Fallout Equestria-Forgotten Pastby bayleaf9514Chaptersinto the freezer Apples and Ass HolesThe New Worldinto the freezer into the freezer Your mare friend said that you liked to hear stories, so we figured...you might like ours. I've heard a lot about you, but...i never really knew what things where like before you came out of your stable. I cant really appropriate what you did for the wasteland, not like others do...but I know what its like to give up everything, to save who you care about. That’s what I admire about you. sacrifice. Chapter 1: into the freezer hope The first thing I was aware of was the cold. I know its not what your expecting to hear, but its all I could think about. The impossible cold. Coming out of cryostasis so suddenly was a major shock to my system. Coming out of cryostasis isn’t like standing in your yard wearing nothing in January. Its 100 times worse then that. It feels like the cold is coming from inside your body, and making your skin cold. So yea, not what you might call fun. I fell to the cold steel floor, my body to numb to feel me fall out of my cryo-chamber. I opens my eyes, shivering uncontrollably. My stable still looked the same as it had 200 years ago. Gray and bleak. They had a habit of doing that with stables, but im sure you know that. I always said that it would be better for moral If we could paint them. Stable tech cared vary little of aesthetics Against my better judgment, I got to my hoofs. I felt stiff, and I think my stomach tried to digest itself. I had to keep reminding myself that I had been out for 200 years. It felt as if I had slept a few hours. I was on one of the lower levels of stable 117. Each level had a cryolab, all built with the same layout. A massive rotunda, filled with a maze of what we called cryo-clusters. A cryo-cluster was a group of 6 tubes, all sitting against each other in a circle. In the center of the room was a giant...yea you guessed, tube. We had a few of those. This one housed a magically charged gem that ran all the stasis chambers in the lab. An outstretched hoof offered to help me up, which I took without hesitation. I had only met him once, but it wasn’t hard to recognize blaze. His coat was this unique mixture of red and orange, making him appear to be burning. I'll admit, it was a cool affect. I was stuck with a boring old blue coat. He was wearing his stable security barding, complete with the helmet. “Wha-whats going....on.” I chattered. “Somepony opened the door.” He answered. He didn’t seem all that invested in the conversation, as if his mind was else where. “If we're getting out of here, w-why don’t you look happy?” I tried to talk normally, but the chill in my bones was making it impossible. He shock his head. “Because they...they shot at us. A group of security guards went to meet with them, and they where slaughtered.” My face paled. Why would a group of ponies brake into the stable and shot at us? What could the possibly gain from that? Yea, I know its obvious, but I knew vary little about the wasteland at the time. “I know, its bad. The security system has locked down the stable. Last I checked, they where stuck on level 3.” I looked around the massive rotunda. Nearly all the cryo-tubes where empty, but there was only a few dozen ponies there. “Where are they?” I muttered. Blaze immediately understood what i meant. He removed his helmet. “When they where unfrozen, they...” He shook his head. “Im not a doctor. I didn’t know what to do, i-i didn’t know how to defrost them properly.” He looked down. a tear was running down his face. “Its alright blaze.” I said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “You did the right thing trying to wake them. These freezers, they can be dangerous. That’s why they where only used in select stables.” The stallion nodded. “Thanks hope.” “No problem.” That’s when my brain finally clicked. For somepony so smart, I tend to miss the important stuff. “Did you say there trapped on level three?” I asked. The earth pony nodded. “why do you-” Realization dawned in his eyes. “Hope, im so sorry. After everything you did for them to let your sister in the stable...” “No. No! This is not over!” I snapped. “Im going to the cryo-lab on level three, and im getting my sister.” Blaze shook his head. “They will kill you hope. You realize that don’t you? Think this through. You are one of the smartest minds of our time. The best magical energy engineer to have ever lived. Is it really worth you getting killed, to save a junkie?” Big, BIG mistake. My horn flared, sending blaze flying across the room. He hit the door to a nearby cryo-pod, cracking the glass. His eyes widened with fear. I wasn’t one to loss my temper. Ever. But this is my sister where talking about. My flesh and blood. I practically raised her after my father joined the war. She was the only living pony in the wasteland I trusted. I didn’t care about what ponies said about me, but you fuck with my sister... I teleported in front of the pined pony, for no other reason then to demonstrate my power. The stallion was visibly shaking. “Faith isn’t a junkie. Now im going to save her whether you like it or not. You can help me, or you can sit down here with your head between you legs.” I let my spell drop, dropping him onto the cold steel floor. Many of the other ponies in the rotunda had gathered around now, watching the action. I helped him to his hoofs. “The stables on lock down,” He repeated. “How are you going to get up there?” I help up my unusual looking pip buck and smiled. "Pip buck 5000. This thing 'ill hack the security system in 10 seconds flat.” He nodded, and grabbed something out of his vest with his teeth. “Hmer, trak thif.” He said through the pistol in his mouth. I grabbed it with my telekinesis. I looked over the revolver floating in the green aura of my magic. “Thanks.” I said. I slipped it into the pocket of my stable maintenance uniform. Yes, I was maintenance. Its the only job a stable has for an engineer. I weaved through the maze of cryo-chambers to a door across the room. Once I was out of the cryo-chamber, I had to weave my way through the stable to the central elevators. I loved the feel of the warm, 25 degree air. (umm, Celsius.) “Why does everything have to look the same.” I muttered as I walked. I'll be honest, If it wasn’t for the signs everywhere, I never would have found those damn elevators. I trotter up to three doors that lined the wall. They looked like normal doors, save for the neon elevator signs above them. I pressed the elevator button on the panel beside one of the doors. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. I smiled, lifting my pip buck. I easily connected to the stables mainframe wirelessly, and turned the elevator back on. Moments later, the door slide open with a ding. “Ha, piece of cake.” I said. I walked into the elevator. The panel in the elevator was still unpowerd, so I had to control it with my pip buck. Moments later, the doors slide open again, reviling yet another gray wall. I peaked out into the hall, making sure there was no one down it. It was clear. The stable was capable of keeping the hole population of the stable alive out of stasis, in case the cryo-tech ever failed. Despite no pony being in there for 200 years, the place was vary clean. I figured the robots had kept it maintained. I moved carefully through the dull gray hallways of the stable. I wincing with every clop of my hoofs. Every hoof fall was like a gunshot in my ears. I navigated the stable with ease. It felt as if I had just gotten there, and I was already nearing the cryolab. This is way easier then I thought it would be, I thought. I spoke to soon. I gasped as I came around the next corner. I was face to face with a pony. I mentally scorned myself for neglecting my EFS. If I had been using my eyes forward sparkle, I would have seen this guy on the compass. The first thing I noticed was the power helmet covering his face. The second thing I noticed was the massive mini gun mounted to the side of his power armor. I would have thought that the soldier was on my side, if the armor hadn’t been painted red. He was apparently working on a maintenance terminal mounted to the wall, most likely in an attempt to hack it. The terminal flashed as it warned him of his final hacking attempt. “Halt!” The pony bellowed. His voice was muffled slightly by his helmet. I was terrified. Sometimes it sucked to know everything. Like how power armor was built. Or like the odds of me doing any damage to it. The odds definitely weren’t in my favor, not that they ever are. That’s when my brain kicked in. this was what I was born to do. What the spell matrix on my flank meant. I was born to solve problems, and that’s just what I planed on doing. My horn became shrouded in green. I couldn’t help but grin as his mini gun whirled to life. It ran for about a second before the rotating barrel stopped. The stallion looked back at his gun, looking vary confused. The metal of the rotating barrel had fuzed to the metal of the rest of it. Faith would know what the rest of the gun was called. “Welding spell.” I gloated. The steel clad soldier chuckled a bit, catching me off guard. I had no idea what he could possibly find amusing, considering I just ruined his gun. He turned slightly, letting me see the massive plasma cannon mounted on the other side of his armor. Its tri barrels glowed green has he took aim. “Next time, don’t attack somepony better armed then you.” He said, savoring the moment. “wha-” He asked as he saw the terminal beside him become shrouded in a green glow. BOMB! The terminal exploded, blowing him to the floor, and assaulting his armor with shrapnel. I winced involuntary as it blew apart. I smiled as I marveled at my incredible plan. The nerd won against the pony armed to the teeth, and heavily armored. My victory was short lived, however, as the stallion began to get to his hoofs. Apparently overloading a terminal wasn’t enough to take out power armor. I definitely misjudged on that one. I didn’t stay for the rest of the party. The second I saw was he was still conscious, I bolted. I ran as fast as my four legs would carry me. After a short detour I was at the door to the cryo-lab. I looked back, chest heaving. My legs burned. I really needed to work out more. As fare as I could tell, I had lost him. I knew that if I could get out of sight, I could loss him. Those suits weren’t built for speed. I was surprised that there wasn’t any more red guys at the door to the cryo-lab. Sure, the stable residence weren’t there target, but they would still have valuable information at least. I sat down at the doors terminal. It was easy to hack into. I unlocked the door, and opened it. I actually managed to get into room before shit hit the fan. “Attention!” A voice boomed from behind. I winced and looked behind me. No pony there. I let out a sigh of relive as I realized it was the PA system. “There is a young blue colt wondering level three. I want him dealt with as soon as possible. Maintain cation, he has already alluded one of our knights. That is all.” “Out of the frying pan...” I muttered, closing the door behind me. It locked itself as it shut. I shivered slightly as I mild about the large rotunda. It was a clone of the one upstairs. After what had felt like hours, I found the stasis chamber of the filly I was looking for. It felt like just yesterday I had watched the green mare be frozen in time. Beside the chamber, was a small control panel. I went through the procedure of reviving her properly. Freezing was already dangerous enough. The magic that was used in it was unstable at best. Five minutes later, the chamber was off, and she was thawing out. The chamber opened, the space between me and it clouding over with fog. Luckily for Faith, I could see her shadow. I had to grab her to keep her from hitting the floor. Her coat was covered in patches of frost. I sat her down gently on the floor. Her main and coat where littered with spots of frost. She shivered as she regained consciousness. Her eyes cracked open, and her teeth chattered. Her eyes set on me above her, then on the gun handle sticking out of my pocket. She was wearing that, “what have I gotten myself into now” look of hers. She took a breath, as she got herself to her hoofs. I tried to help her up, but she pushed me away. Her eyes told me to back off. “H-how long?” she chattered, rubbing one foreleg with the other. “A little over 200 years.” I answered. “Come on, we need to go.” “W-whats g-going on? Why aren’t the others awake? Who had the bright idea to give you a gun?” “Some guys in power armor broke into the stable. We have to leave.” Faith nodded towards a steel door at the edge of the room. “My cross bows in the storage room over there.” She said. Hope shook his head and sighed. “Fine, whatever, go.” Faith smiled as she trotted over to the door. She knew I wouldn’t wast time arguing, because she would just do it anyway. I fallowed her. The storage room was lined with lockers, numbering from 1-150. faith found her locker easily, and cracked it open. Inside was her saddle bags, her cross bow, and a quiver of blots. She tossed me one of her saddlebags, which I put one. “So, let me get this straight.” She said, using the inventory spell on her pip buck. “Some ponies in power armor brake into the stable, so you come down here to save me?” I nodded. She levitated her lock pick out of her saddle bags and starts working on getting into some pony else locker. “And you brought a gun, you have no idea how to use?” “I know how a gun works, faith. I designed magical energy weapons, remember?” “Knowing how it works, and knowing how to use it, are two different things Bro.” “That’s what SATS is for.” “You cant just rely on a targeting spell Hope.” She smiled as the locker pooped open “Ah ha!” I sighed. “What are you doing?” “This locker belongs to the head of security.” She pulled a sub machine gun and some stable security barding. “Now I have armor.” She smirked. While she dresses herself, I checked the door to the cryolab. I could hear voices on the other side, but I had no idea what they where saying. I really hoped we wouldn’t have to fight them. I went back to the storage room to warn faith. “So what if there outside?” She asked after I told her. She ran a hoof down her cross bow. “Those doors are steel, not to mention magic.” She diverted her attention back to her cross bow. “Ready to have some fun, Hurricane?” She asked the weapon. “Come on, lets go.” I urged. “You can grope Hurricane later.” Faith named her bow Hurricane, due to the wind enchantment on it. Gave the bolts a little more penetration. She sighed. “Alright. Here, take this though.” She levitated the 9mm SMG in front of me. The gun had collected some rust over the 200 years it had sat in the locker, but it looked usable. I grabbed it in my magic, and tossed the strap over my head, letting the gun hang at my side. “Thanks.” I said. “Hmm... does this barding match my hair?” Faith asked me. I sighed. “your hairs fine Faith.” “I don’t think it works with the color. Maybe I’ll dye it.” “Can you please worry about this later?” I begged. “Fine, fine.” She said. We went back into the cro-lab. The lab was still really cold, making me shiver slightly. We were walking towards the exit, when faith broke the silence. “Do you think there still out there?” Her answer came in a high pitched squeal from the other end of the door. “Oh shit.” Faith muttered. BOOM! The stable shook. Next thing we knew, there was a 5 inch thick steel door heart set on turning is into stains on the floor. The ringing in my ears was almost bad enough to distract me from the door flying at me. Almost. Faith and I instantly feel in sink. Both of us directed everything we have at the door. The door became shrouded in the pink and green glows of our magic. The metal warped under the force of our combined spells. We both tilted our heads left. my horn burned with the effort. The door fallowed our example, flying left. A path of destruction fallowed it as it crashed through the rotunda, smashing cry-tubes to bits. We could make out two silhouette standing in the smoke filled hallway. Faith fired her cross bow at one of the shadows, and dove for cover behind a tube on her right. I fired and ran for cover as well. I winced as the ponies mini guns opened fire on us, there bullets imbedding themselves into the cry-tube cluster in front of me. The glass doors shattered under the bombardment. I winced as a shard of glass cut across my leg. It wasn’t a bad cut, but it hurt like a bitch. “Shot, stupid!” Faith shouted over the mini gun fire. Faith took another shot at the red soldiers. The bolts of her cross bow had no visible effect. I obliged her, the second they ceased fire. I pecked around the cry-tube, and switched into SATS. Time slowed to a crawl as I quid up my shots with the advanced targeting spell. I let the spell drop, pumping half my mag into the face of the steel clad soldier. My shots staggered my opponent, but did vary little damage. My only reward for my effort was a series of tings as my bullets bounced off the armor. I ducked back behind my cover as his mini gun spung up, dumping an immeasurable amount of rounds into the cry-tube. Shards of glass flew everywhere as they hammered away at my cover. I waiting for SATS to recharge. I looked over at faith, who had a worried expression on her face. She wasn’t doing to much better then I was. She looked at me questionably. I knew what she was waiting for. Me to come up with a plan to get out us out. Truth is, I didn’t have one. There where two guys in red power armor firing at us with mini guns blocking our only exit. A blood curdling scream drew me out of my stupor. I looked back over at faith, who was sitting up against her barrier, pressing a hoof into her shoulder. Blood ran past her hood, and down her chest. She winced with every breath. She looked over at me and frowned. her standard look she made when she thought she’d fucked up. My mind clouded over with rage as I realized the severity of our situation. We could die in here. They could kill us. Before, it hadn’t even considered it. Now, I was staring the truth of it in the face. I lept out from my cover and grabbed them both of the soldiers in my levitation spell. I was seething with rage. I shoved them back with a roar. They both stumbled back, trying to keep there balance. While they regained there footing, i dashed to where my sister was sitting. The wound didn’t look so bad, so long as we could stop the bleeding. The bulled had gone right through. “Your good.” I told her. “Hope!” She warned. I looked over my shoulder. “AHH!” One of the soldiers was standing there, looking down at use. “You see what happens when you try to cross the steel rangers?” His mini gun whirled. I shut my eyes tightly. The “Steel Ranger” saw this as some sort of surrender. He laughed at my plea. I grunted as my horn glowed a brilliant green. In a flash of light, we where gone. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hope: level up! New spell -Advanced Teleportation level one. Your teleportation spell is no longer governd by line of sight! You can now concentrat all of your power to teleport to places you've been before. Be sure to acount for distance. New party member: Faith! Apples and Ass HolesChapter 2: Apples and Ass Holes Faith So, there I was, looking down the barrel of a saddle mounted M134, loading with 500 armor piercing rounds ready to tear me more then a few new holes. My brother was shaking beside me, his eyes shit tight. I was certain we where going to die. then, Hopes horn light up the room. it was so bright, that just being near it hurt my eyes. Then, we vanished. He had teleported us back down to level 5. I knew he could teleport, but he always said that he could only teleport someplace he could see. I had never been more glade that he was wrong. Although, not at the time. When we blinked back in, I was laying on the ground, my hair singed from the energy. My stomach was doing back flips. I promised myself I would deal with my hair the first chance I got. Hope hadn’t fared much better. He was laying beside me, holding his horn in his hoofs. Although he didn’t have any real injurious, he used a lot of magic for that spell. To this day, I have no clue how he was still conscious after a spell like that. I knew that he had burnt himself out. It happened to a lot of unicorns when they overused there magic. Cant say I remember any pony ever grunting and moaning about the pain that much though... it really wasn’t that big of a deal. He just would be without magic for a day or two, maybe some head aches. I felt somepony pushing down on my wound. a forest green mare was sitting beside me, levitating a first aid kit in front of her. I swatted her hoof away from me and sat up. “Lay back down.” The green pony ordered. “Your hurt.” “I am?” I asked sarcastic. “I can take care of myself lady. Go see if there’s any injured egos in need of treatment. I’m sure you wont have a problem finding any in this place.” The mare gasped at my insult, and trotted away Ok, so maybe I was a little harsh. Really though, she was treating me like a foal. I don’t need some cute mare to kiss me better. “I can do it myself.” I muttered. Hope was shooting me a disapproving look. I figured I should cut the egg heads a little slack. If only for my brothers reputation. A bunch of ponies had gathered around now to see what was going on. Many of them scowled at me. I shrugged them off and got to work with the first aid kit. I knew how to patch myself up pretty well. I had gotten hurt more times then I could count. mostly doing things that might give you a bad impression of me...anyway, once I cleaned and dressed the wound, I went to see how hope was doing. A bunch of ponies had gathered around him, attacking him with questions. Was that what it was like working for the ministry of science? I would never now. I got up and told every pony to give my brother some room. I'll admit, I don’t look like the easiest pony to talk to. Sure, my green coat is cute, I guess. when put it with my purple and blue hair, my attitude, and my security outfit? I came off as a little daunting. Add my cross bow into the mix, and my style just screams, “don't mess with this girl!” So, when I spoke, everyone listened. It probably helped a bit that I was the sister of the smartest egg head in the room, and that I was the only one who had ever even been in a fight, let alone a gun fight. I helped hope up, who smiled at me and chuckled. “You always have to rule the school, don’t you?” He asked me. “long as your there to nerd it up once in a while. How did you do that spell?” “Fear, I guess. Magic is fueled by emotion, right?” I shrugged. “Can you try and warn me next time maybe? My hears all singed.” “Ok, I’ll warn you next time your seconds from death. Then, I’ll save you.” “Thanks for that, by the way.” Most of the spectators left during our conversation. I’m not sure what it is about most of those ponies, but they just seem to home in on drama. That’s when Blaze decided to walk over and interrupt us. There are many times when I pray that some pony would interrupt my brother. This was not one of those times. “listen,” The flaming pony said as he walked up. “I know your both hurt, so don’t be afraid to say no.” “Just get to the point, blaze.” I cut in. He glared at me. Hope gave me another of his disapproving looks. I swear, those things are worse then gun fire. Blaze lowered his voice so no pony else could overhear him. “I found a back exit on level 6. It leads into a tunnel system that they had dug into when the stable was built. Thing is, the over mare and the head of security know the codes.” Hope nodded, thinking it over. “well, where are they?” I asked. “Well,” Blaze pointed to a nearby freezer. “That mare in there was the over mare.” “And head of security?” Hope asked. “Well, your sisters wearing his uniform. Whats that tell ya?” Hope sighed. “Shit.” I said. “Hope, couldn’t you just hack it or something? You had a hoof in the security system, right?” “Yea, I based the program off of my pip buck. The doors aren’t part of the security network though. I could try to find a back door, but there’s no chance of me just getting back door access. “Right...” Blaze said. It was clear he was just as confused as I was. “Just do whatever you can.” Hope nodded. “Snd you-” He looked over at me. “I want you to go with him.” “Where did you think I was going to go?” I asked. The Gala?” Hope chuckled. Blaze merely rolled his eyes. “The clinics drug Cabinet comes to mind.” “Fuck you Blaze! Fuck you!” I shouted, shoveing him. He staggered back a few steps. I took a step towards him. “Hey!” a tug on my tail told me to stop my advance. Once hope saw that I had calmed down a bit, he let go off it. “That’s enough.” He said venomously. Hope walked up beside me. “Lets go.” Hope narrowed his eyes at blaze as we past. Turns out, there was a stairwell to level six in the cryo room. It was a maintenance stairwell that, according to hope, hadn’t been used since the stables construction. The stairwell was uncaracteristicly big. I figured it would have to be for moving supplies to the lower levels. When we where finely out of the cryo lab, heading down the stairwell, I piped up. “Wow bro, I didn't know you cared.” I chuckled. “Never seen you get that out of the clouds before.” “Im tired of all the ponies here belittling you.” “Yea, well when we open the exit, we wont have to.” Hope starred off into space for a minute as we walked, like I had reminded him of something really important. He didn’t look all that happy about it either. I pocked his check. “hey, hope. Equestria to egg head. Hope!” “Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just-” “Lost in thought.” I finished. “I know. What where you thinking about? You looked devastated.” “Never mind, it'll be fine.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but I could definitely guess. He had some sort of invention in there that he didn’t want to loss. Most ponies have a pet, or a favorite toy. Not my brother. He had his latest gadget. “don't worry about it, you still have your pipbuck prototype.” He perked up a little bit at that, looking down at his invention. “Yea. Yea, I do.” If he was in a better mode, he would argue that he didn’t invent it, just rebuilt it from older models and improved it. As fare as I cared, he built that little computer and wrote out the code. Of course, he wouldn’t admit to it. Once we got to the bottom of the stairs, he sent me back up to check on every pony upstairs. Not a job I really wanted, but I didn’t complain. Walking around talking to ponies (even theses stuck up braineaks) was fare more fun then watching hope hack a computer. When I got upstairs, I walked around the cryo lab making sure everypony was doing ok. They all where. Sadly, they offered vary little in the way on conversation. “Hey, you guys doing ok?” I asked a group of ponies who where chatting near a food vendor. “Vary well, thank you.” One of them, a stallion, replied. The name Spell Nexus came to mind. “We where just having a chat, about the fundamentals of residual energy distortion after immense magic transference. Do you have anything to add?” I looked at the brown stallion, trying to figure out what he was talking about. I realized that he where mocking me. “No, but me and my brother where just talking about the odds of a bunch of out of shape egg heads surviving in a radioactive wasteland with no training or skills of any kind.” I shot back. The purple mare beside him laughed. “And what chance do you think you have, blank flank? Your a criminal.” I subconsciously hide my flank behind my tail. “Well, I can shoot, pick looks, find food, and im not afraid to get my hoods dirty.” I boasted. “I can hit an apple of your head at 500 yards. Although, I would much prefer to shot you out from under the apple.” “Excuse me!?” She shouted. “I think you should leave.” Spell Nexus said, steeping in front of the mare. “Good idea.” I said, turning tail. “I was getting bored of embarrassing you egg heads anyway.” I said over my shoulder. Once she was out of ear shot, I muttered “You might be smarter then me, but at least I got a shot on the surface.” I might have played it off all cool like, but the truth was, there words really did hurt. I was literally the dumbest pony in the stable, and no pony wanted me to forget it. “Hey!” Blaze shouted from behind me. “Hold up!” I turned towards him. “Liston, if this is about that couple, i-” “Its not that.” He cut me off. “The steel ranger guys are hacking into one of the elevators. I've sealed the door to the cryo room, but...” He was to afraid to finish the thought. “Hows the back door going?” “No idea.” I shrugged. “Hope sent me up here to make sure everypony was doing alright.” “Go check then. I'll pack up all the food I can find.” I nodded. “Why are you still here? Go!” I did as I was told (for once) and went to tell hope about the new development. It was a lot to process. I hadn’t been outside in 200 years. Now, my choices where go to a wasteland I knew nothing about, or get shot dead. Plus, his mention of food reminded me that I hadn’t eaten in 200 years. My stomach grumbled as I dashed down the stairs. “Quiet, you.” I told it as I ran. Down this hall, past this terminal, through this door, and I was there. It wasn’t hard to find, considering the stable practically had signs to tell you where the signs where. “Hows it going?” I huffed as I ran into the large empty room. He was sitting beside the terminal, staring intently at his pipbuck. “Almost there. I got it powered, know I just half to wait for the pipbuck to generate the password.” “Cant you just bypass it, or scroll through the code for the password?” “Its not that easy. Its all encrypted. The security system has the same programing as my pipbuck prototype. This is alien to me.” I grunted, and bucked the nearest wall, leaving a small dent. “Calm down, I just need another 10 minutes. Believe it or not, I don’t know everything about computers.” “The steel dangers-” “-Rangers” “Are hacking the elevator know. They'll be here really, really soon.” He sighed, and looked over his pipbuck at me. “Hook up your pip to the terminal, I would use the extra processing power.” I did as he asked, then said, “But I don’t know how-” “Your pipbuck will do the rest. Just integrate with the computer. It should sink with mine.” I did as he asked, and my pipbuck screen filled with the random code that covered the computer screen. “Now what?” I asked after what felt like three hours. The clock on my pipbuck said 8 minutes. He smiled and clicked something on his pipbuck. The code on the computer screen vanished, replaced by the words, “unlock door?” “Now, we get out of this death trap.” We walked back upstairs, excited to tell everypony the good news. On our way, I couldn’t help but think about what outside might be like. I knew it wouldn’t be anything like it was before, but how much could have changed? Did the maga spells turn equestria into a dessert? A tundra? Detrot? I had no idea. “What do you thing its like outside?” I asked as we reached the door to level 5. He shrugged. “I wish I could check. There are sensors on level one that would tell us everything. They can even see through the dirt to give us a look at the surface.” “Let me guess, your magical handy work?” She asked “Nope.” He opened the door. “You know, Im not the only pony at the ministry who built things. some intern came up with the idea. She knew this X-Ray spell that she used to...never mind.” We both stooped and stared out the door, into the cryo room. A few of the tubs had been tipped over and set up as barricades by the main door. A few ponies, including blaze, sat behind them. They where armed with guns I assumed they had gotten from the storage room. The rest of the ponies where huddled farther near the back, behind a cluster of pods. I winced as the stable shook for the second time that day. A lout bang echoed through the room as the main door was blown away from its frame One of the ponies, despite being ordered not to, looked over the barrier to get a better look at the approaching enemy. He screamed as a 4 tun door took his head off. Blaze shouted for his armed ponies to open fire. I could barely hear him over all the screaming. This time, the coming of the steel clad warriors wasn’t accompany by the whirl of mini guns. One of the steel rangers stepped through the door. The stable ponies bullets barley dented his armor. By the time I saw the weapon he had mounted in his battle saddle, it was to late. WHOOSH! A rocket flew out of the tub on the rangers side. It struck the wall behind the unarmed ponies. The sound was only watched by the intensity of the earth quake it caused. They screamed as a blanket of fire and shrapnel rained down on them. “Apple Jacks Rangers, move in!” The Ranger shouted. Another two soldiers joined him, one on each side. I drew my cross bow, and took a step forward. “over hear!” I shouted to the stable ponies. “RUN!” none of them could hear me. I ran forward. I wanted to lead them out. To get them to safety. I felt my tail go taught as hope grabbed it. Another rocket flew past. this one slammed into the guards barricade. The stable shuttered as it went off, taking half the barricade with it. Some of the gunners got lucky. The rest where still alive. “Look.” He said, pointing at the battle field. Half the security force lied dead at the barricade. The others seemed to be in immeasurable pain, there bodies litters with burn marks and cuts from the shrapnel. The civilians lied still on the ground behind the cryo tube. A few where still breathing. None of them seemed able to walk. I knew what my brother way saying. The battle was over. They where dead. Tears stung my eyes as I stepped back from the door. Two steel rangers walked up to the first barricade, one checking the ponies pulses, the other covering him. They both looked over at us as hope closed the door. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hope:level up! New perk-power pony. Your skill in problem salving now effects your magic. You are 10% less likely to have a magic burn out. Faith: level up! New perk! Dauntless. You don’t take shit from no pony! You can now use others fear of you to get what you want. Speech and barter increased by 10! new speech options when speaking with any pony a lower level then you. The New WorldChapter 3: The New World Hope Faith and I sat outside the stable door in silence. We had been sitting out there for ten minutes, still digesting what had happened. The dampness of the cave we where in was already seeping into my coat, and chilling my skin. The only sound was the constant drip of water from the sealing high above us. To make sure we weren’t followed, I destroyed the door terminal as we left. I wasn’t worried about the rangers blowing down the door. It was nearly three times as thick as the rest of the doors in the stable, no doubt to keep it from being blown open. Besides, they got what they wanted. No point in coming after us. We both had our pipbuck lights on, but they did vary little to fend of the darkness of the massive cave. Much to my relief, my EFS remained blank. I had totally forgotten about my eyes forward sparkle until we got out into the caverns. Despite being one of the first ponies to own a pipbuck, I had never really used any of its combat assisting spells before. Using SATS and EFS was just as new to me as it was to my sister. I stared at the gun in my lap, still in shock over what happened. I had been shot at. With guns! And I had shot back. “When I got into the stable, I had no idea it would be like this” I though. “We should get going.” Faith said softly, braking the silence. “Huh?” “You know, leave?” She got to her hooves. “We cant just sit here until we die of starvation.” I got to my hooves as well. “Dehydration would get us way before starvation would.” I pointed out. She rolled her eyes. “My point is, we need to get out of here.” “And, you want me to get us out, right?” “Well...yea.” She shrugged. “Your talent is salving problems, right?” She self consciously glanced back at her blank flank. It was my turn to roll my eyes. “You know your pipbuck has an auto map feature, right?” She blushed slightly. “Right...I knew that.” She looked at her pip for a minute, then pointed down a nearby tunnel. “This way.” We walked the tunnels by the light of our pipbucks, faith in the lead. She was floating her cross bow out in front of her the entire time. You might say that she was worried that something was going to attack. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. She was hoping something would. Now I know what your thinking. We are heartless ponies for forgetting about our friends back at the stable. We didn’t forget about them. We just A; knew that we had to worry about ourselves, and B; weren’t all that close with the ponies who had died. Yes, it was a shame, I agree. But dwelling on it would do nothing, save for get us killed. I sighed as my stomach growled at me. I still had a lot of energy. The cryo tubes made sure our bodys had everything they needed. my belly must of missed the memo. “What are those?” Faith asked, drawing me out of my stupor. A bunch of yellow markers cluttered the compass on my EFS. I had been so busy thinking about food, I hadn’t noticed them. “Not sure. Yellow normally means neutral, I think. Or was it undetermined? Caution maybe?” I thought about it for a moment. “You know, It could be all three...” “You can not tell me you don't know. You built one!” “I modified one,” I replied. “And I didn't touch the combat spells. The ministry had some pony else change those on the revised prototype.” She groaned. “I guess we go in hot then.” “Go in hot?” I asked. “Ohh, guns...Right...” I didn’t really get most of her military speech. Sometimes I wished I had spent some time playing pony of honor with her. We walked through the tunnel, coming into a massive cavern. I nearly shat myself when I saw what my EFS had warned me about. In the cavern, sleeping on there floor, where dozens of ants. Not little tiny ants, no. Theses ants where half my size. Red patterns graced there giant black bodys. “So...” Faith looked over at me. “Giant ants, huh?” “Yeah...” I replied. “The radiation must have mutated them.” For a moment I wondered how a bug would evolve like that, but I pushed it out of my mind. Not the time or place for curiosity. “I don’t think I have enough bolts for all of them.” She tapped her quiver. “Well then don't wake them.” “With the way you walk, I don't know how they didn't hear us already.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “What? It's true.” I sighed, looking over the...What do you call an army of over 40 oversized ants? I doubt any pony ever survived long enough to consider it. “What if....” Faith put her hoof to her chin, then smiled. “What if you didn’t have to touch the ground?” If it wasn’t for the army of ants under me, I think I would have shot her. The plan was crazy. Hell, it was suicide. Oh yea, I said under me. My sister had the brilliant idea of us levitating each other over the ants. I told you; crazy. I had to hold my breath to keep myself from yelling. I was terrified. I was already afraid of heights to begin with. mix that fear with enough giant ants to kill a manticore? Not my definition of fun. My EFS blurred in and out of focus every few seconds. The magical aura my sister was holding me in was causing some magical interference with my pipbuck. I knew that, being a prototype, it would have a few problems. I just hoped once she dropped her spell, it would reset. Finely, I cleared the ant ocean. Faith levitated me about 15 feet away from the slumbering ants, then let her magic fade. I gasped as I hit the ground with a umf. A breathed a sigh of relief as I regained my balance. Now I just had to get faith across. I could see the tunnel we had to go down only 100 feet away from me. It looked like an old mine shaft, complete with rails and wooden support beams. Mine shafts had to lead somewhere, right? I turned my attention back to my sister. She was still standing on the other side of the an army, tapping her hoof impatiently. I reached out with my levitation spell. Faith floated off the ground. I began pulling her towards me. She put her hoofs out in front of her like a supper hero. I furled my brow as my horn began to throb. I was determined to get faith to safety. I continued to carry her along. The pain in my horn getting worse. My magic flicked. I strained my magic to keep the spell. Every muscle in my body strained with the effort. The pain in my horn was getting worse by the second. Faith palled as the green aura around he began to flicker. I pulled her towards me with all the strength I could muster. My magic failed. She screamed as she went into free fall. Her momentum kept her moving in my direction. She tried to levitate herself, but she was already moving to fast. I breathed a sigh of relief as she landed safely on my side of the cavern. Faith breathed heavily as she got to her hoofs. “ops.” I looked back at the ants and gasped. My EFS compass had become a bar of red. The lake of ants was waking up. They didn’t look to happy either. A pair of ants charged faith. She leveled her cross bow at the nearest one. A bolt slammed through its skull, scraping against the stone bellow. A jet of flames fired from the ants open maw. Right at faith. “Ahh!” She screamed, jumping away from the torrent of flames. Faith had had enough fun for one day. She turned tail and dashed towards the exit. I fallowed close behind. I was caught up to her in no time. That was odd by itself. Faith was way faster then I was. Then i noticed that she was limping. The fur on her bad lag was burnt away. The skin bellow was red and blistered. The ants where funneling into the tunnel after us. I fired blindly over my shoulder with my SMG, nailing more then a few ants. The sound of the stampeding ants echoed through the tunnel, mixing with gunfire and hoof steps. The ants where surprisingly fast. They where quickly closing the distance between us and them. It didn’t mater how many we would kill, because there was always more behind them. I went into SATS, and lined up a few targets who where getting to close. Time went back to normal as the targeting spell emptied the last of my mag into the stampeding ants. I considered pulled out my pistol, but I didn’t want to wast the bullets. There had to be something else I could do. Like block them off. “Faith I have an idea!” I shouted. “'Bout time!” I stopped beside a wooden support beam, and gave it a hard buck. Immediately the wood started to buckle under the pressure of the rock it held up. Small rocks and dust rained down from the ceiling. I ran forward with everything I had. The tunnel started to shack as larger rocks and boulders fell from the ceiling. The cave in was working great, trapping the ants that didn't get crushed. Of course, now we had to deal with a mineshaft falling on us The sound of running ants was quickly drowned out by falling rocks. the tunnel shock violently. My legs burned as I did my best to keep ahead of the falling debris. I heard faith shout something from ahead, but I couldn’t make out the words. It took me three seconds to figure out what she had said. “Look out.” I looked up and caught a glimpse of a gray object above me. Last thing I remembered was a splitting pain in my head as fell. I woke to the crackle of fire and the smell of smoke. My first thought was that I had fallen asleep while we where camping. Sadly, when I opened my eyes, we where farther down the mine shaft. Faith was sitting beside me, starring into a fire she had made. A pile of wood pieces sat beside her. Pieces of support beams. I groaned as the throbbing in my head registered. I put my hoof to my head and winced. Faith had bandaged it up. Her burnt leg was wrapped up as well. Faith smiled at me, and pulled me into a huge. “Your ok!” She said with glee. “Well, ok might be a little much, but I’m breathing.” I muttered. “Where did you get the magic bandages?” “I stool the first aid kit that that green mare was going to use on me.” She said. “And,” She levitated over two odd looking bags. The letters, MREs was printed on them. “There where some rations in them. Like what the army eats!” “Wow Faith, that's great. Who puts food in a first aid kit?” “Don't know, don't care. We're breathing, we have food, and a warm fire.” “Speaking of, why did you build a fire? You pipbuck lights still working, right?” “My pips fine, it just doesn’t keep me warm. About an hour ago, it got really cold.” “How long was I out?” I asked, checking my pipbuck clock. It was 10:30pm. “A little over three hours.” She replied “You know, I could have burned them with my fire spell, right?” She asked. “Kill fire ants with fire? Really?” She stopped talking for a moment, trying to think of a comeback. She ended up sticking to her standard, “shut up egg head,” response. After we ate, we continued through the mine shaft. The tunnel was really dusty after the cave in, making it harder to breath, but we managed. I couldn’t help but think about everything that had happened, and the new world we lived in. we had been thawed for over four hours, and already I had almost died three times. I was afraid of what it would be like above ground. If my sister was having any of these thoughts, she didn’t show it. She was humming along to music she had downloaded onto her pipbuck. I cant say im surprised that she had head phones in her saddle bag. I smiled as my eyes set upon something I hadn’t seen in 200 years. Down at the end of the tunnel, was light. Not mage light, or electric light, but natural light. Moon light. I poked my sister to get her attention. “Huh?” “Look.” I pointed. She smiled. “Thank Luna.” Her shoulders sagged. “Do you think Luna’s still...You know.... Alive?” “I-” I was about to say I doubt it, but I wasn’t sure it was the best thing for her to hear. “- think that 200 years isn’t all that long for an alicorn.” “That's true.” She nodded. “Come on, lets get out of here.” “Now you bring this up?” “All im saying is that it could be dangerous out there. Radiation, mutants, who knows?” When we where nearly at the end of the mineshaft, it occurred to me how crazy it all was. We knew nothing about the wasteland, aside from it being dangerous. We had nearly no supplies, and knew nothing about how the world worked now. “Is your pipbucks geiger counter picking up any radiation?” “Well...No.” “Do you not have a gun in your pocket?” “Well...yes. But what if... The air is toxic?” “Then we die from the air instead of thirst. Now get your pasnzi ass out of the cave.” Her description of herself was pretty spot on. No pony messes with faith. So, we walked outside. A map marker appeared on my pipbuck map. “Magnesite.” How my pipbuck new what the town name was, I still have no clue. It was just another part of the spell mainframe I could never hope to understand. The town looked like it was out of an old western movie, but way older. Out of the eight buildings in the town, three where still standing. The others lied in piles of ruble. It was night time, as my pipbuck had said. The moon was making its way to the horizon. The stars where a beautiful sight. Much less of a let down then the town. An alert came across my EFS. “New radio signal found” came up underneath the compass. “Hey,” Faith asked. “Did your pip-” “Yea.” I went into the radio feature of my pipbuck and tuned it to the new signal. “So, for those of you who have to go up towards new Appaloosa, don't! We've been getting scattered reports of battles braking out up there. Between whom you ask? Well, the Applejacks Rangers of course. There up there fighting hard to keep the Alicorn Defects from killing every pony in the area. So if you see one of these Red Rangers out there, lend him a hoof. The Followers of the Apocalypse say that they will treat any pony injured by there misguided sisters.” “In other news, Enclave remnants continues to set up bases around the Equestrian Wasteland. Although they haven’t been heard from in a while, I wouldn’t go pay them a visit.” “This is DJ Pon3, signing off. Don't worry though, I leave you in the capable hooves of velvet remedy.” “Did we just tune into a news broadcast?” Faith asked as music started playing through my pipbuck. I shut it off. “Sounded like it. What do you think it means by enclave remnants?” “Forget that, what did he mean by alicorn defects? It sounded as if there's a war going on.” I shrugged. “There's always a war going on, it seems. Where do you think think we should go now?” “Hm...The radio station!” “Umm...Why?” “To...Learn stuff...” I rolled my eyes. “You just want to meet a celebrity.” Faith looked down and dug at the dirt with her hoof. “No...Maybe...A little bit.” “We're not going to the Djs radio station. Lets just go north and see if we can find a town.” Faith sighed. “Fine.”
into the freezer into the freezer Your mare friend said that you liked to hear stories, so we figured...you might like ours. I've heard a lot about you, but...i never really knew what things where like before you came out of your stable. I cant really appropriate what you did for the wasteland, not like others do...but I know what its like to give up everything, to save who you care about. That’s what I admire about you. sacrifice. Chapter 1: into the freezer hope The first thing I was aware of was the cold. I know its not what your expecting to hear, but its all I could think about. The impossible cold. Coming out of cryostasis so suddenly was a major shock to my system. Coming out of cryostasis isn’t like standing in your yard wearing nothing in January. Its 100 times worse then that. It feels like the cold is coming from inside your body, and making your skin cold. So yea, not what you might call fun. I fell to the cold steel floor, my body to numb to feel me fall out of my cryo-chamber. I opens my eyes, shivering uncontrollably. My stable still looked the same as it had 200 years ago. Gray and bleak. They had a habit of doing that with stables, but im sure you know that. I always said that it would be better for moral If we could paint them. Stable tech cared vary little of aesthetics Against my better judgment, I got to my hoofs. I felt stiff, and I think my stomach tried to digest itself. I had to keep reminding myself that I had been out for 200 years. It felt as if I had slept a few hours. I was on one of the lower levels of stable 117. Each level had a cryolab, all built with the same layout. A massive rotunda, filled with a maze of what we called cryo-clusters. A cryo-cluster was a group of 6 tubes, all sitting against each other in a circle. In the center of the room was a giant...yea you guessed, tube. We had a few of those. This one housed a magically charged gem that ran all the stasis chambers in the lab. An outstretched hoof offered to help me up, which I took without hesitation. I had only met him once, but it wasn’t hard to recognize blaze. His coat was this unique mixture of red and orange, making him appear to be burning. I'll admit, it was a cool affect. I was stuck with a boring old blue coat. He was wearing his stable security barding, complete with the helmet. “Wha-whats going....on.” I chattered. “Somepony opened the door.” He answered. He didn’t seem all that invested in the conversation, as if his mind was else where. “If we're getting out of here, w-why don’t you look happy?” I tried to talk normally, but the chill in my bones was making it impossible. He shock his head. “Because they...they shot at us. A group of security guards went to meet with them, and they where slaughtered.” My face paled. Why would a group of ponies brake into the stable and shot at us? What could the possibly gain from that? Yea, I know its obvious, but I knew vary little about the wasteland at the time. “I know, its bad. The security system has locked down the stable. Last I checked, they where stuck on level 3.” I looked around the massive rotunda. Nearly all the cryo-tubes where empty, but there was only a few dozen ponies there. “Where are they?” I muttered. Blaze immediately understood what i meant. He removed his helmet. “When they where unfrozen, they...” He shook his head. “Im not a doctor. I didn’t know what to do, i-i didn’t know how to defrost them properly.” He looked down. a tear was running down his face. “Its alright blaze.” I said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “You did the right thing trying to wake them. These freezers, they can be dangerous. That’s why they where only used in select stables.” The stallion nodded. “Thanks hope.” “No problem.” That’s when my brain finally clicked. For somepony so smart, I tend to miss the important stuff. “Did you say there trapped on level three?” I asked. The earth pony nodded. “why do you-” Realization dawned in his eyes. “Hope, im so sorry. After everything you did for them to let your sister in the stable...” “No. No! This is not over!” I snapped. “Im going to the cryo-lab on level three, and im getting my sister.” Blaze shook his head. “They will kill you hope. You realize that don’t you? Think this through. You are one of the smartest minds of our time. The best magical energy engineer to have ever lived. Is it really worth you getting killed, to save a junkie?” Big, BIG mistake. My horn flared, sending blaze flying across the room. He hit the door to a nearby cryo-pod, cracking the glass. His eyes widened with fear. I wasn’t one to loss my temper. Ever. But this is my sister where talking about. My flesh and blood. I practically raised her after my father joined the war. She was the only living pony in the wasteland I trusted. I didn’t care about what ponies said about me, but you fuck with my sister... I teleported in front of the pined pony, for no other reason then to demonstrate my power. The stallion was visibly shaking. “Faith isn’t a junkie. Now im going to save her whether you like it or not. You can help me, or you can sit down here with your head between you legs.” I let my spell drop, dropping him onto the cold steel floor. Many of the other ponies in the rotunda had gathered around now, watching the action. I helped him to his hoofs. “The stables on lock down,” He repeated. “How are you going to get up there?” I help up my unusual looking pip buck and smiled. "Pip buck 5000. This thing 'ill hack the security system in 10 seconds flat.” He nodded, and grabbed something out of his vest with his teeth. “Hmer, trak thif.” He said through the pistol in his mouth. I grabbed it with my telekinesis. I looked over the revolver floating in the green aura of my magic. “Thanks.” I said. I slipped it into the pocket of my stable maintenance uniform. Yes, I was maintenance. Its the only job a stable has for an engineer. I weaved through the maze of cryo-chambers to a door across the room. Once I was out of the cryo-chamber, I had to weave my way through the stable to the central elevators. I loved the feel of the warm, 25 degree air. (umm, Celsius.) “Why does everything have to look the same.” I muttered as I walked. I'll be honest, If it wasn’t for the signs everywhere, I never would have found those damn elevators. I trotter up to three doors that lined the wall. They looked like normal doors, save for the neon elevator signs above them. I pressed the elevator button on the panel beside one of the doors. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. I smiled, lifting my pip buck. I easily connected to the stables mainframe wirelessly, and turned the elevator back on. Moments later, the door slide open with a ding. “Ha, piece of cake.” I said. I walked into the elevator. The panel in the elevator was still unpowerd, so I had to control it with my pip buck. Moments later, the doors slide open again, reviling yet another gray wall. I peaked out into the hall, making sure there was no one down it. It was clear. The stable was capable of keeping the hole population of the stable alive out of stasis, in case the cryo-tech ever failed. Despite no pony being in there for 200 years, the place was vary clean. I figured the robots had kept it maintained. I moved carefully through the dull gray hallways of the stable. I wincing with every clop of my hoofs. Every hoof fall was like a gunshot in my ears. I navigated the stable with ease. It felt as if I had just gotten there, and I was already nearing the cryolab. This is way easier then I thought it would be, I thought. I spoke to soon. I gasped as I came around the next corner. I was face to face with a pony. I mentally scorned myself for neglecting my EFS. If I had been using my eyes forward sparkle, I would have seen this guy on the compass. The first thing I noticed was the power helmet covering his face. The second thing I noticed was the massive mini gun mounted to the side of his power armor. I would have thought that the soldier was on my side, if the armor hadn’t been painted red. He was apparently working on a maintenance terminal mounted to the wall, most likely in an attempt to hack it. The terminal flashed as it warned him of his final hacking attempt. “Halt!” The pony bellowed. His voice was muffled slightly by his helmet. I was terrified. Sometimes it sucked to know everything. Like how power armor was built. Or like the odds of me doing any damage to it. The odds definitely weren’t in my favor, not that they ever are. That’s when my brain kicked in. this was what I was born to do. What the spell matrix on my flank meant. I was born to solve problems, and that’s just what I planed on doing. My horn became shrouded in green. I couldn’t help but grin as his mini gun whirled to life. It ran for about a second before the rotating barrel stopped. The stallion looked back at his gun, looking vary confused. The metal of the rotating barrel had fuzed to the metal of the rest of it. Faith would know what the rest of the gun was called. “Welding spell.” I gloated. The steel clad soldier chuckled a bit, catching me off guard. I had no idea what he could possibly find amusing, considering I just ruined his gun. He turned slightly, letting me see the massive plasma cannon mounted on the other side of his armor. Its tri barrels glowed green has he took aim. “Next time, don’t attack somepony better armed then you.” He said, savoring the moment. “wha-” He asked as he saw the terminal beside him become shrouded in a green glow. BOMB! The terminal exploded, blowing him to the floor, and assaulting his armor with shrapnel. I winced involuntary as it blew apart. I smiled as I marveled at my incredible plan. The nerd won against the pony armed to the teeth, and heavily armored. My victory was short lived, however, as the stallion began to get to his hoofs. Apparently overloading a terminal wasn’t enough to take out power armor. I definitely misjudged on that one. I didn’t stay for the rest of the party. The second I saw was he was still conscious, I bolted. I ran as fast as my four legs would carry me. After a short detour I was at the door to the cryo-lab. I looked back, chest heaving. My legs burned. I really needed to work out more. As fare as I could tell, I had lost him. I knew that if I could get out of sight, I could loss him. Those suits weren’t built for speed. I was surprised that there wasn’t any more red guys at the door to the cryo-lab. Sure, the stable residence weren’t there target, but they would still have valuable information at least. I sat down at the doors terminal. It was easy to hack into. I unlocked the door, and opened it. I actually managed to get into room before shit hit the fan. “Attention!” A voice boomed from behind. I winced and looked behind me. No pony there. I let out a sigh of relive as I realized it was the PA system. “There is a young blue colt wondering level three. I want him dealt with as soon as possible. Maintain cation, he has already alluded one of our knights. That is all.” “Out of the frying pan...” I muttered, closing the door behind me. It locked itself as it shut. I shivered slightly as I mild about the large rotunda. It was a clone of the one upstairs. After what had felt like hours, I found the stasis chamber of the filly I was looking for. It felt like just yesterday I had watched the green mare be frozen in time. Beside the chamber, was a small control panel. I went through the procedure of reviving her properly. Freezing was already dangerous enough. The magic that was used in it was unstable at best. Five minutes later, the chamber was off, and she was thawing out. The chamber opened, the space between me and it clouding over with fog. Luckily for Faith, I could see her shadow. I had to grab her to keep her from hitting the floor. Her coat was covered in patches of frost. I sat her down gently on the floor. Her main and coat where littered with spots of frost. She shivered as she regained consciousness. Her eyes cracked open, and her teeth chattered. Her eyes set on me above her, then on the gun handle sticking out of my pocket. She was wearing that, “what have I gotten myself into now” look of hers. She took a breath, as she got herself to her hoofs. I tried to help her up, but she pushed me away. Her eyes told me to back off. “H-how long?” she chattered, rubbing one foreleg with the other. “A little over 200 years.” I answered. “Come on, we need to go.” “W-whats g-going on? Why aren’t the others awake? Who had the bright idea to give you a gun?” “Some guys in power armor broke into the stable. We have to leave.” Faith nodded towards a steel door at the edge of the room. “My cross bows in the storage room over there.” She said. Hope shook his head and sighed. “Fine, whatever, go.” Faith smiled as she trotted over to the door. She knew I wouldn’t wast time arguing, because she would just do it anyway. I fallowed her. The storage room was lined with lockers, numbering from 1-150. faith found her locker easily, and cracked it open. Inside was her saddle bags, her cross bow, and a quiver of blots. She tossed me one of her saddlebags, which I put one. “So, let me get this straight.” She said, using the inventory spell on her pip buck. “Some ponies in power armor brake into the stable, so you come down here to save me?” I nodded. She levitated her lock pick out of her saddle bags and starts working on getting into some pony else locker. “And you brought a gun, you have no idea how to use?” “I know how a gun works, faith. I designed magical energy weapons, remember?” “Knowing how it works, and knowing how to use it, are two different things Bro.” “That’s what SATS is for.” “You cant just rely on a targeting spell Hope.” She smiled as the locker pooped open “Ah ha!” I sighed. “What are you doing?” “This locker belongs to the head of security.” She pulled a sub machine gun and some stable security barding. “Now I have armor.” She smirked. While she dresses herself, I checked the door to the cryolab. I could hear voices on the other side, but I had no idea what they where saying. I really hoped we wouldn’t have to fight them. I went back to the storage room to warn faith. “So what if there outside?” She asked after I told her. She ran a hoof down her cross bow. “Those doors are steel, not to mention magic.” She diverted her attention back to her cross bow. “Ready to have some fun, Hurricane?” She asked the weapon. “Come on, lets go.” I urged. “You can grope Hurricane later.” Faith named her bow Hurricane, due to the wind enchantment on it. Gave the bolts a little more penetration. She sighed. “Alright. Here, take this though.” She levitated the 9mm SMG in front of me. The gun had collected some rust over the 200 years it had sat in the locker, but it looked usable. I grabbed it in my magic, and tossed the strap over my head, letting the gun hang at my side. “Thanks.” I said. “Hmm... does this barding match my hair?” Faith asked me. I sighed. “your hairs fine Faith.” “I don’t think it works with the color. Maybe I’ll dye it.” “Can you please worry about this later?” I begged. “Fine, fine.” She said. We went back into the cro-lab. The lab was still really cold, making me shiver slightly. We were walking towards the exit, when faith broke the silence. “Do you think there still out there?” Her answer came in a high pitched squeal from the other end of the door. “Oh shit.” Faith muttered. BOOM! The stable shook. Next thing we knew, there was a 5 inch thick steel door heart set on turning is into stains on the floor. The ringing in my ears was almost bad enough to distract me from the door flying at me. Almost. Faith and I instantly feel in sink. Both of us directed everything we have at the door. The door became shrouded in the pink and green glows of our magic. The metal warped under the force of our combined spells. We both tilted our heads left. my horn burned with the effort. The door fallowed our example, flying left. A path of destruction fallowed it as it crashed through the rotunda, smashing cry-tubes to bits. We could make out two silhouette standing in the smoke filled hallway. Faith fired her cross bow at one of the shadows, and dove for cover behind a tube on her right. I fired and ran for cover as well. I winced as the ponies mini guns opened fire on us, there bullets imbedding themselves into the cry-tube cluster in front of me. The glass doors shattered under the bombardment. I winced as a shard of glass cut across my leg. It wasn’t a bad cut, but it hurt like a bitch. “Shot, stupid!” Faith shouted over the mini gun fire. Faith took another shot at the red soldiers. The bolts of her cross bow had no visible effect. I obliged her, the second they ceased fire. I pecked around the cry-tube, and switched into SATS. Time slowed to a crawl as I quid up my shots with the advanced targeting spell. I let the spell drop, pumping half my mag into the face of the steel clad soldier. My shots staggered my opponent, but did vary little damage. My only reward for my effort was a series of tings as my bullets bounced off the armor. I ducked back behind my cover as his mini gun spung up, dumping an immeasurable amount of rounds into the cry-tube. Shards of glass flew everywhere as they hammered away at my cover. I waiting for SATS to recharge. I looked over at faith, who had a worried expression on her face. She wasn’t doing to much better then I was. She looked at me questionably. I knew what she was waiting for. Me to come up with a plan to get out us out. Truth is, I didn’t have one. There where two guys in red power armor firing at us with mini guns blocking our only exit. A blood curdling scream drew me out of my stupor. I looked back over at faith, who was sitting up against her barrier, pressing a hoof into her shoulder. Blood ran past her hood, and down her chest. She winced with every breath. She looked over at me and frowned. her standard look she made when she thought she’d fucked up. My mind clouded over with rage as I realized the severity of our situation. We could die in here. They could kill us. Before, it hadn’t even considered it. Now, I was staring the truth of it in the face. I lept out from my cover and grabbed them both of the soldiers in my levitation spell. I was seething with rage. I shoved them back with a roar. They both stumbled back, trying to keep there balance. While they regained there footing, i dashed to where my sister was sitting. The wound didn’t look so bad, so long as we could stop the bleeding. The bulled had gone right through. “Your good.” I told her. “Hope!” She warned. I looked over my shoulder. “AHH!” One of the soldiers was standing there, looking down at use. “You see what happens when you try to cross the steel rangers?” His mini gun whirled. I shut my eyes tightly. The “Steel Ranger” saw this as some sort of surrender. He laughed at my plea. I grunted as my horn glowed a brilliant green. In a flash of light, we where gone. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hope: level up! New spell -Advanced Teleportation level one. Your teleportation spell is no longer governd by line of sight! You can now concentrat all of your power to teleport to places you've been before. Be sure to acount for distance. New party member: Faith!
Apples and Ass HolesChapter 2: Apples and Ass Holes Faith So, there I was, looking down the barrel of a saddle mounted M134, loading with 500 armor piercing rounds ready to tear me more then a few new holes. My brother was shaking beside me, his eyes shit tight. I was certain we where going to die. then, Hopes horn light up the room. it was so bright, that just being near it hurt my eyes. Then, we vanished. He had teleported us back down to level 5. I knew he could teleport, but he always said that he could only teleport someplace he could see. I had never been more glade that he was wrong. Although, not at the time. When we blinked back in, I was laying on the ground, my hair singed from the energy. My stomach was doing back flips. I promised myself I would deal with my hair the first chance I got. Hope hadn’t fared much better. He was laying beside me, holding his horn in his hoofs. Although he didn’t have any real injurious, he used a lot of magic for that spell. To this day, I have no clue how he was still conscious after a spell like that. I knew that he had burnt himself out. It happened to a lot of unicorns when they overused there magic. Cant say I remember any pony ever grunting and moaning about the pain that much though... it really wasn’t that big of a deal. He just would be without magic for a day or two, maybe some head aches. I felt somepony pushing down on my wound. a forest green mare was sitting beside me, levitating a first aid kit in front of her. I swatted her hoof away from me and sat up. “Lay back down.” The green pony ordered. “Your hurt.” “I am?” I asked sarcastic. “I can take care of myself lady. Go see if there’s any injured egos in need of treatment. I’m sure you wont have a problem finding any in this place.” The mare gasped at my insult, and trotted away Ok, so maybe I was a little harsh. Really though, she was treating me like a foal. I don’t need some cute mare to kiss me better. “I can do it myself.” I muttered. Hope was shooting me a disapproving look. I figured I should cut the egg heads a little slack. If only for my brothers reputation. A bunch of ponies had gathered around now to see what was going on. Many of them scowled at me. I shrugged them off and got to work with the first aid kit. I knew how to patch myself up pretty well. I had gotten hurt more times then I could count. mostly doing things that might give you a bad impression of me...anyway, once I cleaned and dressed the wound, I went to see how hope was doing. A bunch of ponies had gathered around him, attacking him with questions. Was that what it was like working for the ministry of science? I would never now. I got up and told every pony to give my brother some room. I'll admit, I don’t look like the easiest pony to talk to. Sure, my green coat is cute, I guess. when put it with my purple and blue hair, my attitude, and my security outfit? I came off as a little daunting. Add my cross bow into the mix, and my style just screams, “don't mess with this girl!” So, when I spoke, everyone listened. It probably helped a bit that I was the sister of the smartest egg head in the room, and that I was the only one who had ever even been in a fight, let alone a gun fight. I helped hope up, who smiled at me and chuckled. “You always have to rule the school, don’t you?” He asked me. “long as your there to nerd it up once in a while. How did you do that spell?” “Fear, I guess. Magic is fueled by emotion, right?” I shrugged. “Can you try and warn me next time maybe? My hears all singed.” “Ok, I’ll warn you next time your seconds from death. Then, I’ll save you.” “Thanks for that, by the way.” Most of the spectators left during our conversation. I’m not sure what it is about most of those ponies, but they just seem to home in on drama. That’s when Blaze decided to walk over and interrupt us. There are many times when I pray that some pony would interrupt my brother. This was not one of those times. “listen,” The flaming pony said as he walked up. “I know your both hurt, so don’t be afraid to say no.” “Just get to the point, blaze.” I cut in. He glared at me. Hope gave me another of his disapproving looks. I swear, those things are worse then gun fire. Blaze lowered his voice so no pony else could overhear him. “I found a back exit on level 6. It leads into a tunnel system that they had dug into when the stable was built. Thing is, the over mare and the head of security know the codes.” Hope nodded, thinking it over. “well, where are they?” I asked. “Well,” Blaze pointed to a nearby freezer. “That mare in there was the over mare.” “And head of security?” Hope asked. “Well, your sisters wearing his uniform. Whats that tell ya?” Hope sighed. “Shit.” I said. “Hope, couldn’t you just hack it or something? You had a hoof in the security system, right?” “Yea, I based the program off of my pip buck. The doors aren’t part of the security network though. I could try to find a back door, but there’s no chance of me just getting back door access. “Right...” Blaze said. It was clear he was just as confused as I was. “Just do whatever you can.” Hope nodded. “Snd you-” He looked over at me. “I want you to go with him.” “Where did you think I was going to go?” I asked. The Gala?” Hope chuckled. Blaze merely rolled his eyes. “The clinics drug Cabinet comes to mind.” “Fuck you Blaze! Fuck you!” I shouted, shoveing him. He staggered back a few steps. I took a step towards him. “Hey!” a tug on my tail told me to stop my advance. Once hope saw that I had calmed down a bit, he let go off it. “That’s enough.” He said venomously. Hope walked up beside me. “Lets go.” Hope narrowed his eyes at blaze as we past. Turns out, there was a stairwell to level six in the cryo room. It was a maintenance stairwell that, according to hope, hadn’t been used since the stables construction. The stairwell was uncaracteristicly big. I figured it would have to be for moving supplies to the lower levels. When we where finely out of the cryo lab, heading down the stairwell, I piped up. “Wow bro, I didn't know you cared.” I chuckled. “Never seen you get that out of the clouds before.” “Im tired of all the ponies here belittling you.” “Yea, well when we open the exit, we wont have to.” Hope starred off into space for a minute as we walked, like I had reminded him of something really important. He didn’t look all that happy about it either. I pocked his check. “hey, hope. Equestria to egg head. Hope!” “Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just-” “Lost in thought.” I finished. “I know. What where you thinking about? You looked devastated.” “Never mind, it'll be fine.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but I could definitely guess. He had some sort of invention in there that he didn’t want to loss. Most ponies have a pet, or a favorite toy. Not my brother. He had his latest gadget. “don't worry about it, you still have your pipbuck prototype.” He perked up a little bit at that, looking down at his invention. “Yea. Yea, I do.” If he was in a better mode, he would argue that he didn’t invent it, just rebuilt it from older models and improved it. As fare as I cared, he built that little computer and wrote out the code. Of course, he wouldn’t admit to it. Once we got to the bottom of the stairs, he sent me back up to check on every pony upstairs. Not a job I really wanted, but I didn’t complain. Walking around talking to ponies (even theses stuck up braineaks) was fare more fun then watching hope hack a computer. When I got upstairs, I walked around the cryo lab making sure everypony was doing ok. They all where. Sadly, they offered vary little in the way on conversation. “Hey, you guys doing ok?” I asked a group of ponies who where chatting near a food vendor. “Vary well, thank you.” One of them, a stallion, replied. The name Spell Nexus came to mind. “We where just having a chat, about the fundamentals of residual energy distortion after immense magic transference. Do you have anything to add?” I looked at the brown stallion, trying to figure out what he was talking about. I realized that he where mocking me. “No, but me and my brother where just talking about the odds of a bunch of out of shape egg heads surviving in a radioactive wasteland with no training or skills of any kind.” I shot back. The purple mare beside him laughed. “And what chance do you think you have, blank flank? Your a criminal.” I subconsciously hide my flank behind my tail. “Well, I can shoot, pick looks, find food, and im not afraid to get my hoods dirty.” I boasted. “I can hit an apple of your head at 500 yards. Although, I would much prefer to shot you out from under the apple.” “Excuse me!?” She shouted. “I think you should leave.” Spell Nexus said, steeping in front of the mare. “Good idea.” I said, turning tail. “I was getting bored of embarrassing you egg heads anyway.” I said over my shoulder. Once she was out of ear shot, I muttered “You might be smarter then me, but at least I got a shot on the surface.” I might have played it off all cool like, but the truth was, there words really did hurt. I was literally the dumbest pony in the stable, and no pony wanted me to forget it. “Hey!” Blaze shouted from behind me. “Hold up!” I turned towards him. “Liston, if this is about that couple, i-” “Its not that.” He cut me off. “The steel ranger guys are hacking into one of the elevators. I've sealed the door to the cryo room, but...” He was to afraid to finish the thought. “Hows the back door going?” “No idea.” I shrugged. “Hope sent me up here to make sure everypony was doing alright.” “Go check then. I'll pack up all the food I can find.” I nodded. “Why are you still here? Go!” I did as I was told (for once) and went to tell hope about the new development. It was a lot to process. I hadn’t been outside in 200 years. Now, my choices where go to a wasteland I knew nothing about, or get shot dead. Plus, his mention of food reminded me that I hadn’t eaten in 200 years. My stomach grumbled as I dashed down the stairs. “Quiet, you.” I told it as I ran. Down this hall, past this terminal, through this door, and I was there. It wasn’t hard to find, considering the stable practically had signs to tell you where the signs where. “Hows it going?” I huffed as I ran into the large empty room. He was sitting beside the terminal, staring intently at his pipbuck. “Almost there. I got it powered, know I just half to wait for the pipbuck to generate the password.” “Cant you just bypass it, or scroll through the code for the password?” “Its not that easy. Its all encrypted. The security system has the same programing as my pipbuck prototype. This is alien to me.” I grunted, and bucked the nearest wall, leaving a small dent. “Calm down, I just need another 10 minutes. Believe it or not, I don’t know everything about computers.” “The steel dangers-” “-Rangers” “Are hacking the elevator know. They'll be here really, really soon.” He sighed, and looked over his pipbuck at me. “Hook up your pip to the terminal, I would use the extra processing power.” I did as he asked, then said, “But I don’t know how-” “Your pipbuck will do the rest. Just integrate with the computer. It should sink with mine.” I did as he asked, and my pipbuck screen filled with the random code that covered the computer screen. “Now what?” I asked after what felt like three hours. The clock on my pipbuck said 8 minutes. He smiled and clicked something on his pipbuck. The code on the computer screen vanished, replaced by the words, “unlock door?” “Now, we get out of this death trap.” We walked back upstairs, excited to tell everypony the good news. On our way, I couldn’t help but think about what outside might be like. I knew it wouldn’t be anything like it was before, but how much could have changed? Did the maga spells turn equestria into a dessert? A tundra? Detrot? I had no idea. “What do you thing its like outside?” I asked as we reached the door to level 5. He shrugged. “I wish I could check. There are sensors on level one that would tell us everything. They can even see through the dirt to give us a look at the surface.” “Let me guess, your magical handy work?” She asked “Nope.” He opened the door. “You know, Im not the only pony at the ministry who built things. some intern came up with the idea. She knew this X-Ray spell that she used to...never mind.” We both stooped and stared out the door, into the cryo room. A few of the tubs had been tipped over and set up as barricades by the main door. A few ponies, including blaze, sat behind them. They where armed with guns I assumed they had gotten from the storage room. The rest of the ponies where huddled farther near the back, behind a cluster of pods. I winced as the stable shook for the second time that day. A lout bang echoed through the room as the main door was blown away from its frame One of the ponies, despite being ordered not to, looked over the barrier to get a better look at the approaching enemy. He screamed as a 4 tun door took his head off. Blaze shouted for his armed ponies to open fire. I could barely hear him over all the screaming. This time, the coming of the steel clad warriors wasn’t accompany by the whirl of mini guns. One of the steel rangers stepped through the door. The stable ponies bullets barley dented his armor. By the time I saw the weapon he had mounted in his battle saddle, it was to late. WHOOSH! A rocket flew out of the tub on the rangers side. It struck the wall behind the unarmed ponies. The sound was only watched by the intensity of the earth quake it caused. They screamed as a blanket of fire and shrapnel rained down on them. “Apple Jacks Rangers, move in!” The Ranger shouted. Another two soldiers joined him, one on each side. I drew my cross bow, and took a step forward. “over hear!” I shouted to the stable ponies. “RUN!” none of them could hear me. I ran forward. I wanted to lead them out. To get them to safety. I felt my tail go taught as hope grabbed it. Another rocket flew past. this one slammed into the guards barricade. The stable shuttered as it went off, taking half the barricade with it. Some of the gunners got lucky. The rest where still alive. “Look.” He said, pointing at the battle field. Half the security force lied dead at the barricade. The others seemed to be in immeasurable pain, there bodies litters with burn marks and cuts from the shrapnel. The civilians lied still on the ground behind the cryo tube. A few where still breathing. None of them seemed able to walk. I knew what my brother way saying. The battle was over. They where dead. Tears stung my eyes as I stepped back from the door. Two steel rangers walked up to the first barricade, one checking the ponies pulses, the other covering him. They both looked over at us as hope closed the door. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hope:level up! New perk-power pony. Your skill in problem salving now effects your magic. You are 10% less likely to have a magic burn out. Faith: level up! New perk! Dauntless. You don’t take shit from no pony! You can now use others fear of you to get what you want. Speech and barter increased by 10! new speech options when speaking with any pony a lower level then you.
The New WorldChapter 3: The New World Hope Faith and I sat outside the stable door in silence. We had been sitting out there for ten minutes, still digesting what had happened. The dampness of the cave we where in was already seeping into my coat, and chilling my skin. The only sound was the constant drip of water from the sealing high above us. To make sure we weren’t followed, I destroyed the door terminal as we left. I wasn’t worried about the rangers blowing down the door. It was nearly three times as thick as the rest of the doors in the stable, no doubt to keep it from being blown open. Besides, they got what they wanted. No point in coming after us. We both had our pipbuck lights on, but they did vary little to fend of the darkness of the massive cave. Much to my relief, my EFS remained blank. I had totally forgotten about my eyes forward sparkle until we got out into the caverns. Despite being one of the first ponies to own a pipbuck, I had never really used any of its combat assisting spells before. Using SATS and EFS was just as new to me as it was to my sister. I stared at the gun in my lap, still in shock over what happened. I had been shot at. With guns! And I had shot back. “When I got into the stable, I had no idea it would be like this” I though. “We should get going.” Faith said softly, braking the silence. “Huh?” “You know, leave?” She got to her hooves. “We cant just sit here until we die of starvation.” I got to my hooves as well. “Dehydration would get us way before starvation would.” I pointed out. She rolled her eyes. “My point is, we need to get out of here.” “And, you want me to get us out, right?” “Well...yea.” She shrugged. “Your talent is salving problems, right?” She self consciously glanced back at her blank flank. It was my turn to roll my eyes. “You know your pipbuck has an auto map feature, right?” She blushed slightly. “Right...I knew that.” She looked at her pip for a minute, then pointed down a nearby tunnel. “This way.” We walked the tunnels by the light of our pipbucks, faith in the lead. She was floating her cross bow out in front of her the entire time. You might say that she was worried that something was going to attack. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. She was hoping something would. Now I know what your thinking. We are heartless ponies for forgetting about our friends back at the stable. We didn’t forget about them. We just A; knew that we had to worry about ourselves, and B; weren’t all that close with the ponies who had died. Yes, it was a shame, I agree. But dwelling on it would do nothing, save for get us killed. I sighed as my stomach growled at me. I still had a lot of energy. The cryo tubes made sure our bodys had everything they needed. my belly must of missed the memo. “What are those?” Faith asked, drawing me out of my stupor. A bunch of yellow markers cluttered the compass on my EFS. I had been so busy thinking about food, I hadn’t noticed them. “Not sure. Yellow normally means neutral, I think. Or was it undetermined? Caution maybe?” I thought about it for a moment. “You know, It could be all three...” “You can not tell me you don't know. You built one!” “I modified one,” I replied. “And I didn't touch the combat spells. The ministry had some pony else change those on the revised prototype.” She groaned. “I guess we go in hot then.” “Go in hot?” I asked. “Ohh, guns...Right...” I didn’t really get most of her military speech. Sometimes I wished I had spent some time playing pony of honor with her. We walked through the tunnel, coming into a massive cavern. I nearly shat myself when I saw what my EFS had warned me about. In the cavern, sleeping on there floor, where dozens of ants. Not little tiny ants, no. Theses ants where half my size. Red patterns graced there giant black bodys. “So...” Faith looked over at me. “Giant ants, huh?” “Yeah...” I replied. “The radiation must have mutated them.” For a moment I wondered how a bug would evolve like that, but I pushed it out of my mind. Not the time or place for curiosity. “I don’t think I have enough bolts for all of them.” She tapped her quiver. “Well then don't wake them.” “With the way you walk, I don't know how they didn't hear us already.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “What? It's true.” I sighed, looking over the...What do you call an army of over 40 oversized ants? I doubt any pony ever survived long enough to consider it. “What if....” Faith put her hoof to her chin, then smiled. “What if you didn’t have to touch the ground?” If it wasn’t for the army of ants under me, I think I would have shot her. The plan was crazy. Hell, it was suicide. Oh yea, I said under me. My sister had the brilliant idea of us levitating each other over the ants. I told you; crazy. I had to hold my breath to keep myself from yelling. I was terrified. I was already afraid of heights to begin with. mix that fear with enough giant ants to kill a manticore? Not my definition of fun. My EFS blurred in and out of focus every few seconds. The magical aura my sister was holding me in was causing some magical interference with my pipbuck. I knew that, being a prototype, it would have a few problems. I just hoped once she dropped her spell, it would reset. Finely, I cleared the ant ocean. Faith levitated me about 15 feet away from the slumbering ants, then let her magic fade. I gasped as I hit the ground with a umf. A breathed a sigh of relief as I regained my balance. Now I just had to get faith across. I could see the tunnel we had to go down only 100 feet away from me. It looked like an old mine shaft, complete with rails and wooden support beams. Mine shafts had to lead somewhere, right? I turned my attention back to my sister. She was still standing on the other side of the an army, tapping her hoof impatiently. I reached out with my levitation spell. Faith floated off the ground. I began pulling her towards me. She put her hoofs out in front of her like a supper hero. I furled my brow as my horn began to throb. I was determined to get faith to safety. I continued to carry her along. The pain in my horn getting worse. My magic flicked. I strained my magic to keep the spell. Every muscle in my body strained with the effort. The pain in my horn was getting worse by the second. Faith palled as the green aura around he began to flicker. I pulled her towards me with all the strength I could muster. My magic failed. She screamed as she went into free fall. Her momentum kept her moving in my direction. She tried to levitate herself, but she was already moving to fast. I breathed a sigh of relief as she landed safely on my side of the cavern. Faith breathed heavily as she got to her hoofs. “ops.” I looked back at the ants and gasped. My EFS compass had become a bar of red. The lake of ants was waking up. They didn’t look to happy either. A pair of ants charged faith. She leveled her cross bow at the nearest one. A bolt slammed through its skull, scraping against the stone bellow. A jet of flames fired from the ants open maw. Right at faith. “Ahh!” She screamed, jumping away from the torrent of flames. Faith had had enough fun for one day. She turned tail and dashed towards the exit. I fallowed close behind. I was caught up to her in no time. That was odd by itself. Faith was way faster then I was. Then i noticed that she was limping. The fur on her bad lag was burnt away. The skin bellow was red and blistered. The ants where funneling into the tunnel after us. I fired blindly over my shoulder with my SMG, nailing more then a few ants. The sound of the stampeding ants echoed through the tunnel, mixing with gunfire and hoof steps. The ants where surprisingly fast. They where quickly closing the distance between us and them. It didn’t mater how many we would kill, because there was always more behind them. I went into SATS, and lined up a few targets who where getting to close. Time went back to normal as the targeting spell emptied the last of my mag into the stampeding ants. I considered pulled out my pistol, but I didn’t want to wast the bullets. There had to be something else I could do. Like block them off. “Faith I have an idea!” I shouted. “'Bout time!” I stopped beside a wooden support beam, and gave it a hard buck. Immediately the wood started to buckle under the pressure of the rock it held up. Small rocks and dust rained down from the ceiling. I ran forward with everything I had. The tunnel started to shack as larger rocks and boulders fell from the ceiling. The cave in was working great, trapping the ants that didn't get crushed. Of course, now we had to deal with a mineshaft falling on us The sound of running ants was quickly drowned out by falling rocks. the tunnel shock violently. My legs burned as I did my best to keep ahead of the falling debris. I heard faith shout something from ahead, but I couldn’t make out the words. It took me three seconds to figure out what she had said. “Look out.” I looked up and caught a glimpse of a gray object above me. Last thing I remembered was a splitting pain in my head as fell. I woke to the crackle of fire and the smell of smoke. My first thought was that I had fallen asleep while we where camping. Sadly, when I opened my eyes, we where farther down the mine shaft. Faith was sitting beside me, starring into a fire she had made. A pile of wood pieces sat beside her. Pieces of support beams. I groaned as the throbbing in my head registered. I put my hoof to my head and winced. Faith had bandaged it up. Her burnt leg was wrapped up as well. Faith smiled at me, and pulled me into a huge. “Your ok!” She said with glee. “Well, ok might be a little much, but I’m breathing.” I muttered. “Where did you get the magic bandages?” “I stool the first aid kit that that green mare was going to use on me.” She said. “And,” She levitated over two odd looking bags. The letters, MREs was printed on them. “There where some rations in them. Like what the army eats!” “Wow Faith, that's great. Who puts food in a first aid kit?” “Don't know, don't care. We're breathing, we have food, and a warm fire.” “Speaking of, why did you build a fire? You pipbuck lights still working, right?” “My pips fine, it just doesn’t keep me warm. About an hour ago, it got really cold.” “How long was I out?” I asked, checking my pipbuck clock. It was 10:30pm. “A little over three hours.” She replied “You know, I could have burned them with my fire spell, right?” She asked. “Kill fire ants with fire? Really?” She stopped talking for a moment, trying to think of a comeback. She ended up sticking to her standard, “shut up egg head,” response. After we ate, we continued through the mine shaft. The tunnel was really dusty after the cave in, making it harder to breath, but we managed. I couldn’t help but think about everything that had happened, and the new world we lived in. we had been thawed for over four hours, and already I had almost died three times. I was afraid of what it would be like above ground. If my sister was having any of these thoughts, she didn’t show it. She was humming along to music she had downloaded onto her pipbuck. I cant say im surprised that she had head phones in her saddle bag. I smiled as my eyes set upon something I hadn’t seen in 200 years. Down at the end of the tunnel, was light. Not mage light, or electric light, but natural light. Moon light. I poked my sister to get her attention. “Huh?” “Look.” I pointed. She smiled. “Thank Luna.” Her shoulders sagged. “Do you think Luna’s still...You know.... Alive?” “I-” I was about to say I doubt it, but I wasn’t sure it was the best thing for her to hear. “- think that 200 years isn’t all that long for an alicorn.” “That's true.” She nodded. “Come on, lets get out of here.” “Now you bring this up?” “All im saying is that it could be dangerous out there. Radiation, mutants, who knows?” When we where nearly at the end of the mineshaft, it occurred to me how crazy it all was. We knew nothing about the wasteland, aside from it being dangerous. We had nearly no supplies, and knew nothing about how the world worked now. “Is your pipbucks geiger counter picking up any radiation?” “Well...No.” “Do you not have a gun in your pocket?” “Well...yes. But what if... The air is toxic?” “Then we die from the air instead of thirst. Now get your pasnzi ass out of the cave.” Her description of herself was pretty spot on. No pony messes with faith. So, we walked outside. A map marker appeared on my pipbuck map. “Magnesite.” How my pipbuck new what the town name was, I still have no clue. It was just another part of the spell mainframe I could never hope to understand. The town looked like it was out of an old western movie, but way older. Out of the eight buildings in the town, three where still standing. The others lied in piles of ruble. It was night time, as my pipbuck had said. The moon was making its way to the horizon. The stars where a beautiful sight. Much less of a let down then the town. An alert came across my EFS. “New radio signal found” came up underneath the compass. “Hey,” Faith asked. “Did your pip-” “Yea.” I went into the radio feature of my pipbuck and tuned it to the new signal. “So, for those of you who have to go up towards new Appaloosa, don't! We've been getting scattered reports of battles braking out up there. Between whom you ask? Well, the Applejacks Rangers of course. There up there fighting hard to keep the Alicorn Defects from killing every pony in the area. So if you see one of these Red Rangers out there, lend him a hoof. The Followers of the Apocalypse say that they will treat any pony injured by there misguided sisters.” “In other news, Enclave remnants continues to set up bases around the Equestrian Wasteland. Although they haven’t been heard from in a while, I wouldn’t go pay them a visit.” “This is DJ Pon3, signing off. Don't worry though, I leave you in the capable hooves of velvet remedy.” “Did we just tune into a news broadcast?” Faith asked as music started playing through my pipbuck. I shut it off. “Sounded like it. What do you think it means by enclave remnants?” “Forget that, what did he mean by alicorn defects? It sounded as if there's a war going on.” I shrugged. “There's always a war going on, it seems. Where do you think think we should go now?” “Hm...The radio station!” “Umm...Why?” “To...Learn stuff...” I rolled my eyes. “You just want to meet a celebrity.” Faith looked down and dug at the dirt with her hoof. “No...Maybe...A little bit.” “We're not going to the Djs radio station. Lets just go north and see if we can find a town.” Faith sighed. “Fine.”
