Fallout Equestria: Redemption
Author: Cooperdawg
Chapter Eight: Loose Ends
“Our Past is what defines us.”

With the coming of morning came the understanding that I would be getting a new job as well. I had spent so much time in the last few days so completely focused on the job for Millberry, and the mystery surrounding Seahawk, that it seemed almost unbelievable that I could have something different to work towards, and with different ponies. I had spent so long working with the same group of ponies, like Pearlescent and the governor of Millberry, that it would be odd to be doing more work for Metro, and not have those two to deal with. At the same time, I was looking forward to having a new focus, especially if it got us out of the wastes around these few towns. A change of scenery from the unchanging wasteland would be nice.

I rolled off of the bed to my hooves, checking my Pipbuck for the time, and was surprised to find that it was already midmorning. I hadn’t expected to sleep this late. Yet, as I looked around the sparse back room of the infirmary, Autumn Mist and Crosswire were still sleeping, the latter snoring loudly. Suture and Steel Curtain, however, were nowhere to be seen.

I wandered out of the room we were sleeping in and into the main part of the infirmary, where I found Suture speaking with a brown buck that looked positively miserable.

“Just make sure to drink plenty of water for the next few days, and you should be fine,” she was saying, “If you get any worse, come and talk to Coral. She’ll see that you’re taken care of.”

The other pony nodded wordlessly in thanks, then turned to walk out of the infirmary, his head held low and coughing slightly.

“He sick?” I asked, stepping into the room and approaching the maroon mare.

“Oh, Evergreen, you’re awake!” Suture announced in surprise, turning to look at me, “I hadn’t expected you to be up yet. And yeah, he just has a slight cold. He’ll be fine.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “If he looks that miserable with just a slight cold, I’d hate to see what would happen to him if he went out into the wasteland. And why wouldn’t I be up? I was planning on getting an early start,” I answered, walking over to where my barding was sitting and pulling it on, making sure everything was seated comfortably, “Hopefully today, but waiting until tomorrow wouldn’t be the end of the world.” I couldn’t help but to laugh at my own joke.

Suture simply rolled her eyes at my comment on the buck, or the joke, I couldn’t figure which one, presumably deciding to leave her response to either subject non-verbal. “Well, we were up talking awfully late last night, and I simply had to get up because I do have a responsibility here. It is my infirmary, after all.”

“Fair enough,” I answered, retrieving Hammer from the counter where I had left it and checking for any wear that would need my immediate attention before slipping it into its holster, “Did you happen to see Steel Curtain when he got up?”

The maroon mare remained silent for a few moments as she thought, her head tilted so she was looking up at the ceiling. “Ummm, no, I didn’t see him. I believe he was already up and gone by the time I got up. I’m really not surprised, considering that he’s a Pegasus. They sleep often, but not usually for long, you know.”

I shrugged in response. I wasn’t worried about the Dashite leaving us, especially since he had seemed particularly interested in joining up. He would show up when it was time to get moving. Changing the subject, I asked, “So, when are we meeting with the mayor today? I’d like to get a move on as soon as possible.”

“We can head down as soon as everypony is awake. I’m pretty sure he’ll jump us up to the top of his schedule once we show up,” Suture answered after a slight hesitation, “I know there is a lot on his mind that he wants done, and you’d be the best mare to give the jobs to.”

“Something wrong?” I asked, “Did I do something I wasn’t supposed to?”

Suture shook her head vigorously to wipe away my fears. “No, nothing like that. I just… We weren’t entirely honest with you last time we spoke here,” she said slowly, watching me for my reaction. When I didn’t say anything, waiting to hear what she was talking about, she continued, “The Messaging Crystal we talked about, the one you found, well, we didn’t tell you the whole truth about it.”

“What do you mean? You said it contains some special message for the ponies at the settlement around Mt. Hoof, right?” I asked, confused. The explanation she had given me the last time in Metro had made perfect sense, and I couldn’t understand why she was telling me different now.

“Well, yes and no,” she said nervously, looking around as if to see if anypony were listening in on our conversation. When nopony revealed themselves, she continued, in a hushed voice, “When I said that we had found who the message was originally intended for, I wasn’t telling the truth. We do know who it was meant for, but it never got there. When we found it here in the Metro station, it was still sealed. We got lucky when we found out that the pony it was meant for is in the Mt. Hoof settlement, and is still alive. Simply discovering that was a miracle in and of itself.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, now completely lost, “If the pony it was meant for is still alive, and the damn Crystal is pre-war technology, then that pony must be at least two hundred years old!” I exclaimed, finally realizing what she meant, “They’re a ghoul, aren’t they?”

Suture nodded slowly, “Yes. The standing arrangement we have with that settlement is that we need to get the Crystal to that pony, and they will give us the basic supplies we need.”

I nodded slowly, still wrapping my head around the revelation. It made sense why she hadn’t told me the truth the first time. She had barely known me, and I had still been considered a raider by most at that point. It only made sense that they would be careful with what they revealed to me. But that didn’t change the fact that the lie hurt.

“So, you think the mayor is going to give me the job to bring it down there?” I finally asked, pushing the issue of them lying to me out of my mind. It wouldn’t serve any purpose to dwell on it. Besides, what was done was done, and there was nothing I could do to change it, and I should be grateful to these ponies, considering how welcoming they had been to me.

“Probably. It’s the most obvious next step,” Suture answered, nodding in agreement, “and it’s the one thing that we need here above anything else. The alliance with Millberry will help, but it was also more of a test for you than it was urgent for us.”

“Well, at least I passed,” I said, managing to force a grin, “Now come one, let’s get the others up then get down to the mayor’s office. If we need to go that far south, we’re going to want to get started. That’s a lot of ground to cover. It’s going to take a few days just to make it that far, and that’s without any distractions, and I’ve already got one in mind.”

Suture nodded her agreement, even as she shot me a questioning look, and we both walked back to the room where we had slept. “What distraction are you thinking of? Is there somewhere south of here that will be a problem?” she asked as we shook Autumn and Crosswire awake, much to their protest.

“Yeah, there is. The camp where I made my home for the last several years is south of here. I want to stop there and find something I lost. I know there are still a few raiders alive, and they will be a problem down the line, but what I really want is to find my journal. There is a lot in there that I want to read, about my life before I was kicked out of Grovedale,” I answered quietly, watching Crosswire for a reaction.

All the buck did was nod appreciatively as he pulled on his barding and settled his saddlebags across his back. Once that was done, he gave an audible answer. “There’s still a couple of bastards there that should be taken care of, as well. Without you to keep ‘em in line, they’re probably making any trade through the area completely impossible. You at least understood that some caravans need to get though if they’re going keep coming. I can’t see any of the survivors of our little fight having the same idea.”

“Exactly!” I announced with a grin, “So I’ll be getting my journal back, and we’ll be doing the caravans a favor! Now, let’s move! The camp is more than a day’s journey from here, so we should get started as soon as we can!”

Less than ten minutes later, we were walking through Metro proper towards the mayor’s office. It looked as though our meeting would only consist of the four of us, as Steel Curtain was still nowhere in sight. You’d think a Pegasus in full power armor would stand out. When we arrived at his office, we had to wait for a few minutes, as he was already in the middle of a meeting with one of the other officials from the town.

A few short minutes later, the door to the mayor’s office opened, and a very obviously annoyed unicorn mare sauntered out, an angry expression plastered on her face. “I just want to make sure that you remember my family’s contributions to this city, Mallet!” she growled, “We need food and medicine, especially since my mother is sick!”

The mare was closely followed by the mayor, who seemed to be almost groveling behind her, wearing the most apologetic expression I had ever seen anypony with, which was saying something, “I’m sorry, Amethyst, we simply don’t have the supplies to spare. Every bit of food we have needs to be rationed to make sure everypony in Metro gets a full meal, and our medicine needs to be stockpiled for any serious injuries or illnesses. We simply cannot spare anything for anypony, unless it is an extreme situation. I am currently in the process of fixing our shortages, but it is going to take a little while. Nothing is easy or free around here. I know you know that.”

The mare snorted at his words and turned her head away from him, pointedly showing her back to him. “I will tell you again, Mallet, that most of this city is not very enthusiastic about you trusting the future of our home to the hooves of a self-admitted raider. I don’t care what Shooting Star says about her; ponies don’t change that quickly.” As she said the words, her gaze met mine. I had never before seen so much hatred and spite in the eyes of another pony, not even Autumn Mist when we first met. Whatever raiders had done to this mare in the past, it had to have been so bad that nopony who had the reputation of a raider could ever be forgiven or trusted in her eyes. With her hateful gaze locked onto mine, she continued, “All it will be is a matter of time before she takes advantage of us all, and then where will we be? Dead, that’s where.”

With that, the mare marched passed me, pointedly going out of her way to not pass within two feet of me, an impressive feat, given the close quarters of the waiting area. As soon as she was out of sight, the mayor, Mallet, sighed heavily and hung his head in defeat.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that, Evergreen. Amethyst is a talented business mare, but her vision tends to be very short-sighted. Now, if you could step inside, we have business of our own to discuss,” he said, lifting his head again to look at me. His gaze was still apologetic, and I could only imagine that he had to feel responsible for the problems of every single pony living in Metro.

I nodded wordlessly and followed him back into his office, my friends a step behind me. Once we were all inside, Suture pulled the door closed and we approached the mayor’s desk. As the mayor took his seat, he reached under the desk for something and pulled out the Messaging Crystal. He gently placed the Crystal on top of the desk, and we all simply watched it for a moment in silence, as though it would magically activate and divulge all of the secrets that it held.

“I’m guessing that you’re sending me to Mt. Hoof,” I announced, breaking the silence, but unable to tear my gaze away from the Crystal, captivated by the little glowing light inside that flitted from place to place, giving the damn thing a shimmering effect, despite the relatively weak lights of the office.

“You would be right,” Mallet answered just as simply, “They are the only ponies who can offer the supplies we need, and this Crystal is the only way we are going to get those supplies. You already know the job, Evergreen: get this crystal to those ponies, and secure their aid for Metro. If you can, bring this entire situation with Seahawk to their attention as well. From what I know about them, they are one of the best-armed groups in the wasteland, and they would be able to provide a lot of security to the rest of the wasteland if we could convince them to help us.”

“They won’t agree to anything like that,” Crosswire chimed in, “Not if they are still the way they were the last time I was there. To them, giving up a few basic supplies is no great sacrifice, but I can’t see them fighting for anypony but themselves. The ponies in charge would see it as demeaning at best, and at worst as an insult.”

I found myself staring at the buck with a shocked expression. “Exactly what do you know about these ponies?” I asked, “And more importantly, how do you know?”

Crosswire sighed and turned his gaze from the mayor to the Crystal. He took a few moments of silence as he organized his thoughts, then said, “Guess I really can’t avoid it any longer. I grew up at that settlement. There isn’t a more introspective group of ponies in the entire fucking wasteland. Even the Enclave is more outgoing than they are. That’s one of the reasons I couldn’t stand it there. How the fuck can anypony spend the entirety of their lives in a single place, never going anywhere else? It’s unimaginable to me.”

“Exactly who are they?” Autumn asked, stepping up to the Crystal and examining it more closely, “’Cause by the sound of things, they aren’t much better than the Enclave.”

“Some would say they aren’t,” Crosswire answered, “And while I’m certainly not happy with the direction the leaders of that place took it in, I can’t say I hate them. It was home, once. As for who they are, well, you’ll all figure it out quickly enough when we get there. I may not be a part of them anymore, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to start giving away everything about them. I owe them that much.”

Watching the ragged grey buck as he spoke about the small settlement, I could tell how painful it was for him to remember. There must have been something terrible that had happened to him for all of his memories of that place to be tainted this way. “Well, thanks for that information, Crosswire,” I announced, stepping forward and sweeping the Crystal into my saddlebag, “It’ll help a lot when we need to deal with them when we get there. Now, mayor, we need to talk about price. As much as I want to be doing what I’m doing, I am a mercenary. I’m thinking same price as for the job with Millberry, with the same conditions.”

Mallet eyed me warily for a moment as he thought. “I suppose I really can’t say no, since you aren’t asking for a bonus, given the added dangers of traveling through the mountains,” he finally said, “All right, Evergreen, you’ve got yourself a deal. There’s three thousand caps in it for you to get that crystal down there and secure their agreement to help us. Here’s you’re two hundred cap advance.” He reached under his desk and produced a pouch from which he counted out the caps.

I scooped up the money and added the caps to my growing fortune. It was odd that I no longer thought of two hundred caps as a large amount, even though it was far more than some ponies ever saw in their entire lives. “Thank you, mayor. We’ll be back just as soon as we’re able. In the meantime, I want you to know that I plan on making a detour up to Seaddle once I get back from Mt. Hoof.”

Even as the words left my mouth, I saw the mayor’s lips turn up in a grin. “Going up to talk to Shooting Star, eh?”

“Pretty much. I need to set some things straight with the buck before ponies around here start to get the wrong idea about me. So, if that’s all, we better get a move on. Mt. Hoof is a long way from here and we’re going to need a few days just to get that far,” I said, turning and heading for the door.

“Of course. And good luck, Evergreen. I fear that you’re going to need it,” the mayor answered as I walked out the door.

The four of us made our way out into Metro proper before pausing to take stock of our supplies. After a quick check of everypony’s saddlebags, we discovered that the only things we really needed were food and water. Since Suture ran the infirmary here, we had enough medical supplies to last us a while, all at no cost. And with our detour to the Ironshod factory, our weapons and ammo situation was far better than any of us had expected.

We took the five minutes to stop by Metro’s few small snack bars (I hesitated to call them restaurants) to replenish our food supplies, then started making our way towards the staircase towards the surface, hoping that we would run into Steel Curtain somewhere along the way. Given his reaction to going underground the day before, I was expecting to find him on the surface anyway, though I didn’t have a clue what he would be doing up there all day. The shanty town wasn’t particularly well known for having any kind of quality food or gear.

We asked the guards at the base of the stairway if either of them had seen Steel Curtain head for the surface as we passed by. All we got in response was that they had seen a heavily armored Pegasus pass by earlier on that day, and that he hadn’t come back since. Not knowing of any other armored Pegasi, we figured it had to be him, and proceeded outside.

When we finally emerged back on the surface, the rain was coming down lightly, so lightly, in fact, that I had to stop and pause for a moment to even be sure that there was rain. We began pressing our way through the shanty town, pushing past hardened and seedy wastelanders that were all armed to the teeth to protect themselves from the raiders and bandits that made the wasteland home, and ignoring the various merchants trying to hawk their wares to anypony passing by. None of them appeared to be selling anything at all interesting or useful.

Several of the ponies we passed reminded me rather sharply of the various ponies that had passed through my gang at one point or another, with the air of somepony that would not hesitate to kill anypony else simply if they happened to get in the way. It was a stark reminder that the town had absolutely no formal security, and that everypony there was expected to take care of themselves. An even more terrifying thought was that any of these ponies could be working for Seahawk, staying close to Metro to learn what they could before reporting back to their master.

Before long, we had made it to the southern edge of the town, where we found Steel Curtain sitting and gazing pensively up at the clouds. He didn’t react as we approached, though I couldn’t tell if it was because he didn’t hear us, or if he didn’t care. Either way, I could tell by looking at him something was eating at him. Even through his armor, he seemed to be slumped over, as if some great weight were resting on his shoulders. To my surprise, I found myself saddened as well, simply seeing him the way he was.

“Hey, Steel Curtain, you doing all right?” I asked softly, coming up to his side, “You look like something is really bothering you.

The buck stiffened up at my words and sat up straighter, as though he were trying to hide how he had been feeling. He coughed loudly to clear his throat, and I could see some color emerge on his cheeks as he blushed, though I couldn’t imagine why. All I had done was ask if he was all right. “Yes, I’m fine, everything considered,” he finally managed to say, “Just a lot on my mind. Every day that I fail to find a solution, more and more soldiers are being wrongfully branded and exiled. It has to stop.” His expression and tone as he spoke was a mixture of determination and fear. It wasn’t hard to tell that there was more to the problem than he was admitting.

“Anypony you know at risk of getting exiled?” I asked carefully. It would go a long way to explaining why he felt as strongly as he did about the issue.

Steel Curtain nodded silently, closing his eyes briefly as they teared up, but not before a single tear managed to escape and slide down his cheek. “My brother. He had just signed up a few days before I had to make my break for the surface. Fuck, my leaving must be causing such problems for my family, especially as I’m probably being considered a traitor up there, rather than just a simple Dashite.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, Steel Curtain,” I muttered, my voice dropping in sympathy. While I meant the words, it was hard for me to imagine what the buck must be feeling, as my family had always been safe, up until the day they were killed. All the same, given how much I had loved my parents, I could imagine how much it must be hurting him, knowing that they could be in danger and that he was powerless to do anything about it.

I was surprised by just how badly I felt for the exiled soldier. I had known him for barely two days, and already he was such an integral part of our group, at least to my mind. Hell, if he hadn’t been with us, I doubt we would have all survived the fight with the slavers, much less the ponies that demolished Buckview.

Steel Curtain lifted his head slightly and gave me a sidelong glance, a small smile of gratitude lifting the corners of his mouth. “Thank you, Evergreen. Knowing somepony else cares means a lot. Despite what most ponies may think, most Enclave soldiers aren’t mindless automatons. We all have our own hopes and dreams as well,” he said quietly, but the emotion in his voice was very obvious.

I looked away quickly as I blushed, not wanting the Pegasus to see. “Well then,” I announced with a cough as I rose to my hooves, “let’s get a move on! We’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Crosswire, I want you in the back. Watch for anything that could sneak up on us from behind. Autumn Mist, take the center and keep your eyes on the hills. You’ve got the best chance at catching anything from a distance. Suture, you’ll stay in the center as well. You’re still healing from that fight against Greymane, so I want you out of harm’s way. Steel Curtain, take point with me. If anypony thinks they can intimidate us, I want them to think again when they see you.”

Everypony quickly answered an affirmative to their directions and we set out, taking the same road south that Crosswire and I had taken barely more than a week ago to get to Metro for the first time. Walking back now, I was struck by just how different we were. Crosswire had completely abandoned the persona of being a quiet, obedient underling, and was now the most reliable pony I knew. As for myself, I doubted anypony had ever changed as much as I had so quickly, unless they had wandered out of a Stable for the first time in their lives, only to have to fight and kill almost immediately afterwards.

I had changed from being a harsh, unfeeling gang boss, probably as arrogant and cruel as that slaver we had killed, to being somepony I was actually proud to be, for the first time in my life. There were now several ponies in the wasteland that I knew were alive only because I had decided to act. Had the old me come across them, I could guarantee that that wouldn’t have been the case. I had been selfish and self-centered, caring about nothing but my own life.

Now, I was a completely different pony. I had already risked my life on multiple occasions for others, like when I had gone to the Iron Hooves camp supported only by a mare who very much wanted to kill me in order to save Crosswire’s life. All I could do now was hope that it would be enough so that my parent’s souls, wherever they might be, could at least begin to forgive me for all of my wrongs.

We made good time as we marched south, pressing through the unyielding wasteland on a path that would take us by Grovedale, then up into the foothills of the mountains, right where my base had been settled. Those fuckers had a lot coming to them, and not just because I wanted revenge for what had been done to me. I couldn’t care less about that anymore. The problem was that I knew what they would become if I wasn’t around to keep them under control. Besides all that, they still had my journal.

Unfortunately, no matter how quickly we managed to walk, we were still bound by the distance between places, and since we had been so late in starting our trek, the sky was already beginning to darken as we approached the small collection of homes where Crosswire and I had stayed while on our way to Metro.

“Hey, Evergreen, are you thinking what I am?” the buck called up to me from the back of our formation.

“I don’t know. Are you thinking about how awesome it would be to hug a manticore?” I called back sarcastically even as I veered of the path towards the same building that we had used as shelter.

As I slowed my pace, Suture and Crosswire caught up to Steel Curtain and me, and the latter had a very confused expression on his face. “Why the hell would you be thinking about that?” he asked incredulously, “And why the hell would you ever want to try it? Fuckin’ manticore would tear your head off before you could come within ten feet.”

Sadly, the buck was probably right about that. I had seen a few of the creatures wandering around in the mountains while I had still been living there, and though they hadn’t had anything close to the size of the shadows I had seen that first night in the mountains, I could tell that they were fearsome creatures. Our group would be able to easily handle one or two of the beasts, but more than that and we would have a serious problem on our hooves.

“I was being sarcastic, Crosswire,” I pointed out, grinning, “Only an idiot would try to get that close to a manticore. For the record, I was planning on staying here anyway. It will put us within a day of another good place to stop.”

“Grovedale?” Autumn asked as I pushed open the door and stepped inside, “Isn’t it only a little bit south of here?”

As I was about to answer, I was hit with the almost overpowering stench of something dead. I cast about the room and my eyes settled on two decaying corpses, one of which was a large unicorn, and the other was a small Pegasus: the bodies of the thug that had nearly killed me and the addict that he had killed before going after me. Dried blood surrounded the bodies, staining the floor dark brown. Flies were buzzing about the bodies, disturbed from their meal when we entered the building.

“Shit, I didn’t think that they would still be here,” I muttered, walking towards the unicorn’s body, “As for what you asked, Autumn, I know a place a bit farther south than that, up in the foothills.”

“Who were they?” Steel Curtain asked as he walked up beside me, his nose scrunched up against the smell, “Did you know them?”

There was the sound of retching from behind us, and we turned to see Suture clutching the doorframe, her head around the corner to outside, vomiting, presumably, at the smell, since she had already seen plenty of dead ponies. “I’m…urk… fine,” she muttered, though she definitely didn’t sound that way.

Trusting that she was going to be fine, I turned to answer the Pegasus, “Not in so many words. The Pegasus was an addict who sold Crosswire and me out for a hit of Dash. When it became obvious that we were better prepared than expected, the unicorn killed him. He worked for a buck that goes by the name Tripwire. Bastard got me pinned before Crosswire shot him off of me.”

Steel Curtain remained silent as he looked over the bodies, his eyes lingering on the Pegasus for much longer than the unicorn. “What happened to this Tripwire? Why is his body not here?” he finally asked, looking away from the bodies and gazing into my eyes. His gaze wasn’t accusing, but I could sense his desire to understand what had caused these ponies’ deaths. For as skilled as he was, he was still very new to the wasteland.

“We let him go,” Crosswire answered for me, drawing Steel Curtain’s gaze away, “Even being a thug, the buck wasn’t stupid. He only attacked us because he was desperate. Unfortunately, the wasteland probably got him. I remember him mentioning something about running out of supplies.”

“I see…” Steel Curtain muttered, turning his head to look back at the bodies, “The Pegasus looks vaguely familiar. Do you know his name?”

I reached back in my mind, trying to remember the details of that day, but all I could easily recall was the fight. I felt bad, because I could remember that his name had been said, and not knowing felt like I was betraying Steel Curtain in some way. “I’m sorry,” I muttered, following Steel Curtain’s gaze to the bodies, “I can’t remember either of their names. Can you, Crosswire?”

The grey buck shook his head, “I was upstairs the whole time. I didn’t hear a thing until you started yelling. Don’t worry about his fate, Steel Curtain. The poor bastard was an addict. He would have gotten himself killed eventually, since all he cared about was where his next hit was coming from.”

Steel Curtain sighed loudly and lowered his head, “I suppose you’re right. I just can’t understand how he would have allowed himself to fall this far. Every Pegasus I have ever met has been proud of who they were, whether they were an officer, citizen, or Dashite. I never thought I’d see one of us reduced to this.”

“I hate to be the one to say it, Steel Curtain, but welcome to the wasteland. This kind of shit is as common as the rain. Everypony has their problems. Some just choose to solve them… differently,” I said, with a pointed look at the body of the Pegasus, “Now help me get these bodies out of here. This building is the best shelter for miles, and I’d rather avoid sleeping outside if I can.”

Within a few minutes, we had the bodies moved outside, but not without Steel Curtain saying a few words over the Pegasus’ corpse, and we were all settling down inside the structure. Crosswire and I steadfastly refused to let anypony go upstairs. We wanted the ponies that had lived here to be able to rest in peace. Somehow it seemed like moving them would be a disgrace to their memories, even if their skeletons were open to the air. Yet, they had died holding each other, as a family. How could we take that away from them in death?

After we ate, and the others were drifting off to sleep, Crosswire approached me, keeping his voice low to avoid waking anypony. “Evergreen, are you sure that you want to go back to the camp? That place holds nothing but bad memories for the both of us.”

I saw absolutely no reason to tell Crosswire everything. After all, he had been the one at my side every single day since this had all started, not to mention before that. “I need to get back there. I need to get my journal back. There is so much in there from my old life that I have forgotten…” I explained, trailing off, before looking back up at the tech, “Besides, I thought that you would want to delay getting to the settlement as much as possible?”

“No. I’d rather get there as soon as we could so we could leave them behind that much sooner. But why the hell is it so important that you would risking going back there?” he pressed, obviously hiding something that was bothering him about his birthplace.

Giving him a chance to organize his thoughts, I decided to answer his question. “That was one thing I had that was from before my life as a raider. When I was young, my parents gave it to me. I wrote in it every single day, including when we were living in the camp. Sometimes I would barely write more than a sentence or two, especially during our time in the camp, but there were days when I would fill entire pages with the thoughts that were filling my head,” I answered, my voice taking on a distant quality as I thought back and tried to remember some of the things that I had written back when I was younger, but nothing specific would come to mind.

I could recall emotions, like times I had been happy or sad, but I could never remember the cause of those emotions. Sometimes, an image would come to mind; something I had seen that had prompted a thought that I had then rushed to write down. Most commonly, I would remember an impression, like a recollection of seeing something that had impressed me, but with no memory of what it was, or how it had affected me. But for all of those sensations I could not remember a single specific entry, except for the last one, when I had written about the constant of war, and how it changed everypony it came into contact with.

How many of the ponies that I had fought and killed would have been perfectly normal, had they not been forced to do whatever was necessary to survive? How many innocents that had turned to preying on others simply to survive would have risen to become great, if they were only given half a chance? Or even worse, how many ponies would rise to greatness if only they could get out from under the hoof of those ruling over them, like the Pegasi of the Enclave or the slaves being held captive by the Princesses-only-knew how many masters?

The implications of that train of thought left me feeling light-headed, and Crosswire was beginning to look at me oddly, so I returned my attention to our conversation, pushing the thoughts to a closet in the back of my mind, where I would be able to revisit them later, when I was on my own. “So, yeah. I need to get that journal back. Besides that, now that I’m no longer around to keep them under control, they’ve probably reverted to being typical, crazy raiders. We’ll need to take care of them to keep anypony from wandering too close to them and getting themselves killed.”

Crosswire kept his eyes fixed on me, clearly unconvinced. “You do realize that you’re putting us all at risk, Evergreen? Over a book, even if it is important to you? Yes, we’re much better fighters than them, but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t get a lucky shot. We aren’t invincible,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, I realize that, but I might have written something in there about this thing in my head, since it used to visit me when I was living in Grovedale. Anything I can learn about it can only be to my advantage, right? Besides, didn’t you agree with me about going after them?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I hadn’t thought about the risk. But I suppose that they are raiders,” Crosswire conceded, albeit reluctantly,” All right, Evergreen, if you think this is the right choice, I’m behind you.”

“Thanks, Crosswire. I’m going to need your help. The plan I’m putting together is ambitious, but it just might work. I’ll tell you tomorrow, along with everypony else, once we get closer to the camp. Now, why are you so reluctant to go back to the Mt. Hoof settlement? It was your home once, wasn’t it?” I asked, bringing the conversation back around to him.

He immediately looked away from me, staring off into a dark corner of the room. “I don’t want to talk about that. My history with them is… complicated… to say the least.”

“Come on, Crosswire,” I argued, adding just enough of an edge to my voice to get the buck’s attention, “At this point, I’m going to need every scrap of information I can get on these ponies. You’re the best source of that information that I have. At least tell me this for now.”

He remained silent as he mulled over my words, the finally lowered his head and sighed. “Consider my situation with them to be the same as your situation with Grovedale. They don’t want me to come back, and they probably wouldn’t do very nice things to me if I did show up again. Unlike Just Law, those ponies have no concept of mercy towards ponies who wronged them. I know I mentioned before that they have very strict rules, right?” he explained, looking to me for confirmation. When I nodded, he continued, “Well, I broke one of those rules. I stole something I wasn’t supposed to have, and when I was caught, I was thrown out on my ass, left to fend for myself without so much as a snack cake, much less a weapon. They left me to die, Evergreen, and they knew it.”

The revelation left me completely speechless. To think that this quiet buck would be thrown out of a community for simple theft was unbelievable. I could understand some sort of punishment, since he did break an established rule, but exile seemed a little extreme for his crime. “Damn… I’m sorry, Crosswire. I didn’t realize,” I started, then realized how little the buck would care for an apology about this, “Well, look at it this way: you’re only going back because you’re working with me, and I was given a job to transport something to them. Wait! I just thought of something! Would you happen to have an idea of who this damn Crystal is supposed to be going to?”

Crosswire lifted his head in thought, shifting his glance up to the ceiling as he sifted through his memory. “I might know who it’s supposed to go to, but it’s only a guess. I don’t want to start giving out information that could be wrong,” he answered, “I think I’ll leave this one to them to answer, all right?”

I nodded in response. It was only fair, after all, especially given how much he had already revealed, and how painful the memories must be for him. “Yeah, we can do it that way. Now let’s get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and it will only get us partway to the settlement. We’re going to need to be in good shape for this.”

Crosswire nodded his agreement, then moved off back to his own spot that he had chosen to settle down in for the night. Before long, he was snoring, and my own eyes were growing heavy with sleep.

We rose early, ate a quick breakfast, and were back on the road just as the clouds were lightening with the rising sun. If we managed to make good time from here, we should be able to make it to the camp by early afternoon, barring any distractions, and I already knew just how empty the wasteland was between here and there.

As we stepped outside, I motioned to Suture and Steel Curtain, pulling them aside before we truly got underway. “So, Suture, do you think that he’ll be able to fly today?” I asked, gesturing to the Pegasus, “He’d be much more useful up in the air, rather than roughing it on the ground with us.”

The maroon mare hesitated for a moment while she thought, then turned to Steel Curtain. “Let me see your wing. I need to see how well it’s healed,” she said, taking on the tone of an impatient doctor.

Steel Curtain obediently lifted his injured wing, wincing slightly after having kept it furled up for so long. Suture took the tip in one of her hooves and started to manipulate the wing, rotating it in every possible direction, checking it for any remaining damage. Finding nothing, she let the wing go and looked up at the buck’s face. “Well, I can’t find anything. You should be fine to fly. Just be careful.”

She had barely gotten the words out of her mouth before Steel Curtain had launched himself into the air, spreading his wings wide and gliding, then flapping violently for altitude before diving again, rocketing downwards so fast that I half expected him to slam into the ground. Instead, he snapped his wings open at the last moment, skimming by the ground with barely five feet to spare. From there, he ran himself through several different exercises, each one more complex and demanding than the last.

I was completely enraptured by the sight, unable to tear my gaze from the Pegasus as he flitted across the sky, twisting and turning as he pushed himself to his limits. It was amazing to see how graceful he could be even while wearing a full set of heavy armor. It made me wonder what kind of acrobatics he would be capable of without the armor to hold him back.

I shook my head violently at the thought and forced myself to tear my gaze away from him, instead looking for the rest of my friends. They were all standing with their heads glued on the sky, watching the Pegasus dance around against the sky.

“Well, shit, he can really fly!” Autumn Mist exclaimed, grinning broadly, admiration very clear in her voice.

“Yeah, that he can,” I answered, finding myself grinning as well, “Now come on, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”

I waved up at the Pegasus, trusting the he would see us start to move and fall into place above us, ranging out to scout as he had done during our first trip together. We started out on the beaten trail, heading south towards Grovedale and the foothills where my camp was waiting, and the last ties to the life I wanted to forget were lingering, simply waiting to be cut free.

Throughout the entirety of our journey, Steel Curtain didn’t come down once, and I couldn’t blame him. For the last three days he had been bound to the ground, forced to fight in a way that was completely foreign to him. I really couldn’t be surprised that he would choose to stay in the air while he had the chance to.

Luckily for us, this part of the wasteland was relatively safe, as there was Grovedale to our south, and Metro to the north. Occasional raider bands would travel through the area, but none would ever remain here long, as the caravans were usually well armed enough to protect themselves, and they tended to keep the roads clear. As a result, we were making great time, and the walls of Grovedale passed us off to our right as we traveled into more dangerous land, deciding that we weren’t going to try to trade with the town, even if we needed to trade.

As noon was passing by, we started into the foothills of the mountains, which was when the rain started to fall for the first time that day. Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t a light rain. It was coming down in sheets, quickly soaking through our barding and making our manes stick to our heads. The sheer volume of water reduced our visibility to mere feet in front of us, forcing Steel Curtain down and onto the ground with us, just so that he wouldn’t lose us in the hills.

All the same, we continued marching, pushing through the weather towards our goal. In the end, all the rain would do is help me. Both Crosswire and I knew the layout of the camp by heart, so the only problem would be seeing where the other raiders would be hiding, but they would have the same problem with us. But that didn’t stop it from being any more miserable.

Barely an hour and a half later, we were starting up the trail that would lead right to the gates of the camp, which is where I slowed to a stop to address my friends.

“All right, everypony, listen up! Just a short distance ahead of us is a raider camp, the same one that Crosswire and I came from barely more than a week ago, as Suture well knows,” I announced, turning so that they could all see me.

“What the hell are we doing out here? I thought we were trying to get to Mt. Hoof?” Autumn asked, very obviously confused.

“We’re here because these ponies are a threat to the area, and they have something of mine that I need to get back,” I answered, “The survivors of our fight are tough ponies, but they are also extremely cruel. It was all I had been able to do to keep them under what little control I could manage. Without me there, I can promise that they are all going to be just as deranged as those raiders we killed while traveling back to Millberry from Stable 60.”

“I assume that you have a plan for dealing with these ponies, then?” Steel Curtain asked, reaching down for his helmet and pulling it on over his matted down mane. Just like that, he went from being somepony that I knew and was comfortable around, to being an armored stranger. Even his voice seemed different, and it made me very uncomfortable.

“I do,” I answered, nodding my head, “And if I’m right, they won’t know what hit them. Right now, we’re about a mile away from the camp, so we’re close enough that it will be easy to get in close and do some damage, especially for you, Steel Curtain. Now, about half a mile ahead, the trail splits off, with a small track heading up farther into the hills while the other continues on to the camp. Almost none of the ponies there know about it, but it leads up to an overhang that provides a relatively good view of the base from above. I want Autumn Mist and Suture to go that way, since it will provide the best angle for you to attack from.”

“Just how good will my view from up there be?” the dark mare asked, sliding out her rifle and checking the bolt of any wear.

“You can see a good portion of the base from up there, but not all of it. The weather is also going to play hell with the visibility,” I explained, “but you’ll do far better up there than you would from on the ground. Can you manage that?”

“Yeah, I can manage. Why’s Suture coming with me, though? I would have thought that you would want her with you on the ground?” the sniper asked.

“Normally, yes, I would, except that some of the ponies that survived the fight the last time I was here will recognize her. If they see her, then I know that they’ll see right through what I’m trying to pull here. Now then, Steel Curtain, the weather will hide you perfectly while you’re flying, so I want you to circle around and watch for any sudden activity on the ground. Once you hear shots, I want you to sweep in and start shooting, all right?” I continued, looking to the Pegasus.

“What about the visibility?” he asked, his helmet distorting his voice, “Even with my helmet’s visor, it’s difficult to see more than a dozen feet.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be tricky, but if you can pull the stunts you were doing this morning, I don’t think you’re going to have a problem,” I answered.

“Fair enough,” he answered with a grunt, “I can do that.”

“Now, Crosswire, you and I have the toughest job. We’re going to march right up to the front gate and demand to be let in. We need to make them think that we’re coming back, and that we haven’t changed a bit. If we can get inside, and get to the pony that they put in charge, the entire fight will be a lot easier. Think you can manage that?” I asked, looking to the grey buck. I was asking a lot, considering how much effort it had taken for the both of us to change as much as we had.

He hesitated as he considered his answer, his face an emotionless mask, then finally nodded curtly. “I can do that, boss,” he said as his mouth split in a slight grin.

“Good,” I stated, smiling at the buck, “Let’s move! If all goes well, this will all be over before we know it!”

We started forward, Crosswire and me in the lead. There was no need to watch our surroundings when we knew that any danger would come from in front of us. When we passed by the small side trail, Autumn Mist and Suture split off, heading up higher into the hills while the rest of us continued forward. Before long, they were out of sight, and we were approaching the final bend to the camp, where I had found the stash of gear that Crackshot had been hiding from me.

“This is your cue, Steel Curtain,” I said, “Get up in the air and wait for gunshots.” Immediately, there was a brief gust of wind that blew even more water into my face as the Pegasus launched himself into the air, vanishing from sight within seconds. Now I just had to hope that everything would work as I hoped it would.

Crosswire and I approached the gate, walking with a stride that I hoped would communicate our confidence. As he had before coming out of his shell, Crosswire was walking stiffly, his eyes constantly shifting around as he took in every aspect of our surroundings. I composed myself and held my expression to one of anger. It honestly wasn’t that difficult, since these ponies were the only thing standing between me and peace of mind.

It didn’t take them long to notice us. We were just coming within twenty paces of the gate when a voice called out, “You’re really this fucking stupid to come back here, Ever?” the pony it belonged to stepped out from behind a piece of cover on top of the wall. I wasn’t surprised to see that it was one of the ponies that had been fighting by Crackshot’s side the day we had been forced to leave, “Though I’m surprised to see that you’re still alive after the round that May Bell put in you.”

“She could never kill anything with the first shot if her life depended on it.” I growled, “Now open this fucking gate and tell whoever is in charge around here to come out. We have some things to discuss.”

“Trying to take back control?” the buck on the wall asked, “Good luck with that. But, for old time’s sake, I’ll open the gate. I think Crackshot will want to take care of you himself.”

Before I could answer, he disappeared from the wall, and the gate started to swing open, grinding loudly on rusted gears. I could hardly believe my ears. How the hell could Crackshot still be alive? I had seen the amount of blood on the ground after I had shot his leg. Nopony could lose that much blood and live. It simply wasn’t possible.

“Keep your head on a swivel,” I warned Crosswire under my breath, “I don’t like the sound of this.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” he answered just as quietly as he let me lead our way into the camp.

We walked through the familiar portal, making our way into the gloomy interior of the camp. I was relieved that this didn’t feel like a homecoming. Instead, it felt exactly as it should: as though I was walking into an elaborate trap. If it were possible, I’m sure that Crosswire would have stiffened up even more than he already was as we walked into a rough circle made up of the rest of the gang, many of which were ponies I had never seen before. They all had the same bloodthirsty and hungry look on their faces. Many of them seemed to have only a tenuous grasp on sanity, if even that, and several seemed to be trembling slightly. Those were the ponies I kept my eyes on, as they were the kind of raiders that enjoyed eating their victims. As bad as I had been, I had never allowed one of them within a mile of the base.

My vision was positively flooded with bars denoting the raiders around us. Most of them were blue, for now, since the order to attack hadn’t yet been given, but there were several in the mix that were red, most likely the craziest of the bunch that were only being held in check by the restraint of the others. I tried to do a quick count as we walked, but quickly lost track at about twenty-five, far more ponies than I had ever kept around.

Standing in the center of this rough circle was Crackshot, though he had changed a lot in the last week. The most obvious difference was that his right foreleg was missing, and the stump was swaddled in multiple dirty bandages. But there were other, subtler differences as well. He no longer held himself with the bearing of somepony that was an underling to somepony else. He stood tall, with a confident grin on his face, as if he was completely sure that nothing could knock him from his position.

“Bet you weren’t expecting to see me still among the living, Ever,” he sneered, “But then again, I also wasn’t expecting you to be stupid enough to show your face here again. Definitely not the best decision.”

My response was to shrug. “To be honest, Crackshot, I was expecting you to be dead. Probably would have worked out better for the other ponies here, since they would most likely have ended up with a smarter leader. I can’t imagine that the last week has been too profitable for you.”

Crackshot laughed, a low, grinding sound that communicated more contempt than it did joy. “You always were quick to start throwing insults around, Ever. Unfortunately, this time, you don’t have the power or position to back it up. All you’ve got is that one washed-up old tech. Crosswire, wasn’t it? Since you’re in such a weak position, and Clipper happens to be dead, I’m willing to offer you a place at my side. All you need to do is kill him,” Crackshot said, gesturing to Crosswire.

I made a show of considering the offer for a few moments, looking back and forth from Crackshot to Crosswire, letting the conceited yellow buck think he held all the right cards before grinning wickedly and locking my gaze on his. “I think I’m going to have to pass. Being your plaything doesn’t have much appeal to me, and I could never be docile enough for you. Besides, you never were one to count strength that you couldn’t see. Sure, I may be outnumbered, maybe even severely so, but there is no doubt in my mind that I have you all outgunned,” I said snidely as I pulled Hammer from its holster, “This is your one and only chance, Crackshot. Throw down your weapons, tell everypony here to do the same, and you walk away, alive. Fight, and you die.”

“Is one revolver really supposed to frighten me, Ever?” Crackshot asked, chuckling, as he pulled out his rifle and somehow balanced it on his stump, “Because I think you took a serious blow to the head in the last week if you think that puny pistol can beat my rifle.”

“It doesn’t need to,” I ground out, “I take this to mean that you won’t surrender? You’re going to throw away the lives of every single pony that is supposedly loyal to you because you can’t see when you’re beat? Face it, Crackshot, I’m better than you at everything. Only reason you won our last fight was because I wasn’t quite ready for it yet.”

“Wrong. I won our last fight because I’m better and stronger than you, Ever. It’s long past time you realized that,” the yellow buck leered, lowering his head to aim through his rifle’s sights.

“My name is Evergreen,” I snapped even as I slipped into S.A.T.S. and lined up a shot to the buck’s head. I was done talking to him. For good measure, I also lined up two more shots on the two ponies to his right, which would give me a clear alley to get up to my old quarters where, hopefully, my journal would still be.

Time snapped back to reality, and the rounds fired. The weather had affected my accuracy somewhat, but not nearly enough to actually worry me. As a result, every single round I fired was on target. Crackshot went down hard, his skull basically imploding as the round smashed into it, killing him before he got a chance to pull the trigger. The other two shots sent the two raiders I had aimed for to the ground as well, both incapacitated with shots to the chest, and leaving me the space I needed to run.

I launched myself forward, pushing past two bucks that had managed to either not be shocked by Crackshot’s death, or not caring about it, and ran for the ramp that would bring me up into my old RV. In my wake, I heard the staccato firing of Crosswire’s SMG as he opened fire, along with several shrieks of pain from various raiders.

As I rounded the corner onto the ramp, I slowed by just a step to fire a couple of rounds towards the mass of raiders, trusting their sheer numbers to allow for at least a couple of grazing hits. I wasn’t disappointed as I saw a mare wielding a bat studded with nails fall to the ground, a bullet lodged in her side and one taking one of her rear legs out from under her. I continued my run, reaching the top of the ramp and slipping into S.A.T.S. once again. The spell had recharged enough for a single shot, which I lined up on a unicorn buck wielding a shotgun. The rain dropped my accuracy severely at this range, but I didn’t need to hit to buy Crosswire the time and space he would need to get out of the way.

I let the spell go, and my last round fired, skimming by the buck’s neck, rather than striking him in the head as I intended. All the same, he flinched from the shot, and I saw Crosswire take the opportunity to fire a short burst at a pair of ponies charging him with melee weapons and make a break for his workshop.

It was in that moment that Steel Curtain made his first pass, sweeping through the main courtyard of the camp, guns blazing. The trail of fire that preceded him cut down a half-dozen ponies in mid-stride, reducing them to little more than quivering piles of flesh and blood as the rounds tore through their bodies, shredding anything they touched. The Pegasus cleared the camp and arced back up into the dark sky, quickly disappearing from sight. With that pass, I noticed a lot of raiders break off from the general melee, scattering to whatever bits of cover they could find, surprised by the firepower they had just witnessed. Unfortunately, none of them were smart enough to try to make a break for it.

Three of the raiders were making their way towards me, so I dodged into the RV, kicking the door closed as I did, and hopefully buying me enough time to reload and prepare. Crosswire was more than capable of taking care of himself, especially since we had the element of surprise.

I had just managed to shake loose the empty shells from Hammer’s cylinder and ram home a single bullet when the sound of hoof-strikes echoed through the RV, the sound of ponies trying to force their way in. Without time to do anything else, I slammed the cylinder closed and fired a round at the thin, sheet metal door.

The round easily punched through, eliciting a grunt of pain, followed by alarmed shouts as my victim presumably fell back and off the ramp. “Let’s kill the fucking bitch,” a voice announced, and there was another sound of hooves striking the door.

This time, it caved in under the pressure, allowing a pair of ponies inside. One was an earth pony buck wielding an axe, and the other was a unicorn mare floating a wicked looking serrated blade before her. I was already dropping Hammer into its holster and reaching for my knife when the buck reached me, swinging his axe in a broad arc that could probably have decapitated me, but I jumped to the side, and the blow missed me cleanly over my left shoulder and the buck was left reeling as he tried to recover from the attack.

I ripped my knife from its sheath and darted forward, hoping to take advantage of the buck’s lack of balance, but was met by the mare, who’s blade managed to slip past my defenses and slice my leg open just below where my barding covered.

I grunted in pain and backed up, lowering my head and hunching my shoulders, trying to present as small a target I could while still leaving myself space to attack. Blood was now flowing freely from the wound in my leg, tracing a line down my leg and slipping over my Pipbuck, obscuring the screen.

The mare was grinning wickedly, but paused as she allowed her companion to recover and turn on me, then continued to hold back as the buck launched himself at me again. As I had done before, I dodged to the side and tried to strike, hoping to kill, or at least wound, the buck. Once again, the unicorn was faster, and once again intercepted my blow, this time opening a wound on my neck, thankfully away from any major arteries.

I backed up even farther, panting from the exertion and pain and trying to buy myself more time. I could still hear the sounds of combat coming from outside, with the now familiar sound of Steel Curtain’s minigun keeping the raiders suppressed, as well as the occasional retort of Autumn’s rifle as she joined the battle.

I forced my focus back to the problem at hoof. My usual strategy wasn’t working here, and this mare was perfectly willing to slowly wear me down, cut by cut, until I was unable to continue fighting. But they were also fighting in a predictable pattern. All I had to do was get lucky.

Again, the buck with the axe rushed me, and again, I dodged to the side. Except this time, I didn’t try to attack him. Instead, I twisted and struck at the mare, knocking her blade to the side with my Pipbuck and lunging forward with my knife, which I lodged in her neck. Blood spurted from the wound and around the hilt of my knife, spraying me in the face.

Needing the time, I released my knife and kicked the mare out of the way, sending her limp body into the wall, and turned only for the buck’s axe to crash down on my back. The attack felt like a hammer blow, and I fell to the ground gasping for air as the metal plates on the back of my barding crumpled under the strength of the blow and bit into my back. As I struggled to regain my hooves, I could feel blood flowing from the wounds in my back, and another hammer blow fell, this one thankfully a little off from the first, which meant that my barding was once again able to withstand the blow.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop the force of the attack, and I once again collapsed as even more of the small metal plates bit down into my back. Knowing I had mere seconds to get out of the way, I did the only thing I could think to do and rolled. My weight forced the plates on my barding to bite even deeper, making my shout in pain. But the move bought me the time I needed as the buck’s axe slammed into the floor of the RV, instead of into me.

I tried to push myself to my hooves, but couldn’t manage the strength to do so, and collapsed almost as soon as my belly cleared the ground. I could only lie there and watch in terror as the buck wrenched his axe out of the ground and started advancing towards me, a wicked look in his eye. With every step he took, my eyes took in more detail, from the ruddy brown color of his hide and the greasy black of his mane, to the spatter of blood, my blood, coursing down the blade of his axe to drip onto the floor.

Once again, I attempted to struggle to my hooves, but this attempt was just as fruitless as the last, and I was left lying there, my vision filled with the sight of the buck’s hooves as he came to a stop before me. I was just about to resign myself to the inevitable when a black form shot into the room and slammed into the buck, sending him flying into the far wall to slide limply down to the ground.

From there, the black form pounced on the buck and attacked him viciously, raining down blow after hammering blow with its hooves. It didn’t let up until the buck had stopped quivering and simply lay limply on the ground, obviously dead, even to my pain-filled mind.

Its target clearly taken care of, the form turned and approached my gingerly. I concentrated my vision on the form’s head, and finally managed to make it out. My heart soared in my chest as Steel Curtain came up to me knelt down in front of me.

“Evergreen, are you all right?” he asked softly, his voice distorted by the helmet. Even so, I could make out the fear in his voice.

When I tried to answer, all that came out was a pained cough that led to a severe fit that left me exhausted and panting. “I’ll be fine,” I finally croaked, “Just get me a healing potion or three.”

The buck nodded and reached into one of his armor compartments for a trio of the potions, which he opened and fed to me. I felt the wounds on my leg and neck close as I drank, as well as some of the damage that had been done to my back. By the time I was finished, I was feeling strong enough to stand.

Carefully, I started to push myself to my hooves, grimacing under the pain of my armor digging into my back. Realizing what I was attempting, Steel Curtain stepped forward and helped me up, holding me steady as my legs threatened to collapse underneath me. After a long minute, I finally managed to push the pain far enough into the back of my mind for the Pegasus to step away and let me stand on my own.

“How’s the fight going out there?” I managed to say, shocked by how weak my own voice sounded. I could still hear the occasional burst from Crosswire’s SMG, as well as a periodic shot from Autumn’s rifle, so the fight must not have been over yet.

“Just cleaning up the straggler’s now. Last I saw, there were only four left on their hooves,” Steel Curtain answered.

I grunted as I shifted my weight to my recently injured leg and started to cast about the room, trying to see if it had been significantly altered since I had been forced to leave it behind. “Good, now help me look around in here. I’m looking for a leather-bound book. If we’re lucky it’ll still be in here,” I said, walking by the Pegasus and retrieving my knife from the fallen mare.

I started rooting around in the various drawers and cabinets, dumping all of the contents on the floor in my rush to find the journal. For the first few moments, Steel Curtain simply stood by silently, watching me tear the room apart.

“This thing really means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” he finally asked, stepping forward and helping me sift through the mountain of junk that I had piled in the center of the room.

“It’s one of the few objects in life that I care about at all,” I answered shortly, abandoning the pile of junk and moving to inspect the corners of the RV, in case it had fallen back there, “It was my journal. My parents gave it to me when I was just a filly. There are entire years of my life in those pages, and I want to remember those years.”

“I suppose I can understand that,” the Pegasus answered, now beginning to help me in earnest. Between the two of us, we covered every single square inch of the RV within five minutes.

Just as the sounds of battle from outside were falling silent, the Pegasus lifted something that looked oddly familiar from a dark corner underneath the pallet I used to sleep on. He flipped it open and started reading aloud.

“Well, I don’t know where to start, so I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Evergreen, and this journal was a present from my mommy and daddy for my seventh birthday! Momma’s real name is Rose Garden, and she is the loveliest pony I know!” he read, his voice taking on a bemused tone.

“Hey! Who said you could read it!” I snapped, trying to run over to him, but gasping in pain at the exertion and tumbling towards him instead.

He neatly sidestepped my barely controlled fall, extending a wing to keep me from actually crashing into the ground, and continued reading. “Daddy’s real name is Nightingale, and even though he can be a little scary sometimes, he is always looking out for Momma and me! They are both always watching out for me, and even though they are busy a lot, I know they love me a lot, just as much as I love them! Well, that’s all I can think of for now,” he finished, closing the book again and looking up to me. He reached a hoof up and pulled the helmet off of his head. Underneath the sopping wet helmet of his mane, I thought I could see a tear running down his face.

“I can see why you value this book so highly,” he said, his voice oddly choked up, holding it out to me, “Especially since you had parents like those, who truly cared for you, and would have done anything for you, above all else. What happened to them?”

I reached out and took the journal, cradling it close to my chest as tears started to well up in my eyes. “They were killed years ago, outside of Grovedale, in a raider attack. After they were killed, I basically grew up there, until Just Law threw me out.”

“Why’d he do that?” Steel Curtain asked. His tone wasn’t accusatory, or even the least bit threatening. It sounded as exactly what it was: a simple question.

“I broke one too many rules. I kept on stealing from others, since the food I was earning for my work wasn’t enough to really keep me going. I was losing a lot of weight and was becoming really sickly. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at stealing and kept getting caught. Just Law had finally had enough and simply threw me out of the town, warning me not to come back. From there, things more or less just spiraled downward until I ended up here,” I explained, “This journal was the only thing from that life that I held on to.”

Steel Curtain nodded sympathetically, then snapped his head to the side at the sound of somepony climbing the ramp.

“Hey, Evergreen, you up here?” Crosswire asked as he walked in, then, when he saw the tears in my eyes, he asked, “You all right?”

“Yeah,” I answered with a sheepish grin, “Steel Curtain just found my journal and decided to read the first entry. Brought a lot of old memories back. What’s up?”

“Everypony out there is taken care of. All that’s left is the medical shack. I’m pretty sure Heart Attack is sitting in there drunk off his ass,” the tech explained, “Thought you would want to come along to finish cleaning up.” The way he said it made it very clear as to what he expected to happen, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to pull the trigger, especially if the old doctor wasn’t actively trying to hurt me.

As the buck turned to walk out the door, I noticed a spot of red on the barding over his shoulder. “Wait, Crosswire, you’re hurt!” I exclaimed, walking over to him and pulling out a healing potion, “Heart Attack can wait. We should see to you injuries first.”

Crosswire slowly turned around, moving with obvious difficulty, and looked down at the potion I was offering. “I’ll be fine,” he said, his magic gripping the bottle and floating it over to himself, “but I guess it couldn’t hurt.” He drained the bottle with a few swallows, then tucked the empty bottle into his saddlebags. He then turned, moving much more smoothly now, and walked out of the RV, with Steel Curtain and me just a step behind.

We made our way through the carnage, stepping over the broken bodies of the dead raiders, walking through mud that was less the color of dirt and closer to the color of rust with all of the blood that had seeped into it. Just as we were approaching the medical shack, I came across Crackshot’s corpse, and slowed to a stop.

“You should have just dropped your weapons, you stupid bastard,” I growled, “Now look what your stubbornness caused. At least that’s one less group of raiders for the wasteland to worry about.”

I stepped over the buck’s body, putting his fate out of my mind, and rejoined Crosswire and Steel Curtain at the door to the shack. They both stepped aside and let me be the one to open the door.

Inside the dim structure, I found the aging unicorn sitting in his usual spot, nursing a glass of some sort of clear liquid, exactly as I had expected to find him.

“So, Crackshot lost,” the doctor drawled, his speech slightly slurred. He dropped his gaze from me to the glass he was clutching, then lifted it and took a drink, “Guess you’re here to finish the job, eh, Ever?”

I sighed heavily and walked into the shack, shaking my head slowly, “I didn’t come back for revenge, Heart Attack,” I answered, “So I’m not going to hurt you unless you attack me first.”

“Heh, that’s not like you, Ever,” the unicorn stated, chuckling lightly, then hiccupping, “Not like you at all.”

“Stop calling me that,” I snapped, uncomfortable with all of the reminders of my old life. This aging buck still saw me as what I had been, and his words reminded me of how much control I had had then. But, with every time I heard him speak my name as he did, I was reminded of how unhappy my life had been.

“It’s your name, ain’t it?” Heart Attack asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion, “What else am I supposed to call you.”

“How about my full name?” I asked, harsher than I had intended, “Call me Evergreen. It’s how everypony knows me nowadays.”

“Are you really the same pony that was chased out of here a week ago?” the doctor demanded, squinting his eyes at me, then taking another drink.

“No, she isn’t. She’s learned a few things since then,” Crosswire chimed in as he entered the shack.

Heart Attack shifted his gaze from me to Crosswire, and actually laughed. “That you, Crosswire? Damn, I’m surprised you’re still alive!”

“And why wouldn’t I be?” the tech demanded, “Because I ran away with my tail between my legs, wanting to live rather than go down fighting?”

“Well, that’s the type I had you pegged for,” Heart Attack muttered, going to take a drink, then realizing that his glass was empty. He sighed and eased himself out of his chair, hobbling over to the cabinet, with his empty glass clutched in a hoof, where he kept his supply of liquor. He reared up on his hindlegs, impressive considering how drunk he probably was, and pulled out a bottle filled with a clear liquid, nonchalantly filling his glass back up while balancing on only two legs.

“Well, I’m happy that you were wrong,” Crosswire snapped back, “Otherwise things wouldn’t have started looking up for me.”

“Fair ‘nuff,” the doctor grunted as he returned to his seat. He took a long pull from his drink, then turned his gaze to me. “So, if you’re not going to kill me, what are you planning to do with me, Evergreen?” he asked with a chuckle, most likely at my name, “There’s too much wrong-doing connected to my name for any settlement to even consider taking me in, and I doubt my old bones will last too long out here on my own.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Heart Attack, but I can’t just shoot somepony who isn’t offering any resistance. That just isn’t who I am anymore,” I answered quietly, “Do you not have any ideas for what you can do?”

The doctor remained silent as he swirled his drink around and peered into it, as if he were looking for answers. “I’ve got an idea. Don’t know how much you’re gonna like it though,” he finally answered in a resigned tone.

“What do you mean?” I asked, fearing what the answer would be. Heart Attack had always been one for extreme solutions to problems; it was how he had ended up as the medic for a raider gang. But on the other hoof, his extreme solutions were often the only thing left that would actually get a result.

“Well, the way I see it, I’ve been alive for a long time, longer than most,” he answered as he took another gulp from his drink, “Now, don’t give me any of that shit about how I’m still young enough to make something of myself. In another time, maybe I would be, but in the wasteland, I’m old, washed-up, and I enjoy drink far too much to ever settle down in a ‘civilized’ settlement.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Crosswire asked tentatively. I could even detect a note of fear in the ragged buck’s voice. So at least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the direction this conversation was going.

“Well, ever since I was a young colt, I’d wanted to see what was on the other side of those clouds. Some of the peaks around here are tall enough to poke through. At least, it looks that way from down here. I figured I’d climb my way up one of them and see what I could see,” the doctor said with a melancholic grin.

“That would be suicide,” Steel Curtain announced from his place by the door, “The Enclave would shoot you down before you came even close to the top of the cloud cover.”

Heart Attack looked over to the armored Pegasus and nodded slowly. “Guess you would know that best, since you look like you’re one of ‘em. Well, at least nopony could say that I didn’t try.”

“I can’t let you kill yourself like that, Heart Attack. You’ve put me back together far too many times for me to let you just go and get yourself killed,” I growled, “Look at me. I was the one in charge of this group, and I’m working with Metro now. The mayor there is one of my strongest allies now. If I could do it, then you can!”

“I’m happy to hear that you managed to find a better life, Evergreen, but this ain’t your choice,” the doctor replied with a sigh, draining his drink, “My entire life, I’ve been living to somepony else’s expectations. For once, I’d like to do something because I want to do it. It might as well be the last thing I do.”

“But why this?” I demanded, my voice taking on a pleading tone. I simply couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to try. Every pony I had ever met had wanted nothing more than to survive, yet here was a buck who was basically giving up, at least to my eyes.

“If you’re thinking that I want to die, Evergreen, that isn’t it,” Heart Attack answered, as if reading my mind, sounding sober for the first time ever, despite the amount of alcohol we had seen him drink, “I want to live, but I don’t want to do it on somepony else’s terms. Besides, there’s always the chance that they won’t shoot, right?” He shot a questioning glance in Steel Curtain’s glance as he said they words.

The armored Pegasus shrugged in response. “I suppose, if there wasn’t a patrol in the area, but they keep a pretty sharp eye on anything approaching the clouds. I’d be surprised if anything made it through.”

“It’s settled then,” Heart Attack announced resolutely, “Come morning, I’ll be heading for the closest mountain that pierces the clouds.”

I fell heavily backwards onto my rump, grimacing from the sudden pain it awoke in my back as it jostled the metal plates that were still very badly mauled out of place. I was completely incapable of believing that this buck wanted this for himself. Yet, I knew I couldn’t take this away from him. As he had said, it was his choice to make, and it wasn’t as if he was going looking for death. It was simply likely that this course would lead to it.

The doctor saw me fall back, and smiled wanly. “I know it isn’t what you want, Ever,” he said, “but it’s what I want.”

“I… understand,” I finally managed to force, grinning weakly in response, again trying to push the pain of my injuries from my mind, “Just promise me something. Promise me that you’ll be careful.”

“I suppose I can do that,” he answered, “Now you lot need somewhere to stay for the night, and I doubt you want to move all those bodies.”

“Not particularly,” Crosswire said, “I was thinking that we’d just stay in here. It’s out of the rain, and there’s more than enough space for all of us.”

“Hah! You make it sound like there’s going to be more of you showing up,” Heart Attack exclaimed with a laugh.

“Yup. Two more,” I answered, “And I should probably get outside to look for them. They won’t have a clue what to look for out here.”

With that, I staggered to my hooves and made my way out of the shack and back into the rain. A quick check of my E.F.S. revealed two blue bars approaching the camp from the direction of the gate. I wandered in that direction, each step causing me more pain, forcing me to limp severely. The healing potions may have healed my injuries for the most part, but my damaged armor was still biting into my back, and I could feel fresh blood flowing under my armor.

Despite the pain, I forced a grin onto my face as Autumn Mist and Suture came into sight. On seeing me, they noticeably perked up and picked up their pace, rushing over to meet me.

“I’m happy to see that you’re still on your feet, Evergreen!” Suture announced happily, “I guess the battle went well? Autumn wasn’t really saying a whole lot while we were up there.”

“That’s ‘cause I could barely see. If it weren’t for that Pipbuck I picked up from the ghouls, I would have been less than useless!” the sniper exclaimed, rolling her eyes as though she had already said the same thing several times.

“Yeah, we’re all in one piece, for the most part. Crosswire took some fire, but we already handled that,” I answered, forcing the grin to remain on my face, which seemed to be a losing battle, waiting for them to walk by so I could turn and follow. I at least wanted them to settle down before worrying Suture with my injuries.

“That’s good. What about you and Steel Curtain?” Suture asked, turning to look at me with a critical eye.

“Steel Curtain made it through unscathed. No real surprise there. These ponies didn’t have any weapons capable of even scratching his armor, much less pierce it. As for me, I may have gotten bludgeoned a bit, but we already took care of the worst of the damage,” I admitted with a shrug, trying to play off the injury. Unfortunately, the shrug was exactly the wrong thing to do as it pulled on my barding, and dug the broken plates into my back, making me grimace and whimper in pain.

“If you’re making that face simply by shrugging, then I really need to take a look at you,” Suture stated adamantly, “Show us where we’ll be staying, and I’ll see what I can do.” The medic then turned and started forward again, but stopped dead in her tracks after only two steps to stare at the carnage.

“Goddesses,” she whispered under her breath, “So many dead…”

“Don’t do this to me now, Suture,” I begged, “They were trying to kill us, and none of them were good ponies. If we didn’t do it, somepony else would have, and there would be a lot more dead innocents out there.”

“You weren’t a good pony either, Evergreen,” the maroon mare pointed out, her voice harsh, “I understand now that they were raiders, and that they can’t be reasoned with. I didn’t know that when we first met. But it’s still hard for me to see death on this scale.”

“I understand,” I said sympathetically, limping forward to take the lead, “Now follow me. I’ll show you where we’ll be staying for the night. As I passed them, I heard a sharp intake of breath from Suture. It could only mean that she had noticed my armor.

“I know, Suture, but like I said: we took care of the worst of the damage. When Steel Curtain got to me, I didn’t even have the strength to stand. You can take a look inside,” I said, trying to placate her. The mare’s only response was to snort at me.

I led them both to the medical shack, and after a quick introduction to Heart Attack, Suture turned to me and pointed towards one of the cots. “Lie down, now,” she ordered, not unkindly. Once I was on the bed, she pulled out a syringe of Med-X and jammed it into my leg. Very quickly, my entire body started to feel numb, and my thought’s started to become fuzzy. “Even with that, I imagine this is going to hurt a lot,” she announced, reaching for the bindings of my armor, which she deftly undid, “I’m sorry I can’t do anything more about it.”

She started to pull my barding off, and I couldn’t help but to cry out in pain as the broken steel plates were slowly pulled out of my back. I had use to think that getting shot hurt, since at least that pain was quick, but this was the kind of pain that kept dragging on as the plates dragged new furrows up my back and onto my neck, the barding too damaged for Suture to do anything else with it, and the remaining armor too thick for her to cut it off. As she worked, I could audibly hear the metal plates squelching as they were pulled free, each onr sending fresh rivulets of blood dripping down my side and neck.

By the time she was finally done, I was lying on the bed panting, tears streaming down my face from the intense pain, and practically bathing in my own blood. When I tried to move, I was overcome with a wave of agony that spread from my mauled back and simply whimpered, unable to manage anything else.

My armor discarded, Suture turned her attention back to me. Her sharp intake of breath told me just how bad it looked. “Princesses above, this looks worse than a simple bludgeoning. What the hell happened?”

“The fucker that had her pinned was using an axe. By the time I got there, he’d already rendered her completely defenseless,” Steel Curtain answered for me, “I’m just lucky that I managed to get there before he could swing the thing for the last time.”

Suture shook her head slowly as she accessed her Pipbuck, using it to pull out another syringe of Med-X, which she immediately gave me. The powerful painkiller forced the pain back, at last allowing me to catch my breath, but it wasn’t successful in blocking out even close to all of the pain that I was feeling.

“Ok, well at least now I can actually do something about the injury,” Suture said quietly, laying aside several different implements and various other supplies, “This might hurt a bit.”

The maroon mare started tending to the deep wounds, slowly cleaning them out and bandaging them up, refusing to use healing potions, claiming that they were too inefficient, and that natural healing would be the best course of action for this type of injury. Though she was trying to be gentle, the pain was nearly unbearable, even with the double dose of Med-X. It felt as though a red-hot spike was being driven into my back with every attempt she mad to clean out the wounds, rendering me almost incapable of thinking. The only thought I could truly manage was something along the lines of ‘Princesses please stop this fucking agony!’ My last thought before the pain finally rendered my unconscious was that I probably would have preferred to die over having to suffer this kind of agony.

When I finally woke, it was to the sound of a light rain coming down on the roof of the shack. I shifted experimentally, testing my movement, and was surprised when I felt almost no pain at all. All I really felt was a bit of tightness and soreness around the area where I had been injured, but nothing more than that.

Slowly, I pushed myself up so that I was propped up on my legs and was able to look around the room. The first pony I noticed was Suture, who was sleeping on the cot next to mine. Just by looking at her I could tell that she was completely passed out, which told me that she must have spent hours trying to piece me back together.

I scanned the room and noticed Heart Attack rooting through his cabinets, occasionally pulling out some container or other, which he was piling together in the center of the room, next to a set of old, chewed-up saddlebags. I felt my heart sink as I remembered that he was packing for the journey he would be taking today.

I watched him in silence for several minutes, noticing on my E.F.S. that nopony else was in the shack, simply trying to think of anything more I could say to try to dissuade him from this course of action. Ponies with his skills were rare, enough so that many towns would accept him without question, despite his checkered past. But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say to him. It was as he had said the day before: It was his choice to make, and nopony else’s. As much as I disliked that, I could respect it. After all, it was all I had wanted since I had left the camp and tried to forge a new life.

The old doctor turned around during his work, and finally noticed that I was up. “’Bout time you woke up, Ever. Back still hurting?” He asked, making his way over to me and taking a look at the bandages wrapped around my back. As he moved, it seemed to me that he was a bit more sluggish than usual, but his walking did seem to be straighter.

“It feels much better than I had expected,” I answered, looking up at him, “Especially given how much it hurt at the time. How long was I out?”

“About ten hours, give or take,” he answered, his voice sounding a bit strained, yet I couldn’t detect a single slurred word, which was awfully surprising.

“Heart Attack, are you actually sober?” I asked, not even making an attempt to hide the disbelief in my voice.

“For the first time in years,” he answered with a pained grin, “And let me tell you: it’s fucking hell. But this trip ain’t something I want to do with drink fogging up my head. If I’m going to do this, it needs to be done right.”

“Shit,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say. Heart Attack had been a part of the gang back when I had first joined, several years before I had risen to be the pony in charge. Not once in all of those years had I ever seen him sober, even for an hour.

“You’re telling me,” he scoffed with a toss of his head. He spent another few minutes checking over the bandages, reassuring me that everything was healing well, before starting to go back to his packing.

“So when did Suture finally finish working on me?” I asked, looking over at the sleeping mare, “I passed out rather quickly, and knowing her as well as I do, she wouldn’t quit until there wasn’t a thing left that she could do.”

Heart Attack stopped dead in his tracks and turned around, a confused look on his face. “Suture? Oh, you mean your friend who knows a bunch about medicine?” When I nodded, he answered, “I think she finally fell asleep about three hours ago. Apparently, there was a chance that your injuries could have been much more severe, since there were a bunch of sharp metal disks digging into your back. She cleaned out each individual wound, and then made sure that none of them had penetrated deep enough to actually damage your spine. That process took her hours.”

I shook my head slowly, simply astonished that she would use so much of her energy to make sure I was all right. “Shit, she needs to stop doing this to herself,” I muttered, slowly climbing to my hooves. I was a little shaky at first, but whatever it was that Suture had done left almost no residual pain, and all I needed was a few moments to gather my strength. I wouldn’t be up to full fighting condition today, but there also shouldn’t be a whole lot in our way between here and Mt. Hoof.

“What, burning herself out?” Heart Attack asked as he returned to rummaging through his cabinets, “As far as I can tell, it was worth it if it got you back on your hooves. This little group of yours is one devoted set of ponies. I’m actually surprised you got them all together, especially that big, armored Pegasus. How the hell did you get the loyalty of an Enclave soldier?”

“He’s not Enclave,” I answered automatically, “He deserted in protest to something their military was doing. I probably shouldn’t go into it, since you want to try to get above the clouds. And they aren’t devoted to me. They simply share some interests with me, or about me.”

“It doesn’t look like that from where I stand,” the doctor stated with a chuckle, “I’m telling you, Ever, those ponies would do almost anything for you, and I doubt some of them would even know why. Especially that angry young mare with the big rifle. Then again, I doubt that she knows why she does almost anything.”

I couldn’t accept a word of what Heart Attack was saying. Autumn Mist was along to make sure that I didn’t relapse to being a raider again. She had made that fact clear on several occasions. As for Steel Curtain, he simply shared my interest in securing the wasteland’s future for itself. Sure, he and I were friendly, but the others, Crosswire especially, still had their trust issues with him. Crosswire and Suture were the only two that I truly believed were entirely loyal to me, and Suture only because of how much I had helped, and was helping, her home.

“By the way, if you’re looking for the others, they went outside to salvage what they could from the camp,” Heart Attack continued, not reacting to my silence, “I think they’d like to see that you’re up and about.”

I nodded dumbly, hunting about for my barding, but couldn’t find it. Somepony must have taken it with them for some reason. So, without anywhere to put my weapons, I simply walked out without them, trusting that they would all be armed, and that if something went wrong, Steel Curtain would be able to react well enough to buy me time to grab a gun.

I stepped outside, discovering that the rain had let up to the point where it was just a light misting, meaning that our visibility had improved back to the point where we could at least see more than five feet past our noses. I immediately spotted Crosswire, who was sifting through a slowly growing pile of junk, pulling out random bits and pieces which he would occasionally strip down even farther, or just stash away into one of his many pockets or into his saddlebags. Sitting next to him was my barding, which appeared to be in mint condition, armor plating included.

I wandered over to his side and lifted the barding off the ground and started to inspect it for myself. With a careful eye I could tell where the patchwork had been done, but the buck had done a terrific job in getting it back up to combat strength. The only thing he hadn’t managed to repair was the red stain of my blood on the plates surrounding the patched pieces. “Wow, thanks for fixing this up for me, Crosswire,” I said, pushing the sight of that out of my mind and pulling it on, settling it so that it sat comfortably, “I can barely even tell that it was damaged!”

“Well, you know me,” he answered happily, “I don’t leave any job half-done. And it’s good to see you on your hooves again, Evergreen. I guess that injury of yours was more serious than we thought.”

“Seems that way,” I answered, perusing the junk pile, “So are Autumn and Steel Curtain just going around and grabbing whatever looks useful?” I asked, seeing everything in the pile from broken down weapons to scraps of torn barding.

“Pretty much, though almost all of it is total junk. Some of these guns aren’t even good for salvaging parts. I’d forgotten just how bad this gang was at maintaining its gear. I’m starting to be surprised that they even had anything to shoot us with at all.”

“I’d always been wondering about that, even when we were still here. You could only ever do so much, Crosswire. Even yours and my guns weren’t in the best condition,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” the grey buck pointed out as Autumn Mist and Steel Curtain approached with more junk. Autumn Mist had deposited her rifle somewhere, making it easier for her to carry more, but her levitation skills made it very easy for her to carry several large containers of various bits of salvage. Steel Curtain had pulled the wing sheaths off of his armor, probably for the same reason, as well as the fact that it seemed unusually warm out today, even though it was still fairly early in the year. Once they had deposited their loads, they practically ran to where Crosswire and I were standing, both with large grins plastered on their faces.

“Evergreen, you’re finally up! Suture was up for hours, and some of the things she was saying had us worried!” Autumn exclaimed, coming up to me and wrapping a hoof around my neck in an impulsive hug.

I was taken aback by the sudden gesture, but still managed to reach up to return it and answered, “Yeah, Heart Attack was just telling me that my injuries must have been far more severe than we thought if Suture had to work that hard on them. I’m just thankful that she managed to fix all the damage. I can’t imagine what I would have done if there had been something permanent!”

“You’re telling us that!” Steel Curtain exclaimed, “You’re the one with the plan, Evergreen. We’re just following along and helping out.”

“That’s not true!” I protested, “All of you have had a lot of influence in what we do. I’m just the spokespony.”

“Believe what you want, Evergreen, but this is your mission. Sure, we share our opinions on things from time to time, but the jobs are being offered to you, not us,” Autumn argued with a chuckle that did nothing to take away from the seriousness of the comment.

I looked from one to the other, seeing the same stubborn agreement in all of their expressions, and sighed in exasperation. “I’m not going to be able to convince any of you otherwise, am I?” I asked.

“Nope,” Crosswire answered with a mischievous smile, “So you better get used to it, boss.”

“Please, Crosswire, don’t call me that. There are too many bad memories connected to that word for me, including the way I was treated by a lot of ponies, especially yourself,” I pleaded. Luckily for me, he understood.

He nodded solemnly, the smile fading from his face as he thought about what I meant. “Sorry, Evergreen. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s fine. Now, Since Suture is still sleeping, we might as well finish up this salvage job. Crosswire, you’re the one in charge of this. Tell me what you need, and I’ll help find it,” I announced, steering the conversation away from those thoughts.

The buck immediately perked up, pushing the memories aside and answered, “Anything and everything that looks the least bit useful. I’ll sift through it and pick out the bits and pieces that I can actually use. I imagine that Autumn Mist and Steel Curtain have already grabbed most of it, but there has to be a bit more out there.”

I nodded resolutely and turned to the other two. “Well, you two know where you’ve been, so point me somewhere you haven’t checked yet.”

“We haven’t really gotten to the southwestern quarter of the camp yet,” Autumn said, “We were just about to head over there.”

“Sounds good,” I answered, smiling, and joined them as they made their way to that end of the camp.

We spent the next three hours going over the camp with a fine-toothed comb, pulling out any scrap of machinery, metal, or fabric that we might be able to use for any purpose, and piling them up for Crosswire to filter. In the end, we had a respectable pile of salvage that we could use to both refit and repair our own gear, as well as trade with various settlements. Carrying all of it would be difficult, but if we planned carefully, we should be able to divide it amongst ourselves fairly evenly.

As we were finishing that job, which ended up with me carrying almost a third of the salvage, since I had so little else in my saddlebags, Suture came wandering out of the shack, followed by Heart Attack. Though she still looked tired, she also appeared to be in good spirits.

“I see you lot have been busy,” she announced as she joined us, eyeing our bulging saddlebags wearily, then noticing the small pile we still had left to give to her, “I’m guessing I need to carry that?”

“It’s barely an eighth of the whole load,” Autumn Mist explained, “Since you’re carrying most of our medical supplies already.”

“Well, it’s nice to see that I was considered,” Suture answered, smiling, “I’m also going to guess that we’re leaving shortly?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we’ve already wasted enough time here, and there’s still a good distance for us to go. If we’re lucky, and don’t run into any obstacles on our way, we should still be able to make it to Mt. Hoof before it gets too dark.”

“Fair enough. And I’m going to assume that nothing is hurting since you’re out here moving heavy loads around?” she asked, eying me carefully.

I nodded vigorously. “Yup, everything feels great. You did a terrific job, Suture. Thank you,” I answered as sincerely as I could.

The mare watched me for a moment for nodding, a satisfied expression on her face. “Thanks for letting me sleep, then. I know how much you hate traveling at night,” the medic said, handing me my weapons and saddlebags that I had left inside, then moving over to the pile of salvage and quickly packing that, letting her Pipbuck’s inventory spell even everything out efficiently. As she did that, Autumn Mist retrieved her rifle and Steel Curtain reattached his wing sheaths, fluttering his wings a bit to settle them back into place.

Before long, we were all loaded up and ready to go. As a group, the six of us set out from the camp, heading out the trail that would take us to the main road that cut through the mountains. For me, it was the first time I had walked out of that gate with peaceful intentions, and it was also hopefully the last time I would ever need to walk out. In my mind, I put stepping out of that gate as the splitting point between the life I had used to live and the life I was now trying to live.

Heart Attack traveled with us as far as the main road, where he pointed out which mountain he was going to head towards. It was a peak that looked to be almost a full day’s walk away, but it was also the closest one whose summit was hidden by the clouds.

“I’m not going to try to stop you anymore,” I said to the old doctor, “I’ve accepted that this is your decision. But I am going to tell you to be careful. If you’re still willing to do one last thing for somepony, let it be this: Make your dream a reality, for all of us down here. If a wasteland pony can fulfill their dream, it will be an example to everypony else down here. They will know that their dreams are worth following, and if enough ponies start to believe that, then maybe we’ll have a shot at a good future.”

Heart Attack looked at me with a determined expression, every line of his body showing his intention to make it just as far as his body would allow. “I think I can manage that, Evergreen. And thank you for giving this old pony one last chance to make something of himself.”

I nodded silently, unable to find any more words. Everything worth saying had already been said, and everypony knew it.

Heart Attack briefly said his good-byes, mainly to me and Crosswire, then turned and walked off, heading west towards the distant peak and the setting sun. The five of us watched him until he disappeared behind a bend in the trail. After a few more moments of silence, we finally resumed our own journey, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

Mine were focused on Heart Attack. Throughout my years in the gang, he had never distinguished himself as anypony special in my eyes. He had simply been the drunkard that happened to know enough medicine to stitch us up after a particularly tough raid. Now, I had seen just how different he had been, and I was starting to think that maybe every single pony in the wasteland had this potential in them, if only they were willing to give it a chance. Unfortunately, there were so many ponies in the wasteland that had simply given up on their dreams that I doubted that anything could ever get most of them to believe again.

It was our dreams that gave us direction in life, that gave us a reason to get up in the morning, struggle through the day, and work to find somewhere safe to lay our heads at night. Suture had been the one to teach me that simple survival was not a dream worthy of being followed, and that how a pony follows their dream is just as important as having one. Now Heart Attack had taught me that choosing to pursue that dream, against any risk, is sometimes even more important than taking the sure path to survival. He had shown me that taking the path that guaranteed life could easily drive a pony away from what was important, and drag them into a life that left them as an empty shell, much as he had been before we had returned to the camp and given him the chance to make his choice.

At least now I could say that I had a dream, and it was no longer anything as simple as securing my own survival, or even the survival of my friends, though I would certainly give my life if it would save theirs. My dream now was ensuring that every single pony in the wasteland had the chance to choose their own future, and that they would have a chance to live in a world where every single day wasn’t a struggle for survival. I wanted to see a world where ponies could live for their dreams, and not just their lives. If there was anything worth fighting and dying for, it had to be that.

I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice the various red bars appearing in my E.F.S. Snapping myself back to reality, I motioned for us to stop, then turned myself about, keeping a careful eye on both my surroundings as well as my E.F.S. The former was a narrow trail that was winding its way between to rather tall ridges, probably three times as tall as I was, meaning that we were basically walking through a box canyon. The latter was positively riddled with red bars, in every direction.

“Shit, ready your weapons everypony,” I announced, reaching for Hammer as a roar I had heard only a few times before echoed around us. It sounded as though it was coming from far away, but I knew better from listening to the stories told by the older members of the gang. Manticores were particularly good at making it hard to tell where they were coming from. “We’re surrounded.”

Level Up!
Quest Perk Gained – Story of a Broken Heart – The recovery of your journal grants you a greater understanding of your past, increasing your mental willpower.
Perk Gained – Quick Striker – All attacks with melee weapons are 20% faster.
Skill Note: Melee (50)

{I apologize greatly for the great delay in getting this chapter out. With the combination of finals and my computer dying the day I moved back home from college, there were a good two weeks where absolutely no progress was made. Thankfully, my computer has been repaired, and I am settling into a good routine to get writing done at home during the summer (not easy, considering how busy I’ve been.) Everything should be getting back to a normal now! I made this chapter a little shorter, both to end the long hiatus on updates, and because I wanted the next plot elements to be in the next chapter, rather than this one. As always, thanks to Kkat for writing the original Fallout: Equestria, and thank you to my wonderful editors, Cody and MUCKSTER, for bearing with me (and badgering me these last couple weeks). Also as always, I have the hub page for the story here.}