Even though the sun had risen above the cloud layer, the walk from the bedroom to the kitchen made me want to jump under the covers. What would Brass think of me now? Would he think that I was just some loose stallion, that he could just get me drunk and in the mood? He did say he was interested... but could I even assume he'd do that at all? He didn't seem the manipulative type... Oh right, going to puke.

I nudged the odd thoughts from my head as tried my best to sneak into the upstairs bathroom, ultimately for no benefit because once I was a single hoof in, I bowed in reverence and gave my booze offering to the porcelain goddess. I could hear Harmony chuckle from the kitchen as the smell of cooking beans and Cram filled the air. I wiped my muzzle clean on an old towel that was hung on the wall and looked up into the mirror. I had a large scar over my eye from where 42 had hit me, It ran all the way around the front of the socket to nearly meet the similar one on that graced my cheek.

"Not sure if this makes me look badass or just prone to injury..." I shrugged and murmured to myself. "Not worth it at all, but it's still different none the less." I ran my hooves under the water, my eyes jumping to the unfamiliar coloration of my right hoof as I forgot the events of yesterday momentarily.

"You coming down, hun?" Harmony chimed from downstairs. "Breakfast is almost ready!" I turned my head to respond, catching a glimpse of a single red bar in that direction shown on my compass. I panicked and scrambled out of the bathroom, flying down the stairs while nearly losing my balance halfway down, causing me to slam into the railing at the bottom and crack it. (I'm heavy, momentum sucks. I blame physics.) Brass, who had been passed out on the couch, shot awake and scrambled too his hooves.

"Didn't think it warranted THAT much of a rush..." Harmony said as she walked in from the kitchen. I turned again to respond before noticing the red bar was to my left on the stairs, not sure how it got inside. "You alright there?"

"Someone is here. I can see them." I said as I frantically looked over the sides of the stairs. Why would it say they were in the wall? The only thing near here is the cellar... Oh shit.

"Backlash, calm down." Brass called out as he walked over just in time for me to throw the cellar open, slamming the door down in front of his hooves. I looked down inside as the open arms room door to see that the red bar was Crankshaft. "You're just still not used to the E.F.S. on your pipbuck..."

The curious look of the ghoulified Crankshaft stared up at me from the floor in the arms room. "Miss me that much, brother?" He called up as a sly grin grew across his muzzle. I turned to shut the door on him, angry that this compass thing (E.F.S. or whatever as Brass had said) couldn't tell me what floor enemies were on, I mean that was a pretty bad design oversight. I stopped for a moment as his mark changed from red and was now a non-hostile pink. As I continued again and swung the heavy door up, he said something I didn't expect.

"You know, I was on my way to see that pink cunt yesterday when I saw your skycar off in the distance. She wanted to see me I assumed about why I'd failed the job, and there I was about to go and tell her to fuck off. But low and behold, you delivered yourself unto me and I came a 'runnin'." His eyes seemed different now, he seemed... remorseful. "See, you probably saved my life by not letting me go, and as much fun as that's been, she's going to come looking for me. It won't be long before she figures out where this place is and comes to knock down my door."

I stepped down the stairs cautiously into the brick room next to the empty arms cache, my regenerated hoof aching with each step. "So why tell me now? Why not let her surprise me and get your revenge?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow to him.

"Because I meant what I said. We're family." He said as he flopped his head back down on the floor. "She'll kill me anyways when she gets here, and I want her to. I don't want to be left like this. But you need to go. Even if you surprise her, she'll still win. Run for it, get as far from here as you can, go live your life somewhere she can't find you." He looked up at me with teary eyes. "Because you can still be a better pony than I was."

I felt bad for him. I know I shouldn't, but he actually sounded sincere, like he wanted to do something good for a change. Maybe I just wanted to believe that he was still the strong and noble colt I grew up with so long ago, but he had given us a chance to finally not be caught off guard by 42, and I wasn't going to ignore his advice.

He sniffed and shut his eyes. "When you leave, shut the vault door. At the very least I'll buy you some time to high tail it out of here. Just promise me that you will kill that pre war bitch next time you see her." He said with a low, harsh tone, choking back tears. "Goodbye, Backlash. I'll make sure to tell mom you said hello." I hit the round blue button on the wall, the door letting out a soft hiss as it swung closed and latched.

I turned and walked up the steps quickly, noticing that Brass was just fitting the chestpiece of his armor into place. Harmony had gone and turned off the kitchen equipment and brought me my flak vest and saddle bags from upstairs. She kissed me on the cheek lightly as I secured them both, drawing a deep blush from me.

"So Backlash, what's the plan?" Brass said as he twisted his helmet on, his autoloaders feeding his minigun and anti machine rifle the fresh ammo he pulled from some of the crates yesterday. "which direction do we run?"

"I'm thinking we head for the silo." I said as I looked out the window nervously.

"You mean towards the forest? that's crazy!" Brass stomped lightly for emphasis. "We even take a risk hiding in the treeline!"

Harmony leaned over to him. "We hid in there from your assault and came out unscathed. I know where we can pass safely if..."

"We are NOT going to run!" I cut her off, looking over to brass who I knew was going to ask the dumb next question. "Nor are we going to fight. I believe Crankshaft when he says we aren't well equipped enough." I watched the young stallion relax slightly at that.

"Then what will we be doing?" Harmony said with a cant of her head, her slow words more filled with worry than curiosity. I walked over and swung the front door open, heading out side to finally take in the carnage from the previous day. The charred and mutilated corpses of nearly thirty ponies lay strewn about in front of the house, decorating the various rocks with strips of pony flesh, looking like some sort of grotesque confetti. My mind halted my own train of thought with how much that sounded like something 42 would like. I turned around to face them, sliding that to the back of my mind to get back to the topic at hand.

"We slow her down. It's time I take back my car."

it had only been fifteen minutes or so of waiting before the dusty plume the Marauder kicked up as it rolled closer could be seen on the horizon. I silently thanked Crankshaft in my head that he didn't wait longer to warn us. The three of us huddled near the door inside the large silo, watching through a small hole in the wood as the Marauder pulled up infront of the house. It came to a stop with a small skid before 42 shut the engine off and hopped out through the windowless door.

I could feel my blood boil as I saw her walking to the porch with a determined look on her face. I wanted to shoot that face off so... wait, was she looking at us? I raised my hoof to get the others attention as I saw her grinning softly towards us. How the fuck did she know where we were? Did she have the same psychic sense that pinkie and I did? I mean I don't know why she wouldn't I guess, but.... UGH, clones hurt my brain. I relaxed a bit as she slowly turned and walked into the house, shutting the front door with a slam.

"Ok, lets go..." I whispered to the others, slowly reaching over and pulling the door open. The others nodded before slipping out ahead of me. I figured that if Brass's noisy ass suit could get in at the same time as Harmony, then I could make a mad dash for the drivers seat, hop in and get us going. (in an odd side note, being a push button start meant that anyone could just walk up and steal it! Who's brilliant idea was that?)

Once they were a little more than halfway between the silo and the car, I followed at a swift gallop, stumbling for a moment on my weak hoof when I heard the sadistic laugh of my brother from inside the house, fallowed by the sharp report of a gunshot. I skid on my hooves and slammed against the rusty car, praying to Celestia that the spark batteries would hold out until we were at least a good distance away.

I opened the door and jumped in, hitting the starter and listening for the whine of the capacitors to charge, but was once again met with only silence. I sighed and tried again, and then again. "Fuck." Grumbling softly, I started digging around in my saddle bag.

"I thought you said we'd be moving by now..." Brass said nervously, his speaker felt like it was cranked to eleven even on the lowest setting. I hooved at the button again before giving up on it.

"Calm yourself! I know how to fix it!" I snapped back angrily as I drew out the Marauder's tire iron, holding it between both my hooves as I remember what Sky had said the morning this whole adventure started, bringing the tool down hard on the dashboard repeatedly, screaming out. "I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING DIE HERE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF..." The capacitors whined and the engine roared to life, making me pause and drop the tool to the floor with a smile. "Finally! We can go home!"

I threw the deafening, steel beast into drive and floored it, kicking up lines of rocks and clouds of dust as we took off into the wastes. I looked in the rear view mirror, struggling to see through the growing plume as 42 ran onto the porch and fired wildly at us. A few of the shots found their mark as they thunked against the body of the car, the rest ricocheting off the steel body or missed as the house shrunk down behind us on the horizon. Her scream mixed with my voice as I laughed like a mad stallion for nearly a minute before catching my breath as we bounced wildly over the dirt and onto the old highway system. "Fuck yeah! 42, you can kiss my..."

"Backlash!" Brass yelled up in panic. "Harmony is hurt!"

I swirved off the road as I slammed on the breaks, bringing us to a quick stop before looking to the back seat. My stomach churned as I saw Brass tring to apply pressure to a gushing wound in Harmonys neck, making me freeze up. Oh Celestia, what do I do? Sky know's all the medic stuff, I don't know what to do! CELESTIA, WHAT DO I DO?!

"It's o..ok. You gave me... me hope." She choked out, a steady stream of crimson flowed from the side of her muzzle as she spoke. "I got... got to see you again." She coughed and smiled softly, her eyes locked onto mine and brighter than I'd ever seen them. "Spit.. I did... it, I sa... saved yo..." She relaxed as her voice trailed off, her gaze drifted to the floor coldly as she gave her last breath, slumping against the door lightly.

Luna no. We just won, dammit! We just beat 42 at her own fucking game for once! My eyes clouded as I just looked at the small round hole in the back seat where the bullet came through. Funny enough, I think that if the trunk was there, the round wouldn't have gotten in. But I was the not so smart pony who removed it. I watched as Brass lowered his hoof and stared at me through the lifeless eyes of his helmet. I spun and smashed my regrown hoof into the dashboard in anger, feeling jabs of pain as I hit it against it over and over.

"Backlash... we... we need to go." Brass said through his own tears, the speaker even seeming to amplify his sadness. I didn't want to go anymore, I didn't want to have to deal with trying to stop 42 anymore. "We need to get to the others." With as much as it hurt, he was right. More than ever we needed to keep going.

I hit the accelerator and got us moving again, keeping us on the road towards Manehatten while I wiped the tears from my eyes. As we rolled over the pothole filled highway, I lost myself in thought, trying at first to just keep my mind occupied. But being the fucked up pony I was, my mind ended up bringing up the faces of the 28 in Ponyville. I cursed myself for having forgotten some of them, knowing that they are my burden to carry, I need to remember because if I didn't, nopony would.

My mind screamed out to me with that thought, there was one other. There was still one Ponyville resident left. "Brass, did you see Pallet anywhere with 42 back there?" There was a long moment of silence before he answered the one thing I didn't want to hear.

"No, I did not." He seemed to pause again for a moment before adding "Maybe 42 is keeping her somewhere." Or maybe she just killed her, just to add to the growing body count weighing me down. I wonder how many more bodies my mind could handle seeing before breaking completely. "I doubt forty two killed her, she might need to use her again as leverage. Just in case we ever get the upper hoof on her."

His words took a moment to sink in before prying me out of the fog of depression I was lost in, his logic sharp enough to sink deep. "Your right, she's probably still alive." But what would 42 do now that she was stranded out in the middle of nowhere? It was too much to hope that she would just sit down and die, even then we still had no idea where she hid Pallet. No, 42 was coming for me, I know it. I had just showed her up, I had just made this personal, and in stereotypical supervillin fashion, she would try to get her revenge.

We drove in silence for another two and a half hours towards Manehatten before the last of the spark batteries the Marauder was running on died. I begrudgingly got out and lifted the hood, stripping the spent batteries out before shoving the single, half dead one from my saddle bags into the first slot. Without the constant trickle from the other 7, this one will drain much faster, even with the battery controller. We won't get much farther, but I hoped it would let us at least get far enough that I could find a settlement.

The problem with the Equestrian wasteland was that as new sources of salvage were discovered, whole villages sprung up almost overnight, starting to pull pre war ruins apart the day after. It also worked the other way around though, as I had once watched as a set of supply depots were cleared and entire town was stripped and abandoned by sun up the next day. Yes, communities like Ponyville existed, but they were so few and far between now that mostly a lot of ponies live in them because they believe safety in numbers, or they offered some sort of steady work. With 42's arrival stirring up the wastes, and the loss of Ponyville itself, I don't think that first idea holds true anymore.

I slammed the hood shut, looking around along the grey horizon for a moment for anything that looked like a place that might house ponies. Coming up with nothing, I decided to use the map function on my pipbuck to see where we were, unhappy to see that our ride had taken us less than half way to the nearest settlement. I turned and got back in, trying not to glance at the back seat where Harmony's body was. I heard Brass remove his helmet with the now familiar hiss as he shifted about in the back.

"This is our last battery, so keep an eye out for a place to stop or any traders on the horizon." I said back to Brass through a sigh. I was suddenly hit with the sudden understanding for the practicality of a skycar. What was a four hour trip for a skycar, was nearly two days on the road. Even without 42 after us, it might have seemed unbearably slow.

"There is an old quarry not far from here." His soft voice coming oddly from behind. I turned to see him with his head hung out the window, looking positively green in the face. "We can ask for hel..." He arched his back hard and threw up out the window, the foul liquid making my pipbuck tick softly. I looked down to notice the rad meter was in green. Wait, green? I guess Skyline or Harmony must have given me some rad away while I was recovering from the whole severed hoof thing.

"Just keep going." He groaned out slowly "Yeah, if you could try to avoid the holes in the road, that would be great." I nodded and hit the ignition, letting the loud engine rumble to life as I sat back. I drove us at a more relaxed pace than before, as we were more in need of economy than the need of saving time or running from 42. I sighed sadly as we rode the next fifteen minutes before I saw the sign for the quarry, remembering I had passed here many times before while on my route with Sky. There wasn't anything out here other than a couple of rusting bulldozers and a small, gutted office trailer. Why Brass wanted me to stop here was beyond me.

I saw a flash of light from the high dirt walls of the old complex, turning the car sharply as a gunshot tore the passenger side rear view mirror off. The tires screeched as the car sharply skid sideways before coming to a rest. I ducked onto the floor as the dust cleared, landing painfully on top of the tire iron I had left on it earlier. I rubbed my chest as Brass opened his door and rolled out, heaving in loud gasps before he threw up yet again.

"Stay where you are!" The obnoxiously loud boom of a power armored helmet called out from the distance. I could hear the loud thumping of heavy hooves approaching as I lay in the car. "You have been deemed a criminal of the wasteland and will submit to the authority of the Manehatten steel rangers delta contingent." As the voice got closer, I could now make it out as the voice of a mare, her tone was that of steadfast duty, like she truly believed herself to be with out a doubt, talking to criminals.

"I am steel ranger acolyte Brass Tacks of the Manehatten contingent." I heard the young stallion choke out from the pavement. "Stand down, we are not the fugitive you are looking for." Brass spoke as I heard a soft hiss from his suit, followed by the clunks of his dismounted weapons as they dropped to the roadway.

"I am Paladin longbow, and I regret to tell you that acolyte Brass Tacks was marked as killed in action on a mission two weeks ago and that this vehicle has been reported to be operated by a known criminal of the wasteland." She said with a stomp. Wait, how could they think Brass was dead? The remark making my mind run back to the encounter at the M.O.M. bunker that started all of this. The group that took down the purple alicorn must have been looking for his group when I was teleported, which also meant they left before he showed up. "Stay on the ground, you and your supplies will be detained in our facility until we can establish your identities.

I felt the door open behind me before I was drug out unceremoniously, flopping onto the ground with a thud as magical manacles forced my fore hooves together painfully. I turned my head back to see the helmet levitate off a midnight blue unicorn mare standing a few feet from me in polished power armor. I assumed unicorns didn't wear helmets because of their horn, but I looked through the hole drilled into her silver headgear it as it levitated beside her. She held head high, her longer than normal horn cut through her black and light blue striped mane as her large, soft blue eyes looked down at me for a moment before they were drawn over around the car.

"Black power armor?" Her eyes narrowed as she pointed her twin sniper rifles to the side of the car Brass was lead around. "Since when did the Enclave start outfitting ghouls with this kind of tech to do their work? No matter, take them away for questioning. The rest of us will have to get this vehicle in storage."

I was levitated off the ground and onto the back of one of the other power armored soldiers, writhing and trying to get at least a little more comfortable as he trotted me into the quarry. I looked back to see Brass was being flanked by three soldiers as he walked slowly after us, my view getting cut off as the suit I was riding turned and strode into a cave.

While I never checked deep into dangerous caves when we stopped places, I'm pretty sure we would have noticed this place with how many suited soldiers were striding around here. We were heading towards an open, rectangular steel door that looked more like the bulkhead on a ship than an entrance. My captor must have forgotten I was riding or didn't care when they entered because they trotted too close to one side, making me smack my head on the frame with a loud thunk.

"Hey! watch it!" I cried out as they twist down a set of steep stairs, descending a few flights before turning down another hallway, once again slamming my head into the doorframe as we passed through. "You know what, fuck you." I barked out as I tried to rub my head with my shackled hooves. I swear to Celestia I was going to buck this ranger SO hard when this got sorted out, that he will wish I had sent him to the moon... maybe I could even borrow Brass's armor to help.

The steel rangers bunker seemed oppressive, it's long, metallic hallways predictably cut off into smaller rooms at regular intervals. small groups of robed acolytes worked on various arcano-tech devices as we walked by, not even looking up from their work. As we took a right and walked down a long hallway, a group of young foals came screaming by chasing each other, seemingly unfazed by the armored brute carrying a random wasteland prisoner.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I knew nothing about how the steel rangers even lived. I always knew they lived in underground bunkers, but I had imagined the interior to be a bit more... cozy. This place had no color, no expression, nothing lavish in it at all! No wonder that they were always such ruthless bastards, these places sucked the individuality right out of them!

We stopped inside a small room that had a single table with a large metal box set on it. I looked around as a pair of stallions in robes lifted me up and stripped me down to just my pipbuck, putting all of my gear into the box before throwing me back on top of my armored 'escort'.

As we continued, we wound down quite a few more flights of stairs and through another assorted section of hallways. The ominous thrumming of the arcane reactors that powered the base seemed to come straight from the walls, the low tone seemed deafening in my mind. "How can you ponies stand to live here?"

An elder Mare's voice spoke up as I was finally brought into a small room at the end of the hallway we were in. It was poorly lit by a single dim bulb, illuminating a metal pole rising from the floor in it's center that seemed to be the only feature of the mostly dark room. "We choose to live here because the outside is just too barbaric to the alternative safety of these bunkers." I knew that voice, She was there at the entrance to 42's bunker. Her words slid out of the darkness, oozing with elation as I was chained to the post and locking in.

"Strawberry Sorbet." I said with a glare as her red eyes came out of the darkness. A hood cloaked her grey coat and mane as she stood at the edge of the light, her eyes wavered for a moment in surprise. "You never forget a name when you are in the mercantile business."

Her eyes narrowed as she gave a small laugh. "I am hardly surprised, but as you now see, the moment you claimed that bunker for the M.O.M., you stepped into MY business." She started pace in circles around me as she spoke, not shifting her gaze once as she left my own and came back into view from the other side of me. "Now I understand competition is good for everyone in your little world, but I rule mine with an iron hoof. You see, as you and that pink mare run around committing atrocities with the weapons of the old world, I am trying to protect the innocent ponies caught in the crossfire. It is my job to take away all of the fun toys from all you little primitive wasteland foals, and when I do, then Equestria may finally have a chance to grow again."

What was it that happened nearly two weeks ago that made it so every new pony I ran into had the sudden urge to be a stereotypical villain with a 'Master Plan' to 'Save' the wasteland? Did ponies sound like this before the war? If we did, it was probably the reason we blew ourselves up. I chuckled softly at that thought, catching a glimpse of rage shoot across the elders expression.

"I'm not with her. I merely reclaimed the property she stole from me." I retorted smartly as I shifted uneasily on my rear hooves, twisting at the post I was hooked onto.

"Oh we are aware of this..." Her eyes beamed through the darkness as she spoke. "That obnoxious stallion in Tenpony keeps reminding us of this while we are just as interested in stopping that pink mare as you are..." Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to use the radio on this thing, which reminds me... why didn't they remove it with all my other stuff? I mean they had always bought the other ones I've found, and those didn't even work!

"So why tell me all this? Why keep me here at all?" My voice as calm as I could make it, trying to hide the fact that the way she had me set up in this room unnerved the ever living HELL out of me.

"Because, I need you to provide me with a service." She said as a small smile crept across her muzzle, glinting in the soft light.

"You want to negotiate." I paused for a moment, not believing it for a moment. "With me?" I raised an eyebrow to her, following her as she continued walking slowly around me. "Then why the room? Why the setup?"

"You can always say no." She replied with a forced frown, her eyes looking away as she nodded her head slighly. "But because you know of this base, I'd have to keep you down here for the rest of your life, which incidentally wouldn't be very long. Prisoners seem to keep dying when down here, and the murderous perpetrator has yet to be caught. It's quite a pity really, I've lost a lot of good prisoners to whomever they are."

Wow, I never thought that the steel rangers were that far gone, sacrificing even their basic morals to obtain prewar junk was bad, but now this? If anything I'm glad Brass got out when he did. Wait, well maybe not so glad. He has gone through some pretty rough shit with me as well, but at least we weren't forcing innocent ponies to submit or die. I don't want to imagine Brass ever growing up to be as cold as this.

"This isn't a negotiation." I finally spoke up before getting lost too deeply in my own thoughts. "A negotiation is when both sides get something. So if I do this, I get something out of it." I watched as her smile widened slightly. I was only going to have one shot at this. "If you don't like it, fine, leave me here. I wish you all the luck in finding somepony else who is related to a ministry mare." I turned my muzzle up and away, trying my best to look indifferent.

"Well, I'm sure we could find someone at Tenpony... Or friendship City." She snapped back, her voice filled with a cold hatred. "Could just keep killing them on that bunker door until somepony went through."

One of these days, I'm going to ask Brass if she was born without a heart, or if she just lost it in some pre war ruin and couldn't find it again. "You could do that, but the last thing DJ Pon3 would broadcast to Equestria is that all steel rangers aren't to be trusted, and should be killed on sight. Oh, and before you say have the armor to fight ponies and win ten to one. Remember that with the full might of wasteland against you, it will be more like a hundred to one. It will be a wasteland with a rifle pony behind every blade of dead grass, behind every rock, and inside every ruin." I leaned as close as I could get, torquing my bindings as she came around again. "Unless you want to play those odds, then give me a real deal."

Strawberry Sorbet stopped and walked up to me, dropping her hood and letting her short grey mane droop around her head in a small bowl shape. "Fair enough. I will let you and your friend go if you agree."

"Not bad..." I tilted my head in thought. "...for an opening bid. First, tell me the job."

She shook her head slowly with a frown. "You don't get to know. You wanted to negotiate a price, so that is what we will do. If we reach an agreement, then I will tell you the job." Her voice denoted she was hesitant, so the job had to be worse than I could think possible, so it was ok that I start high with my demands and give her something outrageous to agree too.

"Fair enough." I rolled my eyes with a sigh. "But I get to keep any of the tech I find, even if you succeed on this little 'crusade' you have planned. I'll have steel ranger immunity per-se." now she counters with a low bid.

"You get to keep none of the tech you find, and I will take anything else of yours I find even remotely interesting." She glowered at me, her voice sounding a bit overconfident. "Oh, and you will submit to the steel rangers like every other wasteland primitive."

Shit, I thought she might come in low at five percent, but zero percent was a bit harsh. Well, tough customers call for my A-game. "I get to keep half the tech I find, with the option to sell it to you for double its value." I feigned a waiver in my voice and looked around the room sharply, happy to see her smile grow from the performance I gave. Alright! At least I know that without a heart, she could still play right into my hooves.

"You can choose five pieces of tech, should you recover any, and I will pay you ten percent of their value for them, and I will confiscate any extra pieces anyway without compensation." She leaned close, her gaze was now unwavering, almost boring into the depths of my mind.

"I will choose two pieces of tech to keep and three to sell for one and a half their value." I straightened up my gaze, staring back at her with a tight grin. Her eyes twitched momentarily, just enough for me to perceive it. "Final. Offer."

"Is that so?" She said slowly as she loosened up a bit, her gaze drifting to the side as she thought. "You will be paid one quarter what each item you recover is worth, keeping none of it." She nodded to the guard in the room behind me and I felt the magical shackles disappear. "And I'll even let you keep that deathtrap of a vehicle. It does no good to us in such unstable condition."

I beamed a smile at her and held my unbound hoof out to her. "Deal!"

Wait a moment... Deathtrap? Unstable? I put her back together myself! Yeah she is a bit stubborn sometimes, but that was low! I shook the thoughts from my head as I walked up to the "brig" as they called it. I wore a wide smile as Brass looked up from his small cot, standing up as the guards slid the barred door open before leaving us.

"How...?" His bright gold eyes looked up before he bolted at me, throwing his hooves around me in a hug. "I tried to tell them I was me, but nopony believed me." I let him hang off me for a moment before straightening up.

"I made a deal. We have a job to do for them." I said softly, letting him collect himself. "Come on, we need to gather our gear and find out what crazy shit we're supposed to walk into next."

As we stopped a couple levels up for me to catch my breath, I started to wonder why in Celestia's name was this building made out of stairs! I know I'm out of shape, but for Luna's sake they could have installed at least a single elevator SOMEWHERE. I collapsed at several more points as we were climbing, trying to catch my breath as we made our way to the middle levels of the complex.

Brass was leading the way to the armory, deftly winding us through the apparently endless hallways. Finally, we ended up in a cramped room with a small, metal, mesh window in the back wall, a semi circle cut out of the bottom was the only clear view of a room behind. The light-framed yellow stallion wearing a pair of thick glasses had his muzzle buried in a book as we approached, not even looking over as we walked up.

"Please sign your Name, I.D. number, lot number, and the current time on the clipboard provided" He spoke in the dullest tone I had ever heard and I was nearly asleep by the end just that sentence. A curious thought crept into the back of my head, there was only one other pony I knew that came close to that level of dreariness...

"You wouldn't happen to be related to the head of admissions in Tenpony, would you?" I asked with a small smile that shrank as he raised his eyebrow slowly and looked over the two of us over before grabbing a nearby clipboard and sliding it under the metal caged window.

"Don't worry Backlash, I'll fill this out." Brass said as he levitated the pen and board next to him, angrily staring up at the yellow stallion. "I've done this PLENTY of times to know." Ouch, I could feel the tremendous amount of resentment in his words start to burn, the clerical stallion huffing softly and not giving us another thought as he went back to his book.

With the way they treated him before, and the way they carry themselves even around each other, I'm not sure why Brass even wanted them to remember him again. Brass scribbled some things on the clipboard and floated the finished paperwork under the window again with a grunt, still keeping his eyes locked on the annoying stallion as he read through the forms with a blank look.

"You've filed form 23-B instead of form 2b-3. I'm going to need you to redo it before I can process your request." The stallion smirked as he crumpled up the paper while I watched Brass out of the corner of my eye as her started trembling with rage. I heard heavy hoofsteps come in behind us.

"Oh fucking just give them their stuff, Manilla." I turned back to look just as Longbow pushed Brass and I out of the way. "The elder needs them at the briefing now, and you know what she'll do if she found you slacking off again. Hell, you're lucky I don't report you for this violation." Her voice was cold and seemed to cut right through the window, the look on the yellow stallion was one of nervous guilt as he shrank down in his seat.

"R..right away Ms. Longbow." He fumbled himself out of his chair and disappeared from sight behind the wall.

"Sorry about that, he doesn't like outsiders." The armored mare said as she pushed her long mane from her eyes before looking down at Brass. "I remember you... yes, you belonged to the east side contingent, Bravo company I believe."

"How did you know?" Brass said as he looked over her in awe. "I mean you look familiar, but..."

"You don't remember?" She said with more than a hint of disappointment. "It was a little over a year ago I had asked you to prepare some information for me, it was about the arcanotech facility for an upcoming mission I was supposed to brief my squad and the elders on. You spoke your mind, much to the chagrin of my superiors and said that after reviewing the records, the risks from the automated defences were too high and that the mission should be scrapped. Nothing else needed to be brought up." The face on the young stallion lit up as the memory came back, followed along giddily as she continued. "Because of your warning, I was the only one who came prepared for the full force of the defences. I ended up dragging two other injured paladins back when the star paladin decided to scrap the attempt."

"I remember that!" Brass bounced on his hooves, looking as happy as filly Pinkie Pie from my dreams. "You told me that without my attention to detail and the courage to speak my mind, you would have died!"

Longbow smiled a soft smile that reminded me of Sky. Shit, speaking of, Sky was probably freaking out right about now. Longbow sighed loudly, pulling me out of my head and back to the story. "Yes, and when I told you, you were so proud of the job you did, your cutie mark appeared! I'll always remember that day. Did you know that they made me a Paladin because I saved Backblast and Cream Puff? They may not have thought it to be true, but for me, we survived because of an amazing, little colt." She ruffled his green hair with her hoof a bit as he giggled.

Part of the wall hissed and slid open suddenly, making me scream and jumped back nearly five feet. I slowly met the confused looks of Longbow and Brass as a nervous smile spread across my muzzle. Composing myself, I quickly walked over and grabbed one of the metal boxes that rested on a pneumatic rack, attempting to pick it up with both hooves but failing seeing as it seemed to weigh a million fucking tons.

"Let me get that for you..." Longbow said with a hint of snarkiness, walking over and effortlessly lifting the box off, setting it on the ground next to Brass. She turned around and smiled, lifting a hoof to her forehead to give me a small salute. "If you need anymore help, I'll be right outside, Ma'am" She smiled and winked at me as the sarcastic remark drew another fit of giggles from Brass while he floated the lid off the box, revealing his black power armor.

"damn cheat suits..." I grumbled under my breath as I turned and yanked the other box off the shelf, half expecting it to be as heavy as the first. As it turns out, it wasn't! I pulled far too hard and threw the box across the room, smacking Brass right in the head with it. He dropped to the floor with a groan and a thud. I stifled back a giggle of my own as I walked over and helped Brass back to his hooves. "Sorry... I thought it was going to be heavy."

"It's fine. I did hospitalize you once, remember?" Brass said as he smiled up, his eyes refocusing on me as he rubbed his forehead softly. "But now we're even."

The yellow stallion peered through the cutout section of the window. "You know, you really shouldn't beat children..."

"Get back to work, Manilla!" Longbow shouted as she walked out, trying to contain her laughter.

I had relaxed a bit after I got my gear back, triple-double-checking my inventory to make sure nothing was missing before following longbow up yet more flights of stairs. After three flights I flung myself onto Brass, letting his armor carry me the rest of the way as my right hoof ached horribly. I didn't care anymore if anyone thought less of me, I'll deal with it whenever these stairs weren't trying to murder me. We turned out of the stairwell, letting out a groan as my head smacked against the doorframe. I rubbed my head as we walked into a blander than normal room with a single rectangular table in the center.

"Took your time getting here, maybe took a small nap, got something to eat?" Strawberry Sorbet said with agitated sarcasm without even looking up from the documents spread about the tables surface.

"Sorry, Ma'am, won't happen again, Ma'am" Longbow said as she saluted stiffly.

"You need to keep your staff in line." Brass said as he took his helmet off and set it on the table. "They are lazy and inefficient."

The elder tapped her hoof on the table before looking up and over at him. "You know, if you were a pony under my command, I would lock you up for a week for that remark." She let out a soft sigh as she gathered her papers. "You're straight and to the point. Just like that east sider colt... oh what was his name..." She grinned and glared at him. "It doesn't matter, I heard he was killed a few weeks ago, a shame really." I could see Brass tense up, his eyes bore the intensity of a balefire blast as he stared across the table.

"The job." I raised my voice as I spoke. "What is it?" Brass shrugged off the anger and looked at the floor as I spoke, trying to not gaze back at the elder as she did her best to match the stare he had with an added smile.

"There is a computer hidden in an underground facility on the far outskirts of Fillydelphia." She said slowly. "It used to be one of the computer hubs that linked all of the Ministries between the great cities. I watched out of the corner of my eye as paladin Longbow cringed as she went on, she didn't seem to like the mention of this place at all. I looked more at her expression as she listened, seeing pain and suffering shimmer across her face in waves.

"You need to get to the bottom level of the facility and reconnect the server hub. The power generators should still be running, so it shouldn't be anything more than a command at a control terminal." The gray mare relaxed her gaze, looking over at me. "Don't screw this up and I will honor our deal.

I nearly laughed. "That's it? Just activate a terminal? Ok, we'll..." Brass cut me off by raising a hoof to my chest, shaking his head slowly.

"This is the same facility I researched for Longbow." He said, his gaze was stern. "The first three levels are flooded with radiation." Well that won't be so bad as long as we pack plenty of rad away. "The fourth level is full of robots and automated turrets, but even then, nopony knows what the fifth floor holds. The schematics were off limits, so you can bet that's where the real trouble is going to be."

My expression sank as he continued, face hoofing as he finished. One Celestia-damned break! And robots?! I hated fighting robots! They were the only thing that didn't run away no matter how much you shot them up. I was about to respond as a series of alarms activated throughout the base. A dark green mare ran up to the elder and whispered into her ear.

"It's fine, we were expecting them." Strawberry said as she pushed the mare away without a care, turning to me with the same crooked smile from before. "It seems your feathered friends have finally tracked you down. You may get your things and go, but if you attempt to run, I will track you down, and Celestia help you if I do find you." She turned yet again towards the blue paladin and smiled. "You have advanced knowledge of the layout and will escort them into the facility."

"Y...Yes Ma'am" Longbow stuttered out, snapping back up to a salute as the alarms stopped. The elder threw her hood up over herself and trotted from the room quickly, not even offering us a second glance. The three of us just stood for a moment in silence as the green informant mare exited after a moment as well. Longbow put her hoof back down and let out a long sigh.

"I'm sorry for the elder giving you such a task." She said with a glum look. "I'll do my best to help, but if five of us in armor couldn't make it down, what chance do we have?" She sat down hard as I looked at Brass and shrugged. "I need to requisition some supplies downstairs. I'll meet you two up top."

"I don't care much for the chances, but I'll be damned if I don't do a job I made a deal on. I'd never be a successful trader if I skimped on my customers!" I smirked lightly and thought about all the arms I had just collected the day before. Even at one quarter the worth, that was a FORTUNE in caps! I nodded to brass for us to go, looking into her eyes as we walked out. "Besides, if you do make it back, they'll have to make you star paladin or some shit." She forced as smile before we rounded the corner into the stairwell again. "Ah, my old nemesis, Stairs." I huffed quietly before I started to climb the remaining flights up.

We were met at the cave's entrance by Sky and Carlotta. Sky didn't even give me a moment to catch my breath before tackling me to ground, hugging around my neck tightly. Honestly, even though it had only been a day, it was the best feeling in the world to have her near me again. I laughed through my gasps and hugged her back hard, only to be silenced by Carlotta a few moment's later.

"Where's Giganto-mare? Still inside?" Her words forced the harsh reality back to the front of my head, Harmony was still laying dead inside the Marauder, 42 had still murdered her, and it was still all my fault.

"She..." I started, losing myself in thought for a moment. "I screwed up." I pushed Sky off me and rolled to my hooves, staring at the dirt solemnly. Brass walked up and put a hoof on my shoulder.

"We did what we could..." I looked up as he spoke, not believing a word of it, even as my brain was trying to tell me that I he sounded completely sincere." 42 killed her in our escape, it was out of our hooves." Sky leaned in again and put a hoof on my other shoulder, her expression spoke of pity, but I don't know if it was for me, or for Harmony. Harmony didn't deserve this fate, she was finally free.

A familiar low rumble resounded throughout the quarry as the Marauder came to life for a moment before dying, letting me shrug off my companions hold on me, walking towards the waiting car. "I want to bury her near the garage. We have alot of ground to cover, so we need to get going." I didn't even really register how I responded, I just wanted to get home, bury Harmony, do this job, and kill 42.

"Backlash..." Sky said softly as I walked away.

"let him go." Brass said softly. "He just needs some time."

How was it that in such a short period of time in my life, I could have made the new friends I have? Just the simple fact that Brass was willing to stand up with me and fight against 42's plan could have been enough. But even with so little time to get to know him, I cared about him, and he obviously cared about me. I assume that's why Skyline and Carlotta feel so close as well. I mean, I know the rough and tumble griffin well enough that I can trust and value her friendship. Even with all the death around us, we give each other the strength to carry on.

I walked up to the Marauder and looked inside to see paladin Longbow sitting in the front passenger side seat. She looked over to me with a shy smile and eyed Harmony's body uneasily. "I had them put eight new spark batteries in. This vehicle should be able to get us there and have just enough to get us..."

"Get out." I said with a stern voice. "Carlotta can drop you off closer to the facility. We will meet you there." There was no way on Celesita's great earth that I was going to let an active steel ranger know where my trade goods are stored, and I'm sure as hell not going to have Strawberry Sorbet showing up randomly to destroy my life's work.

"I was instructed to accompany you. It was part of the deal." She retorted with a slight amount of shock to her statement. "Furthermore, I will not risk you fleeing from what you agreed to do for us." She whipped her mane from her face in a huff and crossed her forehooves. I got into the car and shut my door angrily.

"As much as I love your companionship. I can't have you telling all your little ranger friends where I store my good tech." I reached over and opened her door. "I don't trust you, so get out."

I yanked my hoof back inside as Sky bucked the door closed before turning and walking up to the window next to Longbow. She looked in and eyed over the stubborn unicorn. "How about this. Should you ever choose to reveal the location of our headquarters, I will PERSONALLY make sure that you have a large enough bounty on your head that nopony will ever pass up the chance to kill you." Sky leaned in with the same gaze I use to try to light ponies on fire. "Got it?"

The Paladin sat for a moment, thinking it over with a hoof on her chin. "I agree." I listened as she said it, playing it over and over in my mind. It sounded genuine, so I nodded over to Sky. The satisfied pegasus proceeded to walk over to the skycar and surprisingly, strapped herself in. I looked around out the window for Carlotta, only to have the rear door open. Turning around, I ended up staring at the smiling beak of one blue-plumaged Griffin.

"So, my employer is unhappy you keep having me run errands. I was assigned to protect you, so I'm not supposed to leave your side, blah blah blah." She rolled her eyes and looked out the window as Brass got inside the perforated silver pod, closing the side door. Carlotta frowned for a moment as Sky lifted off and pulled the car up and out of sight. "Anyway, I don't exactly trust the 'you know who's' any further than I can throw 'em. So it's road trip time!" Longbow looked like she was about to murder Carlotta, but forced a grin as the griffin turned to meet her with a smile. "You and I are going to be the best of friends!"

I started up the Marauder again, listening to the thrum of her Arcano-tech engine as she idled. I let the vibrations sink deep into my body before I shifted her into gear and slowly drove us out of the quarry, turning back onto the road to Manehatten with a soft sigh. It would only be a couple of days I told myself. If I could handle the last two weeks with my friends, I could damn well handle this.

Longbow struggled to keep on the front seat as I left the semi-smooth road of the highway, dipping over the shoulder and into the wide open desert. The uneven ground was bouncing us wildly, much to the joy of a laughing Carlotta in the back. We had been driving for most of the afternoon, and were now cutting across a semi-flat section of the wastes to shave a bit from our journey. The sun was just peaking below the cloud cover and glinted off of the armored mare's twin sniper rifles as they bounced about.

I had the radio blaring to help with the annoyingly loud noises the Marauder would give when she bottomed out or drove through a pile of gravel, listening to the docile tones of Sweetie Belle as the chaos of the suspension system kept us constantly rocking. But, for as much movement we had been doing, I was quite impressed to see that Longbow wasn't sick to her stomach.

"That was Sweetie Belle, singing about those great times we have with our loved ones. And now for... the news!" DJ Pon3's soothing voice came through the radio over the scrapes and bangs without losing too much of it's quality. "First, some bad news. My trusted source can personally confirm the reports that the citizens of Whinny were inside the sugar apple bombs factory at the time of the explosion and has the proof that the pink mare was behind the fiendish action."

I scrunched up my muzzle for a second, before frowning. The memories from the last few days flooded my mind. I could see the pose of each victim clearly in my mind, their heads, each with a hole bored through them.

"Now for the good news! You remember that recently I mentioned the troublesome Rock gang was plaguing all the settlements in the Ponyville area? Well worry no more! That's right my little ponies, the Rock gang is no more thanks to the heroic actions of the ponies going after the notorious pink mare!"

DJ Pon3 had such pride in his voice, the admiration he bestowed was denoting many emotions, but pride drowned them out. I didn't know what to think about it, I mean I've always wanted to be the wastelands most famous trader, but at the cost's 42 has been imposing, it's not going to be worth it.

"In other interesting news, New Appleloosa has repaired the train line bet..." Longbow shut the radio off before a particularly strong bounce sent her to the floor with a grunt and a thud. She struggled to get to her hooves as Carlotta bust into hysterical laughter and fell onto the floor in the back.

"Just stay down there!" I yelled over the obnoxious noises the dirt and sand were making, doing my best to keep the Marauder steady on the rough terrain. "We're almost through! Just another minute!" The shock absorbers and leaf springs groaned as I sped up, bouncing higher as we screamed toward the flat section of highway in front of us. With a final lurch and a loud slam, we careened over the low dune at the edge of the old highway. We rolled to a stop after lining the car back up in the correct direction, sighing as I sat back and put the car in park, turning off the engine to give us a small break. (In hind sight, I realize that by taking the break, it didn't really save any time at all.)

Longbow scrambled to open her door, covering her muzzle with a hoof as she finally unlatched it, clambering a few feet back up the dune before I could hear her throw up. Carlotta pulled herself back up from the floor, drooping and panting over the seat as she caught her breath from her incessant giggles over the unsteady paladin.

"Honestly I was surprised she lasted that long!" I said with a smirk. "You should have seen Brass."

"So, I get that you ground ponies aren't used to bouncing or rocking around much." She finally said with a raised brow. "So why didn't you get sick?"

"Traversing the wasteland with a cart full of wares and a partner means you will eventually get a turn to sleep in the back." I said with a small amount of pride while shrugging. "You eventually just get used to it.

"Hey!" Carlotta and I turned in unison as Longbow called out from the dune. "Stop where you are!" I was amazed that by the time we were glancing in the direction that she was calling out from, she had taken off a good two hundred feet in a Gallop, screaming off into the evening desert beside us. As I groaned and opened my door, a small twinge in my back jolted my eyes up towards the opposite side of the roadway as a flash on a rock maybe a hundred yards away reflected the setting sun behind me.

I ducked behind the door, using it for cover as the sniper took shot after shot against the old, rusted steel door. I could hear the rounds thunk against the old phone books I had crammed in the frames as Carlotta climbed out the other side of the car.

"Carlotta! I could use some help!" I did my best to scream over the deafening cracks from the hidden gun pony. I slid into S.A.T.S. and felt the world crawl to a stop and for some reason I could see the outline of the hidden sniper stallion through both the doorframe and the rocks he was using for cover. I had a 0% chance to hit him from my current position, but from what I saw, there was too much open ground to cover for me to even attempt to use anything but the party cannon.

I pulled up the menu and equipped the party cannon before canceling the targeting spell. The bulky weapon flashed into my grip as time sped back to normal, the enormous pink gun immediately jerking as a round bounced off its side. It was just too bulky of a weapon to use effectively from cover I guess. I heard the short, controlled bursts from when Carlotta laid down fire as she flew past, giving me a short window to get up and help take the sniper out.

I rose onto my hind hooves and out of the safety of the car door, propping the pink gun on the door frame as the sniper himself recovered from the aerial pass. I fired first, too hastily and too aimed the shot high, sending the large spherical ball into the boulder beside him, nearly splitting it down the middle as the ball bounced up and over of it, disappearing into the dunes a fair ways back.

He seemed stunned for a moment before squeezing off his own shot. I was thrown back by the sheer impact against my chest, pain immediately lancing through me as I fell to the ground with a gasp. I looked down to see a .308 armor piercing round lodged partway through one of the plates in my flak vest, leaving a half inch deep, bruised and bleeding hole in my chest.

I gasped for air, listening as I heard Calotta swoop by with her battle saddle pounding round after round at the sniper pony. I dropped the party cannon and got to my hooves slowly as I thanked Celestia for this armor, keeping my head down behind the car door. I listened as the sniper pony screamed out, the .308 rounds from the Carlotta's twin rifles punching large holes in him.

For a minute, there was nothing but silence. I scanned the skies around me quickly, trying to find where my griffin buddy had gotten to, but had my gaze drawn toward the sudden sounds of gunfire in the dunes on the other side of the car. I quickly ducked into the Marauder, crawling my way through, keeping low on my hooves as I dropped out the other side.

I peered up over the shallow dune we had driven over to see a group of three, maybe four well armed slavers cowering behind an empty caged cart maybe a hundred yards away. Longbow had moved from a rock she was behind and was walking forward slowly, firing in alternating shots from her sniper rifles, letting the rounds ping off the metal wagon. I grinned and knew I could finish this quickly. I raised my hoof to line up a shot with the party cannon, only to remember it was still sitting on the ground behind the driver side door.

"FUCK!" I yelled as a shower of submachine gun fire erupted from behind the wagon, thumping against the dune in front of me as I dropped down and cringed. "not the smartest idea, Backlash..." I said to myself as I lay in the sand. My ears perked as Carlotta strafed the wagon, a set of yelps and screams erupting between the slow chugging of the automatic guns. After a few moments, I heard a pair of loud cracks from Longbow's sniper rifles before the screams drifted off into the distance with the echoes of the gunfight.

I peaked up over the dune to see Carlotta busily stripping the corpses as Longbow opened the empty cage, peering inside with a distraught look in her eyes. I winced as I brushed the sand and dirt in my wound off before trotting over to her, looking in with her to see what made her so damn horrified.

The decapitated bodies of 3 colts and 4 fillies lay amongst chunks of meat and bone on the floor of the cart, the charred metal remains of collars being the only hint as to how these innocents lost their lives. I turned and lurched forward, kneeling on the dirt before I threw up. The sight of the headless foals stuck imprinted into my mind, seared deep in all of it's horrible detail. I groaned and heaved again, causing me to lose my balance and flop into the dirt.

"Fucking FOALS!" I coughed out as I writhed in pain. "what good were they as slaves? they are innocent!"

Carlotta poker her head around the cage seemingly unphased. "It used to be an honorable trade, allowing ponies to put the criminals of the wasteland to work. Rebuilding rail lines and settlements. But after a few years, more criminals started getting killed in gunfights or 'accidents' while in custody, and they had to resort to other means to get workers." She spoke as if it were common knowledge which scared the hell out of me. Had I been this ignorant of the way the wasteland worked? I remember the last time I even traded with a slaver was a couple syringes of Med-X and a half full box of 9 millimeter ammo in exchange for me fixing up some of his collars.

That was three years ago, but I remember hooking the primers into the directed explosive charges, fixing the radio control board so it would reliably go off. To me, the collars were just another item to fix, just another job. But what if one of those collars was used in that cage? What if I used my special talent that day and ensured the death of one of those colts or fillies? I rolled over on the dirt and heaved again, coughing hard and having nothing left to bring up.

"I'm sorry little ones..." Longbow said softly, her eyes shut, her voice was filled with regret. "I couldn't save you. But I could at least bring justice to the ones who stole your lives." I watched as she kneeled in reverence. "Celestia and Luna, I pray that you find it in your hearts to help the souls of these ponies find peace with you. Please guide them all safely to the everlasting meadows of the afterlife."

She was praying. I had never seen anyone in my travels pray openly, let alone sound so devoted to the goddesses of the old world as the blue mare before me did. I could almost feel that she thought she was speaking directly to them, as if they could answer her if she only spoke as reverently as she did.

"You pray for them?" I said slowly as I wiped the sick from my muzzle. "For all of them?"

She opened her blue eyes slowly, giving a soft nod as she got back to her hooves. "It is only my place to judge ones deeds in this life." She stomped her hoof down, scooping some dirt away as she pulled it back. "Once the soul has departed, it is up to Celestia and Luna to guide them to where they must ultimately go." She scooped another hoof full of dirt away as she talked. She was digging, and I needed to help.

I walked solemnly beside her and scooped away another line, listening as she stopped for a moment and looked at me. I could feel her curious glare as I scooped another hoof full of dirt away, the flutter of Carlotta's wings making me look up to her for a moment. The clang of a set of shovels on the dirt broke the sudden evening air's silence as the now red setting sun glinted off the plating of Longbow's armor.

"Thought you might be dead by the time we got back to the farm, so I grabbed these before we came to get you." Carlotta said as she tried fruitlessly to lighten the mood, watching as a blue aura enveloped the two shovels and swung one around to me. I took it in my mouth and started to dig along side the silent unicorn. Soon Carlotta was dragging the bodies of the slavers over as we dug the mass grave, the wind singing it's low drones as we all worked together to put them to rest.

I couldn't help but think that as we dug, it wasn't fair for the foals to be buried with their murderers, that they deserved somewhere nicer than a shallow grave off the highway. But wasn't that also the case for the innocent ponies in Ponyville or Whinny? Hell, I was going to bury Harmony near the garage when I got back. I had only known her for not even two days before she died, yet I wanted to give her special treatment, and that even though I knew it was wrong, why was I ok with it?

After we had buried the bodies and I had applied a magical bandage to my wound, it was a couple hours into night, the cold air brought with it the frost as fall really started to sink into the wasteland. I took a look over the goods we scavenged before convincing the others it would be a smart idea to head to 'the pool', a nearby settlement built into an old chemical manufacturing plant. The city of a hundred ponies or so was mainly build out of a set of drug manufacturing labs and surplus chemical storehouses surrounded by a line of makeshift, concrete rubble walls. The whole place was one accident away from being one big, taint filled crater in the middle of nowhere.

Sky and I normally rented a room at the only hotel that wasn't also a brothel or drug hangout, staying there whenever we headed through on our south west trade route. Years ago it's owner had chartered to travel with us here from the ruins of Trottingham, so we got to know the stallion quite well. I still normally slip him something neat or quirky I've found as extra incentive to keep the drug pushers away from us, but with recent events keeping me light in the saddlebags, I was hoping that I could still convince him to help me out as a favor for a friend. If worse came to worse, He wasn't the only friend I had made there.

As the Marauder once again clipped along the ruined highway at a good pace, I relaxed again. The constant drum of the engine helped me refocus, reminding me that we needed to stay diligent for when or where 42 would pop up next. I still needed to find where Twilight had the magic pond water moved to, and the only clue I had was what filly pinkie told me in my dream. I scrunched up my muzzle tightly, what sort of clue was 'it's the only place you can normally go to find it' anyway?

The flood lights of the large factory rose out of the night, the four large cylindrical storage tanks stood as monoliths against the sheer rock face that seemed to reach halfway up the side of Foal mountain as the enormous peak disappeared above the cloudlayer. As we grew closer, I could see the light peeking from the various holes rusted in the side of the structures, the makeshift steel-sheeted apartments of the residents set inside the drum exposed themselves to the elements.

I could see a number of the assorted brightly-lit, smaller buildings where most of the actual drug manufacturing took place, all of them sat dangerously close to a single concrete reservoir that the four large storage tanks drained into after the war. This created a small lake of nearly pure taint that sat against the jagged cliff face of the Mountain, the serene calmness of the rainbow liquid always disturbed me.

I slowed down and flipped off the high beams as I approached the bridge running over the Reinland River, dropping the car into neutral I stopped just short of a diminutive, single-pony guard house with a familiar looking black coated pegasus stallion. The white of his short cut mane and his wide green eyes were normally the only thing I could see in the darkness, but 500 lumen headlights seemed to help with that. I leaned my head out the window and smiled brightly at him, he beamed a wide smile back as he trotted over eagerly.

"What did I tell you, Dip Stick!" I said happily, pouring on the pride as I gunned the engine, letting it's deep roar fill the night air for a few seconds before letting her drop to a low idle. "Told you I'd get her running again."

"Well ah'l be, Backlash, yah finally up an' did it." His thick country accent was just as hard to understand as ever. "Would neva 'ave thought ah'd see the day when ya'll finally drove in here. Guess ah'll be owin' yah that beer aftah all, it'll only be a few hours till ahm off, could meet ya'll down at Tanker then."

"Yeah, sounds good to me. My friends and I just have to get set up with a room at lantern's, then we can talk as long as you're buying." I smiled and nodded toward my unhappy travel companions. "Is the fee to enter still five caps?"

He shook his head with a frown. "Naw, they up'n raised the damned thang ta twenty caps. Sorry 'bout that, thang is that a scrap is brewin 'tween them big shots what run th' place, so tah dis'uade poor newcomers from joinin' the fight, they've done raised the price."

"It's fine" I said with a slight sigh. "I'm just a little light on caps, got plenty of guns to sell, but no real money. Think you can spot me until I can trade some of this stuff?" I gave him my best pleading eyes, whimpering slightly.

"Nu-uh. Ah can't let ya'll in if yah ain't gon' pay." He said as he stomped his hoof, stiffening up and glaring down at me. I looked up as his mouth slowly curled into a smile and he started to laugh. "Naw, yah know ah couldn't refuse yah! Go on in and ah'll see ya'll in a bit."

I nodded and shifted back into drive, pulling onto the bridge slowly, listening to the odd rhythm the tires played on the worn boards as the sound of the running river below mixed in. I looked over the main strip ahead, the floodlights from the top of each of the large towers filled every nook and cranny of the town, revealing everypony clearly as they moved from one brothel or bar to another. A small group of ponies were dancing around a large bonfire as an orange coated pony played energetically on a fiddle, the sounds of laughter and good times carrying in the cold air.

"I've only heard of this place..." Longbow said as she looked over the bright and lively street, shifting herself uneasily. "The population is... less shady that I expected."

Carlotta choked back for a moment before yelling and busting out into laughter, causing the armored pony to tense up momentarily. I couldn't help but join in, giggling as Longbow canted her head and glanced between us. "I don't under..." She paused for a moment, before she facehooved with a smirk. "that's not what I meant."

"Oh Celestia... you're too good!" I said as I gasped between laughs, pulling the marauder over to the side of the road and into the small paved lot the makeshift Red Lantern's motel was set up in, the glowing neon picture of a red lantern the only distinct feature of the plain brown building. "You know, some of you steel rangers are alright." I shut the car off and popped the hood, not looking as I swung the driver side door open, nearly hitting a small, white coated young stallion who was walking by. "Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there." I grunted as I choked back the rest of my laughs, shutting the door as I got out.

The stallion who must have only been a couple of years older than Brass, glared up at me, his greasy and short, pale yellow mane blowing softly in the air. "You on a mission from Celestia?" He squinted his pale green eyes and leaned towards me menacingly. "Unless you are, watch where you're going next time, dick." He chuckled to himself and continued on his way trotting towards the motel, the odd faint of foul chemicals following in his wake. I looked back over to Carlotta and Longbow, giving them a shrug before lifting the hood of the Marauder, starting to disconnect the spark battery controller.

"How do you know the ponies here? I thought you didn't sell drugs." Carlotta said with a raised eyebrow, her blue plumage brighter than ever in the artificial sunlight from above.

"That being true, I do sell lots of other goods used to MAKE drugs." I stated plainly as I rummaged around my saddlebag for my wrench. "It's not nearly as much as I normally make off of things like guns and ammo, but there is a lot of stuff out there that can be repurposed for use here, and they are always willing to buy, So it works out for us." I yanked on the wrench with my hooves, finally dislodging the connecter to free the hoof-sized, gem-studded, silver box. "Not to mention, the Stallion who owns this place came over with us from Trottingham and has been nice enough to accommodate us on our journeys back and forth. So why not make a few extra caps while we are here?"

As I placed the arcano-tech device in my saddlebag and shut the hood, a familiar pegasus walked over from the managers office. "Backlash my old chum! It's been far too long!" My ears perked with his accented voice as I spun to meet him, only to have his hooves pull me against his chest and hug me far too tightly. A few of my vertebrae popped loudly after a moment, giving him the sense he needed to stop as he let go. "I do hope that Moron wasn't too terribly rude to you, but don't you mind him, he is an bit of an odd fellow..."

I flopped to the ground with a thud and looked up at him, his olive drab coat seemed fairer under the bright lights of the towers, contrasting with the dark brand on his flank. The brownish black of a cloud with a lightning bolt stuck out like a sore hoof on him. I reached my hoof up as he took it and helped me back up, allowing me to dust myself off as he took his hat off, running his hoof through the white mohawk he called his mane (I wouldn't have made the same choice in style, but to each their own!)

"Yeah, I think I'll live." I said with a soft smile, letting Carlotta and Longbow walk up beside me. "It has been a while Ripcord, how has business been?"

He let out a soft sigh and let his silver eyes sink. "Well you see, between the growing fuss of the three kings rivalries and the rate hike for entering, I dare say they are slowly driving me out of business. You're the first paying customer I've had in the last month, well, aside from than that Moron fellow." He grumbled a bit as he looked over at the room the small stallion went into.

Longbow stomped her hoof and pointed over to the same room. "Even if he is impolite, you shouldn't demean your customers with such insults."

Ripcord gave me a look of disbelief. "You would dare accuse ME of such slander?" He put his tan safari cap back on before smiling. "The young stallion's name is Moron, he signed it in the logbook you see. Although he is rather fond of insisting that it is pronounced Myron. I don't really care for either pronunciation mind you, but one would think you would just sign your name as Myron if you thought it proper for others to call you by it." He turned his gaze to me and pointed a hoof at the room next to the office. "You may have your usual room, but I'm terribly sorry I'm going to have to charge you at twice the standard rate. You do understand how business gets."

I sighed and nodded. "I just have to get some goods turned into actual caps first, then I'll be right back to pay you." Turning, I froze for a moment before looking back to him with a shy smile. "You wouldn't mind keeping our normal arrangement since I'll be paying double, would you?"

The green pegasus rolled his eyes and nodded. "I simply cannot see any reason why I should refuse a dear friend... Very well then." He eyed over the gleaming armor longbow was wearing. "Just do be sure to keep your... companions out of trouble." He said with a forced smile before glancing around. "Say, where is miss Skyline? I do wish to say hello at least before you take off once more."

"She's back at the garage holding the fort down. I'll make sure to tell her you said hello." I said as I nodded for Carlotta to follow. "Longbow, please stay here while I sort this out. Try not to run off into any more gun battles..." I finished as we walked away, getting a sigh from the paladin as we rounded the corner back onto the main street. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been and almost ran into a pony who was dancing to the music down the street, causing me to look around in confusion at the new mobs of ponies who filled the streets, as if coming out of nowhere to get their party on all at once.

The two of us wound our way along the lively street, heading around and between two of the nearest towers. The lower twenty feet of the furthest of the two had rusted out, leaving a large gap with just support beams to hold it up. The many tables that took up nearly the entire ground level of the building along with the bar built across the back wall were the only refuge from the brilliant lighting above. Two wide staircases disappeared up into the sheet metal flooring of the apartment sections of the tower. A silver colored, curved sheet of metal hung by chains off the middle of the gap, the words Tanker emblazoned in orange seemed to sparkle in the bright lights while it swung in the breeze.

A single, dark brown earth pony mare was scrubbing the bar with a rag as we walked in, her bright red mane hung off her heavily, reminding me of pinkie's mane when she was depressed. "What can ah get ya'll this evenin?" She spoke out through a sigh, not even gazing up at us.

"I'm hear to dump some gear on you Mrs. Schnapps." I sat down on one of the barstools as I spoke, straightening my vest just as she stopped wiping and looked up in momentary shock, anger quickly replacing it on her face.

"Get out..." She said in a low tone, leaning forward on the bar.

"Hey, I just want to do business, then I'll be out of your mane." I said as I raised my hooves defensively watching the seething hate bubbling up in her eyes. You see, Peppermint Schnapps here was Sky's last mare friend, and they had a good run at a relationship for a year or so. They were happy, but only up to the point when Schnapps wanted to get away from the pool to start over somewhere new. Skyline wouldn't leave me to run off with her and ultimately choose to end it with Peppermint instead, so I understand why she holds me to a bit of a grudge.

She leaned forward on the countertop, the soft click of the 12 gauge, lever action shotgun I had sold her emitted from under the countertop loud enough to get Carlotta's attention. "Fine. But make it quick. What do you have?"

"A .308 sniper rifle, two 10mm submachine guns, and a single 12.7 submachine gun in bad condition. I'll take a thousand caps for the lot." I stared into her dark red eyes as I listed them off, trying my best to be intimidating.

"I'll give you 500 caps." She snapped back, locking her eyes to mine.

"The rifle alone is worth that." I said as I put my hooves on the bar and leaned in toward her. "make a better offer."

"The rifle is only worth 500 if it works." She said as she glowered and tensed up. "700 for all of them." Her eye twitched as she finished, letting me know she really couldn't go much higher, and already needed a good deal, but she also know's I don't cheat customers. Well fuck that, after the last two weeks, I needed a win. I brushed my vest out of the way, showing off my bandaged chest.

"It works. I'm only around because I've got the best barding money can buy." I narrowed my eyes and huffed out. "800 caps plus four beers, then I'll leave."

"Fine." She leaned back from the bar and mumbled to herself as she went off to her safe in her upstairs store room.

"What's her deal?" Carlotta said with a smirk, hoisting the guns from the raiders onto the bar top. "Were you two a fling?" She gasped loudly. "You cheat on her or something!?"

I gasped back in mock shock, doing my best to try to look hurt before she frowned at me. "No, I got between her plans with Skyline." I shrugged and slumped on the counter. "Crazy bitch wanted to leave Equestria for some reason, to go run off to the zebra lands no less. I mean life here is tough and all, but that's just suicide."

Carlotta finished placeing the guns on the counter and rapped her claws loudly next to my muzzle. "You wouldn't ever come between Sky and me if I wanted to take her away, would you?"

"Pft, hell no. Sky can do what she wants. She was the one who didn't want to leave me behind." I drug my forehooves around the bar top with a sigh. "Plus I'm not nearly crazy enough to think I can take you on."

"It's good you know your limits." Carlotta chuckled and pat me on the back softly. "Although Sky keeps smashing mine with how she..."

"lalalalalalala I can't hear you!" I tried to stuff my hooves in my ears. My sisters love life is NOT something I ever needed to hear. I noticed Carlotta stiffen up, hearing Peppermint coming back down the stairs as I put my hooves back on the bar.

Peppermint returned from the upstairs with a small pouch in her mouth, swinging her head and tossing it to me. I went to grab it and missed, the bag of small metal caps smacking onto my face with a loud jingle. I reached up and rubbed my nose as I got to my hooves. "Thanks. You can hand her the beers." I nodded over to Carlotta, who now had her 'stone cold killer' expression trained on the brown mare. I turned slowly to walk out after placing the pouch of caps in my saddlebags, pausing for a moment as I looked back. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to tell Sky you said 'hello'."

As we walked back into the bustling street, I heard her slam something glass on the floor with a curse that bled off into the noise of the ongoing party. It felt wrong to cheat her out of a few extra caps, and had I shown up a few weeks ago I may have given her a good deal on those guns, maybe have even tried to patch things up. As we walked back up the street, my thoughts snapped back to earlier that day, watching as Harmony died in front of me.

My brain was replaying when she said I had given her hope. I don't see it, hope can't be given to anyone, you can't give anyone anger, or sadness. You can share those emotions with them, but I'm pretty sure that's not giving it. The only hope I have to call my own is the hope that I can send 42 from this world and somehow find a way to atone for all the suffering I've caused.

As we rounded the corner back towards the managers office, I was caught off guard to see Longbow standing faced away from Myron's door. She reared up and bucked hard, spiltting the door in half before turning to enter. I bolted past Ripcord's office, galloping as fast as I could as I heard the sharp report of a gunshot too small to be the rifles from her suit. I tripped on my weak hoof (honestly I was surprised I had made it this far on it.) as it finally gave out under me and ended up sliding painfully along the asphalt. I climbed to my hooves as I heard a shuffling in the open room before another loud shot.

"OH FUCK! IS THAT MY BLOOD?!" The voice of the young stallion yelled out as I scrambled to the door, looking in to see a snub nosed .32 caliber revolver floating in Longbow's levitation and Myron on the floor with a bleeding hole in his flank. "YOU SHOT ME, YOU BITCH!"

I looked around for a moment, noticing the dimly lit room housed a plethora of laboratory equipment, a pair of terminals, and a few enchanted pressure vessels. Half empty cartons of cleaner and jugs of various chemicals were strewn around the floors haphazardly with only a narrow path of carpet left open between all the junk. A box labeled 'empty' was stuffed full of vials of Dash next to one of the machines that had a pair of the red vials hooked into them.

"You are manufacturing illegal substances, I am placing you under arrest with the authority given to me by the Ministry of Wartime Technology." Longbow's voice was calm and unwavering as she leveled both her rifles to him, tossing the revolver from her grip towards the door.

"Longbow, You can't just arrest someone here" I walked up slowly behind her, favoring my aching hoof as I pushed through the clutter. "Look, you follow me. You listen to my orders." I looked down at Myron's hate filled eyes as the blue unicorn turned slowly.

"I was assigned to lead you to the facility, not the other way around." Her voice turned cold as she stared with one eye to me. "I will bring him to justice. It's my duty."

I heard Carlotta step up behind me, the clack of the autoloaders on her battle saddle made me cringe and turn. "If that's what you came for, you can go home, Backlash doesn't need your help." Carlotta pushed past me roughly, causing me to lose my balance and fall into a pile of empty boxes. "Stay or go, either way I'm going to need you to step away from my employer."

Myron smiled up from the floor as he put pressure on his wounded rump. "About time you showed up, Carlotta."

------------

LEVEL UP!

+5 Barter

+5 Melee Weapons

+5 Big Guns

Perk: Light traveler - You've gotten so used to traveling with only the necessities that if your carrying under 30 total pounds of weight, you gain an extra point of agility. Be careful when weighing yourself down, going over 30 pounds also reduces your agility by a point. (Cannot be taken along with the Smart Packer perk)

Quest Perk: Wasteland Crusader - Your exploits are being re-broadcast on separate radio frequencies around and even outside of Equestria. new dialogue options are available when speaking with anypony in a current position of power.

Author's Notes:

Many MANY thanks to Kkat for thinking up this amazing world. Thanks to Somber who's continuing story has provided endless amounts of enjoyment. A whole pile of thanks to No-one for giving me the courage and inspiration to write this. Buckets of feels for Mimezinga for making Puppy the greatest damned filly to ever grace the wastes. And thanks to Stonershy for reminding me that you don't have to be the good guy to kick ass, take names, and entertain readers.

Thanks to Bad Pun for helping me flesh out most of my ideas while simultaneously degrading me on my horrible overuse of the letter E. (Also, he's to blame for me taking some time out to play Resident Evil 6)

But as always, to the reader, you are the most important part of the story, you are the magic that brings it to life. Thank you for that.