Chapter 18: No Way out but Through

Red Eagle sat over the campsite as he stared outwards into the bleak early morning atmosphere. It was dark, filled with strange smells and sounds of the night, and of course, above all else, frigid to the core as his body shivered against the railing winds from the beyond.

He had gotten little sleep that night, and the few nights before. He had cursed under his breath for having forgotten the season’s changes, a fact that Cheery had reminded him of yesterday, and their cold sleepless nights had been the direct punishment of that mistake; one that he chastised himself over. Even for all the while he had stayed in the Northern Wastes he had never gotten used to the biting cold, and it was comparatively heaven for the short escapade down south. The falls of the south were cold, yes, but he never had any love for the horrendously cold northern winters that plagued the region.

The only defense he had presently was little better than Sparks’, a thick woolen blanket and his barding to hopefully keep the cold off his coat and skin, but the violent shivering fits didn’t cease no matter how hard he tried; the wind found ways to touch them regardless. It angered him, amongst other things, but all he could do was wait it out and hope for better shelters in the coming days.

This little hovel, little more than a destroyed shack from before The War, wasn’t his first choice, or his second, not even his third. Open desert winds railing against them both did little for fortitude in the next day’s journey, and for some unseen reason, be it mere seasonal shifts or sheer bad luck, the weather that night was indescribably terrible. He would have continued to ruminate on that subject for the next hour or so, or until he finally managed to get some sleep, but right on the edges of his hearing he heard something worse than the wind and restless night combined.

Hoofsteps; lots of them some direction to the northwest of them.

His eyes scanned towards the sound, and he listened intently for any more as his body lost all its progress towards sleep. As the winds died down, he heard it clear as day, and as he looked out with a laser focus he saw what he swore was a pony in some raider styled barding off in the distance. He wasn’t certain though, but the seeming retinue that followed him created a shifting shadow that Eagle knew was forced marching through open desert.

“At this hour...?” He whispered to himself, but he girded against the cold as he slowly picked himself up and packed his belongings into his saddlebags. He looked over to Sparks, the sudden need to become scarce top priority, and he approached her quickly, grasped her shoulder, and tried to shake her awake.

Sparks was ripped from her sleep again and she groaned in retaliation, but after Eagle’s shaking her heavy eyelids opened to find him standing over her. His words were somewhat beyond the edges of her hearing, but as she gained lucidity she realized he was trying to whisper. “Sparks, get up girl! Come on!”

“Whu- What?” She said as she turned over, reflexively pulling away from him as she tried to bundle herself up again. Eagle didn’t relent, however.

“Sparks, you need to wake up; now!”

He all but shouted in whispers as he forcibly turned her over while smacking her ribs. She grunted lowly in pain, as her rest deprived body rebelled. “Eagle, what’s the matter?”

“We’ve got trouble incoming and we need to get scarce!” He said, looking over his shoulder as his eyes darted around the landscape. “Raiders, I think; looks like a war party going east.”

“Raiders...?” She said with a sudden fear, yawning as she forcibly stood up on her fours and began packing away her blanket, albeit lethargically. “What time is it anyways...?”

“Still night, not even dawn yet; we need to get out of here before there’s light for them to see us. Come on, hurry up!”

Eagle gathered up a few little things that they had littered around the campsite, leaving a few nonessentials in the spirit of haste. He practically leapt to Sparks’ side, forcibly stuffing her own belongings into her saddlebags and he pulled her along with him. She groaned from the sudden exertion her sleep deprived and sore body was subjected to, and she shook her head violently. “Come on Eagle, give me a moment to wake up here...!”

“No time girl, no time...!” He shouted in whispers, and as they trailed off into the darkness the hazed sight of Sparks caused her to stumble several times, and each time she half-shouted in startles. Eagle, getting furious at her lagging behind and the unseen proximity of raiders so close, all but started pushing her along. “Come on Sparks, we have to get clear of here before they see us!”

“I know Eagle!” She half shouted, and she picked up the pace against her leaden limbs’ rebellion. She began panting madly before long as she tried her best to follow Eagle closely, but the dark wasn’t helping matters at all. She could barely see Eagle’s silhouette before her, let alone the ground or rocks barring the paths around her that were equally hidden.

Eagle had to restrain himself in chastising her as they dashed through the night shrouded landscape. Turns and dives through the rocky terrain kept his attention, and to ensure that Sparks was close in tow behind him as he fought to keep them hidden. All he could do was hope no creature heard they’re passing, and for what felt like an eternity fifteen minutes had passed as they cut across the rocky landscape.

Eventually Eagle judged they were clear of the worst and signaled for Sparks to stop. She collapsed onto her belly, panting furiously as she fought to catch her breath. Eagle took out a canteen, unscrewed the top and gave it to her, with which she sorely fought her breath and body to take a drink of the water. She spoke afterwards, winded and aggravated. “Why... why is it that... raiders always cause us... us grief?”

“That’s their speciality.” Eagle said as he scanned the horizon; the very edges of dawn creeping into the clouds above. “We should have camped even further out than that. Odd for raiders to take that much of a detour to go after one ranch though.”

“You think... maybe they saw us last night, or something...?”

“No.” He said, shaking his head with his thoughts churning. “Not at all. Would have had a firefight last night if that were the case.”

“So... I guess something... something else...?”

“Only explanation for it.”

Eagle thought about what else a raider band would be doing this far out of commonly tred roads. Caravans didn’t come out this way, and he knew that the raider band they saw last night would have set out straight for the Shear’s farm; their night banter proved as much with hunger in their ranks. The only other explanation he could fathom would be one he hoped that they could avoid at all costs, and he adjusted his harness with determination in his eyes to press on towards the Unicorn Range mountains; barely a rise on the horizon.

“Come on Sparks, whatever those raiders are doing we need to be clear of the region as soon as possible; think you can walk?”

“Maybe... maybe in ten minutes, or whatever... just give me a moment...”

“You’ve got five, and we’ll hit the road.”

Sparks was too busy fighting her fatigued body to argue, or to think of what the raiders were doing out and about at this hour. The clock on her PipBuck barely read five o’clock, and she mused that it was no hour for her to be ripped from her sleep so suddenly, but as her short break ended she shook her head and sorely got onto her fours. She hoped that sometime that day they’d be able to stop and rest a spell, in some more shielded shelter than they had earlier in the morning to be specific, but she groaned internally that it probably wouldn’t be the case.

She didn’t have the strength to argue or ask for favors of rest though, and, in the end, all she had strength for was to follow Eagle as he pressed on to the West. In the back of her mind though, memories of the early morning pierced her hazy senses. The sprite-bot that called itself ‘Watcher’, or the creature behind it rather. She gave little contemplation toward it, however, and merely marched forward with Eagle’s pace; her leaden body rebelling with every step.

*** *** ***

After an hour or so of trudging through The Wastes, Red Eagle and Sparks finally find some secluded spot in the landscape; it was little more than a small relay station, with radio towers jutting up into the sky. A few of them were bent and rent down to little more than rusted beams, but the few relatively intact ones that raised high into the air, perhaps thirty yards or so, bore small satellite dishes and antennae that swayed in the breeze, creaking. A few platforms were nestled in them high above, like bird nests, and Eagle marked them as vantage points if needed.

The desolate plains around them yawned with sheer emptiness, winds from beyond bringing sandy dust and chills that cut through their bardings, and the mountains to the West had grown in view to become far more daunting than Sparks anticipated. Their distant, yet towering heights seemed to almost scrape at the sickly clouds above. Eagle, however, was far more interested in the hole the towers accompanied. It delved some ways into the ground, through the concrete foundation at the edge of the outpost forming a strange kind of natural cellar, and deep within the tunnel was veiled in shadow.

He spoke lowly, suspicion in his voice. “I don’t like the look of this...”

Sparks’ attention was pulled from their surroundings and she eyed Eagle with curiosity as to what he meant. She spoke to him, cautiously. “What do you mean, what’s down there?”

“Don’t know; that’s the problem.” He spoke darkly. “Could be no more than an empty hole, but this far out there’s no telling.” He pulled his revolver, cocked the hammer back, and turned to Sparks with a head gesture. “Pull yours, be ready for anything.”

“Alright, then...”

She pulled her pistol and, with a hesitant magical flick of a switch, its magical warble effect sounded dully. She hoisted it close to her head as Eagle turned around and began to prowl inside the cave’s entrance. His eyes slowly took in the cave’s interior, scanning for traps or signs of habitation, yet he found little more than century old garbage and rubble that fell from above, coupled with several small side passages that split off the main path. At least that’s how it went for a few minutes until his eyes caught the shape of what looked like skid marks in the packed dirt and sand. The most peculiar details were the claw marks or paw prints beside them.

“Damn... I hope those are as old as they look.”

“What’d you find?” She said, frowning with suspense in her voice as her eyes still adjusted to the darkness.

Eagle merely shook his head and spoke briefly. “Tracks, by the looks of them. Stay sharp, might be animals in here.”

“What kind of animals?”

“Hopefully not the ‘eats travelers’ kind. Keep your guard up.”

The tracks were old, or at least he thought they were. Time could have eroded them into near obscurity, but with the elements, like rains and so forth, they could have muddled them to such. Regardless, he only saw the one set, which at first set him at some ease. Deeper into the cave, however, the tunnel’s history began to take shape.

This was an old burrow, dug out by what now seemed like several different sets of tracks, each one in different conditions that could range in time. He counted maybe four or five different sizes of the creatures that lived there, and he hoped that he wasn’t diving off into another nest of Wasteland mutants.

He spoke up, caution driving him to barely whisper in the slightly echoing burrow. “Listen Sparks, we need to press on. It’s not a good idea to camp here, even for an hour to rest.”

“Oh come on Eagle,” she said, annoyed “a short stop shouldn’t be too much trouble is it? We’ve been walking for hours and this looks like the best we’ve got for shelter out here in the open...!”

“Unless you want to camp in a hole that might have mutants in it, we’re leaving.” His grimace was hidden by the shadows, but his reprimanding tones were not. Sparks scoffed openly into the silence, and groaned almost silently, her soreness robbing her of her usual curiosity. Eagle grabbed her shoulder, firmly, and shook it with a shushing voice. “Sparks, seriously, we can’t stay here. I have no clue what’s in here, and neither do-”

A sudden shuffling was heard in the depths of the cave’s descent, and it caused Eagle to cut himself short as he all but forced her to turn back the way they came. She heard it too, and the intrusion made her keep her questions to herself as fear grew of what might lay in the darkness. As they approached the exit, however, a subtle cacophony of animalistic noises emanated from deeper within.

Eagle cursed sourly under his breath, hoping that they could slip out leaving whatever apparently dwelt here unawares, but fortune had it that they couldn’t be so lucky. Out of the corner of his eye he saw what looked like a shimmer of fur in the shadows, and with it was what sounded like the shifting of leather on stone. On top of it all though was an eye that beamed from within, a subtle gleam of an oddly malformed iris and pupil that spied them despite the dark. He turned around, hastening their exit as he began to shove Sparks forward, to which she felt a sudden urge to agree as the sounds were growing amidst the relative silence.

“We need to get out of here,” he said, almost frantically in whispers “we can’t chance fighting them on their home ground...!”

“What is ‘them’?”

Sparks’ speech was startled as fear grew in her voice as she found the strength to worry again, fear of unseen dangers of something she assumed was little more than a hole in the ground. Eagle merely kept up the retreat as he tried to cover their exit, fearful of any unseen animalistic defense mechanisms; he was reminded of the taint fiends in the tunnels. “No idea; whatever they are we stand a better chance topside...!”

As they began hurrying for the exit, a shrill shriek of sorts emanated from within as Eagle guessed whatever creatures still called the burrow home had noticed them, and fortunes of The Wastelands had it that usually the entire nest of creatures would notice en masse and descend on them like a hive. Their canter became a gallop for the exit as Eagle fished out a single mine from his pack and left it on their trail armed, and he pressed his wingtips to his ears. “Cover your ears Sparks!”

She tried to do so, but the most she could manage was merely folding her ears back as hard as she could. Her taxed panting brought the most noise to their attempted escape, with both their rapidly rasping boots on the packed earth filling their senses, but it wasn’t long until their hearing was robbed by the loud and ominous explosion of the mine filling the tunnel’s corridors. A violent flinch from the noise followed and tinnitus rang in her ears as her body reflexively ducked for cover, but Eagle pushed her onwards. Neither had time to speak as the exit came into view, and light from the beyond flooded the cave’s mouth.

Eagle and Sparks made a rush for the exit, and after they breached into the open desert Eagle turned to face the cave’s entrance, brandishing his revolver and kicking his battle saddle into gear. His mind was racing to find the most ideal and effective means of dealing whatever was in that cave, but the odds were to simply run would leave them exposed out in the open expanses of The Wasteland. He shouted loudly, with a commander’s authority. “Use that hole as a choke point, if we’re overwhelmed we’ll climb the radio towers for protection! Understand!?”

Sparks had come to a screeching halt, her sore hooves burning with pain from the sudden halt and twirl about face as she almost mechanically followed his orders. The desire to rebel was lost from her, and she all but collapsed as she knelt down on a knee for rest. She shouted back to him with breath robbed tones. “Alright!”

Soon after the menaces of the cave made themselves seen, but the startling appearances of them gave Sparks pause while Eagle immediately sent bullets into their bodies with several falling from the wounds. The bullet reports over stimulated her ears, her eyes flinching on every crack and roll, but she swore that they looked like... giant rats, but farlarger, almost as big as a foal, with bloated with cancerous growths on the patchwork furred leathery skin that was pulled taut on their rotund bodies. Their weight seemed to force them to crawl on their bellies as their four stubby legs carried them forward, and their charge towards them as they gnashed their broadly jutting teeth lent their appearances menace.

She shook her head to clear her mind as one neared her, and she let loose a blast from her pistol without even remembering her S.A.T.S. spell, and it turned out to not be necessary as the creature dissolved into a fine glowing red ash cloud that scattered in the breeze. Another two neared her, and three shots were sent at them as the scent of ozone filled her nostrils with another disintegrating and the other falling with burning scorch marks deep in its flesh.

Eagle’s revolver eventually roared all six of its shots, and the comparative dragon’s roar of his rifle tore gaping holes in the giant rats that emerged. They felled more than a half dozen of them in short order, yet it seemed like for every one they killed the giant rats simply multiplied as they threatened to swarm them with numbers alone. The sight of the growing horde of giant rats sent her mind into a wild frenzy as the thought of being eaten alive frightened her beyond words, and she jumped to her hooves and instinctually ran towards a tower to climb up for protection. Her hooves scrambled to find the strength to make the climb, and Eagle gave a mighty wing beat to take the battle to the air as he fired shot after shot into the pack that amassed near her.

He had no time to count them, but it seemed like dozens poured from the cave, and his fears grew that he was simply wasting his ammunition on them as he reloaded his revolver hastily. There seemed no end to them, and his darting eyes caught Sparks’ fruitless attempts to climb. She struggled severely to find a hoofhold, but the rusted bars of the tower she tried to climb continued to snap from age under her weight. Eventually, two of the giant rats neared her, despite his actions, and tore at her with their teeth, but her barding absorbed most of the impacts.

She panicked, shrieking shrilly as her magical grasp on her pistol was forgotten, and threw her hooves about her, bucking with her hind legs wildly as several of her aggressors were struck hard. She didn’t even notice the feeling of being bitten anymore, the fear having sent her primal instincts aflame, and she merely pummeled every rat that came close to her.

“Eagle!! Help!!” She shrieked, and his attention was ripped away from the growing horde and onto Sparks as she lashed out violently with little skill or effectiveness. Several of her strikes found purchase, but most of them went wide as they merely grazed or struck the rats ineffectively, but she shrieked again as the rats bit at her, and one found purchase on one of her hind legs as Eagle swooped in with his knife reflexively to cut apart the rats, his eyes narrowed with focus.

He was too late, however, as one of the rats bit down hard on one of Sparks’ saddlebags, the contents spewing across the ground around her as she continued to buck around her wildly. He closed the distance and, with his knife and pistol, began to cut down the giant rats that swarmed her. He cut through them like butter with rapid slashes and point blank shots, as well as kicks and wing strikes as he danced around in battle on his hind legs, yet half the fight was getting Sparks to calm down and focus so she wouldn’t strike him by accident.

“Sparks! Get a hold of yourself!!” His shout was all but ignored by her as she continued to lash out wildly at any rat that neared her, but the moment Eagle cleared out the closest of the approaching horde, leaking corpses and the panicked wounded now littering the concrete foundation of the relay station, he holstered his weapons and forcibly grabbed her and gave a mighty wing beat to get them off the ground. Her fight or flight instincts still flaring she struggled as Eagle kept a tight grip on her as her eyes shot wide from the sudden sensation of flight.

She cursed loudly as her eyes caught the ascent, down below there were now perhaps dozens of those terrors, and the ground itself rapidly fell away from them. The fear of the giant rats clashed with her newfound fear of falling, and her hooves forcibly latched to Eagle’s body. “Oh crap! What the hell!?”

“Just... hold on tight girl!” He shouted, strain in his voice as his wings fought hard to carry the both of them. They lifted up to one of the intact radio tower’s platforms above, and he set down as softly as possible producing a groaning of rusted metal from the sudden weight. It held though, surprisingly, and they settled down as the distant winds blew lazily across them. From the relative safety of the lofty platform, Sparks managed to calm herself down and she collapsed on her side, taking huge breaths of air from the strain.

She groaned in adrenaline dulled pain as she forced her head up to see her hind leg, teeth marks with small rivulets of blood staining her newly ripped Stable jumpsuit; the blood staining the ‘clean’ suit aggravated her, but other concerns worried her more. “Great Goddesses, what... what are those things!? I... I hope they don’t have rabies or something...!”

“Those are mutants, or at least one kind of them. You’re lucky that wound isn’t worse.” Eagle said, focusing on the carnage below. From on high he saw the rats begin to cannibalize the fallen, their teeth seemed to cut through their kin with ease, and the few still alive from their injuries weren’t excluded from the feast as they fought each other for bites. “They could have taken the leg entirely. You need to clean that and wrap it, now while we’ve got time.”

Sparks wanted to keep lying there, but her medical training kicked in as she nodded and rose from the platform weakly. Her horn glowed with her cyan aura and she mechanically took her medical bag from the torn open saddlebag, unzipped it, taking from it some of what remained of her disinfectant and bandages. She sneered a little at the bag as she saw bite marks on the leather along with some mud, but she wiped the mud off with an agitated sigh, untied her boot, and rolled up the leg of her suit. Painful jolts from the wound caused her to wince a little as she did so.

As she treated her leg, Eagle kept looking about them for some escape plan he could reliably trust. The platform itself seemed sound, and the telltale signs of habitation before them were clear from the diamond plating that was welded on top of the rusted out sheets below it. It seemed like a haphazardly made Post-War lookout of sorts, and might have been so, but he shook the thought as he returned his gaze below. The horde of giant rats seemed to lessen now, with his count numbering them with at least fifteen or twenty strong, and they eventually began to dive back into the cave after they realized there was no more for them to eat.

Their prey gone, and their hunger somewhat sated without a means of ascending the tower themselves they dispersed back into the ground with stragglers nosing around. Eagle grumbled, knowing to leave now while they were aware of their presence was folly, and he merely turned around and set himself to wait before their departure.

He didn’t like it, but the odds were those mutants would hound them for miles if they caught wind of them again, and the worry was mirrored in his tones. “You’re getting your break after all. We’re going to hole up here for a few hours and rest. Once they forget about us we’ll haul off, alright?”

“Got it...” She said as she tightened the bandage down and tied it off. The pain was beginning to take on a full bodied flame as she gave little muted yelps of pain, wincing as her adrenaline wore off leaving her with lingering pains she thankfully forgot about for a spell. She shook her head, worry in her eyes as she stared at the bandage though, rolling her suit’s leg down and tying the boot back up. “I’m beginning to wish I had packed antibiotics now...”

“You mean you don’t have any?” Eagle said with serious tones as he found a newfound factor to worry about. “You aren’t joking?”

She looked to him, worry at his tones apparent in her sheepish voice. “Uh... no?”

“Fucking hell...” He said, anger growing as he cursed under his breath. He shook his head and sighed, turning to Sparks as he approached her. “Hope that bite doesn’t give you anything; you can’t be walking for a few weeks with a fever, or whatever can come from infections.”

“I know that Eagle,” she said defensively, but her expression betrayed the fear of disease “I know... I know I should have packed it, but it slipped my mind...!”

“Don’t let it happen again, sickness is far worse to fight than most things; you should know that from the Enclave’s ‘training’, for all the good it did.” His expression wasn’t hidden beneath his hat’s brim at all to her, and the frustration was apparent as he tilted his head to look at her side; her saddlebag blown open. “Chief among them is damaged equipment. Let me see your pack.”

Sparks’ expression was soured by the thought of being sick, she hadn’t been sick much at all her life, no more than the common cold that was cured in a snap by Stable-Tec’s medicines and machines, but she managed to sit up and turn her torn open pack to Eagle as she desperately went down a mental list of different sicknesses that might plague the medically challenged Wasteland. He knelt down and examined the damage, and alas the pack itself needed some serious repairs to make useful again; enough that it may just be easier to replace. That limited her to one pack, he begrudgingly thought, but upon further inspection his eyes locked onto a sight that set a fire in him.

One of the few remaining cans in her bag that they had received only yesterday was torn open, and the loss of food wasn’t the problem as he seethed. It was the fact the can, now ripped open to reveal its contents, was filled to the brim with little more than mud, and that mushy soil had leaked from her torn open pack.

Anger in his eyes he pulled an intact can from the pack, much to Sparks’ confusion as he took his knife and cut open the top of the tin can. “What’s wrong Eagle? Something happen to the food?”

“More than either of us knew.” He ripped the can’s top off to look inside, and turning it over nothing but more mud poured out in globs. His face hardened as he looked eastwards, murder in his voice. “Fucking donkeys robbed us blind.”

She watched at the chunks of mud splattered on the platform’s floor, and her eyes lit up with confusion as her mind went into a tizzy from the lie. She gasped silently, and couldn’t take her eyes off the mud as she moved it around in her magic. “But... but what about the food they promised?”

“A lie; probably to fool us if we were raiders going after their food. That group we saw last night in the ruins was talking about attacking them. Maybe the Shears might have thought we were a front for them -to see if they were worth raiding or not.”

“But...” she said, disbelief in her words “but if that were the case why not... why not just shoot us? Maybe they didn’t have enough food for themselves?”

Eagle scowled, and shook his head; her defending them agitating. “There’s no telling why they did it. Either way it doesn’t matter, only that it fucks with us here and now.”

He sighed, and his thoughts churned as to how they were supposed to press on with their journey now. Little to nothing came to him, as the only town he knew of nearby with food was the Shears, and he wouldn’t give them a second chance at betrayal -assuming they still stood from the raider attack. The rats below might prove decent stock for food to bolster the brahmin mean jerky they had gotten -to which he now eyed with peculiarity as to whether those were indeed brahmin meat at all- but Sparks’ diet would most likely disagree with it substantially. Nevermind the fact they had no methods available to preserve it for the long haul to the West, or whatever radiation they might have soaked up.

All of it meant heading back east, and he grumbled under his breath that they had no choice now. “Alright Sparks, we’re heading back east.”

“To the Shears?” She said cautiously, afraid that Eagle might have it in himself to kill them for their offense, but he shook his head.

“No,” he said, lowly with worry in his voice “we’re going to see if Green can help us after all. We’re heading for Good Neighbor.”

*** *** ***

A day and a half later, after managing to escape the giant rats and the unforgivably cold winter air hounding them, with little more than Eagle’s leftover vittles from the rations as he tossed the jerkys away for fear of what meat it actually was, Red Eagle and Sparks finally make their way through The Wasteland to find the outskirts of Good Neighbor. Little more than a rise in the distance, Sparks wondered what the ensemble of blasted buildings had in store for them as she coughed dryly. Eagle had told her along the way what to expect, yet it didn’t set her at ease in the slightest when they had passed the Shear’s family ranch; now little more than a half burnt ruin as some large clash had all but razed it to the ground.

The corpses she expected to find were nowhere to be seen, and Eagle had suggested that the raiders might have taken them for food, and the thought churned her stomach fierclythat anypony would stoop to that. An amount of pity was in her heart for them if such a case was true, and the pained expression that she wore was easily read by Eagle with annoyance to her pitying backstabbers.

As they pressed on, however, the idea of a small city full of gangsters, whom were described to her as being little better than raiders -brutal and unscrupulous groups of ponies who constantly wanted to start a war in the streets over resources- bothered her immensely, to which she was surprised that such a town could even survive for long with such a toxic environment. Eagle had chuckled darkly in response with agreement. She still didn’t believe it, somewhat, but all the times that he had been right so far of bad places or creatures left little hope for alternatives.

More importantly Eagle told her of why he wanted to avoid the place, and Sparkswondered if there was anyplace that Eagle had left untouched with violence. The warning from Watcher setting in, she subtly sighed as he told her of a stallion called Poker Chip and his butchering. He left out the why, however, supplementing an excuse he hoped would let him change the subject. She recognized the omission, but didn’t press the issue. She felt he wouldn’t have killed Chip over ‘a simple insult’; at least, she hoped so. Her own light coughing that had developed the night before had her worrying about other, more pressing concerns, however.

It was there, on the ‘Good Neighbor Line’ that Eagle stopped, and scanned the horizon for yet another time in his life. His voice was hollow, anticipation in his breaths as he spoke to her. “Remember what I said girl, we get into a fight you dive for cover, any cover. And remember to use that spell on your PipBuck no matter how swamped you get.”

She groaned at his constant orders, and huffed a sigh as she shifted her now lighter, though lopsided, weight of her pack again. It was chafing uncomfortably -as usual she had the displeasure of thinking. “Look, I know Eagle... ahem... You don’t have to keep telling me nonstop alright?”

“You didn’t bother with those mutants. Yes you took a few down without it but that panic attack compromised your focus. We get into another firefight, I can’t promise to be able to save your ass every time; understand?”

“Yes, Eagle; I get it... ahem.” She coughed again, and Eagle turned his grimace back to the city ahead.

He hoped that she wasn’t getting sick, as he had no way of knowing if Good Neighbor would even have such a luxury like medicines despite its chem business. She had already taken a healing potion to fight the effects of it, but they both knew that they weren’t a cure-all for sickness and disease. It would do little more than heal the wound itself, barely a scratch really, and maybe give her some vigor in her step, but beyond that what really needed healing was beyond its power. He had already chastised her for not thinking ahead with proper medicines, like antibiotics or some other chems that might have assuaged sicknesses, but with little point beyond drilling into her head for foresight’s sake he had dropped it.

He shook his head subtly, and popped a few of his bones before he started walking again. “Come on, Sparks... lets hope this place is somewhat calm and collected after all this time.”

She nodded, but she hung her head, feeling slightly under the weather as they continued. “You know,” she said, amused “that the more you do that the worse it gets on your cartilage, right?”

He merely grumbled a little, yet didn’t speak as he was in no mood for her jabs. Together, however, they began to cross the few miles left to go.

*** *** ***

As they trekked across the open desert, Eagle had hoped beyond hope that any snipers that would have spied them would have held their fire. By the time they had reached the ruins of the suburbs around the city proper, no shots had been fired, and a tenseness was easily felt in the both of them. The city seemed... scared almost; held in suspense as Eagle kept looking down the alleyways with little more than small Wasteland varmints skittering about them.

Not another soul, be it pony or otherwise, was seen by either of them, and it fueled Eagle’s paranoia that something had indeed happened in the last few months after his departure. “I don’t like the look of this...”

“The last time you said that we were attacked by those giant rat things, please don’t jinx us...” Sparks said with worry of her own. The last time she had been around such tall buildings wasn’t exactly a picnic either, and she kept staring at the sheer heights of the jagged and rent, but somewhat intact skyscrapers about them.

Eagle scoffed near silently, nodding curtly. “Tell me something I don’t know. Usually you might see a random pony jumping for cover, squatters and the like, but we aren’t seeing anything around here.”

“Besides roaches, you mean...” She said, disgust in her voice as one of those large and grotesque insects skittered from one building to another nearby.

Eagle kept staring at the buildings around them, and agreed. “Yeah, besides harmless bugs.” The annoyance in his voice was plain, but he kept speaking. “Not seeing any creature around when there should be isn’t a good sign.”

“Well... where do you think Green would be at?” Sparks said, deciding to change the subject to something he would call ‘useful’, but her concerned tones betrayed her intent. “I really hope she made it here in one piece.”

“Of that I have no doubt, all I hope is that she isn’t holed up with the Gunponies. She won’t be of much use to us in there.” As he kept scanning their surroundings he wondered that exact question himself, and decided to ponder it aloud for Sparks’ benefit. “If we’re lucky, then we may find her with one of the larger gangs here; made a name for herself and secured a position with them. She’s a Hoofington pony, if any mare can get these gangs to respect her, it’s her.”

“I still don’t like that idea...” She said, still worried about the gangs that Eagle said permeated the city like vermin. “But, well... I hope so too. The way you said it, nopony can really make it here alone.”

“Exactly. I just hope she’s gotten in with a gang big enough to help us. All we need’s food and some medicine for you. Might be one around to fulfill that need.”

Eagle hated that they were riding on hopes and dreams of some small easy victory, and that hate was apparent in his voice as he grumbled and cursed under his breath. But nevertheless, circumstance left little choice; no choice really, so they pressed on as they hoped to find the one mare in an entire city of degenerates that could repay her debt to them. He still had reservations about that very question, whether she’d honor that debt or not, but he scoffed as he once again gave a resounding ‘fuck it’ in his mind.

“One way to find out though...” He muttered, and they delved deeper into Good Neighbor’s streets.

*** *** ***

Another fifteen minutes or so had passed before the light of the sun above the clouds began to recede, and with the onset of dusk Eagle cursed under his breath again as the city seemed completely abandoned. Not a single other soul was seen or heard for the entire trek through the city, and before long he began to think it was little more than a graveyard now.

Agitated he shook his head and spoke darkly in a low voice. “Where the fuck is everypony in this place, we should have seen some by now.”

Sparks had to agree with his wording, as her expectations were dashed by the seemingly abandoned husk of a town. She didn’t know what was worse on her mind: expecting an ambush from raiders or thinking the town was completely empty of life entirely, or, perhaps the most unnerving of all, both of them in total silence save for the rasping of their bardings and boots. No music from the radio or conversations at all during their time in the blasted city began to tear at her sanity it felt, and the relative silence had her mind jumping at every sudden detail.

Yet she hadn’t long to ponder that as her fears were suddenly flung to option one as weapons were racked about them in unison. A coarse voice, a mare’s they hadn’t heard before, called out grimly with authority after Red Eagle and Sparks. “What’s yet business ‘ere strangers? Speak up ‘fore I put a bullet ‘tween yer eyes, an’ keep yer irons strapped to yer sides!”

They both halted in their tracks at the sudden intrusion, and Eagle was the first to speak as his eyes slowly searched for the voice’s owner and the positions of the rifleponies around them. “No business at all, ma’am, just looking for somepony who came here maybe a week ago! A mare called ‘Green’!”

“Really?” The mare said aloud, disbelief in her voice. “An’ why would I believe thatlittl’ lie? If you ‘ad half a brain in yer ‘ead you’d know that Green’s one of us now! Yer problytryin’ tah kill ‘er or sometin’!”

“Not at all!” Eagle said loudly, yet with a disarming tone as he shook his head. The recognition of the name, and the details of their search, gave him some hope though. “Did Green ever tell you of a griffon called ‘Red Eagle’ before? That’s me, and I’m here to see if she can help us out!”

“Shit guys, you ‘ere that!? We got ourselves Eagle in a trap!” The mare’s voice resounded with disbelief, and surprise he recognized. “Way I hear it Eagle wouldn’t get into a trap like this ‘un!”

Sparks’ body began to cramp somewhat from the rigidness the rifles she knew were trained on her forced her to keep, but her fears kept her from doing much of anything besides maintain that stance. Eagle turned around, slowly, and faced her with surety in his expression, and he spoke out loudly to the direction of the mare that had them trapped. “First time for everything, ma’am! Now get Green out here so we can talk!”

Just as suddenly as the rifles were trained on them did Green, the mare true to her name, garbed in some ganger style armored barding that seemed more effective than its appearance let on with broad, polished metals plates hammered to shape with her chest and flanks, with that very same double barrel shotgun strapped to her side, emerged from the cover of a pillar in an alleyway that flanked the road. She walked out into the street, eyeing both ways for others that might be present, but found none, and she called out loudly like an officer.

“Alright guys, they’re clean!” She walked up to Eagle with a scowl and, with an equally unexpected gesture, smacked Eagle’s beak with a dull thud from her hoof. He groaned subtly from the pain of the impact, but kept his weapons sheathed despite the anger it cause. Her serious expression broke, however, and grinned widely. “You’re gettin’ rusty Eagle... Seriously, caught in a trap like some two-bit skin flake off the street?”

Green’s appearance was followed by three other ponies, two mares and a stallion, dressed head to hooves with similar bardings to hers. Their forms betrayed their own ganger lifestyle as they probably hadn’t seen a proper bath in years, but the discipline they showed with their weapons told Eagle they weren’t so undisciplined as perhaps ninety percent of the city’s squatters.

He chuckled lowly, and shook his head from the blow and lied wryly. “Best way to find you, Green. We’ve seen nopony for miles around town, so a stick up from your gang was the only option.”

“Eh, true enough I suppose.” She said, chuckling a little. “But seriously, Eagle, you’re the one who caused this mess in the first place. Didn’t exactly leave yourself a welcome mat,or me when I dropped your name.”

“Never said I left this place in good terms; or to use my name.”

“No... you didn’t, did yah?” She grinned wider as she turned around to get off the street, but she looked back and waved to them to follow. “Come on, I’ll fill yah in on the goings on. Somewhere safer though; the open streets aren’t safe enough to stand around in.”

“Don’t have to tell me...” Eagle said, and he and Sparks followed Green into the growing darkness of the alleyway’s cover. Sparks’ let out a sigh of relief, and Green chuckled a touch as they trailed behind her deeper into the city’s belly.

Green spoke amusedly to Sparks as she started limping a little in her gait, the relieved cramp from earlier giving her trouble. “So, Stable girl, still jumping at yah own shadow?”

“Not much anymore,” she managed to say, strain in her voice from an errant pain in her hind leg “but I’m still getting used to all this...”

“That’s good, yah ain’t much use to anypony dead.” She turned her head around to glance at Eagle, to which he kept a straight face. She chuckled a little, and amended her statement with a chuckle. “Or any griffon for that matter.”

Eagle kept his beak shut, but agreed with her statement. He knew it was a jab, but he hoped that it may spur Sparks to taking better care in the future. Her limp gave him cause for concern though, but before he could grow any compassion for it he clinically asked after it. “How’s the leg, Sparks?”

“Eh...” she said, somewhat weakly but resolved to bear it “I’ll manage.”

Green shook her head and spoke flatly, with little show of compassion behind her words. “So what got your leg, girl? Radigator?”

Before she could ask after what a ‘radigator’ was, Eagle cut in with an equally blunt response to her question. “No, looked like some kinds of mole rats or something. Huge bastards camping out west, maybe a day and a half of walking.”

Green looked back with narrowed eyes “What, can’t the girl speak for herself?”

“Only if you want to tell her what a radigator is.” He said, scowling. “Either way, a radigator would have taken the leg. They don’t come this far north anyways; fortunately.”

“True enough, good to know there’s a spot West where there’s animals though, how many?”

“A dozen plus? I couldn’t count them while we were swamped by them.”

“That’s a lot of meat,” Green said, nodding “might want to send a few of the bucks out hunting. Food’s a little scarce ever since Good Neighbor locked their doors and shuttered their windows.”

Eagle had to suppress a groan from the news, but as they turned a corner into some makeshift campsite set within a large courtyard they found it filled with maybe twenty ponies with similar garbs to Green’s, yet a little more than half of them were distinctively different with strange primitive markings apart from the rest like tattoos or feathered pieces of armor. Most of them were held at attention with her arrival, yet they all gave lingering stares at him and Sparks, and the strangeness in the eyes of the bizarre ponies told Eagle they weren’t your run-of-the-mill Wastelanders, but tribals.

Eagle decided to wait on asking after that peculiar detail, instead he asked after the city itself as he locked eyes with a few of the tribals in passing, like some primal show of respect, yet a promise of violence between alphas of the species. “So, Good Neighbor’s locked up is it?”

“Tighter than a Tenpony Virgin as they say, but we can still get the occasional sniper shot from one of their windows. Whatever you actually did in there set off a righteous ruckus in there, that’s for sure.”

“Mhm.” Eagle said before letting Green give the ponies around them the all clear, and led them to a sort of ramshackle, spot welded metal hut that had two of those tribal looking guards posted at either side of the door. They were larger than the rest, bulkier and bettered armored like some kind of ‘royal guard’, which made him all the more curious about Green’s exploits in the city.

The most peculiar detail was what Eagle had guessed to be the gang’s insignia; a large, painted on picture of what looked like an ebon green knife crossed with a white chess piece -a queen to be specific- emblazoned across its surface.

Sparks looked at the painting with lingering eyes, and shook her head as she tried to understand what it meant, and Green caught her pondering expression as she looked back. “Like it?”

“Like it?” Sparks said, somewhat having trouble understanding the meaning behind it. “I’m... not sure what to think; does it mean ‘killer at games or something?”

“Maybe, I’ve never really known to be honest. Cutie marks are fickle like that.”

Eagle nodded slightly, and tilted his head as he understood a great deal more about Green’s seeming luck. “Come to think of it I never did see yours. If that’s it, then I assume you’ve beaten some sense into this gang.”

“Sure did.” Green chortled, but shrugged dismissively. “Honestly though, it wasn’t too hard; bastards barely put up a fight when I challenged their leader. I learned they had a thing like that -rule by might or whatnot like some other tribals- and after the last ‘chief’ was dead in the dirt, I’ve had a rather dirty life of royalty.”

“I never thought of you as a... well...” Sparks said, suddenly feeling sheepish as she had to finish the thought her runaway mouth started. “A leader type, I guess...”

“Well that’s why I’m here. Never underestimate anypony, or creature, or you might get a shank in the ribs.” Green laughed a little as she entered the hut, beckoning them to follow as she continued. “But, well... neither did I, being honest. Neither did I.”

Footnote: Red Eagle level 22

Sparks level 4

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