Chapter 17: Strangers – Part I
“The teensy weensy spider went up the water spout...”

Scalding water slapped my skin and surrounded me, licking feverishly at every bit of my coat and through it to burn at my body. My eyes stung and blinked uncontrollably, trying to push away the boiling water before it could steam them in my sockets. I could feel my coat starting to fall off in patches where the skin died and couldn’t hold it anymore, replaced by rippling, gleaming folds of pink.

From above I heard screams, the calls of misery and pain from so many, but I couldn’t tell who. I only saw blurs, all mixed together and blurred by the thrashing water all around me as I tried everything I could to reach the surface. I kicked, I flailed, and I pushed against the assaulting water to get higher, but no matter how hard I tried the faces seemed to move further and further away.

Panic whipped through my body when my vision started to thin between curtains of pulsing red, followed closely by shadows blacker than night. My chest screamed for air, just a quick breath to push back the tide of pain and worry, but every other part of my being argued against it. It would only kill me.

The curtains advanced moment by moment, hiding away the faces only a second after my eyes managed to make them out. First I saw Doc smiling down at me before the red surrounded her; starting at her neck oddly enough and twisting her face into a look of… disappointment?

Next was Charmer. She was smiling at first, a caring smile I had only ever seen from Shayle and occasionally Dad, the smile of someone who cares about you. But then it melted away as the red jumped across her face and burned the smile away into a scowl of distaste and misery. She disappeared after that, but left behind a blotch of black where one eye used to be; eternally open yet unable to share what it saw.

The curtain slowed and spread around the next face with some patience, though I wish it had never allowed me to see her. My legs stopped moving and allowed the blistering heat to do its work on my body; it felt wrong to try escaping the pain when she still suffered. Her mane was braided into the long dreadlocks I originally knew her for, and the same hurt yet lively glow glimmered behind her eyes. I couldn’t stand to look at her, but I couldn’t look away before I said one last thing to her, the thing I wanted to make sure she knew before she faded away. But all that came out were bubbles which welcomed the burning to my mouth and throat.

The red darkened and spread through the water around her face, obscuring her and leaving me with a dull ache against my ribs in the shape of two hooves.

I started kicking again, no longer able to argue with my lungs. They had convinced so much of my body that it was time to breathe again, and soon there would be nothing to stop them from getting their way. Finally, I could feel the surface getting closer, see the light above me starting to clear and reveal the last two faces above me.

They appeared together, both with fear and worry in their eyes as I fought to reach the surface. In unison, Shayle and Tinker bent down to me and pushed a hoof to the water, not seeming to care about the searing of their flesh. I kicked viciously to get closer, but then my legs stopped working, and I began falling back down, down into the abyss. My chest heaved and pulled in a torrent of water, burning my lungs and filling my body with the worst misery I had ever known. Above me, the zebra and the filly thrust themselves into the lake and reached as far as they could.

I felt their hooves scrap against my skin just before I dropped too low, too deep to save. I watched as the curtains folded shut over their faces in unison and took away the two mares I cared for most; all I had left.

It all just faded into red, and then darkness.

My heart was still thundering in my chest when I finally opened my eyes to the morning light; on dry land, much to my relief.

Beside me, Tinker snoozed quietly in a little ball that she always managed to curl into during the night, even if she had fallen asleep on her back. My head jerked away from the dirt and spun quickly to each corner of the room as if I was afraid someone would be dead or missing after the dream that still had my body shivering.

Even though I couldn’t feel the burning on my skin or the crushing helplessness in my chest anymore, the memory of what it felt like rattled around in my brain as if it had really happened and this was the dream. But no, I was awake. I knew I was, because Seer was gone, Doc was gone, and I was still in the little shack in the middle of nowhere.

Actually, Charmer was gone too, which normally wouldn’t worry me since she always seemed to be out of the shack by the time I woke up, but after that nightmare I was already on edge. My eyes darted to the door to see if she was just outside, but I didn’t catch her. I knew that she was probably just sitting nearby watching out into nothing for some reason, or making sure nobody had tried to sneak up in the night, but that one part of my brain that still believed the dream was at least a little real kept the worry alive.

In the last corner, Shayle still slept with our newest member laying up against her. Vulpe drooled a little in his sleep, and the dirt all around his hooves was pushed in random directions from where he had been kicking in the night, most likely due to nightmares. I wasn’t surprised after what he went through the day before.

My sister didn’t seem quite as bothered in her sleep. Actually, I could see a little smile at the corner of her mouth, something I can honestly say I didn’t see nearly enough from her, especially recently. Truthfully, I never saw it much from her back home either; she was either frowning, or most often she just looked lifeless. Like she didn’t care about anything around her. She would always perk up a little bit when we talked or spent time together, but actually seeing her smile was rare at best. Not to mention laughing; I could only remember about seven times in my life when I had ever heard her laugh, or even just giggle, and two of those were in the couple weeks it had been since we left home.

So it felt good to see her sleeping so well, even if I could never hope to guess how she managed to do so after what happened in Caesar’s Stand.

“Are you okay?” Tinker asked drowsily beside me. I looked down and realized that I must have woken her up in my panic.

“Yeah, sorry,” I told her and put my head back down beside hers, getting a small peck on the cheek.

Of course, that was the moment that Charmer walked in, and I watched as her face changed from some kind of neutral expression, to what a mother looks like whenever a baby yawns. Luckily, it didn’t come with her usual ‘awww’ of approval or whatever it was this time.

After about ten minutes of fluttering eyes and wide yawns while we lay together, everyone was awake and groggily starting to get up and conduct their morning business, whatever that meant for each of us aside from the more… obvious, acts.

Shayle busied herself with her mane, which apparently had become just a little too disheveled in the night, and was running her hooves through it to try straightening it out again. Until then, I got to chuckle a little at the sight of her hair sticking almost straight out to one side in spots from how she had been laying on it. Tinker didn’t seem to care about her mane and only shook the dirt away before leaving it messy and sticking every which way for the day.

Meanwhile, Charmer explained where we were going and why. Shayle either already knew all of it, or just didn’t care, because I don’t think she paid any attention. Even Vulpe seemed more interested than she was. Of course he was just staring at Charmer with a look that was mixed between some fear and wonder. Was she the first pony he’d ever seen, or was it just the burns? I didn’t know.

“He’s one of my mom’s old hunting buddies,” Charmer explained and brushed a rock out of her coat. “So hopefully he didn’t decide to move anywhere, and actually has some advice for us.” Apparently, we were looking for old ponies from her past to get us to a new town.

She called it ‘Gold’s Corral’, which I didn’t really remember hearing anywhere despite Shayle trying to remind me that the mayor of Shanty told us about it. From what she said, they generally don’t care if you’re a zebra, a pony, or anyone as long as you don’t cause any trouble in town, which sounded like the perfect place for our little group to settle in without splitting up. I just hoped it was actually like that, and not just rumors that had been lost in translation.

“And you remember how to reach the town?” Tinker asked.

“Yeah, I moved around that side of the city all the time as a filly, so unless Bunker up and moved, we’ll find it.” She sounded confident, so I didn’t doubt her. But I was starting to become curious about why she moved around so much as a filly. Maybe it had something to do with her mom’s work as a hunter; at least I think that’s what Charmer said about her. “So whenever everyone is ready, we should get going. We’ve got about two days walking from here to reach it.”

Shayle looked away from her mane at that. “Do we have enough food for that?”

“Yes, we have plenty after yesterday,” I told her. “I didn’t lose it.”

“Okay, just making sure,” she told me and smiled before returning to her mane.

Tinker snickered a little and stood up to walk outside with Charmer, her bags already packed up with some snacks and a whole lot of random junk. Of course, she picked up the can-alarms from our doorway before she left and tied them around her neck like a necklace that constantly clanged around while she walked. Hopefully she would figure out that it was really annoying and put them elsewhere.

Otherwise we were in for a long day of walking.

Charmer’s body nearly disappeared against the riverbank where she was laying and trying to peek over the side without being noticed; at least from our side. With a fire going, and the half of her face that had a tendency to shimmer in the dancing light, I worried that she would be seen by the cluster of travelers no more than 10 meters away. Thankfully nobody down below shot at her, or even seemed to notice at all.

Our trip out to the same cart we had stayed in on our last trip south of the river went smoothly, with very little conversation or even acknowledgement that we knew each other. Sure, we stayed close together, but anyone watching from the outside would have thought we were a cluster of strangers just heading to the same place. I always stayed close to Tinker while we walked, for some reason feeling more comfortable while she was nearby than when she wasn’t. I couldn’t really understand the feeling, but I didn’t mind it or want to push it away; it was a good feeling.

Vulpe rode on Shayle’s back almost the entire way, and honestly seemed really bored the whole time. I occasionally caught a glance of him tapping my sister on the shoulder or whispering something to her, but I never did figure out why. She would just quietly tell him something or pull a little snack out of her bag that he would look at for a second and maybe take a nibble from. He didn’t really seem hungry though, he just didn’t have anything to do.

Charmer on the other hoof stayed to herself at the front of our group with Seer’s old rifle slung over her chest just in case something or someone decided to make a move on us. I almost wanted to try talking with her while we walked, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. ‘Hey, how are your scars doing?’ seemed really inappropriate, even if I was technically the medical zebra out of us. Besides, no matter what she said there was nothing I could have done to make it better for her, so it would probably just be a painful reminder that she was permanently disfigured.

By the time we finally reached our rest stop for the night, only a little later than usual after we all slept longer than we wanted to, the light of day was long gone. Luckily, that was probably the only reason we spotted the dancing light of the fire already burning in the river where we usually camped, and the sound of cheery and familiar chatting around it. Some part of me wanted to walk straight down to the fire and join in, but that spark of an idea was suffocated by every other bit of my brain. Even if they were friendly and didn’t instantly kill me, I honestly wasn’t in a mood to join in such happy conversation; and I doubted anyone else walking around me was either.

Charmer shimmied back to us on her belly with her head low and marked with confusion. Her tail barely caught the flickering orange light over the edge of the riverbed, glowing eerily as it waved back and forth before she settled back into the little circle we had all formed. All of us looked at her questioningly and hoped for good news, or at least news that it wasn’t something dangerous.

“From what I can tell, it’s just a caravan,” the green mare explained in a whisper. “But I don’t know why they’re this far north.”

I raised an eyebrow to her and leaned in, not sure why that was weird. “Do caravans not come up this way often?”

“Not pony caravans. They tend to stay south of the river, away from anywhere they might run into the Remnant.” She shook her head and nodded back toward the river bank. “We could try talking to them, or avoid them if you think it’s too dangerous.” From the sound in her voice, it sounded like she would prefer talking to them, but I couldn’t really tell in such a quiet tone.

“I say we give it a chance,” I offered. After all, if Charmer thought it was just a caravan, I believed her.

“And what if they’re slavers or someone else unfriendly?” Tinker pointed out. “They outnumber us, right?” She looked over to Charmer for clarification, who drowsily nodded in the affirmative.

“Where else would we go?” I argued. “I would rather not wander around at night or sleep in the open.” I knew we had done it before, but so far our stays in the destroyed cart had been safe and without incident.

“I agree with Tinker,” Shayle added quietly. “We wouldn’t be able to fight back very well.”

“But if they are friendly they could help,” I continued to demand. “Safety in numbers.”

“But they might not be.” Tinker huffed and dragged her hoof in the dirt. “And we have no way to be sure.”

“I could just go ask,” I suggested. “If they shoot at me, just shoot back and I’ll run away. It’s worth a try.”

“Or it might not be,” my sister insisted. “Another ten minutes of walking to stay safe isn’t so bad.”

“No, I’m going to talk to them,” I declared and stood, making up my mind regardless of what the others thought. Maybe it was a bad idea, but it might make us some new friends and get us a bigger group to travel with through an area that was decidedly dangerous for zebras. Another thing I failed to consider might get me shot by the group of strangers, but in the end seemed like more of a benefit if they didn’t want to kill us right away.

Shayle tried to argue against it and even went as far as pulling back on my tail to stop me, but I just ignored it. I could make my own decisions, and I was getting really tired of her constantly trying to control what I did. It hadn’t helped us at all so far, and I wasn’t going to just do what she said because she thought it was the safe or right choice.

The only thing that almost stopped me was the barely visible sight of Tinker’s worried face watching me go; the same face that she’d given me back in New Oatleans when I sprinted off to try saving Charmer. A pang of guilt hit me from her gaze, but I turned away from it, knowing that trying to be civil was the right choice. Well, hoping it was, there was no way of knowing anything in the Wasteland it seemed, but I wasn’t going to just sit back and assume the worst all the time. That was Shayle’s job, not mine.

Charmer just shrugged and put the bite of Seer’s rifle in her mouth to cover me, but I couldn’t tell if it was because she agreed or if she didn’t want to argue. I imagined it was the former, after all she didn’t seem to think the caravan was much trouble, otherwise she would have said something about it or tried to stop me. So I nodded to her and walked over to the edge of the river, took a deep breath and slid down the side to the sandy bottom.

As soon as I hit the loose bottom, every face around the fire turned to me with suspicious scowls. A few guns were pulled from beside the ponies gathered around, most of them gripped in clouds of glittering magic as the almost completely unicorn filled group prepared to fight.

But they didn’t shoot right away, instead they just glared and loaded their weapons with loud clacks that sent shivers down my spine and images of my hole-filled corpse flying through my head. I didn’t dare step closer, partly because it seemed stupid in the situation, but mostly because fear of death froze every muscle in my body and demanded I stay still.

The urge to run back out of the river flowed over me like a wave of boiling water, but I stood strong through it and cleared my throat, determined to go through with my decision. “Please don’t shoot.” I couldn’t control it, I had to say it. I don’t know why it seemed like the first thing I should say; maybe the sight of more than a couple guns aimed my way put the thought in my head, but at least it got my desire not to die across quickly. I hadn’t even realized that my butt was pressing into the side of the river as my body subconsciously tried to get as far away from the threat as possible.

“Why not?” one of the ponies snapped, but I couldn’t tell which. It sounded like a stallion’s voice, but my head was buzzing and flooding my ears with a whooshing sound that wouldn’t go away.

“Because I don’t have a gun,” I stammered and tried to calm down, but failed.

“So what? You might start doing that zebra kung-fu stuff,” another pony pointed out; a raspy, young voice that sounded a tad feminine. At the word ‘zebra’ another pony rose from behind the group and a shiver tore down my spine. She was tall, too tall, almost standing two heads over the rest of the group, and her eyes gleamed with rage as she looked over me.

I almost didn’t see the hoof jab into a young mare’s side before the older sounding voice returned, my eyes locked on the threatening mare behind the wall of guns. It was from a rough looking stallion near the middle of the group, and apparently someone in charge. “What do you want?”

“Me and my friends are just looking for somewhere to camp out,” I hesitantly explained, slightly encouraged by the fact that I was still alive. “We don’t want to fight.”

“How do we know you ain’t lying?” the younger mare probed and jabbed her teal-shrouded gun at me. It looked pretty beat up and had more than its share of tape around almost every bit of it, but I didn’t doubt it could still do its job. My ears perked at the sound of Charmer flicking the safety off the rifle somewhere behind me.

I paused at that, not exactly sure how I could guarantee them that we wouldn’t attack them, even though I knew that we wouldn’t, I wasn’t sure how I could make them believe it. Unfortunately, I had to try and just hope that they would take my word for it. Caesar, I hoped they would. “I promise we won’t do anything to hurt you,” I offered and tried to look as non-threatening as possible.

The ponies just stared at me for a few more seconds that felt like an eternity before one of the rifles lowered to a rest in the sand beside the stallion I assumed was in charge. The others took notice and followed suit one at a time, until finally the teal magic around the battered gun finally faded and the anxious mare gave up.

“How many do you have?” the stallion asked and waved me over, much to my relief. Charmer stood up behind me and called to the others, and the tension in my body released.

“Just five,” I told him and walked forward. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, kid.” He held out his hoof when I got close enough and half-grinned. “Rust Bucket.”

“Felix,” I introduced myself and shook his hoof before looking back to find the others already jumping down into the riverbed. “This is Charmer, Tinker, Shayle and Vulpe.”

“Good to meet you all.” He nodded to each of the others and turned to his own group, which was slightly bigger than I originally thought.

Pointing at each, he listed their names. “Misty, Brand, Sun Dried, Splinter, Fog Horn, Diamond, Lace, Starry Night…” Most of the ponies nodded or waved to us when their name was called, with three exceptions. Misty, the juvenile mare who still looked like she wanted to shoot me, just huffed and looked away from us, her taped up shotgun leaning into her side just in case; and Starry Night, the horrifyingly tall unicorn who I just realized had designs all over her body, had backed up to the fire but was still glaring at me with eyes of fire.

The last was a very, very excited mare who jumped away from the fire and ran at Shayle with a squeal and almost gave me a heart attack. Charmer’s rifle was up in a heartbeat, but my sister barely seemed to care. I think she was actually smiling? I figured it out when I realized the pony running at her was wearing the same jacket.

“Sandy!” the pony yelled and threw her hooves around Shayle’s neck joyously. The zebra twitched a little at the gesture, but returned it regardless. I think she may have flinched more from the swollen row of poorly done stitches than ran from the Stable Pony’s left temple around the back of her head to end at her right ear.

“And I guess you already know Sandy,” Rust Bucket finished.

“We’ve met,” Shayle confirmed with a happy nod and stepped away from the Stable pony who spun around and stood beside her.

“So what are you zebras doing down this way?” he asked once everyone had been announced. “Shouldn’t you be up north in your big city?”

“Uh, we had to leave.” I skirted a more detailed reason for our leaving and scratched my neck. “We’re on our way to a town in the south. Why are you so far north?”

“Just got here,” he stated. “We’re running a caravan through the towns down here to trade.”

“So you’re from somewhere else?” Charmer asked curiously.

“Yup, all over. A few of us are from Coltchester, but the rest we picked up along the way,” he explained.

“Sandy!” the strange stable pony chimed in excitedly.

“She’s the newest,” Rust commented in mild irritation. “Still don’t know what’s wrong with her, doesn’t say anything except what I assume is her name.”

“She’s a dipshit,” Misty added.

“She’s a clone,” Shayle corrected angrily.

“A dipshit clone,” Misty persisted, not seeming to care about the whole ‘clone’ concept. Everyone else at least looked at the pony with strange stares and some whispered to each other. The rest of us didn’t really care though, we’d gotten through the whole ‘clone’ thing when Shayle first told us the story about what happened in the Stable, so I was able to ignore it and jump in on the conversation.

“So you’re traders?” I quickly asked, trying to get away from a possible incident.

“We are now. Better than sitting around and waiting to die,” one of the others, a mare that I think was Lace replied. “At least now we have jobs.”

“What she means to say,” Rust broke in. “Is that before this job we were all wanderers who would probably be dead by the end of the week. Thank the Goddesses, Starry Night over there has a thing for giving desperate ponies work.” So apparently he wasn’t in charge, but if she was so helpful, why did she look like she wanted to kill us?

“How did she find you all?” Shayle asked and sat down with Sandy following suite soon after.

“We just bumped into her,” he told us. “She offered us good pay if we helped her with her trade business, mostly as guards.”

“This is a lot of guards for one caravan,” Charmer commented. “Aren’t you worried about drawing unwanted attention?”

“So far we’ve been lucky,” Misty pointed out. “Only one band of raiders tried to mess with us, and they didn’t last long.”

“You all know how to fight?” Charmer asked. “Or did you just get lucky?”

“A little of both,” the mare continued. “All of us know how to shoot, the Wasteland teaches that pretty quick,” she pointed out and looked at Charmer like she should already know that. “But Starry did most of the work.”

Charmer raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t question it. “So where are you heading?”

“Right now? Some place called Bunker. Starry says it’s probably got the most need for trading,” the unicorn explained and moved a lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes. “Apparently they don’t get out much.”

“No, they don’t,” Charmer confirmed.

I tried to keep paying attention to the conversation, but it travelled off somewhere that didn’t really interest me anymore. Charmer and the two most talkative from the new crew kept talking about the town, seeming unsure of whether or not it was such a good idea for us to all travel together since we were conveniently heading to the same place. I didn’t know if it was because she didn’t trust them, or if she found it too convenient. But I didn’t really try to figure it out.

I got distracted from it by Shayle and Sandy behind me, apparently bored of the conversation before myself and talking alone. Well, Shayle was talking. Sandy was doing a lot of moving around and acting out things that I couldn’t really put together along with sound effects that vaguely sounded like guns.

I was distracted from that by Tinker leaning into my side. “Should we get to bed?” she asked quietly. “I’m a little tired.”

Honestly, that sounded like a good idea, and it wasn’t like I had any reason to stay awake. So I nodded to her and smiled, happily standing up to go find a place where we could curl up together.

The land around us had quickly blended into a sheet of greyish brown once we turned off the main road, taking us off the course we once took to reach Celestia’s Rose. I shivered a little when we trotted by the still gaping hole in the ground where I had been pushed into the cave where Stable 81 was hidden, but it didn’t last long. I don’t think Sandy even knew what it was when we saw it, and if she did there was nothing to give it away on her face. All around us was nothing but dirt, and loose dirt, along with a narrow dirt path that was leading us toward the bumps of some hills in the distance.

In every direction nothing moved above ground with us, taking shelter from the relative heat from the bare Wasteland floor. I think normal zebras would consider that a good thing; it meant we weren’t really in danger of getting shot at, and if someone decided to try jumping us we would see them for miles. However, I must not be a normal zebra, because I was begging for something to move around and draw my thoughts away from what they refused to let me ignore. Even if it was just for a moment, it was one less moment with the memories of blood and fire.

From the ghoul attacks, to the destroyed towns smoldering around me, to the ponies and zebras I had watched die everywhere I went; it all replayed in my mind like a recording that had been edited to only show the worst bits of my time in the Wasteland. The blood glowed a brilliant red among the otherwise subdued world that existed in my mind, only rivaled in clarity by the look in the eyes of the dead I had seen. Doc’s fear as the blood spilled over her chest, Strike’s sadness after dying before he got the chance to go the last step with his love, the horrible acceptance in the amber eyes of the unlucky guard who found me near Spur…

My thoughts rarely made it past that point, kept away from the more recent memories by the regular bumps against my side from Sandy as if she didn’t know how to walk in a straight line. Even when she wasn’t pressed briefly to my side, she seemed to zig and zag between me and the roadside, sometimes going that one extra step to hit me. I could never tell if it was on purpose or if she was distracted by something I was unable to see, but honestly it never annoyed me. In fact, I often found myself internally thanking the pony for her clumsy stumbling against me; a welcome reprieve from the daydreaming that seemed to be constant if I walked anywhere for a length of time.

Of course I doubted I would be so open to the contact from anyone else in the group aside from Felix and maybe Charmer, but definitely not from any of the caravan ponies we’d met the night before. I think it might have been because I knew Sandy, sort of, after our meeting in her Stable a week or so before and nothing about her gave the impression she would do anything to hurt me if she could help it. Her and her, uh, ‘sisters’ had been nothing but nice to me during my stay there, which surprised me at the time after seeing all of the corpses, but in the end I think it was one of the greatest moments I’d experienced since leaving home. That made her one of the only ponies I actually felt completely comfortable and safe around, the others being Charmer and formerly Strike.

But that might have had something to do with that fact that she didn’t plan on killing me or try to shoot me as soon as she saw me. I’m not saying that I hated Charmer just because she tried to beat me to death when we first met, that was just a misunderstanding that we had since forgotten about and let go; plus I was trying to do the same to her, so I couldn’t really hold it against her.

Which was probably why I was so happy to see Sandy again, even if I wasn’t sure exactly which one it was; she was a friend. Naturally, when I first saw her I wondered why she wasn’t in her stable, especially with a brand new gash across her head, but since then I had decided I would probably never know. Even after her attempts to tell the story through a long and confusing game of charades, complete with sound effects, all I had figured out was that there was some shooting, some robots, and she got hit in the head by something. Regardless of what she had gone through that put her out in the Wasteland, I was glad to see the eccentric clone alive and well, and happy that she remembered who I was.

On my other side, Vulpe spent most of the day trotting briskly to keep up. I had asked if he wanted me to carry him more than once, but each time he had insisted that he could walk by himself for one day; complete with a proud puff of his chest for a few minutes after the claim. It was cute to see, and I was glad that he appeared to be coping with his mother’s death better than I thought he would, but at the same time it was a somber contrast to Sandy’s naïve joy. So I let him do as he wished, and stopped asking after a while. I still needed to nudge him along once or twice when walking beside him dropped us just a little further behind the group than I wanted to, but he did really good.

At the front of our small group, the caravan ponies talked almost constantly along with Felix, Tinker and Charmer about just about everything they could think of. They all took turns pulling the big carts that Starry’s goods were in, but the job hardly stopped them from staying active in the conversations going on. They didn’t really look like they agreed with Seer’s old obsession with staying quiet and on alert. In fact, the only one who didn’t join in was the purple unicorn up front who ran the trade outfit; and she actually became a bit of a distraction for me.

Between bumps and nightmares I would always sneak a peek or two her way, not to admire her too-short mane or anything, I just liked the scars all over her legs and neck. At first they didn’t seem too special, I actually thought she had just gotten in a really bad fight or lit on fire, but after a few glances at the mare I figured out she was covered in designs that had been burned into her skin. I couldn’t tell what most of them were since they seemed to just be curls and hook shapes around her limbs, but I figured out one or two unique ones. Personally, I couldn’t understand why she would subject herself to being burned like that just so she could look tough or whatever, but I also didn’t care to ask her about it.

Mostly because I didn’t trust her or her coworkers yet. And that wasn’t helped at all by the fact that Vulpe, Felix and I were shunned by most of the group at first. Tinker and Charmer were happily pulled into conversations, but only a couple of the traders bothered to try talking with me or my brother until Felix started trying to join in on his own. I just stayed out of it entirely.

Another dream and another flank-bump from Sandy pulled my attention back out of my own thoughts and to the real world. Apparently my most recent day-nightmare had been a long one, because suddenly the hills that used to be in the distance were on either side of us, looming ominously in the faded light of dusk. Vulpe had since slowed and started leaning against my tail while we walked, which I guess I had started using to help him keep walking at some point.

On an unrelated note; a quick peek at Starry Night revealed that the branding behind her left ear was a tulip, I think.

Charmer slowed down a little bit and fell away from the caravaneers before staying beside me. “We’re almost there, keep your guard up,” she told me quietly and started checking her rifle for some reason.

When she told us we were looking for her friend, I didn’t think it would involve going to a town where she actually had her rifle loaded and ready for a fight. Maybe on the way there, but she hadn’t even picked the thing up during out entire walk, so her sudden worry about possibly needing it didn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Deciding she must have a good reason, I quickly thought back and took a quick look in the chamber of my shotgun to make sure it was loaded.

Luckily, my sudden paranoia managed to keep my thoughts from drifting for a little while so my eyes could scan the hilltops around us. I fully expected someone or something to jump up and attack us at any second, I just didn’t know what. Hopefully nothing big or another horde of ghouls, I’d had enough of those things.

Apparently, the hilltops weren’t what I should worry about, because without warning a series of pops broke the relative silence of our group and tendrils of dark purple smoke reached out to coil around us. The caravan disappeared from my view and the smoke fogged the sight of my friends while it stung my eyes and burned down my throat. I heard Sandy and Tinker squeal in surprise, and of course felt Sandy back into me, while Vulpe tugged violently at my tail to be picked up. I quickly turned and lifted him to my back before pulling my shotgun out; ready for a fight with whoever had been waiting for us.

A cacophony of clanging metal and surprised yells filled the air while the caravan ponies started pulling their own weapons out and presumably looking for our attackers, but I didn’t hear any gunshots yet. In response, a violent and aggressive voice blasted over us with the order to drop our weapons. I couldn’t tell where it came from, it seemed to come from everywhere at once, so I started looking around randomly and clamped down tighter on the grip of my shotgun.

My teeth ached by the time the order was repeated, this time complete with a threat. “Drop them now, or we will open fire!”

The part of my brain that demanded survival opened my jaw and dropped the gun, which smacked the dirt road loudly. One by one I heard other weapons drop to the ground, and I started to wonder if that was a good idea. When the smoke started to clear away, Charmer was sitting down a little ways in front of me with her rifle on the ground neatly, seeming to be waiting for something. The others looked panicked like I was and looked around frantically, one or two still holding guns.

A mechanical whirring filled the air, and the last two guns I could see dropped instantly. I turned up to one of the hilltops to see what had prompted such a quick reaction, and was met with the sight of what was likely the biggest stallion I’d seen in my life, with an equally big gun strapped on his side. I didn’t know what it did, I didn’t want to know what it did, but the cluster of spinning barrels was more than enough to convince me that I was about to die.

The death-machine toting pony began sweeping the gun over our heads menacingly once the smoke was all gone, and I instinctively crouched down while anticipation of something bad happening filled the air around me. While this happened, the omnipresent voice from before yelled out again, still demanding we drop our weapons. I started to think it was a fake, but then I looked over and saw Starry standing in the center of the road with some kind of strange, boxy rifle floating beside her face and pointed at the big stallion.

“Tell him to stop pointing that at us, and I will,” the branded unicorn ordered defensively and kept her gun up, unwavering. I saw a few of her friends looking over and visually pleading for her to just listen. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t too.

A tense silence fell over the road, bothered only by the whirring of the death-gun pointing down on us and the hammering of my own heart as all eyes locked on Starry. For some reason, I didn’t think that the markings all over her body were just to look tough anymore, and I hoped that she could back up her stubbornness if it came to that.

“Put it down, or he starts shooting,” the voice came again, but this time only from one side of us; over where the big pony was.

At first, Starry just kept aiming at him and didn’t move at all, and that feeling that something very bad was about to happen intensified. I crouched a little lower and prepared to jump away with Vulpe if the spinning barrels opened up, just hoping that he would know to hold on and that I would be fast enough to get away.

A few seconds later the whirring grew louder and the barrels sped up as the big pony braced himself. Charmer leaned forward a little, ready to grab her rifle, while the caravan ponies continued to stare at Starry as if confused by the display that was about to get us killed. Thankfully the white-shrouded rifle lowered and floated to the ground gently, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief at the lack of bullets flying through us.

Hoofsteps cracked through the dirt behind us and we all turned to see a unicorn with her face hidden in a checkered scarf stepping into view. “Good girl,” she proudly told Starry before looking at each of us and the carts. “What are you all doing out here?” she demanded. The gun looking over us was still spinning, and I didn’t doubt that if we did anything stupid it would start shooting. I just hoped that Starry was done with whatever that was.

“We’re just traders,” Rust Bucket quickly blurted out. “We aren’t looking for any trouble.”

“Traders huh?” The shrouded mare asked and stepped to the nearest cart to take a look inside. “Why do you have so many guards, Mr. Trader?” she asked, but it sounded like she was on the other side of us suddenly.

“Call us paranoid,” Misty piped and crossed her hooves over her chest. “Some assholes like to shoot caravans.”

The scarf-covered face snapped up to Misty and scowled, I think. “Shut it, Missy. If we wanted to shoot you, we wouldn’t have warned you.” The mare walked across the street to the hill where her overwatch was waiting and spun around before magically pulling the cloth off her muzzle. The big gun stopped spinning, and I stood back up from the low crouch I was still in, trying to ignore the aching in my legs for holding the position so long.

“Okay, follow me to town if you want,” the mare announced unceremoniously and turned away from us, down a path between two hills. “Just don’t use any of those guns near me.”

Charmer was the first one up and moving with her rifle haphazardly slung, apparently in some kind of hurry to catch up with the abrasive pony and talk with her; probably something about her friend. Assuming we were going to the right place that is. The rest of us all started picking up our own guns, or screwdriver in Sandy’s case, and following along. Three of the caravan ponies switched out with the previous pullers to finish out the trip, and Felix leaned over to make sure Tinker was okay. I didn’t know what had happened, but she was limping a little bit on her first few steps toward the path.

Vulpe poked his head up next to mine from where he sat on my back and watched the path while we walked, apparently just as curious about where we were going as I was. When Charmer said we were going to a town, I didn’t expect something hidden in the hills.

I also didn’t expect a concrete shed five minutes away from the road. I wanted to think it was just a gate, but it was just sitting in a clearing barely big enough for all of us to gather in between the hills. For some reason, I started to imagine that the ‘town’ of Bunker was just the scarf wearing mare and the really big stallion living in the box and calling it a town to scare off smaller bandit groups. That quickly changed to four ponies crammed together in the bunker with barely any personal space when two more guards stepped out the front door and started welcoming us to town; starting with Charmer.

Our group quickly turned into a line at the door, which confused me at first. I was about to ask what was happening when I saw the guards taking away everyone’s guns before allowing them into the little bunker. Apparently there was a staircase inside, because I just barely caught the sight of Misty’s mane dipping underground.

“This is the only way in?” a disgruntled Starry Night asked a few feet away from me.

“Yes, this is it,” the pony who led us to town replied flatly.

“How am I supposed to get my stuff inside? You don’t expect us to start carrying it all down there do you?” She didn’t sound happy at all.

“Just set up here. We’ll let the townsfolk know you’re here and send them up,” the scarf-wearing pony suggested.

Starry said something after that, something less than pleased with the suggestion, but I didn’t hear exactly what it was because someone was tearing the shotgun off of my back and starting to rip open my bag. My head spun to see what was going on, and I caught one of the guards throwing all of my stuff onto the ground with his magic, and he growled something about a ‘contraband check’. That was weird enough considering I didn’t see them doing that for any of the ponies ahead of me, let alone throwing their stuff all across the field. “Get out of my bag,” I snapped and pulled away from him.

“Either I check your bag, or you don’t go inside, Stripe,” he countered venomously before shrouding my bag in his magic and yanking them off. Either he didn’t see Vulpe looking at him, or he just didn’t care that the colt was on my back. Whichever one it was, I didn’t care, because he still got hit in the head by one of the bags, and he still fell off of me and into the dirt.

Everything turned red, and I couldn’t remember what happened. What I did remember was my left forehoof throbbing and held up against my chest, and I was staring down at the guard while he writhed on the floor and held his hooves up to one eye. That was about the time I realized I had probably done something very, very bad. I didn’t actually remember exactly what I did, but I doubted it really mattered to the guard who ran up on my other side and swung his rifle like a bat.

Before I could react, everything went white and my head started screaming in pain where the muzzle cracked against my skull.

The next thing I knew I was sprawled out on the ground and couldn’t shake the feeling that I was about to vomit. Over me I heard a lot of yelling, some guns being loaded, and some blurry shapes and bodies starting to show up as the daze wore off. A lot of unfamiliar faces swirled over me at first, but then they melded into just two of them – a guard pointing a gun at my face and Vulpe staring at me with a worried look.

I turned my head to look up at whoever was yelling, and found myself looking right at Felix’s butt, from the look of the glyph on its side. I dropped my head again and tried to ignore the pain still thumping through it, but it wasn’t working very well. The place where I had been hit throbbed with every heartbeat, sending waves of pain through my skull that seemed to be getting worse.

“Are you okay?” I vaguely understood Vulpe ask and nodded up to him. Then I winced when my head protested against that movement.

After hearing him, I could still hear the guard I hit screaming while they pulled him over to the town’s entrance, and I actually grinned a little at that; because I wasn’t screaming like a newborn filly. I really, really wanted to, but something inside me kept saying ‘no screaming’.

After that, I finally got to hear some of whatever yelling was happening above me, but I missed most of it. “-cause any trouble. Just let her-” Felix started, I think, I couldn’t tell how long he’d been talking, but he was cut off.

“Out of the question, you saw what she did,” the mare who led us up to Bunker replied sternly. I wanted to look up and see their faces, but I didn’t want to provoke my throbbing head further.

“He started it though, that was completely-” Felix tried to argue again but suddenly stopped.

“I don’t care. She can’t come in, and that’s final.”

Somewhere in my screaming and confused head, the pieces started to click together and I figured out that I’d managed to get myself banned from going inside. Which meant I had to stay in the middle of nowhere by myself.

“Where’s she supposed to go? She can’t stay here by herself,” Felix argued and stepped forward. “Just keep her under guard or something if you’re that worried.”

“No. Rules are rules, and she broke a big one. She can stay out here and guard your fucking carts if you want, but she’s not going inside.”

“I’ll stay with her,” a voice suddenly called out over the argument and turned everyone’s attention to one side. Except for mine anyways. “I need to wait for customers anyways,” the semi-familiar voice of Starry Night explained. Perfect, the crazy pony was going to stay with me while I could barely think straight.

“I’ll stay too,” Felix quickly offered, gaining a little snort of displeasure from Tinker.

“No, you need to help Charmer find her friend,” I slurred and tried to look up at him, luckily not receiving a surge of extra pain. Why did I say it though?

“Are you sure?” he asked worriedly. “I don’t mind staying to look at your head,” he pointed out and frowned.

“I’ll be fine,” I told him and tried to look fine, but probably just looked stupid. “I just need to lay down for a little bit.” He didn’t stop frowning, but he didn’t argue either.

He put a hoof on my shoulder gently and told me to be safe, then turned with Tinker and walked to the door with a guard in tow. Apparently I had made it so he couldn’t be trusted to go anywhere alone, which really didn’t help me feel any better about hitting that guard.

Probably because I didn’t feel bad about it.

As soon as he was out of sight, I scrunched up my nose and tried to think of why I was suddenly okay with him going anywhere without me, especially a town that neither of us knew and was apparently unfriendly with zebras. I tried to figure it out for a few seconds, but quickly settled on the recent head injury that I had gotten. Besides, I was quickly more troubled by Vulpe’s face still looking down at me instead of inside with my brother, Tinker and Charmer where it was probably safer than out in the Wasteland in the quickly approaching nighttime.

“You don’t want to go inside?” I asked him and rolled onto my belly. My head didn’t argue too much, so I decided to stay there for a little bit.

He shook his head and frowned. “Too many ponies.”

I frowned a little at that, but I couldn’t really argue with him if that’s what his reason was. And even if I could, it’s not like I had a way to send him inside anymore. Well, unless Sandy took him, because she was standing next to me still, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to send a clone who couldn’t say anything except her name and a colt who didn’t want to go inside anyways into the town alone. So I supposed they were just going to stay outside with Starry and me.

Which actually made me feel quite a bit better about the entire situation, aside from my worries about Vulpe being out at night that is. I felt safe enough with Starry, who was apparently more than capable of defending herself if the other caravaneers and her display earlier were real and not just a show. As long as she didn’t plan on killing me and my friends herself anyways, but I had started to really doubt that. If she really wanted to kill us, her and the rest of her group could have done that at any time during the day while we travelled together without much of a fight. I still didn’t fully trust her, but at least I felt like I might survive around her.

Especially considering the xenophobic guards who were close enough to throw a rock at probably wouldn’t even consider helping me if someone decided I looked like an easy target in the middle of the night.

“Sandy?” the clone asked and looked down at me confused, like she couldn’t figure out why I was still laying down.

“Fine,” I grumbled, stood up, and tried to ignore the sudden throb of my head from the effort.

I barely made it down the stairs before a hoof smacked against the back of my head and nearly sent me stumbling to my haunches. It didn’t hurt too bad, but it was enough to make me wonder what just happened. I quickly spun my head to one side and then the other, but realized the only pony nearby was Tinker and her angry-pouty look. I didn’t understand how she managed it, but it was pretty good at making me feel bad about whatever it was that I did.

“Why?” I asked her and rubbed the sore spot on the back of my head.

“You know why,” she snapped and kept staring at me with that horrible look.

“No I don’t,” I told her and started to panic and think back to whatever it was that I did upstairs to upset her. “Just tell me what I did, please?”

“You offered to stay upstairs instead of coming down here to help Charmer and me,” she explained. “And she already had that unicorn and weird clone girl to help her.”

“I just wanted to make sure she was okay,” I told her and tried to look apologetic. “And make sure she stayed safe. I didn’t think it was such a big deal.” It wasn’t right? Because honestly it made sense with our track record for getting into fights and Shayle getting hurt. And no, the argument upstairs didn’t count as a fight as far as I was concerned, even if I’m pretty sure Shayle might have permanently damaged that stallion’s eye.

“Just think about it a little more next time, okay? We might need your help too,” she pointed out and pressed her cheek against mine, apparently feeling a little better after getting her thoughts out and smacking me. “Now let’s go find Charmer, goof.”

I smiled and nodded before walking alongside her down a narrow hallway that opened up onto an equally narrow and worryingly creaky catwalk, but what the metal path hung over is what almost stopped me in my tracks. It looked like the entire town was contained in the one massive room we looked down over, a room that looked like it was a warehouse rather than a bunker. A quick thought jumped up in my mind at the warehouse idea, but I pushed it away before I got too worried.

Dozens of homes and businesses were scattered throughout the room in no particular order, all appearing to be built from old machinery of some kind, yet each one managing to look somewhat unique from the others. Some were adorned with shining cogs or computer parts to stand out, while others looked like they may have just been put together with the nearest pieces to cut down on building time. None looked like they were rusted at all, which confused me until I realized that the entire space was filled by the undying hum of some kind of ventilation. The entire place must have been self-contained and filtered with fresh air somehow; which I guess made sense for a bunker made during a war that had both sides making horrible weapons of every kind, but what kind of bunker needed that much space?

Between the structures, ponies gathered around old barrels with brilliant fires burning away in them, chatting and visiting with one another as night approached. Not that they could tell, the entire place was lit by an array of powerful lights that hung from the ceiling rather than any natural light source. I wondered what they did if a light burned out and they needed a new bulb, but didn’t think too far into it. Above those where the vents that must fill the place with air, continuously purring as they did their work.

Tinker nudged me softly while I admired the town and pointed down the catwalk to a green hoof waving us over. Apparently I had stopped walking at some point, and quickly apologized. Tinker just rolled her eyes and pressed against me while we walked, trying to stay on one side while ponies in grease coated coveralls talked in front of an open panel in the wall.

While we made our way to Charmer, the room snapped and screamed with an earsplitting whine from overhead, which was quickly replaced by a buzz of static. I looked down and saw every head turn upward before a raspy voice replaced the static. “Attention. All citizens of Bunker should be aware that a trade caravan has arrived in town.” The voice paused for a moment, and I could faintly hear a few voices talking about something in the background before it started again. “Those wishing to trade are welcome to exit the town and visit with the trader waiting just outside the door under watch of the guards. Please be polite to our visitors… including the Stripes with them,” the announcement finished sourly and the buzzing cut off.

And I officially felt very unwelcome.

At first only a few ponies below us started to move toward the stairways and catwalks, but others followed along after taking a few more moments to take in more heat from the fires or wave goodbye to their friends who didn’t need to talk with Starry upstairs. I looked away and up to Charmer, who we had finally reached and looked a little jittery.

“Enjoying the sights?” she asked us with a little grin.

I nodded and grinned back, then looked to Tinker to see what she thought. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem to care much, and just shrugged about the houses made from machines. I thought she would love that, but apparently I was wrong.

“Not impressed with the place?” Charmer asked her and led us toward one of the stairwells to get down to the floor.

“It’s neat, but they could at least try to make their houses walk or something with all this machinery,” she pointed out. “Maybe I’ll stay here and work on that,” she suggested and looked at me with a devilish grin.

“I’m sure they’d love all the noise you would make,” I joked and wondered if she was actually considering it.

“Not as much as they would love my zebra roommate,” she countered and winked at me. My face started to feel warm at the idea, and some part of me actually hoped she was being serious. She snorted and bumped against my side softly. “Relax, I’m just kidding. I’d rather not live in an underground box.”

I grinned and nodded in agreement, even if I did kind of like the idea of living with her. But Shayle would need to be there too, and she wasn’t really allowed in Bunker anymore. Plus, she would probably try to bring Vulpe along since she seemed a bit too attached to the little colt already, something that I probably needed to talk to her about.

“So where’s Shayle?” Charmer asked as if she could read my mind.

“She hit a guard,” I explained briefly. “Got banned from coming inside.”

The burned pony shook her head and kept walking. “Surprise,” she sarcastically groaned. “At least she’s not in jail or something.” They had one of those here?

Whoever Charmer had asked about her friend sure had been specific about where to find them, because after only a few minutes we were at their door. At least I thought it was, it was kind of hard to tell when most of the shack looked like it would collapse if someone sneezed too hard nearby. I actually started wondering if it was some kind of communal bathroom, because it barely looked big enough to house a pony with more than a bed and a box for a table. And apparently if they were okay with the door nearly falling into the place with Charmer’s knocking.

“Yes?” a nearly inaudible voice answered from inside.

“Tailspin?” Charmer asked warmly, smiling a little.

A soft rustling filled the room beyond the door before a little slat in the metal slid open to reveal a worried pair of blue eyes. “Yes, what do you want?” the pony inside asked, sounding like he was scared of the burnt face in front of his door.

“It’s Charmer, you were friends with my mom,” she explained and smiled.

“Charmer?” the voice stammered excitedly and shut the slat. The sound of at least three locks being undone rang through the door before it finally swung open, revealing a pony that looked almost as fragile as his house did.

And he had wings…

“Wow, you’ve gotten big,” the pegasus commented with a nervous smile.

Charmer smirked and sat down, holding her hooves out for a hug. “It’s good to see you too.” Tailspin looked horrified by the gesture at first, but eventually put his hooves limply around the mare, taking great care not to touch the rippling skin along her face and neck.

“So, um, how have you been?” he asked shakily and pulled away from the hug after a brief second.

“I’ve been better,” Charmer replied and turned the scarred half of her face away from him with a look of disappointment in her eye. “You?”

“The same,” he quickly offered and looked around at us. “Uh, do you and your… friends, want to come in?” His eyes lingered on me for a long moment, and I started to wonder if I made him more uncomfortable, or if Charmer’s burns did.

“We’d love to,” the burned mare answered for all of us and stood up again. She tried to smile while still keeping her burns facing away from the skittish pegasus in front of her, but I could see that she wasn’t enjoying the reunion very much.

The inside of Tailspin’s home was no more impressive than the outside. An old drum of some kind sat in the middle of the room as a table, judging by the half-eaten can of beans sitting in the center of it. In one corner of the ‘house’ was half of an old mattress that barely looked big enough to hold the emaciated pegasus that owned it, with a bundle of something under an old sheet at the foot. I tried to see what it might be without lifting the sheet up, and managed to see the faint shine of a scope through a hole in the fabric. Beside that was a small heap of garbage that smelled rotten and filled the room with a constant burning sensation. Luckily, no bugs were anywhere to be seen, which I supposed was a perk of living in a fully contained bunker.

“Sorry about the mess,” Tailspin nervously apologized. “Um, make yourselves comfortable,” he offered and waved to the entire room before sitting next to the ‘table’.

Charmer sat down at his side so that he could only see the unscarred side of her; something that made me feel a little sad. I sat down on her other side to stay nearby, but I’m almost certain that Tailspin scooted an extra inch away when I did. Tinker sat in the last empty spot, between me and our skinny pegasus host, but looked disgusted just being inside.

“So, what brings you to town?” Tailspin started while staring down at the table, taking quick glances up to us.

“You, of course,” Charmer told him. “Do you really think I would go through the ridiculous security here just to pass through?”

The nervous pony chortled and nodded. “It hasn’t changed much since you and your mother moved out, has it?”

“Wait, you lived here?” I blurted out without really thinking about it.

“Yeah. Momma met Tailspin on a hunt and we moved in a few days later,” she explained, but elaborated when she saw my skeptical expression. “She liked quiet guys.”

Oh, so it was that kind of move-in. I considered asking what made them move back out again, but Charmer’s past stories and remembering what she had said about her mother’s… habits, in the past quickly changed my mind.

“Yes, uh,” the pegasus tapped the table and looked down with some embarrassment before continuing. “What did you need to see me for?” He seemed confused by the concept.

“Advice, or some help if you’re feeling adventurous again,” Charmer replied and smiled. “We need to reach Gold’s Corral.”

Tailspin nodded and looked over at me. “I’m guessing you want him to go along?” he stammered.

Charmer nodded and added, “Plus two more upstairs.”

“Well, that makes it harder,” the blue pony told us and looked over at Charmer. “You remember who’s in the way right?”

“That’s why I’m asking for help,” she pointed out.

Tailspin took a deep breath and looked around the room as if it would give him some great idea for how to help us, and apparently it did. His eyes stopped at the foot of his bed and his lips turned up in a little grin before looking back to Charmer. “How’s your hunting?”

Charmer’s brow twisted. “I haven’t been since we moved north, why?” The two just looked at each other for a second before Charmer’s face twisted into realization and worry. “No. Fuck no, Tailspin,” she blurted.

“Charmer, just listen,” he started and put his hoof on her shoulder. “You won’t actually have to hunt. It’s just a cover for -”

“I don’t care,” she cut him off. “I’ve got kids with me, I’m not taking them in there again.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Tinker asked and looked around to each of us.

“Dipshit over here wants us to go through New Oatleans,” Charmer explained. I instantly agreed with her. Our first trip through the city almost got us all killed, and voluntarily taking another trip through there seemed like a horrible idea.

“I can give you a map,” the pegasus quickly pointed out. “There’s routes running from this side to just north of The Corral. And I can give you some names.”

“You still have friends in the business?” Charmer asked and looked at him unbelievingly. “I thought you quit.”

“Um,” our host stammered and scratched his neck. “I may get an itch on occasion. So yes, I know a few ponies and griffins that could help you.”

Charmer grumbled and looked away from him. “I’d prefer a different plan entirely,” she told the other pony.

Tinker raised a hoof and shook it a little before the pegasus looked at her. “We could also stop in Celestia’s Rose. A few hunters live there too,” she added.

Charmer shot her an aggressive look before looking at me. “I take it you’re going to offer a way to help now?”

“I’d rather stay out of it,” I pointed out and scooted away from the table.

She looked back at Tailspin. “And even if I did like the idea, I would feel better doing it with someone I actually know. Like, I don’t know, you?”

The skittish pony shook his head. “Oh no, no, no. I’m okay with a quick hunt on occasion, but trying to hide zebras from the Rangers and stay away from the recently pissed off Remnant at the same time? No, I’ll stay out of this,” he stammered out sternly.

Charmer sighed. “You don’t know any other way do you?” He shook his head apologetically. “Fine. Are any of those names you have someone that Momma knew?”

“Well… nevermind,” he started and quickly stopped before standing up. “I’ll get the map.”

“Tailspin,” Charmer growled and put her hoof in his chest. “Who don’t you want me to talk to?”

“Uh, well, it’s not really one of your mom’s friends…” he backed off her hoof and spun to go around the other side of the table. “I’m sure you remember Goober?”

Charmer looked at him and flinched a little at the name before regaining her composure. “I vaguely recall the name… among other things.”

“Yeah, I bet you do,” Tailspin told her with a smirk. “Well, I guess if you want someone you trust, you could always talk to him. And he’s in town…kind of.”

“What does that mean?” she asked and trotted over to the pegasus while he pulled out a map from under his bed.

“He may or may not be in jail right now.”

Charmer groaned and looked up, mumbling something that vaguely sounded like ‘fucking déjà vu’. “Which one is he in?” she asked and looked back down at the map.

“Um, death row?” our host told her nervously. “I hope you’re not surprised.”

Charmer’s head snapped over to him. “Jail, no. Death row, yes. What the fuck did he do?”

“Death row?” Tinker and I both asked in unison.

“Yes, death row,” Tailspin confirmed. “Well, he was just in jail for a while, then he got in a fight with some of the guards, and they put him deeper.”

“Great,” the green pony grumbled and pushed the map into her bag. “Well, thanks Tailspin. It was good to see you again,” she told him half-heartedly and turned to leave.

“Yeah, you too,” the nervous pegasus told her with a wave. “Stay safe,” was the last thing we heard him say before leaving.

“So, now what do we do?” I asked Charmer once we were out in the town again.

“We post bail.”

Footnote: Shayle Leveled Up! (Unarmed 45)
New Perk Earned: Finesse – You have a 5% greater chance to get a critical hit. Like the eyes.

Author’s Note:
Well, I’m back, and with a new chapter as well. I’m sorry it’s been so long since the last one, but with a new move and school starting, it’s been a hell of a time getting this done. Luckily, a work weekend came up where I literally had nothing to do for the first day, so I got around 8 hours of nothing but forcing myself to work on a chapter and edit the crud out of it. That is what you see starting at Shayle’s section. Hopefully parts 2 and 3 of this won’t take forever long to get out, and I’ll work on that.
As usual, a thank you to Kkat for creating this universe, and Somber and the other side-fic authors for expanding it and making it just way too much fun and too distracting for me. I love all y’all and hope my story is worthy of this fandom. Thank you again to my pre-readers and editors, as well as anyone who gives me recommendations and fixes as they read, you all make sure this isn’t as bad as it would be otherwise, and I am forever grateful. Thank you to Doomande and Rattlesire for the cover you see on this story whenever you read it, as well as to any artist who has produced art for this story, commissioned or otherwise. You all make me smile, and I love seeing the story come to life, so to speak.
Also, I guess September 13 is some kind of year anniversary thing.
Because of this special event, I want to give an extra special thank you to every single person who has read my story, whether they still do or not. Thank you for giving All That Remains and me a chance and taking time from your lives to read it. I know it isn’t as grand or fantastic as the original Fallout Equestria or some of the side stories like Project Horizons and Murky Number Seven, but you all still decided it was worth a shot, even if it was just for the prologue.
Because of you all, I kept writing and sticking with the universe, striving to constantly improve and just hoping that it would be something that you all could call entertaining and keep reading. So thank every last one of you for the last year, and hopefully some more great times to come. It may not be another year, it may be longer than that, I can’t say for sure yet, but I hope you all continue to stick with me and that I manage to keep you all hooked on Shayle and Felix’s rather miserable life for at least a while longer.