Typically, in my dreams, I’m myself. I know some ponies see a version of themselves more true to their soul, but I wasn’t one of those. My coat was always magenta, my mane and tail were always blue and white, and I was always a pegasus. My age would fluctuate but who I was never changed. Singing Rhapsody was and always would be Singing Rhapsody.
Which made it especially strange that night when I found myself no longer as Singing Rhapsody.
Even before getting a real look at myself I knew something about this dream felt off. It felt both too real and too unreal at the same time, like a horrible night terror. I couldn’t feel my wings, I was shorter, my hindlegs felt like cement bricks, and my mane and tail felt way too damn long for Enclave regulation. There was also a little extra weight on my head, but I couldn’t reach my hooves up to check.
Lack of control, feeling like I was not in my own body. If I was a unicorn it would have been easy to say I was inside a memory orb, but I wasn’t. I had never been in one, or laid eyes on one for that matter. Besides, as far as I know there aren’t any memory orbs from after the war, and it was clear for the shoddy shack I was in this was after the mega spells hit. Wherever it was I didn’t know and truthfully I didn’t care.
I want to say “who am I?” What I got instead was a higher pitch and rather whiny yell.
“Dad? You done yet?”
The voice wasn’t mine, the body wasn’t mine, and this dream was definitely not mine. I would have panicked, but I was at the hindrance of this mare’s emotion. I pouted, more pissed off than anything else.
“Just one more minute, Dead,” somepony called out. The voice was low, gruff, but had a gentle aura around them. “What in Luna’s name did you do to this?”
“Nothing! I was just doing some target practice,” Dead replied. Of all the names for a grounder to have.
“Target practice? Like tartarus this was from target practice!” her father shouted. He sounded mad, but he still sounded rather gentle. “Did you drop it in mud or something? Roll it around and clog it up like some small brained raider?”
“Apologies for being clumsy,” Dead shot back, rolling her eyes. She shifted into a laying down position, though her legs refused to help her. “Ain’t that easy to pick up something you drop when your legs don’t fucking work. Kept accidentally pushing it farther away from me.”
A grounder entered the shoddy room I – or Dead, technically – had been laying in. He gave a disapproving look to her, but the unicorn I was trapped inside of seemed undeterred. This was clearly their family dynamic, and while greatly different from my own it didn’t seem hostile. He leaned down so that he was on eye level with his daughter, who was currently wearing the smugest of smiles,
“Dead Hooves, who taught you those kinds of words?” her father asked. To my disbelief, the grounder didn’t seem shaken by the question, but somehow became even more smug.
“Well, let me think here…,” She said, tapping her hoof to her muzzle. After a couple of seconds she proceeded to boop her father on the nose. “I only know one pony. I would say it’s his fault.”
Her father couldn’t keep a straight face, lowering his head and shaking it as he chuckled to himself. That was followed by him ruffling Dead Hooves mane, which she immediately whined at. Her attempts to push his hoof off her head proved fruitless, and after a time she simply pouted and let him do his thing. The glow of his horn made me aware the grounder was a unicorn, which made it clear what the small weight I was feeling on Dead Hooves’ head was.
A double barrel shotgun floated in and rested into the mangled corpse of a shelf next to the bed his daughter was laying in. If I was guessing correctly, that was what he had been getting on her for dirtying up.
“That’s my little soldier.”
I wanted to laugh at his choice of words, but I had no ability to. What a joke, a grounder calling another grounder a “soldier”. He was probably some idiotic Steel Ranger who still saw himself as keeping the peace, forgetting that such a thing didn’t exist down here.
I watched him sit down on the mattress with his daughter, his expression gloomy yet proud. Dead Hooves’ lips curled down, and she looked to her own hind legs. Her father took her cheek and forced her to look at him instead of them, a sigh escaping his daughter’s mouth. My vision quickly found itself far lower, Dead’s head touching the floor.
“A real soldier wouldn’t be stuck sitting around all day,” She grumbled, eyeing the rickety wooden floor beneath her. “A real soldier would be able to walk.”
“We’re all soldiers in different ways,” her father said. She refused to look at him as he talked. “Not all of our wars are the same. Some of us battle others, but so many more war against themselves.” I felt his hoof on her back, caressing it. “You're fighting hard, and that makes you as real a soldier as any other.”
Dead scoffed at his words. “You know, you don’t have to give me these little pep talks.”
“You are my daughter and I know you need to hear it. I don’t mind cheering you up.”
Dead responded with a dry laugh and looked back to her father. She wasn’t quite smiling, but she also wasn’t quite frowning either. It felt like she was stuck in a state of denial, unsure if she really wanted to accept his love or not. I wouldn’t get an answer to what she decided, because the world around me soon blurred.
I was waking up.
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Alibi Street Cinema, Trotson
Day 3
The first thing I saw upon returning to the waking world was an incoherent blob of tan, black, and red. At first I thought it was just my eyes not feeling completely focused, but it shifted a bit to show two small circles of white on both sides of my vision. It then vanished, and I was left staring at the clear but decrepit walls of Alibi Street Cinema. The fire had died down, Willow Wisp was asleep, and Sharpshot wasn’t around.
I considered what the dream was I just witnessed, and then shoved it into the corner of my mind. It was not important; it was just a dream. It was strange, yes, but the mind worked in mysterious ways. Dreams rarely made sense, and even when they did it was typically surrounded by weirdness that couldn’t be explained. In this case, that weirdness was more grounded than normal, but it was just the same.
Getting up, I checked to see if the MentaBuck had a simple clock feature. Strangely enough, for all the little conveniences it had, that part seemed to be missing from its functions. I stretched my limbs and then made my way over to Willow. I reached my hooves right next to her ears and started clapping them together. There was an immediate flinch.
“Wake up princess! Your subjects await your orders!” I shouted from right about her, watching as she started to wiggle and groan in dissatisfaction.
“W-waah,” She spoke, whatever word she had attempted to say turning into a whimper of pain. When she had recovered from the spike in pain, she looked at me and spoke telepathically. “You know, there are nicer ways of waking a pony up?”
“Don’t care,” I stated, shrugging. “Now get up. I’ll grab Sharpshot, we’ll have something to eat, and then will start this long ass day of traveling and tailing.”
Willow didn’t nod, but instead reached her hoof back to her throat. A simple glance was enough to tell me that the pain wasn’t completely gone, which made sense. Killing joke was possibly the craziest, scariest plant I had ever heard about in my entire life, and was known to get ponies killed both directly and indirectly. The fact Willow was still holding on was honestly remarkable.
Didn’t make the discomfort she was in any worse, and it seemed whatever was helping her was now wearing off. She glanced around her, and then pointed to a saddlebag that Sharpshot must have removed during that time my memory had gone completely absent.
“I think the cloud nine is wearing off. Can you get some more for me?”
“Cloud… nine?” I whispered to myself. Hoping I had heard wrong, I nodded and sped trot to the bag in question. I opened it up and there that terrible white powder was, much to my horrid dismay. “Willow, why the fuck are you have this stuff?”
“Because it helps with the pain,” She said. I was about to call bullshit, but then she shook her head and corrected herself. “No, it’s not the pain it helps with. It’s the killing joke that it stops, even if only for a bit of time. Apparently being an alicorn made me more resistant to its more negative effects so when Sharpshot and I found out we…,” She looked towards the theater room’s exit. “... it was the best we have. If we didn’t find it I… I would rather die than live in that much pain.”
“It doesn’t help completely though,” I replied. She looked at me confused. “Fucking grounders. Okay, look, if it helped you complete you wouldn’t have to keep taking it. It would flush the killing joke’s magical effects out and you wouldn’t have to take it again, right?” She started to nod, stopped, and then finished it. “Willow, you're just getting high or… something. Never been high myself so fuck if I know if it helps with pain, but its just numbing your nerves.”
She blinked, then looked at the bag. “So can you grab it, please?”
“Willow.”
“You don’t know what it is like!” She screamed at me. Typically a shout wouldn’t have unsettled me, but none of those had been through telepathy. That mind scream was more visceral than any spoken word ever spoken, and more terrifying than any howl. “I don’t want to, okay? I don’t want to have to take it, but it is the only damn thing in this wasteland that helps. The only thing that doesn’t give her immediate control. So please, before it wears off, just give me the cloud nine!”
I looked back to the bag, and then to Willow. A picture of a pure little filly, dropping dead to the floor, entered my mind. I couldn’t believe what I was being told was true, seeing what these could do. However, the idea that underneath that horn lied a fellow pegasus, I couldn’t burn it either. A small piece of me asking “what if she’s telling the truth?” and with that I kicked the bad just the slightest bit towards her.
“You want your fix? Don’t ask for my help,” I told her,
I stepped over the bag of drugs and made my way over to my battle saddle, getting it all fitted up for the day. The feeling of eyes glaring into the back of my head did its best to burn a hole through my flesh, but gave up after a few seconds. I got the battle saddle on, and then turned to see Willow snort some cloud nine. She looked at me, and I stared her down the best I could.
“If your only choice was constant pain, or feeling high, what would you choose?” She asked me.
I couldn’t give her an answer, for I simply did not know.
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“So, you thought she was one of the ponies you are looking for? Hold on, I can guess the answer: she isn’t.”
“This is why the two of us stopped talking in the first place. You are right, though.”
I recognized both the voices that hit my ears as I opened the door outside, one expected and one slightly unexpected. Sharpshot looked to me as Willow and I stepped outside, a Sprite-Bot turning its attention to us as well. My hoof didn’t let go of the door, having not expected to see Watcher again. I figured he would have just left me alone.
“Speak of the devil, and lo and behold! She has appeared!” Sharpshot said dramatically. One of my eyes twitched at his words, and I could see the slight change in his eyes that meant he was smiling. “Got the rest you needed?”
“To face the day? Yes. To hear you? No,” I answered, turning to the Sprite-Bot. “So you all know each other? Friends or something like that?”
“More familiar acquaintances than anything else,” Watcher answered. The Sprite-Bot turned from me to Willow, who gave them a small nod. “It’s nice to see you’re still around, Willow. Best of luck to you all.”
With that, he let the Sprite-Bot return to that absolutely horrible music that it had, and the ball of metal floated off. My ears folded against myself in an attempt to keep the awful noise out, but that didn’t save me from the sound of horribly distorted music. It was only when the bot floated out of my hearing range that I felt any form of comfort returned to my being. It also, sadly, left a certain ghoul looking far too smug for my liking.
“Old world blues too much for you?” He asked me.
I groaned my teeth, holding back the urge to slap him again. “Shut the fuck up Sharpshot.”
“No ma’am, I will not,” he replied. The pure confidence in smugness of this ghoul made me want to throw him to the surface, from the clouds. That might just be enough to make that snark of his disappear. “Seriously though, you two have a good night’s sleep? Outside of some radroaches I had a rather boring night.”
“Outside of a less than jolly wake up, pretty good!” Willow said. She walked over to her husband, the two shared a quick hug, and then she motioned to me with her head. “We should have told her about what I was using to help with the pain.”
The ghoul looked to me, then back to his wife, and then to me once more. A part of me expected him to be angry but he looked oddly… understanding, perhaps? His entire body had sagged, head lowered. The grounder knew exactly how dangerous cloud nine was, which made the fact he let his wife have it annoy me. At the same time, it also meant that she was correct; Sharpshot had some clear medical skills. More than I would have expected of a normal grounder.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Then again, he was a stable dweller. Was he training to be a medical pony, before he ended up where he is now?
“Trust me, if there was another way to help her without losing her, I would do it,” he told me. He planted a hoof on his chest. “I introduced her to cloud nine. It’s a long story but….”
“You were an addict,” I summarize.
“Sweet Luna, I wish it was that simple,” He replied, shaking his head and stepping away from the cinema. “I did use to take it though, yeah. Fell into a pit for a while after some bad shit happened. Willow and I found out it helped with the pain by complete accident.” He turned his head back to us. “It’s what we got. Guess you’ve seen what it can do to a normal pony.”
I gave him a nod. “At the worst time, in the worst place.”
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The first step was getting back to Sandstone, a task which would have been easy if it wasn’t for the unicorn traveling with us. Willow and I could have flown off, but apparently Sharpshot and all the shit he was carrying was a bit too much weight for her. I hadn’t expected that, with her being an alicorn and all, but it was what it was. Perhaps it was another small show of how the I.M.P only half did its jump. It was starting to become very clear she had gotten exceptionally lucky to not turn into some hideous abomination.
Without flight technically off the table, we were forced to chat with each other to stave off boredom. I think I was starting to prefer the time I was alone to the time with these two. Half of it was because Sharpshot couldn’t keep from saying something that made me want to dent his skull. The other half of it was due to being the center of conversation.
“So part of the reason so many of you Enclave wear your power armor when coming to the surface is because of the radiation?” Willow asked. I can’t believe it was a question I had to answer, but I gave her a nod. “Is the difference in resistance really that high?”
“Yep. Granted we’re still more resistant than anypony in a Stable,” I explained. A cough brought Sharpshot to my attention, and my expression turned deadpan. “You’re an exception, and you know that.”
“So I’m not worth a mention?” the insufferable ghoul asked. I decided to ignore it.
“The Enclave has beaten into a lot of pegasi’s heads that the surface is far too inhospitable and twisted for us ponies to truly survive down there. All of you are so twisted with radiation, and that is what makes you all hostile and fucked up,” I continued on, waving a hoof dismissively at the grounders behind me. They may have been giving me disapproving looks; I didn’t care. “So we’re suited up to deal with the radiation, mainly to protect us from the affliction called “getting shot”, but also to protect us from becoming horribly irradiated. It also helps keep strong the all important ‘p’ word: propaganda.”
“Which you believe,” Sharpshot guessed.
“I wouldn’t call it propaganda if I thought it was the truth,” I told him. “What I do believe is this: the Enclave keeps pegasus-kind safe and mutation free. My foals are safe up there, as is my husband.” My vision found itself nowhere in particular, stuck half between the waking world and the world of my memories. “So many ponies, safe from the tartarus I’m now forced to endure. That you two have been forced to endure.”
“It is pretty sucky down here at times,” Willow said with a nod. “Though, I think I would prefer to be down here than up there.”
I looked at the alicorn… no.
I looked at the pegasus under that I.M.P paint job the Goddess had given her, and let my mouth hang. From a unicorn, earth pony, or zebra I would expect to hear such things because they literally knew no better. This, however, was a fucking pegasus! She had to have lived in the Enclave some amount of time ago. A time before she became a slave, before she became a murder, before the Goddess twisted her form. She should know how much safer it is up there.
“Ignorance isn't bliss, soldier mare,” Sharpshot spoke up. My steps stopped, and my companions soon followed suit. I turned around and trotted up to the ghoul as he explained. “You see all this? You can’t ignore it forever. Before long something is gonna happen that will send you all down here, and many a pegasus won’t be ready to deal with the shit it throws at them.”
“So that is your reasoning? Ignorance isn’t bliss?” I asked. “Okay, but what about those who can’t handle it?”
He raised an eyebrow, as if the idea was so foreign that it came from before the original union of the three tribes. I already couldn’t believe that I had to explain this to explain this to Willow Wisp, but Sharpshot? The Enclave had defectors, sure, but there was no good reason for a pony from a Stable to leave without being forced to. He should have understood.
“Imagine a stable dweller, Sharpshot. A pony who lived in safety, underground, and away from the tartarus that was the surface much like you once did,” I said, a hoof motioning wildly to emphasize my points. “They are safe, and have never had to worry about anything that could possibly harm or disrupt their daily routine outside the odd scuffle here or there.”
I pressed my hoof into his chest, hard enough to feel his mutated skin push inwards under his getup.
“Then, for some dumbass reason, they decide to leave the safety of that Stable for a world ready to kill them. A world that could break them over and over again, take away who they truly are, and leave a damaged shell behind. A world they weren’t made for. They need that ignorance, Sharpshot. The pegasi above the clouds need that ignorance.”
Harsh glare met harsh glare, my eyes staring into the blood red of the grounder before me. He removed my hoof from his chest, and placed his own on me. His stare grew more hateful.
“You're asking for ponykind to stay stagnant,” he said in rebuttal.
“No, I want my kind to be untraumatized,” I replied. “You want to break everything.”
“You’re assuming we aren’t all broken to begin with.”
“Um, can this ethics discussion wait till later perhaps,” Willow spoke up. Our attention turned to the alicorn, sheepishly watching us from afar. “We kind of have a pony to find.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “Yeah. We’ll continue this later.”
As Sharpshot shrugged and started to trot again, my eyes turned to a specific building. I recognized it yesterday, because Sharpshot and I had cleared it. Whickerbury Apartment Complex looked like it hadn’t been touched, as did the streets outside it. That didn’t make sense though, at least the latter part. It was entirely possible that I was also fritting over nothing, but I couldn’t help but wonder…
… where had the bodies gone?
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Thankfully, unlike my first time arriving in Sandstone, there were no complications with getting to Bone Breaker. No colts trying too hard to get me in bed, the sun wasn’t too low in the sky, we could meet her immediately. With nowhere else to go, Shining Gemini had stayed the night at her place. Considering the grounder seemed rather relaxing, Bone Breaker had to be keeping his son from making any dumb moves.
“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised I didn't die along with the rest of them,” Gemini said, looking at the sparkle-cola in her hooves. Drinks had been passed out for each of us, and I had once again chosen a sunrise sarsaparilla. “Or end up back in chains for that matter. They brought me along as a piece of bait; they knew we weren’t the first ponies there.”
“Better to lose a slave then lose an actual friend,” Sharpshot said. Gemini gave nervous glances around the small shelter Bone Breaker counted as her home, then shook her head. “It sucks, but that's how the world works. You would have been better off with Red Eyes, if you were going to be a slave to anypony.”
“I have no idea who that is,” Gemini replied. She took a sip of her soda, and placed it on the table. “They definitely would have just tossed me into the gunfire, but I was chosen for my special talent. I’m an illusionist, or more specifically I’m good at making doubles.”
“I could imagine a non-living decoy could be exceptionally useful in combat scenarios,” I stated. “Judging by the fact you know how, you weren’t born into that life.”
“Settlement destroyed, parents killed, and I was turned into what you see today,” the unicorn grounder said. A sad chuckle escaped her. “I… I get to have an actual life now. I was scared shitless of you all at first, but now? Now I can figure out what Shining Gemini the pony can do, instead of just Shining Gemini the slave.”
“Got to appreciate an upbeat attitude!” Willow replied, giving the former slave a big smile. She flinched at the alicorn’s voice, which made Willow shy away in sadness. “I’ll just stay quiet.”
“S-s-sorry, it's just… everything about you is so different for me. There is nothing wrong with you wanting to talk,” Gemini said, hooves flailing in front of her. Her eyes briefly turned to me, before going back to the alicorn. “I mean, I didn’t know ponies could have wings until a few days ago. It seems there is a lot I don’t know about the world.”
My ears went to attention at that sentence, body straightening up. If she saw a pony with wings, and she had never seen somepony like Willow before, then the only thing it could be was Angel Hair. We had a lead, even if that lead was a few days old. It didn’t matter, I had her.
“I’m not the first pegasus you’ve seen?” I asked, just to make extra sure that yesterday didn’t count as “a few days ago” to the mare before me. A smirk found its way onto my muzzle when she gave me a confident nod. “What did they look like? Yellow on yellow?”
“I… think so?” Gemini replied, giving the door a side glance as it opened. Bone Breaker had left earlier to take care of something in Stable 71, and I hadn’t bothered to pay attention. “I only caught a small glimpse. Was hard to tell what she looked like. She freed a few others like myself, though I think most of them died trying to escape.”
“Good idea, poorly executed,” Sharpshot stated, leaning back in his chair. “She’s lucky to not be in chains herself, or dead.”
“I doubt either would happen with her,” I said, shaking my head. “That mare is tough. We use to joke about her being part dragon.”
“Doesn’t make her any less vulnerable to the wasteland,” Bone Breaker said, sitting down with the rest of us. “Trotson may be a weird place in it, but it is still part of the San Palomino Desert, and therefore still part of Equestria.”
She had grabbed a rather old looking cup, probably with some purified water from the Stable in it, and sat down. It was obvious that she had meant to drink from it, but Sharpshot’s horn had lit up. His telekinesis grabbed her head, and with no mercy she slammed into her table. Gemini yelped, Willow looked to Sharpshot in horrified shock, and I just sat there stunned at what had just happened.
“Sharpy!”
“That was the sixth damn time you pulled that shit Breaker!” He yelled at the earth pony, ignoring his wife’s yelling. “The sixth damn time! Stop playing with her for fucks sake!”
“Sharpy, please. She apologized for it.”
“She did the other times too!” He shouted, his voice causing Willow to wince a bit. As soon as he saw that reaction, he seemed to relax a bit. I could see the smallest hint of shame in his eyes. “She keeps saying your trigger word. How long until she uses it to kill the wrong pony?”
“That doesn’t mean–“
“No… no, he is right.”
Everyones went to the earth pony, a hoof holding a badly bleeding nose. Red was starting to stain her hoof, running down it like a river. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she was furious through all that pain. Instead she seemed sincere, or as close to sincere as a liar could be.
How much of what she had said to me yesterday was the truth?
“Guess it was only a matter of time till I got burned,” she said, more to herself than any of us. I could see a smile hiding behind that hoof. “You don’t have to like me, but the matter is I’m housing your only lead. So either play nice,” the sound of guns caused my eyes to swirve behind me. A group of guards was now surrounding the room. “or mistakes are gonna be made, one way or another.”
“You knew something like was gonna happen, didn’t you?” I said, looking at the smiling raider before me. Yes, raider. A very reasonable raider, but very clearly as low as those we had killed the day prior. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or furious.”
“I’d go with the former. Rage gets you nowhere,” she said, getting up from her seat. The growl Sharpshot gave proved her point. “I know you two could possibly handle yourself, but as long as I know her trigger word it’s best you sit and play nice.”
“Don’t play with my wife like that!” The ghoul yelled, standing up. Every single gun was pointed at him, and upon realizing this he chose to sit down. “You're a bitch, Breaker.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she replied. All she needed to do was wave, and the ponies behind us lowered their guns. “Now, as much as I would like to help Rhapsody reunite with her friend, I’m gonna need to have the town's medic look at my nose. Can’t have that go without some form of recompense.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You need us to grab something?”
“I need you and Willow,” Bone Breaker answered, joining us at the table. She motioned to her guards, and then to Sharpshot and Gemini. “These two are being tied up and thrown in the Stable until you finish. You won’t have Angel Hair’s location till then.”
“Like tartarus you–“
“Hun, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but don’t,” Willow said, shaking her head. “I think this is a situation where we just need to do what we’re told.”
Sharpshot went quiet as he was forced to his hooves, Gemini shakily getting up on her own free will. The couple stared each other down for a moment, and then there was a sigh of resignation. Sharpshot knew just as much as Willow Wisp, Bone Breaker, and myself that blood and arguing wouldn’t do much. He wanted to fight, because that was what the grounder was used to doing, but this wasn’t the time. So, with a drop of his head, he gave up.
“Don’t get yourself killed.”
“I won’t. I’m a tough mare, and you know that.”
The two were escorted out, and Bone Breaker’s abode had become significantly quieter. The grounder was using a rather well used towel to try and clean up the blood. Considering it was starting to get rather red and she was still bleeding, Sharpshot had done a lot more damage than it originally seemed. His telekinetic control was honestly rather frightening, but considering his talent lied somewhere in precision that made sense.
“I would apologize to you two, but I doubt it would be believable right now,” the raider said, a groan of pain hinted in her words. “Let's get this explanation over with as soon as possible. I’m not fainting because of blood loss today.”
“And so you don’t have to hold my husband hostage for too long,” Willow stated. Bone Breaker nodded at the sentiment. “And, Boney, while I am hurt for you never meaning your apologies, I forgive you. I forgive you, and I’m sorry for what my husband did.”
“Don’t apologize. I had it coming, but I don’t regret any of what I said.”
Bone Breaker put the old towel down, but her muzzle was still scuffed up. Without anything to hide it, one could make out the fact that a tiny bit of her lower jaw was showing through her skin. Ding up like that, she was correct about needing to hurry up.
“Rhapsody, I told you that we use the Stable for farming, right?” She asked me. I gave her a nod. “Well we’re in need of some things. Specifically, we need a new water purification talisman. I’m pretty sure I know where one is, and I was already sending ponies to get it,” She gave a smile, and pointed at her muzzle. “Then this happened, and I found the perfect excuse to not send my own ponies into the jaws of death.”
“That wording is concerning,” I replied, resting back. “I’m not gonna be dealing with some raiders in an apartment complex, am I?”
There was a chuckle at her words. “If only it was that easy. The place I need you two to head is the Ministry of Arcane Science hub here in Trotson. I know from some ponies that there are still talismans there, and with any hope it will be what we are looking for.”
“Oh yeah. Sharpy and I have passed by it once or twice. I know where it is,” Willow chimed in, doing her best to lighten the mood with cheer. It did nothing but feel off given the situation. “Though, do you really think they would have anything like that there?”
“Stable-tech’s building here in Trotson was supposedly the dead center of the balefire explosion; nothing but a crater there now. The Ministry of Arcane Science is your best call,” Bone Breaker said, her eyes unable to lock onto those of the mare speaking to her. “Get us a talisman, or if not give me substantial proof you were there, and you’ll be free to go.”
“With Gemini’s knowledge of where Angel Hair was,” I reminded her. The raider gave me a firm nod. “Then no reason to keep sitting on my ass.”
Willow gave her own nod, agreeing with my line of thought. We got up from our seats and made our way out, Bone Breaker following behind us. She only went as far as the middle of Sandstone before breaking off, likely heading to the town medic. The eyes of my alicorn companion had drifted in the direction we both knew Stable 71 was located in.
“I could just… no. They wouldn’t see me, but they would see Sharpy and Gemini,” she said, lowering her head in defeat. “He was trying to protect me. I know how he did it was wrong, but he was trying to stand up for me.”
“Any good husband would do the same,” I told her. I couldn’t be sure if my words would really help at all, but I could hope. “You're a lucky mare, Willow. Most grounders don’t have what you two do.”
She looked at me, an expression of sadness still gracing her face. That wasn’t the time to call Sharpshot a grounder, even if I was only speaking the truth. I knew I would feel upset if somepony I trusted made fun of Anchor. They would probably have received far worse than what Sharpshot had done to Bone Breaker. The fact I wasn’t suddenly dealing with a broken leg from an angry wife could only be called luck.
Luck, or heavy restraint.
I did my best to think of how to distract her. My wings unfolded, and I knew immediately what my answer was. “Wanna fly there? I haven’t been able to since I came to the surface
Despite how I knew she was probably feeling inside, Willow gave me a smile.
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Message from I.M. incoming…
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> Damn me and my secrecy. I should have taken the dumb pile of scale’s Sprite-Bot when I had the chance yesterday. I was hoping to do this all at once; have Gold and myself introduce who we are, my griffon friend apologizes, and then to business. Of course when you're dealing with unwanted pieces things go unexpectedly. Fuck that dumbass ghoul for literally every single minor inconvenience he has sent my way in the span of twelve hours.
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> Okay, calm down now Lucky. Things aren’t too fucked yet. Yes I would prefer to not have to do this, but I have no choice. Besides, I’ve been holding off on it for long enough. That Stable has become enough of a mass grave.
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> I can’t let Bone Breaker continue this path anymore. Disrespecting my parents was one thing, but getting in the way of what I want? A lesson will need to be taught.