Fallout Equestria: The Ranger of Seamane

Chapter Three – Dune City

“Remember rifles generally have three modes of fire, no death, a little bit of death, and a whole lot of death.”

I was surprised at how active Dune City was this early in the morning. Many ponies were milling about, going into buildings, or going to the open air market place. I got a few looks as I was guided to the biggest building in town. Leaders always were in the biggest building, or at least the most well decorated room. The general feel of the town was... cheerful. Which was very much a relief, just being around the positive feelings made me feel better. As we entered the town hall I saw the place was rather clean.

“So, what is the news with that group?” A mare asked without turning to face us, I guessed that was the Mayor.

“Friendly,” my escort stated, “and mostly refugees from that raider camp down the road.” The mayor turned and saw us, I felt a leg wrap around me, “this filly took down the whole place and freed them.”

The mayor looked stunned, I gave a small smile and a wave. She paused to regard me before a small smile found its place on her muzzle.

“Well, we should send a few ponies down there to make certain they all are dead and secure it as a rest stop. Then, send some pony to Saint Clever to let them know the road open again.” The Mayor explained as her face returned to a more neutral state. “As for this heroine, a reward of some sort is in order for reopening the fastest road to Saint Clover.”

I blinked, she was rewarding me for cleaning out the raiders, not for the rescue? That annoyed me a little, more from I refused to believe that I was the only pony in the wasteland who valued helping others.

“I don't really care about a reward for that, anything you would give me give it to the two who are trying to setup a place for the others I helped.” I commented, trying my best to reign in my frustration.

“Well we will give them the old school building, though somepony might want to make certain it is clear of anything.” The mayor grinned and I sighed.

‘Well lets go clear the school building.’ I thought to myself.

“All you need to do is make certain nothing is living there now, tell a guard when it is cleared, and then they can move in. Simple as that.” Mayor continued as she sat down in a chair. “When you are done, there is more work around, if you have an issue finding any, ask a guard, we can always use a extra hoof or two. Now then good day, I need to get a few extra things done now that we have a rest stop to build.”  The look on her face was not of frustration, but, delight. Maybe she liked building things, a lot.

With that I was guided back out to the street. I asked where the school was, the guard pointed it out to me and I marched out towards it. With a quick walk down the street I caught eye of a large square that had many ponies milling about, some at tables with items all over them, others having what looked like a booth or tent. I also heard faint music slipping out of the plaza. I took a guess and figured that was where merchants local and traveling did their business. On the other side of the street I saw a few buildings with benches out front and signs over the top of the door calling them saloons of some sort and one being just plainly called Dune City Tavern. I guessed from the lack of traffic in and out from the doors that what ever rush for meals was now over.

         I continued down the street until finally I stood in front of a old red building that had been pointed out to me as the school house. The building looked like it had been cared for within the last century. I opened the front door and walked in. As the door squeaked closed behind me I noticed that there was only a little light filtering in from the boarded up windows. I frowned and turned on my flashlight now a little more worried at what could be hiding in here. I slowly moved forward into the room, the dust slowly drifted and swirling beside me as I passed through one of the rays of light from windows. I didn't really hear anything as I moved about. Really this place was rather clean already, as if somepony moved out.

What I did notice were posters on the walls. The posters featured a purple unicorn mare with books around her, urging ponies to read and learn. I tilted my head, I had seen a few posters before, but, the Saint Clover did not have many old ministry posters in it. I saw a few others, Ministry of Peace with a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane talking about helping others. The last was one with a frighteningly happy pink earth mare mentioning about some amusement park that was better than the Grand Galloping Gala. I saw as I moved deeper within the building stacks of desks. Then something stabbed me in the leg, and it burned badly. I turned, and screamed, it was a giant scorpion. A giant scorpion that had just stung me. I felt its pincers grab my right foreleg as it dug its stinger around more. I used my magic to grab my knife, my pistol, and the shotgun, I pulled the triggers and stabbed the knife blindly.

The scorpion fell down dead, I pulled its stinger out of my leg. I saw more coming, I started to fire as I could. I couldn't keep count of my shots. I kept the knife close in case I needed to stab one in the eyes. I slumped against a wall as I reloaded, two rounds in the shotgun, new magazine in the pistol. My breathing became shallower as my heart raced and burning pain coursed up my leg. I kept firing, more fell, I lay on the floor and floated out a healing potion and drank it. Stupid venom.

I tried to stand up, that hurt a lot. I panted and started back out. I needed to get to the market and hope nopony decided to charge a fortune for an antidote. I got to the door and magicked it open, Violet was standing there. In a moment I saw a spark of realization in her eyes as she ran. I hated blacking out, blacking out sucked. I fell flat and all went black, the pain faded with the world.

*                *                *

I felt myself again, that was a good start I was awake and alive. I opened my eyes with a lot of effort.

‘I really hoped there was a spell to cure venom, that would be nice and simple. Also it would be nice to know why the town had let a building get infested with giant blue scorpions.’ I heard a growl and felt a bit of pain from my stomach. ‘Ugh, that would be my stomach both upset and demanding food.’

 I looked around, I was inside, there was a ceiling fan spinning. ‘Huh didn't expect electricity out here.’ I saw a bucket, ‘perfect’.

I threw up taking care of my stomach’s first problem. The aftertaste left me dry heaving. I heard somepony walking over and set down another bucket, and I saw the one I had just used moved away with a faint glow of pink around it. I closed my eyes again and it felt like a long time before they opened again. When they did, the light in the room said it was hours later. Something cold was against my side, I looked and saw a brown coated unicorn with a darker brown mane with some thing going from his ears to my side. I took a slightly deeper breath to get his attention. His eyes opened and turned towards my face and I saw a slight smile.

“Well looks like you are making a complete recovery, you lost a fair bit of blood thanks to those radscorpions.” Radscorpions? I guess that was the name of those giant blue bastards. “If it had not been for your friend, I think we would have had a lot harder time saving you. As it was your heart almost stopped.”

I blinked. ‘Damn, I had almost gotten taken out by a few radscorpions. No, I had been taken out by their damn venom.’ I coughed, no blood, but, that taste of bile. ‘Ugh, okay, antivenom was something I was carrying a lot of now.’

“As it is, you friend had enough to cover your treatment and it was from your salvage that they paid it from. She also wanted you to know you did completely clear out the old school house.” He set a bit of food next to me. “You need to eat something and drink, the venom, well you know.” There was a smile of understanding on his face. I nodded and began to eat.

“So, any advice on how to make antivenom?” I said after I gulped down a small bite of the food. It tasted alright, my stomach agreed.

He sat down on the stool and nodded. “Yes, don't get stung is the first part.”

I stared at him, “really?”

“Seriously, you need the poison gland of whatever you are making antivenom for. You simply mix it with a standard healing potion and heat it. Then you got antivenom.” He stated as if it was the simplest thing in the world. To be fair to him, it was pretty simple.

Well that was simple, though frustrating if anything. “Well, okay, how many venomous things are there out here beyond radscorpions?” If there was really anything else with venom this was going to be annoying keeping track of the different types of antivenom.

He chuckled. “Out here anymore just radscorpions, but, there are giant flying insects out there, they are called Cazadors. Best to avoid the hell out of them, the stinger itself will probably punch a hole clean through to your heart.”

I shivered at that. ‘So there existed giant FLYING insects of death oh how fun this shall be.’ “You’re joking, there existed giant flying insects that could punch a hole through a pony.”

“Yep, but, we have cleared them out for the most part. Beware of them, they probably are nesting in places far away from the roads or any place where ponies live. If you see something skittering around with big orange things on them, I hope you have something quiet and long ranged to kill them with. Oh, and a big caliber, Celestia knows why the wasteland decided to give us giant wasps.” He had a scowl on his face, I think he had seen Cazadors before, or at least their aftermath.

“Well joy, and doc? Thanks for patching me up.” I smiled, wow my face still felt numb in places.

“If you got the caps I’ll save your gol-dern life!” The doctor chucked with a smile on his face, humor, laughter, cure for everything. I couldn't help it and I laughed too.

“Guess I am probably staying the night here?”

“You guessed right, since it is already night. Finish what you can and get some sleep” he said as he got up and walked off. I looked around, I had my own room in the clinic.

I ate what I could, it was only a third of the bowl. I then levitated the bowl to a table near me. With that I closed my eyes and let myself drift back to sleep. Sleep was better than blacking out, more restful.

*                *                *

When I woke up again the light of morning was drifting in. I levitated the bowl back to me, it was refilled, and I set it next to me on the bed. I shifted to be laying on my stomach instead of laying on my side and started eating. It tasted not as good as last night, but, my stomach made fast friends with it. Apparently it was not happy about losing what I had eaten, and I realized, I had barely been up yesterday or eaten yesterday. Wow, I was not eating much as of late.

After I had eaten I slide off the bed and began to stretch. I was rather stiff, I noticed that at some point some pony had stripped me of my barding. I looked around and didn't see it anywhere. ‘Did I have my armor on when I had talked to the doctor, or when I first woke up? Ugh, I needed to remember to check all my things whenever I woke up.’

I walked out of my room and into a hallway. I looked both ways and walked around more, I found more rooms, all empty. I went to the other end of the hallway and found a lobby. The walls here had pink butterflies with purple wings. ‘ A former Fluttershy clinic, makes the most sense a place this far out would need a decent sized clinic.’

I walked about more and eventually I found the doctor who had treated me. I went to call his name to remember I hadn't asked for it. I realized also, I was really bad as asking for names and face hoofed. I really needed to learn how to talk to others better. Instead I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He woke up and looked at me. There was a look of relief and a smile crept over his face as he blinked his eyes to clear them of sleep.

“Again, thank you for healing me, though I have to ask, where is my stuff?” I hated to wake him and ask for something so trivial.

“Ah, your stuff is with your friends at the school house, don't worry here in Dune City you will be fine, well, now that you cleared out those radscorpions.” He blinked his eyes still not quite focused on me. I just nodded.

“Well, unless you need to check me again I will be heading out.”

He gave me a nod and moved to his bed and laid back down. I walked out of his room and out of the clinic. Looking to the east I saw the sunrise. I had taken to calling it a sunrise for when the sky in the east turned colors. It was red over there was rather petty. I turned west to where the school house sat at the end of the street. I saw a few ponies milling about mostly they had been guards there were a few ponies tending to brahmin. First and foremost check on the school and get my caps back. I walked down the central street nopony really minded me and I didn't feel at risk of getting shot or stabbed. For some reason that feeling surprised me. Apparently I was starting to gain some sort of wasteland paranoia. Good, rather jump at shadows than get ambushed.

Dune City was not that big. It was impressive, but, still rather small compared to Saint Clover. There was the main street that I was on, cobblestone and a light dusting of sand made up the road here. It was a much softer walk than the road from raiderville, and quieter. There were a fair number of still standing buildings, a good number looked to have been taverns before the war, a couple of motels as well. Everything had a cowpony theme like what Appleloosa supposedly had. It was rather refreshing as well, growing up in Saint Clover I was used to metal walls, ship decks, and electric lights. Not the openness of here, nor did it have fresh air. Well as fresh of air as you can get in the wasteland.

I heard music as I walked past the plaza. I stopped and looked around. While stalls were set up nopony was around to sell anything, and that music was slightly louder. I wandered around searching for the source of the music. After a few minutes I finally found it, once I was able to find where it got louder and quieter, yay for triangulation, and it was a intact radio. The music was rather nice, but, the reception was rather spotty. Since in Saint Clover we didn't get any radio I guessed Dune City was on the border of the signal. I sat and just listened, it reminded me of that blissful memory of Morning Sprouts, it actually I think was one of the songs I had heard in that memory. I hummed along with the song until it ended and a male voice came over the radio.

“This is DJ Pon3, and that was Sweetie Belle, singing about that one great truth of the wasteland: every pony has done something they regret. And now, my little ponies, it’s time for the news!” I blinked, it wasn't automated, there really was somepony out there who ran a radio station. “Now ponies you remember a few years ago some pony showed up out of nowhere near New Appleloosa and started protecting caravans? Well good news he is still out there doing the good work of taking out raiders and keeping the caravans moving. While I don't have his name I have it on good authority he has a very straightforward policy of killing any raider who dares show their face in those parts. Good on you my friend, keep up the good fight. Now back to the music. Here’s Sapphire Shores singing how the sun can’t hide forever. From your lips to Celestia’s ears, Sapphire!”

I stood up and walked back to the main street, I saw a few more ponies wandering about and the looks of it a caravan getting ready to go. I noticed the guards, I guess this one was going to Saint Clover, which meant I couldn't tag along. I really did not want to go back until things had cooled off. Or somepony told me why they wanted to arrest me. I walked to one of the caravaners, maybe I could get them to find out for me.

“Excuse me, are you headed to Saint Clover?” I asked as I finished walking up to the gathering caravan.

“Why yes we are miss, somepony managed to clear the raiders between here and Saint Clover. Owe her my thanks, much easier to go this way instead of going south through the gorge.” Said a light grey buck, “Why do you ask, want to travel with us?”

I shook my head. “No, I was hoping you could find out why the ponies at Saint Clover wanted to arrest me shortly before I left.”

He looked me over for a few seconds, taking me in, “I wager you either pissed off somepony with a lot of money or you scared the hell out of somepony.”

“Well, still, if you hear about why they want Moonlight arrested or any news about her family let me know. Um... if I am not here when you get back you can leave a note with the ponies who just moved in to the schoolhouse.” I finished as I began to think about what I was going to do to burn some time.

He nodded then added. “If I hear anything I will let you or your friends know. I will also let them know about what you have done, maybe that will clear some heat for you.” He gave me a polite smile. “Now if you don't mind I need to finish getting this ready, got to take enough supplies for setting up a camp in that town you cleared.”

I gave a small bow and began walking to the school house again. More ponies were walking around now, I saw a good sized number of them moving to the plaza. I guessed that the market would be opening within the hour, and by then I should have my caps back for spending. Top of that list would be a Geiger counter, second on that would be a watch. I saw a few mares leaving the school house with saddlebags, it looked like they had salvage I had given them to sell as well, good to know all that scavenging was worth it.

I gave the mares a nod and headed into the school. As I entered I was surprised with what they had done with half a days work. I also noticed the building was a lot bigger than I had thought. There were many rooms. I could see a few had been turned into sleeping quarters, other rooms were storage, at one room even had the desks set up in it. I really wonder what the plan was for this place. I went upstairs and found a door with a note on it.

“To Moonlight” it read, I flipped the paper open, “this room is yours, this is our home as much as it is yours. We owe you our lives and you could have had anything from us, but, you decided to instead give what you could to us. Please let us return the favor with a warm place to stay whenever you are in town.” I smiled and pushed open the door, there was a nice sized bed, it looked in far better condition than the one at home. Wait, no, that wasn't home anymore, or at least it couldn't be home for a while. This was home, I was welcome here, I had a place to rest my head.

I looked around the rest of the room, I saw a desk, a terminal, a workbench of some sort, looked like a vice on part of it, the other had reloading equipment? Very nice. I was practically dancing in glee over this, I also stifled myself from shouting yes over and over. I was really happy to get gifts, more so gifts that were so useful. I trotted over to the terminal and powered it on. It didn't have a password. Well I changing that right now. I checked it and noticed no pre existing notes, no nothing. It was a completely clean terminal. ‘Alright, new user Moonlight password SilverShores. If there was one thing I would never forget it was my brother. I really hoped he was alright.’

I saw the terminal also had a time display, it was a bit after six in the morning. ‘Hmm... what to do... I know, I will use this a journal. Log what I have done, what I am working towards, my current problems.’

So I began to type with my magic. Writing what had happened over the past few days and a preamble about who I was and where I came from made me realize how life really hadn't started until that slaver attacked me in Saint Clover. I was just drifting, reading books, comics, and hearing stories from traveling merchants. I really had never done much, I had never even stepped hoof outside of Saint Clover without Mom or Dad until that night I rushed off to take care of those two escaping slavers. Unceremoniously I had jumped headlong out of the world I knew and into the wasteland, and I was... loving it. It wasn't the crazed love that raiders had for killing things, no, I loved the adrenaline, the wind in my mane, the dirt under hoof. With a sick realization I also noticed my demeanor had completely changed when in raiderville. I had slipped into a mindset of cold and calculating, it was like solving a hard math problem.

I remember that my dad had trained me with a BB rifle, teaching me the rhythm that I had used. The cold discipline, almost mechanical thought that lead to the death of all of those raiders. That stopped me, I was fairly certain even now that I knew exactly how many shots I had fired. That training really had stuck with me it seemed, ‘well thanks Dad you helped me save a bunch of lives by murdering a bunch of monsters.’

I caught up to the present, leaving off with stating my objective to acquire information, caps, equipment, and... and what? I was mostly trying to do things to bide my time. Information would take time and connections, same with caps, equipment came with the caps as well. I needed jobs, maybe there was some sort of board with jobs posted on it. If so, would take the ones that had the least likelihood of sending me into a radscorpion den. I pressed the power button for the terminal, and looked around more. On the wall next to the door my barding hung from a rack, my guns on gun racks, and the rest laid on the floor, all of it was hidden by the door when I entered. I walked over and put on my armor and grabbed my saddlebags. I left everything else on the floor and racks. There was no point in taking them to the market. I then headed out of my room and downstairs.

As I headed down I noticed more of the ponies I had saved milling about, a few of them working together to fix up some of the rooms. Many of them carrying equipment and furniture, I got the feeling this place was going to end up being rather nice. With the classroom I was guessing they were aiming to make it at least partially a school again. I gave a wave to White Rose. I had inquired as to why she had the same name as her cutie mark, it was mostly due to that is what the raiders called her, she didn't remember a name before that. I thought that using a name given to her by raiders would make her remember what she suffered though. Much to my embarrassment the way I said her name with care and love made her okay with it. She also knew exactly how to make me burn bright red. I quickly excused myself before I had issue that she would have to... handle.

I walked to the market, it was more lively now that I had spent three hours typing away at my terminal. The market was loud and had about two dozen ponies milling about, buying, selling, and trading. I looked for the caravan from earlier and saw they had headed off. I silently prayed to Luna and Celestia to keep them safe on their trip. I then wandered into the market, I saw one stall operated by Sunset and Violet, they were selling a lot of ammo, the ammo that didn't match any of my guns. Well I wouldn't miss it, all it would do is weigh me down later. I peddled what salvage they had left me, got a fair number of caps. I then proceeded to buy a fair bit of ammo for the varmint rifle, which was what I saw it labeled as at a gun shop. I saw a few other weapons that would be nice to pick up, but, upon asking the price they were far out of my price range. Which was annoying to have to see those cool lever action rifles and shotguns not find their way into my hooves. After a few hours I finished my shopping, parts for my shotgun, pistol, and rifle, as well as a whetstone to sharpen my knife. I also got some rather nice hollow point rounds for the varmint rifle. I also got some armor piercing rounds, just in case I came across more metal armored raiders, or a really tough radscorpion.

With that I took my excess caps and hit up a the Dune City Tavern. The tavern had passable food, and it primarily had  alcohol. I tried some, it was... not very pleasant, but, it was better than the water which mostly was irradiated. I also didn't feel like wasting one of my newly acquired Radaways just to drink some water. However, I did end up using a RadAway anyways once I got my Geiger counter working. Once I had got a reading of my radiation exposure level I found that I had entered the first stages of radiation poisoning. I also found out that Radaway sucked, more of the taste was a rancid orange flavor, and stronger than I remembered. I also got a watch, it was analog, and recharged with walking, a feat of earth pony engineering as well as amazingly well preserved. Thankfully the merchant who had it did not want much for it, still, one hundred fifty caps was a lot for me. After selling and buying everything I had about five hundred caps. Up from what I was at before hitting the market so all was good.

I looked at the Geiger counter and the watch, I would rather have both on one leg. ‘Hmm... Maybe I could get a leather strap to hold them and... Well you know what, I think I could put it all together like a pipbuck minus the Eyes Forward Sparkle, Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, and the inventory sorter. As useful as they are, the Geiger Counter, clock, and a radio were rather useful in their own right. I also think I could get a radio for pretty cheap. Hmm...’

I finished off the alcohol and asked for something stronger and sweeter for while I figured this out. A bottle got placed on the table in front of me with a smaller glass. I looked up at the waiter.

“Why the smaller glass?” I asked.

“You take White Pegasus Whiskey in shots from this,” he tapped the smaller glass, “so you don't over drink.”

I nodded in understanding, “alright, I will try not to over do it, how much for the bottle?”

He smiled, “twenty caps.”

I set out the caps for him, he took them and left. ‘Now back to thinking, so I just need a nice thick bit of leather, some straps, and a few buckles and I would have a budget 'Pipbuck'. I absentmindedly ignored the instructions of the waiter and  took a swing of the White Pegasus Whiskey. Ow! Okay that burned all the way down, much stronger than the beer, it was also very much not sweeter!’

Thankfully my stomach made good friends with it. ‘Oh this is a buzzy, well hooray for the buzz I was starting to feel. Okay so shouldn't be too hard to set this all up, got the workbench in my room, and tools. Bless the hearts of those ponies, they thought of everything! Hmm... Well nothing left to do than just finish this bottle. I stared at it, why was it so hard for me to keep my head level, why was I swaying slightly? Eh, whatever, I levitated the bottle to me again and chugged the rest of it down. Oh that was more than I thought it was, and that burned a lot.’

I climbed out of my booth and I left a tip, I think I counted out fifteen caps. ‘Why was it so hard to keep track of them? I never had issues before counting out caps. I walked out as quickly as my hooves would take me, was my balance always this bad? Well whatever, lets get those last things from the market and make me a pipbuck!’

I walked out into the street, it looked like was... ‘Wait! I have a watch why was I trying to figure out what time it is?’

I lifted my right foreleg to check the watch. ‘Wait, no other leg.’

I lifted up my left foreleg and checked the watch. ‘Yeah it is a bit after two in the afternoon. Alright plenty of time to work on this thingy.’

The market was still just as lively and I had no problem getting a old radio or the leather bits. Mostly I just asked for a worn out saddlebag, two caps, yeah good price. Smart thinking too, ask for trash that I can re purpose and pay much less than for raw materials.

‘Alright, now then to the school to give myself a lesson in the finer art of making awesome things. Lets see the school was opposite way of the Fluttershy clinic. Huh, those pink butterflies standout a fair bit. Probably should remember that for if I have to find one. Okay so this way, right, yep there is the red school house. That was a nice red, huh wait my room connects to the little bell tower, wonder if that still works. I should see if there is a ladder up there, would be nice spot to snipe from if anyone decided to attack the town, or the school.’ I thought to myself as I managed my way back to the school building.

As I got to the front door I faced my first real challenge of the day, the doorknob.

‘Lets see here, all door, doorknob, twist with magic, wait no other way. Alright and in we go, oh nice they got some lights working, how industrious. Okay so the stairs were to the right, and there they are just as I remembered. As I began to walk up the steps I noticed they felt a bit more wobbly than last time. Wait no, I am more wobbly, why am I more wobbly? Whatever soon I won't be going anywhere, just sit down in front of that nice metal workbench bend over and get to work. Wait... yeah, no, that is right. Okay, my room is the door on the right, open, and hello sweet room of mine.’

I noticed that more furniture had been moved in while I was out. I now had a table, a bookcase, nothing really on there other than the books I had before. A couple of lamps.

‘Hooray for lighting, and a terminal! Wait, no, I already had that. Okay to the workbench, with how wobbly I am feeling lets sit in a chair.’

I gently wrapped one of the two chairs in a levitation field and walked it to in front of the workbench and then climbed up into it. Out came the parts, Geiger Counter, watch, radio, worn out saddlebag.

‘Yep here we go all the parts I needed for this task. I levitated my knife over to the workbench and set it down then lay out everything into the shape I want it to be.’

Thud.

‘Ow, falling over hurt. Why did I fall over, I was practically laying on the workbench.’ I then saw the chair still in my magic.

‘Whoops, okay, that slipped my mind.’ I felt a little parched, so I looked around for my canteen and saw it with the rest of my stuff on the floor by the door. I subsequently levitated over to me, unscrewed the top and began to drink slowly.

‘Ah good clean cool water, nice and refreshing. Maybe I should wait to work on the budget pipbuck, too wobbly to get the wiring right. Actually laying down sounded good about now. I carefully lowered myself out of the chair and laid down on the bed.’ I looked at the door and remembered I had not closed it. I smiled and gently shut it with my magic. ‘Oh magic is awesome, I can just lay down on my comfortable bed and take care of everything else without moving an inch. Oh, and, this bed smells rather nice, like cherries. I wonder what fresh cherries tasted like, maybe I would find a memory orb with somepony eating one and not just the smell. Okay lets just close my eyes for a little bit...’

*                *                *

‘Wow, why was everything looking so skewed? Seamane you are drunk, that is the only way you could be leaning that far. Wait, no I was drunk? Right that tasty drink called White Pegasus Whiskey, that I chugged. Wait, whiskey? Oh really, did I seriously chug a bottle of whiskey. Why did I chug it, oh, oh goddesses why did I chug alcohol! Wait, I was asleep, and I knew I was asleep. I am aware this is a dream while dreaming? Okay, rather... interesting. Um... okay puking, yep stomach not happy. Wait, okay this is a dream so no worries about having thrown up on my brand new bed. That would just be plain embarrassing. Hmm… now then where was I? Downtown Seamane, near that restaurant and huh it got blurry past where the memories had shown me. What happens if I go past where the memory showed?’

         I walked out into the blurry area only to feel my hooves start to sink through the ground.

‘Okay not fun, go too far and I just fall through the ground.’

I was now in free fall as I had completely passed through the ground.

‘Okay falling in dream is okay, just a dream, stop panicking it isn't real! Okay the ground is coming up really fast, just levitate yourself and slow the fall, there we go, that isn't so bad.’ I smiled as my hooves made contact with solid ground again and didn’t pass through it.

*                *                *

I woke up, my head had a dull ache, felt like when I hadn't had enough water on a hot day. I levitated the canteen to my lips again and drank greedily. I looked around my room, it had gotten dark out while I napped. I guessed that while asleep the alcohol worked its way out of my system. It was actually rather fun thinking back on it, but, it very much had a time and a place. Imagine going into a fire fight drunk, that would be wild, and probably very deadly to everypony involved in it. Looking around my room I saw the budget pipbuck parts still laying on the workbench. I needed to finish that, I wanted to head out tomorrow. Hay, I had wanted to check for any jobs before the end of today.

‘Ugh, okay, drinking only at the end of the day when I don't have anything else on my to do list from now on.’

I crawled out of bed and as I did I felt nature remind me I had not seen any facilities to use in town. I also noticed at some point while drunk I had gotten out of my armor.

‘Well, huh, I could operate all those zippers and straps while that drunk, guess I might have been able to wire my little project up.’

Nature knocked on my head again, right, finding place to go. I crept out of my door hearing nopony else up, I wandered around the school house for a while before going out back. An outhouse was all there was.

‘Well better than going in the middle of nowhere, right? Eh lets not think about that too much.’

Nature had waited enough so it didn't take long. Coming out I did notice it was rather clear out, not the clouds it was the lack of rain or dust in the air. I could see off into the distance at a level I hadn't thought possible. In the darkness I could clearly see the outline of the MASEBS tower. I really wanted to get in there, something told me that there was something very much worth my time in it. I also remembered nopony really had ever been able to do anything with them. I had heard of ponies trying to gain entrance to them and failing, those who did couldn't get that deep with in them or where they could get to was already stripped bare. Maybe I would have to go to the very top to find something worthwhile. Or maybe if I climbed the whole damn thing I could see above the clouds! Oh that was a thought, seeing Celestria's sun or Luna's moon and jeweled sky.

‘Alright, I need to see if there is any job that will take me out that way when it comes morning, first things first lets get this pipbuck built.’

I crept back in the schoolhouse, it was still nice and quiet, peaceful snoring from where majority of the refugees had been sleeping. I smiled thinking about how much I had done in the week since my life had taken a turn.

‘Wow, it had been a week already since that slaver attacked me in Saint Clover?’ I felt was stunned, ‘how had a week already gone by? It felt like I had done so little, but, at the same time so much.’

I did note that I spent probably around three of those days asleep due to injury or exhaustion. I returned to my room and closed the door quietly behind me. As I walked up to the workbench I telekinetically turned on the nearest lamp, a dim yellow filled the room with a light buzz. I looked down at the parts. The Geiger counter was self contained, as was the watch and radio, the only work I had was to make a housing out of the radio that could contain all of the other parts.

It took me an hour to get the parts formed for the housing. The overall design was quite nice, laying on the table between the two Geiger counter readouts on the left side was the radio dial and a hole for the ear bloom. Between the radio dial and the frequency readout was a tiny speaker housing the left and right speakers from the radio. On the top of the pipbuck was Geiger counter for the environment I was in, telling me how much ambient radiation there was. The bottom one was to display how much I had absorbed. Then on the right was the clock, a simple twelve hour clock with a little changing picture that rotated between sun and moon. Above where the watch was I had at some point found a readout for day and month above it was for years.

‘This was actually a pretty solid design.’ I thought while congratulating myself. I sat back in my chair as I let the wonderglue dry. While lacking the many impressive spells that an actual pipbuck had this would at least give me some of the most basic and one of the most life saving features of the real deal. Knowing ones own radiation level was critical, more so when I was going somewhere that nopony had gone to in years. It would be a few minutes before the glue finished setting to hold my device snugly in the leg band I had created.

I remembered when walking back noting that there was a bell tower above my room that I wanted to check. It took a few minutes to find the door that opened to it. Rather cleverly hidden as a false back to my closet that sat behind my bed. I looked in with my eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. There was a ladder, something that was uncommon for pony architecture. I tested it with one hoof, it held, then another, still held. I started to climb, it wasn't a long climb tell I got to the top of the tower. There was no platform to stand on, instead this was more meant to get to the bell to work on it. Well if the bell had still been there, somepony had taken it before I got here. I looked around the town my eyes now mostly adjusted to the night again. I saw a few guards milling around. None of them had flashlights on them, and even though it had been rather peaceful for the past few days they were still fully armed and armored. I carefully climbed back down the ladder, while harder to go back down the narrow passage gave me something to brace against.

I closed the false back to my closet and then walked out into my room once more. The glue would take a while to set still, and it would be best to let it fully set. I had checked that the Geiger counter and watch worked already, I wasn't just about ready to lay down so I pulled out the ear bloom from the radio portion and turned on the radio. There was just static, of course there was, I would have to hunt for a signal of DJ Pon3. I wasn't certain how tight of a band the signal was so I took it slowly turning the knob with my magic. I felt the minutes stretch on as all I heard was static, then slowly came a voice, it was the same song from this morning.

‘Did the DJ have that few songs? Maybe he just really liked it, or maybe ponies requested it heavily.’

Whatever the case was I set the frequency that had the DJ clearest as a preset. I frowned as I thought back to how the radio’s buttons were supposed to work. Lets see press this button and it should be set I thought to myself as I pressed the button in question with my hoof. With a soft click of the preset button the needle of the radio stood still for a moment where the signal was strongest. The button popped up a second later and I moved the knob and listened as static filled the signal. I then pressed the button again and the needle snapped back to DJ Pon3.

‘Nice, and I had two more buttons so if I found any other signal I could save the frequency.’

 I continued to scan for other signals, nothing. I wasn't terribly surprised. I popped back to the DJ to listen for longer, the music was nice and slow and Sweetie Belle's voice lulled me to drift off to sleep in my chair.

*                *                *

I woke up hearing DJ Pon3 talk about some town in Manehatten that was having a better year, I think the name was Arbu. Whatever the name it didn't matter much, it was far to the north of here and I probably wouldn't see it any time soon. Even if I did manage to end up in Manehattan I doubted I would go to Arbu, it did sound like it had much for me to do in. I rubbed my face with my right hoof, I felt a little light headed, but, not as bad as when I woke up from my nap in the middle of the night. I laughed as I noticed I hadn't fallen out of my chair that I fell asleep in. I turned my attention to the pipbuck, I prodded it a few times to see it the glue had dried. Happily it had, and everything was very secure, I lifted it with my magic and lifted my left foreleg and strapped it on. The fit was quite tight, I did not feel it move at all as I flailed my left arm around. I then checked to make certain everything was functioning normally. Everything thankfully was working fine, though I did note my radiation was much lower than I thought it would have been. I smiled and engraved with my knife on the metal housing next to the radio “Pipbuck 0”. May not be Stable-Tec technology, but, I was proud of this little thing. I checked the time again, it was a bit past nine thirty in the morning. It was time to get things ready for the day. I hopped out of the chair and headed out with my bag of caps.

I went back to the tavern I had lunch at yesterday and was served by the same waiter, who complimented me for being able to walk after drinking the White Pegasus Whiskey. He said something about 'you can hold your liquor quite well for such a small pony' I glared at him until we both burst out laughing. I then told him that last night was my first time drinking, he stared in awe for a few then started laughing. Apparently I had a stomach of lead according to him, he offered to have me do another round with the drink with breakfast. I had politely turned down the offer citing I had hoped to head out today to get some jobs done. He then told me that they would keep it on hand for when I returned. As I ate breakfast I swear I heard the start of a betting pool of if I could drown a whole bottle in one go. I pretended not to hear the conversation, and now I was curious if I could too. I left my caps on the table, another fifteen caps as a tip. I liked the service around here, fast, polite, and witty.

I headed to the market and found a board,it was covered in papers each explaining a job and the pay for said job. Most of the postings to go kill either monsters or ponies that by the descriptions were monsters as well. Then I read what I was to do to them, most of them were just kill, some where defiling. Others were worse, I chose to ignore the ones that required me to kill any pony besides raiders. Not many caps per head, but, most of them were supposedly out towards the MASEBS tower, so I could deal with them on the way in or out. Then I found a very old sheet of paper, a job that apparently nopony had filled, and by the raggedness of the top, many had taken before. It required that I go to the MASEBS tower near Dune City and turn the broadcasting equipment back on. That didn't sound too hard. The reward unfortunately had vanished over time. I stuffed the job fliers in my saddlebags and returned to the school.

As I was headed back to the school I bumped into Sunset Rainbow and Violet Gust.

“Well, thank you for giving me a home Sunset and Violet, um,” I tapped my fore hooves together. “I wanted to let you know, I am soon headed northwest to the MASEBS tower. I picked up a few jobs that way, plus one to try to turn the place back on.”

They looked at me, considering for a few moments. I don't know what they were considering. Joining me maybe? Or maybe it was advice, or how to feel about my leaving.

“Well best of luck to you, those towers are hard to get into, but, relatively safe if you get in and close the door behind you. Since the great war none have fallen from time so I think you don't have to worry about some pony bringing it down on your head.” Sunset said with a smile.

“Yes, you should be fine after what you did when you freed us. We will keep sprucing the place up while you are gone.” Violet said, she was smiling too, it felt like they both had a sense of pride in me. By the way they were smiling at each other I figured it was just that, pride in me for one reason or another.

Why did they feel pride in me? Was, where they? No, they couldn't be seeing me as their daughter, that would just be silly, it must be pride in something else. Eh, maybe it will come to me on the walk. I went upstairs and slipped into my barding, which was a bit harder with the pipbuck zero on my leg. It would take a little getting used to, but, it was worth it. I strapped on my holsters, filled my pouch belt with filled new magazines. I used a bit of paint to mark on the side or bottom of each magazine for my pistol what type of round was in them. None for normal, red for hollow point, white for armor penetrating. I finally set my saddlebags on my back and turned to the door. I checked my watch, it was just a bit after ten, I had most of a day to make the journey. From what I had seen I would head straight for the hills so I could get out of the dunes and avoid radscorpions as well as make the walk easier. Dunes were annoying to walk through.

*                *                *

It was official I hated walking through dunes, or sand of any sort. Dunes are really annoying to walk through, you go slowly due to the sand shifting, you go slowly due to it checking your footing, you go slowly because you can't see when the wind picks up and decides you need to be sand blasted! I had gotten half of the way to the hills when a wind picked up and started blowing sand in my face. I thankfully had thought ahead to put my goggles on. Though the air was thick with sand I still could breath fine without the respirator, and my Geiger counter kept quiet. I had done a little additional tuning of my pipbuck, I had made it so the Geiger counter clicks would play through the ear bloom as well. As such I was listening to DJ Pon3, I ignored the news as it was all about the heart of Equestria and sometimes further off areas like Hoofington. Mostly I wanted the music, it let me quiet my thoughts and focus on the walking.

I really did need to focus on the walking so not thinking much was nice. Also having something to listen to besides my heart and the wind was nice. Rather nice as it took the next hour to finish getting to the hills. I checked the watch, it was about five in the afternoon, it had taken me seven hours to cross those damn dunes from Dune City to the hills south of the tower. I wasn’t looking forward to the walk back. While the sand was not hard on my hooves it was hard on every other joint in my legs. Well at least I was getting a healthy work out, also thank Celestia that I had not run into any radscorpions or raiders while crossing. If I had to have a fight out there with that poor visibility and bad footing it would have been messy.

Having made it to the hills I sat on my haunches and brought out some food and drink. I ate while looking to the north. There sat my main goal, the tower. If I could get in there I could probably get it running, if not, there was likely a treasure trove of pre war technology waiting for some pony to come along and give it a new home. As it was I felt it would be a two to three hour walk to the tower. While it didn't seem that far off I wasn't really certain of its scale, and there was nothing near it to judge its size with. After I finished eating I repacked everything, I didn't want to leave anything to make a trail with. I already had the unpleasant experience of being hunted before.

I got to the tower and it was about seven thirty at night. It had taken me another two hour and a half hours to walk to the tower. I had gotten lucky with the last stretch of the trip, it had been mainly downhill. I had also made much better time now that I was on ground and not sand. The tower was massive, it took me a while to locate the door. The door itself was hard to find as it was a slab of rock like the rest of the tower. Once I did, I noticed that it was closed with a terminal. The fact it had a terminal made it far easier than having to pry or drill my way past the door. Unfortunately the terminal in question had no power, something I thankfully had packed a solution for. I opened up a panel and connected a spark battery to the power circuit and the terminal came to life. I quickly set upon the terminal, I didn't know how long the spark battery would last and I wanted to get inside before it died. Thankfully the password had been rather simple, Equestria. I hit the command for the door to open and it thankfully did without hesitation. I closed up the panel to the terminal after pulling the spark battery. Surprisingly the door didn't close, so I  walked in, I saw another terminal on this side, powered it, entered the password and ordered the door closed. It slide shut, and darkness enveloped me. No lights were working in here. The place was dead.

I took a deep breath as I pulled the spark battery from the terminal and replaced its panel. I had no idea if the place would detect the intrusion when I returned power. But, I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent some pre war defense system from trying to kill me. I flicked on my flashlight. I looked around the room I was in. It was rather sparse, the place wasn't coated in dust or anything. It was clean, which unnerved me to no end. I would have liked anything other than a cold, silent, and clean prewar facility. Only if for the reason that then I would feel like somepony else had set off any traps here. My flashlight highlighted a sort of reception desk with another terminal on it. I plugged the battery into it and powered it on, I tried Equestria, wasn't the right password. It took a lot less time to hack into, the password was prejudice, I just frowned at it.

I checked what the terminal had on it. First thing I noticed was the option to turn off all defense systems. I hit that right off the bat, it said the command succeeded and all defenses where now offline. The other two where messages, one a few hours after the bombs had fallen. It was a Pegasus saying he was going above the clouds as he had been ordered to, that he hated leaving his station, but, there was nothing of old Equestria down here to stay for. His loyalty was with what remained above.

The next entry was months after that. The entry started out with cursing the Pegasus who had left the tower. There was a lot of name calling, predominantly feather brain. Afterwards it talked about having been to two other towers having shut them down in hopes to break the cloud curtain over Equestria, at least Seamane. He hadn't had any issue getting into the towers and had damaged the weather control portions of the tower then shut down the rest of it. He was wondering when somepony above the clouds would take notice that the towers weren't working and come looking for him as he shut them down. He wanted answers. I then saw his name, Sergeant Major Meadows. I blinked. He lived through the end of the world! He had broken the towers in Seamane to try to get the sun back from the Pegasi. Yeah, he was a hero in my book. I turned off the terminal and retrieved my battery and headed deeper. He had shut the place down, which means there was a way to turn it back on.

“Now where would I put spark generators if I built this place? Well downstairs, so lets see if there is one.” I muttered to myself before beginning my search.

I walked around for a good half an hour even finding the stairs down. There had been no signs of struggle, combat, or well anything. I did find the spark generators, while in good condition they needed a jump to start them up. Once I got one running I probably could get the others going by using the first to jump the next. I just hoped the six spark batteries were enough. I started to look around the place, hoping to find a terminal that explained how they worked, or maybe some heavy duty power cables so I didn't have to worry about making a wire explode from overloading it. The place was picked clean and there were no terminals. Hay, there weren't even any blueprints for the tower or the generators. I suspected Sgt. Meadows had made certain it would be as hard as possible to get the towers back online.

I sighed and did what I could to cluster the six spark batteries together, having them running in series, one long stripped wire connecting all of them. I had to do this all with magic for fear of shock. I then removed the panels of the generator in the furthest corner of the room from the stairs and found the positive and negative.

‘Celestia, please let this work, please don't let this explode in my face.’ I touched the wires, and nothing happened.

I blinked, really, ‘just not going to work for me? Okay well maybe it needs to charge first.’

I held the wires in place and moved closer to the generator. There was a switch. It was in the off position. A voice ran through my head. “Always remember to fully turn off any electronics and discharge any residual power before working on them.” My own voice informed me from having read manuals on working with electronics.

‘Right, I needed to switch that when I was away from it.’ I backed off and threw the switch. Again nothing. ‘Well, lets hope it is charging.’

After a few minutes I was bored, and the walls of the tower were blocking out DJ Pon3's broadcast. I thought I was starting to hear a faint hum when my flashlight flickered out. I saw a light glow on the generator. I pulled off the batteries and was rewarded with a bright flash and a thrumming. I had done it, the generator was back online. Now then, lets flip the switches of the other generators. One by one as I flipped them on the hum built in the room until I heard each generator come on one by one. Each time one came on the a light would come on next to a box on the wall.

I undid the wires on my spark batteries and put them away. I then moved to the box on the wall, all the lights were green on one side. The other where a bunch of switches in the off position. I one by one flicked them on. I was greeted with the lights coming on in the basement. Looking at it, it was a fuse box, and now every floor should be powered again. I started up the stairs to check each floor. As I got to the lobby I noticed a door that had slipped my sight. A elevator, ‘oh nice, no more stairs for me if this works.’

I hit the call button, and I waited. And I kept waiting, I checked my watch a few times, it was just after nine thirty at night. ‘Well lets get up to the broadcasting equipment flick it on and find a soft spot and pass out.’

I heard a ding and the door opened. The elevator was just as clean as the rest of the place. I walked in and checked the buttons for the floors. It labeled where I needed to go,  Broadcasting. I hit the button and felt the elevator start to accelerate up. It felt weird as it kept accelerating, I checked the floors and I wasn't going that fast it seemed. I was going about as fast as somepony running up the stairs. Finally it slowed and then stopped, I heard it ding again and the doors opened. I walked out on to the floor. There was a large room filled with dark monitors. Any lights in the room were red. The place still had that creepy clean feeling to it.

As I walked into the room I hear the DJ's voice fade back in.

“Well this is just about time to call it quits for the night out here, got a good line up till the morning. So stay safe kiddo's, DJ Pon3 out!”

After this I heard Sweetie Belle's voice again, I had heard it before, but, I think at this point I might have heard all the DJ had to offer. Still beat the crushing silence of the wasteland.

I moved about the room, looking for some big button saying power on or well anything that looked like it would power the equipment back on. I found a broadcast button with a microphone attached to it, but, what good would that do if I couldn't turn the damn place on. I searched for a few more minutes and then I found it. A restart button. I pressed it. It impressively worked even after so many years of, well no it wasn't impressive, this place was just that well built and well preserved. Of course it would work.

Each monitor flickered to life, I had a great view of the area around me. I spotted Dune City, safely asleep and patrolled. I checked the road out towards Seamane and saw that the town I cleared was now occupied by a few guards and merchants.

I continued to go monitor to monitor, I saw a raider camp, it was made up of sheet metal just more or less sitting on the ground It was crude, simple, but, it worked. The main structure of the place seemed to be an old crashed skywagon. I did notice there was a lack of captives this time. That made me feel better about not going out and taking them down tonight. I checked for direction from the tower. About an hour away following the edge of the hills. I would hit the place in the morning. I checked the rest of the cameras, more raider camps, looked like mostly same set up, some sort of central structure which various crude structures were built around, near the edge of the hills. Well tomorrow is all planned out. I looked around the room, whoever had been here last was smart, they had a cot in the corner. Furthest away from the elevator and gave me a perfect line of sight down the hall and to the elevator. Anypony coming up or down was a easy target.

I checked the last few monitors, mostly just open wasteland. One though, the one in front of the microphone displayed something else. It showed another room like this one full of monitors. There was a microphone there as well.

‘Huh, well maybe it was another tower, not out here, but, it would make sense.’ I noticed four dark monitors with the words no signal scrolling over them. ‘Those must be the other towers. Well, when I get to them I get to them. Now then time for dinner and sleep.’

I sat down leaning against the wall as I ate and drank, listening to Sweetie Belle. So far out of the singers I found her my favorite.

*                *                *

I woke up to DJ Pon3 saying good morning to the wasteland. I looked around dazed at the sudden awakening.  I had fallen asleep before I managed to get in the cot. I stood up and shook myself trying to shake off the last vestiges of sleep. I listened to the news, over night apparently there had been a rather big fight between the Steel Rangers around Manehatten and a massive group of raiders. The Steel Rangers had proven victorious, but, they had proceeded to go to the raider base and kill everypony inside. Apparently it had a good number of captives, later the Steel Rangers had been seen leaving with a great deal of pre war technology loaded into wagons. DJ Pon3 called them out on this, how they had almost done the right thing. Apparently the Steel Rangers where just as bad as the raiders, they cared only for one thing, prewar tech. You piss them off or have prewar tech and you are dead. So much for the heroes of old Equestria.

I ate breakfast and then stretched, I noted that I had gained pretty much no radiation exposure beyond the prewar food that I had eaten. That was good, didn't want to have to start using that RadAway too soon, things costed about as much as a healing potion. Water I was still good on for a few days, I refilled my canteen with a bottle of purified water, with what was left in the bottle I drank myself. The DJ finished the news and put on some music.

‘Well lets start getting after these raiders.’ I walked to the elevator and pushed the call button. It didn't take as long to get to me this time, well down to the first floor. Going down was frightening, the elevator suddenly felt like it dropped out from under me as it descended the floors just as rapidly as it has risen the night before. That was going take getting used to. When it got to the first floor I followed the directions to the restrooms. My stomach stayed in place, the rest of me was threatening to riot after that.

Once the rioting in my body stopped I walked out the front door and headed north. I pulled out my varmint rifle and loaded it with the hollow point rounds. Raiders generally lacked armor, so I could at very least pick off a few before any of them noticed. Once they did, well they still lacked armor, if that changed, got plenty of hollow point rounds to fill their skulls with. I pulled the bolt back and chambered the first round.

“Okay, lets do this.” I said aloud as I closed the tower back up.

It took me about an hour, just as I had thought it would, to get to the first cluster of raiders. Most were still sleeping, the ones who weren't were just milling about. I took position on a hill looking over the camp. I targeted the sleeping ones first. It was almost too easy, but, I knew that they could carry rather nasty weapons so it was warranted. I started to pick off the raiders who were awake, but, furthest from any other living or awake ponies.

I felt something whiz past me as the chatter of gunfire erupted behind me and rolled to the side pulling the scope from my eye. I looked around for the source of the whiz and saw a group of three raiders running at me. Then they all started shooting at me. Two of them had to have a submachine gun of some sort with the rapid fire I was hearing. One looked like he had a bat with nails driven through it. I put a round through his head first. Then I heard the echo of the shots off of the hills. Now it was just a matter of time until those still at the camp woke up. I swapped to the shotgun and charged tilting my head down so any bullets flying at me would hit my helmet and not my exposed neck or face.

Some how no bullet hit my head. A few dug into my back and towards my flank. I lifted my head as both raiders were reloading, I gave each one shot. Their faces crunched under the pellets as they fell over. I proceeded to quickly grab both submachine guns and looted a lot of ten millimeter rounds from them, few extra magazines too. I quickly loaded what I could and stuffed the shotgun in its holster. I levitated both ten millimeter submachine guns beside me turned and charged down the hill towards the camp. I felt my heart hammering away as I ran down the hillside. Some part of me screamed this was a stupid idea, the rest of me told it to shut up.

Everypony was up now talking to one another and getting their guns ready. I tackled the first raider, the last bit of distance I used levitation and telekinesis on myself to make me go faster and hit harder. His neck snapped as I rolled with his head in my hooves. I popped up and looked at the stunned remaining five raiders and pulled both triggers. A hail of bullets poured out and shredded them, by the time they fell over the submachine guns both were clicking repeatedly as they ran dry. I quickly swapped fresh magazines in and chambered the first rounds in both guns. From here I started the process of looting everything. Most of it was again ammo, I stuffed the ammo I couldn’t use into my left ammo box, right box for what I could. I found something quite nice, a recoil compensator for both of the SMGs. I slide those into my saddlebags and put my pistol and its holster away too, swapping it for the two SMG holsters I also found. One camp down, several more to go. I quickly checked the job fliers, two of them were dead, I cut of some of their mane as proof like asked then used a little bit of Wonderglue to secure the hair to the backside of the fliers.

I walked out of the camp with a number of caps as well, as I floated the fliers beside me regarding the targets again I began the hour walk to the next camp. These raiders had less guns than I expected, while good for my health, it made it a bit harder to get caps from looting them. Hay, I had yet to find a single grenade on them. Again good for my health, bad for my caps. Speaking of my health, I sat down and levitated out some tweezers, got to clean up these wounds. I turned my head and looked at my back, the bullets had not really broken apart and more or less were just sitting in a few shallow wounds. Still though best not to let myself die of lead poisoning. So I pulled them out carefully then did my best to double check I got everything out before downing a healing potion.

‘Okay now time for the march to the next camp.’

The next two camps were easy, small number of raiders at each, rather oblivious as always. I had simply picked them off, sneaked into the camp and looted the place. A few times I had almost walked straight into a raider patrol while coming over a hill. Thankfully I was quicker to react and had made short work of them. Raiders were easy to deal with when you had the element of surprise or range. They were not so easy to deal with when they got the jump on you. Most were crap shots, most would blindly charge in while you pelted them with bullets. There are always a few who seem to retain some bit of sanity and will instead sit back and shoot at you from a distance. Even going so far as to find something to stand behind.

Camp number four.

I had filled all of the jobs that I had grabbed, however, there were still two camps to deal with. This time I had decided to stealth my way into the camp. Only three were around so I crept up on them and slit their throats. As the blood stained my hooves and blade I felt the slow realization it didn't bother me. All day I had been killing other ponies. But, it was in that cold calculating mindset. That mindset had finally worn off when I slit the throat of this last raider, broken by my stomach growling. It was nearly two in the afternoon. I hadn't stopped at the last camp to eat, I had just marched in, killed, looted, and moved on. I shook my head. Was I really this desensitized to the wasteland this fast? I looked down at the pool of blood, it didn't bother me, and that bothered me. I should feel something for just being so ruthless. Was I any better than those I killed? Well yes, we didn't loot Dune City, we didn't plow every captive. I didn't take captives.

I shook my head again. No I knew what I felt I was lacking. I didn't have a guiding principle, I had a objective. A hero should have a guiding principle. I looked around and moved into the nearest enclosed structure. I smelt something in the air, and it looked like it was about to rain. I didn't want to sit in the rain as I ate and rested my hooves before the last camp. I noticed this structure had a good view out to the plains below. I pulled out some food and water, listening to the radio some more. Some more news about things around the wasteland, nothing out here though. Well whatever, and I had been right, it was now starting to rain. I saw small streams forming in the camp, washing away the blood. The wasteland, no matter what we did, it just washed it away didn't it? With time everything would vanish, we had lost control of our world two hundred years ago. Surviving on what was left, not making anything new. I looked at my pipbuck, even it was something cobbled together from pre war junk, it was not something new. That is what we needed something new. I let out a sigh, how though, how could anypony make something new. I mean there was Red Eye who was apparently trying to resurrect civilization out of Fillydelphia, through slavery. That wasn't any better, it wasn't something new. It was going back to what we were, what ruined the world. I closed my eyes. Okay, how about we don't get side tracked with thoughts of how to fix the world while in the middle of a raider camp.

I waited for half an hour hoping the rain would stop. Instead it had gotten worse. Giving up I headed out to the fifth and last camp. I would take it out, then head back to the tower where it was safe and dry. I rounded the last hill to where the camp should be, it had gotten much darker and harder to walk in the hour since lunch. I could barely make out figures in the lights of burning barrels. I pulled out the varmint rifle, the scope kicked in and cut through the darkness and gloom. Though to my annoyance every drop of rain reflected bright white as it passed through my vision. I started to tag each raider mentally. It looked like this camp had about ten, two were heavily armored. Both in that strange metal armor. I swapped to a magazine of armor piercing rounds, still had a round hollow point in the chamber. ‘Nine’, I aimed for the closest raider and pulled the trigger with my magic. She fell over just as a flash of lightning blinded me. I blinked a few times to get my sight back. My round had hit true. ‘Eight’, I swung my rifle to where the two armored ponies where and aimed for the slots for their eyes. Two rounds each. I pulled the trigger twice, the first one collapsed. Their buddy walked to the corpse and started yelling at it. Guess the rounds didn't exit the armor. I put two rounds in his pal. Four rounds left, I picked off the four raiders furthest out. The armor piercing rounds making clean tiny holes in them. I reloaded regular rounds. I sighted back down the scope and picked out the last few. One had found the corpse of the mare I first took out. The hollow point round giving away she had been shot. Hard to miss when half of her throat was missing. I heard a loud rumble of thunder, I needed to get out of this soon, I was carrying too much metal. I took out the other two further back in the camp as the raider busied himself with looking his dead friend. The world went white again, this time I couldn't hear either.

My vision cleared, I was on my side as the last of the raiders were running up the hill at me.

‘Shit he saw me! Wait why was I on my side?’ I shook my head I would have to figure that out later. ‘Why couldn't I really feel anything? Quiet, kill now think later.’

I grasped for anything, but, I couldn't move. I looked at the raider still running up at me. He had a pistol in his teeth. I telekinetically grasped at the trigger and the end of the gun, I yanked as I pulled the trigger. It slid out of his mouth as he coughed. I pointed it at his head. I saw him mouthing words.

‘Wait, why couldn't I hear him? Whatever doesn’t matter now.’ I pulled the trigger until the pistol was empty. He lay in a heap. I then started hearing a loud ringing in my ears. My body hurt a fair bit too. I could also move again, all be it slowly and with a lot of pain. I checked over myself as best as I could. My coat and mane where I could see it was matted in mud, patches of it looked slightly singed. I looked around me and saw a dead tree that was on fire. I looked back at the camp.

‘Of course he saw me, the damn tree was illuminating me.’ I pushed myself up and found my varmint rifle a bit off to my side. ‘Time to loot this damn place.’

There wasn't much here either. Lots of ammo, lots of guns in disrepair, more broken. I didn't spare anything from going into my saddlebags. This camp had been built around a lone house on the hillside, inside I had found two captives and freed them. I gave both two days supplies, I was going to escort them to the tower, have them come back with me. But, as soon as they saw the storm they pulled back.

“If you want to get out of here before any more raiders show up we need to go now.” I looked at the two. They looked rather battered and starved. They looked at each other.

“Thunderlord is coming, he always comes when it storms.” One of them finally offered up.

I raised an eyebrow, there was a raider who called themselves Thunderlord. The only ponies with power over the weather were the Pegasi, and they apparently were almost all above the clouds. So what was he a raider unicorn that could shoot lightning from his hooves? Or maybe he was just loud, since thunder is just the sound, lightning is the energy.

“Who is this Thunderlord” I asked, I probably was going to have to deal with this bastard if he was leading raiders around here.

“He is a pegasus, he flies around during these storms and snatches ponies from the ground and takes them captive, or just drops them on their friends.” The other explained to me, both were shaking heavily now.

‘Well that was gruesome. Yeah going to have to kill him, even if he didn't lead the raiders, that was just wrong. Then again, mark of the raider was taking joy out of cruelty like that...’

“Well get back downstairs, I will deal with him when he shows up.” I answered as I turned to face the door looking over my shoulder at the two former captives. “I will deal with anypony who is that messed up.”

I made certain to load the armor piercing rounds in my pistol and rifle. I watched as they fled to the safety of the basement. I looked outside, I didn't see anypony and the rain had lightened a bit. I still heard thunder rumbling in the distance with flashes of lightning crawling over the bottom of the clouds. Finally I saw a black dot against the sky as lightning streaked over the house. That must be him. I walked outside and pulled out the varmint rifle.

“Come get me you fucker.” I yelled to the heavens, though I doubted he could hear me.

At this point I learned two things. One, aiming for something against the sky was really hard when it was that far out. Two, make tiny movements to find your target.

I suddenly felt the ground go out from under me as my rifle was kicked out of my magic. All I could see was a tattered mane of blue and black. The form that had me wasn't armored at all. I saw the wings and felt the headlock he had me in.

“Okay you are pretty good little miss hero, you wiped out all of my favorite pals. Hell you made a pretty good mark on the wasteland with that. Now I am going to make you a red mark on the wasteland!” He was flying us higher and higher. I tried to struggle, but, he was far stronger than me. Damn he must be really strong since he is carrying me with everything minus the rifle, as well as himself.

“I am going to give you one good look at the sky above then throw you down! Maybe you will become one of those fucking alicorns on the way down!” He shouted at me as his wings beat faster.

‘Ali-whats? Whatever, I need to get out of his grip.’

I kept trying to flail, but, he held me tight. Dammit, he even had the foresight to wrap his legs around me in a way that prevented me from drawing any of my weapons. It was starting to get hard to breath, the air must be thinning out or something. I looked around and saw as the ground had dropped far below us, I looked up and saw the wall of clouds quickly approaching. We passed through it, and kept going up.

“Don't pass out on me now, just need to get through this thunderhead and you can see Celestia before you die!” I tried to buck him with my head, but, my movements were too slow, I think if anything I more nuzzled him than headbutt him.

“Aw yeah I know it is a sweet gift, but, I can't keep you, you killed too many of my friends. One mare hardly makes up for all of them. No matter how sweet your flank is.” He gave a maddening laugh.

Then we broke through the clouds, the sky... The sky was so beautiful. The sun so bright. Just like in those memories. The warmth of Celestia’s sun filled me. Suddenly I was weightless I didn't feel him around me anymore, I looked down to see him doing a backflip in the air diving back under the clouds already. He was going to wait in the clouds until I was far enough away that I couldn't shoot him.

I scowled at his cowardness, and felt the warmth of the Sun fill me with energy that I put towards wrath. I wrapped myself in a field of levitation magic and threw myself down at the clouds, I pulled the knife out in my mouth, then the two SMG's with my magic.

‘Lets put my magic to the test.’ I was going to take him out or I was going to catch myself before I hit the ground. As I shot past the bottom of the clouds I saw him peek out and give chase. ‘Okay so he wanted to race me to the ground. Fine with me.’

“Hey fucker I’m going to make you into glue!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I felt my back get pelted with rain as I fell. I took aim and pulled the triggers of both SMG's. He started to evade, and flew under me, I rolled over tracking him with my shots. He was damn agile and annoyingly quick. Click went both guns, I reloaded, letting the spent magazines float away. I aimed straight down speeding up and began firing again. I saw him waver as a few rounds hit him and he spread his wings wide shooting above me. I rolled onto my back again to get continue my attack, as I did he tackled me.

“I am going to make certain you make a nice big red crater you bitch!” He shouted at me as I tried to stab him with my knife. We were accelerating. I then successfully stabbed the knife into his neck, he cried out, I wrapped my hind legs around his midsection and made him roll under me. SMG's still in my grasp I shot his wings full of holes.

“Enjoy the rest of the fall!” I cackled as I kicked off of him I sheathed my knife and holstered the SMG's.

The ground was coming up at me rather fast. I closed my eyes. I had to focus completely on this or I was done for. I wrapped myself in a cocoon of levitation magic, I felt myself slow. I knew it was not enough so I spread my legs and neck feeling the air drag against me more, I felt myself slow a bit more. I focused harder, I needed to stop, or at least slow down so I wouldn't shatter on impact. I opened my eyes for a second, there was a bright light from my horn, I looked down, the ground was still coming up faster than I wanted it to. I clamped my eyes closed and poured everything I had left into the field. I felt the ground hit me, I bounced, I couldn't breath. I was fairly certain I broke a few ribs. I lay there on my back. I didn't die on impact, yeah, that was good enough for now.

I saw the two I had freed running to me. Behind them I saw the flightless pegasus smash into the building they were hiding in and demolish it in a small mushroom cloud of dust. I prayed to Celestia he was dead. If he wasn't the three of us were as good as dead. As the two got to me I managed to speak.

“Password is: Equestria.” I pointed a hoof towards the tower as I slid into unconsciousness.

*                *                *

“Well everypony I have some exciting news from down south past the badlands. Some pony managed to get me back on air out near Seamane! My thanks go out to you whoever you are. I noticed it this afternoon when I got a report that many more ponies near Dune City could hear my broadcast much clearer, and places like Saint Clover finally could hear my signal.

Ya just can’t stop the signal baby!

Now this is the cool part, after this I also got to watch a regular wasteland heroine take out five, count them five, raider camps to the north of Dune City making the road from Colt to Dune City far safer. So all you folks who don't like heading out near Oakmare to get to Dune City, feel free to head up north!

Now kiddies there is another treat with this, apparently the raiders were being lead by a pegasus, trust me that is a huge surprise to me as well, and he was known as Thunderlord. The late Thunderlord apparently had a taste for grabbing ponies out of the blue from the sky and dropping them on their friends until either everypony was dead or they surrendered. Even if you surrendered he would some times just kill you.

Well after taking out his five camps our heroine tangoed with him into the clouds. They had a shoot out in the air with left him with his wings clipped and buried in a house that had once been a hub for raider activity. Now it gets better, this heroine was no pegasus, she is a unicorn! I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but, she managed to slow her descent after clipping his wings and from what I saw lived. So to this death defying heroine I say thanks for a hell of a show and thanks for getting me back on the airwaves out over old Seamane!”

Footnote:

Level Up, New Perk Added: Intense Training (Endurance) – through the hardships of the wasteland you have gotten tougher. Lets hope it keeps you alive longer too! Be glad you got this before you hit the ground.

Quest Perk added: Wasteland Engineer (level one) – You can now craft special items at workbenches provided you have the proper materials, as well as new options for dealing with pre war technology.