Fallout Equestria: Redemption
Author: Cooperdawg
Chapter Seven: Dust and Echoes
“What is heard and what is true are rarely the same.”

The day passed only slowly, every interminable minute weighing heavily on my mind and threatening to crush me under their collective weight. I quickly became too distracted to focus on the small talk between Autumn Mist and Crosswire, who seemed to finally be getting along, even if they still didn’t see eye to eye. Maybe it would help Crosswire get over his trust problems. But, as much as I would have liked to join in their conversation, the terrible guilt of what I had allowed to happen was tearing me down on the inside, and it was quickly becoming more than I could handle.

Suture had been in critical condition, and even with the doctor’s aid, it would be several days before she was at full strength, even if she was able to travel before then. And it was all my fault, regardless of what her last words had been before she lost consciousness. If anything, that statement made my guilt worse, because she tried to absolve me of it before slipping to a place I couldn’t follow. Now, when I should have been rejoicing that she would be all right, I was lying here in a corner of a small, musty infirmary, worrying about what I might screw up next.

It hadn’t been a screw-up of the sort that Autumn would shoot me over; I was being very careful not to step over that line. But that didn’t mean that my mistake was any less terrible. I had chosen the quick and easy option over being careful, deciding that a few free weapons and some ammo was worth risking our lives over. One of us was now paying that price, and I was no longer sure that it was Suture. After all, she had seemed remarkably at peace as I had fumbled over her, doing what little I could to help.

The true crime here was that I had known exactly what the risk was going in. I had even been warned to be on the lookout for it by several ponies. I had known that I had crossed Greymane, and I knew that he would most likely be looking for me around that damn factory, where I had first found the message left for him. And simply because I wanted some free ammo, I risked crossing his path. Completely unacceptable, giving how slim the gain was.

And there was the only good to come of this entire endeavor. I finally had a face to put with the name that had been hanging over my shoulder for the past week. The buck had not been at all what I expected to face. I had expected a hardened warrior, someone who wore the scars of the wasteland, and thus was hardened as well. The buck had been harsh and cold, sure, but there had also been a degree of thoughtfulness and cunning that I hadn’t expected to see. I had badly underestimated him, thinking that he could be just as easily defeated as a Wasteland raider, and treating him like that as well, rather than as the extremely dangerous buck that he was.

The only reason any of us were still alive at all was because we had had the advantage of numbers and position, two things I was sure he wouldn’t allow us next time we crossed paths. I knew that, because I had seen a glimmer in his eyes, even if for only a split second, that told me he had underestimated me as well. And that was my only solace. Knowing that I had instilled some degree of fear in somepony with his reputation was something I could take pride in, especially since he struck me as a pony that preyed on others, and not always because he stood to gain from it.

What bothered me most about him, though, was how devoted he seemed to Seahawk. By all accounts, he was a mercenary; ruthless and entirely devoid of any sort of compassion, but still just a mercenary. That begged the question of why he was so devoted to this enigmatic pony who was trying to gain power over the entirety of the Seaddle region, if not Equestria itself.

When I had first heard of him working for Seahawk, I had pictured a hardened mercenary doing what was necessary for his next paycheck, loyal only because Seahawk was the highest bidder. But after meeting him, it seemed that Greymane was devoted on an ideological level, rather than just a financial one, and that terrified me. If somepony with his strength and raw power decided to fight for a cause, that cause would quickly gain in strength and influence as ponies flocked to it in order to avoid the inevitable crack-down. And I had put myself firmly underneath the hammer.

But at least I wasn’t alone, and I don’t mean on the individual level. Crosswire would stick by me to the end, unless I did something so terrible that he would no longer want anything to do with me; it was simply the kind of pony he was. Autumn Mist had made it clear that she was going to be the one to finally put a bullet in my head, so I could count on her being around for a while, and even then, I was beginning to rely on her. Her moral compass may be a confusing maze of deathtraps and sinkholes, but she had a degree of inner strength and adherence that I hadn’t ever seen in anypony else. Suture, to round off the deal, would do almost anything if it constituted helping ponies survive, no matter what their background, and since that was my overall objective as well now, I knew I’d be able to count on her support.

But even beyond my friends were the towns I had managed to ally. Metro was behind me already, they had made that clear when the mayor asked me to travel to Millberry to make the offer of allegiance. And Millberry had shown their support of my actions when their governor agreed to the allegiance, even if it was with a condition. With two towns agreeing to work together, the wasteland was already better off than it had been had I not done anything, so it was worth something. I just needed to hope that it would be enough to stand against whatever force Seahawk could gather.

And then there were the other various groups I had helped, like the ghouls from Stable 60 and Hat Trick. Even if Hat Trick would no longer be able to work the same way he had before, I could still count on the help of both groups, and that was something I hadn’t had in a long time.

“Really, Crosswire, you’re still bent out of shape about that?!” Autumn Mist yelled, breaking into my thoughts and drawing my attention to my two friends.

Autumn was now up on her hooves, standing over the grey buck, who was still lying on the floor, a dark look on his face. It was instantly obvious that she was angry, as she stood with her hooves spread and had her head lowered, as though preparing to charge.

“Are you telling me you wouldn’t be?” the tech shot back angrily, “You shot and nearly killed me, Autumn. Of course I’m still mad about it! I have no guarantee that you’re not going to do it again, especially considering your threat to Evergreen! That is still standing, right? You’ll shoot her if she does the least thing raider-like?” His tone became mocking, as though he was expecting to hear a negative from the mare.

I was surprised when Autumn actually faltered in answering the question.

“Yes! I mean… No! Ugh… I don’t know,” she stammered, before finally lowering her head in defeat. Crosswire was dead silent, a look of surprise on his face that was probably a mirror image of the one on mine.

When no response was immediate, the dark mare lifted her head and looked from him to me and back. She sighed heavily, then began talking, “If she were to go back to being a raider, I would shoot her in a heartbeat. At that point, she would deserve it, exactly like those fuckers at the farmhouse yesterday. But knowing her for who she is now… I don’t think I could do it if she did something out of necessity. The wasteland is a bad place, and very little is black and white, but it seems like she is actually trying to help other ponies now. I would be no better than a raider myself if I shot her over a small fuck-up. That being said, I still can’t forgive her for what she did, and I never will, but I can respect who she is. In the end, I think that’s all that’s necessary.”

By the time she was finished speaking, she was looking at me with a guilty expression, as though she were asking for my forgiveness.

Slowly, I pushed myself to my hooves and approached her. I lifted a hoof and placed it on her shoulder. She recoiled briefly at my touch, but managed to hold her ground and look me in the eye.

“I know I said something to this effect when we first met, Autumn, but I think it will mean a little more if I repeat it now. I know it will never bring them back, and nothing will ever fill the hole that their departure left, but I am sorry for the loss of your family. I don’t expect forgiveness, and I don’t expect absolution, but I want you to know that I wish things could have turned out differently,” I said, putting every ounce of sincerity that I had into the words.

Autumn remained silent, simply looking into my eyes, searching for something. I could see her emotions flickering through her magenta eyes: first guilt, then anger, hatred, sadness, shame, then, finally, something I hadn’t even held out hope to see: acceptance. She smiled lightly, just a slight upward curl of her lips. “I can’t accept the apology, Evergreen. To do that would be forgiveness, and I can’t bring myself to that. What I can do is accept your regret,” she said, her eyes sad despite the smile.

I lowered my hoof and managed a slight smile in return. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, or what I had hoped for, but it was a significant step in the right direction. I would just have to give her time for the rest. “Can I consider you a friend, then? At least for now?”

The smile faded from her face, bringing with it a dark cloud over my heart, but returned a moment later, with a little more emotion behind it. “Sure, for now. You’re doing good work, Evergreen. There aren’t many ponies that can claim the same. And for the record: thanks for convincing me not to pull the trigger.”

She turned around and faced Crosswire again, who was now staring at the two of us with his jaw hanging almost to the floor, his face a perfect study in shock. “Close your mouth, Crosswire. You’ll let the bloatsprites in,” Autumn stated as she sat back down.

“Please tell me that I either lost my sanity or that this is a dream, because it looks like you two just agreed to become friends,” he finally stammered after a full minute of stumbling over words.

“’Fraid not. You guys wonder why I’ve been so quiet when we aren’t fighting. This is why. I’ve been thinking this shit over almost every waking minute. Hell, if I’m being honest, you lot are the closest thing I’ve had to family since mine was killed. It’s nice to feel accepted again,” the dark mare answered, grabbing the remains of her snack cake and finishing it in a single bite.

Crosswire hung his head and shook it slowly. “The entire fucking wasteland has gone insane,” he muttered, “Next thing you know, we’ll be fighting alongside the fucking Enclave. Wait, that’s happened too!”

Both Autumn and I couldn’t help but to laugh at that, despite my melancholy. “So how about it, Crosswire? Can you finally get over the night we met her? We’ve managed to make up, at least in part. The least you could do is give her a chance as well,” I suggested, sitting down next to them and grabbing a box of Sugar Bombs from my saddlebag.

The tech sighed heavily and shifted his gaze so that he was staring at me with a disapproving glare. “We’ve talked about this already, Evergreen,” he stated flatly, “The way I was raised, forgiving her isn’t even a possibility. I may not have liked what my first home was, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t shape me.”

“Where exactly were you raised, Crosswire?” I demanded sharply, frowning at the buck, “Because so far all I’ve heard from you is that it shaped you so much that you can’t do a fucking thing for a mare that has repeatedly saved your life, yet you were able to join a Goddess-damned raider gang!”

His disapproving glare shifted to one of anger. “I told you I would talk about it when it became relevant,” he snapped, “And right now, it isn’t. I don’t like thinking of that place, Evergreen, and for good reason. It’s a safe settlement, good for ponies comfortable with following orders, but it smothered me. Anypony who tried to think for themselves, or act for themselves, was shunned. Why do you think I ended up out here?”

“I don’t know!” I snapped back, “That’s why I’m asking! How should I know how badly you were mistreated there if you never talk about it? Fuck, Crosswire, it’s been years since you’ve lived there, and yet you still live by the morals they raised you with?”

“Not the same morals,” he answered adamantly, “If I had done that, I would never have joined the gang. It’s a thought process; a subconscious ordering of the world. That’s why I still live by it, because I don’t know how to live any other way.”

“I understand exactly why you think that way,” a familiar voice spoke up from behind us, “I was the same way for the longest time, until I managed to work up the guts to go out into the world. Then I learned that things are rarely as they appear.”

I was instantly on my feet and running for the door the voice came from, where Suture was standing, her chest heavily wrapped under several layers of bandages, which were the only things that kept me from crushing her to the ground with my hug.

“Suture, you’re awake!” I exclaimed, tears of relief and joy streaming unabashedly from my eyes.

“Yes, much to the dismay of the doctor. It took me nearly twenty minutes just to convince him to let me up,” the maroon mare answered, lifting a hoof to wrap around my neck in return, “It doesn’t help that he really didn’t want to listen when I told him I know a thing or two about medicine.”

“So how much did you hear?” Crosswire asked bluntly from his seat.

“Enough to know that you’re being unnecessarily stubborn,” Suture answered just as bluntly as she released me and started striding towards the tech, “If Autumn Mist could bring herself to recognize Evergreen’s regret at her involvement in her family’s deaths, then surely you should be able to do recognize her motivation behind her choices, and forgive her for acting out of ignorance.”

Crosswire got to his feet, annoyance twisting his features. “None of you understand,” he growled, “It isn’t that simple!”

“And why not?” Suture pressed, walking until her nose was mere inches from his, giving him no ground to back away.

“Because it isn’t!” he snapped, trying to turn away, but Suture turned with him, keeping him focused at the center of her stare.

“Look at her!” Suture demanded, lifting a hoof and pointing at the dark mare, who was still sitting across from the buck, a dazed look on her face, “She obviously regrets what happened. At the time, it was the right decision from where she stood, but she now knows differently and has tried to apologize. Why can’t you lose some of that stubborn pride of yours and accept her apology?”

“Because she almost killed me!” he yelled in return, “If it weren’t for you and Evergreen, I would be dead right now!”

“And she helped us save you,” Suture snapped, “Did you really think that Evergreen wandered into a gang’s headquarters entirely on her own? How stupid do you think she is?”

Crosswire slowly turned his gaze to look at Autumn, whose face was locked into an expression that would make a pony think she’d just been slapped. He held is gaze there for a few moments, then turned to me. I gave him the most disapproving glare I could manage.

Finally, after a minute of tense silence, he dropped his head and sighed, all signs of fight draining away from his body. “None of you are going to give up, are you?” he asked tiredly, “You’re just going to keep pressing until one of us gives out?”

“Pretty much,” I answered resolutely, “I’m going to be honest here, Crosswire. You were my first friend, and you are the pony I rely on the most. I know I don’t show it much, but it’s true. But that doesn’t mean I won’t speak up when you’re just being plain stubborn. Autumn’s a part of this group now, and we aren’t helping each other if we are refusing to trust each other. When we’re out there fighting, we need to know that we can rely on each other for anything if we’re going to come out in once piece.”

“All right, fine! You made your point, all of you,” the buck finally admitted, turning to look at the sniper, “Autumn, I understand that that shot was fired with the belief that we were a group of raiders. From here on out, you can count on me during a fight. Everypony happy now?”

It wasn’t entirely an apology for his treatment of her, but I felt like it was more than we were going to get out of him. All the same, Suture and I were grinning widely at the admission, but the biggest reaction was from Autumn Mist, who positively jumped on the buck in her relief. “Thank you, Crosswire!” she shouted in joy, bearing the larger buck to the ground. It was easy to forget just how young the mare still was, and it was moments like this that showed her youth.

“Why must there always be touching!” the buck exclaimed from under the dark mare, struggling to break free from her crushing hug, “And this doesn’t mean that I completely approve of you joining us either!”

“Give her time, she’ll grow on you,” Suture answered with a grin, “Now, I’m not so dumb as to think that I’m strong enough to be walking about. Where would be the best place for me to rest?”

“Pick a bed,” I answered, chuckling at Crosswire’s antics while waving a hoof across the room, “We’ve got plenty.”

Suture nodded and picked her way gingerly across the room to one of the beds, where she carefully lay down to watch as Crosswire finally managed to free himself from Autumn Mist.

“So it seems like things are finally coming together for us, aren’t they?” Suture asked me, “Autumn and Crosswire are making progress, and it sounds like you and her are getting along as well.”

“More or less,” I admitted with a shrug, “but I’m not happy. It’s my fault that we ended up here in the first place. No, don’t say anything. I chose to go to the factory, despite knowing that Greymane was looking for us, and that was the first logical place he would look. Hell, it hasn’t even been a week since I grabbed that damn message.”

“Evergreen, we all agreed with your choice. Just because you made it doesn’t mean we were forced to join you. We chose to follow you,” the medic answered softly, “So stop fretting about it and simply accept that what happened, happened. We can’t change it. At least everything turned out all right in the end.”

“But you were almost killed, Suture! All because I was too cheap to want to pay for my own weapons or ammo!” I protested, “We could have simply traveled to Metro, paid for the guns, picked up my next job, then detoured to Buckview from there. Instead, I chose to take a risk and cut through hostile territory!”

“Yes, I was almost killed,” Suture answered, her voice taking on a hard edge, though I couldn’t tell if it was out of fear of what had happened to her, or out of her insistence that I stop beating myself up, “But I also happen to agree that the risk was worth it. Why would we pay for weapons or ammo we could get for free, especially since you and Crosswire had already cleared the place out? It was only logical. You couldn’t have known that Greymane would be there.”

“I should have been more prepared, though.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” she answered, “Now, you won’t make that mistake again, but that doesn’t mean that you should just squander what resources you have. Trust me, Evergreen, you made the right choice.”

I sighed heavily and trudged over to where I had been eating and slowly lay down. “If you say so,” I muttered.

“I do. Now, what was this about us fighting alongside Enclave? I heard Crosswire mention something about that earlier?” the medic asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Our glorious leader here has allied us with an Enclave soldier who claims to be a Dashite,” Crosswire explained, “He’s got gold-striped Enclave power armor, with the guns that go along with it, and even introduced himself as a sergeant.”

“He explained that it was out of habit. He probably just came down to the surface recently,” I argued.

“I agree with Evergreen,” Suture put in, “From what I heard while living in Metro, the Enclave are extremely strict when it comes to their rules. Any sort of defacing of their armor would be punished severely. If he were Enclave, his armor would still be solid black. What was his name, and why did you ally with him?”

“His name’s Steel Curtain,” I answered, “And he was going to be headed out towards Stable 60 to look for other Dashites out there, probably the ones we ended up killing in the cavern. Once we told him they were dead, we found out his next lead was out east, towards Buckview. I figured it would be easier for us to work together than to run into each other and just get in each other’s way while we were out there.”

“Makes sense to me,” Suture said, grinning, “We could use the extra guns, especially considering what we’ve been running into out here. Somepony with his experience could be a lot of help, especially if he decides to stick around.”

“You think he would?” Crosswire asked, his voice pitched to communicate the most amount of sarcasm possible.

“I did,” Autumn piped in, “And besides, if he’s as idealistic as he sounds, he should practically be begging to join up, once he figures out exactly what we’re up to.”

“He didn’t strike me as that idealistic,” Crosswire argued, “He just seemed like a buck searching for ponies with the same experience as him.”

“Are you kidding me?” Autumn snorted, laughing, “The way he was swearing about those two by the Stable ending up dead, he’s hiding something that he’s pissed about. Trust me, I know idealism. That buck is one of the worst of the lot. He’ll want to help, especially if it means securing the future of this place.”

“Well, it sounds like he will fit in perfectly with our merry little group,” Suture said, chuckling, “I can’t wait to meet him.”

“Well, you’ll get your chance tomorrow. We were planning on heading out then, if you’re feeling up to it, of course,” I said, turning to the maroon mare.

She sat quietly, her face expression thoughtful. “We’ll see,” she finally answered, “I’m not feeling very strong right now, but tomorrow, maybe.”

“We’ll play it by ear then. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to start moving. If not, well, another day of rest really couldn’t hurt, could it?” I pointed out.

“Exactly. I suggest we all get as much rest as we can, to make up for the last few days. The few nights we’ve had a roof over our heads have been surrounded by numerous near-death experiences. We could use a good night’s rest for a change,” Suture said, “So, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to get some sleep.” She promptly rolled over, and was soon snoring quietly to herself.

“She’s got the right idea. It’s been a stressful few days, and this has been one of the few days of rest we’ve had in the last week. I’m looking forward to what tomorrow is going to feel like,” Crosswire stated as he stood and climbed up on his own bed.

The rest of us nodded our agreement and returned to our own beds. Hopefully my sleep tonight would be as peaceful as it had been last night.

“So here we are once again, Evergreen. After five long years of nothing, we finally get this chance to speak again.” The dark voice belonged to a pony I had hoped never to see again. It had been a nightmare from my dreams during the days and weeks after my parents’ deaths, and had returned to haunt me at various points in the years before I had been exiled from Grovedale. It seemed that returning here had brought it back to my mind as well.

Slowly, I lifted my head from my pillow and turned to face the source of the voice. As always, it came from the darkest corner, where the shadows hid it from plain sight. It was nothing more than a silhouette, a slightly darker shadow on an already black background, but that did not stop me from easily picking out the details. It was what it wanted, after all.

The pony was thin to the point of emaciation, each one of its bony ribs sticking out of its black hide that was so lackluster it seemed to be nothing more than a dark shade of grey. Its shaggy, jet-black mane hung down around its face, shielding most of it from view, but the red coals of its eyes stood out in stark contrast, burning a hole straight into my soul and dragging every single one of my secrets out into the open to be judged. On its flank, resting almost as a symbol of torment to me, was a picture of two skulls seated next to each other, as though the two ponies they belonged to were locked in some embrace. I didn’t need to ask to know that the skulls belonged to my parents.

“Why have you come back?” I asked, just barely keeping my voice from shaking. Seeing this pony again made my heart quake in my chest, but there was little to nothing I could do except let this nightmare follow its own course. Trying to run had never worked in the past.

“Oh, my sweet Evergreen, I never left,” the dark pony cooed, its voice sickly sweet. I could almost see the corners of its mouth turning up in that mocking smile it had. “I have been living inside your mind all these years, gently nudging you down the path I wish you to travel.”

“If that is true, then why is this the first time I’ve seen you in five years? And why would you say there was nothing if you’ve been here all that time?” I demanded, re-settling myself so I could be ready to move at a moment’s notice.

“Simply because I am here does not mean that I do not desire conversation, my dear, dear Evergreen,” the pony chided me, shifting about in its corner, the shadows shifting about its body like water flowing over a log in a river, “Though I have been with you all this time, I did not have the power to speak with you.”

“Then what’s the difference now?” I snapped, “You spoke with me then because I was lost and afraid. I was a filly trapped in a world I didn’t understand, having just lost my parents to a force I couldn’t comprehend! That is what gave you power! Now, I am collected and confident! I know my place in the world and I have friends that will stand by my side no matter what!”

A low, menacing laugh spread through the room, chilling me to the bone and leaving me feeling weak and exposed, like the battered and broken filly I had been so long ago. “Oh, are you really so sure of that, my sweet?” the pony asked, then suddenly vanished from my sight.

I felt a terror unlike any I had ever felt before grip my heart in a vise. As it started to hammer in response, I felt like the grip tighten, making me feel as though my heart would explode. My breath caught in my throat, and I started to hyperventilate as panic gripped me. Just when I was sure I was going to black out, the pressure disappeared and I collapsed onto the sheets of my bed, panting as I fought to gather my breath.

“You forget that I see into the depths of your very soul, Evergreen,” the pony said, its voice coming from just over my shoulder. Despite my desire to, I could not bring myself to turn my head to look it in the eye. “You say you are collected, and you claim to have found your confidence, but I see the truth. I see your fear, the terror that grips you when you think of what might happen to these precious friends of yours, what might happen if their lives were to be ripped from their bodies and cast into the mud, or of what could happen if they chose to leave you, forsaking you for what you are on the inside.

I also see your shame, and your guilt. It was your fault she was nearly killed, yours alone, and yet you try to take her excuses and use them for yourself, pushing the blame away and settling it on the shoulders of chance. You forget that I know you as well as you know yourself, and taking excuses has never been your way. Shoulder the blame you deserve. Your place in this life is not nearly as secure as you seem to believe. The smallest slip and your life shall be gone, snuffed out in an instant, ended by your so-called friends.”

“That will only be if I truly slip back to that abyss of a life that I was leading! She made that perfectly clear!” I snapped, shutting out its arguments, refusing to believe that they could be truth.

The voice disappeared from my shoulder and the pony reformed in the shadows in the corner. “Use your mind, Evergreen. I know that is one of the few things you are still capable of. She does not forgive you, will not forgive you, and she never can forgive you. How far of a step is it from there to simply ending your existence. One life in payment for countless innocent souls lost to your all-consuming rage. It only seems fair.”

“To you maybe,” I growled, “but you thrive on chaos and destruction. You find your nourishment in blood and war. We are allies now… Friends even! You won’t take that from me! You can’t.”

“Can’t I?” the pony asked, taking a step forward, bringing itself into the dim ambient light that was falling through the windows. The hide on its legs seemed to change color as it stepped into the light, shifting from that pale black to a much richer color, almost brown, but tinged with something else. I tore my gaze away before its face came into view. I didn’t want to see what horrors it would show me this time. “You forget what it is I am capable of. But that is no matter. You will learn again soon enough.”

“You think I fear you as I did all those years ago,” I growled, searching desperately for the rage within me to back up my words, “I was young and foolish then. But I’ve learned better. The wasteland twisted me, tore me down, but I dragged myself out of the abyss. You will not cast me back into that hell!”

“I recall those same words being spoken five years ago. They did not help you then and they will not help you now,” the voice intoned as it took another step, its hooves echoing loudly on the faux-tile floor.

“I didn’t know what it would take to back my words up then. I’ve learned better now,” I responded, but my voice had begun to shake. The rage wouldn’t come. Where I usually found it hiding was nothing more than a cold hollow, an empty space filled with the same terror and fear that were now coursing through my body, “You may know me better than anypony else alive, but I still know myself better! I have found what path I need to walk, and nopony will stop me from doing so. Only I have that power, and I don’t intend to use it!”

“Oh, my dear, sweet Evergreen. That is where you were wrong. You forget one major detail: I am you.” There was another hoofstep as the pony settled itself right by my bed.

Slowly, I turned to face it and stared squarely into the same face that I saw every time I looked into a mirror, or a still puddle. The only difference were the eyes, which, instead of echoing the dark, forest green of my eyes, glowed like a pair of hot coals in a dying fire. I could also finally make out the difference of her brown coat when compared to mine. It was coated in blood.

I burst back into wakefulness with a gasp and nearly fell out of my bed in my rush to get out. My entire body was covered in a cold sweat and my breath came in only short bursts. When I finally freed myself from my sheets, my body refused to respond to my commands, and I tumbled onto the floor with a crash that must have been loud enough to wake everypony else in the infirmary. As they started to move about in their beds, trying to see what was going on, I simply curled up on myself and closed my eyes, trying to guard myself from the terror I had just experienced.

But closing my eyes made it worse. I could still see the red glare of a pair of merciless eyes, set into my own face, staring at me and compelling me to violence, trying to force me to return to the life I had cast aside.

I curled up even tighter, trying to fight away the powerful emotions that were at war in my own body, threatening to tear me apart with the strength of their conflict. Fear and rage in equal parts were tearing at me, both vying for dominance, terrifying me into what would happen should the latter win.

I also felt grief and regret, trying to rip me in a third direction, deep into a dark pit centered where my heart should have been. If I fell in there, I doubted I would ever be able to drag myself back, no matter how hard I tried or how much support was given to me. The only thing that would be left would be an empty shell, the remains of a pony that had once been driven to finding a better solution.

As if from a distance, I could hear hooves approaching me over the tile floor of the infirmary as ponies I knew were my friends approached me. Yet my mind would not allow me to acknowledge them, assigning instead the identity of the pony that had just come to me in my dreams. In my mind’s eye, I was surrounded by that being, one each for each emotion trying to tear me apart.

“Evergreen, what’s happening?” I heard a soft feminine voice ask, “Are you all right?” The voice was thick with concern, the logical side of my mind told me, but somehow the terrified filly in me twisted the words to be threatening.

Even so, I slowly lifted my head and looked around, taking in what I could, praying for a way out of this nightmare. As I looked, I saw three copies of myself, but with slight differences. On one side of me was a copy of me, but with a bright orange, scraggly mane. The face was one of regret and sadness. That was not a pit that I wanted to fall into.

The second had a multicolored mane, made up of all sorts of fall colors: reds, browns, yellows, and oranges, but the face that mane belonged to was twisted into one of anger and hatred, a path that I refused to return to.

The last copy of me was the one that had spoken. This version of me had a blue mane, held in check by a simple black headband. This pony’s face was one of fear and worry, but not for herself. Rather, it was worry and fear for the well-being of someone she saw as a friend.

I reached out a hoof to that version of myself, tears of pure terror now streaming down my face. “Help me, please,” I begged, my voice cracking, “Make it go away.”

“Evergreen, what’s wrong?” the blue-maned me asked, stepping towards me, “Please, talk to me! I can help, but you have to tell me what’s wrong!”

As she stepped towards me, the ambient light from the infirmary’s window lit her up, chasing away the shadows that my terrified mind has crafted, leaving me looking up at the soft, worried expression on Suture’s face.

“Suture,” I breathed, relief flowing through me, “Thank the Princesses, it’s you. I… it was terrible.”

“What happened to you Evergreen?” I heard another voice ask, this one male.

I turned my voice to look, finally regaining control over my conscious mind, and saw Crosswire step towards me, a look of concern plastered on his face, the regret and sadness that had been present before gone, banished back to the dark corners of my mind.

“Seriously, I’ve never seen you do anything like this! You’re normally the one of us that sleeps the best!” the last voice stated. This one was young and harsh.

Even though I knew who it belonged to, I still turned my head to confirm it, and was met with an Autumn Mist that was actually worried, the emotions that my mind had given her banished.

Surrounded by my friends, all of whom were bearing expressions that truly told me I could count on them, finally chased away the last of the shadows that were clouding my mind, allowing me to think freely. Shakily, I rose to my hooves and wandered over to a stool, where I promptly sat down. My friends followed me, keeping their distance to give me the privacy I needed to gather my scattered thoughts.

Slowly, I managed to relate the parts of the dream that were still clear in my mind: the image of myself, coated in blood and with a cutie mark of my parents’ skulls, with eyes the color of burning coals and the fight in which I was sure I had barely kept myself from plunging back into the depths of what I had been. The telling took far longer than I had expected, as trying to relate the images often brought them back to my mind at full strength, rendering me speechless as terror gripped me.

When I finally managed to finish the tale, my friends were watching me with shocked and worried expressions. Crosswire in particular appeared to have no clue what to say or how to react. The ambient light of the infirmary was also gaining in brightness as the sun rose behind the clouds, chasing away the darkness of the night and leaving us with some semblance of safety once again.

“So you’re saying that this… specter, or whatever, has been living in your head for almost eight years?” Autumn asked incredulously as my story finally drew to a close, “And to top it all off, it looks exactly like you, just with red eyes and a different cutie mark?”

“Still just sounds like a bad dream to me,” Crosswire stated, albeit a bit too quickly for me to truly believe that he was speaking his mind, “It’s how the mind works. It grabs random bits of memory and tosses them all together. Sometimes the result is kinda scary.”

“Kinda scary?” I growled, “No, Crosswire. This wasn’t a nightmare. That thing that is in my head, it knows me, better than I know myself by the look of things. I’m telling you, it was trying to drive me back to being a raider. Whatever it is, it thrives on the death and the fighting. That’s why I haven’t seen it in these last years, because I was doing exactly what it wanted me to.”

“Are you sure it isn’t just part of your mind that your subconscious has made real?” Suture asked me, her voice soft and soothing, and the only thing still keeping me together.

I was badly shaken, and I think only Suture truly knew how bad it was. Crosswire had seen me in uncomfortable situations and forced into positions where I had to make tough choices, but this was different. This was some kind of outside power, battling with me for the path of my life.

In response to Suture’s question, I shook my head violently. “Not a chance,” I vocalized, “Not the way it speaks with me. If it were some sort of dream with something my subconscious made up, I would have known from the beginning who it was supposed to be. When it haunted me before I left Grovedale, it was just a black pony with a disfigured face. Sometimes it would have a bullet hole in its chest, like the one my dad died from, or a bullet hole in its head, like what killed my mom, but this was the first time it showed itself as being me.”

“But it’s always been a pony that’s related to you, or somepony that you’ve known all your life, right?” Crosswire asked. The way he pitched the question made it sound like he was grasping at options that would lead to a normal explanation for what I had experienced. But I knew the truth: there was no normal explanation.

“Not always,” I answered, “Towards the beginning, I actually welcomed its presence. It appeared as one of my parents, whole and healthy, and it would speak to me as they did. I actually believed it was them. Now I know it was just using them to trick me, a feat that it’s been mocking me over for the last eight years. The first time I followed through with one of its suggestions: just a simple theft for a bit of extra food, it started to change.

It became a monster, something I feared to see. There were weeks where I would spend days without sleep and I’d be completely useless at my work assignments, too tired to focus on the job at hand, but too terrified of sleep to actually get any rest. It started showing itself as ponies from around the town that I had seen die: some that had died in accidents, and some that had died in the occasional raider attacks. But every time, it made sure that they were gruesome.”

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Crosswire growled, “There has to be some sort of explanation! These kind of things just don’t happen! Why were you targeted, huh? What made you more special than anypony else? I’m telling you, it’s probably just a recurring nightmare!”

“It is not a nightmare! I know nightmares, and that thing never felt like a nightmare. I think it came for me because I was weak. I had nothing left in my life: my parents were dead and I lived in a town that allowed for little, if any, personal growth. Why do you think I can’t clearly remember what I was like before leaving this place? Becoming a raider completely re-wrote my personality. I’ve spent the last week battling to find a balance between what I remember and what I became,” I answered quietly, “I was the perfect target: a young mare with nopony taking any special care of me, left to grieve on my own.”

“But why have we never heard of anything like this happening before? I hate to be the one trying to interrogate you or tear you down, Evergreen, but you’re hardly anypony special! Hell, Autumn basically had the same childhood you did, so why doesn’t she have a ghost in her head?” Crosswire snapped angrily, starting to pace around the room while he tried to piece together the sparse bits of information I had.

“Oh, I had my demons to face, Crosswire,” the dark mare spoke up, “Nothing like that, but then, I had more of a childhood than she did, anyway. She didn’t kill my parents till four years ago, and even then I was a few years older than she had been when hers were killed. Same situation, but the details are different.”

“But what is this thing?” he growled, “Ghosts don’t just appear out of nowhere! It had to come from somewhere!”

“I may have an answer for you, Crosswire,” a voice called from the entrance.

Standing in the doorway was the massive form of Steel Curtain. As it had been yesterday, his helmet was clipped to his armor, leaving his head in the open, except now he was wearing a set of saddlebags that appeared to be packed to the breaking point, and that was in addition to whatever he had stored in his armor itself.

“What do you mean?” Suture asked quietly.

“You must be Suture,” the massive buck intoned, stepping into the room and setting his saddlebags on the floor before joining us, “It’s good to see you recovering.”

“Thank you, but what do you mean when you say you might have an answer? Have you come across something like this before?” Suture asked curiously. I could understand her curiosity, since it could very much be considered a medical condition.

“I didn’t hear the whole conversation, just those last few exchanges,” the buck started, “and what I know isn’t really the same, just similar. There was a soldier in the army I knew a few years back that came across a cave that wasn’t on any of our maps. When he scouted it, he found… something… buried inside. I’m still not sure what it was, but it was powerful. It killed a whole wing of soldiers before we said ‘fuck it’ and just dropped a couple dozen bombs into the damn cave and sealed it up.”

“And what does that have to do with this?” Crosswire demanded angrily, “That was something physical and explainable. How the hell does it relate to what we’re facing here?”

“Because the maps we were using had survived since well before the war. I have it on good accounts that they came straight out of the archives in Canterlot, which means they had been drawn by the best map-makers in the damn country. We didn’t make mistakes like that. The only option is that that cave had been magically sealed for at least a thousand years, if not more,” Steel Curtain argued, gesturing wildly with his hooves. It seemed that, even though he picked his words carefully, he was very animated when he did speak.

“I’m still missing how this has anything to do with our problem,” Crosswire maintained, finally sitting down in a huff next to me, a stormy expression on his face.

Steel Curtain let out an exasperated sigh and his mane seemed like it was almost a live fire when he slowly shook his head. “Because you aren’t listening to me, Crosswire. The enchantment that dissipated off of that cave had been in place for at least a thousand years, and there are very few ponies that are, or were, capable of that kind of magic. I can only think of two.”

“The Princesses,” I muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

“Exactly,” Steel Curtain confirmed, nodding, “Early Equestria was a very dangerous place. Before Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon, both she and Princess Celestia had been the guardians of Equestria and the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, much as the Ministry Mares were when Nightmare Moon returned. It stands to reason that they placed many enchantments and spells to keep the rest of us safe from the dangers they were required to face.

It also makes sense that they would link those enchantments to their own lives. Being alicorns, they were essentially immortal. All it would require from them is an occasional renewal of the enchantment, and it could be maintained indefinitely. But with their deaths, the enchantments would begin to fade. It would take a long time, because even in death, alicorns are powerful beings, and those two held the power of gods, which is why we’ve heard nothing until now. It’s taken over two centuries for their magic to fade this much. But now, the enchantments are beginning to break, or at least wear down enough that whatever they were containing has the strength to influence Equestria once again.”

“So you think that whatever is in my head is something that was banished by the Princesses thousands of years ago?” I asked, voice shaking slightly at the concept. If I had to battle against something so powerful that it took two alicorns to vanquish, what hope did I have against it?

Steel Curtain nodded silently. “It makes the most sense, and holds to what I have seen,” he said a moment later, making my heart sink, “but don’t be too frightened by the thought. Don’t forget that when the Elements of Harmony passed to their next bearers, they were just a group of friends living in Ponyville, the small town in the shadow of Canterlot. If they had the strength to face evils like Nightmare Moon and Discord, and emerge victorious, then you and your friends have the strength to face this evil. It will only control you so long as you allow it to. That is your advantage: it lives only in your mind and can’t affect you physically.”

I nodded slowly, but the words did little to reassure me. I was still terrified, especially now that the best theory to what was attacking me was some great evil that had been sealed away by a pair of beings that all of ponykind considered akin to gods. “Thanks, it helps,” I lied. I had to present a bold front to my friends. It’s what they expected from me.

“Good, all you need to do is trust in your friends. Now, to more immediate concerns: Suture, are you strong enough for travel? Time is limited, and I would like to begin our journey as soon as possible,” the Pegasus announced, turning his green gaze on the medic.

“I… I suppose I can travel,” Suture answered slowly, “We’ll need to be careful, and I won’t be particularly fast, but I should be able to make the journey.”

“Wonderful. We have a long journey ahead of us. It will take us most of the day simply to make it to Buckview. If I were flying there on my own, I could make the trip in half the time, but as you were so kind to point out yesterday, Evergreen, I don’t entirely know what I am going to be facing out there. Best to face it with a group at my back than on my own,” Steel Curtain announced, “I’ll go get Just Law so you can have your weapons returned. I suggest you gather the rest of your gear while I am away.”

With that, the armored Pegasus rose, pulled on his saddlebags, and walked out the door into the town. The rest of us wordlessly went about our preparations, pulling on our battered barding and settling what gear we still had with us in our bags. It took us less than ten minutes to prepare, but by then, Steel Curtain had already returned.

“Well, Ah can’t say that Ah’m sad to see ya leavin’, Evergreen,” Just Law announced as he entered the building, flanked by several town guards that were carrying our weapons.

“Yup, I’m finally getting out of your mane, Just Law,” I said, wandering over to the guards, “You bucks mind dropping our guns? We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today.”

The guards glared angrily at me, but did as I asked, dropping all of our gear in an untidy pile at my hooves. Almost the same moment as the weapons hit the ground, a yellow glow surrounded Autumn’s heavy sniper and a slim, black, semi-automatic 10mm pistol; the sidearm Crosswire had grabbed to give to the dark mare if we ever had to fight in close quarters, and floated both weapons over to herself.

A green glow appeared at the same time and gripped a pair of SMGs, which soared through the air towards the tech. “Good, they gave us the extra gear I picked up yesterday as well,” he mused as he loaded both guns. Thankfully, the guards had allowed us to keep our ammunition, otherwise returning our gear would have been a logistical nightmare.

Not being a unicorn, I had to bend down and grab my weapons the old-fashioned way: one-by-one. My .45 was swiftly sequestered in my saddlebag, but close enough to the top that I would be able to grab it quickly, should the need arise. Hammer I slid into its holster, making sure that it was fully loaded and within easy reach before bending down for my knife, which took its usual place on my left shoulder. There were even a couple of frag grenades in the mix that I quickly deposited in my saddlebags.

Suture was the last to fetch her weapon, but since it was just a single 9mm pistol, it didn’t take her long to grab it, load it, and slide it into its holster. Part of me was sad to see just how used the innocent maroon mare was becoming to handling the weapon. I had been the one who had forced her to fire a gun for the first time, and she was already starting to behave like she knew exactly how to use it. Something about that was awfully sad.

Once we were loaded and ready to go, Just Law and his guards escorted us back to the gate, which was already standing open, ready for our departure. We walked through, out into the wasteland proper, which was under the assault of a light drizzling rain, seemingly oblivious to my troubles, just as it always was.

As Just Law was turning to leave, I stopped and called back to him. “Just Law, hold on a second! I need to tell you something!”

The grey buck stopped in his tracks and turned back to me, an unhappy frown on his face. “Make it quick then, Evergreen. Ah’ve got work to do!”

“Thank you for helping me. You didn’t need to, but you did. You saved my friend’s life, and I can’t thank you enough for that,” I said, getting a small amount of amusement from the shocked expression that crossed over the harsh buck’s face.

“Ah didn’t have much choice,” he growled at me, not quite rough enough to hide his surprise at the thanks, “After all, we ain’t a heartless group of raiders.”

“I know,” I answered, “That’s why my parents chose to try to make it here. It’s good to see that somepony is still making sure that those ideals hold true.”

The buck remained silent for a few moments as he mulled over my words. “Good travels, Evergreen,” he finally said, all hints of anger dropping away from his voice, “May ya find a better path than the one ye’ve been travelin’.”

“And you as well, Just Law,” I said, before turning around and starting down the road that would guide us east, to Buckview, and whatever new horrors it would hold.

Our pace was slower than it would normally have been, which was unsurprising, considering that Suture was still recovering from her close experience with death. Steel Curtain flew a short distance ahead of us, occasionally circling around behind us, keeping a constant watch on the wasteland, and setting my mind that much more at ease.

The path we were following was not as well-worn as I would have expected, especially after we passed the fork that led north, towards Metro and Seaddle itself. From all accounts I had ever heard Buckview had been a bustling town with a relatively large population. With a reputation like that, I would have expected the road to be better-traveled. A mere week with no contact would not lead to this much decay.

As was the usual, the road was choked with ruined vehicles, no doubt the remains of ponies trying to flee the apocalypse. Instead, their vehicles became their coffins, and the only testament left to the lives they had led. Many of the wagons we passed held skeletons, the corpses of the families that were simply trying to survive. And we were what was left.

Midday was just approaching when Steel Curtain swooped down a short distance ahead of us and waved with a wing, signaling for us to catch up as soon as possible. We sped up to a canter, rejoining the armored Pegasus quickly. He was standing atop a ruined skywagon, grim gaze set solidly on something to the northeast of us.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, panting slightly at the exertion, “Did you see something?”

Steel Curtain nodded slowly, his grim expression darkening even further. “A slaver camp, just to the north of here. Not a major one, just a temporary shelter, probably some slavers escorting some of their ‘stock’ to the Mill.” He positively spat the name out, his face set into an expression of disgust and anger.

“Is this worth out effort?” Crosswire asked, “We’re already taking a detour from where we should be headed, Evergreen. Surely going out of our way to mess with these slavers isn’t worth it. Plus, these slave gangs have a lot of influence in the wasteland proper, I know you know that. We fuck with them, and we will end up tier one on their shit list, which is not a good place to be.”

“I know,” I muttered, trying to come to a decision. On the one hoof, those slaves would probably come to our rescue, were our positions reversed. On the other, Crosswire had a very good point. If we drew the attention of the slavers, and not in a way that pissed them off, they would devote every resource at their disposal to taking us out.

“The Enclave treats its civilians enough like slaves that I cannot condone this behavior. We are allies so far as Buckview is concerned, Evergreen, but I am going to do something about those slavers, whether or not you are with me,” Steel Curtain announced. There was a dull thumping sound as the buck readied the two miniguns mounted to his armor.

“You don’t have to worry about it,” I said, finally coming to a decision, “We’re going to help.”

“You sure about this?” Crosswire asked me, a worried expression on his face, “We have a job to do, Evergreen. This is just another distraction.”

“Wouldn’t you want somepony to come to your aid if you were being held as a slave?” I demanded, turning on the buck, “Also, you made a point of looking for decisiveness from me. Well, here it is. I want to help those ponies. That’s why we’re out here, doing what we’re doing. Now, who’s with me?”

“Just point me in the right direction,” Autumn announced, pulling out her rifle and chambering a round, “Fuckers like them need to be taught a lesson. I’m more than happy to do the teaching!”

“I’ll hang back. I’d just get in the way in a fight,” Suture said meekly, “If you get the slaves free during the fighting, point them in my direction.”

I nodded at the medic, then turned to Steel Curtain. “All right, we’re behind you. Here’s what I have in mind: Autumn will sit back with her rifle and pick them off at range. Steel Curtain, I want to come in from above. Do a few strafing runs, and keep them from digging in. Keeping them on their hooves, not knowing where the next attack is going to come from will work in our favor. Crosswire, make a break for the slaves and get them free. I’m going to do what I do best.”

“Which is?” Steel Curtain asked, sounding a bit put off with me giving the orders.

“I’m going to walk down there before the shooting and tell them to free their slaves and walk away, with a heavy emphasis on never doing it again. I’m not expecting that they’re going to listen, but it’s worth the attempt. Once they start shooting, you guys are going to come in, and I’m going to do the most damage I can with Hammer.”

“Any particular target for me at the start of this shit?” Autumn asked me.

“The pony in charge, if you can find them. If they have their slaves strung up as I am expecting they do, they are going to be wearing slave collars, and I mean the explosive kind. It’s usually the head slaver who’s holding the detonator, so I want him taken out first,” I said, getting a quick nod in response.

“How well do your plans usually work?” Steel Curtain asked me, his tone apprehensive. He was standing in a way that could only be described as superior. He was obviously not comfortable with taking orders from a pony he saw as a simple wastelander.

“Well enough,” I answered, “I used a similar plan on a group of raiders a couple days ago, and we took them apart rather handily. With you in the mix, this fight should be a piece of cake. Did you happen to see how many of them there were?”

“Two dozen, at most. Some of them might have been slaves,” the Pegasus answered, “but their weapons appeared to be better than the usual quality, more on the level of what you’re using.”

“Only raiders use shitty weapons,” I said, “Everypony else usually takes fairly good care of their guns. Well, if we’re all set, let’s move. We still have a lot of ground to cover today.”

Everypony nodded their agreement, and we set off to the northwest, towards the camp. As we topped a rise that brought us into sight of the camp, Autumn and Suture broke off from the group, with the former taking up her usual half-sitting, half-lying stance that she used when sniping.

Steel Curtain took off into the air, flying straight up until he appeared to be nothing more than a small dot just under the cloud cover, his dark armor blending in perfectly with the dark clouds. Crosswire and I continued down the hill, approaching the camp confidently, making sure that we were walking with authority and confidence. We did not want to be mistaken for potential victims.

While we walked, I was careful to take in as much of the layout of the camp that I could. The slavers had pitched their tents in a rough circle around their fire, which appeared to be a sad excuse for a fire from this range. The slaves were chained up to a series of stakes driven into the ground about twenty yards away from the tents: close enough for the slavers to keep an eye on them, but far enough away that they didn’t have to deal with it. The rest of the campsite was open ground, with nothing larger than a few hoof-sized rocks to break up the surface.

A pair of ponies trotted out to meet us, stopping a few dozen yards from the camp itself. “Stop there!” one of them, a red buck with a mangy green mane, announced, “Don’t take another step if you know what’s good for ya!”

In complete rebuttal of the buck’s orders, I continued forward until I was standing a mere ten feet from the pair, wearing the angriest expression that I could manage. The buck was now glaring at me with blatant rage, furious that I had so purposely ignored him.

“I’m going to give you this one chance,” I announced, putting every shred of confidence and righteous anger that I could muster into the words, “Free your slaves and walk away from this life. This is the only warning I’m going to give you. Ignore it, and I will free those slaves the hard way.”

The buck’s expression shifted from one of rage to one of disbelief, and his face split in a large grin. “You are going to give us a chance to walk away?” he asked mockingly, almost laughing at the thought, “Who the fuck do you think you are? You’re no one! And yet, here you are, trying to give me orders! Me, Chainlink of the Mill! You haven’t got a clue who you’re dealing with, cunt.”

“I know I’m dealing with a self-important jackass who doesn’t know the first thing about watching his surroundings, or you would already know that you are sorely outmatched. If you’d been listening to the radio, you’d know exactly who I am,” I growled, “And I will make sure those ponies go free.”

The buck, Chainlink, started to laugh, a deep, evil sound that seemed incapable of actually communicating anything even closely resembling joy. “Oh, we’ve got a bad case of hero worship here, Rose Blossom!” he bellowed, laughing so hard he was actually shaking, nudging the dark red mare next to him, “This cunt thinks that just because she can go out and buy a gun that she’s some sort of hot shot! She’s probably never pulled the trigger a single fucking time in her pitiful life! I’ll give you kudos for spirit kid, but you just walked squarely into the eye of a shit storm!”

In one smooth motion, I pulled Hammer from its holster and fired a round square into the red mare’s head, not even bothering with S.A.T.S. It wasn’t necessary at this range. Her skull exploded like a melon, sending blood, bone, and bits of brain in every direction, splattering Chainlink with gore. His expression was now one of horror and rage.

“Have I got your attention now, fucker?” I asked darkly, enunciating every world carefully around the revolver in my mouth, “I assure you, I am every bit as dangerous as the radio messages imply. I know I said I’d only give you one chance, but I’m feeling generous. Get the fuck out of here, swear you’ll never return to slaving again, and I will let you live. Fight me, and I promise not a single one of you will survive the day.”

“You… Rose… The fuck is wrong with you, cunt!” Chainlink stammered, “We are an entire slave gang here, fourteen ponies more than capable of tearing the two of you fucks brand new holes for us to have fun with! I see only two of you!”

By now, other ponies from the camp were started to wander in our direction, drawn by the sound of my gunshot. All of them wore dark expressions and were carrying, or floating, various weapons with them. They had everything from revolvers to assault rifles, an impressive armory, if I cared.

“You should have been more careful counting,” I stated simply, then stepped to the side, hoping that it was enough space for Autumn to take a shot.

“Wha…” Chainlink started, but was cut short by a sniper round punching through his skull, destroying his head and leaving behind little but a bloody mess. His body fell wetly to the ground, splashing in the pool of blood that had already been formed by Rose Blossom’s body.

If my shot hadn’t been enough to make the slavers want to kill me, Autumn’s shot sealed the deal. The slavers opened fire, filling the air with lead, sending both Crosswire and me diving to the ground in an attempt to get away.

“Crosswire, grab the detonator off Chainlink’s body! He’s got to have it! Then get to the slaves and get them the fuck out of here!” I shouted, waving at the buck to get moving.

Another rifle shot tore through the wasteland, except the sound was significantly different than Autumn’s rifle. This one made hers sound like a BB gun. The round struck the ground in front of me, sending a spray of dirt and rock a full three feet into the air. “Fuck me with a barbed-wire baseball bat!” I swore, jumping back to my hooves and running as fast as I could to get away from the target zone of that gun. I did not want to see what would happen if it hit me.

Turning my gaze to the landscape in front of me, I noticed three ponies bearing down on me, two of them unicorns floating SMGs. The third was an Earth pony mare holding a revolver. Once I came within twenty feet of them, they opened fire, the low caliber rounds ricocheting off of my armor. When the Earth pony mare opened fire with the revolver, the bullet flew higher than the others and clipped my neck, making me stumble in shock as I felt warm blood flow out of the wound. An inch to the side, and the round would have cut clean through one of my arteries.

I held my fire until they were only a dozen feet from me, then slipped into S.A.T.S. It was time to see how well the system would hold up when I was running at a full gallop. I lined up three shots, the first two targeted at the unicorns, and the last on the Earth Pony. If I was lucky, I would kill all of them without missing a step.

Time snapped back to reality and the rounds fired. The first two were perfectly on target, felling both unicorns in midstride and sending their SMGs tumbling to the ground. By the time the last round fired, the Earth Pony was far too close for me to be able to hit her, even with S.A.T.S., and the round flew wide, cleanly missing her over the shoulder.

The mare drove herself into me, driving me to the ground with the force of her momentum. Had I been expecting her to dodge around me, it wouldn’t have happened, yet it seemed that these slavers were more insane than I gave them credit for.

We rolled in the dirt, locked together in a grapple for dominance, before finally coming to rest a few feet later, the other mare on top and swinging her head around to shove the barrel of the gun against my head.

I already had one experience staring down the barrel of a gun, and I had not enjoyed it the first time. This time, I was straight-up pissed. “You fucked with the wrong bitch, asshole!” I shouted around Hammer, which I had somehow managed to hold on to, and bucked up with my hips, throwing the mare off balance and letting me get my left foreleg free, which I then used to smash my Pipbuck against her head, sending her reeling, and letting me scramble back to my hooves.

I turned, and fired a single round into the mare’s head, ending her life, before turning to survey the rest of the battlefield. Four other ponies were dead, two of them obviously killed by Autumn Mist, and the other two peppered with holes that looked to fit the damage dealt by Crosswire’s SMG. Which meant there were only five slavers left.

Three of them were clustered together, firing wildly in Autumn’s direction, completely ignoring both me and Crosswire. I had no clue where the other two were. It was as I started running at that trio when I heard a sound unlike anything I had ever heard before.

The best description I could think of was the sound of a chain rattling against another piece of metal, but even that didn’t do it justice. I arched my head up, trying to get a look at what was creating the sound, when Steel Curtain swooped down from the air, tracers flying from the spinning miniguns mounted to his armor. It was those guns that were the source of the sound, and as I watched, the tracers cut a clean path through the clustered slavers, who were shredded to ribbons by the sheer volume of fire that was spewing forth from Pegasus. It took less than three seconds for Steel Curtain to complete the flyby, and that was all it took to reduce the force facing us down to two.

“Steel Curtain, do you know where that fucking sniper is?” I shouted, hoping the Pegasus would hear me.

His dark form twisted around in the air and darted back down towards me, where he came to a hover. “I saw Autumn Mist take a few shots in his direction,” he shouted back at me, “but I’m not sure if she hit him.”

Before I could answer, the rifle sounded again, and I could only stand and watch in horror as the round punched clean through one of the wing sheath’s of Steel Curtain’s armor, sending him tumbling to the ground in an uncontrolled crash.

Immediately, three shots echoed through the wasteland in response, all with the familiar retort of Autumn’s rifle. I dashed forward towards the Pegasus, unable to do anything about the situation except hope that the dark mare hit the fucker and kept him from killing me.

“Steel Curtain, you all right?” I shouted as I came up to the fallen Pegasus’ still form. For a moment, I feared that he had somehow injured himself even further in the crash, but when I neared, I saw him drag himself back to his hooves, turn to face the direction the enemy sniper was shooting from, and simply unload with his twin miniguns, roaring defiance at the wasteland. He kept the fire up until both guns started rattling on empty barrels, every last round fired.

I skidded to a stop by his side, my ears ringing when his weapons finally spun down and asked again, “You all right?”

“I’ll be fine. I won’t be able to fly for a few days, but I will live,” he answered gruffly, hitting a control on his armor that reloaded his weapons with a loud thunk, “Thank you for your concern. Come, let’s check on Crosswire. There are no more slavers here.”

“But we only killed twelve!” I protested, “There are still two more! If they escape, they’ll get word back to the Mill about who interrupted them, then we’ll all be targets!”

“Do you see a way to chase those two down without getting ourselves killed in the bargain?” the Pegasus asked darkly, turning to face me with an expression that was equal parts rage and pain.

When I didn’t answer immediately, my gaze flitting to his side where blood was flowing freely from his injured wing, staining the dark armor red, he kept going, “That’s what I thought. All we can do is play the hand we are dealt. This is ours. We now know that they will be looking for us, and so we will be prepared for when it happens. The advantage is ours.”

He didn’t give me a chance to respond, instead marching towards where Crosswire was working furiously to free the slaves of their collars. I stood in place, jaw hanging open, completely dumbstruck. How, in all that was holy, could the advantage be ours? In a few days, we would be number one on the shit list for every slaver in the entire region, and Steel Curtain claimed that the advantage was ours? He was out of his mind, like every other feather-brained idiot above the clouds.

I shook my head slowly and followed after the armored Pegasus, who was standing a short distance away from Crosswire, who had his attention completely focused on a buck’s collar. Already, five of the slaves were free and galloping towards where Suture and Autumn Mist were waiting. The remaining three were lined up in front of the grey buck, anxious and hopeful expressions on their faces.

“How are things going here, Crosswire?” I asked as we approached, “We took care of the slavers, but a couple of them look like they’re going to get away.”

“How the fuck is that possible? We’ve got a damn Pegasus on our side. He should be able to outrun them,” the buck answered briefly, before returning his full concentration to the captive pony he was working on.

“One of them was in possession of an anti-material rifle. The round punched through my armor and crippled one of my wings,” Steel Curtain responded, his tone strained. I could tell that he was trying to keep his pain from controlling him, and banishing all emotion seemed to be his strategy for that.

“Hmmm, guess that would explain it,” Crosswire mused as the collar he was working on popped free. He tossed it to the side, on top of a pile of five other collars, and beckoned for the next pony to step forward.

She did so eagerly, knocking into the buck in her haste. “Oh thank you, thank you!” she said, practically crying with joy, “We didn’t think anypony was going to save us.”

“We couldn’t sit by and do nothing, ma’am,” Steel Curtain intoned, “It is our duty to help those in need.”

“What… Enclave?” the mare muttered, turning and seeing the Pegasus for the first time, “What are you doing here?”

Her distraction finally let Crosswire get to work on her collar, grumbling something about over-anxious ponies in distress as he did.

“Sadly, no,” Steel Curtain answered, “I only wish the Enclave cared enough about the ponies below the clouds to lend their aid. As it is, all they care about is their own lives, as well as their politics. I left, and am now a Dashite. I wouldn’t let them take my armor from me, though.”

“Oh…,” the mare stated, then fell silent. She turned slightly and her gaze found me. “You were the one that came up to Chainlink and told him to let us go, aren’t you.”

I nodded at the mare, smiling slightly, trying to show her that we were here to help. “Yeah, that was me. Steel Curtain was right when he said that we need to help those in need. It’s what ponies are meant to do, after all.”

“Are you really who you claimed to be?” Another slave, this one a ragged blue buck, asked, “Are you really the Heroine of Seaddle?”

“That’s the title that the DJ on the radio gave me,” I said, “But I don’t agree with it. I’m just doing what I think needs to be done. If I can help some ponies have a chance at life in the process, then that’s just a bonus. I’m planning on going up to Seaddle soon and talking to him, set this whole illusion straight.”

“But you saved us! That makes you a hero!” the buck insisted, stomping a hoof stubbornly.

I took a closer look at the buck and noticed that he was much younger than he appeared to be. At best, he was a few years younger than Autumn Mist, old enough to look full-grown, but inside, he was little more than a colt. “Trust me, kid,” I said, “I wish I could just accept the title. It would make everything a lot easier, but the truth is that there’s a reason I haven’t been around before. There’s a lot of shit in my past I need to make up for. All I can do is hope that this is enough.”

The buck fell silent at those words, as did every other pony around us. The two slaves, although grateful, now had thoughtful expressions on their faces, as they considered what I had said. The silence wasn’t broken until the last slave was freed and we were all trotting back to where Autumn Mist and Suture were waiting, but not before I scooped up the collars and placed them in my bags. I wasn’t about to let those explosives go to waste, especially when we had the detonator for them.

The slaves we had freed were all huddling together, already dividing up into the groups they had been in before getting captured. Several of them had already set off into the wasteland, trying to make their way back to whatever life they had had before being enslaved. The last ones to leave were the mare and young buck, who came up to me while I was cleaning Hammer.

“I don’t care what kind of past you have, Miss,” the mare said, her face firmly set in an expression of gratitude, “You saved both mine and my son’s life. I owe you everything for that. In my eyes, you are the Hero of Seaddle.”

I looked up at the mare, my expression completely emotionless, and nodded my acknowledgement of her words. I couldn’t bring myself to respond, or to accept, or even to show any kind of emotion. My mind was a whirlpool of emotions and memories, reliving many of the evils I had committed before choosing that there was more to life than survival. Now, there were so many ponies out there who believed I was something I wasn’t, and it was painful. I deserved none of their thanks, none of their gratitude, and yet they were piling on top of me. They had no clue what I had been.

When it became obvious that I wasn’t going to vocalize a response, the mare nodded awkwardly at me, then turned away and started walking, her son right behind her. I simply stood where I was and watched them go, unable to admit to myself that my actions were starting to pay off for me.

“Are you all right, Evergreen?” Suture asked me once the pair were out of earshot.

I was still standing motionless, staring after them, but otherwise, I was completely unresponsive. “Yeah,” I finally answered after a minute of pregnant silence, “I’m fine. Come on, let’s get moving. We still have a lot of ground to cover.”

“Not before I see to your injuries,” Suture insisted, stepping around me so that she was standing in my way and glaring at me with a stern expression, “Now, sit. That wound in your neck needs to be cleaned.

“I’ll be fine,” I protested, sitting down despite my words and allowing the mare to look at the gash in my neck that was still weeping blood.

“I’m sure, but we’re better safe than sorry, so sit still,” the maroon mare insisted, digging through her saddle bags for some rubbing alcohol and bandages.

“You sure it was a good idea to say those things to those ponies?” Crosswire asked me a few minutes later, his tone heavy with worry.

“I was being honest. Since when is that a bad thing?” I demanded.

“Since that knowledge could be used against us,” the buck snapped, “This DJ, Shooting Star, he has a good view of you right now. Saying these things to them could make it back to him, and then where will we be?”

“Right where we started,” I answered adamantly, “We really can’t be knocked back any farther.”

“Hey, turn back around! I’m not done with you yet!” she protested, reaching out with a hoof and trying to pull my head back around so that I was facing her.

I reached up with my own hoof and pushed her aside. “Not right now, Suture. I need to deal with this. See to Steel Curtain. His wing took fire during the fighting,” I said, getting to my hooves and turning to face my whole body at the tech. “And what about the population of ghouls we saved? Are they going to spurn us as well when they find out what we were?”

“What? No, probably not. But anywhere else, anywhere we haven’t been, isn’t going to open their gates to us,” he insisted, his face twisting into a deep frown.

“Well, I guess that’s just something we’ll have to face if it comes to that,” I stated, shrugging, “Shooting Star seems like a reasonable pony. I’m sure he’ll choose to judge our current actions over our past ones.”

Crosswire held me in his gaze for a few moments longer before sighing and hanging his head. “You’re impossible, you know that, right?”

The way he said it didn’t sound like he meant it as a joke, or even sarcastically. “What do you mean?” I asked, taking a step towards him, my glare softening to an expression of worry.

“You rush headfirst into these situations that we know nothing about, taking risks that most sane ponies would never even dream about, then twist them so that we get the worst possible result for our success. I don’t get why,” he stated, lifting his head up and fixing me with a stare that revealed his own anger at me.

“It’s because I don’t feel like I deserve their gratitude. If they knew what I was, what I’ve done!” I exclaimed, my voice rising with my passion of the subject. I didn’t know how better to communicate it to him. How do I tell him that I don’t feel right accepting their thanks, when there is every possibility that I’ve killed somepony they knew?

“Well, here’s a news update for you, Evergreen,” Crosswire snapped, “You did deserve their gratitude. You know why? You saved their fucking lives. They would be slaves if not for you. Sure, you’ve done some bad shit in your life. So have I, yet you don’t see it getting at me, do you? Besides, you accepted that gratitude of Hat Trick and Sparks easily enough, didn’t you?”

I slowly shook my head at the buck. “It’s not the same,” I muttered, “ And I know from the way we met, and from talking to you, that I’d been a raider for far longer than you. You weren’t around for the truly bad shit, the shit that happened before I became the one in charge. My raider gang was more akin to a standard gang, like the Iron Hooves, than an actual gang of raiders. Before I took charge, it was just as bad as the others you saw.”

“Wait, you were a raider, Evergreen?” Steel Curtain asked, stepping between me and Crosswire and fixing me with a disapproving glare. I could hear a motor in his armor start up, and the barrels of his miniguns started to rotate, just enough for me to realize how thin of ice I was standing on.

I let out a heavy sigh and sat down, head lowered. “For five long fucking years,” I answered, putting every ounce of regret that I could manage into the words, “It took Suture showing up on my doorstep a week ago to make me see that I was making the wrong choices. And if you want to shoot me for it, fine. You and Autumn can share the pleasure.”

My words were met with silence, with only the motor running in the Pegasus’ armor. A few moments later, the motor stopped and when I looked up, the barrels had come to a stop. “You have no more connections to any raiders?” he asked, his face a mask of determination and anger.

“Unless some of the fuckers from my gang are still among the living, no. Only reason I want to go back to that place is to get my journal back. I didn’t have time to grab it before getting thrown out on my ass,” I said, “And if I go back, those assholes are getting the same treatment that the slavers got. The only fuckers still alive are the ones that tried to kill me, and killed everypony that was loyal to me. They aren’t worth helping.”

“Humph. Fine, if that is what you claim, I suppose I have no choice but to believe you,” Steel Curtain said, then spun his bulk around to face Crosswire. “And you? She said you were a raider as well. Have you separated yourself from that life as total as she has?”

“Yeah, I have. My loyalty is to Evergreen and nopony else. What she says, goes. We have our disagreements, like this one, but that doesn’t change the facts. She’s proven herself to me to be a mare worthy of listening to. That’s what I care about.”

The Pegasus nodded curtly, satisfied with the answer, then looked back to me. “I want to know why you are traveling to Buckview. I believe that it is not for ill purposes, but I want proof that you are trustworthy. Tell me what your motivation is for going this way.”

I explained everything to the Pegasus that had to do with my work with Metro and the threat of Seahawk, starting with how Suture had come to my gang’s hideout, and talking through everything I had done with Millberry, up to and including the reports we had of Buckview falling off the grid and my fears of what that could mean.

Through it all, Steel Curtain remained silent, his face held with only a thoughtful expression, while he considered everything I told him. When I finished, he remained quiet for several moments, processing all of the information I had given him. Occasionally, an emotion would flit across his features that led me to think he recognized something I had said, but with the wasteland as large as it was, I would expend somepony to have heard a name now and then.

Instead of answering me, he turned to Suture. “You seem to be the most trustworthy and credible one here, Suture,” he said, “Is what she has said true?”

“It is,” the medic answered, “Evergreen has gone out of her way since coming to Metro to see that the right thing was done. Without her, there is every chance that Millberry would already belong to Seahawk, whether he is making his move or not. Right now, she’s the only one taking an active stance.”

“Hmm, with an argument like that, it’s impossible for me to claim you to be a liar, Evergreen, so I will thank you for your honesty. I am also rather intrigued by this mission of yours. Once we are both done with our business in Buckview, I may consider asking for employment with you.”

The way he said it made me laugh, and everypony else joined in the humor as well. Steel Curtain stood between us all, immensely confused as he cast from one to the other, looking for an answer. “What is so funny about what I just said,” he demanded, “I’m being honest here! I am considering asking for employment with you!”

“Steel Curtain,” I answered, only getting the words out between gulps of air, “No one here is working for me! Crosswire is with me cause he was the only pony from my gang that stayed loyal. Suture joined up because she wanted to help with the job in Millberry, but also because she wanted to make sure Metro could trust me. Autumn Mist is tagging along because she wanted to kill me at first, and making sure I didn’t fuck up was her number one priority. Now, we’re all more or less working towards the same goal. If you want to help us, it’ll be as a partner, not as an employee, you understand?”

“But aren’t you the one in charge? The one giving the orders?” the Pegasus asked, still very obviously lost.

I shrugged an answered, “Only so far as they choose me to be the one to make the decisions. I’m no more special than any of them. It’s just my cause that we’re working towards, and I know how to lead, most of the time. But I don’t see myself as more important than any of them.”

“An honorable stance. I’ll think about it. Now, Suture, how is my wing?” Steel Curtain asked, turning away from me and changing the subject.

“You’ll need to stay off of it for a few days while it heals,” the medic answered, “After that, you’ll be fine to fly again. The shot fractured a couple of bones and tore through some of the ligaments, and those need some time to mend, but don’t worry. It isn’t a permanent injury.”

“Good. A Pegasus soldier belongs in the sky, not on the ground amongst the infantry,” he proclaimed proudly, “Now let’s move! There is still a lot of ground to be covered, and it will take much longer now that I can’t fly.”

“Once I’ve seen to everypony else, we’ll leave,” Suture argued, walking up to me and checking my neck.

I sat patiently under her ministrations, waiting while she carefully cleaned and bound the injury, wrapping a stark white bandage around my neck, making me feel like a little filly under the care of her mother. Once she was done with me, she turned and started to check Crosswire for injuries, but somehow the ragged buck had managed to get through the entire fight without getting shot a single time.

Once we are all finally taken care of, we started off, making our way back to the road and continue on our way towards Buckview. Now that Steel Curtain was one the ground with us, we remained much more wary of our surroundings, watching for anypony that might have been in the area, but also looking for any of the other countless dangers that lived in the wasteland.

Honestly, it was amazing that the most dangerous non-pony creature we had run into our here had been a couple of molerats and the occasional, lone bloatsprite. Everypony had heard the tales of the mutated monsters that called the wasteland home: the Yao Guai, that were the twisted remnants of the bears that had once been as common as any other woodland creature, and the manticores that, even if they hadn’t been changed by the radiation, had at least been maddened by it, and now lashed out at anypony that came within sight of them. Then there were the other, even more horrid creatures that I had heard of, but didn’t know if their existence had been confirmed, that were supposed to live in the more remote reaches of the mountains, where very few ponies traveled, and even fewer survived.

There had been one time, when I had been much younger, when I had just traveled to the mountains, where I had seen something at a distance. It had been nothing more than a shadow, there and then gone so quickly that I still questioned whether or not I had actually seen it, but it had appeared at least as large as a manticore, if not larger still. I had spent the next two days, fearing that whatever it was had chosen to hunt me, but I had happened across the gang before anything had happened. My guess was that it had migrated deeper into the mountains, in order to get farther away from civilization, or at least what was left of it. But I still had occasional nightmares about the thing, where razor sharp claws would grab me while I was asleep at camp and drag me off into the night where I would be torn apart, but left alive long enough to see some grotesque mutation of something eating still quivering parts of my body. I shuddered at the thought and turned my mind resolutely from the subject, focusing back on the trail in front of my hooves, watching out for present dangers, rather than the ones lurking in my mind.

We traveled in relative silence, all focused on our own thoughts and the landscape around us. Occasionally, somepony would reach into a shattered wagon for something that had caught their eye. It was the sad truth of the wasteland that you took what you could when you could if you wanted to survive on the road. We couldn’t be squeamish about where we got our supplies, or even with what those supplies were. I had done worst things than reach over the skeleton of a pony so small that I doubted they could even be considered a filly just to get at a bottle of water. If there was one universal truth of the wasteland, it was that even the good ponies would be driven to what had once been considered an atrocity if they wanted to survive. The difference was limiting what those atrocities were.

As we traveled east, the landscape slowly changed from blasted, windswept hills to richer land, where a few small, hardy shrubs had managed to hold on to life. They all appeared a sickly yellow as they reached toward the cloud-covered sky, groping at it with crooked fingers for whatever light happened to seep through the cloud cover. In the distance, I could see the line of what might have been trees, forming the border of a vast forest.

I felt a spark of hope leap to life in my chest. If there were woods, then maybe there was the small chance it was still alive, and maybe even relatively healthy. I quickened our pace slightly, wanting to get closer to be able to tell for certain, and the miles passed by quicker, only to be slowed to a near halt a short time later.

Visible against the sky was a pillar of pitch black smoke. We had missed it before because of how well it blended in to the sky and landscape. In a world where everything was dark and dreary, smoke was easily missed. But now, it coiled into the sky like some great, black snake, easily miles high, and it was thick. It was the kind of smoke that could only come from something large burning.

“Do you think that’s the town?” Suture muttered quietly at my side, her voice thick with fear and worry.

“I think so,” I answered, just as quietly, “Come on, we need to see if anypony survived!”

We started forward at a canter, eating up the remaining miles quickly, all of us in a hurry to see what was left of the small frontier settlement. It was far enough removed from the main circle of settlements in Seaddle that it should have been able to remain separate from the politicking and danger of the area, yet it seemed that even distance wouldn’t help this place.

When we finally turned the last curve that would bring us into view of the city, we were stuck speechless by the sight. The entire town, encompassing an area of at least a half square mile, had been reduced to ash. There was not a single structure over three feet high left standing. The few structures that were left sticking out of the ground were still burning, but it appeared that they weren’t the source of the smoke, which appeared to be originating from the central square of the town.

Slowly, we started forward, approaching the edge of the ravaged town, all of us unable to find any words.

“The whole town… gone…” Suture muttered to herself as we crossed the border into the town proper.

The ground was entirely covered in ash that was several inches thick and was quickly being mixed into a slurry by the drizzling rain. Every step made us sink into the ground, and our hooves squelched loudly as we walked forward. The conditions slowed Steel Curtain significantly as he struggled to drag the massive weight of his armor through the wreckage.

We picked through the ruins, looking into the destroyed homes and businesses, searching for survivors, but all we could find were the occasional skeletons and burned remains of ponies. Everything reeked of death.

“Split up. Search for survivors and help them anyway you can,” I ordered, keeping my voice carefully controlled “I want to know what happened here. I want to know what sick fuck could do this.”

It was all I could do to keep my rage in check. Everywhere I turned, I saw atrocity, and I don’t mean just in Buckview. It seemed that the last three days had forced me against atrocity after atrocity, with ponies destroying each other’s lives as though their own depended on it. At least those first two had been more or less understandable. A raider attack and a slave grab were small evils when compared to the destruction of an entire town, and the slaughter of every pony that lived here. Even if the town’s morals had been skewed beyond all reason, there was no way in hell everypony in it signed on to the same ideals.

I didn’t yet know what atrocity was. Walking on my own, picking my way through what had once been streets of a bustling city, I came upon the single worst thing I had ever seen in my entire life, up to and including the execution of my parents before my eyes. Sitting before me, in the center of the main town square, was a pile of burning bodies, easily fifteen feet high. Ponies of all ages had been piled atop each other, lit on fire, and left to burn. I had been wondering what the source of the pillar of smoke had been, since the town was already burned. I had my answer now.

I stood where I was, completely motionless, fighting with my own emotions for control, fighting to stop my rage from getting the better of me and force me into an action I would regret. But it wouldn’t be enough. I would be able to contain my rage now, because I didn’t know who was responsible for this, but once I learned that, that pony wouldn’t be able to run far or fast enough to escape my justice. They would die, and I would make sure the rest of the world would know why. There was raiding, there was murder, and then there was massacre. This pony had firmly crossed that line. There could be no mercy.

After almost five minutes of inaction, I managed to tear myself away from the sight and head back to where the rest of my friends were searching, joining up with Suture in her pursuit of anypony who might have survived the evil that had happened here.

“Find anything yet?” I asked when I came up to her, my voice very obviously strained, despite my feeble attempts at control.

“No,” the maroon mare answered, slowing slightly as she caught the anger in my tone, “Are you all right?”

“No,” I growled, “Somepony is going to pay for what happened here. They took all the ponies in town, piled them in the square, and lit them on fire. That’s where the smoke came from.”

“What?!” Suture exclaimed, “They just… burned them? How could they!”

“Because they didn’t get what they wanted,” I answered, no longer bothering trying to keep the rage out of my voice, “Or they knew somepony would come looking and they wanted to send a message. Fuck if I know. All I want is to make the fucker responsible pay. Nothing else matters.”

“I want to know why. It might make a difference,” Suture said quietly, pressing on through the muck.

“Does it?” I snapped, “Did the entire town deserve to be put to the torch? What could be so bad that the entire town deserved to be wiped out? I can only think of one reason: they said no.”

Suture remained silent at that, apparently unable to come up with a response, and we continued our search in stony silence, Suture letting me come to terms with my anger and me hoping she would come to understand my rage.

At this point, I wasn’t expecting to find anypony still alive. How could they be? The entire town was, at its highest point, even in height with Steel Curtain’s shoulders, and the entire population was piled up in the center, burnt to ash and bone. Whoever had done this had to have been thorough to get a pile that high. But, apparently in the sight of some of the greatest atrocities, even miracles could exist.

It took us almost half an hour to find the first, and only, survivor: a young filly hiding in the charred remains of a closet, her hide burnt and covered in ash, shivering in the rain from pain and loss. When Suture found her, she shouted to the rest of our group, who arrive in minutes, helping her calm the filly enough so that we could coax her out to help.

By the time we did that, and Suture had seen to the worst of her burns, the light was beginning to dim, and the rain started to pick up strength. In an attempt to protect us from the elements, Autumn Mist erected a small structure using the few large remains of walls that were still lying about, resulting in a small shelter we could all fit comfortably inside.

Once out of the wind and rain, we tried to get the tale of what had happened to the town out of the filly, who was still only slowly overcoming her fear of us. She was maybe five years old, with a light green hide and bright yellow mane. Her flank was still bare. What little we had managed to learn so far was her name and the names of her parents: Sunflower was her name, and her parents were True Sky and Dawn, respectively.

“So tell us, little one, what happened here?” Suture asked, holding the young filly in her hooves, protecting her from her perceived fears of the rest of us.

“Are you sure the angry one isn’t going to hurt me?” the filly asked, looking at me with fearful eyes.

I sighed for what must have been the thirtieth time that night. My anger at the situation had terrified the filly into thinking I was mad at her, or that I was going to hurt her. Understandable, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it. “No, Sunflower, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to find out what happened here. I want to know who hurt you before so I can keep them from hurting anypony else.” It was the same explanation I had given the last ten times she had asked, but it didn’t seem to be enough.

“Okay…” she muttered, still keeping an eye on me, “The bad ponies came to town a few weeks ago. They seemed really nice. They were friendly, and generous, and they brought food and medicine with them! Everypony was really happy they were here, and I thought we would all be friends!”

“What happened then?” Suture pressed when the filly fell silent, “Why did the bad ponies become bad?”

“They went to the big building where Mister Contract lived. He’s the pony we all listen to, but the bad ponies wouldn’t listen to him, I guess. That’s what mommy told me. They left, all angry and mean and wouldn’t even say goodbye to me! Then, they came back a few days ago, with a lot of their friends. When Mister Contract asked them to leave, they started talking in angry voices and daddy made me go back home. That’s when the bangs started.”

“Bangs?” Crosswire asked, “Do you mean gunshots?”

“I think so,” the filly answered uncertainly, cocking her head to one side in thought, “Mommy came back home and told me everything would be okay, but then we heard somepony yell fire, and mommy told me to go hide, so I ran to the closet. There was a long time of bangs and shouting, then it got really quiet, and I got really scared when mommy and daddy didn’t come back. Then you found me, Miss Suture! Do you know where my parents are?”

Suture looked up to me, a questioning look in her eye. “It looked like the whole town was in the square,” I answered, careful to keep the explanation to a minimum to spare the filly, “I don’t think anypony else is here, except us.”

Suture nodded sadly and looked down at Sunflower. “I’m sorry, dear, but I don’t think your parents are going to be coming back,” she said slowly, putting as much light-heartedness as she could manage into the words, “They went somewhere warm, to be with the Princesses.”

“But, they wouldn’t leave without me!” the filly protested, tearing herself up and away from Suture’s embrace and standing defiantly before her, frowning, “They would come back for me! Mommy always said she wouldn’t go anywhere without me! I need to go find her!”

Before any of us could react, the filly turned and took off, tearing out of our rickety shelter and pushing through the mud towards the town square. All of us jumped up to go after her, but got tangled up in each other and tumbled to the ground. Before any of us could think to say anything, the filly disappeared around a corner and was gone from sight.

“Fuck! I’ll go get her! Stay here, I’ll be able to explain what happened better than any of you!” I ordered, pulling myself free of the pile of limbs and striding out into the rain.

I made it barely three steps when somepony was at my side. “I’m coming with you. I’m the only other one who knows what it’s like to lose your parents before your eyes, as you well know, Evergreen,” Autumn announced. For once, her tone wasn’t accusatory, but rather sympathetic, “I want this filly to turn out better than we did.”

I nodded at the mare, and picked up my pace, trusting her to keep up with me. “Then let’s go. I think I know where she went.” I took off down the street, making for the town square.

True to my expectation, we found Sunflower sitting before the pile of bodies, crying softly to herself, simply staring at the pile. The fire had finally gone out, and the last wisps of smoke curling from the top of the pile were immediately dampened by the rain. Autumn and I slowed to a stop at the edge of the square, watching the young filly while she loosed her heart into the biting wind.

“Let me talk to her for a few moments alone,” I said softly, feeling emotions I hadn’t known until recently rising in my chest, “I know you understand what she’s going through, but I need this, and so does she.”

“All right,” the dark mare answered, nodding at me, “Just motion when you want me to come over.”

I returned her nod and strode forward until I was standing at the filly’s side, where I sat down and stared up at the pile of bodies. I held my silence for a long while, letting her be the first to speak. It was her responsibility to want to come out of this.

“My parents really aren’t coming back, are they?” the filly finally asked, snuffling quietly as she tried to chase away her tears.

“I’m so sorry you had to learn this way, Sunflower,” I answered, looking down at the ground between my hooves, watching as the rainwater coursed down my legs to mix with the mud that was already there, “I know it doesn’t help, but we are here for you, and I understand what you must be feeling. We will take care of you, I promise.”

“My parents were good ponies. Nopony would ever want to hurt them,” Sunflower protested, “Everypony loved them.”

“I’m sure they did, little one, but the sad truth is that ponies don’t have to hate each other to hurt each other. My parents were killed just as senselessly when I was about your age, in a raider attack on the town we were moving to,” I explained, “I can’t think of a single pony that had a problem with them, but that didn’t stop it from happening.”

The filly started to cry again, softly this time. “Daddy warned me to not trust strangers. He told me they weren’t nice ponies, but you seem nice, if a little scary, Miss Evergreen.”

I chuckled lightly at the words. “Yeah, I guess I am scary,” I agreed, smiling, “but you can trust me, Sun. My friends and I are here to help, I promise. We won’t let anything else bad happen to you.”

“Ok,” the filly said, trailing off into silence. We stood quietly in the shadow of the bodies for a short while, simply keeping each other company as we shared what I could only think were the same thoughts. My mind was firmly set on the last few days I had spent with my parents, and the naïve joy I had felt as a filly. I had felt like nothing would be able to stand against my family.

A short time later, Autumn Mist came up and sat down on the other side of the young filly. “How are you doing, kid?” she asked, pitching her voice to sound like an older sibling.

“I feel so alone,” Sunflower answered quietly, “Miss Evergreen is keeping me company. She told me she lost her parents, too.”

“Yeah, she did. So did a lot of ponies. Mine were taken from me a long time ago. It ain’t easy, but the way I see it, everything happens for a reason. The Princesses wouldn’t do this to us if it didn’t mean something, you know. Everything will come together in the end, I know it. I’ve lived it.”

I looked up at those words, and caught Autumn Mist looking over at me, a knowing look in her eye. I nodded at the mare, recognizing what she was saying, and got a small nod in return, but we left it at that. This time wasn’t for us.

“Really? What did the Princesses do to you?” Sunflower asked, looking up at the dark mare with a hopeful tone in her voice.

“They led me to Evergreen, who in turn showed me how a pony’s life should be lived. She taught me what it means to have friends, and to have something in life to work for. As hard as I know it is to accept, I know your parents wouldn’t want you to grieve too much over their passing. They would want you to find your own path in life, and then to follow that path, helping as many ponies along the way as you could,” Autumn answered, reaching out with a hoof to ruffle the filly’s mane, “That’s what it means to be a pony after all: We look out for each other, help each other, and make sure we can live the best lives we can. What we see around us is ponies forgetting that.”

“I… I think I understand, Autumn Mist,” the filly announced, sitting up straighter and wiping away her tears, “I miss mommy and daddy, but they protected me. And now you’re going to protect me, right?”

“Yeah, I guess we are,” Autumn said, smiling down at her, “Now come on, we should get in out of this rain. We don’t want you to get sick, do we?”

The filly shook her head adamantly, then lifted herself to her hooves and started back towards out shelter. Autumn Mist and I stood and followed after her.

“Thank you for that, Autumn. I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say something like that,” I said, pitching my voice to keep the filly from hearing us. I didn’t want her to start wondering at how our parents had been killed.

“I spent enough of my life denying the truth. I figured it’s about damn time I started accepting it when it stares me in the face, you know?” the dark mare said, shrugging, “You did teach me that stuff, as hard as those lessons were to learn. Now let’s go. I fucking hate the rain.”

I chuckled lightly as Autumn Mist picked up her pace and trotted after her, making for what little warmth and cover our shelter would provide from the elements.

Once inside the shelter, I found that Crosswire and Suture had taken the time we were outside to prepare our meal: some pre-war food that we would need to eat cold. It was getting pretty bad if I was missing the hot food that Pearlescent served us. I was starting to get used to luxury.

“Are you okay, Sunflower?” Suture asked once we were all settled and eating, “You were awfully upset.”

The filly nodded and answered around a full mouth of snack cake, “Mhm! Miss Evergreen and Autumn sat with me and showed me how I wasn’t alone. They told me that they lost their families, too.”

“Isn’t that nice of them. I hope they told you that you aren’t alone now, as well,” the medic said, reaching out and pulling the filly close to her.

“They did. I’m going to miss them, but like Autumn Mist said, the Princesses wouldn’t have allowed it to happen if it didn’t mean something.”

“And she was right, now, get some rest. You must be exhausted,” Suture told her, holding her in a tight embrace until she drifted off to sleep.

Once the filly was snoring, she looked to the rest of us. “I would recommend we all get some rest as well. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

We all let out a general noise of consensus, then allowed ourselves to drift off to sleep, confident in the ruin of the town to keep us protected from predators. After all, there was almost nothing left here that would be a draw to scavengers.

We woke early the next morning and packed up our gear, taking only a few minutes to eat a brief meal before stepping out into the ruins. The wind had almost entirely stopped, and the rain with it, leaving us with nothing more than a few stray drops in an otherwise cloudy day.

As we were making ready to set out for Metro, I realized there was something I had never thought to do. “Sunflower,” I called out, getting the filly’s attention. She still looked sad, but the lines of despair that had been etched in the lines of her body were gone. It seemed as though she was starting to recover from her loss, “I need to ask you something, and it probably isn’t going to be an easy question to answer.”

Suture shot me an annoyed glare, obviously disapproving of my need to talk to the little filly. “Do you really need to do this now, Evergreen? The poor filly has been traumatized! Can’t it wait until we get back to Metro?”

I could understand her feeling. It had been only a very short time since this filly had everything taken away from her, but that didn’t change the fact that I still hadn’t learned what I had come here to learn. “I’m sorry, Suture, but we came here for a reason. I haven’t fulfilled that yet. Sunflower, can you tell me everything you know about the strangers that came here?”

“You mean the ones that… did all of this?” the filly asked, looking about the wreckage with a frightened look. It looked like she was straining her eyes, searching for the ponies responsible.

“Yes. I need to know about them. It’s part of my job, and I can’t stop them from doing this somewhere else if I don’t know about them,” I answered, walking up to her and lowering myself down to her level so I could look her in the eye.

“Oh. Well, the seemed really nice at first, like I said before. They kept talking to Mister Contract every day, asking him weird questions, but I can’t remember what they were, and mommy wouldn’t let me get too close to them when they were talking. Then, one day, they got mad at something Mister Contract said and left. They came back a few days later, and…” the filly answered, her eyes starting to well up with tears.

I reached out and held the filly close. “Sssh, it’s okay, Sunflower. You’re safe now. That’s all I need to know. Thank you.”

“Did… Did it help?” the filly asked, snuffling slightly and looking up at me with wide eyes.

“Yes, it did. I think I have a better idea of what happened here,” I said, letting the filly go and rising back up to my hooves.

“You think it was Seahawk?” Crosswire asked me, coming up on my side and gazing out over the wreckage, towards the forest a short distance past the town’s edge.

“It has to be. Everything we know about him so far supports what those ponies were doing. I think he contracted Greymane to work on the settlements farther out towards Seaddle, and had a group of ponies out here, hoping to grab this first town without a fight, and without anypony else knowing. They certainly did a good job keeping anything from getting back west,” I answered, thinking on everything we had learned.

“But how can we be sure it was Seahawk? It could be any gang looking to expand their territory and influence. What proof do we have it was him?” the tech insisted, starting to growl.

“We don’t,” I shot back, “Except for the knowledge that he looks for the peaceful option first. Like he told Greymane, find out what they want to swear allegiance. If they don’t, kill them. My guess is that the ponies that came here tried to convince Contract to ally with them, but got angry when he kept refusing them. They torched the town as a result. It all fits.”

“I suppose, but it just seems… excessive. From everything we’ve seen and heard, Seahawk is looking to take over, not destroy, Seaddle. How does killing a whole town help him?”

“It’s an example, a show of force. Now, everypony will know that if they cross him, he has the strength to wipe them from existence,” I said, following Crosswire’s gaze out to the forest. For a moment, I thought I could make out a few shapes at the base of the trees, but when I blinked my eyes, they disappeared.

“But that doesn’t make sense!” Crosswire argued, “He attacked this town in such a way that nopony would have found out, and we have no way of knowing who is responsible, not for sure!”

“That might just be the point,” I explained, “When he does make his plans known to the rest of the towns, he can point to here and say he has the power to wipe out a town without anypony being the wiser. A very effective strategy, if you ask me. It lends him the strength of mystery, in addition to power.”

“Humph, I suppose you have a point. I guess I just want more solid evidence,” Crosswire said, shrugging. He turned away and started walking, making for the western edge of the town, where the road was that would take us to Metro.

“Yeah, I hear that,” I muttered, turning and following after him.

I took one last, wistful look over my shoulder towards the forest, and stopped dead in my tracks. Once again, I could make out some dim shapes that were slowly gaining in definition. They looked vaguely pony shaped, and looked to be approaching the town.

“Hey, everyone, head’s up! We’ve got company!” I announced, waving to everypony and getting them to join me, then pointing out towards the approaching shadows.

“If they are the one’s responsible for this, they won’t have long to gloat,” Autumn Mist growled as she pulled out her rifle and chambered a round.

“Agreed. This atrocity is beyond forgiveness,” Steel Curtain intoned, unclipping his helmet from his side and pulling it onto his head, making him appear intimidatingly impersonal.

“Let’s just wait and see what they want. If they are the ones that did this, I have no objection to taking them out, but I want to know why first,” I announced, turning from my friends to watch the shadows approach us.

It appeared as though they were beginning to slow as they came upon the ruins and caught sight of us watching them. Now that they were closer, it was much easier to make out details. There were six of them, and it looks as though they were very well equipped, with sturdy combat armor and well-maintained weapons. Three of them were Earth Ponies, two others were unicorns, and the last was a Pegasus, a rare enough sight in the wasteland that I did a double take to make sure that my eyes weren’t fooling me.

Slowly, the group approached us, all of them obviously wary of us, the Pegasus in particular watching Steel Curtain. When they were about twenty yards away from us, they came to a stop, and a single unicorn stepped forward.

She had a golden yellow hide and pink mane and was wearing a mean expression. Attached to her armor was an assault shotgun with a drum clip, the kind of weapon that could shred just about anything at close range.

“Tell me who you are and what you are doing here,” She announced angrily, looking from one of us to the next, probably trying to figure out who was in charge.

“My name is Evergreen, and my friends and I came down here to check on the town, since it hasn’t been heard from in some time. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about what happened here, would you?” I asked pointedly.

The mare shrugged noncommittally and fixed her glare on me. “I might, or I might not,” she said simply, “And I see no reason to share that knowledge with you lot.”

“I would strongly suggest that you tell us what you know, lady. You’re badly outgunned, and we aren’t happy with what we see here. So far, everything looks to be pointing at you,” Autumn growled, swinging her rifle around so it was pointing in the mare’s general direction.

“And I would just as strongly suggest that you point that gun somewhere else, bitch. You only think we’re outgunned, but you don’t have a single clue of what we are capable of,” the mare snapped, her horn lighting up with magic and pulling out her shotgun.

“You know, I can remember every single time somepony said those exact words to me,” I growled, “And they are all fucking dead. Now talk. I’m not going to ask again.” Things were very quickly degenerating, but this mare was just as responsible for that as we were. She certainly wasn’t denying that she was responsible for the atrocity.

“You really want to know what happened here?” the mare snapped, “Look around. You should get your answer just fine.”

“Hey, Lemon Snack, be careful. That guy looks like he’s Enclave,” the Pegasus chimed in, stepping forward until he was standing just to the side of the yellow mare. He was watching Steel Curtain with a careful glare, several emotions flitting across his face. His hide was a minty green in color, and his mane was white with streaks of turquoise running through it.

“You think I didn’t see him?” Lemon Snack snapped at the Pegasus, sparing him the briefest of glares before turning her gaze back to us, “Fucker isn’t going to try anything, and we have the weapons we need to take him down if he does.”

“Why have you allied yourself with these ponies?” Steel Curtain demanded, his voice muffled through the helmet, altering it enough that the only reason I knew it was his was because he was standing beside me, “They act without honor or decency. We are supposed to be better than that!”

“The fuck would you know about it, army?” the Pegasus sneered, “Enclave are a bunch of fucking hypocritical jackasses. They claim they want to help, then they sit on their damned tailfeathers waiting for something to change.”

“He isn’t a part of the Enclave anymore,” I interjected, “he just managed to get out before they could take his armor and guns.”

“Bullshit. They’d kill him before they would let him leave with their gear. Fucker is lying, he has to be,” the Pegasus shot back.

“Oh they certainly tried, up until they realized they’d need to bomb all of Cirrus to get me. One thing I will hand to the politicians: they know how to cozy up to the people to stay in power. Once I got them to pull their forces far enough back that the city wasn’t in danger, I broke for the surface. Command back in Stormfront is smart enough that they didn’t chase after me. They aren’t ready for action on the surface, after all,” Steel Curtain explained.

“Likely story. I used to serve in the army, before I ditched ‘em,” the Pegasus announced, turning so that the lightning bolt brand on his flank was visible, “Command wouldn’t let somepony like you get away without a fight.”

“Unless someone stopped them before they could chase me,” Steel Curtain shot back, “Trust me, I left, and they didn’t follow. If they had, I probably wouldn’t be here. I have no illusions of what they are capable of.”

“I’m sure you two are enjoying your reunion, but some of us have real work to do!” Lemon Snack exclaimed, cutting the exchange short, “Starshine, get back to the group.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Pegasus growled, glaring at Steel Curtain for another moment before turning and striding back to the other ponies.

“Tell me straight,” I said, stepping forward until there was only a few feet between me and Lemon Snack, “Did you torch this town?”

The mare sneered at me, manipulating the shotgun so it was pointing at me, “I might have had a hoof in that. What’s it to you?”

“The fact that none of the ponies here deserved that. You murdered a whole town of ponies simply trying to survive,” I growled, widening my stance slightly and preparing myself to jump. I had already made up my mind that these ponies were responsible for the attack. All that was left was to hear one last piece of information.

“So what, you’re some kind of do-gooder?” Lemon Snack demanded, “What did they mean to you?”

“Absolutely nothing, but that’s not the point. The point is doing what’s right. Now tell me this: did Seahawk tell you to do it?”

For a split second, the mare seemed taken aback, but she quickly regained her composure. “So somepony out there managed to figure out what’s happening, eh? Well, congratu-fucking-lations. You can’t stop the coming flood. By the time we’re done, Seaddle will be a shining light in a world of nothing but darkness!”

“All you’ll get for your trouble is the hatred of the ponies here! We have the right to choose our own path forward! Who is Seahawk to take that away from us?” I snapped angrily, lowering my body and preparing to jump.

“He is the bearer of deliverance. He is the one who will pull us from the mire of destruction and death and give us life!” Lemon Snack announced, smiling wickedly, “And he pays really well to remove self-important bitches like you who think you can stop him.”

“Well, I think I’ve heard all I need to,” I growled, “Now it’s time for you to pay for your crimes here.”

The mare started to laugh and was just about to answer when I jumped forward, pulling my knife from its sheath while I did. I collided with her, my greater strength driving her to the ground. Just before her magic grip on the shotgun broke, she pulled the trigger once, raking my hindquarters with lead shot.

Once on the ground, we grappled with each other, fighting for dominance. For a unicorn, she was much stronger than she appeared, and was actually able to keep me from easily gaining the advantage as we struggled against each other. In the background, I could hear the familiar retorts of Autumn’s and Crosswire’s weapons as they battled against the other ponies, as well as the distinctive noise that Steel Curtain’s guns produced. I couldn’t imagine the battle taking long with that kind of fire power on our side.

All the same, the sounds of battle seemed to continue on much longer than they should have as Lemon Snack and I rolled about on the ground. I had managed to give her several small lacerations, the kind of injuries that were painful, but were no real danger. In turn, she had managed to hit me hard in the side and head a few times, making my vision swim and forcing me to gasp for air.

In a desperate attempt at something stupid, I shifted my weight to the side, making us roll back to where the shotgun had fallen. Lemon Snack was on the bottom as we rolled over it, jarring her up and breaking her grip on me slightly, giving me a precious second to lunge forward with my knife and bury it in the nearest bit of meat available, which happened to be her shoulder. I released the blade, freeing up my mouth for other actions, and released the mare, sending me rolling another foot to the side while she writhed in agony, trying to pull the knife from her shoulder.

In the few seconds the maneuver bought me, I sprang to my hooves and lunged forward for the shotgun, shoving Lemon Snack to the side and tumbling back down to the ground, forcing my knife even farther into her as she landed on it. I scrambled with the large weapon for a few precious seconds, trying to figure out how to hold it in my mouth and aim it at the same time, before finally settling on holding the trigger in my mouth and steadying the rest of the gun on an outstretched hoof. It wasn’t comfortable, but it would do the job.

By this time, Lemon Snack had given up on trying to get my knife free and stood up, her injured leg held off the ground. She turned to face me and leapt forward in an obvious attempt at the same move I had used against her, except I had an advantage she didn’t: S.A.T.S.

I slipped into the timelessness of the spell, using the time it gave me to line up a single shot of the shotgun against her chest. My chance to hit was abysmally low: a clear indication of my lack of skill with this kind of weapon, but at this range, accuracy shouldn’t need to matter. I activated the spell, and the shotgun kicked in my jaw, nearly sending me reeling to the ground with the power of its shot, but the spray of shot spread out where I intended it to go, practically shredding Lemon Snack with the sheer volume of lead and making her fall to the ground, too weak to even attempt anything else.

I cast the shotgun aside and pulled out Hammer before approaching the mare, preferring a weapon I actually knew how to use. She was struggling weakly on the ground, straining to get to her hooves and continue the fight. When I stepped up to her, she looked up to me, seeing her fate sealed in my glare.

“This is the price a murderer like you pays,” I growled as I took aim, then pulled the trigger, ending the mare’s life with a single shot.

Lemon Snack taken care of, I turned my attention to the fight around me, three of the other ponies were dead, either through headshots from Autumn, or from being blasted by a combination of fire from Steel Curtain and Crosswire. The two that were left were an Earth Pony buck wielding a Sawed-Off shotgun and the Pegasus, Starshine, who was swooping about in the sky, sending down occasional blasts of automatic fire from his SMG.

The Earth Pony had huddled behind a small slab of stone that provided just enough cover to keep Autumn from getting a clear shot at him, and both Steel Curtain and Crosswire were suppressing Starshine, keeping him from getting too close to Autumn.

I ran over to the rough triangle my friends had formed, stepping into the middle and spitting Hammer out into its holster. “Autumn, try to hit the Pegasus! Crosswire, cover her and keep him from getting to close! Steel Curtain, I want you to suppress the Earth Pony behind that wall. Buy me a few seconds to get closer.”

Almost immediately, my orders were carried out as they shifted their fire. With the wall now being pockmarked with hundreds of rounds, I dashed forward a short distance, just within range of what I should be able to buck a grenade, and pulled out one of the apple-shaped explosives. I pulled the stem and tossed it into the air, bucking it up and over the wall. There was a surprised shout and the sound of somepony scrambling to get away before it detonated, eliciting a high-pitched shriek, then nothing.

A second later, as I was galloping towards the wall to make sure the buck was well and truly dead, Autumn’s rifle fired and she let out an excited shout. “I hit him!” she exclaimed, “And he’s coming down hard!”

“Get to him when he crashes and if he’s still alive, bind him! I still have some questions that need answers!” I shouted as I rounded the wall.

Before me, the Earth Pony buck lay dead on the ground, two of his limbs severed by the blast. In just a few moments, I had stripped every worthwhile piece of gear from his body and was heading back towards my friends, who had dragged the injured and bound Pegasus over to the small bit of open land that lay outside of our shelter.

The sounds of battle now gone, Suture and Sunflower crawled out of the shelter to look around the battlefield, the former instantly running towards us to check for injuries.

While she checked the few minor injuries Crosswire and Autumn had sustained, Steel Curtain and I focused on Starshine. Autumn’s bullet had hit near the joint where his wing connected to the rest of his body, destroying a lot of the structure of the wing and making the limb hang over his body, practically useless. The crash had left the Pegasus with a number of other injuries, though he had enough control to keep anything from being too badly damaged.

“It is a sad day when two Pegasi are firing at each other in anger,” Steel Curtain intoned, striding up to Starshine and pulling his helmet off. His mane was streaked with sweat, causing it to cling to his head like a helmet, very different than the live fire it had seemed to be when we met.

“Fuck! Steel Curtain, what the fuck are you doing here!” Starshine exclaimed on seeing the buck’s face.

“Looking for other Dashites, like you,” he answered, “Now that you see who I am, do you believe me when I say I deserted?”

“Fuck, I guess I don’t have a choice. Why the fuck did you desert, though? I know you were unhappy with a lot of shit, but I didn’t think you were this unhappy,” Starshine said, doing a good job of hiding the pain he was undoubtedly feeling.

“Because Lieutenant Sunbeam tried to make me take part in a branding, when I had made it absolutely clear I would have nothing to do with that. I have been against the practice since I was first made aware of it. Exiling soldiers because of basic violations is ridiculous and wrong. The commanders were willing to accept that much, and kept me away from it, though they never stopped,” Steel Curtain explained.

I remained quiet, letting the two Pegasi speak. They obviously knew each other, and I wanted to take the opportunity to get to know a bit more about Steel Curtain. He had been quiet and withdrawn, offering nothing about himself, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn. I had already found out more that he was likely to share on his own if I were asking.

“I can’t imagine she was happy with that,” Starshine said, “What happened?”

“She said I would be part of the next round if I refused, so I agreed with her. I said that I was perfectly willing to exile myself to the surface, but that I would not allow the privates before me to be harmed. When she disagreed with that, I turned my guns on her and made sure she wouldn’t be able to follow through with exiling those poor kids. They were barely even old enough to enlist.”

“Fuck! Guess that explains why they pulled enough firepower after you to level Cirrus. They must be pissed at you!”

“Not pissed enough to risk an incident with the surface. If there’s one thing Command knows, it’s that any hostile contact with the surface will result in all of the towns banding together against us,” Steel Curtain said, “And I am perfectly okay with that. I am making it my responsibility to find all the soldiers that were exiled this way and bring them together. It’s unlikely that they will be welcomed back to the Enclave, given that they’ve been branded, but that doesn’t mean they can’t come together down here.”

“Fair enough, and I would be interested in helping with that, as long as that angry friend of yours doesn’t put a bullet in my head,” Starshine said, looking at me with a wary glance.

Steel Curtain followed his glare and said, “I’m sure she would be willing to put your crimes here aside if you pledge yourself to helping them.”

The silence that followed was tense with meaning. I knew exactly what Steel Curtain meant by the statement, even if he didn’t know the entirety of my past. “I suppose I can’t say no. You promise not to do anything like this again? And you promise to put aside any vow of loyalty to Seahawk?”

“Yeah, if it keeps you from shooting me, I promise,” Starshine said, nodding vigorously, “Now, would you mind untying me?”

I grumbled quietly to myself while I walked back over to Lemon Snack’s body, wrenched my knife out of her shoulder, then walked back to Starshine and cut the ropes holding him.

The green Pegasus gingerly got back to his feet, wincing as his wing fell open. “Thanks, I guess. So, Steel Curtain, what were you thinking of doing with the Dashites? I kinda need a plan if I’m going to be working with them.”

“Survive. I don’t see what else we can do. At this point, our concern should be making the ponies of the wasteland see that we are not all like the rest of the Enclave,” Steel Curtain answered gruffly, “My suggestion would be to find as many as you can and start a new settlement, far enough removed that you can have your privacy, but close enough to trade.”

“Yeah, sure, I can do that,” Starshine said, nodding, “And I’ve got a few good locales in mind. If I could asked for one last thing, could you get that medic of yours to take a look at my wing?”

“Sure,” I answered, turning to look for Suture. She was working on stitching up a gunshot wound on Autumn’s flank, but was close to being done. “Hey, Suture, when you’re done with Autumn, could you come over here and give me a hoof?”

“Of course! Just a moment!” the medic answered, finishing up with the stitching. A few moments later, she was walking over. “Oh, you let him up. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Starshine is helping Steel Curtain with the Dashites in the area. Apparently, they know each other from when they were both still a part of the Enclave. They want to gather the Dashites together and start a community, start to work to give Pegasi a better image with the wastelanders,” I explained, “but he needs his wing to be looked at before he can go.”

“I see. He won’t cause any problems down the line?” Suture asked, looking at the mint green Pegasus with a wary eye before approaching and looking at his wing.

“I gave my word not to. I’m on the straight and narrow now. Don’t want your angry friend here to find a reason to shoot me,” Starshine announced, his voice strained as Suture manipulated his wing, observing the damage.

“The name is Evergreen, and I’m not going to shoot you, unless you give me a reason to later. I believe in justice, not murder. This work you are doing isn’t a free pass. It’s an offer at redeeming what you had a hoof in causing here. Don’t forget that,” I growled. The buck had to at least understand why his actions had been so terrible.

“Yeah, I won’t be forgetting this place anytime soon. Seahawk is biting off more than he can chew for sure if there are ponies like you standing against him,” Starshine said, lifting his hooves in a gesture of placation.

“What do you know about him?” I asked, “I’ve heard only rumors and the over-zealous rantings of both Lemon Snack here and Greymane.”

“Fuck, you crossed Greymane?! How the hell are you still alive?” Starshine asked, a surprised look on his face.

“Because there are more of us than there are of him. And that is not to say that he didn’t almost kill us all. We underestimated him, but he underestimated me as well. Now, what do you know about Seahawk?” I demanded.

Starshine sighed and lifted a hoof to run through his mane before he answered, “Geez, the fucker keeps himself distant even from those of us doing his work for him. Only ponies I can think of that have actually talked face-to-face with him are Greymane and a fucker that goes by the name Mareina. She’s a real piece of work.”

“Mareina? Who’s that? It doesn’t sound like any kind of name I’ve ever heard before,” I said, bringing my tone back to a more even level. There was no need to be interrogating the buck anymore.

“That’s cause she ain’t a pony. She’s a griffin, and a right mean one. She’s in charge of a whole crew of mercs; call themselves the Razor Wings, or Razors, for short. Every single one of them are tough, mean bastards that’ll kill you as much as look at you, and Mareina is the meanest of all. You ever cross her, you better be sure you can win.”

“Just like Greymane,” I muttered, nodding to Starshine in gratitude, “I’ll keep that in mind. You sure there’s nothing else you can tell us about Seahawk?”

“Nothing more than you already know. Like I said, bastard likes to keep to himself. Now, if we’re done here, I’d kinda like to get a move on,” Starshine said, furling up his wings as soon as Suture released him and pawing impatiently at the ground with a hoof.

“Fine, just remember your promises,” I said, “And good travels.”

“Make sure to keep off that wing for at least two weeks! It needs time to heal!” Suture put in before the buck could take off.

“Will do, and I will remember my promise. Soldier’s honor, if that even means anything anymore,” Starshine answered nodding his thanks at the medic, “Good travels to you as well. I’ll be sure to get a message to one of the major towns once I’m established. You should hear from me then.”

With that, the buck turned and started trotting away, heading towards the northwest, and quickly dwindled to little more than a dot on the horizon.

“So now you know my past,” Steel Curtain announced suddenly once the other buck was gone, “Nearly as bad as your own.”

“I highly doubt that,” I answered with a cynical laugh, “All you did was put a town in the way of danger. I’m probably directly responsible for the dissolution of at least three, if not their complete destruction. Not quite anything on this scale, but there it is all the same.”

“I suppose so. I apologize for my secrecy before. You can never know who to trust in the wasteland,” he said quietly, hanging his head, “And I want to clear the air, so I’m going to explain what Starshine and I were talking about, concerning the branding.”

“I hope you can talk and walk at the same time. We have quite a bit of ground to cover if we want to make it to Metro before nightfall,” I said, turning and heading to where Crosswire and Autumn were sitting, cleaning and reloading their weapons.

“I saw you let that Pegasus go after my beautiful shot,” Autumn complained, sliding a fresh clip into her rifle and chambering a round before sliding the whole thing into the strap on her back.

“He agreed to help Steel Curtain with something. They knew each other, so I figured it was a good idea not to put a bullet in his head. Besides, what he’s doing will only help us in the long run,” I answered, “Now, you guys ready to get moving, we’ve got quite a ways to go.”

“Ready and waiting,” Crosswire announced, getting up and sliding his SMG into its holster on his barding.

In the next few minutes, we were gathered together and leaving the ruins of the town of Buckview behind, making our way back to the road and Metro.

“So, basically, the leadership of the Enclave military made the decision to start branding and exiling junior soldiers for breaches in code, or any semi-serious breaking of the rules. None of us non-commissioned officers could figure out why, and if the officers knew, they weren’t talking, Sunbeam especially. I made it clear I would have nothing to do with it, as becoming a Dashite is generally a personal decision, and the brand is simply meant as a deterrent, to keep ponies from making that choice. Hell, who actually wants to get their cutie mark burned off?” Steel Curtain explained once we were well on our way.

For once, it seemed as though our journey would be relatively quiet, but that didn’t mean that we would be lowering our guard. The trail we were following was just as decayed as the one we had followed the day before; odd, considering that it had kept a well-maintained trade route with Metro through the caravans. At least it seemed fairly clear of raiders, which was a welcome change for once.

“All right, I can understand that, but why the sudden shift in policy? That’s what doesn’t make sense to me,” I asked. That was the one point of the explanation that I simply could not understand, despite Steel Curtain’s attempts to explain.

“Neither could any of us. I have my theories, but none of them can be confirmed until I come across some ponies exiled that way. Starshine is an average, run-of-the-mill Dashite that chose to leave the Enclave, as I have, but there are plenty of others that aren’t. One of the reasons I want to gather them all together is to keep anything Command has planned to as small of an effect as I can.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, “What could the Enclave have planned?”

“Well, I think they may be using the branding and exiling as an excuse to get eyes on the ground, and as the settlements tend to be accepting of Dashites, as I’ve seen, it would be an easy way to get spies into places usual soldiers wouldn’t be able to. I think somepony in the Enclave leadership is looking to learn more about the surface, though I can’t imagine for what purpose,” Steel Curtain answered.

“Fair enough,” I answered, “So now I have this mystery of Seahawk on my hooves, as well as this new mystery of what the Enclave is trying to do, which is even more ill-defined than the threats we already know.”

“Basically,” Steel Curtain confirmed, nodding curtly.

“Well, I guess all we can really do is keep our eyes open and keep plugging along as we have been. By the way, if you want it, you’re free to keep traveling with us. I could use someone with your kind of firepower,” I offered, shooting a look at the buck.

“I would be honored to accept, Evergreen,” he answered, bowing to me in midstride, “You have my services at your disposal.”

The rest of our journey passed in relative silence, with all of us focusing our gazes on the surrounding landscape, keeping our eyes open for any danger that might show itself. Sunflower was riding on Suture’s back, keeping quiet and most likely still grieving for her home. I was fairly sure that it was the first time she had ever had to leave, and I knew how terrifying that could be.

Evening was just falling when the shanty-town surrounding Metro became visible, and it was only a short journey from there until we were picking our way through the lopsided buildings to the actual gate of the town. On seeing us, the guard on duty grinned widely and stepped to the side, giving us passage through.

“Good to see you all back in one piece!” she announced jovially, “The mayor is really looking forward to talking to you all!”

“We’ll be sure to make his office our first stop!” I called out in response, stepping past her and descending the stairway to the underground city.

Once we were inside the city itself, Steel Curtain became noticeably quieter and kept glancing about nervously.

“You all right?” I asked, actually concerned for the buck. Until this point, he had always seemed calm and collected, and now he was as jumpy as a young colt.

“I don’t like not being able to see the sky,” he answered, “It makes me uncomfortable.”

“You mean you’re afraid of being underground?” I asked, chuckling at his expense.

“I didn’t say that!” he protested immediately, puffing his chest out, “I said it makes me uncomfortable. It’s a totally differently thing!”

“Sure it is!” I exclaimed, laughing. Everypony else joined in, and for a brief moment, the horrors of our world were forgotten.

Unfortunately, we had to come back to reality once we arrived at the mayor’s office, though we didn’t have to wait once we got there. We were immediately ushered in to his office, where he was waiting for us behind his desk, a wide grin on his face.

“Ah, Evergreen, you’re back! I’m excited to hear what Millberry has to say! The radio definitely had a lot to say about you!” he announced happily, getting up from his seat and walking around the table to shake my hoof.

“You heard that, did you?” I asked, grinning awkwardly.

“I certainly did! Every last word. You should be commended for your valorous work. Now, Millberry: what is their response?” the mayor asked, returning to his seat.

“Yes, for now,” I answered, pulling out the agreement the governor had given to me and sliding it across the table, “All he wants to cement the agreement is a water purifier. We went to Stable 60 to try to find one, but theirs had been destroyed.”

The mayor took a few moments to grab the paper and read it, and his grin expanded to a full smile while he did so. “Wonderful! Thank you for trying to fulfill the agreement in its entirety. It is regrettable that it wasn’t possible. I’ll go through my contacts and see if I can locate a spare purifier for them. Now, I believe I owe you this,” the mayor exclaimed, pulling out a sizeable pouch and sliding it across the table towards me.

I tentatively reached out a hoof and grabbed the pouch. It felt heavy and clinked when I moved it. I pulled open the drawstring and peered in, and was met with a sight of hundreds of caps stacked together.

“Three thousand caps, just as we agreed!” the mayor said happily, “And I consider it money well spent. Now, I would suggest going out, getting something to eat, and getting a good night’s rest. You all look like you could use it! We’ll discuss our future partnership tomorrow, when you all have had time to rest. You’ll want your wits about you when we discuss it.”

“Sure,” I answered slowly, still dumbfounded by the fortune I was holding in my hooves, “Oh, there’s something you should know: Buckview is gone. The entire town has been demolished, and almost everypony there was killed. The only survivor is this little filly, Sunflower,” I said, gesturing to the filly, “Seahawk’s forces are responsible. He’s starting to make his moves.”

The mayor fell silent and adopted a thoughtful expression as he considered the new information. “This is terrible news,” he finally said, “Please, tell me everything.”

I related the entire story of what we had seen and done in Buckview, beginning with our arrival at the town and ending with our release of the Pegasus buck, Starshine. The tale took far longer than I would have expected as I wanted to be sure the mayor knew all the details.

When I finally finished, the mayor was sitting in shocked silence. “I had heard the rumors, of course,” he finally said, his voice an echo of the sad expression on his face, “but to hear them confirmed is simply… terrible. I’ll need to think on this. I’ll take the evening to think on this, and we’ll talk in the morning. I trust Suture will see that you are taken care of?”

The mare nodded quickly in response, and after a few quick ‘Good nights’ we were walking out the door. As we were about to leave office, the mayor called out to me, “Evergreen, thank you for your work. We would not be in as nearly a good position as we are without you. Metro will always be open to you.”

“Thank you, mayor,” I said, nodding gratefully and stepping out the door.

As a group, we made our way to Suture’s infirmary, where she provided each of us with a bed before leaving for a few minutes before returning with a few plates of food and some clean drinking water, a veritable feast for the wasteland. Once we were all settled and eating, she started rooting through her cabinets and chests, pulling out her more specialized medical supplies and treating our various injuries properly, rather than the quick field dressings and healing potions that we had been using so far.

By the time she was done with her work, I felt like every injury I had received in the last few days was fully healed. It was truly incredible the effect being properly taken care of could have on a pony.

In the downtime we had, we talked about everything we had seen, most notably the ponies we had helped and how we thought they would recover. Suture was vehemently optimistic about Hat Trick, even though it was unlikely that he would ever fully recover. As for Starshine, we were split. Suture, Steel Curtain, and I all believed he would hold to his promise and contribute to the progression of the wasteland, but Crosswire and Autumn Mist were cynical and reserved, not wanting to trust him, especially after what he had helped to do to Buckview. In the end, we simply agreed to disagree, until his actions could prove either of us right.

From there, the evening took a much more pleasant spin, with all of us swapping jokes and light-hearted tales, and generally just enjoying each other’s company. Even though he was a new member of our group, Steel Curtain managed to make himself a part of the interaction, even if he refused to remove his armor, saying it would be too much of a hassle to get back on in the morning. By the time we were getting ready to sleep, I had nearly forgotten about all of my troubles, and I couldn’t have been happier about that. The last few days had been truly terrifying and sobering, and I needed the few moments of joy that my friends could bring.

Level up!
Perk Gained – Gunslinger: You’re accuracy with pistols and similar small arms in S.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
Skill Note: Explosives (50)

{Well, I finally managed to get this chapter to the length I’m planning on having most of the rest of the story be (about 40 pages in a Word document, if anyone cares), so the rest of the chapters should be right about this length, give or take a bit. As always, thanks to Kkat for the creation of Fallout: Equestria, and thanks to Cody and MUCKSTER for editing. You guys are the best. Again, I have set up a hub page for the story here. Feel free to check it out.)