Chapter 14: Memories and phantoms
"With a bottle of rum and a belly full of rads."

Iron Jaw had no time to react as the bullet burrowed its way into the back of his head. Sending blood, brains and bone everywhere in an explosion of gore, including onto my face.

The immediate area around me fell silent as everypony looked over at the mess and I could have sworn I heard Iron Jaw's blood dripping onto the floor off my muzzle. Slowly, I stepped away from the now dead imp spawn as his headless body slumped sideways to the floor. The unicorn sitting across from my target felt his face before licking his hoof. He quickly spit it out and scrambled around the table to grab Iron Jaw in his forelegs.

I took a deep breath and galloped towards the exit.

"Get her!" a pony shouted as they finally broke their stupor and realized what had happened.

I barreled towards the exit with the warm blood dripping down my face and multiple ponies giving chase. The signs and markers I memorized earlier came in handy and before I knew it, I was heading for a set of stairs.

A shot snapped past my head. It struck the wall in front of me and exploded into a grey cloud, sending concrete splinters in my direction. As I ducked to avoid the shrapnel, I scrambled into a turn at the same time a pony shouted. "Close the blast door! Close the blast door!"

Up ahead, about halfway down the hallway, was a thick rusty metal door that was slowly sliding towards the floor. It did not take long to cover the distance and I dove to the floor before rolling underneath it, losing hold of Shock. Noticing the lack of weapon, I quickly pulled Shock under the door with magic just before it shut. Except I realized my mistake when my invisibility spell dropped. However, I had no time to think about it because there were ponies on the other side yelling for them to open it. I quickly put the weapon in its holster and broke into a gallop again as the door slowly opened.

As I galloped towards another stairwell, bullets slammed into the wall ahead of me and into the floor at just benid hooves. Red hot pain burrowed its way through my flank and out again as I screamed. My hooves beat down on the steps as I took them two at time and quickly reached the top. However, as I did so, a grating buzzing sound was echoing through the main door room and flashing yellow illuminated the short tunnel.

My eyes widened when I saw that in the flashing yellow lights, the door mechanism started moving. I quickly poured more speed into my gallop when I noticed that the giant cog started rolling towards the open entrance. As I galloped through the narrow gap I was glad that I had chosen to cut my tail, because it might have gotten stuck in the door had been longer.

My ears to pressed against my head at the sound of a loud metallic squeal, but. I had no time to think about any of that because bullets slammed into the dirt around me from the ceiling.

As I jumped to the side to avoid a hole that appeared in front of me, I nearly tumbled to the tunnel floor as my muzzle was grazed by a few red hot lead darts. After I regained traction, I bolted forward as more of the lead rained down on me, but mostly missed. However, the bullets kicked dirt up into my face and nearly obscured my vision. And, as I galloped out of the door into the quiet jungle, the air was shattered again by the metallic squeal of the door.

I quickly scrambled right and galloped into the thick bushes. Only then did it occur to me to use my shield. But it was pointless due to the danger having passed so I opted to go without it. However as I galloped through the trees I could hear ponies shouting for others to go get Tracker. Whatever, or whoever it was, I did not care to stick around to find out.

I had to escape, so I flapped my wings in an effort to go faster.

Not far away was a tree blocking my path, so I went around it. However, as I did so my outstretched wing gently brushed against the bark and I cringed as sharp pain entered where the wing had touched wood. I folded both of my wings and slowed to a canter so I would not kill myself from galloping for so long. Which was a possibility for normal ponies and I did not care to find out if it was possible for me to do so.

As I focused on running away, the green jungle became a blur and I lost track of time. All I did was canter around trees and fallen branches not even caring if there were trap at my hooves ready to go off. After a long while, perhaps an hour or two, I heard running water and turned towards it.

As I broke through the trees I spotted a wide river. I slowed my canter to a stop and collapsed at the edge of the river covered in sweat while panting heavily.

"Goddess... We thank you," I nodded slowly and shut my eyes while taking a few deep breaths. "Your humble... child... is grateful..."

Only then did I notice my flank was bleeding badly. When I looked at it I saw that the warm sticky liquid was coating the jacket black in the area where my cutie mark would be. And deep down I could feel the itching that signaled slowly healing tissue damage as it itself back together. After a moment or two Then my bloodied mane fell in front of my eyes as the itchy feeling vanished from my muzzle and flank.

My ears drooped to the side of my face when I realized that meant I had no more radiation left in me and I could no longer heal.

As I attempted to stand up a sharp knife like pain stabbed at my new wound, causing me to cry out in main and fall to the ground. I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth as I slowly stood up a second time. The wound flared up in pain and protested against me doing so. But I managed to get all the way up and then held the leg off the ground to relieve some tension, and the pain slowly dulled.

Using my three good legs, I limped towards some bushes. And when I got to them I started pulling the large leaves off with magic. Any big leaves that I could find to make something with. I looked at my injured leg as I pulled the jacket back and cringed at the sight of a chunk missing from my flank.

The wound was big, nearly hoof sized, and my whole leg was covered in the blood pumping out of it.

I shut my eyes and cringed as I magically pressed the leaces onto the wound, but cold tears rolled down my cheeks. As I quickly wrapped the leaves with the bandage and snapped open my eyes, I cried out in pain again.
I glanced over at the wound and frowned when it was quickly soaked in blood. In an attempt to stop the bleeding I pushed on the wound with a small green telekinetic field, but the pain from doing so caused me to whimper.

A constant mechanical knocking sound drifted on the wind and drew my attention towards a faint smoke trail rising above the distant trees as the sound steadily grew closer. So, without anything else to do, I waited right there.

And eventually spotted the bow of a rotting boat as it rounded the bend in the river. The paint had either never been applied, or it had been stripped away by time down to the grey wood. It was then that I wished I had a scope to see the name on the bow of it had one. The boat eventually came into full view and I saw a single pony moving about under the canopy where a central standing boiler was powering the craft. As the craft grew ever closer I saw the zebra's stripes and the familiar mane cut of dreadlocks. The zebra muttered something I could not make out as she bucked the boiler.

Her details only meant it could be one pony, Zakiya.

As I stood there on three legs contemplating my luck on where or not I should shout, or swim out. A raspy barking sound drew my attention to the jungle behind me along with a pony shouting something. With my mind made up for me, I began limping as fast as I could into the river and shouted at the zebra on the boat. "Zakiya! Slow down, I need a ride!"

She looked over and waved a hoof, as I splashed into the cold water. "Sexy mare! You are a theif, so why should I allow you to board my new boat?"

"Did you not get the armor back?!" I swam towards the boat as best I could without moving my injured appendages, but the zebra turned it away. "I will explain everything, just let me board!"

Zakiya tilted her head as her ears twitched towards the sound of the barking and looked at the jungle with a grin. "Ah, it seems you have angered Bunkerville and they have unleashed the ghoul Tracker on you. Makes me wonder why they did such a thing."

"I can explain if you let me board!" I shouted as I grabbed hold of the boat's side with my forelegs and was dragged along with the vessel. "I am injured, please."

The zebra sighed deeply as she leaned over to grab my jacket and pulled hard. With a lot of effort, I hauled myself onto the deck and undid my water filled bags with magic. I rolled over onto my good side and looked at Zakiya as water ran off my body onto the deck.

"You better explain quick." Zakiya grumbled. She walked over to the back of the boat and sat down. Then I watched her move a lever forward as the obnoxious knocking increased and the boat sped up.

I nodded slowly as my vision started going black. "First, I need medical attention, fast."

Then I passed out as my vision darkened further.

*** ***

The floor beneath me gently rocked back and forth as if I were on a moving boat. Which was obviously the case because my ears were filled with the steam engine's knocking, and a pony's drunken disgruntled voice. "Stupid piece of shit!" I awoke with a start as their hoof slammed into metal. "I never liked you!"

I slowly sat up and found that I was naked save for bandages around my flank, hind leg, and face. As I felt around my face I hit a sore spot and pain stabbed at my muzzle, causing me to wince when I touched where the bullets had grazed. With nothing else to find there, I set my hoof down and looked around the boat. A furious Zakiya kicking the boiler near a gauge that was firmly planted in the red.

"What is going on? Where are we?" I asked because a quick check of my surroundings revealed just heavy oppressive mist.

"We are still on Oakwood if that is what you are wondering. It's early morning and I haven't slept in three days because this thing needs constant attention." The zebra's hind hooves slammed against the metal as she bucked the boiler again, leaving a dent in it. Oddly enough, the needle started falling from the red.

I suspected the reasoning for that change was because the machine did not like being beat on. Though I knew it was a different one altogether.

I slowly stretched out my forelegs with a yawn and smiled when I felt the tension in them start to go away as they popped. "Zakiya, I do not-"

"Yes I know. I read your diary."

"Journal," I corrected her.

"Diary," she pulled a bottle of rum out from under her crimson cloak and drank from it. Underneath the cloak was a grey soot stained jumpsuit and both items had many filled pockets. "It is your personal thoughts and actions on a day," she hiccuped, "to day basis. Hence, diary."

"It is a journal of events so that I know what is real!" I stomped my hoof down and glared at the drunk zebra.

She pointed a hoof at me and hiccuped again as she swayed back and forth. "Then would youse kindly tell me why you done left me on the surface?"

I shook my head as I placed a hoof on one of my cheeks. "I cannot answer that. My memories have been tampered with, again."

"Then it seems you are a pony's plaything," Zakiya hiccuped. "Somepony, somewhere, is pulling your strings and guiding you along on this path of shit. And I knnnnnow who it is." I set the hoof down and looked at her with my head tilted. She was holding her bottle of rum up in a salute of some kind while looking up at the sky. "The Bottle Gods have marked you to wallow in shit. I salute you, Sexy Mare!" She took a long draw from the bottle, then proceeded to chug it, and promptly fell over on her side before snoring loudly.

I let out a deep sigh as I limped over and nudged her. Causing the zebra to roll on her back and snore like an ursa. I rolled my eyes and pushed her onto her side to quiet the beast. Then limped over to the controls and as I sat down, I frowned because I had no idea how to work a boat. There were no instructions on anything or arrows to indicate where to go!

But it seemed easy enough; just an adjustment of the long stick attached to the back and the boat turned. A push on the nearby lever and the boat changed speed. After getting a quick feel for the boat I kept us straight along the river. Well it was more like a zigzag due to the rocking from the moving water beneath us and my tendency to over-correct any minor adjustment.

I slowly glanced around the random patches of mist as it passed by at a near walking pace. Any attempt to listen for hostiles was drowned out by the steam engine’s mechanical knock, which I suspect it being broken because of the noise. However the alone time away from anypony it gave me time to think.

Time to think about the pony I had killed to gain my freedom because with the way the turrets shot at me and the changeling queen's words when I was first captured. I don't think I was meant to survive the assassination. But then again... Eclipse had challenged Sister to a fight and was allowed to walk out. Perhaps the changeling queen had expected me to merely challenge Iron Jaw to a duel. While I would have loved to beat the mule's head in. I was on a strict time schedule and I had already wasted enough of it, so my decision to shoot Iron Jaw was the best course of action in my opinion. However, now that I look back on it. I should have shot him with my rifle from the second floor balcony, but then I would have had a harder escape as everypony would have recovered faster.

I wiped a few tears from my face and slowly shook my head. The thick mist wrapped around the boat like a damp blanket and, if it were not for the racket of the engine, I would have thought something was very wrong because of how quiet it was.

As it was I already felt that way about everything. I was starting to feel like I was in an alien body which was no longer mine. It felt as if I was inside some other pony's body and I was just along for the ride. This fact caused me to worry if I were stuck in a memory orb and forgot about it or if I was back in the virtual world. Except both of those were pure fallacy. If I were in the virtual world I would not have the metal disks around my body and if it was a memory orb. Well there was nothing I could do but keep going. Except who was I then? A random wastelander that found a trapped memory orb or am I really… this alicorn Shell Shock?

I glanced down as Zakiya moved about on the deck in her sleep. She rolled over onto her belly and I noticed a deep blush on her face from something no doubt in her dream. As I looked around again, I sighed and wondered what it her dream was about. Since the zebra was immune to my telepathy I figured she would also be immune to any mind spells or even direct horn contact, so I sat there looking around at the mist.

Zakiya eventually rolled onto her side and that was when I looked away.

The brief sight of a pony shape in the fog on the southern riverbank caused me to frown. It meant we were being followed by a mysterious pony in the same way Sienna and I were followed by a pony. Or it could have been one of those hell spawn 'Howlers'. I didn't know if they were hostile since my Pipbuck was broken and didn't work. Not like a working Pipbuck mattered much since Sienna had claimed the pony to be friendly. Though I had to wonder if it was Ripper or not. The insane ghoul would be a most welcome sight at this point if only to shed some light on the situation.

After a while an idea came to my mind about going ashore and talking to the pony. I gently turned the boat towards the shore at the same time I throttled the engine down to where the knocking ceased altogether. The river’s current helped to push the boat past my destination, but it did not matter to me. The boat beneath me shuddered a little as it slid to a stop onto the sandbar.

I glanced at Zakiya to see if she was awake or not, she wasn’t. So I picked my rifle up in my teeth and cast my invisibility spell.

I took another slow glance around the fog to make sure I was alone before I hopped out of the boat and crept into the jungle. The strange pony in the mist had to be close by I figured, which lead me to think they might be Ripper since they seemed to follow me all the time. But that line of thought was destroyed when I remembered she rarely left her home except to retrieve stolen items.

I stopped at a small clearing near the boat and laid down to wait for the pony behind a bush. The lush jungle was quiet except for Zakiya's snoring and the heat was nearly unbearable when the sun was hardly up. However as I laid there waiting, a faint breeze carried a familiar scent on it. An almost sweet and sickly reek. It took me a second to realize that the wind carried the stench of... death on it. Nearly taking me back to the pony-zebra war, but I pushed such thoughts aside and bit down on the rifle's grip.

A pony shape steadily moved in the fog as the sickly stench drew closer. I kept my eyes on the target so that my aim would be true if they proved to be hostile. The shape drew closer and my eyes widened when I saw who it was. Walking along the jungle floor was a pale and dirt covered ex-Unity alicorn that could only be Sister. There was an open gash along her chest along with a pair of puncture holes and I could have sworn I saw her beating heart. Her limp and bloody wing dragged along the jungle floor, leaving a small trail of blood. The crack in her horn slowly leaked blood onto her nose and the ground around her. Half of Sister’s skull was crushed in showing her brain matter and one of her eyes was completely missing, showing only the socket.

"Shock?" she called out to me as she looked around, but I knew she was not real nor could she see me. "Where are you? Shock?" Sister stopped and looked right at at me with that one eye that seemed to bore its way to my very core. The rifle started trembling in my grip when she cracked a smile that made her hideous face even more hideous. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you."

I scrambled backwards as I finally dropped the rifle from my mouth and levitated it to eye level with magic. "You're dead!" I shouted with as my eyes teared up as my bad one partly soaked the bandage. Despite my magical ability, the rifle trembled in my telekinetic field and I was not sure if I had a clean shot due to the shaking. "I watched you die... I kissed you... And... And I pushed your corpse into an incinerator!"

"Shock," Sister held her bloody foreleg out. I pulled the rifle’s trigger with magic and the weapon recoiled as the shot went wild. She jumped back from me with her ears folded back. "I want you to know that it was not your fault. Do you understand? It's not your fault!"

"But it is..." I quickly pulled the bolt back with magic and slammed it forward. The weapon made a loud metallic click as it readied a second round. "I should have listened to you and left when we had the chance, but I didn't... If I had just listened... you'd still be alive!"

"Then listen to me now!" Sister shouted and stomped a hoof down and caused my ears to go back. I took another step back as her dark blue coat bubbled and sloughed off her muscles as if she were merely shedding it. My good wing attempted to block the now revolting stench coming from her pale grey muscles. "Shock, I understand your reasonings for what you did, you wanted to help ponies and become a better pony yourself. But you can't do that if you start killing ponies at random!" she stomped her hoof down as the meat fell off the bone and, one by one, her feathers fell off.

As I took another step away from alicorn skeleton, the bits of its crushed skull fell to the ground and her one remaining eye socket glowed an odd color. I slowly lowered the rifle as my ears drooped because I knew she was right. "I promised I'd be a better pony… And I swore I would be."

Sister nodded slowly and her bones clattered into a pile on the ground just before it burst into flames.

***===***===***

"Sexy mare!" Zakiya's voice resonated inside my head as she shouted. "Shell Shock! Wake up!"

My eyes snapped open, revealing Zakiya's striped face and orange eyes with a clear night sky behind her. As I slowly regained focus, I noticed that I was breathing rapidly and heavily, but it was slowing down. "Wh-what is g-going on?" I managed to ask after some effort.

Zakiya stepped back with pure concern on her face. "You passed out from blood loss and started mumbling things. Then screaming and..." She brought a lantern up to show her bandaged foreleg in its dull glow. "You bit me."

I curled up the best I could with my injured leg and shut my eyes, "I'm sorry... I had a nightmare."

A warm hoof touched my back, but I still did not open my eyes. "Did you want to talk about it? It is said that getting it off your chest is the best medicine." I attempted to make myself smaller and said nothing. "Daybreak is soon and I would not recommend any fancy tricks for a day or two. Your body needs time to fill itself back up with blood."

I sat up and felt like the world was spinning. It grew worse and worse until I quickly turned and grabbed hold of the ship's side as I shut my eyes. My dinner from yesterday exited my stomach. After it was over, I wiped what was left off of my mouth and tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was more vomit.

I breathed deeply and kept my eyes shut as a hoof was placed on my back. "You should rest more," Zakiya softly whispered in my ear while rubbing my back with her hoof. "The wound-" her hoof hit one of the metal discs and caused a tingle to run up my spine and into my brain. "What is this...?"

"I do not know," I rasped and scooped up some water in a magic bowl to drink some. I let the cool liquid sit in my mouth for a second before I gargled it and spit it out to get rid of the awful taste in my mouth. A second bowl was drunk slowly to soothe burning throat. I let the magical bowl vanish and looked back at Zakiya. "I woke up in a tube of goo with metal discs all over my body."

The zebra pulled my jacket up and looked at them with her head tilted. "I do not know what madness drove you to get metal grafted to your body, but if what you say is true… then you must be lucky."

"What do you mean?" I tilted my head some.

"I have seen a few others with discs like these. They try to hide them, but sometimes they cannot."

I slowly set my head down on the side of the boat with a nod. "Where are we? I need to use your boat to sneak onto the Steel Ranger ship out at sea."

Zakiya laughed and let my jacket fall over my back, but I did not look at her. "You must be insane if you think they will let us anywhere near it!"

"I am not insane," I growled a little under my breath. "Eclipse beat my sister to death in front of me and needs to pay for it. I swore I’d make her pay."

Zakiya set her hoof on my back again and sighed deeply. "Shock, we-"

"Dog," I corrected her.

"Whatever your name is, we cannot sneak close enough. They would see my smoke trail and open fire on the 'zebra pirate ship'.”

"Whatever." I shut my eyes and let the boat rock back and forth on the small waves as we traveled along. The mechanical knocking sound of the steam engine slowly turned into a musical beat I once heard. After a while, I opened my eyes and noticed that Zakiya had gone back to shoveling coal into the boiler and that was the source of the extra sounds. As the zebra placed the shovel full of coal into the metal tube, I said. "They made me watch as Eclipse killed my sister and she needs to pay for it!"

"What would you have me do?" Zakiya shoveled more coal into the boiler and spread it around some. "Sail up to the boat, knock on the hull, and ask if they will let us kill her? I am just one zebra and you are just one alicorn. They are many in a confined space, a death trap for us."

"Find me a radiation hotspot and it will heal my wings along with my other injuries. Then all you have to do is get me close enough and I'll fly there. You do not have to go any further than that."

Zakiya set the shovel down and giggled a little bit as she shook her head. "As much as I would like to see you sneak on board a ship like that, I cannot risk my boat for a thief such as you. But if one such as you would care to help me with a problem, then I might do well to give you something in return to help you on your way."

"What do I need to do? At this point I will do anything to kill Eclipse."

"There is a town on the western coast," Zakiya nodded down river in the general direction of where we were heading. Then the zebra picked up the shovel again and scooped up more coal for the boiler. "Perhaps a two or three days by river. There I was going to get more coal for a trip back up river to deliver supplies. This river is treacherous when we hit the canyon, no thanks to some river pirates. You protect my boat through the canyon, and I will see what I can do for you."

"Zakiya... I can barely stand without falling over. How do you expect me to protect you?"

"We will not reach the canyon until morning tomorrow. You will have plenty of time to recover and I have toys in that box there." She set the shovel down and pointed a hoof towards the bow where there was a large box with poorly painted on flames.

My curiously got the better of me as to what it was and I slowly crawled over to it. As I did so, sharp pain poked at my flank in protest of being moved. I still did not care for it and powered through to the box.

When I opened the lid I squee'd in delight.

There, sitting at the bottom of the wood box, was a flamethrower and what looked like zebra armor underneath it. The flamethrower tank was painted to match the zebra armor and I noticed that it had a foreleg nozzle like the one Raul had given me. I set the flamethrower next to the box and lifted the zebra armor up along with a gas mask, which was also painted to match.

"What is this for?" I asked as I inspected the mask. It was more like a ballistic helmet with a hole in it for a horn, that was covered up. The gas mask portion was rigidly mounted to a pair of dark goggles, but clipped on to the helmet.

"Your uniform," Zakiya replied as I slid the helmet on and buttoned the mask. The fit was okay at best and rubbed a little, which was most likely due to my head shape being different than the last owner's head. "You will use the flamethrower to ward off attacks and with your Pipbuck we-"

I unbuttoned the mask and looked at Zakiya. "It does not work. Something is scrambling its systems."

"Well then." the zebra frowned. She sat down and wiped her stained hooves onto her equally stained jumpsuit. "It appears this run is going to be interesting. My last guard died in the canyon and I was hoping to sneak through."

I set the armor and helmet back into the box, then looked at the flamethrower. His dull paint job shined a bit in the morning sun that was trying to peek through the heavy mist. An odd and strange idea occurred to me about weapons.

"Did it occur to you to use a twenty millimeter autocannon or a fifty caliber heavy machine gun? A pony held flamethrower is only good for nearly fifty meters and is highly dangerous to its user."

"Where would I get that kind of ammo? I could not make it, because I do not have those casings just lying the fuck around. Neither do I have parts for either of those weapons. Such artillery is hard to come by. Only the Steel Rangers have weapons like that."

I sat up and slowly ran a hoof through my short mane. "There are two patrol boats lying on the riverbank overgrown by the jungle. They have the floors lined with casings and their machine guns are intact, but heavily worn by time. One of those might be rebuilt into working condition. If a pony of sufficient skill finds them."

"Where are they? Even if I cannot fix them, their scrap value would be good."

"Give me a few minutes..." A magic field engulfed my bags as I dragged them over and opened them. With much care, I set the 105mm HE shell off to the side and brought out my journal.

The brown book reminded me of what Sister looked like before becoming an alicorn and that caused my eyes to water again. I slowly flipped through the entries and eventually came across the right one. "Aha! Here we are. A wide muddy river impossible to cross by hoof, then after I climbed aboard one..." I skimmed the page a bit and read the entry outloud. "Their barding had long ago been reduced to shreds and the deck underneath the vines was littered with dull brass casings of varying calibers. Next to the skeletons lay the rusted remains of a 20mm autocannon, and on the front walls of the boat were twin M-2 .50 cal machine guns likewise rusted." I shut the book and grinned at Zakiya. "I found your Zebra Rifle there, so they must be serviceable."

She was sitting on her haunches scratching her chin with a hoof while looking at the flames inside the boiler. Her crimson robe was neatly folded next to her. I observed her and patiently waited for an answer.

Finally, she nodded slowly and set her hoof down. "I think I know what river that is. It runs into Oakwood city and connects it to this smaller one. Or this smaller one connects to that one. It is hard to tell."

"So we are taking a detour?" I asked with a smile and a few bats of my eyelashes.

Zakiya looked at her coal reserve, the boiler, me, then a box of supplies and sighed deeply. "Very well, we shall recover these weapons."

I put the book away as Zakiya walked to the back and started making the boat turn around.

*** ***

I glanced up at the clear night sky as the boat slowly moved along the river. The half-moon was out and I wondered if Sister was up there waiting for me or if she were merely dead and nothing else. It was then that I found myself humming the song I once heard about a pony wanting to paint everything black.

The jungle around us was louder than my humming and all I smelled was soot from the boiler that I sat near. It occurred to me then that the way I had spotted Zakiya's boat, her smoke trail, was the same way a pony could follow us in the dense jungle and not be spotted from the river. However, I did not tell the zebra that. She had enough problems it seemed. What they were she would not tell me and I did not press the matter. She would tell me on her own time.

I continued to hum the song and watch the starry sky. We were in the middle of a wide open stretch of the river and anyone that wanted to get to us would need to open fire from the banks. My IF-12 was sitting within easy reach for return fire. Something occurred to me about it's ammo. I had thought that Full Metal Jacket rounds were normal ammunition.

This fact caused me to stop humming and pull a round out of my bag. As I stared at it, I noticed that it looked like your standard issue military round from afar, but upon closer inspection in the light of the Pipbuck. I saw that the actual bullet was more like a ball, or filled in hollow point, and that it felt ever so slightly heavier than I remembered. I used my magic to eject a round from the IF-12 and caught it.

A quick side by side comparison revealed them to be the same. I frowned a little as I re-loaded the bolt action and aimed it out at the bushes.

A bright flame and a clap of thunder preceded the IF-12 recoiling in my grip. I attempted to see where my bullet went, but all I saw was a cloud of smoke that drifted away on the wind.

Zakiya woke up with a snort and immediately jumped to her hind legs while pulling out her Zebra Rifle. "What is going on?!" she shouted while looking around. "Where are they?"

I pulled the bolt back and caught the shell casing in magic as I slammed the bolt forward. "There is no pony. I was testing these," I held the items in magic for her to see. "It turns out I was tricked into buying black powder rounds for the price of jacketed rounds."

“Oh,” Zakiya slung her Zebra Rifle across her back again and nodded. “Warn a pony next time you do that. Or, don’t do it at all. It is a waste of ammo.”

I rolled my eyes as I magically unloaded the IF-12 and set the rounds into my bag. Then I brought the box out and picked out a random round. This time I aimed up at the sky and squeezed the trigger with magic. The IF-12 recoiled, spitting fire and lots of smoke a second time.

I frowned a little bit as I unloaded the weapon and started to strip it down. “This is annoying. The smoke will give away my position and make it hard to send a second shot down range.”

Zakiya walked over and looked down at me. “What do you plan to do? Snipe ponies from a bell tower?”

As I pulled out the rifle’s barrel I shook my head slowly. “No. Just in general.” Then I realized that I did not have a rifle cleaning kit and could not clean the barrel or anything else. I let out a deep breath at this fact and looked at Zakiya. In the moonlight she appeared to be a pale blue zebra with dark grey stripes. Her muzzle was highlighted by a faint orange glow coming from her eyes like Axe’s, but not as pronounced. Something I did not notice in the early morning light, but it could have been due to the lantern she had at the time.

“Do you have a rifle cleaning kit?” I asked with a tilt of my head.

Zakiya bowed her head with a nod. “Yes, I would not call myself Zakiya the Armorer if I did not carry a cleaning kit.”

I slowly realized something about the zebra in front of me. She was out here on a boat that was constantly moving around the island, but DJ Snow was still broadcasting. I remember that fact because Sienna’s Pipbuck was playing her voice last week or so.

“Aren’t you DJ Snow?” I tilted my head a little. “I remember seeing you at the radio station on the Celestia’s Delight.”

Zakiya held her rifle cleaning kit out in her hooves, but I noticed a blush on her face. “You see… that is a very funny story!” she half-laughed as I took the kit in magic and set it down. “It involves lots of alcohol and a drunken bet with a drunken DJ Snow.”

“Bet?”

She nodded. ”The bet was that I could not last one night as a DJ with no breaks like she does and well, you showed up. But you just assumed I was her! So I did not argue. To argue with one such as you would have been very bad as you could probably have killed me with your mind!”

“So you are not DJ Snow? Then who are you?” I asked as she slumped to a sitting position on the deck. My magic flipped open the latches of the kit and I opened it. It was a very well kept cleaning kit and looked like just the thing I needed. With a nod, I started cleaning the rifle.

“I am Zakiya the Armorer. This I told you many times.” She opened her cloak and pointed at the pockets inside. “I make armor, modify weapons, and rebuild broken items as evidenced by this.” The zebra let the cloak go and pulled out her Zebra Rifle. Its synthetic stock, I noticed in the moonlight, was painted with stripes and the drum magazine was well cared for. “I have rebuilt the rifle you gave me and added this drum magazine. Ninety rounds of pure military grade hollow point ammunition. Perfect for killing unarmored targets. And plants.”

“What about ‘Mist Roamers’?” I tilted my head.

Zakiya’s ears folded back as she put the weapon away. “They are more trouble and need armor piercing,” she said slowly with a voice filled with shame. The zebra shut her eyes tightly and slowly shook her head. “I lost a friend when I found that out the hard way. She was ripped apart in front of me.”

I set the weapon parts down and nodded slowly. “I know how you feel. I saw my sister die in front of me... She was beat to death by… Eclipse.” As I wiped my eye from the tears, I set the cleaning kit down and started to put the weapon back together. “We are similar, you and I, so we need to stick together.”

“Similar how?” Zakiya asked with a tilt of her head. “You are an alicorn and I am a zebra. This fact causes me to wonder how we are similar.”

“We both lost ponies we cared about and could do nothing to save them.” I bowed my head slightly as I finished putting the weapon back together. It was as clean as it was going to get tonight and I will need to find some other parts to make it better.

“Thank you, but we are not the same.” The zebra nodded towards the river. “I believe those are the boats you spoke of.”

I looked towards where she had nodded and could not make out the boats. All I saw was a blue-grey jungle and the moon reflecting off the water. “Where?”

“Allow me to show you.” Zakiya said as she walked back to the controls and the steam engine’s knocking slowed down.

As the riverbank approached, I noted a pair of blobs that held a familiar shape. The riverboat drew closer to the… other riverboats and I waited. We slowly floated closer and the boats grew more distinct. I noted that they were not like Zakyia’s at all. Hers was more like a large wooden dinghy with the other stuff added on, but the boats we were steadily approaching were identical purpose built combat patrol boats.

Though it begged the question as to why they had run into each other head on and were sitting on the riverbank instead of at the bottom of the river. The closer we got to them, the more I wondered about them and why they were here.

“Why did my Pipbuck call them Dropkick’s End?” I asked out loud, hoping Zakiya had an answer.

“Perhaps one was named Dropkick?” Zakiya replied as her boat’s bow hit the beach and rode up on it a bit, then stopped. The mechanical knocking ceased as the zebra adjusted the controls a bit before hopping onto the riverbank. She slowly looked around and nodded. “I see the weapons you describe. Let’s grab them and as much ammo casings as we can.”

I hopped off the boat and followed Zakiya with my IF-12 floating at the ready, but stopped when I remembered that it was unloaded. Quickly, I turned around and lifted my saddlebags with magic. As I tightened them down I looked inside one and brought out five rounds, which I loaded into the rifle.

Zakiya was already looking at the 20mm autocannon mount and was mumbling to herself. I walked over and hopped onto the deck. Then wished I had a knife. I looked at Zakiya and whined. “Do you have a knife so I can cut these vines?”

She lowered her head and came up with a knife in her teeth. Then flicked her head in my direction and let the knife go. I took a few steps back as the blade embedded itself in fiberglass near me.

*** ***

As the noisy steam engine propelled us back the way we had come, I looked at Zakiya from the boat controls. She was sitting over a pile of parts that were once two 20mm autocannons. The casings we had picked up amounted to almost a hundred 20mm and three hundred .50 calibre casings that were still mostly usable, if a bit rusty. The zebra was cleaning the autocannons as best she could in preparation for mounting them to the boat.

“So, how much farther do we have to travel?” I asked as I looked up at the orange misty fog above us that signaled a bright sunrise was coming. Already I could feel the heat starting in on us and began sweating a little. Luckily I wore nothing beyond the bandages. When I received no response from the zebra I shouted, “Zakiya!”

She started in surprise and looked over in my direction as a couple parts fell to the ground. “What is it? I am very busy and do not have time for idle chatter.”

“How much farther do we have to go before we reach the town?” I asked again and adjusted the boat a little to keep us in the center of the wide river.

“Um…” Zakiya pulled a pocket watch from her bags and looked at it for a few seconds. I noted that it was very ornate in design and looked old, yet well taken care of. “Our travel to the boats delayed us by about twelve hours or more, so like another few days until we reach the coast.” She shrugged. “We will hit the canyon tonight unless we stop and take a break.”

“Why would you want to take a break?” I asked with a tilt of my head.

The zebra stretched and yawned loudly. “Because I have not had much sleep. Unless you wish to take us there while I work on this autocannon before I pass out?”

I nodded slowly and started watching the morning fog around us while the boat took us along. There wasn’t much to do but observe what was going on.

*** ***

Zakyia sat up and yawned while stretching before she curled up, and hugged the autocannon again. The zebra had fallen asleep while working on the weapon. I had no idea what she was doing to it, but it seemed to be giving her many problems. However, that did not bother me because I was not planning on keeping a rusty weapon. What was bothering me was the fact that the boat we were on looked in poor shape, yet it ran perfectly fine. If a bit noisy and needed a kick now and then.

I slowly glanced around with my one eye and noted the mist was burning off thanks to the sun, but that just made the heat worse. Zakiya did not know why the island was acting like that and neither did I, but I figured it had to do with the plants that I had let out. Which was bad, because that meant I messed up the island really bad if ponies were fleeing from it. Then again, the constant cloud layer could have meant the island never really got too warm like it was now that the constant clouds were gone. But it could have just been my ramblings thinking that.

After a while of adjusting the boat, I glanced down at my flank and pulled the bandage back a little to get a look at it. The missing chunk was still missing, but it was not as big as it was. There was a strange paste plastered around all of it that had dried and flaked off a bit, even some of the paste was on my muzzle. I knew this because I could feel the dried muck underneath the bandages. What it was, I had no idea, but the smell was akin to wet plants.

As I let the bandage go I looked around at the mist again because it felt like a pony was watching us just out of vision range. It was unnerving and a tad bit creepy due to that dream I had where Sister was walking through the jungle. However I knew it could not be her due to the fact that Sister was dead and it was just a dream. But a pony does not simply forget such an event as quickly as a day.

Sister would also not want me to be a trainwreck of a pony that constantly cried over her loss. She was dead, I watched her die, and there was nothing I could do to change it unless… I could travel in time.

Then it hit me like a bag of bricks and a light bulb popped on. I once remembered a story of a unicorn that traveled back in time to warn herself. While the details are fuzzy to me, the fact that a pony traveled through time still exists. This fact caused me to smile despite me not knowing where exactly the book was. But, deep down, I knew there was only one place it could be; Canterlot. Because a spell such as that one could only be locked away in one of Canterlot’s restricted section. I did not expect the trek to be easy, but I remembered the Goddess had sent alicorns there to look for the Black Book. With their help I could get inside the restricted section of the archives and find the book. Except… we never did hear back from them. But still! They were there and that is what matters.

But the main question on my mind was how to get there after I killed Eclipse. She was out at sea on a large ship I could steal, yet I could not get to it without help.

Help like that would only come from a friend… a friend that I did not have. Nearly everypony I had come across hated me for one reason or another, or they stole my trust.

Slowly, my gaze lowered and I locked on the sleeping Zakiya. A zebra mare that had lost a pony she cared about, similar to how I lost a pony I cared about. I would need to find Axe, or Wraith, and Sienna again. Zakiya saw me as a thief, but I think I was starting to regain her trust again.

A yawn escaped the zebra as she rolled onto her back and opened her eyes that did not glow. “I see it is almost noon,” she said quietly. “Good, so I’ve slept for a few hours.”

“It seems so. What are you doing with that weapon?” I asked quietly incase she had a hangover.

Zakiya pulled out a bottle of rum from her cloak and took a long draw, then let out a gasp as she wiped her mouth with her foreleg. “I am making one from two, but both barrels were heat warped. This one,” she pointed at the barrel next to her hind leg. “Is the one with the least warpage and can be cut down, thus preventing the round from hitting the warp and either shattering, or flying off in a random direction.”

“Wouldn’t that reduce its accuracy?” I tilted my head some. “Since the barrel is not the same length? They designed it that long for a reason…”

“It would decrease the accuracy,” Zakiya nodded. “But I figure if we take the best casings and fill them with blackpowder it wouldn’t matter as they don’t have the same punch. I will start designing a magazine for it instead of the belt it had.”

I blinked in confusion and tilted my head the other way. “But… that weapon wasn’t designed for a magazine.”

“I know,” Zakiya nodded. “I will have to rebuild the frame and make up a magazine, but we will need to know how big of a bullet to make before we can do any of that. I don’t suppose you know where there is a few intact twenty millimeter rounds, do you?”

“No,” I slowly shook my head. “I do not. But… Ripper might. She once claimed to have enough ammo for her saddle and it is a twenty millimeter gatling gun.”

“Hm…” Zakiya looked down at her bottled before taking another swig of it. “We should find her then.”

“I am also looking for her, but I have a question. Zakiya… are we… friends...?” I tilted my head a little.

She looked at me and drank some more from her bottle. “I do not know. You stole my armor and left me on the surface. But I shot you and helped heal you. Perhaps our relationship is acquaintances for now.”

I nodded and shut my eyes as I sighed deeply. “That is sufficient for now. We will go to this town you spoke of, do what you need to do, then find a way to get to Eclipse.”

"Perhaps you can get help from the Enclave?" Zakiya asked before taking another swig of rum. She set the bottle down and began nibbling on what looked like a block of cheese.

"Maybe," I shrugged and adjusted the steering lever a little to keep us centered in the river. "But they are on another island."

"And you're on a boat," the zebra tapped the deck with a hoof, then nibbled on the cheese again.

"But they might not recognize me. I look different," I pointed a hoof at the bandage around my eye and muzzle.

Zakiya pushed all of the weapon parts away and stood up, stretching her hind legs out one at a time. "You are the only green alicorn on Oakwood. There is no mistaking who you are."

I lifted my Pipbuck leg and looked at my forest green coat for a while. "I... was not born like this... I was once a pony like you, but a crystal unicorn. My coat sparkled in the light and I had a coltfriend. I was old enough to be a grandmother when I joined Unity."

"Were you?" the zebra tilted her head some. I shook my head, causing Zakiya to tilt her head the other way. "Hm..."

The boat bounced a little on the waves and threw us slightly off course, but I easily fixed it. "I tried for many years to have a foal, but none of my efforts proved fruitful." I sighed deeply and shut my eyes as I took in the thick humid air. "Sometimes I wonder if I should not have accepted the offer to become an alicorn."

"Why did you?" Zakiya sat down and scratched her ear with a hind hoof, which I thought was oddly amusing.

"I did not want to die of radiation poisoning, because I had been sick for many years from it. Unity gave me the option to get out of it as it were. But..."

"You might have become a ghoul."

"Eh..." I shook my head. "That seems worse than death. You're trapped in a rotted body that does not die and you run the risk of going feral."

"When you put it like that, I see your point."

I looked out at the fog as it finally lifted and reveal a lush jungle around us. "Being a mindless drone for nearly two hundred years was probably worse than being a ghoul. I would have still been myself for however long. I remember doing things in Unity and not wanting to do them, but I had to. I could not say no without being punished. Zakiya, I..." I looked at her with ny ears back. "I'm sorry for the way we ponies treated zebras during the war."

She looked over at me and tilted her head. "Why should you be sorry? That was so long ago it does not matter anymore."

"But it does to me... I can recall everything I did except for a large gap. We ponies were not nice to you zebra. You're ponies too, just... striped."

"Are you saying you were there during the war?"

I nodded slowly, "yes, I was. I can tell you a little about it to pass the time."

"Hm..." Zakiya sat down and scratched her chin, then shook her head slowly. “I have a feeling that you might make me angry with the stories.”

I slowly looked out over the side of the boat. “How about one that does not involve the zebra-pony war? One that was… before it for me…”

“I thought you did not remember before?” Zakiya tilted her head some. “At least, this is what you have told me.”

“I don’t remember a lot of it, but this memory could only come from just after I lost my memories.”

“Why’s that?” she tilted her head the other way. “What makes your so certain?”

“Because it was when I was told who I was and that I had ‘been in a horrible accident’.”

“What do you mean?”

As I adjusted the direction of the boat, I shrugged a little. “That was what I was told. I could tell you, but you might think it was boring.”

“But you have me intrigued. Please, tell it.”

“Fine,” I sighed before taking a deep breath and nodding.

***===***===***

I awoke slowly to the noisy beep of a heart rate monitor and the feeling that I was being observed by somepony or ponies. My eyes fluttered open, revealing me to be inside a small medical room with grey walls and the blinds were open, which was letting in the bright sunlight.

“She’s awake!” a pony exclaimed in a soft voice that made me smile. Movement near my head drew my attention towards a pony wearing a nurse uniform that I had never seen before. But it was the direction of the voice, so I assumed it was her.

“Good, maybe she can tell us what happened,” another female voice said from behind me. Her voice sounded a tad bit too impatient for my tastes.

The nurse spread a set of wings and hovered over before landing with a nod. “Yes, Lilium, do-”

“Lilium?” I tilted my head as I tried to sit up as slow as I could.

The pegasus quickly placed a hoof on me to stabilize my wobbling before it began. “Oh Lilium you shouldn’t move so quickly.”

I rolled my eyes and slowly shook my head. “I don’t know why you keep calling me that. It’s not my name!”

“What is your name?” the nurse asked as she hovered backwards and landed again. “Do you remember what happened?” She tilted her head some and I noticed a pair of saddlebags on her side.

I looked down at the my four crystal hooves on the bed as I attempted to recall anything, but fell short of doing so. It was all a blur or completely blank. “I…” My ears slowly folded back. “I can’t recall it…” Slowly, I brought my hooves up to cover my ears as I shut my eyes. “I know I should know my name, but I just… argh! Why is it blank?!”

The nurse set a hoof on my back as the other pony quietly said. “Lilium, there was an accident. Some ponies were killed and yet, you survived. But..."

"I don't know what happened..." My ears drooped to the side of my face as I set my hooves down.

"Do... do you recognize these ponies?" The nurse asked as she started setting some pictures down on the bed in front of me.

I picked one up in magic and tilted my head. There was a unicorn mare holding hooves with a handsome crystal stallion outside of a fancy restaurant. They looked happy and in love.

As I shook my head I set the picture down. "No, sorry."

The nurse pushed another picture over and looked into my eyes. "They're your parents."

“Huh?” I picked up the other picture in my magic and tilted my head. It showed a tan crystal unicorn filly and the two other ponies who were now slightly older. The filly, I recognized to be me, was sitting on the stallion's back with a white hat on her head.

"Dad..." I set my hoof on the picture and tilted my head the other way. "Where are they?"

"In a waiting room. I'll bring them in," the second voice said as I looked over at her and did not catch much of a glimpse beyond an orange colored tail.

The nurse set their hoof on my side and drew my attention to her. "Lilium, you took a big bump to your head." I slowly felt the side of my head with a hoof and winced in pain. The nurse nodded. "Anything you can tell us would be helpful."

"Um..." I looked down at the pictures again and sifted through them. Then stopped and tapped one that showed a light blue unicorn next to me. "I recognize this pony. No name but he seems familiar."

"That is Ink Well," she nodded. "Your friend according to your parents."

"Ink Well..." My eyes narrowed in thought as I looked at the picture of the two of us. Yet, I still drew a blank on our relationship or even my parents names. There was a massive memory gap that needed to be filled."

The door noisily opening again drew my attention to it as the mare returned with my parents. My unicorn mother rushed over to hug me tightly. Her grip nearly cut off my breathing and it felt like she was trying to break my ribs.

"Mom!" I returned the hug as I gasped for air. She nuzzled the good side of my face and I returned the nuzzle with one of my own. "What is going on?"

Mother kissed me on the cheek and let go of the hug. I sighed in relief as the pain went away and took a few deep breaths. "You... were involved in a sky wagon crash a few months ago." her ears folded back slowly as her eyes watered. "And... And you were in a coma. They said... that you might never wake up."

"Sky wagon?" I tilted my head a little as I tried to remember. Mother and Father nodded as the light blue unicorn Ink Well walked in. However, I ignored him and concentrated on trying to remember what happened. Eventually I nodded slowly. "Yes... I... I remember now..." I shut my eyes and continued quietly. "I was on my way to work when the thing making the sky wagon fly exploded. There... was nothing we could do but hold on to something and hope the pegasus set us down."

"I'm afraid the result wasn't as simple. The wagon hit a building on the way down and killed the pegasus pulling it. You were thrown onto the rooftop and hit your head pretty hard. You were lucky."

Ink Well walked over and hugged me tightly, but not as tight as my mother did. I hugged the stallion back and shut my eyes.

***===***===***

As I finished telling the memory to Zakiya, I cleared a few tears from my eyes. "And that is the earliest memory I have."

"Hm..." she sat down in thought. "It seems suspicious to me. That you only remembered these events after they told you them."

I shrugged as I adjusted the boat's direction again. "The doctors called it amnesia caused by a traumatic event. But why would it take everything up to that point and not the crash? This is what has caused me to think my memories were erased and the crash was a made up story."

"Do you think your parents and that stallion Ink Well were made up as well?"

I glared a little at Zakiya. "That is not funny. They helped me recover."

"It was not meant to be a joke. Just an observation," she picked up the weapon parts and started trying to put them back together. "What was your employment?"

"Huh?" I scratched my ear and tilted my head. "What was that?"

"Your employment. You said you were on your way to work when the sky wagon crashed, so what did you do for caps?"

I placed a hoof to my chest and sat up proudly, "I was a front-line cook for a four star restaurant."

----------

Shell Shock: 50% to next level.

Author's Notes:

Here's my gift for Hearth's Warming Eve. :)