Meanwhile, back in New Appleloosa, Rivets was making his way to where Essie and Aura were staying, in their hotel room. A curt knock was heard before he spoke up. "Ey, you Silver's friends? There's a situation goin' on." A knock at the door perked Essie's ears. In the time that had passed, they had made the room somewhat comfortable, and the sniper was ready for a good night's rest. Of course, the mention of 'Silver' and 'a situation' quickly dissipated the hope of sleeping. She glanced at Aura cautiously, then headed to the door. "Uh.. Exactly what kin' uh situation?" she asked through the door, dreading the response.

"Your pal Silver had a tussle with a Chimera down in the Stables with that other filly, Starsong, or whatever her name is. She's fine, but he got bit and the poison's gonna kill him if he don't get the antidote in time.....However, the only to get to him fast enough is to fly, and I heard that one of you can do that..." Rivets' voice sounded stern as he spoke the last sentence.

"Will you open up the door and let me in? I have the antidote with me."

Essie cast a glance at Aura, then after a hesitant moment, opened the door. Her build was muscular and large, a visual cue for the stallion to overlook her as the pegasus. "How fast does he need it, exactly?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Rivets gave Essie a quick glance over before his gaze fell onto Aura, eyeing her suspiciously. "....He'll be dead by the end of the day if somepony don't get over to Stable fast enough...And I was told that there was a pegasus among this little group....Funny, I only checked in one flier when you lot trotted in. Any confessions needing to be made?" Aura merely looked back at the stallion. "None that need to be made, but might as well be." she replied as she undid the flaps over her wings that held them down and as inconspicuous as possible. She opened one of her wings. "There you go, I'm a pegasus." she added neutrally before pulling her wing back to her side. Rivets seemed to only narrow his eyes further after seeing her display. "...You seem rather calm considering I just dropped the news that your friend will die by tonight. Or is he really not that big of a concern to you?"

"...Or perhaps you're just annoyed your secret got exposed, huh...Enclave?"

"Easy, partner." Essie butted in, "Now ain't the time. Like ya said, our friend's in a heap 'a trouble, and she's gotta go deliver that antidote. Right, Aura?" Her question lacked.. Well.. The question part. Essie had already decided who this task belonged to. "There ain't no way y'all c'n carry me out there with ya. Ah'm trustin' you on this. You have to save them." Aura chuckled slightly at Rivet's second question. "No not really, I wasn't making a big effort to hide it. In fact it was Silver who suggested I pose as an Earth Pony so talk to him about that. In any case we've got a more pressing matter to attend to, if you want to throw me out after this go ahead." she added before looking to Essie.

"Well then, I guess I'd better be off, can't say I'm a fan of confined spaces but I'm not going to let someone die if I can save them." she said with a light smirk. "So if you'd give me that antidote I'll be off."

Rivets was rather unnerved, seeing Aura chuckle so casually considering the situation that was going on, and the compromising position she was now under. He even gave Essie an incredulous look before shaking his head and hoofing the antidote over. "You're not right in the head, are you? Anypony else would at least show SOME sort of concern or any emotion....Stable is East of here, look for a river that slopes down into a ditch...In that ditch is the Stable entrance."

"Who says I'm not concerned?" Aura responded as she took and pocketed the antidote. "I'm pretty confident I can get there in time, so there is no need to worry too much. I'll bring him back." she added as she thought about where to leave from before deciding the window would be the best option to avoid revealing that she was a Pegasi to more ponies then necessary. "Well I'll be back as quick as I can." she said before opening the window, pulling her face mask up, activating her earpiece, and with a final nod she leapt out the window and started flying East as indicated. Rivets watched Aura fly off, still holding a sour expression before muttering to himself once she was out of sight, "I won't hold my breath if you don't come back..." After Aura was good and gone, he turned his attention to Essie. "So, you mind explaining to me just why exactly your crew was hiding this fact? I remember you having a short temper at the gate, so for your sake, cooperate with me and this can be civilized."

Back in the Stable, Silver was already on his last legs. There was a stream of bile beside the table from where he threw up, the contents of his stomach plus a mixture of dark blood floating atop the water level on the floor. His coat was already pale before, but now he was close to looking grey. Pupils were dilated, the fur around his neck soaked with more darkened blood. Were it not for the barely noticeable movement of his chest rising and falling, the subtle hint he was still breathing, he would easily be mistaken for dead. Star lay halfway in the irradiated water, half on the other small workbench, panting quietly as she sipped on one of her last Rad-Away pouches. It had been hours since the transmission to New Appaloosa, and hope was fading quickly. "Silver, I'm sorry." she groaned, looking weakly at the injured stallion. "I shouldn't have panicked." Silver didn't turn his head or looked to her, but he still heard what she said and replied. "It's....okay...would've been...long dead now...if you weren’t...here......shouldn't have...messed with that...air duct...." He meekly lifted up a hoof to wipe some sweat out of his eyes before letting it rest on his forehead, looking up to the ceiling.

"......Looks like I'm....Not far behind....Gusty...Abby..."

Meanwhile Aura had been making her way towards the designated location and landed outside. She glanced at the screen protruding from her visor and noticed that it had no access to some sort of local map. "That's just great....ugh." she sighed and looked into the stable entrance as she unholstered one of her laser pistols and gripped it with her wing as she slowly made her way into the stable to find Star and Silver as soon as possible. After what seemed like forever the visor lit up and designated two slowly draining life forces not far from her and she quickly pushed forward until she found the room they were in. "Hope I'm not too late...." she said and approached Star before pulling the antidote out and tossing it over to her. "I hate stables...." she muttered under hear breath. The sloshing of approaching hooves was a much-welcomed sound as the ponies lay in what would've been their graves. Star caught the antidote in her magical grip, and stumbled her way over to Silver, where she lined up the shot with the center of the bite on his neck. "Easy, Silver.. You're gonna be okay now.." she cooed as she injected the antivenom into him. Once it was done, she pulled the needle out and tossed it away, slumping down next to the table Silver lay on, disregarding the blood and vomit. A bath would come later, but for now; a moment to let the relief wash over. Her friend would survive!

Obviously the antivenom wouldn't immediately cure him, but eventually Silver would get better. He was indeed safe from the poison...The only worry left was the radiation poisoning instead, reminding Starsong through the steady tick of her PipBuck’s Geiger counter. Silver was not aware of any of this, nor was he aware of Aura having shown up as he was currently passed out on the table. As Star let her nerves settle, something else came to her attention The Geiger counter on her freshly repaired PipBuck was busily ticking away. It had been a while since Silver had had any RadAway, and she was nearly on the verge of radiation poisoning. The mare quickly stood up and rifled through her MoP case, pulling her last pouch of RadAway out. "Aura, do you have anything for rads?" she asked quickly as she opened the pouch and started forcing the orange-y liquid down the stallion's throat. "We need to get out of here.. We've been soaking in radiation for a few hours, and now running really low on supplies.. Can you carry him?" She smiled a little bit. "Well I found a few partially used packs as I made my way here...." she said and pulled them out. "Not sure if they'll be any use though." she said with a bit of a sigh before frowning at the other question. "As for carrying him, no I can't do that. I can't carry that much, let alone a full grown stallion."

Star groaned as another obstacle presented itself to them. She couldn't swim, and the only options left were to either wait for Silver to come to, or attempt to levitate him out of the Stable. The former would undoubtedly be fatal for possibly all three of them, the latter would certainly leave two members of their group incapacitated, and the third on dregs of energy. As she force-fed Silver the protective Rad-X, and took one herself for good measure, she sparked her horn. She hadn't used much magic since reviving the mare in the market.. "Aura, obviously you can swim. I need you to carry me, while I carry Silver." she said as she hurriedly closed her MoP case and strapped it to her flanks. Next to come on was the Technician's bag. "Outside, there's a cart. It'll negate most of the weight, but it won't be easy after getting out of here. You have to be the one to fly us back." Aura frowned at this proposition. "I barely got in here myself, I don't know if I can swim along with you...." she said in concern. "There has to be another way...." she added and glanced around for some sort of alternative option.

A cough came from the table, with a sharp inhale of breath...Silver was regaining consciousness, squinting his eyes open and looking very worn out. "....Wha....What happened? .....Star, somepony else here? .....I’m still alive..." Star frowned at Aura, but quickly turned and rushed to Silver's side as he started to wake up. Gently, she held his torso down and hushed him. "Shh.. I know you're alive, don't fret. How do you feel?" she asked, knowing his answer would be anything but 'peachy'. If she could manage just a little out of him, maybe they'd make it out of the Stable without having to call another rescue party.

"I'm going to ask a whole lot of you, and you're definitely not going to like the means.." she said meekly as she pulled out a small pill bottle marked, 'BUCK'.

Aura noticed this as she glanced over at the stallion as he came too. "I don't know if I like the means and I'm not even the one taking it." she pointed out as she moved closer. "If I recall correctly that is one of the most addictive chems out there, Silver is already weak from the poison and that one dose will most certainly help us get out of here but it may also lead to him getting addicted due to his weakened state when taking it." she explained with a concerned tone before sighing. "Unfortunately I don't think we have another option....." Silver looked over at Aura, now noticing that she had come out here, blinking slowly in surprise. ".....You actually came out here with an antidote for me? That's uh....really out of your way and, surprisingly considerate for an Inquisitor. Normally, from what I heard about rumors, you guys don't hesitate in leaving behind a comrade if they slow you down...Well, that's what rumor was at least." He then looked back to Star and the bottle of Buck in her hoof, biting his lip. "....Yeah, in a situation like this, an adrenaline shot would be more preferable, but the medkit I salvaged before was missing it, probably some junkie wanting to use the syringe...Long as I think of it as a temporary prescription, I can uh... Hopefully will myself to not get addicted." He groaned as he leaned upwards to get in a sitting position on the table, reaching over for the bottle. With an apologetic look, she opened the top of the bottle and floated a single capsule of the drug to his hoof.

"One." she said firmly, her magic holding tightly to the pill. "I've seen raiders strung out on this. Essie says sometimes it takes two or three shots to the head to put someone down who's addicted. Believe in yourself, okay? Just one." And with that, her magic relinquished.

Aura looked at Silver after he finished telling her about the rumor. "It's partially true, there are some who will, but....well I'm not going to abandon a pony I've worked with in the past. If I can help it that is." she explained and then looked like she quickly remembered something related to her statement. "Oh that's right....never mind forget I said anything." After she saw Star put the pill in Silver's hoof she sighed and frowned lightly, but realized there wasn't really any other option.

Silver looked to the pill, hoping for the best as he popped it in his mouth, then swallowed hard, grimacing due to the size of it. He wiped the sweat off his brow, taking a deep breath as he let the drug take effect. He felt himself getting stronger, th weakness he felt from lying on the table before fading away. He took a deep breath as his eyes widened. "Whoa...I feel better already." Silver let himself slide off the table, getting to his legs. He was still a little wobbly, but it looked like he was good to go.

Star looked at the stallion for a moment as he stood, surveying him. The drug had definitely kicked in, and now was the time to start getting out of the Stable. "Okay, um.. I'm going to hop on your back, and you're gonna swim us out. Aura, you can handle swimming out, right?"

Aura nodded. "That I can do, so let's get going. I'd rather we get out of here as quick as we can." she said and looked between them and glanced worryingly at Silver.

He still looked pale, but he was standing upright and attentive as he nodded to Star and kneeling down for her to climb on. "Yeah, we got what we needed here and I'm SO DONE with Stables after this encounter, heheh." He gave an awkward smile to that; seems like that Buck was certainly making him feel good to be joking so soon after nearly dying. Star was a little put off by his sudden charisma, but regardless, clambered onto his back and held tightly around his neck, being careful to avoid the bite wound. "Okay.. Keep focused, alright? We've got to get out quickly. The rads are really starting to get to me, and we're out of RadAway.." Aura hovered quickly over to them. "Alright, you two go first and I'll follow." she said. "I'm starting to feel really cramped...." she said and it was clear she was already starting to feel a bit tense from the confinement. "Oh how I hate feeling trapped."

Silver nodded as he got back up on his hooves with Star on his back. "Alright gals, just one more quick dip in the water and we're smooth skies from there...Hell, I think I can manage pulling the wagon too once we get topside." Silver began to trot for the atrium, treading water as he and Star floated and made their way for the submerged hallway leading to the Stable entrance. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Silver." Starsong said cautiously, holding tight as her escort stood up. As she rode, she noted that she would have to watch the stallion, and possibly destroy her collection of Buck, if he developed any signs of addiction. "Yeah, don't want to take any unnecessary risks, you may be feeling alright for now but once the drug wears off any extra strain you put on your body will catch up with you." Aura advised as she followed close behind the stallion and his passenger. "Seriously I can't imagine what living in one of these stables was like, I've been in here a short while and I already feel really cramped." the mare continued and shuddered a bit as she picked up her pace in the hopes of getting out of here as soon as she could.

Author's Note

Yeahhhhhh......It's been a while. And don't get your hopes up TOO much about this getting super active again, as the other fellas are still slow as frozen molasses. But hopefully with Fallout 4 coming out, they'll get hyped up again and continue this with me.