And All You Could Have Been (Social, Wild wasteland)

Zestari had been wandering the wastelands for the past few weeks. Never dwelling for long; hiding from most and killing anypony who asked too much, or said the wrong thing, and generally moving about the wasteland aimlessly, until she found herself approaching some vaguely familiar ruins.

She wasn't sure why she'd returned to Stableton, perhaps it was the fact that it was where her naive journey to Equestria had ended, maybe it was where she last had friends and joy and happiness. Perhaps it was searching for closure that she knew she wouldn't find here, but well, for whatever it was, here she stood.

Wandering the shattered streets in mute witness, as forgotten memories began to be dredged up from a past that seemed so long ago. She brushed some soot off a sign of one of the stores. It was hard to believe that it had only been a year since the fall. A nearby gunshot reached her ears and she peered off into the distance. Gunshots meant a fight. A fight meant distracted combatants, and distracted combatants made for easy kills and good scavenging.

Pulling the long, stripe-covering cloak tighter around her, she slunk into the shadows and set off towards the sound, the silvered power hooves she wore clicking against the ground with each tentative step.

She stopped some distance away, choosing to hide in the comforting embrace of shadows. There were more than she was expecting. Too many and too heavily armed at a guess for her to deal with should they be hostile, but why were they here, who were they? She certainly didn’t recognise any of them. Despite the bombastic nature of the large tattooed pony (The leader? she wondered) She was in no hurry to meet them, and so chose to merely observe.

Ale simply Glared back at trails, and after a second or two he replied, "ITs not a trophy, trophies suggest that i'm proud of the kill, no that was a reminder. And i don't really need your advice about it, hell I don't even know who you are. You're just some khan that showed up and started to boss everypony around." Ale turned around and started to walk back in the direction of the group. " Now if you'll excuse me, i'm wasting daylight." he finished as he walked past the others and into the ruins of stableton. Unlike the others ale wasn't here to pay his respects, he didn't know anypony in the town before its fall and he was only at the battle for a paycheck. No he was here for one simple reason, to scavenge for supplies or loot he could sell to buy seid supplies.

Quiet whilst Kestrel took back his bolt with naught bar a grunt, Cuppa soon focused her attention on everypony else, slightly elevating her voice, to ensure she was heard. "So, what's everypony else here fer? Ah'm doubtin' we're all jus' sight seein'." She asked the whole group in general, taking another sip of brandy during a pause before continuing.

"Ah'd doubt there's anythin' left ta scavenge, it's been a whole dang year since then." Most definitely knowing at least Kestrel would know what she meant, as he was the most memorable member of that battle. Surely the others must've been there too, why else would somepony show up here exactly a year after the battle?

Trails calmly rose from his seat on the fountain and stubbed out his cig. Such disrespect from somepony so weak, well, he'd have to correct that wouldn't he. He took a few steps, weighing his options along the way. Guns? No, that was too lethal. Another slap should do, yes. 75%? Again the answer was yes.

"Oi." He said pulling the unicorn round to face him. "Know your place on the totem pole." He swung his hoof in a wide arc ending in the unicorns face. "Disrespect me or the club again and you won't be walking away from this little pow wow. Now let's address the stupidity of hoping to find salvage in a year old ruin of a shanty town that was barely getting by to begin with. That excuse may fly with your friend the skull, but the rest of us still have a brain."

"Let the dead keep what they own. They've earned their keep." Kestrel said turning and looking over the dead city. He doubted any loot would be left in the old ruin now. Even if there was...he'd not be taking any of it. Like he'd said, the dead here had earned their keep.

He was here to pay his respects, give the spirits a bit of peace, then move along.

Dash looked over to the huge griffon when he spoke. He would have quoted some bs 'Rule of the Wasteland' about looting that which wasn't needed anymore, but two things stopped him. One, he wasn't keen on looting from those who had died bad deaths, except maybe if they had attacked him. And Two, he was still terrified as Tartarus of that griffon, and agreeing with him might just improve his chances of survival, "He's right." Dash said, "Besides, I'm pretty sure one of my old friends died here..."

"Son of a bitch!" ale yelled as the khan's hoof landed, once again, right onto ale's burned and scarred face. Ale held the side of his face with his hoof and tried to shake the pain away. After it passed he looked up to the earth pony with fire in his eyes, well, eye. After a moment of staring the khan down he noticed something and his eye went wide with realization. He held up his hoof to the pony's face and covered up his beard so he could focus on the rest of his features. "Dear celestia." he breathed and his hoof fell to the ground. As the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place, ale asked. "What the hell is your name khan?"

Trails was more than half tempted to send the unicorn into the dirt when he spoke. The only thing that stopped him from going full force was the sense that enough blood had been shed on this patch of earth. Still, the unicorn was on thin ice, one more crack, and well he just couldn't held responsible for what his hooves did.

"My name is Happy Trails." Trails punctuated his statement by taking a step closer to the buck, letting himself loom over them fully. "Sergeant at Arms for the Great Khans, and I suggest you start watching your tone."

Lightning simply watched quietly, letting the others just have their little conversation. All he wanted when he came here was to remember and to pay his respects to his friends that he had lost in this town during the battle. Not to get shot in the wing. Not to get shot at by some damn unicorn who thought he was a badass. Not to encounter a whole group of ponies, all of them at each other's throats at a moment's notice. But for now, the pegasus would tolerate it. Kestrel had a reputation of taking down anypony with scary efficiency and now that this brown earth pony was named, Happy Trails from the Khans, he was a force to be reckoned with as well. He may have lost some of his ideals in the past year but he was not completely stupid. Finally speaking up, he said, "Not like you'll find anything anyways. Those slavers probably took anything of value. And if it wasn't, it was most likely destroyed or burned."

"This place has seen enough bloodshed. Let's just get moving." Kestrel turned and moved to begin walking away. The bickering of the others had wasted enough of his time and he was not exactly keen on wasting it further.

Before he could leave however the sensation of being watched hit Kes full force. The signature tingle along the spine and the burning at the back of the skull. He'd learned long ago to trust his instincts, and so with a narrowed gaze Kestrel began scanning the surrounding ruins for any newcomers to this little party of theirs.

(rolled d10 + per for finding Zestari. Rolled 18)

There, amongst the shadows of a ruin, around sixty or so yards away, was the familiar form of an equine.

"We've got company." Kestrel said, catching the groups attention hopefully. He studied the outline of the well hidden equine as best he could, using all the senses at his disposal to do so. The body had the lithe curves of a female equine, earth pony it looked like. The Mane-style proved that wrong however...and the slight change in coloration that Kes could pick up on. Lithe build, striped coat, uniquely styled mane? Only one kind of pony had that going for them.

A zebra.

The wind blew the newcomers scent towards Kes, a quick sniff was all he needed to identify gender. Females and males smelled quite different, judging by the small burst of scent he'd picked up on he'd have to guess the newcomer was most definitely female.

"Zebra. Female." Kes listed quietly, eyes traveling up to lock onto the zebras own. Silently telling her that she'd been caught, and that she should come out of hiding...slowly.

"Shit." ale exclaimed as he realized who he was arguing with. "Happy trails, you were at stalliongrad, I remember your face. The famed veteran, hell you were the apostolov poster colt for a while and then you disappeared." ale chuckled a little bit. "Everypony thought you were dead, moral took a real hit. But here you are, standing right in front of me in the burnt out husk of a town." ale started to walk away from trails, then he stopped and continued to talk over his shoulder. "You know mister trails, Me and a lot of the other troops respected you. When you were reported MIA, Srg. brass you were probably up there, rutting with luna of all things. But no, you never died you abandoned the fight so you could go play with the khans." ale smiled knowing that he and trails were now on the same moral high ground. "Now I don't feel so bad about deserting, even the best saw that that battle was a death sentence."

Ale knew that this sort of talk would never go over with the short tempered buck and as he walked back to the others he fully prepared himself for his response. He listened for the distinct sound of a firearm being drawn or of hoofs charging towards him and was ready to counter.

Whelp. I'm gonna have to kill him. Trails thought as he calmly trotted up to them. Some buck's you just couldn't reason with, and this idiot unicorn was one. Grad deserter eh? Well the Apostolov weren't missing much. Nah, i'll just smack the ginger off him.

"Enjoy being an albino." He growled as he reared up.


Both of Trails' fell onto the buck, knocking them to the ground. The big earth pony put a hoof on their throat, putting just enough wait on it to make the gag. Hellfire roared in his eyes as he stared at them. When he spoke again his voice was low and gravelly, every word dripping with venom.

"I didn't desert dipshit, my contract came up. My family needed me on the caravan, and I knew where my duty lay." He put more force into his hoof, enough to complete close the windpipe now. "Don't lump me with a fucking coward like you, ever." Trails stepped off the buck's throat. "Only reason why I'm letting you live is you don't deserve the same grave as the ponies who died in the battle." With that the big stallion turned to where Kes was looking and called out. "Come on and join our hunky dory happy go lucky meeting, there's snacks over by the exit."

Dash really didn't like where this was going. At this time, he truly had no greater desire than to leave and fly away faster than any of those before him could possibly go. But for now, it still looked like his only option was to stay for now.

When the big griffon that he was deathly afraid of said that 'they had company' Dash felt himself lock up once again, like he had thought that this situation couldn't get any worse.

Zestari blinked slowly and with a weary sigh slid from her hiding spot to approach the group. There was no point in pretending she was hidng. To do so would be disingenuous, and running would simply suggest that she was weak, and the weak deserved to die. So she stalked towards the collection of misfits her eyes set like stone as they glared at the griffon who had detected her.

Griffons. She hated griffons. Even a poor griffon was a dangerous one, equipped with flesh rending talons and a sharp, piercing beak. She regarded this black and scarred one with much more weary attention than any of the others. The pegasi simply had more appendages to grasp and snap, Unicorns relied too strongly on their magic, and Earth ponies were easier to fight.

As she neared, with each step, she activated a power hoof until all of them hummed with energy. Precautions never went astray in unknown company. Her eyes flicked towards the heavily tattooed earth pony. She’d fought plenty of his kind before, practically thugs. It was almost a pleasure to kill them.

“You talk too much.” She said to him, low and level before looking back towards Kestrel and simply gave him a nod. He’d detected her, a nod of recognition, there was no need for anything more.

Her eyes flicked to the others, “This place used to be nicer, once.”

"Eeyup, and your a Zebra." Trails answered as he tapped out another cig from his pack.

His first impressions of the mare were uncertain to say the least. Hiding in the shadows seemed to be a popular thing with this crowd, something that only served to further shorten his fuse. But no, he had to get back on track, back to his job. With a spark from the flint around his neck he lit his smoke and collected his thoughts while he watched the smoke float away.

"This place used to be a lot of things, hopefully it can be again." He added.

Ale coughed as he stood to his hooves, relieved to be breathing again. This earth pony was strong, about as strong as the slavers ale had to deal with on his way out of filly but at least this khan knew mercy, a trait that was fairly absent in the wasteland.

Ale started to weigh his options: he could just leave and go scavenge without looking back, but the vocal objections of the others hinted that such actions would win ale a few more bullet holes. He could just leave this shitstain of a town, but he doubted he had enough supplies to make it to the next settlement. He could try and take the supplies from them while they were sleeping, that plan was just stupid. Eventually ale decided that if he was going to survive the next few days he'd need to make a friend in this group. Ale hasn't had a friend ever since glimmering died so his social skills were a bit rusty, this was going to be a challeng.

"Hey smokey." ale called out to trails. "I understand that i was mistaken about your desertion, word of your departure never reached us at the front lines. So I apologize if I insulted you honor. So what do you say we just sweep all those hurtful words under the rug and start again." Ale walked up to trails and held out his hoof. "If what you're saying is true then this place has seen enough blood shed, no need to go spilling any more." Ale really hoped this extension of an olive branch didn't result in another blow to the head

Cuppa stood back as a few little issues were settled, and another arrival was called out from the shadows. "Jus' like ya, Kes, t' notice summint sneakin' 'bout like ya'll were." She said, a somewhat nostalgic tone in her voice before she had another drink from the Brandy gifted by Trails.

"Anywho, Trails, are ya'll here as a Khan or as ol' Happy Trails?" She started, giving a brief tip of her hat to Zestari, so to not rudely ignore the zebra... She'd never really seen many zebra around, so she couldn't be blamed for not being keen to talk to one she didn't know.

Rookie watched as the battle between the two escalated. He decided to put in some consoling words for the two. For the red bun head, first. "These thing's don't 'sweep' under the rug, abandoning a battle for a good cause is one thing, but abandoning the battle simply because you know your going to die doesn't fit in the quota. I stayed in this battle, but i honestly don't want to be mentioned as an idiot simply because im being nostalgic at the moment. So, the best thing you could do, is try your best to not talk or even breathe near the pony and follow his orders to the letter. With how you fired at a pegasus and nearly got him killed, I'm not that surprised on how 'Happy Trails' didn't kill you in the first place." Rookie said, and looked at the brown earth pony. "It's often bad to get on the bad side of things, but i approve of punching this pony. Mostly because he's an idiot. Also," Rookie said, and pulled out a pin from his saddlebags. It had Rookie's face on it and it had hidden words in the background of the pin. 'A Rookie Seal Of Approval.'

He just did it for fun one day, something to get his mind off things. He put it back in his saddlebags, noticing how stupid he had been just a few seconds ago. Old habits die hard. Rookie thought, and looked at the other pony again, the one with the ginger red bun on his head. "By the way, if you piss off a pony, such as him," Rookie said, pointing a hoof at the earth pony in particular, Happy Trails, "expect to be hated on in the long run." The no-wing pegasus said, finishing. He looked at the rest of the group, and the zebra newcomer which had...power hooves. He knew where to get some but never how to fight against multiple of those Steel Rangers. Rookie checked in his saddlebags, looking for a particular item, but it turned out to never be there. He silently cursed himself for not having it. Despite how absolutely awesome this little peptalk was going, he walked a few hooves away from the group. It felt...wrong? to come back here. Lots of bad memories happened here, so many resident's killed. Nothing like what's going to happen in the future though. There's probably been multiple places and towns that ended up like this. He looked at everybody. "My name is Rookie." He announced rather quietly and without any enthusiastic wonder behind his tone. Still, his voice was decent and still could be heard.

With a few more hooves ahead, he walked forward to see the collapsed heap of scrap metal he once called home. It felt absolutely terrible to see this again, and his memories of his sister, Mare, almost came up in heaploads but he managed to push it down to his memory. He seen a destroyed and half-burned sofa covered mostly by the scrap metal of his once quaint home. He sat his flank down on the barren ground, seeing everything in the heap of metal that was once his. He looked closely and seen a glint in the scrap metal. Small, enough to be said that it was somebodies imagination, but it was enough to warrant his attention. He walked over to the smaller heap and pulled the pieces of metal shards and rods off. There, a burned up wooden chest lay, half broken and half locked. Although opening up the half broken part seemed to be the best idea, he knew that it would just ruin the chest even further, so he looked through his saddlebags once again.

There, a silver key was in his muzzle in just a few minutes. It surprisingly had no rust and had some sort of emblem on it. He lifted it slowly, and inserted it into the chest. Then he moved it around very carefully and there was a click. He opened up the chest and moved his hoof through the contents. Inside was a teddy bear, a small item from Rookie's childhood he called 'The Clicker', and there, behind the assortment of toys from his childhood memories he struggles to remember today, was the object he was seeking. His sisters, and his, journal. Rookie knew it was silly looking for such sentimental items of his past, but all of these...they felt good.

The childhood memories for something to grasp on, something to remember that was once great. The Clicker, which was powered only by the no-wing pegasus's imagination, and finally, the journal that both Mare and Rookie shared. They practically knew everything about each other aside from the most intimate of things. Rookie grabbed the book, stuffed it slowly beside the other weapons he had in there, and looked at Mare's teddy bear. She had loved it and, once upon a time, had it. He dug a small grave by the half broken chest, and propped up some scrap metal. He then pulled out some of the animal hide he had gotten. It wasn't pony or anything, rather, it was brahmin. He then grabbed some old glue he had found along his journeys and glued it to the propped up piece of scrap metal. He then wrote on it using what was left of a pencil he had found.

Mare, where-ever you are....

I hope you like your Teddy Bear.

He then put the teddy bear in the grave and closed it up as quickly as he had set the grave up. He wanted to put down his demons inside. This...although he was going to mourn later most likely, was one of those demons. Sure, he wasn't responsible for her death, at least partially he was but he wanted to keep those thoughts out of his mind. He then sat his flank down, looking up at the sky and seeing its gloomy clouds. He wished there was....what do you call it? Oh right, sun. The stories of Celestia raising the sun every day always made him feel...tingly, inside. Mostly because he felt there might be a day where the sun may rise. Who knows? Maybe it will happen.

"Bit of both," Trails said to Cuppa, still unsure as to how forgiving of a mood he was for Ale. "but mostly Khans, I suppose. We've done very well in the desert, stomped out those glorified slavers that fancied themselves the new legion under the reincarnated Caesar, and gave the NLR one hell of a reality check. I think the capital could do with a bit of Khan strength and unity in it, a force actually capable of bringing about peace and order. So the Khan bit is that, starting another chapter here to extend our empire. The old me bit is doing it here, letting Stableton be the first phoenix to rise from the ashes. The dead don't just deserve their peace, they deserve to be remembered and honored by continuing their dream rather than letting it join them."

Kestrel stood unfazed as the others began talking again. He hadn't missed the zebra's hostile aura. It was hard to miss, especially so close. Such anger, such spite, hatred burning like a fire. This one was one to keep an eye on for sure, she was no doubt already planning to killing all the folk around her.

Kestrel would think nothing ill of that however. He'd already killed everyone here a few times over in his head. Trail's would have been a bit harder to rough up than the others...the dark colored Pegasus the easiest of all.

Unlike the zebra however, Kestrel didn't so obviously radiate the aura of anger and hostility. No his was calm, cold, collected. Just like it always was. He'd made a life of killing, his own nature and experiences making the act naught but second nature by now. Muscle memory and reflex...thats all it was. No pleasure in the act, no pain or remorse. Just pure, brutal, efficiency.

Kestrel made note of Trails conversation as he stood there thinking. Another chapter of the Khans? More prey then. Kes had learned much of the Khan's through the grapevine over the past few months. He'd even killed a few before. A few ponies here in the Heartland not liking what the Khans were doing.

They'd been a bit difficult to get alone, but in the end they were chalked up to being casualties of the war in the east. Hearing of their desire to expand was far from surprising then, it's make sense that they'd want to come into the heartland as soon as they could.

Greed and pride were terrible vices though. No doubt their desire to expand would end in more foolish bloodshed and suffering. Another war to come. Another Hunt to prepare for. He'd be keeping his bolts and blades sharp then.

For now however, he'd be keeping an eye on the zebra and the others. Making sure they gave this place the respect it deserved before he moved on.

Dash was slowly switching from a terrified excuse-making mood to a more inquisitive mood. He was once again curious as to what happened here and the insights from those around him were very intuitive. Despite what the others in their current group thought of themselves and the situation, "So..." Dash finally said, "I get that the battle was bad... Was there no way to retreat? Was the town completely surrounded and outnumbered?"

"I wish I knew." Trails sighed. "I was out on the front line, and from what I could tell the town had every advantage. They had superior position, defences, supplies, almost everything. The ponies didn't have experience but that wasn't enough to swing it so hard in the Raider's court." the stallion paused for a moment and thought back to that day, it wasn't his first defeat, nor his last, but it was his only absolute one. And that stung harsher than anything else. "I was on the frontline with the majority of the skilled guns, we were winning from what I could tell, then the doors blew open somehow and it all became a minimal loss scenario. We couldn't save everypony, I couldn't save anypony it seemed. I fired every bullet I had and fought tooth and hoof until the fires started posing a bigger risk than the raiders"

Kestrel listened to the stallions recounting of the battle, memories of that day casually walking through his mind and then disappearing. The sniper tower, the assault, the escape. Killing Faith, breaking Sky's wings and sending her crashing to the ground below. The sensation of a skull cracking under his claws, the taste of blood and sweat. A raider looks up at him begging, pleading desperately as his talons sink into her chest.

It was one of Kestrels greatest defeats; he'd earned many scars that day. And luckily for Trails, Kes knew just why those gates are opened, and how it had all gone wrong. The horn of the betrayer lay in the pouch with all Kestrel's other trophies.

"I know what happened." Kestrel said, breaking his silence. The same eerily serene, frigid growl of his voice filling the alley way once again. His gaze casually flicking over towards Trails, giving him a knowing look.

Trails looked at the big gryphon before him, the only other player on their little stage that he'd call a veteran, and saw steel in his eyes. No doubt they were remembering flashes of the battle. His flashes were probably different than the big earth pony's. Probably didn't consist of seeing a medic gunned down next to her patient, a foal crying as he gave it a mercy round between the eyes while it sobbed over the corpses of its parents, the stench of the burning hide of the mountain of raider muscle that was that pegasus.

"What?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Stableton was betrayed by one of its own. Cross Roads."Kestrel explained calmly. Nodding towards the very gate he was speaking of.

"I'd just killed the Slaver's dragon when a unicorn opened the gate, rode in with that chem-fueled pegasus. Attacked the civilian and lightly trained population with minimal resistance."