Singularity & Multiplicity

Chapter IV: The Wasteland

"Good Goddesses! Where am I?" I asked nobody in particular, not hoping for a response. I had to either find the expedition team or find shelter quick, since my PipBuck was warning me of fairly high radiation levels. I brought up the Eyes-Forward Sparkle & continued on, pistol ready to be drawn. A spot of red flashed across my vision, apparently above me, then disappeared even faster. I looked up & saw a beacon of hope.

A pegasus wearing a strange-looking saddle flying through the air above me. The mystery pegasus was likely female. She dove to the ground in front of me, & I noticed that her saddle contained two assault rifles & two shotguns, all of which were currently trained on my head.

"Who the hell are you?" The pegasus asked. Now I knew she was female.

"My name is Rayzor. Im from Stable 24. Now would you please stop pointing those at me? Its getting kind of awkward."

The mares aim lowered slightly, but she was still ready to shoot me at a moments notice.

"Why should I believe you?" She asked me. I held the screen of my PipBuck in front of her, & she began reading my information.

"Alright. Youre legit." She completely lowered her weapons & gave me a bright look that wasnt exactly a smile, pulling a sky blue hat from her head. I noticed that the hat went fairly well with her powder blue coat & light green mane. Her cutie mark was what looked like two bullets covered in red sparks crossed over an orange flame.

"Name`s Volt Gauge. Call me Gauge."

"So Gauge, you know of any place where I can go & get out of this place? I`m not sure if I have any Rad-Away."

"What do you mean, not sure?"

"Well, nobody knows that I left the Stable yet. I stole some supplies from my father & made a break for it."

"Why`d you go & pull a dumbass move like that?"

"I was chasing a mare. She left on a Wasteland expedition team just a few hours ago."

"A pony & a griffin? Huh. & I thought I`d seen all the weirdness this place could throw at me."

"So, shelter?"

"Oh yeah. Follow me." Gauge flew off towards Celestia-knows-where & I followed. She started to drop, so I kept close to her.

"What`s wrong?" I asked as we landed again.

"Whatever you do, don`t make any noise." She lifted her guns upward & fired, three rounds from her assault rifles piercing the body of what looked like a giant red bat. She fired again & again, each burst killing another bat.

"What`s so bad about some bats?" I whispered to her.

"These arent bats, theyre Bloodwings. Deadly little bastards. They can suck every drop of blood from your body in a second, & Im nowhere near exaggerating. Think you can help me out? I see youve got some guns. That assault rifle should be your best bet. How good of a shot are you?"

"Pretty good. On a scale of one to ten, probably a seven."

"Good. Pick up a gun & start shooting."

I hefted the assault rifle to my eye & began shooting. Apparently, the rifle shot two rounds at a time. Two bullets caused the remnants of a Bloodwing`s brain to splatter across my head. Finally, Gauge brought down the last two, & we took to the skies once more.

"How do those things even exist? As far as I know, they`re not naturally occurring in Equestria." I said, my voice showing hints of doubt.

"Theyre not natural. Theyre what happens when vampire fruit bats were exposed to large amounts of Taint. They grew in size, & they started eating ponies instead of apples."

"Taint?"

"One of the worst things in the Wasteland, far worse than radiation. Only thing worse than Taint is the Pink Cloud, & noponys been out near Canterlot for a while for that exact reason. If you get Tainted, youre gonna wish that you were in the Pink Cloud."

"What`s the Pink Cloud?"

"It was created during a Megaspell attack. Celestia & Luna put up a shield over Canterlot when the bombs fell, & some Zebras set off a bomb inside the shield. It released the Pink Cloud. Everything & everypony inside was dead long before the shield was dropped. Set hoof inside the Pink Cloud, & everything youre wearing will become part of your body. Then, your organs start to fail. Lastly, you turn into what they call a Canterlot ghoul. Theyre like zombies, but they can only be killed by fire or dismemberment."

“Sounds bad.”

“Oh, theyre worse than they sound. One almost killed me last week, but the thing didnt see my incendiary rifle in its eyes.”

"How did you fight one without actually going to Canterlot?"

"Just because they have the word Canterlot in their name doesnt mean thats the only place you can find them. I was just a couple miles from Splendid Valley."

"Interesting."

"Looks like were here." Gauge said, pointing to a mostly intact structure that looked to me like a hospital, but painted yellow. A large emblem of a cross with a pink butterfly in its center marked the buildings front. She landed on the roof, where a small door led into the rest of the building.

"Is this a hospital?" I asked.

"No, it`s a hotel." Gauge told me, her voice oozing sarcasm.

"It`s an old Ministry of Peace medical center."

"Ministry of Peace?"

"You really don`t know anything about the Wasteland, do you?"

"No."

"Okay, have you heard of the Elements of Harmony?"

"Yeah. Magic, Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, & Kindness."

"Not the Elements themselves, but their bearers."

"You mean Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, & Fluttershy?"

"Yes. Now, when the war began, Celestia gave each of them a specific division of the war effort to run, also called the Ministries. Twilights was the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, or the Ministry of Magic, Pinkie Pies was the Ministry of Morale, Applejacks was the Ministry of Wartime Technology, Raritys was the Ministry of Image, & Fluttershys was the Ministry of Peace. The building were standing on right now was built during the war by the Ministry of Peace, which is why its painted yellow. The hospitals logo also features her cutie mark."

"Whoa."

"Alright, now let`s get inside."

We headed through the small door, & I realized that this hospital was probably around six stories tall.

"Gauge, do you know how tall this place is?"

"Seven stories. This is the seventh floor. I know all the floors from up here to the fourth like the back of my hoof. I want to check out the other ones, but there`s some seriously fucked up shit down there."

"Like what?"

"You don`t want to know."

"So, why do you still want to go down there?"

"The third floor has quite a few vending machines, so theres bound to still be some edible food in there. The second floor is the emergency ward, so theres a lot of valuable medical supplies. Hyper Rad-Away, ultra-strength restorative potions, painkillers, bone healing poultices, pretty much anything that can heal you in any way. The first floor also has a couple vending machines & a cabinet filled with medical boxes."

"Think you might be able to let me go down there?"

"Oh, hell no! You`re not gonna go down there on my watch! That is, without the proper equipment & information."

"Okay, what do I need?"

"Come with me."

Gauge led me to a room that was just as inconspicuous as the others, except this one had been refurnished for the most part, the bedding was clean, everything looked so... homey. I assumed this was her home.

"Do you live here?"

"Yep. Nice, isn`t it? Found all the stuff in the garbage behind what used to be a Quills & Sofas Megastore. Sit down over there." She motioned to a light grey chair. I sat in it, waiting for her to come back. She sat in a chair opposite mine, & pulled a paper from her saddlebags.

"Alright, first of all, youll need a weapon with a silencer. Ive got a couple that I can lend you. Then, youll need something that protects against both magical energy weapons & blades. Last, youll need a weapon with armor piercing rounds. Once again, Ive got some. Now for the information. Youre going to encounter some extremely disturbing monsters on the third & possibly the first floor that basically look like what would happen if a pony started to melt from the inside out, then grew a bunch of random flesh sacs across their body & their tongue turned into three giant tentacles. Do not, & I mean do not let them look at you. Theyll paralyze you, then do... *disgusting things*. If you have to kill them instead of running, shoot them from behind. Another really important thing to know is that a small band of hellhounds took over the second floor. After you get through the third, Ill come in & help you clear them out. Im sure weve got enough firepower to take them down. Got it?"

"Yeah. Take a weapon with a silencer & armor piercing rounds, wear armor that protects against magical energy weapons & blades, kill the tentacle monsters from behind, then come back after I clear out the third floor & we`ll get rid of the hellhounds together. I have a couple questions."

"What?"

"First of all, what are hellhounds?"

"Deadliest creatures in the Wasteland. They`re what happened to the Diamond Dogs after they were exposed to Taint. They went from the little idiots that Rarity once defeated with "the power of whining", to some bad mothers."

"Wow. Now, are these tentacle monster things actually ponies?"

"In body, yes. In mind, far from it. After they were exposed to Taint, they started to become mindless beasts that acted only on the basest of urges. Only reason the hellhounds arent like that is because they werent as heavily exposed, & all of the ones that are alive right now are children of other hellhounds, so they`re not as affected as their parents."

"Kinda trippy if you ask me."

Gauge opened a cabinet & handed me a wealth of items: an silenced assault rifle, a silenced pistol, a suit of what looked to be very thin armor, three large boxes of ammunition, & a strange object that I could barely recognize as being pony-made.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"StealthBuck. You can plug it into your PipBuck, & itll make you invisible until the battery runs out. Dont waste it."

"What about the armor? Is that supposed to defend against magic & blades? It barely looks like it could protect you against a pebble."

"Found that in the belongings of a dead griffin mercenary team on the fourth floor. Supposed to be super hard to break though."

I put on the armor she gave me, then slung the assault rifle over my right shoulder. I checked the clips on the guns & pulled one of my father`s knives from my bags, sitting them on the floor. Gauge turned to me, her expression turning determined.

"You sure you want to do this alone, Rayzor?"

"You already said it. Theres some seriously fucked up shit down there. I dont want to expose more than one of us to that."

"Alright. I`ll see you on the second floor."

Gauge led me to a large elevator & pressed the button on its panel. The doors opened.

The doors opened & I stepped inside, running & crouching behind a desk. I looked over the desk & saw one of the disgusting monsters for myself. It was exactly as Gauge had described, shuffling across the floor with its tentacles dragging behind it. They each writhed as an individual, as if they were on fire. I nearly threw up just from looking at the thing. It began to turn around. I crouched down & blindly fired a shot from the pistol. The creature fell, leaving a horrible stench that almost smelled like a flaming dumpster filled with used toilets.

I woke up lying on the floor, sweating profusely. I looked over to my side & noticed that Gauge had left. A few moments later, she came fluttering through the door.

"Rayzor, you okay?" She asked, showing genuine concern.

"For the most part. What happened?"

"Apparently, the smell from one of those monsters dying made you pass out. I found you lying on the floor behind a desk & brought you up here."

I stood up & drew my shotgun. Gauge turned around, a worried look on her face.

"What are you doing, Rayzor?"

"I think you mean "what are we doing". We`re going to storm the lower floors, kill everything, then come back through & scavenge what we can from them. You with me?"

"I think that you might be going insane, but Im not letting you go down there alone." She kicked a lever on her battle saddle, which apparently reloaded it. "Lets go."

Boom!

I ran through the third floor of the hospital, unloading my shotgun before the monsters could look at me. Every time, they nearly exploded from the impact of my shotgun at almost point blank range. It seemed like overkill, but I didn`t want to waste my assault rifle on them. I would need that for the hellhounds. A single one remained. I ran up behind it & fired two shots into its back. It was dead after the first shot, but the second was just to make sure.

"You good on ammo?" Gauge asked, reloading her weapons.

"Yeah." I still had four rounds in my shotgun & three full twenty-five round magazines for my assault rifle.

"Let`s go." I said, my voice showing pure determination. We headed back to the elevator. Right before we stepped inside, it began making a horrible creaking noise. The wires holding it up snapped, sending the elevator crashing to the ground floor. A strange canine looking head poked through the shaft.

"Oh shit. Hellhound!" Gauge fired one of her shotguns into the hellhound`s face, sending it falling alongside the elevator.

"So, how are we going to get down there?" I inquired.

"Don`t we both have wings?"

"There is that."

I opened a window behind me & we jumped from it, flying down to the next floor.

"How many are there?" She asked. I looked through the window & saw at least thirty-five hellhounds, most of them holding glowing swords or guns that pulsated with the same light.

"About thirty. Theyre all holding these weird guns. Theyre emitting some kind of light. Same goes for their swords."

"Fuck me. Magical energy weapons. I didnt think thered be a lot. We`ll have to pull a few stealth maneuvers. Follow my lead."

Two hellhounds guarded the window. I floated towards them & smashed their heads together with all my strength. They fell to the ground with little to no sound. I pulled out the silenced assault rifle & took aim. Two hellhounds` skulls exploded, sending the rest of them into disarray. We both began firing into the crowd, killing them like they were nothing. A stray bolt of green lightning flew past my head. I could feel the heat emanating from it. I quickly brought down three more hellhounds. Only ten remained. For these ones, I switched to the silenced pistol & one of my own.

"Let`s finish this." I told her.

We flew into the room. I took aim again & started firing.

Bang! Bang!

Two more hellhounds fell. Gauge took three out with a double blast from her shotguns.

Bangbangbangbangbang!

I unloaded the rest of the clips, killing four of the six remaining hellhounds. I replaced my pistols & reached for my shotgun. I flew towards them, bashed their heads together again, then spun around them & blew their heads to pieces. As the sheer realization of what I had just done dawned on me, I lowered my head, staring intently at the floor.

"I can`t believe that I just did that. I probably just committed forty murders."

"Rayzor, that wasnt murder. They werent ponies or griffins or zebras, they were monsters. Did you forget what they did to you?"

"Im not sure if I can get on that bandwagon, but Ill try. You ready for the last floor?"

"Let`s get it over with."

We reloaded our weapons & flew to the ground. I bashed the door in with my shotgun. Inside were five of the melted-pony monsters & four hellhounds. I blew away two of the tentacle monsters with a shotgun blast. Gauge decimated the rest of them with her assault rifles.

"That was quick." I remarked.

"I noticed. Now, let`s see what we can get from these floors."

We made a run-through of the entire bottom half of the hospital & found a massive amount of supplies: twenty extra-strength medical potions, seventeen normal medical potions, ten jars of bone-mending poultices, twelve twenty-packs of healing bandages, four boxes of ammunition for my pistol, two for each of our shotguns, one for each of our assault rifles, a magical energy weapon, & five magazines for a weapon that I had never seen. The sheer size of these bullets was terrifying, & I almost didn`t want to see the gun they were made for.