Chapter 11: Realign
“Good and evil are two aspects of the same fruit.”

My heavy bags fell to the dirt with a thud just inside the gate to Caesar’s Stand, but I didn’t care if anything inside them had broken. I couldn’t even remember what the Sandy’s had gathered up for me in the Stable, not at the moment, so anything delicate was at the mercy of my frustration. I couldn’t really show it too much, not with Xion’s silent soldier watching me and ensuring I made it to the bar as soon as the supplies were dealt with.

Xion didn’t bother to wait, apparently he was too excited to get a warm drink in his belly and probably try to force himself on Seer again by the end of the night. So he took her with him, and brought the Rhyming Buck along with them, leaving me waiting for the guards at the gate to collect the parts along with that really quiet zebra; the one that I’d barely even noticed in my past interactions with the Scorpions.

He still hadn’t said anything, and just stared at me with a blank expression that matched his colorless face. Could he talk at all?

I guess I just didn’t pay much attention before, but I’d never noticed that he didn’t have a single stripe on his head. I wasn’t sure about the rest of his body, it was entirely covered by his cloak and a full set of thin armor that didn’t leave a single bit of his coat showing, but it was a little strange to see a zebra with no stripes visible.

One of the guards lifted my bags and carried them off to a small shack, out of sight. I didn’t know where they went from there, but I didn’t really care to think about it. Someone in the Remnant wanted them for something, I just gathered them. Maybe I’d ask at some point when I wasn’t being forced into a bar with a trio of insane zebras.

When I turned back, the other zebra was still just staring at me with his pale blue eyes, no expression or anything. He didn’t say anything to me when he turned around to go to the bar. I considered going home instead of following him, but I expected that wouldn’t end too well for me. He’d probably shoot me and tell Xion I was trying to run away. So I followed him up to the bar and was disappointed to see the group I was to join sitting in a barely-lit corner, all disrobed and relaxed. I was already upset about being forced to spend the night with them, and spending that night in a dark corner didn’t help at all.

“Shayle, please have a seat,” Xion requested, surprisingly warmly, and waved to a spot across from him. I didn’t bother to argue.

On my right side was the Rhyming Buck, a zebra who I’d never realized was almost a full head taller than me and about twice as wide. His cloak was hung on a hook beside him, along with Xion’s; the silent zebra remained dressed and took a seat on the other side of me. He wasn’t as big as the Rhyming Buck, but he was still bigger than I was. A faint prickling feeling itched at my neck as the realization that I was stuck between the two, and I desperately wanted Seer to be beside me instead of those two.

She looked more relaxed than I did, despite being stuck between Xion and the Rhyming Buck with a wall against her back. At least if something went wrong I could escape, she was helpless to get out from between those two. Not that we would make it far, but at least I had a slim chance to make it to the door.

“You can remove your coat, Shayle. Tetrarch will hang it for you,” Xion offered and nodded to the large zebra on my right.

I shook my head and tried to grin. “I’ll be fine, it’s comfortable.”

“Of course,” he told me calmly. “It’s unique, especially around here. I would not wish to part with such a souvenir either.” He smiled and looked around the table. “Well, now that we are all here, how about some drinks? What is your preference?” he asked and looked straight at me.

I just shook my head.

“Shayle, please. I greatly wish to treat you to a drink, don’t worry about being polite.”

I sighed and growled to myself. “I’ll take a cup of water,” I answered quietly.

“That’s all? That hardly counts as a drink, perhaps a shot?” Xion pressed, still remaining calm and disturbingly polite. Seer didn’t say a thing and just looked at me expectantly.

“No, I don’t drink.”

“Very well. And you, Seer?” the stallion looked over to the other mare.

“Whiskey,” she answered simply.

Xion nodded and waved over a waitress. “Two whiskeys and one water,” he told her.

“Another whiskey for me,” Rhyming Buck, or Tetrarch, whatever his name was, requested.

“Nothing for me,” the last zebra stated quickly. It could speak!

The waitress trotted off and returned less than an awkward and silent minute later with each of our drinks. “Anything else, Triarii?”

Xion shook his head and waved her off before taking a small sip from his glass. I sat there in silence and stared at my cup, not even sure what exactly I was supposed to be doing. I didn’t know why he had wanted me or Seer there, well I could guess for Seer, but I was starting to get nervous about how laid back the Scorpions were. None of them were doing anything that I could point out as bothersome, yet I still had a creeping feeling at the back of my neck.

“So, Shayle,” Xion finally spoke up after putting his glass back down. “Tell me about yourself. Where did you and your brother come from?”

I rolled my eyes up to him and tried to think of what to say. “Uh, a small village. Nothing very special,” I answered and quickly lifted my cup, hoping it would give a good reason not to elaborate.

He nodded. “Why did you leave?”

I swallowed. “Just needed a change of scenery,” I explained quietly, trying to keep my eyes off my cup while I talked with him.

“Was it a boring life?” Tetrarch interjected without even looking at me.

I just nodded, not knowing how to really describe my situation, and I didn’t particularly want to either. Xion was still looking at me, actually looking like he might be somewhat interested in my past, or he was just putting on a show to get something later. I’m pretty sure it was the latter. The quiet zebra on my left looked like he might be paying attention, but I couldn’t really tell since he still had his hood up and could only see one eye looking over at me.

“And is life out here more exciting?” Xion asked with a grin. “Or do you miss your old life?”

“Sometimes,” I answered simply. “Some parts are better, others are worse.” I took another drink and waited for another question while still trying to find some kind of plot that Xion may have been formulating.

“I hope Caesar’s Stand is one of the better parts,” he blurted and shot the rest of his drink. “I’ve always been fond of it.”

“It’s nice.” And it was, so far I hadn’t found much bad about it, if anything. The only thing I didn’t like was that Felix couldn’t stay there at the same time as me.

“That it is, very peaceful,” he agreed. “And the Praetor is very accommodating. Has she found a more permanent position for you two yet?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t been told yet. I hope she can, I’d like to stay.”

“Even with your pony friends out in the shack? Surely they wouldn’t appreciate you turning your back,” Tetrarch commented bluntly.

“They’ll find somewhere,” I assured myself, not so much him. “There are plenty of pony towns nearby.”

Xion stared at me for a few seconds before nodding stiffly. “That there are.”

I don’t know why, but something about that agitated the bad feeling still scratching at my neck.

“Of course it won’t detract from our mission,” Seer finally spoke, quickly assuring Xion. “Finding the supplies for the Remnant will always take priority.”

“I would hope so, they desperately need the support.” The ‘Triarii’, or whatever he was, responded as another drink was brought to him without even being asked. “The fighting in New Oatleans has intensified recently.”

“The Steel Rangers broke through the southern blockade?” Seer asked with a surprised look.

“It seems so,” Xion responded and turned to her, finally taking the focus away from me, thank Caesar.

I didn’t understand most of what they talked about after that, a lot of tactics and military stuff that I was surprised Seer understood. Maybe she’d been around soldiers, and loose-lipped drunk ones at that, long enough to pick up on a few things. All I could catch was that pony reinforcements had reached New Oatleans and given the Remnant a beating. I hoped it wasn’t too bad, and assumed that they must have been stopped at some point considering Caesar’s Stand was still standing.

Most of the talking was between Seer and Xion, with Tetrarch pointing out one or two things. The other zebra didn’t say anything. Actually, he didn’t even seem to be paying attention to the conversation at all. Every time I looked over at him he still had one eye locked on me from under that hood. It was a little disturbing, but then again Minx had told me that Xion wanted an eye on me. I guess I just assumed that would be her eye and not the silent stallion who refused to take off his armor in a bar. He was also the only one of them that still had his short rifle strapped on his back. I took a look around to make sure, and I was right; Xion, Tetrarch, and even Seer had their guns leaning against the wall. Either they didn’t think anything was going to happen, or they just assumed that Shy Guy beside me would take care of anything that did.

“And what about you Shayle?” Xion asked me out of nowhere, at least that’s what I thought. I looked over quickly and stared at him, completely at a loss. Whatever he wanted me to say, I missed it. “Do you think the city belongs to the zebras or the ponies?” he clarified.

Why, why would he ask me that? I knew what he wanted me to say, and it was probably the only answer that he would accept too. Seer had told me about him, so I felt comfortable guessing that he would do something drastic if I said the wrong thing. But I couldn’t be honest about it, not even if I wanted to say ‘zebras’. Yes, I was a zebra and so I suppose I should have thought we deserved the city for one reason or another, but I didn’t know anything about the city to begin with. All I knew was its name.

I stared at him for a few more seconds, trying to think of what I should say, and what could happen to me. If I said ‘zebra’, I thought that he would probably nod and agree, then hopefully talk with Seer more so I could pretend I wasn’t at the bar. If I said ‘pony’, then I didn’t feel too crazy for thinking he might have Shy Guy shoot me for treason or something like that. But if I didn’t say anything, would he assume I thought ponies owned New Oatleans?

So I went with the truth for once. “I don’t know enough about the city,” I told him, hoping it wouldn’t end like the last time I had refused to decide one way or the other.

“Fair enough, perhaps you’ll know after spending more time around the city,” he told me calmly and smiled. I waited for the bullet.

Seer leaned over to him and whispered in his ear, getting a nod in response. “Let’s get going Shayle, we have an early morning tomorrow.”

Thank Caesar! I was surprised by how quickly he agreed, and how short the night seemed to have been, but I didn’t care. Getting away from those three was more than welcome to me.

“Enjoy your evening,” Xion remarked with a smile and stood so Seer could get out from her spot. I pushed back from the table and nodded to him, not sure what the proper farewell or whatever was for Xion, Tetrarch and Shy Guy. Deciding it was good enough, I quickly followed Seer outside and sighed with relief as the night air hit me.

“Not so bad, right?” she asked me as we trotted toward the shacks, sounding pretty relieved herself.

“Whatever you say,” I grumbled. “How do you drink with them?”

“I don’t, that’s the first time I’ve ever sat down with Xion.”

“But you said-” I started but was cut off.

“I said I drink with Minx. The others stay away from me when she’s around,” the mare explained.

“Why?” I asked with a flick of my brow.

“They’re uncomfortable around her,” she told me. “She didn’t exactly get into the group traditionally.”

“What do you mean? Doesn’t the Remnant decide who gets put where?” I prodded. That’s how military stuff worked, right?

“Not with them. Xion decides who’s on his team, and if he says yes then nobody argues.” She shook her head. “Xion chose Minx after seeing her in a fight. She told him ‘no’. He didn’t like that, so he accused her of treason, sent a hit team after her, and she killed all three of them.”

“What?” I deadpanned. “Is that bad?”

“It’s impressive,” Seer answered. “Those teams are some of the best killers you’ll find in the Remnant, they have to be. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be very good hit teams.”

“And she beat them, so why did she still join up with Xion?” I didn’t get it.

“After that, she disappeared for a few years. Xion heard a rumor that she might be in a shitty little town up north and went to find her. Well he did, along with her little family.” I stopped and looked over at her. I had a good feeling I knew where this was going. “He threatened to kill them if she didn’t do what he wanted. That was all she needed.”

“Why doesn’t she just kill him and go back?” I asked. “She killed that hit team by herself, couldn’t she handle him?”

“Would you? If she failed then she wouldn’t be the one he killed, he would kill her family and make her watch. Some things aren’t worth that risk,” she explained sadly. “You don’t say no to him, Shayle. He wants the best, and he gets the best whether they like it or not.”

“Is that why Tetrarch and Shy Guy follow him around?” I asked, hoping that it wasn’t the same for all of them.

“Shy Guy?” she asked then chuckled. “Oh, you mean Solus!” Noted. “No, not them. Tetrarch asked to join after a rough fight in the city, Xion said yes. Solus was recruited for killing a pair of Steel Rangers by himself.”

“So they’re good at killing, I already knew that,” I told her sternly. “So they chose to join, they weren’t forced?”

“No, they actually want to be there.”

Good, then I wouldn’t have to feel bad about hating them. Minx on the other hoof, I was confused. I still hated her, after everything she did in Shanty I absolutely hated her. But at the same time I couldn’t. From what I’d been told and what I saw, it seemed like she didn’t want to do those things, she was forced. But did that make it okay? I didn’t know, and I hoped I would never have to be in the position to find out. I still wanted to shoot her, but I wasn’t so sure I could anymore, not knowing that somewhere she had a family waiting for her to come home.

I shook the thought from my head. “And why are they so interested in you and me?” I asked. “I’m guessing they don’t normally sit outside of town and ask the first pair of mares they see to go to the bar.”

“You really have to ask why Xion wanted me there?” Seer glanced over at me and shook her head. “As for you, I’d imagine it’s because he still doesn’t trust you. You saw what he did at Shanty, and you’ve been travelling around. He probably wants to make sure you don’t spread the word through pony towns and get them all pissed off at us.” She stopped and tapped her chin. “Well, more pissed with us than usual.”

“So I’m still on his possible hit list?” I asked fearfully.

She just shrugged. “I don’t know. You might be, you might not.”

“Why else would Shy Guy keep his rifle ready?” I pushed.

“His name is Solus, Shayle,” she told me again. “And he’s just an oddball, don’t let it bother you.”

“You’re right about that,” I agreed and dropped my head, scowling. “He stared at me all night.”

“Oh, you noticed,” Seer said with relief. “Again, don’t let it bother you.” She paused for a second, then looked over to me curiously. “But just out of curiosity, what do you think of him?

“He helped burn Shanty and doesn’t seem to care, what do you think?” I asked with a cross look.

“Oh, good, then you won’t get embarrassed.”

“About what?” I grumbled and lifted my head.

“Oh nothing, just that he could possibly have a crush on you.” What?! “He likes mares in your position, from what Minx has told me. Young, able to defend yourself, well kind of.”

“What? Why?” I almost screamed, barely catching myself. “What in the Wasteland would make him think those two things about me, or be attracted to them?”

“Well I think you can guess for the young part.” Yes, I could, and I didn’t like it. “As for the ‘defend yourself’ part, I can pretty well bet that Minx told them about our little incident with those slavers. Not to mention you’re in a Stable jacket, and those places are pretty well known for being death traps in the Wasteland. And I guess he likes strong mares, apparently he asked Minx out at one point. Of course she didn’t say ‘yes’, but still.”

“He’s not going to ask me out, right?” I asked painfully. When she didn’t answer I looked over to her and asked louder. “Right?”

“Maybe?”

Oh come on! It was bad enough that I was being watched constantly by that group of crazies, and that one of them might decide to kill me at any moment, but now another one might try to date me? What did I do to deserve that kind of attention?

“Can I just say no?” I whined.

“Of course, it’s not Xion,” she told me and turned into her hut.

That didn’t help me feel much better about it.

Not surprisingly, sleep came to me slowly that night. My mind worked overtime to run through everything that I’d learned that night, determined to keep me awake until I had ordered it all out and decided what to think about it. I still despised Xion, which was easy enough to figure out. I just added on more things to hate about him than I had before, like his blackmailing of Minx. I felt the same about Tetrarch, and didn’t know enough about him to change my thought on that. Solus was a bit more awkward to think about. I still hated him for Shanty, and if Seer was right about him having a crush on me then it didn’t really change that. The only new thing with him was that I was afraid he might actually try to get closer to me, and that was something I could never be comfortable with.

Minx was where my mind was stuck. She didn’t want to do the things she did, at least I hoped that was the case after everything I learned about her, but she still did them. The question I had asked myself earlier in the night kept swirling through my head, poking at my mind each time I thought I’d decided my opinion on her; Does that make it okay?

I wanted to feel bad for her, and a part of me did, but I wasn’t sure I could forgive her, not even knowing what her situation was. She’d still killed Doc, she’d still helped burn Shanty, and who knows what else she’d done for the sake of keeping her family safe from Xion? I tried to put myself in her hooves and constantly thought about what Seer had asked me.

Would I do the same to keep Felix safe?

I didn’t think I could answer that question. I wanted to believe I would, I told myself ‘of course I would!’ After all, he’s my brother, I would do anything to keep him safe. But I had doubts, I had worries, and above all I was confused. Would I really kill an innocent filly just because someone told me they would kill Felix if I didn’t? Could I rob one family of their loved one just to keep my own? Minx did, she did anything and everything to make sure her family stayed safe, and she didn’t even know if Xion would let her see them again. If he didn’t, would she take the risk to kill him, or would she keep the hope that he’d change his mind?

I loved Felix more than anything, he was the only thing I had left, and even before I killed Father he was the only true family I had. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was in danger, and especially not if I lost him. I didn’t want to think that Xion would do that to me, and yet I didn’t doubt that he would. If he really didn’t want me to spread the word of what happened in Shanty, what was he willing to do?

A faint light shimmered around me as I pulled down my hood, bringing me back into view as I looked around. The town at the base of the cliff didn’t look like much, and I didn’t expect it to be; how impressive could you make a town called Listening Post? And yet they had apparently managed to make it quite an impressive place. Reports indicated Steel Ranger recruits were being housed in the cliffs near town while they waited for the next convoy to roll through. If we stopped them in Listening Post, the Rangers would be forced to look further north for new soldiers.

Daylight gleamed across a long scar on my leg, a memento from a fight back in the days of New Oatleans. I couldn’t even remember how I’d gotten it, just that it was there and it had probably hurt severely. But I wasn’t the only one.

Xion stepped up beside me and looked out on the town sternly, searching for anything that might help us approach without being seen. Even with the cloaks, some towns had countermeasures; mines, wire, for some reason I even thought of motion sensors. And if this was where they brought recruits, I was willing to bet the town was much more secure than it seemed from the outside.

I didn’t catch sight of anything particularly special as far as guards, in fact there weren’t any. Everyone just kept a gun on them as they went about their business, which meant they probably didn’t have night guards. All the more reason to be looking for traps or alarm systems.

“Any ideas?” Xion asked roughly from beside me. He had gotten older since I first met him, but his body had hardly aged. He was still stronger than me, not quite as fast, but more than tough enough to hold his own in a fight. He’d saved my life more than once, and I his, but I still felt the same wall of hatred between us every time I looked at him. I couldn’t even remember why, just that he had done something to me that I could never forgive him for.

“No official guards, so expect traps,” I started listing off my observations, hoping it would fit into whatever plan he’d been working out. “The cliff entrance is probably hidden and guarded from the inside. They wouldn’t want Rangers out in the open giving them away.”

“Good. Any thoughts on weak points?”

I pointed to the south end of the town. “Over here they’ve got a thinner bit of the ravine to watch, so they’ll likely pay less attention to it. That might mean more traps.” Sometimes I wondered where I picked up these little tricks and knowing how to spot advantages. I certainly didn’t learn it in the school I never attended, I never learned it from Felix, and I doubted Xion would be asking me if he knew better. Maybe it was one of those things you just picked up, or maybe I was just guessing and got lucky sometimes. Who knows?

“We’ll go in there. Keep your eyes open and be ready. Minx and Solus will take the other way in.”

I nodded and lifted my hood, no longer seeing reason to stick around and waste time.

The rifle hanging from my neck felt good in my hooves as I checked it one last time, making sure it was loaded and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. I had always loved it, ever since I first got the chance to call it my own. The old owner didn’t need it by the time I came across her body, limp and cold from the bullet Xion had put through her head. I remembered being sad about it at the time, but I didn’t anymore. I had the rifle to remember her by.

I’d even kept the little metal ball on a string hanging from the sight like she always did. She said it was good luck.

I must have zoned out for a while, because suddenly the town was only 100 meters in front of me. It looked even smaller up close, which was strange to me. I’d expected everything to expand, but it looked more compact when I wasn’t looking at it from above. I couldn’t even see the ponies trotting around like I had from the top of the cliff, they were all hidden by the walls. I couldn’t see him, but I knew Xion was beside me. He never strayed far, knowing that I had the younger eyes that could find targets and dangers faster than his. He was still a better shot though.

I didn’t say anything, I just started forward, scanning the dirt with my eyes for mines and any other danger. It was surprisingly clear to see them, and it only took a minute or two to weave our way through them to the wall of the first shack. It was dull, pockmarked with bullet holes, and not very sturdy. I probably could have kicked it down if I wanted to, but I didn’t. It was someone’s home or work, and I couldn’t ruin that. I was already about to ruin a lot more than that.

Xion fired first, dropping a unicorn with a shotgun silently and quickly changing targets. I poked around the opposite corner and started popping off targets as well. A mare with a sharp shovel, a stallion with a rusty rifle, but not the foals. Even though they had knives and sometimes pistols, I wouldn’t kill them. Never. Xion did it for me.

More bodies started to drop as Minx and Solus came in through the other side of the town. Those who were unlucky enough to see the death around them started running and screaming, dashing toward their homes or shops only to be cut down by one of us before they could even touch the doors. Some of the shopkeepers ran outside ready for a fight, but they didn’t fare any better. These were townsfolk, some of them barely knew how to shoot; we were professionals, and they didn’t stand a chance.

By the time they were all dead, I was already searching along the walls of the canyon on either side of us, looking for a hidden entrance to the cave where Steel Rangers were supposedly hiding. I found it after a few minutes, hidden behind a tarp with rocks pasted on it to match with the loose gravel around the base of the canyon. It was a clever trick, but it wasn’t quite good enough. We lined up and pulled back the tarp, staying to the side of the entrance in wait. But no bullets flew out at us; nobody had been waiting for us to go into the cave. I cocked my brow and peeked around, expecting a few iron-clad ponies and all the firepower that came along with them.

Instead, I saw a horrified mare huddled in the corner with two foals. There was armor, oh yes, but it wasn’t worn. It was torn apart, scrapped, and salvaged. Further back, I could see sets of half-finished armor laying across the dirt, all varying sizes. There were some for large stallions, some for smaller mares, even one or two sets for foals and every size in between.

I took off my hood and trotted slowly forward, letting my rifle hang from my neck as I looked around the room. Whoever told us it was a staging area had gotten it unbelievably wrong. “This is just a workshop,” I announced to the others. “They were only making armor to protect themselves, not moving an army.”

The others didn’t say anything back. They just trotted forward and aimed at the group, preparing to fire. Orders were orders after all, no matter how much some of us hated them.

I winced and got in line with them, frowning as I lifted my rifle and pointed it at the mare; the others could live with killing foals. I knew the pony in my sights, at least I thought I did. She was much older though, almost fully grown, but still tinkering around and trying to make things to keep other ponies safe.

She had always been such a good filly, ever since we saved her from those slavers years and years before. I missed those days, the days when my only job was gathering supplies with Seer, Felix and Charmer. I thought Tinker could have helped, but times changed.

I tried to stop the tear from leaving my eye, but I just couldn’t. I thought she recognized me, I could see it in her face as she stared into my eyes and held the children close, begging for us not to do it. But at the same time, I could see that she realized what I had become, and that I didn’t have the choice anymore.

I just hoped she would understand.

Snap.

When I woke up, I thought I was drowning. My mattress was soaked through, my coat was stuck to my skin with sweat and tears, and my eyes burned as tears continued to flow. I couldn’t escape the feeling of how real it all seemed, even though I knew it was just a dream. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to get up and go out to the shack. All I could think about was that I would find it empty, and that Felix had been taken away from me. I was afraid that I would find Seer’s rifle leaning against my wall and a cloak hanging beside it. I was afraid I would walk outside just to follow Xion off on some horrible mission like the one I’d just been a part of. I didn’t want to believe it, but I was afraid to prove myself wrong.

I wanted my old life back. Not the ‘old life’ during my dream; that was my current life, the one I was stuck in. I wanted my life back home with Dad and Felix, and cleaning the house everyday just to be beaten or worse the next morning. At least then I had known my brother was safe and that I wouldn’t have to do anything horrible to someone who didn’t deserve it. Even though I had been miserable and wanted nothing more than to leave it, my new life was somehow even worse. I was still being used, just in a different way. It wasn’t degrading like what my Father did, it wasn’t even lonely, but I still felt like a tool. I always had been, and it seemed like I always would be. Even in my dreams I was nothing more than a tool, and it killed me to think that I could even imagine doing what I had just seen without questioning it.

And the worst part was that I knew what had put me in that situation during my dream. I knew why I was standing beside Xion and helping him slaughter a town, I knew why I had shot Tinker just because I was told to. It was because I became the new Minx. I did it for Felix, to keep him safe and alive so I could go home to him one day. So I could see him smile and laugh and give me a hard time when I did something stupid. It was all I wanted…

I was late. Seer had to be waiting at the gate already, impatiently tapping her hoof and grumbling to herself about what might be taking me so long. I didn’t care. I took extra time to clean my coat as much as I could, pouring water over myself to wash out the sweat and clear out the clumps. I didn’t want her to know I’d been crying or thrashing in my sleep, nobody could know that.

The town was still quiet as I made my way to meet her, and the clouded light of day had just started to creep between the shacks and streets of Caesar’s Stand. Only the morning guards and a few early-rising shopkeepers were out and about, everyone else still cozy in their beds.

I had somehow managed to clear the doubts from my head and convince myself that it was all a dream; that none of it had happened and Felix would still be smiling in the shack with Charmer and Tinker, completely safe and rested. Everything was fine, and it would stay that way because I was going to keep my mouth shut and just accept what had happened. I wasn’t going to try and stop it, I wasn’t going to argue with it, I was going to let Xion be Xion and do whatever I could to convince him I was trustworthy even if I only wanted was to watch him burn.

But Seer wasn’t waiting at the gate. Instead I found myself trotting up to two of the zebras I hated, and my hopes suddenly sank into the dirt and buried themselves. Minx was smiling of course, sporting a newly cut mane that let me barely see her other eye. It was actually pretty nice, and she seemed less menacing now that I could see more of her inviting face. Solus was standing beside her, still wrapped up tight in his armor and cloak, still keeping his stripeless face hidden as best he could.

“Good morning young one,” Minx greeted me cheerily. “Are you ready to go?” I found it a bit disturbing that she was so welcoming to me after our last meeting.

“Where’s Seer?” I asked grumpily, not in a mood to mirror her happiness.

“She’s picking up your brother to go on their next trip,” she answered. “We’ll be going elsewhere today.”

“I’m not going with them?”

“No. The Praetor here needs a job done, and we offered to help you.” Why did I doubt that was the truth?

“What kind of job?” I asked as I came to a stop a few feet from them.

“I’ll explain on the way, but we need to get going,” she told me and turned to the already-open gate. “Do you have everything you need?”

I shook my head. “Will I need a gun?”

“It’s the Wasteland,” Solus pointed out quickly.

Minx shot a quick glance at Solus. “You don’t have your pistol?” she asked with a disappointed look back to me. I just shook my head, actually surprised she hadn’t been watching when I gave it to Felix the night before. The mare craned her neck back and pulled a large pistol from under her cloak, offering it to me impatiently.

It was heavier than mine, and much larger. There was no way it would fit in my holster, so I just slipped it into one of the pockets on my jacket. It barely fit, but I didn’t think it would fall out while we travelled.

“Okay, let’s go,” Minx spoke again and continued to lead us out of town.

I’d never woken up with a filly in my hooves before, but it was something I wouldn’t mind repeating. It filled me with a strange warmth, something more than just our bodies keeping each other warm. It was more than that. Maybe it was the feeling that I was safe and so was she as long as we held each other like that, or maybe it was that we both cared for each other. I couldn’t really say, and I don’t think I ever would know, but that didn’t matter to me. I was happy, I hoped she was too, and that was more than enough for me.

I didn’t bother to wake her up once my eyes were open; she deserved to sleep as long as she wanted. We didn’t have to leave yet, there was nothing forcing us to wake up, so I let her sleep and bathed in the feeling of her body pressed against mine. Charmer was still sound asleep in the far corner of the shed, her head on top of her hooves on top of her shotgun. I couldn’t tell how she felt at the time, or what she might be dreaming about, but I wished for it to be happy.

Her rippled skin shined even in the dim light of morning, casting crooked and saddening shadows across her face. The hole where her eye used to be sat still and dark, hiding the stem that would likely give me nightmares if I didn’t have Tinker close, but I could still see it; I would never be free from the sight of it.

Tinker’s soft rustling pulled my eyes away from the sleeping pony across from us and put a smile back on my lips as her tired eyes fluttered open. She looked almost lost at first, as if she couldn’t quite remember how she’d gotten so close to me, but her lips pressed to mine after a drowsy moment. I didn’t freeze this time, and gently returned the gesture.

We didn’t say anything; instead she buried her head in the crook of my neck and closed her eyes again. The warmth surged again and I forgot about the burned mare sharing the hut with us, completely lost in the feeling of the filly’s gently breath on my shoulder and her heartbeat against my chest.

That is until the cans in the door rattled along with a storm of profanities.

Charmer was on her hooves in an instant, her shotgun leveled at the intruder with such speed that for a second I thought she had never been asleep at all. Tinker rolled away from me as I quickly grabbed Shayle’s pistol and prepared for a fight, hoping that I remembered all of Dad’s classes about how to shoot. Luckily I wouldn’t need to.

Seer rose and stomped the cans flat as she continued to string out profanities; something that was actually pretty funny once I realized we weren’t in danger at all. Tinker didn’t seem to find it funny as she watched her alarm get destroyed.

“Thanks for the wake up,” Charmer chortled and slung the shotgun on her back.

“Yeah, whatever,” Seer grumbled as she kicked the cans out the door. “Let’s just get going.”

“What’s got your stripes in a knot?” I asked cautiously and holstered the pistol.

“Fuckin’ Xion, that’s what,” she answered grumpily. “He pulled Shayle for another job.”

That was about when I realized my sister wasn’t with her. “W-what job?” I stammered.

“I don’t know, I just found out,” she barked. I recoiled and fell silent, not willing to anger her further with more questions she might not know the answer to.

“Okay, well let’s go. I’m sure she’ll meet us back here when she’s done,” Charmer assured me and lifted her bags. The two mares trotted outside to wait, but I could hear Charmer saying something to Seer.

I just nodded and picked up my bags with a sigh, not sure I liked the thought of Shayle being taken for a different job, especially not with the Scorpions. They were Remnant, so they probably had a good reason to take her, but I didn’t trust them. I tried to remind myself that this was a war, and that the Remnant was fighting for the good of all us zebras, but I didn’t think I agreed with how Xion was doing it. Burning a town just didn’t seem like the right way to do things to me.

I was surprised by a small nose nuzzling into my neck as Tinker came up beside me. “Are you worried about her?” she asked me quietly.

I nodded. “I don’t want her to get hurt.” Or hurt anyone that might deserve a chance to live. Of course I couldn’t say that out loud, that wasn’t anything anyone else needed to, or seemed to, care about. I was the only one who disagreed with her executing that slaver, and I was still worried that she would do it again. What if the Scorpions made her do something like that or they were taking her to kill another pony town? I didn’t know if I could forgive her doing anything of the sort.

“She’ll be okay. She made it out of that cave alone, right?” the filly told me with a smile and a nudge. I nodded and felt a little better, after all Tinker had a point. “As long as there are no small holes for her big butt to get stuck in, we’ll see her when we get back.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right.” I didn’t know if I completely believed that, but at least she’d gotten me smiling. “Thanks, Tinker.”

“That’s what fillyfriends are for,” she told me with a quick kiss on the cheek before trotting out to Seer and Charmer.

I followed her out with a smile on my face, ready to get another quick job done and getting back to see my sister alive and well.

“Alright, let’s get going. It’s a rough walk to the city,” Seer blurted once we had both gotten outside.

“The city? Where are we going?” I asked and picked up my pace to catch up.

“A warehouse in New Oatleans.”

A little chill went down my spine at those words. “Isn’t that a warzone?” I asked nervously and looked around the group. Seer nodded, Charmer nodded, and Tinker just stared at me worriedly.

“Yes, but we’ll be far from the fighting. The warehouse is on the outskirts, so we won’t be in the crossfire,” she explained plainly. “We’ll probably have our own problems though.”

“Like what?” Tinker asked for me.

“Anyone or anything that calls the place home.”

That didn’t instill much confidence in me.

“And how do you plan to get in?” I asked with fear in my voice.

“We don’t have to get in,” Minx repeated impatiently. “We just need to reach the fence.”

“Except I don’t have one of those cloaks,” I pointed out. “It’ll be easy for them to see me coming.”

“You’ll stay back and keep lookout,” Solus interjected. “If any of the patrols are about to stumble on us, distract them.”

I shook my head and grumbled. Those zebras were crazy, both of them. I already knew that before, but this was a different kind of crazy. Most intelligent creatures wouldn’t willingly walk up to a highly secure and zebra-hating settlement just to kill one pony. And they certainly wouldn’t do it in the middle of the day.

And the best part? Apparently the only reason they wanted me there was to be a distraction. The invisible zebras with fancy rifles and advanced training weren’t the distraction, oh no, it was the perfectly visible zebra with a pistol she could barely shoot straight. If I didn’t know any better, and I didn’t, I would have thought that Xion planned for me to be killed. In fact, that was exactly what I was thinking by the time Minx finished explaining our job.

All we had to do was go to Spur, find the pilot for that big flying gunship and kill him. The problems; Spur hates zebras, the gunship might be flying around on patrol, and if we were caught we’d be shot without question. Oh, and the gunship that may or may be flying around could blow us in half, I’d seen that myself. But wait, they had a plan for if it was flying around! Tetrarch had let them borrow a rocket that was strapped across Solus’ back, and if it was flying around we had to get it to stop so he could blow it up. If he missed… well he just said “I don’t miss.”

I’d rather go back to the robotics facility.

“And you’re sure this will work?” I looked to them with the same worried face I’d been wearing since they told me what we were going to do, hoping they wouldn’t share my doubts.

“Of course,” Minx assured me with a warm smile. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, just do what we told you and everything will work out perfectly.” Maybe I would feel better about that if we hadn’t just trotted by the skeleton of Shanty less than an hour earlier.

We already had Spur in sight, and the two Scorpions I was grouped with were crouched low behind a pile of scrap metal, staring out on the city while I waited for them to do something. They whispered to each other almost constantly, pointing out things they saw or something, I really didn’t know. I guessed they were planning where they would move and set up, and that did something to comfort me. I shouldn’t have been so worried, after all they were the ones to walk up to the fence to find their target.

That sent a little thought into my head that I hoped had been in theirs too. “Do you know who we’re looking for?” I asked.

Minx sat down and turned her head to me with a puzzled look. “You mean the pony we’re supposed to kill?”

“Yes, do you know what he looks like?”

“Well, she is a pegasus, and generally they’re easy to spot in the Wasteland,” the zebra responded with a roll of her eyes. “Why do you ask?”

“I wanted to make sure. How do you know it’s a pegasus?” I cocked my brow.

“We heard she's a natural flyer,” she explained. "That makes a pegasus seem like the most likely option, so we'll be looking for a set of wings. Hopefully we're not wrong.”

“What if you are?” I asked worriedly, suddenly not so convinced that everything would work out, not that I ever was.

“Then we’ll have to look a little harder,” Solus quickly answered me. “It looks clear for now, we should move.”

Minx nodded and looked back at me, placing a gentle hoof on my shoulder that was a little uncomfortable for me. “Remember, don’t draw attention to yourself unless you absolutely have to,” she told me urgently. “And if any trouble finds you, just run away. We’ll catch up.”

I nodded in understanding as the mare and the stallion disappeared, off to find some unsuspecting pegasus and end her life. I wondered if it would be worth it, if we even made it out alive.

A quick gust of wind whipped through my mane once they were gone, sending up a curl of sand that was followed by several others. I looked up to the clouds and saw a wave of black spreading through it from the north, pulling a storm along with it. I grumbled to myself about rain and wished for us to be gone before it hit Spur; I would rather avoid being caught in a tempest again.

Sand splashed across my coat as the wind picked up, lashing thin curtains across me that forced me to press up against the scrap pile to get out of it. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t keep an eye out for any trouble that might be heading my way. I hissed quietly and poked my head over the pile, squinting to keep the sand out of my eyes as I looked out to Spur.

I couldn’t see Minx or Solus, but that was probably a good thing. If I was actually looking for them and couldn’t find them, there was no way an unsuspecting patrol would catch them. But why did I care? I wasn’t exactly a big fan of Solus, and Minx was still holding a spot on my hate-list until I figured out her actual thoughts instead of just knowing what I was told. If they both died it would be 2 less problems for me, right? At the very least I wouldn’t have to worry about Solus possibly asking me out.

And I would also be all alone in a storm, uncomfortably close to a town with horrifying military hardware and an intense hatred for zebras.

No, I would rather they survived.

I dropped behind the pile again and rubbed my eyes furiously, trying to eliminate the burning from the blowing sand but only making it worse. I whined to myself and stopped to shake my head furiously, hoping it would do something to get the grains out. Of course it didn’t, and I was left dizzy and with burning eyes. If only they made something that could cover your face or eyes to block the sand during a storm, that would be great! I made a mental note to ask Minx about it, or maybe Seer when I got the chance.

“Why the fuck are we out here?” a faint voice shouted over the blustering wind and whipping sand. I froze and perked my ears, listening for where it came from.

“It’s a patrol, numbnuts. We do them every day,” a second voice called back; a squeaky, feminine yell. They were on the other side of the scrap pile, maybe 10 meters, but I couldn’t tell without poking out my head.

“Even in a storm? Who’s going to try attacking us in the middle of this shit?” the first voice yelled again, closer than before. I found it a little ironic that I heard that question with my current job.

“Somebody very dedicated,” the mare replied grumpily. “Stop your bitching and keep that rifle ready.”

“It’s a battle saddle, Torque. It’s always ready.”

I winced and shrunk down further, praying for them to just turn around or at least go a different direction.

“Check that pile,” the mare’s voice called out after a second or two. “And hurry up, my ass is chafing.” So much for staying out of sight.

“I’ve told you before; if you would let me give that a little attention you wouldn’t have this problem.” I scowled and pulled out my pistol as the voice drew closer.

“And I’ve told you that I don’t want you anywhere near my ass.”

He rounded the pile slowly, still looking back at his partner and blowing a raspberry at her. My tongue tightened on the trigger, pulling slowly as time seemed to slow. I saw everything about him in that second; his dusty orange mane sticking out under a thin shawl, his pale yellow eyes, and the torch blazing on his flank. I tried to think of what got him that mark, a blazing torch against his deep grey coat. Maybe he was an electrician. I would never know.

I knew he didn’t actually turn that slow, but in that fraction of a second it took to spin his head to me I could see a flash of realization, fear, and finally acceptance in his eyes. This hadn’t happened with the slaver, not even a little. I saw the fear in her eyes before I killed her, that’s true, but killing her was different. This was a pony who had gone to the wrong place at the wrong time, and if I didn’t kill him he would kill me. I didn’t have any other reason than that. For all I knew, he was a father, a son, maybe even a brother. And there I was taking him away from someone that loved him. He might have been a good pony, and I would never have a chance to see that in that second it took to pull the trigger.

His head snapped back as the bullet bit between his eyes, spraying a flower of blood behind him that hung just long enough to see before it fell to the dirt.

A shuffle of hooves on the other side of the pile stopped me from wasting any time thinking about what I’d just done. Besides, I was given plenty of time to do that as I killed him. I jumped to my hooves and waited for the mare to show herself, expecting the same slowing of time and the same detail in her just before I killed her. Instead I got blur of neon-blue as she jumped around the corner with a pair of mounted rifles aimed at my chest. I barely managed to pull the trigger and stagger her before she fired, sending both of her shots into the dirt inches in front of me.

Blood trickled from her knee as she righted herself, but it was too late. My second, third, and fourth shots ripped into her body, but I didn’t know where. I didn’t care where, I was just shooting and hoping the pony went down before she got the chance to shoot back. It worked, and she crumpled face down in the sand beside her partner. Neither of them moved after that, only their tails blew around in the wind.

I didn’t move much either, I didn’t have anywhere to move. I just had to wait for Minx and Solus, nothing more. But now I was going to be waiting with a pair of ponies I had been forced to kill in order to stay alive. Raiders I could kill, bandits I could kill, and slavers I could definitely kill; they were evil, they were scum, and they ruined the lives of others just because they could. These ponies were just doing their job, just like I was, and now they were dead just because we happened to cross paths. If they had shown up only 20 minutes earlier they would still be alive, and if they had been just 20 minutes slower they would be able to go home too. But the Wasteland decided to lead them to that one pile of scrap in the short time I was there.

So now I was a killer, and another reason that Spur hated us zebras so much.

An alarm blared out across the desert from the town, breaking the monotony of the whistling wind and finally bringing me out of my own mind. I slid the pistol back in my pocket and turned away from the two bodies, wishing I had taken a moment to bury them or something. Just do something besides leave them crumpled in a storm.

But I didn’t have time for that.

“Shayle,” Minx stated calmly as she shimmered into view next to me. “We need to go, quickly.”

I nodded and picked up a quick trot out the way we had come, staying beside Minx as we left Spur behind. “Did you get her?” I asked quietly, hoping that the mare would hear me over the wind.

“Yes, we did,” she stated flatly. “What happened with you?”

I knew what she was asking, but for some reason I just didn’t want to explain. She could guess what happened, but I wasn’t going to give her the details. “I shot first,” was all I said before falling silent.

“It’ll get easier,” Minx told me quietly. I’m not even sure if she intended for me to hear that, but it set off more than one alarm in my head. “Just don’t think about it too hard.”

I wanted to do that, I really did, but not thinking about what I did isn’t my strong suit. I couldn’t let it go, and I knew that. So I would have to find some other way to keep going after taking the life of someone who I couldn’t justify killing. I wanted to ask Minx how she did it, if she did it at all, but I couldn’t find the words to say it. Instead I just went with the first thing I could think of; family.

I killed them so I could go back to my family.

Footnote:
Shayle LEVELED UP!! (Guns 55, Sneak 20)

Author’s Note: Once again, a huge thank you to Kkat and Somber for writing their stories and constructing this amazing world to play in. I only wish that I do it the justice that it deserves. I still need to thank Doomande and Rattlesire for the cover of this story; Doomande for paying and Rattlesire for doing such an amazing job drawing it, you’re both amazing. Thank you to those who pre-read my chapters and help with edits and make sure I don’t mess up too much, as well as anyone who points out errors after the fact as well. And thank you to my readers, who continue to motivate me to keep this going, I love you all!
A special thank you for this chapter goes out to Kippershy for not only supporting this story, but promoting in places I don’t venture and continuing to bring in readers. He’s a fantastic person, and you should all read his story Broken Bonds. Thanks a bunch man!