FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Three

Dear Princess Celestia, Are We Our Mistakes?

"Think I'll write about how bein' a good family isn't about bein' perfect as much as it is about bein' able to get through the rough patches together. About bein' able to forgive each other for mistakes."

Music wasn't really my thing. I'd never been much of a fan and found it usually a waste of otherwise resourceful time. I much preferred the sounds that came from my own earbloom giving me educational information. But I wasn't ignorant, I could see why others took to music in the way they did. The harmonies, the emotive interface of mind and music could be intellectually exciting; even if it wasn't something I could personally let myself take pleasure in. It was a mark of intelligence to be able to understand another's point of view without sharing it yourself. So I did my best to be open-minded and understand that not everypony was going to enjoy soaking up information as much as I did, I'd personally found many a stupid pony whom I was quite sure couldn't soak up any information at all. That didn't change the fact that I personally found music to be irritating.

My ears pricked up in the night to the sounds outside of my tent. My tent was one of the old Slaver's. The inside was dirt flooring with a shitty mattress and a basic tarp thrown up to shelter me from the elements. The music that met my ears and disturbed my sleep was from a radio. I'd heard the song before. It was one from Sapphire Shores', played on DJ Pon3's station. The music was coming from one of the Slavers radio's and was accompanied by foalish giggles. I poked my head out of my tent curiously and watched as Vanilla Milkshake, standing reared on her hind legs and holding Sonnet Bloom up in the same fashion, danced around the fire with the filly to the music. I sighed to myself and was about to dismiss the scene but my eyes were naturally drawn to the filly's face. I watched her smile with a light in her eyes that I had yet to see when she was in my company. It was like the music and dancing had entranced her and helped her forget all that had happened in the last two days. I watched as Vanilla picked the filly up, cuddled her to her breast and span around with her, giggling as she did so. It was like watching a mother and child.

My thoughts awoke something unbidden and I heard the faint cry of a child in my head. The child's screams echoed in my mind as I watched Sonnet laugh and play in the comforting embrace of the blue mare.

I turned away from the scene. It was painful for me to see. Because it was something that wasn't meant for me. I closed my eyes tight, forcing myself to not think about family or parentage, or anything on that subject at all. It wasn't for me.

It wasn't for me.

It wasn't for me.

The chant helped me sleep.

*** *** ***

Fatherhood. It wasn't for me. Pretty sure I've said this.

I'm not gonna sit here lamenting my own past and tell you about the issues of my own parentage and who my father was. No, that's a story for a different day and a different time. Suffice to say his actions made it clear where I stood if I ever had a kid and it wasn't something I was probably either capable of or really should be if I could. Some ponies just aren't meant to be parents. So why I found myself basically being father to a filly I didn't even want around, I do not know.

Sonnet Bloom sat across from me. We were staring at each other with some meat sat between us on a somewhat clean plate. "Eat it." I repeated for the fifth time in as many minutes. Her brown eyes bore into my own, filled with defiance. We were inside one of the tents; she'd been refusing to leave it so far for obvious reasons. Her agoraphobia I could handle, but her pickiness with food...her stubbornness was starting to irk me something fierce. "Eat it." I repeated for the sixth time. She did nothing. Confound this stubborn bitch of a filly! "Listen!" I barked. "Out here it's whatever food you can get or you don't eat at all. Do you want to starve to death?!" She didn't reply.

"Tome." A voice spoke beside me. I turned to look into the red eyes of Vanilla Milkshake. Despite vibrant colours not usually being something I cared for in a mare, I found her actually quite attractive. "Let me take care of it." She pulled out a can of peaches.

"You can't just give in to her. She needs to learn to eat whatever she can to survive." I mean seriously, this was basic parenting 101, right? Wasn't it? Make them do what's good for them even if they don't like it?

She gave me a hard stare. "I've met plenty a pony fresh out of Stables that survive just fine as vegetarians. She'll eat it when she's ready, or not at all." I looked her over and saw the barest slight marks on her that told of scars underneath her coat, but they were pimpled and peppered. Considering her cutie-mark was an explosion, I could safely deduce that such scars were probably fletchett wounds. She'd been sprayed with some pretty bad shrapnel in the past.

"Since when were you her mother?" I was being a bit petulant I know, but something about the mare's attitude seemed too righteous for it not to bother me.

"Since when were you her father?" She bit back.

"Since I own her."

Silence. It was quite a comforting sound when you got used to it, especially between two ponies learning where they stood with each other. With this mare I stood exactly where I wanted to, anywhere but on her side. I was thankful we'd been freed but what can I say, I wasn't a fan of heroes.

"You don't own her."

Her voice was strangely soft when she said it. She turned away and that's when I saw it, the slight ring around her neck where the fur looked to have grown a little different. A permanent scar on her coat. "The collar says I do." A slight smile touched my mouth as I felt the anchor sway. The 'anchor' is a conversational expression in my own head. It's the flow of the conversation and who holds the points to stand above the other. Conversations were a game, talking was a point of skill, and the ability to find the right way to say the right things entirely depending on the best results. Now the anchor was in my favour.

She shot me a look and I saw the slightest tremble through her. This mare was probably stronger than me, more experienced than me, had seen more shit than me, but the way I said my words, and the way I held myself right then and there...made her feel weak. "You're trying to save her." She said a little too quickly. "You said so yourself. That you'd let her go when you felt it safe to." She seemed to be almost grasping at straws.

"All of that is true." I chuckled, taking a step forward. She stepped back. More anchor for me. "But I saved her because Stranger made me. I save her now because I'm invested in saving her and the collar keeps her in line. Yeah, I'll let her go but until I remove that collar she is mine to do with and treat how I see fit." I saw the flash of pain that passed through her features. Oh I so loved hitting the sweet spots. "You mistake my intentions and actions for a personality trait rather than a simple decision based on other factors. You think that because I am saving her, that I am good, that my way of saving her is simply misguided and that me hanging around with an old Wasteland hero puts me on the same side as all of you. But that's not so." I needed to phrase this next part very carefully now. "I saved her to avoid shit from a friend. I have no idea why said friend follows me around but he has for years. When I make a promise or commit to an action I complete it regardless of the cost, saving the filly just happens to fall under that category, and I put the collar on her not because I'm misguided, but because I couldn't be shitted to deal with a whiny stubborn filly that would have made things infinitely more difficult for me if I hadn't." I leaned away from her and just chuckled. "I'm not a hero. So get that out of your head."

"You done?" Did her stance just change?

I barely saw her hoof before I felt it. My head snapped back, there was even a click in my neck as I collapsed to the floor. She could punch. "Ouch." I groaned, my jaw and cheek aching. I glanced up at her, her eyes were ever so slightly shiny, probably from my words, but otherwise her stance was calm and collected.

Her brow narrowed. "You're a talker. You read people; you know where to hit with words. Well I know where to hit with hooves. I was a slave. You've probably guessed that. I'm not ashamed of my past, Tome, I don't hide from it, but I do make sure that nopony else goes through what I did." I didn't reply, I just watched her. It was interesting when I saw the different sides to different ponies. In her I saw strength. "You're riling me, trying to gain leverage, probably for your own sick amusement, talking of slavery to get me to choke up." Oooh, smart. "If you ever try this again, I will personally geld you." Ouch, did she really have to go with the gelding?

Vanilla turned and walked from the tent as I pulled myself to my hooves. Sonnet was staring at me as I wiped my mouth. I wasn't bleeding but I was going to bruise. "You can have the peaches; I don't care if you eat them before or after." I told the filly without looking at her. "But you're eating the meat too. If you haven't eaten it by the time I come back, I'm shoving it down your throat." I turned and walked out of the tent, leaving the teary eyed filly to her lonesome. She was such a smart filly sometimes. There was obviously intelligence behind those eyes, far more than her age might otherwise indicate, but sometimes she did things that really reminded me that she was just a child. Crying was one of them. Crying was pointless in the Wasteland. If you shed tears for everything that you lost, then you'd never stop crying at all. Better to just move on and not care. At least then you could survive.

I stepped away from the tented areas and walked around the encampment. The others were gathered around a fire in the centre, all except Buckshot himself. I glanced away from them, my eyes catching onto a figure that had camped himself out of the encampment itself. The lime green hide of Lucky met my gaze. I'd almost forgotten about him. "He's been there since yesterday." A deep voice said beside me. I turned to look at Buckshot who had sat down to my right. His grey eyes fixed upon the distance, staring at Lucky. "He's refused to eat our food, and refused to come near us. He's refused to even talk. What's his story?"

I looked from him to Lucky and sighed. "Lucky's a loner, he doesn't like being around other ponies."

"Then why is he with you?"

I grumbled incoherently at the question. "I don't know. He says he's here for the filly, to protect her." I scoffed.

"You don't believe him?" Buckshot asked quizzically.

"He's not the 'stick-around' type." I said, turning away bitterly.

"He and you have a history then." It wasn't a question. Buckshot sat there staring at the distant miserable stallion long enough for me to be curious what he was thinking. "Why does he seem perpetually depressed? He didn't even thank us for the rescue."

"Don't expect him too. He'd probably have got out anyway without your help." I shrugged, not bothering to look at Lucky anymore. I got tired of seeing the git mope all the time. "As for why he's depressed, things don't go well around him."

Buckshot eyed me curiously. "You say he'd have probably gotten out, that makes him sound lucky like his name suggests, but you also say things don't go well around him. Quite the contradictory words wouldn't you say?" He knew I wasn't telling him everything, but hey, fuck him; we were strangers to each other. It took more than a hero's reputation to make me an open book.

"I said he'd have gotten out. He's the one that's lucky, everyone else around him usually not so much." I turned from him and began heading back towards the fire and the others. I wanted some food. I sat down at the fire and reached over. Someone had skewered a large rat for the meal tonight. I made a mental note to ask who had and thank them for that. Rat was good eatin'. I helped myself to some of the meat, enjoying the licking warm flames of the fire in front of me. To my right, on my opposite side sat a small huddled bundle with eyes, I glanced at the little filly of the Buckshot group and gave her a light smile. She was grey with a blue two toned mane and completely covered in clothing that was two times her size. "Greetings." I offered, giving her my winning smile. Children were a difficulty for me. I could charm almost any stallion or mare but put me with a kid and it was like they had a sixth sense about me. Like they knew I wasn't their friend.

"She don't talk." I looked upwards. Perched on one of the nearby boxcars, chewing on his own leg of rat was the Dashite, Dusty Feathers. "We been tryin'." He continued. "She listens, she understands, but she don't talk."

"Huh." I eyed the filly curiously as I pondered the information, shuffling a little further away from the pegasus now I was aware of his presence. "Maybe she can't?" I offered, thinking that a mute filly was probably the best explanation.

"Nah, she can. She just don't." The Dashite glanced to the filly for a moment before going back to his food. His eyes turned to me after a bite and decided to clarify at my challenging expression. "She talks in her sleep." Interesting.

I took a nice bite of the rat and tried to relax. I was sat there for less than ten minutes before I heard hooves come up behind me. I went to take another bite of my food before someone grabbed me. I soon found myself pinned against a nearby pileup of old boxcars with Dusty watching curiously from above. The hooves that gripped me were a dark grey and they held me firmly. Brown eyes bore into me, seething with anger. "Hey." The grey unicorn spat through gritted teeth. "I hear you been saying shit to Vanilla?"

I coughed against his grip for a moment, the slam having knocked the wind from me. "Yeah, she was pissing me off, butting into my business with ma filly." I answered.

His hoof struck me hard. Now I was bleeding. My lip split and the coppery taste filled my mouth. He had a pretty good swing on him for a unicorn. "I don't care what you do or say." He sneered, spittle splashing me as he spoke. Seriously, did they always need to spit? "But you ever bring up her past again; I will fuck your chest with my horn!" He let me loose and I slid down to the ground. I watched him turn away from me and I couldn't stop myself from chuckling. Not my fault, he was a funny guy.

"Making friends with my crew?" Buckshot asked from nearby as he approached the fire.

I glanced up at him, giving him a bloody grin. "That's me, the ponies pony. Life of the party." I let my grin become a smirk as it rolled over my muzzle. I directed the expression at the unicorn. I watched as his horn began to glow a dull blue.

"Move along, Ranger." Buckshot said sternly. Ranger looked like he might refuse at first, but like a good lapdog, the glow died and he turned away, skulking off. He headed off to a tent on the far side, which was probably where Vanilla had gone after our 'talk'. Wow...I really had done a good job on her if everypony was coming to her aid all gallant-like. "And Tome?" I turned back to the large red stallion as he spoke. I wore a smile before it was wiped from my mouth by a swift kick that sent me onto my back. Was this 'Hit Tome' day? Seriously, I was getting my ass kicked by friendlies more than I usually do enemies. I looked up at his calm face as his shadow hovered over me. "Don't go near Vanilla again." I coughed a spit of blood onto the ground and nodded. Maybe these weren't the best ponies to mess with; I got the feeling my affiliation with Stranger was a protection that was wearing mightily thin...that and my jaw was REALLY starting to hurt.

I pulled myself from the ground. I dug into my saddlebags for a bottle of water to clean my mouth out when I heard something approaching from outside the camp. Wiping my mouth, I pulled myself from the ground and headed to the end of the small encampment. Behind a couple of piled up boxcars that had been used as a basic wall around the area I saw a traders Brahmin approaching with a pony stepping up beside it. But they weren't alone. At least eleven others were with them, each dragging one or two slaves of their own. A Slaver group that was probably hoping to trade with the ones that was supposed to be camping here. The ones Buckshot's Gang had killed.

"Hey." One of them called out after seeing my head poke above the ruins. "You open for trading today?" He asked with a wide grin. He had a light yellow coat and a black mane. His eyes were jaundice, probably from liver damage. If the canteen near on his belt was anything to go by, I assumed it was alcohol addiction.

"Tome." Buckshot called as he approached. "What is it?"

"More Slavers. Let me handle them." I turned away and began to step out into the open.

"Let's just take them out." An excitable young voice said behind Buckshot. I turned to see Bobby Pin grinning eagerly. "We can take them."

"There's too many. We don't have to take them." I informed him. Celestia, you'd think the boy had no experience in the Wasteland with that attitude. "I can handle it."

"Hey! What's going on in there?!" The slaver called out. I stepped out quickly and approached.

"Hey, sorry, was conferring with the big guy inside." I informed, giving him an apologetic smile. "Look, we recently got hit. We fought them off and protected the merch, but now there are fewer of us and almost too many slaves. We're full to capacity."

The stallion looked me up and down before sighing. "Well that sucks, I'd take some off your hooves but we don't have the caps yet." He grumbled. "Okay, we'll try the next place. See ya." Hurray for civil discourse amongst slaving bastards. They began to trot away and I was glad to see the back of them.

"We're letting them go?" Mares, always kicking up a fuss. "They have slaves with them, we should be helping them! That's kinda what we do, isn't it?" I turned to watch Vanilla trying to push past Buckshot as she protested the situation; she was looking at each of them in turn with a somewhat disappointed and offended expression.

I slipped over to her, weary eyes watching me as I addressed her, probably ready to hit me again if I spoke too much out of turn. "There are a lot more of them than there are of us. And the more attention we draw to our presence here, the sooner somepony will realise something is wrong. We have foals here; I thought you cared about that?" She glared at me and her mouth became a thin line as she contained any retort she wished to offer me.

"Hey, we changed our mind." Everything went still. "We will take some of the merch off your hooves." The Slaver's voice made me turn and look at him as he spoke. "We can make a tidy profit if we double back and head to Fillydelphia." The stallion looked happy with the idea; his yellowed eyes ran between us before they moved past to the pile of bodies stacked up nearby. "Wow, you really did get-" He stopped, looking from the bodies, to us, and then to Buckshot. I was suddenly acutely aware none of us looked even slightly like Slavers. He seemed to conclude the same thing. "You're not Slavers." He seemed calm at the knowledge, probably in shock and not sure how to process the situation. But that particular block in his brain quickly dissolved. He stepped back and I watched him draw in a breath to shout to his friends.

BANG! My bullet splattered his brains against the makeshift wall beside us. The sound of approaching hooves reached my ears and I pushed everyone back into the camp. "Weapons!" I had no idea why I was barking orders but they obeyed regardless, Vanilla and Ranger stepping up beside me, the former pulling out a pistol, the latter pulling out a rifle. Dusty flew to the edge of the wall, his long range rifle aiming down and firing off a few rounds as shouts from outside met our ears.

"There's a lot of 'em, Buck!" He yelled out.

"Watch yourself, Dusty!" Buckshot boomed beside me. The words came too late. Dusty let out a yell and fell from the top of the wall, his wing splattered with blood from one of their lucky shots. "Shit." Buckshot turned to me. "Your friends gonna help?"

"I will, Stranger should, no clue about Lucky." Although with Lucky's position outside of the camp I wouldn't be surprised if they stumbled across him soon. Not that it'd matter; they wouldn't be able to kill him.

"Who the fuck are you assholes?!" Somepony shouted from outside.

"We're the Buckshot Gang!" The large red stallion roared beside me as a loud crack sounded from the cock of his massive shotgun. I watched as he approached the gates. "And I say leave now, or you'll not get another chance."

A pony suddenly slipped into view, aimed a rifle and fired with pretty good aim. The bullet slammed into Buckshot's chest, pinging off his armour and puffing up dirt from the ground a few feet away in ricochet. The slavers ears drooped. He quickly raised the gun again but Buckshot was faster. His gun cracked like thunder as a swarm of bullets tore through the slavers body, separating limbs and head from his torso. Buckshot ducked around the side out of cover as more Slavers burst into view, firing wildly. We had the advantage, we had them bottlenecked. The only way they could get us was by coming through the entrance which we had tightly locked down within our sights. Unless they found the back way-BANG!

A bullet tore through my hind leg. I screamed as pain sliced through me. My scream turned into a grunt as I grit my teeth, baring the pain. I turned to where the shot had come from, watching as Slavers began to pour in through the other side of the encampment. They had us locked from both sides now. In less than two minutes since the first shot, our advantage had just become our grave. I ducked behind whatever cover I could find; shooting over it when given their reloading gave me the option. I was a good shot, but not a great one. That was Strangers department. I took aim and fired at a stallion that had slipped behind some cover. My bullets pinged off the metal inches from him. His aim however seemed superior to my own. Pain flashed through my shoulder as a bullet lodged itself deep. I gasped and ducked down low. I glanced up and was about to take aim again, only for the slavers head to explode and paint the ground a new shade of red.

Stranger walked into the field, his rifle cocking before he aimed again and fired. Another down. He cocked again, aimed and fired. There goes a third. A bullet splattered into his chest, staining his bandages from the wound, but Stranger barely seemed to notice it as he sent his own bullet through the shooters chest. A mare managed to get behind him. I raised my gun and took aim, only for the mare to be wrapped up in a light purple glow; much to her surprise, she was suddenly flung back and smashed against a wall the force bringing blood from her lungs as ribs cracked. Stranger turned to her, raised his rifle to her head and splattered her brains across the wall in a cold fashion.

I was about to turn around to make sure I wasn't about to get shot in the back when I noticed near the fire of the encampment, the Buckshot Gang's filly was backing away from a Slaver that had managed to get around our defence. The stallion launched for the filly who squealed in response. The stallion's side exploded from my shot with his insides splattering the floor as he hit the ground. The filly turned to me with wide eyes. I was about to ask if she was alright when my mind snapped to thoughts of Sonnet. In a moment of panic, I suddenly darted from my cover, my injured leg almost giving way as I forced myself to move. I slipped past the Buckshot filly, her eyes watching me as I ran by, and down to the tents. I saw three Slavers. Two were watching the third as he tried to coax the Sonnet from her tent.

"Come here honey." He smirked with an avaricious grin spreading across his muzzle. I wiped it from his face with a bullet through his cheek, my pistol kicking in my teeth from recoil. The others turned to me, I shot one through the throat and jumped at the one I'd already shot through the cheek, my left hoof lashed down hard and connected with what remained of his mouth, tearing the jaw from his face from the force of the blow. I heard a click behind me and turned to look down the barrel of a shotgun, the third and final pony biting down on the trigger. His weapon suddenly clattered to the ground as he cried out in pain. I took the opportunity to shove my pistol into his mouth and blow out the back of his head. His corpse fell to the floor.

I saw Sonnet behind him, shaking and holding a bloody rock in her teeth. I looked at the slaver and saw what she'd hit -or 'crushed' as the case may be- and suddenly felt very sorry for the stallion. Behind me, the other slavers had used this moment to storm in from the front entrance. I turned, without any cover to shield me from their bullets I expected this to not go to well for me. I did my best to stand between them and Sonnet, to shield her in some way, but as I gripped my gun tightly in my mouth and took aim the ground suddenly exploded at the entrance. Bullets and shots rained down from above that peppered the ground with explosive force, splattering the slavers. Their bodies erupted in holes, limbs were severed, and some erupted into chunks from the constant barrage.

It all ended quickly and silence descended around them as the final slaver fell. My eyes travelled skyward, searching for our saviour, and the silhouette of a pegasus flew by for a moment before it descended into the camp. Stranger's gun immediately cocked and aimed. The moment I saw who it was, I took his lead, my pistol aiming for the pegasus's head.

"Well that's a nice welcome." The pegasus chuckled, his voice partially mechanical and deep in his black armour. "You gonna shoot me after I saved you?" To be honest, I was considering it. His wings folded in and his armour clicked shut, disguising their presence entirely. "Or are you going to shoot me through the hoof again?" His yellow bug like eyes looked from me to Stranger.

There was a moment of silence and pause as everyone took a breath. Our guns were still held at the ready and the Buckshot Gang watched us curiously. Why would this asshole continue to follow us? The only thing I could think of is that he still wanted to filly to bring back to Steam Bolt, but then why did he just take out the Slavers?

"I told you that if you followed us we'd kill you." I said slowly, pronunciation my words carefully.

"Are you going to introduce us, Tome?" Buckshot asked. He was bleeding from a flesh wound on his neck, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. Ranger was supporting Dusty Feathers as the pegasus leaned against his unicorn friend as they approached. "That's some interesting armour you've got there." Buckshot remarked. I could see the Enclave pegasus's gaze slip to each of them. He was surrounded on all sides. Vanilla, Buckshot, Ranger, Dusty, myself and Stranger; the latter two sporting guns aimed at his head. To be fair, I doubted my pistol would get through his armour, but I knew Stranger's rifle would.

"Do I not even get a 'thank you'?" Enclave-boy asked bitterly.

"I dunno, does he, Tome?" Buckshot asked, turning to me.

"You're gonna accept his account of me?" The pegasus seemed to chuckle. "He's a slaver." I was about to protest being called that, but I supposed that technically, it was an accurate title. Not that I enjoyed it.

"I will." Buckshot's answer was a surprising one. "Tome Tale has proven he's trustworthy. He's proven himself a disreputable pony as well and if Stranger didn't vouch for him, I might have killed him by now..." I met Buckshot's gaze and, well, what can I say, I grinned. Probably not the best reaction to such a statement, but hey, I like pissing ponies off. Ponies far and wide always underestimated the sheer irksome cocky nature of a good grin at the right moment. "But he has earned trust. So yes, good buck, I will." He turned to me expectantly. His expression demanded my explanation be good.

"Stallion." I corrected him habitually. I holstered my weapon so I could talk easier without its grip slurring my speech, trusting that Stranger would put the pegasus down if anything went awry. "And he's Enclave."

Buckshot's brow rose. "I've never seen Enclave armour like that."

"Me neither till I saw it on him and his friends. They work for Steam Bolt." I informed. Now there were more guns on him. I made a note that it was Vanilla that pulled her's out before anyone else even had the chance. Such tells that mare had. "He was part of a group that cleared out a Stable at Neighagra Falls. That's where I acquired the filly, and he's who I'm protecting the filly from."

"Now listen here-UGH!" The armour-clad pegasus's head snapped to the side from a blow to the head. Ranger had taken him from behind. The pegasus fell to the ground limp and unconscious.

My brow rose. "Was that necessary?" Ranger didn't answer verbally; he glanced to Vanilla whose gun was still pointed at the unconscious pegasus, the gun shaking in her maws grip. Maybe it was necessary; she looked ready to shoot the pegasus on the spot.

Stranger looked over his rifle, stroking it gently. It was still battered but it was obviously in a working condition now. "Thanks." He said to Ranger before stowing the rifle away and turning back to the camp fire as though we weren't surrounded by slaver corpses and now hosting an enclave pegasus hostage. Nonchalant much?

"Did the Stranger just thank me?" Ranger looked about ready to squee. Ugh, fan boys.

*** *** ***

The pegasus groaned as he woke up. His first instinct was to try moving, only to find he had been bound up with rope, as had his weapons. The two canons on the side of his armour had been tied with rope around his body in such a way that he couldn't move them into any position other than pointing straight up into the air, which wouldn't really be helpful in a fighting situation. He scanned his surroundings, his eyes soon meeting mine. I sat across from him, my rump sat on a large stone. Behind me Stranger had his rifle drawn. It was slightly shinier than before, obviously he'd been polishing it in an effort to make it nice and pretty again. He had the weapon resting in his lap for now, stroking it gently, his single blue eye staring unwaveringly at the bound pegasus. "So here's how this is going to go." I began calmly. "I'm going to ask questions and you will answer them. If you don't, Stranger will put a bullet in you." The pegasus nodded without a word. Cooperation, such a wonderful thing.

"How many people know where we are? How many are tracking us?"

"Just three groups." The stallion answered. He was quite calm and forthcoming so far. I wondered why -well, we did have a gun to his head- but usually there was at least SOME resistance. "Twenty in each group." Oooh, details.

"Are you able to communicate with them to give them your location?" This was an important question, so it was quickly punctuated by the soft click of Strangers gun loading a bullet into the chamber.

"Yes."Shit. "But I won't." What?

I let silence fall for a moment as I studied his posture. Truth and lies could be told in the posture of a pony or in their eyes. As I couldn't see his eyes through his helmet, I had to work with posture. It was more difficult than with others due to the armour he wore but I couldn't detect anything more than submissive honesty. It felt like he was trying to earn my trust. But why, not too long ago this pegasus had tried to kill me. "Why not?"

"I need your help." Ah. Well...shit.

"Help? Why should I help you?" If he honestly thought he could weasel help out of me for caps or something he was going to be sorely mistaken. Also dead, he'd probably be dead. Bullets tended to do that and I was more than happy to put quite a few in him.

"Because my suit is linked to the others." My thoughts paused at the words. "I've disabled my tracking signal so they can't find me via their AEFS, but they can still read my vitals. If I die, they'll know." And then I'd have a squadron of black, powerfully armoured pegasus hunting me down, as well as the whole of Fillydelphia probably. And maybe an Enclave army to back them up. Fuck. "So, you can't afford to kill me." He said in an almost cocky tone. Well _that_was a mistake on his behalf. Only I got to be the smug pony around here.

"Yeah, but how about we just torture you instead." I asked, watching him go stiff. I imagined his eyes widening at the words. "I could feed you healing potions, keep you nice and alive, fully aware as I strip that armour from you, piece by piece, and then your limbs, piece by piece, maybe I'll even geld you." I punctuated my point this time by pulling out the shiv from my collar, the blade glinting in the light.

"No, no! Okay, I wasn't sent here, I saved you, I ran away, I wanted to JOIN YOU!" He all-but screamed the words at me.

I slipped the shiv away. "Join us? Why?" It smelled like a trap.

"I don't want to work for Steam Bolt anymore. I have my reasons. And you both seem like good ponies. You saved that filly." Why was everyone so presumptuous about my motives?

"What's your name?" I asked for the first time. I was getting sick of calling him just 'enclave pegasus' in my head.

"They call me Aero." My laugh caught in my throat and turned into a cough. When I had finally composed myself I cleared my throat and smoothed back my burgundy mane.

"I'm sorry; I asked you your name, not what your dramatic handle from your teen years was." I smirked, glancing at Stranger to see if he found it as funny as I did. He wasn't really reacting, which I found annoying, but then he never reacted. Goddess he was boring at times.

"That_IS_ my name." He protested, seeming to puff up. Though how I could tell his indignation while he was wearing armour I wasn't sure, but I imagined his cheeks and feathers puffing up in firm defiance, which only lead to more giggles on my behalf.

"Alright 'Aero'." I mocked. "I'm going to untie you but those canons of yours stay facing up. They move an inch and you never move again on account of a hole in your head. Capiche?" He nodded. I undid the rope and packed it away in my saddlebag in case it was needed later. "Your helmet, Can you take it off?"

"It retracts. But I'd rather not." He seemed suddenly nervous.

"Do it." I warned. Strangers gun took aim this time, the weapon aimed right at 'Aero's' head. Wow that was a stupid name. Our captive seemed to struggle and hesitate for a moment before he grunted and grumbled to himself incoherently. He turned away slightly and kicked a stone petulantly. Truly a fearsome member of the Grand Pegasus Enclave. I almost snorted.

Aero's helmet gave off a whirring sound before its plates retracted and the helmet slid back from the stallion's muzzle. No...not stallion. COLT!

...

I stared at him. A silence flooding my mind as I drank in what I saw. 'Aero' had a dark grey coat that was almost black, vivid blue eyes and a pure snowy white mane with blue tips. I had no idea if the blue tips were natural or not, but he was a child, so it was entirely possible they were dyed. From what I could tell, Aero was around sixteen years old, maybe seventeen at a push. I felt a sting in my disembodied hoof. "No." My single word was quiet as I turned away and just began walking.

"What?" I heard the pegasus ask in confusion. But I wasn't ready to answer. I was done. I don't deal with children, and I shouldn't have started with the filly. I walked past the tents of the encampment, leaving Stranger with our captive, out of the bridge complex entirely and just continued walking with the full intention of not stopping.

I was staring at the ground. I wasn't doing this. I was going to go back to New Appleloosa, maybe try and square things away with Morab Arts somehow, she could HAVE the damn filly, didn't much care but I was NOT doing this.

"Tome." A soft voice called my name from behind me, and my hooves stopped their trot. I stood there, shaking my head.

"Leave me alone, Lucky." My words sounded flat.

"Where are you going, Tome?"

"Back to New Appleloosa." I replied readily. "I'm done with this."

"What about Sonnet? Are you gonna abandon her?" I stopped and turned, giving him a look that seemed to make him flinch. He had no right to speak to me about abandonment.

"She'll be safe with the Buckshot Gang." I turned away.

"That's bullshit and you know it." Lucky shot back, approaching me with heavy hoofsteps. "You know they are planning on heading right to Fillydelphia. And if they're dragging around that other filly, you can bet they'll drag her there as well."

"Good, her mother might be there. They can help her get her mother after taking out Steam Bolt, getting rid of the bounty on my head for 'stealing' from him. Everypony wins."

He scoffed. "D'you seriously think they'll win?" I had stopped walking by now. We were about a hundred yards from the encampment and I was so tempted to keep moving, but it was like I had hit a wall. Not a physical one, but a mental one. I couldn't take another step. "You're smart, Tome. Very smart. Too smart to think they're gonna be able to take down a Slaver like Steam Bolt. They'll get her killed."

"Why is that my problem?!" I snapped, rounding on him. We were almost nose to nose. He was the same size as me, but his haggard, aged and gaunt features made him seem smaller in comparison. Frail. He was still in good shape and he wasn't technically 'old' yet, but to me he seemed it. Like a weak old man that had almost given up on life. "Why is that my problem, Lucky?" I asked, a little calmer this time. "Why should I care?"

"Because you aren't your father."

I hit him. Luck be damned, whatever gods on high that might exist, by the very stars above, somehow my blow landed and my hoof cracked his head to the side and knocked the bastard to the ground!

"Don't you ever-" I swallowed a lump in my throat and took a deep breath, composing myself. "You don't get to say that." Lucky lifted himself to his hooves, wiping his bleeding mouth. He spat a glob of blood to the side before looking at me.

"I said it because it's true. You aren't him." I barely restrained myself from hitting him again. "You aren't a hero, Tome. I'm not an idiot; I don't expect you to be something you aren't. But you are not the same buck that did that to you. You aren't the same one that wasn't there for you. You don't abandon-" He stopped himself and took a deep breath.

"I don't what?" My brow furrowed in challenge. "I don't abandon people?" I took a step towards him. "Do I not make the cut of that particular squad? Is there some admissions test to the club of abandoning ponies that needs to be taken? Would you be the chairpony?"

He almost physically flinched at that. "I deserve that. But everything I did, I did for your own good. I'm just asking you to try and do the same for her, and what's good for her right now is for you to be there and help her. Or she's not gonna make it."

"And you'd be the authority on what's good for people, right?" He swallowed and turned away. The silence between us spanned more than the area around us. It seemed the Wasteland itself had become still, holding its breath as we stared at each other in that moment. I was the first to break it and say, "She's not gonna make it. She's a Stable pony, remember. But okay." He looked up at me. "I'm not doing this for you." I said, taking a step back towards the camp. "Not even doing this for her." I turned to him and gave him a steely gaze. "I'm doing this because I would rather die tomorrow protecting a filly I don't give a shit about, than be even remotely like you."

I walked past him, seeing the barest flash of misery and pain in his features before heading back to the encampment. Nothing had been resolved. I still wanted to leave, but for now my anger had dissipated. I'd stick it out till I couldn't any longer. I headed straight back to the Enclave pegasus. He was being held at gunpoint by Stranger still, obviously to make sure he didn't fly away. I trotted up and stood before them as I looked between Stranger and the colt. I didn't trust the pegasus, I probably never would. I'd likely have to kill him before tomorrow was done, but for now I couldn't be shitted to fight it. I had no direction to go, we needed supplies and the boys canons might be good in getting us some, and maybe this 'help' he needed would give me time to clear my head. If I agreed to do it, that is.

"Tomorrow we're leaving." I told him. "Me, Stranger, Lucky and the filly. We've stayed in one spot for too long. We're not going with the Buckshot Gang. You have one night to come up with a convincing argument as to why we should help you. If you can manage a convincing argument, then we will and we'll let you travel with us depending on how it turns out. If you can't come up with a convincing argument, we'll shoot you in the head and bury your body where not even Steam Bolt will find it. You can leave if you want. Come, go, don't much care, but if you're here tomorrow, that's how it'll go down. If you don't think you can convince us or maybe you don't really need our help, I encourage you to leave tonight." I glanced to Stranger and motioned with my head for him to put his gun away and come back to the encampment. It was only a little past midday but I was already tired enough to sleep. Emotional stress wasn't my usual range of issues, but bloody hell I was feeling it today. Stranger obeyed. He always listened to me. I didn't even know why now that I thought about it. Five years we'd been together. Five years of wandering around, trying to find a place to hang our hats, and maybe earn a few bits. We'd been doing contracts for three of those years. I'd hoped by now to have something of a reputation.

Reputation. It meant something out here. Your reputation could get you killed, or save your life. If you were someone out here, you were hunted, but also rewarded just for being you. But if you were no-one, you were just the next target of somepony else. I was never interested in being a victim. That's as good a reason as any to care about reputation. Isn't it? I really liked bullshitting myself.

I stepped into the tent. Sonnet was gone and in the corner was an uneaten piece of meat. I ignored it and curled up under the dirty blanket. A few tents away I heard sniffling. I glanced up to see Vanilla Milkshake holding a young yellow filly with brown eyes and mane. She was curled against the blue mare's chest, sobbing softly as Vanilla gently caressed her mane. Poor girl had watched three ponies die right in front of her. She had even helped me kill one. Maybe it would be best if I just left her with the Buckshot Gang. She'd be safe with them. Wouldn't she? They already had a filly with them. They could handle one more. Except Lucky was right. It wasn't safe.

Safe. Such a strange concept in the Wasteland. Nowhere was safe. But maybe being as far away from Steam Bolt was at least as safe a life as I could make for the filly right now. I turned away from the sobbing filly and curled in on myself, putting my earbloom into my ear and pressing play, hoping the words would drown out everything else.

"...two-hundred-and-eighty times the diameter of our planet, the sun consists mostly of hydrogen and helium undergoing nuclear fusion at its core. With a surface temperature of approximately five-thousand-seven..."

*** *** ***

I awoke in the night to some noise nearby. I instinctively went for my shiv but stopped myself when I realised it was music from a sprite bot. The marching parade music was monotonous enough that I closed my eyes again ready to drift right back into slumber when the music suddenly cut short. My ears pricked up at the sound of talking at the edge of my hearing. I poked my head out of the tent and saw the silhouette near the entrance of the encampment. The fire made it difficult to make out but by the size of the filly it was either Sonnet or the Buckshot filly. I slipped from the tent and stretched. The fire lit everything around me in a warm orange light but I still felt the cold the moment I stepped from my tent and out towards the entrance of the camp. It was still dark enough that I couldn't see which filly it was, but the voice gave it away.

"You really think my Mum is still alive?" Sonnet asked the floating Sprite-bot. She was talking to it? "Mister-Tome-master," cute title, "told me that most of my Stable are dead. So the chances of Mother being alive are very slim. But I think she is. She's very smart and able-bodied. If Slavers look for useful slaves then my Mother would probably be one of the ones they'd keep I think. She's good at physical labour, and she's very pretty, so she might be too attractive to just kill." Erm...what? "She's smart too. She wouldn't have fought, she'd have submitted, knowing she'd have the best chance of survival." She said to herself. "If the Slaver weapons that invaded the Stable are anything like the ones that attacked us today, then the average weapon they'd use would be automatic and only have twenty-four rounds before the need to reload." I listened as she prattled off a few more numbers about how many she thought might have entered her Stable, as well as how many slaves a single Slaver could probably keep in line and some minor information I had told her, which in her eyes, couldn't be considered trustworthy but was decent for the sake of the math. Finally she seemed satisfied with her answer. "So while you may think that it's only a twelve in three-hundred-and-seventy-five chance, it's actually closer to a ninety-six in three-hundred-and-seventy-five chance, which is MUCH better than previously expected." She seemed very pleased at this news, beaming proudly at herself. "But..." Her words suddenly went from pleased to sad in a heartbeat. "I don't think I'm ever going to see her again even if she is alive." I was tempted to go give her a hug, but instead I turned around to leave her to talk to her inanimate hovering robot. "I hate him." My hooves stopped mid-step. "I hate him, and he scares me so much." I swallowed. "But today he saved me. I think..." My ears twitched as I listened to her words intently. "...I think he means what he says. I think he's trying to save me. But what if he can't save himself?" I hated perceptive children.

I slipped back into the tent and lay down. I glanced up from the entrance of my tent, up into the cloud cover above. The darkness of the sky masked the clouds as such that it almost looked like a clear starless night up there, were it not for the odd shimmer of rolling cloud able to be seen from some form of light above them. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep, but when sleep failed to claim me I considered grabbing my earbloom instead, but just as I was about to open my eyes and do so I heard the sound of approaching hooves. I kept my eyes closed as I heard the hooves stop nearby. They seemed to stay still for a moment before moving further away. I opened one of my eyelids and watched Sonnet curl up beside Vanilla and close her eyes to sleep.

I was almost jealous.

*** *** ***

When I woke up I stepped from the tent and stretched to ease some of the soreness from my back. After checking to see that I hadn't been robbed in the night (I hadn't) I stepped into the main area of the camp. I turned to my left, seeing Stranger lying down besides the smoking remains of the doused fire. Beside him was Bobbie Pin. I raised my brow in sympathy at my companion as I realised the young annoying stallion had probably been regaling Stranger with adventurous stories that Stranger had probably lived through. In short, being an annoying fan-colt. He turned to me as I walked up and wordlessly stepped to his hooves and approached, though I could tell by his gait that he was trying to get to me swiftly without making it seem obvious to Bobby Pin. Once he was level with me he motioned to something behind me. I turned and saw Aero, the Enclave pegasus, curled up in the corner. His weapons were pointed straight up still so he hadn't moved them, which I was personally impressed with. He looked almost peaceful, were it not for his heavy snores that were loud enough that it made me question as to why I hadn't noticed him sooner. I approached him and kicked him hard in the side, figuring his armour could take it.

He yelped in pain. Maybe the armour _couldn't_take it. "Hey, what?!" He jerked awake and looked right at me. "Oh, you." He grumbled as he got up. He looked between me and Stranger and took a visual gulp. He scratched the back of his mane nervously before he began. "So...erm...about the help I need." He watched us for any mote of expression. I made a point of keeping my face a perfect mask. I wanted him nervous. His head flopped to one side. Wow, it really was like a dog expression, single flopped ear and all. "So..." He said again. "Erm...so..."

"Say 'so' again and I'll shoot you." I commented casually.

"S-sorry, I erm...so-" He eeped at his own words. "I need to get into a prison complex." He said the words so far I almost didn't understand them.

I raised a single brow at him. "You want to do what? Why?"

"Okay, look, Woodtail Prison, inside there is some pretty good security systems." He began explaining. "It's all this phase three tech, real top o' the line shit in there. Durable as anythin'. I hear that one of those Camera systems can last up to-"

"Get to the point." He was a talker. I hated talkers. Especially when they talked more than me.

"Alright," he meeped defensively, "they've got this underground network of camera systems, so the complex can see upwards of a mile in most directions. I need access."

That was an interesting request. "Can't get in yourself?"

"They erm...got turrets and stuff, set to shoot anything that's outside the walls or even inside if it's higher than the walls, so flyin' in is a bit of a problem. That and I don't know what's inside. I figured I'd need help."

"No." Stranger's deep voice shocked the pegasus. And with that the bandaged stallion began loading his gun in front of him.

Aero's expression switched to a nervous one. "N-nice gun...looks a bit worn, I could probably fix it for you...erm...what do you mean 'no'?" He looked on the verge of panic.

I shrugged. "He means you make no sense so we can't help you, so we're gonna kill you." I said with a mocking smile. "If you're confused, let me break it down for you. You work for Steam Bolt. You hunt us, you attack us, we shoot you, you find us, you save us, you ask for our help. You make no sense. So until you make sense, we can't trust you. Hence the gun." Stranger's gun did the punctuating of the point for me, the weapon cocking with its bolt-action system and the gun aimed squarely at the colts head.

The colt almost shat himself. "I'm looking for my Father!" He screamed as the gun went off. The crack of the shot and the soft phew of the bullet picking up dirt as it struck the ground met our ears. The bullet had missed the pegasus by a hairs breadth. The boy was shaking, his eyes screwed shut and his body visibly vibrating in fright. He slowly opened his eyes, realised he wasn't dead yet and proceeded to throw up from the emotional ordeal. Lovely.

"Your father?" I asked casually. "Do tell."

He cleared his throat when he was done, smoothing back his mane in an obvious effort to compose himself. "Well, I'm not really looking FOR him. I mean, I know where he is, back up there with the Enclave-" Stranger cocked in another bullet. "BUT!" He all but yelped. "I'm lookin' for EVIDENCE of him. He were down here when he were younger. And there are some things I wanna find, and they're for my own reasons. I can't say anymore on that so please don't shoot me ta find out." I was tempted to let Stranger shoot him anyway. "I was just doin' as I was told with Steam Bolt about you and the filly, but I ain't after her right now. I just wanna get into that prison because I think maybe he was round this area back then. Maybe he was seen on one of them cameras."

"What makes you think he was around here?" Lucky's voice came from behind the pegasus. The lime green earth pony stepped up to the colt's side, looking him over. Lucky was around three times the boys age, it was quite the generation gap standing side by side.

"Who're you grandpa?" Such a quick remark had Lucky looking indignant at the title. Huh, maybe the colt wasn't so bad, that was a fun expression on the old coot.

"I'm not that old." Lucky responded with a glare.

"Uh huh." Aero didn't sound convinced. All trace of nervousness gone, he kicked the back of his own rump and his suit gave a whirr, a compartment opened up and he fiddled around inside with his muzzle before pulling out what looked like a rolled up poster. "Found this when I was rootin' through my dad's desk one day. It's a map of where he was down here, his route ya know. It don't have dates on it, but this path here goes right through here."

The map had several points on it, one of which went all the way to Fillydelphia. There were others that went to Manehatten, as well as other spots along the way. One even went quite far south to the border of Equestria and the mountains between us and the Zebra lands. "And these other points?"

"I haven't checked them out yet. I looked all over Fillydelphia while with Steam Bolt but I couldn't find any evidence of him, or maybe anything that is there is hidden or something. He never told me what he was doing down here." The boy seemed quite bitter about it. "I want to find out. So I figured I'd start here."

I mulled over the information. It was certainly a trek and a half. But there was one question that needed answering before I gave it any further consideration. "What's in it for us?" He looked up at me. "You haven't told me why I should help you yet."

He looked nervous again. "I can help Sonnet." He answered. "I can get in and out of Fillydelphia; they think I'm out looking for you. If I get in there, I can find her mother, and get her out." At my confused expression he rubbed the back of his head. "I heard the filly screaming about it at you before we met that time. Ya know, when ya shot me." He wriggled his hoof which showed no sign of the wound. "Kid's got a voice."

"Child." I corrected. "And she does." I sighed. I was considering spanking that child at this rate, her actions were causing me bother...was I allowed to spank her? Does that actually help any as a form of discipline? I needed to skip to the child psychology sections of my tape sometime. "Besides," I continued. "That's all nice for her, but what about us? We need some compensation too." I smirked. Stranger's eye glanced to me and Lucky rolled his eyes. I was feeling smug before I heard a sniffle behind me. Shit.

I turned to look at Sonnet who was staring at me. "You promised."

"No I didn't." I responded instinctively. This earned me a quick whack behind the head from Stranger. "Hey! What? I didn't promise her anything. I said 'MAYBE'."

"But he can get her out. He said so." She countered, approaching me. She was on the verge of tears but obviously was trying to stay strong. It was kinda admirable.

I glanced at the others, they were watching me. Fine then, they wanted me to parent. I will. I approached her and sat down, and in my best and most calming voice I said, "Growing up, means you don't always get what you want."

She decked me. The FILLY decked me. Okay, Ranger is one thing; the unicorn had some good blows on him. Vanilla was surprising but understandable, and Buckshot? That one was a given. But Sonnet? Fucking SERIOUSLY? I hit the ground and felt pain lash over my jaw and a sticky wetness that told me I was bleeding. I glanced at her and saw the PipBuck. That thing bloody hurt!

The filly jumped onto my chest and stared at me with a steely expression. "Save my mother." What can I say? I was impressed.

We stared at each other and suddenly I was smiling. Then I was laughing. And then I grabbed the filly and to her surprise (as well as my own) I hugged her as she squealed for help. She hit me in the sides a few times with her PipBuck, but I didn't much care until I felt pain lance through my chest that told me she might have cracked a rib. I finally let her go after almost half a minute of hugging only to lie back, my legs spread as I smiled through the pain. "Okay." I said, smiling up at the overcast sky.

The filly landed to me side after sliding from my chest. "Okay?" She asked hesitantly. "So...you'll save her?"

"Yup." I smiled. Rather enjoying her suddenly joyous expression.

"Are we going to do it now?"

"Nope."

She deflated. "But...you said..."

I climbed back to my hooves, wiping my chin. "I said I would save her." I had a big split that stretched past my lip and down my jaw. Ouch those things packed a punch. "Aero is right that he can get in and out with your mother. But Steam Bolt, the Slaver in charge of Fillydelphia right now, keeps a close watch on all his prizes. We already stole you from him, how do you think he'll react when we steal your mother too? He'll hunt us, this time using those pegasi he's got that wear armour like Enclave-boy here. And we can't outrun those easily. Would you prefer we save her now, only for all of us including her, to die only a few days from now when they catch up to us?"

She gulped. "So...what do we do?"

"We plan. We gather supplies. We make sure we have somewhere to go and we try to make as many friends along the way as possible. We need places we can hold up, which means visiting towns, getting on their good side, and it means getting as much resources as possible. So we'll probably be helping Aero with his thing and doing that along the way, hopefully we can gain a little reputation and get some help that will tip the odds of survival in our favour. Do you understand?" Besides, if 'Whitetail Prison' had good defences and we could clean it out, it might be a good place to stay and hold up for protection, so it was good to check out anyway.

The filly looked ready to start crying again, but she nodded anyway. I think she understood that such a task would likely take a long while to do and so it would be a long while before she saw her mother again. She turned away and began walking away; she stopped after a few steps and looked back at me. "I'm sorry for hitting you." She said in a small voice. She then turned away and walked back to the tenting area, probably in search of Vanilla.

*** *** ***

We left the Slaver camp behind within two hours of the discussion. The goodbyes were swift and simple for the most part, filled with glares in my direction and nods of respect in Stranger's. There were even tears shared between Vanilla and Sonnet, as well as the promise of future visitations and meetings. Sonnet looked on the verge of asking to stay with Vanilla, which I might have agreed to if she'd plucked up the courage to asked, but she didn't. Dusty Tails kept us in range for a little bit, seeing us out safely. Ranger kept his distance, I had a feeling he didn't like me. And Bobby Pin almost cried at seeing Stranger go.

I gave the group one look back as we walked away, my eyes falling on the little filly the group had with them. For the first time she stepped into full view, having only been draped in a blanket this time, for some reason or another. She moved away from the Buckshot group as though heading back to the tents. I saw on her flank a cutiemark that looked a little like a megaphone and a microphone, or was it a disc of some kind? At this distance it was too indistinct to know for sure.

The Slaver encampment was out of sight in less than half an hour. Stranger kept his rifle drawn the whole time and while it was never pointed at Aero directly, I was sure the pegasus understood that the gun was meant for him as much as it was for anyone that might attack.

"You're crazy." Aero said to me. I walked a little ways behind him, Lucky a little off to my side and Stranger up front near Aero. Sonnet rested on my back and seemed comfortable enough to have fallen asleep.

"I probably am. But I'm sure you're referencing something specific." I mused.

"You spare me even though I tried to kill you, you then agree to help me for reasons I can't fathom-"

"Would you have preferred I didn't help you?" I asked him curiously.

"Oh no, I'm real grateful, but that don't mean I can fathom the reason." He drawled. "Like you and that filly. One moment you say 'no', she hits ya good and hard, which was funny by the way, and then you say 'yeah'. Why do you change ya mind so much? You don't seem...stable. Like you're all over the place. And you said I don't make sense." He actually seemed uncomfortable at the idea of me being unhinged.

"Maybe I'm not stable." I shrugged before giving him a smile I aimed to be unsettling. He shivered, and I felt smug. "Do you understand the concept of belief?"

He did the dog thing. "Wha'?"

"The concept of belief is, without the requirement of empirical evidence, to trust in something you think is right. In lamen terms, it's called being an idiot." The pegasus watched me like he was waiting for me to make a point. "I have no beliefs. I have no concepts that I consider fact in my head without first there being requisite proof of said facts. I hold onto my ideals until they are challenged by sources that break the foundation of said ideals. She did."

"She...erm...wha'...nevermind?" He seemed more confused than he had before he'd asked the question.

Was it really so hard to understand? Huh...maybe I was crazy.

The walk was going to take a few hours. I stuck by Stranger for most of it with the filly snoozing on my back (since when did I become a bed?), but as we journeyed I found myself drifting back to where Lucky was. He refused to meet my glances in his direction. I watched as Aero tried his best to convince Stranger to part with the rifle so he could 'take a look at it', but he'd probably sooner get shot by it than Stranger willingly hand it over.

Lucky gave me a sideways glance, his mouth opened and from the corner of my eyes I could tell he was trying to say something to me. I gave him a moment, but he stopped trying and turned away. Even in conversation he was a coward.

*** *** ***

Whitetail Prison was a structure of metal beams and high fences. From around the main perimeter the ground was pocked with small hills that indicated a minefield. With only one way in that wasn't covered in mines, that area was guarded by two laser turrets that against the ravages of time had held up in fairly good repair due to their ability to keep infiltrators at bay.

"Well someone's home." I remarked, eyeing it curiously.

"What makes you say that?" Aero asked, raising a brow at me. I'd made a point of requesting he keep his helmet off and down when we weren't in a combat situation. If I needed to shoot him, I'd prefer to not have to waste an armour-piercing round.

"The minefield," I shrugged as I stepped forward, offering no further explanation.

Aero stood there with a confused expression behind me. I heard Lucky answer in more detail. I was thankful for it. "The minefield is still here and untouched." Lucky began. "After two hundred years, a few people would have at least tried to get through it and failed, but the pattern of mines is unbroken, so someponies been replacing them after they go off."

"And he couldn't explain that 'cause?" Aero's bitter tone reached my ears clearly.

"Because it's obvious," I chimed in, glancing back at them both. "And explaining the obvious bores me. Come on."

I led them towards the mines. We stopped one meter from the first set of mines. "We're not gonna try the front? Less mines there." Aero grumbled, eyeing the mines cautiously.

"We could." I answered, eyeing the mines curiously. They were placed in a way that if we got close enough to disarm one we'd already be setting off the others. "But the only way we'd get past those turrets is with a decoy target while someone else takes them out. They're magical plasma based turrets at that so getting shot will likely disintegrate ya." I turned to Aero. "Are you volunteering to be said decoy? A flier would do well. You might not even get fried."

He gulped. "So erm...the mines, what we gonna do?"

I smirked a little. "Stranger, would you mind?" Stranger stepped forward at my invitation. His horn began to glow a dull purple before the first mine was pulled from the earth and brought closer. It began beeping furiously. The others looked nervous, but swiftly Stranger slipped it into my hooves where I quickly disarmed it. "This'd be easier if I could get close to them, but they're spaced so if I tried to disarm one I'd be setting off others. This might take a while."

"Why not just blow them from a distance?" Aero asked curiously. "Maybe the explosion would give us a way in."

"And let whoever is inside know we're here before we even enter the building? Marvellous idea, would you like to take point and get shot first?" I challenged as I disarmed another bomb that Stranger handed to me. That quietened his questions for now. You'd think a stallion with such little experience in the Wasteland would trust the more experienced wanderers with these kinds of things. How green was he anyway? "Hey Aero," I called out as I packed away another mine into a spare saddlebag after disarming it. "How long you been down from the clouds anyway?"

"About three months." He said, glancing up at the sky. The wind blew through his alabaster mane as he gazed at the cloud cover. "Do you...miss the sun?" He asked softly.

"Can't miss what you've never seen." I grumbled as we moved past the first line of mines and onto the next.

"Never?" He asked, sounding concerned at the very thought of never experiencing the sun.

I paused at that and shrugged. "I saw it once, well, not once but...ya know." I said softly, remembering my childhood. I began tinkering with the next mine that was passed to me. "I was near the Everfree Forest, edge of Ponyville, wandering some of the farm lands. Wasn't so full of Raiders back then as it is now. I looked up and there it was." I shrugged. "Visited again a few times, a few glimpses, not as nice as the first time, but yeah. So maybe about...six times during that first week, that's about it."

Aero nodded at that. "The cover above the Everfree Forest has always been sketchy. They have to replace it every few months; the clouds get a mind of their own up there."

I ignored that stupid evaluation. They were fucking clouds idiot. Pegasus magic aside, clouds weren't alive. There was a silence that stretched out after that as me and Stranger worked.

"Ya know you could cut the tension here with a knife." I almost fumbled with the mine and glanced back at the pegasus with a raised brow. He shuffled his hoof nervously. "So...favourite food?" Aero asked everyone, trying to sound casual and failing.

"Do you mind shutting up?!" I barked at him as I disarmed another mine."

"Sorry, I was just trying to make conversation." Her grumbled.

I grit my teeth, seriously, he was reminding me of a particular colt from the Stable issue...what was his name? I couldn't remember his name. Rivet? No...Iron? Copper? Yeah...Copper ...something. I couldn't remember. The sound of gurgling span through my mind and I stiffened. Why could I could taste blood in my mouth? I felt my shiv slicing through the colts throat...but I wasn't holding my shiv...the way it pushed through sinew and muscle. Easy...like slicing up a rat to eat.

The sound of loud beeping that pulsed in tandem with my suddenly fast heartbeat pulled me out of my macabre trance. I glanced down at the mine in my hooves. I'd daydreamed too long. I panicked and threw it forward into the minefield. It erupted, causing several others to explode in reaction, tearing down one of the walls. Rubble and pieces of metal from the fence flew in all directions. I shielded my head, gasping as a piece of shrapnel lodged itself into my left foreleg.

"Fuck! Fuck!" I grunted, lowering myself to the ground to look over the wound. It was a few inches above my prosthetic. The piece wasn't as big as I had expected but it seemed to have lodged itself in the bone. "Oh that is gonna suck coming out." I grunted.

"What happened?" Lucky asked.

"I got distracted for a moment because certain colts can't keep their traps shut!" I barked to Aero. "Silence is golden, remember that and shut the fuck up in the future." I grunted, turning to Stranger. "Do you mind?"

The shrapnel was wrapped in a dull purple glow before it was suddenly wrenched from my hoof. I whinnied at the pain and hoofed at the ground with my good leg, gritting my teeth at the pain. "Here." I turned to see Lucky offering a healing potion. I declined it.

"Gonna have a lot more injuries than this in there, best not to waste it." I tried to put pressure on it and winced. Sonnet poked me in the side. I turned to her and she gave me a nervous look. She lowered her horn to the wound and it began to glow a light yellow. I watched curiously for a little bit, the wound tickled from the touch of her magic but nothing else much happened. She pouted.

"I'm sorry. I'm not good at healing spells." She looked to the ground, actually seeming contrite that she couldn't help me.

"Hey," I said, trying a warm smile, but it was marred by the pain in my leg turning the smile into a grimace. "Thanks for trying. On you get." I said, motioning to my back. She seemed hesitant, glancing at my hoof before climbing on anyway. The extra weight did hurt a little more but I could deal with it. I was not blind to her concern though. Going from hating me to showing concern for me was a marked improvement on our relationship. "At least now we have a way in." I commented dryly.

"The same way I wanted us to try almost half an hour ago?" Aero asked with a sullen expression.

"Zip it." I grumbled, "We've pretty much lost any element of surprise we had, so keep your eyes peeled." We began moving/limping through the path that had opened for us. We passed by the mines and into the fenced off area. The inside of the fence led us into a large courtyard. It seemed to be sectioned off into three areas. One was a main fenced courtyard that led from the main gates to the entrance into the building, with a gravel roadway for vehicles. The second area was a visitor's area to watch the inmates in the third section; we'd broken into the second section. We stepped forward and glanced nervously at the mounted turrets. From what Aero had explained, if we flew above a certain height (higher than the fences for example) the turrets would shoot us down instantly. That's why we couldn't fly over the fence and instead had to go through them. The ground was basically gravel and our hoof falls crinkled along the stones as we moved towards one of the doors waiting for us.

The door was locked. "Anyone know how to pick locks?" Aero asked in his usual drawl.

I pulled out my kit and waved them at him. I heard him grumble under his breath something about me 'bein' good at everythin'' apparently. Well sorry for actually having an educated mind. Plebeian.

I worked a little on the lock, managing to get it on the first try. For good security on the outside, the locks to the inside didn't seem too tough. The room inside was what looked to be a reception area. A desk sat still cluttered with paper that had yellowed under the beams of the overhead lights. I was about to take a step forward before I glanced at the filly. "Make yourself useful, you've got EFS with that thing right?" With her nod she jumped down from my back and glanced down at her PipBuck and then back to the room. I had no idea how EFS was turned on or off but it seemed a small bit of mental manipulation to it, which made me wonder why more of the systems weren't done via mental manipulation. But I supposed turning something on or off was a bit different than trying to sort through your inventory during mid-combat in case you needed to grab a Healing Potion. She glanced to me and nodded quietly. I assumed that meant the way was clear of any hostiles.

I stepped forward towards the Reception desk. "Fan out, search the room, loot what you can and tell me if you find anything useful; maps would be a good place to start." I began moving around the yellowing papers on the desk, finding a few financial clipboards. If these earnings and costs were anything to go by they had some inconsistencies in their math. Maybe those that ran the place had been embezzling funds. I turned to the computer and booted it up. I used the keyboard commands to bypass the main of the safety features and into the systems. I got myself past the first few firewalls until I could find the password command jargon. I hummed to myself as I began eliminating duds. I tried two different passwords but they didn't work, I found a glitch that allowed me to replenish my attempts and used that to hunt down the real password. It was "Money." Interesting password for a receptionist to have. I slipped into the files of the computer and found a set of emails, a safe unlocking command (which I unlocked quickly, perused through and pulled out several dirty magazines and some old Equestrian money), and a map system. Hurray for the smart pony finding what we needed while the others mulled about aimlessly.

"Got the map." I said before turning to Sonnet. "Can you download it into your PipBuck in case we need it?" She nodded and connected it up. The new connection feed relocked the terminal. I was about to show her how to get in but she seemed to handle it just fine, using a backdoor system I hadn't found, giving her the password in less than two tries. I was impressed. She downloaded the map and then began browsing for her own curiosity.

"What's a slut?" She asked curiously. I coughed at the question and my brow rose as I glanced at her screen and read a few lines. She was reading emails between the receptionist and one 'Warden Iron Bars'. In said email was a rather graphic self-deprecating email of how 'naughty' a girl the receptionist was and what she wanted to do with certain anatomical parts of the Warden's body. The Warden's reply didn't discourage said behaviour. There was also something about the mare enjoying a set of pearls the Warden had bought her so that answered the password question for me. She had obviously been a gold digger and after the Warden's money via sexual favours.

"It's a depreciative title given to Mares who enjoy copious acts of fornication in a depraved fashion. For some it's considered an exciting name, for others it's an insult, depending on the sensibilities of the mare." I informed educationally, glancing through the rest of the emails before shutting it off. "Not really for the eyes of foals, but you'll see worse in the Wasteland so whatever. I'll not shield ya."

"I am well versed in sexual intercourse, why shield me at all?" Sonnet asked in confusion, 'sexual intercourse' was a really weird set of words to hear come from a child's mouth.

"Well versed?" I asked curiously. A ten year old being 'versed' in sex was...a little creepy actually.

"Well I've never had it of course." Thank Celestia. "But I know all the aspects of fornication and what is required for pregnancy. I know of oestrus and ovulation and-"

"Okay, okay. I get it, you're educated." I should have figured she would have been. Stables did have schools. Fillies out in the Wasteland weren't nearly so lucky, so the average pony IQ was probably not up to scale compared to what was average two hundred years ago. Who knows, maybe I would only be considered average back then too. For some reason the thought depressed me.

"Why is it considered insulting to desire copious-?"

I interrupted her, both out of curiosity and hoping it'd change the conversation. "What kind of Stable did you grow up in?"

"I'm not allowed to talk about it." She mumbled in a tone that was low enough that I had to strain to hear her.

"Pardon?"

She sighed dramatically. "I was told that should ever we come in contact with the outside, only the Overmare has the right to discuss any aspect of the Stable. Nopony else may discuss it." It was like she was reading from a text book. I wondered if she'd been taught those rules all her life, indoctrinated with them.

"Can you even give me a hint?" I asked and sighed when she shook her head. I thought for a moment and smiled. "Okay, how about I not ask about any of the work that you did in the Stable, what if I asked about you and the ponies in it. Would you be able to tell me about your mother?" She seemed to struggle with that, but I figured I might have just found a loophole around her rules. Finally, after a little deliberation, she shrugged in answer. I took that as not a no. "What's her name?"

"Indigo Velvet." She said quietly.

"Huh, odd. Most families are named via tradition, or surname, but yours doesn't fit either pattern. How did 'Sonnet Bloom' come from 'Indigo Velvet'?" I asked curiously, making a point to search through the trash. I found twenty caps littered at the bottom with some empty Nuka-Cola bottles. I fished out the caps and pocketed them.

"We're not named until we show an Aptitude. Before then we're given a Stable number." She mumbled.

"Aptitude? So what was your mothers Aptitude?" I asked. Asking about her mother seemed a good way to gain information as to how her Stable worked.

"She made colours." She shrugged, leafing through some documents that were on a desk. She didn't actually seem to be looking at them, just distracting herself while she spoke. The room had pretty much been searched thoroughly by now but I wanted to keep her occupied, keep her talking. "She could make ultra-violet spectrums that we used to keep the plants healthy."

I was about to ask her more when Aero hissed from behind me. "Are we going or not?" I shot a glare at him and turned back to the filly.

"Plants?" I asked her hopefully. No dice. She turned away and refused to answer. I'd gotten her on a roll of talking, only for feather-brain here to interrupt and make her clam-up. Fucking pegasus. I pushed passed him in a grump.

"Hey, what I do?" He asked grumpily as I headed for a set of double doors.

They were more flaps than doors and opened easily at a push. The corridor beyond was less pristine than the reception area. A water cooler at some point had been turned over and the ground was stained where the water had once been and had long since evaporated. One of the lights flickered from external damage, and sat against one of the walls was a skeleton of a pony that looked to have been left where they'd fallen, the back of its skull slightly cracked and a dark long dried bloody spot on the wall showing where it had hit its head. I looked around the surface of the tiled walls and noted that there weren't any bullet holes. They hadn't been shot at in here. From the way the dead ponies legs were broken and twisted as well, it looked like they'd been partially trampled after they'd fallen. Whatever had happened in this prison it had involved a crowd of ponies stampeding through this corridor. I looked down both ends of the corridor. Both lead to doors but from the way the water cooler had been kicked over, I'd hazard a guess that the ponies had ran to the right. A sign on the door said that direction led to a lower level of the facility. There was usually only one reason ponies ran down_to get _away. There was shelter down there. And high defences meant a likely command base for their security detail. Down it was then.

We stepped through the door that led downwards. Sonnet stayed behind me, but in front of a silently following Lucky, Stranger walked closely beside me and Aero hung a little back. "Sonnet." I asked softly.

"Y-yeah." She asked, sounding a little scared.

"Don't worry, we'll protect you, but I need you to use your EFS to pick out any enemies. Aero, you do the same. Your suit has EFS right?"

Aero nodded. "AEFS, and yeah." His helmet slid back into place over his face, the eyes flashing on with an Enclave bug-like yellow glow. I glanced at the armour and turned away. I hated that armour.

"AEFS?" I asked him curiously, trying to defuse the tenseness of the situation. We were all feeling it. We were far too big a crowd of ponies to be walking in these tight corridors. What had those ponies been running from and was it still here? "What's the 'A' stand for? Advanced?"

He shrugged. "How should I know? Just what it says."

What a wonderful well of information he was. His voice had gone deep and distorted again, like when I'd first met him. You couldn't tell his age when he was like this, a fact I'm sure he revelled in. We opened up a second door and found an elevator and a door that led to some stairs. "Stairs." I announced, heading right for the door.

"Hey, you ain't the leader here." My brow rose as I turned to Aero who had stepped closer. His weapons were down now and in this enclosed space he'd probably kill us all no problem if he decided to fire them. "I'm a flier, not a walker; I'll take the elevator if you don't mind. I ain't bothering with no stairs." I opened my mouth to protest before shrugging and gesturing him to please himself. I stood back and leaned against the wall. He looked at the elevator call button through the yellow bug eyes of his helmet and pressed it. The light lit up. We waited for a moment before a rumbling sounded from above us. There was a large clattering sound of something breaking before all went silent. "What happened?" He asked with a confused expression. The doors of the elevator twitched before one of them tried opening with a squeal, the other one staying stiffly closed. "Erm..." The pegasus stuck his head inside and looked up only to squeal and dive away from the elevator doors as a screaming elevator cart tore down the shaft and erupted down below, the floor shook and smoke billowed out from the shaft into the hallway. The initial crash was enough to shake the floor and make Sonnet yelp, hiding behind my legs.

I coughed and waved my hoof in front of my face to clear the air of the dust. When I could see them clearly I let my eyes rest on Aero. I spoke casually, "I'm the leader, because I'm the smart one. So if you are quite done, follow." I turned from him, noticing at a glance that Lucky was glaring at me, and opened the door to the stairs. We began to descend.

There were five levels to speak of but the lowest level was apparently listed as water systems, I'd check those out on the way out if I could but for now, level four was the aim. It was listed as 'Security' so I assumed it was the correct floor. According to the map we'd downloaded, there were four rooms in the Security area. One was described as a 'Panic Room', which probably meant it was a vault that had tried to work as a bomb shelter but with none of the achievements and capabilities of a Stable-Tec Stable.

We stepped out of the stairwell after more flights of stairs than I had expected for just five floors, and into a deserted corridor covered in strewn papers. I glanced at the date of the papers that littered the ground, referencing the date to the day the bombs fell. Well, something had happened here. A soft ticking caught my attention and we stopped our advance. I looked around. The walls were a pastel grey and reinforced from what I could tell, there were no bullet holes so combat certainly hadn't happened here. At both ends of the corridor they turned into another section. A door was on my right, but if the map was to be believed, it was just a storage cupboard. "What's that clicking?" I asked curiously.

"I think it's my PipBuck." Sonnet Bloom said curiously, shaking her foreleg as though the PipBuck was damaged and she were trying to fix it somehow.

"Let me see." I picked her up and she yelped in indignation as I pulled her hoof to me without waiting for permission. Oh, a radiometer...rads? Huh...they were quite high here...that wasn't good. I dropped her to the floor with a squeak. "This place is irradiated."

Sonnet grumbled, rubbing her rump before squeaking again at my news, she seemed to panic. "We should go, I've been taught about radiation poisoning. There's nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, fever, hair loss-"

"Lucky we have this." I interrupted, pulling out some RadAway, "best not to waste it yet though, just in case we're down here for longer than we should be." I slipped it back into my bags and turned back to the corridor. "Come on." We began trotting down, the sound of our hooves echoing loudly on the floor, broken by the odd chinks from my prosthetic. It was itching. I hated it when it itched.

"Doesn't that still hurt?" Sonnet asked from, behind me.

"Huh?" I asked casually, glancing back at her for a moment.

"Your h...leg." She said, pointing to the wound from the explosion outside.

I shook my head, suddenly keenly aware I'd stopped limping entirely. I'd need to note that down at some point. "Nah, it's stopped hurting now." I commented casually. I could feel Lucky's eyes on the back of my head. Leave it you fucking git. Just leave it.

I looked up and down the corridor. I didn't like it. I was crawling in my own skin and I didn't like it. Those ponies had run down here for a reason but there wasn't a single corpse other than the one upstairs. Paper was thrown about as though they'd all been in a rush, but in a rush to get away from what?

The corridor turned left. There were two doors ahead of us; at the end was a large gate-like door that covered what looked to be a massive vault door. It was circular rather than the usual geared of a Stable, but probably not nearly as strong. It looked to be sealed tight. Nearby was an entrance into a different room. This was more of an archway than a doorway, and light spilled from within so something inside was active. I heard scuffling and as we approached, the scuffling stopped, probably from the sound of our approach. Not for the first time I cursed my prosthetic hoof and the entire lack of stealth it gave me. I figured a diplomatic approach might be best, but even as I thought that, Stranger cocked his gun.

"Hello?" I asked loudly, my voice echoing off the walls. I hoped it was a friendly tone but this place unnerved me and I admit to a slight shake in my voice. I turned the corner and looked in, only to balk and launch myself backwards.

I'd barely gotten a glimpse of the room. What I had seen was a large collection of terminal servers and more screens than I'd seen in any other complex. There was a single red pony in there; I couldn't tell if it was a stallion or mare at the first glance and I didn't really get time for the second. Because the moment my head poked around the corner, a very large and terrifying beast with robotic legs and a metal jaw launched itself at me.

We all jumped back, the beast skidding on the ground and against the wall before turning to us with a snarl. It was a dog, but twice as big as any dog I'd ever seen. It's black and brown fur was still seen all over its back, sides and stomach, but one of its eyes were red and cybernetic, it's legs were entirely robotic, tipped with large claws that looked like they'd give a hell-hound a run for its money, and it's jaws were a snarling chrome metal that were far sharper than any canine jaws had a right to be. I was about to call out to the pony in the room to call off the beast, but before I could it launched at us.

I dived to the side, grabbing Sonnet as I rolled. She squealed in my grasp. I let her go and pushed her away. "Get back!" I yelled. I turned and watched as Lucky pulled out a shotgun. Before he could even cock it, one of the claws lashed out and tore through it, almost taking Lucky's arm with it. The beast lashed out again, but somehow Lucky tripped over his own hooves and fell to the ground as the paw passed harmlessly overhead. A shot rang out loudly from Stranger's rifle, the bullet tearing into the side of the beast. It yelped and rolled away only to slip back up to its feet smoothly, growling at us. Its side was bleeding but it didn't seem fazed at the injury. That was an anti-personnel round and this pooch just shrugged it off. Well shit. "Aero...your canons would be really nice here!"

"Okay! Everyone get down!" He yelled. I turned and dived on Sonnet as the canons suddenly let loose. The dog seemed to predict the shots and jumped up and over, the large calibre bullets tearing up the floor behind it as the beast landing in front of Aero without injury. Its jaws opened wide and grabbed one of Aero's canons, tearing right through it with a single chomp. Aero yelped and fell back, the beasts paw raised and the pooch seemed about to tear through Aero's armoured hide before a whistle sounded loudly. The pooch froze.

"Winter!" An unfamiliar stallion yelled. I turned to the entrance to the security room, a stallion stood there with a crimson coat and black mane. He had gorgeous blue eyes. I noted he was wearing blue stable barding that was reinforced with metal plates over the shoulders and sides; the yellow numbers '101' still clear on his collar. Upon command, 'Winter', the dog, moved away from Aero and sat obediently beside the crimson stallion who casually petted the dog's head with a hoof. The stallion looked between us all suspiciously before he smiled. "Sorry about that." His apology was about as casual as one might give for bumping into somepony, rather than sic'ing their cybernetic dog on them and almost tearing their throats out.

"That's quite the pooch you got there." I glared, standing up, Sonnet cowering behind me. I just hoped she wouldn't start singing.

"Yeah." Aero grumbled, nursing his ruined canon barrel as though it were an injured pet. I ignored his complaint.

"Who are you?" I fixed him with a cautious glare making sure that my gun was on full display. Lucky seemed to be doing the same, as well as Stranger, Aero however was still pining over his damaged canon barrel.

"Who are you?" He mimicked, looking us over in turn. He was younger than me, barely out of his teens. His eyes scanned over us, in an analytical way. For most lamen, the eyes went to particular places. They checked weapons, armour, and luggage. His eyes did the same, but they also checked stance, they checked our eyes each in turn, they checked the way the filly coward behind me, biting her own lip until it bled, trying to not let herself sing. He was a smart pony. I was about to take charge of the situation when Lucky stepped forward.

"Stable Pony. Stable 101, where's that?" No answer. Just silence. "Okay, well, my name Lucky Horseshoe's, that's Aero, this is Stranger, and he's Tome Tale."

"You're the leader?" The crimson stallion asked. Lucky was about to answer when he realised that it wasn't him that dog-boy was addressing the question to. He was addressing it at me.

"Oh, well, I wouldn't call him-"

"Yes." I interrupted Lucky before he made a fool of himself. "I'm the leader." I watched Lucky grit his teeth at that.

He looked me over, down to the filly, his eyes scanning her collar before glancing back up into my eyes; he then turned to everyone else in turn. "He comes in, you all stay out here, Winter will guard you." He turned to the dog and gave it the command to stay before turning back to the security room and padding inside.

"Guard Sonnet," I warned them, pushing Sonnet beside Lucky who almost recoiled from touching her, as though he were afraid to get too close.

"Why are you goin' with him?" Aero asked, finally turning his attention away from his canon barrel.

"This isn't smart, Tome." Lucky said warningly, glancing from me to the crimson stallion, Lucky's voice was hard on the edges.

"I know what I'm doing." I countered, turning to follow.

"Do you?" Lucky challenged. I froze mid-step and turned to him with my patented glare. He stared at me for a moment before scoffing and turning away and moving to curl up in the corner as was his usual habit. I turned away, glancing at Stranger who gave me a curt nod. I returned it respectfully, trusting that he could handle things if anything went wrong.

I began to follow the crimson stallion back into the Security room, Winter sat by the entrance and stoutly watched my comrades as I followed him through. "They're confused ya know." I commented once we were inside and relatively out of earshot.

"I know." The stallion said, moving back to the console and punching a few buttons. He seemed quite interested in what was happening on the screens, each one was labelled. Trottingham, Bel-Mare, Manehatten, Maripony, and_Friendship_. There were other places listed like Appleloosa, Ponyville, Vanhoover, as well as pegasus places like Cloudsdale, Pegasdale, and_Aerie_. But these other ones were either completely blank, or full of static. Each of the live places showed the areas in grainy detail, ponies mulling about. It made me wonder how he was seeing so far. "You're not." He commented. It wasn't a question.

"I'm not." I admitted. "You're a reader. Body language, the way Lucky spoke you deduced I was the leader. Me protecting the filly stated a moral compass to you-"

He scoffed. "Omit the last part." Though he didn't look at me I could hear the smirk in his voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, you don't perceive me as a threat."

"Also wrong. You'll probably kill me just fine, if I don't give a good explanation for why I'm here or about Winter." Now he glanced at me, meeting my eyes.

My brow narrowed and I approached him, the sound of my prosthetic clinking on the floor below. "And what is your reason for being here?" I challenged.

"Research." He shrugged, turning from me and back to the monitors. "I'm studying EUP variances, weighing pros and cons against personal observation and mutual result. The camera systems here are good for that."

"What's the base set?" I asked, scanning the same monitors he was watching.

He shrugged. "Earth Ponies."

"Conclusive theories?" I inquired, raising my brow, actually finding the subject interesting.

"Innate constructive ingenuity, magically encompassed, versus learned advantages. Quick-fixes versus patience." He yawned as though he found it boring to explain.

I raised my brow. "Interesting. Hypothesis?"

"Inconclusive evidence supporting, but hoping to see that each species has at least some worth. Part of the S.O. requirements."

"S.O.?"

"Not from a Stable?" He asked. When I shook my head he shrugged. "Surprising. S.O., Stable Overseer. Each Stable has a requisite guide for when the door opens (or should have); ours required field research as to the validity of our principles."

"Principles?"

He shook his head. "No, now I get to ask you questions." I nodded in reply, giving him the go ahead. "You're group doesn't mesh." It wasn't quite the start to an interrogation I had expected. "You're divided, segregated, you don't feel like a group, you just feel like you're all tag-along's. Except for you and the one in bandages, you two have synergy, what about the others? The filly seems afraid of you, yet she clings to you, the one calling himself Lucky seems to hate you, but he keeps glancing protectively at the filly, but won't go near her, and the armoured one...he and the bandaged one are difficult to read." He seemed confused about this.

"Stranger's the one with the bandages, his story is his own. You want to know it, ask him." I shrugged.

"He doesn't strike me as a talker." He said, giving me a small smile.

I smiled at that too. "As for Aero, he's a teenager with little to no Wasteland experience."

"Ah." The crimson stallion smiled, nodding to himself. "That explains it." He glanced over his shoulder towards the entrance before glancing back at me. "I can't be sure but...pegasus?" I nodded and he smiled. "I'd like to study him." My brow rose. "Non-invasively, of course, just...maybe a wing sample, some light observation. Think you could make that happen?"

"I'll consider it." I wasn't about to make promises.

"Your team? Seems a bit of dissention in the ranks." He observed.

"I'm the smart one. Stranger's smart to, but he doesn't like to lead. And somepony has to."

"Why not Lucky? He seems to resent your leadership right now, think he wants it for himself?"

I thought about his question and shook my head. "He probably thinks he does, but he's not the kind. Responsibility isn't his thing, besides, it'd be a disaster. Things don't go the way he wants them too, there'd be too much of a personal involvement if he took the lead instead of just followed. It'd cause issues."

"Issues?" He asked curiously.

"All part of his story, ask him." That made the stallions brow rise.

"You give the bandaged one the respect- Stranger was it?" I nodded and he continued. "The respect of his own business, but scoff at the pegasus, yet you give Lucky the same respect. I thought you didn't like him."

"I don't." I grumbled.

"Bitterness, a story behind that." He grinned.

"The dog." I pushed

He chuckled at the change of subject but allowed it. "Winter." He provided helpfully.

"Yeah, whatever. Cybernetics. Never seen them like that. I'd heard stories, but never found anypony with them or the capability to make them."

His eyes glanced at my prosthetic hoof and I had to consciously stop myself from hiding it behind my other leg. "I can imagine."

"I'm not asking out of desire." This time it was his brow that rose. "Just curiosity. Prosthetic is the best option for me. Cybernetic Augmentation wouldn't work."

"It wouldn't, why?"

"Stick to the subject. Winter." I said, probably a little too quickly. He picked up on it.

"You're the one that keeps changing it." He said, the smirk never leaving his face. "But fair enough." He shrugged. But I could tell by the way he looked at me that he liked these particular mysteries about me and I probably hadn't heard the last of his questions. "He's mine" He answered. "I've had him since he was a pup. We bred them in the Stable." He smiled. "He was the runt of the litter."

"He's a bit big for a runt." I commented.

"Growth augmentation." He chuckled. "There were complications though." He smiled grimly. "Growth manipulation caused degeneration in his marrow. The bones of his legs became brittle. So I replaced them. The eye's a different story. My turn again." He said, turning to me. "You say you aren't from a Stable, where'd you get your education?"

"Books." I shrugged. "I like to read, that and this." I pulled out my black box from my saddlebags.

"May I?" He asked, cautiously.

"If you break it, I'll kill you." He paused at that comment, looking me over.

"You mean it." He seemed surprised. "Fair enough, I'll be gentle." I nodded and handed over the box. He opened it up and looked at it over. "Huh." He chuckled. "Crude, but creative. From an old PipBuck?"

"My fathers," I answered, feeling a ghostly twitch in my hoof. "Too damaged to use. Matrix was completely scrapped, no internal defences, easy to break it apart when there's nothing holding it together." I mumbled.

"You salvaged the audio chip and download feature. No visual chip?" I shook my head. "Shame. What's the data reel?" He asked, looking over the cassette I had slipped into the reader. "S-3BI2?" He read from the side of the tape.

I shrugged. "There were two of them; I've finished the first, that's the other one. My...father...made me listen to them whenever I went to sleep at night. Never left the habit." I expected him to ask about my parentage, but he thankfully ignored the subject.

He looked over it a little more before shrugging. "Looks to be an Information Cassette from a Stable." I looked at him quizzically. "Every Stable was provided with information cassettes, providing science, magical education and physics, mathematics, history and general knowledge. Basically whatever a Stable would need to stay educated, so they could maintain information that would otherwise be lost. Lots of data. You finished the first one?"

I nodded, "it took me eight years."

"Sounds about right. How far you through this one then?"

"A little over halfway. Can I take it back now?" He smirked at my request and offered it over. I took it and protectively stashed it back into my saddlebag. "Your work, you said 'Principles'."

He chuckled and turned away. "I think I'm done answering questions about my work, if that's okay." He added the last part as though he genuinely would have continued if I said it was required, but I figured it wouldn't be good to press the subject.

Instead, I opted for an easier question. "Alright, how about a different one, what's your name?"

He opened his mouth to answer when there was a loud crash. My eyes widened before both me and the mysterious crimson stallion ran back to the entrance of the room.

"S-sorry." Aero's apology was quite moot in the situation. He could be apologising for the rest of his life and it wouldn't even begin to cover his fuck-up. His damaged barrel was smoking, and from down the hall where the panic vault was, there was now a big dent and hole in the door. He looked to have been testing to see if his canon still worked, the fucking idiot.

"Oh no." The crimson stallion was staring at the damaged vault door, looking quite worried.

"What's 'oh no'?" Asked Lucky, voicing the question on everyones minds.

"I've been held up in here for about three weeks." The stallion shrugged. "When I got in the place was overrun, had to herd the previous occupants into the panic room there and managed to lock them in."

"Previous occupants?" Aero asked in a concerned tone. "Who'd be held up in here?" The answer came with the sound of screeching and groans from the inside of the door.

From the blackness of the doors newly created hole, limbs started to reach out from the darkness in some creepy visage of a horror show before their bodies spilled fourth from the blackness. Their lack of much mane or tail told me exactly what they were, their fur sparse if there at all, wounds over their bodies that would never heal and skin stretched taut against their bones giving them all skeletal figures. Ghouls. Feral ghouls. If we got out of this I was going to take Aero's canons and shove them- SCHREEEeeeeeeEECHH!