Chapter 1

        “I see you’re still down there all warm and safe and sound.”

        "What they hay, Lily?  Are you plannin' on gettin' yerself killed before you let me have a gun?!"

        "What would you do with a gun, Buck?"

        "I'd kill some of these dumb raiders and ghouls so that they don't get you!"

        "That's right.  You'd kill.  That's exactly what you don't need to be doing."

        Too enraged to continue, I took a step back from my sister.  My buffalo-headed, stubborn, do everyt-

        "I could really use a healing potion right about now," she said, interrupting my thoughts.  

        "No.  No, you don't get one just yet," I replied, even angrier than before.  "You can't keep leaving me outside while you go and do the dirty work.  Look around, Lily.  You're laying in the middle of a floor, a huge gash down your side, and surrounded by dead ghouls.  Meanwhile, I was stuck out by the door just listening to all the shrieks.  I run in and see this!  You could've died!"

        Lily closed her eyes and sighed, doing her best not to move and aggravate her injury.  "How many times have we gone over this, Buck?"

        "At least two dozen.  But you were never hurt this badly before, so I think I've got a lil' leverage this time,"  I said as I moved to stand over her head.  I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out a nice, fresh healing potion and dangled it in front of her nose.  "So how 'bout this.  You say that I can come in with you next time, and in return, you get this."

        The purple mare gave me a look that told me exactly how much trouble I'd be in when we got home.  "Fine," she finally muttered.

        "What's that?"

        "Fine," she repeated, "but no guns.  You've got your rope and you've got your wings, that's all you need."

        "Good enough!"  I ripped the potion with my teeth and poured it into her mouth.  Her side magically sewing itself shut was eerie to watch.  For all her talk about not killing, she sure knew how to make a room full of living ghouls turn dead.  Well... I guess if they were ghouls they weren't really alive to start with, but the point stands.  

        I walked over to one of the less ugly looking ghouls and started poking around.  A 10mm pistol - same as Lily's gun, but not even good enough to use for parts.  Some 9mm ammo... now that we could use back at home.  After stuffing the ammo into my saddlebag I turned around just as Lily was getting off the floor.  She shook her head and started looking around the interior of the building.

        "It's an office building," she whispered as she looked at the staircase that went up the middle of the central room.  "All that for a stupid office building.  There's never anything good in office buildings."

        I snorted.  "What, you didn't notice that before you got into a fight to the death with six ghouls?"

        "I was a bit busy at the time.  You know, getting attacked and such.  Oh well.  Let's go home."  She limped a little as she walked towards the door of the building.

        "You hurt your leg?" I asked as I trotted to catch up with her.

        Lily nodded.  "Ghoul shot it.  One of the weaker potions we have at home should fix it, no need wasting a fresh one.  Sure feels funny to walk on, though."  I gave my sister a hard bump with my shoulder as we walked through the double doors.  "Hey!  You still have one more limb than I do.  You don't get to complain."  I laughed.  To drive her point home, I flapped my wings in her face as I took off and started to circle above her.  "So not fair!"

        I smugly and silently soared over the earth pony's head as we made our way through the wasteland.  The cloud cover was as present as ever, but the day seemed brighter than normal.  Or perhaps it just felt that way after my unexpected victory earlier.  Or maybe it was the prospect of actually being home again.  We'd been gone for almost a week.  Far, far too long to be constantly on the move and never sleeping on a decent bed.  Sometimes Lily would be gone for several weeks - the longest she'd ever been gone was two months.  I got to go on this delivery trip since it was short and was relatively safe.

        "What are you gonna do when we get there?" I asked, mostly to break the silence.

        "Sleep... for a day," she replied.

        "Do you wanna fix your leg before or after you enter hibernation?"  I stuck my tongue out at her as I dove by her head.

        "Oh, right.  Before.  Hey, Priest can probably do it if we ask real nice," she said.

        "Lily, Priest would do it i- CHAPEL!  I see it!  I see it!"  Home sweet home!  Where ghouls aren't lurking around every corner and every other living thing wasn't trying to capture, rape, or murder you.  "Can I?  Can I?  Please?"

        My sister gave a long sigh.  "Alright, go ahead.  I'll see you tonight."

        "Yes, thank you!"  And with that, I was off flying full speed for home.

        The short distance passed quickly under my wings and I was soon on the outskirts of Chapel.  I'd never seen it from the south before.  It looked even smaller than it really was since the hill the chapel sat behind blocked the view of half the tents.  The few buildings that stood around the other half made it appear that the town had been built in a circle.

        I swooped down and landed on the roof of the Post Office, just down the road from the church itself.  Something seemed... missing.  I pushed that thought out of my mind when I realized that the Crusaders would be panicking and not lazily walking around if there actually was something missing.  

        What to do first?  I had to go tell Priest I was back, take a walk around and make sure nopony had burned anything down while I was gone, give my saddlebags to Charity, and of course invent a reason to stop by and see Inkblot.  Might as well start with the closest thing first.  I walked over to the far side of the roof and stomp my hind leg a few times.  "Charity?  Ya in there?!" I shouted down through the wood.

        "Git off my roof, featherbrain!" came a muffled reply.

        I took that as a yes and dropped down to the door.  I opened it slightly and peeked in.  "Hi, Charity."  I opened the door the rest of the way and saw a blue unicorn cowering in the far corner of the room.  “Hey, Spark.”

        “Don’ you have any sense at all?”  Charity pointed at the still shaking filly in the corner.  “She jumped halfway ‘cross th’ room when you did that.  It ain’t even Nightmare Night this time."

        I scampered in and pouted,  "Don’t remind me.  Is my face still bruised?"

        Charity shook her head, but Spark spoke up.  “I really am sorry about that.”

        “It was almost two months ago, Spark, ya can stop apologizing now.  Besides, somepony was s’posed to have told ya what was gonna be happening.”  If I didn’t stop her quickly, she’d be apologizing to me for hours.

        “But I kicked you really hard...”

        “And now I’m all better.”  I turned around so she could she the impact spot on the side of my face.  “See?”

        “Enough!  What didja come in here fer, Buck?” Charity asked, interrupting our endless cycle of apologies and explanations.

        "Aw, you're no fun anymore," I said, sticking my tongue out at her.  I turned my head and lifted off my saddlebags.  "Where ya wan' 'ith?

        "Put it in th' corner, I'll go through it later."  I did as she said and set it next to two empty saddlebags.  They looked like Adagio's and Melody's.  "It's good yer back, though.  Scoodle's gang is a day late, and the s-" she stopped herself and coughed.  "Yeah, she's late."

        Now there was something to be concerned about.  "Scoodle's never, ever late.  Where was she going?"

        "Nor'west somewhere.  Past Pony Joe's, I think."

        That was particularly dangerous territory.  Scoodle knew well enough how to avoid raiders and such.  The most dangerous thing up there was the Boneyard, but even that was harmless so long as you didn't touch anything.  I gave a little laugh to try to cheer her up, "Heh, I bet Boing probably just found something really fun to play with and didn't want to leave it.  They'll be back real soon."

        Charity tried to keep the worry out of her face as I started to leave.  I stopped as I reached the door.  "Hey, Charity, do you have that new cloak Lily wanted for me?"

        A smile replaced her worried look.  "I already gave it t' Inkblot so she could stitch th' patches on."

         A tingling sensation ran down my back as she said those words.  "Sorry ‘bout scarin’ ya, Spark.  See ya later, Charity!" I shouted as I dashed out the door, headed for Inkblot's shop.

        *****

        Inkblot's shop was the second largest building in Chapel, just smaller than the storage building which sat between the shop and the Post Office.  She used the space to fulfill all the clothing needs of the Crusaders.  That, of course, was done for free and was usually confined to repairing Crusaders' cloaks, so she also repaired and made clothing for any passersby.  Most visitors didn't care about clothes, though.  They were too busy with... other things.

        The main room was completely dark when I stepped inside.  "Ink?"  No response.  Odd.  "Inkblot?  Ya in here?"  I shouted.  This time I heard a low mumble coming from one of the side rooms.  The feeling I had when I first entered Chapel came rushing back into my gut.  "Ink, ya alright?!" I shouted again as I ran towards the room the sound had come from.  

        I came to a screeching halt and looked through the doorway at Inkblot who was... holding a cloth patch in her mouth and levitating several needles?  She spit the patch out and looked up at me.  "Well look at you, the brave little blank flank coming to save the helpless filly from being assaulted by fabric."

        "Hey!  I thought something might actually be wrong!"

        She rolled her eyes and gave an annoyed look.  "What would you have done if there had been something wrong?  You're twice my size, Buck, and even I could still take you in a fight."

        "I... I hadn't thought up that part yet!"  Putting on a hurt look I continued, "Obviously I'm unwanted here.  I'll just leave and never bother you again."

        The green unicorn rolled her eyes once again and turned back to her work.  "Don't be on your way yet.  I'm almost done with your new cloak."  

        I finally entered the room.  It was basically a closet, but it had a large window and enough room for a small work table.  She could work in here during the day and not use up resources in lighting up the main room.  Holding the fabric up with her hooves, she was weaving the needles back and forth with her magic.

        I sat down next to her and laid my head on the table.  "I missed Chapel."

        "Bad trip?" she asked.

        "No, not really.  I just like warm beds and not being on the move all day long."  Not to mention the lack of ghouls, slavers, raiders, and other deadly things in Chapel.

        Inkblot gasped.  "You wound me, sir!"  Oh great, here we go.  "You leave for a whole week, you go out adventuring and scavenging and fighting off the horrors outside our fair town, and all you miss is a bed?"

        I closed my eyes and smiled.  "Oh alright, Ink, I missed you too."

        "That's better.  Now get your head off my table," she said as she started poking my nose with needles.

        I sat up and rubbed my face.  "Those things hurt, you know."

        "Consider it payback."

        "For what?!"

        "For the next time you screw something up," she said with a smirk.

        I growled at her.  Wasn't like there was much more I could do.  A couple minutes later, Inkblot was finished sewing the patches onto the cloak.

        "Alright, take your vest off and put it on the table."  I started to ask her why, but she read my mind.  "Unless you want me sewing the cloak into your neck as well as the vest, you'll take it off."  I figured cooperation would be easier and did as she said.  My cloak was several years old and so faded that it was almost white.  The new cloak was a rich red that seemed a bit ugly next to my faded green vest.  At least the new one didn't have any holes in it.  Yet.

        "All done," Inkblot said.  She held up the combination so I could see it.  

        "Looks great, Ink.  Mind helping me put it back on?"

        She nodded her approval and led me out into the main room.  Laying the vest upside-down on the floor, she said, "Hop in."  I lifted my leg up and put it down into the hole on the left.  Inkblot grabbed the other side of the vest and pulled it up and over my back.  My eyes went wide as she unexpectedly reached her head under my stomach and pulled the zipper up with her teeth.  So much for unicorn magic.  Tingling sensations ran down my back and through my wings and I was suddenly glad it was too dark for her to see my face. 

"There you go," she said as she started to walk back to her work room.  "I'm not sure I want to know how you do that on your own every morning."  She stopped and turned back towards me.  "Hey, do you kn-  ...  What are you doing with your wings?

        Dark enough to hide my face, but light enough to see my wings.  Darn!  Think... think...  "I, uh... was... testing out the new wing holes to see if they chaffed!  Yes.  Chaffing is bad.  Very bad.  The skin is very soft there.  You had a question?"

        Inkblot's face only showed more confusion after I was done 'explaining'.  "Yeah...  Whatever it was, I don't care anymore," she said as she sat down in her chair.  "I'll see you later."  

        I checked ‘Meet with Inkblot’ off my mental list as I walked back outside.  My nose said it could’ve gone better, but I politely disagreed with it.  The next stop was to check in with Priest and make sure the whole town hadn’t burned down in my absence.  I had always thought that was a little silly.  Chapel never really burned down when I went out on deliveries with Lily.  Nothing ever happened in our little village whether I was here or not.  The most excitement we ever got was the Nightmare Night we had every couple months.

        Somepony had found something to get excited over, however.  As I got closer to the white chapel on the hill, I realized it was two ponies.  And one of them was my sister.

        “You’ve taken him to Flank before,” Priest said when I finally got close enough to hear what was being discussed.

“Yes, I took him.  I took him every time he’s been there.  I won’t be here tomorrow to go with him!” Lily yelled.  

Somehow Priest was able to remain completely calm around the raging pony next to him.  “Megamart is much safer than Flank.”

        Lily began pacing back and forth in front of him, never taking her eyes off his.  “So?  He doesn’t need to be going in there on his own.”

        “He won’t exactly be on his own.  He’ll be with three other Crusaders,” Priest said, continuing to sit still.

        “Yes, four foals should go into a town completely unchaperoned.  That makes wonderful sense.”  

Though Lily had her back to me, I could guess at the look on her face.  And judging from the look on Priest’s face, I was probably right.

        “Do you not trust him?  Do you not think he can take care of himself and those sent with him?”  he asked, for the first time letting a sliver of emotion into his voice.

        She sounded a little shocked at his question.  “No, I don’t think he can take care of himself”  Oh.  Thanks, sis.  “He doesn’t have the means or experience to-”

        I knew exactly where she was going.  “Well I’m awfully good with a rope.” I said, interrupting her at the start of her rant.  

Lily quickly turned towards me and looked like she had been shot.  She regained her composure and said, “You aren’t going to Megamart tomorrow.”

“I don’t know why I would be.  We aren’t scheduled to make a drop-off at Megamart for another week.

“There has been a change in plans, Buckweiser,” Priest said quietly.  

I cringed at hearing my full name.  At least other Crusaders weren’t around this time to hear it.  Naming me after alcohol was fine, but did they really have to pick the cheapest kind?  Were Vodka, Cognac, and Whiskey taken already or something?

“What kind of change?” I asked.

“All we know is that it is urgent,” he said.

Lily and I started at each other.  As much as she hated the idea of not going with me into a crowded area, we both knew that “urgent” meant there wasn’t much of a decision to make.  

“Do either of you know when we’re heading out?”  

“The stockpile is being packed up right now, so first thing in the morning,” Lily answered.

Great.  First night I get to rest at home and now I won’t even be able to sleep in.  “Alright.  You two can go back to arguing now.  I’ll be asleep, so try not to need me.”

*****

Grow up, live comfortably, and die of old age.  That’s what ponies are supposed to do.  Supposed to do...  At least, that’s what adults tried to tell me.  Sometimes it was really hard to believe them.  Seems like most ponies don’t get to make it past “grow up” just because other ponies decide that “live comfortably” means killing everypony who doesn’t agree on the meaning of comfortable living.  

    Then there are the few ponies that actually do make it to old age.  Usually they were always trying to give advice or telling anypony who’ll listen some special secret about how to do what they did.  They always seem like the biggest hypocrites, though.  They say things like “Respect other ponies” and “Try to work things out peacefully”.  That’s generally followed with some story about this time they killed a dozen raiders or slavers or bandits or... whatever horrible thing they stumbled into.

    Only once have I ever actually thought a pony believed what he was saying when he divulged such maxims.  He didn’t follow his lessons with excited stories of battle and glory.  He didn’t follow his lessons with anything, really.  

One time he told me a story about a lost mare and a lonely colt.  The details were... well... pretty boring.  But he made sure that I understood the moral: If ponies cared about the ones around them, great things could happen.  Yeah, sure, that’s a great moral.  Too bad you can’t fly for an hour in a straight line without meeting enough ponies who haven’t heard that story.  Ponies who will really make you wish you had zig-zagged.

The real reason I believed him was because of the stories he didn’t tell.  The stories he thought that nopony needed to hear.  The stories of what happened before he settled down and started helping others.  Before he created the group that would help me, and so many others, grow up, live comfortably, and, hopefully, die of old age.

I thought about that pony as I laid in my - what had Inkblot called it?  a roost - as I laid in my roost on top of the post office.  That pony had said Megamart was safe, so Megamart must be safe.  He thought everything would be okay, so everything would be okay.

Lily just didn’t want you to go without her because she doesn’t want you to go anywhere.  If she could she’d lock you in a tent to keep you safe from... everything.  She just wants to protect me.  How long will she want to protect you?  Forever, I guess.  Yeah, that’ll be a lot of fun.  I’ll convince her I don’t need protecting eventually.  How?

I hate arguing with myself.  Every time I do it, I lose.  Instead of continuing the argument, I just stopped thinking about it at all and looked out at Chapel.  I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but two Crusaders were still busy loading up a couple of wagons with things from the stockpile.  

Eventually I dozed off, only to be awoken by hushed whispers below me.

“Ya sure he’s up there?” a colt asked timidly.  I was pretty sure I knew who it was, but I couldn’t remember a time I had heard Adagio’s voice be anything but confident.  

“Yeah, I’m sure,” a filly answered.

A second colt spoke up.  “What if he doesn’t want to be bothered?”

The filly sighed.  “It ain’t like yer gonna ask his permission.”  Clearly she was the ringleader.  

“What if he gets mad?” asked a second filly.

“Tri ain’t gonna get mad.”  I smiled as I recognized the voice of Sunny Sea and realized what was going on.

“He better get mad.  That’s the whole point of the bet,” the ringleader said.

The second filly spoke again.  “L-let’s just call this off.  Ten caps and apple bombs aren’t worth making him mad.”  Good girl!  

“Don’t be a wuss.”

“I’m not!  This just isn’t right.  I’m... I’m going to go get Priest.”

That got the ringleader’s attention.  “No!  Don’t!  Fine, yer not a wuss.  Just go stand over there.”  I was able to hear the soft clip-clop of her hooves in the dirt as she followed instructions.  “Everypony else still in on this, or what?”  

“Yeah, let’s do this,” Sunny Sea said.

“Well... I guess so,” Adagio whispered.

“Shroom?” Little Miss Bad Influence asked.

“Okay, okay.  I’ll do it,” he said.

“Alright, now remember the plan.  We get Tripod down here, we say the magic word, and the last one to move gets 10 caps and a box of Sugar Apple Bombs.  Any questions?”

The lack of sound seemed to signify that the plan was understood by all still involved.  Several seconds passed, then I heard a rapping sound on the wall of the post office.

“Tripod?  We have a question for you!”  I smiled, as I always did, upon hearing my nickname.  Several years ago Charity had convinced me to have the new foals call me by a different name.  Foals mispronounce a lot of words, and it turns out that most variations of “Buck” aren’t exactly pleasant.

I decided to play it up and let out a long, low groan.  “Whaaaaaaat?” I grumbled.

“We need you to look at something.”

I stood up and peered at them over the edge of the roof.  “Hang on.”  Making a show out of stretching, I cracked my neck and twisted my body as much as I could.  Then I jumped off the roof and circled them as I glided to the ground.  “What’s up?” I asked.

The four ponies took a collective step back as I stood up as tall as I could in front of them.  Though I wasn’t muscular, age allowed me to be at least a head taller than any of them.

“We, uh... just wanted to, uh...”  The ringleader reached into her saddlebag and pulled an item out, setting it on the ground in front of her.  “Just wanted to give you this bottle of Buckweiser we found!

I took my cue, closed my eyes, and went into full rage mode.  Rearing up and flaring my wings out, I gave a shrill whinny.  I pounded the ground hard when I came back down and snorted several times, trying to sound as mean as possible.  When I opened my eyes, the only one still standing in front of me was Sunny Sea.

I stared at her while I settled down and folded my wings back in.  “I really don’t know why I let ya convince them I care ‘bout that,” I said.

Sunny walked over to me and gave me a hug.  “Because I’m a really good spy, and a few caps and some candy is the least you can do.”

I shook my head.  “Ya really know how to abuse power.”

“Yep.  It’s so much fun.”

I laughed as I looked around and found where the other filly in the group had gone to.  Pointing her out, I asked, “Who’s that filly?  The one who wanted to go get Priest.”

“That’s Beanie,” she said.  “Only been here six months or so.  Nice, but shy.  Doesn’t much like foals her own age.  Guess they’re too rowdy for her.”

“Ya should introduce me.”

“Probably not a good idea, Tri.  After that little display she’s going to be terrified of you.”

I turned back to look at Sunny.  “Does she like you?”

“Everypony likes me.”

“Great.  You’ll be right there with me and she won’t be so scared.”  The look on the unicorn’s face told me it wouldn’t be that simple.  

“Okay, okay, c’mon,” she sighed.

I tried to do the opposite of what I had done earlier and make myself look as small as possible as we walked over to her.

“Howdy, Beanie,” Sunny said when we reached the filly’s spot.  “You know you don’t have to stand here anymore, right?  Everypony else ran away.”  Beanie never took her eyes off of me while Sunny spoke.  “And hey, I guess that mean you won the bet.  You’re the last one to move.”  She pointed at me.  “This here is Tripod, he wanted to see you.”

Beanie’s voice was barely a whisper.  “I don’t... I didn’t want...”  She said more after that, but it was too quiet to hear.

“I’m not really mad, Beanie.”  I laid down next to her nudged some of her green mane away from her face.  

“But... they said... and then you did...”

“All for fun.”  I put on a big smile.  “Smiles and laughter and fun.”

Beanie still looked as scared of me as ever.  It was kind of cute how she tried to hide her entire body behind her long mane.  For several minutes I tried to make funny faces and noises, but nothing seemed to work.  

“What am I going to have to-”  SPLAT!

I recoiled from the sudden feeling of mud on my face.  I looked around and saw Sunny a few feet away with a small hole in the ground next to her.  Before I could ask her what she thought she was doing, I heard quiet giggles next to me.

“Oh, so you think that’s funny, do you?”  I wiped the mud off my face, grabbed some more with my wing, and tossed a large mudball back at Sunny.  The impact left her covered in mud from nose to horn, and the giggles from the little filly turned into full laughs.  

After a few minutes, we had succeeded in getting mud everywhere and we had even gotten Beanie to toss a couple mud balls at us.  When we were done, we simply laid on our backs in the middle of our battlefield and looked at the sky.

*****

        “There you are.  I’ve been looking all over for you,” a voice said above me.

        “Well I can’t say I was hoping to be woken, Scroll.”

        “You did look mighty peaceful, but Charity wants both of us.  Now.”

        “I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said as I slowly got up from my mud bed.  The two fillies were still both sleeping soundly where they had fallen earlier.  

Paper Scroll led the way into the post office.  

        “We’re here, Charity!” he said as he entered the building.  “Not sure why, but we’re here.”

        “Buck’s here ‘cause I have good news and bad news to tell him.  Yer here ‘cause ya need t’ make sure Buck doesn’t leave ‘fore I give him the good news,” Charity said from her usual place behind the counter.

        “Bad news?” I asked.

        “The reason yer going in t’ Megamart t’morrow is because the stockpile is outta food.”

        That was... impossible.  “I left three weeks of rations in there!  There is no way we’re out of food!”

        “Grassy Knoll and his friends stole it and he’s sayin’ you didn’ leave ‘nough food t’ last while you were gone.”

        I leaped for the door but came crashing to the ground when Scroll grabbed onto my tail.  

        “I’ll handle it, Buck.  Last thing you need is t’ pick a fight and end up losin’ jus’ ‘cause ya think ya need to deal with somethin’.  Now for the good news.  Inkblot and Scroll’s brother are th’ ones going with y’all two t’morrow.

        Learning that Inkblot would be going with cooled some of the anger, but plenty of it was still left burning.  “I can’t go do nothin’ to him?  Slap to the flank?  Buck to the gut?  Wing to the face?”

        “Nope.  Now get out ‘fore ya track mud everywhere.”

*****

        I brooded over Grassy Knoll as I laid on the roof of the post office and attempted to clean my wings.  Preening was usually relaxing, but the horrible taste of the mud was counteracting the usual effects.  

        Grassy Knoll.  A stupid name for a stupid colt.  His one claim to authority was being the second oldest colt in Chapel, and thus in charge of the stockpile when I was away.  I had a feeling losing that little bit of authority was going to be the least of his worries pretty soon.  At least I hoped they would be the least of his worries.  My mind was coming up with several different things to do to him to teach him a lesson.

        Only two things could make this day any better. Just after finishing that thought, drops of rain started hitting all around me.  It was almost like the clouds were reading my mind.  I stopped preening and smiled, yet another idea for Grassy Knoll popping into my mind.

        As the rain picked up, I curled up and hid my head underneath a wing to keep it out of the rain.  With any luck, my dreams would be about tying that dumb colt to the chapel’s steeple.

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Footnote:  10% progress to level.

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