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Chapter Five

Dear Princess Celestia, Does Our Past Define Us?

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

Futurity Champron was curled up under a makeshift tent constructed with tarp and rods dug into the ground. At the entrance of the makeshift shelter was his 'dog' Winter. The dog hadn't been with his Master when we'd taken Futurity with us but the cybernetic mutt hadn't wasted time finding us once we were clear of Whitetail Prison. For some reason, us carrying his Master away on Lucky's back, hadn't warranted an attack from the mutt, which was a welcome surprise. However, the moment the tent was set up and Futurity was under it, Winter curled up at the entrance. Then growled at anyone that came near.

When he did come to, I was busy having a polite conversation with Aero.

"I did what ah felt ah needed to do!" Aero barked at me, his voice deep and mechanical from his helmets voice changer. I fucking hated that thing.

"Exactly!" I retorted. "You did what you felt like without thinking of the consequences! You don't think!"

"You wanted to leave! I needed that footage and you wanted to just piss off without it!" He snapped.

"Yeah, I wonder buckin' why! In case you didn't notice, we faced a nigh unkillable ghoul bigger than a bucking Clydesdale!" I'd started censoring myself a little around the filly.

Sonnet sat in her own tent with a blanket wrapped over her head as she watched us. Stranger stood beside her in case Winter couldn't be trusted to stay docile. Lucky was in his own tent, a little way from the others looking sullen as always, his hat rested over his eyes as he pretended to sleep. Aero and I had broken out in an argument while setting up our tents. I'd woken feeling grumpy and argumentative in general, and Aero was a good target for my frustrations.

"Which I killed." He retorted as though it hadn't been my plan that had saved our lives in the first place. "We could have went back in and got what we came for, if you weren't such a bitch."

I was about to retort when my brain stalled. Did he just call me a- "How's your throat?" I asked, not out of concern, out of warning. He balked, taking a step back and turning away from me.

The anchor of the conversation was a bit tippy-toppy right now. He wasn't good at arguing, but to gain anchor in any argument I had to offset his rebuttals in a way he couldn't refute, which wasn't that hard; the issue was he _refused_to acknowledge when I'd made a good point. He just searched for something else in an attempt to be right about anything at all. Luna, I fucking hated people like that.

A shape flashed at the corner of my eye. Then pain lashed through my neck and I was driven to the ground with a metal claw wrapped securely around my throat. Oxygen suddenly became an issue. I could still breathe... kinda... but it was constricted, enough for my body to enter a state of panic. Strangers rifle cocked. Winter replied by pressing the sharp talons of his metal claw to my neck. I stopped struggling.

"If you shoot him, Winter's claw will close on reflex and tear your friends throat out." Futurity said from the other side of the mutt. With the soft clop of hooves on dirt the red stallion slowly padded into view beside me. He looked down at me curiously. Futurity's cheek sported a large bruise and his right temple had a trailed blood down the side of his muzzle, other than that he seemed well, if a little pissed.

Aero's cannons cocked nearby. "You kill 'im, you die." Aero's voice was dark and surprisingly sincere. I was almost touched.

"Interesting that you'd try to avenge someone you so obviously hate, but lets not get hasty." The red stallion replied with a raised brow. "I have questions."

"Ask them." Lucky's said from not too far off, my view once again blocked. Despite the situation, Lucky sounded almost bored, hell, he sounded depressed, but then again, wasn't he always?

Futurity smirked at the lime green stallion, apparently finding his tone and approach entertaining. "How'd you break the cell door?"

_ _

This was his first question? He really was inquisitive, but in a weird way. I'd wonder such a thing in his position too, but in this rare position of power among such a group as ours, it certainly wouldn't be the first question I'd ask.

"I got lucky." There was the smallest hint of a smile in Lucky's voice when he said the words. Hell even I snorted.

Futurity scowled. "Maybe I should study you." He grumbled before pausing and looking around himself, noting everypony's eyes on him. "You brought me here, probably saved my life in doing so, why?"

"Tome said not to leave ya...kinda regrettin' that now." Aero answered, his cannons trained on the red stallion, ready to fire at any given moment. I had to admit, maybe saving Futurity's life hadn't been one of my best decisions. See what doing something nice got you? This is why I'm not a nice pony.

Futurity scoffed. "Put your helmet down, you aren't impressing anyone like that, colt." He pronounced.

The pegasus stiffened. "Call me that again..." Aero growled, spinning his cannons threateningly. "...I dare you."

Stupid words to say. Very stupid words to say. Futurity approached the pegasus and smirked at him. He leaned in and very clearly spoke a single word, "colt." Everypony held their breath as they watched Aero to see how he might react... he didn't. Futurity smirked. "That's what I thought."

"Leave him." Strangers voice was calm and barely raised, but it carried over the small makeshift camp-site. I even felt the dog stiffen above me at the sound of the voice. I wonder if Stranger enjoyed the effect his voice had on ponies.

The red stallion turned to Stranger and narrowed his eyes. "Shut it, corpse." He snapped. "I don't even want to address the likes of you, go eat somepony."

My left hoof suddenly lashed up and struck the claw at my throat, pain lanced through my stump. It reminded me that I'd have to deal with that today at some point. The force of my blow forced Winter's paw up my face, the claw trying to clamp down at the sudden movement. I felt pain lash through my throat and face as its sharp talons raked from my neck to my cheek. My cheek split open right to my gums. Blood poured down my face. But I'd gained my leverage. I kicked up hard and pushed, the sudden lift arching the dog to the left where his foot no longer had the support of my throat. I turned my head, and the mutt lost it's purchase. The dog sprawled to the floor. I was on it fast, blood drooling from my muzzle, cheek and neck as I shoved my gun into the dog's mouth. Winter seemed extremely intelligent and fully aware of what guns were as the moment it was at my mercy it went still, light whimpers sounding from its maw.

"How about I make your dog eat a bullet?" I spat out.

Futurity looked at me shocked, he tried to turn, possibly to leave but stopped when a gun barrel pressed securely to his forehead. Stranger looked down the barrel of his rifle with an expression I hadn't seen pointed at someone else in a long while. He was glaring, and for once it wasn't at me. Not much could affect the emotionally blank wall that was Stranger, but this stallion had somehow managed to rile my bandaged friends temper. I was impressed.

Lucky approached me as he dug something out of his saddlebag before offering me a healing potion. I took a quick swig but nothing more than a single gulp. It was enough to close the wounds but not heal them completely. I wasn't going to waste it on superficial wounds like a small hole in the cheek, the Wasteland would deliver much worse than that in the future. I felt the wounds knit together, the blood stop and a light numbing pass over the sensitive flesh. It still hurt a little, but I was fine with that.

"You're new to the Wasteland, Futurity." I said while stroking my wounded face in an effort to ease its soreness. "So here's some advice; don't fuck with those obviously better than you."

Stranger decked him.

*** *** ***

Futurity would be out for another hour, which gave us plenty of time to talk. This time we had Winter tied up beside him. The mutt was on his side with ropes wrapped around both his legs and claws. Which were tied to large bits of metal we'd forced into the ground as anchors. He wasn't going anywhere. And don't ask how we managed to tie the dog up... suffice to say it wasn't easy and had required another swig of healing potion.

We sat at our various tents in silence. I was massaging my left fetlock a bit. I grit my teeth as pain lanced up the stump. The prosthetic was feeling tight today. Stranger's tent sat opposite of Futurity's. His rifle was trained on the red stallion. If looks could kill then Futurity was already dead. Only I'd_earned such glares from him in the past, and usually it was his way of demanding I take on any form of '_moral' responsibility. I did my best not to glance at Sonnet with that thought in mind. The filly was curled up under a blanket behind me. I didn't think she was sleeping but she'd been quiet for a while now. I was starting to worry about her. Or maybe I was just channelling Lucky's empathy, Celestia knew the stallion kept glancing at my tent. Made me want to punch him. Actually, maybe I should... I'd managed to land a hit twice now since we'd met at the Stable, it was really satisfying to feel his jaw against my hoof... or the prosthetic, that was fun too-

"A corpse, huh?" Aero's distorted voice stated. With a soft whirring the helmet from his suit retracted, showing the young stallion's face. "What did he mean?" He looked at me warily, his voice significantly higher without the voice changer.

I didn't reply. This was Strangers business after all. I glanced at my bandaged friend who in turn watched me. It was like a silent conversation was going between us. I wouldn't reply. I wouldn't say anything. If he wanted them to know then that was for him to say, not me. He respected that.

"I'm a Ghoul."

Stranger's voice blanketed the camp. I mean yeah, it was quiet before. Everypony had been pretty much quiet, but this was different. Ya know when you can just tell that everyone is holding their breath? Well that's what was happening here. I turned away and laid my head down in as comfortable position I could manage. This was Stranger's conversation.

Aero stared dumbfounded for a moment. "I knew there was somethin' fucked up about-"

"Watch it." I growled, and shot Aero a narrowed expression. This was Stranger's conversation and his business... but he was my friend. Aero's Enclave skull would be splattered over the ground if he kept talking to Stranger like that.

The glare must have done the trick because the pegasus gulped and looked back to Stranger. "So... you're like... those things back there? A zombie?"

"No," Stranger replied, "and yes."

Aero's head tilted at an acute angle just like a dog's, "care to explain?"

I felt a movement near me and saw from the corner of my eye Sonnet crawling forward. She leaned out and watched Stranger, her ears turned towards him. She was trying to watch without being noticed by him. She was afraid of Stranger now. Once again I was struck by the thought that maybe she'd been traumatised by the events at Whitetail Prison. The Wasteland wasn't kind to children.

"I'm a Canterlot Ghoul." Stranger explained, turning away. There was an edge to his voice... distaste. "I was affected by both the Pink Cloud and the Radiation of the megaspells that fell on Canterlot at the end of the war." There was smallest of octave drops in his voice, the slightest hiccup. There was a rise and fall in his chest that one would probably assume was breathing, except ghoul breath was extremely shallow if ever at all. He wasn't breathing... he was in pain.

"Are you a monster?" Sonnet's voice was small beside me.

Stranger looked to her and I saw him see saw the fear in her eyes. I skipped a breath when I saw sadness in his. "Yes," he answered. He stood up and walked away.

*** *** ***

Stranger settled on an elevated rock formation. He stared down the scope of his rifle, keeping watch. Though, he was only there to get away from us so he could be with his thoughts. It was best to leave him be for now. The last thing he needed was me making a mess of things by trying to cheer him up. Therapy was not one of my strong suits.

"You knew." Aero said.

I knew where this was going. "Yes." I answered, not bothering to look away from Stranger.

"Did you even think of the child?" The pegasus accused, glaring at me.

"Her_name_ is 'Sonnet'." I stated. Then returned his glare.

"What do you care what her name is?!" He snarled as he jumped to his hooves. "You don't give a shit about her! You put a bomb around her neck and you've admitted you only saved her life because that- that THING told you too!" He pointed an accusing hoof at Stranger. My bandaged friend was far enough away that maybe Aero thought he couldn't be heard, but I saw the smallest twitch of Stranger's ear. He'd heard it. "You sit there, acting all high and mighty! You threaten me! You threaten the child from what I've heard!" I glanced at Lucky who was decidedly looking everywhere but at me. So these two had been talking. Interesting. "I just spent the last two months in a Slave whore camp!" Aero reminded me. "I have watched stallions do the most disgusting things to mares and not a ONE of them was as big of an asshole as you! At least they knew they were monsters!" He stamped his hoof before walking over and spitting on me. The spittle landed on my cheek and I didn't wipe it away. Then after panting for a full minute, he almost calmed down. Almost. His face had contorted into a look of disgust and he refused to meet my eyes. "You forced a filly to travel with a -corpse- that could turn on us and her at any given moment. I'm not sure who's the bigger monster... you or the corpse." Then he trotted back to his tent and laid down facing away from me. His muzzle wrinkled like he'd smelled something particularly bad.

I should have hit him. It was my style, pretty much the style of the Wasteland. Someone screams at you like that, you either deck them or shoot them. To be honest... I'm not sure why I didn't. Maybe because I knew it wouldn't help, it'd just divide us more. Lucky and Aero had obviously been talking, which meant they both had strong negative feelings about me. If this kept up I'd have a mutiny on my hooves, they'd take Sonnet away from me and try to do the job themselves. They'd wonder why they even needed me and Stranger in the first place. I couldn't solve this with violence. It wasn't my way anyway... I know, shocking. You'd think violence was my first call to action with how I'd been since the Stable. Was I losing myself?

I started talking. "Three years ago I was a junk-trader. Basically, I collected junk and sold it off to traders and settlements." Aero glanced up at me, still moody but his head was tilted in confusion. "I was good. Good at finding stuff. I knew how a lot of the pre-war stuff worked, so I knew what it could be re-purposed for or how durable things were or even what a settlement may or may not need. It pays to be intelligent in the trade." Aero scoffed. I ignored him. "One day I did something stupid," another scoff... if he interrupted me one more time- "I took on my first bounty mission. I mean, it was half bounty, half junk scrounging. There was a bit of pre-war tech; a working arcane carberator from a boxcar that seemed to be in working condition. Worth a lot. But some raiders had gotten a hoof on it and I'd have to get it off them somehow. I didn't know what they were using it for when I took the job." I gulped and massaged my left hoof through grit teeth. "I played it smart. I scouted first, watched them from over a ridge. Thought I was being stealthy. Didn't work, got caught due to... an incident with a rock." I grumbled as pain lanced up my stump. Both Aero and Lucky were paying attention now, there was even the slightest twitch in Strangers body language. He was listening too. "They dragged me into the camp and started beating me- among other things. I was their new play thing, their Slave. They kept hold of me for a whole week, just using me for their- frustrations." I smirked at the word, "apparently it was all someone like me was good for." Lucky looked particularly distressed. This was after everything between him and I of course. I wonder if he felt responsible for my circumstances? I sighed and shrugged the thought off. Then looked over to my bandaged friend as he gazed through his scope over at the horizon. "Stranger saved me. And I trust him with my life." I got up and turned around, putting my back to Lucky and Aero. "If you don't think you can, you are welcome to leave." I said over my shoulder as I curled up.

"What were they using the arcane thing for?" Aero asked from behind me, his tone sober.

I glanced back at him and gave a sad smile. "They were roasting children in it." Lucky winced and Aero shivered. I bet he wished he'd never asked.

I turned away and curled up into my sleeping bag. Sonnet was there beside me, her eyes watching. I closed mine and relaxed, ready to sleep before I stiffened and almost yelped when I felt the filly press close... almost cuddling me.

...When had I won her over?

*** *** ***

"I'm glad you're awake." I said warmly as I suckled on meat juices. I pushed a plate of meat towards him. It was rat meat, but still good. Cooked to crispy and juicy bites and stuck with sticks. Futurity looked down at the meat curiously before looking back at me. I glanced up from my own meal, paused, then apologised before setting my meat down. I leaned forward and undid the ropes that bound Futurity.

"Not afraid I'll try something?" He asked as he massaged his fetlocks.

I glanced away from him and nodded to Aero who sat on the opposite side of our small camp with his cannons trained on the red stallion and his cyber-mutt. Aero gave Futurity a pleasant wave. "I'm confident you're smarter than that," I remarked. Then turned back to the red stallion with a friendly smile.

Futurity had woken up around fifteen minutes ago, and rather than beat on him like I thought he deserved, I decided to take a different approach.

Futurity looked at me with his brows furrowed before looking down at the meat, "and what if I don't eat meat?" He questioned.

"Then you go hungry," I said with a shrug. I was being hospitable, he didn't have to accept what I gave him. Futurity gave me a wary look before he picked up the meat and started chewing. Then screwed up his face in distaste as he swallowed. "So," I began, "I thought we could talk, ya know; without ghouls interrupting us, bars between us, or your dog trying to bury me like a bone." I mumbled, chewing more, slurping up a particularly juicy bite.

"Why bother after what I did?" He asked while wiping grease from his mouth.

I sighed and pushed my plate away, wiped my hooves on my barding, then turned to look at the rock formation where Stranger sat with his blue eyes gazing out over the horizon. "I don't know. Maybe I'm trying to live up to some expectations."

"You're not the type," Futurity grumbled as he forced himself to swallow more meat. His throat lurched as he fought to keep it down.

"I wasn't," I replied, "I'm not. But I guess... I'm under a bit more social pressure than usual lately." I turned back to him as he pushed his plate aside with an unhappy look on his face. "You're new to the Wasteland," I told him, "you didn't know any better; so I'm gonna try and be all hospitable about this." I attempted a warm smile. "But, of course, if you try anything-" I glanced over at Aero again who supplied a toothy grin.

Futurity nodded and tilted his head down as he considered his options, "point taken," he settled.

I settled myself into a more comfortable position and stretched. My stump chafed like hell. "So," I began, "why did you attack us the moment you woke up?" Futurity turned away at my question, not looking inclined to answer. "Come on," I urged, "don't make this difficult."

It took him a little while to answer, but he eventually did, in a smaller voice than I'd expected. "Strength." He stared at the ground. "First time I was out I got attacked by a group of raiders. I took a shot to the back leg but Winter was there and managed to take most of them down. The others surrendered and I even got supplies from them. They ran. There were others after that, and each time Winter showed them not to mess with me," he shrugged, "eventually I started having Winter stop them from running. I decided to make them useful before I let them go."

So he was using fear and slaughter to make raiders that attacked him fall in line, so he could complete whatever it was he needed to get done. "Smart," I commended with a smile. Really, it was an effective method, and I could understand why he'd try it with us. Though killing me would have put him in Stranger's sights, and considering Stranger's... condition... I doubted Futurity was confident he could have gotten out of it alive. So he'd gambled and used me as a hostage instead. "Useful for what?" I asked.

"My research." He said with a shrug as he looked up at the roiling cloud cover above us. It was probably going to rain at some point, I could see the darkest patches starting to build in on themselves as they travelled across the sky.

"And what were the results?" I asked. I wanted to keep him talking.

"Nothing but a baseline." He grumbled. "They were all earth ponies, every one of them. I couldn't get good data about them, but I could use them for a baseline in the Wasteland, to really show the differences in the EUP races. Turns out everypony out here is a physical paradox." He mumbled.

"We are?" I asked curiously, I'd never studied us from a scientific point of view, but then again, I'd never met a pony as healthy as Futurity, him being a Stable dweller and all.

"You're all physically fit. The trials of the Wasteland toning muscle mass. And your bodies have adapted to not just nourishing itself from alternative food sources like meat and the like, but you're more energy efficient. Your activities don't tax you nearly as much as it should, so to me, despite copious malnourishment, you all have energy and stamina to spare."

I smirked at him. "It comes in handy." I wriggled my eyebrows suggestively.

He didn't appreciate it. "First you're intellectual and threatening, then you're weirdly friendly after I try and kill you and now you're perverted and lecherous. You are a quagmire," he grumbled and turned away from me, "I do not like quagmires."

I let a silence settle between us. I turned away and looked around the encampment. Sonnet was walking with her head down. She was carrying a book towards Lucky who had curled in on himself in his tent. She nudged his side to get his attention and he peeked up to look at her before his eyes travelled to the book. I could see Lucky debate with himself, almost for a full minute, before he conceded and nervously nodded to the young hopeful filly. She curled up beside him as he opened the book. He glanced at the filly anxiously as he read to her in a low voice.

"Why?"

I turned back to Futurity and raised a brow. "Pardon?"

"Why are you all together?" He seemed genuinely curious. "And don't give me any bullshit."

I considered not answering but I sighed before looking over everyone, my eyes landing on Aero. The pegasus, who was supposed to be watching me and Futurity, was in fact drawing in the dirt with a bored expression on his face. "He's angry," I answered softly, "he's angry at someone. Not me, just... someone. Maybe his dad." I shrugged.

"Why his father?"

"He mentioned he's looking for evidence of him. It's why we were in Whitetail," I explained, "their security systems should have had recorded footage. Apparently his dad was around here years ago and he wanted to know where the old stallion went next. But as he's said his dad is still up in the clouds right now, that pretty much means his dad pissed him off about something and he's searching for something down here about it. We were his best bet at getting into Whitetail Prison. Now that's a dead-end, I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves us in a few days."

Futurity's eyes flitted to his bound up grumpy looking dog for a moment before turning back to me, "why doesn't he just leave right now?"

I chuckled. "Because he's a child," I turned back to Futurity with a grin, "and children are stubborn about admitting defeat."

He nodded and looked at the others. His eyes moved to Sonnet and Lucky. "And those two? Why do they stay?"

"Sonnet's the only one that can't leave," I explained. "She's got that collar on, but even if she hadn't, we're the only ones she knows out here." The filly's ears twitched as Lucky read to her. "Since being out of her Stable she's almost been taken as a slave twice, actually enslaved by me, attacked by raiders and almost eaten by ghouls. It's only been a few days." I shrugged, took in a deep breath, then let it out in a hiss. I wanted to hate all this, I wanted to _want_to protect her. But I didn't. More than that I wanted more bad things to happen to her. I'm not sadistic. I don't want her to suffer, but I knew it would harden her... but, I could be wrong. The Wasteland didn't just harden ponies, especially not Stable dwellers... it broke them. "I think she's far too traumatised to feel safe around anything unfamiliar right now." I turned back to Futurity and guided his gaze with a hoof. "See her sitting with Lucky?" Futurity nodded. "She's making him read to her, but she's smart enough to read to herself. In fact she's so smart, she can recite bodily decomposition. So why do you think she's making Lucky read her a children's story?"

Futurity looked at Lucky and the filly. "She's escaping into foalhood to forget what's happening around her." I nodded. We watched Sonnet and Lucky in silence for a little bit. She was curled up against him with her eyes closed and her ears perked as she listened. Her breathing was slow and her head rested on Lucky's leg.

"And Lucky?" Futurity asked.

My eyes moved from Sonnet to the lime green stallion. I saw the small tenseness in his shoulders and I heard it in his barely discernible words as he read a children's book to a child he'd sworn to protect, but had done everything to avoid. "He's scared." I answered softly. "And he's trying to atone."

"Before you said he was here for the foal."

I smiled and shook my head. "I was referencing a different foal." I said as a roiling inside me as I pushed away old memories. I waved a hoof, dismissing Futurities further question. "His story. Not mine to tell." Thankfully, Futurity nodded and left it.

We sat in silence then, letting the breeze pass over us as we sat there together. Aero had dozed off with his face buried in his hooves.

"I'm sorry." Futurity said, startling me. I turned and found myself faced with a rather uncomfortable looking Futurity. "I'm sorry," he repeated, "I'm sorry for making Winter attack you, and I'm sorry for locking you up before that." He turned away from me.

"What is it your after?" I asked.

"Nothing I'm just trying to apologise," he said as he glared me for my supposed rudeness.

"No, I mean in general. You said you used the Raiders for your research; you say you're after discovering the differences or the beneficial qualities of all the EUP races, and you say you locked us up because we were in your way and would make good subjects. But what is it you're after?" He nodded at each question then looked down. He frowned and scratched at the dirt with a hoof.

"My Stable is dying," he said softly. I gave him my full attention. "Back when the call went out to fill the Stables, Ponyville was one of the first places evacuated by Ministry order. We opened our doors for the first time five months ago, and since then I've been out three times. Trying to find a solution."

"What's killing them?"

"Time," he answered, "most Stables were set in the largest populations. Cities. Only a few were in such small towns as Ponyville, so our Stable wasn't built to house very many. Which limited breeding variation."

"Oh." I said. Then nodded when it hit me. Inbreeding. "How bad is it?" I asked. I wasn't usually interested about Stable life, but I felt for this stallions plight, even if he had been a git.

"We managed it at first," he said with a shrug, "If anything went wrong we'd replace it with tech. Pony born without a leg? Give them a new one. Born barely able to breathe? Lets give them a new set of mechanical lungs." He said smugly. "You'd be surprised how fast we developed what was needed to survive." His voice burned with pride. I tried to imagine the kind of developments that might be possible with two hundred years. It was difficult to fathom. "But then morals and judgements over the generations began to turn," he continued, "eventually, while frowned upon, degree's of relation began to become... blurred." He grumbled as his pride became sour. "At that point everypony were cousins and when you rely on cybernetics to fix the foals, you stop worrying about the breeding results and just trust the techies and surgeons to do their jobs." He said in disgust.

"You don't have that same opinion?" I asked as I took a drink from a water bottle I'd pulled from my saddlebag. Then offered it to him.

Futurity looked at the bottle for a few seconds before he took it and swallowed a large gulp. When he finished he gave me a grim smile. "My sister was adamant on having our fathers child, but the old coot died before that happened." Well that was an interesting answer, but I understood. Futurity glared at the dirt as he scratched his hooves into the earth. "Let's just say I was lucky to be born bodily correct."

I sighed and decided to push the conversation forward onto his work, perhaps it would prove to be a better topic. "So what is it you're hoping to find? There's isn't much in the way of genetic cures out here." I asked as I snatched back the bottle and took another swig.

He shrugged. "New blood, obviously," he answered, "we didn't know what had happened out here; if ponies had mutated or anything, or maybe they were sterile, or dead, or any number of issues. Maybe you were all diseased." He said as if it were obvious. Which now that I thought about it, it kind of was. "I had to make sure you were genetically viable for breeding." I gave him a curious look before he answered my silent question. "You are."

I thought about it before I remembered what he said back at the prison. "Before you told me it was part of your Overseer Orders from Stable-Tec. What was that about then?" I asked as I gave him the rest of the drinking water which he gulped down.

"Secondary research that happens to tie in with my 'quest for salvation'." He answered as he tossed the now empty water bottle to the side. "Our Stable is an experimental one, entirely earth ponies. No unicorns, no pegasi, nothing but dirty hooves. The orders asked that we study other races and see how they faired culturally, and if they'd scorched Equestria again."

That... was confusing. What had Stable-Tec thought about pony kind in general then? "Did Stable-Tec think earth ponies were the only ones worth anything?" I asked. I'd heard of experimental Stables, usually they were just horror shows though. I'd made it a habit to avoid them.

"I doubt it." He said, shaking his head. "They probably have all-pegasi and all-unicorn Stable's out there somewhere, I think they just wanted to find out what would or would not work socially. It's understandable. Of course, that's my theory anyway."

I smirked at him, understanding the message behind the tone he used. I just couldn't help it, I laughed. "Your peers don't agree?" I asked between chuckles.

He scoffed. "Please, half of them barely notice there's anything wrong with the Stable. They're all for the 'Natural Superiority of Earth Ponies'." He grumbled with a snort, stamping his hoof mockingly before curling up with a grumble.

A silence stretched out between us. I looked up at the clouds to pass the time. The clouds looked angry and I could feel the air pressure grow as they threatened us with the prospect of rain. Within moments the heavens broke, and a torrential downpour descended. Aero yelped as the deluge of water shocked him awake, sending him scrambling for cover. He dove into tent and peeked back out at the river of water and mud that had pooled around us already. The short time in the rain had already soaked his mane through. I grinned, it was too easy. I opened my mouth but a thunderous boom drowned the quip before I could get it out. Instead, I watched him. He looked quite miserable, and stared at the water with suspicious eyes. I doubted it, but maybe Aero was hydrophobic? Though, it wasn't fear in the colts eyes, it was disgust, like the rain was something he really didn't want to touch. It was an oddity I logged away for future perusal. I looked back at Futurity who was busy scowling up at the clouds.

"Not a fan of the rain?" I asked over another thunderous boom.

He shook his head. "Surprised me my second time out, first I was fascinated... then I just wanted it to stop." He mumbled. He shrunk into his tent, trying to keep himself as covered as he could. I wondered what Sonnet's reaction would be, but when I looked over, she and Lucky had fallen asleep with Lucky curled around her. I wasn't sure if that was good or not. It was good for Lucky and Sonnet to bond, but I worried about Lucky's condition. It could get her killed.

I pulled myself up and sharp pain lanced up my left hoof. I grit my teeth, then looked up at the sky through rain soaked glasses. Now was as good a time as any.

"I've got things I need to do. Rest well." I told the red stallion and started trotting away.

"Hey, Tome." Futurity said behind me. I stopped and turned back to him.

He nodded respectfully. "Thank you... for giving me a chance. And for not killing me."

I nodded at first then let a smirk out. "'Nights still young." I said through a chuckle. I left him looking confused and worried.

*** *** ***

I limped away from the encampment. I shouldn't have left this for so long.

I looked back at the tents, then at where Stranger still sat in the pouring rain. Rivulets of water poured down his hat. He wasn't looking down his scope though, he was looking at me.

He nodded.

A shiver ran down my back as I nodded back.

Some distance from the camp, I found a rock formation with an overturned carriage behind it. Whoever had driven the thing had crashed the carriage against the rocks, then just left it for time to eat away at. It'd do. I crawled under. Thick brambles prickled my hide as I scurried. It wasn't exactly nice but it didn't need to be. It just needed to be relatively dry.

I slipped off my glasses and cleaned them on my dirty barding. I tried getting them dry and clear for five minutes before I let out a huff and gave up. The air was just too moist and I was doing little more than smudging water over the glass. I slipped them back on, then looked down at my stump. I reached for it with my good hoof and unlatched the prosthetic before slowly easing it off. I hissed as the cool air touched bare flesh. The stump was scarred, swollen, red and irritable. It had grown distorted in the confines of the prosthetic. I should have been more careful. I should have avoided those radiation areas. That bloody bog me and Stranger had waded through a few weeks ago, and that crater before that? Not to mention wading through the irradiated waters at Neighagra Falls. And Whitetail Prison too with its glowing one didn't help. I was going to kill myself if I kept this up.

I sighed and grit my teeth. Just had to get it over with as fast as possible. The rain battered the carriage, a small river of water poured in, and the thunder above drowned out everything. I delved into my saddlebags and pulled out three things. One was a belt, next was a short wooden bit that had teeth marks dug into it from previous use, and the final object was a bone saw.

I tied the belt around the fetlock of my left hoof tight enough to cut off circulation. I shoved the wooden bit into my mouth and bit down. Then I clipped my hoof into the handle of the bone saw. I measured. Then set the blade edge an inch from my stump. Then I sat there, staring at the area. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, I waited... and waited... and waited... thunder struck overhead.

I screamed.

*** *** ***

Anypony that tells you getting a limb removed isn't as bad as you'd expect has never had to cut through the flesh and bone themselves. It's worse than you expect. Every time.

The pain does not merge together. It doesn't numb overtime, and it is never easy to keep going. My first ever time doing this, I passed out. The second time I threw up AND passed out. After three years you would think I'd be used to it. You'd be wrong. You don't get used to it. I wasn't sure I wanted to.

I sat in the mud with my stump extended out into the rain letting the water wash over it. A full inch of severed leg sat nearby; a bloody slab of meat that sent a roiling through my stomach every time I looked at it. I was panting and I could not stop shaking. Going into shock is not the best idea, sure it numbed pain, but you had to calm yourself, let the pain wash over you... or the shock could kill you. I breathed in. Then closed my eyes. As I did, the water running down my face became noticeable. I wasn't even sure when I'd started crying.

"Mister-Master Tome-Sir?" A small voice asked from outside my small shelter.

I yanked my hoof back in and hid it from view. "W-what do you want?!" I snapped.

I glanced at my bags. I needed a healing potion... I started searching for it frantically as the filly crawled through the mud under the carriage to join me.

I felt her hoof gently lay itself in my leg and I froze. The touch seemed to burn my skin even through my barding. Slowly, the filly guided my left hoof out of hiding, I wanted to resist, but hey, I was feeling sensitive. Mud had covered the stump in my haste to hide it from view. There wasn't much blood, the belt cutting off the circulation saw to that, but it did drip a little as she looked it over. Sonnet looked over the stump with a warmth that I hadn't seen from anypony in a long time. She glanced up at me for a moment then she turned and put a hoof into my saddlebags and pulled out a water bottle. She slowly began to clean the stump. When she was done she pulled out a healing potion of which I took a single swig. Just enough to stop the bleeding and promote healing. She gestured for me to take more, but I shook my head.

"...I can't." I croaked. "If I take too much it can grow back... need to seal it and constrict it in the prosthetic."

She looked at me curiously, then nodded. She pulled out one of the blankets we had -in truth it was one of the ones I used for her- and bundled it up. She laid it into the mud as a pillow between me and the dirt, then placed my bloodied hoof on the blanket's surface. It was surprisingly comfortable.

I looked at my leg on the blanket then I looked at her. We stared at each other in silence, just listening to the storm as it roiled overhead.

She was staring at me expectantly. I knew what she wanted.

I turned away from her eyes and stayed silent for a long time, just watching the rain and listening to the thunder and lightning that flashed above. With each flash and powerful roar, I noticed Sonnet twitch. I could see each furtive glance she gave to the rumbling storm that raged outside our small shelter. Her agoraphobia was acting up, but she was putting on a brave face for me. I chuckled. A filly I'd enslaved was trying to comfort me of all ponies...

A curious expression crossed her face as she looked at me; I dismissed her with a wave of my right hoof, giving her an almost warm smile. Then my face drooped as my melancholy returned.

The silence seemed to stretch on for hours, but I was sure it had only been minutes. She sat there with me, waiting patiently.

"I'm dying." My voice was smaller than I'd meant it to be. She didn't seem surprised by the news and barely reacting to the words as she watched me. "Taint," I continued. My voice was barely loud enough to be heard in the roaring rain. "Taint mutates the body. Kills you as a pony and turns you into a monster. It can happen at any moment, at any time. Taint will one day kill me." I was stared at my hoof. "My mother was... she was pregnant with me and she got infected. Not by much, but it doesn't take much. I was born... wrong." I gestured to my hoof and she looked down at it. "Remember when I told you I'd gotten caught by the raiders because of an incident with a rock?" She nodded. "My left fetlock has never ended in a hoof," I explained, "for most of my life I've been a partially mutated freak. I was born with a tentacle where my hoof should be," She stared at my bloody stump, "it used to move against my will sometimes; I could control it if I needed to but it never worked very well. It hit a rock while I was trying to hide and the rock fell down the cliff face. I got caught." I said with a shrug. "When I was chained up, they liked to chain me up by the tentacle. When Stranger came in, I saw it as a way to save myself. One of them went after Stranger with a bone-saw but they were taken down and it landed near me; Stranger took out the Raiders but he never actually freed me... I freed myself." I looked down at the stump.

"You cut it off?" She asked softly.

I nodded. "Afterwards I was delirious and I don't remember much. But Stranger told me the next day that I had saved him." I smiled a little. "Some asshole had a shotgun to his head, would have killed him just fine, even being a Canterlot Ghoul." I was surprised when she made no reaction at the mention of what Stranger was. I thought she'd developed a traumatic aversion to ghouls, but maybe I was missing something. "Apparently I took the guy out, bone saw to the neck and passed out after. Stranger dragged me out of the camp while I was unconscious. He didn't have to... it wasn't the kind of thing he did back then. But he did it anyway... I'm not sure why." I said honestly.

"It's growing back... isn't it?" She asked.

I nodded. "Taint is agitated by Radiation. It can cause extra mutations and increase the speed in which it mutates the body. I already heal faster than a normal pony should, and I can even regrow limbs over a period of months." I looked at the hoof and glared. "I'm never letting this one grow back."

The stump had healed over mostly, but it was scarred, scabbed and raw. I slowly unlatched the belt on my fetlock and let blood circulate into the end of my limb again. I watched as parts of the stump burst and blood drooled from the wounds. I hissed as pain lanced up my hoof as the feeling returned to the stump. Damnit, blood was staining the blanket pillow Sonnet had kindly set up for me.

"Why did you save me?" The filly asked after a few minutes of silence. I turned to Sonnet and looked her in the eyes. She was looking at me warmly, like I was actually someone that mattered to her.

"Because Stranger told me to," I answered honestly. Her expression fell a little before I added, "and in this fucked up world, he's the closest thing I have to a conscience any more."

*** *** ***

We slept there in the pooled mud and splattered blood; we slept under the dirty carriage by the cold stone. And for some reason... I think we slept well.

"Hey." Lucky's voice greeted me, and I cracked open my eyes. He was staring at me with Stranger behind him. I looked at them from under the carriage and turned to Sonnet beside me. I nudged the sleeping filly awake then pulled her out with me, crawling on three hooves so as to not dirty my stump again. I would have to stay off it for the day before I could put it back into the prosthetic.

Thankfully, I was accustomed to being three legged. The tentacle had always been somewhat flaccid. All muscle and tissue, very little in the way of bone to keep it up. So it'd always been terrible for support. So I grew up moving about on three legs. Imagine my joy when I finally got the damn thing in a prosthetic and could walk like a normal pony. Despite the growing pains... just being able to walk normally was worth it. Well, that and the looks. The looks were something I'd never miss.

I pulled myself up, careful to keep my stump raised away from the ground. A half asleep Sonnet stood beside me yawning and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It was absolutely adorable. I looked at Lucky, who was looking at my leg and I could see the curiosity boiling in his eyes. I resisted the urge to hide the stump, even if he couldn't see it he'd still ask.

"Not yet." I told him. Though, I felt much calmer than I'd been last night. Hell, I was even feeling good about myself. Was that the therapy of the pain? Or my heart-to-heart with Sonnet? Either way, I was feeling better than I had since the Stable.

Lucky nodded to me and I looked at Stranger behind him, our eyes met, and he too gave me a respectful nod.

"You bucks done fuckin' over there or what?" Aero's loud and grumpy voice said from the tents.

"Stallions," I said as I approached the tents, "and there's a filly present, watch your language." I demanded while glaring at the feather brain. Despite being in a better mood, the feather-brain in the group was enough to make me feel sullen.

Then Sonnet piped up behind me. "Mister-Master-Tome-Sir, what's 'fuckin' mean?" I really should buck Aero round the face once or twice.

My brow raised and Aero slunk back a step, as though afraid I would actually hit him. I turned to her and sat down. "Well, it's complicated." I said.

She nodded. "I can tell." She said. "It seems variations of the word 'fuck' are used as an exclamation point within sentence structure to accentuate a heightened situation, but Mister Aero just used it in a different context."

I balked then looked at Stranger for help. The git was decidedly looking elsewhere, apparently the hills on the horizon were very interesting now. Oh, so I should save the filly AND teach her about the appropriate use of swear words? Fuck I'd like to take that rifle of his and shove it right up- "Why do you care?" I asked while looking down at her curiously.

She shrugged. "I've never heard these words before. You use different vernacular out here than we use in..." She paused. "... home." She finished. It was like her brain had stalled when the stable had come up. Then it reset... like the pause had never happened. "I find it all very interesting." She smiled warmly. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was an expression of a filly having fun... Not a good sign.

"There are some words you shouldn't learn." I grumbled.

"Let her learn what she fuckin' wants." Aero snapped suddenly.

"Someone woke up grumpy." Lucky grumbled beside me as he headed for his own tent too.

"Oh shut your mouth you old git," Aero said, "I may play guard dog for the prisoner and the mutt; but I ain't part of this group and I ain't your slave." He said that last part to me.

I just sighed. It was gonna be one of those times. Fair enough. "So what's got you upset today, Aero?" I asked in a monotonous tone. I was getting bored of his childish tantrums.

"Same thing as I was pissed about yesterday. We went in there for a reason and we left without it! The deal was, you help me, I help you. So if you ain't gonna help me, I don't see no reason to stick around."

"You really should stay." Huh... hadn't expected him to speak up. All our eyes turned to Futurity who was still in his tent, a grumpy looking Winter still tied down next to him. Futurity was gently patting the dogs head to sooth it. "Can we please untie Winter, this is somewhat cruel." He mumbled, then gave me a glare. I had to admit, Winter was looking pathetic. My only hesitation were the large claws it had for paws. Yeah, they were something of a deterrent.

"Stay out of this." Aero said to him while his triple-barrel canons whirred at his sides as they cocked and jerked in a sort of mechanical threat.

I returned my attention to the pegasus. "I tried. I got you in. But it was far too dangerous, and we have a filly to care for."

"Then you shouldn't have brought her along." Aero retorted.

"Actually it was a good thing he did, it got me interested." Futurity muttered. "Can I please loosen these ropes? I think they're twisting his legs awkwardly, it might be painful."

Aero ignored the red stallion. "If you're so concerned for her, then why take her into such a place. Everything you did in there was a fuck-up!" He spat. "From the mines outside to the-"

"-the part where you blew a hole in a door and let loose a bunch of ghouls on us?" I finished for him, my brow raised.

The red stallion piped up again, "seriously, I think the ropes are chafing him. This is cruelty ya know."

"WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT YOUR DOG! NO ONE CARES!" Aero suddenly bellowed.

"You should. He's got all the computer files and recordings you need stored in his head." Futurity said calmly.

Silence.

HAH! So there was a way to shut the feather-brain up.

"What?" Aero said. His face was priceless... I think had a camera stashed somewhere... did I have time to grab it?

Futurity shrugged. "I told you back when you first ran off, I needed to back up my work." His hoof tapped on the metal cybernetic components that covered the large dogs right eye and a little over his head. "I included the computers files. Including many of the recording the computer had. Forty years worth; there were more of course, the records went back almost two centuries, but I chose twenty years from the war period for analysis of societal norms back then and twenty years from today. Twenty is far enough back right?"

"And you didn't tell us?" Lucky asked from his corner. He'd already begun compacting his tent and was currently stuffing the tarp into a saddlebag as he looked over.

Futurity nodded sagely. "Oh yes, I am, of course, going to tell my captors all of the vital information I may or may not have rather than waiting until I can use it for my benefit. Truly that would be the intellectual thing to do." I liked his sarcasm.

"And what benefit is it to you now?" It was Stranger that spoke. I was happy he did. The moment the words left his mouth, Futurity twitched.

He stared at Stranger, his eyes twitching a little as he turned away. "I require your aid in both escorting me back to my Stable, and in my research, which you will provide me in exchange for the information you seek." A bargain, huh.

"Why don't we just beat it out of you?" Aero asked with a malicious grin.

Everyone's eyes rolled. "Because it's in my dogs head, not mine, you imbecile." Futurity answered with the same expression upon his face that I had. Seriously, I was tempted to deck Aero just to try and knock some smarts into him.

"W-well..." Aero stuttered as he tried to gain some ground in the intellect department. "Why don't we just download it from your dog, with that PipBuck the filly's got?" That... that was actually a good idea. Huh.

Futurity shrugged again. "Be my guest," he said with a chuckle, "but it's all encrypted. It'll require an algorithm to decrypt it that the PipBuck just won't have. But I do-" he gave us a look, "-back at home, in Stable 101."

...The git.

*** *** ***

"You realise the roundabout way of this, right?" Lucky asked me as we walked, interrupting a perfectly good bout of silence. I looked at Futurity who walked ahead of us with his dog beside him.

"Eyup," I answered then glanced to make sure both Stranger and Aero still had their weapons ready and drawn. They did.

"That we're helping someone, to help Aero, to help us?" He continued.

"Eyup," I repeated.

Then silence descended again, stretching out between us. So many unsaid words, so many things that needed to be stated and voiced... but nothing came. Lucky's mouth opened at some point, but predictably it closed again. Ever the coward.

"You cut it off." He finally said, surprising me. Was he finally gonna talk to me about it?

"I did." I answered, glancing at him from the corner of my eye.

"It's growing back, isn't it? That's why you had to do... that... last night." He was staring at my raised stump as I walked on three legs. By tonight I could put it back into its prosthetic, and that's the last I'd have to deal with it... for a while. "I'm sorry."

I shot him a glare, "I'm not after your fucking pity, Lucky." He flinched back at my words. Good. "Why are you here?" I asked him. If he wasn't going to bring it up, then I fucking would, because I was sick of this prancing around. I'd spilled my guts to Sonnet last night, so hey, I might as well get what was needed out into the open with Lucky too so I could bury it back in the ground again.

"I told you..." He mumbled, "I'm here for the-"

"-the foal?" I finished with a raised brow."Cut the bullshit." He turned away from me. Fucking coward. "Fine then, let me ask you something else, why hasn't 'It' happened yet?"

"It?" He asked in a low tone. He was being depressive again. Why did I get the strong feeling that this stallions mind was about as macabre as one could get. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a funeral march theme in his fucking head wherever he went.

"It." I said firmly. "'It' should have happened back at the Stable. 'It' should have happened with the Slavers and Raiders, and 'It' certainly should have happened at Whitetail Prison. So tell me Lucky... why are we still alive with you here."

He gulped and looked down at his hooves, staring at them as he shifted from one to another, like his fetlocks were suddenly the most interesting thing in Equestria. "I don't know." he said. Shit he was actually being honest.

Silence again.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could feel the lump in my throat growing. "I know why you left. I get it, I really do, and I'd probably have done the same in your place." I opened my eyes and found him looking at me now. Sweet Celestia, he looked about to cry. God he was pathetic. I turned away, not wanting to look at those eyes any more. "I get it. But I was a foal. I'd just lost everything. And yeah, I get why ya did and maybe it was right to do-" I turned to him and fixed him with a glare, "-but I will never forgive you for abandoning me."

A tear ran down his cheek. Good, he could appreciate how I'd felt all those years ago. I turned away and moved up in the group to stand beside Stranger. He turned and gave me a look. That look. I turned away from him too.

*** *** ***

The sky above us was... well it was the Wasteland sky. It was overcast as always. But something about it made me feel jumpy. The clouds seemed thinner. In the distance I could see a small homestead. The large spires and relatively small buildings were a staple design that I instantly recognised. Besides, who could forget those light pinks and purples of the desecrated Carousel Boutique. Ponyville.

"Wait." I ordered. Everypony stopped. Not because I'd demanded it, but more because Stranger had stopped. I know they were following his lead because they glanced at him before they obeyed me. Since when did Stranger, the guy Aero had been condemning last night, warrant more respect than myself. Assholes. "That's Ponyville." I pointed to the town.

"Yes it is." Futurity agreed, glancing to it before looking back at me, obviously searching for the point I was trying to make. "Shall we continue?"

"I know where this leads," I expressed, pointing in the direction we were heading, "where exactly is your Stable?" I challenged.

"The Everfree Forest, beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters." He answered calmly.

My brow raised and I shook my head. "Oh no, you expect us to go in there?" I challenged. "We have a filly with us." Sonnet's hooves tightened a little at the mention of her presence. She'd been travelling on my back as usual. Her weight had become comforting.

"The Everfree Forest?" Aero asked, looking concerned. "Ain't it supposed to be dangerous? The cloud cover don't work like it's supposed to. Even above the clouds it's weird."

"Winter can protect us from anything in those trees. It's perfectly fine." Futurity assured me. He turned and began walking again.

"He better." I mumbled. We began moving, or at least, most of us. I turned my head and Lucky was just standing there, hell, he seemed frozen. His eyes were wide and, for the life of me, if I didn't know him better, I'd say Lucky looked... afraid.

But he never looked afraid. What could he be afraid of? Nothing could touch- oh... I remembered.

"No." Lucky's voice was quiet.

"Lucky, sir?" Sonnet asked softly from my back.

Aero grumbled impatiently, "hurry up, you old coot."

"No, no! Fuck no! Not there!" He shouted before back-pedalling. His eyes closed and his hooves dug into the soil beneath him as though he were trying desperately not to fall apart.

"...You alright?" Aero asked, bewildered. "Gramps, you're lookin' pale."

Lucky shook his head rapidly. "I'm sorry... I can't." He turned back the way we'd come.

"NO!" Sonnet squealed, startling us all. She jumped off my back and I tried to catch her but the little git was surprisingly fast. She jumped out of my reach and quickly latched herself onto Lucky's leg.

"Leave him, Sonnet." I said.

Lucky shook his leg vigorously, trying his best to shake her off. "Let go!" He grunted, but she was stuck fast.

"NO!" She screamed at him. "No! NO!"

Then Lucky snapped, and everything started moving painfully slow. Something in his eyes broke, his eye-lids went wide and unfocused. And for a single moment his face contorted with pain.

"LET GO!" He yelled as his hoof struck. Sonnet fell to the floor her cheek bruised and her lip bleeding from the blow. Tears began running down her cheeks as she looked at Lucky. Lucky's eyes shifted back into focus and he balked. A silence descended as we watched the older stallion and the filly stare at each other. "I... I'm sorry," he said before he turned and began to gallop away. Sonnet watched him go with her hoof against her bruised cheek.

No one said a word. I wasn't sure why. Surely Aero would be wondering what was going on, maybe Futurity would have some choice words at the sudden display of inter-group drama presented before him. But they didn't. They didn't speak.

I picked Sonnet up and placed her on my back. She started crying into my mane. I was surprised she still had tears left to shed. Poor girl. Lucky was the first one to protect her. He had even stood up to me. He'd always been the one that was just... there. She'd lost her Stable and the only life she'd ever known as well as her mother. When she'd finally gained something here in the Wasteland, a big part of it ran away.

The first information reel I'd listened to covered the basics of psychology in an educational format, but the second reel went into things at a more advanced level. I'd yet to reach that point in the second tape but I was pretty sure Sonnet was developing some big abandonment issues.

I'm sorry girl. That's just how the Wasteland is. Eventually... everyone leaves.

*** *** ***

The Everfree Forest loomed before us.

It was a deceptive sight. The sky above the forest was cheery enough for the wasteland. The cloud cover broke once in a while and blessed us with glimpses of the sky beyond. Rays of sunshine flickered in and out as the clouds thinned and shifted. The trees, seemingly untouched by the desolation of the wasteland, were a vibrant display of gorgeous browns and golds that grew high above our heads. It was as though time stood still here, an homage to the world of the past. It wasn't though.

The forest had been dangerous even before the War, and two hundred years later it was only worse. Trees had become the whispering agents of a pony's death, and the pretty plants desired to consume all those that dared to tread through this dark place. Also it was home to other things with big teeth... that was a thing too.

"Weapons check." I called out. I let Sonnet drop from my back as I pulled off my saddlebags. I pulled out both my pistol and my rifle. The rifle was decidedly _not_in good condition. I needed to replace it, and soon. I couldn't now though, so I would have to do what basic maintenance I could. I offered Sonnet the pistol and she took it without a word, which was unsettling. She didn't seem to realise what she was holding. She was just so... depressed. Seriously? Did we really just get rid of one mopy team member only for the small one to take up the role? Ugh... this was gonna be a long day.

Speaking of... I looked up from my rifle and turned my attention to the sky again. It was getting dark already.

I looked at the others. Aero was once again trying to convince Stranger to let him take a look at his rifle. Futurity stood impatiently while Winter paced behind him. "Scratch the weapons check, we've got plenty of time to do that while we camp. We'll head in first light tomorrow."

"What?" Futurity exclaimed. "But... it's like... half an hour's walking distance. We would be there soon."

"Yup." I replied as I pulled out the tent tarp. "Plenty of time for us to get lost, eaten or turned inside out by Killing Joke, and that's during the day; check the sky." He glanced up. "It'd be foolish to go in there when its dark."

He glared. "Well maybe we'd be there by now if you hadn't of slept in so late with the filly." he countered. His eyes shifted from me to her. The git better not be insinuating what I thought he was insinuating.

"I'm sorry, I was up late last night playing doctor with a bone saw." I said while shaking my stump at him. That got a reaction out of him. He turned away looking somewhat grossed out. Huh, wouldn't have thought he was the type to be squeamish. Then again, I couldn't remember anytime he'd been close to a bad wound, even when Aero had his throat ripped out he'd been turned away, focused on the doorway. But what about the experiments in the prison medical areas... wasn't that him? Questions were starting to pile up. "Just be thankful the walk up here was uneventful. This place is usually heavy with Raiders, so count your blessings, shut up, and set up camp." I grumbled as I threw some tarp to Aero. He looked at it as though it were the most foreign thing in the world. He didn't have the barest idea of how to set it up... Stranger though, wordlessly moved to help him as I began set up mine.

"And isn't staying out here likely to get us in trouble with raiders then?" Futurity challenged.

I sighed. "Possible, but unlikely. Raider's are stereotypically not the brightest spark plugs in the drawer; kinda like Aero here."

"Hey!" The pegasus snapped indignantly.

"But even they are smart enough to avoid the forest." I continued as I raised my left hoof to hammer a nail into the ground. Then I remembered it wasn't in its prosthetic or even healed yet. So I grabbed a hammer instead. "Besides," I continued, "they are the only things that'd be trying to kill us out here tonight, everything will be trying to kill us when we go in there." I mumbled through the hammer as I worked. "I'd rather stick with the things that bullets actually work against." Once the tent frame was set up I covered it with the tarp and shoved my stuff into the shelter.

"Fine." Futurity grumbled as he began setting up his own tent that Stranger had provided for him.

Sonnet wasted no time slipping into my tent and curling up in my sleeping bag. I could feel Futurity's eyes on me. I liked the stallion, he was a good conversationalist, but if he didn't stop giving me that look when it came to Sonnet, I was going to deck him.

I looked at Sonnet. "Hey... are you alright?" I'm an idiot, of course she wasn't but I wasn't really sure how to approach depressed ponies. Give me a trader and I could barter. Give me a pony to swindle and I could get the caps out of their pocket. Give me a pony to impress and I'll have them fawning in minutes. But give me a depressed pony and... Shit. I had no fucking clue what I'm doing.

I'm better at pissing ponies off.

Sonnet shrugged. I sighed, then grit my teeth. I turned to Stranger who looked back at me. I gave him a pleading look... the git shrugged. Great. Wonderful help. Inspirational.

"I'm fine." Sonnet's small voice declared grumpily. Grumping now? Damnit. Okay, seriously, I should just skip to the therapy section of my tapes, because I was confused. Shouldn't she just be upset that Lucky left? So why was she angry... and with me? What did I do?

"Food." I said firmly, because food solved everything in the wasteland. Seriously, you could calm a rabid raider with food. Food was good. It was safe. Safe is good. Yup, yup, yup.

"Grub?" Aero perked up with a hopeful expression.

I nodded to him. "Food." I confirmed.

I found some precooked Brahman meat in our rations. I salted it up a bit and shoved a plate near her with what I hoped was a pleasant expression. Filly's liked smiles right? ...right?

She gave it a look then gave me a dead-panned expression. Ah... right... meat. Wait... Was she thinner than before? I could see her ribs and I certainly couldn't when I'd first met her. I mean, seeing the ribs of a pony was pretty much standard, I'd expected it on others. But she was a cute filly, she still had baby fat... or was supposed to.

"What?" She snapped at me.

My smile faded. "When was the last time you ate?" I asked her. I'd shown her where the food was in my saddlebags and given her free reign. I often left my saddlebags when we'd camped so I didn't always have to carry anything around, she'd had plenty of chances to eat... but the last time I could remember distinctly seeing her eat was-

"The peaches." She answered for me. The ones Vanilla Milkshake had given to her... three days ago.

...My brain stalled...

"You haven't eaten for three days?" I asked softly. Her posture changed from grumpy, to slightly fearful as I closed my eyes and bit the inside of my cheek. I sighed. Of course... in the wasteland, nothing good ever lasts long. My eyes opened after a minute and I fixed her with a look. "Eat."

"I'm fine." She mumbled. I hadn't used this tone since I'd tried to get her to eat the first time.

"Eat." I ordered again. "I won't ask a third time." She was making me do this.

She looked past me at the others. All movement had stopped. I could feel their eyes watching us. Who had I been kidding. Going soft on a filly, as if the Wasteland might spare her it's hell. Us connecting? Us having heart to hearts and even cuddles... it was nice while it lasted. I think she had even started seeing me as her 'hero'.

I'm not a hero.

I grabbed the food and took a small bite, I chewed it, then grabbed her. She squealed as my lips forcibly met hers. Fuck what it looked like.

"Holy shit!" Aero exclaimed in shock.

"What in Tartarus?!" I heard Futurity yell, though his shock was also laced in riotous anger. Hooves approached, probably to stop me, but they stopped. I felt Stranger's presence keeping everyone at a distance. Stranger knew what I was doing. That or he just trusted that it wasn't what it seemed.

I covered her nose until the filly's mouth opened to gasp in air, I shoved the food into her mouth with my tongue and pulled away, forcing her jaw shut. Then I held it closed as she struggled. I stroked her throat to stimulate reflex and force her to swallow. I let her jaw go when she did to grab the meat again. She was screaming for help as she tried to scramble away. I bit, I chewed, I kissed her, I held her nose, I forced the food into her mouth, and I made her swallow. I did it again. And again. She threw up, I wiped her mouth with my hoof, and continued, ignoring the taste. She tried biting my tongue. I ignored the pain and carried on.

Twenty minutes later the meat was gone. She'd only thrown up once. She'd resisted the urge after that because I'd pointed out I had a lot more meat. She knew I'd continue if I felt she hadn't eaten enough.

I sat in the corner of the camps, a few feet from my tent. I looked over my rifle, trying to occupy myself by making sure it was in good condition. The filly sobs could be heard from my tent. She hadn't left the makeshift shelter... yet. The clouds above were probably messing with her agoraphobia. I had stationed Stranger beside my tent to stop her from stepping out. He continued to monitor her. I couldn't have her running off to throw up somewhere that I couldn't see.

Everyone, other than Stranger, was glaring at me.

"Why?" Aero asked me in his suit's distorted voice. His helmet was up again. Did he just wear that thing so that he could feel intimidating? Seriously, it was pathetic.

"Because I'm saving her." I answered as I checked the ammo clip of my rifle. "And she doesn't have to like me for me to do that."

The camp had descended into silence.

Futurity had calmed down when he had realised what I'd been doing. But he looked concerned. Kinda. His eyes were... weird. He was looking at me like he would look at a test subject. I knew that look... it was the kind somepony would get when they saw something they wanted to dissect. How did I know that look?

Oh...It was my look.

...Guess I hadn't lost myself yet.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Forceful Compulsion - Ponies do what you say, even if you have to make them! Your manner has gained you 5+ CHR when dealing with those of lower CHR than yourself.

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(Authors Note: And that's the new chapter down. That's a little lore and backstory and character interaction to warm the hearts and turn the stomach! Hehehehe. I sincerely hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to all of your opinions and reviews. ^-^ Thanks so much to Kkat and the original _Fallout: Equestria_story, Thanks to my amazing editor for getting this out on deadline, and thanks to all those that are reading this and actually give a crap about it. :) You make writing worth it.

Comment and subscribe. J)

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(Editors Note: Sup folks! That's two deadlines in a row that I;ve met. I'm on a roll! On fire baby!

Ack! Shit! I'm actually on fire.... Almanac?! Get the fire hydrant! Please! My pants are on fire!)