Chapter 6: Farewell
"Deep into that darkness peering long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting."
I was running through the darkness. Gunshots behind me, ponies I knew where cheering "Kill her, kill the murderer" No, it wasn't me you all saw. They had knives in their teeth and were gaining on me. Just then a young filly appeared in my path the same one I saw killed a few hours ago.
"Why? Why couldn't you save me? I begged you. I BEGGED YOU!" she screamed so load I had to cover my ears. As the screams grew louder her head exploded. The rest of her corpse fell to the floor. "They're coming to get you he heh! They'll avenge me for what you couldn't do aha ha ha ha!" The corpse was still talking, taunting and laughing at me. The others were coming closer. Shadow, Sunny, Ringo, everyone I had helped were coming to kill me.
"No NO NOOOOOOOO AH!" I woke with a startle that caused me to jolt up in my bed.
"Had a nightmare?" Sunny asked as she looked across to the bed she had let me sleep in.
"Sunny, am I a murderer?"
"What are you talking about? Why would you ask me that?" I could see the confusion in her eyes.
"That filly I couldn't save. Was her death my fault?" I replied with the blankest of expressions on my face.
"Kary, you saw what that mare did to her and her parents. And what we saw you do was justice. You avenged that girl and gave that bitch an even crueller death for what she had done and you've probably saved even more ponies out there, in the long run. The way I see it you stopped a monster from hurting anypony else." I welled up as she spoke and sat next to me on the bed. "You are not a murderer. If anything, I'd say you are a fucking hero." She hugged me and wrapped her wings around me again. I felt comforted and much more at ease. "Come on. Let's go see if the purifier fixed yet." I hopped out of bed and followed Sunny out of her house, leaving my belongings inside.
We came out towards the purifier and saw several residents of Ponyville using salvaged metal to fix the purifier. Including; Redcross, Appleseed, Redcheeks, Ringo and Shadow. "Looks like everything's under control here." I called to the others.
"Yep." Redcheeks answered. "We're almost finished. Shadow's just got to fit the new faucet and tighten a few bolts here and there and it'll better than new." Great everything was back to normal and so was I. "Right then I think we've all earned a drink. On the house of course." I wasn't gonna deny a free drink.
We all sat down at a huge table as Redcheeks carried two trays over to us, one with three full pitchers of lager in them and another with some glasses and a sparkle cola for Appleseed. "Well I say we propose a toast to Kary and her friends for all they have does for us." Redcheeks suggested. I hate being the centre of attention.
"CHEERS" the whole saloon was filled the cheers and stomping of hoofs.
"So" Redcross spoke up "I suppose this means you'll be leaving us Kary?"
"I guess it does. That platinum chip I was supposed to deliver must be important for something, and I want to know why it's worth killing me over." I answered.
"It sounds like this asshole has got a lot to answer for." Shadow said.
"I wish you luck." Ringo interjected. "As for me I'm gonna head back to the caravan company tomorrow. Got to make sure they know I'm still alive."
After chatting with my new found friends for a while we decided it was time to part ways. Sunny, Shadow and I all left together. "Alright I guess I'll get my things from Sunny's and be on my way."
"Wait." Shadow stopped me with a hoof. "I want to go with you. That bastard tried to kill my best friend. I'm not about to let him get away with that."
"Thank you Shadow. I always know I can count on you." I said as I followed Sunny back to her house.
I was packing my things back into my saddlebag when Sunny came to the door of the room I'd slept in. "Will you let me join you?" Her question came out nowhere and kind of caught me of guard.
"Are you sure? Aren't you needed here?" I asked with conflicting interests going through my mind.
"Oh quit you're bluffing." Uh oh she knows. "Do you think I'm blind? I see the way you look at me and talk to me. You slept facing me in the cave and you kept calling my name in your sleep last night. You like me, don't you?"
Oh perfect. What was I going to do? The pony I'd fell in love with had caught me out. "Yes I do." I answered with my head low. It took a while for her to answer me.
Eventually she said. "You needn't worry. This clearly means you're a lesbian but I don't care. I just wanted to make sure."
"What do you me…?" I was cut off as she kissed me on the lips.
"Come on, how oblivious are you? I like you too." I felt my heart almost leap out my chest. She liked me too? YES, I actually had a chance with her. As if to emphasis her point she came over to me and cuddled me in her wings then gave me another kiss, a much deeper and more passionate one. I was taken aback. I'd never kissed another mare before. I didn't know what to expect, fireworks? a sweet taste maybe? Instead I just felt, clear. Like all my troubles had melted away making me feel light.
Before I realised Sunny had me pinned down on my back. Was she trying to? uh oh... She was trying to have sex with me. Damn girl control yourself. She started kissing my neck which freed up my mouth to speak. "Wait I don't think now is the appropriate time to consummate this. Shadow's waiting for us."
"Yeah he is. It would be a bit troublesome if he came looking for us. Just let me ask this. Is that enough evidence for you? Will you let me come with you?"
"I wouldn't leave without you." We put our fun on hold for the time being and went to the general store to meet with Shadow. "Are you coming too?" He asked Sunny.
"I sure am." She answered beaming a sweet smile.
"That's kind of you. I think we've got the perfect team here." I knew Sunny was just waiting for an opportunity to get me alone… and in a bed. "Okay where do you suppose we start looking?"
"Hmm… Good question. I don't have any leads." I replied. Finding the trilby pony that shot me was going to be a nightmare. I could hardly search the entire wasteland for him.
"Maybe Red Cheeks can help." Sunny suggested. We headed off towards the bar and asked Red Cheeks about the trilby pony.
"Oh yeah I remember him." YES, we'd struck gold. "On the same night he tried killing you, he and his goons came here for a drink and a bite to eat. Never told me his name though. I overheard them talking and the one in the trilby said they were meeting a contact in Neighton."
So… The bastard was headed for Neighton. "Red Cheeks can you suggest the safest route to take from here?"
"Well let's take a look." She lifted a large map of the equestrian wasteland onto the bar counter and studied it for a while. "You be best sticking to the road that leads north and follow it to Primmhoof. And I'm guessing you won't make it in less than a day so you should probably stay and Buck's Rest for tonight you can get there from Primmhoof pretty easily. The road goes past a turn off leading into Fillydelphia. That's likely to be patrolled by the Legion so try not to antagonize them. From there it's smooth sailing."
Whoa. We had a lot to get through before we reached Neighton. At least a stop in Buck's Rest would useful I regularly rented a room there after all. "Thanks Red Cheeks without you I'd never get to that bastard."
"You're very welcome. By the way, when you find that asshole, give him a buck up the ass from me." Nice to know the friends I'd made are concern for me, even in comical ways.
Now it was time to go get the pony that shot me. We set off north ways following the road Red Cheeks pointed out to us. Shadow carrying supplies and food. Sunny carrying her battle-saddle. We followed the road for quite a while, at least until Ponyville was completely out of site. We couldn't see anything north ways. No city, no town. Heck I'd settle for a shack. Just then my Pipbuck bleeped at me. On the compass I could see a small arrow. This indicated some sort of landmark.
"What was that?" Sunny asked.
"My new Pipbuck. The one Doc Aider gave me. It's saying there's a landmark nearby. Maybe we can rest a while. I'm beat." We had been walking for hours and my hoofs were beginning to ache. I looked towards where my Pipbuck was indicating this landmark. And down the hill we were standing on was a small shack with some vegetable and flowers growing in… I guess you could call it a field.
"Let's set up a camp fire and have a bite I'm starved." Sunny suggested.
I agreed and Sunny started to light a fire while I surveyed the area. "Wait." I said abruptly which caused my companions to turn to me in surprise. "There's an enemy in there." Sure enough my Pipbuck's EFS detected a red marker indicating a malicious entity was inside the shack.
"Just one?" Shadow asked. "No problem. Just open door and we can…"
"Don't be naïve." Sunny butted in. "It could be anything. We're going to need a plan."
We all thought for a minute and Shadow suggested "I know, Kary and I should wait at the sides of the door with our weapons ready, Sunny will buck down the door and we will open fire on whatever's inside."
"Good plan." Sunny said. "Especially since I won't have time ready my battle-saddle."
We followed Shadow's plan and Sunny bucked down the door. I nodded to Shadow and we turned our weapons to the door and opened fire. The thing inside was dead in an instant. "Well that went better than I expected." Shadow was probably right to be surprised since he was crapshoot with long-range weapons.
I approached the body of the supposed enemy and backed away in disgust. The smell was stifling. I got a hold of myself and looked at the body. It was an earth pony. But something was strange about it, wrong even. The corpse was rotting away, the skin peeling away, and yet my Pipbuck registered it as alive. Was it malfunctioning? No, we all saw that pony was alive.
"Ah. A zombie pony." Sunny identified the body for us.
"Wait. What? Zombies exist?" I asked dumb struck.
"You mean you've never met one?" Shadow asked. "They're not your typical zombie like in comics or story books. They're just ponies who were exposed to massive amounts of radiation maybe from a balefire bomb. If you survive you become, well… that." Shadow explained. "Some of them aren't mindless like that one was. But we call those ghoul ponies to differentiate between them."
Okay Zombies did exist. In a sense at least. "Well since he won't need the food he has here why don't we take it for ourselves?" It was better than letting it go to waste.
After eating some of the food we had gathered and resting up a bit we decided to press on further towards Primmhoof. It didn't take long to get there from the shack. I approached the gate and a pony wearing a brown coloured outfit similar to a vault dweller's barding approached us. As he came closer I noticed a distinctive medal pinned to his barding. He was an NCR ranger.
"What are you doing here? Primmhoof has been closed off due bandit activity." Primmhoof had been attacked? I'd only been gone five days. And now I find out my base of employment had been attacked by bandits. I had to help, but first I needed to convince the guard to let us in.
"What's going on here?" I asked. "I work for the Primmhoof express. I need to find my boss; he probably thinks I'm dead."
"So you're a resident then. I understand your concern but we can't take any risks. Oh who am I kidding?" The guard hesitated for a moment. "Look, we aren't exactly helping things here as you can see. So I'll let you in, if any of my men see you tell them that you are residents."
That went smoother than I thought. "Okay. Where is the base of operations?" Shadow asked.
"Around the corner and little further down the street. I can…" I was interrupted by gunfire. "Shit, get down!"
We all took cover behind and old dumpster on the opposite side of the street. As we waited two mares in bulletproof vests came into view. "Damn, lost 'em." One said.
"Leave this to me." I whispered as I lifted out my sniper rifle and slipped into SATS. It wasn't too difficult, one bullet each, both to the head.
"Whoa!" My companions said together in perfect synchronicity. I was okay with guns outside of vault-tech targeting but this little gizmo was making quick take-outs a lot easier and it seemed to impress my friends.
"I've got an Idea." Sunny said "In case we run into any more Dyna-mares we should take these vests." I levitated the vest off from the bodies and put them in my saddlebags. But what about Shadow? He's a stallion and the Dyna-mares are, well obviously mares.
"That's a good idea but what about me?" Shadow had practically read my mind. "I'm no mare. And I'm pretty sure just wearing that vest isn't gonna be a convincing disguise."
"Well let's check the situation in the Express' HQ." I suggested. "Maybe the survivors are holed up in there." We followed the street to the entrance and opened the door. We were greeted by three guns pointed in our faces, but then a certain fellow courier I recognized lowered her gun when she recognised me.
"Kary, you're alive?" she asked with a tone of both confusion and relief.
"Woollen. I'm glad you recognized me or me and my friends would be dead." I introduced Sunny and Shadow to her and we chatted a while about the incident.
"I thought you were dead when I realized you hadn't come back." She said surprised at my sudden return.
"It's thanks to Ponyville that I'm still alive. Only a handful of ponies still know me so I was surprised they would help me so readily."
"Hey coming with you was the least we could do after that shoot up." Shadow said with a hint of pride. This caught Woollen's attention.
"Shoot-up?" Woollen asked shocked. "You were involved in yesterday's shoot up?" she asked.
"Well… yeah." I said reluctantly. "I'd rather not talk about. More to the point why are the Dyna-mares here?"
"I think it has something to do with our local sheriff or ex-sheriff now." Wait what? Sheriff Silverbadge was dead? "They've kidnapped his deputy and are holding him to ransom. They are keeping him in Bison hotel across the street. If he's still alive, he may be able to tell you some more about the trilby pony."
"Great another lead." I said thankfully. "I'll talk to the boss when the situation has cooled down." I looked to my companions. "Let's go visit the deputy."
"Wait before you go take this." Woolen said digging into her saddlebag. She pulled a scroll out of the bag in her teeth.
"What's this?" I asked examining the scroll. It was a shield spell.
"It came with the payment. I've already learned it so I thought you could make better use of it." Woolen explained.
Footnote: Level up
New Spell: Shield: Generate a shield of magical energy around yourself or others. Duration is 2 minutes unless broken through extensive attack. Can be generated continuously but will fall if the caster is interrupted or killed.
