towards me. "Hell of a name."

Thank fuck she didn't know my middle name...

She reached out a hoof to me. "Name's Bloodshot." She paused as she tilted her head, looking down a bit as her brows knitted. "Er... Sorry. Uh..." She looked back up at me. "The name your mare gave me was Aura. I haven't gone by that name for about a month now, though... Guess I already got used to Bloodshot."

I stood there silently as she continued to stare. "You gonna sit down? I don't bite." She cracked a smile as she rolled her eye. "Okay, I do bite... But I won't bite you."

I stepped forward and sat next to her.

"Take your armor off." She said quickly. "I don't want my bed to be drenched."

I stood back up and began removing the barding from my form, starting with the zipper, though due to the excessive rain, it was still tighter around me. After evident struggle, she hopped off the bed and went to one of my forelegs, taking hold.

It took a bit of work, but together, we got one hoof free, before moving to the next forehoof.

"If my count is correct..." I started as we strained ourselves on getting myself free from the barding. "Then you're seven years old. Right?"

She nodded. "Don't go treatin' me like a kid, now. I've been trained in the arts of 'kick-ass.'"

My hoof came free of the sleeve, before she went around back.

"Whoa..."

I looked back to see her tapping at my metal hoof. "You gonna tell me that story?"

I cringed as I looked away. "Maybe some other time..."

"Aww, come on!" She exclaimed. "It looks killer!"

"How I got it ain't exactly so... killer." I replied, trying to forget that horrible taste in my mouth.

I felt her magic and hooves take hold of my rear hoof. "Lift."

I did as she said, and to my surprise, after only a few seconds of pulling, it came loose.

I slid out of the barding and put it up on a coat rack in the corner of the room.

"For a seven year old, you seem to know your stuff."

"Like I said..." She hopped back up onto the bed, before turning back to me. "I was trained in the arts of 'kick-ass.'" She took what little remained of her cigarette and put it in an ash tray that was filled with them, at the table beside the bed.

I got up on the mattress and lied next to her; resting the back of my head against the pillow.

"Mom taught me a lot out here. Survival, medical tricks, magic... She had me read a lot, too. Whatever books that were still in good condition, she'd have me read to her."

I nodded as I turned my head to her. "Then she taught you extensively. I wouldn't even know I was talking to a 7 year old if we weren't face to face."

She looked back with a small smile. "She talked about you a lot, you know..."

"Oh?"

She nodded. "Told me all the stories of the good times you two had together." She paused, before adding with a smirk. "Well, except the sexual ones... She kept those to herself."

"Um..." I sat up, keeping my eyes on her. "How do you know about... sex, Aura?"

"U-uh..." She rubbed her arm with a forehoof as she looked away. Her smile quickly vanished. "Yeahhh..."

My hoof started to crackle, and smoke started to rise from the bed sheets. I let my hoof hang off the edge so that it wouldn't set the bed on fire.

Aura spun around, looking at the electricity.

"Who?" I asked as cold hatred washed over me like a rain storm.

She sighed. "They won't be a problem anymore, dad..." She took my forehoof and held it close to her chest. "They're long dead... I made sure of it."

Still, that wasn't enough...

"Hey, come on..." She wrapped her arm around mine, looking up at me with a gentle smile. One I could very easily fall in love with... "I'm here. You're here. We got each other..." She nuzzled into my shoulder, closing her eye. "Guess Snow Star was right."

"About?" I asked, trying to ignore the rage within me that continued to boil.

"She was always hoping that you would show up. She never let that go."

Guilt...

"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner..."

Her hoof reached around and turned my head to look at her. Her eye stayed locked on mine for a long, quiet moment, before she moved in and wrapped me in a surprisingly tight embrace.

"You're here now, dad... That's all that matters to me."

I hugged her back.

There was a long moment of silence between us as we held each other close, as if our very lives depended on it.

Eventually, after what felt like minutes, she let go and looked up at me, smiling softly.

"Hey, dad?"

"Yeah?" I replied with a gentle smile of my own. It was gonna take some getting used to hearing that.

"Let's get you washed up. You're covered in mud."

"Is it safe out here?" I asked as we stepped back out into the rain.

Aura looked back at me with a half smile as we walked around the side of the building. "For now." She turned back around as she continued. "If we had an upstairs to this place, I'd move the bathroom in. Unfortunately, this was the best bet we had for survival. We tried other places, but we either kept getting attacked, or we caught signs of trouble and had to move on. It's not much to look at, but this place was better than nothing."

She went quiet for a bit as we walked around to the back, and I couldn't help but smile.

"We?" I asked.

"Hm?" She looked over, raising a brow.

"If we had an upstairs to this place..."

Her jaw dropped a bit, before she bit her lip. A soft smile curled on her lips. "Well... that's if you wanna move in with me. I'd love to have you..." She looked down for a moment, before turning her head again and walking around the corner.

I followed close behind and found an empty bathtub, resting underneath a makeshift tent that consisted of four sticks, rope, and a blue tarp.

"Alright, you go in." She smirked as she looked up at me.

"B-but..." I studied the surroundings. "There's no power."

She rolled her eye, before nodding to the tub. "In!"

I couldn't believe I was taking orders from my own 7 year old daughter...

"I'd usually take separate baths, but it would take hours before it could be used again, and I feel gross, so we have to share. Cause, you know... Communism! It's our bathtub!" She snorted softly to herself, before looking back up at me. "You cool with that?"

Hesitantly, I nodded. "Uh, yeah... Sure."

I stepped in and leaned my back against where the faucet would have been. I rested my forehooves along the rim, and I kept my metal hoof out of the tub, just in case. I didn't like the idea of putting an electrical power in water.

I listened to the rain patter against the tarp overhead. It seemed to be getting worse as time went on...

I looked down at Aura as she fiddled around with a rope tied to a metal bucket of water. A rope that ran up one of the supports that held the tarp up. A tarp that was pooled up with... cold... rain water...

She turned to me with a sadistic grin, before letting go.

"WAIT, AURA!" I started to lift myself from the tub as my hoof burst with electricity, but I was too late! Agh, fuck that was freezing!

Aura laughed uncontrollably as both of us got drenched in a moment's notice.

Well... the tub was full now...

She started running for the tub, towards a small pile of neatly stacked crates. She ran up them like steps, before leaping off the one at the top, over the bathtub.

"GERONIMO!"

She crashed into my stomach in her landing, splashing water about in the process as she hugged me tight.

"Agh, Aura!" I shouted as she fell into a giggle fit.

Soon enough, I started to join her in a chuckle as I held her close.

Once things started to calm down, she pressed her ear to my chest, closing her eye. "You're soft..." She whispered. "Warm, too." She looked up at me with that smile that melted my heart. "Mom was lucky to have you..." She said, before burying her muzzle into the fur of my chest, still looking up into my eyes.

She had her smile... Her eyes, too. Or... eye.

I was kinda confused as to how she had a grey coat, since Snow's was white, and mine was a light beige, but mysteries of the universe, right?

She definitely carried my personality.

Her horn lit up as she continued to hold me. I raised a brow in response, but she just laughed under her breath, keeping her sight locked on mine.

"Uh, Aura? What are you doin- AGH, NOT AGAIN!" I shouted as I arched my back from another assault of ice cold water being poured down over both of us.

She burst into her giddy laughter again, closing her eye as I felt her shiver from the sudden drop in temperature. I was shaking at this point, too.

"Alright, alright!" She laughed as she stood over my barrel, looking around. "I know I had a thing of shampoo lying around here somewhere..." She peaked her head over the edge to my left. "Ah hah! Got it." With that, she pulled up a bottle of unopened shampoo, before turning to me. "Hope you like smelling like a mare!" She beamed at me as the cap opened on the floating bottle. She levitated it over my head and squeezed some of the contents out as I lied there, shaking. "It's all I could find out here lately."

After, I saw her rubbing shampoo in her own mane and tail as she sat at the other end, closing her eye as she hung her head down.

I ran my hooves over my mane, closing my eyes as I lathered it up.

Before too long, I heard the faint hum of unicorn magic, but I couldn't open my eyes.

"Ready?" Aura asked.

"For wh-AGGGGH!" I screamed as I felt the equivalent of a bucket load of cold water get dunked on my head. "AURA!"

"Now rinse!" She said cheerfully.

Reluctantly, I did so...

Soon after I was attacked by more water, she gave herself a dose of her own medicine, shuddering as she emptied another bucket.

Wiping my mane from my eyes, I opened them and looked at her. After she rinsed her mane, she looked back at me and smiled. "Better than being muddy." She said with a shrug.

I splashed water at her with a hoof, to which she turned away, laughing. "Hey!"

She turned back to me quickly, once the wave passed over her, then splashed water back at me.

We both shared a laugh in that moment, but after a while, things began to get quiet again.

Her laughter died down, and her smile faded a bit. "Hey, uh... Can you do me a favor?"

I nodded. "What is it?"

She spun a hoof around as she grit her teeth in distaste. "I have to... clean out from under the eye patch. Can you turn around while I do that? I don't want you to... see it... Or better yet, try and wrap up with cleaning yourself, so that you don't wash yourself using... icky water."

I paused for a moment, before giving another nod. "Of course. I shouldn't be long."

"Thanks..." She looked down as she began washing her coat clean of the dirt and mud as well. Things were quiet between us from that point on.

After the bath, Aura and I ran back inside, laughing as we raced to get back into the warmth of the bedroom. It was far too cold out here, and being drenched didn't help!

My hoof crackled softly with electricity, the entire race there.

As we ran across the living room for the bedroom, I caught Fluky giving me an annoyed look. I just then noticed the teddy bear on her back turned and looked at me, too.

That stopped me dead in my tracks.

Aura stopped at the doorway to the bedroom, looking back at the two of us. The group around me was silently spectating our interaction.

"Hey, Flukes..."

"Stop calling me that..." She murmured, looking away.

"I didn't leave." I said as a half smile grew on my features. "I mean, I'm still here."

"I know..." She said with a huff. "I know... Bullet and Hollow talked to me..." She looked up at the two mares. "I can see how it was dangerous... for me." She moved in and hugged my chest as she sighed. I wrapped a hoof around her and placed a kiss atop her head.

"So you know it was for your own good?"

"I do..." She whispered. "I'm still a bit upset, though..."

Astral coughed abruptly, to which Fluky and I turned to him.

"Sorry." He smiled nervously. "We'd give you some space, but... there's not a whole lot to go around."

I rolled my eyes and looked back down at her to see she was deadpanning at him for a moment. Even Oku gave him a disapproving headshake.

With a glance in Aura's direction, I noticed she was observing the two of us with a raised brow.

I looked back down at Fluky. "I'm gonna be in the other room if you need me, okay?"

She nodded as she backed up. "Mhm."

"You gonna be okay?"

Again, she nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She cracked a smile as she looked up at me.

I ran a hoof through her mane as I looked into her violet eyes. Her teddy bear was still, for the most part. But I could tell it was staring at me...

That was... unsettling...

I turned and moved for the bedroom door, to which Aura backed up, standing off to the side from within the room.

I closed the door behind me gently. Turning back to her, she was narrowing her eye at me.

"So, you have another daughter, huh? Mom never mentioned anything about that."

"She's... not..." I shook my head. "We're not related." I walked past her and hopped up onto the bed, before turning back to her and lying on my back. "I... owe her."

She hopped up next to me and lied down, before grabbing my hoof and wrapping it around her shoulder. "Why's that?" She asked as she looked up at me.

Oh boy...

"You're... gonna find out eventually, so you may as well hear it from me first, but... I made some mistakes along the way..."

"Such as?"

I grit my teeth as I looked away. "Like... um... Helping shoot up her home and killing her friends and family?"

There was silence in the air, and looking back down, I laid my eyes down on a blank expression, before she finally spoke with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Eh. I've heard worse." She snuggled up closer to me, resting her head on my chest. "She forgive you?"

"I think? She's definitely warmed up to me..."

She nodded faintly as she closed her eye. "What you did was wrong, I won't deny that. But at least you aim to make things right. It's a noble gesture, in today's age."

I chuckled softly, to which she looked up at me. "Did I say something funny?"

I shook my head as I looked down at her. "Snow Star really educated your vocabulary."

Aura cracked a smile. "I once read an entire dictionary. Twice. Goddesses, that was boring... But it was that, or read more of those romance novels she kept collecting." She shuddered in distaste. "Guess dictionary reading paid off."

"I'll say." I said as I booped her nose. Her eye shot up in alarm as she stared up at me in silence. "Looks like you take after your old man."

She rubbed her nose curiously as she looked down at it.

"M-my nose!"

I chuckled as I laid my head against the pillow behind me. My smile vacated the premises mere seconds after, though... I was starting to think about her.

"What's wrong?" Aura asked. I glanced down to see she was still looking up at me from my chest.

"Hey... Can you tell me about her?" I asked quietly. "Your mom? What was she like... out here?" I rolled my eyes around the room, before returning to her.

Aura smiled as she shuffled a bit closer. Her body was so warm... "She was smart. Focused a lot on unicorn magic in her free time. It started out with levitation spells, and then teleportation, but after a while, she started tapping into the more advanced stuff. Freezing spells, duplication, conjuration magic, stuff like that. She started teaching me some advanced stuff for a while, too. Before she..." Aura tensed up as her lips moved, but nothing came out. She averted her eye for a moment. "Um... Yeah..." She took a deep breath and closed her eye for a few seconds. "Anyways... She was a fighter. Taught me everything she could out here. She never let fear take hold."

Aura paused for a moment, before getting off of me and turning to the table beside the bed. She opened up a drawer and pulled out a white, glowing orb.

"She made this for you, in case you ever showed up. She taught me to tap other ponies into a memory orb, just for the occasion. So..." She held the orb out between us. "Whenever you're ready, let me know..."

I took the orb in both hooves, looking into the center that beamed with light.

"Can we... do it now?"

Aura nodded happily. "Of course we can. While you're away, maybe I can even get to know your friends." She moved in to nuzzle at my neck. "Ready, dad?"

I nodded, before placing a kiss on her cheek. I laid my head down on the pillow, looking up at her. "Ready."

The world flickered to life like a camera being turned on. There were a few glitches in the feed, but the world remained dark.

Red text appeared in the bottom left corner, only to scroll up as more appeared.

SENTRY MODEL #2915: ONLINE

==========================

MISSILE LAUNCHER: OPERABLE

GATLING: OPERABLE

MAIN SYSTEMS: LIMITED FUNCTION

PRIMARY IGNITION FAILURE

.

.

.

BACKUP POWER: ACTIVE

MISSILES: DEPLETED

AMMUNITION: DEPLETED

COOLING VENTS: ONLINE

VOICE MODULE: ONLINE

AUDIBLE SENSORS: ONLINE

AUDITORY RESPONSIVE: TRUE

SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE: ON STANDBY

CURRENT OBJECTIVE> ELIMINATE HOSTILES BY ANY MEANS

The black screen flickered away, as did the red text, and in its place, stood Snow Star...

With her beautiful, dark blue mane and tail...

Her snow white coat, and those glorious red eyes of hers...

Her belly was round. She wore nothing to protect herself from the dangers of the wasteland, but I also noticed she was in what appeared to be an abandoned factory. It was rather dark in there, but she seemed safe where she was, for the time being.

She was looking through a pipbuck attached to her arm, with occasional glances at the sentry I occupied.

With a few taps to the system she wore, a red light soon enveloped her from where I stood. She quickly looked up at me for a few seconds, before nodding silently to herself. She seemed nervous, and rather jumpy.

For me, I was nervous around Handy units. Guess she was the same with sentries. Wonder what she went through with them...

Her horn lit up as a memory orb floated into view from the side, moving closer to the head of the sentry.

"HOSTILE SIGHTED." The sentry shouted in its deep, intimidating, metallic voice, just as I heard an engine start to overheat.

Snow Star's eyes went wide as she quickly pulled the memory orb back. She quickly went back to her pipbuck. "WHOA, WHOA, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, NO, DON-"

The screen flickered away, back to a black, glitchy void.

SENTRY MODEL #1009: ONLINE

==========================

MISSILE LAUNCHER: OPERABLE

GATLING: OPERABLE

MAIN SYSTEMS: LIMITED FUNCTION

PRIMARY IGNITION FAILURE

.

.

.

BA-KUP P-WE+: ACTIVE

MISSI_ES: DEPLETE<

AMMUNITION: DEPLETED

CO0LLNS VE3T5: _-L8@

VOIKE MODULE: ERRRROR;

CCCC)))495E N1T F0_ND

AAD920RR S3M507S: 00000_

AUDITPRE 7E_Q]NS1[[: _)){

SELF DES2R__T SE___NC.; N-T .,<-}

CURRENT OB-EKTI..;

The screen began to fill with a series of 'ERROR' messages, and I was greeted with Snow Star's... frustration.

"For fuck's sake, Goddess damn you!" I heard her hoof smack a metal surface. "It's gonna be a pain in my ass to find another one of you! GODDESS FUCKING DAMNI-"

The error message vanished abruptly, and her voice was quickly cut off. In its place, was another black screen, with red text scrolling up from the bottom left corner.

SENTRY MODEL #9018: ONLINE

==========================

MISSILE LAUNCHER: OPERABLE

GATLING: OPERABLE

MAIN SYSTEMS: LIMITED FUNCTION

PRIMARY IGNITION FAILURE

.

.

.

BACKUP POWER: ACTIVE

MISSILES: DEPLETED

AMMUNITION: DEPLETED

COOLING VENTS: ONLINE

VOICE MODULE: ONLINE

AUDIBLE SENSORS: ONLINE

AUDITORY RESPONSIVE: TRUE

SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE: DISABLED>

ERROR> MISSING COMPONENTS TO INITIATE SELF DESTRUCT

CURRENT OBJECTIVE> PROTECT AND SERVE

The screen vanished, and Snow Star appeared before me again, looking down at her pipbuck. This time, she seemed to be in an office. There was a window beside a filing cabinet, but it was too dark to see anything outside.

She looked tired... and angry.

She still had a belly.

She wore spiked metal armor that looked like it had gone through some fight, but was still up for more. She looked almost like a raider...

She looked up at the sentry that shined a bright red glare down at her.

"You gonna blow up? Or fry your circuitry? What are you gonna do this time!?" She blurted as she glared, pointed a hoof up at it.

"PROTECT AND SERVE."

She paused for a moment, before looking down at the pipbuck. About a minute later, she looked back up from reading what I could only assume were the system diagnostics of the sentry.

"Huh..." She took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, it's about fucking time it worked..." Looking back up at the sentry, she continued as she levitated a memory orb to my sight. "This is a memory test. Testing, testing, 1, 2, go fuck yourself."

The feed immediately cut to her sitting in a computer chair with a bright smile on her face, looking up at the sentry as her horn stayed lit. She held a foal in her arms...

Aura...

"I finally got it to work! Phew!" She shook her head and sighed. "That was a royal pain... Okay..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, before lifting her head and looking back at my host. "Look, Charger." She lifted the sleeping foal carefully. "It's our baby." She cradled her as she looked down at her. "I named her Aura... She's the most precious thing in the whole wasteland, and beyond." She looked up at me, still smiling. "I have you to thank for her existence, love. I know someday, you'll come for me. We can be together again." Her smile faltered a little as she continued to stare. "But... until then, I'm going to record the best moments of my life out here with Aura. When you finally see me again, I can bring you up to date with these recordings. I know it's not perfect, but it's the next best thing." Tears welled up in her eyes as her lip began to quiver. "It's been... rough, Charger... I miss you... I can't wait to see you again..." She paused for a moment, staring deep into the sentry. "If you find me, and it's too late... If I'm... dead... you need to remember our agreement. Move on. Don't live the rest of your life alone..." She closed her eyes and shuddered under her breath, before wiping away the tears that escaped. "Um... Check it out, I'm the first pony to ever use a memory orb against a machine and succeed. Let me tell you, it was a headache..." She shook her head and sighed again, slumping in her seat a bit. "I'm keeping the sentry around to protect me and our daughter. If something happens..." She looked down at the foal. "I need something to watch over her..."

She looked back up at me as more tears escaped. "Well, here it is, Charger. My greatest hits... Excluding my time with you, of course... I love you. I always will."

The world quickly changed around me as I remained sitting in the body of a sentry.

Snow Star was lying on a couch, horn lit, crying out as she kept her forehooves down to her nethers; her hind legs spread out. Her breath was rapid for moments at a time, before she started screaming again.

The round belly explained it all to me.

She was giving me the moment she gave birth to Aura...

She was alone...

Before too long, after a series of rapid short breaths, she took one final deep lungful of air, before closing her eyes and screaming at the top of her lungs, pushing with all her might. Through that screaming, I heard the crying of a newborn, and her physical pain became tears of joy. She was beyond exerted, but she lifted the foal up into her arms, bringing the baby that was to be named Aura to her chest as she bawled.

Snow Star carefully levitated a small blanket around her, being extra careful with the newborn as she telekinetically grabbed a hold of the umbilical.

The scene shifted again; this time, of her cradling the young foal in her arms, who snoozed happily as she read a book to her in a soft tone. She sat next to a small campfire, out in the middle of the woods under the cover of night. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but no rain had struck her site yet.

There was a gauss rifle leaned up beside a rock to her right, along with a set of saddle bags and her metal armor.

The next several memories were of Snow Star teaching Aura about magic, reading and writing, guns, survival, and cooking.

I wasn't there when this was happening, but I was still able to get the next best thing. I was, at the very least, able to see her with our daughter. Glimpses of their time together, anyways.

I was starting to see why Aura was so cuddly. Her and Snow seemed to have a lot of memories of them snuggled up.

I noticed the last ones were in a metal room with a ladder in the center, leading up to a closed hatch. There was old, broken down radio equipment, but it looked like some repairs were being made.

The inside was lit up by lantern lights and candles.

The sentry I occupied took up a corner of the room, behind the ladder, in every memory of this place.

I noticed that over time, they managed to squeeze some furniture in there.

The last memory in there was of Aura sitting at one of the broken radios, around the age she was now. Beside her was a tool kit as she worked on fixing the device.

Heh... Aura really did take after me. Radio repair was a great pass time.

Snow was lying on the couch they had managed to grab, reading a book. The room was silent as they both did their own thing, but I noticed something else...

She had a cutiemark!

Three blue wisps of magic orbiting around a snowflake.

Her talent was magic...

Her talent was literally what the rangers in the bunker were afraid of. They were holding her back when she was living there.

They were holding others back, too...

It was common for adult unicorns in the bunker to not have a cutiemark. Many of them even died without one...

As if my eyes couldn't open any wider...

I awoke in the bedroom alone, respectively.

A few tears had managed to escape, but thankfully, these were tears of joy. I might have cried a bit more, had I not freaked out at her grave earlier.

I felt better...

She was gone, and I was still sad about that... But I felt better...

I carefully lifted the memory orb, looking deep into the light that flowed within, smiling softly.

"Thank you, Snow Star..." I hugged the orb to my chest for a moment, before putting it in my saddle bags. "I'll always love you..." I whispered as I gently folded the saddle bags closed.

Heh... guess I had her voice again. And what a gift it was...

It was going to take some time to be open to relationships again... Yes, Snow and I had an agreement, but I needed some time to be alone. I didn't want to move on...

I stood tall, before turning for the bedroom door. Thankfully, the two doors of this house were facing north and south, so I didn't have to hear the voices. My problem was turning the wrong way and getting an outburst of them as the consequence.

This time doing that, my body jolted for the west, smacking me into the wall.

"Agh, damn it..." I shook my head away from the voices as I hissed behind clenched teeth. They were getting stronger...

I regained my composure and proceeded for the door to the living room.

My first sight upon opening it was Scope, of all ponies, and Aura talking to each other. A full on conversation with the guy that hated talking.

But he seemed to be enjoying it now.

I wasn't too informed on what it was they were talking about, but it sounded like they were comparing guns, off what little I heard.

Firebright and Para were sitting side by side, facing them. She peeked in his direction a few times as he ran a hoof along his mechanical rabbit's back over and over again. I could tell she was uncomfortable.

Finally, she turned to me with a concerned look.

"Hey, Char-" She paused for a moment, shifting her eyes down. "Master..."

Everyone turned and looked at the two of us. I was getting a lot of weird looks.

"Kinky..." Aura muttered under her breath, breaking the silence in the room.

"H-how do ya know that word?" Cobalt balked. "Er 'bout anythin' you've been sayin' this past hour?"

"Extensive research and experience." She deadpanned. "Don't treat me like a kid. It'll be the last mistake you make."

Cobalt's eyes went wide, before turning to me in bafflement.

"A-Aura, honey..." I trotted up to her, gently placing a hoof behind her head. She turned to me with a faint smile.

"Yeah, dad?"

"Please don't... threaten my friends. They're good ponies."

She bit her lip as her ears wilted, looking down. "Er... right." She turned back to Cobalt. "Sorry about that. Just not quite used to seeing friendly faces."

Cobalt nodded. "Hey, I get it. Yer all good."

Scope stifled a soft chuckle under his breath as he looked from her to me. "I like her."

Wait, Scope can laugh? Well, holy shit, now I've seen everything!

I felt a hoof tap my shoulder, and looking over, I was greeted with Firebright's presence. In doing so, however, I was also invaded by the voices.

And anger.

I quickly moved my head away, feeling them already sink their invisible claws into my hide and pull me away.

"What is it?"

"Can I talk to you in private?"

With a roll of my eyes, I sighed. "Fine."

I trotted for the bedroom, before turning around on my left side, looking back at her as she walked in. I closed the door behind her and spun back around just in time to see her hopping up onto the bed.

"Nah, ah, ah!"

She turned around at my protest, frozen as her upper half stayed up on the bed.

I trotted up to the mattress, hopped up, and pressed my metal hoof against her face, pushing her back down to the floor.

She grit her teeth in frustration as she knit her brows at me.

"No bed for you." I stated, turning around to face her. "You don't deserve the bed."

She sighed, hanging her head down. "Alright, fine..." She rubbed her head with a hoof, before looking back up at me. "Something's happening to me..."

"Yeah, it's called developing a conscience. I'd say it's years late." I glared down at her as my hoof flickered. I quickly shifted it away from the bed sheets.

"No, not that..." She said as she backed away from my rear hoof a bit. "I must be going crazy or something, but... I keep hearing voices..."

I froze, and my expression softened. "Voices?"

"I'm always hearing them now. Right now they're like whispers... But whenever I'm looking west, they get stronger. Louder. I'm... worried..."

I nodded. "And... are they saying anything?"

"If they are, I'm not understanding it. I know it sounds crazy, but... I start to feel myself lose control the longer I look west. And... after our encounter, back at that raider camp you took over, I puked up some sort of black gunk... and it scurried off... Like, with tentacles... I've been feeling something stir around inside me ever since." She looked up into my eyes... She was scared. That was something I had never seen from her before.

"What did you do to me...?"

I let out a soft chuckle. "Guess infection can be carried through scratches." With a nod, I continued. "Yeah, I know about the voices. I'm hearing them too. You want advice? Don't look west."

"Ch..." She tensed up. "Master..."

I rolled my eyes. "Just call me Charger. Feels kinda weird calling me master now."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you... Charger. I think the voices are leading to the bunker..."

I raised a brow. "What?"

"Bristle activated the megaspell generator we pulled from Saddle, and ever since, there's been a lot of weird stuff happening there. Ponies vanishing. Mutilated body parts taking the form of these weird symbols... Talks of shadows walking around the facility. Whispers... I thought it was all talk just to scare the others as some sort of prank, but now I can't stop hearing them..." She covered her ears as she closed her eyes. "Even trying to block sound, I can still hear them as clear as day..." She took a deep breath, before looking back up at me. "Charger, I don't know what's happening. And you have no reason to give a shit. I get that. I really fucked your life up... but I'm scared." She averted her eyes, looking to her right. "I'm... sorry about Snow Star... I really am... I don't expect you to ever forgive me. I don't deserve it. But... I want to better myself."

Of course he was using the generator... I should have known better than to believe he was going to destroy something with that much power...

I jumped down and reached a hoof underneath her chin, making her face me. Our eyes met as the room fell silent for seconds at a time, before I replied.

"You only want to better yourself because you were kicked out of your home. You don't care about anyone but yourself. I don't fucking believe you. You're pathetic." I pushed her down, and with a grunt, she landed on her back, looking up at me as her mouth hung open in shock. "You should have known better than to drink Bristle's punch. Now look where it got you." With that, I walked over her body, letting my tail drag over her face.

I opened the door just in time to catch Para rubbing an ear with a hoof, as if trying to get something out. If these voices were about the infection, then it made sense that he was hearing it, too. And Fluky...

Though, she seemed normal. I wasn't catching a hint of discomfort from her, and she was facing the west.

So what was so different with her...?

Firebright got up and walked out quietly, taking her initial spot at the couch, next to Para.

Scope and Aura were already playing a game of poker atop two stacks of milk crates, using caps, ammo, and food to bet with. There was a spiked trench knife stabbed into the wooden support beam on Aura's side as she levitated her hand of cards to where only she could see them.

The match would have had to just now start, cause Firebright and I weren't in there that long.

The rest of the group were either outside, presumably, or discussing plans with each other and doing inventory.

I watched from afar as Aura pulled the trench knife from the wall. She levitated a steak, pressed it against the wall as she cut a slice off, tossed it in her mouth, and stabbed the knife back into the support.

"Alright, big shot." She said behind the consumption of meat after taking the cigarette from her lips, which still awarded some strange looks. She quickly noticed and began glaring at everyone else. "The fuck you all looking at!? It ain't cancer that'll kill me!"

Everyone quietly turned away as she exhaled the toxic smoke, looking away to the knife as she levitated what she called out, sweetening the pot. "I'll raise you one pack of ciggies and an unopened bottle of Wild Pegasus."

He narrowed his eyes at her, levitating some of his contents to the center of the table. "I call your bluff, and I raise you 10 caps, a rifle magazine of explosive rounds, and three grenades."

With a grin that said 'you're on,' she pushed her entire bet to the middle of the table. "All. In."

Scope grit his teeth as he looked down at the pot. He had three caps left to his name. He was... really bad at playing these types of games. "Gah... damn it..." He tossed his hand face down on the table.

A pebble struck behind his ear, causing him to look around frantically. "What was that?"

Fluky and I broke into laughter at his response to Para's pebbles. I even caught Petiole and Thorne chuckling a little!

"Read 'em and weep, sucker!" Aura shouted as she slammed her hand on the makeshift table, revealing two fives, a two, and three fours.

Scope balked at her as she pulled her winnings over to her side, sticking her tongue out at him. She burst into laughter immediately after, reveling in the moment of her victory.

"So let's see the hand you sacrificed!" She said cheerfully. Reluctantly, he turned the cards over with his magic, slumping and sulking as he looked away at the wall.

Her laughter grew louder. "Oh, you poor soul! You folded with three kings and two queens!?"

"Look, I thought you had a royal flush!"

"Your experience with cards is a royal flush down shitsville!" She pointed a hoof at him, laughing hysterically at this point. "You shouldn't have folded! Quickest game ever! Get good!" She took a long pull off her cigarette, still laughing. She broke into a coughing fit soon after.

I trotted up, regarding Scope. "How's it feel to be bested by a kid?"

Aura spun around, glaring up at me as she continued coughing. "I beg your fucking pardon?"

"Er... sorry." I grinned sheepishly, looking back at her. With a grin, she put a hoof to her eye and... blinked? Winked? "Wait, are you blinking or winking?"

Her ears wilted as she deadpanned. "I was winking..." Her smile lit back up as she nodded to me. "Anyways, you're good. I know I'm a kid. Just... try not to treat me like one too much... Got it?"

I nodded with a gentle smile curled on my lips.

"How's it feel to be your daughter's bitch?" Scope replied with a snarky little smirk. A pebble smacked the side of his head, causing him to wince and grunt. "Who keeps doing that...?"

She chuckled. "Alright, calm down..."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "You up for another game?"

"Hell yeah!" She blurted. "Take a spot!"

Scope continued to sit there, getting a look from both of us.

"You're still down for another game?" She asked.

"Absolutely."

"But you have next to nothing left." I stated, looking down at what little remained of his caps.

"That's what you think. I want my stuff back." With that, he started digging through his saddle bags.

Aura and I looked to each other, smiling, before turning back to him. She spoke as she shuffled the deck through her magic.

"Alright!" She grabbed the trench knife, tore it from the wall, and levitated the same slab of meat she had before, cutting another chunk off it. "Ante up, boys."

Aura slammed her hoof on the stack of milk crates a few times, filling the room with boisterous laughter. I chuckled as Scope deadpanned at her; his ears folded back.

"Ah man, I even let you bet with my knife! And you still lost!"

Scope stood up and stretched as he levitated his rifle to his back. "I'm gonna... go now."

"Where?" I asked, raising a brow with a faint smirk on my lips.

"Y'know..." He started for the exit. "Places."

"Hey." Hollow spoke up, to which he stopped and turned back to her. "Just be safe."

He cracked a smile. "I feel the need to go on a raider hunt. Safety's been thrown out the window. But not for me." With that, he left the house.

I turned back to my daughter as she smiled at me, reaching out a hoof. "Good game."

"Good game." I replied with a grin as we shook.

I may have lost, but I still had fun. I only bet using caps, so I was still safe. Even then, I still had a lot left.

"So..." She continued as she gathered up her winnings in a pile. "What's up with the fangs? I don't recall seeing any through mom's memories of you two."

I shrugged with a faint smile. "I'm not quite sure. They kinda just... showed up out of nowhere one day."

"Well..." She grinned up at me. "They look killer."

"While we're asking questions..." Firebright intruded, to which Aura and I turned to her. Everyone else seemed to be minding their own business.

My sister pointed a hoof at the suit of power armor that looked back at her. "Who's the quiet one? He's been staring at me for a long time, and it's making me uncomfortable!"

"I'm the one you and those assholes put a-" He quickly swung a hoof to the side, striking an airborne pebble as it came to his head. "-bounty on. Y'know... that anomaly thing you've been badgering Charger on about the past month."

She balked at him in response, but said nothing all the while.

Blacklight landed atop my head, to which Aura glanced up at him, before returning back to me. "You are quite the character..." She levitated her pile of goodies, making her way for the bedroom. "I'm gonna call it a night. Rules I mentioned earlier still apply." She stopped and looked over her shoulder, glaring at Firebright. "Except for you..."

Firebright looked back at her; her jaw dropped. "What?"

"You sleep outside. Don't think I don't know who you are... I went through a lot of my mom's memories, and I saw the kind of shit you pulled on my mom and dad. You're not sleeping under my roof. If you do, and believe me, I will find out... I'm going to gut the ever-loving fuck out of you."

Aura turned to me for a moment, before nodding her head to the bedroom. From there, she resumed walking in.

I turned back to Firebright to find she was looking at me silently; her jaw still hanging open in surprise. I simply shrugged.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been an asshat, Fire. Payback's a bitch, huh?" I ducked as two pebbles came at me from where Para sat, glaring at me. Damn pebbles...

She sighed as she hung her head down, and I turned back to the bedroom. Closing the door behind me, I climbed up onto the bed and lied down. Aura joined me soon after, snuggling up close to me. I wrapped my hooves around her as she nestled into my coat.

Shortly after, I felt something crawling up my back, to my head.

"Hey, Aura?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not afraid of bugs, right?"

"Pfft! Hell no! There's no reason to be scared of bugs. I've seen far worse out here... Why do you ask?"

I chuckled softly as I felt Blacklight nuzzle into my neck from behind. "My pet moth is joining us, apparently. He's on my back."

She peaked over my shoulder curiously, to which I felt him shift his head a bit. Presumably to look back at her.

His wings fluttered gently, giving me a gentle breeze against the fur of my back.

"He have a name?"

"Blacklight."

"Fitting." She said with a grin as she reached out a hoof. He climbed up a bit more, nuzzling into the tip of her forehoof for a moment. "He looks awesome. I've never seen anything quite like him before."

"Neither have I. He kinda just found me. Decided to stick around."

She returned her hoof as Blacklight flew up to the bed post next to us, resting there.

She looked up at me, smiling as she often did ever since we met. She seemed happy. I could tell, however, that there was a sadness we both shared.

We both lost Snow Star...

But she seemed very gracious to have me around.

The feeling was mutual.

I hugged her tight, closing my eyes.

"I'm so glad we found each other..." I whispered under my breath. "I love you, Aura..."

She squeezed back as she whispered, after placing a kiss on my cheek. "I love you too, dad..."

I kissed her back and closed my eyes.

"Awaken..."

I opened my eyes upon hearing a whisper in the room. It was dark in here, and all was silent, save for the rain and thunder outside.

"Get up..."

The voices from the west...

They were speaking to me. Actually speaking in a language I knew... That was new.

Not only that, but the several voices were speaking as one.

"Get up..."

Aura's mane tickled my nose as I brushed against it, closing my eyes again. I just wanted to sleep... I wanted to be with my family...

Just leave me alone...

"It is time. Get up. Awaken." They spoke with an impatience...

I sighed softly to myself, and very carefully, I slipped my forehoof out from under my daughter's head. She groaned softly in her sleep as she shifted a bit.

I kept my head facing east.

"What do you want?" I whispered.

"We want the bunker you used to call home. You want the answers hidden within. The one you call Bristle has those answers waiting there, for you. Let us strike a deal, and we both get what we want."

"Answers..." I said softly, looking over my shoulder. The voices started to grow.

"Yesss... Answers. Who you are. Where you came from. What they did to you... The ones you travel with, they hold the truth from your mind. They will not share it with you. We think differently. We are open to giving you the information you seek."

"And what's the catch?"

"The only thing we ask of in return is your assistance in our conquest over your bunker. You would make... an excellent addition to the cause." There was a hint of amusement in their voice.

"I just got my family back..."

"But are you so certain that it is enough? Can you really go on living the rest of your life, not knowing the truth of yourself... and others?"

I hung my head down. I knew the answer to that question...

I needed my answers. Not only that, but I needed justice served for what Bristle, Titan, and Fire did. Snow Star would have been alive if it weren't for them. My daughter wouldn't have been sexually assaulted by some freak out here, if it weren't for them. She wouldn't have been scarred and mutilated!

Hundreds of unicorns wouldn't have been beaten, raped, and killed if it weren't for them!

I looked back over my shoulder as the voices continued to whisper in tongues I couldn't understand.

"I'm on my way..."

"Good... Yessss... Good... Come alone... Come home... And bring the battery... We will guide you..."

I eased my way out of bed and quietly began slipping into my barding. Gathering up my gear without making too much noise.

I slipped into the living room to find everyone was fast asleep. Tuner was still and quiet, and the helmet of the power armor he was in was looking down at the ground.

I snuck up and quickly slipped the battery out from the suit, before he could wake anyone.

The moment I touched the battery however, a synthesized warble rang out, before a radiance joined it. A steady beat took over shortly after.

It took me a moment to realize Tuner was messing with me again with his music.

But it was in my head. No one else seemed to hear it.

I slipped the battery in my saddle bags, before looking back to the bedroom door. Quietly, I moved back to the doorway, studying the faint silhouette in the dark.

Rain is coming down

And that is when the feeling comes

I started to move for the bed.

Rain, rain is coming down

And all my wounds are bleeding out

As I stopped beside her, I caressed a hoof across her mane, before leaning in and placing a kiss on her cheek.

Blue, blue, out of the sky

A perfect hue to say goodbye

I took the pipbuck off my forehoof, setting it down on the bed beside her. The E.F.S. flickered away from my sights as I took it off.

"Don't come after me..." I whispered under my breath. "I hope I can come back to you..."

You, you can only try

To take the reigns, but fate decides

I stepped away, heading for the door as I looked over my shoulder, keeping myself from turning to the west. I wasn't ready yet...

I stopped at the open doorway, looking back at her dark silhouette.

"I love you..."

I stood there a moment, before closing the door.

Turning back for the living room, I carefully made my way across, as to not wake and alert anyone.

Upon getting to the front door, I pushed it open, looking out into the dark, stormy night. A cold gust of wind pushed against me, leaking into the house.

As I stepped out into the night, closing the door behind me, the music grew louder, sounding almost like the engine of a jet, but synthesized. It was quickly cut off, going back to a synthesized radiance that held a sad beauty to its tone.

I hung my head down as the rain washed over me, sending small shivers through my body as I felt the heavy droplets soak into my fur. My mouth hung open as I let my body adapt to the temperature, and some of the drops of cold rain water slid along my upper lip, before sliding down my fangs and from there, dropped down to my bottom lip.

I closed my eyes, standing there in the cold for a moment.

I didn't want to go. I really didn't... But the voices were right. My friends had answers, and they weren't going to tell me, no matter how hard I pushed. I needed to know the truth...

After a deep exhale, I opened my eyes and turned west with a determination. I allowed the voices in and ran for them in the darkness of night...

I'll be hoping

You give back what I've given you

I can see the truth

You give back what I've given you

White below

White below...

Author's Notes:

One chapter left, and the first part of Radio Static is complete.

The song at the end is Rain, by Cut Copy. It really spoke to me with this scene.

Special thanks to Kkat for FoE, Somber for PH, Nylten for her incredible artwork, Tatykun for his incredible artwork, Dravakiirm for his help with Scope, and to all of you, who continue to read and enjoy this story.

Also, Taty finished a picture of Firebright recently. He's currently doing a Charger picture, but check out the Firebright pic!

Find more of his art here.