Opening my eyes, I was't sure when I fell asleep. The pain in my wings reminding me of exactly where we were, and our situation. Blinking I realized the cave was bright, it must be close to midday. Now... how do we get out of here before... An alarmed shout, but no words that I could make out. Shaking my head I saw it.

The bighorner wasn't merely large, it was freaking huge. Sure, the fur was long and thick but it could probably give our sentinel robots back home a good trashing. With their bare hooves. A thought passed through me regarding what they could do with a squishy pony, I tried to banish it with little success. The creature walked up to me, with a pair of very angry eyes staring into mine.

"WHY PONY ATTACK TRIBE?"

She asked, not quite shouting but with an impressive volume none the less. Behind her I heard the voice of more and more of them jumping down into the cave, well... We were officially screwed.

"Ah... We didn't..."

Then she smashed her head onto mine.

"WHY?!"

Well fuck the stars.

"We didn't want to attack anyone!"

I shouted back at her, a moment of silence. A chance, to lie through my teeth.

"We were paid to find a pony that had gotten lost in mountains. I saw her sneaking in and ran straight after her without a second thought. Next thing I knew one of you charged me and broke my wings!"

She stared into my eyes for what seemed like an eternity, then she took a step back. And asked another of the bighorners something. An argument broke out among them, most looked angry, but others looked... worried? Then, she turned back to me.

"PONY NOT ATTACK... PONY STILL NOT WELCOME!! PONY. LEAVE."

And with those last two words she again smashed her head into mine and pushed me backwards. Just how strong are these people??

"Yeah. Sure. Ponies leave!"

I rose to my hooves, picked up Amber and threw him unto my back. Ooouch that hurt. But no time to complain, need to get out of here right now.

"Uhm... can you move the rock? It is too heavy for me."

"HAH! PONY WEAK."

Then she walked to the large boulder that served as a door, and headbutted it. Step by step she pushed it outwards, not rolled it. Pushed it straight out. When she turned around and looked at me I trotted up and out through the hidden passage. Step one, get the hell out of here. And I begin traversing the difficult landscape, realizing that the road was to the west I tried to make my way there.

It wasn't easy, and after an hour I stumbled down a slope. Not all that far, but we hit a small cliff. It was smaller than my home back home, but after realizing there was no path up here and the road was straight below I decided to take the opportunity to rest.

Amber slept for several hours, and I might have dozed of for a while. Yet it seemed that for once, the Princesses were watching over us. No one attacked us, no red bars showed up. I supposed that whatever meat eating creatures lived in these mountains would be at the village and not look for two tired zonies. And the image of the hungry ghoul appeared in my head. I shook my head trying to get rid of it. Taking a look at my pipbuck I realized that it the walk back up to Goldstar was not that all that long.

Huh?

'Bighorner Village' was marked on the map, but we never saw it? Did I stumble close to it whilst trying to get back down the mountainside? Well, that was one objective completed. As I was attempting this thing called "thinking" Amber opened his eyes and seemed to be a in quite a horrid condition. When I offered a water bottle he took it and drank, then pulled out some food and ate a bit. On my part I did that as well, might need the energy for the return trip. Is wasteland adventure always this... exhausting?

"Feeling like talking?"

I asked him carefully. He shook his head in reply. Let's hope we don't run into an more monsters, or situations where my lack of foresight gets us into trouble again. And yes, I felt guilty about the whole situation. Us getting stuck, me hurting my wings, him not talking.

We carefully made our way down from the cliff and got to the road, with no one in sight. Just one huge creepy forest on one side and a mountain range filled with horrifying monsters on the other, no biggie... Yeah, we should probably hurry up and get back to Goldstar. I would feel a lot safer with all those guns on our side, and now I think I understood just why the place had such a heavily armed military. It was placed between two places filled with pony eating horrors and the steel rangers in the north.

On that note, my foalish awe at the mare ruling the place was slowly replaced with respect for managing to keep so many ponies safe under those circumstances. That can't be easy. And when I was on the subject I realized that she must had built the place pretty much from scratch. Not the building itself, but the society and the infrastructure.

Huh...

After a while of walking I saw a single white bar on my EFS and felt a sense of deja vu. I glanced to the right and next to a tree sat a white mare with a violet mane. She looked liked she had cried for hours and only apathy was left.

"Hey Amber."

I whispered to my companion, not wanting to spook the distressed mare. As he looked at me, I pointed with my muzzle in her direction. He looked at her for a short while, then back to me and nodded. Lifted a hoof, poked me and directed to the place where I stood. He wanted me to stay here?

As he trotted slowly up in front of her she followed him with her gaze, occasionally shooting glances in my direction. She tensed up when he opened his saddlebags but then relaxed when he pulled out a water bottle and some food, rolled it over to her. Hesitantly she reached for the bottle, quizzically looking at him and then proceeded to gulp down the whole thing. Then she raised a brow in confusion as he pulled out his blackboard and began scribbling on it. I had no idea what he wrote or what she nodded lightly too but I left that discussion to him.

Clearly the mare was terrified of zebras and didn't like the look of my stripes. I knew it wasn't anything personal, but I still felt a bit wounded by it. Then I realized that this probably meant that she was from New Pegasus, and judging by her state she was most likely a refugee. This meant taking her to Fort Goldstar, not that there were many other directions to go from here. After all, I really didn't want to cross the mountains again, even discounting the ghoul infested ghost town on the other side. And hiking through the forest...

At this point I realized that I should be on guard, and turned my attention to the wood line less than a few pony-lengths from me. Even in the relative daylight it looked eerie, like it was sentient and spiteful. With dead trees being twisted into unnatural shapes, not that the living ones looked much better. The leaves and needles looked dark and menacing, hiding shadows that moved about half seen. I could swear to this day that wherever I looked, something looked back. It was about then it dawned on me that I had my EFS on and that there were no bars, white or red in the direction of the forest. So maybe I just imagined things... Or it could be that the Eyes Forward Sparkle only tracks moving objects... stars burn down this cursed forest! It just isn't natural!

I kept attempting to hurl curses at the wood line with my mind, not getting any feedback about a sense of success. Until Amber poked me in the side, which promptly made me jump a fair bit straight up until I realized that I was not being bitten by a strange monster.

"Amber! Don't spook me!"

At which he held out his hoof and made face suggesting a 'WTF, Windstriker'.

Oh right, no talking. He had to get my attention in some way.

"Ah. Sorry.... The forest is creeping me out."

Then I saw that the mare had decided to hide behind Amber, which looked a bit comedic considering the size differential.

"Oh right. Sorry about scaring you earlier, miss. The hills are dangerous and... I messed up. So, again. Sorry."

She pondered the apology for a moment and then nodded. Seeing how I had not heard a word from he mouth I concluded that she either was deaf, mute or like Amber and really not in the mood of talking.

Hours later it seemed that either the princesses had scorned us, the stars disliked my curses or the doomponies just hated the surface dwellers a lot. Because either way it had started to rain, and not by a little. It was straight up storm with heavy winds and the occasional thunder. Fortunately by the time the storm had gotten really bad we had the watchtowers of Goldstar in sight and could reach the safety of a roof in not to short of a time. The guards were slightly baffled that we arrived in the weather and insisted that we got to the trade station as quickly as possible.

And as we, amongst other travelers sat with borrowed blankets and warm herbal drinks (I didn't consider this drink to be tea, not even close), the high ranking guard we encountered some days before showed up and wanted to talk to us. I was dead tired and my two companions were currently mute but I rather not be rude to our host in this weather.

"Hey kids, you seem like you been messed up by more than just the storm."

He asked with a slight worried tone. I couldn't muster up much of an answer.

"Yeah... A ghoul, and some really angry bighorners."

At that he raised one brow suspiciously and seemed to take things very seriously.

"No armies or dragons though if that is what you are wondering."

He pondered that for a moment.

"Thanks kid."

Then he took a look at my battered wing.

"You better get to the hospital. Usually outsiders have to pay for treatment but I think the Princess can overlook it in this case. I'll send someone to inform her that you're there."

"Thanks, but we rather rest first."

He nodded at that.

"And I am not sure we know where the hospital is."

Then I heard a beep from my foreleg and I saw marker pop up on the map system.

"HUH?? How..."

"Magic. Don't ask me to explain how that works, I'm just an earth pony."

I turned to ask Amber but he had already fallen asleep. And so had the mysterious mare we had found, first place of warmth and safety in a while I guessed. On that thought, I should really ask her name in the morning.

I must say that there was something to waking up like this, in a fairly large room with other travelers. No threats from monsters or raider ponies, a sense of familiarity with ponies you never met before. Small talk and well wishing. Honestly, I think that nobody seemed to care much about my stripes was what did the trick, just one of the herd. I had befriended several different ponies whilst I waited for the two sleepyheads to wake up. Sure, it probably made sense to catch the sleep when one could get it but I couldn't sleep properly away from home.

But back to the actual subject, I did learn a few things from the other travelers. Two ponies were contractors specializing in collecting memory orbs for the princess, four others formed a small caravan that came from way east, Appleloosa. We gossiped a bit about the wasteland heroine and they mentioned some ghoul author that ran a store in the town. Then there were five ponies that were from some mercenary group down south, had come up here to get a better deal on ammo. They mentioned that they hadn't even reflected on my stripes due to the wings and pipbuck. Finally there was griffon of all things, he (I think) had a thing for energy weapons. I suggested that he could get stuff like that back at the Institute and he was overjoyed at the thought. He complimented me, suggesting that I reminded him of his friend back when she was younger. Not sure if I should be weirded out by him, but he gave me a radio frequency to contact him if I ever needed an extra gun.

Anyhow, I eventually got to eat breakfast with my companions and offered some food to the shy mare.

"So... this is a pretty good place if you need somewhere to live. They take in refugees all the time, and the princess is pretty impressive."

Which resulted in a snort from Amber and a very confused look from the mare.

"She is a unicorn." I explained further as a she mouthed an "Oh". Realizing that it might be a good idea to explain things I heard while they were asleep.

"So the guard captain talked to me last night and said I could get a free checkup at their hospital. He said he would inform the princess about it."

Amber nodded and the mare nodded slowly.

"Oh, you can probably get checked as well."

She paled and shook her head fervously.

"Or... not. Either way, I think you could like it here. Miss?.."

She whispered 'Violette' and smiled slightly.

"Violette, nice name."

She raised her eyebrow in a puzzled expression at that but kept quiet.

The hospital turned out to be a decently sized building complex for being built entirely out of wood, and fairly recently too. Or rather, calling it a building was a disservice as it was in practice several buildings that had been interconnected by doorways. The place held what I assumed were offices, storage facilities, a small dining area and dozens of... well booths I suppose, with a bed within each of them and a curtain for privacy. What was remarkable was how clean everything was, there was no dirt except for what we brought in here ourselves. Violette had a similar reaction to mine, this was pretty impressive for post apocalyptic architecture and medicine.

"Can I help you?"

Asked a orange stallion with a crimson and grey mane. He seemed mildly irritated at the unexpected visitors.

"Yes... I was told someone could take a look at my wing. And my friends might also need a brief checkup?.."

I looked at the others, Violette shook her head and Amber scribbled a 'I'm physically fine'.

"Ok, so just my wing then."

"SIGH. Very well, let's get this over with."

At this point I was slightly worried about the quality of my health care, even if it was free. He showed us the way to one of the unoccupied booths and I noted that the bed was made from straw. Eh, could have been worse. As he pulled out a pair of glasses and a flashlight he began asking loads of questions. Exactly what I had done to my wing, how long ago it was and if I had attempted flying with, if I had taken any sort of medicine for the pain etc etc. And too my surprise he seemed to be serious about the whole thing.

"All right... It doesn't seem to be broken, heard that pegasus wings have pretty sturdy wings. It DOES, however, seem to be dislocated. I can fix it but it will hurt for quite a bit."

"OK, I think I can handle it. Will it take long to fix?"

Well, thank the princesses for small favours.

"Naaah. I could get it over and done with in 5 minutes tops."

He pondered for a moment

"You should probably stay here for an hour or so, in case the pain doesn't subside or there are any other complications. I'll tell Doctor Silverbeak to check on you, she has more experiences with wings."

"Oh, makes sense. But shouldn't we wait for."

CRACK

OUCH?!

Some forewarning would have been nice. Aaauh... The bastard actually smiled.

"Nah, fixing dislocations are pretty simple procedures. And sorry for not warning you, but ponies tend to get all stiff and that raises the risk for complications."

Ok, he had a point. Still hurt like hell though and I was still a bit upset. "Now, please don't flap it too much until Silverbeak has had a chance to look at it. I need to go do my actual job now." The bastard was seriously chuckling to himself as he left.

"There is something seriously wrong with that buck" I muttered and then took a long breath whilst trying to relax. "So now what? Just wait I suppose."

Well Amber was far away mentally and listening to the radio, his way to try to relax. And to my surprise Violette seemed almost relaxed as well, as the doctor (I hope?) had disappeared she asked.

"Can I take a look'"

On my wing? I made a confused face and pointed at the damaged wing, she nodded and said some more.

"I know some medicine". Probably more about wings than him."

"Yeah, if you want to I suppose. Just be careful, it hurts like dragonfire."

She got up on her hind hooves and took carefully looked over the wing in detail. Everything from feathertips to the root of the whole wing. Barely ever touching anything, a mighty bit more professional than the buck before her. When she seemed satisfied she sat down.

"You should be fine. Though some painkillers would probably help."

A pause and she continued.

"Is everyone around here as rude as him?"

"Tell me about it..." Then got an idea. "Hey, we could use someone that knows this stuff. Amber is smart but he is into machines, not medicines. If you don't prefer staying here that is."

She looked seriously confused at the suggestion so I clarified.

"We're traveling, exploring, helping ponies and such. I was fed up with being stuck in the stable and not doing anything anything worthwhile so I left."

She raised an eyebrow and looked at Amber.

"Childhood friend"

I explained.

We small talked to spend the time and eventually a black and grey griffon wearing a lab coat stepped in. I did noticed that she seemed a bit world weary yet still fierce, this was a doctor? She looked like she might as well rip me apart as stitch me back together.

"You're Blackhorn's kid, ain't you?"

Before I could answer she continued.

"Don't worry, I keep things confidential. In this line of work you have to, or else someone might decide to put a bullet or ten in you."

"Assuming I'm not being rude, can I ask how you ended up a doctor?"

She laughed a bit, and darn she had a sexy smoky voice. Note to self, griffons are definitely interesting.

"Hah! No worries kid. Every professional mercenary band has a medic or two with them. There was a fight way back, some people didn't get along with the boss and left. When all of my friends had gone I got bored and did the same."

It seemed she had gotten into a nostalgic mood and proceeded to look over both of my wings, with what was clearly plenty of experienced behind her actions.

"I freelanced for a bit here and there but when winter hit I realized it was probably a good idea to look for long term employment... Sure, I ain't getting paid in caps but I do have a contract. And I will be properly supplied if I decide to leave again, little miss princess isn't the type to break contracts."

"Hold on a minute, you don't get paid?!"

I asked in honest confusion. She was amused and surprised at my reaction, clearly I had missed something obvious.

"You really are fresh out a stable, aren't you? Nobody here gets paid. Not even the princess. Everyone put in whatever work they can, and they get free shelter, food, water. The best protection outside a Steel Ranger compound, education and of course health care."

Ok... I had clearly missed all of that. Doesn't sound all that bad of a deal, but still pretty odd. Or maybe not, sounded a lot like how things are back in the Institute. Resources allocated according to what is prioritized, the food are evenly divided, everyone have to study.

"Reminds me a bit of Fillydelphia in some ways..."

"How unfortunate, we hoped that Our work here wouldn't be compared with that slaver nest."

A positively royal and familiar voice said as princess the princess of Goldstar showed up. To me it looked like she wore a mask of offense, hiding something else beneath. The griffon sighed at that, like she had this discussion many times before.

"You know fully well that not everything Red Eye wants to do is evil."

"Perhaps. But his methods make him lesser than the least of all his countless slaves."

She stated disdainfully. With her eyes staring down the positively extremely dangerous predator next to her.

"And you know what? He would probably agree with you."

Wait what? Humble is anything but what I have had heard of that foreign warlord.

"And he would argue that if it meant bringing Equestria back, then every sacrifice would be worth it. Every heinous act, and the blackening of his soul."

At that both of them fell silent as they stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, I half expected either of them to beat or rend the other into a sudden and brutal death. This, I realized, was clear evidence that there was more to this mare calling herself royalty than empty words. Back when I first saw her I had thought she didn't belong in the wasteland, now I realized how very wrong I was. And it frightened me.

"I see that neither of you are in immediate danger and... HM... WE, are glad to see that you have returned. When you are finished here, please come by Longshot's office."

Then she turned away and left in determined trot. Huh, well that confirms it.

"And the facade cracks."

Doctor Silverbeak vocalized my thoughts exactly.

"Not that she isn't trying to do the right thing. But she holds herself up to an impossible ideal and takes criticism very personally."

"But you seriously used to work for Red Eye?"

I asked the interesting griffon that I now was certain that I wanted to get to know better. For scientific reasons of course.

"Yep, some years ago. For largely the same reasons I'm here now. It is a pretty good deal, the contract is reliable... and I do respect these people for what they are trying to do."

After Silverbeak had triple confirmed my health status we walked to the keep, with Violette seeming at awe of the surroundings and a bit terrified of the AA guns. I was content at not running into my mother on the way up, there was already too much tiring things going on without her being her overprotective self around me. When we eventually got up to the office we saw the three ponies of the princess, her secretary and whatever his rank Longshot. The secretary was talking about something but stopped when she saw us entering, presumably something not for outsiders to hear.

"We're back."

I stated halfheartedly. Not much of a vocal response, they wanted a proper explanation of things.

"And I got the location. The camp was hidden, there is a cave hidden behind a rock. And they jump up to a rooftop exit, I think the camp is just outside."

I pulled up the map on my pipbuck and pointed out the exact location, the buck proceeded to mark it and asked.

"So any info on their numbers or equipment?"

The one eyed buck asked me.

"I didn't see all of them, but there was well over a dozen in the cave when we left. None armed, not that they seemed to need it. They looked as tough as a tank, and strong enough to wreck one. Doubt my rifles could take one down, not even if I emptied the magazines."

"Yeah. You could say that..."

His face a mix of anger and nostalgia.

"Back to the subject of the job, good work. We can handle the raider camp from here."

OK, why did that choice of words make me uncomfortable?

"So 50 bits, or 500 caps if you prefer. And this."

He handed me two piece of paper with the words Private Contractor written at the top. I didn't understand all of it but the first one seemed to be a notice about payment, and the latter seemed to be proof of contract.

"But the contract is over, the job is already done right? So shouldn't we have gotten the this one before we went out?"

Then the secretary answered in a formal tone, and I noticed that she looked fairly cute in her simple dress with her round glasses.

"Yes and no. As contractors you are entitled to a discount for weapons, armour, munitions and food supplies. It is an incentive to consider further contracts, as well as a way to get you to spend your money here instead of giving it to one of the caravans. In theory, it encourages longtime cooperation and make ponies consider retiring here when they are done with their freelance work."

"Huh. Makes sense I guess."

Then my mind actually started bringing up a checklist of things to discuss.

"Oh, and this here is Violette and she might want to stay here."

As I turned my head to look at her I realised she had hid behind Amber again.

"Or not. But there was another thing, we were ambushed by this ghoul who had a memory orb. I heard you collect them."

At that the princess perked up, her face one of curiosity.

"You heard correctly. We currently offer 20 bits for any unverified orb. Less if they are known to be empty, more if they belonged to somepony important."

I checked with Amber for confirmation and got a nod, this was probably a good deal.

"Deal, but is there any way for me to get a look at it before we leave? I am confused and curious about the ghoul who attacked us and why he was carrying it."

"That is acceptable, fortunately I know the spell to link such experiences. If you don't mind?"

Why was I blushing? But I was itching with curiosity at this opportunity.

"Good, as for why. When you go through it remember that it is more than a memory. It is a memento, a legacy and often all that remains of the life of the pony whom it belonged to."

She looked at Amber and Violette.

"Do you two want to check the orb as well?"

They looked at each other, me and her before shaking their heads in unison. Seriously, did we pick up a gender swapped Amber or something? The resemblance was uncanny. Then everything went white and I felt my body hit the floor.

This felt wrong. So very wrong. Where the hell where my wings?? And why was everything so tiny? Ok, calm down. Calm down. Focus. Then I realized that my forelegs were a shimmering azure colour, not to mention transparent! Freak out seemed just about right. But I couldn't, and was as a result horrified. If I was panicking, then why I was I still sitting calmly at a desk? There was terminal to the left, a pile of papers right in front of me and a pile of books to the right. Everything was covered in a bright blue light and it took a few moments before I realized that it was the sun being filtered through my body. Is this how Amber felt? Well, apart from being a fair bit shorter. It was about now that I realized that this must be how memory orbs work, I had thought the name was not quite as literal. But no wonder they were valuable. Whoever this mare was checked the time, 16:59.

I... the mare, no we? Anyhow we shut our eyes for a moment and saw a flash of light before us. When we slowly opened our eyes a purple unicorn mare stood in the middle of the office, she wore simple yet stylish suit and carried saddle bags of considerably better quality than my own. Then I was further weirded out as we began speaking.

"Minister Sparkle, right on time."

The voice was calm and professional, and a tad bit cold.

"Thank you for being accommodating."

"It is nothing to worry about. But I had hoped to actually see the city, since we are building a hub here in Vanhoover and everything. So I would like a proper explanation about why I couldn't just have taken the train as previously planned."

This was the minister of arcane science? One of the most powerful mares in Equestria? Ok, now I was properly interested in the conversation.

We got up and stared out the window, the sun was setting. Colouring the city in red, with the buildings casting long, eerie shadows.

"Hopefully it is only a matter of me being paranoid."

A dramatic pause as we turned our head back to the minister.

"But Equestria is holding its breath as the government is being reformed, loosing a ministry mare in the first year might have disastrous effects."

"Enough of being mysterious. Are you expecting an attempt on my life, this far from the front? Have you discovered a zebra plot?"

The irritation was obvious in both her voice and her face.

"Zebra plot, no. There are however reasons to seriously doubt the loyalty of the Van Hoof family. This is the very reason to why her highness appointed my to this task. An influential family with their own private army would... be a considerable threat if not properly handled."

Now I started to share in the irritation with the mare in front of me, speak clearly damn it.

"So it is Luna then that is the issue, they seek to overthrow her?"

"Overthrow her? No, quite the opposite. They are furious that even when Celestia finally stepped down, Luna was turned into a puppet ruler. With you six being the real power behind the throne."

Wait what?

"What... Are you out of your mind?! We have no power apart from what princess Luna grants us, she-"

BOOOM

The building shook and there were panicked shouts outside of the office. We slowly walked up to an intercom and pressed the button.

"Report, what happened?"

We asked in the same calm and cold voice as before, unfazed by the explosion.

"The train! The zebras must have placed a bomb!.."

I could feel the frown on our face.

"Make sure that emergence personnel are properly dispatched."

"Yes ma'am. But..."

There was a slight pause in the voice

"Wasn't there a ministry mare on that train??"

"No, Minister Sparkle informed me earlier that she couldn't make it. Some emergency in Manehattan. So please focus on making sure that the wounded are tended to."

There was a slight surprise in the response but our attention was on the clearly shaken Twilight Sparkle.

"It seems that my fears weren't unfounded."

"How can you be so calm, there are ponies dying!"

"Sorry. I'm not very expressive, it is the reason I was named Icetear in the first place."

Hold on.

"Seems that my secretary leaked the information concerning our meeting."

SIGH

"This is the conundrum of my position. Vanhoover, is for all intents and purposes an occupied territory. Corruption runs deep and none can be trusted."

"How come I never heard of this? I have studied Equestrian history extensively and what you are talking about is all new to me."

"And how much of those studies focused on Vanhoover or the Van Hoof family?"

There was a tense pause in the discussion.

"Indeed, it seems that Celestia managed to remove them from the history books. From what I understand, these are ponies that follow Nightmare Moon and Equestria have been quite content in pretending that they don't exist."

The fuck?

And it seemed I wasn't the only one with that reaction.

"NIGHT-MARE MOON?"

Well, that name seemed to seriously spook the purple mare.

"So what can we do, send in the army and arrest all of them? That would take much needed resources away from the front-line. Do we put Vanhoover in some sort of quarantine?"

"No, but I do have an idea of how to root out the problem. It might take two or three years but it can be done. I have asked our sovereign for a royal decree that the Van Hoof family are to send their guards to the front line, with some word tweaking we can make it sound like an honour instead of an order. In the meantime there will be an army garrison set up in the region, preferably within the castle itself."

"Thus disarming them, but there is still the issue of sabotage and assassination attempts. How can we begin industrializing the city with constant interruptions?"

"And that is the main reason to why I needed to talk with you. I'm putting a special task force together. Your brother is the former captain of the royal guard, as such he must know soldiers of impeccable loyalty. I have sent the similar requests to Minister Dash and Minister Applejack."

There was a short pause and then a clarification.

"Don't misunderstand, the garrison can be regular army troopers but I need a small group that can always be relied upon. A single squad should suffice."

"I'll talk to him as soon as I have the time. But won't ponies take the sudden appearance of 'foreign' troops as an invasion of sorts?"

Yeah, I can see this going to Tartaros very quickly.

"Don't worry. They will be distracted by the constant threat of zebra infiltrators. Also, please transfer ponies from around the country to the region as you set up the hub. With a few thousand of newcomers it should be easier for the task force to hide in plain sight."

How came I never heard of this? Conspiracies, secret meetings and more. This stuff is awesome!

"Sounds like you are going to need to ask both Rarity and Pinkie about setting up hubs here."

"Indeed, and Minister Fluttershy as well. If all the ministries set up at the same time, it will hopefully be less likely to be taken as a hostile action."

"Anything else? I will have to inform Princess Luna about what happened and the plans."

"No, that is all. And please do. I understand that she puts a lot of weight to your words."

A blinding flash later we turned back to the window, smoke now visible in the distance. The sun seemed to bathe the city in blood, with us being a foreign island in a sea of crimson. To my surprise I felt something cold flow down on my cheeks. And heard a distinct Plink as a the frozen tear hit the floor.

Then I felt like myself again, and my aching wings. I was, however, fairly dizzy and felt very confused as to where I was. When my mind could finally focus again I saw a gorgeous mare I swore I had seen before. No, not Pear. Oh right, the princess. And when are we again?

"Oh, you have stumbled upon quite a treasure."

She held the orb in magical grasp and seemed transfixed by it.

"Wait... what the hell happened in that memory? I understand that was important, but there was no context."

Curiosity was the one bit of focus I had left in my mind at that moment, and this I wanted to know more about.

"The memory belonged to the Royal Coordinator of Vanhoover, Icetear, appointed by princess Luna personally. The context is indeed the important thing, the old Van Hoof family was supposedly a wicked bunch and it was her primary job to handle them. This particular memory seems to be the first step of the counter conspiracy she set up."

"And the rest?"

"A bit unclear, most of our knowledge concerning it came from a few documents she left behind. Unfortunately little in the way of literature and newspapers remain today. On that note... the archive in Flood Town is the most extensive of its kind this side of Canterlot. Since your Institute has a better relationship with them, consider us interested if you can find anything relevant."

"Speaking of which, how much are we getting for the orb?"

"200 bits."

OK, I couldn't have heard that correctly.

"Wait, we are getting four times as much for an orb we picked up from a ghoul than we get for risking our flanks doing the actual contract??"

"As we said, quite a treasure. Sable Quil have been hoarding Icetear's belongings for over a century. It is most difficult to get hold of such objects these days. And as a mare with an interest in ancient history, there is a lot to learn in these things when you pay attention."

Amber poked me in the side and requested for us to leave.

"Yeah, sure. You go on ahead and figure out what stuff we need. I'll get the bits."

He looked at me for a moment then nodded and he left with Violette. First I seriously need some guidance and I figured this mare was already in a talkative mood.

"One last question miss."

I sighed deeply and continued.

"Before a few days ago I never really SAW the wasteland if you know what I mean. Before that I just walked oblivious to all the death and rot around me, like a total moron."

She nodded in agreement.

"And the question?"

"How haven't you gone insane from all that? Now that I notice it, half of me wants to shut it off again. I jump at shadows and get nightmares that doesn't seem to end when I wake up. How does anyone notice it and not blow their brains out?!"

"By finding your Virtue and never ever compromise it."

She stated calmly, as if her entire face was mask again.

"You know the whole thing about cutie marks, unique talents etc etc? A virtue is like that. When the wasteland has ground you down the virtue is what remains. It is what keeps you going in the darkest hours, what defines your character. Find it, or there will be nothing left of you."

I nodded, sounded reasonable.

"What is yours? If it isn't too personal I mean...."

"Sacrifice."

When I met up with Amber and Violette I was surprised. Glad, but surprised to see Amber being in a talkative mood again. He was sitting and explaining things to her, the various towns and groups in the area by the sound of it. Note to self, don't mess up now. I know it took time for him to feel confident after a non-talking mood. So I sat down next to them and listened.

"If we end up going to Van Hoofer then we would got to Northtrade first. It is as much a gigantic market as it is a town. Most scavengers either live there or visit regularly. As I heard you can find basically anything if you pay enough attention. But there is lot of competition, two major caravans go to the place lots as well as many smaller groups. Even the steel rangers have people there to get their hooves on stuff."

I raised a hoof.

"Question, what are the caravans?"

He laughed, a good sign. But I was seriously curious about this. So I should try to pay attention.

"The Woodridge Caravans that goes from Blackhoof to Goldstar, continue past Flood Town and up through the farms to Northtrade. Then they go east to the steel rangers and back to Blackhoof again. The other is Heartbeat Caravans, they go all the way up to our Stable but skip Flood Town and the farmlands. They get a better price for technology as if the rangers don't pay up, we will. There are even some zonies working for them, providing tech expertise."

He paused moment, seemed to consider something and continued

"I should probably mention the third big caravan. Farstrider Caravans, we traveled with them for a bit. As I understand it they go to New Pegasus for the most part."

"Yeah, but they are trying to go to Appleloosa too. I talked with the owner for a bit. Nice buck."

"As I was saying, the last big one is the Sunset Caravans. They aren't from around here but travel between New Pegasus and the Black Hoof, the owner is supposedly a fairly scary mare. Anyhow, the prices of various salvage, food and stuff vary between the caravans and where they are on their route. However, they all buy salvage in Northtrade, guns in Goldstar. Woodridge buys food at Flood Town and Heartbeat buys herbs and spices at the Stable. Not sure about the Sunset one though."

Violette was absorbing all she heard and it reminded me to ask.

"Hey, Violette. Not that I mind, but what made you not want to stay here?"

She tensed up a bit then whispered.

"She reminds me of my mother".

"I suppose I can relate to that, my mother works here and she is nagging me whenever we meet. Anyhow, what are you good at? If we are going to travel together and all."

"Robotics mostly, but I know some medicine from my studies."

Great, another egghead. I am officially becoming the dumb one in the group. That however, is a rude thing to say.

"So if we find some robots lying around you could fix it? We can have our own combat robot?"

She looked surprised then added.

"I can try".

Level Up
Perk Added: Tough Hide

It is especially true in the Equestrian Wasteland. What doesn't kill you make you stronger, as a result you gain +3 innate Damage Threshold.

Quest Perk Added: Wartime Investigator

Either due to professional interest or unhealthy curiosity, you have begun investigating the various secrets and lies of wartime Equestria. Your perception and charisma counts as 2 higher for this purpose.