Chapter 6: Lies
“mali intra clades mannis.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?” I shouted back at Seer, throwing my hooves in the air. “We need to find out if they’re okay!”

“No, we don’t. They were giving guns to the ponies that want to kill all of us, why should we care if they died?” she argued, pulling another sip from her glass.

Thankfully I had managed to get her out of the bar, I didn’t want to think about how the rest of the zebras there would have reacted to seeing me actually caring about a town that they were all convinced had been helping them get killed. Seer’s shack wasn’t much different from ours, except that it felt like more of a home. She had knick knacks spread about, mostly wooden carvings and strange looking necklaces hanging from nails in her walls, including that same strange thing she had dangling from her rifle that morning. Up close, it looked like a dull grey ball hanging from a band of leather. It didn’t look very important or special, so I couldn’t figure out why the mare had hung it from her rifle. Unlike ours, her home did not have a sheet separating it into two rooms, but the second half did have the sheet thrown over something. I would have asked about it, but I was busy trying to get her to go with us to Shanty.

I’m not sure why I thought she would agree to go along with us, or why I cared if she did because I was going to go either way. Maybe it was because she was a good shot, knew her way around, and had some kind of secret that allowed her to take down machine gun wielding robots in only a few shots. I felt safer in a fight if she was there, and if the radio was right, and if the ponies in Shanty were still alive and angry with any zebra they saw, then I would be happy to have her gun on my side. Other than that, I didn’t really care if she came, in fact I would have preferred if she stayed far away from us.

“They weren’t selling guns,” Felix pointed out, stomping his hoof sternly. It was the first thing he’d said since we heard the news about Shanty over the radio, and the sadness that had covered his face since then had finally twisted into anger. “They barely had enough to defend themselves, why would they give them away to…whoever you think they gave them to?”

Well, it wasn’t exactly true, I had bought a gun there myself.

“Young one, even if you had proof of that, it wouldn’t matter. They are already dead,” our guide countered. “Just because you didn’t see them, doesn’t mean they didn’t have them.”

“I did see them, but they were all owned by one old pony who sold them to travelers,” I added. “He wasn’t giving them to anybody.”

“Again, Shayle, it doesn’t matter. The town is already burned; there is nothing we can do about it.”

“But we can see if there are any survivors,” I argued again, bringing us back to where we started. “What’s the harm in that?”

“The harm is that the Praetor has given us a list of places to go, and if we stray from that then we will be keeping a very powerful Remnant officer waiting. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

“So…tell the Praetor we thought Shanty might have some of the supplies we need!” A good idea, from me. Caesar must have been smiling down on me. Seer glared at me like I was insane, but surprisingly didn’t argue back, so I elaborated before she got the chance. “They were selling weapons right? So maybe we could bring them back here for the soldiers to use?”

“Yeah! And the radio said that they were producing weapons, so they might have some things from our list!” Felix quickly added, making an even stronger argument than me.

Seer looked between the two of us for a few seconds, and finally sighed with a shake of her head. “Fine, I’ll tell the Praetor. But you better hope this trip isn’t for nothing.”

I did hope that, because if it was for nothing then not only would we be behind on our list, and probably in trouble with the Praetor, but it would mean that everyone in Shanty was dead. I don’t think I wanted to experience that.

Felix was the first awake the next morning, beating me by Caesar knows how long. He was pacing on his side of the sheet when I finally rolled out of bed, only stopping to poke his head around the sheet when he heard me getting my gear ready.

“Sorry…did I wake you up?” he asked quietly.

“No,” I responded sleepily. “How long have you been up?”

“I don’t know, I couldn’t sleep.”

I frowned and walked across the room to him, placing my hoof over his shoulder in a half-hug. “I’m sure they’re fine Felix.” I really wasn’t, because I honestly couldn’t picture most of them just rolling over to the Remnant as their homes were burned.

Felix nodded slowly and shrugged out from under my leg to get his bag. It was already filled with food and some water, the same as it had been the day before. My bag was almost empty, only holding as much ammo as I had for the gun strapped on my hoof. I was sure that Seer would tell us to go back and get more supplies, but that might be hard since everything we owned was in our bags. There was nothing else, so if that wasn’t enough for her then she would just have to carry more herself.

The mare was waiting at the gate for us when we arrived, her face drawn in a rough scowl as she impatiently tapped her hoof in the dirt. “The Praetor agreed with your idea, so we’ll go to Shanty today and the Stable tomorrow.”

Stable? What was that? Oh well, I really didn’t care since we got our way. “Great! Let’s get going then,” I stated happily, just to rub it into Seer’s face.

“Sure.”

That was strange; I had expected her to make sure I had everything. I’m not complaining, but I was starting to get worried that she didn’t seem worried like the day before. Maybe she was just upset that she was wrong and didn’t get to be in charge?

“So, are we going anywhere dangerous today?” Felix asked once we were out the gate.

“Not especially. We really only need to worry about a small group of Raiders who like to camp out on the highway,” Seer explained flatly. She hadn’t even taken the rifle off her back, and that didn’t help my sudden worry.

“Well, we don’t need to worry about those Raiders,” Felix explained. I don’t know why he thought that, the Raiders a few days before almost killed both of us! “That soldier you mentioned, Xion, his team killed them.” Oh yeah, I guess those are the Raiders she was talking about.

“Really, he finally decided to get rid of them?” Seer asked skeptically. “Did they spit on his gun or something?”

“No, they were trying to kill us,” I interjected. “He never tried before?”

“Of course not. Even Raiders aren’t stupid enough to start problems with the Scorpions,” she said with an ‘are you stupid?’ look.

“Scorpions?” Felix asked with a confused glare. “Is that what they call themselves?”

“No, that’s what everyone else calls them.”

“Why?” I asked, not sure if I believed the mare.

“Because they blend in and strike without warning.” Seer huffed and shook her head slowly. “Xion always hated that stupid name.”

“He does? Shouldn’t he be proud of it or something?”

“Why? Because now everyone knows they exist and what their work looks like?” Seer quipped. “It defeats their purpose, and I feel sorry for the poor sap that started passing around that name.”

“Why’s that?” I was full of questions apparently. I’m not really sure why either.

“Because Xion wants to stab her repeatedly,” she answered with a smirk. “And yes, I know who it is, because she hides at my place any time he comes to Caesar’s Stand.”

“And you never turned her over to him?” Felix asked skeptically.

“Of course not,” Seer quickly answered. I didn’t believe it either, because she really didn’t seem to mind throwing strangers into bad situations since I met her. “Now, why don’t you tell me what you plan to do if there are any survivors in Shanty?” she quickly changed the subject.

“Um…help them?” I suggested.

Felix and Seer both smacked their faces so hard I thought they might pass out.

Seer grumbled under her breath as we looked over the no-longer-smoking town of Shanty. She had insisted that we take a longer way there to get a view of what we might be dealing with before rushing in. It had added about an hour to our trip, but we found a safe place to check out the town on a hill to the west. It looked surprisingly similar from where we were, with the exception of the buildings being collapsed and charred. Thankfully sheet metal wasn’t very flammable, which only made me wonder what could have burned for so long in the town.

There wasn’t very much movement around the burnt town, only a pair of ponies I didn’t recognize milling around a pile of rubble that was in the same place Charmer’s house used to be.

“Raiders,” Seer explained before she set down the scope she used as a monocular. “Coated in blood and spikes.” Wonderful, now I was even less sure that anyone was alive.

Another pony, probably a Raider from their erratic run, stumbled into view from behind the largest pile of rubble, the one at the town’s center, screaming something I could just barely hear but couldn’t understand. The other two quickly leaped into action and followed the screaming one back around the building with a cacophony of screams and shouts.

Then there was the loudest scream of all, and it didn’t belong to any of those Raiders.

Seer shook her head and groaned. “That must be a survivor.”

Felix gasped and tried to jump over us, only for Seer to catch him by the tail. She pulled him back and released the colt, shaking her head. “No, we’re too far away to do anything. We could never make it in time.”

“Let me go! I can try to make it!” Felix argued and kicked her in the chest before trying to jump again. This time I helped hold him back. It was painful to admit, but Seer was right about that. The Raiders were already there, and we were almost half a mile from the town. Even if he ran as fast as he could, Felix would only find another corpse when he got there.

A loud snap reached our hill, followed closely by another short scream. I hadn’t expected the Raiders to use a gun, but I guess they were in a hurry for some reason. But that thought only lasted until I saw two of the blood covered ponies sprint back around the rubble in a panic. Another snap bit through the air as one of the scrambling Raiders fell to the dirt.

“Oh shit,” Seer grumbled and shook her head.

One last gunshot and the final Raider bit the dust, rolling a few feet before coming to a stop only a few feet from where his buddy died. It was eerily similar to another fight with some Raiders I’d been a part of a few days before, and it only took a few seconds for me to figure out what that meant. Felix hadn’t seen the Raiders falling, and must have assumed that the survivor had been the one screaming and getting shot, because he was balled up beside me shaking. I nudged him with a hoof and tried to get him to look up, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Felix, it’s okay. The Raiders are dead,” I whispered back to him.

The colt lifted his head slightly, looking up at me sadly before he looked slowly down to the town. The two bodies we could see were still as stones in the center of town, and a creepy silence had fallen over everything around us. A little grin curled onto Felix’s lips for a second, but disappeared just as quickly. “But, who screamed earlier?”

“I don’t know, but we can go check now,” I told him calmly, then looked up to Seer. “Right?”

“Yeah, sure, you go ahead, and I’ll stay up here to cover you, just in case,” Seer agreed with a quick nod. “I don’t think I’ll be the only one either,” she added flatly. I don’t know why she seemed so worried, both of us knew exactly who had killed those Raiders, and they weren’t going to shoot another zebra who was checking around.

Right?

Seer pulled the rifle from her back and took aim on the town as me and Felix made our way down the hill. My head spun back and forth constantly in search of more Raiders, just in case the Scorpions had missed one hiding outside the town, even if I did doubt it. Felix stayed close to me, almost bumping into me a few times as we approached the first burned down shack of Shanty. We didn’t see any bodies aside from those of the Raiders that had just been shot. To my horror, one of them was still alive, gurgling on his own blood as his bloodshot eyes followed me around the largest pile of rubble. He deserved it for being what he was, but I couldn’t help but picture myself in his place. I could almost feel the crosshairs of an invisible rifle trained on the back of my neck from wherever they were waiting.

When we got around the rubble, we found a tarp tied over a large gap in the ruined metal and burnt wood. A splash of blood was sprayed across the front of the tarp, and the body of the first Raider sat crumpled just outside the opening with the back half of her head missing. Felix grimaced and walked to the other side of me, hiding from the sight. Behind the tarp I could barely hear muffled sobs, and part of me winced. I almost didn’t want to move the bloodstained fabric, but if it was a survivor I wanted to make sure they were okay.

When I pulled back the fabric, Felix almost knocked me over as he sprinted inside. Surrounded by her one time home, Little Doc cowered under a barely standing hospital bed as tears streamed down her face. Soot stained her coat, and a trickle of dried blood marred her mane just behind her ear. When the filly looked up to us, I expected her to at least smile, but instead she pushed herself further back into the rubble with a look of pure horror.

“No, go away!” she whimpered gripping a wicked looking shard of metal in her magic and waving it between her and us violently.

“Doc, it’s us,” Felix calmly explained, assuming the filly just didn’t recognize us.

“I said go away!” As she screamed, Doc drove the metal into Felix’s leg, bringing him to his knees. Her magic faded from the weapon, and she looked around for something else to defend herself. “You did this!”

“Did what?” I snapped, pulling Felix back as he tried to pull the metal from his foreleg. “We’re here to help!”

“No, you’re all evil,” Doc squealed, trying to pull a chunk of metal out of the rubble. “You told them to come here, you killed everyone!”

No we didn’t! Or at least we didn’t mean to. Yes, we had told the Scorpions that Shanty told us about them, but we didn’t tell them to burn down the town! If we had known they would kill everyone, we would never have told them about it, I could have lied. But I never thought the Remnant would do this.

“Doc…we didn’t do anything,” Felix tried to explain with tears in his eyes, whether from the metal in his leg or seeing Doc act like that I didn’t know.

“Yes you did, they never did anything to us until you came,” the filly sobbed. “Even after everything we did for you.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know they would do this,” I told her softly.

“Yes you did! You’re evil, just like Mommy said. All of you stripes are evil.”

I didn’t know what else to say. I could argue all I wanted, but Doc believed that we had done this to Shanty. And the worst part was that she was probably right. “Is anyone else alive?” I asked cautiously, hoping that maybe someone older had survived the fight.

Doc sniffled and looked away from us. “I don’t know, I hid when the fighting started.”

I wanted to stay with her, but there was no reason to. She wasn’t going to believe us, no matter how much we tried to talk. I just nodded and turned around, trying to pull Felix out with me. He wouldn’t budge. The colt looked up to me with a pleading stare, his eyes watering.

“Please, let me stay. I’ll try to talk to her.”

I almost said no, but I had already done that to him once in that town. I’d dragged him away from Doc before, and it ended in the town burning. I knew it couldn’t make a difference, but I still nodded and left him with her. Maybe I was wrong and he could calm her down, or maybe she would still be convinced the two of us were the most evil zebras in the Wasteland.

When I got back on the other side of the rubble a familiar zebra was waiting for me, glaring down from under her hood, but a moment later her expression softened significantly. “Young one, what are you doing here?” Her soft green eye, the one that wasn’t hidden under her mane with half of her face, looked down at me with what I think would be care. It was the same way I looked at Felix, which made it all the more creepy.

I didn’t know what to say to her. The mare had just helped kill the only nice ponies I had met, and yet she seemed so calm. There wasn’t even a scratch on her or a hair out of place in what I could see of her mane. I didn’t understand how someone could be so collected after burning a town and killing almost everyone living there; it was horrifying, and at the same time a little inspiring.

“Are you just curious?” she asked when I never replied to her first question, raising an eyebrow.

“I…no. I just…I’m here to see if there is anything to salvage.” I almost said I was looking for survivors, but then I remembered the ‘real’ reason we were here; to collect supplies for our mission.

“What sort of salvage?”

“Um, I have a list. We’re looking for supplies for an officer,” I explained, realizing right then that I didn’t have that list in my bag. Seer did.

“May I see your list?” She didn’t believe me, not even for an instant.

“I…don’t have it. We have a guide, she’s carrying it,” I explained, trying not to show any worry on my face. “But I don’t know where she went.”

“Why do you think these supplies will be here?” So many questions from her!

“Because the radio said the ponies were making weapons here, so I thought they might have what we need.” Good thing I had my story straight, thanks to Felix for thinking of that excuse.

A small grin crossed the mare’s lips as she nodded. “Yes, they do say that about Shanty.” The mare walked passed me and peeked around the other side of the rubble. “But I do not think you are here for that.”

No, definitely never believed me. “Why not?”

“Because you know that hiding filly, correct?”

“Well, yes, she helped me when I got hurt,” I explained, not even bothering to lie anymore. Stupid smart zebras figuring out my lies.

“And you came here to make sure she was alive, and the others,” the mare stated plainly as she turned back to me. “But why?” Another question? Really!

“Because…they’re good ponies,” I answered defensively, ready for an argument that might end in shooting.

Instead, the mare grinned. Grinned! After killing them all she was grinning when I said they were good ponies! What was wrong with that zebra? “Perhaps, but are you sure?”

“Yes,” I stated proudly. “They helped me and my brother when we were lost, and they were really nice to us.” Well, the ones who actually talked to us. Even if I had told Felix and myself that we weren’t welcome there…but that isn’t the point.

“A good enough reason.” I think that mare would have scared me less if she was laughing evilly and dripping with pony blood. That would at least have made sense, but that grin and her almost motherly tone was really creeping me out. “Now, go find your supplies and your guide. But please do not leave without finding me again,” the mare directed warmly. I nodded in response, and quickly trotted back around the rubble to get away from her. When I turned back, her hooves faded away in the magic of her cloaking talisman. Thank Caesar.

I looked around briefly, trying to remember where everything in the town was before it was reduced to the rubble and twisted metal it had become. I knew that the rubble where Doc was hiding used to be where the Mayor lived, her clinic was right across from that. Up on a dirt mound to the south is where Load had his shop. And on the opposite side of town, closest to the Nest, was Charmer’s house. The rest of the piles I didn’t know, but I didn’t need to. I quickly made my way to Charmer’s old shack, not bothering to be sneaky. I knew that creepy mare was watching me, probably grinning all disturbing like.

I don’t know why I even went to that used-to-be-a-house. It was flattened, burned, and could never hide Charmer or Strike or anyone inside of it. In fact, the only pile of rubble that was big enough to hide anyone in the new Shanty was the Mayor’s house. Only Doc was there. Had she been the only one to survive?

No, there was one more place that survivors might be hiding; no matter how much I didn’t like it.

I had told myself I would never go back, and yet there I was, standing outside the Nest. A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered everything that happened last time I was in there. The giant snakes, the almost being killed, the even bigger giant snake, and the baby talking. I was not looking forward to going down there, but it may have been my last chance to find Strike and the others. I just hoped they wouldn’t shoot me on sight if they were alive down there.

With a gulp, I stepped cautiously into the main tunnel, making my way slowly down the ramp toward a faintly glowing light at the bottom. On either side of me, the mini-tunnels glowed softly from the lights inside, probably surrounded by little multi-eyed monsters just waiting to eat little me when they grew up. As I trotted by, a sickly green body slid out of one hole and hissed loudly. Of course I jumped into the opposite wall faster than a bullet, and stayed there until the zebra-sized serpent had slithered most of the way down the tunnel. Thankfully, it hadn’t quite gotten big enough to instantly see me as food yet. Probably because Charmer was like their Mom.

I quietly followed the snake down, hoping to find a couple waiting ponies that didn’t instantly shoot my face off just for having stripes. The closer I got to the main chamber, the more that seemed like what was going to happen, especially after how Doc had reacted to me and Felix trying to get her out of that rubble back in town. The chamber looked mostly empty. Several snake carcasses were spread around, ranging in size from giant to as small as my leg. Each was peppered with bullets, and their blood stained almost all of the dirt that made up the floor. Sadly, no ponies were waiting with loaded weapons and…that was a gun pressed to the side of my head.

“You are the one from the road. Why have you left your new home?” the familiar, strange speaking, voice asked from beside me.

Yes, a loaded gun like I expected, but not held by a pony like I thought it would be. “I...I’m looking for s-survivors.” No, I didn’t lie. Call me weird, but the feel of a gun against my temple has a strange way of bringing out the truth, no matter how much I would have liked to keep to my ‘gathering supplies’ story.

“You knew those who lived here?” The gun never shook or left my temple. I really wished I could have seen how he spoke so plainly and still held that rifle to my head at the same time.

“Y-yes, they were g-good to us.” I couldn’t stop shaking, probably because the creepy mare back in town had me thinking every Scorpion must be insane and happy to kill me if they had a reason, or wanted to.

The buck was silent for a few seconds, and I was convinced that the trigger at the other end of the rifle was slowly being pulled back. Then the barrel pulled away from my head, and a striped body shimmered to life beside me. “You must be worried; you came to this place in a hurry.”

Why, why did he have to talk like that? “You would do the same for someone that helped you,” I said simply. I hoped that was true, or was the Rhyming Buck just as crazy as Grins outside?

“I think I would, at least if I could.” The stallion looked at me plainly for a few seconds, and then motioned toward the mound at the center of the chamber. It looked almost untouched; identical to how it had been the first time I went down there, if I looked beyond the bloodstains from the dead snakes all around it. “One of those you seek is in there.” I was NOT looking for Neishka you mule! “A rather feisty, flute playing mare?”

Only one pony I knew could meet that description. Okay, I only knew three ponies, but that isn’t the point. It was Charmer.

I nodded and tried to hide my excitement. I had hoped that at least one of the older ponies was alive, if not more of them, but I was somehow happier knowing that it was one of the few I had gotten to know a little during my time in Shanty. The buck disappeared in a shimmer of light as I walked away, probably joining up with his creepy mare friend to stalk me.

The scene inside the mound of trash was actually rather depressing. I never thought I’d say it, or think it, but a headless Neishka was not something I ever wanted to see. The snake’s body lay limp in the center of the mound, no longer coiled as it had been when Charmer introduced me to it a few days back. Where the head should have been, there was a splayed out mess of blood and burnt meat, peppered with shrapnel from some kind of explosive. That’s also when I noticed that Neishka’s head was sprayed around the room; blood, meat, and bits of bone littered the walls and the floor all around me. I gagged.

Sitting right in front of the decapitated body was the Charmer I had seen when we were harvesting venom for her. Dried blood ran from cuts that zigzagged across her body, ending at her back which was scarred and burned from whatever had lit the town ablaze. The flute that she carried in her bag was on the floor at her hooves, her head hung down as she stared at it emptily. I almost didn’t want to disturb her, because I was afraid she would blame me just like Doc had.

I suddenly didn’t want a lot of things. I didn’t want to know how Neishka had been killed. I didn’t want to know why they didn’t kill Charmer, and I definitely didn’t want to know why Strike wasn’t here trying to comfort her.

“Charmer?” I asked softly, partly hoping she wouldn’t hear me and I could silently sneak back out.

Her head snapped to one side, and one dark eye swiveled to look at me. She stared for a few seconds, not moving a muscle or saying a word. For a second, I thought she had died just from seeing my face. After a while, her head turned the rest of the way, and I almost vomited.

The left half of her face had been stripped of coat in the blaze, burning her skin into charcoal. The teeth along that half of her face were visible through several holes in her cheek, stained black by soot. Where an eye should have been was only a hole filled with a sick mixture of pus, blood and soot all dried into a crusty ball. A small strip of her mane had been consumed in the burn, as well as the very bottom of her left ear. I could barely recognize her anymore.

“Shayle?” she asked painfully, standing slowly to face me. Luckily, her body had been spared the damage of her face. Most of the coat down the left side of her neck was missing, but the skin seemed untouched. The damage ran just over her left shoulder and onto her back.

What had they done?

I nodded slowly, not wanting to look away, but at the same time barely able to stand the sight of her injuries. Did they not even try to heal her? Even a little? Now I really didn’t want to know what happened to the others.

Charmer took a few steps toward me, looking me over from hoof to ear. I couldn’t see a gun on her, but I knew she could throw a pretty hard punch if she wanted. I didn’t need to worry about it though. The mare swung her legs over me when she got close enough, and it almost sounded like she was crying. “Thank Celestia ya’ came back.”

I froze for a second, unable to contemplate what Charmer had just done. She was burned worse than anything I’d ever seen in my life, and she was actually happy to see me? And she was hugging me? Not knowing what else to do, I carefully returned the gesture, trying not to hurt her back with my hooves. “I heard what happened…” was all I could say.

Charmer just held me there, tearlessly crying into my shoulder. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to get her up to Doc, but I doubted that the Rhyming Buck would let me. She needed it, badly. I didn’t know much about medical things, that was more Felix than me, and definitely Doc, but I did know that whatever was in her eye was not good, and that she needed to have those burns looked at.

When Charmer finally pulled out of the hug, a strip of burnt skin from her back that I had been touching in the embrace decided it didn’t want to let me go like she just did. Charmer hardly seemed to notice, and continued to stare at me in disbelief as I tried not to throw myself through the walls of the Nest to get the bloody strip of burnt flesh off my leg. Yeah, she needed Doc, and suddenly I didn’t care what that strange talking zebra outside thought.

“Are you, feeling okay?” I asked her cautiously, not sure she knew what had happened. She frowned and shook her head, and I could see the sobbing was about to start again. Whatever she had felt when she saw me, it was fading fast. “We need to get you to Doc, just…follow me.”

“Doc is okay?” she asked excitedly, her eye lighting up for a brief moment.

“Yeah, she’s hiding back in town.” The mare nodded and stood up, stepping to my side and looking at me with an expectant stare. I turned and slowly led her out of the Nest, not sure how quickly the burned pony would be able to move with her injury. Surprisingly she didn’t seem to have much difficulty keeping up, which worried me a little.

Once we were out of the mound of garbage, the Rhyming Buck uncloaked and glared at us from under his hood. The rifle was still slung over his back, but I didn’t doubt he could pull it out and fire before I could even think of shooting back. He looked between the two of us for a few moments, seeming to contemplate what I might be doing with her.

“She has been burned, and you want her to be cured?” he asked casually, keeping his eyes glued on Charmer’s charred face.

“Yes, let us leave,” I demanded, not in a mood to be polite.

“Of course.” That was…weird. I expected to have to convince him, maybe make up a sob story about why she needed help, but he was almost as creepily agreeable as Grins. “But you must bring her back here, with words or through force.”

“Sure,” I quickly agreed, even if I didn’t intend on bringing Charmer anywhere near that bloodbath again. So I got my lie in, hurray! The two of us stepped by him quickly, Charmer staying on my opposite side of where he was standing. Her eyes tracked him as we walked by, up until the point he disappeared in a flicker of light.

“Please don’t bring me back,” Charmer whispered into my ear once we made it out of the tunnel, sadness heavily weighing down her voice. “I can’t go down there again…”

“I won’t,” I promised her, trying to stay quiet in case one of these weirdoes was listening in.

During the walk, the silence was deafening. I tried to stay alert and search for Raiders or one of the Scorpions waiting to gun us down, but I couldn’t. Part of my brain was nagging that there were no Raiders left and that the cloaked zebras were watching, but had no intention of shooting at us, at least not yet. Instead, my attention was on everything I had seen so far. I always saw soldiers with the Remnant as honorable, as zebras who didn’t want to fight but still did to keep us safe. But Shanty was wearing that thought thin. The town was burned, and from what I had seen there didn’t seem to be any reason. They knew Doc had been hiding in that rubble, at least Grins did, but they didn’t even bother to try getting her out or even acknowledge her existence. And Charmer…they obviously didn’t mind me taking her to get medical care, so why didn’t they give it to her themselves? Were they just hoping she would do it herself? Or did they just find some sick joy in watching her suffer? No, these were not what I pictured as soldiers at all.

And all of it was for what? A town that produced weapons with tools I still hadn’t seen?

I sighed and turned to Charmer, deciding that I should at least try to figure some of it out while we walked. “Charmer, did you all build weapons in Shanty?”

The mare’s head snapped to me, her one eye looking at me with fear and worry. “What? No. Why would ya’ ask?”

“Because according to the Remnant, you were.”

“No. Only Load had more than two guns, and he took those off dead Bandits and Raiders,” she explained, sounding as if what I said had hurt her. “The rest of us got guns from him, but we bought them to defend ourselves and do our jobs. He never sold a single one to anyone outside of town.”

“You mean besides me?”

“Yes. But you…you were different.” The mare hung her head. “Ya’ helped out the town, so Strike thought you should get somethin’ in return.”

“I got money and a place to sleep in return,” I corrected. “I still paid for the gun from Load.”

“Yes, but most travelers around here…we don’t tell ‘em about Load’s shop.” She stopped and looked back up to me. “We’ve been attacked before; Slavers. We sold a few guns to some ponies we thought were travelers, but they were just scopin’ us out.” The mare looked over to the town which was still a good five minutes away. “That night, they came back. We fought most of ‘em off. They killed some of us, but only managed to kidnap one; Doc’s Mom.” Charmer sighed and shook her head. “After that, we decided that we would only sell guns to travelers who we knew wouldn’t come back and use those guns against us. You seemed kind enough, so we felt safe sellin’ to ya’.”

And then I turned around and got your town destroyed and everyone you loved burned. Maybe you shouldn’t have sold to me after all. “So, no building guns?” was all I could say in response. I didn’t know what else to say. If I had known that this town actually trusted me, at least to the point they didn’t think I was going to try and kill them, I might have been a little more inclined to stay like Felix wanted. I probably wouldn’t have, but I might have not made such a scene when I left.

“No, no building guns,” Charmer told me once again. She wasn’t lying, there was no way. I would know, because I did it all the time, and after everything that had happened to her in the past day, I didn’t think she would lie to me.

I thought about asking if anyone else had run off to escape, but I didn’t think that was too smart with the mare being in the condition she was. I could ask later. Right then, she still needed to get to Doc. “Come on, let’s keep going,” I urged, and waved to what used to be a place that trusted me.

When we finally got back to the rubble where Doc had been hiding, I was surprised to find her out of the tarp. Felix’s leg had been wrapped in a dirty cloth, and no jagged metal was sticking out of his skin. Doc herself was laying a few feet from him, curled into a ball and hiding her face from the world as Felix read a book to her. I didn’t think she enjoyed it, but he had managed to get her out of that rubble, so he obviously knew better than me.

As soon as Charmer saw the filly she jumped forward and pulled the little pony into a tight embrace, mumbling into her ear over and over and stroking her mane. Doc took little time to return the embrace, and tears quickly streamed down Charmer’s back as the filly sobbed into her. A small grin formed over my lips as I watched the two, and I hoped that the other zebras present wouldn’t ruin it for them.

Thankfully, they didn’t. When Charmer and Doc finally broke away from each other, Doc instantly stopped crying as some kind of switch flipped in her head. The filly ran back under her tarp, and for a second I thought she was hiding from Charmer’s new appearance. A moment later the tarp ripped from top to bottom in one strip, and Doc came running out with it trailed behind her. The filly reached into Felix’s bag and pulled out the medical supplies that she had sold to him a few days before, placing it all in a line on the strip of tarp. The last thing she grabbed was a jagged piece of metal that used to be in Felix’s leg that for some reason she had kept in her mane.

I had to turn away as the filly worked. I could barely stand the sight of those burns, but watching as Doc cut away the burned skin from Charmer’s neck and chest was too much; it kept reminding me of the strip that had hung on my leg back in the Nest. The way I turned did get one thing going in my mind; where in Caesar’s name did Seer go? I had looked out to the hills where we had snuck up on the town, and at first thought nothing of the empty peaks overlooking Shanty. But after a few moments, I realized that a certain zebra who was supposed to be watching over us was nowhere to be seen.

“Great,” I grumbled under my breath before standing. “I’m going to go find Seer,” I whispered to Felix angrily. And I was probably going to kill her for deciding to leave us without any help.

Unfortunately, I had no idea where to start looking for the mare. There weren’t any buildings in the town left to hide in, and even if there were I doubted she would have gone into Shanty. So I just decided to go up to the hill and look around for any clues. On my way back to the hill I noticed one strange thing; a trail of hoofprints in the sand running along the base of the hill that definitely hadn’t been there when Felix and I went down into town. Deciding they must be Seer’s, I changed course and followed the tracks. About 50 meters along, a second pair of hooves joined the first from the top of the hill. Did that mean Seer came down the hill to follow somebody? Either way, I continued to follow the prints, and eventually came to a gap in the hill; a doorway with some kind of sign hung on it. Too bad I couldn’t tell what it said.

I pushed it open, and found myself looking into a long, dark tunnel. Luckily, somebody had thought to leave a lantern sitting on the floor just inside the door. How convenient. It didn’t provide much light once I managed to get it started, but it was enough to let me see where I was going, and I would have killed to have one when I ran away from home.

At the end of the first tunnel was a split of three different tunnels; one to the left, one to the right, and one straight ahead. I looked as far as I could down each one from the fork, and checked the ground to see if I could find the hoofprints but there was only stone; no more dirt to leave tracks. I sighed and decided to go straight, hoping it was correct, but doubting it. As I walked, I wondered what the tunnel was for. It was clearly not just a random hole in the hill, because it had a fully functional door and even a sign on the front. Which must mean that somebody had something in there right? I just hoped it was something useful, or that someone had already taken it. There was one niggling thought at the back of my mind I tried to ignore and push away, one that couldn’t possibly be true; that Charmer had lied, and at the end of that tunnel was a giant room where Shanty made guns.

The end of that tunnel didn’t have a giant room, thankfully. Instead, it had a me-sized pile of rotten wood. At least that was what I thought until it moved, and then it stood up, and then it turned around. Trust me, you’ll know ‘em when ya’ see ‘em.

And he was right, I knew exactly what it was. What I didn’t know is why it was in that tunnel, or what it actually was. All I knew was that what Strike had called a ‘Rottwood’ looked like a mangled dog. It actually looked like the thing’s body was made of rotting wood, which explained the name, but it somehow had a pair of glowing green eyes in the middle of its head. Below those was the thing I saw clearest; a wicked set of teeth made from shattered tree bark.

After it stood up, it only took a moment for me to realize how much trouble I was in. It also didn’t take long for me to realize that the lantern I was carrying was in my mouth, where my gun desperately needed to be. Not thinking completely clear, I dropped the lantern to the floor, where it landed with a loud crack and the light it had been giving instantly flicked out. It was like the sewer all over again. I was in the darkness, only able to see a pair of glowing eyes glaring at me hungrily.

But this time I didn’t forget my gun. I reached down and pulled it out right at the Rottwood jumped at me and barely missed my head, soaring over me and into the tunnel behind me. I spun around and waited to see the eyes again, not wanting to waste bullets. A disturbing crackling sound filled the air of the tunnel, and just to mess with me the lantern flickered a few times. In the flickering, I got to watch as the wood that made up the thing’s body twisted and snapped around to move the teeth and eyes back around to me. Because that was definitely faster than just turning around!

I pulled the trigger as fast as I could, sending every bullet from the magazine into the front-back of the twisting dog. The monster let out a long howl as my bullets tore through it and splintered the rotten sticks that made up its body. One of the legs fell off from the spray of metal, and the beast fell to one side, still glaring at me and howling angrily. I reloaded as best I could in the darkness, hoping that I put a full magazine in the gun and instantly firing again. Another string of bullets bit into the monster’s eyes, and the howl stopped. I still put a few more bullets into where I thought it was, just to be sure, and then stopped. I sat silently, waiting for it to stand up again, but I didn’t hear anything.

After a few moments, I risked leaning down to try turning the lantern back on, and of course it happily flickered back to life as soon as I hit the magical starter. Where there used to be a Rottwood was only a pile of old sticks full of bullet holes. It didn’t even look like a dog anymore. Just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things, I quickly looked myself over from head to hoof. It was a miracle; I had made it through a fight without getting shot, beaten, bitten, squeezed, or grazed. Things were starting to look up for me.

I put the gun back in my holster and lifted the lantern again, happily trotting back down the tunnel to the fork, not sure which way to go next; until I reached it and heard a grunt from the right. Choice made, hopefully I wasn’t hallucinating. I decided I wasn’t as I made my way down the tunnel and heard a few more grunts, each getting louder as I got further in.

Down that tunnel there was no Rottwood, thankfully, but there was another door, and a flickering light was coming from under it. I didn’t know what could be inside, but that grunting was definitely coming from the other side. I extinguished my lantern and quietly set it down, not dropping it that time, to pull out my pistol. I reloaded, just to be ready, and took a deep breath before kicking down the door.

Inside I found Seer, under Xion, grunting and slapping hips. And the best part: They both looked over and saw me pointing a gun at them and didn’t stop. I must have been the only sane one left in the Wasteland, because the number of crazies I had met in just a few days was mindboggling. My gun fell to the floor and clattered across the rock, but I didn’t even notice. I turned around, walked back out, and closed the door behind me. No matter how mad I was at that moment, I could wait to kill that mare, and probably Xion too. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long, because the door opened again a few seconds later.

I spun my head around to see Seer looking down at me with a neutral stare. “You have the worst timing.”

“So wait, let me get this straight,” I interjected once I had heard way too much. “You’re the one who started calling Xion’s team the Scorpions?” Seer nodded. “And you stayed behind because you didn’t want him to see you?” Nodded again. “But he did, and when you said he wanted to ‘stab you repeatedly’, you meant…that?” Another nod. I stopped walking and stared at her blankly, not sure if I was still angry or if I was just disgusted. “What is wrong with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me Shayle. This is how life works in the Wasteland,” she tried to explain once we reached the fork in the tunnels.

“This is life? Pissing off soldiers and then…screwing them?!” I shouted again, waving my hoof back down the tunnel.

“No, making the most of it, enjoying what little time we may have in our lives, having some fun? Any of that sound right?” she asked sarcastically, looking at me with a ‘are you stupid’ stare.

“But there are dying ponies outside! You couldn’t wait?”

“You seemed to be handling it pretty well by yourself,” she replied casually. “You didn’t get killed by Minx, so you really didn’t need my help.”

“Minx?”

“The first mare you talked to.”

Oh, Grins. “Of course she didn’t kill me, she was actually nice…as creepy as it was.”

“Exactly. Which means she actually likes you, and won’t let the others give you a hard time,” Seer told me with a grin.

“How do you know that?” I asked skeptically, starting to get worried that she seemed to know Minx well.

“They stop by Caesar’s Stand a lot. I drink with her.”

I…actually didn’t doubt that at all. “Okay, fine. But that doesn’t explain why you ran off and had sex with that…that…monster!”

“What? Because he burned a village and killed some ponies he’s a monster?” Seer asked aggressively. “He’s a soldier, he follows orders. That’s it.”

“Then why are they still here?” I asked angrily. “Why are they camping out and letting the survivors suffer?”

“That is a question for them, not me,” she dismissed with a wave of her hoof. “And you said there were survivors?”

“Yeah, two. I couldn’t find anyone else.”

“That’s good. Any parts you were looking for?”

What? “No, we were never looking for parts, remember?” I asked darkly, wondering why she even came along.

“Yes, I know, but we can’t tell the Praetor that,” the mare pointed out. “So, did you find anything useful?”

“No…there was nothing useful,” I replied hesitantly, thinking that I understood what was happening.

“Perfect, now let’s get your brother and get going.” Seer stepped around me and walked toward the exit, trotting like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“What about the others? Doc and Charmer?” I asked flatly.

“The survivors? Uh…leave them here and ask Minx to keep them safe.”

“No, they’re coming with us,” I demanded as she pushed open the door back to the world.

“To Caesar’s Stand? The town full of zebras who hate ponies more than anything?”

Touché. “Okay…fine…but we can’t leave them with the Scorpions, they don’t even care about them!” I argued. “Isn’t there a town we can take them to nearby?”

“Look Shayle, I know you want to help them for some reason, but you can trust Minx. She’s Remnant, but not all Remnant want to burn every pony they see.”

“And how do you know she won’t? Soldiers follow orders, right?”

Seer stopped and sighed, shaking her head slowly. “There are two towns we could go to. One of them is a few miles East, but they would never let you or me go anywhere close. It’s very…violent toward zebras.” I almost couldn’t believe that Seer was actually helping without me giving some kind of excessive reason. I didn’t even have to tell her some crap about looking for supplies. “The other one would probably let you get inside with your two friends if we explain what happened, but it’s on the other side of New Oatleans.”

“Then we’ll go to the close one, as long as they’re safe I don’t care if we can go in,” I told her with a smile.

“Okay, let’s go get them,” she said sadly. I don’t know why she was sad; she was going to help two ponies start a new life instead of dying slowly. So why did it worry me so much?

When we got back to where the others were waiting, Doc had finished her work on Charmer and was curled up sleeping at the mare’s hooves. From how quickly she did that work and passed out, I imagined it must have been the only sleep she’d gotten since the attack. Bandages covered most of Charmer’s face and back, but I could see a few nasty patches between the cloths. All of the supplies Felix had bought were used up on her, and I hoped we didn’t get attacked on the way to the next town, because there was nothing left in any of our bags.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked the flute-playing mare as we approached, hoping for at least something good.

She frowned, but still nodded. “A little. It’s good to see that Doc is okay,” she replied quietly. “Thanks again Shayle…for helpin’.”

I shook my head slowly. “Don’t thank me yet, we still need to get you somewhere safe.”

“There’s a town East of here, you know of it, right?” Seer asked. Charmer nodded with a little grin. “We’ll take you there, but we should go now. Before anything else unexpected shows up.”

“Right,” Charmer agreed with a determined tone. She nudged Doc softly and whispered for her to wake up, grinning happily as the filly groggily rose. “You can get better sleep when we find ya’ a bed sweetie.”

“I wish you safety on the road,” a stoic voice called out from behind me.

We all turned to find Xion standing right behind Seer, glaring at the two ponies.

“I said, before anything else unexpected shows up,” Seer growled.

“It was close enough.”

I don’t know what they were talking about, but an uneasy feeling started to crawl into my brain as I listened to the two.

“What do you want?” I asked viciously. Probably not the best tone to use with one of those crazies, but I really didn’t care for him at the moment.

“I wish to extend a deal to you,” the stallion replied neutrally, not even phased by my tone. “If you will hear it.”

“Fine, go ahead,” I hissed. Suddenly my holster was starting to itch a bit, and the urge to kill Xion was rising.

“I offer you a chance to repay killing my Rottwood.” Seriously? Who would have that thing as a pet?!

“You don’t have a pet Rottwood,” Seer grumbled softly. I don’t think she planned for me to hear that…

“You must choose one of your comrades to die.”

“No,” I responded instantly as the gun on my hoof went from itching to burning.

“You misunderstand. You must choose one.” I understood that the first time. That isn’t going to change it.

“Shayle, just hear him out,” Seer pleaded. Why did I feel like they did more than hump in that cave?

“Fine, but don’t expect me to listen,” I growled. I wasn’t going to listen, and I didn’t care what he thought about it.

“You can choose the young one, your brother. He doesn’t carry a gun, and cannot help in a fight, and with the little filly you will have a better medical pony.” Felix shrank back and whimpered a little while Doc reached out to his shoulder. “You can kill the burned one. She has lost everything and will live her life deformed and depressed, unless you put her out of that misery.” Charmer frowned and sat down, looking away and seeming like she would cry again. “You can choose the little filly, who has lost everyone who loved her.” Charmer wrapped a hoof around Doc as Xion glared down at her. “Or, you can kill our friend Seer.” I think Seer’s head almost fell off with how fast it spun around. “Who has not told you a single true word since you left that cave, but is your guide to survive in this place.”

I hated him. I hated him so much. Only two days before that I had seen him as the greatest zebra alive. He was my savior and someone to look up to. But with this, he was hated. He was someone that had to die, someone who didn’t deserve to be in the Remnant. Not all soldiers could be like him, not in a million years. He was sick, and so were the others with him.

Two other zebras materialized beside him, Rhyming Buck and the other one I hadn’t seen in the town before. The only one missing was Minx. All three of the stallions glared at me expectantly, almost looking excited to see what I would choose. They didn’t say a word, nobody did. Everything was still and silent. The only reason I still knew the world was turning was the soft sniffling of Doc as she tried to stay close to Charmer. None of them deserved to die, even Seer for what that’s worth. I hated her, she had lied to me and used me more than once, but Xion was right; she kept me and Felix alive. She knew where everything was, she knew how to shoot better than I could ever hope, and as sick as it was she was smart. I couldn’t kill her yet either, not until I could keep me and Felix alive without her.

“None,” I demanded, stomping my hoof. “I won’t choose any of them.” The two zebras behind Xion looked at one another, then back to me with a murderous glare. “None of them deserve it.”

Xion stared at me silently for a few seconds, a contemplative look on his face. In front of him Seer shook her head sadly. I messed up?

“Very well,” Xion flatly agreed, and shimmered into nothingness. I think I saw a smirk slither across his lips just before he disappeared. The two zebras behind him followed suit, and we were alone again.

“Thank ya’,” Charmer whispered with a grin across her face. “Thank ya’ so much.”

A little grin managed to cross my lips as well. Nobody else died because of me, and all it took was saying no. Everything in this town had seemed so much easier than I thought. I hardly had to lie, I only had to shoot one Rottwood, and I didn’t even get hurt. It was a wonderful feeling. And to make it better, I was going to get Doc and Charmer somewhere safe, a new home where they could try and be happy again. I just hoped they could move on…

I didn’t even hear the gunshot. All I heard was a whoosh, and suddenly there was blood everywhere. It splashed across Felix’s face, Charmer’s chest, and across my legs. The splatter almost threw me off my hooves in surprise, it came out of nowhere. At first I thought it was mine, and that I just didn’t feel it because I was already dead. But no, it couldn’t be mine. That would have been too simple.

When Charmer screamed I couldn’t stop myself, and I looked down. The front of Little Doc’s neck was torn open as blood poured to the ground and into her lungs turning her gurgled breathing into the worst sound I’d ever heard in my life. It only lasted a few seconds until she stopped forever, but they were the longest seconds of my life.

I messed up…

Footnote: Level Up! (Speech 20, Guns 35)

Author’s Note: Another giant thank you to Kkat for making such an awesome universe! I love it, and could never thank you enough for creating it and letting us other writers play around in the sandbox! Another thank you to Somber for expanding that universe with Project Horizons, and for giving me more building blocks to play with. And thank you to my pre-readers and editors, you’re awesome, this story would be awful without your help. And finally, thank you to the readers who keep me going! I hope I continue to entertain!