Fallout Equestria: Recovery

I woke up with a throbbing headache, it felt like everytime my heart would beat a small jolt of pain would shoot through my head. I looked around and found I was inside, the others were sitting around a fire they lit in a trash can. My mouth was dry, I found my bags laying a few feet away. As soon as my horn lit up to grab them my headache erupted.

“ARG!” I screamed in pain as I gripped at my head.

The others came running immediately. “Rivet!” Shouted Hermes. “Hold him still.” Deadbolt and Noble held me down while Hermes injected me with some painkillers. They were fast acting and dulled the pain, not completely but enough to focus again. I laid there panting for a few moments before anyone said anything.

“This is going to sound like a dumb question.” Hermes started. “But, how are feeling?”

I slowly sat up, trying to avoid any further head pain. “Well my head hurts…” I didn’t notice at first, but no one other than Hermes was looking me in eye. “What’s wrong?”

Hermes bit his lip. “It’s probably better to show you.” His horn lit up and he pulled a small partially broken mirror from his bag. He angled it so I could see my head.

I wordlessly moved a hoof to my horn. It had been broken off by the sledgehammer I took. The end was sharp and it hurt to touch.

“Can you use your magic?” Hermes asked

I had tried and it hurt like hell, but that didn’t stop me from trying again. My horn lit up and the pain returned, not as intense this time thanks to the painkillers but enough to make focusing on lifting my bags hard. Though I did manage to lift them this time.

“We should head back to the Junction.” Noble said seeing me barely lift the bags.

“No!” I shouted and sent another jolt through my skull. “No, we’re almost there. We keep going.” Going back now wasn’t an option. Hermes chose to keep going after Cure was killed, I can keep moving after this. I got up slowly, trying to show them that I was good to go.

“Rivet are you sure you're okay to move?” Rose asked seeing me struggle to get onto my hooves.

“I’m fine.” My eyes clenched shut as I lifted my bags onto my back. “Lets get going.” I walked out of the building they had dragged me into for shelter. The others looked between themselves then started to follow wearily.

Deadbolt quickly jogged up next to me. “Rivet, we should go back and let you rest. We can make another run for Stable-Tech later.”

I sighed. Deadbolt, “I’ll be fine.”

He held out a hoof and stopped me. “No, you won’t be ‘fine’ Rivet.” He looked me dead in the eye and he actually looked concerned. “You can barely use your magic. What happens if we run into raiders, or worse, The Organisation?”

“I’ve got a mouth. I can still hold a gun.” I said as I started to walk around him.

Deadbolt stopped objecting, instead he insisted on taking the lead. It was already dark by the time I woke up. The streets of Nottingham's southern half looked more inviting during the day but at night it was nothing but tall dark towers surround us. As much as I wanted to pick up the pace, both Hermes and Rose wanted me to take it slow. They didn’t try to stop me like Deadbolt had but they didn’t want me to push myself. Noble decided to go off and scout around to keep us out of trouble. We moved slow enough for him to go out and be able to find us easily when he wanted to come back to us.

Occasionally as we walked I would try and lift something out of my bag with my magic. Every Time it hurt, but after a while I either was starting to get used to it or maybe it was starting to heal. It also could have been the Med-X Hermes injected me with.

Noble had been gone about an hour before we saw his tell-tale coat and hat moving down a street toward us. “Find anything?” Rose asked as he rejoined us.

He shook his head. “Not much, I did find a raider nest but its pretty far out of the way. Still, best to keep an eye out. Other than that looks like a clear run for a while.”

We kept changing our direction and weaving through the streets like we had planned. We didn’t know how well The Organization could track us, but the important part was making it hard for them to guess our path.

“Rivet, how you holding up?” Hermes asked as he scanned around the barren streets.

“My head hurts and I’m tired. Other than that I’m good. The sooner we get to Stable-Tech the better.”

He looked a bit concerned. “I want to take a look at you as soon as possible. If you start getting too tired it might mean you have a concussion, which I really wouldn’t doubt if you did have one. If it starts getting hard to focus or you start getting sleepy tell me immediately.”

I admired Hermes. He had lost someone not even twelve hours ago and was able to keep himself together enough to still act like a doctor. “What about you? How are you feeling?”

He let out a long sigh. “I’ll manage.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

The white unicorn shoot his head lightly. “No, thanks though. I told you guys I’d help you get what you're after. There will be plenty of time to mourn later.” I could see his eyes tear up slightly as he thought about Cure, but he managed to keep himself together. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had let the tears come.

It was late when we finally reached the outside of the Stable-Tech building. It barely looked any different than the others around it. Just another concrete monolith. The only discernible feature was the large gear symbol hanging over the doors. We were finally here, finally time to get some answers.

“So what’s the plan here?” Deadbolt asked as we looked up at the massive tower.

I actually had no idea how we were going to find any information on Y34RK. “I guess we go in and start checking computers.”

He let out a sigh. “Fantastic…”

“I guess we should get started then.” Rose said as she opened the doors.

The lobby of Stable Tech was massive. A large gear made of grey tiles covered most of the floor. The room was in surprisingly good condition. Some of the lights and ceiling tiles hung as if they could fall at anytime but for the most part it looked untouched.

Rose walked behind the curved reception desk and started looking through papers. “Maybe we can get an idea of where to look in something around here.”

I nodded and took a seat at one of the terminals. It was locked so I went to work unlocking it. Hermes helped Rose look through the stacks of papers. Deadbolt and Noble decided to take a look around the first floor for anything useful.

The painkillers had worn off and my head revolted when I tried to use my magic on the keyboard so instead I had to type with my hooves. I’ll never understand how earth ponies can get used to using their hooves on such small buttons. Needless to say, it took a lot longer than I thought it would and I kept hitting the wrong keys so I nearly locked it out a few times.

Once I finally broke files flooded the screen files flooded the screen. “This is going to take forever…” Rose and Hermes just gave me a couple of grunts of acknowledgement then I went back to the computer. Most of what was on the computer was messages and spreadsheets. Eventually I found a file that caught my eye.
To: Ink Pen

From: Mogul

Subject: Stable Progress Report 1-25

Miss Applebloom said that she would be stopping in later today. She wants the latest completion reports for Stables 1 through 25. Make sure they’ve been logged and sent to her terminal before lunch.

“Hey guys, I think I found where to look.” I waved them over and they read the message.

Rose rubbed her chin for a second. “I think I saw something about an ‘Applebloom,’ hold on a sec.” She quickly rifled through a few papers. “Yeah here it was. Addressed to Applebloom, says her office is on…, oh great, the fiftieth floor.”

My head drooped to the ground. “Ugh, well I guess we should get climbing. Lets go find Deadbolt and Noble.”

Turns out for how long they had been searching, they hadn’t made it very far. We found them in a bathroom staring at something in a stall. “Y’all might wanna take a look at this.” Noble said he noticed us enter.

“Sweet Celestia…”

In the stall was a pony, or what was left of one. He had been split vertically down the center of his chest. His guts were stuck to the stall around him and his head was missing. He had clearly been here a while. The body stunk and was starting to decompose.

“What could done that to him?” Rose asked, still staring at the corpse.

Noble sighed. “Looks like the work of raiders to me. If it is raiders though, where are the rest of the decorations?”

Deadbolt cocked an eye at him “Decorations?”

“Usually raiders mark their territory with bodies that have been mutilated and hung around. Usually keeps ponies away. But that lobby and outside was spotless.” Noble bit his lip. “I don’t like this, be ready for anything. You guys find anything?”

“Yeah…” Hermes started. “On the fiftieth floor.”

“Fantastic…” Groaned Deadbolt.

We put the mangled corpse out of our minds and started up the stairs. We tried the elevators, they didn’t work. We forced the doors open but the elevator wasn’t on the first floor. From here it didn’t look like anything was wrong. Figuring out what was wrong could take all day. Instead we decided it would be faster to just take the stairs.

The stairwell was at least a nice one. On one side was glass that gave a good view of the city, the other sides were concrete walls and doors on every floor. I didn’t think I was the most fit pony ever but climbing stairs made it very apparent that I could use some more exercise. Each floor had a sign marking it, which just made it seem like it was taking even longer.

“Rivet.”

“Yeah Deadbolt?”

“Have I told you how much I hate you recently?”

“No, but I’m starting to see things your way.”

Rose half turned her head back to us. “Would you two be quiet?”

Noble and Hermes laughed to each other. “These Stable ponies really like to complain don’t they?” Noble said as he nudged Hermes.

“Yeah, it’s like they’ve never climbed a few stairs.”

The glare I gave them was only rivaled by the one Deadbolt was giving them. And his was only rivalled by Rose’s.

We made it about twenty floors before we decided we needed to sit for a few minutes. Hermes took a seat next to me.

“How you feeling?” He asked and gestured to my shattered horn.

I wasn’t feeling amazing. The low throbbing of my head started to come back after the first bit of painkillers had worn off. It escalated a bit when I tried to use my magic on the terminal and was now a consistent stabbing. “I’ve been better. But I’ll be fine.”

The doctor in Hermes didn’t let that pass without further questioning. “While we’re sitting here you mind if I go ahead and take a look as you?”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“Good.” He pulled out a small light and pointed it into my eyes. “Your headache getting worse?”

“It’s better than when I woke up.”

He nodded to himself. “You still feeling nauseous?

We passed though a decent amount of radiation on our way through the north side. “A little. Can’t say it’s gotten worse.”

He nodded again. “Thats good. Well your pupils look they’re responding correctly.” He said as he pulled the light away and I blinked madly trying to get my vision back to normal.

“You two about ready?” Noble said gathering his pack. “We still got a long way to go.”

I tried to use my magic to get my bags back on but the weight was a little too much. Deadbolt helped me out and we started back up the stairs.

We made it another ten floors before heard something that stopped us. *Bang!*

Rose stopped and looked around at us. “That sounded like a gunshot.”

“Shit, someone else is in here.” Noble said before pulling out his pistol. “I’ll take a look around.”

I pulled out my shotgun and held it in my mouth. It was a weird feeling and I couldn’t quite tell how I was supposed to aim it. “I comin wiff you.”

His eye cocked at me. “What?”

I spit out the shotgun. “I’m coming with you.”

“No you’re not, Rivet.” He said and gave me a look that didn’t leave room for arguing. “Five minutes. If I’m not back, leave.” He said as he slipped up the stairs almost silently.

We waited, weapons at the ready for Noble to come back, or to hear something, or for something to just happen at all. Everyone was silent and looking up the stairwell.

“It’s almost been five minutes.” Deadbolt said looking at his Pip-Buck. “I’m done waiting, I’m going up there.”

Rose stopped him. “Wait, we could give Noble away if we go up there making a bunch of noise.

Deadbolt gave her a slight push to get her out of his way. “Yeah, and he could be laying up there dead for all we know. I’m going up there.”

I gave Rose an apologetic look. “Deadbolt’s right, he might be in trouble up there.”

*Bang Bang Bang!*

“Scratch that, he’s definitely in trouble.” Hermes said before we all bolted up the stairs.

Red lights started to appear as we ran up the next few flights. Thankfully Noble’s white bar was still showing up. We got to the floor the gunshots were coming from and I braced against the wall next to the door. The stairwell had been blocked off by a few desks.

I peered in. There hadn’t been anymore gunshots maybe we could still go unnoticed. I could see Noble. He was leaning up against an overturned desk and looking at a few ponies sitting in the middle of the room chatting. He glanced over and saw me at the door and quickly motioned for me to get low and stay quiet.

I told the others to stay put and I moved into the room towards Noble. He glanced between me and the ponies who were talking, making sure I wasn’t going to be seen as I crawled across the room. When I got to him he mouthed the word “four.”

I could hear what the ponies were talking about from here.

“Why the fuck are we doing this again?” One of them asked.

“Because we’re getting paid dipshit.” Another answered.

“Yeah but we’ve already been paid. Why the fuck don’t we ditch out? What’ll they do? Hire us to kill us?” The first one said again.

“Will you two shut the fuck up? They’ve gotta come through here. Whats the problem?” A new voice shouted from across the room.

“The problem is I was told I’d be killing some dumbass stable-ponies today and no ones showed up for me to kill yet.”

“You just killed some of our payment. Have fun with her while we wait.”

I couldn’t help but try to get a peek at them. Sure enough, a white earth pony mare laid in the middle of the ponies. One hole in her head, three more in her chest. She had a strange collar around her neck. The pony that I assumed was the one complaining was flipping her over.

I dropped back down and looked over to Noble. He gave me a nod. We both popped up from behind our cover and fired.

Nobled dropped one of the two in the middle of the room. My shotgun wasn’t amazing at range and the room was large. I hit the one who was mid-way through raping the corpse of the dead mare. He fell to the side and in panicked surprise he quickly found a desk to take cover behind. The other two in the room quickly found pillars to hide behind.

The others rushed in after our surprise attack and found cover. *Bang!* A bullet shot through the desk we were hiding behind and just barely missed us. Rose was the first of us to return fire. *Kzoo!* her energy pistol hit home as one of the ponies popped out to fire. He started to glow and exploded into a pile of ash.

I could see disbelief on Rose’s face as she watched her laser disintegrate a pony. Deadbolt tackled her to the ground just as a bullet passed over her head.

Hermes swung out from around a pillar and fired his massive revolver. *Bang! Bang!* he sent two shots into the pony in the center of the room. Noble was gone before I noticed him even move. He moved out and flanked behind the last pony who was hiding behind a pillar. I could see a panicked wave of a gun from the pony before *Bang*, Noble shot him in head.

We regrouped by the ponies in the center of the room. “Looks like I was right, raiders” Noble said as he looked at the blood soaked ponies on the ground.

“Why were they here?” Rose asked.

“They knew we were coming.” I explained. “I overheard them. Hired to kill us.”

“What about her?” She asked gesturing to the corpse of the mare.

Noble sighed. “Slave, judging by what I heard. They killed her out of boredom.” He started toward the stairwell. “We should keep moving. If there are any more, they know we’re here.”

We made our way back to the stairs. Deadbolt and Hermes cleared the desks that were blocking it and we started up the stairs again. It didn’t take long for more lights to start showing up. A few floors up I could see at least three more raiders.

They were waiting for us when we reached the thirty-fifth floor. Again they had set up a small blockade of desks and chairs. Noble was checking every door before we passed it. This time when he peeked out a bullet whizzed just past his head.

“Three, all gathered up in the middle.” He looked over to Deadbolt. “You still got a frag right?”

Deadbolt nodded and pulled it out. “Yep, stand back.” He took a quick look, just long enough to see where the three were standing. Again one tried to shoot but he peeked lower than Noble and their aim was off.

Noble tapped him on the shoulder. “When you throw it, dive into the room. It will be faster for you to keep moving than to throw and move back. Find cover as quick as possible.”

Deadbolt and another nod and turned back to the door. He took a deep breath before spinning around the corner and flung the grenade. He lept out of the and bullet grazed his leg. He hit the ground and rolled behind a desk.

“Fuck!” was the only word any of the raiders got out before the grenade exploded. Deadbolt hit the mark perfectly and landed it at the feet of the raider in the center. There wasn’t a whole raider left and bits of the three covered the room.

“You okay?” I asked him as he rejoined us.

“Yeah, one of the fuckers clipped me.”

Hermes didn’t wait for him to ask and pulled out some bandages. “It doesn’t look deep, these should work fine.”

“It may not be deep but it still burns like hell. How many more do you think?”

Noble thought for a minute. “I don’t know. Usually don’t see large bands of raider around here. Doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Could be thats all of them, could be twenty more. We’re just gonna have to play it by ear.”

Deadbolt sighed. “I figured as much.”

The next few floors were clear. we managed to make it the forty-second floor before anymore lights showed up. But this time there wasn’t just raiders. Two white lights mixed in with the red. We could hear crying and screaming coming from the room. Noble peeked in and saw that none of them were watching toward the door. They all had their attention on the two slaves that were being raped on the other side of the room.

“Fuck… we got two slaves in there.”

I could practically feel Rose’s anger boiling over. “Well lets get them out of there.”

Noble sighed. “Not that simple. We go in guns blazing and they’re gonna use those slaves as shields. We gotta be quiet.” He slipped in the door and unslung his rifle. Rose was right behind him, followed by Hermes, Deadbolt then myself.

The raiders were shouting and cheering. Between them and the crying mare’s it wasn’t hard for us get into positions all around the room. There were five raiders total, two rapists and three onlookers. I looked over at Noble, he had his rifle set and ready. Deadbolt was the closest and ready to jump out and stab the nearest raider. Rose and Hermes took cover together near a pillar. I was up close ready with the shotgun. Noble gave me a nod.

Noble fired first and blasted the brains out of the one of the ponies in the middle of the group. Rose followed up and fired as fast as she could at the other. *Kzoo Kzoo Kzoo!* The first shot missed, the other two hit him in the chest and he toppled over in pain. Deadbolt lept out and sunk his knife into one that was leaning against a pillar watching the show. Hermes made the mistake of aiming at the same target as Rose and missed.

One of the raiders ran toward the spot I was waiting in. By the time I popped out of cover he was almost on top of me, I noticed him before he noticed me. *Bang!* A single shell took a large chunk out of his arm and he crashed the ground. I hesitated before sending a second shell into his head. He may have been a raider but it still felt wrong shooting someone who was probably harmless. Probably harmless wasn’t good enough though, I had to make sure.

The last raider raider dived for cover and fired blindly. *Bang Bang Bang Bang!* Most of his shots hissed harmlessly through the air, most. He got lucky and Hermes took a pistol shot to the chest. Noble turned and fired sending a shot into the raiders head.

“Hermes!” Rose screamed as he fell.

We all rushed over to the bleeding doctor. He wasn’t dead, at least yet. He clutched a hole in his chest and yelling in pain. Deadbolt, Noble and I were lost. None of us had any idea if we could even help him. Rose acted fast and pulled out a potion and some tweezers. “Hold his legs!” she shouted and me and Noble grabbed onto him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then shoved the tweezers into his chest.

Blood was rushing out of the hole as Rose dug for the bullet. Finally with another scream from Hermes, Rose pulled out the bullet and quickly held the potion to his mouth. He choked as he drank down as much as he could. The wound sewed itself together and left and left a shaking, panting, blood soaked Hermes. He rolled onto his side trying to catch his breath. He had lost a lot of blood, but not enough to kill him.

“G-good work R-Rose.” Said the shaking unicorn. We all let out our collective breaths.

Rose was shaking just about as bad as Hermes was. The first time having to really perform wasteland medicine, and she passed with flying colors.

Noble was the one who brought up the bad news. “He’s not going to be able to move like this.”
“Shit…” I said as I looked around the room and saw the two slave mares cowering as far as the chains they were in would let them. I had forgotten about them when I saw Hermes had been shot. I couldn’t help but feel terrible about it and walked slowly over to them.

They were chained to a desk and tried to crawl away as I approached. “It’s okay, It’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.” I said and stopped to wait for them to calm down. The two were shaking and staring at me like prey at a predator. I looked around at the raiders. “Which one had the keys?” One of them lifted a shaky hoof and pointed to the one Deadbolt had stabbed.

I picked the keys off his body with my magic. My head got a stabbing pain as I did, but I figured they would feel better if I didn’t get any closer. I unlocked each of them and they slowly stood up. they were also wearing the same collars as the other slave downstairs was.

“T-thank you.” One of the mares said before they both ran for the exit. Just as they reached the door there was a high pitch beep and I saw a light flash on their collars. *Boom Boom!* Both mares head’s exploded and the bodies dropped to the ground seizing. I starred in disbelief at the two corpses, my brain trying to catch up with what just happened.

There was a laugh. A maniacal, insane laugh. “HeHeHaHaHaHeHe.” I looked over to see a raider clutching his burned chest in with one hoof and holding a small remote with the other.

Something snapped. I rushed over to him and threw his body against a wall with my magic. I ignored the pain as I started beating him. Blow after blow to the head. He just kept laughing. His remaining teeth broke off as I smashed his jaw. Still he managed to laugh. I swung my shotgun out and stuck into his mouth and the laughing stopped, *Bang!* and was replaced by a bloody gurgling.

I stood over the dead raider, panting. *Bang!* I shot again. I reloaded and aimed down at him again when a hood landed on my shoulder. “Rivet…”

I turned to see Rose and Deadbolt staring at me with concerned looks. “He’s dead Rivet…” I tried to take deep breaths and calm down, but I was still furious. I walked away without saying anything. I knew if I talked I would say something I might regret. I returned to where Noble and Hermes were sitting.

“You okay?” Hermes asked.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I imagine he might have chuckled at that if he had not just been shot and saw two mare’s heads explode. “Do you think you can walk?”

He stood up slowly and Noble and I helped him onto his hooves. “Yeah, I think I can walk. Not very fast though.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and see if there are anymore.” Noble was about to object but I interrupted him “No arguing, you help him up the stairs.” Noble could see my anger and decided to drop it.

I continued up the stairs ahead of the group. Everyone else stayed with Hermes as he slowly made his way up. I was actually hoping to find raiders. I had never wanted to get in a fight before. I wasn’t sure if I liked the feeling or not. I was out of luck. Those were the last of the raiders. No more lights showed up as I reached the top floor.

I looked back at the stairwell. Not seeing the others yet, I decided to go ahead and look for Applebloom’s office. It didn’t take long to find, it had two large doors that had gears carved into them and had a golden name plate that read “Applebloom.”

Her office was large. The back wall was just a single large window. The floor was covered in soft green carpet and a large wooden desk laid in the middle of the room along with two extra comfortable looking chairs. A painting had fell off of the wall revealing a safe, the painting was of an apple farm, rows of apple trees and a large barn and silo. On the desk was a terminal.

I sat at the chair behind the desk and took some deep breaths. I didn’t turn on the terminal right away. I decided to look through the drawers first. Most of them were full of papers and folders. There was a larger drawer on the bottom. I pulled it open and an orb rolled to the front. It looked like the same one Apostace was carrying with him. By habit, I went to grab it with magic.

The world tore away around me, then came rushing back. My heart raced with fear as everything shot away, but was replaced with a nervous anxiety as it came back. I felt lighter and my view was a few inches lower. I tried to look around but couldn’t, instead I was looking at the terminal on the desk typing something.

I was in the same office, except it was clean. The sun shined in from outside. The picture was back on the wall, covering the safe. Thats when I realized I was watching something, I Just along for the ride. But it felt like something was missing. Oh… yep… I was in a mare’s body. On the monitor I could see the file that I was looking for. Completion reports for various stables, including twelve.

A burst of static make me, er… my host jump. “Miss Applebloom, your sister is here to see you.”

“My sister? Um, send her up.” Applebloom shut her computer down and and made sure her desk was in order and waited for her guest.

A minute later an orange mare wearing a stetson and sporting a cutie mark of three apples walked in. Another one of the mares from the picture. “Hey AppleJack, what are you doing in Trottingham?”

The orange mare approached the desk. “The ministry has me runnin’ all over Equestria these days. I heard you were in town to so I thought I’d drop by. You mind if I take a seat?” The mares shared similar southern accents.

“Of course!” I could feel Applebloom was a bit nervous from her sister’s unexpected visit. “How’ve you been sis?”

Applejack sighed. “I wish I could say I was good. Running the ministry is stressful.” Applejack shook her head. “Sorry, how’s the Stable project going?”

Applebloom was suddenly lit up. “It’s going great. I can’t really talk about specifics but we’ve got the first twenty or so completed.” My host stopped as she noticed Applejack’s down expression. “What’s wrong sis?”

“Applebloom, I didn’t just come to talk. I need your help with something.”

I was brought out of the memory with a flash of light. The air escaped my lungs as the nice, clean office was replaced with the wrecked and dirty one. I gasped for air as I realized what pulled me out.

Rose was holding my head up and slapping me, trying to wake me up. “Rivet? Rivet? Are you okay?”

I blinked and tried to get my bearings again. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

“What the hell happened?” Deadbolt asked. I hadn’t even noticed that Noble , Hermes and him were in the room.

I looked down at the orb in the drawer. I nearly tried to grab it with magic again but I stopped myself. Instead I picked it up with my hoofs and placed it on the desk. “I found this.”

Hermes looked at it for a second. “Oh, thank goodness thats all it was.” He said with a light chuckle.

Noble picked up the orb. “Been a while since I’ve seen a memory orb. What did you see?”

Rose just shook her head, confused. “What is a memory orb?”

Noble looked over at Hermes. He gave Hermes a look that said “You want to take this one?” Hermes gave him a nod. “They’re recordings. Someone recorded their memory into that orb. You send a bit of magic through it and you can watch it, but i’m guessing you already figured that out.”

I rubbed my head. My headache had came back full force. “Yeah…” Then I remembered. This computer had the file’s on stable twelve. “I think we may have found what we’re looking for though.” I booted up the computer to a login screen. “It can’t ever be easy can it?”

Deadbolt looked at the locked screen. “You think you can get in?”

“Maybe, in the meantime, see if you can get that safe open.”

Deadbolt nodded and pulled out his bobby pins and screwdriver.

Noble took a step out. “The rest of us should take a look in the other offices. There might be something valuable.” He smirked and walked out. Rose and Hermes followed him out and the three went to search around.

Neither Deadbolt or I were having much luck getting our respective jobs done. Every now and then I heard a small *tink* swiftly followed by Deadbolt shouting “Fuck.” I was on the verge of locking out the damn terminal more times the I could count. My head was pounding and I couldn’t type with magic. Needless to say, I was quickly getting frustrated.

I powered down the machine for possibly the thirtieth time and leaned back in the chair. I wasn’t going to quit, but letting myself cool off a bit would help me focus better. Deadbolt threw his screwdriver across the room shouting as he did. “Fuck!” He took a few deep breaths then walked away. “Well that was the last of the bobby pins. We’re not getting in that one. How are you doing?”

I sighed and leaned back up to get back to work. “Not great.”

He watched as I fucked up again and rebooted the computer. “You think you can get it?”

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna keep trying.”

He nodded and walked to the door. “I’ll let you work in peace. I’m gonna go see what the others are doing.”

I kept working at it, rebooting every couple attempts. My headache was making it harder and harder to concentrate. I was about to take another break when I noticed something. A red light on the EFS. I jerked up. how long had that been there?

Deadbolt came running back in followed by Rose and Hermes. “Do you see it?”

“Yeah, where’s Noble?”

Hermes jerked his head toward the door. “He went to check out what it is. He said to wait here for him.”

We all produced our weapons and waited for Noble to come back. After a minute of waiting, his white line dashed across my vision and he re-entered the office. “We got trouble. Two suits coming up, they’ll be here any minute.”

My horn lit up and I started typing again. My head was splitting as I did.

Everyone else moved to cover and waited for the power armor. “Rivet, what are you doing?” Rose asked, seeing me still at the computer.

“I’m getting this open before they get here.”

Noble slammed a new magazine into his rifle. “You better do it quick.”

The red lights moved across the EFS. At most they were one floor down. “Rivet, we’re gonna need you over here.” Deadbolt said as he watched down the hall for the suits.

Reboot. “I just need another minute.”

“We don’t have a minute.” He snapped.

*Bing* The screen broke away. I finally got it. I let my keyboard go and sighed in relief as my headache settled down to a horrible stabbing. But nothing came onto the screen. After the login broke away it stayed blank. I rebooted and typed the password again. Again nothing came up.

“No, no no no. Come on.”

Rose looked back and say me pounding on the side of the computer. “What going on?”

“theres nothing here. The terminal’s been wiped.”

Deadbolt nearly dropped the grenade he had ready. “What?”

“Dammit!” I shouted and threw the terminal of the desk. It slammed onto the ground, but the sturdy case didn’t give me the satisfaction of breaking. This was the only lead we had. We had come to Trottingham for this and someone had cleared any hope of getting any files from it.

“Rivet?” Rose started. “You okay?”

The clanging of metal hooves on the concrete stairs snapped our attention back to the armored troops about to come in after us. “It’s not gonna matter in a minute.” Noble snapped.

I was mad. I was tired. My head hurt and I was nauseous from radiation poisoning. Now the only idea I had turned out to be a bust. I grabbed my shotgun. I was going to give those power armor-clad goons hell.

The stomping of the heavy armor was getting louder. I pushed the chair away and slid down to wait for them to enter. With the doors closed and the heavy stomping I couldn’t help but think back to the stable. This time was going to be different. This time, none of us are going to die.

Hermes and Rose shared the desk with me as cover. Deadbolt and Noble stood behind the two large chairs.

The stomping stopped outside the doors. There was a long pause. *BOOM!* The doors exploded off the hinges. One flew over us and out the window. The glass shattered and send large gusts of wind through the office.

The suits of armor rushed into the room. I was the first to fire. *Bang Bang!* Both shots sprayed against the first suit and the pony lurched back at the force but looked unharmed. I could hear the whirring of his machine guns. Noble shot *Bang!*. The pony reeled back and fired sending sprays of bullets into the wall and ceiling.

The other Suit was equipped with a strange array of barrels that suck out of two large boxes strapped to his sides. *Bang Bang Bang Bang* Each barrel fired one after another sending sprays of shotgun pellets at us. The desk was torn apart by the spray. Bits of wooden shrapnel flew out at us. I took a large piece to the cheek. I took a few pellets into my chest and leg.

I hit the ground and clutched at the burning holes. Deadbolt threw the EMP. The machine gun equipped suit was engulfed in a cloud of electricity. He seized around before crumpling to the ground.

The shotgun suit turned on Deadbolt and fired. *Bang Bang Bang Bang!* I stood up and time slowed as I watched my brother’s leg tear away from his body. Deadbolt fell to the ground screaming in pain and grabbed at the bleeding wound.

“No!” My vision went red as Deadbolt fell. I slammed two more shot into the shotgun. I wasn’t thinking and tackled the suit. I held the shotgun with my magic. I didn’t feel the headache as I pressed it against his neck and fired. *Bang Bang*. The shots barely made it through the armor, but it was enough. Blood seeped through the holes and cracks in the armor and the pony inside made a bloody gurgle as he died.

“Deadbolt!” I shouted and dropped the gun.

Hermes was already on him. “Hold him down!” Noble and Rose grabbed him and held him. I couldn’t get myself to move. I was watching my brother die and could do anything. Hermes Wrapped his leg with healing bandages, they were soaked red faster than he could add new ones. He tossed the bandages aside and pulled out a syringe and stabbed him in in the base of where his leg used to be. I just stared, terrified at losing my brother. Hermes grabbed a potion out of his bag and forced it into Deadbolt mouth.

“Hes lost a lot of blood. Hes going to need a transfusion.” Hermes said and looked up to me. “Rivet, we’re going to need some of your blood.”

“W-what?”

“You're his brother. You're the only one who might have the same blood type has him.” He reached into his bag and pulled out the largest needle that I’ve ever seen. “This is going to have to be quick and dirty. Sorry Rivet, this is gonna hurt but it’s his only chance.”

I was still in shock and barely understood what he was saying. “Y-yeah, do it.” I said and held out my leg. I turned away.

“Rose, can you get an empty blood bag and put an IV in Deadbolt.”

She wordlessly nodded and went to work. Then I felt the needle stab into my arm. I turned and saw the needle fill with my blood. Then I passed out.

I had a dream about the Stable. Waking up, getting a message from Deadbolt and going to work. I would fix whatever needed fixing. I would get in an argument with Deadbolt every time we crossed paths. I would meet with Rose whenever I had a break and we would relax and talk. The Overmare would call someone from maintenance to come “fix” her computer which would have nothing actually wrong with it. Everyday I dealt with ponies who didn’t know how to do their jobs and listened to the same bad music over the radio. I missed it. I wished I could go back to it. Get out of this wasteland. To go back when we were just living, not being hunted down, shot at , poisoned or lost. You never know how well you have it until something takes it away.

When I woke up I was lightheaded. I jolted up but Rose held me down. “Whoa, easy Rivet.”

“Ho-How’s Deadbolt?”

She glanced around her back. “He’s not dead, but he hasn’t woken up yet.”

Hermes saw that I was awake and called to Rose. “Rose you can take that IV out now. We should have enough blood.”

“Okay.” She said before turning back to me. “Hold still.” She undid the tape holding the IV in place and slowly slid the needle out, then closed the end of the blood bag. “There you can sit up now. Be careful though, you might be a little weak.”

She helped me sit up. Deadbolt was laying behind her. His chest was rising and falling in shallow breaths. “How is he?”

Hermes sighed and my heart sank. “Well he didn’t have a bad reaction to the transfusion. So that’s good. But we’ve done all we can here. We just have to wait and see. He’s looking good but I really don’t know.”

My head sank and I looked down. Thats when I noticed I had been stripped out of my armor. Bandages were wrapped around my chest. I had forgotten that I had been shot. “I think I got all of the pellets out.” Rose said when we saw me staring at the wrappings.

“Th-thanks.”

“Rivet.” Noble caught my attention. “We’ve got another problem.” He said and pointed over to an orange stallion with a blonde mane. He was wearing power armor. He was the one that Deadbolt hit with the EMP. His armor wasn’t responding and he couldn’t move. Noble had been nice enough to sit him up and take off his helmet.

I slowly stood up. I was wobbly and light headed. My headache was mostly gone. I assumed I was under some kind of painkiller. “What do we do with him?”

Noble shrugged. “I don’t know. I say kill him, but I figured you would want a say before we made a decision.”

I shook my head and nearly lost balance. “No, at least not yet. I want to talk to him.”

Noble stepped to the side and followed me across the office to the orange stallion. He couldn’t do anything to us now. I didn’t want to kill him if I didn’t have to. But given the circumstances, I thought about shooting him for Deadbolt’s sake. He stared into my eyes as we approached.

“You have a name?”

He just kept giving me an angry stare and kept quiet. Noble sighed. “This guys had a pretty bad day. I would suggest answering him before he does something that you would regret.”

His gaze shifted between the two of us. then he let out a sigh of his own. “Bronze.”

I nodded. “Good start. I’m Rivet Turner, but I guess you already knew that.” I had a lot of questions for him and we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “I’m going to be completely frank with you Bronze. I’m tired, sick, my head hurts and my brother is laying over there possibly dying. So everytime you give me an answer that I don’t like, I’m going to let my friend here do whatever he wants to you. He’s no stable pony, he’s been a wastelander all his life and he can think of a lot of worse things to do to you than I could. Clear?”

His gazed shifted to Noble who had a smirk on his face. “Clear.”

“Okay then first question. Do you anything about the files that were on that terminal over there?” I nodded my head to the terminal that was still laying on the floor by the desk.

He looked between me and the terminal. His eyes shifted nervously. “No.” He was lying.

“Noble.”

Noble grabbed his rifle and slammed the butt into Bronze’s nose. Blood streamed out in an instant.

“Okay yes. We were here a couple of months back. Told to get every file from the executive offices and erase everything on them.”

Noble looked over to me. “That means there might still be a copy of them somewhere.” We both turned back to Bronze expectantly.

When he didn’t say anything Noble slammed him in the head with the rifle again.

“Yes there are still copies of them.”

Noble rolled his eyes. “Yeah of course, we got that. Where are they?”

The orange pony bit his lip weighing his options. Then found that he didn’t have any. “Apstace has a copy. He keeps records of everything.”

Apostace, that smug pegasus. I would love to get my hooves on him. “Where can we find him.”

Bronze was sick of getting hit already and answered right away. “He’s leaving for Las Pegasus today, but he’ll be back within a week. He goes out there to meet with the boss occasionally. Hes never gone for long.”

“And when he gets back? Where will he be?”

“The slave camp. It’s north of the city. Follow the road leaving Junction 26 until you’re out of town. You can see if from the road.”

Noble gave him a suspicious look. “Why are you giving all this up so easily?”

Bonze gave a quick snort. “You managed to capture me and haven't killed me yet. If Apostace found out I not only let myself get caught, but also gave you any information at all, he’ll slap a collar on me the second I walk back into the camp.”

Noble’s smirk came back. “Which means you won’t go back and report any of this to them.”

“They pay well, but I’m not about to become a slave. Fuck no, I’m not going back there.”

I nodded approvingly. “Okay, next question. Those Raiders down there. You paid them with slaves, didn’t you?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t pay them personally if thats what your asking. Apostace gave the slaves as an advance. He was going to give them more if they brought your heads to the camp.”

Thats all I needed to know about that. The reasons for tracking down Apostace were stacking. “I’ve got a question.” Noble said. “How much did you know before about us before you tracked us down?”

Bronze tried to shrug. “Not much. Apostace gave us your tracking tags. He said to kill these three ponies. I knew you were stable dwellers. Other than that, nothing. I just follow orders.”

“I think that’s all I wanted to ask.” I said looking back up to Noble. “Let him go.”

Noble cocked an eyebrow at me. “You sure, he could be lying about not reporting to Apostace.”

“No, I’m not sure. But he can’t do anything to us now. Besides he’ll never make it through the north side without a weapon. Besides, you're gonna make sure he runs the opposite way.”

Noble let his shoulders sink. “Okay then. Keep a gun on him while I get him out of the armor.”

I held Noble’s pistol ready to fire if he tried anything. He cooperated with Noble as he fussed with the armor and eventually got him out. “Escort him out of the building. Shoot him if he does anything you don’t like.” I said as I passed his pistol back to him. The two of them walked out slowly.

I went back and sat next to Rose. “Anything?”

Hermes shook his head. “No change. You guys should get some rest. We might be here awhile.”

Rose nodded. “Thats a good idea. You sure you don’t want to rest first though? I can watch him for a while.”

Hermes waved her off. “No, I’ll be good. you two get some sleep.”

Rose stood and went over to one of the chairs. They were even more torn now but they would be more comfortable than the floor.

“I’m not gonna be able to sleep. I’m going to go look around.” I said and headed for the door.

Hermes stopped me for a second. “Rivet, you really should at least try to sleep. you need it more than anyone else.”

I looked down at Deadbolt. “I’m not sleeping until I know he’s okay.” Hermes shrugged as I left. I walked around the fiftieth floor for a while. Looking around in all of the offices. The others had already cleared everything out that was worth anything. Eventually I found myself at the elevator.

“I wonder if I could fix this?” I said to myself. I pushed one of the doors open. The elevator was on this floor. All of the lights were on and all of the buttons seemed to be working correctly. From inside, it looked like it was completely fine. There was a hatch in the ceiling. I couldn’t reach it from here. I went and grabbed a chair from one of the offices and pushed it into the elevator.

I struggled to balance as I reached up to push open the hatch. I slipped and slammed onto the floor of the elevator. I laid on the floor for minute and caught my breath before trying again. This time I was successful in opening it. Climbing into it took a few more tries and a few more falls.

Eventually I got on top of the elevator. The problem with the elevator was a lot simpler than I thought it was. A large piece of metal had fallen from the top of the shaft and jammed itself into the pulleys and wires up top.

I wasn’t going to reach it with my hooves. Magic would bring my headache back. I thought about it for a minute and figured it was worth it not to have to walk down the entire building. My horn lit up and I pulled the piece of metal out.

Dropping back into the elevator I pressed the button for floor forty-nine. There was a pause, then the doors closed. The elevator lurched to life and lowered to the next floor. The doors opened up. I was alive, it didn’t fall and kill me horribly. Happily I pressed the button to go back up.

I walked back into the office. “I got the elevator working.”

Hermes perked up at that. “Really? Well that’ll make it easier to get Deadbolt out of here.” Rose was sleeping on one of the chairs.

I walked over and sat next to Hermes. “Still no change.” He said. I didn’t figure anything would have happened yet.

Deadbolt annoyed me. He purposely made me angry on a regular basis. We never agree on anything. I never realized how much he actually meant to me. Hermes looked over at me and saw tears starting to swell.

I met his eyes. “Don’t you dare tell him I cried.”