Fallout Equestria and The Number Station

Chapter 24: The Fillydelphia Strain pt.1 It's Always Sunny In Fillydelphia

The reddish brown hell scape of Fillydelphia had remained ever present throughout the years. While the new Equestria had the sunlight again it did little to penetrate the smog and pollution of Fillydelphia. Pre-war buildings lorded over the city but their weakening structures seemed to tilt as if they were sad and longed for the sweet death of demolition. Smoke stacks stood dead like bony fingers on the hand of a dead griffon faced towards the sky cursing their fate. Artemis couldn't tell if the lack of smoke bellowing from them boded well or ill. They had arrived at train station barely outside the suburbs. There were no NCR soldiers, gates, nothing.

“Pretty as a painting isn't it?” Hans scoffed sardonically at the sight of the ruined city. He leaned up against a rusted railing overlooking the station.

“Isn't there a pony saying: a picture is worth a thousand words?” Pembroke added as she clumsily left the stairs.

“I'm pretty sure I could think of a thousand words for this place.” Aroma said with a grim disdain.

The others, Alpha and Verity exited the train but Artemis lingered. Part of her felt... afraid and she didn't know why. She was also waiting for Calamity because she had one last question and her word of warning about the Legion. Luckily she didn't have too wait long. Calamity approached the door. Rusty walked by levitating the suitcase with the money that would be immediately sent back to Hayseed and Lady in New Appaloosa. When Rusty had exited to another car Calamity stopped to speak.

“Remember Artemis, kill the King, get the rod and get the hell out of there. We'll be back at this station in a week so don't dilly dally. Get to Macintosh AB and they'll get you into the King's territory and if you see the Nephilim, run. It'll take a group of tanks to bring that monster down but if you have the rod maybe we won't have to put him down.”

Artemis nodded at Calamity's instructions but in truth she wasn't really paying attention she was waiting for her turn to speak. “Calamity before I go I need to warn you.”

“About?” He said.

“Down at the dam, I think the Legion might be planning an assault.”

Calamity looked at his daughter while he thought on Artemis's warning. “I know about the Legion but they don't seem like the kind of civilization that would need or want a dam. Why would they attack?”

“It's what they do, my guess is that they'll destroy the dam just to spite the NCR. Just be ready.”

“And Calamity.” Artemis added when she paused by the exit. “Is Littlepip still... alive? Her voice seemed to falter with the question. It was one of the few illusive questions that Calamity had either consciously or unconsciously evaded.

The old pegasus was quiet for a minute. “You read the book you know how it ended.” He dodged sounding disinterested like there was nothing more to the subject.

Artemis turned back to the general. “In the book Littlepip rigged the SPP to send out messages from Neighvarro. Why is she silent now?”

Calamity's tough exterior cracked and his eyes looked sorrowfully down at the floor. “Please Artemis I don't want to discuss this anymore. It brings up painful memories that were better left forgotten. Now please, go and make your way to Macintosh AB.”

Before Artemis could apologize Calamity had walked back into another car beyond her sight. She didn't mean to upset him but in the back of her mind she had the feeling that Calamity wasn't sad at all. Even though he was a pony Calamity was good at weaseling his way out of her questions. He refused to divulged anything about Littlepip, curious. But perhaps his dismissive attitude about the Lightbringer answered more questions than he would like. Artemis surmised that Littlepip had not simply passed away in her sleep like Xenith, no Littlepip was alive, of that she had no doubt. Granted Littlepip would have to an older pony by now but it was very probable that she still lived.

Seeing that there was nothing left for her on the train Artemis slung her rifle strap over her neck and under her right arm. She fluttered her wings to carry herself off the train instead of using the short pony steps. The others were huddled loosely about the station. The ground felt eerily cold and the red black sky overhead did little to lighten the mood. The station itself was in the shape of a hexagon missing two sides for incoming and outgoing trains. It was built entirely of weathered bricks and cracked concrete littered with old newspapers from before the war that were illegible now. The railings and benches were relatively intact but in dire disrepair. All the windows that dotted the station's walls were haphazardly boarded up. This is what Artemis thought she was living in for nearly all her life. The desolation, disrepair and utter despair. Fillydelphia seemed like a city stuck in the time of the post-apocalypse never to move on.

…..

If the train station was a reception area then the suburbs was a graveyard. It reminded Artemis of the quaint houses back in Clopton actually except somehow these homes seemed like tombstones to long dead families. There wasn't a home or general building over two stories left standing. Stained and broken picket fences were the prelude to a husk of a house that was falling in on itself or had given way years earlier. Artemis could almost shrug the eeriness off if it wasn't so quiet. The utter stillness she heard was the most perturbing, Fillydelphia was a toxic quagmire of violence and despair but yet there wasn't a soul in these parts. It had been abandoned by the NCR and the residents of Fillydelphia. Alpha had taken to the sky scanning the area for any signs of life but he returned with nothing besides mutated rats.

“I imagine this is where the Enclave forces were thickest during the war.” Aroma said. Something about the quietness made one fall to a whisper.

“Unlikely.” Verity said. “If anything these suburbs would have been where Red Eye's forces had been stationed and were subject to pegusai artillery and the Twilight Society's megaspell rays.”

“Plus that baby over there.” Hans added with a pointing hoof to a heap of wreckage down the street. The others went for a closer look. It was some kind of attack vehicle with a mounted gun. It's parts had most likely been cannibalized from other vehicles. Inside the caged driver's seat was the skeletal remains of a pony from Red Eye's army or one of the warlords from after his fall. Another skeletal pony was slung over the mounted gun.

“Goddesses what is that?” Aroma cried. The others looked up at a light post where a pony dangled by a rope. He had a bag over his head and the word “hoarder” was carved into him.

“Hmph, he's a fresh kill compared to the skeletons back there. Lynching huh, very Legion~like.” Verity sounded almost intrigued by the executed hoarder like he was a connoisseur. At first Artemis had trouble believing violence still subsisted in Fillydelphia after the Enclave War but here was the sign of murder all too alive in Fillydelphia. As they made their way onto a highway that led up to the bridge over the sludge river Artemis saw just how brutal mob justice could be. More ponies dangled from the lights some had their crimes written on them others were just victims.

Below the great but eroded bridge was the sludge river that churned sluggishly and smelled of filth. The Gardens of Equestria had purged the land of Taint and radiation but Artemis wasn't confident enough to try a quick swim. On the bridge were masses of devastated wagons and chariots from before the war, many held skeletal remnants of the ponies that owned them, their vehicle was now their tomb and their license plates the epitaph. Many of the wagons had been defaced with profanities but there was a recurring mantra “Fuck NCR!” was painted on many of the wagons strewn about like a messy hatchling's playroom.

“These Fillydelphia folk sure like displaying their kills...” Artemis whispered as she noticed the many bodies hanging from the bridge's support beams. Some even had NCR uniforms.

“And some hanging fetish.” Hans added with a glance upward.

“Looks like it must be a tradition. Look at some of the higher ones.” Verity added. Artemis looked and the bodies at the top of the bridge were skeletons both half and whole.

“These ponies sure do know how to hold a grudge.” Pembroke grimaced as she walked past several impaled heads.

But what came next surpassed all the other gory deterrents. This was the residents of Fillydelphia taking their revenge into an art form, a gory art. Before the bridge's end was a billboard. What it advertised was irrelevant because there was a tarp covering it anyway. Several flood lights were pointed to the billboard to specifically draw your attention, to see their “masterpiece”. It was all sorts of arrangements of body parts but majority were.... scalps. The scalps of ponies and griffons alike, Artemis felt herself gulp. But there was a reason this display was more important than the others. The billboard read “Former Oppressors” and Former was sharply underlined.

“Look Artemis...” Aroma said and pointed her hoof to the very top. There, nailed under the title was a shriveled scalp with two dull feathers protruding from it. “Stern” it read. And next to it was the pièce de résistance, an old weather beaten cybernetic ocular implant that had been carelessly ripped out of it's former owner.

“How did they get that?” Artemis said barely able to believe it herself. The people of Fillydelphia had gotten their hooves on Red Eye's eye and used it as a bloody trophy.

“I'm impressed.” Verity said in a dark admiration.

“How can you condone this slaughter, Verity?” Artemis asked indignantly.

The blue griffon shrugged. “They wanted revenge, they got their revenge and took pride in it. I read what Red Eye and Stern did to the slaves, while I side with their slavery aspect Red Eye was slaughtering through his people too fast for his own deification.”

Artemis was undoubtedly ruffled. “Hey my mother is a slave and I don't much like that tone.” She shoved Verity but he stood steadfast. “You think it's okay for my mom to be a slave?!”

Verity was resigned but his silence was saying everything. That son of a bitch, her mother's enslavement in Gryphondale had caused all sorts of pain for her and Verity just so nonchalantly approved of it. It's a terrible thing knowing your aging mother is being held as a slave working scorching hot fields and living in squalid conditions under cruel overlords and you can't do anything about it!

“Don't fight you two! We need to protect each other, you guys can duke it out back in New Appaloosa.” Aroma said as she inserted herself between Artemis and Verity to break them up before a fight broke.

Artemis scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She said coldly and turned away from him.

“And I don't want to hear this pro-slavery talk in Fillydelphia. I don't want t see your scalp up on that wall, Verity.” Aroma instructed to the griffon that was nearly double the size of the small pony.

It really rustled Artemis to hear Verity approve of slavery like that especially when her own mother was a slave and had risked life and limb to smuggle her hatchling daughter out of Gryphondale. Artemis sighed internally with resignation she remembered that was the culture Verity had lived his whole life with and he was only speaking his mind. She felt wrong but something stagnant in her told her not to give any ground, at least not in Fillydelphia.

…..

The hellish city seemed like the child of a labyrinth and utter despair. The ground was dirty and cracked beyond repair some parts of the street even caved into the sewers and Celestia knows what's down there. The once distant buildings were now massive giants lording over the city casting their shadows as far as the reddish sky would carry it. The alleys were riddled with smoking manhole covers  and burning barrels used by desperate families that kept to themselves.

“Statement: User Artemis I believe I have located the MWT building.”

Artemis turned around to the robopony. “How? We just got here?” No doubt Alpha had high tech mapping programs installed in him.

“Explanation: The sign.” He pointed with metal hoof down the street sure enough there was a decayed sign showing the Ministry of Wartime Technology.

“That's just a sign honey.” Hans correct.

“Exasperation: Ugh.”

“Explanation: It is most likely the address is printed somewhere on the billboard.”

There was a pause with Alpha's suggestion. It was a reasonable one but again it was just peculiar how he voiced his ideas as if he was coming to them of his own volition. Machines didn't have that kind of volition.

“Well what are we waiting for an invitation?” Pembroke said drawing her rivet gun as though expecting an attack.

“Did you hear something?” Artemis asked confronting her suspicion.

Pembroke looked around in the buildings and wordlessly dropped to one knee and focused her ears. “I hear something in the distance. Looks like we're not alone anymore.”

Quickly everyone scattered for cover wherever it could be found and considering all the debris littering the streets finding cover wasn't too hard. It was a tad more difficult for their hellhound companion. Artemis noticed Pembroke habitually tried to burrow underground but stopped when she met the sewers under the roads so instead she hunkered by Verity behind a destroyed wagon. Artemis switched her EFS on and it whirred to life. She wondered why she didn't leave it on more often. Yellow, dammit that wasn't good. Artemis had hoped to avoid a firefight until after they had assassinated the King of Trash. With a wave of her talon Artemis ordered Aroma, who hid next to her shotgun in her hooves, to stay still. Ever so gently Artemis peaked her feathered head just barely beyond their cover. Obviously she had been discovered because instantly super bright floodlights illuminated the street and a static voice bellow from beyond the lights.

“Come out with your hooves up, you are trespassing on the NCR district of Fillydelphia. I repeat come out at once.”

Artemis breathed a sigh of relief, it was the NCR. She handed her famas to Aroma and arose especially slow so as not to startle the soldiers. “It's okay officer we mean no harm.”

“What's a Talon doing this far into the city?” The pony on the speaker asked in reserved astonishment.  Talons.. Gawd's Talons right? From the saloon in New Appaloosa.

“Uh I was actually on my way back to Talon Steel but I thought you were some of the King's goons. I actually need to get to Macintosh Air Base.” Artemis bantered trying to sound legitimate as possible.

The lights went off and now she could see again, thank goodness. The speaker hopped off the large vehicle. It was strange but the vehicle could be best described as a cross between a tank and a bulldozer. “Well get your friends and hop on.” He said delighted to help out.

He and his men were undoubted surprised at the sight of Artemis's group but they were really startled at Pembroke luckily none of them did anything stupid. Inside the... tankdozer was dark, cramped and had the impression of an overuse of steel and rivets in it's design. The windows were barred allowing for limited sight outside. Artemis sat next to a quiet Verity in the uncomfortable metal chairs. Across from them was a stallion and a mare, both looked more jolly than the normal pony would be if they were soldiering in Fillydelphia.

“Gawd's Talons huh.” The deep purple mare cooed.

“Are you two married?” The stallion asked.

Artemis laughed unamused but refrained from being rude. “I can't say we are.” Besides she wasn't in the best mood for Verity right now. Even now the blue griffon was completely quiet.

She and Verity sat in an uneasy science. Goddesses why did he have to say that why couldn't he have just kept his beak shut? Artemis hated hating him but she also hated his blatant approval of her mother's suffering. If those two swinger weren't sitting across from them Artemis had half a mind to-!

The sound of something heavy rumbled throughout the interior grabbing everyone’s attention. It rumbled again and again. dada doot doot doot dada deet deet deet doot Strange?

The next second the tankdozer had been flipped on it side and everyone spilled onto the floor. Artemis couldn't tell who or what was on top of her.

“Nrgh.. Hellooooo Verity, fancy being on top of you.” Hans said through his discomfort.

“Hans you're on me.” Artemis corrected.

“Oh. Then what do you think that was-!” He was interrupted when a loud whirring noise penetrated the hull. Suddenly the upright side of the car was ravaged by a huge drill, like some goddess forsaken can opener! Huge hooves reached up to pull back the wry scraps of metal and it was then when Artemis realized what was attacking them.

“It's the Nephilim!” She yelled and scrambled to her feet. Next the interior was bathed in a sickly yellow light as the giant pony held his head over them all. His helmet resembled that of an olden pony diving suit but due to his size the helmet looked malformed and altogether horrifying, not to mention the large rusty drill where his horn would have been if he was a unicorn. Quickly the yellow turned to red and Nephilim released a loud roar and began tearing away the frame of the tankdozer like a filly opening a Hearths Warming Eve present.

Everyone scrambled for the back exited. Only Alpha was the one with the gall to fire at him though. When everyone was outside the Nephilim tore the tankdozer in two no longer amused by it. He really earned that namesake of his. The stallion was a little taller than than the tankdozer he just shred to pieces, he wore a patchwork of metal scraps for armor and his head was completely encased in the Frankenpony diving helmet.

“Get em' Nephilim!” A raspy female voice cried out but Artemis couldn't see from where it originated.

Just as the giant pony ducked as if to jump Artemis unfroze from her shock and started firing at the monster. The bullets didn't even phase him and that's not the worse part! When Nephilim kicked to jump he easily jumped up to the roof of a three story building. The store did not weather him well though and he kicked and clawed his way to the roof leaving a gaping hole in the buildings second and third floor.

Artemis stopped firing and reloaded. The Nephilim charged on the roof and jumped directly at them throwing himself fully into the attack! Artemis and anyone with wings scrambled out of the way. Without a second though Artemis took to the sky. She turned back to fire again at the Nephilim when Aroma cried out. Just as the Nephilim was about to grind the mare to a bloody paste with a wagon it picked up in it's forehooves Artemis slipped into SATS.

She targeted on the back of his head as many times as she could and an instant later she fired. The rounds ding'd and dang'd off his metal helmet none of them puncturing but he did pause giving Aroma time to run. Nephilim's red lighted eyes turned to Artemis in the sky, again she slipped into SATS but it hadn't recharged yet. Like a reflex the Nephilim wrested a fire hydrant off the sidewalk sending putrid water shooting into the air and threw it at her. The hydrant hit Artemis directly in the stomach immediately knocking her out of the sky. What would have been a fall to her death was changed thankfully when Verity caught her in mid air.

“Verity?” She said and tasted the copper in her mouth.

“Yes.” Was all he said.

He landed by an alley where Pembroke and the others had scuttled to during the chaos. “C'mon let's get out of here!” The white hellhound said with no protests.

Verity put Artemis to her feet. “Can you run?”

Artemis huffed, puffed and spit up the occasional red. “Yeah, I'm, good.” She and Verity started running to catch up with the others.

The ground was slick with filth but that was the least of their concerns because not a moment after they ran into the alley did Nephilim barrel though in chase. His massive form charged unfettered by the tight spacings instead the walls crumbled and fell by his passing.

The sound of Alpha's gatling laser was ambient noise among the commotion but soon the robopony was flying over them and the buildings. “Statement: User Artemis I will part here and locate you via pipbuck once I find my memory card in the MWT building.”

“Wait Alpha! Shit!” Artemis said between breaths but he didn't listen and abandoned them! That robot bastard abandoned them!

WHIZZZZ! Artemis turned around and saw Nephilim charging them like a bull with his drill horn at the front. The monster pony barreled through everything in it's path!

Artemis ran for all she was worth and then some more. Her legs felt like they were burning from sprinting but if she didn't stay ahead then soon she wouldn't feel anything besides being impaled on Nephilim's horn. Down the alley the straight narrow pathway started breaking off into different turns and paths leading to new sections. Artemis would have taking back to the sky the minute she could but the alley was so narrow she'd be hard pressed to fly out not to mention the numerous catwalks, clothes lines and smoking pipes spanning the buildings.

Celestia, Luna or some griffon god must have decided to help them out because just as Nephilim was about to reach the gang his hoof must have hit a weak piece of concrete causing him to trip over himself as he nearly fell in the sewers. Nephilim had been momentarily stuck in the broken road but he freed himself seconds later but that gave Artemis and her friends the time they needed, by now they all knew fighting the Nephilim was pointless especially with any weapons they had on them at the moment so flight was the plan. A literal flight would have been applicable for her and Verity but Artemis had no intention of leaving the others as Alpha had.

“What're you doing Artemis we have to run!” Verity shouted in his deep voice. It sounded foreign to hear him yell in actual distress and the way his face showed more emotions than he usually displayed. It would have been cute if she wasn't still ticked with him oh and the giant monster pony chasing after them!

“Go with them Verity, I'll lead the Nephilim down another path and try to get in the sky.” Artemis said leaving no room for argument as the Nephilim charged again at them. Verity hesitated seeming to hop in place thinking whether or not to run. Luckily he didn't hesitate long and darted down the alley with the others.

“Alright you overgrown bastard come and get me.” Artemis said under her breath making sure Nephilim's sight was on her.

Just as the hulking metal clad monster burst into the opening Artemis dashed into another alley and Nephilim followed. Artemis took to her wings to carry herself over the garbage that littered the alley but of course Nephilim tore through the filth like nothing, all it did was make him smell even worse. Artemis kicked out with her hind legs and hovered, staring at the dead end in front of her.

“Only one place to go now but up!” She thought to herself. Of course there were iron catwalks but she didn't have a whole lot of choices!

WHIZZZZ! Nephilim's horn drill whined painfully as he charged her. Artemis shot up into the air as fast as she could and even then the size and momentum of the beast was enough to send her into a tailspin.

Artemis landed on a pile of ripped garbage bags, besides being a bit dizzy she was relatively okay.

WHIZZZZZZZZZ! KRRRRZZZZZ! Nephilim was halted- no he was stuck! His horn drill was stuck in the wall! Artemis saw him trying to wrest his head out of the brick wall and the drill was still trying to turn which made Nephilim wrench his head in the opposite way.

It was a stroke of luck but Artemis noticed how the wall was cracking and crumbling, it wouldn't hold out much longer. She quickly hovered into the air when she got an idea. A temporary solution. From the air Artemis loaded the single grenade launcher on her famas.

Thwoop! Kaboom! The small grenade detonated but she knew it didn't kill Nephilim nor did she plan for it to. The explosion was the final blow and the brick wall came down in a rocky avalanche of bricks and mortar. Dust erupted from the alley like volcanic plume.

This time there was no stirring under the bricks, Nephilim had been defeated for now. Artemis wiped her forehead with a sigh of relief. She knew Nephilim was far from dead and totally expected him to return in the future when it would be the most inconvenient, that's just how things always seemed to go. Verity was hovering above the buildings so Artemis could find her way back to the others.

“I can't believe it.” He said stunned.

“He's not dead, not by a long shot but at least we can escape.” Artemis corrected as she hovered past him. She heard Verity sniff faintly when she went past him. The garbage no doubt.

Artemis landed by the others outside the alley. She didn't need to ask them what had their attention, she saw upon landing. A bedraggled earth pony mare with a cigarette hanging loosely out of her mouth stared paralyzed in fear of the well armed persons in front of her. Artemis and her group was equally paralyzed by the mare. Maybe it was because this was the first Fillydelphian they had come across.

The mare flinched when her cigarette fell from her mouth. “Who-who... Wait a minute, those moans, that was the Nephilim's moans. But he only attacks...” She stopped in her stammering and quickly started to run away.

Before Artemis thought anything of it Verity made a winged dash at the mare and pounced on her. “Where are you going? Who is your leader?” He demanded in a low threatening voice. He knocked her head on the gray sidewalk.

The mare winced. “Fuck you buddy, when the King hears about you NCR slavers he'll have you strung up on the bridge.” She spat.

“This is the King's territory?” Verity asked and knocked her head on the sidewalk and this time it gave more of a nasty crack.

“You won't get anymore from me. I know I'm dead, you'll meet the King soon enough.”

There was a pause when and the mare bitterly resisted knowing she wouldn't survive.“Very well.” Verity said and cut her throat with one of his talons. He climbed off her as she crawled away for several seconds before collapsing completely.

“Damn Verity was that really necessary?” Pembroke asked as she examined the mare for any signs of life but sadly in vain.

“You heard her, Pembroke. That lady was gonna run back to her posse and then all hell would break loose. If Verity hadn't beat me to the punch I was gonna gun her down.” Hans said joining the hellhound ambassador in examining the mare except he was more interest in what she was carrying in her pockets.

“She looks like a scavenger.” Verity said as Hans emptied some of her bags full of miscellaneous junk.

“But did she really have to die?” Aroma asked. “Or at least that... painfully?”

Verity grumbled. “Remember the lesson we learned about taking prisoners?”

The memories of Obsidian Shine surfaced in Artemis's thoughts. Aroma was silenced and surprisingly she agreed with Verity. Normally Artemis would have argued to have interrogated the mare more to get any information they could but she never wanted to have another Obsidian Shine incident on her conscious.

“On the bright side now we can enter the King's territory without fear of alarm.” Artemis injected. Pembroke however seemed confused by everyone's indifference to the killing.

The white hellhound sighed. “I suppose you guys are all seasoned killers so I surmise this is nothing new to you?”

Everyone glanced at each other nonchalantly. “Not really.” Everyone, save for Aroma, answered casually.

“Do you not kill people, Pembroke?” Aroma asked sheepishly prodding at the broken concrete with her hoof.

She rubbed the back of her head nervously. “Well... no. I've never killed anyone before. My rivet gun is meant to deter not kill.”

Hans laughed cynically. “Haha the one hellhound in the world that doesn't kill ponies is the one traveling with us.”

“Don't piss her off Hans I still bet she could make a fillet out of you if she wanted to to.” Artemis joked.

“Or a barber.” Aroma said and held some of Hans's yellow mane. “A little off the top?” She said in a slightly gruffer voice and then pretended to cut his throat. “Whoops sorry, I didn't know you just wanted your mane gone.”

Pembroke held her huge hands at her thighs. “Ha-ha-ha very funny. I'm an ambassador. I talk my way out of situations.”

“We're just pulling your leg honey.” Hans said after he finished his nervous laughing.

Everyone was snapped back to the danger they were in when they heard a loud moan echo across the red hellish sky.

“Looks like Nephilim woke up from his little dirt nap.” Hans said becoming serious.

“Let's not tarry.” Verity said to the group.

They hid the mare's corpse in one of the abandoned homes and since Nephilim was now awake the path back had become too treacherous to use so the only out was through. Artemis and the others walked down the small string of derelict neighborhoods further into the King's territory.