Turn the Page [Finished]

Trails smirked and packed up. They'd handled themselves very well, especially Bake, she was a surprise.

"Everypony take five, check yourselves for grazes and get some water."

Trails walked to the end of the pass and found a path winding its way up to were the ambush had occurred. The corpses of the ponies were all badly mangled and bloodied. No hope of grabbing armor off these bucks. But he did get lucky on one count with the stallion in metal armor, he had a nice gun. A .45 to be exact and a clip of ammo for it. On the buck with the repeater he found a bag of caps, he divided them up and pocketed his portion.

He looked at the guns and was amazed at how badly beaten up they all were. Except for the .45, the smg, and the 10mm pistol all of them were jammed up to hell. None of those would be firing again, of that he was sure. Trails made his way to the pass and tossed the caps at the ponies, and griffons. 25 caps for each of them, not a bad rate of pay for ten minutes work.

Kestrel caught his share of the Caps and set about reloading his rifle. Popping in a fresh magazine and reloading the old one with spare rounds.

After he was done he secured his weapon and set about returning to his old position in the back of the group. Once there a quick swig of water was all it took before Kes could say he was ready to go.

Well...that had been interesting.

Sky grabbed her share of caps from trails, 25 caps not alot but at least something to get. Sky after checking herself for wounds or grazes, found nothing of her since she wasn't hit at all. She decided to walk to grab a weapon, Sky was brought to the attention of the 10mm Smg. Something for her to use, since kes lent his to her long before. Was something good to use and so why not now? She certainly needed a new weapon, So she decided to take the weapon and a clip of ammo that came with it. Pocketed it into her saddlebag, and decided to take to the sky to recon the surrounding area.

Kira looked around at the group as she reloaded her rifle, it was actually nice to see that no one in the group had gotten hit from this encounter and that they have managed to take care of the gang so quickly. She pocked the caps given to her as she took a small drink for her canteen as the rest took what weapons and ammo they could use from the gang, she just let them do what they wanted as she and no real use of any of the weapons they head instead she would take what ever was left so she could sell when they can to Novac.

Now that the attacking ponies were dead; Scrap ventured out from behind the rock outcropping that served him faithfully during the firefight and went over to the others.

Happily accepting the caps from Trails he levitated them into one of his saddle bags and waited for the group to move again.

When the short fight was over, Violet poked her head out of her cover, her usual grin having returned to her face. “Oooh, that was great guys! You took down those mean ponies in ten seconds flat!....Ok, it was more like 48 seconds flat, but who's counting? Anyway, you guys were awesome!” she cheered, Liz simply looking on with what may have been a curious expression on her face. Maybe.

When Violet was offered her ‘share’, she quickly refused, hooving the caps back over to Trails. “Oh no, I couldn’t take that Trails! I couldn’t, and didn’t, really help! It wouldn’t be fair if I took some of the loot. You just split it up with everypony else, ok?” she explained with her usual cheery attitude.

Lightning let out a sigh of relief as each pony was taken down without much trouble. 25 caps was rewarded to the each of them and the pegasus accepted his' with a smile and a nod to Trails. Looking at the weapons they got, he would have liked to have got the .45 Auto pistol but Trails got to it first. That didn't bother Lightning at all. He'll have time to find another .45 when the time comes.

Seeing Sky picking up the 10mm SMG, only the 10mm pistol was left alone. Well, he already had one but he might as well find a good home for this one. Lightning would pick up the remaining weapon, check the mag, then put it away in his bag. Taking a second to drink from his canteen, the pegasus would turn to Trails and wait until they were ready to move again.

Bang. Another one dead forever. What had his story been? Was he an insane fiend, raised by Radscorpions ? Had he always been a member of this gang? What had initiation been like. Was he proud? What had his future held? What had she taken away? It had been so easy. Thank Celestia she hadn’t had one of these things while escaping the stable- the casualties would have doubled at the least.

She checked over herself to make sure she was unhurt before accepting the caps. She was being rewarded? Of course she was. Trails had wanted her to kill them, and she had. She had killed them but good despite her lack of gun knowledge.

“Oor guh” She spoke around Trails’ gun before spitting it unceremoniously onto the ground, it really was a nasty thing in just about every way. She was glad she didn’t have to taste the weapon any longer.


Tonight was going to be another bad night. She could tell already.

"Alright if everypony's good let's move out. We're burning daylight." Trails picked up his old revolver and put it in his saddlebags. In less than 48 hours it had been replaced, he could only hope the trend continued.

He turned and led the group out of the pass. He could tell Bake wasn't handling the killing well, anypony who cared to could read her like an open book. He just hoped she was going to fair better with it than Kira and her experiences in battle. Trails wasn't sure if he unwittingly signed up as an occupational therapist with this trip, if he had this was going to be his last job.

The pass ended next to a ranch house that had a garden and large water tank in front. A pony stood outside with a cleaver, hacking at a freshly slaughtered gold gecko. Trails made sure to block the sight from Violet and Liz's view, while nodding at the buck. The farmer returned the nod and went back to his work.

The road was an open expressway now, a winding cobweb of concrete splitting apart at an overpass. Trails turned and followed the lower road, remembering the map he'd committed to memory before leaving Stableton. The road was abandoned at first glance but in the distance Trails noticed a group of four or five Stallions all walking in a tight formation. At first he put it to NLR or a wandering trader, deciding to chat them up if it was the latter, always one for the stories of a fellow caravaner. But as he got closer the crimson uniforms made him second guess himself.

The group of five ponies came by the group, making Trails' hair stand on end when he recognized them. Legion, all of them. He recognized the battle dress from the NLR propaganda posters. Luckily the raiding party seemed disinterested in the caravan and went on their way. Trails continued on the way to Nova, a little shaken but overall fine.

The next landmark was a Shadowbolt station, or at least that's what the makeshift sign read. It seemed to be in transition from it's days as a Desert Pegasi bunkhouse. The NLR propaganda was nowhere to be found and the paint covering up the Desert logo was still too light to fully cover it. One of the pegasi walked out and sat back on a worn lawn chair. They lit a cigarette and tipped their big hat at the group as they passed before putting on a pair of sunglasses. Trails followed the Bolt's lead and lit a smoke of his own.

The group could see the outline of Novac now, and sure enough the sun was setting. Trails decided it was close enough and led the group to the hotel. He told everypony to stay outside while he went in to negotiate the rooms. Worst come to worse he could just get one and say he meant a room for everypony in that sense. The mare behind the counter was young, and had her mane up in a bun save for a few lose strands. Trails nodded at her before clearing his throat.

"Howdy ma'am," he began, leaning casually onto the desk. "My name's Happy Trails, and I was wondering about getting me and my friends outside a few rooms."

The mare gave Trails a once over and patted her bun before speaking, "We happen to be vacant right now, most ponies clearing outta here with that breakout. So I'll cut you and your friends a deal, 100 caps a head."

Trails smiled at the mare and decided to let small talk have another crack. "We were in the middle of that, my friends and I saw the whole thing, luckily the NLR managed to hold keep things contained enough that Primm wasn't hit up. How does 50 caps a head sound?"

(Barter Roll: 52 fail!)

The mare chuckled and looked at Trails with a critical eye, "100 is more than fair. If you want you can go and find someplace else to stay."

Well shit, she isn't budging. Trails decided to fallback on his charm, hoping it would cover what his caps couldn't. "Well if that someplace else is yours, I'm more than game." He gave the mare a grin and a suggestive wink, her face went red at that.

"Well I don't know mister.."

"How's about this, you put my friends up in this here hotel, and I show you how we do things back in the capital."

"OK, here's the keys to the rooms. How many do you need?" Trails told her 9 and gently rubbed against the mares hoof as he grabbed the keys. That made her blush even more.

(Mare Killer Perk)

Trails walked outside and tossed everypony the keys. Inside the mare was thinking over the whole situation and chastising herself.

June Day, how can you be so stupid? That buck's probably never gonna say two words to you again and you'll never see those caps. And what are you gonna do? Did you see all those guns, he'd just shoot you I bet. He looked like one of those raider ponies. What if he's one of those damn convicts. Well isn't that a fine mess you've gotten yourself into. It's best just not to say anything then, yep, just leave it alone. If you let them go, then maybe they'll forget all about you and you can go on living unexploded. Yes that's what you'll do.

Scrap caught the key that key that Trails threw to him, he was looking forward to the prospect of a nice rest on a decent bed after the long day of walking and fighting for his life against crazed desert ponies. Luckily after the aforementioned fight the rest of the trip was uneventful aside from seeing another, thankfully non hostile, group of ponies and a Shadowbolt station.

"Thanks Trails." He said as he caught the key before turning to the rest of the group "Unless anypony needs me I'm gonna head to my room for the night."

Sky had walked with the group from the overpass to the highway, That ranch they passes seemed like a good place to live or not. Depended on what that pony had to do to live everyday, to survive and kill or be killed. Sky just kept her thoughts to herself, she didn't want to think about that now, just follow trails to the next stop. Halfway on the highway, she looked at the strange group of ponies all wearing red and dressed in rather old fashion armor. She had seen this type of armor in her history books in the stable, the subject Sky didn't sleep or wasn't bored with. She didn't care about them, they didn't bother them and they didn't bother us. Sky didn't care, she just followed the group as they continued on the road.

Next place they passed by was the Shadowbolt station, another Pegasus in this place. He just nodded at the group and took out a smoke, probably bored with his job or something. They finally stopped at a place called novac, the sun is setting and they needed a place to stay. Trails went inside the check in and tried to get everypony a room, Sky waited for for trails. A couple minutes passed and he was out and threw keys at everypony, 'guess we just get a room to ourselves.' Sky thought to herself as she went to a random room in the hotel.

"Thanks trails and goodnight." Sky said as she went to her room.

The journey to Novac was smooth and dull. Not much happened really, just noticing that group of what looked like well dressed raiders and the Shadowbolts broke up the monotony.

Kes made note of the strange raiders appearances. He'd have to ask Trails about it sometime, it had been a good long while since he walked the Mohoofe. So his knowledge on the area was still getting refreshed as they went.

Kestrel caught his key and checked the number on it, from there it was a simple matter of moving to his room and dropping of his excess gear; which in all actuality was just his saddle bags and spare weapons.

He then turned and left the room, locking it down tightly and moving to explore the little town they had wondered into. It didn't look like much really. Just a small hole in the wall on the way to bigger places. He had a bit of time before he needed to turn in for the night, so why not snoop around and see what was happening.

Might find something interesting. Or better yet, bump into Trails.

Trails walked up to his hotel room and dumped his saddle bags onto his bed. He didn't imagine this backwater would have much of a night life, though that open faced bar was of interest. His first order of business was to get something to eat. He exited his room, locking it and checking the door, and went downstairs into the small town. He chuckled at the statue of the giant dragon and walked over to the bar. He sat down and ordered himself a plate of grilled fruit and a bottle of whiskey. The total was 15 caps, not too bad all in all.

The journey after the little battle went rather well in Lightning's opinion. Just a full day of walking with the occasional encounter with another pony but nothing big. The thing that probably stood out the most was the Shadowbolts but for the most part, they were left alone.

When they arrived to the hotel, the pegasus would wait patiently as Trails went inside and did whatever he had to do. Looking at the others, they seemed so cool and collected. He wondered what were they really thinking inside. Shrugging the thought away, Light would give a nod to Trails when he came back out and tossed him the key. "Thank you, Trails. I'll be in my room of anyone needs me." With that said, the pegasus would bow his head gently to the group before heading up to his room to drop down his stuff and perhaps stay awake a little longer. He'll see...

The remainder of the trip had thankfully been uneventful, just yet another game of follow the leader while keeping herself company with her ever-growing list of thoughts. They had been some buildings and some oddly armored ponies at some point, but Bakewell just couldn’t bring herself to care. Whatever the group was didn’t attack, so they just didn’t matter right now.

“Thanks.” Bakewell muttered as Trails tossed her a key. She didn’t really feel tired but opted to silently retire to her room anyway; at least she would be nice and out of the way within the confines of its walls.

‘You’ll be fine.’ The brown mare insisted to herself as she lay on her back, peddling her limbs uselessly in the air for the simple sake of movement until sleep managed to get its grip on her. She would recover. It wasn’t her first murder and shouldn’t even compare to the first bloody act, but somehow it did. Somehow it bothered her. That was okay. She was okay. She would recover. Look at how efficiently she had gotten over Stable 113!

…She had recovered, hadn’t she?

Kes caught sight of the very buck he was looking for shortly after leaving his room. Looked like he was on his way to the bar. Kes walked in and took a seat next to the stallion just after he ordered his food. Kes still had some of that back in his bags in his room at the hotel, no need for him to buy anything just yet.

What he did do though was bring up the topic of those strange raiders he had seen. All with a simple question.

"Know anything about those raiders we saw?"

Kira caught the key to her hotel room and gave it a quick look at the number, second floor room 3. She got up to the room and and dumped her packs next to the bed and then lied down on it, she really needed to get some sleep but simply could not get to sleep. So what do you do when you can not sleep? You wander, and that she did leaving the room and locking it behind her.

After walking a bit looking at the different styles of houses that Novac was made out of everything from makeshift houses to restored pre-war houses. Even as she wandered she ended up in the end by the bar seeing Trails and Kes also by it. She sat down next to it not sure if it would be smart to get something after the last time, so instead she just sat there listening.

"Bits and pieces I've gleamed from the NLR." Trails replied, taking a sip from his glass. "They're more than just another group of ponies trying to get by, they're a damn army. They call themselve's Caesar's Legion. Whether that means they're a bunch of Zebra supporters or they actually have a buck named Caesar I don't know. What I do know is they're at the top of the NLR's shit list. NLR just took the damn from them in some big battle, must've ended shortly after the Battle of Stableton. The NLR I talked to said don't so much as look at them, I intend to do my best not to piss either army in this desert off."

Trails started digging in to his dinner when he was done explaining, before he started his first mouthful he remembered his manners and spoke up, "You want anything? I'm buying, consider it thanks for picking up my slack at the hunting trip and saving my ass from those cons."

"Not right now." Kes said shaking his head. He had some whiskey and steak back in his room, stuff was still good and he did not need to buy anything more.

Off to his side the gryphon picked up the movement of a certain familiar gryphoness. Kira to be exact. As always Kes just nodded a greeting to her and then went back to being all silent and stoic.

He had some things to think about now, what with this new information. Legion eh? Seemed like a bunch of idiots to Kes. The past was done with, it was unchangeable. Why did ponies insist of clinging to it with such mad desperation?

As he pondered these things Kes let his gaze flicker off towards the wall in front of him. It was clear to any and all that he was not to be disturbed.

Violet plopped the plate of raw brahmin steak she bought on the floor of her hotel room, Liz’s hungry eyes watching the delicious looking piece of meat. “Alright Liz, it’s still not that Molerat but I’m sure you’ll be fine! Eat up!” While the gecko was chowing down, Violet put a hoof to her chin as she thought about recent events, particularly one mare in particular. “Hmm...Bakey didn’t look so good when she went in her room before. I don’t think she liked having to kill that Raider.” Violet turned towards the older mare’s room, her eyes glowing as she looked through the walls and rooms between her room and Bake’s. As she suspected, the mare seemed rather mopey.

“Well, that’s alright! I bet I have something in here that would cheer her up!” the filly exclaimed to herself as she opened up her saddle bags she left laying on the bed and started going through stuff. “No...no...no...definitely not...” she pulled out he sharpened bonesaw, looking at it for a moment before tossing it away, the blade embedding itself in a wall with a *thunk*. “That’d do the opposite of cheering her up...Well, guess I don’t have anything afterall.” She shrugged, grin not leaving her face. “Well, that’s alright! I’ll just cheer her up myself! Don’t go anywhere Liz, I’ll be back in a bit!”

With that, the filly climbed up to her bed and unscrewing supports on the vent in the ceiling, before letting it fall quietly onto the bed. And with a bounce and a jump she climbed her way into the ventilation system. With practiced ease she silently slipped through the ductwork, not making a sound as she snuck up on Bakewell’s room. Watching the mare with dimly glowing eyes, she quietly unscrewed the screws holding the vent in place and held it aloft with her magic to prevent it from crashing down and alerting the mare. With it out of the way, she slipped through the opening and landed as silently as she could, hopefully not alerting the mare of her presence....Until she snuck up behind her with her glowing silver eyes and big wide grin, and exclaimed “Hey Bakey!”

She was fine. Perfectly fine. La-de-da, fine. Just needed to get to sleep. Tomorrow would be better, just as long as she co-

”Hi Bakey!”

With a noise somewhere between a startled snort and a loud gasp, Bakewell leapt from her bed, landing back first on the floor and rolling for a bit before finally managing to less-than-gracefully get back onto her hooves. Luckily Bakewell had recognized Violet’s voice, so her quick survey around the room was for an explanation rather than an item heavy enough to clock the filly over the head with.

“Um, Hi, Vi.” She greeted as her eyes fell to the door. Still locked. How had- was that a grate on the floor? Her eyes rose to the ceiling. Air-vent thing? Air-vent thing.

“Did you need something?” She asked as she tried to ignore the loud booming of her heart whose pulse hadn’t yet managed to fully slow to its normal pattern after being skyrocketed from the surprise.

"Also; you could have just knocked."

Trails finished his dinner and decided he felt like going for a stroll. The town was small and backwater, consisting of homes for each of the townsfolk, the hotel, and the bar. He wandered over to a few Bighorner that were standing in a corral. One of them nodded at Trails, the others gave him suspicious looks. Trails decided to make nice and offered the one that acknowledged him a smoke. The bull took it and the light with thanks.

"You know anything about the road to McMaren?" He asked the bull.

The bull politely told him no and directed him to the gift shop shaped like a dragon to talk to the bucks that watched the road. Trails thanked the bull and headed to the store. He noticed the mare behind the desk avoided his gaze and blushed when he walked by the window. Trails guess that meant she had backed out of their little rendezvous, good for him then.

The gift shop was small. Way to small. No seriously too fucking small, Trails could feel the air leaving the room as he breathed in. He estimated he had three minutes left before he had an airless vacuum on his hooves. He ran up to the door to the look out and opened it a bit too forcefully.

"Howdy there." He said, trying to play off his stupidity as nothing.

The stallion keeping watch had on dark sunglasses and a red beret. Trails noticed the insignia on it read Shadowhooves and had crossed rifles over the moon the NLR used as it's logo. He put two and two together, figuring this buck was a serious bad ass. He offered him a smoke, which the stallion declined, before taking a spot next to him and looking over the road. The stallion kept silent, Trails decided that meant the conversation was gonna be one way.

"How's the road looking?"

"Restless." was all the stallion offered in reply, his voice was low and hoarse.

"Lot's of legion? We met a few on our way in."

"No."

Trails was reminded of Mil Dot and Kes. He guessed snipers came in one way then.

"How's the road up to McMaren, clear?"

"Few Viper thugs here and there."

"Thanks." Trails turned and left.

He suffered another temporary freak out as he walked through the gift shop. Luckily it passed just as quickly as it came. Lacking anything better to do he walked up stairs to his room. The door opened with a creak, which was echoed by the bed when he flung himself on it. He got up and opened the window, unable to fall asleep without the sound of crickets and a breeze.

Kes stuck around the bar a bit longer, letting his thoughts work themselves out before he stood and began to make his way back to his room and locking himself in for the night.

Before he went to bed he gave all his gear one last run over, cleaning his guns and reloading used magazines and the like. Had to be sure everything was ready for in the morning when the group got a move on.

Sand and dust was a constant issue out here in the Mohoofe. If one did not constantly clean their guns the things often jammed and failed miserably.

And that got people killed. Fast.

When all his gear was up to his high standard of operation Kes moved himself over to the bed and lay down upon it. It had been awhile since he had slept on a bed. He never really liked it, felt...wrong to him. But he had long ago mastered the ability to tell his body to shut up and sleep. He used said ability to quickly let himself fall into the embrace of unconsciousness and get some rest.

No doubt he would be up and walking around the small town before the sun rose in a few hours time.

Scrap was already fast asleep by the time Kes and Trails went their separate ways and headed back to their rooms. After nopony had said anything when he was needed he had headed to his room.

Upon locking the door behind him he found a place to place his stuff and dug several pre-war snack cakes out to munch on before going to sleep. After his "dinner" he crawled into the bed. Setting an alarm to rouse him in the morning he relaxed and drifted off to sleep.