“Have you ever watched the moon rise over the wasteland? I wish I could have given you something as wonderful as that.”

Quests.

Stable 25 didn’t have near as many books as I would have liked. There had been a decent collection of history books and manuals for practically every machine, but as far as fiction novels went, we had next to nothing. The extent of our fiction section consisted of a couple of Daring Do books and my personal favorite piece of literature, Lord of the Horse Shoes. I had been engroused in the epic quest from the beginning. Though when I read it, I had never considered how tedious the long journey back was.

Now I was halfway across the massive city of Manehattan, helping Brisk carry a wounded Xayah on our backs as we slowly marched our way back to Stable 25. It had taken us what? Five days to get to Fetlock? Dear Celestia, don’t make us walk five days back to the Stable.

I glanced over at Xayahs frayed hooves as we walked. They didn’t look good, though I imagined that a couple of healing potions would be able to fix the damage. Assuming we could find one that is.

I was walking along side Brisk, doing my best to support Xayahs weight, though It was pretty obvious that Brisk was doing most of the lifting. My height and lack of physical strength were proving to be rather inconvenient in the wasteland.

“I need to take a rest,” Brisk grunted as we trudged on. “I can’t carry you any farther.”

Xayah nodded. “I am sorry for my lack of assistance, perhaps we should take a break in that building over there,” She gestured to what looked like a broken down restaurant a few feet away with one of her injured hooves.

Brisk grunted in agreement and began hauling Xayah towards it. As we neared I checked my EFS. There didn’t seem to be anything alive inside. Good, I could do with a day in the wasteland that wasn't packed full of bloodshed.

The restaurant was one of the smallest buildings I had seen in Manehattan. It was only one floor tall and most of the roof had collapsed in, making the inside of the structure seem smaller than it should have. The windows had all shattered inwards, covering the floor in a layer of broken glass that made walking around inside an inconvenient chore. Above the broken glass doors was a faded sign reading ‘The Hay Burger’.

After sweeping up a bit of the glass on the floor, we placed Xayah down gently in the corner of the restaurant. Brisk whole body seemed to sigh with relief as the zebras weight was removed from his shoulders.

“Alright, you two stay here, I’m going to go look around for some healing potions,” Brisk stated, walking towards the door.

I quickly pushed myself in front of his path. “Not without me you’re not. I can help.”

Brisk gave me a tired look. “Neither of you are in any condition to be walking around the wasteland right now. If Xayah hadn’t been so badly hurt, I would have carried you here too.”

I stomped my hoof on the ground in annoyance. The force of hitting the ground shot up through my leg and almost made me topple over. “I’m not that injured. I can still walk, so I can still help.”

Brisk shook his head. “All of your legs are broken Amber, the fact that you have walked this far is a miracle. I don’t want you on your hooves any more than you need to be.” When did he become the doctor of the group? Furthermore, when did he get so serious. “Besides, Somepony needs to look after Xayah. I don’t want to leave her here by herself.

I glanced back at our zebra friend who had curled up into a tight ball. I lowered my head in defeat and sighed. “Fine, but don’t be gone long or get yourself killed. Got it?”

Brisk broke his serious composure and gave me his infamous smirk, showing off his missing tooth. “I’ve lasted this long in the wasteland haven’t I? I think I can last a few more days.”

I gave him a grin as he walked out. I slowly limped over to Xayah and flopped down lazily next to her on the floor. The floor was colder than I would have liked.

“How do you think your Stable is doing?” Xayah asked, rolling over a little to look at me. I caught a quick flash of the long scar across her stomach before it was covered up again.

I shrugged. “I’ve been trying not to think about it much,” I admitted. “The Stable has a few days worth of food stored away incase of an emergency like this, but I imagine that would have all run out by now,” A wave of fear washed over me as I imagined all the ponies I had ever known slowly starving out on the metal floor of the Stable. “But it's all okay now, the cyber ponies are gone and we are on our way back with the A.A.S.S.”

Xayah nodded solemnly. “And what about you and Brisk?”

I blinked at her. “Uh… I don’t know what you mean?” Was she talking about my feelings for Brisk? Why was she bringing this up now?

“Have you told him yet?” Xayah asked bluntly.

I blushed. “What?! No! I can’t tell him! Not yet!”

Xayah raised her eyebrow at me. “Well you better figure out what you are going to say to him soon. You two don’t have much time together?”

“Wha- What are you talking about?” I hadn’t the faintest idea of what Xayah was getting at. Was Brisk going to die or something?

Xayah gave me an almost bored expression. “In a day or so you will be returning to Stable 25. You probably won't see Brisk again. If these feelings you are having mean anything to you, I’d talk to him about it. It is better to know and possibly get rejected than to live the rest of your life wondering what might have been.”

I shivered at that, but she was right. My friends always seemed to be right. Damn them for that.

A few minutes later, Brisk stumbled in carrying a small bag of healing supplies. He quickly dumped them next to us and handed two to Xayah who drank them without question. Her flayed hide pulled itself together and most of the gashes across her body clotted over.

I picked a potion up with my magic and slowly poured the contents down my throat. Like Xayah, most of my injuries patched themselves together. Healing potions truly were an impressive creation.

“Where did you get these?” I asked, propping myself back up as I finished the potion.

Brisk reached down and began unclasping the metal braces on his front legs. “There was another skywagon a bit down the road. Looks like it had been transporting some medical supplies before the bombs. I’m surprised they hadn’t been looted yet.”

“What are you doing?” I asked as I watched him remove his braced and place them on the ground in front of me.

“You are going to need these more than me,” He stated, gesturing to my broken legs. “The healing potions might have healed most of your wounds and stopped the bleeding, but I know from experience that they don’t fix broken bones.”

“What about you?” Xayah questioned as she pulled herself back to her hooves. “Have your legs healed?”

Brisk shrugged. “I think they have a bit of healing to do still, but I got this to keep me going,” Brisk pulled out his pack of Buck and popped a tablet into his mouth. I noticed his stash was starting to run a little low. I guessed he only had seven or so left.

I slowly pulled the braces over my forehooves. Brisk had been right, even after the healing potions my legs still felt like they were on fire.

Brisk was a fair amount larger than I was, so the Braces had been adjusted to fit a leg far too big for me. Before I could figure out how to tighten them, Brisk was at my side, pulling on the straps and fitting it to my legs.

I recalled what Xayah had said. I figured now was as good a time as any to confess my feelings to him.

I took a deep breath. “Hey Brisk,” I started, my voice caught in my throat a little.

“Mmhm?” Brisk grunted, not looking up from the brace as he moved to my next leg and began tightening it.

“There’s uh… something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a bit now,” I gulped and tried to figure out how I was going to say it. Do I say it bluntly or work my way up to it?

Brisk had finished the brace and was now looking at me, waiting for what I had to say. From the look on his face, I could tell he knew it was something important to me.

I struggled to find my words. “Well, I’ve been meaning to tell you that, uh…” I blushed and looked down at my front hooves. Come on Amber, you got this. “I kind of…”

I spotted movement on my EFS. Red bars! Twelve of them!

My head turned to look out the window where I saw twelve raiders slowly approaching the restaurant with their weapons drawn.

Shit! How did they know we were here?!

My eyes landed on the raider that was leading them. A large earth pony clad in a heavy suit of black power armour. The armour had red and orange flames painted into it and two large flamers had been attached to their battle saddle.

Damn it, that power armour must have an EFS built into it!

I glanced to the raider beside the one in power armour. He was a bloody, cacking mess of a raider with a collection of unicorn horns around his neck. Worst thing about this raider though was that he was carrying a massive rocket launcher aimed right for us.

“Get down!” I yelled, pushing Brisk to the ground. I say Xayah follow suit only seconds before the massive rocket blasted through the window and detonated behind us.

The walls of the restaurant were blown apart. Debris rained down around us as our cover was blasted away, leaving us exposed to the raiders attacks. I pulled myself up and raised Boneless to face them.

The raider in power armour flared their flamers to life and snarled at us. “Skin ‘em alive boys!” It was a female voice to my surprise. I might have even called the voice cute had it not been called for our deaths.

The raiders began charging towards us. As they neared, I began to notice that they seemed to have better equipment than most raiders I had seen before. While most raiders carried little more than knives and the occasional gun, these raiders seemed to have a rather large arsenal of rocket launchers, chainsaws, machetes and machine guns. Their armour was better too. Quite a few raiders were sporting a full suit of combat armour and a couple even had parts of scavenged power armour.

A wall of bullets seemed to spew towards us as the raiders advanced. I ducked behind a fallen table to avoid being hit with the oncoming attacks. I heard a bunch of bullets ricochet off the metal table to the floor. One bullet burst through the table top scarily close to where my head was. I ducked lower to the ground to avoid risking a shot to the head.

A few feet away from me I could see Xayah and Brisk crouched behind another table. They too had their heads close to the ground.

“Do either of you have a plan!?” I called out to them over the booming sound of machine gun fire. They both cast each other awkward glances and shook their heads.

I heard the whistling sound of the missle flying towards us through the air a few seconds before it landed. The missile detonated between the two tables we were hiding behind, sending all three of us flying backwards and smashing into the back wall of the restaurant.

As the smoke and fire of the explosion began to clear I could make out the silhouette of the raider in black and red power armour charging towards us. Her flamers spewing a steady stream of fire in our direction.

I managed to pull Boneless out from under me and roll out of the way before I was scorched by her flamers. I began to pull myself back up when the raider pounced on top of me and pinned me down with her metal clad hooves.

I tried to push her off, but she was a lot bigger and heavier than I was. Instead, I telekinetically raised Boneless to face her and let loose two explosive slugs into her face. The slugs burst against her armour, knocking her back and allowing me to push myself away from her, but they unfortunately failed to get through her helmet.

The rest of the raiders were beginning to reach us as well. They began switching to knives or baseball bats that had large spikes sticking out of them. I noticed a few raiders kept their guns out, continuing to spray us with a constant shower of lead.

The raider with the rocket launcher unfortunately was one of the few that didn’t switch to a melee weapon. Every few seconds I could feel the air around me shift, followed by the feeling of raging fire across my back and a sudden blinding light.

I had to take that raider with a rocket launcher out or we were done for. Assuming I could get away from this damn power armoured raider.

The raider in power armour was moving way faster than anypony in armour that heavy should have been able to move. Each shot from my triple barrel shotgun either bounced off her thick metal armour or missed entirely. I tried to target her in SATS, but with all the commotion going on I couldn’t even seem to land a good shot in with that either.

The raider in power armour blasted a jet of fire towards me. I dropped to the ground and rolled under a table that by some miracle had managed to stay standing. I could feel my pink and blue mane get singed a dark black. I patted the top of my head to put out a small fire that had started in my hair.

The raider in power armour snarled at me. “Come on out and face me! I ain’t got all day!” she charged at the table I was under and bucked at it with her front hooves. The table was ripped in half and sent flying away.

Shit that pony was strong!

I moved again, this time taking out my baton and swinging it towards the raiders face. The black club came in contact with the raiders head, her power armour locking up for a second as the electric shot went through the mechanical armour.

I took that moment to leap over her and rush towards the raider with the rocket launcher who was currently trying to blast Xayah apart.

I pulled out Boneless and placed it against the back of the raiders head. The raider reacted with surprise, spinning around and aiming their rocket launcher in my face. I didn’t give them time to fire as I sent an explosive slug between there eyes. The raiders head burst open, soaking my coat in blood and bits of flesh. They dropped the rocket launcher to the ground before their body collapsed next to it.

The raider in power armour limped up next to me and glanced pitifully at the raider I had just blown the head off of. “Ah shit… Razor Blade is going to kill me,” the raider groaned, almost sarcastically.

Before I could process what she had just said a massive form broke the surface in front of me. At first all I could see was a large shape erupting from the ground that was obscured behind a large cloud of dust, then as the dust settled I began to make out the image of the massive body of a Hellhound. The monstrous Hellhound howled and lashed at the raider in power armour. The raider lept back, avoiding having her head completely severed from her body. The Hellhound lashed at her again, its huge claw creating three deep gashes into her armour.

Holy Shit! Boneless couldn’t even dent that power armour let alone rip it open. I reminded myself not to get hit by those Hellhounds claws. Without power armour I would be done for. Hell, with power armour I might be done for.

The rest of the raiders turned to see the new threat. As their eyes landed on the Hellhound they turned their guns to face it as well, no longer very concerned about my friends or I.

The volley of bullets that had been speeding towards us quickly everted their focus onto the Hellhound. Not that the bullets seem to be doing any good. The Hellhound was taking bullets like they were nothing, not bothering to slow down as the beast began tearing into the raiders.

I saw Brisk and Xayah duck behind a table in the kitchen as the raiders attacking them moved to the new opponent.

The raider in power armour seemed to be the most effective against the Hellhound. The constant stream of fire was drawing most of its attention and seemed to be the only thing he could feel. That and her power armour was managing to keep her alive a lot longer than the rest of the raiders.

I aimed Boneless and sent a large slug into the Hellhounds head. The slug burst against the creatures head, blasting apart one of its eyes and tearing a lot of the flesh on one side of its face.

It turned to me and growled, baring its sharp teeth. Welp, apparently it could feel that too!

The Hellhound Lashed at the power armoured raider with a hind leg before bounding towards me. I gulped and began scurrying away from it. I wasn’t in power armour. One hit from that thing and I would be dead.

The Hellhound tore its way through the group of raiders to get to me, its legs crushing the skulls of a few raiders that were unfortunate enough to fall over.

Why the fuck was this thing so damn fast! Nothing that big had the right to move so quick.

Brisk leapt at it with his pistol and shot a few bullets into the Hellhounds shoulder. Not seeming to feel it, the Hellhound kept charging towards me, it claws reaching out to rip me apart.

Xayah jumped onto its back, stabbing into its neck with her knife. The Hellhound howled, definitely feeling that. It thrashed around and slammed its back into the wall to knock Xayah off. Xayah’s head crashed against the wall, making her lose her grip on her knife and tumble to the ground.

The Hellhound turned and glared at Xayah. It bared its teeth and raised its claws above its head to slash Xayah appart.

I screamed and raced forwards, but I was too far away to get to Xayah in time. There was nothing I could do but watch.

To my surprise, the Raider in power armour barrelled into the Hellhound, the force of the impact knocking the Hellhound prone on its back. The raider leapt on top of the monster and began slamming her hooves down against the Hellhounds throat.

In retaliation, the Hellhound grabbed onto the raiders sides and began to dig into the thick armour with its claws. The metal began to crumple like a pop can under the force of the Hellhounds massive claws.

Before the Hellhound could crush the raider completely, she sent a burst of flame into the Hellhounds face. The Hellhounds head was submerged in fire as the flames swirled into its mouth and eyes and cooked the brain.

In a desperate attempt to attack, the Hellhound let go of the raiders sides and lashed at her face with its claws, gouging long claw marks into the raiders helmet. The raider stumbled back, allowing the Hellhound to bash her across the face again with its claw, sending her flying and crashing against the far wall of the restaurant.

Unbelievably, the Hellhound began to rise from the ground, its face a charred mess and both its eyes melted into an ooze like sludge. I readied myself as its powerful gaze locked on me.

Blam!

Brisk sent a bullet through the Hellhounds now exposed eye socket and into its brain. The Hellhound swayed for a few moments before finally dropping to the ground.

I took a deep breath and looked around the room. Brisk, Xayah and I had come out of the fight practically unharmed with the exception of a couple of cuts and bruises. The Hellhound had taken care of the rest of the raiders for us. The room was covered in massacred raider corpses, most of which had been completely ripped in two or three pieces.

Thank the goddesses that those fights had happened at the same time. I doubted we would have been able to take that Hellhound out so easily had the raiders not lent a hoof.

A small cough from across the room drew our attention to the raider in power armour who was doing her best to pull herself back to her hooves. She managed to pull herself half way up before her injuries caused her to collapse back to the ground.

I readied Boneless and slowly approached her, placing the tip of my shotgun against her head. The raider laughed as she stared down the three barrels. “So, you must be that Stable dweller everypony keeps talking about, huh?”

I shook my head, understanding the mix-up. “Nope, just a pony trying to get home,” I got ready to fire Boneless.

“I suppose I had better thank you for helping me deal with those raiders,” The raider said, rolling onto her back lazily and looking up at me through the visor of her damaged power armour helmet. “I thought I was going to have to kill them all myself, but I’m glad you decided to lend me a hoof.”

I lowered Boneless in confusion. “You- uh… Are you not a raider?” I was getting weird vibes from this pony. I didn’t know what to think of her. Was she a blood thirst raider, or a pony that wanted to help us?

Brisk and Xayah walked up next to me as the raider in power armour took us all in. “Oh, you can bet your pink ass I’m a raider, but this group here wasn’t really a fan of how I let a couple ponies go. Pretty sure they were going to do me in at the next chance they could get. You three did me a huge favour.”

I exchanged glances with all my friends. I returned my attention to the raider. “I suppose I should thank you for saving my friend then…” I really didn’t know how to react to this pony, and thanking a raider just felt weird, not to mention getting thanked by one.

The raider laughed. “You scratch my back, I scratch yours. The name is Pyre Blaze, it's a pleasure to meet you.”

Brisk gestured for me to shoot her. I shook my head at him and looked back at Pyre Blaze. “Can you give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now?”

Pyre scoffed. “Is saving you and your friends from a Hellhound not enough?”

“You attacked us,” Brisk pointed out, stomping his hoof on the ground. “Furthermore, you told your raiders buddies to skin us alive!”

“Valid points,” Pyre soothed, rolling the words around in her mouth. “But I didn’t kill you and you weren’t skinned alive so no harm was done.”

Brisk grunted in return. He turned to face me and pulled out his pistol. “Can I shoot her please?”

I shook my head at him again. He gave me an annoyed pout.

“Look, I’m in a bit of trouble with the raider gang I’ve been running with and I’m guessing that you're the ponies that those freaky cyber ponies are after, so working together would be beneficial for both of us. I keep you protected from those metal monstrosities and you keep some of the raiders off of my back,” Pyre said factually.

So she wanted to travel with us now? Who the hell did this pony think they… I froze. “What did you just say?”

Pyre grinned at me through her helmet. “There were these two cyber ponies at the old Train station in Fetlock. Apparently some crazy Stable dwellers and a Zebra stole some stuff from them. They’re pretty pissed off right now.”

Crank and Inferno were still alive! How the fuck did they survived being melted by a mini balefire bomb!

Pyre noticed my shock and chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve heard they’ve been spreading the word about you three to anypony that will help them. Red Eyes Slavers, Talon mercs. They're even going so far as to offer raiders a reward for your capture. Not that raiders listen much.”

Xayah shivered. “This is bad.”

“Bad ain’t even the half of it!” Pyre laughed. “Red Eye is sending a large group of slavers out to Manehattan. Apparently they are waiting around most of the notable settlemtents, particularly Tenpony Tower. They aren’t doing anything yet, but a lot of ponies are on edge right now.”

“Bu- But we only stole stuff from them a few hours ago! How could all this have happened already!” I stammered, taking a small step back. Red Eye was sending a mini army to wipe us out and half of the fiends in the wasteland had been instructed to kill us!? Well fuck me!

“Word travels fast in the wasteland when DJ Pon3 or Red Eye want ponies to know about it,” Pyre smirked. “Practically every Sprite Bot in Manehattan is calling for your capture.”

Brisk groaned. “I don’t trust her. I say we kill her and get out of here.”

“But what if she’s telling the truth?” Xayah challenged. “If we have two cyber ponies hunting us down and a small army of slavers and mercenaries looking for us, then shouldn’t we take all the help we can get?”

“How do we know you won't just attack us when you get the chance?” I asked, pushing against her helmet a little harder with my shotgun.

Pyre shrugged. “I told you, I need protection from my old raider gang. Killing you three won't help me any. Mutual benefit is the most powerful bond of all you know.”

“We can’t really be considering this?” Brisk complained, rubbing his forehead with a hoof.

I glanced back and forth between Brisk and Pyre. Finally I gave a small sigh. “Alright, you can come with us. But you attack either of my friends and I will personally end you. Got it?” I demanded, lending Pyre a hoof up. She was heavier than I expected, but then again, she was wearing power armour. Pyre Blaze winced as she stood wobbly on her hooves. Brisk groaned and sulked away to look outside.

Pyre gave me a small pat on the head. “Of course, and the same goes to you and your pals. You don’t attack me and I won't burn you all alive,” She limped away from me and went to stand by Brisk at the front door.

“I’m going to regret this, aren't I?” I said to Xayah as we slowly followed Pyre out.

Xayah shrugged. “I hope not. We really could use help in fights.”

We were beginning to pass landmarks that I recognized. An old Pony Joe's donut shop, a broken radio tower. We made sure to go around road that was infested with Radscorpions and instead go behind the Four Star apartment building.

“So where exactly are we going?” Pyre asked as we trotted along. She was still walking with a seemingly painful limp. I guessed being tossed around by a Hellhound will do that to you.

Xayah and I had taken up the front as we walked. Behind us was Pyre, who had insisted on not walking in the front. I suppose that was fair as we had just been threatening to blow her head off. Brisk walked slowly behind her, his eyes fixed on the raider to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid like attack. If felt good to know he was watching my back.

“Friendship city,” Xayah deadpanned, pointing towards the looming Statue of Friendship in the distance. “We need to stop there quickly for supplies before we head to Stable 25.”

“Ah, it'll be good to be back. I haven’t been there in ages,” Pyre said gleefully, bouncing on her hooves a little and looking up at the large monument on the horizon. She winced as her front legs hit the ground and stopped bouncing.

“You’ve been there before?” I asked, not bothering to look behind me.

Pyre nodded. “Surely you don’t think I’ve spent every second of my life in the wasteland? I spend most of my days all the way up in Las Pegasus, but I’ve come down to the Wasteland enough to have stayed in Friendship City once or twice.”

“I didn’t think they would let raiders in,” Brisk blurted, narrowing his eyes at Pyre. “You know, with it being Friendship City and all.”

Pyre chuckled and turned to face him. “The guards will let anypony in if you sleep with them. They'll sometimes even let me bring in my flamers if I get really naughty.”

I glanced down at my pipbuck map to make sure we were still heading in the right direction. My eyes landed on my EFS. A red bar. I glanced around to see if I could spot where it was coming from and quickly hushed my friends.

A few feet ahead of us was a gap between the old theater and the Four Star apartment building. I slowly crept forwards and glanced down the alley.

Please don’t be more Enclave! Oh Celestia tell me it's not more Enclave.

It wasn’t Enclave. It was much worse.

A Hellhound stood in the center of the alley. The Monsters massive claws glinted in the light and it pale yellow eyes were glaring directly at us. Instinctively I pulled out Boneless in case it decided to charge us.

“Why isn’t it attacking us?” Brisk asked as he peeked over my shoulder and nervously looked at the Hellhound. “Is it waiting for something?”

“And what's on its head?” Xayah asked, pointing at the creatures head.

I glanced up at the massive monsters head and spotted what Xayah was talking about. Some sort of strange metal headpiece had been placed over the Hellhounds head. It was bulky too. So comically large in fact that I was surprised the Hellhound was able to keep his head up.

Brisk glanced down at his pipbuck. “Its tag is hostile, it should be attacking us. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe it can't,” Pyre stated bluntly, painfully limping out from behind the cover and approaching the Hellhound.

“Pyre Blaze! What the fuck are you doing!” I hisses, urging her to come back. The raider shrugged me off and continued to approach the statue like Hellhound. I noticed that the Hellhounds eyed followed Pyre Blaze as she neared.

“Welp, she’s dead,” Brisk bluntly declared. “Let's leave her for the hound and get out of here.”

Pyre drew closer and closer until she eventually reached out a hoof and poked the Hellhound in the stomach. We all winced as her metal hoof came in contact with the creatures hide. Pyre rolled her eyes and gestured for us to come over.

“Come on, he won't bite,” Pyre grinned, stroking the Hellhounds fir with her outstretched hoof.

Cautiously, the rest of us slowly approached her and the Hellhound. Like it had with Pyre, the Hellhounds eyes followed us as we came closer.

“Why do you think it's just standing there?” Brisk asked me, poking the Hellhound himself. “This is weird.”

I shrugged. I glanced up at the machine on its head. “It must have something to do with that thing it's wearing. Maybe it's some kind of mind control device?” It looked like some sort of broadcaster, with a small antenna on one side and a miniature satellite on the other.

I noticed a second bar fast approaching on my EFS. I glanced around before daring to look up. A pegasus was quickly descending towards us. But it wasn’t just any pegasus. I knew this one.

“Oh sweet fucking celestial orgasm of Luna!” Star Breeze exclaimed as she slowly pulled up above us. “What the fuck are you three doing back here!”

I groaned. Damn it, there was Enclave!

“Just passing… again…” I muttered, taking a step back from the lavender and mint green pegasus.

Star Breeze slapped her hoof across her face. “Why is it that the Enclave can operate in secret for so long and so well, and you fuckers just happen to stumble across our secret opperations twice in two fucking days!”

“We just kinda suck like that,” Brisk said, following my example and taking a step away as well.

“Wait, you guys all know members of the fucking Enclave?” Pyre asked, glancing from us to the pegasus. Pyre gave a devious grin. “You all just become a more interesting bunch by the minute don’t you?”

“Look, we didn’t get along very well last time, but how about we try and resolve this situation more peacefully this time around?” I suggested, lowering Boneless a little bit.

Star Breeze sighed. “You know I can’t do that. If Colonel Autumn Leaf found out I let you escape twice, he’ll probably shut me fucking down! I’m already in a lot of shit for what you asshats pulled last time!”

“Let me remind you that there are four of us, and only one of you,” Brisk threatened, gesturing to all of us.

Star Breeze gave him a flat stare and pointed at the humongous Hellhound. “I have a fucking Hellhound bitch,” she deadpanned. “Which means if you try and fight I’ll have it rip you a new asshole. you can’t run either, cause this Hellhound will be able to smell you from thousands of miles away now that it has your sent.”

I glanced at the large metal helmet on the Hellhounds head. Damn it, it was mind control wasn’t it?! I took another step away from the massive dog.

Xayah gave Brisk a small shove. “Let's not try and anger her.”

Brisk shifted his gaze from Star breeze to the motionless Hellhound and gave a small nod in response.

I took a deep breath and stepped forward again. “Look, we have nothing against the Enclave or whatever weird shit you are doing here. If you just let us leave peacefully, we will be on our way and your boss doesn't need to find out we were ever even here. This doesn’t need to get violent.”

Star glance at the Hellhound. Finally she gave a long annoyed sigh. “Alright, fine. Get the fuck out of here,” She demanded. “And I don’t want to see you or your friends around here again, got it?”

We all nodded. All except Pyre that is.

“Really? We aren’t going to get to burn this pegasus bitch?” Pyre complained, pointing up to Star. We all gave her an annoyed look and I gave her a small shove. Pyre groaned. “Fine, we’ll deal with this the boring way.”

I looked back up at Star Breeze. “Thank you. We’ll try to stay out of your mane from now on.”

Star Breeze crossed her hooves in an attempt to look intimidating. “You better keep that promise.”

A small walkie talkie that was clipped to the inside of her lab coat buzzed. “Star Breeze, report! What the fuck is taking you so long?” A slightly muffled voice demanded through the speaker.

Star yipped and fumbled to pull the walkie talkie from her coat. “Damn it! Get the fuck out of here! Go!” She urged quickly between clenched teeth before putting the walkie talkie to her ear. We all moved away from her and the Hellhound with a great deal of haste. As we exited the alley I could just make out Star say. “It’s all good. Just checking on the Hellhound sir.”

“Well that explains the fucking Hellhound we encountered,” Pyre grunted, limping up beside me as we moved away from the Four Star appartment building. “I thought it was rather odd.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, glancing back the way we came.

“That Hellhound we killed back at the Restaurant,” Pyre Blaze elaborated. “I thought it was odd that it was hunting alone. Hellhounds usually come in packs. It must have been looking for its mate.”

“They hunt in packs!” I exclaimed in alarm. Was there anything about Hellhounds that wasn’t terrifying?

“Yes, we have been very lucky these past two encounters, all things considered,” Xayah said, walking up next to us. “Though the Enclave using mind control on them is most concerning to me.”

“Do you think they plan on attacking ponies with them?” Brisk asked, his gaze fixed on the Statue of friendship in the distance.

Xayah shrugged. “I do not know. But it seems odd that a group of ponies that refuse to leave the clouds would try and control such monsters that can only move on ground unless they were planning to do some form of attack.”

Well that wasn’t a terrifying thought at all. I imagined armies of pegasi descending from the clouds in massive flying war ships while Hellhounds ripped apart the ponies on the ground. I felt a shiver of fear go through me at the mere idea.

Pyre Blaze collapsed abruptly. The three of us jump with surprise as the heavy suit of power armour slammed into the ground. Pyre let out a low groan of pain as she tried to push herself back up.

I rushed over to her. “Shit! Pyre, what happened?”

Pyre looked up at me dumbly and gestured to the large claw marks across her armour. “I got mauled by a fucking Hellhound, what do you think happened?” She grumbled, trying to stand again. She fell back to the ground. “The fact that I managed to walk this far is a mother bucking miracle.”

“Brisk, pass a healing potion,” I ordered, reaching my hoof out to get a potion.

Brisk shook his head. “We don’t have any. You two used them all up back at the restaurant,” He said flatly.

Damn it, we needed to start stocking up on healing potions. “Fine, pass me a Buck then,” I demanded again, keeping my hoof outstretched. Pyre’s sour mood seemed to brighten up at that.

Brisk’s eyes narrowed and I could see the muscles in his neck tighten. “I don’t need to give her fucking anything,” He snapped, sitting down and crossed his fore hooves sternly across his front.

I stared at him in shock. “Brisk, give me a fucking Buck,” Was he seriously pulling this now!?

Brisk just glared at Pyre Blaze and I with a loathing I hadn’t seen in him before. “I’m not giving that murderous bitch anything,” He snarled, his eyes seemingly shooting daggers at Pyre.

My jaw dropped. Where was this side of him coming from? I knew he didn’t like Pyre Blaze much, but this wasn’t like him. I cast a look at Xayah for help. My zebra friend bit her bottom lip for a second as she considered what action to take.

Finally Xayah turned to Brisk. “Give her the buck.”

Brisks face was packed full of anger and betrayal as his eyes darted around at all of us. At last he grunted and tossed a single buck tablet at my hooves before spinning around and walking away from us with a huff. I watched him march away until he had disappeared behind one of the buildings.

“Looks like somepony’s got a nasty little addiction to Buck there,” Pyre Blaze smirked, popping the dirt covered tablet into her mouth without hesitation.

I gave her a grumpy glare. “Shut it you. Don’t make me regret bringing you along,” Brisk attitude was making my attitude shit. The last thing I needed was Pyre’s snide comments. I turned to face Xayah, who was looking off in Brisk’s direction wearily. “What do you think has Brisk in such a mood.”

Xayah gave me a worried look. “Probably a lot,” She started, casting a small glance at Pyre. “I fear my prediction of his addiction is correct. Plus Pyre Blaze’s presence and your inevitable parting is most likely souring his mood.”

Our parting? That was what was getting under his skin? I thought back to our first night out of the Stable. What was it I had promised him? That I would stick around? I guess in a day or two I would be breaking that promise. Some friend I turned out to be.

“Shit,” I muttered, glancing in the direction Brisk had gone. I could see a small tuft of green fur sticking out from behind a building in the distance. At least he hadn’t left us completely. “What should we do about that?”

Xayah raised her eyebrow and cocked her head a little. “Us? I think you need to talk to him. You two have a lot to sort out before you part ways tomorrow.”

Pyre rubbed her armoured leg with a hoof. “Part ways? Where the fuck are you going?”

I turned to face her and did my best to stop myself from shaking. Why was I shaking? Was I excited? Nervous? Both? I took a deep breath. I suppose it was only fair that I let Pyre in on what we were doing. “Tomorrow I will be returning to my Stable… and I highly doubt Brisk is coming with me.”

Friendship City was just as I had remembered it. The massive statue towered over most of the collapsed Manehattan buildings and a small collection of wooden structures had been built into its base. The long bridge to the city extended from the entrance of the city to the mainland and a couple of guard ponies patrolled around the area. I noticed a decently sized group of slavers off in the distance. Pyre hadn't been lying, Red Eye really did have ponies out looking for us.

As we neared the large gate that leads into the main market area of the city we were approached by two guard ponies similarly as we had before. They quickly retrieved our weapons and the gem off of Xayah's stealth cloak from us. They hesitated when they turned to take Pyre’s flamers, but when she put up no resistance over giving up her weapons they seemed to relax a little.

Inside the city was less packed than it had been on our last visit. Only a few ponies walked along the catwalks or haggled at shops. Though it was getting late in the day, I guessed most ponies were starting to retire to their sleeping areas.

“Alright, so what is our first order of business?” I asked, turning to face the many shops that lined the inner sides of the Statue of Friendship.

“I’ll get medicine,” Brisk grunted, quickly moving away from our group. “We clearly need some.”

Xayah cast a sideways glance at me, reminding me that I needed to talk to Brisk. I quickly darted up to him. “Hey, I’ll go with you.”

Brisk kept walking, not bothering to look at me. “No, go with Xayah and the raider. I can get some healing potions fine by myself.”

I felt like he was slapping me across the face. I really needed to talk to him.

“Alright then, how but the three of us go get some better armour?” Pyre said, seeing the dejected look on my face. “After the fight with the Hellhound, all of our gear could use some fixing,” She turned to Xayah. “And your cloak is so ripped up I doubt it will actually hide you any.”

Xayah and I agreed and followed Pyre Blaze to a higher level of Friendship City. “When was the last time you were here?” I asked Pyre as we walked up the spiral steps to the floor above. She seemed to have a pretty good idea of where she was going.

Pyre shrugged. “Hard to say. You tend to lose track of time in the Wasteland,” she replied, entering onto the floor above. The second floor seemed to have more ponies than the previous, most of them gathered around a pub at the far end of the floor. “Two years ago, at least. Though I lived here for a bit back before my raider days, so I can remember my way around well enough.”

I saw a small clothing booth that had been set up in one of the corners of the large room that didn’t seem to have very many customers. The racks of clothes held a large variety of dresses and even a couple pieces of fashionable looking armour.

“Might we be able to get our armour fixed there?” I asked, gesturing over to the shop.

Both Pyre and Xayah nodded. “Yes, there should do most nicely,” Xayah stated, approaching the shop. Pyre and I followed close behind her.

As we got closer to the shop I began to make out the pony standing behind the booth. She was a small pony with the thinning remains of a light cyan mane atop her head. She wore a ripped sailor collar with a scarlet tie and the remains of a floppy hat cutie mark on her rotting rear.

A ghoul pony! But not just any ghoul pony. This was a ghoul I had seen before. I seemed to be bumping into a lot of ponies that I knew today.

“Coco Pommel?” I asked as I approached the booth. Both Xayah and Pyre cast me a strange look, wondering how I knew the ghoul.

Coco Pommel looked up from the dress she was making and gave me a wide smile. “Oh! I didn’t expect to see you again!” she looked genuinely happy to see me. “Thank you so much for what you have done for me, you really are a hero.”

I blushed at the ghoul ponies words. “Thank you, but it was nothing, really,” I insisted, holding up my brace enclosed hooves. “But what are you doing here?” I asked, turning away slightly to observe the clothes on her clothing racks.

“Well now that Suri Polomare is gone I’ve started trying to turn Rarity's Boutique into a real business in the Wasteland. Not that many ponies travel through that area though, so I thought I could open up a mini shop in Friendship City as well. You know, get ponies aware and interested in the business.”

“The fuck are wastelanders going to do with a dress?” Pyre blurted, holding up a long flowy white dress with a translucent train on the end. “Fashion is a little bit more about practicalities these days.”

Coco Pommel nodded with a small smile. “There are a couple groups in the Wasteland that still try to look their best, mostly being the ponies over in Tenpony Tower. But I do have the rest of the ponies interests in mind as well. Back in the war, Rarity had been working on a type of fabric that could be used by soldiers to protect them in combat,” Coco said, holding up some strange silver fabric that she had been working with. “I call it ballistic weave, I can line clothing with it to help protect ponies in the wasteland while still letting them look fashionable. It’s what Rarity would have wanted.”

I looked closely at the silver material in Coco Pommels hooves. It looked like normal fabric to me, but the idea of it was quite fascinating. I gestured to the ruined clothing we were wearing. “Do you think we could possibly get our clothes patched up?”

Coco leaned forwards and inspected the large rips and tears in my Stable Barding. “Yup, I think I can fix your barding. I can probably patch up that stealth cloak of yours as well,” She said cheerfully, indicating to Xayah and I.

“Thank you, that would be most gracious of you,” Xayah commented, unclasping her now gemless cloak and handing it over to Coco Pommel.

Coco Pommel cast a glance at Pyre’s Red and Black flame covered power armour. “I don’t think I can fix that, but perhaps I can offer you a dress?”

Pyre snorted. “You couldn’t pay me enough caps to get me to wear some gaudy dress,” she aggressively put the white dress she had been holding back onto the dress rack. If Coco Pommel was offended by Pyres statement, she didn’t show it.

“I should have these done by tomorrow morning. You can stop by then to pick them up then,” Coco Pommel Said, pulling out a large roll of blue material that matched my Stable Barding.

I winced. Tomorrow? I hadn’t planned on sleeping here. I wanted to get back to Stable 25 as soon as possible, especially now that I knew Crank and Inferno were still alive and looking for me.

Xayah must have seen my worried expression because she put a striped hoof on my shoulder. “Do not worry Amber, we will head to Stable 25 first thing in the morning. Besides, some rest will be good for all of us.”

Brisk was waiting for us in Emissary’s room when we arrived, a small bag of healing potions lying next to him by the window.

“Nice digs,” Pyre muttered taking in the room. “It’s no Tenpony sweet, but it’s pretty fucking good for a bunch of amateur wastelanders,” she approached the single bed and flopped down in it lazily. “I call this bed!”

Brisk bolted to his hooves and pointed at Pyre accusingly with a hoof. “Nope, that’s my bed. Down!” Pyre just rolled her eyes and snuggled into the blankets.

After we had finished talking to Coco Pommel, Pyre had stopped by one of the armour Vendors to see about getting her power armour patched up. Like Xayah and I, her armour wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow morning.

Without her armour, Pyre looked a lot less intimidating. She was still a good half hoof taller than the rest of us, but she wasn’t nearly as bulky as the armour had made her appear. She had a bright autumn orange coat and a fire red mane that clearly hadn't been brushed in years. Her face had a few burn marks under her left eye and her underside was practically one giant scorch mark. Her legs and coat were covered in a multitude of silver scars that zigzaged across her body.

I combed through the healing potions that Brisk had bought. He had managed to buy five healing potions in total. Hopefully these will last us longer than healing potions we had had in the past.

I glanced out the window to see the last few beams of sunlight through the clouds disappear beyond the horizon. Only one or two day left until I was back home. I glanced over to Xayah who had taken to sitting on the end of the double bed and was watching Brisk Spark and Pyre Blaze fight over control of the single bed.

“Same sleeping arrangements?” I asked Xayah, hopping up onto the bed next to her. She gave a quick nod, but didn’t take her eyes off of the far bed. I crawled under the blanket covers and looked over at Brisk and Pyre. “Either share the bed, or one of you sleep on the floor!” I ordered, closing my eyes and rolling away from them. I heard them both snarl at each other in unison, but they seemed to quiet down after that.

I really wanted to get to sleep. The sooner I could get up and leave Friendship City, the sooner I would be back home in Stable 25. I didn’t want to think about what was happening to everypony back in the Stable. Had they all starved to death? Did they leave the Stable? I wouldn’t be able to tell until I got back I suppose.

After a few moments the lights in the room went out, followed by Xayah crawling under the covers next to me. Brisk and Pyre hadn’t said anything since I yelled at them, so I assumed they had come to an agreement of some form. Good, I didn’t want to hear them bickering all night.

I lay in the darkness of the room for a while, hoping that sleep would overtake me. It never did. I was too worried about what might be happening at the Stable. I kept trying to figure out what was going on there, despite trying my best not to think about it.

Restlessly, I rolled over to find Xayah still awake next to me. She looked over at me with her green eyes, silently trying to make out my expression in the darkness.

“Why are you still awake,” I whispered, trying not to wake up the others.

“Worried,” Xayah bluntly whispered back in her methodical voice. As my eyes adjusted, I was able to make out her face better. She did look worried, but more than that, she looked tired.

I reached out a hoof and patted her gently. “What’s worrying you?”

I could see Xayah visibly relax a little from the touch. “What is going to happen after tomorrow?” she asked in concern. “With Brisk and I? Or even Pyre? What are we all going to do?”

“When I’m gone you mean?” I asked, trying to understand what she was talking about. Xayah slowly nodded her head. This issue had always seemed like a problem between Brisk and I. I had hardly considered the impact it might have on Xayah. Thinking about it, I realised that without Brisk and I, Xayah would be alone. She didn’t have a family to return to like I did or the desire to go on adventures like Brisk did. Would she continue traveling with Brisk? Find other ponies to travel with? Something else altogether? “I don’t know Xayah, I think that’s something you and Brisk need to talk about.”

Xayah gave me a small nudge with her muzzle. “You should talk to Brisk now, all of our time together is running short.”

“You’re probably right,” I sighed, pulling myself out of bed. As is tradition, I tripped and fell flat on my face.

Really? Can I not just get out of bed once without falling over?

Rubbing my head, I quietly trotted over to the side room where Pyre and Brisk were resting. I found Brisk lying on his back next to the window, staring up at the ceiling.

“You’re awake too, huh?” I asked, sitting down next to him. “Can’t sleep?”

“Mmhm,” Brisk muttered, rolling over to sit next to me. “Yourself?”

“I’m worried about tomorrow,” I admitted, looking out of the window at the water below Friendship City. “I think we all are.”

The two of us were quiet for a moment, taking in the silence of the room. I thought I could hear gunshots far off in the distance, but I couldn’t be sure. It felt so detached from the Wasteland in this room, almost as if we were back in the Stable. Peaceful, painfully peaceful.

“I’m sorry about how I acted today,” Brisk started, keeping his voice low. “I should have just given you the Buck. I don’t know what went over me.”

I sighed. “It’s okay, we all make mistakes,” I reassured him.

He gave me a sad smile, very unlike the smile I usually saw on him. His expression quickly changed to that of excitement. “Oh, I got you something,” He said impatienlty, shifting his weight a little and digging around in his saddle bags. He pulled out a dirty looking box with the faded image of a rainbow and a paintbrush on the top. He placed it in front of me with lackluster vigor.

“What is this?” I asked, turning the box over in my hooves and brushing the thick layer of dust off of it. I could hear a couple of things shifting around inside as I tilted it from side to side.

“It’s a painting kit,” Brisk said, gesturing to the box. “I remembered that you said you always wished you could do painting the last time we were here, so when I found this in Fetlock I grabbed it for you.”

I grinned and opened up the box, looking over the painting supplies inside. To my surprise the paint still seemed usable, even after two hundred years in a radioactive wasteland. I turned and gave Brisk a tight hug. “Thank you, this means a lot to me,” I said, trying my best not to cry.

He gave me a quick hug in return before returning his attention out the window. He gave a small sigh. “I thought that maybe… maybe I should give you something to remember me by. You know, before you go back to the Stable or whatever.”

I took a deep breath. “Brisk,” I started slowly. I had a lot of things that I needed to tell him, none of which I knew how to say. “I think we need to talk.”

“What about?” He acted confused, but from the small shiver of his hooves and tremble in his voice, I could tell he had a couple of ideas.

“About everything I guess. You, me… Us,” I took a pause to take another breath. Brisk looked away from the window and into my eyes. He wasn’t trying to mask his emotions with humor at the moment, and I could see the hurricane inside him threatening to tear him apart. “What do you think? About tomorrow?”

Brisk rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “I’m scared, I think. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.” I nodded in response. I was beginning to question what I was going to do with myself as well. I hadn’t known Brisk or Xayah for very long, but I already couldn’t imagine my life without either of them in it. “To be honest, I didn’t think I would survive this long in the wasteland. Back in the Stable, we were always told that outside was nothing but death. I hadn’t planned past escaping. You and your quest to save the Stable gave me something to do for a bit, but now that thats all over, I’m just going to be a lost pony with nowhere left to go.”

I put my hoof on his. He twitched a little at the touch, but didn’t move away. “You could come back to the Stable, start a new life in there,” I suggested.

“No,” Brisk said flatly. He didn’t even seem aggravated at the suggestion any more. He just seemed tired. “I can’t go back there. There is no place for me there.”

“You can always have a place with me,” I offered. He looked away and out at the harsh wasteland beyond the window. The wasteland was so much more dangerous than the Stable, yet is appealed to him far more.

“No, I can’t go back there,” was all he said, not bothering to elaborate.

We were both silent again for a moment. “Why did you leave the Stable Brisk?” I asked, pulling myself a little closer to him.

“I wanted to-”

“And none of that you were board bullshit,” I added. “I want to know the truth… please.”

Brisk bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes. To my surprise a small tear rolled out from under his eyelids and raced down his cheek. “It’s not something you want to hear.”

I shook my head. “I know. But I need to hear it. I need to understand.”

Brisk took a shaky breath and turned his head to face me. “You know how the security in Stable 25 works, right?” He asked, his voice low and aching.

I nodded slowly, unsure where he was going with this. “All of security functions under the head Security pony, and they work under the Overstallion.”

Brisk nodded. “Yeah. Well, at least that's what the Overstallion tells everypony. Technically, the Overstallion is in charge, but the head of security has the complete power to overthrow him if he steps out of line. The Overstallion needs to make sure he is on the security ponies good graces, otherwise he would be in a lot of trouble.”

This was something I definitely hadn’t heard. My father had told me multiple times not to interfere or aggravate security in any way. I had assumed that that was simply for my own protection, but was there more to it than that? Could it have been for his own protection?

“When I was a colt, I was assaulted by one of the ponies in security,” Brisk continued. I could feel the muscles in his hooves tightening as he spoke. “She uh… She raped me. I was only ten years old.”

I felt like I had walked directly into a wall. I felt sick, wrong. I felt dirty just thinking about what Brisk was saying. That would have been around the time I was just getting my cutie mark. Those were the security ponies that I always saw. That I lived with. This could have been me! This had happened to Brisk!

“Goddesses, I’m so sorry,” I muttered, not knowing what else to say to him.

Brisk snorted. “You haven’t heard the half of it. My parents took the problem to the Overstallion... your father,” Brisk voice caught and his whole body started shaking. I tried to wrap my hoove around him, but he just pushed me away. “He- he did nothing,” Brisk finally managed to get out between ragged breath. “They told him I was raped and he did fucking nothing!”

I winced at his outburst. I was having trouble accepting what he was telling me. There we a lot of things about my father that I didn’t like or understand, but doing nothing to help a rape victim that had been assulted by one of his own security seemed cold, even for him.

Brisks violent shaking and heavy breathing calmed down a little. “My mom and dad were beaten to death by some security ponies the next day. I was told my parents attacked first, but honestly I don’t know what to believe.”

“Did you tell anypony else about what happened to you?” I asked, looking him over.

Brisk shook his head, his eyes wide with fear. “No, I didn’t want them to think of me as the dude that got raped. Or worse, what if they didn’t believe me and thought I was just trying to get attention? After all of that, I had to get out. I spent the next ten and a half years trying to escape the Stable, I’m not going back in there now. Not ever.”

We were quiet again for a bit. “I believe you,” I said bluntly. Taking his hoof again. “And you are a lot more to me than just the pony who got raped. That might have happened to you, but it's not what makes you.”

Brisk did his best to give me a smile, but it looked forced. My mind had transfixed on the thought of my father hearing of what had happened to Brisk and doing nothing. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he had ignored the situation. Brisk had set the scene perfectly. If my father had tried to oppose the actions of the security ponies, he could have been attacked or overthrown himself. But that in no way justified his actions.

I was going to need to have words with my father about this upon my return.

Brisk shifted his position and wiped a tear from his cheek. “So yeah. Now you know,” he sniffed and looked over at me. “What about you? I know the Stable wasn't great on you either.”

After what I had just learned about Brisk, a couple of beatings and a bit of self loathing felt like nothing in comparison. “I was just a disappointment,” I finally said. “I had a lot to live up to, and I failed to live up to any of it. Some ponies hated me for that, others took advantage of that. No one liked me for that.”

“Failed at leading the Stable?” Brisk questioned, looking down at his hooves in an attempt to hide his tear filled eyes.

I nodded. “As you know, everypony in my family has been the Overmare or Stallion since the Stable was made. I just ended up as some dumb machanic,” I glanced loathfully at my screwdriver cutie mark.

Brisk forced a chuckle and shook his head. “I don’t know. You’ve done pretty good at leading us out here. I think you’re better than you give yourself credit for,” He turned back and gave me a smile. A real one this time.

“I don’t know. Traveling across the wasteland is a lot different than leading a Stable,” I stated. “I don’t think I can handle that kind of responsibility.”

“What you’re doing is probably more responsible, not to mention more stressful than anything your father has ever done while leading the Stable,” Brisk soothed. “If the wasteland has taught me anything Amber, it's that you are not a pony to mess with. You always do what's right for others, what's moral. Even if that puts yourself in danger. I don’t know what else could make a better leader or even a better pony than that.”

Shit, now I was blushing. Something Xayah had said earlier that day came back to me. ‘It is better to know and possibly get rejected than to live the rest of your life wondering what might have been,’ she had said. Well I guess it's time to find out what might have been.

I cleared my throat. “There’s uh… there’s one other thing I need to tell you Brisk,” I stammered, feeling my blush deepen. Brisk raised his eyebrow in interest. I gulped and took a deep breath. “I uh.. Well I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while. I realised it back in the Four Star Apartments while I was talking to Xayah…”

And now Brisk just looked concerned.

“And that is?” He pushed.

I looked down at my hooves. “I um… I kinda have a bit of a massive crush on you.”

Silence.

I looked back up at him. Brisk had taken to silently staring out the window again, this time he seemed a little more uncomfortable than before. He sighed and turned his head to face me again. “Look, Amber. I’m flattered, really. But… I don’t think that will work out.”

My heart sank.

“If you had said that to me when we had first left the Stable, maybe. I admit to having a fancy for you when we first met. You were smart and cute and the only pony to ever treat me like something other than a freak,” He started, shifting his whole body to face me. “But then you saved me after I was sure that I was about to die and then again with the Enclave and with the Cyber ponies. I started viewing you more like a little sister. I think- I think starting a relationship between us would just be weird. And… and you’re returning to the Stable tomorrow, so… Sorry,” he ended lamely, looking away.

I dropped my head. “Yeah, no it's okay. I figured you’d say something like that anyway. I’ve just been to afraid I wasn’t good enough to ask.”

Brisk gave me a gentle nudge with his hoof. “I really am sorry Amber. I still want to be your friend though. And it's not because you aren’t good enough. I’m pretty sure you're one of the best ponies out there, and when you do find the pony that's right for you, I know you will make them happy.”

My heart hurt and my stomach felt heavy, but it felt as if a large weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Xayah had been right, the pain of rejection might sting now, but at least now I could manage to move on. Not saying this didn’t suck still, because I still felt like total shit right now.

Brisk took a deep breath and slowly pulled himself to his hooves. “I think I need to go for a walk, sort some shit out in my head,” He said, walking over to the door. I nodded slowly and remained looking out the window at the wasteland. Right before he left, he looked me over one last time. “I truly am sorry Amber,” Then he ducked out of the room.

I just sat in silence for a bit, watching as the dull beams of moonlight managed to seep through the thick cloudlayer. The conversation had left me with a lot to think about.

“Stuff like that hurts,” I heard Pyre Blaze say from behind me. I looked over to see her sitting on the bed with her front hooves crossed. “I’d give advice for a broken heart, but I killed the last four ponies that broke mine, so perhaps my advice isn’t the best.”

“I could still kill you you know,” I grunted, rolling onto my stomach to face the orange coated raider. The last thing I wanted right now was to be degraded by Pyre.

Pyre Blaze scoffed. “No you won't, you’ve heard my name.”

I cocked my head at her. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean.”

‘Pyre Blaze,” She said smugly. “Take it from a pony who has killed hundreds. Once you know a ponies name, killing them becomes a lot harder.”

I bent down and rest my head between my front hooves. “I bet I look pretty pathetic to you right about now. Getting all worked up about this sort of stuff,” I said. I imagined that an experienced raider like Pyre Blaze had probably gone through some tough shit in her life.

Pyre shook her head casually. “Quite the opposite. If anything you just earned my respect.”

“Your respect?” I asked, raising my head back up in confusion. “How so?”

Pyre Blaze rolled her eyes. “The wasteland likes to break you. Throw the worst it has at everything you hold dear. You tend to witness horror after horror. After a while, it almost becomes routine,” Pyre said factually. “Believe it or not, it's the emotional turmoil within ourselves that causes the most pain. Admitting your feelings like you just did I say goes to show how strong you really are. Trust me, I know.”

“I feel worse than when I was hiding it from him,” I moaned. “Before it had felt like a tight knot in my stomach, slowly getting tighter. Now I just kinda feel hollow.”

“I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt,” Pyre corrected, rolling onto her back and snuggling into the stained pillow on the bed. “And don’t expect the pain to just disappear either, but the worst has gone,” Silently, she turned away from me and fell asleep. a few seconds later and she was snoring peacefully.

I watched her sleep for a few moments. Pyre sure wasn’t like any other raider I had ever met. She seemed smarter, much smarter. I’d have to ask her about her life story at some point. If I ever had the time.

I heavily pulled myself from the ground and sulked back to the bed I was sharing with Xayah. I could see the small glint of light reflecting off of Xayah’s eyes in the dark as she watched me approach, no doubt she had heard my whole conversation with Brisk.

I crawled under the covers and lay silently in the bed beside her for a second. “I don’t know what to do,” I muttered to Xayah. I could feel my body begin shaking as the gravity of everything that had happened over the past few days hit me like a balefire bomb. I could feel tears begin to race down my cheeks.

I pulled myself forwards as I curled up against Xayah’s chest and wept. Xayah wrapped her forehooves around me and slowly stroked my messy mane.

“It’s going to be okay,” She soothed in a hushed tone. “We can all figure out what to do together.”

The next morning was awkward. Aside from falling out of bed like usual, half of the morning was spent exchanging nervous glances at Brisk as the two of us tried to figure out how exactly to proceed. If one of us made eye contact, the other would drop their head and do everything in their power to look as if they had been looking at something else.

Xayah had cooked up some sort of zebra food that none of the rest of us had ever heard of or could even pronounce properly. It looked like a mix between the innards of a Radroach and a hollowed out gourd. Despite its appearance, it almost managed to surpass the taste of her cookies. Almost.

Pyre Blaze’s eyes lit up as she tasted Xayah’s cooking for the first time. “Damn! I wish all raiders could cook this good. We could have used some pony with your talent out in Las Pegasus.”

I furrowed my brow at her. “We aren’t raiders,” I said, looking away from my plate of food as I bit into it. It really did taste good if I couldn’t see how gross it looked.

Pyre scoffed. “Nah, we’re all raiders. Some ponies just tend to show it better than others. Given enough time, you will come to see that too.”

“We are not raiders,” I insisted, echoing what I had told Brisk on our first night out of the Stable. “We don’t kill for sport. We don’t kill children, and we don’t rape ponies,” I saw Brisk and Xayah glance at eachother uncomfortably.

Pyre simply rolled her eyes. “You can keep telling yourself that Amber, but optimism won’t change the wasteland.”

As soon as we were finished eating, we packed up our stuff and headed down to the market area to retrieve our armour. As Coco Pommel had said, I found both my Stable Barding and Xayah’s stealth cloak all patched up at her vendor. Coco had done a wonderful job of patching them back together, they looked as good as they had when we had first gotten them. It made me sad to see such talent. I’m sure that if the bombs hadn’t fallen, Coco Pommel could have been very famous in the world of fashion.”

Xayah and I met up with Brisk and Pyre at the front gate. Pyre had retrieved her power armour and had returned to looking as dangerous and imposing as ever. Like our clothes, Pyre’s armour looked shiny and new.

Pyre looked over her armour for a moment before pushing up against a wall and pulling her armour across the surface, creating a long scratch on the side of the armour. She gave a small sigh of relief. “Much better.”

Just like in our first visit to Friendship City, the guards returned our weapons to us as we left the gate. Lantern had returned to their usual post at the gate, but we exchanged far less words than we had on our first meeting. I was to worried about the future to manage to hold a good conversation. While once I had been excited to return to the Stable, now I felt a creeping sense of dread. The idea of leaving Brisk and Xayah behind and even the idea of seeing my father again after everything that had happened and everything I had heard was a little scary.

Brisk walked silently next to me as we marched across the bridge leaving Friendship City and towards the wasteland outside. “You, uh... You ready to go home or whatever?” He asked, keeping his head forwards to avoid eye contact. Goddesses this was all so awkward.

I took a deep breath. “I hope so. I think I have a lot of sorting out to do once I get there,” If that wasn’t the understatement of the year, I didn’t know what was.

Brisk scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “I know I probably can’t change your mind at this point, but I figured I better try at least once more. Are you sure you wont stay out here with us? After you return the A.A.S.S and stuff?”

I shook my head. “The Stable has problems, I’ve always known that. Maybe I didn’t know how bad it really was until last night, and maybe I still don’t know the full extent of it all, but the Stable is my home even with its faults. I don’t think I could live a life out here in the wasteland. I’m a mechanic, not an adventurer,” I gave him a small, timid smile. “I’m glad you would still be willing to travel with me though, even after everything.”

Brisk gave my shoulder a small bump. “Well, you are the nicest pony I’ve ever met. I won’t give up what we have, even if I need to go through a little awkwardness.”

We seemed to be having a rather large amount of luck as we made our way back towards Stable 25. We weren’t swarmed by raider or ghouls and what few things did decide to attack us were quickly burned alive by Pyre’s flamers. I was starting to have a pretty large appreciation for our power armoured raider companion. I wished she had started traveling with us sooner, perhaps we wouldn’t have needed to run away from things as much.

Despite how much ground we seemed to be covering while not being sidetracked or delayed, it was still a long ass walk. I combed through my pipbuck looking for something to do while we walked. I considered tuning into DJ Pon3’s radio, but I figured that as I would probably never be in the wasteland after today, the news wouldn’t be all that interesting. Finally I spotted one of Cheese Sandwich’s Holotape at the bottom of my saddlebag. With everything that had happened, I had forgotten that there was still one audio file I was yet to listen to. I popped the holotape into my pipbuck and listened as the ragged voice of Cheese Sandwich came to life.

Cheese Sandwich’s voice was strained and cracked. No doubt he had already become a ghoul at the time of recording. “I found one of your stashes of Party-Time-Mint-als Pink. I figured you probably won’t be needing them anymore. These things were the only thing keeping my head clear and I think I just ran out, so I figured now would be a good time to say what I need to say,” Cheese Sandwich started. He coughed a little, but his throat sounded dry and scratchy. “He has put something into motion, something big. I don’t know what it is or when it’s going to happen, but you need to stop it,” He stopped so he could cough again, this time I could hear him spitting up blood. “As you can probably hear, I’m not doing to great. It hurts, everything hurst. Thank you for helping me. I want you to know that I don’t blame you for what you had to do to me. You did what you had to do,” now I was confused. If I hadn't known any better, I would have sworn he was talking to me. “Take Boneless, use him well. He’ll serve you better out there than he ever did for me.”

Cheese sandwich went silent for a few moments, I began to think the recording had finished. It felt calming to hear Cheese sandwich say what he had. Even though I knew there was no way he could have been talking to me, it was good to know that I had done him a service, rather than an injustice.

As I was about to turn the recording off, Cheese Sandwich’s voice sprang back to life. “Oh, and one last thing Amber. The password is Paradise.”

I felt a chill go down my spine as the holotape came to a stop. He had been talking to me… but how could he have possibly known? And what was that password he was talking about? I remembered that strange twitch Cheese sandwich had had when I encountered him. Could he see the future? Or did it have something to do with those Party-Time-Mint-als he mentioned? I doubted I would ever know for sure.

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice where we were until Brisk tapped me on the shoulder. “We’re here,” Brisk said quietly as I slowly became aware of my surroundings. We were standing outside a long metal tunnel that lead into the ground. To any run-of-the-mill wasteland wanderer, it might have just looked like some old metal warehouse. Definitely not a location of interest. But just the sight of it made my heart start racing a hundred miles a minute.

This was the entrance to Stable 25.

Brisk took a small step away from the tunnel. “Fuck… I really didn’t want to come back here.”

I took a deep breath and approached the small steel door that lead into the dark tunnel beyond. My friends followed closely behind me, slowly making their way through the tunnel entrance and towards the Stable. At first I couldn’t make anything out through the gloom, but as I delved deeper and deeper into the blackness I began to make out a large circular shaped light at the end of the tunnel. The Stable door was open!

I froze as I saw the colossus metal gear ajar. My father had opened up to the world beyond the Stable? That meant that they had found food! They were probably still alive. I began racing towards the Stable. I could feel the weight of all the stress and anxiety I had been carrying the last few days disappear as I grew closer.

I stepped in something wet and sticky as I raced forwards, but I didn’t bother to check what it was. I was so close now, a few more steps and I would be home. A few more steps and the wasteland would be behind me forever.

“Look out!” I heard Pyre Blaze exclaimed in alarm. "Red bars!"

Before I could put her words together into a meaningful sentence a large figure stepped into view in the doorway. The pony stood in silhouette, his features obscured by the light of the Stable behind him, but I could still make out his horrific form.

A cyber pony.

I skidded to a halt before the cyber pony as I began to make out the red bars on my EFS as well. There were red bars everywhere.

The air around us seemed to shimmer as a small army of zebras lowered the hoods on their stealth cloaks and flickered into view. The light from the entrance behind us was blocked as the zebra assassins moved to block our only exit out.

I began to make out other things as well. The blood that soaked the floor of the tunnel, the pony corpses dressed in Stable barding that lined the walls. It was my nightmare all over again, but this time it was real.

“Welcome home,” The cyber pony Inferno snarled, a small flame igniting at the end of his flamers. “Kamari sends his regards!”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Impartial Mediation -- You gain +30 speech when you have neutral karma

Author's Notes:

So summer break is over and I'm back in university. I'm going to do my best to add a new chapter every month, but I'd rather give you guys a good chapter than a rushed chapter, so I guess we'll see how I manage to do with my busy schedule.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat.