Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world.

Spending the night in the medical tent wasn't the best night's sleep I'd ever had. Actually, it was pretty uncomfortable. The cot was itchy, and I kept waking up during the night for no real reason. Still, it wasn't the worst night's sleep either, and it was a far cry better than sleeping on cold, cracked asphalt in a cramped alcove. The potion Grift had given me the day before had healed a number of aches and had made it easier for me to get comfortable. So, despite everything, I was still decently well-rested when I woke up the next day.

Grift was in the tent, going through the medical supplies and packing them into several sets of saddlebags. I sat up slowly and looked over at Starry; she was still fast asleep and, again, in a rather... unbecoming position. She was sort of half-slouched across her cot on her belly, with both forelegs and one hind leg dangling off the sides. Her other hind leg tucked underneath her, propping up her rear end, while she had her cap pulled forward to cover her face.

Grift, having noticed me, trotted over and flashed a pleasant smile. "Morning, little bird," she said quietly. "Get a good night's rest?"

I nodded as I groggily rubbed the crust out of my eyes with a fetlock. "Yeah, thanks."

Grift tilted her head to the side as she looked at me, like she didn't believe me. "Everything alright, little bird?"

Everypony kept asking me that. "I'm fine," I answered her as I got to my hooves and stretched a bit, cracking my neck and back with a roll of my shoulders.

I noticed that Grift was still looking at me skeptically. "You sure you're okay?" she asked, reaching a hoof toward me.

"Of course he's fine. He would have said so if he wasn't," Rake said, as he stepped in through the tent flap. "Isn't that right, my little pony?" He flashed that predatory grin of his at me, and my wings bristled.

"I—um... Right," I said, shuffling about on my hooves a little. I hadn't been able to shake what he'd told me about himself the night before. It was a frighteningly familiar story, and I could only hope that I hadn't made a worse mistake than I already thought. Ending up like Rake... Even if he was getting along with everypony in camp, it was still an unsettling thought. The interest he'd apparently taken in me didn't really help to put me at ease either.

With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, Grift turned to go back to work packing things. "What do you want, Rake? Can't you see I'm busy?"

Rake was lazily inspecting his hoof, humming quietly to himself for a moment before responding. "Oh, I just stopped in to check up on how your preparations are coming. Everypony else is ready to go. Well, my boys are at least. I think Queen Hardass is still bitching about something or other, but she can start marching any time the old stallion gives the word." He set his hoof down and tapped it impatiently. "So what's taking you so long? Can't you just sweep up all this crap into a few saddlebags so we can head out already?"

"You know exactly what's taking so long," Grift responded, while casting glare over her shoulder at the young raider. Her horn glowed as she continued picking up items off the shelves—one at a time—in her green magic.

"You should just let a real unicorn help you out," Rake said, glancing over at me with a sly grin, and winking as his horn began to glow red. Half the tent's inventory lit up with a similar glow, but before any of it moved an inch, the lid of a mason jar, sheathed in Grift's green aura, went flying across the tent and hit right at the tip of Rake's horn. His magic imploded, and everything settled right where it was.

"Go tell Trailblazer we'll be ready to leave soon. I'll get this done a lot faster without having to clean up after you make a mess of everything."

Rubbing a hoof at his horn, Rake just smirked. "Fine, fine. Miss Persnickety." He stuck his tongue out at Grift after she turned away from him. Then he flashed that unnerving smile of his at me again before ducking out of the tent.

Grift was continuing to pack supplies away while I just stood there uncomfortably. I couldn't imagine how they could just act like that to each other. Should I say something? I wondered. But what was I supposed to say? Just some meaningless comfort? Grift didn't seem upset, but I didn't want to appear insensitive by just ignoring the whole thing. As I tried to figure out what I should do, I felt increasingly aware of how long the silence was dragging on for.

I started looking around for something, anything at all, I could ask about. I noticed Grift's rifle propped up in the corner, and something about it stuck out at me. Looking at it, I saw a puzzle where all the pieces had been re-cut to fit where they didn't belong.

"Something catch your eye, little bird?" I was startled briefly as Grift spoke up.

"I was just, um... Your gun. It... doesn't quite fit together."

She smiled and laughed quietly. "That's one way of putting it. Yeah, I've had to repair it with odd parts over the years. It serves me well, though."

There was one part in particular though, standing out from the zebra stripe patterns around it; part of the stock had been replaced with a broken piece of a wooden stock. The words "Old Pain" were carved into it. Curious, I asked her what it meant.

Grift looked at the carved stock on her rifle, and her smile faded a little. "I got it off a corpse," she said plainly, shrugging a little and returning her attention to her work.

There was something curiously familiar about that part. Staring at it more closely, I let my eyes follow the contours of the seams between parts. It wasn't really accurate to say it didn't fit together, because it did. The parts had been cut and filed, though, made to fit in a twisted mockery of a completed puzzle. Looking at that one part, I tried imagining what had come after "Old Pain" before it had been broken and reformed. It made me wonder about the other parts making up the patchwork that was her rifle. Grift had assembled quite a collection of lost puzzle pieces. What pictures had they once fit into?

Her ears perking up, Grift turned around to face me. "Is something wrong, little bird? You look... lost."

"What? No—I—I'm fine." I scuffed a hoof at the ground as I shuffled around awkwardly, forgetting my reverie. "Rake said you're going somewhere?"

Taking a few slow steps toward me, Grift nodded and smiled cheerfully. "We're making a caravan trip out to a settlement. I'm getting medical supplies packed up both for trade and in case we run into any trouble along the way." Her horn lit up, and she levitated my saddlebag over to me from among the bags she'd been working on. "I took the liberty of restocking your medkit, and I patched up the bag, too. I hope you don't mind."

I blinked a few times, unable to believe she'd simply done that for me. "I—Of course I don't mind. Thank you," I said as she set the bag down at my hooves.

Smiling and stepping a little closer, Grift gave her tangled mane a bit of a shake. "You should come along with us, little bird. It'll help to have somepony else to carry things, and we can get to know you a little better along the way. We didn't get much of a chance to talk yesterday."

Biting my lip, I took a half step back, my hind leg bumping against the edge of the cot. I looked past Grift at Starry, still sound asleep. "I don't know. I think Starry wants to keep moving the way we were headed..."

Grift glanced over her shoulder at Starry briefly before turning back to face me. "Do you trust her?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Well... yeah. Shouldn't I?" I asked, confused.

Grift bit her lip as though she wasn't sure if she should say what she was about to say. "It's just that... Enclave—pegasi in general, really—don't exactly have the best reputation out here. I mean, it's nothing against you, little bird, but as long as they keep the sky sealed off, things won't get any better."

Looking back over at Starry, I frowned. It wasn't her fault things were like they were. And it was like she'd said the night before: they had limited resources and needed to keep the cloud cover. They couldn't just open it up. I could understand that; the stable was a closed system. We—They had to keep things tightly rationed too. There was barely enough to sustain the stable's population and certainly not enough to fix the wasteland. It's all we could do to shut out the wasteland.

"You don't have to stay with her. You know that, right?" Grift suggested, looking at me with a hopeful smile.

I balked and stammered incoherently as I tried to come up with something to say to that. I mean, she wasn't wrong but... The thought had occurred to me once—the first night with Starry—and I'd dismissed it then because... where else would I go? I hadn't thought of it since then; but, now, as Grift was pointing out, I had someplace else I could stay. Still, I wasn't sure.

It was at that moment that Starry finally woke up, signaled by an unpleasant groan from her as she sat up halfway on her cot, her cap still pulled forward over her face. Grift and I were both silent, watching her as she fished around for her saddlebag, underneath her cot. She snagged one of the straps with her forehoof and pulled it up to where she could rummage through the contents until she pulled out her aspirin bottle.

With remarkably practiced ease, she opened the bottle and shook out a tablet into her hoof while simultaneously reaching her muzzle into one of the front pockets on her uniform to pull out her flask with her teeth. She closed the bottle and dropped it back into her bags, opened the flask and swallowed the pill with a short draught.

After taking a moment to just sit there, Starry took in a deep breath and put away her flask while she straightened her cap and brushed the stray hairs of her mane out of her face. She looked over at us watching her, blinked a couple times, and then looked around the tent briefly, as if she'd forgotten where she was.

"That... sure seems like a healthy breakfast," Grift deadpanned.

Starry narrowed her eyes at Grift. "Just something to clear my headache, alright? I don't need to hear—"

"I'm not judging. You don't have to get defensive about it," Grift cut her off as she moved back to resume packing supplies while Starry continued to glare, the latter's eyes following Grift. "You'll be heading off now, won't you?"

Starry got up off her cot and pulled on her battle saddle and saddlebags while mumbling something under her breath. She cleared her throat. "Yeah. Come on, Day. We have a lot of ground to cover, but we can probably make it by nightfall."

Grift glanced at me over her shoulder as Starry headed toward the tent flap.

"Um, ma'am? I... I think I wanna stay here." My ears folded back and flushed hotly, as I ducked my head, looking up at Starry.

She stopped in her tracks and turned her head to look back at me. I cringed, waiting for her to... respond.

She sat down facing me, reaching a hoof toward my chin, but stopped when I flinched away. She sighed. "I know you're scared out here, Day, but you don't know these ponies like I do. We can't stay here. It's not safe."

"Isn't it dangerous everywhere out here? Tell me there's anywhere I'll ever be as safe as—" I choked. "Tell me there's somewhere better than here. At least with these many other ponies around, I won't have to—to... kill... again." Those last words were barely above a whisper, my voice caught in my throat.

"Well..." Starry hummed quietly, considering her answer. "I guess there isn't anywhere as safe as your stable, but that doesn't mean you should stay here. It's plenty safe back at—"

"You know," Grift cut in, "you don't have to take him with you. Day's welcome with us, and it's up to him if he wants to stay. I'm sure he's really grateful for all you've done for him so far, but you don't need to keep looking out for him. He's a big pony who can stand on his own. Isn't that right, little bird? Wouldn't you like to help us with the caravan?"

Starry's ear twitched as Grift spoke, but she kept her eyes on me. I didn't know how to answer. On the one hoof, I wanted to stay where I was. There were a lot of ponies in the camp, and they all got along with each other—more or less. On the other hoof, Starry had protected me from just about the moment she had found me. Really, what I wanted was to stay here with Starry, but it was obvious she didn't fit in with these ponies, and there was no way she'd agree to—

"It's alright, Day." Starry bit her lip and sighed. "We can stay. At least for a bit longer."

Grift seemed as taken aback as I was with her acquiescence. Starry stood up and turned to face Grift with an expression somewhere between a genuine smile and a knowing smirk, as if she'd just realized that she was only a few moves away from winning a chess game.

"We ran into raiders just yesterday; there's surely more lurking about just looking for a caravan. I'd hate to leave you all without my tactical experience in case you came under attack. I'll just have to come with you to help provide security." Starry looked rather pleased with herself. "After all, it's the least I can do to repay your hospitality."

Her composure faltering ever so slightly for a brief moment, Grift put on a wide smile and nodded. "We'll be happy to have you along."

I was following Starry toward the tent flap when Grift added, "Be sure to check in with Jade. She's in charge of coordinating security. I know she'll just love to hear you're coming along." Then it was Starry's turn to falter briefly. She hesitated mid-stride but continued on without saying anything else.

We left the medical tent to see that ponies were busy packing up half the encampment. A few of the ones wearing armored barding with Jade's tipped scales on it gave Starry cross looks, but nopony said or did anything else and stayed out of the way. Starry held her head high and carried herself with the sort of confident stride that Security would have inside the stable. Everypony always got along with Security; and, likewise, nopony was bothering Starry.

Trailblazer was easy to find in the midst of the organized chaos of the camp. He was about the only pony standing in one spot. Jade was by his side, and the two of them were constantly taking reports and giving out orders to keep preparations moving. There was an almost mechanical beauty to the way he was running things. It reminded me of taking the access panel off an air conditioner unit and watching the parts at work. Every piece in its place, doing what it was supposed to do, being where it belonged.

Trailblazer saw us approaching and trotted out to meet us with a bright smile. "Captain. Lucky Day," he said with a nod to each of us. "I'm glad to see you both."

Jade stayed where she was, but I caught a sidelong glance of hers directed toward Starry. She was kept busy taking charge of coordination efforts while Trailblazer came to talk to us.

With a polite smile, Starry informed him of our decision to stay and help with the caravan. Trailblazer's face lit up so much at the news, it was like watching the magic lighting panels above the atrium come on to full daylight intensity; it was a brightness I'd yet to see in the wasteland under the constant, looming cloud cover.

Having overheard us, Jade stomped over immediately, leaving a rather confused young buck behind. "Absolutely not, sir," she said with a stern glare at Starry. "She's Enclave. The pigeon could be luring us into a trap or—" she leaned in to whisper the rest of her objection to Trailblazer. His smile faded somewhat, his eyes downcast as he considered whatever it was she told him. Starry just stood there, holding a forced grin under Jade's scrutiny.

Trailblazer looked up at Starry, tilting his head to the side; then he looked over at me. My ears folded back a little, and I lowered my head as I looked back at him. I could see the corners of his lips trembling as if they were unsure whether they wanted to pull up into a smile or droop in a frown. His eyes, though, sparkled in the day's early light. "I appreciate your prudence, Jade, but I believe we can trust these weary travelers."

Jade snorted in derision but didn't argue, stomping her way back to the patient buck and his report.

"I'm so glad that you'll be accompanying us," Trailblazer said. "It'll give us more of a chance to get to know each other. Perhaps, Captain, I can show you that I have only the best of intentions."

"All the good intentions in the world won't solve our problems." Starry let her cheerful facade drop. "But I guess I can at least give you a chance."

***

Once everything was ready, a good three quarters of the camp—a few dozen ponies or so—headed west into the barren, dusty hills of the wasteland. Several ponies were tasked with pulling carts loaded down with supplies; others carried their share of the load in saddlebags. We proceeded in a column with a loose formation; Jade's gangers wandered patrols along the sides of the caravan while a handful of Rake's raiders scouted the path ahead, reporting back at regular intervals.

I was travelling near the center of the caravan with Starry, while Jade was trying to sort out what to do with her. It wasn't exactly going very smoothly, though, since it was just the two of them; Trailblazer had stayed behind at the camp, saying he had some things to deal with there, but would catch up to us later.

"Never worked a security detail before!" Jade's voice boomed. I think I could actually see the veins in her neck throbbing. "You mean not only do I have to keep my eye on you, but I have to hold your fucking hoof the whole time too? What the fuck kind of useless soldier are you?"

Starry held her ground and kept her head high while the green mare stared her down. Her brow furrowed; she responded calmly but with a notable strain to her voice, "I'm an officer and an engineer, not a frontline soldier."

"An engineer? So... what? You build bridges? The fuck do pigeons need bridges for?"

"I specialize in demolitions, mostly: collapsing buildings—empty buildings—for salvage." Starry bit her lip and took out her flask for a sip.

Jade rolled her eyes. "Wonderful. You look like exactly the kind of pony I want handling that shit. What the fuck are you even doing down here anyway? Get tired of all the sunshine and rainbows you keep to yourself, or you just curious to see who you're pissing on all the time?"

Wings bristling, Starry ground her teeth, but kept quiet.

"Well? Aren't you gonna fucking answer me?" Jade stomped her hoof.

"Ladies, please." Both Starry and Jade turned to face Grift as she cantered up to meet them, having appeared out of the crowd of ponies in the background. "Let's not make this a repeat of yesterday's little showdown, shall we?" She glanced at each of them, holding eye contact just long enough to get a quiet nod from them both. "Jade, Trailblazer said she's welcome here. You of, all ponies, should trust his judgement."

Jade snorted. "I trust him, not the pigeon."

Starry opened her mouth to say something, but Grift cut her off. "And Captain, we've all just gotten off on the wrong foot with you. You're out of your element here; of course you're going to get defensive. We can understand that, can't we, Jade?" She cast a glance back at the gang leader who just stood there silently, giving only the slightest of nods after a moment. "So why don't we try and set things right. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?" This time it was Starry's turn to give a reluctant nod.

"Good. We're all reasonable ponies after all, aren't we?" Grift continued, ignoring Jade's derisive grunt. "So, Jade, why don't you take Starry on a patrol around the caravan just to show her the route? I'm sure she has enough combat experience to figure out what to do if something goes wrong. Don't you, Captain?"

Starry smirked. "I can handle myself just fine."

Unimpressed, Jade rolled her eyes and sighed. "Whatever. Let's just get this over with. Your lost puppy tagging along too?" She turned her head to look back at me.

"Day's—"

"I can stay here with Day and keep him company," Grift said cheerfully, interrupting Starry. "That's not a problem with you, is it, little bird?"

I shook my head. "It's not a problem." Catching a concerned look from Starry, I forced a wide grin for her. "It's alright, ma'am. I'll be okay here."

Clearly growing impatient, Jade started ushering Starry away. Soon I was left alone with Grift in the midst of the caravan. She paced alongside me and flashed me a smile.

"Hello again, little bird."

"Um, hi, Grift," I said meekly. "How are you?"

She shrugged a little and adjusted her rifle, Old Pain, across her shoulders. "I'm fine. How about you, little bird?"

"I'm fine."

She chuckled quietly. "Everyone's always fine, aren't they?" Sighing, Grift looked up at that boundless cloud cover. "It's hard sometimes, keeping up appearances. You know what I mean, don't you, little bird?" She turned to me with a piercing gaze. "Every pony around you has to see you look and act a certain way. You have to convince them that everything is perfectly normal."

My ears folded back and I bowed my head a little. I couldn't take my eyes away from hers, though. She held me locked in her stare, and it was all I could do to give a simple little nod.

"They need you to convince them," she went on, "and so you do everything you can to show them what they want to see. Eventually, you might even start to act like that without having to think about it." She paused, looking off into the distance. No longer trapped in her eyes, I lowered my gaze and cautiously edged myself away from her. "Somewhere, though, deep inside you, you know it's all a lie. Keep it up long enough and the lines separating truth from fantasy start to vanish, and everything just becomes an honest lie."

Grift turned to look at me again; and, instantly, my eyes were drawn back to hers. My mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out.

She let out a small, mirthless chuckle. "You have to be careful about which masks you wear. You might not always be able to take them off. You know, little bird?"

My jaw trembled as I struggled to come up with a response. Grift's eyes were like candle flames dancing in the darkness, holding my attention captive. A sound caught my ear, making it twitch. It sounded like a voice, but all I heard was noise. Suddenly, my eyes were broken away from that mesmerizing stare by a pony sidling up to me and bumping my flank with his own. The contact made me jump a bit, and I turned my head to see Rake cantering alongside me.

"Helloooo? Anypony in there?" He waved a hoof in front of my face.

Shaking the stupor out of my head, I stammered, "I—Sorry, I didn't notice you. I was just talking with—" I looked back to my other side, but Grift was gone.

"Okay, you're definitely losing it all by yourself here."

"No. But she was just—"

"And I don't blame you." Rake yawned. "This caravan business is boring as fuck. Well... that's actually pretty exciting. Hmm... Boring as shit, then? Whatever. Point is: I'm bored; you're bored. Let's go have some fun." He put on a wry grin and winked at me.

"I, um, well... That is—" I cleared my throat. "What are you... suggesting?" I asked, stepping off to the side a bit to put some space between us.

Rake danced around me in a quarter circle to look at me directly while walking backwards. "That would spoil all the fun. C'mon, my little pony, don't you wanna live a little?"

Biting my lip, I thought better of his offer. "I should wait for Starry to come back from patrol."

"Booooooriiing!" He circled around to my side, seeming to glide on his hooves with an effortless grace, and again bumped his flank against mine. "I've got something I wanna show you. It won't take long, I promise. Well... unless you want it to." He winked again.

Flustered, I could only stammer incoherently as I edged away from him again. Watching me, Rake laughed. "Shit, you are too easy. Look, just come for a walk with me. There's a place nearby here I wanna go visit. Just a little detour and we can can catch back up to the caravan afterwards. We'll be back before anypony misses us."

My ears folded back timidly. I suddenly felt so out of place in that moment. Since Grift had vanished, and since I had no idea when Starry or Trailblazer would be back, if Rake left without me, I'd be all by myself—alone in the middle of the caravan.

"Alright," I acquiesced. "Lead the way."

***

What Rake wanted to show me was nothing like what I might have suspected it to be, and I had to admit that, as we were approaching it, I felt somewhat glad to be there, just for the privilege of seeing it.

It was a small village, nestled into the lowlands between the rolling hills. It was the first time I'd seen a picture of civilization outside the vault that was that complete. It was missing a vital piece, though, I realized as I slowly trotted into town alongside Rake, who was watching me—most likely the expression of wonder on my face—as I looked around. There was nopony living there.

The ruined city where I had met Starry was little more than skeletal remains of the creature it had once been. Mum's Diner had a small community living around it, or at least, that's what I'd been lead to believe, but that had seemed to be a meager, sickly little beast. This settlement was like a fresh carcass; everything was still there, but the life had gone out of it.

The buildings looked to have been of pre-war construction, but had fallen into disrepair over the centuries. Paint was faded and worn off in places, exposing bare wood or mottled red and gray masonry. Most windows were broken; some had been boarded up, but it seemed that supplies for maintenance had been scarce, as I could see repairs had been made only where absolutely vital to keep the houses standing. Even then, I recognized the myriad bones, borrowed from the houses in more advanced stages of collapse, grafted onto the sturdier houses to keep them whole.

Old, dead trees littered the yards around the houses. Dry, bleached wood skeletons that made my heart sink at the thought that I'd likely never see another live tree like the ones I used to sit under in the stable. Passing nearby to one such dead tree, I looked up into its boughs and saw a small bird's nest, empty and forgotten like the rest of the town.

My vision became filled with a white flank emblazoned with a flame-dripping syringe as I crashed into Rake's hindquarters. "Watch where you're going," he said crossly. "That is, unless that's where you were planning to go," he added in a sultry tone with a wry grin, flicking his tail in my face.

I stumbled back a few steps, stuttering as I felt my face flush hotly. "I—That's not—I wasn't—You—" I saw him looking at me, barely holding back his laughter. I sighed. "Sorry."

"You apologize too much," he said, turning to face me. "You think running face-first into somepony's flank is the worst thing you can do to him?"

My ears folded back as I felt the blush spread to them. I opened my mouth to say I was sorry, but stopped myself, instead just averting my eyes and staying silent, only looking back when I heard Rake's hoofsteps moving on without me.

Without even bothering to wait for me to catch up as I cantered after him, Rake hopped over a broken picket fence and trotted up to the door of the house it surrounded. Opening it as casually as he'd open the door to his own home, he stood to the side and waved a hoof, inviting me in.

Hesitating briefly at the fence's gate, which had fallen off its hinges long before we'd arrived there, I cast a glance back down the road. "Shouldn't we be heading back already?"

Rolling his eyes, Rake heaved a sigh and tapped his hoof impatiently. "Just get your ass over here already, and stop whining."

"I—I'm not whining," I protested, trotting up to meet him. "I'm just... worried we've been gone too long." Rake just shook his head and ushered me inside, following along after me.

As we entered the house, my eyes were almost immediately drawn to a strange message painted on the wall in large, bold letters:

Why do you dance with flames, little moth?

Are you already so hungry for another tragedy?

-Janus

Stopping, I just stared at it silently while Rake, having walked right past it at first, doubled back to stand beside me. "Some fucked up shit, huh? I think I remember seeing that the last time I was here."

I reached out a hoof and lightly traced over the graffiti. The dark, sanguine paint was cracked and flaking. Layers of dirt and splattered grime had built up on top of it. It had been there for years, decades perhaps. As I looked closer at the wall, I realized that it didn't match the other walls in the room; it was as if somepony had tried to paint over it at some point. The dark lettering had bled through the muddy yellow paint they had used, defying the attempt at hiding it.

A chill ran along my spine, and my wings bristled as I stepped back from the wall, my eyes fixed on it. "I think we should go. I don't like it here."

"The fuck is wrong with you?" Rake moved up in front of me, staring me down with eyes blazing. "We just got here, and you're pissing yourself over a fucking wall?"

"I—It's not—Well, see—" I stammered.

Rolling his eyes, Rake let out an exasperated sigh. "Come on! Out with it already!"

"I have a bad feeling about this place, okay?" I shuffled about nervously on my hooves. "I wanna go back to the caravan where it's safe."

"Safe?" Rake's face softened, and he started laughing. "Shit, you think it's any safer back there? Oh, that's a good one. I heard you stable ponies were naive; but, fuck, you gotta be setting some kinda record with that one."

I frowned, standing up straight to face Rake. "It makes sense that a guarded caravan like that would be safer than being out here on our own. I can see that much."

He stopped laughing and narrowed his eyes at me, his head cocked to one side. "Why do you think a caravan needs that much protection, huh? It's a big fucking target is why. Out here, you and me? We're nothing. You're fucking lucky you got friends like me or you wouldn't last a day out here, brother."

My feathers bristled, my good wing flaring out as I yelled at him, "You are not my brother!"

"Oh-ho! Looks like you've got some bite in you after all, little pony." He grinned at me with that predatory flicker in his eyes. "Come on, let me see the fire that burns inside you. I know it's in there."

I backed away from him, my wing drooping by my side. "I—Sorry," I said meekly, bowing my head. "I didn't mean to—"

Rake just snorted and rolled his eyes. "Ugh. You are sorry. Just like every pony from this shithole town was."

Puzzle pieces fell into place at that moment. My eyes were drawn back to the message on the wall. "You've been here before." I felt a tremble in the pit of my stomach. "What... What were you doing here?"

There was that smile of his again, the one that made my chest feel tight and my legs tingle, as he danced around me in a slow circle. "Ooh, fun memories, those. I told you before: killing, fucking, and chems are the best things to live for out here. Me and the boys I was running with back then did a lot of living in this little town."

My face went cold as I felt the blood drain from it. The very thought alone made me taste bile in the back of my throat. The pieces missing from this town hadn't been lost; they'd been cut out. I stared at Rake, almost in a daze. "You..."

He let out a hearty laugh. "He finally gets it! Oh, the look on your face: priceless!"

"But... there were ponies living here! They—They had families and friends, and they were just getting along with each other!"

Again, he laughed, continuing to glide around on his hooves in front of me. "Getting along? Let me tell you something: I got to see who ponies really were—when their lives are threatened, they'll show you how well they really 'get along.'" He stepped closer to me, looking right into my eyes. "You've seen it in yourself already, haven't you?"

"I didn't want to!" I screamed at him.

"Oh, shut up. If you really didn't want to, you wouldn't have done it."

"I didn't—"

My head jerked to the side, a sudden ringing in my ear dominating my senses for the moment. I tasted blood in my mouth from a split in the corner of my lip. It didn't hurt—at least, not right away—where Rake's hoof had struck me. It was more like a warm tingle at first that faded to a slow throb as I turned back to face him.

"Shut the fuck up," he said in a hushed, even tone.

The throbbing in the side of my face got stronger as I felt my heart start to race. Rake was saying something, but I didn't hear it as I ran past him and out into the wasteland.

I ran. Leaping over broken fences and cutting through back yards, I didn't even know where I was going. I just ran, hoping to catch up with the caravan, but only because it was the nearest, safest place I knew of. What I really wanted in that moment was to go home. I wanted to bang on the stable door, begging and screaming to be let back in. I'd be a good pony. I'd get along just like I always had.

My hoof caught on something, and I tumbled face-first into the ground, bringing me to a halt. Picking myself back up, I glanced back to see what had tripped me: It was a small scooter, half buried in the loose dirt where some long-gone foal had abandoned it. Then, in that brief moment of rest, I had calmed down enough to take notice of the red bars around the edges of my E.F.S. compass. Turning to face them, I was confronted with a gang of earth ponies. Each were clad in piecemeal outfits and adorned with rusted scraps of jagged metal and lengths of barbed wire; their manes and coats were tangled and matted with dark, bloody stains. They stared at me with wide, hungry smiles as they spread out to encircle me.

Before they could completely surround me, I turned and ran back into the town. My heart was pounding inside my chest, and I struggled to breathe as my lungs burned with rapidly growing exhaustion. A glance to either side of me revealed that the raiders had rapidly gained on me. They weren't overtaking me though, only pacing me. Several spread out to go the long ways around buildings, but, Goddesses, I could still catch glimpses of them keeping up as I crossed streets and alleys. I would have taken to the air to try and escape, but my wing was still bandaged, and though I was more than willing to risk further injury by taking flight, I simply didn't have time to unwrap it.

"Help!" I cried out between gasps for breath. "Rake! Somepony!"

I came around one house and skidded to a halt as two raiders closed in front of me. Nimbly, I kicked off the dirt road and launched myself off to the right, only to stop again in the face of another raider. "Nowhere left to run now, little pony," she laughed at me. Her face contorted into a wicked grin as she took up the trigger bit of her battle saddle.

Ducking to the side, I narrowly dodged her shot; I felt, more than heard, the whizz of the bullet pass by my already jagged ear. Other raiders rapidly filled into the street, blocking it off as they closed in on me slowly with gleeful, manic stares. Both time and options in alarmingly short supply, I turned and ran in the only direction I could: through the open doorway of the house behind me, kicking the door shut behind me. As it slammed, I heard a handful of shots fire off, followed by a muffled yell: "Hey! This one's mine! Get your own!"

The house opened into a narrow hallway with closed doors to either side and a stairway leading up. Without pausing to consider, I ran up the stairs and turned to the left, my hooves skidding on the hardwood floor. The hall greeted me with a row of doors, and I stopped to try the first one—only to find it locked.

A loud smash echoed up the stairs as the door downstairs was kicked in, followed by hoofsteps coming up to find me. My heart raced, and I ran further down the hallway to the door at the end, again, finding it locked. In panic and frustration, I rounded on my forehooves and kicked at the door with both hind legs. The door gave way, but I lost my balance and slipped, collapsing onto my belly. Scrambling back to my hooves just in time to see the raider standing over me, I took a powerful kick square in the chest and went sailing into the open room, coughing and gasping for breath as I skidded across the floor.

Stout, filthy, with a dozen ampules of some vermillion liquid sown into his bandoleer, the earth pony stared me down, a length of rusty chain clutched firmly in his yellow teeth. By fright alone, I managed to break free of his ravenous gaze and scramble away from the clawed end of his chain as it lashed forward in an overhead arc, gouging a deep rent in the wood floor.

My back firmly against the wall, I could do nothing but watch as he ­reared up. His eyes, boiling with intent, met mine, and the blood drained from my face, leaving my lips cold and tingling. Fleeing from that ferocious gaze, my eyes darted around, desperate for something—anything, but kept being drawn back to him: The chain in his foul, rotten teeth, the coiled hind legs carrying his massive, yet lean bulk, the flank bearing his cutie mark: a twisted and barbed chain, much like the one he was wielding. My eyes rose back up to meet his again, forcing me to watch, trembling, as his lips twisted back in a menacing sneer around his chain. He whipped it back, readying for another strike.

Two bloodied teeth flew through the air, snapping me out of the trance. Rake stood in the doorway, hooked end of the chain steady in his crimson magic's hold. The other end lay on the floor next to the raider, who was now drooling blood.

"Over here, big guy." His voice a molten syrup, Rake stepped toward his enemy.

An almost audible snap of rage took hold of the raider's body. With a primal bellow, he turned and leaped at Rake in what was an ultimately futile maneuver. As if guiding his partner in a dance, the unicorn sidestepped the surge, levitating the attacker's own weapon to wrap around his neck. One fleeting sword strike severed tendons on the raider's hind leg, denying him purchase. Despite this, the earth pony fought. Defying looming death, he held himself alive, his forelegs pulling against the chain with all the might he could muster.

A cat playing with a mouse, Rake caught his prey's eyes with his own icy stare. Certain of having the raider's undivided attention, he looped the hooked end of the chain over a beam above, lifting the raider by his neck until his hind hooves barely touched the floor, a pendulum of inevitable death, waiting.

Strength and accompanying madness rushed off the raider's body; he started slumping, diving hurriedly toward oblivion, but the unicorn saw through it all… He drove the hook through the hanged pony's lower jaw, securing tortured with torture.

"Stop it!" I cried, my voice finally having found its way out.

And he did. Casting a sidelong glance at me, Rake circled around the hanging raider. Careful, fluid steps of a macabre waltz brought him around his toy—his prey—to look at me directly. Stars align, he was smiling. "Stop what, my little pony?" he asked casually while the raider gasped and choked for breath behind him.

My mouth fell open, but my voice was once again lost. I could only watch as the raider, struggling and still clinging desperately to life, slowly hanged to death.

Rake followed my gaze and grinned. "You like to watch ponies suffer, huh? Stick with me; you'll see plenty of it." Turning, he reared up and put his forehooves on the raider's shoulders. "Shh," he hushed. "It'll all be over soon," he cooed softly, nuzzling behind the raider's ear. Levitating his sword up overhead, he plunged it down through the side of the raider's neck, all the way to its hilt. A sudden jolt brought stillness to the raider, and the sword lifted out, dripping with blood. "Just go to sleep." The room fell deathly quiet.

Dropping back down to all fours, he wiped his sword off on the lifeless pony's flank then cut the raider's bandoleer off and levitated it into his saddlebag. With barely a glance back in my direction, he jerked his head for me to follow. I fought down the urge to retch, tasting bile in the back of my throat, as I shakily got to my hooves to follow after Rake.

The sounds of gunfire outside drew my attention to the window—one of only a scant few still intact in the town—and I trotted over to look out. Down on the street below was Starry. Her grenade launcher fired off rapidly as she drove back the few remaining raiders who weren't laying lifeless in the blood-stained dirt.

A few figures came galloping down the road behind Starry, and, my heart leaping up into my throat, I reared up to bang on the window to get her attention, to warn her. She didn't notice, but my concern was apparently not needed as those figures came closer and I saw the tipped scales painted on their armor.

Leaning against the window, I watched as Starry fell back to meet the gangers. She landed in front of them and made several gestures down the road in the direction the raiders had scattered under her assault. The gangers all nodded and ran off in pursuit.

It was then that I realized I was leaning far more forward than I should have been. Before I could back off from the window, however, it fell out of its frame. Without it supporting me, I went with it, tumbling head over heels out of the second story window—an experience I was repeating far too often—and crashed onto the ground below.

Looking up, coughing and gasping with the wind knocked out of me, I saw Starry standing over me, frowning. I rolled to my side and slowly climbed back onto my hooves with a pained grunt. My back ached from the fall, but I'd thankfully managed not to break or dislocate anything that time. "S-sorry," I wheezed. "Sorry, ma'am. I—I didn't mean to get into trouble. I was just—"

"Day," Starry interrupted me. "It's alright," she said, her face brightening as she smiled gently. "I'm just glad you're okay."

Still feeling winded—both from the fall and from all the terrified running—I simply smiled back, forcing a dry laugh.

Starry furrowed her brow. "What happened to you?" She reached toward my face, where Rake had hit me, and I flinched away. "Did one of the raiders get to you?"

"I—No. It's fine. He didn't mean to."

"Who—" Starry blinked then scowled. "Did Rake do this to you?"

I shook my head. "I told you; it's fine. Just don't worry about it, okay? I don't want to make trouble. I just wanna get along with everypony."

She narrowed her eyes and turned to look over her shoulder at where Rake was busy picking through the dead raiders' meager belongings. "Oh, he's making his own trouble. We'll see how far Trailblazer wants to keep trusting his 'reformed' raider after he hears about this," she said smugly.

"No! Please, ma'am!" She turned back to face me, her eyes wide in surprise. "It wasn't his fault. I—I made him do it. He—he probably heard the raiders coming, but I kept talking and making noise. He was trying to tell me to be quiet, but I wasn't listening. It was my fault. He had to hit me."

Starry looked at me incredulously. She didn't say anything, though; she just glanced back over her shoulder at Rake.

"Don't make a big deal out of this, ma'am," I pleaded, my head bowed and ears folded back. "We can all just get along and it'll be fine. Everypony's fine." I looked up at Starry and forced a wide grin to convince her. My swollen cheek and split lip complained at the expression, and I tasted blood, but I held the smile for her. She just needed me to show her that everything was perfectly normal. That's all.

Sighing, Starry gave a small nod and motioned for me to come along as she started back toward the road that would lead us back to the caravan. My smile relaxed to where my lip wasn't stretched to the point of stinging, but the corners of my mouth were still turned up—Starry really was making the effort to be nice. For the first time since leaving the stable, I finally felt like I could recover some sense of normalcy in my life. I trotted along happily at that thought.

Then I stopped, realizing that Starry wasn't beside me anymore.

Turning, I saw that Starry had fallen behind. She had stopped by a building with a large hole in one wall and was staring at something in the room beyond, her wings drooped.

"Starry?" I called to her.

Ignoring me, she slowly stepped inside the building. I cantered back to her and looked in through the collapsed wall. The inside had an overturned wardrobe, a smashed dresser, and other scattered debris littered around. A filthy mattress lay on the floor in the corner; beside it, where Starry's attention was focused, was a cradle. Tipped over onto its side, several of its wooden slats were broken, but the moldy rags inside were still folded neatly, waiting for somepony—waiting for a final piece to complete the picture.

"Starry?" I approached slowly, sitting down beside her. I raised a hoof to her shoulder, but hesitated, letting it fall without touching her.

"Do you have any kids?" I asked quietly.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I never had time for that. Besides, there's enough overcrowding in the Enclave already and..." She sighed without finishing.

We sat together quietly for a long moment before Starry broke the silence. "One of the first things that struck me about being down here—" Her voice choked. "Was how everypony down here has to make their lives wherever they can find the space." She brought out her flask, hooves shaking, and took a long draught. "It's all so fragile... So easy to snuff out..." She turned her head to face me with tired, sunken eyes. "I won't let that happen to you, Day. I promise." Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Tergiversation Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 17 Minutes