Fallout Equestria: Black Sky

Chapters

Chapter 1: Longing
Chapter 2: The Wasteland
Chapter 3: Downhill
Chapter 4: On A Rail
Chapter 5: Repercussions
Chapter 6: The Long Way
Chapter 7: The Road to Fort Stud

Chapter 1: Longing

Chapter 1: Longing

My alarm clock struck 8:00 AM and proceeded to emit the loud buzzing tone i was used to hearing every morning. The sound startled me having already been awake lying in my bed. Damn insomnia...it was just one of those nights again. I rolled over and landed my hoof over the top of the alarm clock silencing the confounded thing. I rubbed my eye with my leg as I lazily sat up in my bed. The lights were all off. The only source of light came from round the curtain over the window to the hall outside my room.

I turned on my Pip-buck light since I didn't feel like opening the curtain today so I used it to find the light switch. Upon switching it on the room became illuminated and everything became visible. Well...almost visible. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the light. When they did I stood by the light switch and yawned loudly.

"Another day" I told myself.

My room which consisted of my bed, a dresser, and a desk was a mess as usual.

Trotting over to the dresser I pulled out one of my cleaner Stable 13 bardings. I slipped the blue piece of clothing over my head and poked my head through the top then pushed the left sleeve under my Pip-buck so it wouldn't cover it up. After combing my mane I slung my satchel over my back and trotted out the door.

The usual chatter could be heard through the hallways of the stable. Ponies heading off to do their jobs, fillies and colts rushing off to their classrooms, just basically the Tuesday morning commute I was used to. Nothing was special about any of it, but I didn't think anything of it until today.

Stable 13 was said to be the pinnacle of Stable-Tec shelters. Complete with science labs for researching Celestia knows what, a greenhouse built using ultraviolet lights, a selection of shops, and even a swimming pool. It had the capacity to hold about 1000 ponies and still sustain itself for well over several centuries. It was my home for the 21 years I’d been alive.

I trotted into the cafeteria. It was a wide open room with ten long metal tables laid out in rows of two with a large gap between the rows. Four columns were evenly spaced out in a square pattern holding up the ceiling. The room was crowded with ponies sitting down conversing and eating breakfast.

The line wasn't too bad. I got my usual bowl of cereal, a piece of toast, and a carton of milk. I carried the tray in my mouth over to the far corner of the cafeteria. Half the table was empty with everypony sitting to one side. I sat away from them. I wasn't very popular around the stable so most of the time I sat alone. The cereal was bland as usual. I never poured milk in my cereal which probably made it that way.

I sighed and stared down at the bowl.

"Now there's something I never like to see." Said a stallions voice. I looked up to my left to see Sprocket, a gray unicorn with a short, clean cut yellow mane. Sprocket stood as he levitated his tray down next to me and sat down. "What’s got you upset?" He asked me with a sympathetic smile on his face.

I pushed my food tray away and folded my forelegs on the table. "I don't know…," I said as I set my head atop my forelegs, "I didn't sleep last night...but I don't think that's it." I sighed again as i took a bite of my toast.

Sprocket was one of the stable teachers and also my lifelong friend. Growing up as an orphan, he was the closest thing to a father i had. He also had a reputation with the overmare which I didn’t question.

He gave my mane a little stroke. "Well something must be bothering you," He said to me as he lifted my head up with his hoof, "So what’s gotten into you? You haven't been yourself lately." He told me as i set my head down again.

"Well…," I scratched the back of my head, "I guess...its all just...boring." I said as he raised a brow at me wondering what I meant. I picked my head back up and continued, "You remember those Daring Do books you got me for my birthday?” He nodded. "Well...I guess they got me thinking...what if there's more to life? I mean...is this all I was ever meant to do?”

He was silent for a moment. Finally he responded. "Huh...guess they had quite an impact on you." He said. I nodded and nibbled on my toast as he continued. "Well...my advice would be stick to what you know...but really it's your decision on what to do in life." He explained to me. He went on for a while about it, but I sort of spaced out for most of it as I slowly ate breakfast. Eventually I pushed it to the center of the table with my milk half empty and the cereal with about two thirds still left in the bowl. I chimed back in to what he was telling me. "...of course...if all else fails...you could always just leave."

I perked an ear at that. It had never really occurred to me. I looked at him. There was a hint of worry in his eyes as he noticed my reaction. "Do you really think the overmare would just...let somepony leave?"

He rubbed his hooves together at my question. "Well...it's frowned upon by the rest of the stable...and those that do leave are never allowed back in...but she can’t really object." He told me as he continued looking at me in concern. I didn't look back at him as I stared down at my food tray. This could be considered an opportunity...or a new form of suicide. I sighed and got up from my seat. "Dragonlily wait you are you actually considering that?”

I picked up my tray and dumped the contents in the nearby trash bin. Placing the tray atop the bin to be reused later I turned to face him. "I...I don't know...I just need to think." I started out of the cafeteria "I'll see you later." I shouted back to him. His face was of clear concern as he gave me a tiny wave. This was something I needed to think long and hard about. I still had a full day ahead of me. I rushed over to the bathroom, washed my hooves, and headed downstairs to the stable greenhouse.

The greenhouse was a glass room with fogged windows surrounded by lights. The room was more humid than the rest of the stable. A sprinkler system hung from the ceiling which activated every three hours for about fifteen minutes. The floorspace was about the size of the stable atrium. rows of wheat, carrots, tomatoes, and berries were grown here in patches of dirt. Other ponies could be seen tending to the crops.

I was the stable florist. I grew flowers under ultraviolet lighting and either took them to be sold or handed them off for the overmare to use for any sort of occasion or stable-wide event that would come up. I had two patches to myself in the corner to the right of the door. Sometimes I was granted three or even four if the need for them was high enough which was almost never the case.

I was planting some hibiscus for somepony who placed an order for them. Unlike everypony else I preferred to use a watering can rather than wait for the sprinklers to water what i was growing. I'd rather take comfort in knowing that I did it myself then learn that the sprinklers failed again.

I set the watering can down. It was now that I was seriously thinking about what Sprocket had said. Would leaving actually be a better option for me? On the upside it would get me out of this place. Who knew what was just waiting for me out there? The possibilities were mind boggling. I could see the world, meet new ponies, or maybe go on adventures like Daring Do! I had to admit it sounded like a pretty good idea.

But then looking at the downsides it certainly had its major risks and disadvantages. Not only would I be leaving this life behind but I would be putting myself in huge danger. The air outside could be poisonous or I could get out there and immediately drop dead from a sniper rifle or something. And not to mention I would be leaving everypony I've ever known behind. Sprocket was the only pony I actually considered a friend but still. I doubt anypony would want to go with me.

The more I thought about it, the more it made me angry. It was a big decision that would either change my life or keep it the same. And chances are if I did leave the odds of them letting me back in were slim to none. There was no way I could predict what would happen if i did leave the stable but if I stayed i would be living the same routine for the rest of my life.
I kicked the watering can at my hooves in frustration. It landed on its side in front of the door and water started pouring out the top. All eyes were on me. I just stood there for a moment. Finally i couldn't take it anymore. "I...I need to go..." was all I could blurt out as I quickly trotted out of the greenhouse.

It was much later in the day and I was no closer to figuring this conundrum out. I was lying on my bed staring at the blank ceiling. Everything was making me more frustrated. I knew part of it was because I was tired but that just made me more angry because I still couldn't fall asleep.

I was getting way too upset about this but it wasn't something I could just forget about. One thing was for certain...whether I leave or I stay I would drive myself mad if I didn't do something with my life. Leaving would certainly make this easier but what if it didn't work out? I could always stay but what could I possibly do with my life to make it more exciting? "Ugh!" I growled as I threw my pillow at the desk.

The impact knocked a stack of books off the desk and onto the floor. I groaned as I turned to see how much damage had been done. Three books were splayed on the floor by the pillow. One had landed open while the other two were closed. I rolled my eyes as I got up from the bed. I threw the pillow back atop my blanket and started placing the books back on the desk. The last one made me stop. The third book that lay open to a random page was one i recognized because i had read it recently.

Daring Do And the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.

I had already read it twice but this time it was different. I picked it up and read the paragraph.

-As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky. But her crash landing in the jungle had injured her wing and she was grounded for a few days. A few days---it might as well be a few months, or a few years!-

What it said on the page really got me thinking and thinking hard. And that's when it all made sense. I was in the exact same situation. Just replace the jungle with Stable 13 and the broken wing with my inability to make a decision. I could stay...part of me wanted to...but it was pretty obvious that if I were to stay here I would probably be miserable.

I had made up my mind.

I closed the book and set it atop the others. I checked the clock. It was a quarter after three so that meant she would still be working. I gave a deep sigh and headed out the door and trotted off to the overmare’s office.

"Are you out of your mind?!?" The overmare asked me as we sat in her office. She was a gray mained cyan coated unicorn who sat behind a horseshoe shaped desk with monitors on a large wall console. To my left was a circular window that overlooked the atrium. "Why would you ever consider leaving?" She asked me with a look on her face that thought I was insane.

I set my hooves on her desk. "Well...lately I've been thinking," I said to her as she rolled her eyes, “I've decided that I want some adventure in my life so...I figure leaving the stable would help me do that." I had to admit I didn't have much of an argument to go at her with. All I did was run up to her office and tell her that I wanted to leave. I really didn't think this through.

She raised her hoof. "First off...that's completely ridiculous," She said to me as he set her hoof on the desk ",Second...what gave you the slightest idea that I would ever even consider this?" I'll admit she was right. Like I said I really didn't think this through. I don't know what I expected to happen.

I got up from my chair. "Sorry for wasting your time" I said as I headed for the door. That should have been the end of it. I should have gone back to my room after that and continued living my life. one day I would forget this entirely and then I would die alone. That's what should have happened. But when I reached for the automatic door switch it sung open on its own. I hadn't been the one to open the door. There standing in the doorway was Sprocket.

He looked down at me. "Carrot said you left work early," He explained to me as he entered the room "When you weren't in your room I went to the Pip-buck technician and asked them to find your tag. They said you were here." The overmare looked at the two of us. "What's going on Dragonlily?" I had a nervous look on my face and it looked like the situation wasn't going to simply go away.

"I...I uhh," Finally I sighed and came out with it "Look Sprocket...I get that you want to look out for me and that you care about me. But back in the cafeteria when you gave me the idea of leaving, and, well…," I scratched my head, "It actually sounded like a good idea," I could see the look on his face changing from worried to that of shock "Sprocket...I'm sorry...but I don't think I can be happy here anymore," At this point I was on the brink of crying "So...I came here to ask the overmare if I could leave. Don't hate me for this, please."

I expected him to take this...not well to say the least. Instead he put his hoof on my shoulder. I looked up at him and found he was smiling. "Dragonlily... I've known you better than anypony," He sighed deeply, "And the last thing I want is to see you unhappy. I may not like it, and I may end up regretting it down the road. But if you want to leave....I'll support your decision," He looked me in the eye, "Do you still want to go through with it?"

I wiped my eyes. I had been crying a little at what he said. Nonetheless I met his gaze. "Yes" I said as firmly as I could.

The overmare had trotted up beside me. We both faced her. She glanced at me and then turned to Sprocket. "It's not something that I will get a lot of appreciation for...nor will it make me feel any comfort...but your judgement’s never steered us wrong before. if you believe that Dragonlily is up to the task...I will trust your judgement. Are you certain that you’re okay with this?" She asked Sprocket who gave an approving nod before she turned to face me "Dragonlily...we have no idea what the conditions are like out there." She met my gaze "Know that if you do this you will not be allowed to re-enter the stable. Nor will I allow anypony else to accommodate you on this venture. I’m playing with fire offering just one pony as it is. Are you absolutely certain you wish to do this?"

I thought on it for a moment. Part of me wanted to say no but deep down I had a gut feeling about this. I nodded my head in affirmation.

The overmare rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well then...pack your things. You'll leave tonight...be at the stable entrance at 8:00.” My spirits immediately lifted. I was so excited at that moment that I ran straight to my room to pack without saying a word to either of them.

The stable entryway had less lighting than the rest of the stable. I stood in the center of the room facing a large cog shaped door. Behind me was a small passage between two higher platforms where the few ponies who came to see me were standing behind the thick metal of some guardrails. Further behind me was the door leading back into the stable. Standing beside me to my right was Sprocket who looked down at me with a look of clear concern.

He gently stroked my mane. "Are you sure you don't want to stay? It's not too late to reconsider." He said to me. I'll admit part of me still wanted to stay. I was giving everything up to do this and I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side of this door.

I looked up at him. "Sprocket...I get it. You’re worried about me. If I were in your position I'd be worried too," He met my gaze, "But you of all ponies should understand that I need to do this." He had tears rolling down his cheek. Finally he nodded and levitated my saddlebags onto my back. I hadn't packed much. I had the only three Daring Do books I still hadn't read, My stable 13 canteen which was filled with water, a few sandwiches I had made and wrapped up, a notebook with a few pens, a bag of seeds, and a spyglass I was given when I was a little filly.

"Dragonlily..." The Overmare called me from near the back of the room "It's time." I nodded and a pony next to her with security barding flipped the lever on the door control panel. A whaling alarm sound filled the room joined by spinning yellow lights overhead. A moment later a mechanical arm swung down and locked itself in the center of the door through a sort of lock mechanism. It pulled the big heavy door inward with a loud ear shattering screech of metal scraping across metal. Once it was clear off the doorframe the heavy metal door rolled over to the left revealing a dark empty cave.

I nervously stepped forward stopping just short of the doorframe. Sprocket stood in the same spot behind me. I turned my head and looked back at him. He still had a look of worry on his face. No...not worry...sadness. He was like a father to me, and I was like a daughter to him. I knew him my whole life. And I was about to give him up. I knew my mind wouldn't let me back out at this point so I did all I could think of.

I turned around, ran back, and wrapped my hooves around him. It took him a moment but he eventually did the same. We stood there for what seemed like forever in each others embrace. We were both shedding tears now. Finally I summoned the will to speak. "Goodbye Sprocket." I said simply trying to fight back the tears.

It took him a while but eventually he spoke. "Goodbye Dragonlily" He said in a quivering voice as we held each other tighter. We finally let go of each other. The moment we did it seemed as if it lasted too short. As much as it pained me to do so I turned and walked to the open doorway.

Stepping out the other side I turned and gazed back at him as the sound of the alarm filled the room once again. I managed to smile at him. "Thank you...for everything." I said as we gazed at each other for the last time. The moment ended as the stable door rolled back into place. The arm pushed the door back into its frame with another loud screech of metal.

And then silence.

Part of me still wanted to go back but I knew that was no longer possible. I was at the point of no return. So rather than sulk about what was behind me, I turned to face what was ahead of me. I stepped off the metal platform that could be considered a welcome mat for the stable and onto the cold hard stone floor of the cave. I was familiar with rocks but on a much smaller scale. It wasn't exactly mind-blowing but it was a pleasing experience nonetheless for something everypony else probably took for granted.

I switched on my Pip-buck light. The cave continued forward for several meters before taking a right. Turning the corner I was met with an incline leading up to rays of pale light silhouetted by what looked like planks of wood. I approached it and discovered an old worn out door. It was in desperate need of repair but looked like it would still open.

I gently pushed it forward and stepped through into the outside world.

Footnote: Level up!

New perk added: Lone Wolf -- You have left the Stable on your own to start a new adventure.Unique dialogue options are available.

Author's Note

Thanks goes out to Kkat for Fallout Equestria of course and thanks to Headhunter Productions new editing team! There's a long road ahead with this story and this time we're gonna do it right.

Chapter 2: The Wasteland

Fallout Equestria: Black Sky

Chapter 2: The Wasteland

The ground wasn't what caught my attention. My unbound curiosity directed my vision to not what was in front of me but what was above me. I must have looked like a filly who was staring up at a new toy. For the first time in my life I didn't see a ceiling over my head. Instead i now saw something thousands of times more amazing.

I saw the sky.

I gazed up into the dark endless void. I had only seen it in textbooks before. They told us the real thing was more beautiful. And to think I didn't believe them. The moon stood out among the darkness. It's bright round shape casting light down across Equestria. But what really got to me were the stars. All around were hundreds of tiny flickering specks that filled the night sky with beauty. It was beyond what I ever expected.

But I had to look at everything else at some point.

My gaze shifted to the ground. I was met with a vast expanse of destruction as far as the eye could see from the hill I stood upon. Dirt, rock, and debris covered the landscape. A small shack stood just at the base of the hill. Two roads a little ways out ran parallel heading off to my left and my right. Further off in the distance I could make out what looked like a mass of dark, tall silhouettes that were bunched together.

The whole scene was so awe inspiring that I had paid no attention to my hooves and tripped on a rock as I stepped forward. Unable to regain my balance I tumbled forward down the steep hill. Wonderful! My very first action outside of the stable is seriously hurting myself. I curled myself into a ball hoping to keep from damaging anything only to slam into the shack at the bottom of the hill. I landed upside down with my back against the wall and my hind legs dangling upward as I faced up toward the sky.

Mostly unhurt if not aching a little I flung myself onto my side and got back to my hooves. "Dumb rock!" I shouted up the hill a bit dizzy as leaned myself against the wall. The wood caved in and I fell through into the pitch black interior of the shack. "Dumb wall!" I shouted as I pushed the planks that had landed atop me aside. Me slamming into it didn't do anything so how does leaning on it force it to collapse? Regardless I wasn't off to a good start with the whole adventure thing.

I got back on my hooves again and switched on the Eyes Forward Sparkle on my Pip-buck. It was a sort of built in radar compass waypoint thingy that showed up down in the corner of my vision. The amber colored readout showed up instantly. I turned myself in a 360 degree circle. I was looking for tiny bars that showed up to identify other ponies. My focus was entirely on the E.F.S display. I finished my circle and it came up with nothing. I was completely alone for the first time in my life. Was a little company too much to ask?

I turned on my Pip-buck light and looked around the inside of the shack. It was a little larger than my room. A door was at the center of the left wall with shelves on either side of it stacked with a number of boxes and rusty looking cans. Ahead was a heavy looking metal desk with a glowing terminal sitting on top of it and the wall to my right was lined with lockers most of which had hung open and empty.

I crossed to the desk and examined the computer terminal. How it was still functional was beyond me. I tapped my hoof down on the enter key and the monitor began buzzing with activity in a flow of ones and zeroes before prompting me to enter a password. After nearly getting locked out three times it accepted ARGUS and gave me two command prompts. I tried the one that said lights but was only met with a brief shower of sparks from the ceiling. The other read 'unlock munition storage'. When I selected it a locker behind me gave a tiny click before slowly opening a crack.

I trotted over to it and pulled it open as I shone my Pip-buck light inside. Leaning up against the side of the locker was an unloaded rifle that looked to be in pretty good condition along with four spare clips and two boxes of .32 caliber rounds which I stashed into my satchel. I pulled the rifle out of the locker. It had both a hoof lever and bite trigger the latter seeming beyond impractical as a means of firing. Then again I'd look ridiculous on my hind legs shooting this thing.

I gently slid one of the spare clips into the underside of the gun until it clicked into place and pushed back the slide with my hoof. Good thing I read Daring Do and the Sands of Saddle Arabia five times otherwise I wouldn't know anything about guns. I stood on my hind legs and aimed down the sights at one of the cans on the shelf across the room. Not the easiest shot for my first gun given how dark it was. I pulled the lever back and the rifle responded with a startling bang along with a recoil that I was not prepared for as I lost my balance and fell on my haunches.

My aim had been off by a bit noticing the bullet hole to the left of the can. It had punched straight through the wood and pale moonlight now shone through the opening.

There was no way I could think to shoot using the mouth bit. Chances are I would break my neck having nothing to stop the recoil. So I stood up and tried again with the lever. This time taking holding it significantly tighter in my hooves to keep it from flying back and smacking the barrel into my face. I then positioned my legs a little more spread out to keep myself from falling over again. Pulling back the lever this time I was able to keep my stance as the gun sent a second round a bit closer to the can but still through the wall creating another hole.

This was getting a little frustrating. I started adjusting the sights only to stop moments later with the realization that I had no idea what I was doing. Daring Do never adjusted the sights in the book and that was my entire knowledge behind guns other than pictures in textbooks and a lecture on Stable security.

I aimed down the sights once again. My hooves were a bit more shaky this time around but I didn't let it bother me. This can was practically taunting me over the fact that only ten feet separated us and I still couldn't hit the damn thing. Either I triumph over this cylinder of rust right now or no doubt it would bother me for the rest of my life. I pulled the lever back once again which sent a .32 caliber round streaking across the room and slamming into the rusting piece of tin with a resounding clang. The impact sent it flying off the shelf and onto the floor.

I came back down onto all fours. "Dumb can" I muttered under my breath before directing my gaze to the rifle now resting against my shoulder. I had to admit it was a nice gun. I'd need quite a bit more practice with it but eventually I could get the hang of it.

I pulled a pen out of my satchel and after a bit of thought i wrote ARGUS on the stock of the rifle. It seemed like a fitting name for a gun. Intimidating but also kind of cute at the same time. I slipped the pen back into my satchel and slipped the gun under the strap. It was a bit uncomfortable but I would be able to pull it back out quickly.

There wasn't anything left I could think to do inside so I headed for the hole in the wall I had made on my way in. I gave the can which had served as my first bit of target practice my sinister glare as I passed by it sitting on the floor. All cans were officially evil. The way they all just sit and taunt me for my bad aim. As much as I hated to leave all the other cans in the room unharmed I stepped out into the night.

I turned to the front of the building. The outside looked like something i would build in art class out of popsicle sticks. Very flimsy, two hundred year old, possibly bug infested popsicle sticks. A worn sign hung over the door that read 'Park Ranger Station'. Though given all the dead trees around it was safe to say there wasn't much of a park left. After finding the road again I set off in what my compass said was north.

It had only been about an hour since I left the stable and walking was quickly becoming my least favorite thing to do. Aside from the abundance of dead trees, rocks, and occasional pools of water there wasn't much to look at so I found myself looking up at the sky more than in front of me. Of course this led to me bumping into things but my gaze always eventually drifted back to the stars. I was fascinated by it and more so than I should have been.

It truly was something I had never come close to experiencing back in Stable 13. It felt like opening your eyes for the first time realizing that you've wasted a portion of your life having them closed. I had dozed off at some point lost in deep thought and when I snapped back to reality an hour had passed and I couldn't remember what I'd been thinking about. It was like one of those moments where you get some really great ideas and then you realize you've been half asleep and you instantly forget all those great ideas. I seemed to remember vaguely something to do with squirrels and hacksaws but that was about it. Maybe I was tired having not slept the previous night and having a rather busy day prior to now.

I was on the brink of dozing off again when my gaze shifted across my E.F.S. down in the corner of my vision. There just off to the left of the center of the readout were three red bars. It made me stop and focus down the road ahead of me. I could see them. Three silhouettes concealed behind the dead brush. Being completely exposed in the middle of the road there was no doubt they saw me by now. I moved to the right and into the brush on the opposite side of the road.

They didn't move as I made my way through the brush. I still had no idea who or what they were but this was my first time dealing with a situation where something wants to kill me and if I could avoid a confrontation that would be-

"If you're trying to give us the slip it's not gonna work," Came a gruff voice from the direction of the hidden trio making me stop dead "We can see you and have a clean shot at your head. you come out now we won't mess up that pretty face too bad before we make off with everything you have".

Looks like negotiations were out of the question. If I tried to run they'd no doubt shoot me before I got too far, If I gave in they'd probably have their way with me and then shoot me anyway, and if I did nothing it would just be an awkward moment followed by a combination of them shooting me, looting all of my belongings, and then having their way with me. And hopefully in that order.

As much as it pained me I pulled Argus off my back and stood up on my hind legs as I aimed the rifle. Perching myself against a nearby tree to accommodate for the recoil I set my gaze down the sight at the most distinct head looking silhouette i could spot. I sighted one which looked to be aiming down a rifle similar to mine. Okay...I was about to do this.

I took a deep breath and and held my aim. "Okay uhh...I'm coming out" I shouted at the three hoping they would fall for my rouse. It paid off as the three stepped out of the brush and into the pale moonlit road. The large one in the center of the bunch was only armed with a knife between his teeth but the one on the right was indeed armed with a rifle and the smaller pony to the left had a pistol looking weapon in his mouth. It would be seconds before they found out I lied so I focused with all my concentration on the red maned stallions head. He had his rifle strapped to some sort of harness on his back and had his teeth in the mouth grip.

If I didn't act now they would.

After taking aim I clenched my eyes shut and pulled the lever back. The bullet flew from the barrel with a resounding 'bang'. I opened my eyes to see the armed stallion slump to the ground with a stream of blood coming from his forehead. It left the other two stunned a moment but they quickly moved in my direction once again. This time with a much more worrisome pace than before.

I set my aim on the small pony to the left. He fired at me with his pistol as I was trying to aim at his head. The round whizzed past my ear and into the forest behind me. Moments later i lined up my sights, clenched my eyes shut, and pulled the lever back sending the round through his head. I opened my eyes again to see that the large pony with the knife had stopped and stared at his fallen companions. Then he stared at me with fire in his eyes as he charged me at full sprint. I aimed again, shut my eyes, and once again pulled the lever back. But I wasn't met with the bang and recoil the gun had responded with before. I popped my eyes back open. The only sound it made was a distinctive 'click'.

I was out of ammo.

Stupid me forgot to put in a fresh clip after target practice with the cans and it was a five round clip! I wanted to smack myself on the head but it looked like the stallion who just jumped at me would take care of that and then some.

Right before his knife came down on me I ducked to the side and out of its path. With nothing to block his path he slammed into the tree i was leaning on before. I started to back away slowly but he immediately recovered and jumped at me again. His angle forced me to jump out of the way and skid across the ground on my side. Argus flew from my hoof onto the ground just outside my reach. I tried to get up and run only to be stopped by a sudden jerk of my tail sending me face first into the dirt. I glanced back to see he had pinned it beneath his hoof. I started struggling but he then lay his fore hoof on my back and held me down.

I panted as he stood atop me. "Are...you going to...kill me" I asked with obvious fear in my voice. I was terrified now more than I had ever been before.

He kicked me onto my back and pressed his hoof to my chest. "Kill you? Yes...that seems like something the boss would appreciate...but you won't get off easy," I tried to get free but he just pressed harder and flipped out his knife "you're going to pay for what you did to my men. Slowly and painfully," he leaned in close to my head "lets start with those pretty green eyes of yours."

My instincts weren't telling me to do anything useful and he was leaning in with his knife. So I did the only thing I could think of. I bent my head up and sunk my teeth into his leg he pressed atop my chest. He screamed and dropped his knife in the dirt as I clenched my jaw down. His hold on me finally loosened so I released my jaw and rolled to the side onto my hooves.

Before he could recover from the bite I pumped into the road and ran toward the only thing I could think of. The pistol from the pony I had just shot. I ran for it as fast as my legs could carry me. Upon reaching it i scooped the mouth grip into my mouth and turned to face my opponent. He had been running after me and as I set the pistol on him he stopped dead five feet from me.

He dropped the knife from his mouth and stood silently. I had him and he knew it. There was fear in his eyes as i stared him down. I had never killed in cold blood before so I was shaking more than he was. All I had to do was pull the trigger and he'd never bother me again. From what I could gather he deserved it! He was going to gouge out my eyeballs with a knife. The moment seemed to last for forever with me holding this large stallion at gunpoint. He started inching toward me no doubt figuring I didn't have it in me to pull the trigger.

He left me no choice. I clenched my eyes shut and pulled the trigger. The recoil wasn't nearly as bad and the sound was a lot quieter. I slowly opened my eyes again at the sound of the thud of him hitting the paved road. He lay motionless on his side with a trail of blood seeping from just above his left open eye.

I spit the gun out onto the ground and backed away from the three dead ponies that now lay in the road. I practically tripped over myself before collapsing onto my haunches some ten feet away. That feeling was...horrible. Sure it was in self defense but...I just killed three ponies! I was fighting back tears trying to get myself back together. This was to be expected of me but I didn't expect it to feel like this.

Eventually I got back to my hooves after what was apparently five minutes according to my Pip-buck clock. I had cried a little but I managed to hold back my tears for the most part. After recovering Argus and reloading it with a fresh clip I grabbed the pistol that I had spit onto the ground and the spare ammo the dead pony had in his bag. It would be easier to use than the rifle which I still needed practice with. Then I unstrapped the harness looking thing from the pony who had carried the rifle. If he could use it to carry and use a rifle I thought I could do the same thing. Sadly to my disappointment it was not only too big for me but the mechanisms built into it were beyond my understanding. For now I slung it over my back for further investigation later.

Rather than stick around with the possibility of more insane ponies showing up I turned and continued down the road. At a somewhat quicker pace than before this time.

Hours went by where nothing else happened. It was just me and the road ahead. It's not that I wasn't grateful for the peace but there was a rock I had been kicking along the road for quite some time now. I eventually accidentally kicked it down a tall cliff which had been building up to the left side of the road. A quick glance over the edge revealed that the fall would most definitely kill me. The dark silhouette of a city loomed over the horizon beyond the cliff. It was hard to make out details since the moon had gone behind a cloud making visibility less than before.

I yawned loudly continuing down this road that seemed to go on forever. My Pip-buck clock said it was half past one in the morning and it was starting to feel like it. My insomnia probably wouldn't bother me tonight if I could find a place to go to sleep.

The cliff eventually turned into a somewhat steep hill which led up to an outlet from the road. A few wagons littered the space and there was a sign that read 'Los Pegasus Scenic Overlook'. I couldn't exactly call it a 'scenic' overlook but an overlook none the less. I trotted over to the edge. There wasn't anything to see now except for a few dim lights from within the ruined city. My spyglass would do me little good until it got brighter.

A four wheeled wagon that was made of what I determined as sturdy enough wood sat on the edge of the overlook. A wedge beneath the wheel kept it from rolling anywhere. It didn't have a roof but a peek inside revealed a crude bed consisting of towels that had been laid on the floor. Most of the towels were dirty and smelled like one of my stable jumpsuits after working in the greenhouse for twelve hours straight.

And it was still the most welcoming sight I had seen since I left the Stable.

I climbed into the wagon and set the harness I had looted slung over the side. Argus was placed perched against the corner as I slung my satchel off. As it hit the floor the flap flung open and my Daring Do books slid out. As good as a late night reading session sounded all I wanted to do was sleep so I nudged the books back into the bag with my hoof.

As they went in a tiny piece of paper slid back out. I didn't pack any loose paper so it grabbed my curiosity. I lifted it up with my hoof and turned it over to reveal that it was actually a photo. After switching on my Pip-buck light I could make out what it was. It was a picture of me and Sprocket on my birthday last year. In my hoof I was holding a copy of Daring Do And The Quest For the Sapphire Stone. He had his fore leg over my shoulder and we were both smiling. Down in the corner he had written 'Stay safe: Sprocket' in black marker.

It brought a tear to my eye. He must have slipped it into my bag while I wasn't looking. I held it against my chest. I'd always keep it. It may have been the only memento I'd ever have of home.

I lay down on the bedding looking up at the night sky as I slid the photo into the pocket of my stable barding. I cradled Argus in my hooves in case something or somepony decided to attack me in my sleep. My worries were eventually forgotten as I continued to gazed up at the night sky. It was calming to look at with the clouds rolling across the horizon with the stars glimmering in the background.

I soon found myself drifting off to sleep.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk Added: Night Filly -- You are fascinated by the night sky. So much in fact that you feel stronger at night. Between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., your health increases by 20 points and you gain plus 2 to strength.

Chapter 3: Downhill

Fallout Equestria: Black Sky

Chapter 3: Downhill

I awoke to a damp feeling where my head met the towels I had been sleeping on. Apparently I had started drooling at some point in the night but that's not the only thing that forced me awake. I opened my eyes to an unusually bright light unlike what I was used to. Tilting my head upward I was met with a blinding glow that forced my eyes shut again. Obviously this was the sun I had heard so much about from my classes back in Stable 13. It was quite a bit brighter than I imagined.

I sat up and popped my eyes open again. The dark night had been replaced with a vast blue that stretched across the sky while clouds scattered across the open expanse. It was nice but I had to admit I preferred the night over it. Plus now there was a blinding ball of light in the sky I would have to avoid looking at.

I turned around and stared out from this uncomfortably high slope the wagon sat atop. The city of Los Pegasus dominated the landscape. Suburban looking areas cluttered around downtown where the city shot up with countless tall buildings. One of which stood tall enough to possibly breach the clouds. nestled in the mountains beyond was a massive compound atop a plateau. It was made up of what looked like several dome shaped buildings.

I fumbled behind me for my spyglass to examine it further but was interrupted by an unexpected gunshot which landed a bullet lodged in the side of the wagon. I looked up to see four ponies approaching from the road. The first shot quickly led to a second, third, and fourth coming from the entire group. The speeding bullets forced me to hunker down in the bed of the wagon as I strapped on my satchel and readied Argus. There was a full clip loaded into the chamber this time so the only reason I could possibly run out of ammo is if I'm a bad shot...which was still pretty true.

I perched myself with Argus' sights set on the closest target who quickly fired off two rounds that landed way too close for comfort. I went into a slight panic interrupted by the world abruptly stopping around me. Now I'm no expert but I don't think that time is supposed to stop in the middle of a gunfight.

My confusion ended at the sight of the notification in the top corner of my vision that stated I just turned on S.A.T.S. It was one of those Pip-buck functions where I probably dazed off while being instructed on how to use it. So it looked like I just turned it on by accident but as chance would have it it was exactly what I needed right now.

Just my luck it also displayed instructions on how to use it which rendered the whole lesson on it completely useless. I targeted two shots to the closest attackers head and executed the program. My leg seemed to move on its own as I raised Argus, took aim and fired off two shots. The first bullet missed but the second struck the earth pony right in the forehead. When the world returned to normal he slumped to the ground.

I ducked down inside the wagon. Three ponies, three bullets, and a questionable ability for me to quickly reload. Clearly it wasn't my day.

I was still waiting for S.A.T.S. to recharge when the wagon shifted at the sound of a bullet hitting something other than wood. Not only that but the attacking party had started firing fewer rounds. I peeked up over the side confirming my suspicions. They had knocked the wedge beneath the wheel loose.

The wagon slowly rolled to the edge of the overlook. If I jumped out now I'd have no cover so instinct led me to do the next stupid thing.

Hold the fuck on to something.

The wagon came over the crest where the hill went from gentle slope to dangerous incline as I grabbed the harness that I sung over the side and slid Argus under my bag strap before wrapping my fore hooves over the opposite sides of the wagon. As it rolled over the crest it's speed picked up to the point where I began to question if it would fall apart. The hill was big and was cluttered with rocks and trees all the way to the bottom. I had no method of steering the out of control vehicle other than shifting myself side to side which didn't do much. It felt like that chapter in Daring Do and The Crystal Catacombs except she had a minecart and unlike her I had no experience in situations like this.

I had tucked myself down in the back corner of the wagon. Or at least I did until a boulder tore off the right slat leaving nothing for me to press against on that side so I nearly pushed myself out the side. I managed to hook my foreleg over the opposite side and keep myself from falling out. With the right slat gone I could see the front wheel and how it began to wobble. Yet another thing to worry about in the endless string of things I need to worry about.

Honestly I was terrified at this point. I stumbled to the front of the wagon thinking my leaning would coax the steering a little better but as I raised my head over the front slat a low branch met with my face knocking me back down. "Oh give me a break" I shouted in frustration as I pulled myself back up.

This continued for some time. The ride felt like it was going on longer than it actually was but thankfully by now wagon was nearing the bottom of the hill and my desperate steering seemed to be paying off...somewhat. It at least kept me from crashing a few times and I had learned to duck under low hanging branches. The wagon cut through a clump of tall brush to reveal I was on a collision course with a fence which it smashed through before jolting to a stop on something hard which sent me flying from the wagon.

I hit the ground on something hard and managed to slam my head into the surface. Everything was blurry after that for a bit as I lay on the cold hard surface. I thought I could hear somepony's voice but that was right before I passed out.

When I came to I had a horrible burning headache. It felt like somepony encased my head in metal and hit it with a hammer. I was laying on my side against something that felt like my old bed. My eyes were clenched shut as I rubbed my head with both my hooves.

I felt something wrap over my left foreleg. It felt like a hoof but...I don't know it felt...wrong. "Just try not to move," came a male voice with a slight rasp behind it "you took a pretty bad blow to the head. I expected you to be out longer given the impact. How are you feeling?" I groaned at the question. The ache had subsided just enough for me to squint my eyes open. The room was dim probably lit by an overhead light. Sitting before me was a dark silhouetted pony with bright glowing blue eyes.

I switched on my light to reveal it wasn't a pony at all. This creature had sabre teeth, a curved horn, and bug-like wings. In place of a coat was a smooth body with a slight polish look to it. Two saddlebags were slung at his sides and on top of it all he had holes in his legs.

I knew what he was.

"A...Changeling" I asked with a weak voice. He gave a slight nod. "Well there's something I wasn't expecting" I said as I looked at my E.F.S. to find that his bar was in fact green which calmed me down. He helped me sit up. Turns out I'd been placed on a couch in what looked like a smaller version of Stable 13's rec room. Light shone in from a window to my right. "What...happened" I asked him with pain still throbbing in my head.

He stood up and started to the other side of the room. "Well you crashed a wooden cart just out back as you can see," he said as he gestured out the window. Beyond the surprisingly intact glass I could see the wagon that moments...or hours ago took me on a very unsettling thrill ride. "I was scavenging nearby and saw the crash" he told me as he reached the opposite side of the room. His horn glowed blue as he levitated my bag and rifle from the floor in front of him. He smiled as he floated them over and set them beside me. "Are you alright?"

I nodded "Besides a headache...and maybe a few scrapes...I think I'm okay." He smiled a bit as he made his way back over to the couch. He was nothing like how I imagined a Changeling. In the stable we were taught that Changelings were a race of insect-like ponies that took the form of other ponies and fed off of love.

And speaking of food I hadn't eaten since yesterday...

I reached into my satchel pulled out the least flattened looking sandwich I could find. In hindsight it was a bad idea putting them in plastic wrap and lugging them around in my bag. At least the tomato with lettuce and pickles looked appetizing enough. I glanced up at my host "sorry...may I?" I asked not wanting to be rude. He nodded and went to sifting through his saddlebags.

I unwrapped the sandwich and bit into it. The food was by far the best part of my day so far. The first bite was pretty much the only one I savored as I then proceeded to devour it out of hunger. When I finished I pulled out my canteen and took a good long swig of water. By the time I slipped the canteen back in my bag my headache had improved to the point that I could get up off the couch without probably falling over. Which I then proceeded to do so. The Changeling tried to help me but I assured him that I was fine doing it on my own.

In moments I had set myself on all fours. A little wobbly at first but I quickly regained balance. "So," the Changeling said as he backed away to give me some space "do you have a name?"

I blinked at the question. "Oh...I'm Dragonlily" I told him with a tiny smile. I hadn't been used to ponies asking me my name. Back in stable 13 barely anypony wanted to be acquainted with me long enough to ask the question. I wasn't about to have a repeat of this. "How about you? Do...do Changeling's even have names," I scratched my mane "not that I'm trying to offend you or anything I just-"

He chuckled a little before answering. "No no it's alright. None taken," he said reassuringly "My name is...umm...Skitters," I snickered at the sound of his name "Hey...I didn't choose the name."

"Sorry...it's just I could never imagine a Changeling with a name like Skitters," I said as he sighed and rolled his eyes "heh heh... sorry. I didn't mean to insult you."

He gave a little wave of his hoof. "It's okay...nice to meet a friendly face" he said as he gave me a glance inspection "judging by the stable barding and Pip-buck I'd say you're new to the wasteland"

I nodded. "I left stable 13 last night...not one of my best ideas" I explained as I sorted through my bag. I let out a sigh "in fact I feel like I made a really big mistake" I told him as I slung the bag over my back and tightened the strap around my waist "so how long was I unconscious?"

Before he could answer a bullet zipped through the once intact window. The glass shattered onto the floor leaving a hole to the outside. Gunshots could be heard coming from the yard I had crashed my wagon into. "If you think a joyride in a wagon is going to make us fucking forget about you" a voice shouted from outside as a small apple shaped object passed through the window "you got another fucking thing coming!" I stared stupidly at the apple shaped object that had come to rest just in front of me.

Skitters jumped at me. His impact flung us both back just as the once innocent looking throwing apple thingy erupted in a cloud of fire and debris. My ears rung out and i couldn't hear anything. I stammered back to my hooves only to have Skitters push me down against the floor again. His mouth moved like he was telling me something but my hearing hadn't returned quite yet so I couldn't make it out. So I decided to follow my instincts and stay down.

He crept over to the far side of the couch and reaching behind it pulled out what I had to guess what a gun of some sort. It had a long tan colored cylinder shaped barrel over some kind of dark box shaped metal case. A scope sat atop the device. The large boxy clip on the bottom led to believe it was built for rapid fire but the three spark batteries hooked into it had me confused. It had the trigger bite but instead of a lever based trigger this had a much smaller squeeze trigger that I could only see a griffon using.

He crept over and knelt beneath the shattered window. I hadn't moved from where I tried to stand up. By now my hearing had returned and he quietly called me over. I clenched Argus in my jaw as I crawled over beside him. All was silent outside but my E.F.S told me that they were still out there. "Do you know how to use that thing" he asked me gesturing Argus to which I replied with a nod "okay...when I give the word start shooting." I nodded again remembering to reload Argus from my previous encounter with these ponies.

"Now" he said in a somewhat louder tone than he'd been using. I stood up on my hind legs aiming the rifle out the window as i jumped into S.A.T.S. There were three ponies all poised to open fire. I targeted each of their heads and executed the program. My limbs moved on their own as the system worked to aim my gun. The first shot hit the closest ponies shoulder instead of the head. Not what i planned for but still to my advantage. The second shot missed the second pony entirely and the third shot went right through the last ones skull.

As the world returned to normal my kill collapsed to the ground as the pony I wounded screamed out in pain. I ducked down before either pony who I didn't kill could get a shot off at me. I was getting acquainted with shooting other ponies but I wasn't quite ready to be shot myself. Two bullets whizzed through through the window that I swear grazed my orange mane as I pressed against the wall. I glanced at Skitters "three ponies...ones dead and one is wounded" I told him.

He nodded and flipped a switch on the side of his weapon which made it quickly hum to life before bringing his mouth down on the trigger bit. As he stepped in front of the window he quickly scoped out the two who were left and in moments his gun unleashed a bright crimson beam from the lower barrel. Okay so it was a laser gun I thought to myself. But just as I thought I had fully understood the confusing to all hell weapon he fired again. This time not with a 'zap' but with a 'bang' as the top barrel hurtled around likely of a higher caliber than Argus.

I didn't think I'd ever understand.

He released the trigger bit and stood the gun upright against his hoof. The red bars disappeared from my E.F.S. So I relaxed. The gears in my head were turning like crazy with the past minute. "I have so many questions" I told him simply.

He sighed and seemed to roll his eyes. I couldn't really tell since he didn't have noticeable pupils. "I can see you're in over your head" he pointed out. I nodded as I loaded a new clip into Argus and he continued "alright...why don't you come with me to Fort Stud. On the way I can give you some pointers on staying alive out here."

I thought about it for a second. He seemed to know what he was doing and what did I have to lose? "Alright lets do it" I replied enthusiastically standing back on all fours.

He pointed at the floor just behind me "umm...you dropped something" he told me. I turned and noticed my copy of Daring Do and The Ravenous Rift laying on the floor. It must have fallen out during the shooting so I scooped it back up and slid it back in my bag making sure the buckle was secured. "So...you a Daring Do fan" he asked me.

I practically fan squealed at his question. "Oh Celestia yes I'm a Daring Do fan! Have you ever read Griffons Goblet? So intense! Oh and chapter sixteen of..."

He raised his hoof and cut off my geek out "Easy there Lily...can I call you Lily" he asked me. I nodded and he continued "I've never read any of the books." His statement was a bit of a letdown. "Alright...let me just finish scavenging this house and we can get moving" He said as he turned and went into the other room.

I looked around the living space. The blast had left a large scorch mark beneath the now shattered window. I noticed a door beside the sofa with it's handle was still attached. Given what had happened so far this morning chances are it was rigged to a bomb or something. But curiosity got the better of me and I gave into the urge.

200 years had not been kind to the handle as I practically had to hang on it with all my weight to get it to turn but it finally gave. I pulled the wooden door open to reveal a closet of old dusty coats and hats. The floor was littered with sports gear including a set of roller skates. They were in pretty good condition but alas they were too small for me. However it led me to the conclusion that if there were roller skates there would also...YES. In the corner was a set of four knee pads and a helmet.

I strapped them on thankful that the Velcro straps had held out after so long. I highly doubted they'd stop a bullet but it was a start at least. Unfortunately the helmet didn't fit me. They most likely had belonged to a filly whose head was clearly smaller than mine. Before I closed the door I grabbed a red scarf that was hanging from a rack on the side of the door. It was the only color that wouldn't look weird against my blue coat.

Skitters was standing in the entryway across the room giving me an odd look. "Do you honestly expect those to stop a bullet" he asked me gesturing my new knee pads that I now adorned on all four legs. I shrugged and he let out a sigh "I can see we have a long way to go."

I raised a brow at him "what's that supposed to mean" I asked with a hint of frustration in my voice.

He walked over and pulled Argus off my back "first off your using a gun meant for pegasi. That's why you have the lever here so a pegasus can aim it with two hooves in the air and not rely on a battle saddle" he explained as I gave him a confused look at the words battle saddle. He sighed again "your telling me that you've been lugging around a battle saddle and had no idea what it was" he asked as he pointed to the harness that was slung over the arm of the couch. I nervously gave him a tiny nod and he sighed again "alright alright...this is all new to you. Your learning which is good." He said as he turned toward the door "we'll have you up to par with everypony else by the time we reach Fort Stud" He finished.

He levitated a harness and two saddlebags over his back and strapped his gun down. He waved me over as he stepped out the door. I hastily followed him leaving the battle saddle hanging over the arm of the couch.

Our walk through the suburbs was unsettling. Skitters would reassure me that everything was fine but I would always expect something to jump out at us. I completely disregarded my E.F.S. and emptied a clip from my pistol into a bush that rustled as we went by. Needless to say I was a nervous wreck.

Skitters used this time to teach me a few things about survival. "Now grenades...you know the thing the raiders threw in the window and blew up" he said as I nodded "don't stare at them like you did. Either take cover or throw it back." As he went on I was able to calm myself. He was getting into weapon maintenance when we entered the more commercial areas of town. Creepy burned out houses were now replaced by run down convenient stores and small offices. He stopped me and scanned around "careful...this part of town isn't safe" he said which put me on edge.

Sure enough not a moment later was a loud bang followed by a bullet embedding itself in the pavement at my hooves. Skitters was quick to react as he jumped through a broken display window of a nearby shop. I swiftly followed him inside and readied Argus. Skitters was behind the wall between the open window and the wooden shop door with his rifle drawn. I was left with nothing to hide behind. "So whats the grenade protocol when you don't have any cover" I asked Skitters who was too busy trying to peek out and spot the attacker. Each time he did another gunshot sent him back behind the wall.

After attempting to spot him the fourth time to no avail he gave out a frustrated hiss. "I can't get a good enough view to spot the bastard without getting my head blown off!" There wasn't anything I could do either. There was no cover for me to get behind and see where he...oh yeah that's right.

I looked at my E.F.S. and pointed my hoof "he's in that direction" I said to Skitters at which he gave me a skeptical look. I waved my Pip-buck "Eyes Forward Sparkle" I told him.

He quickly peeked out and then back as the attacker fired again "yep he's over there...Up on a roof behind the parapet with a sniper rifle probably" he said as a familiar looking object bounced into the shop "...and grenades."

Instinct kicked in as I charged forward and kicked the grenade back out the window into the street where it exploded leaving a dust cloud and a crater. "Dumb grenade" I said aloud to myself.

Within moments there was another gunshot followed by an overwhelming surge of pain from my chest. I screamed out and collapsed to the hard floor of the shop. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth as the feeling intensified. I pressed my hoof to my chest. I felt a wet gooey sensation on my hoof as it made contact. I opened my eyes and gazed at my hoof. It wasn't the calming blue coat I was used to as red stains soaked in across my leg. I glanced down at my chest to see blood pouring down from my left side.

I had been shot.

Panic quickly set in as my breathing intensified and my heart started racing. "Lily" Skitters shouted to me "it's okay! Just stay calm" he said to me as I began shaking.

"Calm down" I asked back at him "Skitters I just got shot" I yelled as I pressed my hoof against the wound. Blood still poured from the hole and was soaking into my stable barding. "Skitters it won't stop bleeding!"

"Calm down Lily! Try not to move" he told me as he came out of cover and took a shot at the sniper over on the roof before ducking back behind the wall again "dammit! I can't get a shot" he said.

The sniper wasn't shooting at me for some reason as I lay in his field of fire. Probably figured that I was dead either way. At this point maybe I deserved it. If I hadn't kicked the fucking grenade this wouldn't have happened! My vision started going to black and white and I started getting chills. If this didn't end soon I'd die before Skitters could help me. The blood was pooling onto the ground and up against Argus which lay within reach. Which gave me an idea.

I scooped Argus into my hooves. This seemed desperate but I didn't have much of a choice. My life depended on it now. I waited for Skitters to take another shot and duck behind cover. The sniper would have to be exposed if he wanted to aim. As the two of them had at each other once again I raised Argus toward the roof and dove into S.A.T.S. My chances of hitting him were slim given the distance and the fact that I suck. I targeted his head three times and executed the program.

One shot missed. The second shot as well. My life depended on this last shot. I gave a silent prayer to Celestia as my hoof pulled the trigger sending the third round streaking through the air. The bullet slammed into his head collapsing him to the ground so fast that S.A.T.S. couldn't even bring the world back to normal speed before he disappeared behind the wall he was perched over.

Almost immediately my hooves collapsed to the ground releasing my grip of Argus as the rifle clattered down beside me. Everything was going dark. I was too weak to even move as blood still poured from my chest. Skitters shouted my name as he ran over to me. He started saying things but my hearing was fading too much for me to understand what he was saying.

Then everything went dark as I fell unconscious.

Footnote: Level Up!

Companion Perk Added: Pony of a Thousand Faces. --Whenever Skitters is in your party, you can send him on ahead disguised as another pony to distract your enemies.

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long! Other matters got in the way. Chapter 4 should take less time.

Chapter 4: On A Rail

Fallout Equestria: Black Sky

Chapter 4: On A Rail

I was surrounded by darkness. I don't know what I was wearing but it encased my whole body. I felt the sensation of weightlessness as I floated in the black abyss. There was no sound, just my quiet breathing and the steady beat of my heart. I looked for my hoof but it was too dark to even see it.

Suddenly a tiny white speck appeared before me. It flickered in the dark as I gazed at it in fascination. It was a star. A single star shining in the distance. Then a second appeared beside it. Then a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth as they appeared in all directions. Soon the abyss was filled with more stars than I could count. The way they shimmered all around brought a smile to my face. It was beyond beautiful. I lost track of time as I gazed out into the infinite space around me.

I was at peace.

Suddenly, it was getting harder to breathe. My breath started to labor and my heart rate got faster. I hastily looked around me in a panic as my breath shortened. I felt over the helmet on my head with my hooves but couldn't find any way to take it off. I needed to get out. I needed to breathe. But I wasn't breathing at all now. Whatever air I had was gone.

I choked for any tiny gulp of oxygen I could get but to absolutely no avail. I tried to scream but my lungs wouldn't let me. My heart was racing and my vision was blurring.

Then everything went white

~~~~

I awoke suddenly gasping for breath. Relief swept over me as my lungs filled with air. My heart slowed down to its normal pace as I rubbed my eyes with both my fore hooves. It was over, I was back, I was alive. But why was I still alive?

I looked around me. I was laying on a bed in the right corner of some sort of dark room. Scalpels, bottles, and other medical supplies scattered across a counter with a sink to the left side of the room. A drawer was standing beside the bed. Cabinets hung over the counter. A blanket was set atop me as I sat up.

I reached for my Pip-Buck light when the door in the opposite corner of the room opened. Light flooded into the room from the opening as a single pony stepped into the room. A gold aura shone from atop her head as the lights switched on. Standing there was a gray mare with a violet mane. She wore a long white coat and had a bag slung over her side. She turned and looked at me. At the sight of me she seemed startled a bit. "Oh...sorry. We didn't expect you to be awake so soon" she said as she approached. I pushed myself to the wall. I had no idea who this was and for all I know she was here to torture me. she stepped back "Miss Lily relax" she said in a gentle tone "I'm here to help you" she assured me continuing to hold her distance from me.

I eased up letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I'd been holding in. "H-how do you know my name" I asked her as I pulled the blanket off me.

She slowly walked closer "The pony who carried you in here gave it to us...he saved your life," she explained as she levitated a glass of water into my hooves, "you were in pretty bad shape...if he didn't get you here when he did...well...you know" she said as she floated out a bowl and filled it from the sink. I took a sip from the glass. It didn't taste anything like the water in Stable 13 but I wasn't about to be picky.

"Did you say that a pony carried me here" I asked her. She nodded and I let out a sigh "I see". If it was a pony who carried me here that must mean Skitters moved on. Maybe it was for the best. I was probably a lost cause. "So where am I miss...I never got your name."

She walked over with the bowl of water and a cloth. "Oh...you can call me Tourniquet" she said as she dipped the cloth in the water and rubbed it against my chest "you're at Burham Springs hospital...been here a little over a day" she explained and I nodded.

I looked down at my chest expecting the worst but the wound had completely healed. Aside from the few patches of blood she was washing off there wasn't any evidence that it even happened. "What happened to the bullet wound" I asked. I wasn't a medical expert but something like that doesn't fix itself in a day.

Tourniquet floated over a bottle of red liquid "we extracted the bullet and used a few healing potions to repair the damage. Of course we had to perform a blood transfusion during the process but I doubt you need hear about that" she said and I nodded promptly. Blood donations were common in Stable 13 so I knew all about that. She levitated the potion onto the bed by my side "neither of you had any when you walked into town so you can have this one...just don't tell my boss or I'll lose my job."

I chuckled a little "don't worry. I wont tell anypony" I assured her. She smiled and opened the drawer by the bed using her magic. She pulled out my Stable 13 barding and my satchel and set it beside me. I set the water aside with the cup half empty and put on the barding. To my surprise the hole the bullet left had been sewn and the blood had been completely cleaned off. Stable bardings were easy to clean...mine were just always dirty because I never washed them. I checked the pocket and pulled out Sprockets picture. Thankfully it remained unharmed. I gave a sigh of relief and held it to my chest.

"Friend of yours" Tourniquet asked in curiosity. I nodded and she smiled "good thing we pulled it out before we washed it I guess" she said as she levitated over my rifle and knee pads from behind the dresser. "Your condition seems stable" she observed as I strapped on my satchel and the pads "I'm going to let the doctor know you've recovered and I sent you on your way. Your friend already paid on your behalf" she said as she made for the door. I hopped off the bed putting Sprockets picture back in my pocket and Argus over my back before tucking the healing potion into my bag and following behind Tourniquet. The hallway went in two directions. I gave Tourniquet my thanks before she pointed down the left "exit is down that way, take a left, down the stairs. You'll find yourself in the lobby" she said before heading the other direction "try to take it easy Miss Lily" she said as she walked away "maybe we'll see each other again...hopefully under better circumstances."

She eventually turned the corner and I went off in the direction she told me. So I cheated death miraculously and I was grateful for it but one question was stuck in my head.

If Skitters didn't carry me here then who did?

It was about two in the afternoon as I stepped out into the sun. Burham Springs wasn't the most attractive town I'd seen but then again this was the first town I had seen period. It was a well sized community made up of tents and shacks built surrounding the five story hospital building. Earth ponies, unicorns, and the occasional pegasi moved about the town. It seemed to be a trade community but I had to imagine that the hospital was the main attraction in town.

I wandered for a while. I didn't think to ask Tourniquet the name of the pony who brought me here which left me at a disadvantage. My best bet would be to walk around for a bit and hope that somepony- "Hey! Dragonlily!" Bingo.

I didn't recognize the voice of the pony who trotted up to me from behind. I turned to face the yellow unicorn stallion with an orange mane. He had the same saddlebags and rifle as Skitters which confused me even more. "The nurse said you carried me into town but...do I know you" I asked looking at the rifle slung over his back. Worst case scenario he pulled it off of Skitters' corpse.

He pointed over to an alley away from everypony else and trotted toward it. I followed him over and he turned to face me. "Lily...it's me...Skitters" he whispered to me. This gave me a befuddled look. "okay look at my eyes" he said. I looked up into his blue gaze. After a moment they changed completely blue and then moments later changed back "I'm a changeling remember?"

A spark went off in my brain "oh" I said aloud wanting to smack myself in the face for not realizing that sooner. "Well that explains the gun" I said looking back at the beam...bullet...gun "but what’s with the disguise" I asked him.

We stepped out of the alley "changelings aren't very accepted in pony society. It's been that way since before the war" he told me in a subtle tone trying not to attract attention "so this is my pony disguise 'Golden Blaze'. I got the template from a raider I killed who had a thing for pyrotechnics" he explained. So that just cleared up a lot of confusion but raised another question.

I stopped him before we stepped inside a building with a sign that read 'General Store'. He looked at me with a confused face. "So why didn't you use your disguise when you found me unconscious the other day" I asked.

He gazed down at the dirt with a bit of a frown "I don't have very many pony acquaintances who know my secret outside of Fort Stud...I've never met a stable pony before you so I wanted to see if you would be different" he explained to me as he continued into the store.

I followed close behind "okay so...why exactly have you stuck it out with me? Aren't I weighing you down? I mean you already had to save my life twice...I think" I said. He couldn't deny that I was wrong. From the time I had spent with him I ended up getting hurt more than he did. Not to mention he was practically tutoring me on how to survive.

We stopped just inside the door "Because you need help Lily. And unlike some other ponies in the wasteland I want to help those in need. Plus I can't stand the thought of sending you off alone" He said to me in a calming tone.

I looked up and met his gaze. "Thanks Skitters" I said to him with a smile. He had a look of sympathy about him. He was nothing like how my old history teacher described changelings. I glanced around the store from where I was standing. shelves covered with various odds and ends stood in rows on either side with a counter on the far end "so why are we here anyway" I asked him as he walked over to the counter.

He waved me over "you need armor Lily. That barding won't protect you from anything and those knee pads won't stop much" he explained as I stepped up to the counter beside him "there must be something in that bag you can trade for some caps." I raised a brow at the word 'caps' and he rolled his eyes "bottlecaps are used as money out here" he said before leaning in toward the pony behind the counter "she's new" he whispered to the mare who rolled her eyes in response.

I sifted through my bag. There wasn't much beside some of my flower seeds and a couple of pens. It took some persuasion from Skitters but we managed to sell two of my flattened sandwiches and got a decent price for the 10mm pistol I had managed to run out of ammo with on our walk through the Los Pegasus suburbs. I also traded in my knee pads since we were replacing them anyway. We ended up making about 90 caps during the transaction which Skitters gave me 25 of. "I'll handle the armor. Why don't you look around" he told me as he walked off.

Nothing really stood out as I browsed over the shelves. An entire row was devoted to guns and ammo all of which were too expensive. I passed by a selection of old cans which I couldn't help but stare menacingly at before Skitters told me to cut it out. Finally my eyes caught the sight of something I just thought was amazing. A rope with a grappling hook. I don't know why but ever since I was a little filly I had always wanted one. And who knows, out here I might actually have a use for it. Back in Stable 13 I was just going to climb up the atrium balcony until either the hook broke or somepony yelled at me.

I walked out of the store with eight caps left and my new grappling hook. I wrapped the rope around my waist with the hook tucked under by bag strap to keep it from dangling. Skitters was still inside so I sat down by the door. The ponies walking up and down the street reminded me of the hallways back in stable 13. The early morning commute was rather similar with everypony rushing to work. I hadn't actually observed it since I was a filly since once I started work in the greenhouse I ended up as part of the crowd.

Skitters exited the shop after a while and floated a cardboard box before me with his magic. "It really isn't much but it's a pretty good start" he told me before casting a glance at my new grappling hook and rolling his eyes. I opened the box and pulled out a set of four metal knee pads. They looked pretty worn but it was a step up from the plastic ones I had before. There was also a shoulder plate and a heavy vest with thin metal plating sewn to it. Skitters informed me the vest was bulletproof but I knew that only meant to a certain extent. Still it was better than nothing.

I took the box and its contents around to the side of the store and slipped the vest under my stable barding before securing the shoulder plate and strapping on the knee pads. It was a little uncomfortable but didn't impede my movement too badly. The harness for the shoulder piece was also a bandolier that could hold eight rounds which I promptly used to hold the .32 caliber bullets for Argus. "Now this is more like it" I said aloud to myself as I marveled over my new gear.

I was feeling awesomer!

I stepped out to the front of the store and faced Skitters. "So what do you think" I asked him as he looked over me. I was half expecting him to tell me to strike a pose, but he simply nodded in approval.

We started down the street. Other ponies would glance at me as we walked and I kept hearing murmurs about 'the stable dweller'. I turned to ask Skitters about it only to find he had stopped a ways behind me and was gazing ahead into what could be considered the town square. I set my sight on what caught his attention to see a tan colored unicorn mare arguing with a group of well armed and somewhat scary looking stallions. It peeked my attention so I drew closer until I was within earshot.

"You don't understand" the tan colored mare blurted out "they seized our entire stock and killed our brahmin! You’re supposed to prevent things like this" she said with a mix of anger and worry in her voice. Skitters moved up beside me. The commotion was starting to draw a crowd.

One of the stallions who I had to assume was the leader of the bunch looked down at her. "Lady in case you haven't noticed the Rusty Hooks own this territory. If we send in a team it'll make this town a target" he said as he popped his cigarette back in his mouth.

The mare didn't back down. "So everypony is just supposed to sit here and let them fucking bleed us dry" she hollered up at his face "you can't let them get away with this!"

The stallion stepped forward making her scamper backwards. "We need to keep Burham Springs safe" he shouted down at the mare "if we start a war with the Rusty Hooks we'll be putting everypony in the line of fire" he explained to her. I had to admit he had a point. I had no idea who the Rusty Hooks were but clearly they had more influence than the local militia. I thought on it for a moment as the stallion stepped back "we can't risk everypony's life for a bundle of trade goods" he said as he turned to walk away.

Finally I stepped forward. The argument had attracted a small crowd who gathered at a distance. All their eyes were on me as I walked up to the group of stallions who had their backs turned. "What if somepony else went in and took care of it" I asked the group. They stopped and turned to face me. I could tell in their eyes that they were judging me. Half of me expected them to kick dirt in my face while the other half expected them to keep walking.

Instead the leader stepped forward with a smug look on his face "well now" he began "if it isn't another saint from a stable" he said as he stood before me puffing his cigarette "haven't seen one of you in quite a while" he said as he looked over my stable barding. I opened my mouth to speak but he continued "you must be new so I'll tell you how things work around here...Los Pegasus is run by two groups: the Rusty Hooks and the Reform Faction. Everypony else is just dead weight. Tangle with either of them they will hunt you from here to Manehattan" he explained as he paced back and forth slowly "we're not going to put this town in danger and that's final."

I waved my hoof pushing away the cloud of smoke from his cigarette before speaking. "Okay how about this" I said as I stared right into his eyes "you send me in. I'm not affiliated with anypony so I won’t be putting everypony at risk. I deal with the problem and everypony here can breathe a little easier. I mess up you can deny any affiliation toward me" I explained to him.

He rolled his eyes. "You think you can deal with the Rusty Hooks" he asked as he dropped his cigarette to the ground and flattened it into the dirt with his hoof. There was a long silence before he continued "why the hell not" he said with a shrug "if the Hooks come asking questions we're denying that you ever stepped hoof in this town" he said as he turned to go "you pull this off...I'll buy you a drink. If not...maybe we'll have a touching moment in your honor" he finished as he and the group trotted away.

Skitters emerged from the dispersing crowd with a horrified look on his face. I met his gaze as he stared at me in awe. "Bitch you got balls" he finally blurted out.

"Yeah...I think I kind of dug myself into a hole here" I said as I scratched my mane "I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to sit this out Ski-...I mean Golden" I corrected myself. I didn't want to blow his cover. "I got myself into this mess."

"I'm afraid I can't do that Lily" he responded "I have a history with the Rusty Hooks and lost a lot of good friends because of them" he levitated out his rifle and slammed a fresh clip into the slot "just been waiting for somepony else so I wasn't walking into hell alone."

I couldn't help but grin. "You do realize that this also involves ME walking into hell too right" I asked him. He gave me a smug look and holstered his rifle. "Alright then" I said as I turned toward the...umm...somewhere.

I quickly realized I had no idea where I was going.

"Excuse me" a voice to my left said. I turned to face the tan colored mare who had been arguing with the guard before me. "Are you and Skitters...really going after the Rusty Hooks" she asked me with a concerned look on her face and...wait...Skitters?

Skitters stepped up beside me "Ah ha...I thought that was you Butterscotch" he said with a smile on his face. He noticed my confusion "oh sorry...Dragonlily this is Butterscotch. She runs a caravan around the area."

She looked down at the dirt "well" she began "I DID run a caravan. This is the second time I've lost one" she said with a kick of her hoof "If you're going after them I'm more than willing to help out."

I glanced over at Skitters. He gave an approving nod and I looked back at Butterscotch. "well...we could use some directions."

The Rusty Hooks were holed up inside a train yard to the south of Burham Springs. My Pip-Buck labeled the yard “Mounds’ Train Yard”. The whole place was surrounded by office towers. They had boxcars arranged to form a wall in the center of the yard with ponies patrolling through the rows of train cars. Some of the cars bore the words “Pony Pacific: We Can Handle It For You”. The central compound looked to be made up of tents and various different train cars. The gate was a huge billboard for Sparkle Cola which was leaned over a gap between two boxcars.

We were on the eighth story of an office complex overlooking the front of the yard. The dark interior was keeping us concealed as we looked over the area. My spyglass was proving to be invaluable for assessing the situation. Skitters had shed his pony disguise and was using his scoped rifle to do the same. Butterscotch had decided to wait back in town saying she needed to put together a new caravan. I would have asked my changeling partner about their history together but decided that it could wait until later.

Skitters had a grim look on his face as he scanned the area through his scope. "Of all the places for them to hole up it had to be here" he said in a grim tone "This is going to be difficult...train yards aren't fun to fight through."

I raised a brow at him. "How so" I asked him.

He lowered his rifle and set it against the wall before speaking. "Rows of cars and minimal cover leave both parties exposed if they try to move forward. Anypony can easily lob a grenade under a car from the next row over, a garrison has the advantage since they don't have to leave cover as often and somepony can easily climb on top of a train and have a superior position over everypony else" he explained to me as I looked across the train yard making sense of it all. "And these ponies are dug in Lily" he said as he raised the scope of his rifle to his eye "we'd need an army to take this place out...that or a tank."

I sat on my haunches and thought about our options. Clearly a frontal assault was out of the question. Maybe we could have gone in quietly but our goal was to eliminate this place as a threat. Stealth would have worked if I had a big bomb but all I had was a rifle and subpar aiming skills.

I stood up and stared out at the train yard. The central compound was built like a fortress despite the haphazard looking construction. I looked through my spyglass at the billboard for Sparkle Cola which seemed to serve as the gate. The tracks ran right to the billboard from the stem that fed into it and all the other rows. Unfortunately they seemed to be concentrating their patrols inside that lane. Skitters was right. We'd need an army or some kind of tank to even get to the main gate and then we'd need a battering ram to...or maybe we didn't need any of that.

I sat down again. I had something devious coming together and Skitters could see it in my face. "Dragonlily..." he asked with a concerned tone "what are you thinking?"

I stood up and turned toward the stairs "Skitters I think I have an insane plan that just might work."

The sky was turning orange as I jumped into the cab at the front of an old freight locomotive. We had passed it on our way to the train yard which I was now three city blocks away from. Skitters was off doing his part of the plan which left me on my own. We agreed that we'd give each other an hour before executing my fairly simple yet admittedly elegant plan.

I pushed the skeletal remains of the engineer out of the operators chair and sat at the controls. Nobs, buttons, and levers were on my left and a pair of dark monitors were in front of me. This was the part of my plan that had a lot of 'ifs' in it. One of which was I had no idea how to drive a pre-war spark powered freight train. It wasn't exactly useful knowledge for the stable 13 curriculum and the train in Daring Do And The Diamond of Darkness was an old steam locomotive so I couldn't make sense of anything in front of me except the handle to blow the horn.

I started by flipping the main power switch. The monitor flickered to life displaying several readouts. It said the trains power plant still had sixty two percent charge left so that eliminated one 'if' from the plan. I looked around the cab for some sort of instructions but was met with no results. Later, I would realize that if I had just looked at the labels, I wouldn’t have had any problems. I ended up throwing randoms levers hoping that through trial and error I could get the thing moving. I only had two minutes until we were to make our move since the walk over here took longer than expected.

Finally I pushed a lever to my left all the way to the left and the train’s engine revved up quite loudly.That was something at least, but I needed to be moving. Kind of the point of a train. I went back to pressing buttons and pulling levers at random. Somewhere in my crazy lever pulling, I released the brake which, in turn, allowed the train to notch up quickly. How the thing still ran I had no idea but I wasn't about to question a Celestia damned miracle.

I sat back in the operator seat and watched out the front window.

The train was on the final stretch before entering the train yard. I checked the speedometer which said that the old locomotive was pushing seventy miles an hour. Getting on was the easy part but now I was having second thoughts about the part of the plan where I jump off. I dove out of the chair and slipped through the door at the back of the cab.

A walkway and railing ran the length of the engine. I moved to the back as the train turned the corner into the train yard. The commotion was raising the Hooks' attention as they started taking shots at the locomotive. A red stallion with a black mane jumped onto the platform. He stood there a moment before a wave of green washed over him to reveal a very smug looking Skitters. "I switched the tracks like we planned" he shouted over the loud engine and intensifying gunfire "you should be on a collision course."

As he finished speaking the train took a hard left into the final stretch toward the gate. Skitters spread his insect-like wings and flew from the locomotive leaving me with the desire to not injure myself and a train moving toward a makeshift fortress at ramming speed.

A pole flew by as the train sped toward its target. It was all I needed to close up the last loose end of this insane plan. I unraveled the grappling hook around my waist and held the hook in my mouth with the other end of the rope still tied around me. A second pole flew by and I flung the hook from my mouth. It clanked into a boxcar just ahead of the pole. This wasn't the time for me to miss my aim. I quickly reeled the rope back in and readied for another throw.

Another pole flew by and I tossed the hook at it. It flung past the confounded thing and instead ended up hooking onto a railing atop a cylinder shaped tanker car just beyond my intended target. It wasn't what I was going for but this was not the time to complain seeing as how I was standing at the front of a freight train loaded with Celestia knows what on a collision course with a makeshift compound at an uncomfortable speed.

I jumped from the locomotive and within moments planted my hind hooves onto the side of the tanker car leaving me hanging onto the rope with my forelegs. I pulled myself upright and looked toward the freight engine now speeding away from me toward the Rusty Hook stronghold. I only looked for a second before I pulled myself up atop the tanker car and grabbed my grappling hook. Skitters flew up behind me as we both looked toward the stronghold.

The train slammed into the billboard pushing the two box cars it was beset against sliding inward. From there we were literally watching a train wreck as a plume of flames which I assumed was their ammo dump erupted from within the now breached compound sending debris in all directions causing untold amounts of damage. Some cars that weren't even along the train's path were being tipped over by flying hunks of metal. But it didn't stop there. The billboard was being pushed by the locomotive and was acting as a thin shield that swept up debris and ponies trying to scatter out of the train's path. It all came crashing into what I assume was the main building which consisted of three passenger cars beside each other with a tanker car which was set up towering like a watch tower.

Admittedly it was a ton of fun to watch this unfold.

The impact with the main structure toppled the tanker car into an arrangement of boxcars erupting in a second fireball. The train however continued through the compound until it slammed into their back wall. The locomotive exploded as the rest of the freight cars it had been hauling piled atop one another in an extremely chaotic fashion. Smoke now plumed from within the compound and ponies were running from the what used to be the gate. My plan had worked a little too well in my opinion.

I glanced over at Skitters with a skeptical look on my face. "Is it just me...or was that 'really' evil" I asked him. I was more than concerned about this chain of events. For somepony who hesitated to kill three ponies the other night I seemed to have no problem completely slaughtering an whole compound with a freight train.

Skitters put his hoof on my shoulder. "Lily these ponies have been responsible for more death and destruction in Los Pegasus alone than the Enclave seven years back" he said as the chaos ensued before us "and you just took out one of their main strongholds without firing a single bullet" he said as he put his hoof down "In my book Dragonlily...thats a goddess damned victory. The Los Pegasus ruins are better for it."

His words cleared my skepticism "thanks Skitters" I said with a smile on my face. We looked back at the burning compound. Ponies fled around below us in a panic while others were charging toward the compound brandishing weapons. It was only then that my gaze shifted to the row of cars we stood atop. Every car from here to the other end of the train yard was a tanker car. I wouldn't have concerned myself with it but a ways down the line there was a gap between the cars where two ponies were planting grenades. I turned and jumped from the car "Skitters get away from the tankers" I shouted as I landed on all fours and bound toward the next row of cars. I slid underneath a boxcar as the first tanker erupted in a massive fireball. The explosion caused the next car down to do the same which in turn had the same effect on the next car and so on.

I crawled out the other side of the boxcar as another explosion followed by a loud set of 'clangs' made my ears start ringing. When it returned I saw Skitters touch down beside me. "You okay" he asked as I climbed back to my hooves. A wall of smoke towered where the row of tanker cars once sat. I managed to nod. "That was reckless. Even for the Hooks."

I pulled Argus off my back and checked behind us. "They must have figured we'd die in the explosion. Luckily they gave us a pretty good smokescreen to get out of here" I said to him as we both observed the wall of smoke and fire "I think we should take advantage before they can regroup."

I turned and ran for the exit when Skitters stopped me. "One question" he said with a gesture of his hoof "just one...how did you think of the freight train?"

I rolled my eyes. "I read it in a book once."

The rising plume of smoke to the south had become the talk of Burham Springs as we walked into town. The train yard was several city blocks away and the smoke could still be seen by everypony in town. The sun was just disappearing over the horizon as outdoor lighting began to illuminate the streets.

"I still don't get it" Skitters said from behind me. He had donned his Golden Blaze disguise and had a million and a half question as to how a Daring Do book brought about the destruction of a raider compound that had terrorized the area for years.

I rolled my eyes at him "like I said" I began "it was all explained in the book after Rift of Regret but Stable 13 didn't have that book" I explained to him for the tenth time. It's not like I was particularly happy about Sprocket's lack of a complete Daring Do collection either.

Before we could continue Skitters pointed ahead of us. I turned to see the three stallions from earlier trotting toward us. "huh..." the lead pony began "looks like the new stable pony is good for something after all" he said in a positive tone as he stood before us "you've earned my respect thats for damn sure".

I couldn't help but smirk a little. Back in stable 13 it was rare for somepony to actually respect me let alone acknowledge my existence. I glanced up and met his gaze "If I remember correctly you owe me a drink" I said to him.

The stallion laughed and put his hoof on my shoulder "after pulling off something like that" he said as he pointed to the smoke plume "I'd say nearly everypony in town owes you one" he exclaimed before he led us off to the bar.

While things were starting to get quiet around town the bar still remained as lively as when I trotted by it earlier today. It was an old diner at the back end of town. Compared to the rest of Burham Springs it was by far the most cheerful place in town. Everypony was chatting it up over drinks and sharing laughs over Celestia knows what. We managed to snag a booth near the door.

"So" I began "your name is Spearhead" I asked the stallion sitting next to me who had just paid for my Sparkle Cola.

He nodded "captain of the Burham Springs militia" he stated proudly "sorry about being hard on you earlier. I had to put on a show for the locals". A unicorn across behind the bar floated over three bottles and set them before us. My bottle of Sparkle Cola had already been opened which ruined my plan to get a free bottle cap. Spearhead had ordered a bottle of scotch which I had drank on very rare occasions back in stable 13 and hated it every time.

"I'm not sure refusing to help somepony qualifies as a show" Skitters said who sat across from me as he uncapped the water bottle set before him "I mean I get that the Rusty Hooks are the closest thing to scum since the Enclave but we all saw how that eventually turned out" he continued as he took a sip of water.

"That may be true" Spearhead began "but like the Enclave the Rusty Hooks aren't afraid of wiping out a few towns to get their point across" he explained as I listened in bafflement. All these things were new to me and I had no idea where to start. Eventually I stopped paying attention to the two of them and gazed out the window instead. The first stars were starting to appear in the night sky. The rest of the world just seemed to disappear as I gazed up at their glimmering beauty.

The moment was destroyed by Butterscotch who came out of nowhere and clamped her hoof down on the table nearly spilling my drink. "Hey..." she paused for a moment as her eyes darted about "...you" she finally settled on as her eyes focused back to me.

I gave her my best scowl as I gazed back at her. "You don't remember my name do you" I asked her as Skitters and Spearhead remained quiet.

Butterscotch rolled her eyes. "Sure I do" she replied as her eyes began to wander again "It's...umm..." I raised a brow at her and I swear I saw a single drop of sweat "Blue Carrot?"

We all stared at her with the same expression. I shook my head slowly "no" I replied "it's Dragonlily".

She rolled her eyes. "Well I've been looking at names all damn day and yours only came up once" she argued as she sat down beside Spearhead "and I'd say its more like dragonFIRE considering the smoke tower that can be seen from here to Manehattan" she said with a smirk. I glanced out the window to see that the smoke off in the distance was finally beginning to disperse. "Seriously" she continued "I haven't seen anything like that since the Battle of Dodge" she said as I considered pulling out my notepad and making a list off all the things that I needed to question at some point.

"So Butterscotch...what'll you do now" I asked before taking a sip from my Sparkle Cola.

She rubbed her hooves together and smiled. She was awfully gleeful for somepony who lost an entire caravan just this morning. "Oh you don't need to worry about me" she said with a smile "I've already put together a new caravan thanks to my amazing level of charm and reputation." Her confidence was something to be admired. Come to think of it she wasn't anything like this back in the town square.

Spearhead got up from the booth "I've gotta get back on my shift" he said before finishing off his scotch and directing his gaze at me "Dragonlily...it's been a pleasure" he told me before heading out the door and into the night. Butterscotch watched him go out the door and then shifted her gaze between me and Skitters.

We eventually ended up staring at each other in awkward silence until Butterscotch let out a sigh. "Frankly I'm less worried about my caravan than I'm worried about you two" she said with a hint of concern in her voice "the Rusty Hooks aren't very keen on letting somepony burn down one of their strongholds...way I see it they'll put a bounty on you two" she said as she clamped her hoof down on the table "a big one".

Skitters set his water bottle down on the table and folded his hooves. "I think we can breathe a little easier than that" Skitters began "seeing as how we flattened their base with a freight train and sent their entire company into a panic...I think we made it very clear that they should keep their distance" he concluded with a swipe of his hoof. I had to admit we did hit them pretty hard. In fact I kind of felt sorry for them.

Butterscotch didn't seem to think so. "Whatever you say Skitters" she said with a roll of her eyes "but when the Rusty Hooks come after you two with an entire platoon of heavily armed pissed off mercenaries please let me be the first one to say I told you so" she said with a grin. I wasn't about to take a side in their disagreement so I decided to sit quietly and drink my Sparkle Cola. Mmm carroty soda goodness. After a moment however Butterscotch directed her attention to me. "So Dragonlily..." she began as I turned to face her "what’s your story? Stable ponies always have some interesting reason for leaving the Stable life behind".

I stared back at her with a blank expression while she sat smiling waiting for me to begin. Skitters looked interested in hearing it as well. Finally I let out a sigh. "Well..." I began as their ears perked up "after reading Daring Do...Stable life just seemed boring...I wanted to do something other than grow flowers all day...so I got the overseer to let me leave".

"Really" Butterscotch asked not sounding very impressed. Upon nodding in response she let out a disgruntled 'ugh' along with a roll of her eyes. "Bo-ring" she blurted out.

"So now that it's been a few days..." Skitters said as we both looked at him "...was it worth it"? His question seemed to hit me like a hoof to the face. In the past few days alone I'd been bruised, shot, blown up, nearly killed, and nearly mutilated with a knife. I was also developing a hatred toward tin cans which may or may not become a homicidal tendency of mine in the future. I had to admit I was feeling a little homesick.

But then again the last few days weren't all awful. I just destroyed a huge raider settlement without firing a single bullet. Everypony in Burham Springs would be better from what I did. The most I did to help ponies back in Stable 13 was grow flowers for the past ten years. It was my third day in the wasteland and I was already making a name for myself. And then there was Skitters. Not only was it undeniably neat meeting my first changeling but for the first time in my life I had made a friend. Sure I had Sprocket back in Stable 13 but I thought of him more as a father. Skitters was somepony I could actually call a friend without it being creepy.

I let out a sigh. "Honestly...I don't know" I finally answered "It's nothing like what I imagined...and I can’t say being shot was a pleasant experience...but...I can help ponies now...I couldn't do that in the stable" I said as both Skitters and Butterscotch listened "I guess...I'll just have to wait and see what happens next".

We sat in silence for a moment before Skitters finally spoke. "Good answer" he said with an approving nod.

We talked well into the night. I zoned out for most of it for a bunch of different reasons including having nothing to contribute, keeping myself from asking too many questions, and that the night sky was very very pretty. I'd zone back in when either of them asked me a question or they wanted me in the conversation but sooner or later I'd go back to looking up at the sky. The vast empty abyss really got me thinking. I wondered what Sprocket was doing and what would become of my old room. There was no doubt that Sprocket missed me...and I sure as hell missed him. A tear rolled down my cheek and Skitters tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey...you alright" he asked in a gentle tone.

I rubbed my eyes and sniffed a little. "Yeah..." I replied "just thinking about stuff". Okay so I suppose I was feeling more than a little bit homesick. None the less I managed to smile back at Skitters. "I'll be alright" I said.

Butterscotch yawned and grabbed my leg to look at my Pip-Buck. It caught me off guard and part of me wanted to call her out for being rude. But what caught my attention was the fact that she seemed familiar with how it works. "I once traveled with a Pegasus who had one of these" she said as she started pressing buttons "hers didn't have the band with the lock and hers had a different color display" she said as she glared at the screen "yup...it's late".

Skitters stretched his legs. "Yeah..." he said as he finished his bottle of water "maybe we should find a place to..." he stopped mid sentence and stared down at something behind me and Butterscotch "...hide".

As he said the word 'hide' the sound of a gunshot silenced the conversing ponies who sat throughout the bar. I turned and saw seven large heavily armored ponies all boasting high caliber looking machine guns and shotguns. All eyes were on the intimidating looking bunch as a black stallion with a red mane stepped forward from the bunch and spoke. "Good evening fillies and gentlecolts" he said with a firm voice that traveled throughout the room "tonight's entertainment is brought to you by highly provoked acts of violence and the Rusty Hooks..."

It seemed that Butterscotch would get to say 'I told you so' sooner than we anticipated.

Footnote: Level-Up!
Quest Perk Added: Choo Choo Motherfucka!
After ramming an old locomotive into a Raider compound, you seem to understand old technology a little bit better. Add +5 to your Science!
Good Karma Gained in Burham Springs and Los Pegasus!

Chapter 5: Repercussions

Chapter 5: Repercussions
Fallout Equestria: Black Sky
Chapter 5: Repercussions

My day used to consist of me getting up, going to work, coming back, reading, and then going to bed. That's the way it was less than a week ago. Now I was being hunted down by a group called the Rusty Hooks because I went and ruined one of their bases with a high speed freight train. Funny how things can change.

The seven heavily armed ponies spread out and began their search as their apparent leader climbed up onto the bar and began to address everypony in the room. "We're after the ponies responsible for slaughtering our boys at the freight yard" he said as he scanned the room "one with an orange mane and blue coat and one changeling" he yelled before jumping down from the bar. Everypony in the room had faces that ranged from annoyed to terrified. I for one was part of the terrified crowd as I slumped down in the booth.

Right before one of the searching ponies caught sight of me Skitters pulled me and Butterscotch under the table and put his hoof over my mouth. "I have an idea" he whispered as a green glow rapidly swept across his body. As he adopted his new look I could have sworn I was looking in a mirror. He had my mane, coat, eyes, and barding. Butterscotch looked about as confused as I was. "When I say when run out from under the table and go left" he whispered as he readied his rifle. I checked the clip for Argus to find it was full just as one of the search ponies walked over to check under the table.

"Now" he quietly shouted as he fired a round into the armored mares back leg.
The pony screamed out as Skitters pushed her aside and bolted out to the right. Almost simultaneously I ran out to the left. It didn't take long for the Rusty Hooks to take notice of the two of us running in our separate directions as they began firing at us with shotguns and assault rifles. Bar-goers ducked beneath the speeding rounds but I could hear more than a few grunts and screams as stray bullets slammed into a fair share of innocent ponies.

I tried not to dwell on the thought of everypony suffering at my expense as I wound through the tables throughout the bar trying to keep from being hit. I glanced over to see Skitters who was still posing as my doppelgänger slam the butt of his rifle into an armored ponies face. He was holding his own but he still had half the Rusty Hooks firing at him while the first one was clenching her leg and groaned in pain by our table as the other three continued trying to pin me down.

I turned with the mouth bit for Argus clenched in my teeth. I jumped into S.A.T.S. and targeted the nearest hostile ponies leg twice. I activated the program which sent one round through his ear and the other into his leg. He collapsed to the floor screaming. "my ear! I got shot in the ear" he cried out. If I were him I'd be more worried about the leg but I didn't really have any experience on which hurt more having only been shot once in the side.
I kicked a table onto it's side and ducked behind it as the leader of the angry bunch opened up with his shotgun. The buckshot sent chunks of table flying. I tried to figure out where he was with my E.F.S. but there were too many amber colored friendly bars moving around to pick out the few red ones that were shooting at me. Everypony around me had either ducked under tables and behind cover or were trying to escape the building.

Two ponies continued to fire into the table I was hunkered down behind with machine gun rounds and shotgun shells. When they stopped to reload I was able to fire off two shots but due to my lack of aim and the fact I was terrified both shots missed. I noted that I was down to one bullet as a grenade landed right beside me. Remembering what Skitters had told me the other day I quickly picked it up with my mouth, stepped out, and flung it back. It landed at the hooves of the machine gun wielding pony. I ducked back behind the table as the grenade exploded.

The stallion flew forward from the blast and crashed into my table. At this point the firing had stopped so I had to assume Skitters had taken care of the other three ponies. The other pony had ducked out of the way and was in the process of getting back up. I bolted out with Argus' mouth bit clenched in my teeth as I pressed the barrel to his head. "Don't move" I shouted at him through my teeth. Before I could disarm his Battle Saddle his head exploded which sent blood and bits of flesh in all directions including my face. The blood splattered against my face as I clenched my eyes shit. He collapsed onto the floor as a pool of blood collected where his head used to be. I looked up to see Butterscotch trotting over with a heavy looking pistol in her mouth. I released Argus and let the rifle fall into my hoof. "What the hell did you do that for" I yelled at her.

She rolled the stallion over and a knife clattered onto the floor. "He was about to stab you" she said firmly "then he was very likely going to kill you" she continued as she picked up the knife and setting the hefty blade in my hoof. I stared down at it before sliding it into my bag.

I looked around the bar. Everypony had either cleared out or was bleeding on the floor from all the stray bullets. There was no sign of Skitters who must have taken off somewhere. A thin layer of smoke had collected inside and the floor was partly covered with puddles of different liquids from alcohol to blood. The place smelled like somepony had thrown up in one of the Stable air vents....Don't ask me how I know that.

A mare was weeping over a limp stallion in the corner. I didn't get too close but I got the idea. A lot of ponies just got hurt because of me. There was no denying that as I leaned my head against the wall. When I looked up again Butterscotch was on her way out the door. "I'll go get Spearhead and somepony from the hospital" she said as she passed through the door.

I turned at the sound of a moan from behind me. Collapsed on the ground was the earth pony stallion I had shot in the ear. He had now focused his attention toward his leg which I had also shot and was starting to bleed quite a bit. As I trotted up to him he looked up into my eyes with a terrified expression on his face. "Help..." he said weakly trying to reach out "help...me".

I pressed my muzzle up to his and gave him the most pissed off face I could conjure up. "And why in the wide wide world of Equestria should I do that?!" I yelled at him which made him crawl away from me "seven ponies including you just stormed into a bar with zero regard for anypony but yourselves. Luna knows how many ponies you killed in the crossfire trying to hit me" I continued to shout at him as he crawled away from me as I drew closer. "So for your sake..." I yelled as he stared into my furious gaze "you'd better have a damn good reason for me not to shoot you in the head!"

Blood continued to pour from his leg as he sat up and faced me with terror in his eyes. Just as I was about to put a bullet between his eyes he spoke. "Honestly...I don't know" he said with a sigh as I eased myself "I've been with the Rusty Hooks for years...and I've done some things I'm not proud of" he explained as I tucked Argus back under my bag strap "I'm not going to beg for my life. You have no reason to help me."

If he was trying to guilt trip me it wasn't working but I reached into my bag and threw him the healing potion that Tourniquet had given me. Before he could drink it I stamped the ground next to him and got in his face again. "I am not helping you out of guilt" I said to him "I'm letting Spearhead deal with you so that you get what you deserve" I said before walking away slowly. I didn't believe he was a good pony but I also didn't believe death was what he deserved.

I continued walking through the bar glancing over the injured ponies that let out a whole choir of moans and grunts. It was distracting enough that I bumped right into Skitters who was standing in my path. He had changed back to his Golden Blaze disguise and was looking around the room. "Great...I'm gone and you ponies get all the action" he said in a sarcastic tone. I was about to smack him across the face when he winked at me. First I didn't understand but it quickly occurred to me that he was still trying to keep the whole changeling thing a secret.
I knew I'd have to deal with explaining this to Spearhead but first things first...I needed a sink to wash the blood off of me.

I didn't plan on it, but planning something and actually making the plan survive the first encounter with the enemy where two different things, more so when the enemy was Reality, I had made my way back out of the bathroom. Once the door closed I felt my legs wobble and my hooves felt cold, I barely made it to the sink before I felt everything in my gut force itself to escape.

I was aiming for the toilet, but everything that wanted out wouldn't wait that long. The acidic taste mixed with my drink really made gag, the smell didn't help matters, it was only when I was empty and I finished the dry heaving that I turned the water on to help the gunk go down the drain before I got back up and put some water in my mouth.

Washing it out I got a good look at myself again, and I saw somepony that wasn't me, she looked way too frazzled.

Her mane was unkempt with and looked like there was bits of blood somehow got into it and was clumping parts of it together, parts of her coat looked like a bruise was starting to form on her neck.

“Ughh, what have I gotten myself into?” I said to myself, I could see the eyes of a Pony that is just now getting over the shock, or going into it, I couldn't tell.

All I knew at that point that this sure wasn't something out of a Daring Do book, sure the later issues did tend to get a bit out there, but nothing as bad as this. “This is almost like it's out of a bad spin-off novel.” Much like Daring Do and the Golem of greed or something from the Beyond Equestria line of books.

I don't know how long I was in there but it seems that I was there for a bit, that's when the Bartender got my attention.

“You okay? You've been in here for a while.” The Unicorn from the bar before had shown up, she looked at me with a bit of concern, “Holy Celestia!”

“Wha?” I said as I looked down where she pointed, below me, it was then that I noticed the small pool of blood that was under me, it took me a few second before the situation finally hit me. I was bleeding. “Wha?” I said as the shock of the night's events finally started to take their toll and I pretty much blacked out.

It felt like I was in that black nothingness, floating with pinpricks of stars in a vast black ocean, I couldn't move, the only sound was my breathing and heart beat as I just floated. I felt constrained, held in, like I was wrapped as I just...existed for lack of a better word, the Moon came into view, rising bit by bit until it filled my view of everything, I couldn't stare away from it,
like it held me in it's trance.

“It's beautiful.” I said to myself looking at the warm glow.

“Thanks!” Wait, who said that? “I did.”

That's when the moon started to turn and soon revealed the face of a changeling most frightening goofiest smile to ever exist and I did the only thing I could do. I screamed to the top of my lungs.
“AGGGHHHH!!”

I shot up, giving a shout only to end up headbutting Skitters while got knocked back. He then fell back on his back losing his disguise for a second there before it reformed.

“Ow, why did you go and do that?” He said rubbing his forehead.

“Me? What about yourself? What was that anyway? Did you got and read my mind or something?” I too was rubbing my forehead.

“Sorry about that, you've been out for hours and I was getting worried, as for what I did it was less mind reading and more like mind feeling.”

“Wha...that doesn't make much sense.” I said to him as he got back up.

“Yeah, it's very hard to describe the trick, and not many of,” He looked around to see if anyone was listening before he came up close and whispered to me the rest. “us have this ability, it's pretty rare. I'll tell you more later.”

Just then Spearhead came by, “Well it's good to see you up and about.”

“Yeah, I guess the situation just got to me finally.” I said to him as he came into the room.

“That's good to hear,” He said, “Soon as you're on your hooves there's something I might need from you.”
“Oh, what is it?”

“Well, we kind of need you to help with that one bloke that survived,” Spearhead said, the look he was giving me was kind of cold, or at least I thought it was at the time. I couldn't tell what he was thinking but looking back I kind of can guess what he was going over wasn't something he was liking.

“The town kind of wants to string him up in place of the others that shot up the bar, but he's barely a colt going on to a stallion, and I really don't like the talk around town.”

Yeah, It wasn't looking good, but I'm not sure I should, but then it kind of hit me, the pony said he had been with the rusty hooks for years, and he's barely old enough to be considered a stallion? I had a rather sick feeling in my stomach that second, however I held it down because the implication alone would make me kind of get sick and I was already feeling faint from the blood loss.

“Well, what do you want me do about it?” I said a good bit of denial in my heart and head trying to stomach what I was thinking about. “Shouldn't he pay for his crimes?”

“Maybe so, but I can't bring myself to let that happen, plus there's also the threat that the other survivors of the gang poses,” Spearhead said. Skitters still in his 'Golden Blaze' form at this point spoke up.

“You don't mean Flayer, please tell me she's not here!” Skitters nearly shouted, the fear in his eyes completely exposed.

“Uh, who's Flayer?” I asked raising my right hoof to get their attention. Spearhead looked to me, he was almost looking at me with either pity or jealousy, most likely it was both given just how much he knew about the tales of this pony.

“Flayer Claws, she's a lieutenant in the Rusty Hooks, there's tales of her being a rather nasty enforcer for the gang as well as a lieutenant, anyone that's seen her and lived only did so because she needed to send a message. I've personally had the misfortune of meeting her, I saw her curse somepony with a spell that caused them to slowly kill themselves, I can only wish I won't have to see it again. Her only saving grace is that she keeps to her word, but how she interprets it is another matter, but it's the only reason I'm still standing.” Spearhead said, his face going a bit pale at what that encounter was like, I am glad I wouldn't have to live it, I just had to live something just as bad later down the line.

Skitters looked like he was about to lose it. “BUT IS SHE HERE?!”
Spearhead at least looked at bit relieved at this point,

“No, according to the prisoner, she's still at least two days out on some raid somewhere before coming into the area. But word will get out of what happened, and more then likely soon, which is why I need you to help with this matter.”

Later, in the Town hall, which was made up of a ruined operations theater in an unused part of the hospital, from everyone's looks I could tell something was up, the mummers and the small conversations between everyone's groups was almost defining. You could hear some talking about my actions at the Rusty Hook's base, about how some seem to be regretting having me get rid of them.

Some even sounded like they wanted me strung up along with the pony that shot up the bar, skitters was with me and what we heard he didn't like what was being said himself. Not that I could blame him because he was also named a few times from his pony identity, it was starting to seem like it was getting out of hoof when everyone's attention was brought to the center of the stage as the town mayor and what I was told the city council walked in.

The Mayor herself was a Unicorn mare, blonde mane and tail with a blue streak going through it, her coat was that of a very light gray, and she had a very tall stature, almost like an alicorn's build, but without the wings. Her cutie mark was of a cross between a gavel and a rifle over a gold heart, and she looked well into her later years. Her name was Indigo Hearts, and she had a very experienced look about her, on her left hoof she also had a pipbuck, it looked like it had seen some years of use, it also looked like one of the early models. If I had to guess.
Behind her came, a black, raven-like Griffon that was all black with a Raven like head and a with a Spotted Leopard half. He was dressed in Griffon battle armor and carried a rather nasty looking sniper rifle. Next to him Stood an absolute behemoth of an earth pony by the name of EarthShard, and he was big, white muzzle and brown coat, tall and muscled, with his red mane and tail, and a Plow Cutie mark
Finally came a Pegasus mare Shady Suns, bright green coat and orange mane and tail, she looked to be wearing what I didn't know at the time was an Enclave officer’s dress uniform, I'd later learn why.

As soon as Indigo raised her hoof the room quieted down. “As you all know, the Rusty hooks base-camp near our town has been destroyed, and with it their attacks have already stopped hitting any of the caravans, no debate why, however with this news comes a revelation. It seems that this blessing comes with a cost, the Hooks' Lt. Flayer Claws was in the area coming to inspect the camp while they were searching in the nearby military ruins, for now she and her team it seems will be back when they hear of what happened to their camp.”

The Room exploded into shouts of 'what are we going to do?' and 'By sweet Celestia's black beard!' and such before Indigo started to slam her hoof into the ground.

“ORDER! ORDER! WILL YOU PONIES CALM DOWN!” She yelled, she had enhanced her voice with a spell that coupled with the room's acoustical properties quieted the panic down. “Now we have a plan to deal with this but it will involve everyone's cooperation in this matter. For now though the town will be on lockdown, no one in or out without our say so. No one is going to be able to leave until the threat has passed.”

More murmurs and mumblings from the crowd, some looking worried to the news of the lockdown itself.

“I'll leave the details the others,” She said leaving the stage. “ Spearhead, please bring our guests.”

It was at this point that Spearhead had encouraged me, and by encouraged I mean yanked, me and Skitters out of our seats out into the hallway to another room in the hospital.

“HEY! What gives?” I said as I got loose from him. Skitters having a much harder time of it himself.

“The mayor wants to talk do you about the plan.” He said still holding his death grip on skitters.

“Okay, but why did you drag me out of there like that?”

“Because we need to hurry, there's no telling when Flayer Claws will be back, and I for one don't want to keep the mayor waiting, let's just say that she's not lasted this long by being dumb. Now come on you two!”

In the office we stood before Indigo Hearts, it was rather awkward given the cold stare she was giving us. Skitters was particularly unnerved as he would later tell me why, but at the moment Spearhead was standing behind us, as if to prevent us from running.

“Now I know you two have done us a service in ridding us of the Rusty Hooks, but your actions has caused us more trouble.”

“WAIT! OUR ACTIONS?! You guys were the ones in need of help, I'm surprised you didn't try to get rid of them yourselves given how easy it was!” I was furious, she was trying to pin all the blame on us? “Not to mention where were the guards when the bar was shot up?”

To say she wasn't impressed would have been an understatement, she just looked at me as if I was a mere foal throwing a tantrum.

She slammed her hooves onto her desk as she stood up from her seat, “YOU WHERE THE ONE THAT VOLUNTEERED TO DEAL WITH THEM!” She shouted in a voice that would match the mythological royal Canterlot voice. She then composed herself before sitting back down in an impassive state. “As for the other guards, the Hooks busted though one of the gates killing three guards in the process, I'm still not sure how they left such a huge hole in the doors without making a sound. The Hooks may be organized, but they don't have anyone outside of maybe Flayer Claws with high level magic like that, and she isn't here yet, but that's besides the point, you two brought more trouble down on us, but we can use that to our advantage.”

“How?” I asked skeptical of any plan.

“Simple, as of this moment you are a newly-established bounty hunter and were here to collect on the wanted posters for leader of the gang, but since you blew practically all of them up as well as the dead leader back in the bar, you will be taking the only prisoner left to Los Pegasus.” She then pushed a paper with my name on it stating that I had come here to collect on the reward for the capture or killing of the local Rusty Hooks gang. Mind you 25,000 caps was a pretty big sum, but I wondered why no one would want to collect this.

“Why are you pushing this plan?” Skitters spoke up. At that point spearhead spoke up.

“It was either this or hold you two for the Hooks to send some ponies after us all and we'd just serve you two up, and blame the deaths of everyone of the Hooks on you two.”

“What!? You can't be serious about this!” I was livid at this point, “are you two seriously considering this?

“What choice do we have?” Spearhead said with a shameful look in his eyes. “We don't have the firepower or the numbers to properly defend from any kind of attack at the moment. So it is either giving up you two, or we set you off and have you two lure the hooks away from the town.”

“We've already are spreading word about you and your friend here that you two will be taking the prisoner to Los Pegasus, right now they are the only thing with any kind of functioning justice system, the local NCR garrison will be interested in your story of what you did for sure.” Indigo said as she used her magic to pull up a saddle bag that she opened used it to pull out another document. “Here, this letter will say that you did the job of taking out the camp, but the reward will be going to us.”

“We did the work of getting rid of them for you.” Skitters protested.

“Yes, but then who's going to pay for the damages to the town? What about the bar itself?” Spearhead said. “I sure don't have the kind of caps on hoof to fix up the gate, but that reward money will. And since you brought the Hooks on us you’ll have to pay for it, besides, this way we get them bloody raiders off our backs and you get to not only keep your freedom but stay alive over being raped, murdered, and possibly using your body as a shooting dummy. If you’re really lucky and the hooks are in a good mood, in that order.”

Me and skitters both gulped at that last one, “Yeah, I think that would be better.” I said. “But you can't let us go just like that.”

“No, we won't.” Indigo said as she pushed the saddle bag to me after putting the document back in. “There are 3000 caps in that bag, the shops in town are going to sell you some of their better wares at a discount. You're going to need every advantage you two can get your hooves on, think of this as your reward for getting rid of the camp, but remember, you need to stay ahead of the Hooks from here on out. They will be on your tail from Here to Los Pegasus. Spearhead, take them shopping, I've got to plan on how to convince a bucking Shit-storm that's coming our way and redirect it away from us.”

He nodded as he walked to us and ushered us out. “Come on you two, we need to get you two ready.”

Now 3000 caps is a lot of money, but given how hard it was for Spearhead to not only enforce normal prices but the promised discount, it didn't last very long. Getting things like ammo and supplies for the trip wasn't to bad, about 800 caps covered it and our bags were full of healing potions, rad-away, clean water, and some much needed food. It was when we went to get armor and guns that we knew that this was going to be a hard trip.

We had just walked into store called the War Memorial which sold weapons, armor, and parts, strangely no ammo, seems the owners had a deal going with the store next door for our supplies. It was built out of three train cars, a pegasus bus carriage for a desk/counter-top, and all this was the front which was attached to a warehouse with a very surly ghoul Earth pony stallion who welcomed Spearhead and nearly shot my head off yelling at me to get out until his boss a rather young dragon hatchling named Quartz to calm him down and have him go into the back so she could deal with us.

“So what can I get you fine ponies this day?” She said with a cheery voice, she had on her what looked like a mane which were just very long very fine scales with spikes/dorsal like fins coming out of her head and going down her back. All of them were a dingy shade of light blue shade of blue-white while her body scales Bore a darker,held a more dark glowing sea green, and her tail had a spike club at the end, She stood almost as tall as me.

“Well, we were looking to see if you have anything that we could upgrade to.” I said as I walked up to the counter-top, “Got anything you can recommend?”
“Well, let's see what you have currently.” She said as me and skitters showed her our main weapons. “Esssh! No offense, but these poor things have seen better days. Yeah, the rust and dents on them really need to be taken care of, let's see then.”

She then went to under the counter and started to rummage around tossing a few things around as she hummed a little tune, her tail wagging this way and that do the beat of the tempo she went at.

“AH! Here we go,” she then brought up a very nice and rather clean looking rifle. “I call this little girl the Spit fire, she can take down an armored foe up to a mile away with her 12x zoom, three fire rate settings of single shot, three shot, and 'DAMN THE TORPEDOES!' She's able to shoot anything from a .45 all the way to a 50. cal thanks to the mod kit that lets you change the caliber as needed in the field thanks to the easy change system. She also comes with a set of muzzles and silencer options and a tripod for long range ambushes. She was an early Enclave model before they when to near full energy weapons so she has a few experimentational mods to her. Some which will let your bullets spit fire, plasma, acid, and my personal favorite, throwing star shaped lighting! Her range finder also has several modes that will help track your targets, see through the dark, body heat, and in tight areas, through walls. All this for the low low price of 75,000 caps, with the discount of course.”

Both me and skitters just stared at the gun, but then back to each other, we both knew where this was going. “Uh...I think that is a tad out of our price range.”

“Oh?” She said as she looked Spearhead who only shook his head no. “I see.” She said a tad deflated.

So back went the gun as she looked at us both with a bit of sourness on her face. “So what is your price range then?”

“2,200 caps.” Skitters replied.

“Oh, I see.” she said as she went back down and rummaged again, this time no happy tune as she brought out a bucket of what looked like scrap parts and broken pieces of other guns. “I can sell you this.”

“Come on Quartz, the mayor did say to do better than that.” Spearhead spoke up.

“Hey, I'm trying to run a business here, the Rusty Hook haven't been kind to my suppliers here, and they sure won't be paying me if I tried to do business with them.” She huffed a bit of smoke from her nose. “Okay, listen, I know I'm suppose to show you two some of the good stuff, but I deal with stuff that's very hard to come by, as in factory new if I can get my claws on it.” She took back the bucket and put it back into the place she found it at, walking around the counter-top to a door from the carriage part, walking to a small area of the shop.
“So while I do have a few guns in that range, you two need way better, and what I got isn't much better at that price, but I do have another option.” Quartz then pulled a lever on the side of the wall and it slid to the side opening up another room that was what you could call a walk in closet, she beckoned us both into the room. “I don't normally sell this outside of my V.I.P. list, but given what you two will be heading into you will need some kind of edge. So have a look at my weapon and armor mod selection.”

And what a selection it was, she had all kind of weapons mods from lighter barrels to specialized chambers, to better mouth grips to all kind of battle saddle mods for different ammo's or damage properties. She even had enchantment mods that she claimed that she got from some pony that gave it to her for a steal. She even claimed that she was able to make more of them, but she wouldn't say how.

“Whoa!” Skitters exclaimed. “This sight mod, you have one that can see changelings?” He was a tad nervous of that one, not to mention the price on it was about 1/5th of the first gun she showed us.

“Yeah, that one is exclusive to my store only, can't find it anywhere else in the wastes, given that I'm the only one that can make and sell them. Still, way out of your price range, here these might suit your weapons better.”

She said as she held up a box of weapon mods that were rather priced better for us. By the end of it she also showed us the armor mods that she could show us, and they weren't the greatest, but they should give us a little bit extra edge to survivable out there. Skitter's and my weapons were cleaned up with replacement part mods that at least would give us some better damage and range, and in total we spent almost all of the caps we had, we only had about 34 caps left over.

Sure they where the bottom tier items, but they still improved our chances if you asked me, a better chamber mod for both our weapons, new sights, a few extra things that would help like one-time-use spell enchantment mods for our bullets, some radiation insulation for my suit with a few added pieces of cheap light armor, but I guess my favorite was the mod kit that took up almost half of our caps.

“So this kit will let us change up our weapons and armor?” I asked as I fiddled with it as Quartz showed me to prances on some junk weapons that were going to go into the scrap pile.

“To a point,” She said. “You'd need a workbench to do anything more extensive than some light work. Most work benches with a minimum set of tools will work with this, if you need to make it and this can help, but if you don't have the work space all you can do is maintenance and using it to swap mods.”

“Wow, and why haven't you sold this to the militia Quartz?” Spearhead asked looking a bit miffed.

“Because I have to make them and the parts are very hard to come by, this one here isn't even the best I got, and it took almost a year of searching for the parts alone to make this, I've only two in the back that are the best to make anything I want and that is almost a total of five years of looking. What I selling is the bare bones model, it's got templates, if you want to do more with it you have to be a really good tinkerer or very very creative with how limited it is. Hell the mayor is pushing me to let the city guard use my weapons benches, but I'm not letting anypony near them until I can find someone as good as old Cast Iron, and so far Dragonlily here, she show talent, but no where near what I need.”

“Thanks I think.” Sounding somewhat proud.

“Don't take it as a complement just yet, you'd need a lot more time than what you have to get to Cast Iron's level, and he's been around since before the great war. Still, if you ever do decide to go full time, just come back here, you might like it.”

“I'll think about it, maybe, right now we've got a prisoner to pick up.” I sighed, Skitters following me as Spearhead gave a nod as we left.

Now we just needed to pick up our charge and then get out of town, we could only hope that this crazy plan of theirs worked because from what I learned later, I really didn't have a clue as to what I was getting into or where it was going to lead.

Footnote: Quest: Saddle up: complete
Quest skill/Perk gained: Mod Crafting: With a workbench and the mod kit, you can now modify nearly any weapon or armor you come across, you can't make your own mods yet outside of a few templates, but with time and practice you might be able to make some wicked items. Permanent +5% damage to all ranged and melee damage, Permanent +3% damage resistance to all armor, Permanent +1% accuracy, Permanents can increase with more practice to a max of five times with an increase of cost to invest, can now take junk items and scrap them for needed components.

Author's Note

Sorry for the long long long long long long long long long long long long wait! We're finally back with our new writer and we're gonna do our very best to bring you something awesome.

Chapter 6: The Long Way

Fallout Equestria: Black Sky

Chapter 6: The Long Way

Me and Skitters could only look dumbfounded as we saw what the Rusty Hooks member was tided up in, ropes covered him nearly from head to flank his muzzle was closed tight with a bridle made of the same rope to keep him silent, all four of his legs where kept tight to his body, and on top of all that, he was then roped onto all four contours of the cart, a rickety barely holding together thing that looked ready to fall apart if you so much as sneezed in it's direction.

“We're suppose to take him in that?” Skitters asked.

“Pretty much,” Spear said.

“This is all we can spare” The Mayor said, she then gave a nod as two guard ponies quickly left back into town. “We don't have a lot of parts for it, but you should be able to use it.”

“Not but to be ungrateful, but are you sure we couldn't have something a bit less...deathtrap?” I said.

“Sorry kid.” Spear said as he started to walk back into town. “But what we got needs to be ready for the rest of the gang. From here you're on your own.”

“I've got every bit of confidence you'll do great,” the mayor said as she slapped me on my back and walked back herself. With that the doors closed behind her with a mighty clang and the locks being put in place.

And there we where, just me, skitters, and the gang member.

“So now what?” Skitters asked me, I just looked at him with a raised eye brow.

We were taking a wide birth around town. If the Rusty Hooks were out looking for us their efforts would mostly be focused in and around Los Pegasus. Since our destination was on the other side of town it was safer this way.

It would be a several hour trip with me tied to the cart pulling it, being an Earth Pony may have it's advantages like a big athletic advantage over other ponies, but it was no less exhausting. We were at this point having to travel South to make a bee line straight for Los Pegasus. This close to the old Smokey Mountains and the Unicorn Range behind us, we followed one of the old caravan trails along side some train tracks, given the hilly nature of the route in the immediate area, it gave us some measure of cover.

The time spent walking said trail was quiet and other then a few Bloatsprites, and Radroaches, in the area, it was pretty lonely. Dead trees lined either side of the tracks as we passed through this part of the trail.

Eventually we deiced to take a break and give my sore legs a bit of a rest. Skitters unhooked me from the harness then went to help 'escort' our prisoner around to a dead bush to let him relieve himself as it where. Skitters kept his gun trained on him so he wouldn't try to anything. Once done we tied him back up.

While skitters had been busy with that I spent that time getting our food ready, I had to make do with some dried up jerky, a few pieces of what looked like lettuce, and some of the flattest bread in the world. Given that the bread we got amounted to some hard crusty old thing that you could use to hammer a nail in, in fact I think I saw someone using it as such back in town before we left.

“This stuff is nothing like the food back home.” I said. “At least with that I don't want to gag afterwords.”

“All tastes the same to me,” Skitters commented. “bland and boring, not like my, favorite meal. Mind you it's not like I can get it at the moment.”

“hmm.” was my only response as I took another bite.

“HEEEMPH!” our prisoner tried to say though the bridle “merrhs meeer mre?”

Skitters and me looked at each other then back at the prisoner. I tilted my head to him and Skitters magicked the bridle from his muzzle.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“Bahh! I said 'can I have some?' I haven't had anything to eat in two days.” He said with a bit of a whimper.

Skitters was indifferent to the matter, but couldn't let him starve, no pony deserve that. Walking up to him with the other half of my sandwich I stuffed it into his mouth.

“Here,” Just because I didn't want to starve him didn't mean I was going to be nice about it, he still hurt a good number of ponies back in town.

“Mrrph mou!” He said as he ate his meal, showing a big smile as he swallowed it all in a few bites. “That was good.”

I saw Skitters ready the gag for his mouth put I put my leg before him to stop it, I wanted to know a few things.

“So what's your name?” I asked him while I had the chance. No point in treating him any worse then he deserved, and maybe I could get something out of him as to why he did it.

“Rusty Chrome.” Now that I was paying him some attention I noticed how young he was, he must have been barely 15 or so.

“Pretty young to be in a gang.”

“It's the wasteland, you are either part of some gang, an epic bad-ass loner, or you're dead out here.” He said with a shrugged as best he could tided down as he was.

“I'm surprised you are being so friendly.” Skitters pointed out. “I'd figure you'd be as unhelpful as possible.”

“Are you kidding? Knowing that FlayClaw might be coming for us, I'm hoping to get put in an NCR prison, I'll live longer, and anything that gets me there quicker will only make me too happy to help.” He said, just how bad is this FlayClaw. Besides what little Spearhead had given me, I know next to nothing about his pony, I would push the matter but Skitters had a bit of a pale look on him from the name alone, so I decided to move on.

“So why did you attack the town?” I asked, not sure I was going to like his answer.

“Besides revenge? Mostly because Steel Hook, the pony you killed, was the current leader.”

“Current?” Skitters asked.

“Yeah, after your stunt with the train, you kind of killed all the leadership that was in the building you crashed it into. Brilliant bit of work if you ask me, if I hasn't been on the edge of all that you would have gotten me and Steel Hook as well after he stormed off from the meeting.”

Talk about timing, I never knew I had dealt such a huge blow like that, still given the retaliation that took place.

“Tell me about Steel Hook. Why'd he decide to attack the town?” I asked him.

“Steel Hook was always ambitious, he tired a few times to take over.”

“I take it he failed big time?” Skitters commented after laying down and using his magic to pull out another dried jerky to consume.

“Oh you don't know the half of it, anypony else would have been hung from their legs and used as a practice dummy, but Steel Hook was too good at his job intimidating the Caravans into giving up their goods and taking care of the ones that wouldn't.”

'Wow, this guy sounds like tons of fun,' I'm kind of glad I got rid of him when I did.

“The ones that wouldn't, well he liked to be really nasty to the fillies and colts they might have had, he used to tell tales of when he worked for somepony big on the east coast in Fillydelphia where he would attack caravans just to capture ponies and drag them off to be sold into slavery. If it wasn't for the boss being on top of him all the times he tried to pull something, she kept him in line, but since you blew up our base he took it as an opportunity, so he rounded up those of us that weren’t dead, injured, or ran off and went to start off his career as the boss of this part of the Rusty Hooks.”

“Not for very long.” I said, “I think I did the world a favor.”

‘SNAP’

The sound of a branch snapping had Skitters on alert and put an abrupt end to my information gathering. bringing his gun up he scanned the trees around us, the shadows of the dead forest making it hard to tell if there was anything out there.

“Lily, get hooked up.” I didn't need to be told twice, given what I'd learned of monsters that are out in the wasteland from what Skitters told me up to now, I figured it was best to do what he said.

‘SNAP’

“Skitters?” I asked trying to tie myself into the harness. “What's going on?”

“I don't know,” he said as he scanned the direction of the noises. “I'm seeing shadows between the trees. Get hooked up already!”

The Gun floating in his magic kept scanning back and forth with each new shadow that seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. I had finally gotten the final strap tied down when Skitters fired a few shots. That's when we heard the growling.

What I saw was a walking out of the tree line and into view was a corpse of a pony. It was rotten and decayed, the smell alone I could barely stand as my brain practically froze staring at it, and then more walked out, starting to growl at me and my changeling friend.

BOOM! The sound of Skitters' shot snapped me out of my stupor, looking back at him, the gun still smoking in his magic.

“LILY! RUN ALREADY!” He said as he took another shot at another of what I could only say was a horde coming out of the woods as they started to pour out like a flood of water, I didn't bother with any kind of complaint as I just ran. Skitters just started pumping shot after shot as I pulled the cart as hard and as fast as I could, ignoring any objects that got in my hooves. The fact that these things could be heard screaming over the sound of the gun fire should give you an idea of just how big said flood was.

We had already been running for a good five minutes following the old trail when I spotted the split.

“SKITTERS! LEFT OR RIGHT?” I shouted as best I could to get his attention, when he didn't out right answer I tired again. “SKITTERS! ARE YOU LISTENING?!”

“For Luna's sake YES! What is it?” he said looking back for a second before a ghoul tried to climb up back of the cart, he promptly slammed its head with the butt of the gun a few times to knock it loose, the body falling still on the ground as the sea of undead like flesh over swept it.

“Left or Right! 'HUFF' Fork ahead!” My body at this point was starting to feel the marathon running catch up to me, now growing up in a stable isn't really all that bad if you need to work out, the gym we had was set up to help with long term health in mind, sure we had treadmills, weights, and other kinds of stuff to help keep in shape, but all that was in a controlled environment.

Out here that isn't the case, sure i’m an Earth Pony with plenty of endurance, and can do a lot more physical activity than other unicorns...not too sure about pegasi...or an Alicorn...and maybe a changeling if they focus their form into an earth pony form. Running from a horde of what i could only imagine were flesh eating zombies while pulling a cart with two passengers, and hitting just about every sharp rock on the trail without a stop for over five minutes on the other hoof can take some steam out of your engine.

I was starting to feel the adrenaline dump start to wear off, muscles start to burn like you'd expect after a long run. It wouldn't be long before I would have to stop, and we needed to put distance between us and the horde that was chasing us. I felt shudders of more zombies trying to get on while skitters at this point used his gun to bat down the unwanted hitchhikers off our ride.

“RIGHT!” He shouted after he pulled out a grenade to try and slow another group that was coming up after peeling off the current offenders, it only worked to stop all but two that also tried to latch on. “LEFT GOES TO A GHOST TOWN!”

“Gotcha!” I said as I pulled the cart more to the right following the split in the tracks, I kept going around a corner when the trees on my left gave way to a bit of a drop, and a wall rock rose suddenly on my right, the trail had narrowed a bit but that gave Skitters more of a shooting gallery as it forced the ghouls to narrow up or fall off the side and into a big drop.

That's when I felt the cart start to bite into my sides, a good number of zombies had caught up and were trying to climb up the back, even with skitters doing everything he could, they just wouldn't stop, he would peel one off for another to take it's place, and hitting them in the head was only stunning them until he was able to get a shot off point blank at their heads.

I meanwhile was running on fumes as I noticed the bridge up ahead a bridge that was missing the middle, no wonder this trail wasn't used anymore, not only because of the undead prowling the woods, but the fact that the only way past this point was gone.

“SKITTERS! There's a bridge ahead, and the middle is gone!”

“What!?” He shouted looking up from shooting another zombie. “ACHK!” Only to barely dodge a bite from some filly that got too close, Skitters could only punch it in the face to back it off, however it still held on, he was dealing with only two at this point and they were not going to give up on us.

We had picked up speed at this point, with the back end of the cart just barely touching the ground every so often. The rather steep grade of the trail made a perfect slide for us to stay ahead of all but the fastest of the zombies coming after us. It wasn't without the issue that I had no option to stop and prevent us from going over or to go back there and lay the smack down myself.

“Lily! Do something!” Skitters shouted as he got rid of one of the zombies only to have to wrestle with the last one trying to eat his face off.

“Do something!? Like what?”

“I DON'T KNOW! I'm too busy dealing with my new special somepony here, and she is really needs to brush her teeth! Just do something, anything at this point!”

It was really was a no win situation, and I didn't have much to work with, I could hear Rusty screaming which didn't help matters as he looked back from me to the rotting pony, we were coming up to the bridge quickly and the gap that was in it. If I had something like a ramp of some kind-

“Skitters! I have an idea, but you're not going to like it!”

“I don't care, just DO IT!” he said doing his damnedest to try and shove the corpse-faced pony out.

“Okay! But you need to get rid of the dead weight!” I pushed myself forward with everything I had left in me. Given the rather steep grade for this set of trail, somepony had built a ramp seemingly for the purpose of a daredevil skating jump. I wasn't about to question the sanity of a bunch of pre-war kids and pressed forward hoping it would hold up.

Skitters had just ejected his girlfriend as I pulled the cart right into the ramp, the ghouls following right behind us, with the momentum and myself pushing with everything, I was pulling away from the horde, going up the ramp without slowing down, we hit the end of the ramp and got a rather nice view of what was once a river in a gorge.

Skitters took a few seconds for his mind to finally understand what I just did, he looked back to see the horde stopping at the edge with some of their numbers going over the edge from not slowing down in time. He had a such a smile on his face until he realized that we were mid air.

That smile faded when we started to hit the peak of our arch, and free fall started to kick in. Rusty began to scream in panic as his face went as pale as a clean sheet as realizing we'd be the ground a bit short of our needed distance.

“SHIT!” I heard skitters shout, I myself looking death in the face for probably the third time...or was it the seventh? Moments of my life flashed before my eyes as I went through them like a sideshow, from birthday parties, to times I was grounded for pulling pranks on the overmare with her son, to the class lessons, all kinds of things. I was so engrossed that I didn't notice Skitters had climbed on top of me and with all four legs held me in a death hug. A green glow of light flashed behind me and the sound of pegasi wings flapping with all their might started filling my ears.

Our straight drop became a more forward movement as Skitters pulled us slowing our descent and increasing our forward momentum, we just barely cleared the edge when we slammed, bounced, and skidded into a large bush on the side of the trail.

After what felt like a thousand cuts and scrapes we had come to a full stop. Poking my head out of the dry bush I got a survey of our surroundings, Skitters was okay...mostly, our prisoner was out like a light, eyes rolled back and foam coming from his mouth while his body was limp like a wet noodle in his restraints.
Lastly I checked on our cart to see if it was still able to work and for anything that may have fallen off it. Once that was finished my body decided this was a good time to collapse as I fell to the ground exhausted and sore.

Nap time...I deserved it.

The sun was getting low in the sky as we continued down the foothills. It would be a few more hours before we got anywhere near where we needed to go, so looking back to skitters trying to keep our prisoner from drowning in his own drool I stuck up a simple question that sort of needed to be asked.

“Skitters, what was that? They looked like Zombies out of one of my Daring Do books back home.”

“Well, you aren't far off, they used to be ponies,” That made me stop.

“Ponies? Used to be?” the idea was finally sinking into my head after all that time running. “Don't tell me-”

“I'm afraid so, it's what happens to those that get too much exposure to any large dose of magical radiation. Far as I can tell if you don't die out right from it, you change and from there you have two ways it can go.”

“What's the other?” I picked up my trot going around some rocks that were on the trail, letting skitters keep treating chrome best he could.

“Well, what we saw back there is what happens to after becoming a ghoul and your mind rots, the other kind is the type that still has their mind intact for the most part, some have lasted for the last 200 some odd years even.”

“Wait, there are ones that old? From before the war?”

“Yeah, I meet a few, one I know claimed to have know a lot of what happened back then, wrote a book about it and everything, mind you it is hard to get a copy since paper and Ink is hard to make. If we find a copy I'll get it, pretty good read.”

The rest of the way was in silence, the wind was very slight as the shady overcast broke in places giving spotty light and shade. Looking down from the foothills I could see a wide open area and just on the horizon what looked like a speck, our destination.

It was near sunset when we would then stop near a fork in the road that went east and west, a small way station had been set up made up out of old train cars and a few pieces that look like they came off houses all built into a large ring with only two ways in or out. It looked run down, a bit smaller then the town we left from, and very very old, but it had life, there was a small caravan line waiting to get in.

As we came up behind the line we could hear an argument going on between one of the ponies of the Caravan and what looked like a guard.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T LEAVE HERE!?” a rather loud voice shouted, we couldn't really see but you could tell there was some tall pony there.

“I'm sorry, but until you are cleared and your cargo's been inspected you have to wait” Said a unicorn stallion. he had on a mishmash of armor pieces and a battle saddle on him, There was a patch with the letters ‘NCR’ on his shoulder. Given how cheap the outfit looked, it was surprising that he had that much, While his partner looked like a Pegasus with full armor and some of the nastiest looking guns I ever saw.

The pony he was arguing with was an alicorn of all things, she looked rather imposing with her tall stature and almost midnight blue coat, her main and tail was cut short but had what looked like flowers in them, and not the wilted stuff either, they looked fresh and vibrant. Trust me as a florist I would know.

“Well why in Celestia's black beard?” Cussed the alicorn to the guard looking rather unhappy that he was put in this situation.

“We've been told to check for any illegal goods and we can't make any exceptions, even if your forms said otherwise. These orders come from the top, we can't chance it.”

“That will take forever already! I'm already behind schedule as is!”

“There's nothing I can do, what with the order we have to fulfill, look you're holding up the line, and we need to clear the others before we close the gate for the night, why not just head to the bar. I'll send somepony over when it's done. NEXT!”

One of the guards in the caravan then pulled on the lead Brahman and lead them into a holding area for inspection. When we came up to the gate we got a few looks.

“Oh boy, I bet there's a story behind this.” The pegasus guard said to my rather raggedy look and how our cart was leaning to one side.

“Name and businesses.” Said the same guard that was auguring with the alicorn before, up close I got a good look at him and his gear, mishmash was right, some of armor looked like it came from parts of a hoofball uniform.

“Dragonlily and Golden Blaze, bounty hunters.” I said trying to not let the annoyance of the situation get to me, I mean I was expecting to go on an adventure, have exciting tales to tell like Daring Do, not get drafted into a plan that used me as bait to lure away a bunch of psycho killers from a town

“I see, got any ID to prove it, and what's with that guy?” he pointed a hoof to rusty chrome.

Skitters magicked the papers the mayor gave us in Burham Springs to the guard and the warrant order that she drew up for us.

“Whoa, Rusty hooks? Heard about these guys, nasty and organized. And the bounty is for the leadership, he doesn't look like top tier material, neither do you from the looks of it.”

“We got lucky,” Skitters took over, “We ran a train into their base, didn't expect it to take the whole place out really.”

The Guard whistled looking back at our prisoner, “So he was the only survivor then?”

“The only one from those that attacked a town after words. Got his' bosses' cutie mark in the bag as proof, this guy is at least worth putting on trial.” I paled a tad at the sound of that.

'We took his cutie mark?' The idea didn't sit well with me, I knew this place was going to be harsh, but I didn't think something so...so, so gruesome would happen. Still we had to keep our cool so I just held down what was left of my stomach contents. 'Wait, when did we get his cutie mark?' Something I would have to ask later.

“I see,” He looked over the rest of the paper he took out a stamp from his side saddle and marked the bottom of the page near the mayor's signature, “take this to the brig, it's across from the bar next to the guards barracks, make sure to show the guards there the stamp, you can hold him there until you have to move on your way.

He gave it back to us which I took in my mouth and put it in my bag.

“Also we're going to be checking your things as well, the inspection station is next to the brig, as long as you are clean of illegal items you will be fine, next in line please.” I was ushered into town as the next pony behind me came up to the guard, “Name and business?”

“Prodigious Peddler-” That was all I heard as I walked into town, the noise of the street was amazingly deceptive from the outside given how much was going on, still the town was a stretch to say the least, it looked and felt more like a fort with buildings taking up every inch they could, alley ways so small you could barely fit one pony in.

All the housing was built on top of business two, three, even four stories at a time, no amount of space was wasted, and the main road though the fort lead to another gate on the far side, there were three side streets on each side and we were making our way to the barracks from one of them, after getting our prisoner secured and our cart checked in for inspection, Skitters and me decided to head to the bar, thankfully they had an inn built on top of it so we could get some rest.

The bar we walked into was a colorful place, there were tables with card games and betting, drinking and fillies and stallions flirting, some going upstairs. some music was playing while a small stage in the back had some ponies putting on some kind of play as a crowd in front of it would either cheer or boo the actors as they threw caps or rotten food at them.

I didn't need to have it spelled out to me just what kind of place this was, but I kept whatever ideas to myself. right now I needed a drink and some decent food, and we had enough caps for just that and a night's rest. walking up to the bar me and skitters sat on a stool each, waiting for the bar tender.

“So what will you two be having,” a Unicorn Stallion walked up to us with a rag and a glass in his magic that he was cleaning.

“Got a cola?”

“Apple Whiskey for me.” Skitter said.

“And a room with two beds please?” I spoke up.

“The drinks coming up, but the rooms are full, not unless you can get someone else to let you bunk with them or you take one of the working ponies for the night. We got a special for couples who are into that kind of thing, filly or stallion, your choice.”

“Uh.” we both said looking at each other then back to the bar tender. “We're not a couple.” Skitters broke in.

“Could have fooled me,” he said putting my bottle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla and a shot of Apple Whiskey before us. “Offer is good until last call, don't take too long.”

Looking at our drinks we both took a swig, the cool drink helped my throat's dry and scratchy soreness from all the dust on the trail.

“Ahhh,” we both said as we put our drinks down.

“So what are we going to do?” Skitters asked me.
“I don't know, but we sure can't sleep on the street, maybe we can get a spare bed or two at the barracks?” I said while Skitters poured himself another shot.

“I don't know, looked pretty full to me, maybe there's another in here?”

“Good luck with that.” We both turned and saw the Alicorn from before sitting next to me taking in a whole bottle of something with a very odd glowing rainbow hue to it. She drank at least a quarter of it before she put it down on the bar and wiping her lips, my pipbuck kind of reacted to the bottle as my EFS showed a less than 0.01 Rad count from here. “The only other places is the full time whore house on the edge of town or Bedbug's place. Either of which I wouldn't suggest unless you are dead, desperate or tougher than a Hellhound.”

The alicorn took another swig, much smaller this time, setting off my rad counter again.

“Sorry, name's Wintergreen.” She said holding out a hoof.

“Dragonlily,” I said taking the friendly gesture then pointing to Skitters, “This is Golden Blaze.”

Wintergreen nodded to him when he waved. “I take it you two are new here, you’re sure not one of the regulars.”

“Nah, we're passing through on our way to an NCR outpost near Los Pegasus.” I said.

“Oh? What for if you don't mind me asking?” she said taking another swig.

“Transporting a prisoner.” Skitter said.

“I see. So that makes you two either mercs, bounty hunters, or military.” She pointed out, “And since Lily here doesn't look all that seasoned as you Golden, nor the fact that you two don't carry yourselves like the NCR, that leaves mercs or bounty hunters.”

“That's pretty observant of you.” I said taking a swig of my drink, to say the least she was starting to impress me.

“When you're out on the road as much as I am trading between towns or hauling big scores for some big shot, you learn a thing or two. Like for one you two seem pretty lightly geared so I'm guessing you two are starting out, and you don't have the normal gear most mercs use, and they don't tend to transport prisoners very much if ever, that leaves bounty hunters. Plus Golden doesn't look like he came from a stable like yourself, so that leaves just starting out?”

“uhhh.” We said a bit bewildered.

“I'll take that as a yes, so which big name did you two bag?” she said with a look that seemed to be a mix between devious and curious, “Some no name two bit hood trying to make a name for themselves?”

“Close, some pony from a gang, shot up a town and we're taking him in for trial.” I said. don't know why but I felt like I didn't want to give away too much to her, at which point I noticed Skitters had his hoof on my shoulder.

I wanted to say something to him, but I didn't, I felt like I really didn't want to question it, but I knew Skitters was responsible for it, I'd have to ask him later.

“Say, come sun up I'm heading out myself, I need to make a beeline to Los Pegasus too, I could use some extra guards, all I got is my one right hoof guy and myself, and it's a pretty long trip.”

“Don't know, we're in a bit of a hurry and we don't have time to waste.” I said.

Wintergreen nodded at that, she still pushed however, “Well, that's something we both have in common, I've got make it there in a days time, and it takes at least half a day on hoof for the next leg, which is why I'm going to head to a train stop, it will cut the trip down massively, plus I can pay you two on top of what ever bounty you got coming. 200 caps each to start and another 500 when we get there in one piece?”

The deal sounded nice, plus a caravan would have some needed supplies we could bargain for or use if it came it. “Tempting.”

“I'll even have that cart of your fixed up some. Saw you two at the barracks and let me tell you it really could help me out, plus if that doesn't seal the deal, I can get you two rooms tonight to stay in.”

“Really? Wow, how nice of you, what's the catch?” I felt like this was too good to be true.

“hehe,” she chucked though another swig of her drink, “not bad, I over played again. Well, I need the extra bodies for guard duty because I'm hauling some really choice goods that the trade in the area is paying major caps for, six figures in caps, but so far this trip has taken it's toll, I lost two recent hires to raiders and... competition. I need to find ponies that might need work, and given what I saw you two seem to fit the bill.”

“Okay, but why us?” I asked, that calm feeling was really starting to feel heavy on me, like it was taking a pound of flesh from me.

“To be honest, you two had a look about you, like you are more trustworthy than most of the town, and given I have to do to keep the loyalty of my workers, I figure you two would be a better pick than most of the mercs that normally go through here. Plus I've had my fair share of mercs and hires that have turned out to be bad employees. enough to know if I'm getting scammed by now.”

Wintergreen then took the bottle and drank down the last of her drink with a satisfying breath. “Ahhhh, so what do you two say? You in?”

“It does seem like a good opportunity, but how can you guarantee this isn't going to bite us in the flank?” Finishing my own drink I set the glass down next to skitters' half empty bottle of apple whiskey.

“None really, this is the wasteland after all, but the arrangement I've already made should keep us from having to face nothing more than a bloatspirte or the like.”

Give how much time we might not of had from the start of this trip to now I figured it was better than nothing, plus sooner we got Chrome to a proper NCR holding area, the sooner we can avoid those after us.

“Yeah, we'll take it.”

“Good, I'll see you two in the morning, OLD SALT!” She shouted to the bartender. “Give them my extra key, I need to finish up a few things.”

“Gotcha.” He waved and magicked a key at us not caring what direction it flew in, Skitters got it in his magic and looked at it.

“I'll be back in a few hours, need to do some last minute things.” And with that she was out the door.

Old Salt turned out was his name, though he didn't look all that old, but he pointed us to the fourth floor of the inn and what door to go though.

“This place sure is a lot nicer then I expected from the outside.” I said.

“Yeah, never been through here but heard some stories of it, it's a whole lot better than some of the rumors give it. I have no idea they had this place looking so clean, so pre-war.”

“Skitters, what did you do to me?” The question took him suddenly and he stopped in the middle of the stairs as we neared the fourth floor.

“What?”

“You heard me, what did you do? I felt like something was wrong but I didn't want to say, what did you do?” He looked to the side, like he was a bit ashamed of something, he thought long and hard of what words to say, but finally gave up and sighed.

“Not in the open. Upstairs.” He pushed me forward, soon as we reach the door on top we went to the thirteenth room, there was a huge double door, skitters put the key in and turned, what we saw when we walked in was nothing short of amazing.

The whole room was like a large living room, it was huge, in fact you could maybe fit two and a half of my Stable quarters into this place, there were small hallways to doors for other rooms, seven of them, at the far end was a large office with a glass window in the door, the living area we were in had several couches, an area with a pre-war movie projector, a record player, and other nice things. This place was leaps and bounds ahead of what we expected, it had to be the owners place. Did that mean Wintergreen owned this room or the building?

That would explain her attitude from before, but that could wait, I still needed to know what Skitters did. Closing and locking the door behind me I came up behind him and got his attention.

“Skitters! We're alone, now tell me, what did you do?” I didn't mean to be forceful, but I needed to know why and how. Looking at me he dropped his 'Golden Blaze' Form for his changeling self.

“Okay, what you need to know is that I did it to protect you, you seemed to be letting out more information then we really should, so I decided to use an....emphatic ability, a kind of suggestion to keep you from giving out too much.”

“What!? You were in my head again?”

“No, nothing like that, more like I was guiding your feelings really. Given who is going to be chasing after us, I felt we needed to leave as little an impression as possible, throw off the trail if you will.”

It was a sound and logical idea, not that I could blame him, still it would have been nice to have a warning about it.

“Besides, something felt...off.” he said which got my attention.

“Off? What do you mean off?”

“I don't know, something felt weird, like the room had you talking, I don't know where it was coming from, but something at the bar gave off something. Soon as I started to guide you I felt like I was playing a game of tug-of-war with your emotions, it was subtle at first,” he said looking away as he tired to think of a way to describe further. “Best way I can describe it was as if the rope that was pulling you was getting thicker, stronger, heavier, and more blunt. Like once it noticed you weren’t doing what it wanted it tried to force things, took every trick I knew to stop it.”

I was worried at this point, something was affecting me and Skitters stopped it? But he was a changeling and I didn't know if he was lying to me, I mean really why would he be-

“STOP!” He shouted grabbing me and then forcing his horn on my head. The rush of energy I felt just then was euphoric, it was like one of my dreams of floating in nothingness, and just like that, it was over.

Skitters was on the ground, his head between his forehooves, I myself was on my back just coming down from the high I just felt.

“Wha?” I looked to skitters as I was splayed out on the floor.

“You spiked, whatever had it's claws in you left something behind. I felt your emotions starting explode.”

“Wha, what?” I was still dazed, but I still could, sort of understand.

“Long story short, I just did something to shield your mind, it should be good for a day or two. But we need rest, come on.”

I was way still more out of it then it seemed, I just nodded and agreed with Skitters as he picked me up and helped me to one of the bedrooms, soon as I hit the sack I was out like a log.

Footnote:
Level up – Gained points for skills.
Temporary bonus, Mental shielding. With Skitters help, you are immune to metal effects for the next 24 to 48 hours.

Author's Note

There's going to be a blog update regarding the lack of progress with this story and what we intend to do about it.

Stay tuned!

Chapter 7: The Road to Fort Stud

Fallout Equestria: Black Sky
Chapter 7:

It was the first real bed that I had slept in without being dragged into on account of dying. I had maybe two or three other beds to compare it to but there was no contest...this was the most uncomfortable bed I had ever slept in. The decrepit old thing had paper thin blankets, worn out springs, a sorry excuse for a pillow, and nonexistent back support. Now I get that the end of the world happened, so I wasn't expecting luxurious accommodations fit for Celestia herself, but it wouldn't be so bad for ponies to have the decency of getting rid of the really old stuff and replacing it with something better.

Needless to say it was the closest thing to a sleepless night I could get without my insomnia acting up.

I awoke to the sound of Skitters banging on the door and telling me to get ready. In my barely awakened state I instinctively swung my hoof down to my left, it was my typical morning routine for shutting off my alarm clock. It took a few seconds for me to realize I wasn't in the Stable anymore so my efforts to silence my alarm were in vain. Especially since this particular alarm was on the other side of the door, had free will, and could mess with my head using his magic.

I sat up in the bed blinking my tired eyes a few times. The room I had was pretty bare consisting of no windows, a single bed, a coat hook on the wall that held my barding and satchel, a small room off to the side that had a toilet and sink, and the door Skitters seemed to be going to town on.

“I'm awake” I said in a half groggy voice “be out in a bit.”

The banging on the door ceased and silence returned to the room once more. I checked my pipbuck’s clock which read 7:04 AM, not the most ideal time to wake up but given my sleeping arrangements it's astounding I got any rest at all. After rolling out of bed I slogged my way over to the bathroom to relieve myself, Once finished I had a look at myself in the mirror over the sink. Countless thoughts raced through my mind as I stared into my tired green eyes.

What am I doing with my life? Is this all I've ever dreamed? How long can I keep this up? My only friend in this world is a creature I was always taught to be evil…

What was Sprocket up to right now?

That last thought lingered for a while. I could always go to him with my problems, talk things over, maybe get a hug. He'd probably have way better judgement on what to do in this situation. Regardless it was all wishful thinking as I pulled his picture out and held it to my chest.

After pulling myself together I got cleaned up to the best of my ability and proceeded to dress myself. I pulled my Stable barding off the wall and gave it a once over, dirt and grime had gathered across its blue leather finish to the point that it could have probably been considered far enough below Stable hygienic standards to be incinerated. Strapping my armor on over it felt out of place in my morning routine...probably because it was...and I never thought checking how much ammo I had left would ever be part of my process of getting ready for the day.

Turning for the door I let out a heavy sigh. “Okay...you'll get through this” I said to myself in the hopes it would boost my self confidence. Sadly given everything that's happened up to this point most of myself knew I could very easily die today. I did however take comfort in the fact that I still had my standards of decency under the circumstances put before me. There was no way for me to uphold said standards but it's the thought that counts.

After breakfast which consisted of incredibly stale Sugar Apple Bombs and one of the absolute pissed poor excuses for coffee I'd ever tasted in my life, me and skitters who had since donned his Golden Blaze persona stepped out into the burning desert sun and we're met with the morning hustle and bustle of the trade outpost. The heat was unlike anything I had ever experienced back home, sure the greenhouse was warm but this was more of a dry heat. Ponies everywhere were going this way and that trying to get to where they needed to be. It had a vague resemblance to the Stable commute but you can imagine the differences.

As we strolled through town every so often somepony would glance over in my direction. I also heard murmurs of ‘The Stable Pony’ or ‘The Lightbringer’ as we went through the crowds. This happened before back in Burham Springs and I still had no idea who this pony was. So finally I decided to run the question by skitters since he was practically my self appointed reference guide.

“Ah yes the Lightbringer” he began “not too long ago there was nothing but clouds over Equestria,complete overcast, it was this whole big scheme put in place by the Enclave around the time the bombs fell.” I continued listening as we made our way through town “So about seven years ago this stable pony comes along, fixes Equestria’s alicorn problem, and breaks into this old pre-war weather control center to not only stop the Enclave but get all the clouds out of the sky, hence the title Lightbringer.”

He also explained that it led to the formation of the New Canterlot Republic who apparently were making a best effort to rebuild society. In the few years since they were established they had set up outposts all over the place and had become one of the most formidable fighting forces in Equestria.

It all sounded a bit far fetched to me but then again I spent my whole life underground. I couldn't exactly argue when everypony around me could account for the entirety of Equestria being exposed to the sun for the first time in Celestia knows how long and the NCR practically having the town on lockdown. “So...where is the Lightbringer now” I asked in the hope that there was a chance I could meet her one day and get a firsthoof account.

“Still controlling the weather from her big impenetrable shiny tower, been up there since the whole ordeal.” Skitters replied dashing my hopes right out from under me. “She DID write a book about the whole thing though” He continued as I perked up my ear with the word ‘book’. “If we can find a copy you'd probably get plenty of enjoyment out of it given your Daring Do interest.”

My mind was made up right then and there. I had decided I could not, shall not, and cannot live my life without reading this book. Daring Do seemed like foals play compared to somepony’s entire escapade across the wasteland. “So...what's this book called” I asked.

“The Book of Littlepip” Skitters replied back “it's not too easy to find since paper isn't too plentiful and the lack of anypony willing to publish it...but it's getting around.” Littlepip...the name didn't impress me all that much. I mean who names their kid Pip? All these things and more I'd have to sort out later, we had to meet up with Wintergreen so that we could-

THUD

A rather large pony set down between me and Skitters kicking up a cloud of dust. It settled to reveal the very pony we had set out to meet who wasted no time wrapping a wing around each of us. “Good morning new friends” she declared with a smug look about her. “We all set for the long road ahead to Los Pegasus?”

I stopped her before we moved any further. “Hold on a second I have questions” I told her as she perked up her ears with a look that indicated her full attention. “The room....I mean...it...I-it was...who are you” I finally asked settling on those words.

“Ah that right...I never told you” she began as we continued our way through town “ the inn here is actually part of my business consortium.” We both stared at her in disbelief as she continued “I invest myself in businesses across Equestria that seem profitable. Mercs in Baltimare, a store at Tenpony Tower, a clinic in the NCR, and caravans going just about anywhere.”

I had a million more questions but before I could ask one we had arrived at the holding area where we were to pick up Rusty Chrome. There'd be time for questions on the road to Los Pegasus.

Wintergreen flew off as we approached the building. “I'll meet you at the exit” she said before getting out of earshot. We went inside, presented our paperwork, and were led to the holding cell that Rusty Chrome occupied. Under the watch of a well armed but young looking mare brandishing NCR fatigues we were let into the cell to re-apply his rope restraints. Only problem with this was that I was terrible with knots and spent a good amount of time struggling with the ropes to no avail.

“Umm…” The NCR mare spoke up after watching me fail to make any progress “do you want some hoof cuffs?” I stared at her defeated for a few moments before nodding my head. She went over to a nearby shelf and pulled out two sets of metal clamps and a set of keys similar to what stable security would carry which I applied to Rusty’s legs with ease before slumping him over my back. “Now...the cuffs are NCR property so you'll have to return them upon reaching our Los Pegasus outpost”she informed us as I sluggishly carries Rusty out of the cell.

“Yeah...sounds awesome…” I said in between breaths, Celestia's mane this pony was heavy. “And hey...good luck with the whole rebuilding society thing” I said as I slogged my way to the exit.

“Aw...thank you” she said with a voice that could actually be considered pleasant “We're still pretty small...but we dream big.” I was one hoof out the door when she stopped me with a tap on the shoulder. “You should do the same...being a stable pony and all” she said as she turned back to return to her post “I'll be listening to the radio for you. Don't disappoint.”

I was left standing there confused with this hoof-cuffed raider splayed over my back. What did she mean by all that? “You didn't know” Rusty finally spoke up “folks have set pretty high standards for Stable ponies after all they've done.

I don't know what everypony expects...I grew flowers until just a few days ago.

The hot desert sun beamed down at us like the heat lamps from the Stable greenhouse. The difference now is that the heat lamps could be turned off and I could look at them without going blind. Our trek northeast ward left the burning hot ball of gas glaring in our faces all morning. All I could do endure as we set out on the trail before us.

Our cart had been hitched to Wintergreen’s...creepy...two headed...unsettling...smelly...too many words, it was a two headed cow she was using to lug bags upon bags of trade goods. I couldn't complain since I no longer had to haul anything. Rusty was restrained in the bed of the cart which was now sporting a fixed wheel and several replaced boards. We didn't gag his mouth this time since he was more than willing to cooperate with us and I figured I might be able to get more information out of him which would help me stay alive a bit longer.

Along with me and Skitters were Wintergreen and a pair of guards in armor, one was an earth pony stallion in some basic but sturdy looking gear, a helmet with a worn looking gas mask, and a battle saddle with a pair of assault rifles. The other was a Pegasus mare who was covered in some kind of high end gear which had a certain sinister look about it with its black finish and manticore stinger where her tail was. The weapon she was sporting looked to be some kind of energy-based sniper rifle that just added to her intimidating appearance.

“We ready?” Wintergreen asked the stallion.

“As can be boss, other than those two, nopony else answered the billboard ad.” He said pointing a hoof at me and Skitters.

I stepped over toward Wintergreen. “Is it always this hard for caravans to hire protection” I asked with my curiosity getting the better of me.

“Well...not really” She began with a bit of a sad look about her “a lot of ponies...still don't trust alicorns on account of our history.” I was starting to notice the pattern of one question leading to another fifty. “Long story...I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to tell it on the way to Fort Stud.”

Now Skitters stepped forward with a confused look. “Wait a second... Fort Stud? I thought we were heading to the NCR outpost” he told her as she began one last check on some of the straps.

“Fort Stud was our planned destination before you two signed on” she said finishing up her inspection “it's a short walk from there past the Applewood sign to the NCR outpost outside of the city.”

It sounded like an unnecessary detour to me but Skitters seemed to be okay with it and I trusted his judgement more than my own. With no further questions Wintergreen gave everypony the signal to move out.

A lot of the trip was rather uneventful, most we had to deal with were some bloatsprites and giant scorpions my pipbuck aptly named radscorpions. Wintergreen being the savvy business pony she was made sure to pick the poison tips from the radscorpions. Apparently there’s a market for the venom as well as anti-venom.

The black Earth Pony with a white mane who I found out was named ‘Hardline’ had been with Wintergreen since she started up her business consortium about six years ago when Wintergreen rescued him during an attack on a settlement by Enclave remnants.

The skyblue Pegasus with a military cut red mane it seemed was the pony said Enclave remnants where after, turns out that ‘Smokesignal’ was the reason they were attacked, she was a deserter who shot dead her commanding officer rather than open fire on a group of fleeing civilians trying to escape the Enclave trying to destroy their home. One thing supposedly led to another and she ended up with Hardline.

Skitters was looking to and fro, always scanning the horizon, like he was expecting something. I couldn’t imagine why since we both knew I had my Eyes Forward Sparkle on at all times after the ghoul tsunami yesterday.

“Why so tense there Golden.” Hardline asked walking up next to him. Seems I wasn’t the only one to notice Skitters’ behavior.

He looked a bit more to his left at a small hill nearby before he answered, “Gut feeling, not sure, been like this since we left town.”

“Well, I’ve not seen anything,” Smokesignal said as she came down from her flight to sit in the cart next to Rusty ”well...except the old complex over that way with the pointy buildings” she said as she pointed a hoof out to the left of the trail.

“That would be...” Skitters began as he looked off to the north in the direction Smoke specified “thats the old Starlight Space Center.”

I looked over in curiosity given my newfound interest in space. Pulling out my spyglass I could see the massive complex way off in the distance. The area was fenced off and dominated by a massive square building surrounded by hangers, towers, and other structures I couldn't even guess as to what they were used for. Around the complex were scattered concrete mounds, some of which were set beneath what I could only assume were rockets that never launched. The whole place had a sort of stillness about it, almost like it was left untouched since the bombs.”I don't suppose we could…” I began lowering my spyglass “take a look?”

Wintergreen stepped up “Not worth it. The whole place has been picked clean by scavengers over the years” she said as my hopes of seeing a rocket up close faded away “everypony gets the same idea to try and dig through the ruins down there...I doubt there's anything left.” Part of me wanted to check it out anyway but I wasn't really the one in charge. We kept walking but I made a note on my pipbuck for the off chance I live long enough to come back here someday.

Turning my attention away from the space center I stepped over to check on Rusty. He looked like he was about to die from heat exhaustion so I pulled out my Stable 13 canteen and passed it over to him. The hoof cuffs made it easy enough for him to hold it without much trouble.

He gratefully gulped down the water before passing the canteen back to me before giving me a look of concern. “What?” I asked. He didn’t say anything and just looked away almost shamefully.

“Okay, we can break here!” Wintergreen said as she took her right wing to wipe the sweat off her brown. “One hour, no more.”

We stopped in front of what looked like an old dinner. the sign was gone and didn’t look to be anywhere. Hardline and Smokesignal went about looking around for traps, I got some food unpacked and ready to eat, Skitters went inside with Hardline to keep sweeping for traps and any salvage that may still be left behind we could grab.

After picking through the trash that was around the containers I found a few old toys, some broken pieces of military comms equipment, a few plates, and some old cans.

It wasn’t much really, but i figured it was at least enough scrap to repair some things, only issue is that I didn’t know how to use anything in the kit that Quartz gave me back in Burham Springs.

“Great...should have asked for a manual.” I said out loud as I opened up the case, all the tools, Jigs, and doodads with no clue how to use them. Maybe Skitters has the knowhow to make use of them, but as I was fiddling with no idea on how to use this Wintergreen came up behind me.

“Say, what’s that you got there?” She asked coming behind me with a water canteen in her magic.

“It’s some kind of modification kit for weapons, armor, all that stuff, but I haven't the slightest idea what to do with it” I told her as I fiddled with a...wrench...thingy...that served no known purpose ”I grew flowers back in the stable, I wasn’t an engineer.”

“Let me see it.” She said putting her drink down and almost instantly getting into the guts of the kit as she was able to manipulate all the workings very easily. She pulled out a pistol from her holster and went to town on it. It was too hard for me to follow with her magic able to do ten things at once “Here we go.”

In a matter of moments what used to be a normal 10mm pistol now looked a lot more mish mashed with some of the scrap we gathered. The Gun went from a basic set up to something that had a longer barrel with a Silencer, scope, and a bigger slide.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I said looking at her gun she held up in her magic.

“Back when I was in Unity there were so many minds from many different ponies, and all that knowledge tends to get shared around, and mixed up.” She said inspecting her work.

“Unity?” I asked questioning her, she looked at me strange until she realised.

“Right, stable pony...I forgot” she began as she sat down “remember how before I said most ponies still don't trust alicorns?” I gave her a nod “well short story is back before the war there was an experiment to create an army of alicorns, then the bombs dropped, one on top the facility. It didn’t destroy it, but it left all the ponies in there trapped with one who became the Goddess when she fell into a chemical vat.” Her story baffled me quite a bit, but I let her continue. “she gathered up all the bodies and survivors into a vat with her and from there made the first Alicorns.”

I could only stare at the explanation she gave. “What?”

She raised her hoof “Wait it gets worse, before she was stopped she had pulled in tens of thousands of ponies over the years to become one with the hive mind until the Lightbringer put a stop it by blowing up the Goddess. Those of us that escaped found ourselves lost and alone, well, I say ‘alone’ in that some of us ended up with back seat drivers. I’ve got at least 3 passengers riding along with me, but at least they are asleep most of the time, constantly dreaming effectively.”

“Woah! How do you function?” I asked.

“Not easily at times, but we get along, we have to. Those that don’t end up dead pretty quick.” She said putting the gun back into her holster. “It really isn't much different from having multiple personality syndrome but the added bonus is that I can tap into the memories or their knowledge.”

For the most part I just sat there looking at her. I could have probed deeper with my questions and believe me I wanted to but she had a look about her that told me she wasn't the most comfortable with this topic. Some of the stuff I wanted to ask like if she remembers who she was before the...alicornification or if she killed anypony while part of this hive mind seemed a little invasive. I did however have one question “About the Lightbringer…” I began as she perked an ear up “do you happen to have any copies of her book?”

She giggled a little at my inquiry “I get that question a lot out on the road...but never from my hired help,” she said with a roll of her eyes “hate to disappoint you but that's out of stock with me at the moment. Maybe try the market when we get to Fort Stud?” I nodded at her suggestion as my search continued.

My attention pulled away by Skitters as he, Hardline, and Smokesignal came back with a small bag of whatever could be deemed useful.

At which point we stopped and continued to eat what I already had set out. Skitters barely touched his food as he sat next to me, mostly eyeing the two guard ponies every so often, it wasn’t easy to pick up but given the changeling next to me I saw a few signs of a couple.

Sharing half a preserved apple pie between them, little innocuous touches that would have been ignored normally, small little words if you weren't paying attention would just pass by without a second thought.

“You know it’s not polite to stare you two.” Wintergreen whispered between us. That shook us a bit out of what we both where doing, and got the two guards to look at us, pulling them out of their little silent conversation.

Smokesignel looked rather pissed, and then facehoofed. “Again!? Seriously, what is that? The 4th, 5th time this week now?” She got up from her seat and walked up to the both of us. “What is it with ponies looking at us weird? Really, is it that strange that we’re a couple. Yes I said it, we’re into each other. Is there an issue with it?”

Both Skitters and me backed away from this, the murderous intent in her eyes was enough to make me feel the pit of my stomach drop, Skitters and I started to hug each other in fear before the terror before us. Wintergreen only giggled while using her wings to cover her mouth as she watched our misfortune, Hardline just sat there saying nothing and doing nothing but continue eating his food like it was just another day on the job.

“I swear that if you two don’t stop this instance, I’m going to grab the both of you, find a cloud to stick you two on and use you two as target practice, I’ll start with your LEGS! Then-” She never got to finish her statement as a shot rang out, and it must have been powerful because she was hit in the shoulder and knocked to the ground.

“SMOKE!” Hardline shouted as he jumped from his seat and ran to Smoke, he grabbed her and dragged her straight into the dinner while another shot rang out and went straight for his head, or it would have had Wintergreen not used her magic to put up a shield around us all. The alicorn grabbed Skitters and me in her wings and followed her guards into the dinner, the door to the dinner was just a frame where the glass used to be, but Wintergreen used her magic to start flinging tables to add as a barricade and block line of sight.

“Hardline, how’s Smokesignel?!” Wintergreen shouted ducking a shot that passed through her barrier and almost took her head. “BUCK! They’re using anti-magic rounds!”

“Round punched through the armor, but stopped just under the skin.” He said after pulling a second of Smoke’s armor off to get at the damage. “She’s bleeding, but it’s minor.”

“I’m fine by the way!” Smokesignal shouted trying to push herself up but failing.

“Stay down Smoke,” Hardline said pushing her down. “That round hit your brace shoulder.” He had to duck down on top of her as more bullets rained down on top of us, breaking what little glass windows that were still intack to pieces and on top of us.

“That’s a Chaingun!” Skitters shouted trying desperately to get eyes on where the shots were coming from, he had to crawl all the way to the other side of the dinner to even get a clear enough view to see outside. “I’ve got maybe three in view.” He said ducking at another set of rounds wildly went in his direction. “At least one looks like a Unicorn with a sword, a our chaingun nut, and somepony with an assault rifle!”

“Damn, that means there’s a sniper somewhere, this round is too big for those.” Hardline said pulling said round out of Smokesignal and went to work bandaging her shoulder. I pulled out Argus and wished that I had gotten Wintergreen to work on my Gun before this, I sure as Tartarus would have her do so if we lived though this. Getting into a booth and laying on the seat I set up near the window away from the others, Skitters on his side also getting his hybrid gun at the ready. Wintergreen had set up in the middle by the door barricade with her gun out of it’s holster

Checking my Pipbuck I went straight into S.A.T.S. slowing the world to a crawl with my E.F.S. highlighting our attackers, it was definitely more than three or four. I saw at least Seven, our sniper on a small little hill off to the side not too far from us, our chaingun nut, earth pony, in full metal armor with a battle sattel, one earth pony with an SMG spraying in our direction with not one, but two other earth ponies charging us with melee weapons. I took aim at an Earth pony with a large stick in her mouth.

I had gotten lucky as my shots as I let loose a set of four three round bursts, the first two only grazed the pony’s legs causing her to stumble a bit, the other two however hit dead on. The third went and hit her dead on in the chest which stopped
her momentum, and the last three hit her dead in the head which caused her head to literally explode and the body fell to the ground lifeless.

“One down!” I shouted getting behind cover as gunfire pass over my head. “Six more!”

Wintergreen blind fired over her barricade and must have gotten a good hit since one of the attackers cried out in pain. Skitters brought up his gun and took a shot at the SMG wealider, his shot knocked down the pony, however he to had to duck under the shots aimed at him. The one unicorn with the sword had made it to the dinner ignoring the cart and made a jump into the window Skitters was at, he had climbed into the room rather fast and had a rather crazed look in his eyes as he tried to stab at Skitters who had to use his gun to deflect the sword swings while wrestling the pony.

Wintergreen, Hardline and myself would have jumped to action had the other three made it and started to climb the sides of the building to get in. I was able to get Argus to wildfire as I pulled the mouth grip down after flipping the switch to full auto. Winter was trying to deal with her pony trying to get over the barrier, also who was laughing the whole time, the cackling was unnerving to say the least, the look of pure insanity in his eyes didn’t help matters. Hardline was left with the SMG wielder who was trying to spray into the dinner but was fighting like mad to keep the gun pointed to the ceiling.

At this point it was getting desperate trying to keep the others out and Smokesignal was in no position to help with her sniper, forced to use her wings to grip a small 10mm gun and try and aim at the pony fighting with Hardline in the way.

“That’s it!” Skitters shouted as the Sword unicorn knocked out his gun out of his magic grip, the Magical green flame that came off skitters catching the pony not only by surprise but also with the green fire catching on some of his clothing. Skitters hissed, grabbed the pony by the shoulders while they were shocked at what happened and he proceeded to stick his fangs right into the neck of the attacking pony.

There was a very wet sound as the fangs dug deep into his neck and you could see a green glow start to flow around him, the sword in his magic fell and stuck itself into his head where the look of total shock and unbelieving froze there, a wet sucking sound started to flow from the pony as his body started to fade in color before going gray and start to mummify, Wintergreen barely gave it a glance while she dealt with her opponent who looked at what Skitters was doing, big mistake since that let Wintergreen put her gun point blank to the pony’s temples and she unleashed five shots killing the attacker who then was slumped over the barricade.

Hardline was too busy dealing with his attacker to care at the moment, Smokesignal was a tad distracted by it only glancing between skitters and the unicorn attacking Hardline. “Hard, 22!” Smoke shouted, Hardline nodded and then shifted his weight to pull his opponent into the dinner and slam him onto the table which Smoke then unleashed the full clip into the pony’s face also killing them. Hardline slammed himself to the floor to avoid the spray from the chaingun.

That just left me with the last melee charger for me to deal with who didn’t seem to know or didn’t care that everyone else was dead, I let them jump at me and fell on my back and with her landing on me I placed my back legs on her belly and threw her into the wall over the dinner counter, she slammed into the wall and a shelf that was halfway rotten fall on top of her, I got up and leapt over the counter to finish her off, even after taking several shots to the chest she was still going, the insane look in her eyes making it easy for me since I saw practically no soul in them, I pointed Argus in her face and let loose all the while she was giggling. Finally dead I walked around the counter to Skitters’ location and saw him wretching out some kind of green liquid with several dark smokey swirls mixed in, once he finished retching he looked at me with something like regret.

“What did you do?” I asked looking at the mummified body that was leaking out a lot of blood for something that should be dry.

“Drained him of love and everything, hate doing that, more so no since these guys are pumped to the gills with drugs.” He said pointing to the black stuff. “It’s almost as bad as trying to drain someone with taint in their system.” He shuddered like he was remembering a bad time.

Smokey who was the only one not firing back at the attackers looked at Skitters and had her gun pointed at us. “What the actual BUCK? A changeling?!”

“Smokesingel! Middle of a firefight here, we can question it later if we can get out of this alive!” Wintergreen shouted trying to fire back at the last three ponies who were in cover firing back at them. The Assault rifle carrying pony was inching closer to the cart with Rusty in it, at this point I was wondering if he was going to be okay. More bullets sprayed some getting through cover, the bulk of them aimed at Wintergreen as she was trying to keep her shield up but anti-magic rounds kept poking holes into them letting more of the chaingun though. “RIght now we need to deal with the last three! But that means getting close to them. I’m up for any ideas right now, because those anti-magic rounds are really putting a strain on me, I can’t use one of my other spells and not risk getting hit bad!”

Skitters wiped his mouth and looked at the body and the sword. “I’ve got one, but I don’t know if you will like it.”

“At this point I’m receptive to anything that gets us out alive.” Hardline shouted as he was using Smokesignal’s Sniper trying to counter the enemy sniper. Without another thought Skitters was engulfed in green flame as he became the pony he just killed, albeit with fresh burn marks all over, he magiced the sword into his grip along with his gun and looked at me.

“Play along, might be our only shot at this! Hardline, on my signal take out the sniper.” He then proceeded to grab me by the neck and magiced both the sword near my neck but not touching it, and both his and my gun in the air, at which point he stood us up and dragged me out the window. “BACK OFF OR YOUR SWEET PIECE OF FLANK GETS IT!” It was holy disturbing just how scary this was getting with Skitters able to pull of the same crazed look, it was so convincing that it helped sell my look of fear, seriously, I was hoping this was just at act, that’s how good an act it was.

The fire fight at that moment stopped as assault gun pony came up besides us and helped cover us. The fully armored pony also moved up coming up behind us.

“Move behind me!” He spoke in a deep raspy voice, the assault pony took up position with cover from the cart. We were going slow as I resisted, I could only hope that it was convincing enough. But then I had to hope the same with Skitters to fool the attackers.

“Stop squirming little filly, or I’m going to have fun with you all to myself tonight?” Skitters

“Hey! I said I would get first dibs on any we take alive!” The pony by the cart shouted.

“Finders Keepers!” Skitters said.

“Why I aughta-” It was at that point Rusty came up from the cart and used the hoofcuffs to get over the head of the pony and start to choke/drag him into the cart, really Skitters was shocked as much as me when this happened. The big pony in full armor tried to make a leep for his buddy and we knew the sniper must at this point have started to take aim at him. So when the shot rang out and Rusty wasn’t dead that’s when we acted, I with Argus, and skitters with both his gun and the sword we pumped every shot we had right up the backside of the stallion, the sword for good measure to the hilt once our clips ran dry. The damage done we then looked into the cart to see Rusty slowly but surely making his new friend’s neck turn at a very unnatural angel until we heard the snap and the body feel limp.

By the end of it, we had stripped everything off the raider ponies that had attacked us, stripped them of their armor, gear, weapons, ammo, everything really and left the bodies behind the dinner in the trash bin. No scene leaving any more a mess then what we already left.

By the end of it, we had some sticks which would make for good firewood for a cold night, the sword might be worth a few caps since it looked decent, the battle satule chain gun went straight to Hardline as well as part of the metal armor, that which didn’t went to Smokesignal’s armor to be repaired by the mod kit, Wintergreen even went so far to get my gun modded, I at least had a new scope on it as well as a much more stable grip for shooting. However right now Smokesignal and Hardline where having a few looks at Skitters.

“So, changeling, want to explain yourself?” Smoke said while with her right front leg was in a sling to take care of her shoulder. She was sporting both her sniper rifle as well as the captured one from the raider on her armor with a makeshift battle saddle hooked up.

“I have a name you know.” Skitters said back, not intimidated by her. “It’s skitters, and your welcome by the way.”

“Welcome? Welcome for what?” She looked really angry at him, like he just challenged her to a fight or something.

“For ending the fight early if you ask me.” Hardline spoke up, “Listen Smoke, I know how you feel about changelings and all, but lets face it, if it wasn’t for him we might not of made it out of here that easily. I for one am grateful for the help.”

Smokesignel looked ready to shoot someone by the end of that, or she would have had Wintergreen not got involved.

“Smokesignal, calm down, right now we’ve got to get a move on, I need your eyes in the sky to give us warning if there are anymore raiders out there, besides, right now with Skitters here not disguised I figure it will be a good intimidation factor to prevent other would be attackers from taking a shot on us.”

“How can you trust him so Boss?” Smoke looked a bit disbelieving “He’s a changeling, you know the stories!”

“I do, but right now we are going to be in territory that is somewhat changeling friendly and we don’t want a dustup. Now I know you have issues, but this changeling isn’t a bad one, he helped save our hides, least we can do is consider that.” Wintergreen finished.

Smokesignal looked like she was debating with herself over something before she made up her mind. “Alright fine, but if he tries anything, nothing’s going to stop me from doing me job!” She challenged Wintergreen.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” The alicorn said before closing up the mod case after handing back Skitters’ his weapon. “Now let’s get out of here, who knows where these ponies came from or if there’s more on their way. We’re going to have to report this to the local forces when we get to Fort stud.”

It was getting close to sunset when we got near Fort Stud. A few more caravans were ahead of us as we could see the settlement from a distance. It was surrounded by tall concrete walls and had a sign above the gate which read ‘Fort Stud’. Upon my closer inspection the I found that most of the lettering must have fallen off or been removed since I was able to make out ‘Fortune Studios’. I turned to Skitters who was all too keen on being in his changeling form now. “What was this place before the bombs” I asked as he stared forward towards the large open entrance.

“It used to be a big movie studio” he said shifting his attention to me “the whole place is surrounded by walls which made it more than ideal for everypony to settle here. In comparison to every other settlement in Los Pegasus it's the crown jewel.”

We were interrupted by a pony coming between us and wrapping a hoof over each of us. It wasn't our tall alicorn friend however, this pony was average height and had a tan coat with blue hair. Her head turned to me and I was met with the familiar face of Butterscotch with an enormous grin. “So...the wasteland hasn't written you off yet?”

Skitters chimed in shrugging her hoof off his shoulder. “she's tougher than she looks” he said to my own astonishment “she still has a ton of problems but I'm slowly working those kinks out.”

“I saved the whole caravan on the way here” I exclaimed pointing a hoof toward our pack Brahmin “if not for me the Rusty Hooks would have taken...what are you staring at?” I stopped mid sentence noticing Butterscotch had Wintergreen locked in a death glare so intense that I thought if a bird passed in front of her it'd burst in flames.

Wintergreen was oblivious to her gaze at first but eventually made eye contact with a smile on her face. “Butterscotch, fancy seeing you again” she said making her way over to us “how long has it been?”

Butterscotch maintained her death glare “Six months, thirteen days” she said simply “and in all that time…” She suddenly shifted forward and jumped at Wintergreen. I almost reached for Argus thinking I'd have to break up a fight between them but Butterscotch was wrapping her hooves around our alicorn employer and laughing. “In all that time I've missed the shit out of you!”

I was confused...I had the impression that these two were at each other's throat's yet here they were locked in the friendliest hug I'd seen all week. Wintergreen was probably twice her size so her one leg wrapped all the way around her. They were both laughing as I glanced over at Skitters who stared at them with a content look. “So wait...you two don't hate each other” I asked as they turned to look at me.

“Are you kidding” Butterscotch said with a great big smile “Wintergreen is one of the most successful merchants in Equestria and I have at least a five year head start in the business.”

“And her competition is wonderful, she keeps me on my hooves always trying to get better,” Wintergreen said rubbing Butterscotch’s mane “never before have I seen anypony with as much bartering talent as her.”

“She's tried to buy my caravan a few times” Butterscotch quipped back with a grin “but it'll take more than caps and a few bidding war victories to get me to sell out.” They both laughed and reminisced as we made our way to the front of the line of caravans. We weren't met with NCR at the gate this time, these looked more like a locally organized security force with their fake looking Equestrian army armor and cowboy hats. I could only guess they were all costumes from some old movie.

We were ushered through security and directed toward the market. The whole settlement was enormous with its multiple rows of hanger looking structures each of which was labeled with the word ‘set’ followed by a number. I concluded that they were used for filming back in the day. The rest of the complex was administrative looking buildings used for Celestia knows what, a warehouse that looked like it was used to build movie props but had since been made into a public workshop, and a fully constructed outdoor western town that everypony was using as a market.

I could see why Skitters said this was the crown jewel of settlements. Fort Stud had space, infrastructure, security, and more civility than anywhere else I'd seen thus far. As we made our way through the crowds the commotion reminded me of the old Stable 13 commute more than any other town I'd seen yet.

We were stepping into the market when Skitters held his hole riddled hoof out in front of me “actually Lily” he began as I gave him a confused look “There's somepony I think you should meet while we're here.”

I was tired and worn out but he had a serious look about him. He hadn't steered me wrong before so how bad could it be? “Well...who is it” I asked.

He pointed a hoof over to a large concrete watchtower in the very center of the movie studio “I can't say who it is but she's holed up in that old security tower.” This already sounded a bit sketchy but he seemed sure of himself.

“And what about you and Rusty? Can you handle everything from here” I asked unsure of how everypony here would react to his changeling form “you've been pretty open about the whole love sucking parasite appearance.”

He patted me on the shoulder “don't worry bout a thing” he said reassuringly “this is my home town after all.” I looked at him in bafflement, I didn't even think he had a home. “Ponies here are way more accepting of what I really am...trust me I won't have any problems.”

I still wasn't entirely convinced but as I looked around I noticed nopony was giving him a second glance or pulling a gun on him. They seemed to be tolerant of his appearance as much as anypony else. “okay…” I said with a hint of concern “Where should I meet you after?”

He pointed back toward the market “i'll deal with Rusty and meet you at the saloon...you can't miss it” he said pointing back to the tower “Tell the guard I sent you and he'll let you inside.” I nodded and turned to go when he put a hoof on my shoulder “and one more thing…” he began “this pony you're meeting is a ghoul so don't be surprised by the way she looks.”

We went our separate ways but not before I got a terrible chill down my spine. “Great...more ghouls” I said under my breath as I set off away from the market

The tower looked like some kind of giant lookout that stood just above the rest of the buildings around. The top jutted out a bit and was adorned with windows that were surprisingly intact but too high to see through from the ground. It looked like it was used for studio security before the bombs fell and overall stood pretty intact.

I gave Skitters’ name to the pony at the door who radioed up to whoever was inside. He let me in and I was met with a dark flight of stairs going all the way to the top. After ascending I opened a door which led into the main lookout point at the top of the tower

Nopony was in the room but my jaw practically hit the floor upon taking in my surroundings. Every inch of every table and shelf was filled with old looking artifacts, even old in comparison to the bombs. Upon further examination I discovered it wasn't all just random junk, everything in here was Daring Do memorabilia.

My eyes darted around the room like I was a little filly in a toy store, it was all here. The sapphire stone, the Griffon's goblet, the giant golden ring from book seventeen, even the giant ancient scroll that foretold the end of days in Daring Do and the Fortress of The Far Fjords. One of the shelves was dominated by an almost pristine collection of the entire book series, even the ones Stable 13 didn't have. The more I looked the more memories of reading in bed came back to me, never before had I been filled with so much excitement in all my life.

“I've died and gone to nerd heaven” I said aloud.

“Really? Sure doesn’t feel like it to me.” Said somepony behind me. Turning around I was face to face with a Ghoul, albeit one that was in much better shape than the ones I’d in out on the road. Her mane was in shambles, and her tail was very thin and short, her wings still had feathers but there was some large gaps in some areas. Her coat was a faded tan, and her eyes had a glassy look to them. but her cutie mark was that of a Compass.

“Wha...Y...yo you!” I couldn’t get it though my head, it was more than 200 years since her last book.

Footnote:
Level up:
+1 Perception