Fallout Equestria: The Ranger of Seamane

Chapter 11 – A Wrong Turn

“Where the hay do they keep coming from?!”

Now, I was running like somepony was out to kill me. Then again it was highly possible there was somepony trying to kill me at this very second. Thankfully running through the crowd of the city made it hard for anyone to shoot at me. So seeing a mare covered in armor and guns running out of the city with a ton of ammo containers strapped to her back made it pretty clear who was leaving and why. I probably made it to the bridge before anypony realized who it was that just ran out into the blizzard that was beginning. When I reached the bridge it was down so I simply ran across without worrying on straining my magic to make the jump. On the other side I encountered only one thing, Sprite. I nodded to it and Sprite fell in line as we headed to the nearest subway system access point.

The first two access points I tried had collapsed a little ways in and had filled with blood wings. I got to test out my new rifle on them and enjoyed seeing as it shredded the winged beasts. The next access point was not caved in and I began my descent into the underworld of Manehattan.

Upon entering the underworld I found much to my dismay that it housed a small nest of raiders. I turned a corner and had my face in the flank of a raider who was so startled by it I got a chance to grab my assault carbine in my mouth and unloaded half a magazine into her side. Her armor afforded her no protection and she fell. Then the other four raiders noticed my presence as I kicked on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. I kicked into S.A.T.S. and took aim for center of mass with three round bursts. As time began to creep forward again I watched as two started to fire repeaters at me and I felt a round punch through the lightly armored leg of my barding.

The first burst of my gunfire took out the one who was running at me with a pool cue. The next on my list came a few moments too late as they had thrown a grenade at me just as I shot them. He fell and the accuracy spell turned my focus to the remaining two raiders. I pumped two bursts into each and watched them fall. The grenade bounced again at my hooves as time went back into its normal pace. I kicked the thing as hard as I could, it made it most of the way back to where the raiders had been when it exploded. I felt as my shot leg tried to support me as the concussion wave of the grenade washed over me. Luckily the grenade exploded far enough away that the shrapnel mostly bounced off of me. Unfortunately the ringing in my ears was a major problem. I looked at my last healing potion and kept myself from taking it.

I picked over the raider nest looting what I could. I put the two repeaters on my back under my assault carbine. I would use them if I got into a situation where I needed a ranged weapon for sniping somepony. I reloaded the carbine as the ringing in my ears started to fade. I picked over the one who had the grenade and found three more fragmentation grenades. Well now I had a way to deal with knots of ghouls if I came across any of them.

With the ringing faded to a more manageable point I moved forward to the station itself to find that other than desecrated corpses of the raiders victims I found the place to be relatively untouched since the war. I found a station map and started to memorize which tracks and stations to follow to get to Tenpony tower.

I followed the line that would take me straight to Tenpony Tower, or as it was marked on the maps the Ministry of Arcane Sciences Manehattan Hub. It was rather nice to have a simple way to get downtown. I listened to my pipbuck click more and more annoyingly at me, but, watched as my radiation exposure levels didn't increase even with the radioactive environment. At one point the side of the subway just ceased to exist and I stared into the Manehattan Blast Zone. I watched as the snow slowly fell into the still slightly glowing crater of the balefire bomb.

The clicking of my pipbuck lost on me as I saw the true devastation that a megaspell balefire bomb could do. I saw the burnt husks of the skyscrapers twisted and warped from the extreme heat of the blast. The ground itself was smoothed from the extreme heat. I looked out and saw shambling forms glowing green as well within the crater. Then I started to taste copper in my mouth and knew my time for gawking was over. I pushed myself to walk further down the subway tunnel. I drank a Radaway to purge the radiation that had built up. Thankfully the first mile of walking was easy other than the constant radiation and avoiding skeletons of, thankfully, long dead ponies.

I came across the next station and froze. My Eyes Forward Sparkle was filled with red bars milling about. This was when I first encountered the main reason ponies stayed out of the subway system in Manehattan. Large groups of feral ghouls were a terrifying thing. I had seen some badly burned ponies before, and some ghouls as well. But, I had never seen feral, mindless, zombie ponies. Which is what I saw here. The station had twisted skeletons of radiation victims as well as the walking corpses of others. Their eyes glinted in my night vision as I pulled out the shotgun and assault rifle. I disliked the idea of getting into a firefight with with them. I knew there was no way I could get across the station without drawing them all to me. I pulled out my twin five point five six pistols and readied for a firefight.

Then a sound of a crash came from a different part of the station and I watched as every ghoul stretched it's jaw further than should have been physically possible and screamed before running off. I quickly began my passing across the station as they moved to the other side of the station. I heard more above me on the platform as I crept along the tracks with one side pressed against the wall. I saw a few ponies around the place glowing as well. As I crossed I noticed that the ghouls had started to return down to the platform for the train itself. I watched as red bars started to close in on where I was crawling through. I even saw one of the glowing ones come near the side the green light it was emitting blinding my monocular to the point I had to close my left eye and use my dark adjusted right eye to see my way in the radioactive light. I heard my pipbuck quietly clicking as well as my exposure levels started to slowly creep up again. What would have been a two minute walk had now stretched to a ten minute crawl.

I pulled out a grenade with a hoof, not even wanting to temp using my magic and giving myself away. I pulled the pin with other hoof and tossed it as far as I could away from me. My toss was pitiful as the grenade exploded a few seconds later only about fifteen or so feet away. It was enough that several red bars winked out and caused a howl from the other ghouls as they ran to the site of the explosion. I broke out running to the remaining distance to find it blocked by a caved in tunnel with the front of a train sticking out of it. The train itself was unfortunately too crushed for me to manage to crawl through it and the diversion of a grenade was beginning to wear off. I as quietly as I could ran to the nearest set of stairs and began going up them.

Upon getting to the top of the stairs I was blinded by a light. As I turned off the night vision I saw a figure glowing bright green to the point my eyes hurt. I also heard my pipbuck start to click maddeningly as the figure approached me. As it did I noticed the dark areas of it weren't patches of something trying to cover up it's glow but was in fact its bones blocking the glow coming from within it. I then saw its eyes, glowing with a faint green fire. Checked my E.F.S. to see that it was most definitely hostile. It began to open its mouth. I opened up with my own demon scream. I yelled as I magically pulled out all four of my guns as I fired into the massive irradiated pony. Every shot hitting it causing a burst of glowing green fluid and green flame as well as my pipbuck to click faster.

“To Tartarus with you!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I smashed it with my telekinesis and watched as its leg came clean off.

I hit S.A.T.S. and set all of my weapons to fire into its face as I slashed at it with what my pipbuck now named 'Telekinetic Slicer'. The sheer volume of firepower as well as my magic tore the thing apart, a blast of radiation erupting from as it made a death howl. The blast making me feel sick to my stomach as it washed over me and my pipbuck screamed at the radiation levels. I turned to see the ghouls who had been distracted before were now coming for me. I quickly reloaded and started to back up the way that the glowing ghoul had been blocking. As the feral ghouls clambered up to me I fired alternating from weapon to weapon. For the most part the shotgun seemed to do best on them. The pellets shredded their weakened flesh and broke their sick bones. When I had to reload it I switched to firing the assault carbine into them. It was more effective at destroying their heads. As for the pistols I used them with S.A.T.S. only and focused on head shots. They ran out of bodies to throw at me before I ran out of bullets. Though according to my E.F.S. throwing enough bodies to make me run out of ammo was a frighteningly real prospect. Even though I had more than enough bullets to kill everypony I had seen since I was born, they had used up a serious amount of my ammo to take down.

I picked over the corpses and found only a few things of interest. One of them being a lifetime subway pass for Manehattan, the rest being a few bullets and caps. I collected my brass and moved on, not wanting to think about if my shoot out had attracted something a bit tougher than the zombie ponies. Then I felt something bite into my neck from behind me. I let out a scream as I bucked wildly catching the ghoul that had bite me in the chest. I felt my hooves go inside of it as its mouth let go of me. I turned to see it laying on the ground its injuries healing thanks to the ambient radiation.

“Of course you won't just die when you should!” I screamed in frustration as I ran up to it and brought both hooves down on its head getting a splash of blood and brain on myself.

I scowled as I wrapped some of my bandages around my neck. Maybe I should had kept my scarf on just so the ghouls couldn't easily bite my neck I thought to myself then decided against it as I was already warm enough.

A few more ghouls wandered in from the direction to the next level of this station and I picked them off with my pistol. I mentally bucked myself in the face for having so recklessly using my magic while recovering from that zebra alchemy. Thankfully it seemed I hadn't burned up enough of my own magic to cause issues. I crossed to the other side to find that it was in a bit worse condition than it was in the other part that I had come from. I walked down the collapsed walkway and down the tunnel that led to another station that would connect me back to the tunnels I needed to get to Tenpony.

This tunnel had a few ghouls wandering about, I quietly took the first two out with my knife. The third one spotted me with its amber glowing eyes. It rushed me and I shifted my weight to my hind legs and braced for it to hit me. As it did I punched my forelegs into it and lifted it over me. I had meant to toss it but my hooves were caught in side of it and I ended up bent painfully over as its head smashed into the rail of the subway and shattered. A moment later I fell on my back and head as its body went limp and didn't support me anymore. I rolled back to my hooves just in time to see another ghoul charging at me I hit S.A.T.S. and threw some kicks at its head. Ghouls unless badly irradiated were easy to deal with. That or in large numbers. Here it was just a few sparse unarmored unintelligent ones rushing me.

After a while of more walking I had ended up stuck between another group of zombies and a flooded section of subway. What was worse was the water itself was probably just above freezing and I had no idea when it opened up for air or a place to crawl out of it. As I was weighing my choices I saw more zombies show up filling the tunnel shoulder to shoulder with zombies. They had yet to move against me only due to they couldn't see or hear me yet. I took a step back into the water and winced as the cold water began to sap my heat away.

“Ah buck it, I’m screwed either way...” I said to myself quietly and holstered all of my weapons. As I did I saw another glowing one show up on the scene.

It began to stretch out its jaw. With that any semblance of taking my time was out the window and I dove into the bone chilling water and began to swim. I had turned on my flashlight which had been sorely neglected since I had gotten my monocular. The monocular I had stowed in one of my watertight ammo containers to protect its sensitive electronics. As for Sprite, well it appeared he had found another path and was waiting for me somewhere. I then saw a bright green light silhouette me on the floor of the flooded tunnel as I heard a muffled hissing. I felt the water move and heat with that as well, I started swimming with all my might.

I surfaced and climbed my way onto the other side of the flooded section of the tunnel. From what I had seen when the bombs fell that part of the subway had collapsed into a water mane that then flooded it. On the other side I found it quiet and empty. Just how I wanted it. I rummaged through a maintenance room and filled a trash bin with everything flammable I could find then set it alight with my lighter as I stripped out of my barding. I lay low next to the flaming bucket as I used what was probably a grease rag to dry off. I had closed the door sealing myself in this room though I had the burning bucket sitting under the air vent. I had checked it after starting the fire and thankfully found it was still open thus allowing the fumes to escape. As I warmed up and slowly dried off I turned my attention to the room again. There was a workbench here and a lot of supplies. I smiled as I broke out my supplies and began to design. While I didn't have the elegance of Rarity in the art of making dresses I did find I had a knack for at least making armor out of whatever I found.

I spent the next hour stoking the fire and working on making a spine guard out of the crab carapace as well as plate inserts for my trooper armor. When it was said and done I looked at my barding. I had managed to give protection to every part of my legs that wasn't a joint and it didn't cost me much in mobility. While it wasn't as light as my leather armor it gave a great deal more protection. I also had to admit I enjoyed the white and blue motif that I had apparently gotten going with my equipment. For a minute I thought about harvesting more crab shells and making a suit of armor completely out of crab carapace and re-dubbing myself the Lord of Crabs! Or well Lordess? Whatever the female equivalent of lord was. It was an amusing thought that warmed me the last bit I needed for my trip back into the subway. I tossed the flaming bucket into the cold water as I left and heard the water hiss in response.

I continued moving away from the submerged section of tunnel to only find myself trapped between two parts of collapsed tunnel with just one other path another maintenance closet. I didn't feel like another swim yet so I turned to the maintenance closet and opened it. I wasn't expecting what I saw. Where the back wall should be there was a hole shattered through it out into the closet itself. Looking through I saw the glint of a metal wall. I took a few steps forward and saw the massive gear shaped stable door laying on the ground inside of it with limbs of skeletons under it. I stopped in my tracks. I found a stable, and it was dead. No light came from within as well as no sound, the entrance of it was littered with skeletons.

I took a deep breath and felt the world tilt a bit as I staggered to keep upright. I took a few more deep breaths as the world stopped feeling like it was tilting around. I started my way down the cave to the door seeing more bones reflect the light. My mind wandered back to the explanation of stables I had gotten before. They were meant to be massive fallout shelters that would last one hundred and twenty years protecting roughly three hundred ponies from the horrors of the apocalypse. They had been so over engineered that not even a near hit from a megaspell balefire bomb would destroy one. This one had failed and by the looks of it nopony was alive and all had been dead for a very long while.

I walked in on top of the stable door, no place else was clear of skeletons. Something had happened here, something very wrong. I leapt over the remaining skeletons onto the stairs that lead to the door further in which was closed. The whole place looked completely fine other than the heavy amounts of dust. No rust damage, no signs of violence. The only blood I had found was that around the stable door.

There was no reason to why so many were still here, the door was open why had nopony managed to escape? I pushed the door open after as I found there to be no power and the hydraulic release failed. I continued down the pitch black stable hallway towards the Atrium. No bodies after the first room, but, there was no hum of electricity in the walls. The dust was like a miniature snow storm in here as I forced open the Atrium door with my hooves. The air tasted stale and the vents around the floor had no air blowing from them. This place had shut down suddenly so I figured that was the cause for the rush to manually open up the place. I continued to creep around keeping a vigilant eye on my E.F.S. just in case something was in here with me.

The Atrium was full of skeletons as well, many of them huddled in small groups.

“What happened here,” I said quietly to the dead stable. “Why did you fail?”

Silence was the answer it gave me. I pulled out the lever action shotgun and held it in my teeth as I saw a sign for medical. I followed it prying every door open as I did. Thankfully whoever had engineered the doors did so with the thought of if power failed that they could open. Still though it was a bit of a work out pushing against the hydraulics that held the doors in place. Finally I entered a cleared hall as I walked the rest of the way to medical. Upon entering it I found an abundance of supplies.

“Do your best to not look a gift monkey in the mouth, Moonlight.” I said to myself around the mouth grip of the shotgun. With that I began opening ever container I could find, a few cabinets were locked, but, they stood no chance against my lock picking abilities. I was rewarded with far less supplies than I had expected. Most of the healing potions and bandages had lost their magical properties. Even a few of the healing potions contents had melted through the glass that held them. I backed away from one cabinet that's healing potions contents moved with almost a sentient malice.

“What in the Goddesses names happened here...” I said as I took the bandages and the milky purple colored healing potions.

Then turned to see the door to medical had closed silently while I had been in here. I froze slowly looking for any disruption in the constant shower of dust. There were none.

“This place has a serious case of creepiness...” I muttered to myself as I redrew my shotgun and pried the door open again and crawled through it into the hall.

I looked at the corner of the hall to see what way lead where and decided to go to security next. Maybe there would be a report to what happened there. Though I doubted it seeing as all the terminals in medical had been dead. This time I was met with a locked door. I blinked a few times trying to find where I could pick the lock. After a minute I gave up and headed towards the residential block. Hopefully there somepony had written on paper what had happened. As I continued to walk my mind started to play tricks on me with hearing hoof steps coming from corridors behind me or above. I finally got to the residential block and heard what sounded like laughter from down the stairs leading to it. I stood at the top of the stairs looking down.

“This place... why is it getting to me, it is just a dead stable...” I moved forward and checked the two side passages that led off to what was labeled as colts and fillies.

I guessed it was for restrooms. I pushed further forward to find a security station with deactivated turrets pointing at the floor from the ceiling. “Why did they need turrets? More, why are they deployed here?” I asked to the dead stable and once more got a response of silence. I heard laughter again, this time a bit louder, but, it wasn't coming from any direction. I shuddered as it sounded like it was right next to me. I turned and went down the hall on my left and followed it. Many times it split off into smaller halls that had suites for families. I picked over every room most had skeletons still in their barding with pipbucks around the remains of their fore legs.

I checked the desks to find more dead terminals and no papers. I did find some caps from time to time even a fresh sparkle cola rad. I drank it down ignoring my pipbuck's clicking as I did. The drink picked me up a bit putting a bit more energy into me. I heard a sniffle from behind me and wheeled around to find once again nothing except empty air. I backed out of the room into the hall forcing the door closed as I did. This was not my mind, this could not just be all in my head. Could it be the souls of those who had apparently died so quickly and so suddenly?

“Celestia, please let this just be in my head and not be souls of those who died here.” I said as a silent prayer to one of our departed Princesses.

Once more the world just gave me silence as an answer.

I walked to the next wing of the residential block. This one had a few floors and took me longer to pick through. I was finding more food and drink, but, still no written log of what happened here. Apparently everypony preferred keeping their journals on the terminals which was of no use to me. After clearing out the last of the four residential wings I was back at the central hub for them. Nothing had moved and the laughter had thankfully stopped. I felt the hair on my mane start to stand up as I heard hoof steps slowly and deliberately walking up behind me. I slowly turned my head to see nothing. Just hearing the hoofsteps grow closer. I fired the shotgun over and over coating the whole corridor with pellets. Every single one missed whatever was there. The steps walked passed me and faded away into nothingness.

I dropped my shotgun and panted as my heart hammered in my chest.

“What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On. Here.” I demanded to the dead stable, my voice wavering as I finished.

Again my answer was further silence. I stood there in the hub of residential shaking while laying on my side on the floor. I held my eyes closed and tried to keep myself from listening for anything else. I eventually collapsed and curled up as my panic overtook me.

I uncurled myself and looked around, I was certain there would be a stable full of ponies staring at me when I did. Again my only answer was the darkness that was the only other inhabitant of the stable beyond myself.

“I need to turn power on in this place, I need to know what happened here.” I said to myself in a shaky voice, “it is the only way this place won't haunt me for the rest of my days...”

I pushed myself back up picking up my shotgun and reloaded it as I walked to the two paths I had not checked yet. I started with the fillies side first. I tried to open the door to find that instead it was rusted shut. I pulled open the side panel to see if I could some how make the hydraulics of the door system work with me on opening it to find that they were dry. I looked at the door and gave a sigh, short of high explosives I wasn't getting through it. I turned and thought I saw something move down the way to the rest of the stable, but, the dust didn't change direction. I felt a familiar chill run through me.

I crept out and crossed over and went to the colts side of things and tried the door here. This time I could open it a bit. I barely squeezed through it, thankful for my smaller frame letting me do so. Upon entering I immediately regretted it as I put my hooves down on the other side I slipped on something smooth and fell through the rest of the way landing in a clatter. I turned to see the door slowly close itself as I looked for what I slipped on.

I had put my hoof down on a completely clean pony skull... I turned and felt things poking into my sides and saw I was laying in the chest of a pony's crushed skeleton. I scrambled trying to get away from them to see more were in here the door on this side caked in blood with broken hooves laying at its base. They had tried to claw their way out. I saw around each skeleton blood stains. I rushed to a nearby stall and wretched.

Walking back out I shuddered feeling weak from the emotional strain the stable had inflicted upon me so far. The skeletons thankfully stayed where they were and I moved back to the door and grabbed it in my magic and yanked it as far open as I could leaping through once I could. The use of magic didn't seem to leave me feeling as drained as it had earlier in the tunnels which meant that damn zebra poison had just about run its course.

I sighed at the thought knowing that my magical reserves were coming back. At least something good was coming out of this horrible trip. I walked back to the Atrium and noticed something I had missed before. Every single spot that a skeleton laid in or had a pool of blood under it some had a line of blood leading up to them.

“What in the name of Celestia and Luna could do that to a pony...” I asked, knowing my question would go unanswered.

I shook my head as I began to hear the phantom noises again, this time of playing and chatter filling the Atrium.

“Moonlight, it is just your mind messing with you. This place is as dead as can be. There isn't even mold growing here.” I said and turned looking at the Stable cafeteria.

If nothing was growing or even alive here that would mean every bit of preserved food would be safe to eat. My stomach growled in response to the thought. I followed my stomachs demand and began to walk to the cafeteria. As I did I saw a miniature version of the stables door above it complete with the number twenty three painted in yellow. There were only a few skeletons in here, just the same as the others. Completely bare beyond their clothing with a pool of blood on the floor below them.

I found my way back into the food stores. Everything that had been fresh foods two hundred years ago was no nothing more than dust. I picked my way through the rest of the food stores and found a lot of cram, sugar apple bombs, and every other preservative laden prewar food I could imagine. I grabbed a bit of everything sticking to canned fruits and vegetables over the cram and other more bland food. Before I left I popped open a can of preserved fruits and vegetables to find it was anything, but, edible. I pulled out each can doing the same to find all of them were the same way. I grimaced at the sludge in them and left those cans to... well not rot there was nothing left in them other than dust and water. I checked the snack cakes to find they were just fine and ate one. It tasted just fine and I had a few more before putting it away. It seemed any soft organic tissue in this stable had under some effect just fell apart in seconds after whatever happened to this stable started.

I made my way to maintenance prying doors open with my magic. Apparently having gotten over the poison my magic had gotten slightly stronger. That or the doors required less force than I had thought. As I got closer I noticed the air getting more humid. The last door I opened unleashed a wall of water as the other side of it was flooded. The water itself was reasonably warm as it washed around my legs and from the lack of clicking from my pipbuck it was safe. I waited as the water leveled out enjoying the warm water lapping at my hooves.

I gave a soft sigh as the water leveled out and I felt my hooves warm up a bit. I climbed through the door and began wading through the water. To my dismay I noticed the ceiling began to slope down into the water.

I moved back out to the Atrium and pulled off everything I deemed unessential to me. At the end of it I had the main plate of body armor from my barding on my chest, This Gun, my combat knife, and every tool I figured might be of use. I returned to the hall leading to maintenance and pulled my goggles over my eyes and pushed down into the water.

There was no current to the water, though I had wished there was so the skeletons and the murky water around them did not interrupt my flashlights beam. I kept swimming downward until I hit a landing which mercifully had a small pocket of air in it. The pocket of air was just deep enough to get my nostrils out of the water. I tread water while getting my lungs refreshed with what passed for fresh air down here. I was not looking forward to the next step of my trip. I was only half way down to maintenance and the rest of the way down was through the inky darkness of bloody water. I took as deep of a breath as I could and dove down and began to swim again.

Twice I had to return to the landing for breath as dark water made it impossible to see. As I tread water waiting for my lungs to stop burning from the lack of air I noticed the black had stuck to me. It wasn't just water down here, but, from the looks of it oil too. I took a breath and returned up to the main floor to plan my trip into maintenance. As I did I felt as if something called out to me through the water. A call distorted beyond just what water would do. I gasped as something cold grabbed my left hind leg. I kicked at it and swam as fast as I could my lungs burning from the lack of air in them. I clamored through the door from maintenance and lay on the wet floor breathing hard as my heart pounded.

I rolled over and looked down at where the door was to maintenance and closed it with my magic. Whatever was down there I didn't want it getting out. I lay on my back and lifted my pipbuck checking the automap to see what I had been able to map out of the lower floor. From what I could see I had actually made it into maintenance, but, the oil or whatever it was had been too thick for me to see. I then lifted my flashlight above myself to see if I had whatever it was on me to find that I was coated horn to hoof in the stuff. I gently began to push it off with my magic slinging it to the side of the hallway. My coat was now stained a almost black. Even my mane was practically black. I lifted up a bit of the stuff and examined it in the light of my flashlight. It was engine grease, I recognized the smell and color now that I had a proper chance to observe it. I began to mull over how to navigate the stuff and realized the only actual option was to get rid of it.

I trotted back to my equipment in the atrium and pulled out a grenade. While it wouldn't do much in terms of damaging the stable it should be enough to at least make a brief pocket in the grease I figured. I looked around at hearing something fall to only see a brief bit of motion of a bone held by the sleeve of one of the stable suits slowly move back and forth. I backed out of the Atrium and returned to the hallway to maintenance.

Returning I found everything the way it should be, dark, quiet, damp, and eerie as heck. I opened the door once more and began my descent. I noticed in my stop half way down for a breath of air that there wasn't much useable air left in said pocket of air. This would have to either free up some air or I was going to have to leave without my answers. With one last inhale I dove down into the darkness. The cone of my flashlight became shorter and shorter as I approached the dark mass that I assumed to be grease. I pushed into it and quickly knew why I had gotten lost, it was hard to move through. I parted the way with my magic and sent the grenade as far as I could before I choked and let out the last of my air. I pulled the pin and removed the spoon from the grenade and made my way back to the little pocket of air.

I felt a thump go through the water as I continued up. Then I felt a current start to pull me down and I started to swim harder for that little spot of air. As I reached the landing my body betrayed me and took in a mouthful of water into my lungs. I shuddered as the coolness filled me. I grabbed with my hooves the light fixtures on either side of the pocket and pushed my mouth into the little pocket of air. I breathed as best as I could fighting both the current and the exhaustion that started to crest over me. My lungs were still burning though this time there was a pain and uncomfortable feeling within them. I needed more air and to empty my lungs of water. I pushed myself with both my magic and my legs up the stairs. Each foot which would have been easy before now was agonizing. My magic was counteracting the current pulling against me while my swimming slowly pulled me up.

In absolute darkness I came to resting on the stairs my face lower than the rest of my body at the platform I had used as a halfway point for my descent. My whole body ached, my neck twisted into a painful position and my throat burning. I coughed and started to move which prompted gravity to toss my sorry hind the rest of the way onto the platform with a wet thud. I shook in the cold that had found me while I was unconscious. I remembered my flashlight and shook it to recharge its power then powered it back on. The water had receded a fair bit and now this platform was mostly dry. I figured I had gotten my grenade somewhere that had managed to open up some sort of drainage system. Or maybe it blew open a door that was to a large room that had air in it. One way or another I was alive and had hopefully more access to the stables maintenance level. I cleaned myself off again and stood.

Looking down the stairwell I saw that the water had effectively washed most of the grease away as it rushed past. Unfortunately the current had also tossed around the contents of the room something fierce and the terminal that I saw in here was beyond salvage. I began picking my way through the large room until I caught sight of the door buttons on the right wall. I blinked as I realized that while the floor had been cleared of grease the walls had not been. I pulled the the grease off with my magic then pried open the door. I was surprised to find the other side completely dry. I blinked and began to look around the room again to see where exactly all the water had gone. I almost walked into the hole that had served as drainage. The grease had pooled over it and made the hole look as if it was just another random spot of grease on the floor. I backed away from it not wanting to find out how deep it was and turned to the opened doorway. I saw two signs, first was storage, the other was pipbuck technician. I didn't really have use for the pipbuck technician so I headed for storage hoping for maybe soap and a vault suit to help warm me back up.

As I got to the door for storage I started to cough painfully as my lungs fought to clear out anything that was not air in them. I forced myself not to vomit as I tasted something horribly foul come from my mouth and looked down to see it a bit of grease. Though I noted the heaviness in my lungs still remained.

“I really hope they have a good doctor at Tenpony...” I muttered to myself.

I opened the door to storage as I tried to put out of my mind the lingering taste of grease in my mouth, as well as the thought of more of the stuff sitting in my lungs. What I saw was what I needed to see, there was plenty of spare stable suits. I found the warmest looking one which happened to be for security. I figured the extra padding would help warm me up. I found some soap and spare saddlebags and loaded up on what supplies were down here.

After my looting of the storage room I went to the pipbuck technician's room and found it open. That bugged me a lot. Every other door in the stable was closed except for this one. I shook my flashlight again before entering. Upon entering I found it vacant. No skeletons greeted me. I saw a book sitting open on the desk and moved myself to the chair and began to read it.

Entry #1: Today we got the call to report to our stables. Supposedly it is just a drill. However, I get the feeling this is the real deal. Everypony was given their assignments, equipped with their pipbucks and stable barding. When I was talking to some of the others they thought that maybe it was just going to be a stress test over a few days to make certain it could handle the population. But, the way I was seeing Security and the Overmare acting I feel we are here for the long haul. I don't know when the end will come to the surface, but, we are now waiting for the storm to come. May Celestia and Luna watch over and protect those above us.

I kept reading, knowing this pony at very least would give me a clue as to what happened.

Entry #2: Today we felt it, throughout the whole stable we felt small shakes like little earthquakes. Without a word we knew what had happened. The Overmare has setup a wake for those we now know are lost to us. I didn't go, I had made my peace with those who were soon to be gone yesterday. What scares me most is that somehow Stable-Tec knew the end was about to happen. Their knowledge saved all of our lives, but, if they knew when the end was coming, why didn't anypony try to stop it? Either way they are all dead now and by the time the door opens so will I. The stable is to remain closed for one hundred twenty years unless something goes critically wrong. All of this thinking is giving me a headache.

Entry #3: Today I woke up with a horrible migraine that landed me in medical when my screams of pain and lack of response to painkillers frightened the others. Apparently the sudden influx of staring at terminal screens is playing hell with my eyes. As per doctors orders I am to take a break from working on any terminal or pipbuck for a week. Thankfully we have another pony here who knows tech about as well as I do to fill in for me while I rest. In the mean time I am reading, one of the few things I am allowed to do or have. I don't know what good it is doing me though as by the end of the day my eyes are far more strained and I feel like my vision is going with how much darker everything seems to be.

Entry #4: It isn't just me, everypony who deals with terminals or books is having the same issue as me. Frequent headaches from eyestrain, migraines, and almost every unicorn in the stable is reporting that their magic is some how lessened. We are only a month into our stay in the stable and things are looking bad. While in theory we can just do everything the earth pony way it will make our jobs in maintenance far harder.

Entry #5: Every light in the stable just failed. We now only have the light of terminals, our pipbucks, some flashlights, and a few lanterns. We moved the flashlights to maintenance and have them focused on critical systems. The lanterns are being kept in residential as well as in the cafeteria kitchen. At night I can hear screams, the doctor thinks it is psychological trauma combined with the perpetual darkness our stable is now bathed in.

Entry #6: I heard others talking about the screams too. Most of them where unicorns. I talked to my marefriend, Lucky Tome, who has been helping deal with my work since I am still under doctors orders to strain my eyes as little as possible. Both of us have been having issues sleeping, and not for the usual reason why a stallion and mare sharing a bed do. We both hear the screams, we have been doing our best to play music over it at night, but, the music does little to mask it. We even tried to record it to only find there is nothing. The scream seems to be in our heads.

Entry #7: A group of ponies is requesting that we leave the vault now. It has been six months since the door sealed and the Overmare has the ability to open it when she wants to. She is working on organizing a scouting party so we can find a place habitable outside if it is even habitable still. As for us in maintenance we looked into what had happened to all the lights. The simultaneous failure of every light we found to have been a power spike within the system. Now the excess power that would have gone to the lights is being feed into pest control.

Entry #8: We decided to see what was going on with pest control. I do not envy those involved in the attempt. Upon opening the box that housed the ring that claimed to be for pest control they died bleeding from their eyes and noses. We had tried to cut power to the pest control systems to only be greeted with a series of errors. We reported this to the Overmare who ordered us to do whatever we had to to shut down pest control. She is organizing every able bodied pony to pull the stable door open after we shut the stable down. She doesn't want to risk the power spike of opening the door causing further damage to the stable population.

Entry #9: We tried to shut down the reactor, we couldn't we instead decided to turn the water talisman to flooding the reactor level to engage the automatic shutdown procedures. That or it would cause the whole thing too short and blow out. Right now the water is beginning to rise in the reactor room. I am going up to get my things before we head to the stable door and open it up.

Entry #10: I came back to grab a few last things from here and am writing this with just my magic. The screams are getting worse and more terrifying I am starting to see things in the corner of my vision. I have what I need, to anypony who explores this stable whatever you do don't let the reactor turn on again.

I closed the journal and put it in my saddlebags, my pipbuck reading “Journal of Marble Light Acquired”. I sat back in the chair and brushed off the notice in my Eyes Forward Sparkle about the book. Well apparently there had been a surge just before the reactor shut down, one powerful enough to kill everypony here. Judging by the state of the door to the stable I guessed the power had shut down and they began to manually remove the door to begin scouting then the surge came as they did so and in their panic they pulled the door onto themselves. Judging from the state of the other corpses in the stable it had been a horrific death.

I went through the rest of the room and found various books on electronics and various journals on arcane science and magic in general. It was quite the collection and I set it into my saddlebags enjoying the thought of having my own private library. Provided I managed to get back to Dune City I was going to have a nice little collection. As it was for now I needed to get moving again, I had my answer to what had been the doom of this stable. I proceeded back to where the rest of my had been dumped in the atrium and lay my two new saddlebags with the numbers twenty three brightly emblazoned on them by the rest of my stuff. I decided that it would be a good idea as well to check that nothing in the mean time had wandered into the stable and went back to the entrance. Everything was still as it was when I entered. I went back to the atrium and grabbed my stuff and moved it to the entrance. I wanted to take a look at security and the Overmare's office.

As I got to the locked door of the Overmare's Office and Security I noticed something I didn't like. It was open. I walked closer and heard hoof steps once again. I drew my shotgun once more and secured the stable security helmet on my head. Something was in here and it had opened this door. I quietly followed the sound of hoof steps. As I did I heard the sound of the door behind me close and lock. I quietly berated myself for not having put anything in place to keep it from closing again.

As I followed the phantom hoof steps I heard the hiss of a door open, I saw it this time. Some figure moved through the door into security and then the door closed behind them. I was surprised by two things with what I saw. The first was that my light from my flashlight hadn't tipped them off to my following which meant they wanted me to follow. The second thing was they had been translucent, which meant either a failing cloak spell or a hallucination.

My E.F.S. still showed clear as I approached the door to security. I was just about to hit the manual open button when it opened on it's own. I let out a cry of surprise mixed with fear as I fell onto my back. As I lay there the door closed again. I rolled over and moved to the door again and watched in frustration as it opened on its own again. As I entered I noticed this part of the stable was clear of bodies or even dust. It was as if nopony had ever decided to occupy this part of it. I heard the hoof steps again this time coming from the armory portion of security. I crept to it to only find a room stripped of every gun, bullet, and bit of armor. Of course it would be empty, all of security was probably pulling the door open and was ready for whatever might have been on the other side. Which meant any guns or ammo out of here where crushed flat by the heavy door. As I looked in with my flashlight illuminating it I heard the faint sound of a scream. I shook my head trying to make it go away when it lasted far longer than anyponys lungs should have allowed it to last.

A slow realization came to me as I felt my fear begin to build. This was the scream Marble had heard. The reactor was on and slowly powering up the stable. I backed out of security and headed to the Overmare's office. I had time, it had taken six months for it to have built to critical charge and kill everypony. To liquify everypony. I was going to force the reactor to permanently shut down before I left. As I walked to the Overmare's office its door opened. I looked to see if anypony was there all I saw was a floating mote of light and distorted air around it. I moved to the side of the hall and saw it move down towards security the mote flickering in and out of existence. What unnerved me more was the lack of actual light it gave off and the hoof steps that followed with it.

Moving into the office I found it in neat order. A few pictures hung from places on the wall. I moved to the terminal and found it was on. I typed away at its keyboard hacking into it. Once I found the password I was greeted with more entries this time by the Overmare as well as messages from Stable-Tec outlining how to run the stable. As well as I saw attempted messages to various Stable-Tec warehouses and offices for help with her failing stable. I downloaded all the files onto my pipbuck, I could read them later after I got out of this tomb. As I was making one last check of the Overmare's room I saw it, a statuette just like my Fluttershy one, this one was of purple filly with pink and violet stripes in her lavender hair  I lifted it in my magic and felt a surge push back through my own magic. The sensation was that of what I had experienced while on Mint-al's while I was walking to the coast. Some how though this felt clean though, as if it promised that it would never give me the nasty crash that a Mint-al did. I turned the statuette over in my magic to see on the base two words “Be Smart”. My mind quickly alerted me to the fact that I was holding the statuette of Twilight Sparkle, a good friend of Fluttershy and one of the wielders of the elements of harmony.

Breaking me out of my peaceful state of mind I felt the scream grow louder and a slight pressure build against my horn. Whatever was used for pest control did indeed weaken unicorns and assault them on a fundamental level that terrified me. The scream was attacking me at my core, it was attacking my magic. I started out the door of the Overmare's office to be greeted with a floating mote of light. I reared back as it passed into my horn.

ooooooOOOOOOOOoooooo

The scream of the pest control devices pulled at my thoughts and the darkness. They were running late, we were supposed to have the reactor offline by now and the door open. I cursed under my breath as I walked into security double checking that we had it cleaned out proper. After a few minutes of inspection I turned and walked back out.

ooooooOOOOOOOOoooooo

I shook my head vigorously and started down to the stable door. So, those motes of light were what was behind the sights and sounds here. As well as if I have one touch my horn it’s like a miniature memory orb. I dodged a few more motes of light that where in my way within the sea of them that filled the Atrium. But, they are more than just memory orbs, they are also including thoughts. I made my way up the stairs into the door room. So where those motes of light fragments of souls which had a physical imprint on this world? I grabbed my two remaining grenades and ducked under another mote of light as I dived down the stairs and began galloping to maintenance. No matter what they were they seemed to move without intent, like looped images from right before the end of the stable.

I rounded the turn to maintenance and slowed as I went down the stairs. No need to rush here where I would likely slip and break my neck. Rather not add to the dead that were here. As I slide to a stop in the hub for maintenance I realized I had not a clue as to which way would take me to the reactor. I felt the screaming in my head intensify by a full octave. I began to wipe down the walls so I could find the door. Of course it was the last one that I pulled the grease off of. I tried the door to find it jammed. I grabbed a chair and forced its leg into the crack of the door and pushed with all my might and magic. The leg of the chair broke and I cried out in frustration as I slammed my hooves against the door.

“Just open for me you fucking piece of junk!” I screamed at it and dug my hooves between the parts of the door again and began to pull.

'You already tried leverage and force, try something else' came a voice in my head.

“What else is there?!” I cried out as I reared back and kicked the door.

'Look around, be smart' said the voice.

I stopped and looked around, then my eyes caught on the hole in the floor. Of course. I pulled up my automap and cycled it through the levels and saw that this hole should give me a nice shot right next to the reactor room. I focused my magic around me, with how thick the grease was I would need my magic to push through it at any reasonable pace. With my aura around me glowing to the point that it gave a faint blue hue to the room I stepped into the hole and felt myself begin to sink. I took a deep breath and then began to swim pushing myself with the telekinetic field around myself deeper into the thick goo.

I felt my hooves touch metal and I leveled myself out bringing my pipbuck up, the reactor room should be right in front of me. I walked forward pushing aside the goo and found the reactor door. Instead of a two part door this was more like the doors in Saint clover. Two bars connected to a central wheel. Though this time it was from side to side instead of up and down. I gave it a hard twist and was shocked when the door opened and pulled me through. As soon as I was through I closed the door and slide the bars back into place.

I took a deep breath as I let my magic collapse. This room was the buffer between the everlasting spark reactor and the rest of the stable. I smiled at the yellow flashing lights of alarms still going off. I looked around and saw a radiation suit with its own air supply. I pulled off my stable security barding and pulled on the suit. As I closed the last seal I heard a gentle hiss as my ears popped. The suit itself had an air talisman, it made sense why risk contamination by airborne radioactive particles when you could just have your own supply. I heard my pipbuck clicking softly. I barely heard it over the screaming in my head.

I had to do this fast, my magic would probably barely last once I got inside the reactor given that the screams here were worse than on the top floor of the stable. I also didn't want to find out what it was like to bleed from ones eyes. I twisted the wheel holding the door closed and pushed it open. As I did water started to pour into the room. I gritted my teeth and with all my might pushed the water back with my magic and walked into the reactor room. I let go of the door with my magic once I was through and the yellow light from the buffer room vanished. In here the only light I had was from, I blinked, the whole room was glowing a sick green. I saw my radiation count climbing quickly. Within the suit I brought up a tablet of Rad-X and chewed it as I pushed the water around me with my magic. I looked around the reactor going some mental math on how long I could stay in here. I had two minutes tops to figure out how to permanently offline this thing.

As I swam around it I noticed a ring in the ceiling glowing a green with what looked almost like flames around it. I moved away from it as soon as I noticed the screams got worse the closer I got, even just looking at it was making me feel sick. I found the maintenance panel on the reactor and unscrewed the panel with my magic watching the screws and panel quietly and slowly fall to the deck at my hooves. I noticed a that the radiation was now worse, as well as the screaming. I gulped and looked inside seeing a bright light coming out. I studied it for all of twenty seconds before shoving the two grenades I had tapped to the outside of my suit inside. I kept a mental image of their positioning as they came to rest and I forced open the door again letting the water push me in. As the door slide shut I pulled the pins then without hesitation yanked open the door to the goo and began making my way out. The reactor wouldn't immediately fail if I had placed those grenades right which would give me about three minutes to escape. I hoped I would only need two of those. Going up was far easier than down thanks to the air in my suit.

I breached the surface of the goo in the middle of the hole that sat in the hub of maintenance. I Climbed out and began running using my magic to keep me upright. Upon getting to the landing half way up from maintenance the screaming spiked in my head for a moment making me lose balance and slide face first into the wall. I scrambled to my feet and resumed climbing as I tasted blood in my mouth and my vision got a worrying red tint to it. Racing through the Atrium I scraped off the goo that was on my suit in hopes of avoiding another spill like on the landing and noticed the goo seemed to be moving of its own accord. I threw the stuff harder than I thought possible as I made it into the door room.

Upon getting into the door room I grabbed my stuff and flung it through into the maintenance closet that had hid the path to the stable as I began to cross the massive metal door of the stable. I felt it shift under hoof and begin to tilt. It was tilting the wrong way for my escape. I leapt and hit the side of the entrance spinning as I flew the last few feet out of the stable. I landed in a heap and saw the black goo that I had thought to be grease moving the door and now it was coming for me. I forced myself back up and tossed on my saddlebags running through the maintenance closet opening the door to the subway.

Upon entering the subway I slammed the door shut and headed to my left which was the way that should lead me towards the tunnels I needed for getting to Tenpony. Remembering the original reason I had come down here I felt it had been a long time since I had set out. I dove into the chilling water, thanking the radiation suit for being water tight as I swam. As I broke the surface on the other side of the flooded tunnel I heard what could only be described as a roar that would make even a dragon give pause. I saw bits of debris fall from the ceiling as I swam to shore. The reactor had exploded and hopefully taken that entire stable with it. Whatever had been in there I hoped was dead, and that the souls of those who had died there were now free to go to the ever after.

I got three steps out of the water before I tore the helmet off of the suit and coughed violently. In the light from the lamp of my pipbuck I saw more of goo come out of me as well as blood. I kept coughing more and more of it up until I mercifully felt the darkness creep in around me once more.

When I awoke I saw the goo laying still near me I pulled out a bit of flamer fuel that I had and used it to burn it away. I had never really questioned where the liquefied remains of the stable inhabitants had gone. Now I knew. Though some mixture of radiation, magic, and probably taint they had been turned into this. Whatever it was that gave that power to the pest control system had controlled it. Without power it couldn't control it, it acted passively. I now knew what had grabbed my leg the first time I climbed out of maintenance. I shuddered as I remembered my coat was presently stained with the remains of both a enemy and the remains of three hundred or more ponies.

I took off the radiation suit and stored it in my main set of saddlebags. I pulled on my much warmer trooper armor. I pushed on to find the tunnel ahead of me collapsed as well after two more miles of walking. This time though I found a labeled entrance. The door was labeled simply with the mark of the Steel Rangers. From what I understood they had hidden away in bunkers all across the equestrian wasteland and rode out the apocalypse then when the time came they left and found places that gave them essentially fortresses in the wasteland to set up shop and begin harassing everypony with something more complex than a bobby pin.

“Well I just blew up a stable full of some sort of sentient goo, cleared a station of ghouls. Why not pillage a hopefully abandoned Ministry of Wartime Technology bunker that once held a band of raiders with power armor.” I said aloud to the quiet subway.

I had hopes that the bunker while abandoned would also have working water or at least a way to secure it so I could get some much needed rest. I walked in keeping an eye for any bars on my E.F.S. As I descended I found none, the place looked well cleaned out and thankfully it seemed to have happened a while ago. I figured they had initially used this as their base of operations until they found someplace else in the ruins of Manehattan that they preferred.

As I moved into the bunker the terms spartan and stripped came to mind. Anything beyond simple mechanical devices had been removed. Where they couldn't be I noticed they had been gutted. Anything that was technology went with them. No matter how small. I also noticed that even when they had occupied the place there seemed to be no indication of personal belongings. Figures that a band of highly trained and heavily armed military types would have little to no personal belongings. As I pressed further I found what I had been hoping for. A command center of sorts. The few bits of technology here were for power and sealing the place.

As I sealed the place up tight for the night I couldn't help but think that if the Steel Rangers did return they probably would have an override of some sort. Hopefully them stomping around in power armor would wake me up. Or maybe they would decide to take me captive instead of shoot me. I didn't really give that last option much weight. It would just be easier to kill me hack off my leg and get the pipbuck that way. I shuddered at the morbid thought as I laid down in the bed that had most likely been for whoever operated the bunker. Seemed fitting as nopony here meant I was technically highest ranking living pony here.

I awoke when I had hoped to. When the sounds of somepony in heavy armor drew close to where I had been sleeping. I rolled off my bed pulling every gun I had waiting for my guest to show themselves. It didn't take long. I got a good view of what Steel Ranger armor looked like. I had seen them on posters throughout the subway system as well as in Saint Clover. But, here before me I saw it, a pony covered in head to hoof in steel-gray armor even their tail. The mighty relic that had served in a war two hundred years ago. This was a Steel Ranger in all of its glory. Not the damaged desert painted one that Aegis had. To be honest it was impressive. I also knew that it was very well armed with its machine grenade launcher and multiple rocket launchers. This pony who stood before me was the definition of overkill. They carried with them enough firepower to reduce me to a fine red mist and had no reservations about bringing it to bear indoors.

“Identify yourself.” Said a low, rumbling and exceptionally masculine voice as the lamp on his helmet flashed to life blinding me.

Disoriented I cantered and fell over my magic imploded and my guns fell to the ground as I began coughing. I definitely was sick. Great get to meet a member of the Steel Rangers and I was looking like some pony dying of radiation sickness.

“Moonlight,” I managed to say between coughing fits. A lot of not fun colored stuff coming up.

“Who are you with,” came the voice again.

I continued coughing for a minute, the Steel Ranger moved his head lamp away from me, but, kept his grenade machine gun trained on me. My eyes began to water as I kept coughing. What I would give for pipbucks to have proper medical diagnostics so I could at least know what I was dealing with. Then I remembered, for the most part it did. Just that being sick with something generally didn't register due to it wasn't serious. Finally my coughing died down and I was able to blink away the tears that remained in my eyes.

“I am with nopony, just trying to stay out of the cold and get to Tenpony. I have friends there who can help me get home.” I said, I waited to gauge how he took this, I didn't want to lay all my cards on the table yet.

“That explains how you were able to find a Steel Ranger Bunker in the vast mess that is Manehattan's subway system.”

There was nothing I could pull out of his voice to tell me what he was thinking.

“Why are you here Mr. Steel Ranger?” I asked him, feeling my body starting to return to normal.

‘I probably should take antibiotics in case this me getting sick.’ I thought to myself.

“Hunting, hiding for now.” Came that same expressionless voice.

“Hunting what, ghouls? Plenty of zombies all around the place. Though I guess with your weapons you can't really let them get too close.” I said and then began coughing again.

“Ghouls are of little concern. I assume you know of the Goddess' Alicorns.” Said the Steel Ranger once more, I simply nodded. “They are a threat to both my order and to all of ponykind, they are what I hunt.”

“So what, you want to become the great alicorn hunter? What good will that do, most of your order seems to just like stealing technology and smashing things.” As I said that I felt the air go cold, I had struck a nerve that I hadn't meant to in my exhausted state. The silence lasted for a few minutes before he spoke up again.

“Even so, they are a great threat and must be eliminated.” He said, I simply nodded again.

“So, what are we going to do. As far as I can tell there is no point in us fighting. So, truce for now until one of us feels like leaving?” I offered pulling out a bottle of water offering it to him and he declined.

“For now.” He said and I climbed back onto my bed and he claimed a corner in the room opposite of me as well as where he would have eyes on anyone entering the office attached to the bedroom.

I went back to sleep, I could have fought it, but, I was sick and when you are sick you need lots of rest and fluids. You also needed somepony watching your back.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk Added: And Stay Back! When you use a shotgun each pellet has a ten percent chance of knocking the enemy back. Maybe you enjoy the fact that enemies have a harder time getting close due to personal space issues or maybe you just like watching them trip over their own severed hooves.

Quest Perk Added: Mighty Telekinesis (Level 1): You triple the weight that you can levitate with your unicorn magic.