Fallout Equestria: Redemption
By: Cooperdawg
Chapter 3: Metro
‘Honesty can be the hardest virtue to follow.’

My entire body hurt, from the small bruises and scratches I had gotten while running around inside the Ironshod Firearms Factory to the few laser burns that the healing potions hadn’t managed to heal. It wasn’t a terrible pain, it wasn’t even that insistent. It was the kind of pain that simply lingers in the back of your mind and occasionally makes itself known when I misstepped and jarred a twisted ankle.

Even worse than the pain, however, was the fatigue. As I’ve said before, ponies seriously underestimate how totally empty the wasteland can be, and how monotonous a journey can get when you aren’t running or fighting for your life. Crosswire and I had been walking for almost six hours since leaving the factory, and we were both nearly falling asleep on our hooves.

Healing potions did wonders for the body. Hell, they even made me feel a bit more rejuvenated, as though I was getting a little burst of energy every time I drank one, but even they weren’t a substitute for actual sleep. We’d been up for almost thirty-six hours, and the strain was beginning to show on both of us. Crosswire, usually so alert, had his head hanging low and was barely even paying attention to the ground in front of him.

I was even worse. I was barely lifting my hooves from the ground, which resulted in me tripping or stumbling every five steps or so. I don’t think I would be wrong in saying that I had accumulated more bruises from stumbling around than I had from running away from those damned protect-a-ponies.

We continued slogging on through the wasteland, our surroundings completely blending together into one long blur. I could see the houses we passed, burnt out husks of buildings that had once housed happy families in a world where they didn’t fear for their lives every second of every day, but if pressed, I wouldn’t be able to remember any details about any of them.

The sky was beginning to darken for the second time since I had woken when I finally decided that we weren’t going to make it to Metro in one piece if we continued on as we were. “Crosswire! We need to stop to get some rest! Next solid house we see we’re holing up in for the night!” I called out, straining my voice to get any kind of volume louder than a whisper.

The ragged buck slowed to a stop and turned to look at me. The look in his eyes told of an exhaustion that rivaled my own. We were both basically dead on our hooves. “Where were you looking for?” he slurred.

I looked around us, taking in the few buildings that still stood. Most were precarious shells that looked like they could collapse at any given time. I had no intention of going anywhere near those. One of the buildings, however, still appeared relatively stable. The paint had sloughed off long ago, and some of the timbers appeared to be in the early stages of rotting as the wasteland weather got to them, but it still stood on its foundation, and the roof was still in place. It would have to do.

“Over there,” I said, waving a hoof in the direction of the structure, “It looks safe enough. We should be able to spend the night there.”

He followed my gesture and focused his sight on the structure. After a few moments of silence he nodded. “Yeah, that should work.”

We slowly picked our way between the rubble until we arrived at the home. To my surprise, the door was locked. I kicked it once, hoping that one good buck would knock it off its hinges, but all it gave me was a sore leg. Oh well, just another bruise to add to my collection.

“Can you get this open?” I asked, turning to look at Crosswire.

The grey buck sidled past me to the door and examined the lock for a few moments before getting out his tools. I would have watched in fascination as he stuck a bobby pin into the lock and started twisting it with a screwdriver, but as it was, I’m pretty sure I dozed off in the twenty seconds it took him to open the door.

The click of the lock springing roused me from my dozing. Crosswire replaced his tools in his saddlebags and opened the door. I was shaking my head in disbelief as I took the first few steps into the home. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen him unlock things before, it was just that it fascinated me every single time he did it.

I shot a glance at my E.F.S. once I was inside, but it showed nothing. I twisted my head to look at Crosswire, and to make sure that the computer was still working by looking for his blue bar. It appeared, so that meant that the house must be empty. “Close the door. We’ll be safe here for the night,” I ordered and trotted off to see if the home’s inhabitants had left anything edible in the kitchen. If I didn’t have to delve into my own stores, I would be happy.

The kitchen was an absolute disaster area. The table was little more than splinters spread across the floor and the countertops were cracked and covered in the remains of what might have once been a meal. Knives and other various utensils were scattered about the room, as if a hurricane had come through and tossed everything about in a fit of rage.

I picked my way carefully through the wreckage to the fridge and pulled it open. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few preserved apple snacks and a couple bottles of Sparkle-Cola. I was about to pop off the cap of one of the Colas when another bottle hiding in the back of the fridge caught my eye. I slid the other food into my saddlebags and reached in for it.

I pulled it out and dropped it into my hooves for a close inspection. The label was black and had a very elegant design with spidery white script. The label read: ‘Ponyville Apple Whisky: The Best Liquor in Equestria! Honest!’.

Waiting for the right time didn’t even cross my mind as I twisted the cap off the bottle and held it up to my nose to smell it. The aroma was light and fruity, but still had the harsh bite of alcohol under it. I put the bottle to my lips and tipped my head back, getting a full mouthful. The whiskey burned as it slid down my throat, but it was the pleasant kind of burn that warmed me from my stomach all the way to my hooves. The flavor was full and smooth with just the perfect amount of apple taste to it. I don’t think I had ever tasted anything quite so wonderful.

I took another mouthful before screwing the cap back on and carefully depositing the bottle in my saddlebags. This was one bottle of alcohol I was going to have to savor.

The whiskey was burning pleasantly in my stomach as I left the kitchen and went in search of Crosswire. My Pipbuck once again proved itself useless as I searched for him everywhere on the ground floor, but he was nowhere to be found. Cursing the computer, I climbed the stairs up to the second floor, where I found the ragged grey unicorn almost immediately. He was standing completely motionless in a doorway, but his head was up and alert, not hanging as if he were sleeping.

I came up behind him and peered into the room that was holding him so enraptured. What I saw locked me up as quickly and completely as it had him. The room was the main bedroom of the house, and the sight on the bed tore the voice from my body and left me rooted to the spot.

Two pony-sized skeletons were lying on the bed, facing each other, with their hooves wrapped around one another. Lying nestled between them was a small skeleton, no larger than a very young filly. These bones had been lying here undisturbed for over two centuries. Crosswire and I were probably the first ones to even see them and know their fate.

I slowly forced myself past Crosswire and into the room to stand beside the bed, where I looked down at the bodies. Crosswire came up to the other side of the bed, held just as speechless as I was. I couldn’t say how long we stood there, but it seemed like another two hundred years had passed by the time one of us finally found our voice again.

“Fuck. I know I’ve seen some fucked-up shit in my time, but this is something else,” Crosswire muttered, “They didn’t even have a chance to survive. They just had to lie here and wait to die while the world ended around them. And that filly couldn’t have been more than five years old.”

I shook my head, still not able to wrap my head around what I was seeing. Bodies were common in the wasteland, and bodies of the unlucky souls who had been killed in the apocalypse were even more so, but it was rare to see a sight like this one, with the bodies unmolested by time or looters, with some semblance of what had once been love.

“I find myself agreeing with you now, Crosswire,” I said, still not able to tear my eyes away from the sight, “I fucking hate the wasteland. I’ll be downstairs sleeping. I can’t stay up here.”

Some would say that trying to sleep in a house with something like that in it would be near impossible, but those ponies knew nothing about the effects of fatigue and sheer exhaustion. I collapsed on the couch in the main living room, took another swig from the Apple Whiskey, and closed my eyes.

It took me a few minutes to finally relax as my mind ran through what those poor souls must have been thinking as the bombs fell, but finally, my exhaustion overcame me and I dropped off into a dreamless slumber.

“I’m telling you, Tripwire, I saw two ponies go in here earlier: A beat-up grey buck and a rather nice-looking mare. One of ‘em must know how to pick a lock, ‘cause this place has been locked down tight for as long as I can remember.” The voice was loud, fast, and instantly woke me from my buzzed slumber.

I lay completely motionless, waiting to hear if Tripwire would respond and to see if I could learn anything more about them. Judging by the comment ‘nice-looking mare’, my hopes for a civilized meeting weren’t exactly high.

“Knowing the shit you’ve been on, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d seen a dragon coming in here,” Tripwire answered, although in a normal voice, so I had to strain my ears to hear him, “but I suppose it’s worth checking out. Who knows, you may actually be right for once.”

Judging by what I could hear, Tripwire was just another opportunistic asshole preying on other ponies in the wasteland. Lucky for me, I had a lot of experience dealing with ponies like him. The door to the house was right next to my couch, so I shifted around until my head was close to the door and my hooves were gathered underneath me, then reached down and pulled out my knife. This was the perfect situation for it.

“I don’t know, Tripwire,” a third voice chimed in, making me hesitate. Two ponies, I could easily take; throw in a third, and things became a little dicey. “You know Huff is always seeing things.”

“Hey! My name is Quick Gust!” the first voice snapped, “And I know what I saw!”

“Whatever you say, Huff,” the third voice answered. I could almost hear him rolling his eyes.

After a few moments, I could hear their hoofsteps through the rubble leading up to the house, then pause as they reached the door.

“So what’s the plan, Tripwire?” the third voice asked, “If Huff is actually right about this, we should have a plan. I would say kill ‘em and take whatever they’ve got. If they’re all the way out here without a caravan, then nopony knows they’re here. At least, nopony that matters knows.”

“If they resist, of course we’ll kill them, Jukebox, but until they do, we’ll see just how much they’re willing to part with without violence. If the amount is unsatisfactory, then we’ll kill them,” Tripwire answered.

The sound of a rifle bolt being slid back to chamber a round echoed loudly, even through the door. “Sounds good to me. All right, Huff, get the door open and get inside. This is your information, after all,” Jukebox said.

“What about my payment?” Gust asked, a worried tone that bordered on desperation in his voice.

“If your info was right, and there are ponies in there, you’ll get your Dash,” Tripwire answered, “now open the door.”

Great, I was dealing with an addict willing to sell anypony out for another fix. Ponies like him were unpredictable. Listening to their conversation, however, gave me an idea. They had already said that they weren’t going to resort to violence first, so if I could convince them to leave us the hell alone, I was guaranteed to not get hurt, rather than risk an injury in a fight. I slid as quietly as I could from the couch to go stand across the room from the door, where I leaned against a book shelf and stuck my knife into the wood. Putting on my most confident look, I waited for Gust to open the door.

The hinges creaked loudly as the door swung open. A quick glance showed the horizon just beginning to lighten with the coming dawn. Standing in the doorway was a small, sickly Pegasus. His eyes were darting around, seemingly unable to focus on anything for longer than a second or two. His flank didn’t show a cutie mark. Instead there was a brand of a cloud and thunderbolt. This buck was a Dashite, which wasn’t surprising. Almost every single Pegasus in the wasteland was a Dashite: somepony who had decided to do away with the Enclave’s rules and isolationism and actually come down to the wasteland. Only Pegasi I had seen that weren’t Dashites had been a wing of armored Enclave soldiers that had flown over my camp a couple years back, and we avoided alerting them at all costs.

Behind the Pegasus were two other bucks. One was a large unicorn with a dirty blonde hide and brown mane floating a hunting rifle next to himself. His barding looked thick, and I doubted if I could get my knife to pierce it. That one must be Jukebox.

The last buck could only be Tripwire. He was smaller than I had expected, but he held himself in a way that suggested he was much stronger than he appeared. He was an orange Earth Pony with a yellow mane. I could see several different trap-making components stored in the pockets of his barding, as well as a pistol in a holster on his right forehoof.

I waited until Gust had taken a step into the house and spotted me before speaking. “Good morning, gentlecolts,” I announced loudly, trying to wake Crosswire up and let him know what the situation was without giving too much away, “How can I help you?”

“Looks like she was expecting us, Huff. You sure you didn’t talk to them last night for a fix before coming to us?” Jukebox asked, fixing the Pegasus in a disapproving glare.

“No, I didn’t!” Gust insisted, “I don’t know how she knew! Honestly!”

“I’ll spare you all a headache and answer for him. If you lot were any louder, I’m sure you could have woken the dead from their two-century long sleep upstairs,” I stated, shifting my glance to admire my combat knife. Dammit, no blue bars over there, so Crosswire must have slept upstairs, though the Princesses only knew why.

“Told you we shouldn’t have brought Huff along, Tripwire,” Jukebox said to the smaller Earth Pony, “Now the fucker’s gone and revealed us, and I’m sure this mare knows exactly what we were talking about on our way in.”

“Oh, you mean killing me if I don’t give you everything you want?” I asked, swinging my head around the other way to stare at Jukebox with a single eye. Ah! There he was, and the blue bar was moving as well, so Crosswire was awake and moving.

“Dammit, Huff! This is your fault, you useless fucking addict!” Jukebox shouted angrily, swinging his rifle around to aim at the Pegasus. He paused just short of shooting to look at Tripwire. “Well, boss? You care what happens to this sack of shit?”

Tripwire shifted his glance from Gust to Jukebox and back, then simply shrugged. “It’s up to you Jukebox. I’ve got more important things to worry about.”

Jukebox grinned wickedly as he turned back to face the now-cowering Pegasus. “You hear that, Huff? You’re no longer under his protection. How does that make you feel?”

“Please Jukebox! Don’t shoot me! It won’t happen again!” Gust begged, backing away from the unicorn.

“Damned right you won’t,” Jukebox said, then pulled the trigger. The round tore through the Pegasus’s head, spraying the back wall with blood, bone, and brains. The corpse fell limply to the ground, half of its head missing.

I watched the entire interaction detachedly. I had been a part of enough scenes like that one to not be fazed by cold-blooded murder, and as I turned my head to look at Tripwire, I could see that he had been watching me the entire time, and he saw my lack of a reaction.

He stepped forward past his large ally to address me. “I see you are no stranger to the ways of the wasteland, so I imagine we could easily come to a deal. I also apologize for Jukebox’s behavior. He really is quite the brute, but he has his uses.”

“I can imagine,” I mused, “but I’m more interested in this deal you’re talking about. I have nothing to give that I don’t need, and I know that you will not be satisfied with that.”

“You would be correct,” Tripwire answered, “Is there any way this can come to a civil conclusion?”

“Depends on how much you value your life, I suppose,” I answered, “If you didn’t notice, I am no stranger to death, and I have spent a significant portion of my life learning how to kill. I’ve faced down enough brutes like Jukebox to know how to deal with his kind.”

For the first time, I saw a glimmer of uncertainty pass through Tripwire’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced with confidence. “Do you really think you can take us both with a simple combat knife, even if it is well cared for?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “And you think the knife is the only weapon I have? Out of courtesy, I’m going to tell you something. My friend and I just recently cleared out the Ironshod factory out by Grovedale, so we have a good supply of weapons and ammo, all in good condition. I would recommend rethinking your plan of stealing from us or attacking us, especially considering you have no idea where he is.”

Now his confidence was replaced by fear. “Quick Gust wasn’t lying then. There are two of you,” he said, eyes now darting around as he searched for Crosswire, but I knew from the fact that he focused on nothing that he couldn’t find him.

“Eeyup. So I suggest that you and your friend turn around and go back the way you came. We are more than capable of winning this fight.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t afford to let anypony go right now,” Tripwire said, “We used the last of our supplies last night, and I could use a new gun. Jukebox, try to make it quick.”

The Earth Pony hadn’t even finished giving the order when I grabbed my knife and dove to the side. Jukebox’s shot hit the bookshelf an instant later. My dive brought me within five feet of the large unicorn. I jumped forward and to the side as he brought the rifle around again, barely dodging another round.

This time, I was close enough to attack. I leapt at the large unicorn, wrapping my forehooves around his neck and twisting. The attack tore Jukebox from his hooves and onto the ground, with me on top of him. I struck at his neck with my knife, but he got a hoof up in between us, pressing against my throat and keeping me from killing him on the spot.

I struggled against him, trying to force the knife closer to his throat, but he was simply too strong. My only option was to change my angle of attack. I twisted my neck and sliced his hoof open, forcing a cry of pain from him and making him flinch, offering a narrow opening. I took it, but once again came up short as he shifted and, instead of stabbing him in the neck, I buried my knife in the meat of his shoulder.

He grunted in pain, but retained enough awareness to roll, throwing me off him and making me lose my grip on the knife. At the end of the roll, I was pinned underneath his bulk. He struck at me with his uninjured forehoof, aiming to cave in my ribcage. It was all I could do to deflect his blow into my shoulder with my own leg.

The blow felt like a hammer striking an anvil and left my left leg feeling numb and useless. I had no illusions to the fact that I would be dead had that blow landed on my chest. He lifted his leg again to attack, but before he could strike, a staccato of gunfire peppered his side, opening up a dozen wounds that toppled him over and off of me.

“Watch for Tripwire! He’s the one in charge!” I shouted as I launched myself to my hooves, adrenaline making me forget the pain in my left shoulder, and pulled out Hammer.

Jukebox was trying to rise as I came around to his head and aimed the revolver at his head. “Please, don’t kill me. I was just following orders. We’re just trying to survive,” he begged, tears actually streaming from his eyes. His voice was thick with pain, and blood was beginning to flow from his mouth. One of Crosswire’s shots must have hit something vital.

“There are better ways to do it. And attacking a pony who obviously knows how to protect herself is not a smart route to take when survival is your only interest,” I snapped around the gun in my mouth, “And I don’t make a habit of letting ponies that attack me live.”

With one last effort, Jukebox tried to flail around to hit me, but I easily dodged out of the way, despite my injured leg. This pony was dead no matter what I chose to do; the number of bullet wounds the Crosswire had given him made that a certainty. I decided on the merciful route and fired a single round into his skull, ending his struggles.

I turned away from the unicorn’s body and followed my E.F.S. to where Crosswire had Tripwire pinned underneath him. My left leg was seriously starting to hurt now, but I pushed the pain to the back of my mind. I could deal with it later.

“You deal with the big one?” Crosswire asked as I approached, limping heavily.

“Yeah, thanks for the help. Bastard would have had me otherwise,” I answered, coming to a stop next to him, “Let him up. He’s not going to try anything now.”

Crosswire grumbled something about me going soft, but did as I asked and backed off to let Tripwire hobble to his feet.

“I told you to just turn around and walk away, Tripwire,” I said, “You have no one to blame for this result but yourself. Jukebox’s blood is on your hooves, though I don’t think it matters that much to you.”

The buck had the grace to lower his head in shame. “What are you going to do to me?” he asked, voice shaking.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly, “I should kill you. After all, you did try to kill me. But then, I would be no better than you if I did, and I don’t want to lower myself to your level.”

Tripwire looked up, hope in his eyes. “You’re going to let me live?” he asked.

I remained silent for a moment and looked over to Crosswire, whose expression was completely neutral, but I could see the hint of disapproval in his eyes. I returned my gaze to Tripwire. “Much as I hate to, yes I am, if only because it teaches you a lesson. I am not to be fucked with, and anypony who figures that out by talking to ponies like you before actually meeting me is only doing themselves a favor. Now get the fuck out of here.” I snapped.

The buck nodded quickly and disappeared out the door, as if he were running for his life. In some ways, I suppose he was. I watched him until he disappeared from sight.

“You should have killed him,” Crosswire admonished me as I returned to Jukebox’s body for my knife, “He wouldn’t have thought twice about killing you, or worse.”

“Don’t remind me,” I retorted, “I only let the bastard live because it might help us later on down the line. If ponies hear about us being merciful, it may help to offset some of our reputation and actually let us trade with the caravans for supplies. We can’t think like raiders anymore, Crosswire. That kind of thinking will only get us killed now.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he huffed, “We leaving now?”

“Yeah. No point in sticking around anymore,” I answered as I walked back to my saddlebags and pulled out a healing potion. I needed something for my shoulder. I heard Crosswire ascend the stairs to get his things while I tipped the potion back into my throat. I could feel the muscles and tendons in my shoulder immediately begin to knit back together as the potion worked its magic. In seconds, I was feeling a thousand times better than I had.

I replaced the bottle in my saddle bag and put it on. You never knew when an empty bottle could come in handy.

In just a few minutes, Crosswire and I were ready to move. Another couple of minutes, and the house disappeared over the horizon behind us.

It took us another couple of hours to make it to Metro, but the hours passed quickly now that we weren’t exhausted. Much as we had tried to avoid resting, we had needed the break. Crosswire had remained silent for most of the journey; he was probably still upset at my choice to spare Tripwire.

I understood why he wanted me to kill him. Hell, part of me wanted to do the bastard in as well, but it simply served us better to let him live than it did to kill him, not to mention the fact that he had reminded me a bit too harshly of myself.

Since Crosswire had been so quiet, I had taken the time to think on that buck’s behavior, and the similarities to my own terrified me. I did a lot in the name of survival, but that had been the first time I’d been on the receiving end of the act, and I didn’t like it. He had written me off as just another casualty of the wasteland, not even a pony who was dying at his order.

The thought that I had made a dozen choices just like that one, that I had done the same thing to dozens, if not hundreds, of ponies was a sobering one. It made me think that maybe survival wasn’t the only thing I should fight for after all. Maybe there was something more important than that, more important than any one life. I remembered my parents had once believed that, hell, they had died for it.

I had to push those thoughts from my mind as we approached the shanty town that had sprung up around the stairs that led underground to where the city of Metro was situated. True to its name, it had sprung up in one of the old underground metro stations that had connected a lot of the outlying towns with Seaddle. Instead of the overland trains that existed on mainland Equestria, the government had constructed the underground metro system here, leaving more open ground for farming or building.

The town wasn’t an official part of Metro. Instead, it was just a collection of shacks that housed the ponies that dealt with idle travelers or caravaneers. The Metro guards usually extended their protection to these ponies, but only if the outcome of the fight was obviously in their favor.

Crosswire and I marched straight through the bustle to the checkpoint down into Metro itself, ignoring the many ponies who were trying to hawk their wares at us. We were stopped by a stern unicorn mare who had a nasty looking shotgun leaned against the barricade next to her.

“What’s your name and business in Metro?” she asked us in a bored tone.

“My name is Evergreen, and I need to talk to the mayor. My friend Crosswire and I picked up some information around the area of Grovedale that he is going to want to hear,” I answered. Hopefully, honesty would get us into the city.

Instead of just accepting us as another set of travelers, the guard perked up, rose fully to her hooves and glared at me. “That so? I don’t suppose you happen to know the Evergreen who murdered several ponies in that area and happens to be in charge of a raider gang just south of Grovedale, do you? And what exactly is this ‘information’ you have for the mayor? A bullet?”

I felt my stomach lurch and my hopes sink. “Yeah, that’s me, but all of that happened a long time ago. Last time I killed anypony around Grovedale must have been at least four months ago,” I admitted, “As for the raider gang, well, I’m just another wastelander now. There was a mutiny a few days ago that ended with me out on my ass. If it weren’t for Crosswire, then I wouldn’t be alive anyway.”

The guard narrowed her eyes at me and I saw her horn begin to glow as she brought the shotgun to bear. “Much as I appreciate your honesty, I think it would be in your best interest to be leaving,” she said, chambering a round to make her point.

For a second, I was inclined to agree with her, but this was not something I could let go. If I did not act, then a lot of ponies were going to be in danger. “I can’t go,” I announced, “Your mayor needs to see what I found. You can take my guns and let me see him while under heavy guard for all I care, but I need to talk to him.”

“And what could be so important to you that you ask to get shot?” the guard demanded, the shotgun now clearly pointing in my direction.

I hesitated in answering. I didn’t want to simply announce what I knew, ‘cause who knew how many ponies knew Greymane or Seahawk, or at least how to contact them. If the wrong pony overheard me, my own life would become much more difficult.

“I’m waiting for an answer,” the guard warned impatiently.

“It has to do with Seahawk,” I stated, hoping the guard would know something more than I did, or at least that the mention of somepony else would let her know that I wasn’t here to assassinate the mayor.

“And who in the fuck is Seahawk?” she demanded, floating the shotgun even closer to me.

“Hell if I know,” I retorted, “but whoever it is has plans to take over the entire region, I’m sure of that. Your mayor needs to know that, since he is in charge of the largest center of civilization around these parts. I’m taking a big risk in even saying that much, since I have no idea how much influence he has.”

The guard hesitated as she weighed my words. “You have proof?” she finally demanded.

“Yes, but nothing I can share here. Too many eyes and ears,” I answered.

“Fine,” the guard spat, “You can go in, but remember, we are always watching you, and the guards inside already know who you are. One wrong move and you’re dead, Evergreen. I am not exaggerating.”

I nodded my understanding. I had absolutely no illusions to the contrary. “Thank you. You won’t regret this.” I stepped past her and onto the staircase into Metro.

The city was impressive. That was the only way I could think of to describe it. The main concourse was filled with shops and stalls set up in the old ticket booths and newspaper stalls, and the platform was blanketed in sheet metal cubicles that made up the homes of the ponies that lived here. Paths ran over top of those homes, built on small structures that would absorb the impact of hooves so the ponies living below wouldn’t have to listen to the sound of pounding hooves all day.

As soon as we entered the main concourse, we were met by a pair of guards who led us directly to the mayor’s office. I guessed that we were being jumped forward in line so we could leave as soon as possible since we were ushered into his office past several annoyed-looking ponies.

The mayor himself was a thin, blue Earth Pony buck who had what looked like a wooden hammer for cutie mark. “Mind telling me why you’re bringing in two ponies in ahead of everypony else, Farsight? We have a schedule to keep,” he asked, looking up from the stack of papers he was reading.

“This is Evergreen, the raider boss from the Grovedale area. She claimed she found something that you would want to know,” one of the guards answered.

“You know we don’t deal with raiders, Farsight. I expected better from you. Take them out and shoot them. Wasteland will be better for it,” the mayor ordered, looking back down at his work.

“I don’t want to make a deal!” I announced before the guard could act, “I’m offering you the information, no strings attached!”

“Wait!” the mayor announced, his head snapping back up, “What information? Don’t fuck with me, Evergreen, I work hard to keep this town safe, and letting somepony like you inside is a serious security risk, and not one I allow lightly.”

“Can we close the door to at least make this somewhat private?” I asked, “If I get out of here alive, I’d rather not be killed in the wasteland because somepony overheard what I was talking about.”

“Fine. Farsight, close the damn door,” the mayor ordered. Once that was done, he fixed me in a merciless glare, “Now explain, Evergreen, why am I letting you talk to me, and why this information you have is of such interest to me.”

“Crosswire and I were scavenging the Ironshod Firearms Factory by Grovedale yesterday. I found a dead drop on the top floor. It contained this,” I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out the map and placed it on the table in front of the mayor.

He reached out with a hoof and pulled it in for a closer look. “And why does this interest me?” he demanded, eyes fixed on the map, “There aren’t even any labels. Just a few lines denoting its walls and an arrow pointing at one of them.”

“It should interest you because I also found this,” I answered and played the recording. The mayor sat silently throughout the entire duration, listening to each and every word. By the time it finally ended, his expression had changed from one of anger to one of contemplation.

“You may actually have done some good for once, Evergreen,” he said slowly, “What persuaded you to come here and share this with me?”

“A couple of reasons,” I answered honestly, “First of all, if this Seahawk does start moving in on Seaddle, the status quo is going to change, and probably not for the better. That’s bad for everypony, especially for somepony like me, who already has a nasty reputation. Second, I was kicked out of my gang three days ago. I need to do something to start to clear my name so that I can trade at places like this. As a traveler and scavenger, I need access to the caravans and shops to stay supplied so I can survive. Being a raider with just one other pony won’t allow that, so my behavior needs to change.”

“So you’re not just offering this out of the kindness of your heart. You do want something out of it.” The mayor stated, “I thought you said you were offering it for free?”

“I am. Run me out if you choose to. But somepony somewhere will hear about me doing something like this and let me trade. I keep doing things like this, then at some point ponies are going to forget that I was a raider and I’ll be able to start living again,” I said, keeping my gaze locked on the mayor’s eyes.

He watched me just as intently, as if trying to gauge my intentions through force of will alone. For several moments, we stared each other down, me trying to communicate my determination to continue on living, no matter the hardships I would face, and him trying to maintain his air of indifference towards me.

Finally, he turned his head away. “Dammit, I wasn’t cut out for this shit,” he muttered. He lifted his head and his gaze held an expression I wasn’t prepared to see: gratitude. “Evergreen, this information will help us keep our eyes open for anypony trying to take us over, and we may be able to spare some ponies to help protect some of the nearby settlements. You’re right when you say that this Seahawk isn’t anything good for us. Even worse, though: I know who Greymane is, and taking this dead drop isn’t going to do anything but piss him off. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already hunting you,” he said.

That piqued my interest. “Who is he? He seems like a very capable pony, though I don’t know what to make of him,” I said.

“He’s a mercenary, but of the worst kind. Doesn’t care who hires him, so long as the price is right. He doesn’t ask any questions, but guarantees that the job will be done to specifications. I myself have hired him on occasion to take care of threats in the area, but he hasn’t been available for a few months now. I guess we know why. If this Seahawk has Greymane in his pocket, then he has some serious influence. Interrupting Greymane’s work, for any reason, usually only gets that pony killed. You’re going to want to watch your back from here on out,” the mayor explained.

I had met plenty of ponies exactly like Greymane, at least so far as profession went. A lot of them existed, but not many had the skills to stay alive long. Mercenary work was dangerous, especially since many employers, especially if they were the back alley type of employers, decided that they didn’t want anypony to know what they were doing, including the pony they hired to do the work. For somepony to get a reputation like the one Greymane had took some serious skill, which was much rarer.

“Thanks for the warning. Now if you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to do about me? I would like it if I could trade around here. We have some extra gear and supplies and could use some more water and medical supplies,” I asked. I didn’t want to push my luck, but having a town to work out of would make a lot of things easier.

The mayor hesitated as he considered my request. “I can’t deny that you’ve helped me, Evergreen, and I reward ponies that help me. You’re free to trade in Metro. For now. Whether or not you will be free to come and go is still up for debate, and the guards will be watching you. If I want to speak to you again, I’ll send for you. Now, I have a lot of other ponies to see today, so if you would excuse me.” He gestured towards the door.

I started to walk that way, pocketing the map again as I went. “Thank you, mayor. We won’t cause any problems.”

All of Metro was at my beck and call now. All I had to do was choose a direction and go. I had a pocket full of caps, and a plethora of shops to choose from. I also didn’t have a clue of where to start.

“So what’s the plan now, Evergreen?” Crosswire asked me, also surveying the expanse of the town before us.

It struck me then that he hadn’t called me ‘boss’ since before we had gone to Ironshod. The odd thing was that I liked it. I wasn’t the boss of anything anymore, and I didn’t really want to be. Being the boss of my own life was enough.

I turned to look at the buck. “Go out and trade what you can. Find whatever you think you need. I’ll do the same. Meet me at the infirmary in an hour or so. We’ll need to compare our medical supplies to see what we need more of.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll see you there,” Crosswire answered and wandered off.

He quickly disappeared into the crowd as I stood there watching. For the first time in days, I was truly alone. It was a refreshing feeling. I could act without anyone relying on me to do the right thing. My decisions right now affected only myself, and I liked it.

I followed after Crosswire into the crowd, perusing the stalls I walked by. Occasionally I would stop to sell something, or maybe buy something I thought I could use, but for the most part I simply watched.

Near the end of the hour I had set, my body was starting to protest being jostled around by so many ponies. The injuries I had picked up over the last few days were still bothering me slightly, despite the healing potions I had drank. It couldn’t be a bad idea to get the doctor here to take a look at me.

I pushed my way through the crowd to the infirmary and opened the door. It was surprisingly clean, for a wasteland infirmary, and even had privacy screens around the different beds.

“I’ll be with you in a moment!” An eerily familiar voice called out, “Just finishing up with a patient here.”

I pulled off my saddlebags and set them on a chair by the door where I sat down. My mind was working overtime, trying to place that voice, but my memory was failing me. I had spoken with so many different ponies over the last few days that all of those voices were blending together.

As the doctor had said, she appeared a few moments later, and both of our jaws dropped in shock. “What are you doing here!” we exclaimed at the same time. It was Suture, that maroon medical pony that had followed Crackshot to our camp not three days ago.

“You go first! This is my infirmary and I want to know how you found me!” she demanded, marching up to me and standing as defiantly as she could.

“I actually wasn’t following you,” I stammered, still too shocked to organize my thoughts, “We were simply traveling and had a reason to come here.”

“And the guards let you in? Even after I warned them about you?” Suture demanded. Her tone made it difficult to tell if she was angry or confused.

“Well, yeah. I picked up some information that I had to share with the mayor. He was appreciative enough to let Crosswire and me into the city to trade. I came down here ‘cause I’ve collected a good number of injuries since you ran off,” I explained.

Suture simply shook her head at me. “I warned them about what you are, and our mayor doesn’t deal with raiders! How did you convince him to even listen to you?”

“Because I wasn’t making a deal. I offered him the information I found for free. Allowing me to trade was his way of thanking me. I’m not trying to do anything to endanger anyone in the city. That would just get me killed. Now are you willing to help me out, or am I going to have to live with my injuries?” I asked.

Suture stood silently, watching me with a disapproving eye, but also sizing up my body and all my injuries. “You’ve really done a number on yourself. What the hell have you been doing to get so hurt since I patched you up?”

“Well, first there were those couple dozen protect-a-ponies at the Ironshod factory, not to mention that behemoth of a robot that wasn’t shut down by the override. Then we got jumped earlier today by some opportunistic scoundrel and his friend, and that guy did a number on my shoulder,” I explained.

“And I suppose you just killed all of them?” Suture asked, her disapproval obvious. Even so, she walked to a cabinet and started to pull out various medical implements. It looked like I’d be getting treatment no matter how much this mare may dislike me.

“Actually, no. The robots we did knock out, but they really aren’t alive to begin with. I’m also pretty sure they thought I was a zebra. As for the scoundrel and his friend, the friend I did kill, but that was only after he had me pinned beneath him and was in the process of pounding the life out of me. But we let the scoundrel go,” I explained.

That got Suture to stop and look at me. “You actually let somepony live?” she asked incredulously, “What possessed you to do that?”

I hesitated before answering her. I didn’t know how much I wanted to admit to her about how much her influence had started making me think about my past and choice of lifestyle. Unfortunately, she noticed my hesitation.

“Typical,” she grunted, “You thugs are all the same. You do one thing different and then refuse to explain why you made the choice. Suit your damn self. Now take your damn barding off so I can get at those injuries.”

“No! I was just thinking about how best to explain. If I just spat out what was going on in my head, nothing would make any sense!” I protested as I shucked both my barding and utility suit. It pained me to see how many holes had been burned into the suit. It was approaching the point where it was near pointless to even hold on to.

“That so? Then have you organized your thoughts enough to talk about it, or are you still at a loss? Got hit in the head a few too many times, maybe?” Suture asked angrily. This was an entirely different side of the mare. At the camp, she had been cowardly and subservient, begging for her life with every other breath. Even after we had gotten out she had seemed fearful. I didn’t know how to deal with her now that she was being assertive and demanding.

She started to treat my wounds, covering the few remaining burns with a salve that stung terribly. “Ow! Watch it! That really hurts!” I exclaimed, twisting away.

“Good. Might give you some appreciation for what it feels like to be on the other side of things,” she answered with an utter lack of sympathy, “And if you’re wondering how I can do this when I said before that I can’t stand seeing others in pain, I meant if they were in agony. This isn’t going to kill you.”

This time, her words only served to piss me off. Who was she to assume that I didn’t know what pain is! I twisted around to face her, our muzzles mere inched from each other. “So you seriously still think that I have never suffered?” I demanded, my anger twisting the words into a near inarticulate growl. “I know what pain is; I’ve felt it almost every single day of my life since my parents were cut down in front of me! If you care to know, my mother’s head exploded less than a foot from mine when I was just a filly, courtesy of a raider sniper. And that was only the start!”

Suture jumped back as soon as I started yelling, a spark of fear appearing in her eyes. “I… I’m sorry… I didn’t know…” she muttered, trying to placate me, but I was having none of that.

“Oh, you’re sorry! Well that just makes everything fucking perfect then, doesn’t it!” I yelled. At this point, a pair of guards appeared in the infirmary, both with weapons out and aimed at me, but I ignored them as well. “Let me tell you something, Suture: I have probably suffered more than most of the ponies you have ever met. I have lost everything not just once or twice, but three fucking times already in my life! That is three times I have had to start over from scratch and build a new life from nothing! So don’t try to teach me what it’s like to feel pain!”

I pushed my way past her, quickly pulled my barding back on (to hell with the utility suit, I didn’t have anything valuable in it anyway), and walked out of the infirmary. I needed to get away from the infuriating medical pony before I did something I would regret.

“No, don’t follow her. I deserved that outburst, since I was provoking her,” I heard Suture saying to the guards, “She just needs some space to calm down. I misjudged her, badly it seems.”

I snorted in annoyance and kept walking, my head filled with images of the things I wanted to do to herm most of which involved some form of dismemberment. I made my way away from the town and a short distance into one of the abandoned metro tunnels. The guards gave me an odd look as I trotted past them out of the gates, but didn’t stop me. Why would they want to stop an angry mare leaving their town into an underground area that was filled with who-knew-how-many dangers?

I finally stopped just as I entered the shadows, where I sat in the gloom and closed my eyes, letting the muffled sounds from the town flow out of my conscious mind. It was the only way I could calm down without acting out my thoughts. The silence enveloped me, making time dilate until seconds became minutes, minutes became hours, and all of reality simply ceased to exist.

Slowly, I allowed thoughts to flow back through my mind. First came the memories from my past; the things from my life that brought me peace, and, in some senses, happiness. These memories calmed me, chasing away the rage that was always in the back of my mind, and left me feeling in control.

Next, I allowed the thoughts from my conversation with Suture to return. She had pissed me off, and she knew it, even took responsibility for it, when she could have let the guards throw me out on my ass. But, at the same time, simply assuming that because I wasn’t a nice pony I didn’t know pain and suffering was too far.

But again, despite her anger at me, despite her hatred of what I represented, she was willing to help me. She had been angry at me, sure, but she had still been treating my wounds, however roughly. That kind of action deserved respect. I knew I wouldn’t be capable of the same kind of kindness.

All I had done to repay her kindness to me was to get angry or ask her to join us, where she would be forced to see everything I dealt with every day. Despite my caution, I was reckless, sometimes even stupid. My injuries attested to that. And now here I was, mocking her as I asked her to fix me up again.

Gradually, my emotions returned, lending more meaning to the thoughts rushing around inside my skull. Somewhat to my surprise, rage didn’t immediately take control. Instead, it was shame. This was now the second time that Suture had caused me to feel that particular emotion.

Last time, it had pissed me off. This time, I didn’t let it. I forced the anger aside and let the shame come to the forefront of my mind, where I allowed it to fill every aspect of my being. My eyes welled up with tears, and as I felt the first few wet trails make their way down my cheeks, I thought that I was finally on my way to mending all of the evil I had done.

Just Law had been completely correct. My parents would have been devastated to see what I had become, especially since it was exactly what they had given their lives to protect me from. Now it fell to me to redeem myself, and to become something better than the reputation that existed about me.

But first, I had to rid myself of the grief and shame that Suture had brought on me. This time, I didn’t try to hold back the tears. I didn’t even try to keep my sobs from being audible. For the first time since my parents had been killed, I allowed myself to let all my pent up emotions escape.

That was how Suture found me, though I couldn’t say how much later it was. I wouldn’t have even known she was there had she not tapped me on the shoulder first.

I was lying on the cold, hard ground, a small pool of tears beneath my chin. My eyes were squeezed shut, and were swollen and red from crying for so long. Her touch startled me back to the present and I lurched to my hooves, instinctively ripping my knife from its sheath.

“Woah! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you!” Suture exclaimed, jumping back, “We were just getting worried. You’ve been gone for so long.”

It took my brain a few seconds to process that I wasn’t in danger. I finally slid my knife back into its sheath and sat down heavily. “How long have I been out here?” I asked, my voice rough from crying.

“Almost four hours. I was expecting you to get away for an hour or so to cool down, but when the guards said they hadn’t seen you anywhere, we started to get worried,” the medical pony explained.

“Oh,” I muttered, lowering my head, “I didn’t mean to worry anyone. I just needed to get away. I needed to think.”

“I realize that,” Suture answered slowly, approaching me. She sat down next to me, close enough to be comforting, but far enough away to clearly define the distance between us.

The silence lengthened as we both sat there, neither one of us wanting to be the first to speak. In a way, it was a good thing. It gave us both the space we needed to think, while at the same time reminding us what we needed to be thinking of.

Suture was finally the first to say something. “Evergreen, I’m sorry. I misjudged you, provoked you, and quite frankly deserve your anger. I made my point three days ago outside your camp after Crosswire pulled you out. What I did today was completely unnecessary and petty, especially given how much you have helped us.”

I didn’t answer immediately, instead letting the words hang between us so I could truly analyze what she was saying. At first thought, it sounded like an apology for her behavior, but there was more to it than that, there had to be. The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like an apology for her accusation of my behavior.

“No, Suture,” I finally answered, “You don’t owe me an apology, not for that. If anypony owes anypony else an apology, it’s me. Believe it or not, your words back in my camp got me thinking, and you were right: I am not a nice pony. I’ve known it for a long time; I simply decided not to act on it, and that is unforgivable. I’ve tried to start doing better, but it isn’t easy. All I want is my own survival, and it seems like the moral cost for that is so high sometimes, as though I have to choose between my soul and my life. I need to be honest right now: it was your influence that made me realize how unhappy I was, and it was your influence that made me face emotions I had long since thought buried. Without that, I would still be looking at everypony who crosses paths with me as an enemy, or at least as a target.”

As I had done, Suture remained silent. I hope she realized how much it took for me to admit something like that, and I wouldn’t do this for just anypony. It took me knowing that the other really deserved my apology, and the acknowledgement of how they had influenced me, for me to truly say anything like this.

“I hadn’t realized,” she muttered before trailing off. I looked over and saw her with her head hung low, much like my own was. In her eyes I could see a glint of regret and sadness.

When it became obvious that she didn’t have anything more to add, I spoke up again. “Why should you have? You had no reason to listen to me, and even less of a reason to help me. Hell, it took me almost getting killed to even realize that there was something wrong with my life. So, for what it’s worth, thank you. For making me remember that there is more to life than simply surviving.”

“Well, you’re welcome, I guess,” Suture answered, “Anything to help.”

Once again, the silence grew to encompass us. Part of the divide that had existed between us had been repaired, letting us at least acknowledge each other as two ponies that had more to offer than we thought at first. It was then that I realized that Suture was the only pony out here with me.

“Where is Crosswire? He didn’t come with you?” I asked, shifting to look back down the tunnel towards Metro.

“He’s in the infirmary, resting. He was in almost as bad of shape as you are. It took a bit, but we finally convinced him that we could find you without his help,” Suture answered.

“Huh, so he actually cares,” I muttered, “That’s surprising.”

Suture snapped her head up and looked at me with a confused expression. “Really? You’re surprised? He cares about you much more than he lets on. Maybe not in that way, but he definitely looks out for you. It has to take a lot to stay loyal to somepony when that loyalty is likely to get you killed, and then follow them about the wasteland walking headfirst into danger.”

I shrugged in response. I didn’t know how else to react. “I never thought of it like that. Just figured him to be more loyal than most other raiders.”

“Well there’s more to it than just that. Something about that pony is odd. He maintains this entire gruff and detached persona, but there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye.”

I thought back to his occasional comments and questions into how I was feeling or what I was thinking. They had been really out of place from his usual behavior, much as Suture was describing to me now. “I guess there is. I think he’s been trying to come out and be himself, but he’s scared of losing that hard edge.”

“Or he’s just scared of admitting that he’s more than he appears, or that he can care, which I think is how we managed to convince him to remain behind at all.”

That comment made me laugh, mostly because it made me realize one of the reasons Suture had come out here on her own, besides her desire to apologize. My laughter again put a confused expression on the maroon mare’s face. “So exactly what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked when my laughing finally subsided.

“I’m sorry?” Suture asked, completely lost.

“You came out here completely alone, to talk to a mare who had been mere seconds from attacking you. You had to want to do more than simply apologize,” I pointed out.

“Wha… How did you know that?” the mare sputtered, completely unsure of what to say or do.

“Well, you kept emphasizing that you got Crosswire to stay behind, and even though you said ‘we’, you’re the only one out here. Add all that to the fact that you already apologized, but stayed out here anyway, it all points to the fact that there’s something you want to say, so spit it out!”

The medical pony hesitated, then pulled out the Messaging Crystal from her medical bag. “You left this behind in your utility suit. I need to know where you got it and why you have it,” she stated. Her voice was completely emotionless, a stark contrast to her mood just a few moments ago.

Inside, I was cursing myself. How could I have forgotten about the damn crystal! “Crackshot brought it back from his raid the same day you wandered into the camp. I’m guessing it came from that caravan you promised not to talk about. My Pipbuck showed me that it’s much more valuable than it appears, so I held on to it. Haven’t been able to figure out why it’s so valuable though…” I explained, gazing into the crystal.

Suture slowly shook her head and returned the crystal to her medical bag. “I suppose I may as well tell you what I can, then, since you know half of it already. That crystal is the reason I was following the caravan. Bliss had been contracted to transport it to Mt. Hoof. This is probably one of the most valuable items in all the wasteland, for several reasons.”

“And what are those, because I can’t figure the damn thing out!” I asked, “I’ve spent hours messing with it, but nothing happens! Exactly what is it?”

Suture sighed and looked up at me, “It’s a Messaging Crystal.” I gave her my best ‘you don’t say?’ look. It took the mare a few moments to figure out that, even though I knew what it was, I didn’t know what it was. “As far as I know, only a few were ever made before the bombs fell. They function a lot like memory orbs, except that not just anypony can access them. Also, there aren’t memories stored in the crystals, but messages and information, a lot like a holotape, except only the pony that the Crystal was meant to go to can access them. It’s the most secure way to send a message, since there is no possibility of it being intercepted, other than it not reaching its destination,” she said by way of explanation, “but even then the information couldn’t be accessed.”

“And just who exactly was this pony that it was going to? If it was made before the war, how can it even be useful now? Whoever it was meant to go to must be long dead by now,” I pointed out.

“Well, yes and no,” Suture answered carefully, “It was found here in Metro, when the city was first founded, except that it was empty, so it must have gotten to whomever it was supposed to. Only recently have we had a need for it. There’s a community of ponies living near Mt. Hoof that we are trying to get in contact with, but they are very secretive and paranoid. Using this crystal was the only way we could get a message to them that guaranteed it came from us.”

“Why do you need to get in touch with them at all?” I asked, “It’s not like Metro is hurting for supplies or anything.”

“Take another look on your way out. Our food supply is running out. Even our water is starting to run low. Give it another five years, and Metro will just be another failed settlement. If we can start trading with the ponies at Mt. Hoof, we’ll be able to survive. That’s why I followed along, to make sure the caravan would make it,” Suture argued.

Her argument made sense, I suppose. But that didn’t explain why she had chosen to follow, no matter what she said. It also didn’t explain her promise. “Who exactly did you promise that you wouldn’t talk about the caravan? Nothing you’ve told me strikes me as all that serious,” I asked.

“Think about what I’ve said, Evergreen. I just told you that Metro doesn’t have a lot of resources. They are running out. If a raider gang found that out, the chances of us getting attacked rise dramatically. I’m only telling you now because you had the crystal. I guess I should thank you for getting it back. We’ll need to contract another caravan now.” She stood up and turned to leave, and I rose with her.

“Suture, wait,” I called out. The maroon pony paused mid-step. “This doesn’t explain why you risked yourself simply to watch that caravan, or why you weren’t traveling with them.”

The medical pony sighed heavily, then sat back down. Her ears dropped down around her head and every line of her body spoke of some intense internal grief. “Bliss would never have let me join her. She told me before she left that it was too dangerous. We’d all heard the rumors of the gangs in the mountains. But I couldn’t just let her take that risk. That’s why I followed: to make sure she’d be all right.”

I came up beside her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “You loved her, didn’t you?” I asked.

Suture’s nod was almost imperceptible. “She made sure to stop at Metro every chance she got. We always made sure to have time for each other when she was here. Our relationship wasn’t perfect, but it was more than most ponies have nowadays.”

“I’m sorry, Suture. If I could change the past, I would make sure she was still alive. I think I have a better understanding of your anger at me now, as well. In a way, I’m responsible for her death, and I would understand if you never forgave me for that,” I told her, then pulled my hoof away.

“Thank you for your understanding, Evergreen, but you weren’t the one who pulled the trigger. You may have ordered those other raiders to be out there, but you didn’t tell them who to kill. That was their choice. I think Bliss would have been happy to meet you,” Suture whispered. Anything louder and I think her voice would have completely given out.

I hung my head again. I didn’t know how to react to a gesture like that one. I had offered her a focus for her anger, and she had turned it away. It was more than I deserved. There must be some way I could make it up to her.

“Tell you what,” I said, waiting for the medical pony to lift her head in acknowledgment, “Give me the Crystal. I’ll make sure it gets to Mt. Hoof. I promise, it will get there. Maybe that will make up for some of your loss, at least in part.”

Suture looked up at me, tears in her eyes, and smiled. “Thank you, Evergreen. I’ll consider it.” She stood up and we both started back towards the town.

The guard let us both pass without comment and we made our way back to the infirmary. Once there, I spotted Crosswire lying on one of the beds, fast asleep, with his bags under the bed.

“I think we were in the middle of making sure your injuries were taken care of,” Suture said a few minutes after we entered, “and I promise to be more careful this time.”

I nodded at her and removed my barding. This time, she was much gentler in treating my various burns, wounds, and strains. By the time she was finished, I felt as good as new. She left me with some bandages covering the worst of the burns so they could heal naturally, but the simple act of having my injuries professionally seen to left me feeling rejuvenated. Even my shoulder felt much better than it had the rest of the day. It would still be a while before I would have full mobility, but it would serve for now.

“There you are. This time, try to last more than a day before you need more medical attention. Since it’s so late, feel free to clean yourself up and spend the night here. Crosswire already took me up on that offer, so just take a bed and get some rest. You can figure out your next move in the morning,” Suture said, gesturing to a bed.

I muttered my appreciation and wandered out of the infirmary to the baths. It felt good to clean myself, and to be able to dry off with a rag that was actually clean. I must have spent twenty minutes just letting the warm water sluice over my body, washing away all the built up grime and dirt, both real and emotional, before drying off and returning to the infirmary to sleep. I expected to be lying awake for hours as my mind raced through all of the new information I had picked up. Instead, I fell asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

When I woke, I actually felt refreshed. I hadn’t slept that well in a long time, and I think it was due to the fact that I actually felt safe where I was sleeping. There was something to be said for a settlement with a devoted guard unit.

I slowly slid out of the bed and onto my hooves. I was expecting to be sore from spending so long in the tunnels yesterday, but I was feeling surprisingly spry. I quickly stretched, making sure every single muscle group was nice and limber. Given my luck over the last few days, I was expecting somepony to try to shoot me at some point.

“I see you’re finally deciding to get up,” Suture said, walking around a privacy curtain to face me, “Crosswire got up a while ago. He’s out in the markets.”

I nodded in acknowledgment and stepped out into the general room of the infirmary, where my barding sat waiting for me on a chair. It had been cleaned and it also looked like it had been reinforced. The leather was polished and there were a lot of small metal plates sewn into the chest and back. The entire thing had been painted a light forest green.

The sight of the armor left me standing dumbfounded. My jaw must have been on the floor judging by Suture’s laugh. “I took the liberty of getting your barding fixed up. I also got a friend to color it for you so it would suit you better. Go ahead and try it on. We were careful to keep the leather from deforming, but there’s no way to be sure without you putting it on.”

I carefully slipped the barding on and marveled at the comfort of the fit. It felt almost like a second skin. I twisted around, testing the flexibility and was surprised to find that it barely hindered me at all. “How strong are the plates?” I asked, wandering over to a metal gurney to try to get a sight of my reflection.

I didn’t even hear Suture’s response. I was to dumbstruck by my own appearance. My mane was actually clean and swept back over my neck, with one strand hanging out, as I usually wore it. My hide was just as clean. For the first time in three years, I was completely free of any kind of grime or dirt, and it made all the difference.

My face was positively glowing, and my eyes had a shine to them that I hadn’t seen there since getting kicked out of Grovedale. All of the thoughts and emotions from yesterday had really made a difference on me. I felt like I had a future to work towards. I definitely had a goal to accomplish now, if Suture would let me, that is. It seemed like I could actually see hope in my reflection.

Slowly, a smile crept over my features as I admired myself in the polished metal of the gurney. I had stepped out of the hooves of Evergreen the raider and into the role of Evergreen the traveler, maybe even the scavenger, and that was okay with me. Anything was better than having to watch every word that came out of my mouth for the chance that it would reveal too much to the ponies around me.

“Evergreen? Are you okay?” Suture asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

“Yeah,” I answered, only dimly aware of what I was answering, “I’m better than I’ve been in a long time. Thank you for this Suture, you didn’t have to go through the trouble.”

“Actually, I did. I talked to the mayor last night. He has a job offer for you. You should go and see him now, I think you’ll like to hear what he has to say,” Suture answered.

I tore my gaze away from my reflection and looked at the mare. “Sure. I’ll talk to him. And have you thought about my offer? About the Crystal?”

“Yeah, I’ve thought about it. I just don’t know, Evergreen. We’ve made our peace, but this affects more than just me. I have to be sure that you have the best interests of my home at heart,” Suture answered, though not unkindly.

I could understand her feelings. The last time she had met me, I had kept her alive merely out of curiosity, and she knew that. It would take a lot for her to trust me with something as important as this, though it did feel odd no longer having the familiar weight of the Crystal in my barding.

“That’s fine,” I said, allowing my grin to widen, “It’s a big decision. I’m just saying, I’m offering to do it for no charge. You won’t get a better deal anywhere else!”

With that, I trotted out of the room, leaving Suture with a confused look on her face, and made my way to the mayor’s office. My new outlook was making me act very differently, and she was picking up on that.

The town was much busier during the day. I had thought the market had been crowded yesterday, but now there must have been twice the number of ponies forcing their way past each other to go about their day. I hadn’t even known that this many ponies lived here!

Once I arrived at the office, I was ushered past all of the waiting ponies, much to their disappointment, to talk to the mayor. As he had been the day before, he was seated behind his rather small desk reading a stack of papers.

“Uh, mayor, you asked to see me?” I announced when it became apparent he wouldn’t notice me.

He looked up from his stack of papers and focused his gaze on me. “Ah, Miss Evergreen, I had hoped you would come by. I have a proposition for you, given your recent offer of aid to our city.”

Something about the way he was asking me struck me as odd. I had offered him information to save my hide. I had no clue what he was talking about when he said I had offered to help the whole town. “I’m sorry, mayor? I wasn’t aware I had offered to help the town.”

“Of course you did! Didn’t you offer Suture to transport that Crystal to Mt. Hoof for us? Doing that would be a great help to the town, though I agree with her that we need to confirm your new intentions. It wouldn’t do to just drop that crystal into a raider’s hooves!” he explained.

I shook my head at the buck. “I didn’t offer to help her for the town’s sake. I offered to make up for a mistake I had made that hurt her. The favor is for her, not the town. It hasn’t done anything for me except allow me to keep living.”

Rather than make the mayor’s grin disappear, as I had expected, my comment simply made his grin wider. “Well, of course. I didn’t expect anything different. That doesn’t change my offer. I’ve asked around and discovered what settlement was represented in that map of yours. It’s a town by the name of Millberry. I would very much appreciate it if you would go there and see about possibly having them form an alliance with us. This Seahawk character is taking an interest in all the major towns, so the more of us that are allied, the better it will be for us in the long run. I am offering a sum of two hundred caps to travel there and speak with them, which I will pay up front, followed by a three thousand cap bonus should they agree. If they do not, the bonus will be three hundred caps. Is this agreeable to you?”

The mention of that number nearly shut my brain down. Three thousand caps! That was a damn fortune. I could do almost anything with that kind of money! I didn’t even have to think twice. “I accept. Just tell me what I need to do.”

The mayor jumped up to his hooves, a full-fledged smile on his face. “Fantastic. All you need to do is go there and extend our offer of allegiance to whoever is in charge. Be sure to be clear that we don’t want to take over; we just want to offer mutual protection and aid. If they ask for anything as proof, tell them you’ll speak to me and return immediately. We need this.”

None of that sounded too difficult. “Done,” I announced, “I’ll leave immediately. Just let me find my friend and get my gear. We’ll be out of here in no time!”

The mayor explained where to go to get to the town, handed over a pouch that held the two hundred cap advance, then saw me out of his office himself, and only turned back once we were basically in the market.

I paused for a moment before going in search of Crosswire. Evergreen the Mercenary. I could do that.

I finally found Crosswire an hour later haggling with a weapons merchant over a supply of 10mm ammo, the kind his SMG used. Both were going at it quite loudly, trying to both shout over the general din of the market, as well as letting their own personal frustration show.

After watching them for almost five minutes, I decided to step in. “Tell you what,” I started, pushing passed a rather surprised Crosswire to stand in front of the merchant, who was a surprisingly small, blue earth pony mare, ‘I can guarantee that the two of us are going to be repeat customers, so knock the price down now, and you’ll be the first merchant we come to in the future, eh? Consider it a long-term investment.”

“Oh, and who the fuck are you?” the mare demanded, narrowing her eyes at me, “My deal is with him! Not you.”

“He’s my friend and colleague, so any deal with him is a deal with me, and vice versa. So, do you accept?” I asked.

“Evergreen, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Crosswire demanded, pushing his way past me.

Before he could interrupt me and say something that was no longer true, I cut in, “Trust me here, Crosswire. I know what I’m doing.”

The mare looked from me to Crosswire and back, weighing our words. “You’ll come to me first, and only go to somepony else if I can’t supply you?” she asked shrewdly.

It hadn’t been exactly what I had said, but there was no way I could get out of it now. “If you give us a discount now and in the future, yes.” I was going to make her give a little as well.

After a moment’s hesitation, the mare grinned. “Done! Hundred caps for the ammo, then. That’s a fair compromise. And I’ll be keeping my eyes out for the two of you next time you’re in town.”

Crosswire sighed and counted out the money, sliding it over to the mare once he was done. He grabbed the ammo and deposited it into his saddlebags before dragging me away from the vendor. “Mind explaining what the hell that was about?” he snapped.

“Simple,” I answered, grinning, “We just got a contract from the mayor to head out to that town on the map, Millberry, and talk to the ponies in charge about forming an alliance with Metro. If they agree, we walk away with three thousand caps. If they don’t we get five hundred. Either way, we win, and being mercenaries is far better in my books than being a scavenger.”

“So you managed to convince the mayor that we aren’t bloodthirsty psychopaths? And I hope you realize that that mare has some of the highest prices down here?” Crosswire retorted.

“So what if her prices are high? The quality looked to be better than most other places around here, so we’re getting our money’s worth. And to answer your question: basically, yes. Metro is a good place to use as a base of operations. There’s an infirmary that’s led by a pony we’re on good terms with as well as a market that can supply us with everything we could ever need. If we can keep taking jobs out of here, we could do well for ourselves. What do you say?”

Crosswire hesitated and looked around, taking in everything he could about the city. It was crowded, dank, and dark, but these ponies were surviving. That was more than could be said for most wasteland settlements. “Works for me. Couldn’t hurt at this point. When are we leaving?”

My grin stretched out to a full smile. “Immediately. I just needed to find you first. Come on! The caps aren’t waiting for us!” I started trotting away, expecting Crosswire to be following after me.

A loud clatter of hooves told me he had been too dumbstruck to function for a few moments. “You seem very… different today, Evergreen,” he pointed out, catching up to me, “You feeling all right?”

“Never been better. I took some time for myself yesterday that I really needed. Figured some things out that nopony could have helped me with. Oh, and Suture and I are on friendly terms now. That was part of why she wanted you to stay behind last night when she went looking for me,” I explained, “I’m going to be a much different pony from here on out, just to warn you. The way I was living before just isn’t going to cut it anymore. You all right with that?”

Crosswire remained quiet for most of the rest of our walk to the entrance of the city as he thought over what I had told him. I let him have his space. He had an idea in his head of what I was like, and that had just changed on a very fundamental level. It had to be his choice on whether or not to stay with me.

“You’re completely done with the raider lifestyle then, aren’t you?” he asked quietly. The comment made several ponies turn and look at us with a surprised expression, as well as a few fearful ones.

“Yes. Completely. Just Law was right. My parents raised me differently, and I let the wasteland control me for far too long. Doing something like this for Metro will help others in the end, and it gives us a place to live while working for the mayor,” I answered.

Crosswire fell silent once again. He was obviously having trouble with the idea. We were just approaching the stairs up to the surface when he spoke again. “I’ve been a raider for so long it’s hard to think of myself as anything else. Maybe this life will be better. Guess I won’t know unless I try. All right, Evergreen, I’m with you, come good or ill.”

I stopped and impulsively wrapped my front legs around Crosswire’s neck. “Thank you! It means a lot to me! I was not looking forward to facing the wasteland on my own, if that’s what you decided.”

The buck stiffened under my embrace. “Uh… Sure,” he muttered, “Evergreen, could you get off me?”

I let him go and took a step back. “Sorry, I just… feel so much happier than I have in a long time.”

“It’s fine,” he answered quietly, “I’m just not used to… touching.”

“And you wouldn’t have needed to worry about traveling alone anyway,” Suture announced from ahead of us.

I turned my head in surprise to see the maroon pony standing ahead of us wearing a basic set of barding with a pair of medical boxes hanging from the sides.

“Suture! What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded, stepping over to her. Despite the combat-grade barding, she was completely unarmed.

“I’m going with you. Somepony trustworthy needs to make sure you’re doing what we hired you for!” she answered joyfully.

“What about your infirmary? And where’s your weapon? How are you intending to protect yourself?” I asked, each question flowing out before she had a chance to answer any of them.

“To the first question: my assistant will do just fine without me. To the second: I don’t carry a weapon. My mission in life is to help ponies, not hurt them. I trust you and Crosswire will see I survive as well as you can,” she answered, her smile never leaving her face.

This pony was being stupid, but I couldn’t turn away her skills. We needed them too much. Instead, I came up with an idea. I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out the 9mm pistol that was loaded with hollow point rounds. I tossed the weapon to her and watched in disappointment as she let it clatter to the ground in front of her.

“Pick it up. Your vision isn’t realistic out there. Here, it works, but not out there. Ponies will be trying to kill you, regardless of how you feel about it. Take the weapon. You won’t like it now, but you’ll thank me when some crazed bandit is trying to rip your heart out through your chest,” I insisted.

Suture gave me a flat, angry stare, but did as I asked. She even went so far as to slide it into the built-in holster of her barding. “I’m not happy with this, Evergreen,” she ground out through clenched teeth, “but you might have a point. Just so you know, I refuse to use it unless I have absolutely no other choice.”

“Fine by me,” I answered as I pulled out all the extra 9mm ammo I had and handed it to her, “Take the ammo to. Keep in mind, it’s loaded with hollow point rounds right now.”

She gave me a completely blank look. It simply couldn’t be possible that this pony knew nothing about guns! She lived in the Celestia-damned wasteland!

When her look didn’t disappear, I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily. “It means that the bullets will work really well on ghouls or other ponies, but will be completely worthless against anything with armor. If we’re facing something that has armor, switch to normal rounds, ok?”

She continued giving me a blank look for a few moments as her brain processed the information, then her eyes finally lit up with understanding, if not enthusiasm. “Fine. Can we go now? It’s a long way from here to Millberry.”

I nodded and started up the staircase. “Absolutely! Let’s get out there and get moving! The wasteland doesn’t wait for anypony!”

We emerged into the wasteland where, to my surprise, it wasn’t raining. We pushed our way through the shanty town, ignoring the vendors who were trying to get our attention, until we stood before the empty wasteland.

“This is it, isn’t it?” Suture asked nervously, eyes darting about the empty and scarred landscape, searching desperately for some form of life that didn’t exist.

“Eeyup,” I answered, “But you should already know the feeling. This isn’t the first time you’ve left the city, after all.”

“But last time I was following after my marefriend. I wasn’t thinking about the dangers of the wasteland or the complete lack of life out here. Now I am,” the medical pony answered, one hoof pawing at the ground.

“Look at it this way,” Crosswire spoke up, “You’re not entering some great unknown. You’re traveling with other ponies who have promised to protect you, and who are relying on you to keep them on their feet. This isn’t some mission that will decide the life or death of a city. It’s an adventure, a journey. Things become a lot easier to wrap your head around if you take away their importance.”

Both Suture and I were watching the grey buck with our jaws hanging wide open. I had never pictured him to be very philosophical, though I guess it made sense when you factored in the little hints of his real personality that he had been dropping over the last few days.

“Wow… I… I’ve never thought of it that way before…” Suture trailed off, “That really helps. Thank you, Crosswire.”

“Where’d that come from?” I asked, stumbling over my words as I tried to re-organize the thoughts that had been thrown into disarray by Crosswire’s totally unexpected insight.

Crosswire simply shrugged. “Something I learned a few years back, before we met. It helped me get through a few rough spots.”

“Well, I like it. But we’re wasting time! I want to get moving!” I announced, running in place to show my impatience.

Suture laughed at my antics and shook her head slowly. “Come on, Crosswire. We should get moving, or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

Crosswire laughed as well and the three of us set off into the wasteland, heading southwest, towards Millberry.

Our journey was slow and monotonous. As ever before, the wasteland was empty. We passed burnt out shells of civilization, desiccated husks of towns that had once been beautiful and factories that had once supplied entire cities. Everywhere around us was evidence that life had once prospered here, but now nothing was left but dust and echoes.

The constant cloud cover left even the happiest days with a sense of foreboding and depression, as the constant grey sky seemed to suck all color from the land. My eyes may tell me that that billboard was painted in garishly bright colors or that that home was painted bright yellow, but my mind drained them of those colors, making every surface appear the same dull grey.

The towns and homes we passed filled my heart with sadness. They seemed to be telling me that no matter how hard I tried to preserve my life, or the lives of my friends, we were all doomed to death in the end.

The constant sameness of our surroundings led my mind to wander, and I started to think of how many ponies I had killed, or ordered killed, who had had some other special somepony out there. I couldn’t help but to wonder how many lives I had ruined, how much hope I had destroyed, or how many families I had torn apart. How many ponies now lived in the wasteland who could tell a life story that was almost identical to mine? How many fillies had watched their parents die in front of them at the hooves of raiders? I knew I wasn’t the first, and I wouldn’t be the last. But I was probably one of the few who had embraced that violence after seeing it take everything from me.

I turned my gaze to watch Suture as we walked. She wore her grief well, but I could still see her sadness at the loss of Bliss. No matter what she said, I knew that I was responsible for her death. Suture was just willing to see things from the most literal stand point: that Crackshot had been the one to pull the trigger.

I was grateful to her for that, but it didn’t change my feelings on the matter, not when all I could think of was the dozens of ponies who had died at my hooves. How many Bliss’s were there in that number? Even worse, how many Sutures were there? I had seen ponies wander into the wasteland in search of a lost loved one, if only because they didn’t know what else to do. Most left with little or no preparation, knowing only that they wanted to find their loved one and return home. Most never made it more than a few hours from their homes before being found by ponies like me.

I closed my eyes for a moment and chased the thoughts away. Thinking like that now wouldn’t help anything. I had made my choice: I was going to redeem myself. Dwelling on my mistakes and letting guilt dominate me were not going to help me do that. I re-opened my eyes and set my mind to watching our surroundings. We were now in a part of the wasteland where there was a lot of gang activity. We would need to be watchful.

We were traveling slowly, choosing caution over speed. Even though two of us were well-versed in fighting, most gangs in the wasteland would attack with at least three or four ponies, leaving us outnumbered in even the best-case scenario. We weren’t going to be caught by surprise.

But our caution was not enough to stave off all danger.

We were passing between two old office buildings when the first shot thundered through the wasteland, only barely being deflected by my upgraded barding. The impact sent me tumbling from my hooves to lie in a dazed heap, my hide throbbing where the bullet had struck.

“Bandits!” Crosswire exclaimed as he floated out his SMG and sent a quick burst in the direction that the bullet had come from. A second shot rang out, striking Crosswire in the chest. Unlike mine, his barding was not reinforced. The bullet easily tore through the simple vest and bit into his body.

I watched in shock as he collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from the wound in his chest. He struggled weakly, trying to regain his hooves. His horn sparked feebly as he reached out for his gun, reacting completely on instinct to protect himself.

“Fuck! Suture, get to him! He can still be saved if we act quickly! I’ll cover you!” I shouted, waving a hoof in the injured tech’s direction. I wasn’t going to let him die. Not now that we were finally beginning to become true friends.

After a short hesitation to gather my nerves, I launched myself into the open, diving for Crosswire’s discarded SMG. I scooped it up in my jaws and twisted around to face the direction of the sniper and pulled the trigger.

The force of the gun shook my teeth and kicked back into my mouth so hard that I started to taste blood. It only took a couple of seconds to completely empty the gun, and the aftermath of the barrage left my ears ringing and my jaw aching. Hammer hit hard, but it was always just a short, quick punch, not a prolonged barrage like that had been.

I turned to look at Crosswire and saw Suture crouched over him, holding a healing potion to his lips and trying to coax him to drink. The medical pony must have felt me looking, because she glanced up with a terrified look on her face and tears beginning to form in her eyes.

“He won’t drink!” she cried out, her voice thick with tears, “I don’t know why!”

I felt a prickle on the back of my neck as I was about to answer and dove to the side. A bullet slammed into the ground where I had been standing a mere moment ago. Had I not jumped, then I would have a brand new hole through my head. I dove away once again, this time jumping towards where Crosswire lay, bleeding out onto the ground.

I shoved Suture aside and took the healing potion, which I promptly emptied into Crosswire’s throat. I held his head up so he would have no choice but to swallow. Slowly, his breathing strengthened and I felt the flow of blood against my legs lessen as his wound closed.

“Another potion, now!” I demanded spitting the SMG out on the ground and holding a hoof out towards Suture.

“What about the sniper?” the medical pony asked, trembling violently as she reached into one of her medical cases for another potion.

“Fucker will either kill us and be done with it, or realize that we’re not worth the trouble and hold their fire. Nothing I can do about it here. It’s not like I can use a rifle like that very effectively,” I ground out as I repeated the same process with the second potion.

Crosswire started to sputter, choking on the potion as I forced it down his throat. The wound finally sealed, but the grey buck was unconscious, probably from blood loss. His breathing was shallow, but stronger than it had been a moment before.

“Come on, help me with him! We need to get to cover! That building should offer us some protection!” I snapped, trying to get Suture moving. I started to maneuver the heavy buck onto my back, but would have failed had Suture not finally decided to move and heave him up.

I grabbed the SMG again before we galloped away as quickly as we could, praying that the sniper didn’t have a clear shot. I stuck to cover when I could, but the street we were in was quite empty, and I had no clue exactly where the sniper was. There were a few close calls as a round struck close enough to us to shower us with stinging debris, but, by some miracle, we made it safely to the doors of one of the office buildings.

Suture trotted ahead to the door, but turned to me with a fearful look a moment later. “It’s locked!” She announced, voice trembling almost as violently as she was.

I growled deep in my throat and spat the SMG out on the ground. I twisted and dug into my saddlebags, pulling out a grenade. “Use this,” I said, tossing her the explosive “It should get the door open. Set it on the handle, pull the stem, and take cover.”

While Suture did that, I took cover behind a broken down carriage twenty feet away. Crosswire’s breathing was getting worse. A couple of healing potions weren’t going to be enough. He needed serious help, but he wasn’t going to get it while a sniper was shooting at us.

A loud clatter of hooves told me that Suture had set the grenade and was running for her life. The lack of a scream when the explosive went off told me she had made it. I walked out from behind the carriage back to the door, where the handles were now nothing more than mangled metal. I pushed a hoof against the doors and they creaked open, much to my delight. The grenade had been an act of desperation.

I squeezed through the small opening, being careful not to damage Crosswire any further, and moved back to a table where I could lay him down. Suture came through the door a moment later and pushed it shut behind her.

“Are we safe now?” she asked, every line of her body revealing how terrified she was. If I had to guess, I would have said that she was even more scared than she had been in my camp.

“Safer than we were. See to Crosswire. His breathing is getting weaker,” I ordered as I walked up to the door. I doubted that the sniper would give up that easily.

“Ok. I can do this,” Suture muttered as she walked by me.

“Just stay focused on the job. Do that, and we’ll be fine. Leave that sniper to me.”

We sat in silence for what seemed like hours. Suture was hunched over Crosswire, working with an almost single-minded determination. I was thinking about who could be trying to shoot us. The only option that seemed to fit was Greymane. His reputation seemed to make him out to be some sort of super-mercenary, so I wouldn’t doubt that he was skilled enough to use a heavy sniper rifle.

The wait was starting to get to me, and as I started to lose my focus, I considered abandoning my post when a sound carried through the door.

“This is the only place they could have gone,” the voice muttered. It sounded like it was coming from a young mare, but showed no sign of fear of nerves. “Now I can finally do what’s right. I’ve spent my life preparing for this.”

I backed off slowly, pulling Hammer out of its holster and holding it up to the door. This didn’t fit at all! The mayor had said that Greymane was a buck, not a mare. Why would a random mare be attacking us? I didn’t have time to ponder the question as the loud sound of a heavy rifle being reloaded echoed through the office. Then, there was a long period of silence.

“Knock knock,” the voice announced, then there was the sound of something massive slamming against the door.

Level up!
Perk gained – Sixth Sense – You can tell when somepony is carefully aiming at you, giving you a small chance to dodge.
Skill Note: Guns (50)

Speech (50)

{This chapter took a bit of work. Getting Evergreen’s change of heart to be realistic wasn’t easy, and school work kept getting in the way of writing time. As always, thanks to Kkat for creating FoE in the first place, and thanks to Cody and Green Leaf for editing. Please feel free to leave comments for anything from criticism (please keep it constructive) to ideas!}