Chapter 13: Arts and Crafts
“Now, weave them through there, yes. Uh, take some ribbon, yes, oh uh, n... not there.”

“And that’s when we got back here,” I finished with a shallow breath, after more than a couple interruptions from Seer for clarification or suggesting we steal that griffin’s whiskey.

“That sounds like it was exciting,” Charmer commented sarcastically from the wall where she was still resting.

“Not really,” I told her with a shake of my head. “I would call it scary or crazy.”

“Or both,” Tinker suggested with a rasp. Her voice had gotten pretty bad since she’d woken up, but at least the coughing had stopped. She still wasn’t talking much and I saw her looking at the ground more than anything while I was telling the mares what had happened to us after we got separated, so I thought she was upset with me.

I didn’t blame her if she was, after all I had almost gotten both of us killed, but I hoped she at least understood why I acted how I did. It was important to help Charmer, and falling off the bridge was just bad luck! It wouldn’t happen next time, and we would both forget about our near death eventually. At least I hoped we would, I had never really thought about that kind of thing much.

Well, I didn’t use to. After Doc died, I thought about it a lot. I wondered where she went and what happened to her after the light in her eyes went out forever. I wondered if she had felt the bullet that killed her or if she had gone out as soon as it hit her neck. I hoped she didn't, I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to bleed to death in just a few seconds, choking on your own blood and begging for it to all end. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, especially not Little Doc.

But that wasn’t me. I thought I was going to die when that gator opened its mouth to swallow us, and I expected something. I don’t know what, maybe that old story some of the elders would tell us about seeing a bright light or your life flashing before your eyes? I didn’t know. What I did know was that I didn’t see any of that, all I saw was a lot of teeth before I closed my eyes and waited for the snap that never came.

That was the scary part. The crazy part was the griffin who saved us, and I had already told that story. It still didn’t make much sense to me even after the fact, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. I was alive because of him, and so was Tinker. Too bad I never thanked him for that; I was too busy trying to figure out why he was in the city at all!

“So this griffin just came out of nowhere and swept you two up?” Seer asked out of the blue.

I nodded. “I was surprised too. I never even knew that griffins lived in this city, nobody ever mentioned them before.”

“That’s because I didn’t know they were here either,” the zebra commented. “You’d think that some drunk soldier would have said something about them.”

“Really?” Charmer asked suddenly with a cocked brow. “The zebras don’t know there’s griffins here?” We all looked over at her with confused stares. “What? I didn’t expect them to still be here. They were around back when Momma hunted.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“What, you think I learned how to play flute for snakes because destiny taught me? No, Momma taught me so I could calm them down until she lined up her shot.” The mare hissed and grabbed her leg, which made her flinch in pain.

“It still hurts?” Seer asked softly and trotted over while I continued to stare at the pony at a loss.

“Your mom hunted snakes?”

Charmer nodded and ground her teeth together. Seer sat beside her and pulled out a needle of Med-X from her bag, I think it was one of the syringes she’d taken from the robotics facility back when we first met her, but I didn’t know. She pushed the drug into Charmer’s leg right above the wound and the pony sighed with relief as the area numbed.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, crybaby,” Seer joked and walked back over to the stairs. “I’ll be back in a bit, going to see if I can spot the end of the storm.” We all nodded to her before she disappeared upstairs.

I looked back over to Charmer. “So, your mom hunted here? Why?”

“Good business. Ponies would pay pretty well for meat and teeth from the critters around this city, as long as we avoided the fighting.”

“There was already fighting when you were little?” Tinker broke in and instantly coughed from the effort.

“Yeah. It wasn’t as bad as it is now, and the Steel Rangers weren’t involved yet, but zebras still fought ponies for the city. Of course back then it was for food, I don’t know what it’s about now.” She shook her head and looked up to the ceiling. “We left after Papa died.”

I frowned and dropped my ears at the mention of her father. “I’m sorry,” I told her quietly.

“Why?” she quickly asked. “He wasn’t my real dad, even Momma didn’t know which stallion humped her good enough for me to pop out.” The mare chuckled and looked back to us. “He and Momma got along really well and we lived with him for a while, but he got caught in a gunfight and then we left.”

Tinker’s cheeks were pink while Charmer talked, and the filly looked away after the mare finished explaining about Papa. It was a little awkward to hear Charmer talking about her mother’s sexual habits, almost as awkward as when she mentioned her own at the funeral, but I was more confused than embarrassed or nervous. I couldn’t figure out how she had gone from talking about griffins to talking about how she was born.

“And, uh, there were griffins here when you were little?” I asked and rubbed my head.

“Oh, yeah. They were dicks. They thought that just because they were bigger and stronger than Momma that they could push her around and steal her game. Stole more than one fresh kill from her.” The pony slurred and crossed her hooves. “They tried to steal Neishka too, back when she was just a hatchling. What kind of featherball asshole do you have to be to steal a filly’s pet?”

“You kept one of those as a pet?” Tinker asked quickly.

“Yeah, Momma gave her to me as an egg on my fifth birthday. Took her everywhere I went,” the mare explained with a grin that quickly faded and sank into a look of despair. “Well, I used to.”

An awkward silence fell over the room while I tried to think of something to say. Too bad there wasn’t much I could say, because I doubted that Charmer was only remembering that her pet snake had died that day.

She sighed and looked down at the ground before yawning dramatically. “Wow, those drugs work fast, I’m getting sleepy,” she blurted and slid onto her uninjured side. She almost sounded cheery again, and even smiled to us. Maybe it was just the Med-X taking effect, but I doubted it would cause that kind of mood swing.

“Okay, we’ll let you rest,” I told her quietly with a nod. “You could probably get some sleep too Tinker, I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.”

The filly looked over to me and nodded. “Yeah, but maybe we should check on Seer first?” she asked and pointed up to the ceiling. “She’s been gone for a pretty long time to just be checking on the storm.”

“I can take care of that, you stay here and rest,” I told her warmly and stood up to trot upstairs. But she was right behind me faster than I thought she could be.

“No, I’ll go with you,” she replied quietly and smiled back at Charmer, but the mare was already asleep. Maybe the drug was hitting her pretty hard. Something about the filly’s tone gave me the feeling she didn’t care about checking on Seer.

We barely got to the second floor before she pulled on my tail and spun me around. She just stared at me, her eyes shaking and looking around my face as her lips parted every so often to try speaking. But nothing came out, only silence and the occasional first letter of an unfinished word. Eventually, she fell to her rump and kicked her hoof into my chest just hard enough to push me back a few inches.

I grunted at the impact and winced, but it wasn’t bad. I was mostly confused. “What was that for?” I asked in a loud whisper, trying not to get loud enough to wake the pony snoozing below us.

“For almost getting us killed,” she hissed. The quiet speech didn’t have the same rasping as her usual voice, but still sounded strained and hurt. “Why didn’t you just listen to me?”

“I just wanted to help,” I quickly argued. “How could I know the bridge would break? It was fine when I crossed it.”

“That’s not the point, Felix.” The filly stood up and trotted close to me, sticking her nose less than an inch from mine. “What if that griffin hadn’t been there to help us? Then you and me would be dead.”

“We aren’t though, we survived. Why are you making this a big deal?” I asked sternly.

“Because we might not be as lucky next time,” the filly almost shouted and coughed for a few seconds before glaring back at me. “Why don’t you care that we almost died?”

“I do.” I sighed and looked down briefly. “But I had to help Charmer; it was all I could think about.”

“I know you wanted to help her,” the filly groaned. “But would it be so bad to take a few extra seconds for your own safety?” She paused and looked over my face again. “Or mine?”

“I don’t know,” I quickly answered. “That few seconds might be all she could spare.” Tinker’s eyes twitched and she stepped back. “I would do the same for you, even if I got hurt.”

“You would die trying to save someone?” she snapped at me, no longer bothering to keep her voice down. I nodded confidently in response.

She didn’t even say anything. The next thing I knew, Tinker was trotting back down the stairs. She even made sure to look away from me as she rounded the bend and disappeared.

What did I do?

I tried to push away the conversation with Tinker as I made my way up through the building, looking on each floor for Seer as I ascended. I was worried about what had made the filly leave like that, and if she would ever tell me what had her in such a bad mood, but I couldn’t think of anything. Maybe it was something I said or the way I said it. I wasn’t trying to be mean or sound bad, I was just being honest.

I stepped onto the last floor and sighed when I found it empty. The only place she could still be was the roof, and I really wasn’t looking forward to getting soaked by the storm. I had already gone swimming in the city once that day, and I had just finished drying off a few minutes before.

Besides, Seer would be fine out there doing whatever it was she was doing. It was just a little rain, it’s not like something would go through the trouble of climbing up a building to get her. She was probably just being really thorough at looking at the storm to find the end, or she was just trying to get some fresh air after the fight and Charmer almost drowning. Either way, she would come back down when she was ready, right?

I told myself that was the case and decided I should join the others for a nap; I could use some sleep after my near-death experience, and from the sound of the storm it would still be around for at least a few hours. But when I got to the stairs I could hear Seer’s voice through the rain. I wouldn’t have stopped to listen, but whatever she was saying wasn’t in Equestrian, or even unified Zebrican.

After a few seconds of eavesdropping, my curiosity got the best of me and I turned away from the stairs down to head up to the roof. A little rain wouldn’t hurt me, and I really did need to make sure that Seer was okay out there by herself and that she wasn’t hiding an injury or something like that. I didn’t bother trying to stay quiet up the stairs, I doubted that Seer would be able to hear my hoofsteps over the torrent of rain and her own speech, and poked my head out into the storm to look around.

I couldn’t even see the edges of the building from where I was through the rain, and within moments of looking out my head was soaked as if I had just jumped back into the sea of New Oatleans. What I could see was Seer sitting in the center of the roof, her back to me as she chanted something over and over in a strange language. It sounded almost musical and rolled off her tongue naturally, and I got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time she had sung that strange tune in the rain. The mare’s shoulders bobbed up and down as she waved her forelegs in front of her body, moving in rhythm with her chant.

I quietly climbed onto the roof and embraced the rain as it soaked through my coat entirely, chilling me to the bone and sending a shiver through my body. My mane drooped and stuck into my face until I slicked it back and tucked it behind my ears. It felt strange, I normally didn’t even feel my mane because of how it stuck up, so the feeling of hair pressed against my head was just enough to make my scalp itch for no reason.

When I finally reached Seer, I stopped a few feet behind her and craned my neck to look over her shoulder, hoping to see what she was doing and hear her words more clearly. Laid out in front of her was a soaked, red rug that was immaculately clean and covered in strange markings. Swirling lines and curved symbols all meshed together to circle a single bowl at the center of the rug which was catching the rain as it fell. A few inches over the rim, Seer waved a stick… no, a bone of some kind through the air. I couldn’t tell what it was from or what it was for, but I didn’t feel like disrupting whatever it was Seer was doing.

When the bowl finally overflowed with water, Seer stopped waving the bone and lifted a small pouch in her hooves. The mare poured a pale blue powder in the bowl as she continued to chant, but her speed slowed dramatically. I still didn’t understand any of the words she was saying, but obviously they had some meaning to the zebra. The pouch was flung off the side of the building with her final word, and the zebra took the bone up again, swirling one end through the water until the powder mixed in and thickened into a thin paste. Seemingly satisfied with her… bowl of stuff, Seer covered the mixture with a small cloth to stop any more water from falling in.

“What was that?” I finally asked, convinced that she must be done.

The mare almost slipped as she jumped to her hooves and spun to me, a rusty knife clenched in her teeth already. She sighed and dropped the blade to the ground at the sight of me, then shook her head and sat back down. “What are you doing up here?”

“I heard you talking, or chanting, or something,” I answered plainly. “What were you doing?”

“Making paint,” she stated simply and started rolling up the rug gently. “Why were you close enough to hear me?”

“Why are you making paint?” I asked with a cocked brow.

“I already answered a question, your turn to answer mine.”

I huffed. “I was checking on you, it doesn’t take that long to see how long a storm will be around.”

“Maybe I was doing math to figure it out,” she pointed out with a smirk.

“You can’t do math to figure that kind of thing out!” I argued without even thinking.

“I wouldn’t know.” The mare placed the rolled rug into her bag and smiled at me. “Can you take this inside for me? I don’t want to risk spilling the paint.”

“Yeah, sure,” I agreed and lifted her bag in my mouth.

We both trotted back inside and sat down. She was very careful with the bowl that was balanced on her rump, which I finally noticed was decorated in a very similar way to the rug.

“What is this stuff?” I asked.

“What, the paint?” She looked at me and smiled. “It’s special body paint.”

“Okay, but what about the bowl and rug?” I clarified, not as interested in the paint anymore.

“They’re special too.” She looked down to the bowl and pulled the cloth away to reveal the paste, smiling at her work. “My mentor gave them to me when she passed away.”

“What makes them special?” I persisted, hoping she wouldn’t say something like ‘because they have symbols on them’.

“They’re for making potions and paints,” she explained plainly.

“I thought you could use any bowl to make a potion.” I scratched at the itching under my mane and stared at the bowl.

“This is for special potions; it’s magic,” she told me with a grin. “The paint will make a shield to keep us dry in the storm as long as it is not washed off.”

“That doesn’t sound possible,” I blurted and shook my head.

“Why? There are fetishes to grow wings, why shouldn’t there be paint to make a rain shield?” she asked and pulled the bone back out from her bag.

“Because it doesn’t make any sense. How can paint protect you from getting wet? Won’t it wash off?” I was confused, and she wasn’t giving any good reasons!

“It’s magic paint, Felix. Just trust me.”

I groaned and fell on my back. “What are you?” I asked sarcastically and clapped my hooves to my eyes.

“A shaman, you didn’t know that?” she asked honestly.

I didn’t think she was serious at first, but after the room fell dead silent for a few seconds I uncovered my eyes. Seer was staring down at me with a curious look, and then it hit me that she actually wanted an answer. “No… I didn’t,” I told her. “Why would I think you’re a shaman? You work as a town guard for Caesar’s Stand!”

“I can’t have two jobs?” she asked and tilted her head to one side.

“Well, yes, but aren’t shamans supposed to sit in their hut and talk with spirits or make potions all day?” I asked and rolled back to my rump.

“Maybe in the old days, but now we actually need to be useful,” she stated and grinned. “If I just sat at home all day I would get kicked into the Wasteland, and there’s no bar out here.”

“So you learned how to fight?” I continued, unable to stop my mind from spitting out more and more questions that it demanded I ask.

“Oh no, I already knew how to do that before I was the town’s shaman or a guard,” she explained. “I’ve had an interesting life. Maybe I’ll tell you the story someday.”

“Okay,” I agreed, not sure if I should be excited or nervous. After all, if it was her life story it probably involved learning how to mix potions, talk with ghosts, and stab ponies repeatedly at the same time. No, I was scared to hear her life story. I cleared my throat and looked around. “Do you really think we should use this paint? The others are already asleep and I think it would be good for them to rest through the storm,” I pointed out and scratched my scalp again.

“I would rather not,” the mare bluntly stated, no longer sounding like the happy Shaman I had been talking to. “If the storm doesn’t lift soon, we’ll be stuck here overnight. That isn’t something you want to experience,” she warned and stuck the bone in the paste. “Go wake them up so we can get going.”

“No, Charmer needs to rest her injury and Tinker is still exhausted from what happened,” I argued quickly. I don’t know why I decided to fight her on it, but I did.

“They can rest when we get out of this city,” Seer countered. “Resting here isn’t really rest, it’s more of becoming lunch.” She scowled and leaned in close. “So we’re going to wake them up and get moving.”

I stood up shakily, not sure if I was ready to argue with her, but I felt like I was right; I knew I was right. “No we’re not. I’ll stay on guard if I have to, but they need to sleep until the storm passes. It will be good for them.”

A low growl seeped out of the mare’s mouth as she stared at me, her eyes still level with mine even though she was sitting down. She locked her glare on me for a moment, her eyes drilling holes into my skull and out the back of my head, but then stopped and pulled the bone from the paint. She lifted the tail of her jacket and exposed her glyph; a curling line that whipped out on either side to vaguely resemble an eye; and drew a strange symbol at the center of it.

She poured the paint onto the floor and packed away the bowl and bone before glaring back at me and standing. “Fine, you stand guard. I’ll be back when I finish the job that you were supposed to do.”

Her shoulder rammed into my chest and pushed me into the wall as she trotted by me and down the stairwell. I don’t know why, but I could have sworn Tinker trotted that exact same way when she had walked away from me earlier. But that wasn’t really what had bothered me, what bothered me was how Seer had acted.

And it wasn’t just at that moment either, it had been recurring since I met her. She would be happy, smiling and friendly when we talked. She would even joke and just be an overall nice zebra. But then she would change like she had when I said we should wait. Suddenly, Seer became an aggressive, demanding… what was that word Dad used to describe annoying mares? Bitch, yeah, she became a bitch.

I didn’t know why, and I didn’t really want to, but it was starting to get to the point I couldn’t stand it. I put up with it before because she was arguing with others and I actually thought she was right, but this time she wasn’t. She may have been our guide, but that didn’t always mean she was right, and I needed to make sure she knew that.

So instead of running out to tell her she should stay and rest too, I just let her go. If she got hurt, we would find her whenever we got to the warehouse and then she would see that I was right.

And I would feel like a complete dick, as Charmer put it.

Trying to follow Seer was a little harder than I thought it would be. I could follow her hoofprints, but just barely. The paint she had made worked like a charm, something that still surprised me even after she had explained that making things like that was part of her job, to the point that the magic even seemed to enchant the spots where she stepped. I don’t know if it would last long, but everywhere she stepped the ground seemed unable to get wet even in the storm. It was surreal, and I thought that I might be going crazy as I followed the still-dry spots of ground through the city.

I don’t think I did a good job of duplicating the symbol using her spilled paint though. I was drenched again, and the paint on my glyph had washed away after only a few seconds in the torrent, leaving me cold and shivering. With any luck, the storm would pass before we made our way back to where Charmer and Tinker were sleeping, and hopefully they would still be okay and safe in that building. I felt bad for leaving them alone, but I couldn’t let Seer go off by herself. If anything happened to her…

I couldn’t decide if it was more idiotic to argue with her in the first place, or to follow her through the city and hope that I could catch up. She could probably take care of herself, she had a lot more experience than I did in the Wasteland and in defending herself, but she was right; this was mine and Shayle’s job to do, and I couldn’t just let her do it and risk her own safety while I rested. She was afraid of something in the night of New Oatleans, and the last time she was scared of something we were inches away from being blown apart by Steel Rangers. It was probably better to listen to her.

Too bad I hadn’t thought of that before letting her run off into the storm alone.

Looming shadows of buildings surrounded me behind the shroud of rain as I made my way deeper into the city, and across every low bridge I could feel the water surging under my hooves with the storm. None of the planks or barrels lurched as violently as the snake had thrown them, but each large swell made my heart jump into my throat briefly. Luckily, no scaly maw jumped from the sea to swallow me without a fight.

A low rumble of thunder put a little grin on my face while I walked, and I wanted to laugh a little bit. I could only imagine how Shayle was doing in the storm, especially after she froze up during the last one we were stuck in. I could almost see her mud-covered chest as she stood up from the ground on shaky legs, trying to tell herself it wasn’t an explosion. I had to remember to ask her about it when we met up again, I was sure it would be an entertaining story; at least for me.

And maybe she would get a laugh out of something we did. I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I hoped something that happened to us would make her smile. I didn’t know how her job was going with the Scorpions, but I couldn’t imagine it being very enjoyable for her. I knew I would have hated working with them, Caesar only knew what they had her doing.

The tracks finally led me to a looming complex that looked like it had seen better days. I couldn’t get a full view of the warehouse, but the front wall looked like it had been put back together more than a few times since the war. Metal sheets were haphazardly slapped across its face along with torn tarps that flapped in the wind, giving the wall a guise of imminent failure. With any luck, it would stay up long enough to let me and Seer get out with what we needed.

The zebra’s tracks ended at a door that banged loudly against the wall as the wind threw it back and forth, a sound that reverberated through the massive room ahead of me. Inside, stacks of crates and metal containers rose almost to the ceiling, each marked with faded symbols that I couldn’t understand if I tried. One looked like a cog with a sword, but it was so decayed I could only guess at what it used to be.

I pulled the door shut behind me when I entered, not really excited to hear it banging over and over while I looked for Seer and whatever supplies we were supposed to be gathering from the warehouse. Once it was shut, the only sound that could be heard in the room was the drone of rain washing over the roof and walls, and some drops falling on the containers through the unpatched holes. Compared to the cacophony outside, it was blissfully quiet.

“Seer?” I called through the room, hoping that she was the only other thing in the room with me. She had said something about locals taking up residence there, but seeing the place for myself I started to doubt that. There were plenty of better places to stay in the city; ones with fewer holes and that didn’t look like they could fall apart if you sneezed too hard.

Nothing responded, I didn’t even hear the shuffling of hooves. Maybe the room was too big, or there was another room further in, but I didn’t think that Seer could hear me. Hopefully that was the case anyways, but I tried not to think of her being hurt or worse already.

I took a deep breath and stepped further in, weaving into the maze of containers and crates that filled the warehouse. The faint aroma of rotted wood drifted between the stacks, but it was overpowered by something else. I didn’t recognize whatever it was, but it was hardly the most pleasant thing I’d experienced in my life. I looked down the paths to either side of me as I continued down the center of the room, hoping to spot the mare as she browsed the wares in search of whatever it was we were supposed to find there.

A shadow launched out of view when I looked down one of the paths through the warehouse, and I almost jumped out of my coat. I didn’t see what it was exactly, but it was equine and moved fast.

“Seer?” I asked shakily, hoping it had been her. What else could it have been? Her tracks led to the warehouse, and I was sure that if it was hostile it would have tried to run at me, not away. So I decided to follow the shadow.

When I reached the point where I had seen the fleeing equine, I was at a crossroads in the containers. I turned left, down the path the shadow had disappeared, and started walking slowly. I looked all around for a sign of whatever had run away from me, mostly keeping an eye out for Seer.

Instead, I found something a little creepier.

Pinned against one of the containers was a little doll made of canvas. Two buttons were stitched into the face for eyes, and three nails were driven into its chest to keep it on the metal siding. The scariest part was the dried blood that covered the box it was connected to. But I couldn’t look away. Something about the little doll was mesmerizing, and I couldn’t figure out why.

A hoof hooked over my shoulder and stopped my heart just before I fell to my chest with a yelp that echoed through the maze. My jaw knocked on the floor and rattled my head, ringing at my ears and making me even surer that I was going to die.

“Felix,” Seer hissed down to me. “What are you doing here?”

I looked up and my heart started again. “Seer, thank Caesar you’re okay,” I grunted and stood up feeling a little foolish.

“I won’t be if you don’t quiet down,” she growled and helped me up. “I thought you were staying back.”

“I changed my mind,” I whispered nervously. “Why do we need to be quiet?”

“Because we aren’t alone here, or do you think I made that omen?” she hissed and pointed at the doll.

“Omen?” I tilted my head and looked back at the disturbing little effigy. “Omen of what?”

“Stop looking at it.” Her hoof gripped me again and spun me to face her. “Don’t look at any of the dolls.”

“Why?”

“They’re hexed, just trust me.” She turned and quickly trotted away from the ‘omen’, waving with her tail for me to follow. “Have you found anything useful?”

“No, I was looking for you,” I told her quietly.

The mare grumbled and led me back to the center pathway. “Well, I’m here, so let’s get what we need and leave.”

“You have the list, what do we need?” I asked and looked around for nothing in particular.

“A box,” she quickly answered. “It’ll be the size of a cigarette pack, and probably locked with some kind of magic.”

“Okay, what’s in it?” I asked curiously. “And how do we find something that small in here? This place is huge.”

“I don’t know what’s in it, I don’t care, and we need to find the offices. If the box is locked with magic, it will probably be somewhere hard to get.”

“Like a safe?” I suggested and looked back at Seer.

“Exactly.”

A loud creaking filled the air and both of us froze. Seer’s eyes darted around the room, looking for whatever was causing the noise until a loud crash sounded behind us. We both spun, and the mare behind me snapped up her rifle with a speed that scared me. The path was blocked off. Two of the giant crates had fallen to block us from leaving that way. More creaking squealed through the room, and a moment later more crashes rang out through the warehouse. Boxes fell on either side of us from higher in the stacks, blocking off paths on either side of us until only one way was left open.

“Seer?” I asked quietly, my voice cracking with fear and worry.

“We need to move, get your gun out,” she ordered sternly and started quickly walking down the only open path.

I complied and quickly pulled out the pistol from my holster, my teeth clattering against the grip until I bit down hard enough to stop it. Following behind her, my head darted all around looking for whatever had moved the crates. One crate falling was a coincidence, but all of them? We were being trapped.

I almost had to run to keep up with Seer’s pace, and my heart pounded in my ears, only interrupted by the occasional clop of hooves somewhere else in the warehouse. Somewhere, someone started laughing until it was all I heard. The cackle filled my head and echoed through my mind, driving me mad as I fought to stay focused.

A container dropped in front of us, forcing Seer to take us right and down a narrow path between the stacks that had become a labyrinth. Falling crates sent us winding through the warehouse, and I started to notice that the nasty smell I caught when I first walked in was getting stronger as we went deeper. Whatever it was, I was afraid we were going to find out what caused it very soon.

Seer kicked open a door when we finally reached the far side of the room, and the smell leapt out and bucked me in the face. The mare in front of me stopped and coughed before stepping through the door. “Hurry up,” she barked and waited. Once I was through, she slammed the door shut and leaned against it.

“What’s going on?” I demanded and tried to ignore the blood smeared over the walls all around us in strange symbols. A hole filled with something green and red reeked of death and something worse at the center of the room, horrifically answering the question of what had been filling the warehouse with the stench.

“We’re being herded,” she answered shakily. The cackling laughter filled my head again, and something slammed into the door, almost knocking Seer over as she strained to keep it shut. “Find something to block this, hurry!” she ordered and leaned into the door with new purpose.

I spun around and looked for anything that might help. A chain held a half-dissected corpse over the rancid pit and wrapped down to a hook in the floor. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was all I saw in my panic.

I grabbed the chain and yanked on it, pulling the loops off the hook and almost got dragged into the swill of nasty before I found my footing. The door lurched again as whatever was trying to get us rammed it again, and Seer screamed at me to hurry.

My teeth ached as I yanked the chain again, trying to get it off the body and over to the door where we could tie the handles together. With a sickening tear, the meat fell away from the chain and splashed into the mix, spraying me with stuff I would rather not think about. Another slam on the door almost broke through, and Seer screamed in a way I never thought she could. I’d seen her afraid before, but this…

I pulled the chain over and looped it over the handles as many times as I could, praying that it would hold long enough for us to get out of that room. “Let’s go,” I squealed and ran to the far side, followed closely by the other zebra.

She swung her rifle to the door after each rattle of the metal as whatever was on the other side tried to force its way in. The chain held with each lurch, but I didn’t think it would last long. The cackling still filled my head as we ran through another door and blocked it with a nearby metal desk. The smell still plagued my nostrils, but it wasn’t nearly as strong anymore. I didn’t think I could ever forget that, no matter how much I wanted to.

“Hurry, find a safe or something,” Seer demanded and started pushing over desks in search of anything that might hold the box we needed.

I followed suit and peeked under the desks she hadn’t thrown, along the walls, in corners, anywhere a safe might be hidden. It looked like we were in some kind of office, a lot like the one we had found in the robotics facility. Dirty paper flew off the desks whenever Seer tipped them, but I didn’t care to focus on that.

“Found one!” Seer yelled and I ran over. She was bent over and pulling a bobby pin from her mane, already holding a metal rod that looked like it was made specifically for lock picking. Where did she get that thing?

A bang and jingle of chains tore through the air behind us followed closely by a storm of hooves until the next door pushed violently against the desk we moved in the way. “Hurry up, they got through!” I yelled even though the mare was only a few inches away from me. I pointed my pistol at the door and prayed that she would get the safe open before whatever wanted us dead broke through.

The light clicking of metal in the lock behind me was all I heard between the door being rammed over and over. After the longest minute of my life, the slamming stopped, and Seer cheered with success.

“I got it! Let’s go!”

I spun around and saw her tucking a black and green box into her bag, and could have cheered along with her.

A crack filled the air and I looked back at the door, horrified to see an axe-blade sticking through it. The blade pulled back and a moment later punched through the door again.

“Felix!”

I turned at the yell and sprinted after Seer to help her kick at a metal sheet that was covering a missing chunk of wall. After each of our bucks, the axe bit through the door until I could see a pair of bloodshot eyes glaring through at us.

“I see you, little striped one,” a voice gurgled before the blade slammed through the wood. Crackly laughter filled the air again.

Finally, the metal behind us fell out with one last kick. I spun around and jumped down after Seer, but only landed on another container. We were in a slightly smaller store room; at least it looked smaller from the water that filled half of it. The containers we sprinted and jumped across kept us only a few feet above the surface, and I hoped that the racket we caused wouldn’t wake up anything sleeping under the water.

A stampede of hooves hit the metal less than a minute after we had started running, along with that same demonic laughter that made my skin crawl. I jumped another gap between containers and barely made it behind Seer before turning my head to get a glimpse of what was chasing us.

It was a pack, 5 ponies and zebras merrily jumping across the platforms to catch us. With each bound, two of them slammed down their bloated and twisted front hooves; if they even qualified as hooves anymore, they looked more like spiked clubs. The other three almost looked normal if I ignored the distended jaws and boils sticking out of their coats, seeming to be filled with whatever had been in that rancid pit that I could still smell. Ragged jackets flared out behind them with each jump, fluttering in the air like leathery wings.

Seer sped further and further ahead of me, her long legs able to push her faster and further than mine could, and all the while the monsters behind me gained ground. The zebra leading me jumped off to a catwalk on one side and spun to look at me before lifting her rifle and firing at the things chasing us. One of them squealed as a bullet hit her, but I don’t think it slowed her down.

“Jump!” Seer screamed and fired again. I could see the rifle shaking in her grip, and I was amazed that she could hit them at all.

I landed on the last container before the metal walkway and pushed to keep moving, knowing that the monsters were snapping at my tail. Those things weren’t going to leave us alone until they were dead or out of that warehouse; at least I hoped they would stop chasing us if we left the warehouse. Only a few seconds behind me, a heavy pair of hooves slammed into the container and jumped toward me, getting closer with every hop.

Another crack from Seer’s rifle only made it grunt as the thing gained on me. I jumped off the edge for the window as the smell of the pit hit me even stronger than before, and hot breath washed over my back hooves. I landed on the iron catwalk and rolled into the wall just before Seer’s rifle swung over my head and smacked into the mutant’s face behind me.

It yelped and crumpled on the side of the metal walkway before sliding off and falling into the water below, splashing my belly with cold water through the grating. The others slid to a stop at the edge of the container and turned, racing for a different spot on the catwalk to cut us off.

Seer grabbed me by the mane and pulled me up painfully before running off, going a little slower so I could keep up this time. I followed closely and ignored my heart pounding in my ears and hammering to escape my chest.

A bullet slapped into the floor inches behind me, and I screamed again. It was bad enough that they were monsters who had cursed dolls and smelled like rotten death, but now they could use guns? What kind of horror created those things, or turned them into those things? And why would they want to kill us just for going in the warehouse?

Seer stumbled and fell as a bullet hit her in the leg, and I tripped over her. We rolled and tangled together with grunts and squeals until we finally came to rest and raced to get up again. She whinnied and pushed to keep going, but I didn’t follow her. I couldn’t, I didn’t want to.

All I could see was a creepy, but wonderful doll floating in the water below me. A pair of blue buttons barely hung on to the canvas that made up the body; a sad pair of eyes that looked up at me knowingly. It was as if the little toy was trying to talk to me, and I refused to leave until I knew what it was trying to say.

I could hear the hooves bouncing toward me on the catwalk, and I could hear Seer screaming for me to get up and run, but I didn’t care. The doll wanted to warn me, or tell me a secret, a very important secret before it sank into the abyss. Blood started spreading out under it, filling the water with red, too much for such a little thing to ever hold by itself. It was dying, and it had one last…

“Felix!” Seer screamed and yanked me up by my ear, and suddenly I remembered that I was supposed to be running for my life!

I cursed the little doll for distracting me and ran while Seer fired a burst at the monsters closing in on us. One of them yelped and fell in a limp heap when a bullet punched through his head, leaving only 3 chasing us. The one who still had a gun fired back, but missed both of us.

Seer ran beside me and looked down desperately, fear filling her face. “Take the box from my bag.”

“What?” I asked for clarification and stared at her in disbelief.

“Take the damn box!” she screamed and craned her neck to fire another burst at the mutants still chasing us. I shoved my head in her bags and pulled out the box, slipping it into my own sack.

“What’s going on?” I asked fearfully.

“Hold your breath and kick in rhythm,” she told me quickly, even though I didn’t understand whatever she just said.

“What?”

Seer slid to a stop and spun, pointing her rump at me. The next thing I knew, her hooves punched into my side and I was airborne; crashing through an old window just before one of the beasts tackled her. I screamed, but there was nothing I could do. In an instant, they were out of view and I was falling again, plummeting toward the sea through the rain.

Just before I hit the water, I took a deep breath and held it. When I closed my eyes to get ready for impact, I could see her tumbling across the catwalk with one of those monsters chomping down at her face.

Splash

Wrinkles smoothed and faded under each swipe of my hoof, fading into the paper and leaving only little ripples in the sheet to give away that they used to be there. It was thin and dirty, but it was all I could find lying around town. I was careful not to tear it, this was a special project and it had to be perfect!

The rest of the house was quiet while I worked; Mama and Daddy were still asleep in their room while I smoothed out the paper under the light of a small lantern I kept beside my hay-bed. The spotty orange glow from the old light made it hard to see how good I was doing on the paper, and dust and dirt along the glass of the lamp projected odd spots over my room. I was used to it for the most part, it wasn’t my first time working in the night under the light of the lamp, but I preferred working during the day when the light was more white and natural; it made it easier to see if I was doing a good job.

But I couldn’t wait for morning to come for this one. Mama couldn’t know that I was making it yet, it was supposed to be a surprise for her and nighttime was the only time I knew she wouldn’t walk in on me. Even though I had already been trying for a week to finish my latest project and was on my eighth piece of paper, I didn’t want to risk her seeing it no matter what, and that meant doing it at night.

I picked up the paper once it looked smooth and flat enough, holding it closer to the light to analyze my job after blowing my short-hanging mane out of my face. It wasn’t completely perfect, but it was as good as I could get with scrap paper. Next was the tricky part, and I would have to be careful not to tear the delicate sheet in my hooves while I folded it into the new form it would soon be.

I slowly started making my folds, following the same order that I believed would make the prettiest flower I could imagine. I couldn’t remember exactly what it was called in the stories, or even if it was from the stories I had been told, but I thought it should be. It looked really pretty in my dreams.

Big folds came first as usual, getting the paper into the shape of a bud before I could make it bloom into the flower I loved most in my dreams. They were pretty easy, and not very special to that flower, most of the flowers I made started with the same folds until it was what I needed.

The skittering of something outside my window froze my work, and I quickly blew out the little flame in the lamp to cast my room back into darkness. It was what Mama always told me to do when I heard something outside, just in case it was dangerous. Most of the time it was probably just one of the guards trotting around to check for anything scary, but when I was little a big bug had tried to dig into my room while I was asleep. Luckily Daddy was still awake and heard it, so he ran inside and stomped on it before it could bite me, then he hugged me and slept in my room to keep me safe in case another one came!

After a few minutes of silence I quietly lit the lamp again by pushing the button that made it go clickity click until the fire started. I had the big folds all done, so all I had left was the little folds to make the petals and then puffing it up! I gently held my tongue between my lips while I worked, nervous that I would accidentally tear it during the smaller folds like I had on my other tries. I was really slow as I worked the corners down carefully to make the folds.

I started on the last one, gently rolling down the corner with my hooftip to make the final petal. Suddenly, I heard Mama gasp loudly and squeal from her bedroom and I pushed too hard. The paper tore, leaving the last almost-finished petal hanging down sadly. I wanted to cry. I had been so close, and it was ruined again! I sniffed quietly and tossed the failed flower at the wall, but it just flailed a few feet before falling lightly to the ground.

Daddy must have woken up when Mama cried, because I heard him talking to her softly but couldn’t make out what he was saying. She squealed again and sounded really hurt. I heard their door swing open and then their hooves quickly shuffling through the hallway toward the door. They whispered to each other as they walked by my room, probably thinking that I was still asleep and not wanting to wake me.

I blew out the lamp and sadly stood up, wishing that I could just finish the stupid flower and not mess it up. I hoped Mama and Daddy wouldn’t be upset that I was awake, it was too late for me to be up, but I wanted to make sure she was okay. So I quietly went to my door and pushed it open to peek out into the house. Mama was standing by the door with her eyes squeezed shut and holding her bubble-belly; it was so big I could only see half of her curly heart glyph. Meanwhile, Daddy was busy shuffling around the room to throw a bunch of things in his bag. Were they leaving?

“Mama?” I called from my door with worry. “Where are you going?”

Her pretty green eyes opened a little bit I think, it was hard to tell in the dark, and she turned her head to look at me. “Shayle, sweetie you should be asleep.”

I squeaked and looked down, ashamed that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to. “But you sounded hurt,” I replied softly before closing my door a little bit, still leaving just enough room to look out.

“I’m fine, sweetie,” she assured me before grunting quietly. “Mama just needs to go to see the Shaman… if Daddy could just get the bag.”

“You’re the one who unpacked it to make sure it had everything, again.” Daddy grunted as he threw a dirty towel in the pack.

My ears perked up at the news that Mama was going to see the Shaman. “Is the baby coming tonight?” I asked hopefully. Daddy had told me they were going to get another baby a few weeks earlier, and that they had to go see the Shaman to get her, or him; they didn’t tell me if it was a filly or a colt.

“Yes,” Daddy quickly replied and finally picked up the bag. “Ready to go?”

Mama nodded quickly and kicked the door open behind her. “Yes, let’s go!”

I started to close my door as my ears drooped. I wanted to finish the flower before the new baby came so I could give it to Mama and Daddy. I don’t know why, but I thought that if I gave them something pretty it would make the baby happier. I heard a story about that once; that babies were happier if their parents were happy when they arrived. But it wasn’t finished, and all I had was the last torn one. It wasn’t pretty enough…

I quickly ran over and picked it up. Maybe it would still help the baby a little bit, even if it was ruined. I held it on my tail and ran out to Mama and Daddy before they could close the door behind them.

“Shayle, you need to go back to bed,” Daddy told me with a tired look. “I’ll wake you up when we bring the baby home.”

I stopped and shrank back. “But I made this for you and Mommy,” I said and held my tail toward them.

Mama smiled for a second before grunting in pain again. “It’s very pretty, sweetie. Thank you,” she told me as warmly as she could through grinding teeth. I could tell she actually liked it though; she was just hurt because the baby was coming and couldn’t smile very good.

Daddy grinned and put it in the bag before kissing me on the forehead. “Thank you, Shayle. Now please go back to bed, we’ll see you soon.”

“Okay,” I agreed and trotted back inside, making sure I closed the door behind me.

My eyes slowly opened to a blurry room, maybe. I could see shapes, colors, but they all blended together in a fog. Something black and white moved in front of me and I turned my head up to see a pair of green blobs looking down at me. I blinked a few times and it cleared until the blobs turned into glossy eyes.

“Mama?” I asked drowsily and received a little chuckle in response.

“Why would you think that, Shayle,” the mare over me replied softly. Minx smiled and looked around before picking up a little vial from the table beside me. “Are you in pain?”

I shook my head and looked around. Wherever I was, it was very clean and filled with all kinds of strange tools. Metal prongs and scissors and knives were lined up neatly on the walls, and a few blood-stained ones were on a table beside me. My body felt strange, like I wasn’t actually in it anymore. I could feel something, but at the same time I didn’t feel anything, anywhere.

“What…” I started to ask but lost my train of thought and stared at a poorly-drawn picture that was nailed to the wall behind Minx. It looked like a foal had tried to draw something, but it was barely recognizable.

“You got shot,” a blunt voice quickly stated from the other side of me. I craned my neck to look over and saw Solus standing in the corner, soaked from head to tail. “Three times.”

Oh yeah.

I flopped my head back down and shut my eyes again, trying to remember how I had gotten shot at all. I remembered a storm, and some ponies…

A rifle shrouded in glittering color floated around the rock inches away and swiveled.

I grunted and opened my eyes again as a throb of pressure hit me in the chest and gut. I remembered. I remembered the pain and feeling like I was going to die at any second. In fact, I thought I had died when the lights all went out, so why was I still alive?

“Where are we?” I asked weakly and tried to look around again, but couldn’t pick up anything for sure in the likely drug induced haze of my mind.

“The clinic in Caesar’s Stand,” Minx answered warmly. “We got you here as fast as we could.”

I sighed and put my head back down on the bed again. “How bad was I?”

“Bad,” Solus answered first. “Any longer and you would be elsewhere.”

Great, I almost died. Yes, I thought that I was going to back when I first got shot, but hearing it from someone else was different. Something about it just felt more real, more absolute than me thinking it would happen. I’d have to thank the doctor for stopping that. Speaking of which, why wasn’t the doctor in the clinic with me?

“Where’s the doctor?” I asked.

“Back to asking questions already, Shayle?” Minx asked me with a joking grin. “I thought you might be tired of that by now.” I grumbled and closed my eyes. “He’s out right now. He should be back in an hour or two.”

“Great,” I replied and wheezed a little. “What if something goes wrong?”

“Then Minx will help you and I will go find the doctor,” Solus explained simply. “Don’t you trust us?”

I shook my head a little. “Not really.”

“Why not?” the blank zebra asked curiously. “We helped you and carried you here, should that not be enough to gain trust?”

“You also burned an entire town of innocent ponies,” I countered quietly.

“Shayle, we talked about that,” Minx quickly jumped in. “Now get your rest, we’ll be right here if you need us.”

I grumbled again and tried to relax; not an easy task after almost dying. I wasn’t really bothered by the two Scorpions in the same room as me, I’d slept fine with them in the cave and they didn’t do anything to me, so I wasn’t worried about that. I was more worried about not waking up again. I didn’t know if that was really something that could happen, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk it. I woke up after getting shot three times and thinking I was sure to die, what if I couldn’t do that again?

And why did I ask so many questions?

I opened my eyes again and found that apparently I had dozed off for at least a little bit. The light in the room was dimmed, and only Minx was there with me. Her face was buried in the book, scanning the pages with a little smile. I even think her cheeks were starting to turn red.

“What are you reading?” I asked after a few seconds.

She calmly looked up and grinned. “A book from before the war.” She looked down to the pages again, but didn’t scan the words with her eyes. “Do you like to read?”

I swallowed and looked around awkwardly. “Uh, no.”

“Why not? It’s very relaxing,” she told me softly.

“I just never have,” I explained, trying to avoid saying that I didn’t even know how to. Apparently I was the only one in the Wasteland who couldn’t, so saying it seemed wrong somehow.

“You should try sometime. I’ll lend you one of mine if you’re ever interested.” The mare closed the book and looked back up to me. “What do you like to do?”

That was weird. “Why do you want to know?” I asked and stared at her strangely.

“Well, you always ask others about themselves. Can’t I ask you about yourself?” She smiled and tilted her head.

“Uh, sure…” I wasn’t so sure I liked where that might go, but I figured I could just lie about anything I didn’t want to answer. “I like, um, sleeping?” I had no idea, I don’t think I had done anything for fun or relaxation in years; I was always busy trying to forget things and rest.

She just chuckled. “That’s nice, but what about when you’re awake? Do you have a favorite hobby?”

“Not really, I’m usually too busy,” I told her simply. It wasn’t technically a lie.

“That’s not healthy. You should find a way to unwind and have fun,” she offered with a smile. “Maybe your brother has something you could do together?”

“I don’t think so. He likes books and stuff like that, not really my kind of thing.”

“Well, you’ll think of something.” She put the book back in her bag and kept on smiling. She was starting to look like that creepy Minx I had met back in Shanty. “What about your family, do you have anyone besides your brother?”

I shook my head. “Not anymore. Mama died a long time ago, and Father died recently.”

The mare looked down at that befoe looking up with a sad look in her eyes. “That’s too bad, I’m sorry for your losses,” she offered. “Were you close to them?”

“I don’t know. Mama died when I was little, and I can’t remember much about her.” At least I couldn’t until I got shot and almost died. “And I didn’t get along with Father very well.”

“Why not?” she asked curiously.

“Because he was an ass,” I blurted without even thinking about it. I don’t think I had ever actually said that about him out loud, not even to my brother. Of course my brother still thought that Father was a prisoner somewhere and that we would see him again.

“I see.” Minx looked over to the door for a moment before turning her attention to me again. “Do you have any friends back home? Or someone you spent a lot of time with?

Father.

“No, not really,” I answered quickly. “I didn’t get out very much.” Do drugs make you more honest or talk more? Because I don’t think I actually wanted to say most of this stuff.

“It sounds like you had a boring life,” the mare commented and stood up.

Not even close…

“It could have been worse, I guess.” Yeah, I could have gone through it all without Felix. That thought reminded me of something. “Has my brother come back with the others yet?” I asked quickly, hoping she wasn’t about to leave.

“Not yet. I think they had a long way to travel,” Minx told me calmly. “I’ll let you know as soon as they get back.”

“Thank you.” I tried to grin, but couldn’t find a reason to. I appreciated her offer, but I didn’t think I could be happy with her yet, not after what I’d seen from her. I might have been able to after talking with her about her family, but seeing her cry over my body like that, yes I remembered, just made it weird. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t know how to feel about her after that. Should I have felt happy around her or cared about her? She seemed to actually care about me, but I couldn’t feel the same about her, could I? She had still killed Little Doc, she still helped destroy Shanty.

“Get some sleep, Shayle. I’ll be right outside.”

I nodded and started to look away before I noticed something. Just before the door closed, I caught a glimpse of Minx’s glyph; something I hadn’t even bothered to care about before.

A pair of thick, curving lines that hooked over one another to form a heart.

Footnote: No Levels Earned

Authors Note: As usual, a huge thanks to both Kkat and Somber for writing Fallout Equestria and Project Horizons. Without Kkat’s story, this universe wouldn’t exist and I would live a sad and lonely life. I can’t thank her enough for making this world happen. And to Somber for expanding it and showing me that it was possible to expand and broaden that world into something even more amazing. Keep up the fantastic work on PH! Thank you again to Rattlesire and Doomande for making the cover of this story happen, you two are both awesome and I love you forever and ever. And of course thank you two my pre-readers for making sure this doesn’t completely suck, and to my readers for trying to continually convince me I don’t suck at this. Without you guys I would have given up a long LONG time ago, so thank you for keeping me going even though I’m nowhere near as good as you make it sound.