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A quiet squeaking sound could be heard as four bolts holding a ventilation grating in the ceiling in place began to unscrew themselves, accompanied by a soft violet glow. Each clattered to the ground, one after another, before the entire grating came crashing down to the floor with a loud clank. Shortly followed by a familiar violet filly, a set of saddlebags floating after her.

“Alrighty Kessy, I can take it from here....Ouchy Trails! We’re going to need a lot of wonderglue to fix you up!” she floated her bag to her face and opened it up, pulling out several rolls of enchanted bandages and her medical tools. “Buuut I don’t have any wonderglue, so you’ll have to settle for bandages and forceps!” she looked over at Kestrel and Lightning. “You keep those mean ponies away until I get Trails fixed up, kay? He’s not going anywhere at least until I get his legs working!”

While the others went to secure the area, Violet turned her eyes on Trails, their irises glowing as she took in the full extent of the damage. ‘Oooh....Ouch. Two legs and several ribs broken, internal bleeding, small skull fractures....That dynamite did a number on him! Got to get those legs back together, then we can get to Primm and I can finish fixing the rest.’ She glanced up for a moment, looking at the rest of the facility through the walls, her grin turning vicious for a second. ‘And after that I can come back tonight and teach these ponies a lesson.’

“Alrighty Trails, you just drink that potion Light gave you while I try to get those legs of yours fixed right up!” she pulled out a syringe of med-x and injected half of it into each injured leg, inserting the needle into major blood-vessels to ensure it flows quickly. With the pain dulled, she gripped one of the legs with her magic and set it back into place with a slight crack, before holding it like that and grabbing a nearby long fragment of wood to splint it, making sure it wouldn’t give him splinters, before wrapping the entire thing up with the enchanted bandages. She repeated the same process with the other leg.

(Medicine 49)

Trails took several large gulps of the poultice Kes offered him. He had long ago grown numb to the taste of poultices, that Stalliongrad joke had been a true story after all. He found the joke did its job though, getting Lightning to crack a smile and stop worrying. He knocked back the potion the stallion gave him wordlessly, in one gulp. Then just as he predicted the little filly with the silver eyes popped out of an air vent, fully prepared for any medical emergency.

He winced as she shot him up with Med-X, doing his best not to show it. He didn't fight the pain out of pride, there wasn't much of that left after getting blown up by a half-brain-dead con, he fought it out of habit. He swallowed a scream when Violet reset his legs, the meds as usual took a bit longer to kick in then the medic suspected. When her job was done for the time Trails jerked his head to tell Violet to back up, and shakily stood.

His forelegs were still sore, but that could be ignored. "C'mon let's get to Primm, no doubt everpony is starting to wonder where we are." He walked to the door, opened it, and started the painful trot to Primm.

After getting to the town of Primm with the rest of the group the first she noticed when they got to wait for the others that had gone off to see what was going on over at the old prison complex was that Violet was missing, that filly was just to much for her to figure out.

It appeared like the NLR trooper station around the town was not aware of what was going on down in the prison she though about telling them that something was happing, but she was not her self sure so it would be better to inform them after the others returned.

Now as Kira standing watch out by the road that lead in to the city trying to see if she could see if them coming then the way to Primm, it was true that the could to the town from other ways but the road was the most likely, so she watched and waited.

Replacing his Canteen, Kestrel stood and began to loot the bodies of the convicts in the room with them; being sure to shut the door of the Visitor's center first.

He took anything that could be considering valuable, especially the Dynamite that had not yet been detonated. A certain Gryphon back in Primm could no doubt put it to better use than these degenerates could. Not to mention it could net some decent caps if sold to the right guys.

As he did all of this Violet worked on Trails, and soon enough the stallion was back on his hooves and ready to go. The big black gryphon, having claimed all he saw fit too, gave a nod in Trails' direction. He was ready when the others were.

Scrap was exhausted by the time they reached Primm, he wasn't exactly the most athletic pony and the full on sprint all the way there didn't help matters much. Luckly though the run to Primm wasn't marred by anything so they arrived decently quickly. After a bit of hanging around and a swig of water from his canteen Scrap felt much better. Kira was waiting by the road for Trails and the others to return so Scrap just sat around and waited. After waiting around for a few more minutes Scrap remembered what he was thinking about before they heard the shots and turned to Bakewell.

"Hey Bakewell?"

Lightning walked away to let Violet do her work and in the meantime, began searching for some interesting loot that he could get his hooves on. He found in a drawer a small sum of caps. Not much but anything helped. Grabbing it and tossing it into his bag, he looked back over to see Trails getting up. The pegasus let out a sigh of relief as he walked back over to the group. Lightning would smile toward Violet, thankful that she was there to offer medical assistance before saying, "Alright. Let's go."

The group had managed to safely book it to Primm, a fact that that Bakewell was grateful for even if she hadn’t exactly wanted to run in the first place. All she could do now was wait as Kira watched for the missing members and hope that the big heroes made it to the town without too many missing pieces. As the mare lay by the road she decided that maybe she could at least get the nap her body was craving while they waited; it was a far better option than sitting and worrying, at least. Bakewell had just closed her eyes when she heard Scrap call her name. She reluctantly re-opened the eye facing him.

“Mmrh?” The tired earth pony asked, her unwillingness to pick up her head turning the intended ‘what?’ into more of a questioning grunt than anything else.

Sky had taken her time flying halfway to primm, the time they got to primm. They were all tired as hell, Kira had been watching the road. To see when those guys are coming or not, long trot or gallop for us all. Sky just landed with bakewell and Scrap, Pretty tired as they did halfs a day trot in a couple hours. Sky just sat against a wall, closing her eyes as a rest was needed. She still kept her ears open to hear what Scrap and Bakewell were talking about, probably nothing but still good enough to hear something.

Violet grinned widely as she stepped away from Trails, satisfied with her work. The stallion was moving, and while he wouldn’t be running any races for awhile, it should be enough to get him to Primm where she could be more thorough. She did note a few things during her quick first-aid session, like how his lungs spasmed when she set the first leg back in place. That shouldn’t of happened with the med-x, the pain would of been mild at best, even with the half-dose. She’d need to question him about that later.

She glanced around quickly for any more any signs of more gangers coming, keeping her ears open, before trotting out the door with the others.

“Alright, lets hurry up and get to Primm! I need to get the rest of Trails fixed up!”

Oops, she looks tired...perhaps now isn't the best time...bah, I already started...I'd look stupid now if I just said nevermind and walked away...here I go...I guess... Scrap thought after Bakewell's rather sleepy response.

"Umm...I was going over to your response to my inquiries about your bruises from earlier and your story seemed a little off...it took me a few run throughs but I think I figured out who this "horrible mare" was...If I'm wrong I'll probably sound like an idiot but if not I'm wondering why..." Scrap said nervously before continuing. "Stop me if I'm wrong but the "horrible mare" who abandoned her friends while the house was burning was you, since you left during the battle of Stableton to come rescue me. If thats correct then there was likely no fight and I'm at a loss for where the bruises came from, unless they were self inflicted..."

At first Bakewell only half-attentively listened to Scrap’s theory, but as he continued she found herself becoming more and more focused on what he had to say. By the time Scrap had finished the mare had lifted her head and was staring with wide, shocked eyes at the unicorn. She unconsciously bit her lip nervously as she tried to think of a way to dispel the idea without looking suspicious.

“You’re overthinking it, Scrap.” She finally said, her voice hushed. “I-I just got in a fight. That’s all. I got in a fight and you’re overthinking everything.” The mare turned and carefully began lowering her head back into a restful position. If she could pretend to be asleep, maybe Scrap would just forget about it. “And Scrap, you’re not an idiot. You’re one of the smartest unicorns I know. Don’t think for even a moment that I regret helping you.”

Scrap had, of course, been right. Being found out would have been horrible enough, but Violet had unknowingly added to Bakewell’s guilt by bandaging her. If they ran out of medical supplies and somepony died, the blood was no less on her light brown hooves than had she killed the pony herself. Bakewell was also now scared. If Scrap had found out, everypony else probably had as well. What would the rest of her group do to her afterwards if somepony died due to her selfish use of bandages? It would be nothing she didn’t deserve, but that didn’t mean she wanted to imagine it.

The sun was warm, to some it no doubt burned, but it felt good to Trails. His head was still in a constant haze from the concussion, which was starting to feel like a boxers fracture. Violet and the meager medical supplies they scavved had helped, certainly a lot more than a kick in the teeth, but every step was still painful. Luckily the lope to Primm was a relatively short one, and even at their slowed pace it only took the group half an hour.

Kira was the first member of the caravan Trails saw. The griffon had waited dutifully in the road for them. He made a mental note to open the psych ward for her later tonight. Then he noticed Sky Bake trying to take a nap in the road while Scrap pestered the latter. That poor buck was lovestruck, he'd have to give him the Balefire phoenix and Cazadors speech later. These mental notes made Trails feel like a dad for a second, talking to all of his foals. He chuckled at the image and walked up to the trio.

"Howdy." he kept walking as if nothing were the worse for wear. "Kes would ya mind setting up camp? I reckon we could all use a little bit of shut eye. I'm gonna go talk to the NLR here and get those answers I was looking for." Trails continued down the road to the NLR tents. He was amazed at how quickly the sun was setting, not 10 minutes ago he could of sworn that it was midday. Course he couldn't remember entering the NLR tent either so he might not be the best judge.

"Howdy, the name's Happy Trails. I'm just checking in to make sure your bucks from the prison made it back." The sergeant told him they had and were on their way to the outpost for orders. Trails nodded at them and exited the tent. Heading into the town.

The town was small: a few bombed out buildings, a casino, and a hotel was the entirety of it. Trails didn't have to look hard for the Mohoofe express station thanks to this. It was almost immediately on his right when he entered the town. He pushed open the door and saw a middle aged stallion and who he presumed was his wife behind the counter.

Trails gave them a warm smile before speaking. "Evening, hope I'm not barging in just before you close but I've got a few relatively quick questions for you." the stallion told him to shoot. "I'm wondering if you recognize this stallion. He's my father and was a courier before moving east." Trails set his picture on the counter and waited eagerly for a response.

Cash didn't know what to make of the earth pony that hobbled into his store. On one hoof he thought he saw a hint of a pony he knew long ago in him, on the other the buck was caked in blood. What clinched it for cash was the picture. Of course he knew the stallion in the picture, he'd been the one to take it after all. Though that was a life time ago, hell it was probably the stallion standing in front of him's lifetime ago.

"So you're Red's boy." Cash said after hearing Trails' explanation. "Yeah I knew your father, he was a good stallion. He was a good courier. I was sad to seem him go. Why do you ask? He run off or die?"

Trails told him that his old friend was living well in a sleepy town back east, Cash was glad to hear that. Red deserved some peace and quiet after everything. Trails asked him if he knew why his dad had left the Mohoofe. That was where Cash ran into his dilemma. He decided a half truth was the fairest thing.

"I don't know all the details, just that he met your mother and had to leave in a hurry. I think he was running with a merc as a guard. I'd ask around up in McMaren, that's where he found the merc."

Trails thanked him and exited. Cash watched the pony leave and wondered to himself for a long time. He didn't know what to make of Red's sun. He looked like his mother, had his father's charisma, but there was something else. An underlying strength and...violence to the stallion. He put it out of his mind, no sense wondering about what you can't know.

Kes gave a nod in Trails' direction before he wandered off to go make camp. He chose a spot near the city, yet still out of the way enough not to attract attention later at night. That would be the last thing the group needed right now.

As he assembled the fire ring he let his mind wander a bit. Going over the various details and happenings thus far. He let the battle earlier play over in his mind, each shot, each kill. His rifle had acted up a bit at first, it would seem the gun had a temper to it. He would need to strip it down and clean it again. Make sure the sights lined up right.

That thought process completed, Kestrel moved on to other things. Like reviewing Lightnings performance during the battle. The buck had not done as well as hoped, but he had actually hit some of his targets.

"Some" was not good enough however.

Kes thought about helping the young buck out a bit, giving him a few pointers perhaps. He was not exactly the greatest teacher ever, but he was by no means the worst.

Lightning walked with the team of four ponies back to Primm with a sad and disappointed look on his face. He had been replaying the events in his head and wondered what happened to cause him to miss so many shots. That wasn't usually like that for him. Maybe the sniping was a little harder than he expected but he swore his shots could be closer than that. He hung his head and sighed, staying relatively quiet until they arrived in the new town.

Once the team arrived, Lightning put on a false smile, looking at the others as they were waiting for them to arrive. He would look at all the ponies before the smile faded and he went to sit alone, waiting for camp to be finished.

Slowly, he also drew out his SMG and set it down on the ground, looking at it deep in thought. After a while, he took out the empty clip and loaded in a new one, putting it back in his holster and thought back of how to improve his ability to shoot.

Kes finished both his thoughts and the camp in a matter of minutes. With everything set up the big gryphon began making his way back towards the main group he nodded towards camp and rumbled out a single, simple statement.

"Camps built."

I guess I was right...she reacted too strongly to my theory, and a bit too nervously for a pony with nothing to hide...still, I should probably leave the subject alone though...she probably has a reason for wanting to cover it up anyway...

"Ok then...sorry for overthinking everything...I'll let you go back to napping now" Scrap said before turning away and waiting untill Kes had made camp like Trails had asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Bakewell sighed before finally getting ready for that nap, hearing the hoofclops of the incoming group literally seconds after shutting her eyes. The mare let out a long sigh before sitting up, shaking herself, and smiling a greeting at the four as they entered. She never was going to get that nap.

A short while later Bakewell was sitting in the camp Kes had built, swearing to herself that one day she was going to learn how to build a camp as quickly as the griffon. She debated taking advantage of Trails not being at the camp in order to quickly cook something for the group, but didn’t really have much other than a few tins of pre-war junk she had bought in Stableton. It probably was not enough to feed the whole group and wouldn’t be nearly amazingly tasty enough for her to serve as her first meal to the party. Sleep was a given up hope now, as well. There was little to do other than wait for someone to either need her help or feed her like the useless baggage she was being.

Sky also awoke the same time as bakewell, seeing as there nothing else to do. And with the arrival of the other group, prompted Sky to follow Bakewell and the others to camp. Arriving at camp, it seemed kestrel has finished with the construction of the camp. Sky decided to take this time to lay on the floor to watch the sky, to daze off into her mind of how it must feel like to be in the clouds.

Trails walked back down the street, his heart racing. This detective excursion was proving easier and more fruitful than he had imagined at first. He nodded at the passing NLR troopers, they were locking down Primm, doing their best to protect the town. Regardless Trails wanted to be long gone by this time tomorrow, taking the long way to New Pegasus now to avoid the cons. He saw the campfire and made for the camp Kes had prepared.

The camp was comfortable and well made, but Trails could spot a few minor flaws here and there. He guessed the griffon hadn't been quite as long at practice as him when it came to setting up. He took a seat next to the fire and nodded at the griffon in thanks. He stoked the fire and looked at the faces of his travel mates. They looked like he felt. He decided to start with Bake first, figuring she just had a case of third-wheel blues.

"Hey Bake, you said your a chef?" he called to her. "I've got a bunch of gecko and and some agave and yucca, think you can make something passable?"

Kestrel didn't bother with giving a response to Trails' thanks, there was no need to. Insted he puled out his rifle and started up his usual routine of cleaning and care. It might have seemed silly, to be working on his rifle so soon, but Kes knew his guns. He cared for them, and in turn they cared for him.

He only had three firearms to work on now, but that would take up at least thirty minutes or so; assuming Trails or the others didn't ask for his help with anything.

As he worked in his Sniper Rifle, the first of three firearms Kes had, he couldn't help but list. Itn in on Trails and Bakewell's conversation. So the mare was on cook duty? Kes was pretty sure that trails would not let the meal go to hell if it came down to it, but it would be intresting to see what Bake could whip up.

“Oh, well I can sure try!” The mare said with a smile. Finally, she would be able to do something! She would make the best meal in the entire wasteland! She…

She hadn’t actually ever cooked with Agave or Yucca before. Oh well, first time for everything. Let’s see… Yucca was sweet. Actually, Trails had even used some to sweeten his coffee earlier that day. She could work with that, it wouldn’t be super gourmet or anything, but they were in the middle of the desert. Expectations probably weren’t that high, right? Right.

A few minutes later she had the gecko slowly roasting over the camp’s fire along with some of the Yucca fruit. Hopefully the fruit's juices would cook into the meat decently while also serving as a nice sweet side-dish, though Bakewell couldn’t be completely sure as to it's success. She was working with unfamiliar ingredients and without all of her tools, after all!

“Are you guys going to tell us what happened back there?” She eventually asked without shifting her focus from the food. Her sturdy gaze upon the meal-in-progress was probably the best show of perceptiveness shown by the mare since the trip started.

Something in Sky finally triggered the need for her to actually go into the clouds and find a cloud to sleep in or lie down on, She just needed to be up there at least. In the sky, something she had to do. Sky got on her hooves and dusted herself off, "ill be back you guys, i got to do something." with that, Sky unfurled her wings and took off into the sky.

She flew higher than she ever did, the clouds not many were around and the sun was out but not for long. Sky made her way to a lone cloud surrounded by others, She decided to try and land on the cloud. She read that all Pegasi can naturally walk on clouds, old stable books and such. She put a hoof first, and strangly it felt solid but still soft. She put the rest of her hooves on the cloud, and they all held on the cloud. Last step she stopped flapping her wings, and surprisingly the cloud help on.

The soft ness of the cloud was overtaking her, she decided to lay on the cloud and rest for a bit. The cloud felt nothing she ever slept on before, this was strangely different from stableton beds. Sky quietly decided to put her head down and her eyes closed little by little, until She actually dozed off.

Violet bounded towards the waiting ponies with the others, usual aura of cheer around her. “Hello everypony! Sorry we’re late, there were these mean ponies with lots of explosives blowing up the NLR ponies, but don’t worry, we helped them escaped! But I don’t think the mean ponies liked that, because they tried to blow Trails up with dynamite...But don’t worry! He’s fine, as you can see! I just need to make sure all his organs are in the right place after that....But first!” she trotted up to Liz, who she left alone with the group after she vanished off after the four. The gecko actually stayed with the group as they traveled to Primm, mostly staring at them with an almost curious look in her eyes.

“I hope you were good when I was gone! I would of hated to come back to find you ate Scrapy’s leg or something!” The gecko simply cocked her head. Violet gave a quick glance at the colt in question. “Buuuut, I see he still has all his limbs, so I guess you did great! I’ll see if I can find you a nice molerat later for you to eat.” Still grinning, she turned away, silver eyes looking around for Trails. She, however, did not see the stallion. Anywhere.

“....Where did Trails go?”


When Trails returned to the newly-assembled camp, he was soon facing the face of Violet, silver eyes glowing like torches. She was not smiling.

“What were you thinking! You have 4 broken ribs, internal bleeding, a concussion, skull fractures, your legs haven’t even fully healed yet, and you decided to go out for a stroll?” She was fuming, which was surprising given her usual temperament. “You’re not supposed to be standing with that many injuries, let alone walking to wherever you please! You should be in a bed, letting the nice doctor pony with the intricate knowledge of equine anatomy make you you don’t die from accidentally twisting something and piercing a lung with a broken rib! And I’ve seen that happen before!” She didn’t mention that she was the one who killed the pony like that, a raider of course, but she was too angry to even think about that. “Now before you even think about doing anything else, I need to make sure you don’t die from the internal bleeding you’ve no-doubt aggravated by walking around without treatment!”

And it was at that point at Violet telekinetically grabbed Trails by the ear and dragged him across the camp, heading for a suitable spot for which to put Trail’s insides back in working order.

The blue pegasus replayed the attack on the prison over and over again in his head. There was something he was doing that messed with his shots. He knew he couldn't allow it to happen again. The next time could kill him. He had to focus and fix his error before it was too late.

Seeing the camp was set up by Kes and the ponies began falling in around the campfire, Lightning decided that he had thought about the situation enough and it was time to head back to the others. As he walked back, he noticed Sky take off and land on a cloud, laying down on it. He never really walked in clouds alot but it was something he wouldn't mind to do if he had too. Also, another interesting sight was Trails returning back to the campsite and...being dragged by Violet's magic. Now that was new...Silently, Lightning decided to just walk up to the group and find a spot to sit beside the fire, staring into it thoughtfully. He ignored any of the conversations going on around him for now.