Fallout Equestria: Prospector

Chapters

Prologue pt.1 - (no title)
Prologue pt.2 - Bullet Wounds
Chapter 1 - Mended Friendship
Chapter 2 - Long Way
Chapter 3 - Purifying Flames

Prologue pt.1 - (no title)

Through the bridge there was I, pulling a wagon as big as myself. By its side was the so-famed Stable-Tec logo, glowing with a faint green light from old times. I don’t have idea of how old this is, but this is my best finding in my entire career. And I hope it really is, the price to retrieve it was really too costly. I couldn’t breathe, my legs trembled, hooves scratching the rust-covered patchwork bridge as I took step after step. Despite the bandages over my chest, little drips of blood marked the path I took, the bullet hole bleeding profusely. “…F…u…ck…” I could do it, Celestia damn it.

And there she was, staring at me with that damning reproachful gaze, as if I was a lil’ filly that broke a vase and tried to glue it back together. It was obvious that the wagon was the only thing that kept me standing, but I would not be the first to surrender to the pain. Not that it was usual for me to be shot at. “So, how was it?” She smirked. That mare could get on my nerves when she wanted to, damn. “…Better… than… I th…ought…” I tried to raise my head above every shame that my bullet-ridden body could.

That’s when I passed out, obviously. I took back my conscience already in a hospital bed, with a vial of healing serum dripping slowly in my veins. “Finally awake, huh?” The black stallion with a huge brown mustache spoke, without taking his eyes from a spreadsheet. “Yeah… I never thought that I would be back in such little time, Healing Surge.” I tried to look around, but my neck was immobilized. “Relax a second, get your bearings.”

I sighed. “Fine. Where’s that wagon that I brought?” The whole left side of my body was numb because of the serum, so if I really got up I’d just flop into the ground like a slapstick routine. He coughed a little before answering. “You know… Rosy Coral… apprehended it.” This time, it was me who coughed. “What?! Oh, come on, Coral! Damn!”

“Calm down, Golden Patch! Fits of rage will only worsen your condition.” And the worst is that I knew it. That’s what’s worse with being a medic pony: I knew how serious those wounds were, and I could do damn about it without proper equipment. It was good to know that we had someone better than me, at least. “Ok, Surge, I’ll have to settle this later…” I crossed my front legs, sighing. He finally took his eyes from the spreadsheet. “How did you got shot this time? It was a serious bullet woun—“

“Three bullets hit my left flank in the height of my ribs, one of them shattering a rib, the other two perforating my lung. I took a shot of anesthetic potion and I had to drink two healing potions just to get here.” I described, giving a lot of emphasis in the medication. That was a lot of medicine for the condition I was in, and that was half of my reserves. “Yes, I got traces of the anesthetic potion in your blood… or what remained of it. But you didn’t tell me how you got shot.”

He got me on that one. “I… erm… It was nothing, really. Just—shot myself accidentally, yeah. Dropped my sub.” He stared at me, obviously not believing a single word I said. “Sure. You’re obviously the most fumbling pony in Friendship City.” I tried to calm him. “Yeah, hah… hah… hah… oh it hurts to laugh…”

“Anyway, Mr. Fumble, you’ll be discharged today. I retrieved the bullets and put your rib back into place, so you’ll only need to drink a healing potion per day during a week. Don’t, and I repeat, don’t strain your body, or your lung will get a lot worse. And I hope you know how bad it was.” The stallion dove right back into the spreadsheet. “Sure… Thanks, Surge.” He just waved, and I took my time.

=-=-=-=

“Come… ON! Rosy Coral! You know I need that! I took three bullets for that wagon!” My ribs were killing me. “Doesn’t matter, Patchie. You are not getting the wagon back, it’s Friendship City’s now.” I held myself to not jump in her neck. Breathing hard, I hit the wall with my right hoof, echoing the impact over the security room located inside the Friendship Statue’s torch. “Ok, you won. What the hell do you want for the wagon?!” She sat in her bed, smirking stupidly. “You’ll tell me exactly how you got that wagon and how you got shot.”

I sighed. “…Fine.”

“There’s a nice little settlement not really far from here, called ‘Heat’s Kingdom’, or something like that. Well, there’s a little unproductive farm enough for maintaining everyone living there. When I entered the place, I was greeted by a little white foal with orange mane that presented himself as Solar Flare. He was the son of the King Heat, that owned everything in that ‘province’. It was pretty stupid, actually. Anyway, I was presented to that ‘King Heat’ by his son not much after I arrived. As ‘royalty’, he’s expected to have power and he dominated the whole farm with a steel hoof. There were two fillies, I think it was his daughters, and an older mare by the name of Desert Heat. Don’t ask me.

After a little meal with them, which weren’t half bad, I spoke about my profession and offered one of my services to them. In exchange, I would pay for the meal and a place to sleep before going on my way. They accepted, and I took care of one of the fillies, that stepped on a rusty nail a few days before and was getting feverish. It was an ugly wound, actually, took me some hours to brew the potion. After embalming her wounded hoof, I went to sleep and everyone was happy. But, as you know, this is a Wasteland, not some foal show. I continued my journey by noon, thanking them for the reception and the treatment.

After some hours, I found a trail that closely resembled a pair of wheels, so I followed it. By the depth of the trail left, the wagon that created it was really heavy. And what I found at the end was, for better or worse, a lot more than I thought I would find: The wagon had that strange green glow in the Stable-Tec logo and a dead Steel Ranger by its side. I couldn’t open his armor to examine the body, but I got the wagon and I headed back, no need to scarvenge some ruins when you get that kind of treasure.

It was too damn heavy for me to pull without straining myself, and that explained the need for that power armored earth pony. I planned to get back in the Heat’s Kingdom and take another night of sleep, halfway here. And how surprised was I when a group of raiders were attacking them? I tell you: None. I took my submachine gun, that pipe shooter that you made to me, and entered the place as quiet as I can.

As you damn already know, I can’t be silent, the whole universe conspire against me for this. My saddlebag hit against one of the shelves, dropping a metal plate, and that was exactly what saved them, as it damned me. I ran as fast as I could from inside the house, one of the raiders shooting with a terrible shotgun, destroying the window. I jumped outside and took cover behind the wall exactly when a wall of flames licked my tail. ‘Damn, an unicorn!’ I thought, gasping for breath when an earth pony with a crowbar in his mouth jumped across the window, trying to flank me.

By reflex, I kicked him while he was in the air, what made him hit his head in the window arc. I turned around and took the crowbar from his unconscious mouth, giving the exactly opening that damn unicorn was waiting for, and there was that, the bitch shot me with a 9mm. Three. Fucking. Times. As I felt my flesh burning in my ribs, I couldn’t breathe as well, fully knowing that he hit me in the lungs. I emptied the clip in her, shooting her long after she died.

With adrenaline running fast in my blood, I covered the bullet wounds as fast as I could with some magic bandages and ran upstairs, to the fillies’ bedroom. Ignoring the pain that was slowly coming to me, I kicked down the door and knocked the last raider with the crowbar. He was trying to rape one of them, goddesses. They did everything they could to help me, gave me some provisions and thanked like I was some kind of saint.

The worst part is that I knew that if I slept before getting treatment, I’d drown in my own blood. So, with help of that little foal, I strapped the wagon in my back, took an anesthetic potion and carried on. And here I am. Happy now?”

“And you said it was better than you thought… Were you talking about the wagon?”

“Obviously! I guarantee you that it wasn’t because I was shot!” I noticed just now that I’ve raised my voice, so I cleaned my throat and apologized. “So, will you give back my damn wagon now or what?”

“…You’ve earned it, Patchie. It’s in Cargo Four, look it up. Tell them that I send you.” I turned in the direction of the staircase, sighing with relief. Just then I noticed that I was tense, so I tried to relax my shoulders and, taking some steps away, I whispered. “Thanks for rescuing me.” She smirked. “T’was nothing.”

=-=-=-=

“Hey, Prospector, what’s up?” He smiled stupidly. “Did you find another old boot or what?” They laughed through their visors. I laughed back, with as much sarcasm as I could create in that situation. “Ha ha ha yeah, Brilliant joke, Prickle.” That stung him. He was one of my best friends and, now, as a Security Pony, he lives up to the name. His silver mane, long as a douchebag would wear, shook with the sudden stop at laughing. “Now get me my wagon, Rosy Coral sent me.”

“Fine. Hey, guys, get that strange glowy wagon!” he screamed over his shoulder, staring back at me. “I just don’t hit you because you’re wounded.”

“I just don’t hit you because you’d get wounded.” I smiled back, as he stood there without an answer. “What, do you need some embalming potion, for that burn? I’m a medic pony, you know.” I got closer to his face, my smile even wider. Then my wagon arrived. “Oh, thanks. I’ll be going now.”

I was sure he would get a good answer later, what will make him even angrier. Feeling better with myself, I strapped the damn heavy wagon in my back and as fast as I could I returned to my cabin. For my own luck, my cabin was in the same floor than Cargo Four, and for everyone else’s luck, it wasn’t that far away, as the wagon occupied the whole corridor and I was slow as a slug.

After dragging the wagon back to my cabin, I threw myself in the bed, regretting to do so after my ribs hurt like I hit them with a steel pipe. After some moments of gasping for breath, I went for the scissors in my desk, cutting slowly every bandage over my wound. Because of the slow treatment, those three marks would stay as scars, scars that only a loser would get. I stared at myself in the mirror, my tangled brown mane partially covering my face, my golden fur stained with old blood and dirt. Again I looked to my tail, its tip burned. I sighed. In one big gulp, I drank the healing potion and looked at the bullet holes again, observing them to continue to exist. “You shouldn’t have happened.” As if they would answer me. I couldn’t care less if they would, anyway. I released the buck of my saddlebags and slowly floated it on my desk, getting my wrench and approaching, finally, the strange wagon. It took me some time to find where the door was, as it was above the metallic box. I used a little ladder to observe what I was doing. Screw after screw I took all four of them, each one as big as a carrot, and put them on the desk. When I took out the screws they unlocked some kind of platform which started to glow exactly like the box’ sides, indicating four hoofsteps.

I jumped above the wagon and, cautiously, put each of my hooves in their respective glowing light, when I heard whistles and a column of smoke shot out under me, blocking my vision. That’s only when I tried to blow the smoke with my front hooves that I noticed that the platform locked me. “Gah! Damn!” I forced my right hoof up, whining in pain in that stupid wound and swearing for being so weak. The platform descended, completely hiding me inside the box, that closed itself after the last strand of my mane was inside that little prison.

That wasn’t what I was expecting. The smoke was ventilated outside, and oxygen was bombed inside. I could hear myself breathing while the machinery surrounding me twisted and turned and, sometimes, whistled. Then the monitor mere inches from my head turned on, blinding my used-to-the-darkness eyes. I tried, instinctively, to take a step back, and I was brutally reminded that I was locked when I nearly sprained my back hoof.

“Welcome to the Stable-Tec PipBuck 3000A Interface Install.” The strange device wrote in the monitor in green letters against the black background and spoke to me in a soothing, calming female voice. “We, personal of Stable-Tec, are happy for your purchase of this high-technology experimental project.” It looked like there’d be another reason for the Steel Rangers to get this, after all. Experimental and High-Technology in the same phrase usually means pre-war tech that’s pretty valuable for the canned ones. “As of now, we’re examining your DNA and processing the best model for your comfort.” Two more monitors came to life, next to the original. One of them showed a double-helix, while the other flipped through hundreds of images. I couldn’t understand any of those, besides every one of them looking like it's worth tens of thousands of caps.

Suddenly, I felt a small prick in every hoof, a warm sensation running through my body, unlike anything I’ve felt before. “Unicorn detected. Checking Cutie Mark…” Two ducts expanded from the walls and locked my flank exactly in my cutie mark, and I simply couldn’t move, or resist, to anything. “The Cutie Mark is composed of a medical bandage. Profession acquired: Medic. Calculating…” The ducts went back to where they belong, freeing my body. I never saw anything like that, nor heard stories of any pre-war tech that was so advanced besides the ones inside the Stables.

“Model: 3052A r.272.” As suddenly as it stopped blinking the “calculating” from before, something pressed against my left front leg, closing itself around it. It felt like a million of microscopic needles dancing around my flesh, cutting and stabbing my skin in a circular motion that, for some reason, simply didn’t hurt. Then it stopped, I was thrown out of the wagon through two doors in its back and hit my back in the door, writhing in pain. I couldn’t feel my left leg, and the pain from my ribs came back in full force after that impact.

My head started to spin, the back of my head burned through my eyes, forcing me to close them while the strange orchestra of my heart resounded in my ears. Again, I heard myself breathing, in a world without another sound, without anypony. I felt like I’d puke.

I woke up some minutes later, a little pool of my own blood in front of me, and I felt like shit. My left leg was weighted down, but I felt it at least. My ribs were worse than ever, and I could bet that I broke another that pierced my lung again. I got up as slowly as I could, not that I was strong enough to get up faster than that in my actual condition. “…fuck…” The taste of rust from my own blood still riddled my mouth.

It was then that I noted that there was something in my vision. “…what is this…?” I didn’t need to focus to see it; it was like I was looking to a little magic pony in my head. I tilted my head to the sides, observing that it adjusted to my position so that I always see it straight. The pony in my head was looking pretty ill, and his body, fully fragmented, showed his torso in a red color, while everything else was white, with a slight shade of green surrounding it.

I heard another whistle, but this one came from the device in my leg, that I presumed was that PipBuck thing. In his metallic body, shiny and clean (something really rare around here), was his identification beside a grating of my cutie mark. “3052 Alpha revision.272… What the hell does this mean, anyway?” The strange device had a black screen like that monitor, with green letters and a little drawing of the same pony that was in my head, smiling to the user.

A tab in the display indicated ‘Notes’, so that’s where I went to. With a simple click of a button with magic, it displayed a list of three new notes. One of them was exactly the name of the Pipbuck, the second one was some kind of audio named ‘Stable-Tec Medic Presentation’ and the third one unnamed. I dragged myself to my bed, laying down the best I could in my condition, and clicked on the first one.

“PipBuck 3052 Alpha revision.272

The 3000 series are one of the most reliable PipBucks ever made, with their incredible resilience and great conditioning, requiring few to none repairs over the course of years. While aiming for the best, we, from Stable-Tec, created the Alpha models, marked by the A in their names. This is a 3000A of the 50 series, model 2, which includes a modified S.A.T.S. for precise and fast movement and the Stable-Tec Medic add-on, besides the E.F.S. and Inventory Sorting of the 3000 series.

We hope you enjoy this technologic wonder!

”

There weren’t, in any place, instructions for any of the functions described, besides that presentation for the Medic add-on. I focused again on the pony and it was exactly the same way, with a red body and looking bad. This time, three topics were displayed by his side, each one of them indicating ‘Bullet Wound’. Yeah, that was me, alright. I went back to the ‘Notes’ menu and clicked in the presentation, that was thirty seconds long if that recording info is correct. The voice that came was really soothing, and I was damn sure that it was the same voice inside the wagon. And that was a pretty familiar voice, for some reason.

“The Stable-Tec Medic add-on envisioned a new tool for every medic pony in the fields and, with the help of the Ministry of Peace, this is now a reality. This add-on makes possible the fast diagnosis of many, if not all, kinds of wounds and conditions, while the user can administrate the best course of treatment in seconds with the new S.A.T.S. that accelerates the reflexes of the use—“

Looks like the recording would go for a little more, but it was too damage to continue.

Well, the diagnosis part was really functional, at least in me. I took a breath, felling every inch of my body hurting like a stampede trampled me, there’s only one note remaining now, that one unnamed. I clicked it and “How are you doin… What is this bloo… What is this in your leg?!” I turned my eyes to the door, where Rosy Coral stood, following the wagon, then the blood that I puked earlier, then to my leg, where the PipBuck proudly resided. I sighed. “It looks like a PipBuck, doesn’t it?” I raised my foreleg, showing it to her. The pair of pink eyes flew through the apparatus, then to the wagon, and back to me again. “Wha… Ho… Whe… Why?”

“I don’t know, there’s a strange machine inside the box that—“ She jumped in me, locking my front legs under her hooves. That hurt so much that the pony in the display jumped. “Let me use it!” She exclaimed anxiously. “I hate it when you get excited about something… I’m wounded, remember?” I tried to say under my breath, when she jumped back to the wagon. “How do I use it too?”

“Well, I unlocked its roof and there’s some lights indicating where to stand and—“

“No, there isn’t!”

“…What?” I focused in the Stable-Tec logo besides it, and it was now completely black, not even a glimpse of light from before. “I think it… eh… ran out of energy? You’re the one that’s good with mechanics, not me. I’m just a medic.”

“Oh.” She glow in her eyes changed drastically, and even when she’s bitchy as she usually is, she doesn’t deserve to have her hopes destroyed like that. “Well, we can always have another opportunity…”

“Yeah… Hey, there’s a note here, unnamed. Maybe it is about the wagon?” I indicated to her, again rising my front leg. She ran as fast as she could in all that security equipment to my side, shaking in anxiety. “Relax, girl! Damn, it’s not like it’s that important…”

“(no title)

b car ful sis, it s dang rous to nt r that stabl .

it looks lik a storag , som thing about th ministry of aw som

no on knows xactly what it is, so watch out for 106.

“

“It looks like the letter ‘e’ is bugged…” I commented, as there’s any other use of the letter besides the title, that I think it’s made by the PipBuck itself. I looked to Rosy Coral, who looked like she’d burst at any moment. “Don’t tell me you want to—“

“We will search for this ‘Stable 106’!”

“What about your job? You waited two years for the place you’re now, you can’t let everything just to search for a Stable that, for now, we don’t even know if exists!”

“This PipBuck is new, isn’t it? So it means this is an official message lost in your specific PipBuck! It’s golden, Patchie!”

“…What, you think I’m Daring Doo, running around Stables and jumping over traps and whatever?” I stared her with the most incredulous face I could produce while in so much pain.

“Aren’t you ‘The Prospector’? Uuuh-“

“Celestia damn it, Coral, not you too.” It’s not their fault I was stupid when younger, yeah. I think I deserve this, after all.

“Come on, it’ll be an adventure!”

“…That could get us killed.”

“But aren’t you curious?” She got me on that one. I couldn’t stop but wonder what there’s inside that Stable, as the Ministry of Awesome from hundreds of years ago didn’t actually do anything, or so we’re told. Having that kind of information in hands was really valuable and… “Okay, I am. Let me, at least, recover first, what do you think?”

She hugged me, pressing even more my wounded ribs. “Oh goddesses now it’s broken again!” I shrieked, besides the pony in my head telling me anything about broken ribs. She laughed and finally let me go, hopping happily back to her post. I sighed, observing the Stable-Tec logo again. “What the hell is this message, uh?” As if it would respond.

I leaned down again and I closed my eyes for a second. I needed to sleep after that much. And so did I, in a dreamless night.

Prologue pt.2 - Bullet Wounds

Systems Initialized - PipBuck 3052A rev.272.

...starting recording system...

Done.

Fallout: Equestria

Prospector

By Shukin

Prologue pt.2 – Bullet Wounds

“It's nothing serious, then?”

I woke up oblivious to my wounded ribs, being fast and painfully reminded of them after stretching. I coughed a little, the classical rust taste of blood rolling through my mouth. I didn’t need to look further to my condition, as that HUD that was kept by the PipBuck informed me of the actual status of my lungs. Sure they were recovering, but still it’s not enough of an improvement for me to stroll around laughing and taunting Brilliant Prickle. I grabbed my saddlebags, opening them in search of the magical bandages. There were just enough for me to cover the actual bandages over the bullet wounds, after the whole fiasco two days ago.

With the bandages in place, I strapped my saddlebags to my back and casually limped down the corridor, locking the door behind me. It felt strange to walk with that metal casing around my leg without understanding exactly how it worked. I sure knew about the Medic add-on that constantly reminded me of my broken rib and the recovering bullet wounds, but what about that E.F.S.? Or that other function, S.A.T.S., modified for this exact model. That’s why I was headed to Friendship’s Statue Torch, to question the crazily-anxious Rosy Coral that I’m sure couldn’t even blink after yesterday.

As one of the repairponies of the station, Coral had a good experience with tinkering in pre-war machines and her dad taught her a lot before dying of rad-poisoning at ripe old age. Well, that’s what you get roaming the wasteland without care. Actually, he was one of the ponies that helped Radar to repair the exact bridge that gets us inside the statue every day. With all that swimming required to retrieve its parts, it was not only expected but required to die of radiation poisoning.

I cautiously limped upstairs, trying not to strain my torso and just cause me even more pain than before, as for now I’d just worsen the half-healed muscles. Gasping for air, I reached the top of the building and, just as I was going to knock, the door opened and I hit her right in the eye. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t meant to—“

“Patchie?!” she smiled awkwardly in a mix of happiness, anxiety and pain. With a hoof in her hurt eye, she kept talking as fast as she could. “I was going to wake you up, you lazy pony! You wouldn’t believe what I’ve found in one of the terminals at Cargo Four!” She guided me inside, and the first thing I noticed is that there was a fully operational terminal propped against the walls of the Security Room.

“Wait, you brought it here? Wasn’t it easier to just go where it was?” I glanced over her shoulder, noticing the sheer quantity of green rambling in the display. I couldn’t understand anything besides one or another word.

“You know Prick, he didn’t let me tinker with it over there… So I brought it here!” She took another step closer to the computer and put her hoof in the side of the monitor. “Look, it’s a Stable-Tec computer too!”

“I wonder where the hell they found this.” The screen was as dirty and scratched as everything else pre-war, and a lot of things post-war too. It made a nice contrast with the clean and bright light that the PipBuck emitted. I took another look around and found, between the security lockers, a pile of books ranging from hacking to maintenance of guns. Her collection, I think.

“We only have one problem…” She said, staring at the screen blankly.

“And that would be…?”

“I don’t have idea of how I’m gonna unlock this.” She smiled at me like that was good news. “I just don’t know exactly... what to do…”

I took another look at it: There were some words over the whole scrambled symbols. The worst of it was that there wasn’t any kind of input system besides the on/off button and some others for navigation next to the monitor. Another thing that I noticed was that there was a kind of blocky gap exactly under the display. I leaned over to observe it closer and, just as that, another green-glowing info popped into my eyes, scaring the hell out of me. “What happened, Patchie?” She tried not to laugh with the scare I took, but at least she was interested in what I’ve saw.

“Control Input.” I stared at those green letters for some time, trying to understand what they meant. “Looks like I can get into this computer with the PipBuck through this… slot.” For the lack of a better word.

“So do it!” She hit my shoulder, then remembered my wounds and drew back her hoof. “Sorry.”

Through my painful face, I nodded and stared at the PipBuck, which showed me the same information, this time regarding one of its buttons. I pressed it and a little cable with a square tip popped out of the display’s left side. I simply floated the cable and connected it to the terminal, automatically duplicating the scrambled symbols in my arm.

Now I could interact with it, but I didn’t know exactly what to do. Scrolling through the random characters I highlighted them, sometimes as a whole part, between parenthesis and brackets. Noticing four blocks in the upper part of the screen, I clicked a random icon of a dot and one of the blocks disappeared. “I only get four chances to guess the right password…”

She was staring directly the monitor of the terminal, examining closely every step that I took in that virtual environment. I chose a group between brackets, and one of the words disappeared, as simple as that. “So, if I do this…” I took another group now, and the lost block returned to its place. “Hm… Right, so I can regain my tries…”

That was interesting. I clicked one of the words, ‘WALKING’, and the display informed me that three of the seven letters were correct. Then I tried ‘RUMMAGE’ and it displayed two of the seven letters. Any of the letters of both of the words were in the same position, so they’re probably right in different places. I noticed one of the words, ‘RUNNING’. “It has the last three words of ‘walking’ and the first two of ‘rummage’… This is it, then.”

I clicked and the lock opened itself like a flower. I laughed at how easy that was, disconnecting the cable that returned as fast as it came out to the PipBuck. Without giving me space to read anything, Rosy Coral jumped in front of the terminal and pressed buttons like crazy. “I can’t understand how you can read this fast, girl.”

“Here, it’s here! Look!” She took a step aside and pressed one of the buttons:

“S.A.T.S. – Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell

With a simple mental command, the user will experience a better reaction time as the time around him slows down and the system helps with our most advanced targeting system, calculating in real-time the chances of hitting something aimed by its user.”

“It’s pretty simple, actually…” I thought aloud. “One of the notes says that the S.A.T.S. system of this PipBuck is a slightly modified version… Let’s see.”

I focused on Rosy Coral, trying to activate the system. As promised, the system highlighted her in real-time and showed her body fragmented exactly as the pony that represented my health, showing a full-diagnosis of her. There were percentages, alright, but not of hitting: It was clearly the functionality of each limb. I took a step back and walked to the stairway, going down a few steps and looking through the corridor.

“Damn.” A smile covered my face as I saw exactly the same information for everypony walking through there. I could focus on each one I wanted the info about and it would simply appear in thin air, clear and close enough so that I could read even through wind or debris.

Then the effect stopped, my body hurt like a train wrecked me and I coughed a little bit of blood, the damn rust taste again destroying my flavor glandes. “Oh goddesses the pain…” From upstairs, Rosy screamed something I couldn’t understand as the world around me took a ride in the roller coaster of nausea. After some moments of near-blindness for sheer pain, I retook the stairway one step at a time, reaching a shaking happily Rosy Coral.

“You were… fast! How did you do that?!” She screamed, jumping around me. “I don’t know, were I?” I answered, trying to recollect myself as I sat in one of the benches in the room. “It was probably the modified S.A.T.S… I saw so many information of everypony! This is really a modified version for medicinal use.”

“How so? Tell me tell me tell me!” She jumped around the bench, waiting anxiously for an answer. “Calm down, pink freak-out. As I focused in anypony, I saw exactly how functional their bodies are, with a little bar for every limb. And, to me, time simply slowed down. You said I was fast?”

I reproduced the presentation through the speaker, now with this new information. “So that’s what they meant when she said it augments the user’s reflex and, looks like, the body too. And that’s why I felt so much pain after that. Damn you, wounds.”

“It’s nothing serious, at least?” She sounded worried. I smiled, trying to reassure her: “Yeah, just a little bit of pain after straining the body. Imagine it like a cramp, only I can’t breathe correctly and my ribs hate me.” I took a little laugh, reminding myself of why I was trying not to.

“Good to know I’d not need to drag your bloody body everywhere again! Hihihihi!” Of the many things I liked about her, one of them wasn’t her squeaky laugh. My stomach rumbled, and I looked to the PipBuck searching for a clock, noticing it in the top right corner. “Let’s grab some grub, I’m hungry with all this ‘research’.”

“But there’s another to—“

“We’ll read it later, Coral. C’mon, let’s eat.”

=-=-=-=

“You know we’re herbivores, right?” I took another spoon of the rabbit and carrot stew. It tasted great, despite the angry fit our stomach will do later. She nodded positively, taking another spoon herself.

The food court was specially crowded that Sunday, with the different recipe. A merchant caravan from New Appleloosa bought a lot of scrap metal from us and, for payment, they provided the ingredients and cooked the huge bowl of stew that some of the guards were protecting. I ate another spoon, grateful for a different and incomparably better taste in my mouth than the usual blood of the last two days.

“Sho?” She tried to answer through a full mouth, spitting some of the stew on the metal table made of scrap metal. After a big swallow, she sighed and said: “It’s not like we have anything better to eat, and this is pretty tasty.”

“Yeah, can’t deny it.” And I took another spoon.

When I noticed, I was already with my head inside my bowl, and a little trace of blood mixed itself with the orange soup. I raised my head as fast as I could, a little piece of carrot in my mane and my whole face dirty with what was my meal. “What the fuck, Prickle!” I turned my head against the grinning idiot and his troupe.

“Oh! You were so enticed by the stew that I thought you’d want to eat more, so I helped you!” The other two guards tried not to laugh, but the carrot falling in the ground was the breaking point for them. My little pony told me that nothing was broken, but a slight shade of orange took place over its head as a little ‘-5%’ appeared over it.

“I’m not in my best mood now, Prickle, so get the fuck out of here or I’m afraid I’ll have t—“

He stared me defiantly while his two ‘friends’ laughed their asses off. “To do what?” He spat, clearly wanting a fight. I took a deep breath and backed down, using a towel from my saddlebags to clean my face. He just walked away laughing like he’s won the lottery. “Screw that guy.” Rosy Coral tried to comfort me.

“I just wonder how the flying fuck somepony turns out to be so stupid like him… He was a nice guy, damn it.” I pushed the bowl with my front hoof while pressing my own nose with the towel to stop the bleeding. “He’s like this since he entered the security.”

“I think he’s still mad that you broke that promise.” She said, trying to clean up the rest of the mess in the table.

“What, the one that the three of us would be a team forever? I told both of you that I didn’t want to wear these stupid armors. Besides, I’m a medic, what the hell would I do in Security?” I crossed my front legs, supporting my head.

“I… just don’t know, Patchie. But he’s still hurt, so he hurts you. I think.”

“That was six months ago, how can someone hold a grudge for so long?” I told them I’d be a prospector, and not a security pony, and they laughed at me. Prickly still taunts me with the damn nickname; Coral took the different route I went to in a very mature posture, besides taunting me too. Both of them loves to make me mad, but Coral at least doesn’t fucking hurt me. I think the PipBuck in my leg is a good proof that I’m not that bad at scavenging after all.

“I don’t know…” She finished her stew, getting up again and heading to the stairway for the Torch. “C’mon, Carrot Patchie, we have a lot more to study.”

“Stop with the nicknames, Coral, damn!” I rushed to her, both of us reaching the Security Room after nearly two minutes. And what surprise we had when we found the little note by Prickle by the door, with a little sympathetic message: “fuck u”

Couldn’t he at least write correctly? We opened the door and, for some reason, the terminal was turned off. I took some steps in its direction trying to understand why it is that way. Coral, as crazily anxious she is, ran to the terminal and pressed some buttons, getting the exact zero responses we expected. “What did he do?” I asked, without understanding exactly what happened.

“I think he…” She looked behind the terminal, noticing something that made she smile. “…took it out of the socket.” Out of nowhere, she started jumping and swearing in an unintelligible language, grabbing my attention to the back of the terminal too. There, I found the reason she was so mad: He took off the whole power cable of the terminal. “Why did he do that?! That prick!” She barked, looking around for a replacement.

“That’s his name, yeah, Stupid Prick.” I sat down, waiting for some resolution. She stared at me like a hellhound and barked: “Why are you not doing anything to help?!” I just smirked, shook my shoulders and added: “I’m not a repairpony, you are. I’m just a medic.”

After some minutes circling around the room like crazy, she took a piece of metal and, while keeping it immobile with her mouth, cleaned it with a steel wool. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Tchaking outh tche rushst!” She said, after some seconds of brushing the little metal bar. After she spat it, she pressed it against her workshop and started to sharpen its extremities. “Without the rust, aluminum is a great electric conductor. We don’t need a power cable when we can do a power bar!”

“…What.”

“Just help me here, I don’t want to be electrocuted by this.” She said, letting me float the bar and pushing the terminal, giving me enough space to put the bar between the remains of the power cable and the socket. As simply as that, and with some sparkles, the terminal turned back on. “Yeah! Now we can study this in peace!”

“Calm down, Coral, I’m the one with the PipBuck and I’m not startled as you are.” I took the cable and plugged it in its slot, selecting the right password and entering in the database as she clicked in the E.F.S. information.

“Eyes-Forward Sparkle

This magic system complements the user interface with a compass and automatic mapping system. The E.F.S. is capable of detecting any kind of life, robotic or supernatural form and register it in its compass in real-time while determining if said form is hostile to the PipBuck user or not. The user need to turn on the E.F.S. function in the Status menu of the PipBuck.”

I immediately went to the Status and saw the discreet E.F.S. button in the left corner, and I pressed it. Two bars appeared at the right corner of my vision, one of them marked with the cardinal directions (I was looking close to the Southeast) and the other had a little green dot. I looked around, noticing the green dot accompanying where Coral is, while at least fifty more appeared when looking to the North, where most of the statue were inhabited.

“This is incredible.” was the only thing I could talk after such display. Coral was clearly jealous of what I was seeing, but she had a proud and happy look to her face that made me smile. “I don’t know how I lived without one of these.”

=-=-=-=

“I heard shooting, what happened?” I said, floating my saddlebags by my side. I was woken up by the gunshots near the Friendship Bridge, and it looked like half of the east side of the statue did it too. Through the crowd, four security guards, one of them Brilliant Prickle in one of the only moments he wasn’t a douchebag, escorted a group of approximately six tearing foals.

“I can’t believe this!” “Yes, how the Stable Dweller could do that?!” I tried to relate the name to someone without success while the whole crowd spoke about a massacre, the gunshots and how the Stable Dweller had attacked Arbu. That’s one settlement I’ve heard of, close enough to exist a direct trade route to them from the statue. I pressed the ponies ahead of me to get out of the way and went as fast as I could to the clinic, where Healing Surge diagnosed one of the foals.

I activated the S.A.T.S., looking at every little pony and went to one of them with a splint, stripping it into his strained front leg. “This is the only medical condition in them, doc. Looks like she hurt herself while running… Why where you running, little foal?”

Through her sobbing, she looked me straight in the eyes and spoke with a shaken voice: “T-th—the hellmare…” I couldn’t do anything besides hugging her at that point, whence she simply collapsed.

________________________________________

S: 3

P: 4

E: 3

C: 4

I: 9

A: 5

L: 5

Tags: Medicine, Science, Guns.

Traits: Trigger Discipline, Heavy Handed.

Level: 1

Perks: ---

Chapter 1 - Mended Friendship

Fallout: Equestria

Prospector

By Shukin

Chapter.1 – Mended Friendship

“And I'm coming with you.”

“So… How are they?” I flipped through some spreadsheet showing each foal’s condition, felling uncomfortable in the fact that I couldn’t do anything about them: That wasn’t a medic condition anymore, just plain and simple trauma. The Hellmare tormented their dreams, destroyed their hopes and, without answers, she destroyed everything that was held true to those brought here by herself. With a Sparkle~Cola in his hoof, Healing Surge looked clearly troubled with the whole ordeal.

“They’re not in our hooves anymore. Black Seas is looking towards accepting them within the community, but, obviously, the council doesn’t like it, as it’s just more costs to them.” He took another sip.

“They shouldn’t care about the Celestia damned money, they’re children! What will we do, banish them?” And I took a sip of my own drink: A healing potion. Only three more days of that and I’d be in perfect state. Actually, even my PipBuck recognized that I was in so much better condition than yesterday, like if my body wanted me to get out of here and start my search for that Stable, 106.

“I don’t know.” He said through his breath, punctuating with a sip. The Enclave music played out loud in the Sparkle’s, and that remembered me about something that I couldn’t quite get the night before. “Hey, doc, what do you know about this… Hellmare? Some called her the Stable Dweller…” He gave a big and loud laugh before answering.

“You really don’t know her?”

I found that answer odd. “…Should I?”

“I don’t even have one of those toys in your arm and I know that there’s a radio in it… Try to listen to DJ Pon3 from time to time, you know…”

That remembered me of yet another thing that intrigued me. “I’m trying to understand how anyone contested me about the PipBuck, you know. It’s too damn bright to be a used model, and everyone knows you need a kind of knowledge to just put one that I’m sure to not have.” I waved with the weighted leg, showing it to Surge, who just shrugged.

“Well, it’s not anyone’s business, is it?”

“Well no, but—“

“There’s your answer, boy. We don’t ask what doesn’t concern us.” He finished the topic with a big gulp. We went to different directions after I finished my potion, going back to my cabin with two books brought from Coral: Guns and Bullets, an all-time favorite of hers, and The Big Book of Arcane Science, which she never had time, or disposition, to read at all. The central purple star surrounded by those little white ones in the cover caught my attention.

I looked at the mirror again, observing a better-looking pony than before, with those dark circles in his eyes nearly gone and a trimmed mane. The scars were still there, proof enough that he wasn’t ready to fight the wasteland as it was ready to try to kill him. And it got really close at that.

Backing down in the stool, he opened the Guns and Bullets book. I couldn’t read in a too silent place, so I turned my eyes to the PipBuck in my arm. Some turning of knots and presses of buttons and I’ve found the radio, turning it on the second station found, the DJ Pon3 one. A nice and calming music played on it, with a good harmonica background and a guitar in the foreground, complementing each other. As I read, the music was interrupted by Pon3 himself, and subconsciously I took more attention in his words than what I was reading at the moment.

“DJ Pon3 here, and I’ve got to tell you, I don’t know what to make of this one, children.” He started, his voice clearly trembling. “For weeks I’ve been telling you of the heroic deeds of the Stable Dweller, our Heroine in of the Equestrian Wasteland, our Bringer of Light in this time of darkness. But today…” Looks like he’ll talk about yesterday’s deal and the foals that the Stable Dweller brought to the island.

“Another village in Manehattan has gone silent. Arbu is dead.” It was true, then. “ Reports have reached me that every pony in the town, over two dozen, have been killed. And listen children, I don’t know how to say this… but… But it looks like it was the Stable Dweller who was responsible. A witness from Bucklyn Cross reported seeing her opening fire on ponies in the Arbu commons.”

I couldn’t feel sympathy, I didn’t know of her adventures besides hearing her name once or twice. People pretty much only listened to Enclave in public, and I’m not that interested in listening nonstop to music to invest some hundred caps in a radio. “Now children… I don’t want to believe this. I don’t want to believe our heroine has turned on us. There must be more to this story than what I’m hearing. If you know anything about it, please contact my assistant Homage at Tenpony Tower. Anything at all… I don’t know exactly what went down or why. But I’m not going to stop until I find out. And when I do, you’ll know too. This is DJ Pon3. Bringing you the truth. No matter how bad it hurts.”

Well, he was known for his fast reports, so I would’ve to just wait for the answers the desperately wants to find. He looked like he was really concerned about it, too, but not about the massace… Did he have a crush in the Stable Dweller? I laughed at the idea, and turned my attention back to the reading.

=-=-=-=

I closed the book, my eyes burning from staring the same book for the past couple of hours. In between the whole reading, DJ Pon3 went updating the Arbu story, with a letter from Ditzy Doo (she wrote the Wasteland Survival Guide! That’s the book that made me want to scavenge in the first place!) and some reports from Bucklyn Cross, not too far from here either, and it was completely silent too. The Stable Dweller attack went farther than everyone thought, and I couldn’t believe how she cleaned a whole Steel Rangers encampment.

I rubbed my eyes after reading so much about what should’ve been simple details, like the trigger, and learned it’s really more complex than I’ve ever thought. Looking back in my saddlebag, I observed the pipe shooter that Coral gave me and I was lost in thoughts of how did she build it without so many tools of her trade. And, speaking of the Nightmare Moon…

“You there?” I could faintly hear her voice through the door.

“Come in, I’m here.” The whistling of the pneumatic door reached my ears as fast as her hoofsteps and, when I observed it, she was already by my side. “What do you want?”

“What, I need to have a reason to talk with my bestest friend?” She questioned defensively.

“When I’m in my room, yes, you do.” I answered, looking in her direction while she trotted around the Stable-Tec wagon that still stood in the middle of my bedroom. I stacked both books in the corner of the desk, above my copy of the Wasteland Survival Guide. “So, what is it?”

“You heard about the Light Bringer, right?”

“You’re talking about the Stable Dweller, right? If so, yeah.” I looked to our reflection in the mirror, observing the light pink pony with dark red mane in a ponytail with a strange worried look into her face. Despise her face as a whole, it was possible to see a peculiar light in her eyes, coated with hope and anxiety. “Those foals and that one buck were brought here because of her. Because she killed Arbu. And Bucklyn Cross… How did she manage to do it anyway?”

“I don’t know, the way DJ Pon3 speaks of her makes it look like she’s pretty powerful.” She answered, but quickly kept going. “But now I’m afraid.” She knew me better to just wait for an obvious question. “What if there’s something, anything, in that Stable that makes us just like that?”

“All-mighty and powerful? I wouldn’t mind at all!” I chuckled.

“I’m serious here, Patchie. She was a hero, and she turned out like… this. I don’t want to risk everything to turn out the same way…”

“It’s not like we’re going to change the Wasteland, Coral. It’s not like we’re going to save the whole world exposing that the Ministry of Awesome is the responsible for every catastrophe everywhere. Remember Timmy with the can soup? MAw.”

“We never knew somepony called Tim—oh.” She chuckled a little, getting the joke.

“We’re just going in, getting whatever it is inside there, and going out. Simple, fast and easy… But it’ll be an adventure to find it, don’t you think?” I smiled, trying to make her lose that frowned expression, and it actually worked! That was new.

“Sure it’ll be! When you’ll be capable of actually going?”

“Tomorrow morning is good enough. There’s at least two more potions to drink, but I’m just fine as it is and even the PipBuck agrees with it.” I noticed my little pony again, which signaled that I was just 20% worse than before the bullet found home in my lung.

“Good! It’ll be ready by then!” She trotted away... Before I could ask what was ‘it’. I could ask over the food court, as it was nearly mid-day and my stomach, as usual, started to rumble. I took my saddlebags and checked my caps, noticing a peculiar lightness to it. Was I out of caps already? Time to charge the doctor, then.

I went two levels upstairs and crossed the rusty bridge to his clinic, as he was bartering with Raspberry Tart, or better saying, one of her goons. The fully white pony traded a crate with the good old doc and received a bag full of the very thing I was coming to ask for. Without looking to her face, I entered the clinic as she left and Healing Surge greeted me with a smile behind his mustache.

“Nice timing, Golden Patch. Here, help me with this.” I trotted behind the counter, floating some of the potions where they belong, everything organized as always. “What brings you here in your day-off?” He asked between arranging some of the embalming potions for burns. I recalled my scorched tail for a moment before going back to the subject in hoof.

“Well, you see… I’m out of caps.”

“And I think this means you want your payment sooner, right?” He uttered without looking at me even for a moment. I felt uncomfortable with the way he always handled every time I asked him for it. This time, though, I swore to myself it’ll be different.

“Y- yes.” I stuttered. Damn. “I’m going out of the city for at least a week, so I… erm… Would you borrow me a thousa—“

“One thousand caps?! Are you trying to bankrupt me?!” He stared at me dead in my eyes, forcing me to take a step back. I think I swallowed my soul before answering.

“I need the money, sir… It’s not like I’m robbing you! I swear I’ll pay you up with what I find.” I think it was visible that I was really nervous, with all the sweating and everything else. I couldn’t even breathe, my lungs telling me that they had nothing to do here.

“And what guarantee me that you’re keeping your word?”

“I swear, I swear! Look, this is what I’ve found in my last scavenge.” I showed him the PipBuck in my leg. “And if this is what I’ve found in just my fourth try, what will I find now, with the help of technology? Even more things! I swear I can repay you!”

“…Makes sense. Here, your payment for five weeks of work that you will compensate later.” He took the thousand caps from a ground safe under him and I floated it into my saddlebags. “And word for the wise: Don’t go rooting around anyone’s grave, you understand me?”

“Fine, I’m a scavenger, not a gravedigger.” I said, walking towards the exit. “And thanks for everything, for the job, for the training… You’re like a father to me.” And I trotted away, sighing. After some hundred meters, I stopped and laughed, as I was finally going somewhere! I couldn’t hold the actual excitement and, as a response, nearly everypony near the crazy medic laughing pony took a step back preemptively.

=-=-=-=

“Five canned peaches, two Howdy’s, four sparkle~colas and… take the three, put the five and carry out the two… Three bottles of water to go. And a grilled carrot for now, please.” I counted the hundred caps and waited for Sparkle to put everything neatly in a bag, what, not surprisingly, wasn’t what happened.

“Do you even have that many caps, buck?” She looked at me, expecting to see the cash before doing any kind of service. I just sighed and put the caps in a neat pile. “Now we’re talking.”

While I ate the carrot, she got everything ready and I floated it into my saddlebag. When I was turning back the bag she put everything, she stopped the flying brahmin purse with a hoof in the counter. “I heard you’re planning to be a scavenger, right?” I nodded. “I remember you, you’re that other medic pony from the clinic. Consider this – “ she pushed the purse across the table counter, in my direction. “- a good luck gift from me.”

“Thanks… You’re the mother of that foal with a cold, right?” The kid was about to explode just because I had to give him an antibiotic shot. A little sleight of hoof and some tricks with the basic telekinesis and he just went through the sting without knocking down the walls. That was a funny day. “I bet it took him a day to get better.”

“Three hours, do you believe it?” She said with a big smile in her face. I smiled back, taking another bite in the carrot. She dropped a bottle of sparkle~cola in front of me and, cleaning a mug with an old dishcloth, whispered “On the house.” and went to serve the other ponies. I was sorry that I’d disappoint her, but she wouldn’t make me smile more than it was ponilly possible.

My saddlebags were a lot heavier than earlier now, with nearly a thousand caps and at least a week’s worth of provisions, as full as my stomach with the scored soda. Then I bumped into somepony. “Sorry ‘bout that.” I floated the dropped saddlebag to the young buck in front of me, which just whispered something that reminded me of thanks and ran away. Ok, couldn’t do too much about it.

But the damn guard could. “Halt, citizen!” I stopped, looking around for the pastel armor and I was hit in the face with a nightstick.

“What the flying Dashite pegasi fuck was that f— Oh, hi, Prick. Not a moment of peace and quiet for your ol’ pal Patch, right?” He smiled at me through his visor and the other two idiots that always trotted along him chuckled.

“You know… Protect and serve.” He gave some laughs before putting the nightstick close to my neck. “We saw what you did, so we’re bound to search for any stolen property from that buck you bumped into.”

“What?! I didn’t steal anything, you stupid assh—“

“Watch the language, sir, we don’t want any commotion and I sure you don’t want it too.” He raised his snout, which begged me to hit him. I held myself, three-on-one wasn’t even near to fair, and he was pretty much bigger than me. And was with armor, and armed with a nightstick. Wasn’t worth it.

They rummaged my saddlebags and one of them laughed while picking my bag of bottle caps. “Hey, give me back.” I threatened to walk in his direction, but the nightstick got closer to my neck.

“Don’t even think about it, Patch.” Prickle made sure I understood the message while they took half of the caps to themselves. Was it really not of worth? That could be my last time to reason with them, to resolve this whole ordeal.

“And what if I do?” I stared him, just like I always did.

“Then I’ll hit you. Hard. And press you for contempt against authori—“

That was the fastest kick I’ve ever gave, hitting him square in the jaw with my left front hoof. His two ‘friends’ just stared at me, my bag and half of its caps floating with green unicorn magic of one of them. Without a word to any of them, I surmounted his magic and took back my money, approaching slowly the stunned pony with silver mane slightly dirty with his own blood from a cut where I hit him.

“I can’t understand you.” Now that I started, let me at least finish this, once and for all. If I’m back, I don’t want any more stupid ponies to harass me. “Ever since both of you entered Security and I didn’t, you picked on me, hit me, made me your personal kicking bag.” He has lost his words with one of his broken teeth. “I’m fucking tired of this. I was your friend, but you changed so much that I don’t even recognize you as a decent folk anymore. This is why I’m leaving this place.”

“B-but I—“

“Shut up, I’m the one talking now, prick.” I approached my muzzle from his, staring him dead in his eyes, close enough that I was sure he felt my breath at every word. “I’m leaving. And you’re not going to do any shit about it. I’m just saying you’re a pain in the ass not worth my time.” I took some steps away, his eyes following every step of mine. “Oh, and one more thing: Fuck you.”

=-=-=-=

“I heard you punched Prickle… You’ve never resorted to this, Patchie…” She said while polishing her own armor, slightly modified with some more plating in her flanks and legs. Her saddlebags were already waiting in the corner, packed full of military rations and ammo for her shotgun, also modified by her. A pastime, she said to everypony since… forever, I think.

“I couldn’t resist this time, that idiot was stealing me in public! And, well, I don’t think I’m coming bac—“

“Oh don’t start with the death talk with me, boy!” She stared at me, more serious than she was supposed to be. I cleaned my throat and went back to where I was.

“I was talking about actually coming back. I think I’ll search for another settlement, maybe buy a good home in Tenpony Tower… If I have the money to do it, of course. And, if this turns out to be a sham, I don’t want to have problems with that idiot anymore.” I triple-checked if everything was in their own places. The PipBuck Inventory Sorting system was pretty useful, helping me to locate every item in the saddlebags with ease.

“Oh, I nearly forgot!” She sprinted to the other side of the Security Room, opening one of the lockers and taking out a wooden box. “Open it, it’s for you!” Touching exactly in my curiosity, I unlocked both its bolts and opened it…

“…Is this really for me?” In front of me stood the most beautiful rifle I’ve ever seen. Its barrel was completely black and shined, reflexing the lights in the ceiling. Its stirring drum was made for six bullets and ornamented with golden strings, looking like medical stitches through each bullet. I ran my eyes over it to notice the “Patchie” carved in the rifle’s butt.

“Yeah, I made it for you as a gift for when you passed the Security test, but as you didn’t even try…” I didn’t notice that I was laughing when I jumped in her direction, hugging the hell out of her.

“Thanks, Coral!” I couldn’t speak more than that, I couldn’t think of enough words to thank her for that.

“It’s a modified hunting rifle, the barrel refitted for 5mm bullets. It packs a lot more power than the usual rifle, you know…” I looked to the origin of that voice fully knowing who it was. I couldn’t believe that he was here.

“What do you want now, Prickle?!” I stared at him, resting the box by my side. He was carrying a big box strapped to his back and, with a bite, he took out the straps that held it that way. There was a badly-done patch over the bruise in his muzzle after the punch from earlier. Coral put a hoof in my back, trying to make me back down.

“I helped with some of the parts… It was our gift to you. And you just… didn’t. This was my part, just as the rifle was hers.” He pushed the box in my direction.

I took a precautious step in its direction, unlocking both its bolts and flipped the lid open. I couldn’t see from the point I was, so I just approached the metal menacing box. I couldn’t believe my eyes, actually. “…Are you… serious?”

“I know I’ve being kind of a dick with you these days and…”

“These days?!” I put a lot of emphasis in the ‘days’ part. “Ever since I refused the test you tormented me!”

“…I just didn’t know how to react! We had a lot of work to prepare everything, and since your family left-“

“Don’t fucking talk about my family!”

“Fine! Sheesh… I didn’t know what to do, you promised that you’d be with us and you simply… weren’t anymore. I got carried away, I think. This is my apology.”

“…I don’t know, Prickle.” He was my friend, but that was months ago. Maybe he learned his lesson today? I just didn’t know what I’d do about that. I shrugged.

“And I’m coming with you.” And just now I noticed his saddlebags, apparently full of everything he needed outside.

“N-No way!” I yelled. “You’re not going with us, you have no right to do—“

“I do, Patch! It’s my right to be where I want to be, and I’ll follow you even if you don’t want it!” He stood for himself in a way I didn’t saw since at least a year before… He wouldn’t accept no for an answer, and I knew that he’d be a good asset, as a strong and actually fast pony. I took another look at the box.

“…Fine. But I’ll keep my eye on you.” I sighed, and I didn’t even need to look at him to see that he smiled like a foal again. I floated the brown security armor, exactly the color of my mane, with a golden cross stitched in its back from the box that contained it and smiled awkwardly to them. “Erm… How do I put these?”

S: 3

P: 4

E: 3

C: 4

I: 9

A: 5

L: 5

Tags: Medicine, Science, Guns.

Traits: Trigger Discipline, Heavy Handed.

Level: 2 (Level Up!)

Perks: Rapid Reload (New!)

Chapter 2 - Long Way

Fallout: Equestria

Prospector

By Shukin

Chapter 2 – Long Way

“The hardest step is the first one.”

“I told you he’d like it.” I heard Prickle whispering to Coral, which sighed and gave him some caps. I smiled, now knowing that they still kept contact through everything that happened. With each four of five steps, I took another sip of the healing potion I was supposed to drink that night. Between the same boring clouds, the moon was hardly visible, poorly illuminating our path.

“That’s why you knew that I’ve punched him so fast?” I told them, showing that I heard and understood what happened.

“Wha- What, do you thought I’d choose a side? You’re both my friends!” Coral stuttered trying to protect herself. “And we could talk about our jobs… It was still like a dream that came true, you know.”

“A dream which you decided to not be part of.” He added.

“...because I wanted to follow my own. Nothing’s wrong with that.” I answered rapidly, cutting another answer short. The silence stood for some moments of music in my head through the magical speakers of the PipBuck, when DJ Pon3 interrupted our stroll. I turned to them and quickly dropped to the ground, PipBuck in their direction. Both of them followed, and I sent the audio for the actual speakers.

“Hello out there? Anypony awake? It’s time for a special late night edition of the news!” Finally something about the Stable Dweller. “I have with me, communicating over broadcaster, one Grandpa Rattle, long-time resident of Arbu and new citizen of Friendship City.” I saw him earlier, with one of the new foals. I heard he’d be the one to care for them. Coral whispered something in the same lines, and we shushed her. “And he’s here to set the record straight. The whole pony about what went down three nights ago. So sit down and hold onto your hats, children, because this is going to be a hell of a story.

But first, I have something that I have to say. And this goes out from me to that Heroine of the Wasteland, our little Bringer of Light: I’m sorry.”

“So she wasn’t wro—“ They shushed me.

“When you’ve seen as much as I have, when you see as many heroes fail and fall… it’s hard not to expect it. It’s hard to keep believing. Even when you know there’s somepony out there you should believe in. You didn’t fail us, Stable Dweller. I failed you. And you have my deepest and sincerest… A particular toaster repair-pony once told me that she would always be tuned in, listenin’ to my message of hope. Well, listen close, Stable Dweller, cuz this is the honest truth, straight from me to you: That message of hope? That’s you. You are my message. Now then Grandpa Rattle, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and this book you want to share with us tonight?”

I didn’t knew he were away, and by the looks of their faces, neither did they. “Ain’t a book. It’s a ledger. A recordin’ of every sick thing the ponies in Arbu did. By the time I’m done readin’ two pages, I gare-un-tee every one of y’all will wish ya coulda been there to do what that little mare did fer ya...”

=-=-=-=

“I- we- wow.” My jaw dropped and I couldn’t put it back together after that. How could there be such sick ponies? The world is hellish, sure, but it’s still not enough for… that. That wasn’t just me, Coral was visibly nauseous, I didn’t need my little pony to tell it to me (as it did), and Prickle was at loss of words just as me.

“I—I ate th- th-“ She couldn’t continue, and it wasn’t needed, really. Coral tried to take some steps back, throwing up some meters from where we stood. I turned off the radio after the message, and the PipBuck quickly turned off its display, leaving us in nearly no illumination besides the moon itself.

The awkward silence stood for some time, roaming our group like the old-tales wendigos. Sadly, they’d still be hungry by the time they left, as we only felt disgust, not hate. It took us some minutes to continue walking towards Heat’s Kingdom, where we decided to stay up for the night, as I remember some of the landmarks in the region and in the path.

We reached the farm close to 3am, as my PipBuck said. It wasn’t that strange that it was completely silent and devoid of light, it’s a common sleeping time, common enough that the three of us were nearly dropping and sleeping right on the ground. Without much noise, we crossed their land and knocked on the door. “It’s me, Golden Patch.” I said, trying to tranquilize them.

No answer. The broken window was hastily covered with a metal sheet. I knocked again. “I helped you a week ago, remember?” Still no answer. I twisted the knob and the door opened without any kind of resistance. Something was wrong in there. I popped the Rifle’s drums and reload it while floating it from my back, ready for anything. As I took my first step, Coral bit on my tail and pulled me. “Why did you—“ She nodded to the ground.

It was a mine. I let her go first and disarm the bomb, following every step of the pink pony with my aim ready. Prickle had already readied his nightstick in his mouth, whispering to me through it: “Don’t your stupid watch have anything to help us?” And I remembered the E.F.S., inactive for that moment.

I turned it on and, exactly as I thought, there weren’t anyone in the house besides the three of us. I sighed, a little after she disarmed another mine. “They aren’t here. Let’s search the house and reactivate the mines… We need some place to sleep, this will be it.” We found other two mines through the kitchen and another one in the top of the stairs.

Both the children’s rooms were a mess, with their blankets thrown to the ground and wardrobes upturned. “Or they were in such a hurry…”

“Or they were forced to go away. Look…” Coral said, guiding me to the main bedroom. I instantly noticed the drips of blood entering the room, keeping my rifle steady. We opened the door and… it was completely empty, in the same mess that the other two rooms were. This time, though, there was a message.

“Those little fuckers thought they were so smart, this is the fucking payback, bitches. If that fucker that killed one of ours come back, this is my little message to him: We’re coming for you, motherfucker.”

“Ain’t that nice?” I smirked.

“We just started our quest and you’ve already made enemies? What a good start, don’t you think?” Prickle said by the door.

“We don’t have much choice than rest right now. We’ll search for them by the morning, okay?” I said, burying myself under the blankets. That was better than I thought it would be: A quality bed was as valuable as water these days. They agreed and went each one to a bedroom.

Just to be woken up by an explosion. I threw the blankets in the wall before running as fast as I could with the rifle already in my telekinesis, kicking the room’s door down and being greeted by four shots from a raider in the lower floor. One of them scraped my face, the burning sensation forcing me to close an eye and throwing myself for cover back to the bedroom. “Get that little shit!” one of them screamed. I heard hoofsteps up the stairs, then a metallic noise and the same hoofsteps rolling back from where it came from.

I activated my E.F.S. and noticed five red dots along two green ones, one of them still in its bedroom, the other away from the house itself. I stopped my breath for a moment, felling the whole world around me stop in mid-air. A quick side step, the rifle in front of me. In the middle of its aim, one of the raider’s head. I pressed the trigger, felling the monstrous knockback of the huge-ass gun weaken my telekinetic grasp. I took a step back, going back to where I was moments before. Gasping, I noticed one of the red dots blinking out of existence, and I laughed.

Even with that much power, it was nearly completely silent! The whole barrel was suppressing its noise, and a little smoke came from the butt of the rifle shortly after the headshot. A row of bullets alerted me to my situation, close enough to kill me if I stood where I was moments ago. Another red dot blinked out of existence, and I heard more gunshots under me. I stepped through the doorframe and another mine got other distracted raider, which was impressing as they’re the ones that armed them in the first place.

To my side, Rosy Coral was reloading her combat shotgun behind her doorframe, two bullets taking off part of the wooden panel she used as cover. Again aiming for the head, I flanked the stallion that was shooting her and, in a stroke of luck, he saw me before I made his head splatter in the walls. One of his bullets, from a pistol, hit my new armor, forcing me to take a step back and bruising its area of impact. I lost my aim and hit him in one of his legs instead.

The 5mm bullet took a whole part of his front leg with it, dropping him screaming and kicking in the ground. I floated his own pistol to finish him off with a bullet square in the head. He stopped kicking shortly after. “Patch!” I looked behind me. A beautifully-crafted spear surrounded in a purple magic went straight to my head.

I couldn’t do much to stop it, and Prickle knew it. I closed my eyes instinctively, flinching from its tip which, in turn, just scrapped my forehead with the tackle the unicorn wielding it received from the silver dash. “Damn!” I yelled, taking a step back. Prickle tackled her into one of the walls, and my little pony told me the details shortly after. I didn’t need to see that when her head was a little bit by my hoof, and another bit in the ceiling. Even the wall cracked with that brute-force attack.

“It’s not over yet!” My E.F.S. still signaled me danger, though I couldn’t find where exactly the last raider was. I turned around, searching for the red dot that hated me enough to try to kill me in my sleep. Prickle was breathing heavily from the dash, and his own torso was aching from the impact, his nightstick locked in the side of his armor’s front left hoof, with easy access to him. I took another step to my left, noticing the last red dot walking slowly towards the front door and a green one moving fast in its direction.

Then the drop, a high-pitched squeal and the sound of the shotgun shot reached my ears a little before the red dot blinked out. Coral went back to us wiping her face of the blood of the last raider, panting as heavily as everypony else. “... fucking… raiders…” I whispered, dropping my flank in the ground.

I activated the S.A.T.S., looking to each of my partners. Prickle had been shot in his flank, though the armor blocked enough of the bullet impact to only bruise him, and his right shoulder had strained in his last attack. Rosy Coral, surprisingly, was completely healthy. “It’s nice that the only mare in our group isn’t hurt or got shot at…” She smiled sleepily with my comment.

We took their weapons and Coral stripped their armors of its metal for small repairs, and Prickle liked how that spear was crafted. "It's pretty lightweight, despite its size. Its completely made of a pretty resilient metal alloy." He spoke. I was the living proof of its sharpness, the small cut in my forehead bleeding profusely. The forehead has many blood vessels and, with the help of the sweat, it looks a lot worse than it actually is. I picked up the same towel Coral used to clean herself and pressed it against the cut to stop the bleeding, using a little bit of my own magic to close the wound. In place of my magic energy, a golden patch covered and closed it, stopping the bleeding.

It was my talent, as it was my cutie mark, and the only different magic that I know besides the basic telekinesis. One trick pony doesn't even makes justice. In one of their saddlebags, over some of the raiders that got his head smashed in by Prickle's Nightstick, we found two bottles of dirty water and two radigator sticks... "Oh goddesses." They came from Arbu. Coral lost her smile at the moment she saw the 'radigator' stick, getting that nauseating look stamped in her face for the second time.

"They're probably using the remains of the town as their hideaway." I spoke to Coral, walking directly past Prickle. I reloaded the rifle that I was starting to name as Stitches in my head (for they'll need to stitch you back in hell, I know I suck at this) and noticed I had only fifty bullets left. The ammo was sold in bulks, but it was really hard to find with the traders that went to Friendship City. The weapons that usually used it were too heavy to be used by anyone without a battle saddle, and they were rarer than purified water around those parts.

"I have it in my map," I kept going. "and everypony that lived here are probably there, as prisioners. We can reach it in three hours if we start now."

"What we're waiting for? Let's go, then!" Coral strapped her shotgun to her back and took a sip of the irradiated water found in one of the raiders. Before she exited the house, though, I called her attention with a hoof stomp.

"Why are you so eager to go there? I'm sure it's not about the raiders, or those ponies." I strapped Stitches back where it belonged and Prickle actually got the spear to himself, strapping it to his back as well. She turned around, this time with a completely serious face that I've never saw before.

"Those... monsters... I-- I'll finish what the Stable Dweller started. That town doesn't deserve to exist..." She was visibly shaken with the whole cannibalism and murder that Arbu did. At the time, I thought it was because they, besides doing those monstrous things, exported the damned meat as radigator's. It was simpler that way, wasn't it?

We had to pick up our pace to reach her, walking alongside to her fit of vengeance. The sun started taking the place of the moon in the cloud-covered sky, and the sickly green light illuminated our way. Prickle noticed how she's been strangely grumpy with the whole 'quest' and approached her. "Remember when we used to sing that Sweetie Belle's old foal music we've found in that holotape? The one that talked about smiles?"

"...come on everypony..." I started, smiling as each word was pronounced. "... smile... smile... smile..."

"Fill up my heart with sunshine... sunshine..." Prickle continued, both of us synchronizing our hoofsteps to the rhythm. That was one of my favorite pre-war songs since I was a foal.

"Come on everypony, smile, smile, smile..." Both of us sang at the same time, waiting for her answer. She didn't say anything, so we just waited. And waited. "C'mon, Coral... You know the lyrics." I said. "Sing with us. To remember the old times..."

She didn't utter a single word. I looked back to Prickle, with a small smile in my face. We never went that well together, but she kept us under line. Coral, with her bumbling personality and strangely happy attitude against the harshness of the wasteland, was half of the reasons we were together at that time.

"If I remember correctly, Sweetie Belle's not the original... It was a tribute or something... Do you remember the start of the lyrics, Prick?" I was deeply sorry I've lost the holotape, dropped from one of the catwalks of Friendship City a long time ago. He started humming a melody that resembled what I remember of the song.

"My name is Pinkie Pie..." he sang, finishing with a simple whisper of 'I think'.

"Wasn't she the head of one of the ministries?" I remember actually seeing a poster with her face and "Pinkie Pie watches you forever!"

Coral relaxed her shoulders over the joke, but still didn't laugh. I looked back to Prickle and kept going. "I think it continues like this: 'And I'm here to say...' or something."

"I can't remember exactly what went after that, but I'm sure it ends with 'brighten your day'." He took a sip of a sparkle~cola he took from his own belongings. He offered me some of it, and I gladly accepted. "The only thing I'm sure to remember is the chorus..."

We went after it at the same time. "Come on everypony, smile, smile, smile! Fill up my heart with sunshine, sunshine! All I really need is a smile, smile, smile..."

Silence. "C'mon, Coral! Help us with this, I know you remember it!" I said, already laughing.

"...from these happy... friends of... mine." I couldn't see her face, but I was sure she was at least smiling. I kept going; Prickle got the idea right and continued to sing too. I heard a whistle, and a little crater opened itself right in front of our eyes, little time before the gunshot reached our ears.

“Fuck! Run for cover!” I leapt inside some ruins, another bullet lodging itself near my flank, in a wooden wall. The ruins were partially destroyed, but they were good enough of a cover to stop the shooting for a while. I breathed heavily, tremulous. Where the hell was the shooter?! I couldn’t see him in my E.F.S., and even the gunshots would betray us. Was he so far away like that?! What chance would we have against that kind of enemy?

“Could you see him?” I glanced at Coral, who shook her head, answering exactly what I thought it would be. Prickle, too, wasn’t that happy with the interruption. “I can’t find him. And he can find us. We can’t leave this place…” I muttered angrily. Prickle was the one in the worst situation here, with melee-only weapons. Despite our predicament, Coral sought the ruins for anything valuable, I thought. “If there was something here, it was took long ago, Coral.” I said, trying to restrain my uncontrolled breathing. I just observed when she took a shot glass and broke its bottom off, then picked up another two and duct taped everything together. “What the hay are you—“

“Perfect!” She interrupted me, looking through the glass in my direction. She threw me the MacNeighvered (She always told me of the adventures of MacNeighver, some kind of trepid inventor and cop, her idol) thing and smiled. “Look through it. You’ll understand what I’m saying when you do.”

“Well, couldn’t hurt.” I floated the apparatus to my right eye and… “H…how did you learn this?!” I questioned her, surprised with how far I was capable of seeing through it. It was the perfect scope to find our strange and probably pretty good enemy.

“MacNeighver’s books, silly.” I told you. “It works, doesn’t it? So use it!” She trotted to me as I leaned out of cover, searching for the sharpshooter. My answer came with another bullet, nearly hitting me and scraping Coral’s mane. I quickly dived back to where I was.

“I couldn’t see him, damn it!” Prickle approached and took the matter in his own hooves, muttering to Coral to strap the thing into his left eye. “What the—“

“I’ll find him for you. And, then, you take the shot.” He said before testing the glass scope and jumping from a table to a cabinet and then to a hole in the ceiling. I used a chair to follow him around and lay beside him. “Let’s see…” He crawled to an opening in the attic we were in, the natural ambience coming from holes in the rooftop and some broken boards along the structure. I followed him, finding a good shooting place and backing Stitches against a beam.

It was silent for something like a minute, when Prickle spoke. “You’re still bitter, aren’t you?”

“…Why would you say this?” I answered, trying to see anything that showed us where our enemy would be.

“It’s clear you’re ignoring me every time and you speak only with her.” He spoke through his gritted teeth.

“Obviously. You were my friend, then you turned into an asshole. It takes some time to… accept you aga—“

“Right of the lone cactus, near the ridge. Under the rooster in the rooftop of the sheeted roof building.”

I directed my aim to the enemy, barely seeing him even when I knew where he was. It was a good three hundred meters from here. “Y’ think you can do it?” He spoke, without any kind of irony in his voice. I think his concern were valid: It would announce our position to the sharpshooter if we missed. I floated the glass scope over my eye and positioned its aim to Stitches’, focusing on the mohawked raider.

“Sure I can.” I said, turning on S.A.T.S.. My eyes flew through the battlefield, staring the green-shining head of my opponent with full functionality. I stopped breathing, a good measure to stop the gun swaying and, swallowing hard, took my shot. It hit the rooster. “Fuck, I missed!” And was punished with the retaliation, a bullet trespassed the boards I hid, hitting me in my right front leg. “F-fuck!”

Through S.A.T.S., I tried to ignore the pain that burned through my flesh and skin. The hit board broke in four pieces, each piece flowing with the wind, throwing splinters into my face and mane, blocking partially my eyesight. I couldn’t let the sharpshooter take another shot, not after I lost my own cover. I closed my eyes to protect them from the splinters and drew breath, focusing on his green-glowing mohawk (as S.A.T.S. do) and tried my luck.

I smiled and let my breath escapes when I saw the sheets being pushed by the mohawked corpse, breath that easily turned into a shriek when the pain from my leg reached my cerebellum. “D-da-amn it!” I chugged a healing potion and counted mentally to three before shrouding the bullet inside my leg and plucking it out with magic, quickly applying some of my bandages to stop the bleeding.

“Patch? Remember our conversation? Well, I thought you’d be still bitter… C’mon, let’s get to Coral.” He said, picking me up. At first, I tried to stop him, claiming that I was better. And I was a pretty bad liar. After we went back to the first floor, with Prickle’s help, Coral hopped in happiness.

“We did it, guys! Now we can continue!” She looked to my leg. “Oh, yeah… We shall wait a little, then…”

“That’s Arbu, and we just killed their sentinel. They’ll be expecting us. Are you sure you want to—“ I was interrupted by Coral’s stomp, locking her eyes onto me and quickly changing her stance.

“I don’t want to. I need to… They don’t deserve… anything. Not even the same air as us.” I shook my head, opening a sparkle~cola. We would be outnumbered, out experienced and, by the looks of that weapon that raider used against us, outgunned, so it could be probably my last one.

I wanted a last one, damn it.

S: 3

P: 4

E: 3

C: 4

I: 9

A: 5

L: 5

Tags: Medicine, Science, Guns.

Traits: Trigger Discipline, Heavy Handed.

Level: 2

Perks: Rapid Reload

Chapter 3 - Purifying Flames

Fallout: Equestria

Prospector

By Shukin

Chapter 3 – Purifying Flames

“We’ll cauterize it.”

I looked to the sky through the cracks in the ceiling, noticing the orange light barely capable of crossing the shroud of clouds, signaling the start of the evening. Little by little, the light that crossed the cracks on the boards of the ruins faded, hiding us in the shadow of the day. My leg wasn’t that bad anymore, the healing potion making its part. To compensate, it used the same healing potion I’d drink for my ribs, the last one actually. Oh, well. I finished the sparkle~cola and got up, throwing the bottle away and walking (and I actually could do it, thanks to the healing potion) over Rosy Coral and Brilliant Prickle. They were at the wall ‘entrance’, looking at the distance and talking about what looked like nightsticks. Prickle waved his’ with his front leg cheerfully, animated with the conversation, when I simply interrupted them sitting beside Coral.

“You’re the worst cock block, man.” Prickle whispered, holding his laughter. Coral hit him some times after that, laughing as well. I smiled at them, remembering when we were foals, and went right back to myself.

“We need to get going. In the darkness, they’ll not see us approaching.” I said. “And I don’t think they’ll imagine we’ll still attack, despite knowing we’re around somewhere.” I checked my inventory sorter in the Pipbuck as I spoke, noting and accounting for every medic supply we had. It wasn’t much… Was it enough? By the looks in Coral’s face, it better be. She got up and checked the ammo of her shotgun. I had near fifty bullets; it should be enough to protect us.

“We need to do this, the Wasteland needs it.” Coral muttered, jumping over the dropped wall that earlier saved our lives. They weren’t that far by now, and I could see through the glass scope (something I’ll keep for a good time) that there weren’t a new sentry. I didn’t even strap Stitches in my back, it was only a little walk until the entrance of the city. “I’ll go through the south, Prickle goes through the north and Patchie snipes them over the hill, alright?”

“Who died and made you leader?” Prickle joked. The way Coral stared at him probably made him regret about that. I just nodded, giving a little dash to the top of the hill, which gave a good view of the city. “Try not to make much noise, at least. We don’t need the whole city in our backs.” I noticed the buildings, seven in total, one of them already burnt to a crisp. There were at least seven raiders in the streets and, by my E.F.S., a hell lot more inside the buildings.

“Hey,” I whispered to them before they moved away. “Be careful.” They nodded and I smiled, turning back my attention to my function. The two green dots slowly appeared in my vision, each by their own side. I used the scope to observe Prickle driving his newly-stolen spear impale a unicorn raider and drag the corpse behind one of the buildings. I turned to Coral and saw her choking one of them with a bandage. “C’mon, Coral, these are for first-aid…” At the balcony of a convenience store, it looked like one of the raiders noticed their approach.

The smile didn’t leave my face as the 5mm bullet splattered his brains in the wall before him, silencing at least one of them. Again, Prickle got a little bit of predicament, fighting two other raiders with rusty knives in their mouth. I took my time and timed my shot in one of the forelegs just before the attack of the white-colored pony, which drove the spear through the neck of that one and used the nightstick to finish off the second. Oh, look, another one in the rooftops. Looks like they’ve noticed the attack, as the red dots in the E.F.S. were crazy. I held my breath and shot the other sharpshooter, missing closely. “Oh.” He took a rifle and shot at my direction like the crazy pony he is, enough to stop my aim. I slid from the top of the hill while reloading back my rifle, with only two chambers full. My leg started aching again, so I took a shot of Med-X and sprinted to where Coral dropped the strangled body.

She’d be a pretty beautiful earth pony if she weren’t a raider, and I noticed her spiked cutie mark. Yeah, not a good pony, alright. I leaned off my cover, floating Stitches in front of me, searching for some- oh, I hit somepony with the tip of the barrel, and he’s not very happy with it. I jumped back when he swing the baseball bat he used, at least four rusty nails in its tip, all of them looking painful enough for me to want to dodge it at all costs. From my saddlebags, I pulled the revolver from that other raider and shot him in the chest, giving me enough time and space to finish him off with a bullet in the temple. The red dots disappeared one by one as I entered the building that raider came from.

Numerous bunks were aligned and distributed through the common room, blood riddled their sheets and huge bags of gore were disposed in its corners. That raider with a laser pistol hadn’t enough time even to blink before the golden bullet splattered bone and brain where his head was moments ago. I let out my breath and focused the S.A.T.S. Three dots, two of them behind the walls of bunks and another one surprised, turning in my direction as drips of blood splattered from his partner to her face. The red unicorn threw one of her sharpened rods against me, too slowly.

Another shot, another kill. I threw myself to the side and flipped one of the mattresses, using it for cover against the numerous bullets that sought my flesh. I felt more hot lead pushing against my barding, finally helping me with its protection, and used the revolver through the foam to suppress them.

Floating the mattress was too troublesome for me, and my racing heart made sure I breathed as fast as I could. I heard the faint click of an empty magazine and dropped the cover, with enough S.A.T.S. for one precise kill. The magic had to regenerate for a few seconds before I used it again, some seconds I couldn’t wait… Or I could, the other raider, an earth pony, looked like he was out of ammo and sprinted to the laser pistol of his former comrade. I just had to line my shot for an easy kill.

Then I felt my left hind leg failing on me.

The burning sensation I felt around the wound wasn’t common. It wasn’t a bullet. Something was inside me, still moving, tearing through my muscle and reaching my bone. I let myself to scream of pain. The red-hot metal sticking out of my leg dropped me and my aim, making me waste a perfectly-good bullet in the ceiling. I rolled to my right, my little pony constantly reminding me that my leg was at fifteen percent functionality, adorning a pretty red glow to it. I emptied Stitches in my attacker without a second thought.

A laser shot passed dangerously close to my head, followed by four others without the same luck. I didn’t have time to do anything. I couldn’t get up, not with that leg, nor roll under one of the bunks, the metal rod made sure of that. With a flick of magic, Stitches’ barrel opened up, raining six hot capsules in my torso. In a row, each chamber was filled with another 5mm bullet. I closed my eyes after a too-close-for-my-comfort shot burned the tip of my tail. Always with the tail!

Where once was a lavender earth pony head, now stood as a stump, the head itself rolling few foots across the room. I tried to relax and let my breath go free, but it’s impossible to relax with a damn metal rod through your leg. I opened my medical saddlebag and my magic bandages rolled through the floor. I knew better to just pull the makeshift spear. I wanted to say that I was pretty controlled with the whole ordeal, healing my leg and getting over it. I only noticed I was screaming bloody hell after my throat became sore and I was making the fourth row of bandages.

My display now showed thirty-five percent of use, enough for me to stand up on my own, not enough to keep fighting. Did I have a choice? I reloaded the two bullets used earlier to save my flank from the blind raider with the laser pistol and injected Med-X onto myself, my PipBuck gently informing me that I only had one more.

Without missing a beat, I sprinted to the last building, the one that was fuller of red dots, the same that both Coral and Prickle were directing themselves to. “What’s with the leg?” Prickle questioned, receiving no answer. It wasn’t time to talk. I told them of the sheer numbers inside that convenience store, at least twelve without counting overlapping dots. Before we went guns blazing, I reloaded the revolver and chugged down a healing potion. I couldn’t see any kind of blood on them beside not theirs. I was clearly the worst fighter of the trio.

Without a word, we stormed the place. A kick from Prickle broke the door in pieces, both Coral and me emptying our guns in the three raiders that were expecting us. I turned to my left side while reloading the turning chambers in a single line of bullets. I heard bullet after bullet sliding Coral’s shotgun before the E.F.S. gone crazy. “How the he—They’re multiplying!” I stuttered, trying to make sense of the blinking red dots in the compass. My hearing tricked me, hoofsteps coming from every direction. I backed until colliding with both my friend’s flank, the Med-X slowly breaking its effect down.

There were two parallel rooms, one that leaded to a staircase for the second floor, the other leading to the basement. The raiders were coming from everywhere, including places where there wasn’t any door, like behind the counter. I couldn’t understand from where they were coming, and that made me frightened. “From where, Patchie?!”

“I don’t know!”

Well, at least they were kind enough to answer her, and a rain of steel, gunpowder and lead poured onto us. I couldn’t hear anymore, my first reflex to drop to the ground (and I’d regret that for hours, said the pulsation that came from my leg moments later) and activate S.A.T.S. I didn’t have enough bullet-time to look around me when two unicorns armed with rifles emptied their magazines over our heads. By sheer luck, one of my bullets hit the red one’s rifle, breaking it into pieces. I swear I could hear his screams and swears.

I could hear, or barely, the shotgun beside me kicking its pellets against soon-to-be corpses, and I could clearly feel Prick’s flank touching my wounded leg. I slide one of the pistols of our previous encounter alongside me, giving him something to do in that chaos. “Point to pony, pull trigger!” I was sure he wouldn’t listen to my words, but I said them anyway. Couldn’t lost a joke, see? Well, so is the universe, as the second bullet for the red unicorn hit only his ear, blood as scarlet as his spiked mane running down his ‘armor’.

I aimed Stitches to the wall beside the arch they used as cover when the brown unicorn started reloading, oblivious to what would hit him. I shot through the wooden wall, hitting him somewhere between his torso and flank. Just to make sure, I shot more three times, emptying its chambers. What would be my surprise when a metallic apple rolled through the door I killed both the unicorns, crossing the shop to our direction? I questioned what would be theirs when I rolled it back, the explosion creating a new arch for us to walk through over wood, splinters and body parts.

I sprinted to the open wall, noticing I didn’t give any ammo to Prickle. I wouldn’t stop to float my gun for every cap in the whole world, so I threw it the nice and old way: Bit inside my saddlebag and flicked my head in his general direction with two clips of twelve bullets each, one of them lacking seven.

I couldn’t stop for a second, already shoving down bullets in a raider upstairs, and his limp body rolling them down. It keeps on happening, I laughed to myself. Two grenades, I noticed, strapped to his armor. By the pins. Who the hell does that? As I unstrapped them using the rest of the wall as cover from the bullets that failed to find their original targets, I noticed the raider’s cutie mark: A bent nail. Well, somepony for everything, I thought.

One of them I gladly rolled to Coral, while the other I kept to myself. Limping up the stairs, I found two more earth ponies with the same red-hot metal rod that got me unprepared earlier. I’m not up to let that happen again. I dropped the metal apple and shot two times against the closest one, blood dripping from the wounds in his chest and his body comically dropping, dead. The other, though, were in a full-sprint with the crude weapon, forcing me to activate S.A.T.S. just to dodge, throwing myself against the wall and letting he pass through me. Without missing a beat, I shoved a bullet in each hindleg. I finished him off with the revolver before he had time to scream.

I was interrupted through my reloading when the ground shook underneath me from the explosion. Probably Coral found the apple. There were two rooms in the second floor; I kicked the first one down the corridor just to encounter a ruined bedroom. Before my first step, a stray bullet went through the wooden floor and broke down a mirror. Yeah, I’ll not enter it before everything settles down.

The second door was open, containing three more grenades over a workbench. I took them quickly and went back to the first floor, having a clear shot in an earth pony that I could not miss. Myself had killed five raiders, plus the five Coral and Prickle took out, or they killed some more with the grenade because… well, their bodies were everywhere, so I’m cool with it. “Still, the E.F.S. didn’t stop… Why would it?”

“I don’t care… Let’s do it.” She said, grabbing one of the whiskeys from behind the counter and biting off its cork.

“There’s still ponies under us, Coral, we can’t just burn th—“

“Are any of them friendly?” She interrupted me, staring blankly. I sighed. “This is a wound in the face of Equestria, and they only deserve what will be brought to them.” And kept throwing the orange liquor everywhere, dousing alcohol in the building.

“…This is a wound, right?” I looked at my wounded leg, my little pony kindly telling me it’s just 27% functional. I sighed. “Well… We’ll cauterize it.”

=-=-=-=

I saw each red dot flailing around the compass as the flames consumed the whole building. From time to time, little explosions were heard from inside the burning convenience store, blinking many of them out of existence. I sighed, mending a bullet wound to Prickle’s chest, a pellet lodged near his shoulder. The golden glow grew solid as I strapped back his barding.

Coral stood dangerously close to the fire, just waiting, staring at its destructive force. She finished at least two ponies that tried to run from the hell of flames. “What about the pistol?” I strapped the revolver to the holster in the security barding, as he was getting more and more useful for fast kills. We couldn’t even catch the ammo from those raiders we killed in the now-burning building.

“Crap.” He threw it back to me and I floated it back to my saddlebags. “I prefer the good ol’ stick.” Prickle punctuated with a little pat in his spear. We observed her obsession to the flames struck with awe and a pint of fear. Looks like not even Prickle understood her reasons to be so angry with that. I took one for the team and yelled at her:

“Coral, come here a second!” She didn’t listen. I approached her cautiously, the heat coming from the building making me sweat profusely. Still, I had to ask her. “Why?”

She just repeated me. I didn’t know if I still wanted the answer. “Mom. She died around here. Those monsters probably… ate her…” I could hear the shock in her voice, punctuating the end of the conversation when she bit and threw a Molotov cocktail to the next building. I looked to the pile of whiskey bottles with rags dripping in alcohol made by her and, without a second thought, I helped her. It was arson… but just.

From inside the common room, I could hear Prickle’s voice calling for me. I let Coral alone for a moment, in her own kind of treatment, and limped to his encounter. Inside one of the parallel rooms of the common house, a dusty terminal with broken monitor waited for my PipBuck. “She told me you could help with these.” Prickle gave a light tap to its side. “It’s functional, but the monitor is beyond repair.” I didn’t even need to examine it to see why: Somepony had thrown a brick through it.

“Stable-Tec does pretty sturdy tech, huh…” I glanced back to my PipBuck, connecting it to the terminal. It demanded a password, and, just to complicate things, it only had one remaining try. I scrolled through the terminal, searching for a pair of brackets, just to realize any existing one was available… And, without a screen—“I only have one chance. If I turn off the terminal to restart the tries, it’ll probably not turn on again…”

“So do it already.”

“Working on it.” I glanced to the anterior choices. There were five possible words still in the screen, three of them finishing in ‘ING’. This time, one of the anterior choices negated that. Two words… I wasn’t the luckiest pony around, and I didn’t want to screw everything because of a poor choice… So to blame somepony else! “Prickle, ‘CANTERLOT’ or ‘EVERYPONY’?” He muttered something in the lines of ‘canterpony’… “’CANTERLOT’ it is, then!” I pressed the button.

Well, I already expected being locke—wait, it worked! “It worked! Nice try, Prick!” sarcasm dripped from my words, hiding part of my own anxiety to read whatever contained in the terminal. What could it be? An impressive blueprint of an ancient awesome weapon? Instructions for an ancient, impressive and awesome treasure? An answer to life, universe and everything else? It slowly opened up and… “It’s a map. And a grocery list.”

“You’re kidd-“

“I kid you not.” I showed him the information. Much maize was brought to the place marked in the map, huh? It was marked at least a day of trot north, with the conspicuous name of “Delivery Site”. “I think it’s worth a check, it’s more than a ton of food that might be edible…”

“If, and only if, somepony else didn’t get to it first.” He answered.

“Well… Did you get their weapons?” I looked around, noticing the whole bunch of corpses everywhere. Not only those raiders were occupying a cannibal ghost city, they were following its old costumes. He just nodded positively. “…Let’s burn this down, then. Nothing should remain. I’ve already downloaded it, no need to keep this terminal intact.”

The whole city. Everything was put into flames, from food (specially pony meat) to weapons to shelters. Nopony else would use that place, nopony would succumb to its sins. Well, maybe the skies were happy with our act of purity… Because it fucking opened itself and two Enclave ships flew in the flaming city’s direction.

It was hard to not notice a brand new light suddenly flashing in our heads and going out again. “Damn, Enclave! North, Coral, north!” I pulled her from her trance with a bite to the saddlebags, literally pulling her to the right direction. I drank down an anesthetic potion while running away, hoping the wall of flames and smoke would cover our exit.

“What the hell are the Enclave doing here?!” Prickle pushed his shoulder into mine, forcing me to lean over him and helped me to run. I threw away the bottle and took a big breath.

“Whatever it is, it’s not a good thing!"

S: 3

P: 4

E: 3

C: 4

I: 9

A: 5

L: 5

Tags: Medicine, Science, Guns.

Traits: Trigger Discipline, Heavy Handed.

Level: 3 (Level Up!)

Perks: Rapid Reload, Quick Saddlebags (New!)

**Quick Saddlebags:* The pony is twice as fast to manipulate items inside his saddlebags.*