Author's Notes:

Another chapter down. This one only took a few weeks to actually do, but that was still too long. Hopefully I can get back into the regular swing of things and post these things a bit more often.
SPOILER: Sorry if certain parts seemed rushed, like the end of the chapter or parts with the raiders. After being on hiatus for so long, it's hard getting back in the groove.

Chapter 7

Over the Hills and through the Woods...

“You’re kidding... You’re kidding, right?”

“You’re serious!? You’re not just dicking around with me?”

“Yes, I’m serious. I’m seriously serious.”

“‘Cause if you’re not-”

“I am.”

“AAHH!” Foxtrot screamed in glee as she lunged at me faster than equinely possible. Not even pegasi could move that fast.

She knocked me over and pinned me to the ground. I tried to push her off, but after tumbling around again, she had me re-pinned. Before I could do anything, she bent down and gave a wet, sloppy kiss to my face. The mare jumped off and bounced around on the dry grass.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” The fox-colored mare pranced on her tippy-hooves.

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” I muttered as I rolled back to my own hooves. The collar found its way back into my saddle bag. Sell it later? Maybe. It could somehow be useful... maybe.

I figured that a slave would be happy to be released from servitude, but this was... a little unexpected. She was absolutely ecstatic.

“I’m free!” she yelled, bouncing along the sidewalk. “I’m free!”

We were under the awning of an old tree-house, much like the ones we’d passed by in Starward’s outskirts. The house, as it turned out, now belonged to me. It had been Golden Bit’s, but since I inherited all his ‘belongings’, I received his house and his... Foxtrot. There were caps in the deal too, but most of them were spent on medical bills. Extracting birdshot was much more tedious than it sounded.

Golden’s house was near the outside edge of the walled community. There weren’t very many other hospitable homes in the trade town, as most were gutted and torn down to build shacks or used for repairs. I could only imagine that the house had cost a fortune in this day and age.

“I think she’s happy,” Tes smiled.

“Really?” I replied sarcastically. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, yeah,” she said as she pointed to Foxtrot. “I mean, just look at her. She’s been moping around since you, uh, ‘eliminated’ Golden Bit.”

“That was sarcasm, Tes,” I shook my head. Some ponies...

“Oh...” she said as she started to flush. “Still, I’m glad you freed her. Nopony deserves to be a slave.” She looked up with a sincere smile.

“Of course,” I agreed. Nopony, nobody, deserved to live a life locked up against their will.

“Hey, Foxtrot!” I called out. She looked back with the biggest smile on her face I’d ever seen on a grown mare. “I need to speak with you a moment.”

Foxtrot happily bounced her way back to the porch. “‘Sup?” she asked casually.

“I’m curious about something,” I stated. “What are you going to do now?”

“Not sure,” she said as she looked down a little. “Ya know, I never thought I’d be free again, to be honest.”

“Again?” my blue friend asked.

“Yeah... I was kind of kidnapped and sold into slavery,” Foxtrot admitted, though it seemed even that thought didn’t hurt her spirit. “But I’m free now, so no matter what I do, I think I’ll be better off. I can’t thank you two enough.”

“Why not come with us?” Tes asked. As soon as the words left her lips, she had this begging, pouty, puppydog look on her face.

Foxtrot’s eyes sparkled with equal enthusiasm once she heard the question. It was evident that she wanted to get out, to see the world and find her place in it. After being cooped up for so long, who wouldn’t want to leave? Or perhaps she just wanted some structure in her life. Living as a slave, she wouldn’t have had all the freedom she just received.

“Sure, why not?” I answered. In either case, saying ‘no’ would break more than one heart.

“Sweet,” Foxtrot said with a grin. Unlike most ponies’ teeth, which were flat and squarish, hers had a slight point to them, like those of a canine. It was more than just a little strange, but the thought quickly scattered as she continued to speak. “I have a question for you, as well. Where are you going?”

Tes opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. “Yeah, Xero. Where are we going?” she asked as a puzzled look came across her face.

“I suppose you’re wondering that, aren’t you?” I said to my blue friend. I hadn’t really told her, or anyone for that matter, what my plans were.

“And that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying to figure out what they’re up to, if they are actually rising up again,” I said, taking another sip of the tea Foxtrot had made. It was good, not too sweet, not too bitter, with just the tiniest hints of lemon and other herbal flavors. “If the NZRA, or ‘Azapa’, I guess it’s called now, has returned, then...”

Then what? What was one zebra going to do against a whole army? I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know if I could even stop them. Or how to get help. Or where to get it. Or who to ask. I didn’t know anything.

“I’ll help,” Foxtrot said. “Sounds like it could be fun, a nice change of pace from how things have been around here.”

She sipped at her tea cup that she held between her forehooves. It was almost funny to see how she managed to do it so effortlessly. Of course, I’d been there myself.

“Are you sure? It’ll be dangerous,” I said. “You don’t need to go if you don’t want to.” I didn’t want to put anyone through a hell they didn’t sign up for. Hurting ponies wasn’t something I wanted to do, despite being good at it.

“Mast-” Foxtrot started to say before cutting herself off and correcting her mistake. “Xero... After what you did to Golden Bit, you gained ownership of everything he owned here, including this house and myself. Even though you freed me, I have nowhere to go and nothing to do.”

“You could stay here,” I pointed out as I looked around the room. It was a kitchen, one that was still operational. Pots and pans hung from small hooks by the stove. A couple of doorless cupboards held plates, saucers, and cups of varying sizes as they aged to a faded off-white. Slabs of midnight-blue granite covered the counter tops and contrasted the white paint that flaked off what remained of the cupboards and walls. The tiled floor also used to be white, but time had attacked it as well, yellowing the white tiles and popping a few of them loose. All in all, while the home was in a state of slight disrepair, it was still much more intact than most of the places I’d been.

“I could, but... I don’t really want to.” The orange mare took another sip of her tea. “I’ve always loved the adventurous life, even as a filly.”

I nodded. It felt good to know someone had my back in this.

“What about you?” I asked Tes.

She just sat there, staring into her own teacup with the tiniest hints of a smile spread across her muzzle. “Teees?” I drawled to the mare lost in her own thoughts. “Tes!”

“Huh? What?” she asked in a quick, startled tone. Her empty cup fell to the floor, but I just barely managed to catch it in my magic before it hit the floor.

“As I was saying... what about you? You said you wanted to go on your own once we got to a town. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, though.”

I really didn’t want her to go. She was... something. ‘Helpful’ was one word to describe it, but she was more than that. There was a doubt in my mind that I couldn’t have taken on that alicorn by myself; the more times I’d encountered them, the stronger and smarter they were. She was a good companion to have, to be honest. She toughed out everything the wasteland had thrown at her so far and had proven that she had what it took to make it.

“Well, I... uh...” Tes stammered. “I would kinda like to see what else there is out there.” She gave a half-smile, however, it still looked like she was unsure of her choice.

“So you’d like to come with, too?”

She gave a reassuring nod, one that was more confident than her words.

“Very well then,” I said as I took a peek at my PipBuck. I’d spent almost three hours talking, explaining why I had been in New Appleoosa, why I was here, and what I was doing.

“It’s starting to get late,” I mentioned to the others. “Where’s everypony sleeping?”

“There’s three bedrooms in this house,” Foxtrot answered. “I have my own and Golden Bit’s master bedroom is upstairs and down the hall. There is a third, but it’s mostly used for storage.”

“Sounds like a plan, then,” I said, leaning back in my chair and causing it to squeak. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“I’ll take the master bedroom, I guess,” Tes said sheepishly.

After saying our goodnights, I trotted into the living room, which was right next to the kitchen. It had the same ‘old but still often used’ feel as the rest of the house did, evident by the cold coals in the fireplace. The weather hadn’t been cold enough to use since the night it rained.

The rest of the room was dominated by furniture that included a couple of bookshelves with various trinkets on them, along with some scrolls and memory orbs. A faded picture of a stallion that looked too similar to Golden Bit sat on a shelf amongst other photographs. A large bay window along the wall opposite of the fireplace overlooked the front yard. Two leather chairs flanked an ugly as sin couch and a coffee table... the usual.

Although the couch was incredibly ugly, with its green and pink plaid pattern, it was far more comfortable than most. I grabbed a throw blanket off one of the chairs and quickly found myself drifting off to sleep.

“I’m sorry, Xero,” the young zebra mare said. “It’s just that... you’re like a big brother to me.”

I looked at her. I was such an idiot...

“Well, a younger big brother,” she corrected before putting a foreleg across my shoulder. “We can still be friends though, right?”

“Yeah...” I sighed. How could I be so stupid? “I guess.”

“Oh, stop that. I just don’t like you that way.” She kicked a small stone off the cliff edge with her other forehoof. It took nearly four seconds to hit the bottom, but when it did, there was a loud, inequine snarl. Lumens sighed at the boredom.

“There’s gotta be something more fun than throwing rocks at quarry eels,” she grumbled.

“We could...” What was there to do? ‘Fun’ was almost non-existent in the wasteland. That is, unless you were willing to get into trouble. “I don’t know...”

I was feeling melancholy now. My heart was broken. Just shattered. Confessing that you liked someone was not as easygoing as I had imagined. ‘Hey, I like you a lot, more than just a friend.’ That was it. That was all I had to say. Unfortunately, my thick headedness got in the way of my words again.

“It’s going to start getting dark,” Lumens said as she got to her hooves. “I think I’m going to head home. You should too pretty soon.”

I didn’t look, but I could hear her hoofsteps slowly crunching away on the dried, cracked earth and scrubgrass. I was alone again.

Another rock was kicked off the ledge. The cliff was the tallest one near our village, being taller than almost any building outside of Mareverick. Peeking over the edge revealed its bottom to be a large expanse of dusty flats. Everyone just called it the Dust Flats. It used to be a lakebed, but the water had dried up around the time of the Great War when the Flowtide River was diverted to prevent annual floodings. Or so I’d been told.

Along the cliff face were many large, snake-like creatures. They ranged from larger than a bus to only the length of a pony. Quarry Eels..

They usually didn’t come out of their hidey holes unless there was food nearby. Or someone was throwing rocks at them. After hissing loudly and snapping at each other, the quarry eels retreated back to their homes in the cliff face.

There wasn’t much to look at beyond the immediate ledge and eels. A wrecked skycarriage here, a pile of bones over there. A pony just beyond the reach of the beasts.

“Hey!” I yelled. They must not know about the eels! “Get back!”

I waved a hoof at him... or her, shooing them away from the monsters. The message didn’t translate well, and they waved back, continuing their journey towards the cliff side. “No! Go!”

About halfway down the cliff, a very, very big, yellowish-green, glowing eel smashed out of a hole much too small for it. In its massive jaws was one of the red eels. As the smaller eel shrieked in pain, the glowing one turned its head and burrowed its way through another small hole. The head of the red eel was torn off by the rocks and left on the ground, most likely to be picked clean by the smaller eels.

That was when I remembered not to yell near the eels.

The glowing eel broke through the cliff just below my hooves. The ground gave way and before I could process what was happening, I was falling toward the mouth of a very hungry eel.

The ground smacked my face, which my body hit back with a lazy thud. The alarm on my pipbuck was blaring in my ear and took me a moment to turn the damned thing off. Once upright, the first thing that ran through my mind was how badly I relieve myself.

I silently wandered the house in search for the bathroom. With all the doors closed, it wasn’t as easy as just passing by and saying “Oh, there it is.” The first room I came across was on the ground floor. It had to have been the storage room Foxtrot had spoken about. Old furniture covered with equally old sheets, a couple pony mannequins sadly sat in the corner wearing old-world get-up’s that had seen better days. There were some workbenches tucked away on a nearby side wall. They were mostly just cluttered with junk, but a couple fully assembled rifles stuck out, along with what looked to be a rusty suit of power armor, or at least part of one.

Other than a munitions box and grenade box, the room was fairly empty of valuables. The boxes of gun parts may have value to someone around this town, but I’d have to find them first. I left everything behind and moved onto the next door, which was only a broom closet. I also managed to find the basement, the ground floor bathroom, which was missing the toilet and sink, and a second closet.

The rest of the rooms were upstairs. From the looks of it, the first belonged to Foxtrot. It was much smaller than the storage room and lacked any furniture except a simple, meager bed on a frame and an equally impressive dresser. No desk, no pictures, no side table, no... anything, only the two items that were clearly visible from the doorway. The one thing that was considerably out of place was that there was no Foxtrot.

There was no way she had left in the middle of the night; she was too eager and excited to be free to have ditched Tes and I. She was around somewhere, perhaps running morning errands or elsewhere in the tree-house.

The next door across the hall was, without a doubt in my mind, Golden Bit’s. It was much larger than all the others, and in much better condition. The carpet underhoof was plushy and clean, the wallpaper was very neat and fresh looking, no tears or peals. Finely painted pictures hung around the room, from grassy landscapes to a bowl of tasty looking fruit. There was a desk along the far wall with a terminal and some other belongings, as well as a gun case, a wardrobe, and a very large, king-sized bed, spread throughout the room.

This one also held something strange. Two ponies were curled up under the heavy covers, one orange and one blue, the latter snoring softly. Who knew why they were together, but they were. I didn’t judge other ponies’ preferences, but maybe I’d ask about it later. They had known each other for barely a couple days. I didn’t stay long, not wanting to wake them up.

At long last, I finally found the bathroom and my bladder was forever thankful. After doing my business and washing my hooves, I took a look in the mirror. For the first time in almost a week, I was actually able to see myself.

There was a chunk missing out of the side of my ear, that was what I first noticed. Purplish scar tissue capped off where the rest of it would have been, with only the lightest of blue fuzz just starting to grow back. There was nothing I could do about it now.

My face didn’t fair much better. Numerous little pockmarks were scattered about it, at least a couple dozen. They could only have been from Golden Bit’s sawed-off shotgun. I knew I wasn’t the best looking stallion in the Outlands, but now it was definitely confirmed.

I looked like shit.

Part of me was angry, and I wasn’t sure why. That’s what scared scared me the most. Was I angry at Golden? He was the one who shot me, mangled what little of me I still had. He was dead now and there was nothing I could do about that. Being mad at a dead body was pointless.

Tes was there, too. She was the one who suggest we be more ‘civil’. If Golden Bit was going to shoot me, I may have had enough time to turn the tables on him. I would have had only one hole in me instead of a hundred.

Then again... it was my own doing, playing his little game. He played me right into his trap and I let him do it. I could have taken him out the moment he started accusing me and demanding I pay for damages. I should have taken him out then, but I didn’t. I simply didn’t act quick enough to do anything. I did nothing, so the only one I could blame was myself.

I was angry. Not at Tesla... not at Golden. Only myself. There was nothing I could do. What had happened, happened. It was over now and I couldn’t go back and change it. I just had live with it and move on.

I left the bathroom feeling emptier than when I’d found it. Once downstairs, I started looking for breakfast, something out of a saddlebag would suffice.

Foxtrot was sitting at the table. The stove already had a teapot heating over a blue flame, with some tea-making herbs in a small jar next to it on the counter.

“Ugh... what a night...” she groaned. Her mane and fur were dishevelled and suffering from a severe case of ‘bed mane’. The mare buried her face into her hooves, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she woke herself up.

“Uh... oookay?” What did they do last night? They didn’t even know each other. Unless that was why-

“Get your mind out of the gutter...” she said with a yawn. I mentally kicked myself, regretting I went there.

“Tesla was having bad dreams all night. Says she gets them more than a grown mare should, but...” Foxtrot shrugged tiredly. “It’s a scary, dangerous, new world out here. It’ll take time to adjust.”

“I agree. I’m surprised she’s tagged along for as long as she has,” I admitted. Searching through my pack, I found some mixed veggies and a box of ultra-preserved donuts. It was a strange combination, but it would work. “She’s probably been through more in this last week than she has her entire life.”

Foxtrot simply nodded back. “She didn’t want to be alone, so I kept her company. It was too comfortable to leave once she fell asleep.”

The fox-colored mare look up at me as I retrieved my food.

“What kind of breakfast is that?” she smirked as she shook her head. “How about I whip up some pancakes?”

She didn’t wait for an answer before she started pulling out dishes and ingredients from the cupboards. Pancakes sounded good; I hadn’t had them in ages, not since before I struck out on my own.

It wasn’t too long before Tes came stumbling down the stairs. Her mane and tail weren’t any better than Foxtrot’s. Worse, in fact. A few strands and locks of the near-white hair sprung up in messy curls and kinked fly-aways. But despite the bedraggled appearance, she seemed to be well rested.

“Morning,” I said as I waited patiently for the pancakes. The smell of melted butter and baking batter had been filling the air and it was delicious

“Mhm,” she hummed tiredly before sitting down and rubbing the ‘sleep’ from her eyes.. “Smells good.”

“Trust me, they are,” Foxtrot gleamed as she set a stack of tan and cream colored circles on the table. “Oh, one last thing...”

She pulled out a plastic container filled with a dark, thick liquid out of a cupboard. Syrup, and from the label it was definitely maple flavor.

The three of us ate our pancakes greedily, not sparing a single one of the bready disks. The luxury of syrup made them all the better.

“So what’s the plan for today?” Foxtrot asked as she finished washing the dishes. She had also cleared the table. I was more than capable of helping, but she refused, saying it was a force of habit more than anything. She was still stuck in the mindset of taking orders, and this was one thing that was just expected of her on a daily basis.

“I noticed an electronics store on our first day here,” Tes started, sighing. “I’d like to check it out, see if it has anything I can use to repair my laser. After these last few days, the components superheated themselves and caused a short, damaging a lot of the internals. The laser sequencer is tilted, the chromatic multiplex refractor crystal is charred and cracked from being overloaded, the MSB ports are already starting to go, and to top it all off, the micro-crystalline allocator is burnt. Like, literally. It caught on fire and caused everything else to go with it. Going to need to install a cryoclad rotary heatsink or a frigid sapphire field generator.”

What?

“Uh... alrighty, I think?” Foxtrot said, sharing my bafflement. She looked at me quizzically, to which my only answer was a confused shrug. “What about you, Xero?”

I thought of the things needed before leaving. Food was high on the list. I simply didn’t have enough for the three of us, and my supplies were running low anyways from being generous with Tes. Ammo followed food... perhaps sell some things off from the storage room if Foxtrot was alright with it? That would help balance the cost of things, if only a little.

“It’s going to be dangerous crossing the mountains,” I said as I recalled my trip through here when I went to New Appleoosa. It seemed like it was forever ago. “Food and water are a must. Ammo will also be a priority. You’re going to need some kind of protection-”

“Already covered.” Foxtrot pointed to a folded bundle by the door as she dried her hooves. It was some kind of leather armor, similar to my own, but lighter and much less obstructive.

“Good, good...” That was one less stop to make, and we could make it out of here by lunch if we were quick. “So ammo, food, water... we can sell off that unneeded stuff in the back room. We’ll need a few sleeping bags; the mountains get very chilly at night.”

“Finally!” Foxtrot said, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she was finally relieved of some burden. “I’ll be happy to see that junk go. It’s not much use to anypony without experience with loose gun parts. You’re best bet would be to go to the Ammunitions Anonymous vendor. They’ll give you a somewhat fair price for them. As for food, we can clear what we can out of this place. I doubt we’ll be back here anytime soon, so the less stuff to spoil, the better.”

“She has a point, this place does have a few thing we could use,” Tes agreed. “I say we get our things together and head out. Kinda excited to start seeing new places.”

“You too?” the orange mare asked with a smile.

Tes simply nodded as she got up and started for her bags, which were already by the door. I went to the back room to pack it up and search for anything useful, while Foxtrot stayed in the kitchen.

It took almost two hours to get everything sellable in the storage room into a single, worn out saddle bag. There were a couple of assault rifles in somewhat working condition, a rusty 10mm pistol, and an old .32 caliber revolver. Everything else was too disassembled to be useful and were just thrown into the bag, slowly filling it up and weighing it down the more I dug into the storage room.

The power armor I spotted earlier that morning was missing many of its mechanical parts, two legs, the helmet, and part of the back. I was sure it was missing more, but couldn’t tell as I hadn’t actually examined power armor before. It too went in the pack, sans frame.

The only things of any interest were the two sawed-off shotguns. They were heavy and seemingly ready to fall apart from the centuries of abuse and wear. The steel of one was dark crimson in color, matching its old mahogany grip. ‘ANGER’ was crudely scored and burned into the wood at the foregrip. The other sawed-off was a dull blue, even darker than my own coat. Its wooden parts were stained navy blue, except its name was inlaid with mother of pearl in a very elegant, loopy, script instead. ‘Malice’ it read, the pearl reflecting back in a rainbow of pastel colors once the grime was wiped away.

Despite the outward appearance, the guns were in nearly perfect working order. There was nearly no rust inside the barrels, the triggers weren’t ‘floppy’, and the breaches locked tightly, but still came apart with a simple flick of the catch. They’d last for a while before any serious repairs would be needed. As such, they found themselves in my own saddlebag.

After scrounging around for little longer, I decided that everything of any decent value was gone. The grenade box and munitions box were empty, except for some ancient packing straw. The old world dress and tuxedo on the mannequins stayed behind. Not many ponies were looking for ballroom clothing; they weren’t going to be worth much.

Satisfied with my load, I made my way back to the main area of the house. Foxtrot had already slipped into her suit of lightweight leather armor, armed with a silenced 10mm pistol in a foreleg holster and a pair of small saddlebags across her back. She was currently busy helping Tes tighten the red and black armor, but even at its smallest, the large suit was still a couple sizes too big for the small mare. She was wearing her Stable barding underneath, but even that didn’t seem to help.

“All ready?” I asked as Foxtrot pulled back a strap in her teeth as much as she could before letting it snap back harmlessly against the hardened plates.

“I think so,” Foxtrot panted. “It’s not going to get any tighter Tes, not without breaking it. You’ll be fine until you get something more your size.”

“Okay, okay...” Tes sighed. “Just feels weird. It’s too... baggy. Kinda feels like it won’t stop much.”

I held my tongue. To be honest, it wouldn’t. Leather armor wasn’t something that was known to protect against anything bigger than small caliber bullets. She didn’t need to know that, though. The last thing she needed was to be scared.

“It’ll work. Trust me,” Foxtrot reassured her. “It’ll protect against the elements better than your jumpsuit alone and will deflect low-speed impacts.”

“She’s right, the hardened plates work well against things like baseball bats and golf clubs,” I agreed. “Knives have a hard time cutting the leather, too.”

“Alright, I suppose you got a point,” Tes said. It seemed to steel her up enough to be confident that the armor would suffice. “Now... how about we get out of here?”

She wasn’t the only one eager to get back on the road again...

The three of us left the Starward tree-house, with Foxtrot locking the door and keeping the key I’d given her. The lock was magically imbued, impossible to pick. The belongings that were left inside would be safe until she returned.

Starward was no more busy than it had been in previous days, perhaps even less. Ponies trotted around, going about their business, buying wares they needed and selling things they didn’t. We only had three places in mind.

Ammunitions Anonymous was a post-last-day gun and ammo provider spread all across the Outlands, my home. Their westernmost branch was right here in Startward.

The shack wasn’t much, just steel panels bolted to some wooden planks with more metal sheets on top of those. The stallion inside was more than helpful and gave what I considered a fair price for the gun parts and the rusty guns. Along with a few of my own caps, I was able to purchase some 12 gauge shotgun shells, .44 magnum shells, and a few dozen .308 rounds for myself and a few clips of 10mm ammo for Foxtrot.

The next place was the electronics store, which blew me away. It was small, only slightly larger than the kitchen in the tree-house, but was packed floor to ceiling with techy stuff. Most of the names I could barely pronounce, let alone understand their purpose. I could find a spark battery, a magical energy cell, and a laser pistol, but the rest of the whole store was leagues above my realm of knowledge.

Tes seemed right at home, however, as she was practically giddy with excitement. Casually, but confidently, she strode up to the brown earth pony behind a counter. She asked the tall mare for some choice items, to which the mare shook and nodded her head as Tes went down her list of egg-head-named parts. They spoke in hushed tones that were almost too quiet for me to hear. I didn’t catch all of it and what I did hear... I didn’t understand.

“Ugh,” Tes sighed as she turned to Foxtrot and I. “Hey, if you two want to go ahead and get the rest of the stuff, I’ll hang back here and get what I need. There’s a workbench I can use to fix my laser, but they don’t have the exact parts I’m looking for. I’m going to have to search through and see if there’s anything I can Flankenstein together. Might have to use a few terminal heat sinks as an intercooler... or... something. I don’t know.”

“You sure?” I asked. She had never asked to leave her behind before; it was sort of strange.

Tes nodded. “I’ll be alright. She seems friendly enough. Besides, I know you’ll both be bored standing here trying to figure out what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, this whole sciencey thing isn’t really for me,” Foxtrot said with a shake of her own head. “Too many things at once, never could follow along.”

“Okay, so meet back up at the east side of town?” I suggested.

With a nod, Tes left the counter and started browsing the shelves upon shelves of parts. Foxtrot and I didn’t stay, knowing that we had other things to do before the three of us went on our way. The fox-colored mare was kind enough to show me to the local general store.

The short trot was mostly quiet, with only the mundane things spoken. What exactly are you? How’d you get that eye? What’s your favorite color? ...Just to name a few.

The general store was, oddly enough, called the General Store. From the outside, it looked to be the perfect place to pick up some odds and ends before our trip. As the I pushed the doors open, it was like stepping into a time capsule, even if it was showing severe aging. A pony stood at the front, wearing an old blue shirt with the words “General Store” stitched into the collar along with a matching hat on her ponytail styled mane. Near the entrance there was a small collection of, uh, cages with wheels? My brother called them shopping carts, but I remember my father calling them trolleys a few times before.

Foxtrot and I grabbed a cart and started wandering the store, finding ourselves stuck in the camping section.

“So... I take it you and Tes aren’t an item?” she asked. The mare was looking at a pair of sleeping bags, one green, one red, as if contemplating the warmth of each identical sack.

“What?” I asked, surprised by the random question. “No, no, no. She’s... no...”

“Aw, why not? She’s a cutie,” she teased in a sing-song manner with a smirk as she tossed the sleeping bags on top, adding a third, blue one afterwards. “I mean, unless you’re into stallions. That’s cool, too. I don’t judge.”

“What,” I said again. There was nothing in the aisle that we needed, so I moved onto the next. “No, it’s not that. We’ve only known each other for a short while, not even a week. I don’t know a whole lot about her, other than she’s too smart to be wandering the wasteland like she is, and she is a Stable pony.”

There were other reasons as well. Lumens was still in New Appleoosa, and I had made a promise to her.

“Besides, I already have a special somepony,” I added as we entered an aisle dedicated to lighting. Traditional, cliche looking torches, lanterns, flashlights, glow sticks and other such things lined the short shelves. “If you want to go after her, go ahead. You said so yourself, she’s a cutie.”

I had to tease her back; she was a good sport about it.

“I might just have to,” Foxtrot giggled.

We continued scouring the shop for gear. I had almost everything we needed already, but a few things had gotten lost over the last couple weeks. I didn’t bother with a flashlight or lantern; traveling at night was a sure way to get hurt or worse and I now had the tools to easily make a fire.

Water was going to be an issue with an addition body but fewer canteens to go around. I found a pile of them in the back corner of the small store and put three into the cart. Two for Foxtrot and one more for Tes. I ran through the mental list of things we would need if we wanted to get across the mountains in mostly one piece.

“Honestly, I can’t thank you enough,” she said with a heartfelt tone after a while. “I never would’ve thought I’d have this freedom again. Not until I was a wrinkly, useless, old hag. You’ve given me something that I have no idea what I should do with. I... I’m happy... happier than you could possibly imagine, but I don’t know what to do now. I’ve always been given a strict set of orders, and now I can do anything I want. But what? There’s a whole world out there. Where do I fit in it?”

“One of life’s great mysteries,” I answered. It wasn’t an easy question, one that only a few could even guess at. “I couldn’t say. We have to make our own place out here. We’re not assigned a position or rank to hold, or a role or class to play. Only you can decide what you want to strive for.”

“That’s kinda deep. I think” she mused to herself. “Was never good at understanding abstract thoughts.”

“It was something my father told me when I was little,” I replied. All those years ago... “I never really understood it, either. He was strange like that, cryptic sayings you’d only understand long after they were said.”

I smirked at the thought. He was right about many things he said, and he knew he’d be gone before anyone understood them.

“Anyways, I think we have everything we need,” I told my companion. “We should get out of here before I find reasons to buy more stuff.”

“Yeah, the cart’s getting full,” she pointed back at the small shopping cart nearly overflowing with sleeping bags, canteens and other camping accessories. “Shame we couldn’t find some power hooves, though.”

“You fight?” I chuckled as I pushed the car to the pony behind the counter. Foxtrot didn’t seem like a hoofticuffs kind of pony. Though her body did have the build for it, she seemed too laid back.

“You know what I did for Golden Bit?” she started as I levitated the contents of the cart onto the counter. “I was basically his body guard. It’s cheaper to own a pony to fight for you than it is to keep one hired day-in and day-out. Some places wouldn’t allow us to take weapons in, but if things got too hairy then he’d still have somepony to help protect him. He could fight and usually could hold out his own for a bit, but two heads are better than one, you know?”

I nodded my agreement as the mare priced out the items on the counter.

“Eh... I’ll give the lot to ya for three-fifty,” she said boredly before glancing at Foxtrot, which seemed to brighten her mood. “No collar, huh? Take it Goldiboy finally kicked the bucket?”

“Something like that,” Foxtrot shrugged. “Three-fifty sounds a bit high though, Daisy. Think you could work a deal out for a loyal customer after all these years?”

“Hm... alright, but only ‘cause I know ya,” the mare drawled. “Two-seventy-five, and don’t tell anypony, ya hear?”

I didn’t feel like pushing my luck any further and paid for the gear.

“Pleasure doin’ business with ya,” the mare grinned. “Have a good one, Foxtrot.”

With a final farewell, we were back outside. Foxtrot was carrying her half and Tes’ load in her old packs while I held onto my own. Despite the amount I’d just purchased, I was barely weighted down. Foxtrot was comfortable with her own packs as well, as they were nearly empty before we all had left the house.

We weren’t very far from the eastside entrance, only couple of blocks. Our blue friend was sitting patiently on a wrought iron park bench, looking over her laser pistol. It didn’t look too much different, other than some clunky device on the side that resembled a motorwagon’s radiator and a couple extra tubes travelling from it to the inside of the gun.

“Geez, about time you two showed up,” she smirked after spotting us. “Did you get what you needed?”

“I hope so,” I answered. “We got food from the house, ammo from a vendor, and gear from the general store. I don’t think there was anything else.”

“Excellent,” she said as she hopped off the bench. “We’ll be out of this place in no time.”

To be continued...