CHAPTER 5

“Next of Kin”

_________________________________________

"What was the Winter War?"

A conflict, a huge conflict between the New Canterlot Republic and New Stalliongrad State.

I remember the day the Winter War started.

Eight years ago, the NSS made a push to control the entirety of Old Stalliongrad City. It was a daring move violence had been threatened against us from the NCR if we recaptured the city. It was still no-pony's land, but the NCR borders were very close and it was feared that the NSS would use Old Stalliongrad as a stepping stone for an invasion of the NCR.

The NSS never exhibited any need or want to invade the NCR. The plan of the government was to not anger the rest of the big four and to remain unobtrusive and neutral.

The city itself was going to be restored. The building plans and art recovered in order to inspire the architecture of New Stalliongrad and to display the artistry of to the Old World as a way of rebuilding pony culture for the New Equestria.

However, good intentions are rarely taken at face value.

For a few months the city was occupied and quietly held by no more than 300 citizens and 150 rangers who were all pretty green and basically new recruits, sent in as a measure of mutant cleaning and raider control, but more than anything it was a training mission.

The NSS had been wary but was now starting to believe that the NCR had bluffed when they threatened them.

This was, however, short-lived.

During the beginning of the following year the first NCR elections were held.

With increasing fear of the NSS and pressure to retaliate against them being ignored by the first president of the NCR –Gawdyna Grimfeathers– she was quite shockingly removed from office by a mere seven vote margin. That elected the ‘Trench’ party into office, effectively making Tin Cap the president of the NCR.

Tin Cap was an Earth Pony stallion who had much harsher views on how to deal with New Stalliongrad.

A lot of Gawdyna’s supporters were too shocked to believe she had lost, many outside sources –including The Lightbringer– coming into the equation and demanding a recount.

With Littlepip believing the NCR to no longer be the bastion of democracy and fairness she used to know, The Lightbringer turned the SPP towers and the surrounding areas into an independent state.

This of course became known as ‘Independence’.

With President Tin Cap in office, the legislations to invade the New Stalliongrad State were drawn and an aggressive fear campaign began.

The Boardroom of the NSS of course condemned these actions, calling them an unprovoked attack.

And whilst the Board and the NCR were busy arguing, the NCR moved a large task-force north and hit the city as hard as they could, annihilating what little resistance the NSS had in Old Stalliongrad.

The NCR had no idea of the civilian presence in the settlement and –believing it to be a military outpost– leveled it with artillery.

More than 180 of the 300 civilians were killed in the shelling of the fort and by the time the NCR realized the civilian nature of the camp, it was already too late.

The ponies of the NSS saw the shelling as an unprovoked massacre, and believe me when I describe the reaction when these news reached the population:

Every single pony I knew was crying out for blood.

Before the NCR could explain or release their prisoners, one of the largest task-forces in equine history –on par with something from The Great War– was on its way to Old Stalliongrad.

The only thing the citizens of the NSS saw were red, and the only way we thought we could allow the grieving families a measure of peace was through a bloodbath.

And boy was there a bloodbath.

The Winter War of Stalliongrad lasted two years, each side nearly exhausting their entire armed forces in the war.

Near the beginning of the Winter War Littlepip ordered a ceasefire and demanded a summit be held in order to stop the fighting.

For the longest time the summit looked like it was going to work, that peace would prevail and we would return to the New Equestrian dream of milk, honey and global recovery. It all seemed too perfect to be true.

In grand old wasteland style it was.

Many may not know but the NSS had a single leader to accompany The Boardroom, this position was known as High Councilor, the first High Councilor of New Stalliongrad was a mare named Cinnamon Swirl.

She...

I’ll put it this way, if Cinnamon was still in charge, it's unlikely that I would have ever been an orphan, I would still have my parents, I wouldn’t be a fugitive. The Winter War would never have escalated...

But the night it was hoped the ceasefire would be signed, Cinnamon’s Vertibuck malfunctioned and crashed, killing her.

Perhaps I will discuss the High Councilor and the actual government and how it functions as a whole more in the future, but it is not important right now, what matters is that all the more tolerant views and peaceful decisions New Stalliongrad made were because of her, and now she was gone.

So was that outlook.

They still haven’t decided who the next High Councilor will be, it’s always brought up, but the board can never make up their goddess damned minds.

With the whole Board in disarray, accusations flying, riots and multiple assassination attempts on the president of the NCR, the summit failed disastrously.

In order to quell the fighting, Littlepip changed the weather to nearly lethal conditions, in hopes that the danger staying in Old Stalliongrad posed would convince the armies to leave.

It didn't...

Fueled by bloodthirsty rage, the battle swept the city, wiping out the NCR task-force, leaving the NSS the victor, but at the cost of nearly the entirety of their army.

The war was no longer about the city or the massacre, it had devolved into psychotic rage. One final force was mobilized to wipe out the remaining NSS presence and was set to arrive on the dot the next morning.

The NSS dug in and built up walls, under the command of Board Member Supreme Commander Icarus, cutting the city in half at the old bypass highway which ran through the middle of the former metropoly.

The small force that remained held their ground, the most brutal and gritty guerrilla war seen since the Great War began. There weren't enough guns or ammo to feed the NSS army in Stalliongrad, only through incredible wit and resourcefulness the New Stalliongrad State held long enough for a ‘peaceful’ resolution.

With the war clearly in a stalemate, which was locked so tight nothing short of a balefire hit could have broken it, the decision was made to call for a truce.

So on a chilly spring morning a ceasefire was declared and the war ended.

The city is still held and split at the bypass to this day.

The two nations, that prior to Stalliongrad pretty much ignored each other and got on with their lives, were now the worst kind of enemies.

Although it's been six years since the conflict, the two nations continue to move units into the area and build up their forces’ strengths.

Tensions continue to mount and build every second that ticks away, all it would take is one pony, one stupid move...

And well, we'll have serious problem, won't we?

*_*_*_*_*

Rhinestone thought quietly to himself as he reclined on his desk chair.

I had just finished explaining what had happened to me and Fable.

It was nerve-racking. He just sat there, staring into space.

“So you are sure you signed that tag under your real name?” he said with an expression so deadpan and neutral it kind of unnerved me.

I couldn't discern if he was mad or not, he wasn't making any facial expressions to work with.

"You know, you are a fugitive now, Nimbus. If it wasn't safe for you and your sister before, it will be too perilous to even move from town to town now. You're going to have to leave New Stalliongrad entirely, it’s too dangerous for you here."

"I'm not leaving or going anywhere without Fable, even if it gets me killed!"

Rhinestone nodded uncomfortably "I'm not saying to go without Fable, I'm simply telling you that, when your mission is completed, you can no longer remain here."

Rhinestone looked at a simple clock he had on his desk.

He rose and walked over to a radio and clicked it on.

He turned the knob and combed through the static until a station came in.

...........perialist dogs!" This simple street survey proves that peace negotiations with the NCR are trivial meaningless banter!

Long live the state. Chest' I Khvala!

There was a small intermission during which a simple patriotic song played.

As requested by Board Member 1st Commander Coal, we are announcing a search for two fugitives who escaped from New Stalliongrad through the aid of an underground terrorist network known as Freedom Stripes.

The two are called Nimbus and Fable.

Both are young-aged Pegasi, Nimbus is believed to be somewhere in his late teens with a tall slenderly build, beige coat and black mane. His sister is in her early teens and has a cream white coat with a long black mane.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of these two, please contact a Guard at your nearest City Guard booth.

Don't forget the 30,000 cap or bit reward, if they are brought before an official alive and unharmed. Serious consequences will apply if either fugitive is harmed in any way, shape or form.

Thank you for listening.

Chest' I Khalva!

“You understand, with that tag under your name it won’t be long before somepony notices and the whole city is placed under lockdown in order to find you. For this reason you must get out of here as fast as you can.”

It hit me like a ton of bricks: my sister and I both had a bounty on our heads. Granted, Fable did have a six foot tall tank in power armor with her who was interested in my sister for his own reasons, so she was more likely to survive than I, but it just made me realize how brutal a place this was for me, just because of my existence.

"That message is going to spread very quickly, give it two more days and every single pony in the NSS armed forces is going to be looking for you."

“Rhinestone, I came here for a reason. Jericho –the pony who took Fable– is strong, much too strong for me to handle, he took a direct hit from an Anti-Machine Rifle and it didn’t even penetrate his armor, I came here because you are the only pony who might know how to stop him.”

Rhinestone stood up from his chair and told me to follow him.

I did so as we weaved between his narrow hallways. His house was designed mainly as a huge main room at the front and a hellish nightmare of hallways and such behind it.

We walked into an unlit chamber and Rhinestone clicked on the light.

Before me were two dress mannequins, one had a long light-brown trenchcoat, the other was a set of scratched and chipped combat armor that appeared to be a few shades brighter than my own coat.

"I've kept these things since I got them. That armor was what I wore when I was your age, before the NSS. I was a guard at Tenpony Tower, your father had just abandoned the Enclave and had come there trying to get his bearings, he wore that bloody trench coat everywhere he went. Your father gave it to me a while ago, just before he married your mother."

Rhinestone coughed violently.

“There...isn’t much I can offer you Nimbus. I can’t come with you, I’m much past my prime, I’d be more of a burden to you, but there are a few things I can do.”

He waved his hoof across the combat armor and coat

“I have no use for those, or my other possessions, they are yours now. I think your father would be happy that his favourite coat was in your possession, and I’m not jumping in front of bullets anymore, so my armor is now yours as well, as is one last thing.”

Rhinestone walked to a cabinet, he coughed again as he withdrew a sheet of paper.

He returned to my side.

“Marked on this map is a gully, my gully. It contains my safehouse, where I used to live back when I did work for...the NSS.”

I looked at him funny before he sighed and rolled up the sleeve of his evening wear.

A tattoo of a dragon skull greeted me.

“I knew you were in spec ops, but wow, you were an Elite?”

He nodded “There’s some pretty experimental shit in that safehouse. The safehouse as well as everything in it, is yours. I understand in your search you’re going to need a warm bed, as well as somewhere safe to hide from the guards. As an Elite I had the power to have that area stricken from the records, it’s probably the only place in the wasteland where you’re not going to be found.”

I took the map and put it in my patrol bag.

“You said his armor looked like NCR riot gear, right?” Rhinestone asked tapping his chin.

I nodded.

“Hmm, I have a theory, what do you know about the Donkeys during the war?”

I shrugged “Nothing”.

Rhinestone hummed, “They were neutral, tried everything possible to make the option of invasion less appealing to both sides.”

“How’d they do that?”

Rhinestone walked over to his chair and sat down on it. “Dealing with both sides, kissing up to both without them knowing of each other. And when they got on good terms with Equestria and the Zebras they bought technology from both countries and mixed them together, effectively making very powerful tech. Though they remained neutral to the bitter end, it was effectively their plan to build a strong defense force to repel an invasion should the need ever arise.”

He coughed for a moment and cleared his throat “I have a feeling I know why Jericho is as tough as he is.”

I gave Rhinestone a questioning look.

“Donkeys were rumored to have an armor that had personal shielding, not like the magic fields Equestria had already perfected, but energy-based shielding, like what the Zebras were working on.”

“That doesn’t sound too mythical or amazing” I said bluntly.

Rhinestone chuckled “It was. Zebras had half given up on energy shielding, so when the Donkeys got a hold of it, they just poured research into it and a bunch of prototypes were created. Of course, they needed an armor system that could power the design, but not something too large in order to stay mobile. So their solution was a near exact clone of Equestria’s riot gear, but upgraded and powered. It’s rumored to be able to protect the user from a direct hit from a 105 shell.”

That was impressive.

“They took volunteers from their armed forces and trained them in their use, so your friend Jericho must have found a base or something and managed to get by its defenses.”

I nodded “That's all well and good, Rhinestone but that doesn’t help me find a way to kill him.”

“Then this will. Energy shields aren’t like magical ones, there is no bypass bullet or hell hound claw that could get through it, the only way to negate Jericho’s energy shield is to overpower it.

The large stallion walked over to his desk and shuffled through papers, looking for something.

“Here it is, the Pulse Gun.”

He handed the paper to me and I looked over it carefully “What is it?”

“It’s a type of spark weapon, it shoots an EMP, ruins anything computer or electronic based, not saying it will work, but it’s your best bet. I can’t think of any weapon that has the same properties as it.”

Rhinestone retrieved the two sets of clothing and gave them to me.

Then he offered me his washroom so that I might clean myself up and get dressed.

I spent a few minutes striping down from my tunic.

I looked at myself in the mirror, I was a mess.

Years of malnourishment had taken their toll. I still possessed my father’s genes, making me unusually tall and slender looking, something he used to say was an honorable thing to have, it being associated with the aristocrats of the pre-war years.

I looked at my flank, my Zebra genes were more dominant than my Pegasus ones, so upon my flank was not a Cutie - but a Glyph Mark.

Glyph Marks differ slightly from Cutie Marks, in the sense that they don’t make as much sense.

The idea behind Glyph Marks isn’t exactly known, the interpretation differs between tribes. The popular opinion about them is that they are a prophecy, they hold what you will become rather than what you are – like a cutie mark would. However, their real purpose isn’t truly known.

Mine is a little weird, it’s a semi-circle with a serrated outside, kind of like a saw blade, it layers back with smaller and smaller semicircles until it reaches a certain point and turns into a white circle.

Before you ask – no, I have no idea what it was supposed to mean...

My eyes followed down to the bandages on my hooves, serving but one purpose, and that is to hide my stripes.

I bit my lip as I unrolled the rags and exposed the dark-brown stripes which swirled around all four of my legs, as well as the much more obvious patch of stripes just beneath my shoulder.

It's kind of poetic, they represented everything that made my life miserable, yet here I was stark naked as I inspected them. I certainly wasn’t proud of them, they ruined my life, I should have been disgusted, annoyed or even infuriated by looking at them, yet I wasn’t.

All I felt was acceptance. Acceptance was fitting because by this point accepting had become sort of a sick running joke in my life.

Accepting that things wouldn’t get better, accepting that life would never be easy for me, accepting responsibilities I didn’t want but had to accept to even begin to survive anymore.

Accepting that my parents were dead and never coming back...

All I could think about when I looked at the lines on my flank was my mother, this was almost like her gift to me, so that I’d never forget her. It haunts me to know that all I really remember about her is that she was a Zebra, and that’s it. Trauma does that to you, you just repress and cry until it all becomes a misty haze in your mind.

My eyes returned to myself after I broke from my day-dreaming gaze.

I never really looked at myself, it was strange. As I stared at my reflection, I noticed my own gaze, the emotions my face held spoke volumes about my life.

My gaze was one of sorrow, of longing and of failure. I looked pathetic, I really did.

I unclipped the ancient blades on my wings and placed them carefully on the bathroom counter.

I expected them to be covered in the blood of the young buck I had killed earlier today but they weren’t, they still maintained that spectacular and glimmering finish they had when I first found them.

Wondering where the blood could have went, I unfolded my wings in curiousity.

Like I suspected, I found where it had gone.

The blood had seeped ever so slowly from the blades down my wings’ feathers in a fluid motion.

It chilled me to my bones to learn that the blood of the buck had been on me this whole time.

I glanced before me and my eyes went as wide as saucers.

I actually had a mirror in which to compare size and Luna-damn, Rusty wasn’t lying.

My wings individually were nearly the same size as I, how these damn things managed to get so small when I folded them up was beyond me.

I –like the foal I am– inspected them for a little longer than I should have, before looking over my shoulder bashfully to see if I hadn’t just shown off to some sort of spectator who had snuck in behind me.

After I shrugged away these thoughts, I turned the knobs in the shower and nearly collapsed in surprised pleasure.

Hot Water.

A simple bliss that I had been without for years, and I had finally been reunited with its majesty.

I envied those who had access to hot water on a daily basis.

This is as good a time as ever to explain to you that New Stalliongrad wasn’t always an awful totalitarian communist state.

New Stalliongrad really was a nice place to live before the war. If you had a secure job you were set. When you are in a state run by workers, a worker’s position naturally becomes assured and you earn enough to lead a comfortable life.

Ponies had the freedom to do as they pleased and the right to speak their mind about anything they wished.

Wartime changes a lot of things – and now, you either like the government or you die, simple as that.

The jobs I used to do –the unsafe low paying ones– slipped beneath the radar because they were considered 'part-time' jobs. In reality, they just took advantage of the poor.

But if you were law abiding and had a secure job, you could live one of the best lives possible in the wasteland.

I just got the arsehole end of the deal because of my stripes, that’s all.

I unfortunately had to get out of the shower, but sweet stars above did I feel good.

I was clean. Legitimately clean.

It felt fantastic.

I looked at the two sets of clothing before me, I decided to put the Tenpony security armor on first.

I watched as my large wings slipped through the inbuilt area designed to accommodate them and reattached the wing blades, smiling as they fell back into place like clockwork, no feathers pulled, no pain received.

I looked at my blades for a moment. Some soldiers name their weapons, I’m not really sure why. Maybe it is the silly bond you half-develop with your weapons.

Nonetheless these weapons were too well crafted, individual. Whoever made these had obviously put a lot of time and effort into their design. Maybe it was my foalish side speaking, but I believed that they deserved a proper name.

It was from that moment on, that I called the weapon that sat upon my shoulders, Vintage.

The trenchcoat was next.

It was humbling, I held the very coat my father used to wear when he was still alive.

I carefully slipped into it and smiled as the coat was a nearly perfect fit, one or two sizes larger than I, but that wasn't an issue. It fit, so I was happy.

I looked at my newly groomed self in the mirror and actually smiled.

My mane felt clean and fresh, the aches and pains I suffered had melted off.

Probably best of all, I liked what I saw.

I felt proud, I felt...invincible.

It probably seems egotistical to you, let it appear however you want, I won’t try to convince you otherwise.

But I will tell you, after years of feeling like and believing you are trash, seeing yourself, feeling good about what you see, it’s about as strong a self esteem boost as you can get.

I walked back to the living room, where Rhinestone was sitting and conversing with Rusty.

Rusty did a doubletake when she saw me.

Rhinestone glanced back and grinned “You look just like your father, Nimbus. It’s uncanny.”

I joined the others as I sat quietly on a sofa.

Rhinestone cleared his throat “So, your friend here has described to me your plan, as well as the intentions of your Zebra friend. Like I said, you must leave Trotsvok as fast as you can, I can only assume that word of your name appearing within the city will reach higher authorities very quickly and ponies with guns will soon be on their way to find you.”

“The route I marked on the map I gave to you” he said as he gestured to Rusty “It is the fastest way out, the Distant Callers HQ is also on the way, you can drop your friend off and be on your way to Frozen Lake to meet up with this ‘Flecker’ you spoke of, but you must leave now if you have any hope of getting out.”

I nodded, gathered my things once more and prepared to move out.

Rusty and Yakobi proceeded out of the apartment and just as I was about to leave as well, I heard Rhinestone speak “Nimbus...”

I turned to face him “Yes?”

“I am sorry we couldn’t have met under more...’cheerful’ circumstances, I’m sure you –like I– wish we could have had an opportunity to properly sit down and talk about your family, but you signed that tag under your real name and word will spread of your presence within the city very quickly, even with my route you are cutting it very close.”

Rhinestone sighed “I can tell your journey to find Fable will not be an easy one, I’m sure you know this too. I do not know how long or how hard this quest of yours will be and there isn’t a lot I can say that will change your stance on that but I can say this:”

He put his hoof on my shoulder “Fight, fight until you have nothing left to fight with, because there are some things in this world that are worth more than anything you could possibly own.”

Rhinestone wrote something down on a piece of paper and hoofed it over to me “You will need this password to get into the safehouse.”

“Find your sister, and when you do, move to Independence. Get a nice life for the both of you, neither of you deserved any of this. Good luck Nimbus, Chest’ I Khlava.”

I looked Rhinestone in the eye “I don’t plan on failing, Rhinestone. Thank you for all you have done, I will never forget this.”

Rhinestone nodded “Your parents would be proud of you” he patted my back “Now go before it’s too late.”

I nodded and followed Rusty and Yakobi out the door.

Back outside into the cold snow and uncaring streets of Trotsvok.

******

We moved as quickly as we could without seeming suspicious through the winding snow-covered streets of this city.

We soon reached the Distant Callers HQ, it was a curiously shaped dome-like building, built on an octagonal base.

Yakobi looked back at me, her face obscured by her Balaclava.

~{I cannot thank you enough Nimbus, this new world...it seems too...surreal, and I need to know if my family got safely into Great Mountain, thank you for helping me.}~

I smiled and cocked my head ~{Yakobi, you didn't shoot me even when we trespassed and stole, you gave us a chance and that makes you a good Zebra in my book, I wish you all the best on your journeys, stay safe, our home is a dangerous, unforgiving place.}~

She returned the smile...I think ~{I would request you do much the same, I hope you find your sister and you give Jericho what he deserves.}~

She began to head for the door ~{I will find a way to contact you with the results of my mission. Oh, and if you do happen across Amoa, do point him in my direction, would you?}~

I grinned and waved ~{You have my promise.}~

Yakobi swallowed deeply "Good. Luck. Friend." her shaky voice squeezed out in Equestrian.

After we finished our goodbyes, me and Rusty continued on our way out of the city.

We passed several guards which we were paranoid of, but luckily they ignored us.

Once we finally reached the gate, we began our sign-out process.

Thankfully, I wasn't required to give my name. A faster system, which assigned a code to a name and marked it on the tag, meant that you simply had to get the tag removed and could leave.

However, once Rusty's and my own tag had been taken off and I began to believe we were home free, out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of guards frantically rush to the gate.

I alerted Rusty and we began to hastily speed-walk out of the labyrinth of fences. We were at the last stretch, within range of freedom.

I then heard something that froze my blood.

The comm tower tone.

“Your attention please. Pony of interest located within city walls, the city is now in a stage yellow lockdown, a stage yellow curfew is also now subsequently in effect until further notice.”

A sombre tone sounded continuously.

The guard at the gate stopped us and looked us both sternly in the eye.

I really thought we were fucked, but by some strange twist of faith the guard sighed "Go on, get out of here, travelers don't deserve to be locked up in this city while we look for this POI, have a nice rest of the day."

I nodded and grinned ridiculously "Thank you so much sir, you really have no idea how much this means to us" I said as me and Rusty got outside the wall.

The guard waved before banging on the metal portal frame twice and yelling something like 'Bring her down!'

Immediately, a thick half-metre wide blast door lowered down ever so slowly and came to a heavy rest across the gate, blocking all in and all out.

"That was too close'' Rusty said, trying to contain her breathing "Imagine if had arrived even thirty seconds later, we would have been fucked!"

I nodded as I looked back at the blast door which stood where the open gate once had been.

Too Close

******

After we had put some considerable distance between us and Trotsvok we slowed our rush down and stopped to catch our breath.

It was already unnaturally cold and there were some dark and vicious clouds blowing toward us.

A cold wave was fast approaching, making a blizzard likely for tonight, we needed to start preparing.

We found a nice small opening in a thick forest, which offered a good protection against the wind.

I told Rusty to start working on a fire while I went looking for some saplings to become our shelter’s base.

Sure enough, I found a few good ones, one quick swipe of Vintage and they were free.

Rusty was still trying to get a fire started, she'd even emptied a few of her bullets to get some assistance from the gunpowder.

I began my work by ramming the saplings into the snow, forming a circle. I then stretched their upper parts toward the center, forming a dome-shape as their top reached the middle.

I tightly weaved and tied these branches the best I could, and once that was done I began placing the heaps of leaves I had collected to seal up the sides.

Afterwards, I started packing snow atop the leaves, covering the shelter nearly from top to bottom in it.

It was by all means complete at this point, but to keep myself occupied I wanted to improve this camp with a few other things I remembered from a survival book I had read in my foalhood.

I built a fire-wall behind the campfire, which was now burning brightly, just like a healthy fire should. The red and orange glow warmed my chilly self and hopefully this wall would help direct the heat right toward our shelter. I also made something I referred to as a cold well.

You raise your sleeping area at least a foot higher, which I did with snow and a bunch of pine leaves, then you dig a hole a foot down, right in the centre of your shelter.

Apparently this was where the cold air collected. Of course I have no idea why, I can’t remember that part of the book because it was a brainy sciencey stuff I couldn’t comprehend at that age, all I knew was that it helped keep the cold air off of you for some reason.

We unfortunately had not kept any of the venison from the deer, so we had nothing to eat. I know a lot of you are probably going to say ‘we’re vegetarian’s by nature, go get some grass and flowers”.

And that is true, I don’t mind vegetables and leafage, I lived off bloody mushroom stew for six years.

But there were neither flowers nor berries in this area. I had even asked Rusty, she simply replied ‘I can tell by the shrubs and the trees, this is the wrong climate to find anything edible, unless of course you feel like chewing on the local tree leaves, which have the consistency of leather, to say nothing of their taste.”

Which raised further questions, we couldn’t spend any amount of time in the cities anymore, word of my bounty was spreading and soon my image would be known by every soldier, guard and money hungry bounty hunter in the country.

With this obstacle in my way, I could neither sell nor buy goods in any of the major cities, Rusty would have to go in by herself, which I wouldn’t have an issue with, if she didn’t scream raider just by looking at her. It was a bizarre stroke of luck we even managed to get out of Trotsvok without her getting pulled aside by a guard.

Maybe we could get her a nice long-sleeved dress in Frozen Lake and make her look like a respectable young mare again.

Luckily, Frozen Lake, being the second smallest settlement in the country next to Outward, had no system of tags. We were to head there, find Flecker, get some answers from him and stock up on supplies for the new safehouse whilst we waited for Jericho to show up.

The safehouse was partially on the way, my only hope was that we could get to it, get this weapon that could disable Jericho’s shield and get moving as quick as we could towards Frozen Lake.

The winds got angrier and gained a cold bite that stung as it brushed my exposed face, I had to squint to keep it from hurting my eyes.

I had hoped that it would remain a simple cold wave, but it became evident very quickly that we had to deal with a true blizzard.

Soon it became unbearable and we had to head inside, I kicked the fire out and ushered us both in, piling the entrance up with snow. The shelter wasn’t my best work, you could see from inside just how shoddy it was. The design was easy to build, but pretty inefficient. I just hoped it would get us through the night.

You could hear the wind as it whined and howled outside. It was a heck of a storm, but within our crude shelter the combined heat from both of us and the insulation from the snow made us actually feel warm.

I was still awake and –judging by how much she was shifting around– Rusty was too.

“So you never really told me how you became a raider, Rusty.”

I heard her sigh “I’d rather not say Nimbus. It was a particularly dark period of my life.”

I realised it was awfully selfish for me to expect Rusty to reveal these things without her knowing anything about me in return.

“Well, how about we switch sob stories? You don’t know much about my foalhood, so how about I tell you?”

She lay in silence for a moment “I suppose so.”

I wondered where I should begin, what part of my particularly dark foalhood I would tell.

“Did I ever tell you how Fable and I lost our parents?”

*-*-*-*-*

It was a relatively quiet afternoon, the school-week had been vastly shortened due to the Winter War.

We all listened to radios for the small releases of info we got from the summit.

It was a dark day when word got out that Cinnamon Swirl had died and that tensions were mounting once more for the fighting to flare up again.

Every day it was the same procedure, a tank convoy, flanked by our brave Rangers, would roll down the main street from Stalliongrad Tower out the gate, on their way to be stationed at White Base, the enormous military compound a few miles from Old Stalliongrad.

With Cinnamon Swirl dead, most of the Board was in disarray, the flawless machine of our government seized up like somepony had thrown a wrench in the gears.

It seems it was Sky Spring who put her hoof down and took control, she was the voice of reason, of hope for all of us in the dark hours of the war.

Of course, she –like most others shortly after– blamed the NCR for Cinnamon’s death, calling it an attempt to collapse our government from within, and disregarded all of what Littlepip ordered as she lined the borders of New Stalliongrad with the army.

I’m sure I need not tell you more.

See, my point in saying this is, that ever since Cinnamon Swirl died, Sky Spring has pretty much taken control of the country, despite the many votes to decide who should become the High Councilor failing and leaving the position vacant.

She still put forth all the rules, all the new bills were signed and packed by her.

Including the one about Zebra extermination.

It had been solely her idea, she started spouting all this shit about how Zebras ruin governments, how their morals are messed up. Her main point was that the struggling, fledgling society in the Zebra wastelands, known as the United Zebratic Alliance ‘essentially the NCR of the Zebra lands’, relied on foreign aid almost exclusively.

Sky Spring said they drained economies, that their religions and culture made them weak and they were the reason we were at war with the NCR – which at that moment in time we appeared to be losing.

Of course, all of that was pointless. The only reason Equestria started recovering so well in the past decade was because our world has life in it once more. The Zebras have next to no fertile soil in their lands because of radiation, the only signs of society within the UZA were incredibly small pockets in the regions that were spared the damage of balefire devastation.

There was a huge public outcry, constant protests and riots, nobody believed what Sky Spring had to say, none but the truly brainwashed.

Sky Spring called these public outcries treasonous, that these ponies supported the NCR and wanted our communist state to fall.

So she outlawed freedom of speech and protesting, from that point on you abided by the law or you got a cell in Artechoka.

It’s amazing what ponies will do when they fear for their lives, Artechoka had been likened to hell by some who had worked there and nopony was exactly eager to find out themselves.

Nopony questioned, nopony said ‘No’, everyone obeyed the State or they died.

The Zebra bill was passed and the very next day it came into action, there were no secret arrests, no black-baggings in the middle of the night.

It was army trucks and kicked-down doors right from the get go, there was no transition, no fear of public outcry, the government was in total control.

And retaliating against the guards meant death, the civilians could watch as the families were dragged from their homes and into the trucks in broad daylight.

Dad wasn't home when it happened, he left at completely random times, occasionally in the middle of the night, saying he needed to work on ‘his project’.

That particular time he left just before the bill was passed, so he wasn't there for the whole week.

It was just me, Fable and my mother sitting in a room. I was afraid, I may have been young but I wasn't oblivious, I knew what was happening.

I kept urging my mother every night for us to pack up and leave for the NCR or Independence but she kept refusing, saying we were waiting for Dad to come back before we decided what to do next.

When he hadn’t shown up for four days, she finally agreed. We began packing, she was going to leave a letter for him saying we were going to seek asylum in Independence.

…Do you know what it is like, being so relieved you are safe, so sure that you and your loved ones were safe...and to have it taken away just as you let your guard down?

That’s what it was like on the morning we were set to leave. Mum had made an arrangement and we were going to the docks to be taken to the NCR on a boat. The predecessors of Freedom Stripes had been helping and evacuating Zebras ever since the bill had been a rumor.

I envy the paranoid, I really do.

Some saw it coming, heard the rumors, packed up and left on the dot. What did they have to lose?

If they were wrong and it was just a rumor, lucky them, they come home and get on with their lives. But if they were right, they survived, their family was safe, and they were protected.

But my mother and my father, they were the blissfully ignorant types, the ones that turned their heads and ignored the warning signs, kept telling themselves ‘It couldn’t happen, nopony would allow it.’

But we were wrong, a mere hour before we were meant to leave, a bunch of guards kicked down the door of my home, dragged my mother away from me and Fable, to be locked up and killed off in Artechoka Prospekt.

Fable and I got away, ran when the first guards came in and my mother told us to.

It was the Freedom Stripes we ran to, they escorted me and Fable to the docks. When we arrived, there was no boat, the pony my mother had made a deal with had been a snitch, selling out those who were trying to escape to the guards.

They tried to get me and Fable out again, but it soon became hopeless. The navy started patrolling the coastlines, escape became impossible unless you wanted to try your luck by ducking the border in the Old Stalliongrad metro.

But that was much too dangerous for a grown stallion, let alone a foal and his little sister.

Every day that passed, I dreamed of getting over the border, getting somewhere safe, every day I’d hope my father would come home and we could live how we once did, but I gave up on any hope of salvation five years ago. I gave up hope and just accepted what my life had become and tried to protect Fable as best I could.

I always had this impromptu plan, that when opportunity best presented itself, we would make a run for it and I’d try my luck in Old Stalliongrad, in the infamous ‘Grim Highway’, the main metro line ponies used to cross the borders.

But I guess this opportunity is as good as any.

Honestly, fuck this country. As much as I believe there was –and still is– the potential for a good world buried under this fucking mess, these last couple days have brought me over the edge of my tolerance for this place.

I hated having to jump through a dozen hoops each and every day, just to get by in this Celestia-forsaken country, so screw this place.

*-*-*-*-*

After I finished my story we sat about in complete silence.

Rusty sighed "Kid, I know you are curious about it, but my descent into raiderism is not something I tend to fondly remember."

More silence.

“I...just...” she stammered before grunting “After I deserted from the frontline, I was on the run, they had ponies searching for me, I would have got the firing squad if they had found me. I was going to...a shady friend of mine’s place in Manehattan, I was going to get him to falsify some NCR citizenship documents so I could continue with my life after I got settled in.”

She sighed “Still, it was a recovering world at the time, kid. Besides what you freaks did here, gangs and raiders still existed, even with the NCR clearing out hundreds of smaller groups. I...was unfortunate enough to get caught by a convoy of bandits, coming from the wilderness to New Stalliongrad. They were going to the camp you woke up in. Paying back Flapjack, the former leader, for giving them guns and ammo with drugs and loot, they decided to include me as part of the payment as well.”

I heard her body shift atop her bedding “I spent three weeks locked up in a cage at the back of the convoy. I was blindfolded and cold, the bastards only gave me enough food and drink to just barely keep me alive. Of course, I also had the unfortunate bonus to be the group’s stress reliever and plaything whenever they felt like it.”

I swallowed as hard as I could in hopes of relieving the lump in my throat.

It didn’t work...

“Only got worse after I arrived at the camp. I was nearly dead, I could hardly support my own weight. I got exchanged and handed over to Flapjack, another month of malnourishment and torture passed by before I couldn’t take it any more. I challenged him to a fight. I never intended to win, I just wanted Flapjack to kill me and end my suffering, but during the fight I...just went savage on him like some sort of wild animal, punched his skull in, cut one of his arms off...”

I heard her snort “After I killed him I took control of everything, not one of the little cowardly shits opposed me. Having killed some of my more...hated acquaintances, I settled down as leader of the whole gang. Lo and behold, four weeks later my patrol sees you and your sister walking around, a stone throw away from the camp, and voilà, here we are.”  

Great. Now I felt like shit for making her dig up those memories. I never was good at deep conversations like this.

“Rusty...I’m sorry for...”

“Don’t apologise, that period of my life was pretty fucked, kid. But I at least got a sane childhood, at least I grew up with parents and a proper education. You haven’t had any of that, if I was offered to not have to go through that period of my life, but I’d have to experience your kind of childhood, I wouldn’t change it, ever. It was terrible, you can never get over that kind of thing and it will haunt me forever...”

I heard her huff a frustrated sigh “But I can lay in solace, knowing that these things happened to me as an adult, when I was mentally stable enough to deal with them. You were a kid when your parents were arrested, you had to raise a foal when you yourself were still growing, physically and mentally. That kind of thing fucks you up really bad, and when I look at you I am amazed that you aren't a wreck and I respect the hell out of you, because I know, if it were me that had to grow up like that, I’d be a fucking wreck.”

I didn’t object, not wanting to risk digging up more of this baggage she probably didn’t want to see.

But by Celestia, Luna and all the stars, was she wrong, I’m not strong – I am paranoid, weak-minded...built like a pile of twigs, I was anything but strong.

But her...she’d been in Stalliongrad during the war, a place where hundreds died every single day, if it weren’t the bullets and bombs, it was the cold.

She stayed weeks in a place I would have gone insane in within hours.

She picked up a rifle and followed ponies she knew weren’t going to make it back, she had killed because she was ordered to kill, not because she believed it was right, she watched friends and comrades get torn to shreds by war machines.

I would never be able to do something like that, I have more respect for soldiers than I do for myself, because I know, I’d never be able to do what they do.

I rolled over and sighed, the blizzard was still howling outside the shelter, but if all went well it should have blown over before morning.

I closed my eyes and tried to get as much sleep as I could.

*-*-*-*-*

Somewhere familiar, somewhere within the confines of routine, Greasy’s Foundry – the only full time job I ever had.

I was around 15 when I started work, I had just turned 16 the day it was shut down by an inspector.

I missed Greasy’s Foundry, in comparison it was much safer than anywhere else. Greasy was a good mare, she paid for injury recovery, taught safety lessons about the machinery, I honestly have no Idea why her workshop was closed.

That, and me and Greasy’s daughter...kind of...not really...slightly...were dating.

We got very intimate between one another, I’m not sure what the word would be but I’d probably say ‘unfortunately’ I never got to sleep with her.

We came close to, one evening, but I got uncomfortable and stopped us. I told her that on our next date I would be prepared...that date never came, this was the last time I ever saw Summer.

Her name was Moter Oil, a unicorn. Surprisingly enough, her talent was perfumes, she always called herself Summer Rains after her favorite scent.

...Sweet Celestia, I just remembered her perfumes...her fragrance, she always made herself smell the way she looked. It’s hard to explain but...you would see her, and when she got near, she smelled exactly the way you would imagine she would, based off her appearance.

Goodness, she was beautiful too. Of course, you’re all rolling your eyes and remarking that I think so because we were an item, but I’m telling you, the day we started dating I had to slap myself, it was as if all the years of constant shit I had to put up with were receding at last and I finally had a patch of good fortune.

It was the end of a particularly hard work shift, I was the last one out of the foundry this night, but I didn't mind. Greasy always paid me slightly more than the others because of my situation, so any opportunity to keep her happy was taken seriously by me.

It was late, a buddy of mine said he'd drop by my house and check to see if Fable had eaten and went to bed.

I was just about to sign out when I smelled Summer’s beautiful scent drifting my way. Before I even had the chance to look up and react, I felt the itching sensation of her tail brush across my face playfully.

I looked up and caught the shape of Summer’s figure, draped in a spectacular blue dress, drifting as her head turned to look at me and meeting my eyes, locking me in her ruby red gaze.

She brushed her light pink colored body against mine as she walked to my side. I could feel my lip trembling at the brush of her soft fur against my coat and the feeling of her breath gliding along my body.

"Leaving so soon, Nimbus?"

She had me in a trance, the way her brilliant white mane swished when she turned, the way her eyelashes fluttered when she blinked.

Goddess damn, you could drive a stallion insane with that kind of physique.

It was obvious she had taken the time to put on makeup, her lips shone with a lipstick so glossy, I could see my face in it, and her eyelashes had such definition.

I...was...j-just finished work...and..to ah..I mean about to head...home."

She giggled at my stammer before leaning in and kissing me.

It went on for an eternity, but when it finished I felt like it had happened in a flash.

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in...walking me home tonight?"

"I...uh..da...love to!" I spat out.

She giggled again, I simply continued looking down into her eyes. I had reached an age when I shot up in height, turning me from a relatively normal colt into a lanky stick figure stallion in a matter of weeks.

I was roughly a head taller than a normal pony, there were even thirty year olds who I overshadowed.

Summer blushed and looked around uncomfortably “What?” she asked timidly.

“I d...uh” I blushed “I was...thinking about how p...pretty you look” I replied.

Summer grinned and purred, rubbing her head against me “What am I going to have to do to stop you from being so...shy around me, Nimbus!?” she tapped her chin inquisitively before giggling “I think I might...have an idea” she purred quietly.

I swallowed as hard as I could, some might have called her a tease, some may even have called her a number of other profanities because of her...rather titillating personality.

But not me, I was so nervous about being near a mare like her to begin with, I was always afraid I’d screw it up somehow so there is no way I’d say something derogatory.

I wrapped a wing around her and smiled as I led her out of the building into the frosted streets of New Stalliongrad, white flecks of snow slowly falling from the sky around us.

It was pretty chilly after spending all day on a factory floor. I used that as an excuse to scooch in tighter beside her.

“Nimbus?”

I turned to her and answered “Yes, Summer?”

She looked up at me with a timid smile “There is something I’ve been debating with myself for the whole week and...” she paused.

“W...What is it?” I asked shyly “You can trust me...right?”

Summer Rain looked at me with a loving gaze “Yes...yes I can” she looked down and smiled “Nearly the subject of my question, actually.”

I nuzzled her neck “And...?”

“It’s about us...” she sighed. My stomach dropped, what buck’s wouldn’t?

She looked at me as we walked, pacing the quiet streets of the late-night Industry District, headed to District 1.

“We’ve been dating for nearly three months now, I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to anypony before, not even to my mother.”

I held her tightly as we exited the industrial district and entered into the main town square.

The front gate had been locked all day, there had been a security scare at Checkpoint 4 along the border to the NCR, the whole country was on high alert, groups of Pegasi had been headed to the checkpoint since morning.

I nodded as I remained ever wary of the nearby guards, they weren’t looking at me but I was watching them “So...what did...you want to...talk about?”

She remained silent before leaning up and kissing my cheek “Just wait until we get inside, you’ll see...” she said, a smirk on her face.

She unlocked the front door to her home, and I pushed it open.

We were greeted by a flash of light...followed quickly by Rusty’s voice.

*-*-*-*-*

Damn it all!

“Goddess damn finally, kid” Rusty said, stepping away from my side of the shelter. “Blizzard stopped about an hour ago, looks like it’s gone, we should get a move on, we’re burning sunshine.”

I groaned and nodded, pushing myself up and stretching my limbs, which had locked up from the cold.

I punched the barrier I had built down with my fronthooves, the blizzard sure had cleared up because I had to shield my eyes from the sun’s glare.

It was actually very surprising, the clouds had cleared right up, the sky was more blue then I think I’ve ever seen before.

Despite that I knew the partial layout of the area from last night, stepping outside the world looked different. The fresh layer of snow covering the everything was disorienting, the world looked vastly different without truly changing.

As Rusty determined the direction north, I tried a little technique I had learned from my survival book.

Putting your wing to the horizon you can determine how long the sun has been up or how much daylight you have left, each primary feather represents 15 minutes.

Nearly two hours had passed since sunrise, I didn't like that, I had burned two hours of sunshine I could have used.

We had to make it to Rhinestone’s safehouse by midday, and reach Frozen Lake by sundown.

No Excuses.

"Alright, that way is north, so we are walking...that way."

I nodded and let Rusty take the lead.

Walking in this kind of fresh powdery snow is a real bitch, your hooves just go right through and down to the packed snow layer underneath, you use twice as much energy traveling half the distance you would have without it.

This worried me, we still hadn't eaten since we went hunting with Yakobi and it was really starting to make itself known, I had a constant ache in my stomach.

It was nothing agonizing, just really annoying. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do but ignore it and wait out for Frozen Lake. We would find food before it became a serious issue.

The ground in the direction we walked was slowly becoming more and more solid until I realized we were walking on rocky soil.

The snow was also beginning to thin, becoming a rough and slippery surface.

"Hey, Equestria to Nimbus, you're about to walk off a cliff" I heard Rusty say in an angry tone whilst grabbing my shoulder.

I blinked and looked down, indeed I had nearly fallen right off a sheer cliff and into a canyon.

"Luna's ass, now we have to walk around it" I heard Rusty sigh.

I nodded and just as I began to follow Rusty, I noticed a glimmer coming from the valley.

I turned and peered at it. What was that shimmering down there?

It was something metal, smack bang right on one of the cliff walls.

I had a strange feeling that this metal anomaly was Rhinestone's safehouse.

"We got to find a way down into this canyon" I said to Rusty.

Rusty turned back and looked at me "It'd take longer to go through the canyon, you stupid featherbrained idiot!"

I shook my head "No, I think I see the safehouse down there" I retorted.

"How much do you weigh, Rusty?"

Rusty snorted "I don't know, what kind of question is that?"

I was...not the strongest buck ever, I was built like a pile of sticks held together by duct tape.

But my theory was that I could at least glide her down slowly, flying was a different animal.

After I explained this to her she made a face at me and sighed.

"You better not fucking drop me..." she mumbled before trotting to my side.

I unbuttoned my father's coat and shrugged it off, tying it around my waist.

I flapped my wings out, grinning as Vintage made the most satisfying rasping sound as they clicked out with them.

I finally lowered my back legs slightly to allow for the awkward process of Rusty climbing onto my back.

“Don’t even think about taking a bumpy flight, kid.”

I rolled my eyes and began a quickened run for the edge, leaping slightly and flapping to gain lift.

It was much harder to fly with her weight atop mine, but I could at least control our descent.

We remained in awkward silence all the way down.

After several straining seconds, I finally reached the floor of the valley, and after a rougher landing than I had hoped for, we dusted ourselves off and continued to where I had seen the reflecting metal.

Following a winding path for some time, we finally got a good look at it. The map confirmed we were in the general area, so this had to be the safehouse, there just wasn’t anything else around.

It was a long, multi-passenger sky chariot, lodged right into the cliff, like it had crashed into it.

I moved to a fast trot, grinning as I reached a natural ramp that led up to what looked like a series of scaffolds.

If I had been a little slower and a little more observant I might have been able to put together how suspicious it was.

I heard a computer beep and a mechanical hiss as a sentry turret rose out of a nearby rock face and threw a high calibre round straight at my left shoulder.

I yelled as the bullet smacked into my armor, winding me and nearly knocking me over.

Instinctually, I dived to the nearest cover –a very small rock– before another bullet roared out of the barrel.

I gritted my teeth as I slid on the ice-lathered stone, only to cry out in pain as I felt the horrifying sensation of a round punching right through my back right leg.

I curled it up to my body, looking at the coin sized hole in my calf seeping blood in a uniform pattern.

My leg shook involuntarily as I could almost feel my heartbeat each time a dark crimson gush poured out of the wound.

I wrestled through my packs, searching each pocket, searching for the remaining two health potions from the catacombs.

My breathing became harder, my vision seemed to bleed together in a blurred finish as I flipped through the pockets.

I cracked a smile when I finally caught eyes on a potion, pulling the musty old cork from the bottle, I downed the whole flask.

My lungs and throat began to burn up and I coughed violently over and over beside me, shooting a spray of misted blood all across the frosty ground.

I looked back and was a little distressed to learn that I was still bleeding. The wound had sealed up for the most part but it was still seeping a dangerous amount of blood.

I heard Rusty's SMG shoot and the noise of strained mechanics, followed by a quiet explosion as the sentry finally gave up the ghost.

Rusty ran to my side and looked over my wound.

"I took a potion and it didn't work!" I exclaimed.

I heard Rusty groan "You dolt, a wound that big needs a healing bandage, have you got any?"

I shook my head.

Rusty face-hoofed and looked at me with a look of pure annoyance before opening her saddlebags, yanking out what looked like an old sock that had been torn into strips.

She grabbed a healing potion from her own bag and dabbed the sock in it.

Using her teeth and horn, she tightly wrapped the sock around my calf and slapped the flesh around it repeatedly.

"Stay off that for a little while, it should be fine."

"How do you...?"

"I was a librarian, kid. I read a lot of books. Now, let's hurry up and get into this house, we're burning sunshine."

I nodded, rolling and kicking myself to my hooves. I tested each one, gritting my teeth and grunting in pain when I stepped on the wounded one.

I hobbled on three legs beside Rusty, keeping my injured one suspended in the air to avoid using it as much as possible.

We reached the scaffolded frame that climbed the cliff face beside the safehouse.

It had a simple pulley and cable elevator that we both entered and Rusty started cranking to lift us upward.

I could have flown up there, but before I remembered, Rusty was already cranking, so I decided to leave it be.

The door to the hideout was locked. I cursed and searched through the papers I had been given to find any clue as to how we were supposed to enter. Luckily for me Rhinestone was kind enough to leave us the key, which tumbled out of the folded papers.

Turning it in the lock and yanking a lever back, the door popped open and let us in.

The interior of the carriage did not sing the same tune as the exterior.

The inside was mellow, welcoming and homely.

The room was a rusted but still visibly painted light brown colour, there was a hastily built yet charming hardwood floor that creaked ever so slightly at our tread.

The back of the old carriage –the end overlooking the canyon– had been furnished with a nearly flawless couch which faced the scratched and worn window into the valley.

The front of the old carriage –the side lodged into the cliff– was noticeably darker. It contained two sleeping cots that had been jury rigged from some of the remaining chairs and an old chip-wood desk, which –besides a lone desk lamp– laid completely bare.

There was also a door toward this end, a door that I can only assume lead into where the pilots used to sit.

I limped over and inspected the surface.

The door had no observable knob or handle, but beside it was a small dusty keypad.

I stared at it for a moment before fishing out the note Rhinestone had given me.

The code was obscenely long: 12,5,14,9,14,5,1,26.

I looked at the keypad and the numbers, there were no numbers higher than nine, so why did he write 12, 14 and even 26? My only guess was that he wrote it in a way that helped him remember it, so he probably intended it to mean 125149145126.

After punching the code into the keypad, the latch clicked back and the door hung freely on its hinges. Pushing it open with my nose, I stepped in.

As I suspected, this was formerly the cockpit. Large windows surrounded me on all three sides, these had since been boarded over and plastered with maps with all sorts of jargon and lines scribbled on them.

All across the walls lay the control panels that would have once been piloted by an onboard crew member, these had since been torn up and planked over, changed into a long counter on which Rhinestone had stored a litany of firearms and ammo.

My eyes were drawn to a surreal gun with an almost science fiction-like appearance.

In comparison to the rest of the otherwise very normal looking weapons, it was probably a safe bet that this was the Pulse Gun.

I scooped it up and bagged the gun and a few of the spark batteries, before looking around inspecting what remained.

One thing did catch my eye, it was a small cylindrical machine, just smaller than a head.

I raised my brow and after limping over to the object, I turned it around in my hooves inspecting it from all sides.

It was open ended and like the idiotic foal I was, I decided it was a great idea to place the object around my left foreleg just above my hoof.

The thing covered up the wraps of fabric which concealed my stripes and I thought it looked really cool. I could only assume it was a plate of armor, I didn’t care though, as long as it made me look awesome.

I tried taking off said cylinder but after several attempts it became obvious it wasn’t moving any time soon, that made me panic slightly.

All of a sudden, a prickly sensation arose under the metal plate, like dozens of tiny needles just sticking me ever so lightly.

I tried to scratch it, but the sensation stopped after a few moments.

After looking at it for a while, I felt the the coldest rush originate from beneath the object, climb up my foreleg and reach into my head, clawing at the back of my eyes.

I involuntarily blinked over and over, noticing milky white objects appearing in my vision.

The object on my foreleg chirped and after a few seconds the glass panel lit up, revealing a screen with dozens of numbers rocketing past in columns.

The numbers finally stopped and were replaced by some sort of welcoming screen.

The objects in my vision were now obviously parts of a HUD, some displaying my current health, others displaying a compass or how much ammo I had left.

I realised that this object on my foreleg had to be a Pip-Buck, it looked slightly different to the ones the clergies at the Church of Light usually wore.

To be honest I don’t think me and Fable would have lasted very long over some of those winters without their hand-outs...as much as I despised the Lightbringer, I will admit her church at least tried to help, instead of taking our supplies and forgetting about us...but I digress, that story is for another day.

Something I had just randomly picked up and played with turned out to be actually helpful.

That was unusual.

I hobbled outside beside Rusty, who was laying down on the observation couch, kicking her hooves together while waiting for me.

After glancing my way, she slowly stood up.

"I got some of the food and water from the cupboards, we have enough to last us for some time" she said, rummaging through her saddlebag.

She threw a tin at me, I hastily grabbed it in my hooves and ripped its lid off with my teeth.

Inside was a moist, sticky brown mush with a random assortment of vegetables in it.

"Don't worry, it's just vegetable and mushroom stew, I had one while you were back there."

She spoke like I was worried about how good it tasted, she obviously had no idea what Fable and I had to eat to survive.

I could observe actual food in this, that's a step up from some of the things I used to eat.

I licked up the contents of the can hungrily and emptied it in a matter of seconds.

Once I had discarded the tin out the window, I wiped my mouth with one of my hooves.

Rusty noticed the Pip-Buck on my leg, her eyes following it "Where'd you get that from?"

I gestured toward the armory room "In there."

She shrugged "Now might be a good time to hook up your firearms, get the stuff out of your bag."

I nodded and retrieved the shotgun and SMG, along with the mounting frame.

Rusty ripped open the adapter’s bag and pulled out the various poles and parts and started assembling them with ease.

She told me to empty the boxes of shotgun shells while I waited and I did just that, flicking each bullet into a magazine, filling up the six I had to the brim.

By the time I was done, Rusty had finished her work and floated the assemblage of poles and metal plates to me.

She rested the curious saddle on my back and fastened it to me tightly.

After a few more minutes of random tinkering, Rusty stepped back and sighed.

An icon that appeared to be the silhouette of a shotgun blinked and disappeared, leaving a pervious blank corner filled with some numbers.

"That saddle is synced with your Pip-Buck's X,Y,Z detector, so if you look left the gun will aim left."

She flicked back a pedal near my back hoof "Kick to reload, bite the reign to fire, you will have to pump the action after every shot...just use your wing or something, simple as that" she said, pulling the shotgun’s bottom areas off and clipping all sorts of gears and rods from the side of the saddle to it.

Rusty push-kicked the pedal and the mechanics slid the shotgun shells in one by one.

Afterwards, Rusty showed me the intake for the saddle’s store of ammunition and patted my back “Congrats, you can kill shit now. Keep that bridle locked away unless we are in a situation that calls for it, or I’ll kick your flank.”

I glared at her “What about the SMG?”

“I need another piece of equipment for that, I’ll look for it when we get to Frozen Lake.”

I nodded “Speaking of which, we should probably get moving, I don’t want to waste any more time.”

We stepped out and slid the door shut behind us and locking it.

A ladder leant against the scaffolding, the wooden lattice allowing us to climb out of the valley and onto the side. This time I used my wings to fly up, to spare my still throbbing hoof.

“Those things contain an automap spell, find it for me” Rusty asked quietly.

I peered at the panel, observing a white cartoony Pegasus standing on a scale as a cartoony doctor looked him over. This picture was flanked by the words “PLEASE WAIT, MEDICAL SCANS IN PROGRESS”.

I shrugged and moved to the screen marked by the words ‘DATA’.

Sure enough, there was a map of all of Equestia with a small box hovering over my apparent location.

Rusty peered over my shoulder and stared at the map “You see that little white spot there, the oval sort of shape, tap on it twice and set a marker.

I nodded and tapping it and selecting yes to confirm my placement.

“That is Frozen Lake, that should lead right to the main gate, look for the marker on your compass, and all we have to do is follow it.”

I looked left and right, observing the compass until I saw the tag.

I pointed and began to follow its direction at a brisk pace, using my wings to compensate for the injured back leg. With my face on the wanted list I didn’t have much of a chance getting into town unless we moved quickly.

******

We passed through dead forest and snow blasted plains as we shuffled toward Frozen Lake.

Eventually we reached a mildly steep hill. Biting my tiredness we scaled it, breathing heavily as our hooves went right through the snow and making our journey uphill so much harder.

I reached the top, helping Rusty by lending my hoof for the last few steps, and laughed triumphantly as we looked down to see a large lake frozen solid, above it was a series of criss-crossing jetties and boardwalks supporting a small village atop them.

All around the outside of the town watchtowers were placed on raised stilts about the lake, each staffed with a New Stalliongrad Guard brandishing sniper rifles and RPGs.

We trotted slowly closer, while I was tightening the wraps around my striped hooves.

When we got to a certain point, the guards in the towers turned their attention to us, moving their rifles in unison as we walked toward the settlement.

I could almost feel their scopes drifting over our heads, I wished on every star in the sky that they wouldn’t take special note of me.

Just this once, please don't recognize my face.

I clamped my teeth together as hard as I could, sweating profusely as we strode past the towers, the whole while feeling the gaze from above.

I finally let myself breathe when we got to the town’s first pontoon.

We had three days before Jericho was meant to meet up with this Flecker pony, all we had to do was sit tight for a few days and Fable would practically be delivered into my hooves.

I really hoped it would be that easy.

Me and Rusty cantered into a nearby inn, Rusty hoofed over a bag of caps and we were led up to our room.

Rusty had made it very clear that she wished to use the time we had to stock up on supplies.

She left me behind sitting on a faded armchair, contemplating my own thoughts and nursing my wound.

Just as I believed I was alone, my heart nearly leaped out of my mouth from the sheer surprise when I heard footsteps in the room without the sound of the door being opened.

I jumped to my hooves and spun around pointing my shotgun at the intruders.

What I saw were three ponies, two of whom were flanking the third, dressed in brown hoods which shrouded their faces from view.

The third pony was a very tall and thin looking black coated Unicorn, he had the kind of figure which at first glance would make you swear he was a mare, yet as I found out when he talked was a stallion.

He had a clean slate-grey mane that he had combed back neatly. It almost looked like it came with the brilliant white business suit he wore.

“Good morning, Nimbus. Do remain calm mate, this’ll only take a wee moment” the tall suited one said in a strange accent, something reminiscent of Trottingham.

“Who are...?!”

I felt the cold rush of a needle slamming into my neck and a tingling sensation as a liquid flowed through me.

I couldn’t fight or even yell, I just felt each of my limbs seize up like they had fallen asleep.

My eyes rolled back into my skull as I tipped to my left and slammed chin first into the floor, my eyes fluttering, confused as to whether I was awake or asleep.

I took my last few gasps of air as I finally fell into a deep state of unconsciousness.

I was so close...

Why now...?

Welcome to level 5!

Perk Added! :The Path of the Risen. Part 1:

Your character has gained a considerable amount of Self Respect because of a given object or pony, because of this you get a +1 to Endurance and Strength when in possession/close proximity of the object or pony but lose your bonus when it is absent.

Here we are again!

Thanks for reading and staying tuned for this chapter which took a century to finish, as always thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next in 2 weeks!

~DarcySupremest