Chapter 8-3: A Welcome Distraction

I trotted along behind my friends as they studied the map we’d been given. Looking at it had made me a little sad for my missing Pipbuck so I’d let them handle it as I mulled things over.

One thing in particular was eating at me. “Hey… uh… guys?”

They didn’t respond and continued their conversation. “Have we passed that river yet?”

“Yeah, 15 minutes ago.”

“Guys?” Were they ignoring me? Oh please tell me they weren’t upset. “Y-you guys know I was just for show before, right? I don’t think of you like bodyguards or… slaves. Right guys?”

“I never saw any river.”

“This map’s 200 years old. The river filled in. Trust me, we passed it”.

“Oh no, I knew it. I went too far! Guys, I swear that was all just an act for Four Fields. I’ve always thought of you as my friends and nothing else, I swear! I’ll do better from now on, I promise! Oh, please don’t hate me.”

“If we passed the river, then where’s this clump of trees, smarty-filly?”

“It’s right over there!”

My head dropped, eyes watering, as it hit home just how bad I’d messed up. I’d totally alienated my friends, and all for a stupid Raider alliance that only I cared about. “Okay, I’ll be quiet from now on. I’m so sorry. Should we just call the whole thing off? Guys?”

“That’s not the clump of trees, that’s those fallen spires!”

“We haven’t reached them yet!”

“O-okay… whatever you want is good. S-sorry.” What have I done?

“What are you so upset about, Red Ice? You’re safe, aren’t you? That’s a bodyguard’s duty.”

My heart jumped terribly. I’m a monster!

“Yeah, I mean it looks bad for a slave like me if her mistress is unhappy. Please try to cheer up.”

Tears were pouring down my cheeks. I sat down heavily and burst out crying. “UWAAH!!! I’m so sorry you guys! I didn’t mean it, I swear! You’re not my slave and my bodyguard, you’re my friends! Can you ever forgive me? I’m the worst! I’ll never be a bad pony again!”

Bosco was right. This whole Raider thing was a bad idea. Look at how I’ve acted! I’ll give it up now and we can go see the zebras and go look for Bosco’s Memory Orbs. No more Red Ice! From now on, I’ll just be-

“Snowflake, lighten up, we’re just playing.”

Eh?

“Yeah, c’mon svara, we know you’re like that.”

My wails faded to sniffles. “You… you’re not mad at me?”

I felt hooves encircling me and holding me close. “Over this? Nah. We know you.”

A second pair joined the first. “We were just having a little bit of fun with you. Kinda went overboard. We’re not mad at all.”

“…you promise?”

“Heh. We promise.” That made me feel a little better, but the thought still stuck in the back of my mind. Since the first second I’d left the Stable, and even when under arrest inside, I’d been fighting the influence of the Wasteland and Old Equestria. I had to keep myself in check. If I even let myself, for one moment, become Red Ice for real, I would have failed Stable 61. Everything it stood for, everything I’d grown up to believe in, would be lost forever. If that happened, then the chasm between Stable 61 and myself would be even wider than it was now, without my Pipbuck.

It would be impassable.

~~~~~~

“There are what in there?” This day just kept getting worse. We’d arrived at the facility Four Fields wanted cleaned out. I’d expected some sort of animal that could be herded out, instead, we’d heard spine-chilling screams that Bosco had instantly recognised as…

“Ghouls. Feral ones.” Nobody looked happy about that. Feral was never a good adjective.

“You mean like that thieving demon back in Lethbridle, not not even sane? Oh forget this!” I wanted no part of this. If Caber Toss wanted this alliance so badly, he could come and clear the place out himself!

“It gets worse,” Oh please, Naiara. Don’t tell me that!, “some of them could be glowing ghouls. They put out tons of radiation. I can’t get close to them to fight hoof-to-hoof without getting a massive dose of the stuff point blank.” She wasn’t as open about it as me, but the way she was wringing her hooves had me thinking that maybe she was not confident either.

I couldn’t help but whimper. The facility was maybe 200 meters away. We didn’t dare get any closer in case the ghouls sniffed us out and came after us in force. If Naiara was right and they had radioactive ghouls in there, only Bosco could fight them with his guns, and even then not for long.

I tentatively held up a hoof. “Can we… maybe not fight the killer demons?”

“Actually… maybe.”

“Bosco, I will kiss you. I will kiss you full on the lips right now if you can give us a way to do this without fighting ghouls.”

He flushed, and Naiara laughed, when I said this, but shook his head. “Hold the kiss for now. We’ll still have to fight at some point…”

“Aw.”

“…maybe there’s a way we can sneak in without the ghouls seeing us. We might be able to find something that could help us out.”

Me and the other filly crowded in, looking over the charcoal colt’s shoulders. “How do you know this?”

Half-crushed and half-embarassed by the closeness of our bodies, Bosco scowled and stuck a hoof on a point on the map. “See this layout here? The Operations room is at the top. If we can get to a window on the second floor from the outside, we’ll bypass the main area. That’s probably where most of the ghouls are. If we’re lucky we can get to the top without any of them seeing us, or just a few, which we’ll take out quick.”

I deflated. “So we still might run into some ghouls?”

“You can always back out, Red Ice.”

They smirked at that, but I just cringed, the altercation from earlier was still fresh in my mind. “…please don’t call me that, not you two.”

~~~~~~

The facility turned out to be a Ministry of Wartime Technology building, ringed by a dilapidated chain fence and abandoned loading crates, which made for effective stepping stones to reach the lower roof. Unclimbable, it was not. Only a few ghouls were stumbling around outside, and thankfully no glowy versions. Just your basic shambling undead ponies who we managed to slip past without-

HOWISITPOSSIBLETHATICANFAKEBEINGTHISCALMONTHEOUTSIDEJUSTLOOKATTHOSETHINGSTHEY’REROTTINGCORPSESWALKINGAROUNDFOR200YEARSOHHELPMEBOSCOHELPMENAIARAIDON’TLIKEITNONOTONEBIT!!!

-trouble.

We found a window pane on the second floor with the glass missing, probably busted out by the ghouls sometime in the last two centuries, and flattened ourselves along the wall underneath.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Snow, take a look with your goggles, see if there are any ghouls on the other side.”

“Why me?” I whisper-whined back.

Naiara slugged me in the shoulder, hard. “Because we can’t have you freezing up on us if a ghoul shows up later. You need to get over it now!”

“Yeah, that.”

Democracy is scary. Rubbing my soon-to-be-bruise, I slipped the goggles on and eased myself up, millimetre by millimetre, doing all that I could keep myself out of sight until the very last moment. When the tip of my eyeball crossed the window ledge, I froze.

After a few seconds of not being viciously mauled, I went a little bit further. Then a little further. A little more, until I was far enough into the window that I could turn my head in both directions.

Okay, all clear on the left. And the righ-nopenopenopenopenope! I whipped my head back as fast as I could without making noise, so as not to alert the ghoul who stood 5 meters inside the window, on the right, poking at the floor with its back to us. Unfortunately my haste left me unable to halt my momentum, so I unbalanced myself and began to fall backwards. If I slammed down on the corrugated roof, not only would it bring the demons running, I’d probably go straight through and fall into the main nest of the things.

Help! I mouthed as I flailed my front legs desperately. With speed born of terror, Bosco and Naiara dashed forward and grabbed a hoof each. We hung there precariously, like a living abstract art piece, before it clicked that I would not, in fact, be falling backwards and causing all our deaths today. Inch by inch, my friends dragged me back to equilibrium, keeping hold of me until we were all safely back against the wall.

Miming my eternal gratitude, it took a while for them to stop my wild motions and get me to explain what I saw. “One ghoul in the corridor,” I didn’t dare raise my voice above a hiss, “on the right side, five meters from the window. It wasn’t looking this way.”

With a shrug to loosen her shoulders, and a crick of the neck, Naiara uttered one, completely welcome and satisfactory syllable.

“Mine.” No others were needed.

I offered her my one remaining Power Hoof, thankfully collected by Bosco after our fight with Wings and Cassie, the other being taken from me at Neighlway and therefore lost forever, but she shook her head. Frankly I’d have been surprised if she took it. Natural was the general feel of zebra fighting arts. Having one armoured hoof and the other three bare would do little more than throw her balance off.

Rising like a black-and-white wraith, she risked a lightning quick in-and-out look at the corridor, her wavy mane whipping back and forth a fraction of a second behind the rest of her. Satisfied that the ghoul was still preoccupied with whatever it was exploring on the floor, she vanished over the windowsill and into the building. Holding our breath, Bosco and I strained our hearing to pick up what she was doing.

We both jumped after a few seconds of apparent silence, when she stuck her head back out of the window with a gleaming smile, looking down at us. “All done.”

Bosco matched my incredulity. Even for a zebra that was impressive. Not wanting to waste any more time, we hopped inside and took a moment to see just what in the hell Naiara had done.

The results were impressively gruesome. What was left of the ghoul lay spread out on the floor, several broken bones in its limbs, and its head had been twisted 180 degrees around, so it was starting up at us with its now fully-dead eyes. I found I couldn’t look at the sight for more than a few seconds before I lost my nerve.

Bumping me with his hip as he went past, Bosco indicated for us to move on. He had the map in one hoof and was pointing down the corridor. He’d apparently figured out where the stairs up were. We moved down the corridor with as much stealth as we could muster. An effortless clinic was put on by our hoof-fighting zebra, Bosco managed to hold his own, and I didn’t too much. Not counting Naiara, it wasn’t pretty, but we also didn’t end up with ghouls bearing down on us either.

Note to self: Get training from Naiara soon. In everything.

Reaching the stairwell, we hugged the wall again. I couldn’t keep my heart rate under control with the almost rhythmic screams and snarls floating through the corridors from unseen terrors. So far we’d just seen the one ghoul, but we’d been hearing its brethren the entire time and it was wearing on my psyche.

At least the ghoul in Lethbridle could be threatened into not eating my skin. These ones are basically animals! I might as well try to teach a tarantubaa to pour drinks!

Bosco and Naiara didn’t seem to have my problems, being a born Wastelander and a traveller in a foreign land, they must’ve seen worse. Even if I couldn’t fathom anything worse than cannibalistic former ponies who may or may not poison us just by getting close enough to our tender, delectable bodies.

“Please tell me we can hurry, guys.”

Imitating Naiara’s earlier motion, Bosco bobbed out and back into cover. “Stairs are clear. We should head up.” He blinked as something caught his eye. “Hold on, see over there? ‘First Aid Station’. If we’re facing radioactive ghouls we may need a few more Radaways and Rad-Xs. Can one of you check it out? My bags are full.”

“I don’t have a free pocket left.”

That left me. “I have to go by myself?”

Damn that reassuring smile of his. “Just get in and get out, Snow. It’ll be ten seconds, tops. Find the drugs, stash ‘em away, then come meet us in the Operations Room upstairs. According to the map, we’ll be right above you. If you get into any trouble, start yelling and we’ll be right there.”

“A-alright. You can count on me.”

“Course we can. Now get going. Sooner you’re gone, the sooner you’re back with us, right?”

“…right.”

As they vanished up the stairs, I gulped down the fear and looked up at the sign Bosco had seen. The First Aid Station was just around the next corner. Keeping myself pressed to the wall, I slid along until I reached the end of the corridor. Putting my ears to work, I willed them to be better at picking up ghoul hoofsteps than they were with zebra hoofsteps.

One second of silence.

Two.

Three.

At seven, I felt confident enough to back-and-forth like the others had done. Sweet mercy had smiled on Snowflake, as the corridor beyond was empty. Even better, the wall I was leaning against had the First Aid Station on the other side of it.

Best of all? No ghouls here either! Still, I couldn’t be complacent, and I couldn’t be noisy in my search. I might not be able to hear any ghouls around but that was no guarantee that they wouldn’t hear me if I tore the place apart for a few healing potions.

A thick layer of dust lay over all the equipment in the Station. Some of it was still in protective wrapping. Either they regularly replaced items in here, very unlikely considering how far out of the way this facility was, or most of it never got used. Was it a new facility built just before the end? Were the ponies really safety conscious? Or were the accidents just too severe to bother with any of this stuff? What did this place even do?

As I pondered, I was glancing around the room, looking for anything that just screamed out ‘Here be healing’ or the like. In the far corner of the room, on the other side of the dusty bed, I spotted a dash of colour in the otherwise grey-white attempt at sterility. A yellow box with three pink and blue butterflies on the cover.

Intrigued, I reached over and snagged it. Luckily, even though it had a keyhole on the top, the box was not locked. I doubted I’d have time to find the key and I had no ability with picking a lock. Breaking it would have brought the ghouls running, which was the last thing I wanted.

GROAN.

“Huh?” Some dust was trickling onto my mane. I foalishly looked up and staggered back as the falling debris got into my eyes.

CREAK.

“What is going on?” Rapidly blinking some moisture back into my eyes, I returned my attention to the butterfly box. After a second of fumbling, the clasp yielded and let me get at what was inside.

Two Radsafes and a Health Potion. Not bad at all.

CRACK! I dove aside just in time as a chunk of the ceiling collapsed onto the bed…

…along with a very surprised colt.

Bosco hit the bed and bounced off, unwillingly backflipping in the air and slamming down hard onto his back at first, with his head snapping back to strike the floor a fraction of a second later.

He didn’t utter a sound. The first contact had driven all the air out of his lungs just before the heavy THUD of the back of his head landing. Wordlessly, eyes wide in pain, the charcoal colt instinctively grabbed his head and rolled around on the floor, automatically sucking in air, and dust, which brought on a bout of sputtering as the powder stuck in his already-oxygen-deprived lungs.

“Bosco!” Naiara was calling down from above, “Snowflake, is he okay?”

“I don’t know!” I reached out to try to stop his wild scrambling. I briefly got a hoof on his head before he broke away again, and it came back bloody. That blow to the head had split the skin. Worse, he was panicking about it all. His breathing was improving but still not normal, while the pain and the dust were tricking his body into thinking it was in worse shape than it is. A possible concussion couldn’t have helped.

“Bosco!” I tried again, but he batted my hoof away, “Come on, Bosco. You can’t do that here. The ghouls’ll hear you.”

“Snow, do something quick!”

Grabbing the healing potion in my teeth, I waiting for my chance. It came when he stopped rolling, holding himself slightly off the floor as he spit up some dust. I dove in, wrapping myself around him from behind. He immediately resisted but I got my mouth to his ear, and the health potion to his lips.

“Bosco! Calm down, it’s just me, Snow. I’m right here. Everything’s going to be just fine. Drink this, it’ll help.”

His panicked strength was still impressive but with each breath he brought himself a little more under control. I kept up my diatribe to give him something other than the pain and lack of air to focus on. “That’s the way, Bosco. Just take a little drink of this. It’ll help your headache and make you feel better. You’ll be on your hooves again in no time.”

Coughing out a little more dust, his eyes managed to focus on the health potion under his nose at last. Grabbing it out of my hooves, he up-ended a swig straight into his gullet, almost instantly retching it up again.

Happy to be getting through to him, I rubbed his back comfortingly. “Easy there, take it slow. Just a little at a time.... there you go. Much better. It’s already working, the cut back here’s closing. You’re doing great Bosco.”

“Naiara,” I called up, “what happened?”

“I dunno!” She called back, looking frazzled, “We thought we found what we were looking for up here, and I was checking it out. Next thing I know, the floor’s giving way under him and he’s down there with you. Snow, I think I hear the ghouls coming. You gotta get out of there.”

Bosco still needs time to recover. “Get what you need from up there. We’ll manage down here until you’re ready. I’ll sort him out.”

“Alright, just be careful.”

“You too.” Then she was gone, back to her task.

I focused on mine. Bosco was calmer now, sucking regularly on the health potion, as fast and as much as his sensitive throat would allow. His eyes were still a little glazed but he was following my hoof as I guided the drink to his mouth. “Not long now, Bosco. You’ll be right as rain and then we can finish our work here.”

It was kinda like back when my brothers got themselves banged up in the Stable, back when they were small enough to hold. Having somebody with them always helped, and they liked me there the best.

I can’t take care of my brothers right now, Bosco, but I can take care of you.

Oh damn, she was right. They are coming.

I could hear them. A slowly growing wave of noise.

I pushed a little harder with the potion. “A little more Bosco, quick as you can. There’s a good boy. Come on, you need to drink the whole thing.”

The last of the potion disappeared down into his mouth and he dropped the empty container. Bosco coughed a few times and wiped his mouth with the back of his hoof, before looking up at me vacantly. “S-Snow?”

I gave him the same smile I’d give to my brothers when they took their medicine, but when I opened my mouth there was an entirely different sound.

“SKREE!!!!”

Still open-mouthed, I took in the apparition hulking in the doorway. The ghoul was staring at the two of us, taking in our heaving chests, and the drops of potion on Bosco’s lips. A primal growl came from deep down within the beast, and it bore rotting fangs as it charged.

In desperation, sibling protectiveness overrode my terror and I jumped in front of Bosco, hurling the butterfly box straight at the ghoul’s face. It struck the fiend between the eyes, sending it staggering back, with the two Radsafes exploding all over it in an auburn cascade.

Now dripping wet, the demon charged again, faster than I could get at the Power Hoof, slamming into me and sending us both flying onto the bed. I was pinned underneath the thing as he battered and bit at me.

I fought back with everything I had, but my combat skills were never strong, and my hooves kept slipping off the slick Radsafe covering the ghoul’s face and legs.

Howling, the ghoul batted aside my flailing hooves and sank its broken, jagged teeth into my shoulder.

“Aargh!”

The demon tugged this way and that, trying to tear the limb off at the socket, the pain nearly causing me to black out then snap back into sharp contrast as it tugged in another direction.

“GET OFF!” I couldn’t move, my lower legs pinned by the creatures undead bulk. More and more medicine dripped off the monster, landing in my eyes, mouth, nose, and on my horn.

MY HORN! Something to travel along! Fighting through the distraction of the teeth in my shoulder, I wordlessly begged whatever guiding body allowed me to use my magic in the first place for just enough concentration to trigger the one spell I could do, my Cryo Serpent.

Thinking the name seemed to help the process along, because the next thing I knew, I was feeling my horn buzz with energy.

Thanks for the name, Breeze. Now then, you horrible. Fucking. Demon…

I pulled with all my might, tearing my shoulder up even worse, before finally bringing my horn into contact with the solution covering the ghoul’s upper body,

Get the hell off me!

I fired off the spell. At point-blank range, I didn’t need to aim, which was good because I still couldn’t control it. The ice trail spread across the Radsafe medium, freezing it solid and trapping the ghoul underneath. The rotten half-corpse noticed just in time to let go of my shoulder and howl in pain…

…before freezing stiff in that pose, its front legs, torso, and head all utterly still.

I stared for a second at the grotesque ice sculpture straddling me on the centuries-unused medical bed.

It was an abomination.

An abomination which then exploded when Bosco hit it with the Butterfly Box. Chunks of frozen blood went everywhere.

There was no red ice this time, though. Whatever ran through the ghoul’s veins had long since lost the scarlet sheen that Bosco’s head wound had spotted along the floor.

The owner of said head shoved the lower half of the thing off me. I could only stare, too wired and scared to make a sound.

Then more growls came. The rest of the ghouls had shown up. We heard them pass the stairwell.

“OVER HERE, YOU ZOMBIES!” Something heavy thumped down the stairs as Naiara got the attention of the monsters. The howls intensified and we heard them thunder up the stairs after her.

A second later, Naiara dropped through the hole in the ceiling, landing with grace next to me on the bed, her eyes grimly focused. “Time to go now.”

We didn’t need to be told twice. Snatching up our things, we headed out the door, heading the far less graceful ghouls begin falling through the now-widening hole in the floor above. Their suddenly-interrupted short yelps would have been humorous if they weren’t trying to murder us.

“Naiara, where to?”

“You two take the next left, then a straight shot across the courtyard into the other building. It’s secure. That’s where they keep the vehicles. You need to get there and get ready to close the door behind me. Like as soon as I’m through.”

“Where are you going?” Splitting up here would be suicide. There wasn’t nearly enough room to move to shake the ghouls.

“I found a way to get rid of the ghouls. They’re all locked in this main building, along with all the farming chemicals in here.” She indicated a floorplan on the wall, which I barely got a look at before we were past it.

“Farming chemicals?” What good would they do us now?

She couldn’t answer for a moment as a side door opened and a ghoul, up until this point utterly unaware that it had guests, trotted out. Naiara leapt over it and we heard the pursuers slam right into it, all of them going down in a tangle. That would give us a few seconds at least.

“Nitrates! Really flammable farming chemicals. Get the point?”

“You’re gonna burn them?” That sounded like a plan, but the sticking point was how we would avoid joining them in the blaze.

“Oh yeah. I’ve used these tons of time in zebra concoctions. I just need to set up a spark.”

“We’ll come with you!” I wasn’t gonna leave my friend to burn with a bunch of undead monsters!

“Hell no! Your shoulder needs treating and Bosco’s still half out of it.”

“…’m alright.” He struggled to say that, dividing his attention from running seemed like a challenge until the fog in his brain cleared.

My svara noticed too. “No you’re not. Go with Snow, look after each other, and keep the door ready, because it’s gonna get hot! I gotta go. Remember, keep straight!” With a quick grin, she dove to the side in the next corridor junction.

“Naiara!” Please don’t die!

“Get to the Storage room!” She hollered back, as loudly as possible. It seemed to work as I heard the majority of the ghouls turn off after her. Only a few stragglers, including the new guy, seemed to be following us.

Ahead, we were fast coming up on an external fire exit. Bursting through it, without slowing down, we saw the equipment bunker Naiara mentioned across the tarmac. Tearing across the hard stone, we managed to get in and drag the heavy door shut with a ghoul halfway in and halfway out. We kept pulling, and soon there was half a ghoul in and its other half out. Only one more remained outside.

I turned to the still injured Bosco. “Just one more. We need to have the door open and ready for Naiara. You up for taking this last one with me?”

He nodded, putting his gun in his mouth. My should was starting to burn as the adrenaline wore off, but I slipped the Power Hoof on and triggered the charge.

Just this once, be useful.

I nodded to the colt, who kicked the door open. It caught the ghoul in the face, sending it flopping onto its back. Bosco took the precious few seconds it flopped around there to aim his weapon, while I stood guard at the door in case he missed.

Just as he fired, the ghoul shot up. The bullets caught it in the stomach, but weren’t enough to down it. It ran straight towards Bosco, who kept his gun shooting, only for my electric hook to catch it in the eye and send it spinning and spasming to the floor.

With adrenaline and worry over my friends overriding my terror at being this close to a ghoul, I got even closer, pouncing onto the ghoul like the other one had done to me. Yelling frantically, I slammed the Power Hoof into its skull, chest, stomach, its everywhere basically. I didn’t really care how many times I’d have to hit it, just that it stopped moving by the time I was done.

I only stopped after Bosco pulled me off, the ghoul having long since given up the ghost.

Breathing heavily, I sat back on my haunches. “We… phew… huff… did it.”

He didn’t agree. “Wait for Naiara.”

“Right, right.” I used my good leg to push myself up to a standing position, joining Bosco at the door as we looked out for the enactor of this insane plan.

CRASH!

Startled, we both looked up as a mass of fabric broke through a second floor window. Throwing off the cover mid-leap, Naiara found her balance, rolling as she landed, and was instantly up and running towards us. “DOORDOORDOOR!”

“COME ON!” I frantically grabbed the handle alongside Bosco as the milliseconds passed. Just as Naiara dove in behind us, an expanding orange glow lit up the facility.

The smallest edge of the flames got through before the door shut tight.

~~~~~~

“And so, if you decide to join the alliance, which will be Caber Toss’ word, not yours, we will supply the access code to the equipment storage bunker. All of the equipment held within is in pristine condition.”

We were back on the hill overlooking the village. Four Fields and his Barnstormer guards had been true to their word thus far. We’d encountered no trouble from the other Raiders around.

The boss himself had listened to our recounting of the events at the Ministry of Wartime Technology facility in silence. Now that we’d finished, he leaned forward, smiling for the first time since I’d met him. “What a fascinating tale. Tell me again. How did you deal with those nigh-unkillable ghouls?”

Having used up all our medicine healing my shoulder, Bosco was still slightly below his best, though far more lucid than he had been. Naiara had debated long and hard on whether or not to reveal this part of the story to the Raiders on the way back, not wanting to reveal even a fraction of zebra secrets. We agreed to give the simplest form of the truth.

“We burned them.”

Four Fields raised an eyebrow. “Burned them? How interesting. Perhaps their flesh could yet be further destroyed after all.” He barely seemed to care about the cache of equipment at all, seemingly far more interested in how the ghouls had been defeated.

It had me on edge. There was no way that giving Raiders combat tips could be considered a good idea, especially where fire was involved, but thankfully almost all of the chemicals at the facility would have been consumed in the blaze. What little there was left would barely equal a grenade.

We were all tired, and not particularly in the mood for another round of barely concealed mutual distaste. “We have completed our part of the bargain. I take it you will be keeping up your end?”

He waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh, of course. How could I not after that? The tale will soon travel. Even this far out, there are other observers. It shall soon be known what Red Ice has done here. If it comes to light that the Barnstormers betrayed her… well then, I believe we would find ourselves with several new enemies and far more attention than I care for. Have no concern over this matter, Red Ice. For self-interest, at the very least, I will honour my word.”

Finally. “Excellent. We’re leaving.”

All three of us turned to go, but Four Fields spoke up before we could take a step. “A moment? You must be tired from your ordeal. Will you not allow us to give you shelter to rest your weary selves?”

Turning back, I gave him the flattest stare I could. “I’ve seen the way your stallions looked at Naiara, and the way they talked about her. I wish neither those smiles nor those glares to come any closer. The same with your mares and my other bodyguard. My people and I will take our leave now, Four Fields. We have other business to attend to.”

His face morphing back into the disinterested visage that was his preferred appearance, he simply shrugged. “Then do not let us delay you.”

~~~~~~

Level Up!

Perks gained:
Healing Hooves – Snowflake’s big-sisterly leanings up the effectiveness of any medicine that she herself gives to an ally.

~~~~~~

Author's Notes:

As always, a big thank you to KKat, Y1, Auramane, Cascadejackal (he did the original cover art, which is still on the Fallout Equestria wiki), Void Heart (he did the new cover art), Shunketsunoponi and you, the readers. Please read and comment, and pass the word along if you like the story. Finally, because I find it a really funny coincidence to have another fic with a Stable 61 that’s set in Equestrian Canada, go read Fallout Equestria: Pure Hearts.

That’s all for now, folks. Please keep reading, commenting, and spreading the word on Old Souls. I really appreciate your feedback.