Chapter 10-

The Mare Who Broke the Bank

“Giddy up Fellas! I gotta get the heck outta Dodge!”

How did I end up inside of a dark, irradiated mine doubling as a poor excuse for ghoul bar, in the middle of an Old Appleloosan-style Standoff, with guns trained on me from every angle? Those were the questions that kept me going every night. And why was it always in a bar of some sort?

Each heartbeat felt longer. The invisible fires in the mine were there with me, even if I couldn’t see them. Moments seemed to drag on for eternity as we stood still. Time I couldn’t spare.

“I said, I don’t want any trouble.” I winced, the bullet in my arm painfully squirming around inside my shoulder. “But I ain’t no pushover, either.” I pushed the barrel of my rifle closer to Fester’s glowing slightly-translucent face, which caused him to shrink backwards. Even though they were zombies, they clearly still feared for their lives.

The ol’-timey-dressed cowpony ghouls all hovered near the triggers of their weapons. Waiting for me to flinch.

He put on a crooked, if twitchy, smile. Trying to act like he was still in control of the situation. “Easy now, we can still chat like civilized ponies, can’t we?”

The longer I stood here, the more I longed to down a packet of rad-away, but I couldn’t do that with all of these ghouls standing around me.

“Why do you all sulk around in an irradiated mine all day like a bunch of losers? Wouldn’t you rather be out in the sunlight like everyone else?”

“Down here the mayor looks the other way, so long as we pay our dues. We’re all just trying to make a living. Plus, we’re away from the bigots. We can just sit here and enjoy the glow. They were digging tunnels down here during the war and set off some sorta megaspell. Left the whole mine irradiated, with tons of untapped resources. Comfy for us ghouls. Not so much for smoothcoats like yourself. ”

“How does a small mining company get their hooves on something like a megaspell?” I questioned. And what were they even digging for, for that matter? Raw minerals?

“Who can say, really? I was never that high up the ladder, but... maybe I heard a thing or two?” From his disgusting gap-toothed smile, I could tell he probably knew something. His eyes rolled back as he reminisced, “Ah, Cherry Jubilee… what a lady. Down here we can huff Cloud Kiss all we like and remember the good ol’ days. It’s one of the few drugs that actually works on our kind. Gives a high like no other, too.”

“What a bunch of old stuff.” I scoffed.

Fester sat up a little, becoming less nervous as time went on. He snickered to himself, inhaling deeply and breathed out a huff of pink smoke. “Helluva mare she was. All sorts of backroom dealings, and government work. There was the showmare she displayed in public, but then there was the real pony. Y’know the feeling when you want something real bad, but deep down you know you can never have it? She was always just out of reach… She’s the one the mayor takes after. Rubi thinks she can have it all. Wants everything for herself too. She’s even got her other mining operations up and running, for trading steel to the NCR. I bet she’d kill to know what was down here though...”

Glancing around at them as he spoke, I counted, five, ten… twenty? Maybe more? Those sounds I heard deeper in the mine could’ve been ferals. Dammit. They were backing off for now, but for how long? The tunnels probably went on for miles further underground and maybe popped up Celestia knows where.

“And what’s that?” I asked, but he just smiled in response.

As I was busy calculating the best plan of action in my head, my eyes briefly dwelled upon the crates hidden down deeper into one of the mineshafts with a modified MEW poking out of one of them and I realized that I’d found the source of the weapons in the city. It looked like they were running a smuggling operation out of here. Had to give credit to these ghouls, since probably most ponies would have apprehensions about coming down into an irradiated mine.

From the crate, I noticed the stores upon stores of dynamite and many other high-caliber weapons that they poorly attempted to section off behind a barrier. Barrels and crates were stacked on top of one another. Some of it was stuffed into a tipped over minecart. I cringed, thinking that would be nowhere near enough if this place went up in a fireball. Then I felt another uncomfortable twinge in my shoulder.

“You look thirsty for some rad-away, filly…” he grimaced, raising his hoof up to the others to get them to relax. They slowly lowered their weapons. “It’s okay. We won’t gank ya from behind. Go ahead...” Fester rasped motioning towards the packets of radaway sitting inside my saddlebag. Hesitantly I eyed them, then the ghoul, then my saddlebag again. l darted inside, grabbing them up as quickly and began greedily downing their contents. One did help enough, so I drank the other one along with it. I gagged on the orange colored liquid and its medicine-like taste, taking several deep breaths afterwards before raising my gun back up.

Fester sat back in amazement, “Wow, you really scarf those down quickly!” He admired.

I scoffed in return. I only needed double the normal amount because only Luna knew my stupid fucked-up biology that made me resistant to the stuff. But I noticed something else when I went to reach into my saddlebag. Somepony had stuck a stealthbuck mk. II in there, along with a couple extra packets of rad-away. “Gee, how did those get there?” I wondered, my inner voice dripping with sarcasm. “Was it Three-Card Monte before he shoved me into the cave? It must’ve been.” Griping to myself, I lamented how grenades would’ve been more useful…

“But how many of those packets do you have on you?” He chuckled forebodingly, “Moreover, how are expecting to make it out of the Rot alive?” By my count maybe one left.

“Shut up.” I grunted, pushing the barrel of my rifle closer to his face. The others kept their weapons trained on me in response. Aside from him, there were about three of them closeby, their weapons hot and trained on me. Another four sitting at a table to my right, reaching. A couple of others to my left. Four at the bar, including the bartender-

“Hey mare. Ya listening?” he asked, cutting off my internal train of thought.

Screwing my face in annoyance, I answered with biting sarcasm. “Yeah. I was planning on grabbing that and walking out of here. So hurry up and give it over, then I think I’ll be goin- urgh,” I felt a sudden spike of pain, clutching my shoulder.

“We already moved most of the weapons like Jagged wanted. So you won’t find em here. Maybe a gun or two we’ve skimmed off the top for ourselves…” he admitted freely. I could see a good number of the ghouls were armed with the same type of modified weapons from before. “I suppose he’s talking about the other thing though.”

The bastard was trying to stall me, it was obvious. “How much do you know about Jagged Knife? The ‘real’ Jagged Knife? He was just a colt when I first met him. Now look at the little street rat, and what he’s built for himself.” the ghoul chuckled aloud. “I can see what he’s planning from a mile away. I gotta admit, I’ve still got a soft spot for the lil’ bastard, but I don’t plan on becoming a casualty in this lil rodeo of his.”

I clutched my shoulder, choking back the squirming agony inside my flesh. “You bastards are pissing me off,” I snarled, attempting to stay in control of the situation. The air in the Rot combined with the radiation was such an unpleasant sensation. I was already beginning to feel lightheaded, like I wanted to hurl, but also it felt sorta… weird. Like the radiation was simultaneously burning away at my insides while the bullet crawled around in my shoulder, but I also felt warm and fuzzy at the same time. Sort of dizzy too. “Must be the stupid chems in the air,” I thought. I had to get this over with fast, or there might not be anything left of me but a half-melted pony corpse.

“Jagged got where he is through cunning. It’s a mistake to underestimate the killer in him. Say you get out of here? How can you be sure he’s not just gonna gank you too once he’s finished with you?” He asked.

“He said he’s retired,” I grunted in response.

That caused the ghoul to burst out into laughter alongside the others. Not like I believed him, anyways. “Whaddya say, we cut a deal instead?” Fester reached into his duster coat and pulled out a packet of rad-away, which he set on the table in front of himself. “Tell me what this does, and I’ll give you the medicine.” He looked at one of the others standing off to the side. “Stagecoach. Bring it here,” he ordered.

The ghoul named Stagecoach, galloped off into one of the tunnels and I could hear his hooves echoing as he went. I was feeling too weak to do anything but wait as the effects of the radiation already beginning to set in again.

The glow down here was hot and the air was suffocating. Each time my heartbeat I could feel the bullet’s pulsations in my shoulder and my brain. My aim was starting to feel shaky, and I felt the barrel of my rifle drooping. Luna, this sucked. The noxious chemicals in the air weren’t helping either. I felt like I was going to lose my lunch in the meantime.

He came back carrying a strange cool-blue metal circular object, that perfectly matched the description of the object that the Professor talked about in Unity. It also had that weird cloud lightning cutie mark on it though. The same one as the box that I had found the memory orb inside. Stagecoach set it on the table in front of Fester, who picked it up and showed it to me.

“I stole this off Jagged Knife and now he wants it back. He sent you to collect it I imagine.”

“Yeah, if I could just have that I’ll be on my way, thanks.” I said, reaching out my hoof. This action caused the other ghouls around me to remind me of the weapons being trained on the back of my skull. They all laughed together in unison. If only things were that easy.

Fester’s grin sunk into a scowl, “Don’t you get it? He sent you to die down here. You answer my questions though, and you might get to live a little longer...”

Staring back at the ghoul, I grunted. “What makes you think that I know anything? Killing me won’t do you any good.”

Fester shrugged a rotten smile. “Then you die, and we wait for the next pony he sends us,” he admitted freely. The ghoul showed me the chip, glinting in the darkness as he balanced it on the tip of his hoof. “It’s got the seal of the Ministry of Awesome etched right into it. So I’d warrant a guess that it’s supposed to be valuable. Not unique, neither. I hear there’s supposed to be a number of these things out in the wastes. Hidden secrets leftover from the war.”

I was starting to get that feeling again, where maybe I had gone out of my depth. This was way more advanced than anything I’d ever seen technology-wise from the back-when times, or even anything I knew about Enclave tech nowadays. “What is he gonna use it for?” I asked.

“Dunno, maybe he thinks he can use it as a bargaining chip? Who cares? He wants it, so I want it.” he chuckled to himself, amusing himself with its almost poker-chip-like appearance. “Only problem is, none of us can figure out how it works.” It seemed like the sort of thing a pony might get shot in the head over in another time and place…

“Professor Mercury Switch knows more than me, but I’m pretty sure it’s a special kind of encrypted data storage device. Uncrackable by most tech standards.”

“Talk, talk, talk... every lock has a key, or else Jagged Knife wouldn’t be interested. Makes you wonder where he got it too, don’t it?” he asked, barely making his attempts at enticing me even remotely subtle.

“I don’t care where he got it,” I replied impatiently, strongly coveting the rad-away in front of me. “I answered your damn question,” I told him.

“Tell me how it works first,” he demanded, firmly putting his hoof down on the medicine I desperately needed.

That was the trouble with negotiating from weakness. I cursed under my breath, pausing for a minute to think inside my own head. Despite mocking commentary from the ghoul about ticking clocks and the annoying sound of him constantly flicking open-and-closed his silver lighter. My thoughts felt cloudy though, like swimming through thick green stuff. My stomach churned and my eyelids felt heavy. I waited, staring down at the small device in front of the ghoul. The occasional glance at his pocket watch. He was like death, watching the minutes roll by.

That symbol etched into it looked familiar to me somehow. Although I couldn’t quite remember where I had seen it before. I held my hoof outstretched close to the rad-away, to which the other ghouls reminded me of their weapons.

“Give it here,” I said, gazing intently at the small metallic object. “Do you want me to show you how it works or not?”

Fester paused suspiciously, doubting my intentions, but then he gave a subtle nod for the others ease up. The balefire-licked ghoul hoofed it over to me and I stared at it, the others ready to pull the trigger if I so much as tried anything funny.

As I took it in my hoof, it was immediately cool to the touch. Flipping it over, I could see the lightning-bolt cloud insignia on both sides. I’m not sure how I knew, but something clicked, like I knew exactly what to do. Maybe it was dumb luck. The device lit up brightly, displaying a strange hologram that illuminated the cave, and the sparkling white crystals inlaid around the edges of the chip, lit up in sequence. I couldn’t understand any of it.

“Ahh! What the fuck did you do?!” he shouted, slightly blinded by the sudden bright flash. The other ghouls reared back in astonishment, shielding their eyes as light filled the cavern, before it abruptly went dim again.

I don’t know what came over me in that moment. Something changed inside me.

The ghouls all still looked disoriented from the light, all of them trying to figure out what was going on, bickering between their ranks. “I’m not sure...” I replied, feeling just as confused as they were. The wisps in the air and that subtle green glow spoke to me.

One of the ghouls, the one named Stagecoach, spoke up, “Uh, hey Boss?”

“Shut the hell up you idiot!” Fester snapped.

“Uh…”

“What is it?!” He barked in frustration.

“Shouldn’t she be dead by now? I mean, it’s just sorta weird... she’s a smoothcoat, right? So shouldn’t her mane be falling out, or be vomiting up blood by now at the very least?”

Suddenly, I had a moment of clarity where my head felt strangely clear. Almost clearer than normal. I almost felt… almost sorta good in a way. Really good, in fact. Still a slight headache, but as I felt around with my foreleg, I could barely even feel the bullet for a moment. I looked at the ghouls who had all taken their eyes off of me. “Huh, weird.” I thought aloud.

Fester paused for a second, watching me as I stretched nonchalantly and cracked my neck. Then his eyes widened. “Wait. Shit, she’s a- !”

I lowered my stance and ducked underneath their modified enclave rifles before they knew what hit them. One of the disoriented ghouls, was in for a rude surprise when he suddenly looked down and saw my hoof on his shoulder. I punched across his face and put him in a swift chokehold, using him as an impromptu meatshield.

A pink beam from an opposing laser rifle seared through him and I felt him burst into ashes in my hooves. The sensation was still a little startling, but to the ghoul who fired the shot even moreso, at suddenly seeing my hoof already an inch from his face. I felt a sickening crunch from my left hook as glowing blood, and pieces of ghoul spattered over me.

“Kill the bitch!” Fester hissed, going for his pistol.

Thrusting the whole table backwards into Fester’s neck caused him to drop his weapon and hack stifled choking noises. It flipped it over on top of him, with the rad-away, the chip, and all of its contents went flying everywhere. I could hear Fester make weird strangled hissing-gurgling sounds as it weighed down on top of him.

The other ghoul lunged at me, but I caught his hoof and broke it backwards with ease. I heard a loud crack and he hissed in pain, then I took him by the neck and slammed his head against the upturned table edge, killing him. Wheeling around with my rifle, I froze in place upon suddenly seeing a whole line of ghouls with their weapons pointed at me.

“She’s out in the open, fire!” Stagecoach shouted.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I panicked and dove behind the table, dodging the flurry of shots. Both thankfully and surprisingly, it provided more than ample cover against their bullets and laserfire.

I huffed, searching for the chip amongst all the clutter. Seeing it beside me next to an ashtray, I picked it up and stuffed it into my saddlebag. “What happened to that damned packet of rad-away though?” I thought. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then I spat a curse under my breath, seeing it across the floor underneath a barstool.

“She’s hiding back here! Hurry up and kill her, so you can get this thing off m-”

Halting mid-sentence to look up at the barrel, Fester’s mouth hung open. Aiming my brother’s pistol down at the pinned ghoul, I growled under my breath as I stared into his pale eyes. Every ounce of me was telling me to end the sonovabitch. I slowly squeezed the trigger on my brother’s ten millimeter, but I stopped short of a dead ghoul.

I heard my brother’s voice in my head, remembering my brother and my family in that moment and took pause. “What’s the matter, don’t have the stomach for it?” He cackled, and I punched hard, knocking him unconscious.

“You’re not worth the bullet.” I replied. Then I reminded myself, “C’mon, you’re in the middle of a fight, dumbass!” Peeking out from behind my cover with my brother’s pistol, a laser beam nearly singed the tip of my mane and I immediately ducked back.

The pain in my shoulder and the noxious wisps of chems in the air were throwing me off, but I saw that they were breaking out a big magical energy weapon they had hidden inside a coffin. It looked like one of the professor’s weapons! Like he had taken multiple modified novasurge rifles, broken them down and rebuilt it into some sort of… laser-minigun of death! “Aw, jeez…” I whined. Then I heard the loud successive rapidfire of lasers unleash and begin to tear into my cover. I wouldn’t last long against that thing. I could already feel the table coming apart.

I put the pistol away, downing my last packet of rad-away from my saddlebag to stave off the pain while trying to think. Getting an idea, I grunted, and began to push up against the table while they continued to pelt bullets and lasers against my only cover.

Leveraging my weight against it, I raised it off the ground and took a step forward, resisting another spike of pain. Then I took another. Slowly picking up speed and carrying the whole thing with me, I charged forward like a battering ram, protecting me from their shots as I galloped!

I crashed straight into the ghouls, and scattered their line. Just as the laser minigun ripped through my impromptu shield, I lunged forward, decking the ugly zombie with half a face as shots flew around me, knocking aside the laser minigun which continued to fire, leaving a streak of pink burn holes across the cave wall.

I threw a fast right-cross at the wide-open cowpony ghoul carrying the minigun of death, causing his hat to fly off his head, and also revealing his ugly half-melted face, covered with oozing pustules. He grit his teeth and tried to swing it around back at me, meanwhile other ghouls were forced to drop to the floor to avoid the rapidfire lasers.

Another punch and he was on the floor. I heard a soft squelch, and he dropped the laser minigun of death and collapsed over.

“Careful!” Stagecoach shouted over them in response to one of the shots coming dangerously close to the explosive storage area, “We’ve got volatile merchandise down here!” They all made more of an effort to keep their shots on me or fight me in melee as a result, which was my specialty.

They were too close to me to use their weapons effectively, so it was easy to duck and weave underneath them and sidestep their shots. Plus I was way better than them at close quarters combat. Often, they’d end up shooting each other instead. As I ducked to the side of another burning beam of energy, so close I could almost smell it, I stepped backwards again so that the next one accidentally shot one of the ghoul’s friends. Then I fired my service rifle into whatever was in front of me. Just run and gun. The lasers didn’t scare me anymore. They were just weapons.

After that, they began to grow wise to my tactics and spread out amongst themselves. But as I was pounding their ugly faces into meat, the sound of a shotgun wielded by the bartender blasted two of the ghouls in front of me. Somehow I didn’t get hit by that, but it left a loud ringing in my ears.

I gasped, running backwards away from the shotgun, only narrowly dodging the bartender’s second blast, followed by the sound of ejecting shells from his smoking double-barrel.

Another burst of pain shot through my body, causing me to lurch forward and nearly lose my balance while he was reloading. I tripped, and the cowpony ghouls were quick to swarm on top of me and attempt to hold me down.

Kicking back as they got ahold of one of my forelegs, I tried to free myself, only to fumble and drop my brother’s pistol in front of me. Close, but out of reach. I couldn’t use my service rifle from this angle either.

Snarling as i attempted to buck them off me, I punched one of them in the face, but they held me down to the floor and one of them tore my service rifle from my battle saddle while the others fought to keep me restrained. I struggled to reach for the pistol in front of me, but it was too far. I heard a revolver cock from somewhere behind me.

I bucked one off and kicked him in the family jewels to free myself, just a little. Enough to reach a nearby bottle from an overturned table, which I broke across his friend’s face, then stabbed the remaining pieces into him, hearing gurgling hissing sounds. I crawled and finally reached my pistol, turned around and fired.

More of them attempted to ghoulpile on top of me, but I kept fighting through it like it was nothing.

Then I felt something sharp stab into my foreleg by one of the ghouls. I felt blood and looked down at the knife. I let out a pained cry and kept fighting. It was horrible, but also just the kick of adrenaline I needed. I pulled the knife out and stabbed it back into his eye.

They had no idea what they’d bargained for!

Somehow, I managed to punch, kick, bite and shoot my way free of them. Pulling myself to my hooves, I left a pile of knocked out ponies and, badly beaten corpses behind me. The adrenaline was going so strong I barely even felt anything anymore.

I made a bolt for cover behind the bar, while they were busy struggling to their hooves, but paused for a second, staring longingly at the rad-away across the room. Pivoting, I made a gallop for it.

Stagecoach was already up again. He picked up the laser minigun of death off the floor and pointed it at me.

Scooping the lone packet of sweet, sweet rad-away up in my mouth, I slid over the bar top, finally coming to a rest behind cover where I could tear it open and drink it to keep myself going a little longer before my shoulder tried to kill me again. Just as flurries of rapid-fire death beams shot at where my head had just been.

Dropping down on my rump behind cover, holding the precious medicine, my ears flattened as I turned my head and saw myself staring down the barrel of the bartender’s double-barreled shotgun. A sneer was plastered across his rotten lips as he squeezed back on the trigger.

Immediately, I kicked upwards, forcing the shot into the ceiling and scattering dust. The bartender hacked up a lung and I snatched the weapon from him, and turned it around. Then a look of utter horror stretched across his face upon seeing his own shotgun pointing up at him. BOOM!

I smirked to myself as bloody chunks of ghoul brains flew everywhere.

Then I looked down again, feeling a mysterious searing pain in my chest, and saw that a stray laser shot had hit me. “When did that hit me...?” It burned straight through the armor and insta-cauterized the flesh, warping it and leaving an ugly scar patch. It was hot and painful to the touch. Those weapons were no joke. I heard shouting all around me as I stayed hidden.

I tore open and downed the final packet of rad-away, causing the pain in my shoulder to subside a little more, but not much. I still felt my flesh squirming around in there, just less than before. “Better than nothing, I guess.” I thought, topping it off with a bottle of whiskey.

Crawling behind the bar, I popped up in a place where he wasn’t expecting and fired a shot between Stagecoach’s eyes which caused him to slump over with the minigun. I breathed heavily, sitting down again.

True Blue’s voice echoed to me as I rested for a moment as I rested. It sounded exactly like him. “Hey Rou, why don’t you stay down here a while?” I could hear my brother’s voice calling to me inside my head. “We miss you…”

“Not the time, bro,” I grunted, shaking myself from the hallucination. I struggled to bring myself to my hooves again, but seeing that most of the ghouls were already getting back up again, I let out a cry of frustration.

“But you might have fun!”

As totally untempting as that offer was, it was also totally out of character for him. Cherish was the optimistic one, not True Blue. Must’ve been the damn chemicals in the air. Even my hallucinations weren’t making sense.

Suddenly we were greeted by a cacophony of loud hissing that echoed throughout the caverns. Fester cackled, standing not far away. His decayed skin lit up with balefire and I heard galloping converging on the main grotto.

Hearing the hissing growing louder along with brightening glows from one of the tunnels, I thought to myself that was way too many ghouls! But before I could turn to run, I could see they were coming from the other direction too. I grunted in pain. I was trapped, and now I was sans-service rifle. I glanced at the minigun on the other side of the rot, at my broken service rifle, and then at the ghouls surrounding me. “Not enough time.”

“So you’re like us then?” Fester mused. “Well, whatever-you-are... you’re gonna die down here, filly. Radiation, or no.”

Thinking fast, I grabbed a bottle of over proofed whiskey and emptied half its contents out. I also picked up a nearby mining lantern, and dumped its oil into the bottle as well.

Tearing off a long strip of cloth from the dead bartender’s outfit, I stuffed it into the bottle. My eyes then fell upon the gigantic stock of explosives amongst the weapons they had been smuggling. “Shit, I don’t have anything to light it with,” I groaned. Then I looked back at Fester, remembering his silver lighter.

I stood up and whipped out my brother’s ten millimeter, aiming it at him. The ghoul smirked in amusement as I emptied what was left of my magazine into him. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do anything. “Would you just die already?!” I shouted in frustration.

He chuckled as my gun made a dissatisfying ‘click’, then casually pulled out his own, which he aimed at me, slowly. As if to savor the moment. “This has been interesting. Time for your dirt nap, filly...”

Then a hard metal object struck his head, and he paused to look down in confusion. He nearly dropped his weapon as he looked back up at me with utter bewilderment. “...D-Did you just throw your gun at m-?”

Crunch! My right hoof punched his soft face, plowing him straight into the ground. I felt bones break and ghoul squish under the force. He was down, although somehow still alive, albeit immobilized. “Ouch…” he groaned as I holstered my pistol and lit the molotov with his face. My eyes locked onto the stockpile of explosives at the end of the Rot.

“Wait, what are you doing…?” he rasped. “Are you crazy?! You’ll kill us all!”

“I get that a lot…” I huffed.

Then with all my might, I threw the bottle over the heads of the oncoming ferals at the store of explosives. The other ghouls who were still somewhat sentient all turned their heads and watched in horror as the bottle flew through the air. I dove for cover inside the steel minecart, hoping that it’d be sturdy enough to shield me from the blast.

There was a sudden KABOOM!!!! An ear-shattering explosion shook the mine, followed by a massive backdraft that engulfed everything in flame and flung the cart into the air, me along with it. I thought I could hear hissing and screams.

Thoughts flashed through my head as I soared. One of them being that this must’ve been what was the Cyclone ride would’ve been like at Pony Island Beach. I never got to ride it. Then I realized, seconds before I rocketed into a vertical cave wall “Uh, oh. I’m dead…”

Then the cart slammed into a wall on top of me. I blacked out.

...

When I awoke, the metal cart was upside down, above me, against the wall of the cave. I blinked, seeing I was upside down too. Then slowly I crawled out from underneath and saw everyone was either dead or blasted to high hell. Everything too for that matter. Most of the weapons they had kept down here for smuggling had been destroyed. Somehow I miraculously survived that and could still move. By any reasonable standard, I should’ve died. I dusted myself off.

“How did that even work?” I laughed weakly. “Hey, maybe I’m immune to radiation or somethin-” Taking another step, suddenly I felt like I was going to hurl again. Although this time, I wasn’t sure which orifice it was going to come out of. Another spike shot throughout my shoulder.

“I guess I spoke too soon...” I thought, nearly throwing up inside my mouth. Feeling the pain growing worse. I was feeling it in more than just my shoulder now too.

Giving one last look at Fester’s medium-charred corpse, and the chip in hoof, I started to make my way back towards the entrance. I had to get out of here quick.

Finding my way out was the hard part. As I followed the path back out again, each step felt heavier. Not only did I lose my service rifle in the explosion, but my battle saddle was in dire need of repair. I was out of rad-away and my current condition was worsening. The throbbing was growing more, and more painful with each step. “I’ll need a new weapon after this…” I griped, trying to distract myself.

From behind me, I thought I could hear my family calling out, asking me to stay for a while. I could almost imagine their ashen skeletons, waiting deeper in the mine for me when I looked back.

“Did you get into another fight again?”

“Hey, Rou? Why do you look so upset?” Asked my sister’s disembodied voice. Was that the Cloud Kiss in the air? Jeez, fuck this stuff, whatever it is.

It was warm down here. I felt like I almost wanted to get lost in that comfy glow. Although, I was quick to argue with my own brain of what a bad idea that would be.

“We can’t keep treating her like a foal… Talk to her, already.”

Another step, and I could see dim light up ahead. Pushing my hooves towards it, I was almost there! “Ugh, this sucks…” I breathed heavily, limping to keep the weight off my left foreleg.

When I finally found daylight again, I scrambled out of the mine until I could no longer feel the radiation. I’d never thought I’d be so happy to see that blinding light-ball-thingy in the sky. Then I looked down at myself again to see that I was covered from head to hoof in blood and bits of ghoul. No clue how much of that was mine. Then it all hit me at once.

I groaned and fell over again. Then suddenly and without warning, my stomach churned and I projectile vomited the contents of my last meal. So, I wasn’t totally immune to radiation after all, it just took longer to affect me. “Great. Good to know...” I thought sarcastically to myself. Collapsing on my side and clutching at my burning shoulder, I felt the pain overwhelming me and all my strength drain from my body.

“Woah, what the hell is wrong with you? You some kinda freak?”

Unfortunately, Sting was the only pony waiting for me. Just my luck. I looked around for somepony else, but it was only him.

“Wow, thought you might’ve gone and killed yourself with that explosion. Surprised you didn’t die,” Sting mocked in amazement, almost disappointed. “Where's the package?”

“Great, it’s you. W-Where’s Three-Card?” I pained, rolling onto my side.

Levitating his curved knife near me, a wicked grin stretched over his lips. “Even half-dying, you’re still a cocky bitch. Monte had other business to attend to. Now, do you have it or not?” he asked, holding out his hoof.

Slowly, I reached my hoof into my saddle-bag and pulled out the strange metal chip with the strange insignia and put it in Sting’s hoof. Observing it he smiled and flicked his knife across my cheek then began to trot away, leaving me there.

“W-wait!” I grunted, causing him to glance back at me curiously. “I did the job. Do you have... any extra rad-away...?” I begged.

Sting turned and jaunted back to me so that his shadow cast over me. He watched me for a long agonizing moment, before he finally pulled out a single packet of rad-away and levitated it in front of my face. With a swish of his knife, he sliced it open perfectly. Then with a sneer, he dumped the orange liquid contents onto the ground in front of me.

The raider flipped his mane and trotted off cackling.

“F-fuck you too…” I pained, losing strength.

Nopony else was coming. I tried to summon the strength to crawl but I was in too much pain. It felt like the blood was on fire inside my body, and that I was going to vomit again the entire time. An hour must’ve gone by. Two hours? It didn’t matter. Every second I wasted was another moment Jagged could be doing Luna knows what.

A little desert salamander crawled up on my body and licked my eyeball. I managed to shoo it away with my hoof using weak barely-audible protests. I could see buzzards circling me overhead. They probably mistook me for dead or dying. Pretty soon I’d be food for whatever wasteland critters wanted to make me an afternoon snack.

“I-I think I’m gonna die here…” I groaned, squinting up at the glaring light ball in the sky. That’d teach me to never go into somewhere irradiated ever again. Sadly, I didn’t have a choice though this time around. Yet I was going to die for it anyways.

Then a shadow stood over me, blocking the sun, but my vision was too blurry and fucked up to see properly. I couldn’t tell who it was, although I could make out a stallion with dark coat and wings. Was it death? “Fuck you, I ain’t dying yet!” I mumbled, but it probably came out as incomprehensible gibberish.

He smacked me out of my delirium, “Roulette, snap out of it! It’s me, Hotshot!”

Finally the stallion came into focus, and I blinked. “M-Mohawk?” I grunted in surprise. “You need to get out of here so Jagged doesn’t find you’r-” I was cut off mid sentence and recoiled in pain from my shoulder.

He grimaced in disgust then shook his head, “Not the time for that. You said you’d be back in a couple of hours. I got worried and came looking for you. There was an explosion. Everyone in town heard it. Was that you?”

“Things got a little side tracked…” I bemoaned. “You came to save me...? Alright, I think I’m dying after all. Whatever this thing in my arm is, s’tryin’ to kill me. D-Do you got any rad-away on you?” I asked hopefully.

“I don’t.” Hotshot answered, looking at me in my condition with growing concern. Noticing the blood, he slowly brushed my hoof aside and lifted up my jacket then winced at the creepy looking glowing spider-veins popping out of my shoulder. Then he quickly covered it up again looking like he was about to vomit too. “What in the wasteland is that?!” He gasped in astonishment.

“Mutation,” I answered, doing my best shrug with one shoulder. “I’m pretty sure it’s interacting with an infection from the hunk o’ lead that Snowflake shot into my shoulder, and that’s making it worse. It tries to kill me whenever it absorbs too much radiation.”

“Wait. Snowflake…?” He asked, unsure who I was referring to. Exhaling, he leaned over to pick me up, “Nevermind that. You have some sort of abnormal rad sickness from the looks of it. Plus...whatever this is. We should get you looked at pronto.”

“N-no! I hate doctors!” I pained, curling myself into a ball. “And needles!”

Hotshot paused, then rolled his eyes back in exasperation, “What are you a small filly? This isn’t funny. We’ve got to get that ‘whatever-the-hell’ fixed! Ponies are still trying to figure out what happened with that explosion. If they find you here, it’ll be big trouble..”

I shook my head in vigorous protest, “I know, but- Ow!” another sudden spike of pain caused me to wince, and Hotshot raised an eyebrow. I sadly groaned and relented. Even my body was against me on this one. I tried to push myself up again, but was too weak.

“Upsy, daisy!” He hoisted, and the pegasus stallion lifted me onto his back against my will. I moaned in agony as he started to slowly walk me back towards town. “I know a surgeon who might be able to help. Bit on the expensive side, but we can trust him. Also, try not to vomit on me...”

“This is so humiliating…” I whined as he carried me, and thought I saw him roll his eyes again. Although he did his best, each step was uncomfortable for the both of us.

I felt like breaking the awkward silence. “When I was younger... about thirteen, I nearly beat a colt to death,” I told him. The pegasus perked up his ears and looked back at me for a moment with a look I couldn’t interpret. He kept walking as though I hadn’t said anything, so I continued, “He insulted my sister and my family so I got pissed off, and we fought. They all thought we were freaks because we didn’t have any parents. Which is true of lots of kids in the wasteland when you think about it, but kids can be jerks sometimes... I didn’t know my own strength, and ended up nearly killing the poor kid by accident. He was older than me, so I assumed he was naturally bigger and stronger, right? Guess not. None of that mattered at the time though, I just wanted to hurt him... We had to leave that town quick and go to the next one, all because of me. The older ponies would’ve come after us for sure.”

“What brought that on?” he asked giving me a strange look.

“No reason. I just felt like talking…” I muttered.

There was another awkward silence, where I felt like maybe he hadn’t been listening, but then he asked, “So how did they take it?”

“About as well as you’d expect,” I grunted. “I remember crying to my brother about it afterwards. I was upset because I thought I was a bad pony now, and that they all hated me for it… he told me that I would only be a bad pony if I ever killed someone who couldn’t fight back. Since it was a fair fight, everything was okay, but I had to control my anger from now on. Kind of a weird way to justify it, now that I’m sitting here saying it out loud... I got into fights like that often and caused a lot of problems for my family all the time. Thinking back, he was probably just telling me that to calm me down, but having his gun on me always helps me remember to be good. At least it has in these last few months...”

“I can sorta relate,” he replied. “Admittedly, I’ve heard far worse reasons given to me by ponies living in the wasteland. If we’re being honest.”

Then I breathed and muttered, “Thanks…” It felt good to tell somepony who wasn’t my family for once.

“You’re welcome...” Hotshot sighed.

The ‘Doc Hearts n’ Hooves’ Clinic was located in a back alley on the side of town, away from prying eyes. It was a reputable place that did good work, if you had the bottlecaps to pay for it. Meanwhile, the surgeon in question was a pale old unicorn stallion with a persistent cough and sickly look about him, who went by “Doc Hooves” most of the time. He wore a bloody apron over his dress clothes, always addressing the wasteland with either apathy or wry humor as his basic expression towards everything.

He had me lying across a medical table with my jacket on. I was still in a lot of pain, and the blinding overhead light was making me squint. The strange thing was, that aside from the cauterization wound, I didn’t even have a scratch on me. Was it just my imagination? I was sure I remembered getting stabbed at least once in my hoof. My eyes fell upon the sharp looking surgical tools sitting near me, and I cringed at the sight of them.

“This young filly really did a number on herself. Just how long did she spend down in that irradiated mine?” he asked, performing basic physical tests. I moaned in agony. “There are much easier ways to dig your own grave, missy. Ways that don’t involve puking out your insides.” he lectured at me.

“No idea, I’m not sure what’s wrong with her either.” Hotshot replied.

Doc Hearts n Hooves coughed persistently while he spoke with Hotshot in a hushed voice, the matter of payment still firmly on the discussion table. Unfortunately for me, I was still flat broke and owed a lot of ponies already, because the mayor hadn’t given me my first paycheck yet. Imagining the veritable goldmine worth of weapons I left in that mine would’ve been more than enough to pay for it, if I hadn’t already blown them all to smithereens. “Dammit all…”

“Doc, we want to keep this between us, if that’s okay?” the pegasus told him.

“I can do that…” he assured, clearing phlegm from his throat, “She looks like she’s with the Dodge City Gang. So I assume that there’s a reason you came to me instead of using the mayor’s autodoc. You two are doing something you’re not supposed to, aren’t you? That’s alright. I can keep a secret as a professional respect courtesy, but unless the mare is the one paying for it, I’m not sure how you expect to be able to afford my services.”

“I’m good for it, trust me,” he promised, to which the pale coated stallion showed clear doubt.

“You’re already indebted to the Dodge City Gang, Hotshot,” Doc Hooves pointed out. “I can’t take you on your word alone.”

The pegasus groaned in frustration, “Isn’t there some kind of Hippocratic oath or whatever that you doctors are supposed to take?” to which the doctor frowned. Hotshot made a wry face, looking inside of his own pocket. After a second or two he reached inside, pulling out something shiny, looking at it in his hoof with a sense of nostalgia, “No, it’s alright,” he replied and showed it to the old pony. “I can pay.” It was a golden badge shaped like a winged lightning bolt. Looked Pre-War Equestrian “This is a vintage wonderbolts badge. Pure twenty-four karat gold. There’s only a small amount of these in wasteland circulation so it’s priceless to the right buyer. I’ve kept it with me all these years to remind me of what I wanted to be.”

“Wait…” I called to him, weakly. “Y-You don’t have to give that up just for me. I can pay it off myse- Aghh!” I grunted in pain, feeling the bullet stab me again.

“It’s nothing,” he replied, giving it to the sickly old doctor.

Doc Hearts n Hooves looked down at the badge appraisingly in his hoof, then back up at the pegasus hesitantly. “Are you sure? You probably could pay off your debt to the Dodge City Gang with this and then some if you wanted.”

Hotshot gave a slight nod, more sure of himself this time. “Yeah I’m sure,” he replied, “That part of my life is over now…”

Pocketing the badge, the old doctor immediately turned his attention to me. He was adorned in a surgical mask and rubber gloves as he approached me, gazing down at me clutching my shoulder. “Alright, take it off,” Hearts n’ Hooves demanded. I blushed and shrunk backwards, staring at the needle on his surgical tray.

Hotshot groaned impatiently. “C’mon kid, now’s not the time for this.”

“Don’t call me a kid! Hey, how old are you anyways...?” I asked.

“I’m twenty-eight.” he replied.

“T-twenty…”

“Then quit acting like a filly already!”

Bashfully, I undressed myself, while struggling to sit up and take off my jacket. I felt naked without it. And I could see the creepy green spider veins had crawled further up my shoulder from the original bullet wound. I was pretty sure that I’d never sucked up that much radiation before in my life.

“I’ve got this mutation and there’s also a hunk of lead in my shoulder. There’s a small chance I might also be resistant to rad-away...”

The pale stallion blinked and coughed, while examining it closely, “Sweet Celestia...”

Before he did anything though, he did some annoying pre-operative tests, where I was forced to recount the story of how I got shot with my own gun and then found out I had some sort of mutation after taking a short dip in the Whitetail Woods. Then also that bit about how I had spoken with both the Professor and the Followers about it, and he gave me a stern judgy look when I told him I came here without it getting more closely looked at.

Doc Hearts n’ Hooves was practically stunned into silence as he looked over the alien-esque mutation. “I’ll admit, I’ve never seen anything like it before… I’m gonna need help on this one.” the sickly old pony exhaled, pouring himself a glass of scotch. Then he picked up a hoof-mounted pipbuck terminal and affixed it to my foreleg using his telekinesis. “I don’t have any fancy auto-doc systems here, but I do possess years of experience and one of these stable-issued personal computer gizmos,” he said.

Then the device lit up and locked onto my foreleg, and it began to scan me. “See? It’s a portable diagnostics machine!” He smirked, praising his own ingenuity. Eventually, the little image of a pony with several listed status ailments appeared on the screen. “I learned most of these tricks from my old teacher, who was a Stable-Tec trained physician.”

The rad levels were off the charts, but as he scrolled through the notes displayed on the device, his face went from curiosity to pure fascination. “Luna in heaven above, filly. Does this happen often with you?”

“I lost track… What is it?” I asked, but he didn’t answer me at first.

He needed to take a closer look, so the Doc raised up an old camera to my foreleg at the source of the mutation in my shoulder and snapped a photograph. It must’ve had some sort of enchantment that allowed him to use it as a makeshift magical imaging device. It produced a picture, showing the bullet itself was still there, but it was totally fused to the bone! Also seeing the gross collection of flesh coalescing around the lead, pulsating every second or two along with my heartbeat made me sick to my stomach. I wanted to vomit, thinking that was squirming around inside of me.

“Damned shame,” the pale pony lamented. “When will ponies learn that healing potions aren’t a simple one-stop fix for everything?”

“W-what are you gonna do?” I asked shakily. “Even one of the Followers wasn’t able to get it out.” I paused mid-sentence as he was looking over me again, paying special attention to me and my jacket, poking his hoof around a hole that I hadn’t noticed there before.

“That bullet has to come out… but there’s something else in there too.”

I shrunk back in fear as he picked up a sharp surgical knife, watching the surgeon’s scalpel come ever closer to my shoulder. “Relax,” he urged slowly. Then pointing close to the source of the spider veins he made a small incision in my foreleg, groaning as my skin slowly healed before his eyes. The old pony took a swig of scotch from the bottle and coughed. “I was afraid of that... Either my eyes deceive me in their old age... or this young mare’s got a healing factor!”

“H-Healing factor?” I asked, still a little lost.

The unicorn cleared his throat, “Have you ever noticed increased metabolism? Perhaps you get up faster than most other ponies? Or that maybe you’re miraculously okay in situations that would kill somepony else?”

“No.” I answered sheepishly. “M-Maybe a little…” I admitted, thinking about the mine.

“In my expert opinion: When you got yourself shot in the shoulder over yonder, you drank a healing potion, right?” he asked, and I gave a slight nod. He frowned as if having his suspicions confirmed. “That bullet fused into your bone, then a small dose of radiation activated your healing factor... Your body triggered an immune response, naturally, so it kept trying to reject the bullet and push the lead out. Then your healing factor went and accelerated that process exponentially. Your body started attacking itself. The more rads you soaked up, the more painful.”

That explained things as well as I could understand. “But what about the weird veins?” I asked, to which he didn’t really have an answer. Just that the best thing he could do for me was to remove the bullet.

I stared at my foreleg in both bewonderment and confusion. Then I looked over at Hotshot who was likely just as confused as I was. “How are you gonna fix me, then?” I asked the pale doctor.

Doc Hearts n Hooves’ face contorted into a grimace. “This is going to be tougher than I thought… Normal surgeons don’t have to worry about patients healing mid surgery,” The doc replied coughing again. Using his stable technician’s master key, he undid the Pipbuck locked to my foreleg and set it on a nearby table, then poured himself a drink. “But I think I’ve got an idea…” he explained to us, “First, I’ll remove that warped flesh and let your body heal itself. Then I’ll inject you with just enough rad-away to slow down your healing factor. See if I can chisel out the bullet that way. You’ll be good as new after that.”

“Sounds good,” Hotshot agreed. “You think it’ll work?”

“Um...,” I grimaced at the proposal, “don’t I get a say in this? ” I asked. “Also, are you sure you should be drinking that much?”

“Not to worry, I’ve got one scalpel for each of you!” He coughed, giving me no reassurance whatsoever. “Don’t worry, that was a joke. I’m a back-alley professional.” he promised, though that hardly gave me any confidence. My heart skipped a beat as I saw him levitate a frighteningly long syringe and hold it near me. “Hold her down, Hotshot.”

“W-what...?! C’mon, please no!” I shrieked, begging for mercy.

The pale doctor groaned as I recoiled in fear, despite not having touched the needle to my foreleg yet.

They both rolled their eyes at me. “Do you want the anesthesia or not?”

I cringed, turning my head away, “J-Just do it!”

“Like I always say,” he chuckled while injecting my arm, “they can’t get angry at you if they die on the table.”

I opened my eyes again to see the pegasus stallion standing over me. “Was he worried about me?” I thought. Groaning aloud, my eyes looked around the room and dwelled on the bloody bullet sitting on a surgical tray next to me. I felt for pain in my shoulder, but there was nothing there anymore. No pain at all. The hitch was gone too. It actually felt kinda normal.

“You were supposed to be under the effects of the anesthetics for an hour, but you burned through it in under thirty minutes…”

“Yeah,” was all I could manage. Then I frowned, my head suddenly filled with many confusing questions as I looked down at myself. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for this weird...whatever-this-was, but where did it come from? Why was I like this to begin with? I’d have to talk to Page about this after everything was settled.

“While you might take this as an excuse to go charging headlong into danger, I’d advise against that course of action along with many of your current lifestyle choices. It seems you’re still affected by magical radiation, as far as I can tell, it just takes longer…and your body takes it differently. It’s also a lot harder to bring the rad-levels down. I don’t know how far it goes, or what damage it will do to your body long term.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”

“That’s what they all say… normally, I’d tell you if you keep acting the fool, you’d be dead before you’re thirty… but I don’t know the first thing about this. I imagine the same advice applies... even with that healing factor, ponies can’t come back from the dead.”

“I’ll take my chances… Thanks for fixing me, though.” I said. Although, I was beginning to reconsider perhaps taking the Followers up on their offer after this was over.

He coughed and nodded, “You did most of the work. I just did what I needed to. Once we’re done, I’ll dispose of your records as per our arrangement… ” Then he stepped into a backroom of his small clinic, “I’ll give you two a moment.”

Hotshot tried to offer some support, “Hey, well at least you look somewhat normal now.” Seeing as the green spider veins had disappeared completely. The bloody bullet fragments that were stuck in me lay beside me on a bloody surgical tray.

“...Thanks again.” I told the charcoal-coated pegasus, he looked back at me in silence as I turned my head away in shame. “After everything I put you through, and how I treated you, you still came and saved me.”

“It was no trouble…” he said. “I figured like I owed it to you. After you told me your story, I made up my mind that I wanted to help you. No parents, I’m assuming?”

“Nah, it was just me and some other orphans. We didn’t trust the adults. Together, we were all the family we needed.”

“Must’ve been nice, at least? Having others you could call your family.”

“Yeah it was…”

“If my whole family was killed by the Enclave like that, I’d probably blame all pegasi too.” he sighed.

“T-That’s not it…” I protested, “okay, maybe it was a little. But it’s not that way anymore. As far as I’m concerned, you saved my life. I should be the one who owes you an apology… thanks again.” I smiled.

“So are you gonna pay me back for that vintage wonderbolts badge then?” he grinned.

“Hey! What happened to forgiveness? No debt between friends?!” I complained, and we both laughed together. When we finally stopped, I asked him the most important thing on my mind. “What was that job about anyways? Why me?”

The pegasus shrugged in confusion and shook his head. “Dunno. Jagged said he knew the NCR had something valuable that was being transported by courier. I sort of assumed since you came from an offbeat road and you knew Fair Trade, that you were the courier. Jagged never told us what he was after.”

“Down in the mine, the ghouls had some weird chip with the Ministry of Awesome logo on it. Jagged wanted it. Could that have been it?”

Hotshot’s expression changed when I mentioned the chip, and he pondered to himself. “Might be… could be anything. Don’t like the sound of that though.”

That somehow made even less sense to me. “How so?” I frowned.

“MoA tends to mean there’s an Enclave connection somewhere. Not always, but… I never heard of anything like that in the Enclave. What could some raider know? For all I know, that whole job could’ve been a total sham. Some of his old gang-mates had been questioning his leadership lately, so he convinced them to go on one last job with him. I just got roped into it.”

“Huh…and I guess we both know how that turned out.”

Hotshot shrugged. “Not saying that we shouldn’t keep an eye on it, but there’s no point in speculating yet,” he said. A sentiment I couldn’t help but agree with. “Jagged Knife screwed both of us over. We might not be big-time heroes like the Stable Dweller, but I still think we’re both entitled to a little payback, regardless.”

“I can agree to that,” I grinned devilishly. Then I remembered, “Oh, yeah. I got another stealthbuck in my saddlebags. You can have that, to make up for the one I lost.”

Giving me a nudge, he joked, “I’ll take that as a down-payment towards all the other stuff you owe me for.”

I laughed lightly and then stared at my hooves. “He told me the Enclave were still out there…” I asked, “do you think he was telling the truth?”

Hotshot frowned, “Jagged might’ve been lying?” He shrugged. “But then, I’m an ex-Enclaver and even I’m not totally sure where he got his hooves on those weapons.”

“Do you remember anything about them? The Enclave, I mean?” I asked, getting curious. “Hawkins isn’t here. So you don’t need to worry about incriminating yourself… ”

“No,” he let out an exasperated sigh.

“What was it you did for the Enclave anyways, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“It’s...uh, complicated,” he said.

“Remember when you had a bomb-collar strapped around your neck?” I asked. As far as I was concerned, Hotshot had no reason to lie to me at this point. “Gamble said you were a killer. I’ve seen that fighting style you use before, when I fought an Enclave Scout named Airworthy. Was what he was saying true, or was he lying? It may be inappropriate, but given the circumstances, I think we should be open with one another.”

“Airworthy?” he asked in surprise, instantly recognizing the name. “What I told you before was the truth. I don’t remember… They did something weird to me. Only can recall bits and pieces.”

“Huh.”

He could read the confused look on my face, causing him to grow more irritated. “Look, the way I was acting wasn’t me. It was, I don’t know what. Somepony else… I flunked out of Enclave Officer Academy twice. I barely passed basic flight training. I was the guy everyone else liked to mess with. I was never some elite assassin, an all-star flyer or anything. Then by some miracle, I got selected for some special mission with Enclave Intel. Thought I’d hit the jackpot. I remember my first few days, but barely anything after that... I never joined up with the Enclave because I hated surface dwellers. Though there was plenty of propaganda that told me otherwise. Prior to that day I’d never even shot at a pony before. There are big gaps in my memory, I can picture some of it in my head if I think really hard, but all I know is that I was the one pulling the trigger.”

I imagined he had explained this to others before who didn’t believe him. Second chances were difficult to come by. He was at least trying to do the right thing. This pegasus saved my life, so I owed him that much.

“If that wasn’t you, then shouldn’t everything be okay?”

“I’m not here to make excuses...,” he said. “The circumstances won’t matter to those who’ve lost loved ones. But I’m going to try to make things right anyways…”

“For what it’s worth, I believe you,” I replied.

“Thanks…” he muttered halfheartedly. “So did you find your friend? You came all this way for her, right?”

I nodded, getting frustrated as I recounted everything to him. “Yeah, but she’s got some crazy notion in her head now,” I ranted aloud. “Like she needs to do this by herself for some reason. Sunny’s smart, so I think she’ll be okay for now, but I have to figure out how to get her out of this mess. It’s my fault she’s here to begin with.”

“We’ll save her, don’t worry. And we’ll take down Jagged Knife too.”

“Yeah, he really crossed the wrong two ponies, didn’t he?” I snorted.

Hotshot chuckled, “Pretty unlucky if you ask me.”

Not thinking much of it, a thought popped in my head. “By the way, this might sound totally weird, but have you ever heard of some turquoise pegasus mare with a blonde mane and lightning for a cutiemark supposedly existing back during the war?” I asked him.

Hotshot suddenly looked more concerned, “Lightning Dust...?” he asked accompanied by an eerie pause. “What do you know about her?”

His facial expressions became a bit more worrying as I answered about the crashed ship with the memory orb, and the strange pegasus mare talking with Rainbow Dash in a memory. “I gave it to the raiders as collateral for keeping Sunny safe. Who is she?”

“I-It’s nothing. Forget I mentioned it.” he replied. I responded with a very perplexed, unsatisfied look.

Before I could ask him anything else, we heard a commotion coming from outside. We peeked out from behind the curtain as I hastily put on my jacket. Gazing outside the window front, it was already mid-afternoon, and a lot of rough looking ponies were roaming the back alleys of Dodge City, with all manners of gunslingers, bounty hunters, and other mercenaries among them.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked my pegasus companion.

“I’m not sure…” Hotshot replied equally confused. “Sounds like a helluva racket though.”

Something had them all on high alert. I started to get dressed into my armor, and we thanked the doc on our way out.

Imposing muscular ganger stallions were all over the place, roughing up every other resident who came close. They looked like trained fighters, all wearing hoofwraps and boxer gear, so I assumed they must’ve come from the Fight Gauntlet.

A shrill foul-mouthed unicorn mare dressed in frilly red clothing trotted up to them. “Hey what’s the big idea?! Quit driving away all our damn customers!”

“This is Brawler turf! We can’t get any protection money from our clients until this matter is sorted. So we’re not gonna stop until we get to the bottom of this and we find out who caused it! You look like you’re one of the Boudoirs. You know anything, bitch?”

“Course we don’t know anything!” she snapped. “Why would we take down one of our own best business partners, moron?! It was probably that bastard Gamble.”

“Never did like you dirty whores. You always seemed like a shifty sort to me...” he spat through his teeth

“You dumbass hoof-draggers would probably stand to benefit if we lost influence in the city! Fat chance of that happening, jerkoff!” she mocked, levitating up a switchblade with her telekinesis.

Then they began to get into a heated argument.

It seemed like they were both searching for the ones responsible. Hotshot and I both exchanged nervous glances and tried to play it cool.

Our ears perked up as we heard gunshots from somewhere nearby. Wait, gunshots? “Weren’t guns strictly regulated within Dodge city?” I thought. The group of Brawlers pointed towards the source of the shots and all galloped in that direction.

“Hey, aren’t you Dodge City Gang?” asked an indignant looking chem dealer with a golden bottlecap for a cutie mark. He had a look like he sampled his own supply often.

“Yeah, sorta. What’s going on?”

“You gonna do something about this?!” he demanded. “Some pony blew up The Rot, right outside of town and nobody knows who done it! They says it was one of the other gangs, and they’re all pointing hooves.”

“That’s not what happened.” I countered.

“Wait. Do you know something? Nah, y’know what? I don’t care. Those zombies were some of my best customers! All us smaller players rely on the status quo that the mayor and the council of gangs provides. When the system is working, caps flow. But when that gets upended, everything goes topsy turvy! Nobody deals. We can’t make bottlecaps if you got some roving maniac going around singledhoofedly offing those at the top of the food chain!”

“Cry me a river! You’re selling chems! What the hell is in that ‘Cloud Kiss’ shit anyways?!”

“I’ll tell ya, for fifty bottle caps...” he grinned.

Some random jumpy raider was in a panic nearby, running around screaming at the top of his lungs, “It’s the Stable Dweller’s second coming! Everybody run for your lives!” I could feel my pegasus companion giving me a look right now, and I didn’t like it.

“I dunno about you, but I’m gonna get the heck outta Dodge soon, if this gets any worse!”

Looking back at Hotshot I said, “Let’s get going back to the Wrangler. We can get a better idea of things there,” He nodded to me, and we both galloped towards the saloon.

On our way there though, I spotted Colonel Peregrine waiting at the train station in full military attire. He had all of his things collected like he was ready to leave and was occasionally checking his pocket watch. I told Hotshot I’d meet him inside as I went to speak with the griffon.

“Glad I could catch you once before I left.” Peregrine said, checking his pocket watch again. “I’m on my way back to Shattered Hoof.”

“What do you mean? Everything’s going crazy! You can’t leave ‘now’!”

“It’s out of my claws, I’m afraid. I’m going to reason with my superiors in person. A lot of things are happening right now, and there’s too much to put into words. I will admit, you came to me at the last minute, and I took a bit of a gamble on you… it was like all the pieces were falling into place. I’m not sure what will come of this, but you’ve been doing great work so far. I have faith in you!”

Then a sky carriage arrived, being pulled by a team of pegasi. They landed in front of the train station and the Colonel stepped aboard, leaving me completely confused as to what was going on.

“W-wait! I need to speak with you about things!” I stammered, holding the door open with my hoof. “I still have questions!”

He took my hoof in his claw and gave me a firm shake and salute. “Talk with Ginger. She’ll explain everything,” he promised, then shut the carriage door himself.

The team of pegasi took flight, and I watched them fly towards New Canterlot, leaving me with my hoof still outstretched and equally confused.

“Ugh…”

“What in tarnation is going on here, mare?!” Brandy demanded, pointing her hoof at me as soon as I trotted through the double doors and saw the others were already waiting for me. Along with a very angry looking bar owner. “Are you gonna tell me or what?!”

“Why the hell are you blaming me?!” I protested.

“From what I’m hearing around town, some lone mare walked straight into The Rot and put down all ghouls in there, singlehoofedly. Now every gang in the city is blaming each other, and they’re putting the squeeze on all the locals trying to figure out who it was. And since you’re the only new pony around here that I still ain’t too sure of, I want to know if you had a hoof in it...”

I flattened my ears, “Oh…”

That was all the admission of guilt she needed. “So it was you… Why am I not even slightly surprised? I knew agreeing to board you here was a mistake,” she sneered. “Also, what's the big idea inviting all of these NCR-types into my bar? That’s it, I’m calling your tab! Pay it or get out!” The mare stuck her hoof out at me, demanding bottle caps.

“I’ll pay you as soon as the mayor gives me my first paycheck!” I argued.

“Get the hell out of my saloon!” Brandy pointed her hoof towards the door. “This town’s shook up like a bottle of sparkle cola, because of you!”

“It’s not me, it’s Jagged Knife. Yeah, I blew them all straight to Celestia, but they didn’t give me much a choice when he sent me into a radioactive deathtrap, patronized by insane ghouls running a smuggling ring.”

“I don’t care. Get out!” she yelled at me. A few of the patrons had turned around from their usual spot to listen in on our conversation, and the mare turned back and shouted, “You’d better stare back down at those Celestia-damned cards Wild Iron, or I’ll blow your head off with my shotgun!” she barked, and the minotaur ducked his head down, gluing his eyes to the cards in his hands. He clearly knew better than to get involved. In the background, I could hear Hawkins laughing her ass off, then Brandy turned towards her as well and added, “You too, griff. Leave the booze while you’re at it.”

“Calm down, sweetheart!” Gin pleaded. “Let’s allow calm heads to prevail here. We should at least let her tell her side of the story first.”

“Whatever this is, I promise you, it won’t end here.” I said.

“Alright, fine,” Brandy replied in a huff cocking an eyebrow as if to say, “you’d better start explaining things, quick.”

As I recounted my story to them, I gave the abridged version. “I went up to Cherry Hill Ranch and found my friend. She’s safe. There was a small filly up there.” I told them. I also told them about what happened in the rot, but left out the gritty details about my mutation and the surgery.

“So you met Accolade, did ya?” Gin asked me, sounding almost somber.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Something I should know about?”

Gin sighed to himself, as if the history still weighed down on them both heavily. Brandy seemed stare off to the side, as if she knew something too. “Y’know about that Stable most of us locals are descended from? Accolade is the last descendant of the old overmare, from before Rubi came along. Had no idea that kid was still alive...”

“C’mon Dad, we don’t have time for this...” Brandy huffed regretfully. “Celestia shoot me…”

“It can wait…” he assured me, agreeing with his daughter.

“Well, I think Jagged could be planning something big. I’m just scared about other ponies getting caught up in the crossfire.”

A lone figure who had been waiting patiently in the Wrangler came up to me. The red female griffon was wearing a brown cloak over her NCR dress uniform. I noticed she was also accompanied by a tiny escort of troopers who were also wearing brown cloaks, waiting nearby.

“Ginger?” I asked in surprise. “You’re here too?”

She pulled her hood down. “Miss Roulette,” she said sounding relieved, but spoke frantically. “Thank goodness you’re alive! There’s a lot to discuss, and not a lot of time.”

“Slow down, I already know all about the attack. I was there. I also met with Peregrine on my way here and he told me to speak with you. What’s going on?” I asked.

“This has become far bigger than just the investigation,” Ginger revealed.

“What happened?!” I asked again, growing frustrated at being kept in the dark for so long.

Hawkins interrupted before she could continue further. “Peregrine’s already been relieved of his authority in these matters, Lieutenant. And you, as well.”

The red griffoness deadpanned, yet remained collected and dignified, “Totally uncouth and unpleasant as always I see, Gabriela. I’d expect nothing less from a talon of your ill repute. I’ll have you know that I’m not here to divulge any classified information. This is solely in regards to other related urgent matters that have no relevance to this investigation whatsoever. Information she would be better off knowing, and I’m sure the higher-ups would agree. You can be the judge of that yourself. If not, I’ll happily explain the circumstances in front of a court martial.”

“Tch. Typical bureaucrats and your legal loopholes,” Hawkins muttered, acquiescing. “Fine. We probably shouldn’t discuss this here though,” she threw out, glancing around some new patrons in the establishment who were watching. “There are a few new faces I don’t trust.”

“Let’s reconvene this upstairs then,” Gin suggested. “Everyone okay with that?”

We all agreed, despite my minor annoyance, and ended up cramping ourselves into my small room which I had barely even used. Musk, their radgoat bodyguard, ended up watching over the bar downstairs.

Hawkins was squished into me, pushing up uncomfortably close. I felt her jab me with her elbow to make herself space. An awkward atmosphere hung around us, some in present company clearly not too happy about sharing oxygen with the NCR in such a small space.

“Do the civies seriously get to listen in then?” Hawkins scoffed, glaring at the bar owner.

Appleshot Brandy squared up to Hawkins unamused and puffed out her chest, “This is my bar. So I think I have a right to hear y’all, and make sure you NCR-types aren’t up to anything nefarious-like. Especially since you do nothing but sit around, drinking my booze all day!”

“They’re both trustworthy,” I vouched.

“Ugh, alright,” Hawkins relented, exhaling loudly.

Ginger then cleared her throat so that all eyes were on her. “While you were going undercover,” she began, “Colonel Peregrine contacted his superiors about the ongoing negotiations. He was granted one last chance to salvage the situation. That gambit failed, so he’s being relieved of his jurisdiction here.” she revealed.

“That’s what happens when you go against orders.” Hawkins sneered.

“Woah, what. Why?!” I asked.

“Orders are orders. Meanwhile, there’s another issue that’s arisen… Negotiations have fallen through.”

I didn’t understand what that meant. “These ongoing negotiations with the NCR; New Canterlot gets trade resource out of it, but what does the mayor get in return?” I asked.

Hawkins answered that one rather forthcomingly. “That’s easy,” she said. “Aside from bottle caps, she wants a say in all future NCR policy.” I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of all of NCR being run like Dodge City.

“Up to now, we’ve been going through negotiations with our talons tied behind our backs.” Ginger revealed. “That’s why we were forced to hire Miss Roulette, in order to try and avoid this exact situation. But now the mayor has given a single ultimatum to the NCR, and threatened consequences if we don’t agree to all of her demands within forty-eight hours.”

I laughed lightly, trying to remain positive. “Well, maybe the Mayor won’t be totally awful? I mean, how bad can she really be...?”

The grey stallion Gin groaned, rubbing the back of his mane. “Ehhh…?”

My false optimism soured quickly, “That bad, huh?”

“As much as I dislike NCR, one of the upsides is that it isn’t Dodge City…” Gin replied with bitter sarcasm.

Hawkins glowered at the old pony like he had just insulted her Great Grandpa Gruff. “What’s your problem with the NCR old-timer?”

His daughter Brandy snorted, “Bunch of former talons and mercenaries running around, pretending to be a government? Don’t see no good coming of that. Even if y’all do have Equestria’s best interests at heart.”

“And a whore leading hired thugs is much better?” The skyranger retorted.

The barmare laughed out loud, “A corrupt politician? Tell me one I haven’t heard before.” Then the mare shook her head. “Nope. Us locals aren’t big fans of Rubi. But we like things plenty well in our town without some big army coming in to ‘civilize’ things for us.”

“We also still have to deal with the Jagged Knife issue to deal with,” Hotshot pointed out.

Clutching my head between my hooves, I complained aloud so that everyone could hear, “Ugh, this would be so much easier if we were back in the wasteland! We could just shoot the bastard and be done with it...”

Sounding tired, Gin sighed, “The wasteland was only that way to ponies who didn’t know no better...” His comment sounded directed at me in particular. The others nodded sagely in agreement.

Ginger cleared her throat to gain everyone’s attention again. “Miss Mayor apparently learned of some of Jagged’s nefarious activities, and decided to pin most of the recent unrest between the major gangs on him. The mayor has effectively removed his protected status from the Dodge City Gang, which he was previously using to skirt around dealing with NCR law. So now we’re free to deal with him as we like. That blast also damaged a couple of her mining operations and standings with the lower gangs on the city council, so that also plays to our advantage.”

“Ha! Well that solves that problem,” I laughed. “The whole town will be after him now!”

Appleshot Gin chuckled in amusement, “Couldn’t say why she’s kept Jagged around for this long anyways. All he does is cause issues for her and the townsfolk.”

“Jagged Knife has been a wrench in everything for both the mayor of Dodge City and the NCR, and he's too dangerous to ignore. You’re the only pony who’s gotten close enough to speak with him directly, Roulette. Most of my sources have gone dry at the moment. Do you have any idea what he could be planning?” Ginger asked me.

I shook my head, “No idea,” I admitted. “There was some really weird poker chip sized thing-a-ma-jig with a lightning cloud mark on it, but that's it. Dunno if it has any significance… He said he’d think about letting me in on his plan, but other than that, all I can really think of is the weapons,” I looked around all the faces huddled together. Taking particular time to try and read Hawkins’ expression to see if she knew anything, but if she did, she had a goddess-tier poker face. I was almost hesitant to ask the question, “In a worst case scenario, what could Jagged accomplish with all of that high end Enclave weaponry?”

Receiving only a shrug from the ex-enclaver, Hotshot, he guessed, “Maybe start a huge gangwar and get a lot of ponies killed in the crossfire? Even if he somehow came out on top in that hypothetical, the NCR would just come right in and kill him. We’ll need a plan of action, regardless.”

“Who put you in charge, pegasus?” Hawkins challenged, and he shot her back a deadpan look.

“Jagged doesn’t trust anypony. Not even those around him. I was involved in maybe one or two jobs, but never got close enough to learn what he was plotting. Maybe I can think of a few ideas. All of them sound pretty bad, admittedly.” Hotshot pointed out and Ginger agreed. The local ‘experts’ concurred as well.

“Is that an admission of guilt?” Hawkins questioned, raising her brow.

“It is what it is....” he replied. “Underestimating Jagged is what got us here in the first place. We all need to come up with a plan...” Hotshot hammered again, “and I think it should be Roulette. She’s the only one who’s gotten anywhere near him before.”

“Uh, I don’t know if you’ve noticed... but he tried to kill me last time! How do you expect me to get close to him again?” I pointed out.

“Either way, it might be our best shot.” Ginger agreed.

It was crazy, but we didn’t have any other options. Except…

They could all tell I was thinking about something. Around the room, the others were silent, waiting on me. “Actually, I might have someone who can tell me something...” I revealed.

Ginger looked surprised. “Oh, do you have contacts close to Jagged Knife? My only informant within the gang went silent before all of this happened.”

“Yeah, I have a meeting with someone soon who said he’d fill me in on all the details... I’ll try and see what I can figure out and get some answers.”

“That sounds like a great potential lead!” She exclaimed.

I was trying to think to myself what it could be, but was coming up with nil. “What does the NCR know about him? About Jagged Knife?” I asked her, since she was apparently in the business of knowing things.

“Jagged Knife was the leader of the same Knifepoint raiders that sacked a small settlement some months ago. Called ‘the Republic’, according to some reports.”

“Did you say the Republic?” I repeated, hoping I heard right.

“Yes,” Ginger nodded. “Do you know of that place, Miss Roulette?”

“N-No,” I replied hastily. “I just… might’ve heard about it once, or twice.”

“Not to be confused with the NCR. It was a small enclave of settler ponies living together, and following rather strict cult-like traditions with the end goal of emulating pre-war Equestrian society. Jagged’s gang sacked that place prior to Sunshine and Rainbows, but about half of them split off after that. My guess? Likely due disputes over leadership. That was when the Stable Dweller and her allies wiped out the other half. And while even though the two never technically met, as common rumors suggest, he still used that event to gain notoriety within the criminal underworld. We sent ‘reports’ about it,” on that last sentence she left off deadpanning at Hawkins who replied only with an uncaring shrug.

“It seems he’s been rather active lately, despite claiming he’s retiring,” I scoffed.

She nodded in affirmation. “Although his current standings are dicey at best, above all, he is cunning and not to be underestimated. Plus, since he's on the run, he’ll likely be desperate and even more dangerous. Let’s all agree to meet back here soon,” Ginger told the others.

“Ginger? Could you please fulfill a personal request?” I asked her. “Please ask Peregrine to speak with his superiors to let them know that my friend Sunny Hymn had nothing to do with this. She’s just a civilian.”

“I’m sure once the Colonel explains everything to Gawdyna, she’ll understand. Right now, you just have to focus on the matter at claw- er, at hoof… erm… focus on the current matter.”

“Right,” I said, then glaring daggers at the griffon who had been tellingly silent during most of that conversation. “By the way. I need to talk to you Hawkins, Griffon-to-mare.”

“Yeah, what is it?” she asked impatiently folding her arms. The others took that as their cue to go back downstairs. Freeing her wings slightly, she leaned back against one of the walls and squinted at me.

I narrowed my eyes back at her in suspicion and spoke with my voice dipped in venom, “I heard that the top brass of the NCR might have some stake in what’s going on around here. You mentioned they became interested only after they heard Jagged’s name. I’m not a total idiot. You know more than you’re letting on? After all, friends don’t keep secrets.”

Hawkins sneered, “Since when are we friends?”

“Figured.” I spat, unsurprised.

She exhaled, her mood somewhere in between conflicted and annoyed. “Alright, I can tell you one thing,” she finally relented. “Whatever it is that Jagged Knife is planning, the NCR doesn’t have anything to do with it.” Sounded to me like she knew something, but I wouldn’t be able to pry it out of her, even with an expert safe-cracker.

“Tch. Somehow it’s hard for me to take that at face value, but then in that case, I want one thing from you,” I said, holding my hoof up to her face. “I’ll continue to play along and help the NCR under one condition. If I get my friend back and all of this blows over, then promise me: provided he’s still out there, you’re not going to use Sunny Hymn to go after Airworthy.”

The griffon grit her beak in annoyance. “That’s asking a lot, Dirt Muncher…” she growled, clearly not too happy about my request. Then she gave a singular reluctant nod. “Fine… you have my word,” she agreed.

“How do I trust you’ll keep it?”

“My word is my contract.” she answered humorlessly.

Good enough. I nodded back to her. “See ya later, I’ve got a meeting to get to.” Hawkins scoffed in response.

“Whatever...”

As we returned downstairs she plopped her rear at the bar again and went straight back to nursing the bottle. Ginger already had to leave and took her small entourage of undercover troops with her. Hotshot paced after me to the door and put his hoof in front of me. He looked like he had something to say this time.

“Wait, you shouldn’t go alone again,” he warned.

Grinning and rolling my eyes at my own stupidity from before, I replied, “Oh yeah, trust me. I’m not making that mistake again...”

The charcoal-coated pegasus looked back in surprise then gave a smirk, “Glad we’re on the same page then.”

“What are you waiting for? Wipe that dumb look off your face and let’s go already,” I motioned.

He pushed the doors open in a mocking gentlecolt-like fashion, gesturing forward with his wing. “After you, my dear,” he replied with a wry smile.

“Don’t even start,” I grunted, pushing my own way through.

As the sun set on Dodge City, I found myself at a secluded table at the proposed meeting spot across from the Fight Gauntlet. The small hole-in-the-wall establishment that Angel Eyes spoke of, was literally named ‘The Hole-in-the-Wall’. This was Brawler turf. Seemingly everywhere I looked, were posters put up about the current reigning champion, The Masticator. He’d be taking on another challenger tonight, although most betting odds seemed to indicate the champ would keep his title again.

This place was far more run down and seedier looking than the Dodge City Wrangler, which was a feat in of itself. Broken lights and spills of liquid on the floor that I really didn’t care to know the contents of colored the atmosphere, along with its beery piss-like stench.

“He’s late…” I thought, tapping my forehoof impatiently.

Grumping to myself privately, Angel was already fifteen minutes past the agreed upon meet time, that was reason enough for me to be a little pissed off. Not to even mention the whole ‘Jagged Knife trying to kill me’ thing with that last job. Angel told me explicitly that this was the meeting spot, and he’d fill me in on everything I’d been wanting to know. What was Jagged planning with those weapons? Where did they come from? Did it even matter anymore? Ugh. I just wanted to know already!

I told Hotshot beforehoof to try and follow behind me and blend into the crowds, because it needed to look like I’m alone. Although admittedly, the pegasus hiding in a barrel outside was likely far less comfortable than me sipping on complementary hooch.

It wasn’t just my usual impatience either. Thirty minutes had gone by, according to my approximation.

Glancing outside again for the fifth time, there was still no sign of him. I was starting to grow more and more impatient by the minute. Soon, a full hour had passed with no sign of him. I finally got fed up with waiting and stood up from my table, exiting the establishment.

“Maybe Gamble knows something about all this?” I thought, debating whether or not I wanted to suck up to that bastard for another favor.

Hotshot quickly came and caught up with me, pacing through the back alleys together towards the Wrangler. “Hey, how’d the meeting go?” he asked.

“That damned bastard blew me off!” I growled.

His face went deadpan. “Perfect…,” he moaned sarcastically. “So what now?”

Suddenly, I stopped, thinking again.

Looking up at the nighttime silhouette of the Cherry Hill Ranch estate, where some windows were brightly lit, I stared at one window in particular, which I thought might be hers. The moon was partly obscured by the house from this angle. Hotshot struggled to see where I was staring at, squinting in confusion. Then he began to follow again as I changed directions and marched towards it. “I got an idea…” I answered.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Cherry Hill Ranch,” I said. “Maybe my friend up there will be able to help us.”

The pegasus groaned. “This isn’t another solo mission, is it?”

“Nope,” I stopped and turned back to the pegasus, “We’ve got a stealthbuck mk II now. Let’s use it. I’m kind of a big gigantic idiot who always charges head-first into danger to solve all my problems. So I’ll need a good wingpony to watch my back.”

At an unguarded spot on the perimeter, it was a straight shot over the orchard to that building on the far side of the property. The big white manor sat at the top of the hill. It was unlikely that they’d keep anything worthwhile in the villa, but maybe we could get a clue about Jagged’s plan by searching around.

“I remember seeing a few suspicious buildings up at the ranch where they could’ve stashed them,” I said. “Scout around and see if you can find anything. Keep an eye out for me and don’t get caught.”

Hotshot’s eyes were fixed on the sky, judging his flight path, and the speed of the wind. It was a moonlit night, but that wouldn’t be a problem with his stealthbuck mk. II. My pegasus companion smirked. “Trust me, I know how the Enclave scouts used to do this. I’ll be in and out like the night,” he bragged.

“Were you a temp scout for the Enclave?” I joked.

“Uh… not exactly? I’ll tell you more about it later,” he answered awkwardly. Flipping on his stealthbuck, I heard wingflaps and felt a slight gust of wind as he took to the air.

I was able to trot in through the front gate without much trouble.

Infiltrating Cherry Hill Ranch was much easier the second time around. The ponies who did recognize me barely gave me any trouble because I was supposed to be here as far as they cared.

No signs of Angel Eyes. Not even in the villa. I imagined Jagged wouldn’t be here, given the circumstances, and as expected Sting was nowhere to be found... but what about Three-Card? I had a few choice questions for him too.

Making my way through the villa again, it felt like there were a lot less ponies compared to earlier in the day. Was anybody here?

I passed by several guards out front of the mayor’s mansion and told them I was on business for the mayor. They didn’t question it.

Searching through the halls, this time I was looking for a very specific door, but was having trouble remembering where it was. I clenched my jaw in annoyance. “All of the these doors looked the same!” I thought.

Finally, on the second floor, I came to the approximate location of where I was last time. Looking both ways to see that nopony was around. I turned the handle slowly and peeked inside the playroom. It was painted with cherry trees, sunshine and rainbows on one side, and a starry night sky on the other. Better than most kids had in the wasteland.

Sunny was nowhere to be found. I cursed under my breath, then my eyes fell downward, to the small apple green filly, staring back up at me with an apathetic look in her eyes. The one named Accolade. Her mane was cut with even bangs in front and the back tied into a braid. Still no cutie mark, even though she was almost at the age where fillies and colts usually got theirs.

She didn’t say a word or scream this time, or kick me in the leg again, thankfully. Instead she just stared back silently. Realizing that my butt was sticking out into the hallway, I quickly and quietly slipped inside and shut the door.

Pretending to look around the room awkwardly, I scratched the back of my mane with my hoof. “Oh, uh… hey there kid,” I said making pleasantries.

She didn’t respond.

“You didn’t happen to see where Sunny got off to, did ya?”

“I’m not supposed to tell you,” she answered, scrunching her face in annoyance.

That made sense, she was probably out scouting on her own or something. “Oh, is she on a secret mission then?” I asked her.

“It wouldn’t be a secret anymore if I told you. Duh.”

Fair point. “That’s okay, you don’t have to tell me in that case. She is coming back though, right?”

Accolade pondered in her head if whether or not it was okay to answer before nodding.

I gestured at the floor beside her. “You don’t mind if I sit down and wait for her to return in that case, do ya?” I asked, and the filly turned her head away in annoyance, which I took as tacit approval.

Pacing slowly over to the window, I checked outside. It was dark so I couldn’t see Hotshot anywhere. I figured he’d probably check the barn first before moving to that other suspicious building on the far side of the property. There was nothing to do but wait, so plopped my rump down on the floor and sat there in silence with the filly.

Neither of us spoke, but the filly kept glancing at me as though she were annoyed by my very presence. There was something else I thought I saw in her eyes though that also caught my interest. It was the look of a filly who had already taken life. Even in whatever you’d call this new-ish wasteland, that look was clear as day to me.

Who was she? And why was she so important to the mayor? I watched her silently for a while as we both waited for Sunny Hymn to return.

Oddly, the filly was the one who decided to break the silence. “S-Sunny told me you weren’t a bad pony. Why should I believe you?”

“I won’t bite ya, I promise.” I replied with just a hint of sarcasm.

“T-Then why are you working for Jagged Knife?” she stammered, her voice sounding accusatory. A hint of anger there as well.

“To be honest with you? I’m the one here to kick his sorry ass. I came here to save Sunny Hymn. They kidnapped her, but then I found out that she didn’t need saving.”

Accolade squinted at me, “...You’re not really working for Jagged Knife then, are you?”

“Nope,” I answered.

The filly sighed, then she scoffed derisively with just a hint of defeat in her voice, “You know you can never beat him, right? My daddy was way faster with his gun and he died. An earth pony like you is just gonna get killed by a unicorn.”

“That’s rude, discounting me already like that...” I frowned, feeling dejected by a small filly. Then I mumbled, pouting off to the side. “I’d prefer to let my actions speak for themselves…”

Accolade’s eyes lit up and she moved closer to me. “Wait, that was you? Did you really take down all those ghouls on your own? Everypony around town has been talking about it.”

“Yup. I fought most of them off with my hooves and bullets, then blew the rest up with a whole stockpile of explosives.”

She scoffed again, “That’s stupid. You could’ve died.”

“Yeah, I guess it kinda was…,” I agreed. “Maybe it was all just dumb luck. Who knows? Maybe I’m the one who needs saving.”

“Jagged Knife is still more dangerous...“ she contended, then she frowned and her eyes trailed off. A short pause hung in the air before she continued to speak to me, adding, “Sunny is really nice to me. I can see why you like her. Even then, I know Rubi just asked her to take care of me so I’ll give her the password. Most ponies I meet just want to use me to their own ends. She said I could trust you though. You seem alright, I guess... I’m sorry about kicking your leg before…”

“Mhm. Don’t worry about it, kid. I know what it’s like to be a filly living in the wasteland.”

“Y-you do?”

“I was an orphan too once, y’know? Didn’t have parents or anything. I even had to get my hooves dirty from time to time. Admittedly, I saw a bit of myself when I was looking at you. Sunny is new to the wasteland. That’s partly why she’s so kind, I think. She hasn’t really had to deal with any of the crap we’ve been through, but she tries anyways. That sun she gives off is better than the real thing, if you ask me... But hey, if you ever need anything, just ask me, alright?” I grinned, jabbing her shoulder lightly.

Accolade didn’t answer me that time. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was fighting herself not to. Maybe she didn’t fully trust me. I couldn’t tell if it was because she was walled off up here from the outside or what, but I wasn’t here to judge her for her reasons.

She gave a slight nod in agreement. “W-What was your name again?” she asked.

“It’s-” I began, only to be cut off by the door opening and closing suddenly, and we both turned our heads, I whipped out my pistol and pointed it in front of me, then light shimmered around Sunny Hymn as she shut off her stealthbuck, a look of surprise on her face. She held her breath, looking down the barrel of the gun.

I quickly returned my gun to its holster and apologized, “Um, sorry about that. I’ve been dealing with a lot of invisible guys lately...”

Sunny Hymn exhaled, holding her chest. “R-Roulette… ?!” she stammered, somewhat shaken. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh hey, I was just... uh, keeping Accolade company. Have you seen Angel Eyes?”

“Um, no… he went out on a job. He should be back later though. Why?” Then she looked down with a warm smile to address the young filly who happily trotted up and gave her a hug, “Thank you so much for keeping my cover while I was away, Accolade. I couldn’t do this without you.”

The filly smiled as she happily received headpats from Sunny. It reminded me of how she was acting around her dad a little. “Me and Accolade have been working together,” she revealed.

“Yeah, we had a whole meeting planned. You were there, remember? That last job I got sent on... Well let’s just say, now there’s an untapped market for fried ghoul jerky, if you’re into that sorta thing.”

Her eyes widened, “Wait, so you’re the one who busted up that smuggling ring? You did that all on your own?! Jeez Roulette, be more careful!” For a moment I thought I saw the Sunny I knew again.

“I’m fine, Sunny. Getting shot up is nothing I can’t handle,” I replied.

“What are you crazy? That’s not fine! What is wrong with you? How are you even alive right now?””

“You don’t need to worry about me. Something big may be going down soon. All the gangs around the city seem to be thinking the same thing.”

She cut me off in a harsh whisper, pressing her hoof to my lips. “I knew that already. I had most of this figured out on my own, and everything was going smoothly until you pulled that ridiculous stunt. Now everypony is all paranoid, and snooping around has been a huge pain in the butt for me.”

“I know…” I replied. “I’m sorry. Sunny, you’re better at this than me. That’s why I came by to ask you a few questions.”

“Okay. What do you want to know…?” she sighed.

“We’re trying to figure out what Jagged is planning. Do you know where he’s been hiding his weapons?”

Sunny rolled her eyes sideways, “Pfft. I’ve already been spying on him once. That old creep didn’t suspect a thing!” she boasted. “His little lacky Sting thinks he’s so damn stealthy, but I can hear his hoofsteps from a mile away. What a total amateur! Did you know he wears eyeliner? Except there was also that really creepy thing Jagged did where I wondered whether or not he could actually see me even though I was invisible. Pretty sure I’m safe.”

As much as I enjoyed hearing Sunny Hymn badmouth Sting, there were more important matters. “They were smuggling weapons down in that mine, but they already moved them somewhere else by the time I got there.” I said.

“So what’s he after?” I asked reflexively. “Is it the Enclave weapons?”

“It’s not about the Enclave weapons,” she groaned, “but the good news is, I think I know what’s been going on with those caravan attacks you were talking about before. I’m pretty sure that Jagged was just struggling to adjust to Post-Wasteland life. Had to get one last thrill.”

“What about all that talk about retirement?” I asked.

Sunny seemed to have a tendency to talk herself through her problems. It was sort of cute in a way. “He’s a raider. He lies. Anyways, there aren’t many places where he could be keeping them. If Jagged really was planning something, he might try to go after the mayor out of desperation, so I doubt he’d keep the weapons here. Other than that maybe out in the desert? Except it would be kinda hard to move that many weapons out of town without being caught...”

“That must be it!” I exclaimed. “There were a bunch of tunnels in the mine before I- uh, went and...blew them up,” I grinned sheepishly as she deadpanned.

The mare rubbed her chin thinking. “Hmm, I guess that’d make sense...” she admitted. “Really though, you shouldn’t worry. Jagged Knife thinks he’s so smart, but if he’s going to make a move now, it’ll have to be for his own self-preservation. Raiders are sooo predictable. In the end, all they want is self-gratification.”

“It’s not going to end here, Sunny.” I told her. The mare snorted, clearly not taking me seriously.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Accolade was beginning to look a little nervous. Sunny gave a brief motherly smile to the filly to reassure her, then the seafoam mare returned her gaze to me. “You may not know this, but there’s actually a secret weapons R&D facility below this very mansion,” she revealed. “Unfortunately, it’s locked behind several layers of state-of-the-art security terminals. The original owner of the property had a ton of connections to ponies in the wartime government. Accolade is the only one with the password, so Miss Rubi hired me to coax it out of her, but I promised Accolade that I would never ask her for it. That way we could keep each other safe, while I tried my hoof at hacking the security terminals on my own.”

“That’s… interesting. So that’s what the mayor is after?” I pondered, suddenly wondering in my head if it was possible if Jagged had already accessed the facility. Thinking of all the tunnels in the mines, one of the shafts could’ve gone underneath the mansion. That theory wasn’t too far fetched, right? I asked Sunny about it.

“Hmmm, I doubt it,” she replied. “I haven’t been able to get in, so there’s no way a deadbeat raider like Jagged Knife could do it… actually, I might have something that may interest you.” she said reaching inside her blouse and pulled out a small diary. In fact, it was the same diary I had absentmindedly given to her back at the burned town. My mouth dropped open.

“You seriously kept that?” I asked her in disbelief.

“Yeah? You don’t just throw away old notes without going through them first. What if you find important information? That’s Enclave scouting 101.” Sunny said, giving me a judgy look for overlooking obvious details, then began to skim. I watched he