Graphite was leaning against the small sliver of metal that separated the wheel and the small set of stairs that lead to the cabin underneath the ship. Tsoy was silently piloting the boat, keeping it straight and at a steady pace. Graphite kept just as quiet, there was no reason to bother Tsoy and no conversation for him to start. They let the air fill the vacuum of silence, along with the splashes of the boat smacking the water as it came over the waves. The steady groove of the boat bouncing against the cresting waves becoming just as familiar as the wind rushing through their manes.

Graphite was sitting against the large railing that ran along the rear of the boat and up around until it stopped at the covered section of boat. He was laying with his back against the rail and his head down, ready to fall asleep as the boat gently rocked him. He tried to close his eyes, but was always unsettled by something on him. He looked down, spotting his necklace rattling about as the boat continued to bob up and down.

Graphite stopped the necklace from bouncing, holding it in his hoof giving a moment of thought to it. The turquoise stone hadn’t worn down to any extent, the uncut stone still gleaming in the few rays that could break through the fog. Graphite remembered Adan and his mother Turquoise, the two probably still in the ghost town Carnen had become. The food rations he gave them would only last for a day or two, and he hoped that they would have found some more food by the time the rations ran out.

Graphite tucked the necklace into his shirt, bringing his head back against the railing and letting his eyes wonder upward to the sky that wasn’t in view. He stared blankly at the fog cast over the lake, taking another moment to go back through his things when he found the white mist was uninteresting. He dug into his pockets, finding a small object poking at his hoof. He pulled it out, finding it was a small button. It was the little metal pin Deacon gave him; the same one with the enclave’s symbol on it - a bold letter ‘E’ with about twelve stars spangling around it.

Graphite remembered Deacon, and the odd choice he had in sweaters. He was reminded of the order Stripe gave him, and was reminded of how Graphite blindly followed that order with no question or no say. How he was willing to take a life without even a second thought. Graphite’s current mission seemed very much like the one Stripe gave him, though Graphite knew this one was different. This time, he knew what the other pony did and why he deserved what’s coming to him. Besides, this one tried to kill him before - Graphite wasn’t prepared to let that happen again.

Graphite pinned his button back unto the collar of his duster, placing it on firmly. He turned his head, looking back at the water splashing starboard side. Graphite brought his hoof to his belt, resting it on his canteen as he watched the water droplets splash unto the deck of the boat. Graphite could almost form a smile from his next memory if he wasn’t so exhausted from his boredom.

His thoughts were with the kids back at the pharmacy further downtown. He first remembered Rotten - or rather - Peachy. Peachy’s unrestrained temper and his lack of manners was the most prominent thing he could remember about that colt. All the other fillies and colts came to mind shortly after Peachy’s ranting faded away in his head. Hot-Sauce; Olive; Angel Eyes; Blanky; Gumdrop; and the oldest Filly there, Mayflower. Now there was a thought, a feeling of a bond. Graphite felt a family bond in the kids, a strong feeling that felt like an emptiness knowing he wasn’t with them. His greatest worry was with the mute Olive. He supposed he shared his feelings the most with Olive seeing as the poor colt saved his life while Graphite was half choked to death by a griffon.

Graphite sighed, his sigh a bit exaggerated. The sound of Graphite’s sigh blew into Tsoy’s ears, making them perk before he turned to face Graphite. He spotted Graphite laying with his head pressed against the railing, he had something in his hooves. Graphite was holding his wallet eye level, staring at the photo of his parents he had kept in it. All the thoughts of ponies he had met, and now that feeling of missing family has brought him to the memory of his parents. Graphite was almost frozen in his position, lying still as he stared at the picture of his family.

Tsoy turned back to the lake, taking a moment as the boat propelled slowly through the water to think. He sighed as well, keeping his sigh undertone. The boat slowed until it reached a stall, now the vessel and its crew were sitting idly in the empty lake.

Graphite finally made a movement, turning his body and bringing himself to a sitting position against the rail, “Why did we stop, Tsoy?” Graphite wondered, leaving his wallet in his lap.

“It’s dangerous to go ahead in fog this thick.”

“We’re supposed to move in the cover of the fog,” Graphite implored, “Why did you stop?”

“Some of the sunken houses might be ahead. I don’t want to ram my boat into one.”

“Sunken houses?”

“Yes. Apparently when the bombs dropped, they broke some of the dams and that caused a large part of downtown Buckago to be filled with water. Add to that the fact that the buildings have collapsed over the years and you’ve got yourself an underwater death trap.”

“Alright, so what do we do now?”

“We wait,” Tsoy answered, looking up to the fog that was starting to look up to the fog that just seemed to only get worse through time. He dropped against the rail, sitting down next to Graphite.

Graphite shared the view of the cloud for a short while, then looked back down to his lap where the picture of his parents were still in sight. Graphite brought the wallet back up, using his telekinesis to bring the wallet close. Tsoy turned his head away to the fog, looking to the faint, light blue shine that had lit in the corner of his eye. Tsoy looked down, spotting the photo of Graphite and two other ponies, “What’s that?”

“Oh... it’s a picture of me and my parents...”

“I’m guessing that one in the middle is you,” Tsoy pointed to the photo, his hoof toward the stallion in blue.

“Yep,” Graphite nodded, “That’s me after I graduated from high school...”

Tsoy raised a brow, turning to Graphite and making sure his low voice could be heard, “How’d you manage a picture like this?”

“What do you mean?” Graphite raised a brow back.

“Well, you’ve managed to take a picture in the first place.”

“Oh, yes,” Graphite paused, “Well, these were taken before the war.”

“What war do you mean?”

Graphite took in a deep breath, closing his eyes as he strained to continue. He blew out his breath of air and continued, “The Great War, believe it or not. I used to be a marine back then...”

“You don’t look that old to me,” Tsoy stated, crossing his hooves as went to take a second look at Graphite.

“Umm, wait a second,” Graphite started to dig around the inside of his duster. He soon pulled out the newspaper cutout and showed it to Tsoy. As Graphite’s only way of proving his story, he was quick to act on grabbing that newspaper piece from his duster. The large stallion sat there for a while, reading the paper for a short while, only to come to a conclusion that Graphite wasn’t lying.

Tsoy gave back the cutout to Graphite who neatly folded it and placed it in his duster. Tsoy cleared his throat out, returning to the conversation, “That’s very strange but, did your parents make it through the war too?”

“Well,” Graphite shook his head, biting his lip before he could form his words, “When I was at the front, I couldn’t find the time to write letters home. During that time, my mother died because of her weak heart and I wasn’t there to see her... My papa never forgave me that, maybe not even in his last moments...”

“I’m sorry,” Tsoy tilted his head down, giving the respects he could as he sat against the rails of the boat, “How were your parents?”

Looking up to the clouds, Graphite thought about his answer, making sure Tsoy would appreciate their memory just as Graphite has, “My papa was a hard working pony. He worked at the quarry first, then at the docks in Buckago. We were pretty close, then we kinda lost touch during the war. My mother just as hard working; she- uh- was a bit protective of me, since I was her only child. She was angry when I signed up for the marines, and she’d take that anger with her when she ‘left’...”

Afterwards they sat for a while, without a word. It was obvious neither of them were the talkative type. The cool breeze was still whistling between the rails of the boat, slowly rocking it with the soft waves of the lake. The wind flowed through the fog, not even nature able to deter this massive cloud. There was nothing that could be seen passed the mist, just a white wall of mystery - mystery of what lay beyond. Perhaps a toppled building come to greet the boat head-on, or simply another vast expansion of the lake to sit through.

Graphite turned from the fog above the boat, looking towards the stallion next to him, “Do you still remember Sunny as a foal?” He said as he broke the combined silence of two ponies.

“Yes,” Tsoy replied back, “I do. I was about seven when she arrived.”

“What was she like?”

“Sunny was around two years old when they brought her into the orphanage. She wasn’t very talkative the first few months, but in little time, she started becoming friends with all of the other orphans and eventually became one of the most lively fillies there.”

“You two seem close -- she does call you her brother -- how did that happen?”

“Well, when she arrived at the orphanage, there weren’t enough beds available for her to get her own - so, they made her share a bed with me. We shared the same bed for awhile, and Sunny seemed to be really thankful she let me do that. Soon, she started following me around; trying to get into my things, trying to play with the things I was playing with - that sort of thing. She really wanted to be my friend, and I guess after having someone like that follow you around all that time, you begin to grow on them too.”

Graphite chuckled a bit, then continued on with another thought, “You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to her parents?”

“From what I’ve heard, they found her in some office building with a dead couple. I guess that they were her parents. They did light a candle for both of them on the wall and mourned them,” Tsoy sighed. Giving himself a moment of silence, or a moment to think, “Our tribe mourns everyone, even the raiders that attack our settlement.”

They both sat quiet for a while again, Graphite taking the time to straighten out his vest and white button-up shirt. Talking wasn’t easy for Graphite since Tsoy was someone new to him; he also resembled a zebra, which was a little unsettling for him.

Graphite moved his eyes away from the silent hulk, looking about his boat and examining all the details. He let the rust marks and scratches lead him to the helm, taking a moment to stare at the wheel of the ship and all the complicated gauges and readings that surrounded it. Something caught his eye, something he couldn’t see passed Tsoy’s massive body. There was a gun hitched to a metal holder that was just arm’s length away from the wheel.

The gun looked much like those which guards carried back at the settlement, yet it wasn’t the exact same gun. The gun was dark and matted, it seemed like it had undergone some modifications by its owner. The stock and hoofguard was a dark red stain, the receiver a dark painted steel. The handle was a bit thick, just about the right size for Tsoy’s hooves. The upper receiver was mainly rectangular, with the bolt sitting right at the top and the ejection port somewhere near the end of the receiver and start of the barrel. The barrel had a few notches running down the bore, Graphite not entirely sure why they were there. The magazine was straight and only capable for, maybe, thirty rounds.

Graphite couldn’t shake the memory of Blue Jay and his strikingly similar weapon of choice. As a matter of fact, every guard down in the settlement happen to carry around a sub-machine-gun like the one still hitched to its hinges. Graphite turned to Tsoy, who had his big head stuck in the fog, “Why do I see that gun all over the settlement, Tsoy?”

Tsoy brought his head down, looking down to the smaller stallion sitting to his left, “Hmm- oh. That gun is a symbol for our tribe, it’s a staple amongst the guards.”

“It must be a nice gun.”

“It does its job, but the reason we keep it around is because that’s what the ponies who came to help us carried. They used them to protect us from anyone who tried to harm us, so after a lot of them died, the rest of the ponies who were living with them learned how to use and maintain the weapons.”

“Who came to help you?” Graphite wondered, resting his hoof in his lap.

“Uhh, something of a thing called the ‘National Guard’. After the storm of balefire had passed, they came to help us. They were the ones who protected us when we couldn’t do it ourselves, but that was the reason why a lot of them died. As years went by, the remaining soldiers became a part of the settlement which they were protecting all this time, thus forming our tribe.”

“I wonder how they feel when they had to protect zebras.”

“What’s wrong with protecting zebras?” Tsoy turned his head, moving up from his crouch a bit - hovering over Graphite even further.

“Well, Tosy,” Graphite stopped Tsoy, “You see- back then- we considered zebras to be the ones who started the war. The news and posters depicted them as evil, nasty beings.”

“But look at all of the zebras back at the settlement, they’re nothing like that,” Tsoy said a bit more stern.

Graphite groaned, “I know, it’s just that- I’ve spent half my life seeing them as my enemies, so it’s hard to see them as my friends. I walk down the road pressed against Sunny because every time a zebra walks by me, I’m afraid he’s going to gut me.”

Graphite and Tsoy then sat in a quiet for a while. Another awkward moment of silence for the two of them while the boat continued to fill in the sounds as the passing waves slapped against the side of the hull.

“Are you afraid of me too?” Tsoy asked quietly.

“No, you’re- different,” Graphite rebutted.

Tsoy swiveled his head, “How so?”

Graphite looked over to him, his eyes catching the stripes going down his brown legs, “You don’t look like a zebra, Tsoy. Perhaps it’s just when I see those black and white stripes on a zebra, I remember those same colours being coated in red with soldiers’ blood.”

“Maybe you need to stop looking at them.”

“I’m sorry?” Graphite looked up to the giant stallion confused.

“You’re new in the settlement, and you don’t know anyone besides Sunny, and I - I’m sure. You just need to get to know the other ponies, and you’ll see they’re all nice ponies. You’re just stuck in the past. Times have changed, you should have noticed by now, Graphite.”

Tsoy lunged up from his seat, using the railing to help him up. He looked up, checking the fog cover, then looked back to Graphite, “Maybe you can try making friends with the zebras back at the settlement -- you can always try the bar.”

Tsoy gripped the wheel, starting up the boat once more, “The fog looks clearer, I think that we can start to move again.”

Graphite didn’t respond, he just wallowed what Tsoy just said in his mind. Sitting at the back of the boat, contemplating every word he heard. The words from Sunny came to mind over the words of Tsoy. He heard her speak of seeing a pony for how they are on the inside. Sunny was on his mind and wasn’t going to leave anytime soon. When someone can make you feel happy just by smiling your way, then their the someone you don’t want to forget. Her voice was in his mind as well; her stories and her lessons could be heard as if Sunny was right there telling them to Graphite. Her lesson about viewing ponies for how they are not how they look was always there over all her other advice and over all her tales. Graphite knew exactly why, he just never wanted to accept it. He could never make amends with zebras after they’ve attempted to kill him and after he’s successfully murdered hundreds of them. The fear was always going to be there, “But perhaps...” Graphite thought, “I could just hide that fear - they’ll never need to know...”

Graphite shifted his legs a bit to keep from cramping, looking to the fog above and all around. The fog had cleared just enough to see the dark water over the boat, but did nothing when trying to look out any farther. Only the skyscrapers could overcome the fog, their shear height towering over the sheet of clouds. There was one tower barely able to stand, teetering on dropping into the lake. Another one was just opposite of that skyscraper, standing tall and proud while it brandished its mile long crater along the side of the building. The last skyscraper that poked its head through the fog was the simplest to spot, the tallest one in Buckago.

The building was black, but hard to see amidst the grey of the fog. The silhouette of the building was like a beacon that cast its signal to the boat, telling them the island was close. Graphite watched as the building’s silhouette passed along the boat in the distance, staring them down as it watched over the rest of the city. It was either the chill of the fog or the chill of his fear but, Graphite could feel the cold glare of someone watching from the top of the building. He knew if a sniper was there, they would be dead already.

The half sunken building made Graphite feel odd on the inside. The large building was something that he could see every day from his home in Carnen, looking up to the sky was impossible to do without catching the tip of the tower blocking your view. The building was located in the heart of the city, surrounded by dozens of other buildings, yet here he was - sailing past it. He imagined half the city was now drowned underneath the shallow lake, its remains just waiting to scrape along the bottom of the boat.

The eerie silence of the lake was making Graphite nervous; a silence this loud could bring about any sort of awful being. In the waters was something other than the ruins of the city - maybe the bodies of those who were caught in the overflow or something from the ocean that had hobbled into the waters and became something more in the radiation. The waves would move in, then out, then in again - the gentle beat of the unnerving water. Graphite waited for the waves to go in and in again, knowing exactly when something would jump out the water.

He brought his head away from the lake, bringing his sight back to the focused captain steering the vessel. There was a quick thought, brought from the mass of Tsoy’s body - a thought of Stripe. The thought brought about Rossmore, and the gangsters who controlled the city through fear.

Luckily Carnen wasn’t buried by the water, though it had been buried in ashes that the balefire left. In Carnen was his old home, sitting peacefully in the forgotten town without a ceiling to protect itself. That home where his father rests in a disturbed peace; Graphite had relieved himself of the loss of his father, only worried a bandit would desecrate his corpse in search of supplies.

Graphite looked to his new home in Sunny’s apartment. He assumed it was somewhere behind him, off into the distance passed the fog and across the stretch of lake they’d already traveled. The section of lake they were traveling on looked exactly the same as the one they traveled on for the passed few hours. There was a small circle surrounding the boat - the only place where the lake was visible. This little area of lake rocked the boat like a crib as the hull was picked up over the waves and then dropped as the wave dipped back into the water.

Another quiet float over endless waves and the boat finally came across something in the cloud. The boat had found itself drifting between to large buildings. To the right was a circular extension from the city, a small area where a round building sat. Atop the rounded slope of the building was a stone dome. To his left was a bigger building, still sitting just by the lake as the last landmark. The section of building facing the water was wrapped around the first building, but only about half of that section’s perimeter. The side of the building was all glass window, any attempt to see inside was blocked by glare and the ever present fog.

They spent a long while traversing between the two buildings, Graphite noticing how well intact the two structures were. No gaping holes and no piles of rubble spilling out of the walls. The buildings seemed to have withstood the blasts and the harsh edge of time.

The building in the distance seemed familiar to Graphite, it had a waved roof, the only building with a roof of that kind in downtown Buckago was the aquarium. It seemed unsettling to Graphite to see the aquarium at this angle, sitting in the middle of a lake while staring into the side of the building. The realization the boat was sailing over the aquarium’s park was a disturbing thought, the same could be said for the building they were sailing away from. No matter how close to the old bay they were, there was still the sense that these waters were only a few metres away from being land - land that ponies would walk across daily.

How much the world changed in the fire of the war was baffling to Graphite. There was always going to be one aspect of life that would be different after the war, but nothing he would imagine as an entire country turned into a desolate wasteland choked with radiation and ponies killing one another for a bite of food.

Graphite was just about to drift off into a sleep, but was kept awake by the sound of Tsoy’s voice calling to him, “Graphite, get your things - we’re coming up on the pier.”

Graphite had all his things - he never left them. He stood up, stretching out the muscles he hadn’t moved since the start of the trip. He fixed the ache in his neck, coming up to the side of the boat as the island just began to fade through the fog.