Fallout: Equestria- Secrets of the Divide

"If, by some reason, you ignored my advice in the previous chapter, then welcome to the Divide. I honestly hope you believe in ghosts, because there's a lot of them roaming the broken ruins of Applewood. And I can guarantee that they won't be too happy to see you." -The Wasteland Survival Guide, Section Four 'Location Details, Footnote.

"Silver! Get your ass down!" Skav yelled at me as she flew over head, a cluster of frag grenades in her hooves. Heeding her word, I jumped behind a pile of building rubble and covered my head. Behind the wall, I heard the frag grenades explode, followed by the dying cries of the Marked Bucks that had ambushed us only minutes before. I poked my head up, my rifle peaking up with me. One of the Bucks had gotten his rear legs torn apart to a bloody pulp, forcing him to crawl along his stomach with his fore hooves. A second later, he dropped to the ground face first, a .308 sized hole having punched through the side of his skull. I stood up and reloaded my rifle, then slung it on my back. Skav landed beside me and gave me an approving nod.

"Nice work." she said as she trotted over to the bodies and begin to pick through the remains. I walked up beside her, an uneasy feeling passing through my stomach.

"Uhm...what are you doing?" I asked with an uncertain tone.

"What does it look like? I'm looking for loot!" she said as she withdrew an incendiary grenade from the corpse. "I AM a scavenger after all." she added as she pocketed the grenade. "For Luna's sake, didn't they teach you to loot your enemies bodies for ammo in the military?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not necessarily; We were always well armed and supplied before we went out to the frontlines. Never had the issue of running out of ammo." I retorted, frowning a bit as she continued to pick over the corpses. "Will you just move on already?" I asked, stamping a hoof. Skav gave a sound of slight disappointment as she removed her hoof from the Marked Bucks' saddlebag. She got up and reloaded her 10mm SMG, then took the lead. "Nothing worth of value in there anyway." she said, brushing off my impatient attitude. "You gotta learn how to survive out here. If you don't have the balls to loot a body, then you're going to get eaten alive by the Divide." she said, casting a glance to me over her shoulder. I gave a small scowl as we passed by a bent street sign that read "Baker Avenue".

I stopped in tracks at the sign.

Skav noticed my sudden stop, then turned to face me. "Oh what now?" she asked.

"There's a pub on this street..." I mumbled as flashbacks of drinking with friends in a cozy pub flashed across my minds' eye.

"A pub? What in the hell is that?" Skav asked and she fell in beside me.

"It's basically a bars' more...friendly sibling. Pubs generally have better food and a more comfortable atmosphere." I explained, rolling a hoof as I spoke. "If you go into a bar, you might come out bloodied and bruised. Go into a pub, and you can have the time of your life. with friends."

"Sounds nice." Skav said as she eyed the bent street sign. She then gave a shrug and nudged me to follow. "Come on Silver. We're half way there." she said, taking the lead again. My eyes lingered on the sign a bit longer, then I turned to follow Skav as we approached a wall of building ruins. I notice that Skav had seemed to tense up, a wary look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking from her to the concrete wall, then to her again.

"If we want to get to the Arms Factory, we have to pass through..." she gulped them whispered her next words. "...Alabaster Plaza..."

Another memory sparked through my mind. "Alabaster Plaza? The condo place? Skav, it can't be that bad; For heavens' sake, little old mares and their husbands lived here. It was a retirement community; A very nice one at that." I said, giving her a skeptical raise of an eyebrow.

Skav shook her head so hard that her gunner goggles slid down her forehead and over her eyes. "No no no no...Alabaster Plaza is haunted Silver...the ghosts of the dead roam the empty halls...and if they see you, you have no chance of escaping." she said, looking to me. I returned the look, then noticed that she was practically shaking with fright. I placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder and gave a sympathetic smile.

"Skav. There are no such things as ghosts." I said simply. She shook her head slightly before raising a hoof to the dark windows.

"Then explain that..." she trailed off. I followed her hoof and jumped at what I saw. In the window stood a snow white figure, draped in a hood of sorts. The hoods' shadow covered the figures' features, but I could see a pair of light blue orbs staring from the shadows, seeming to trail with a faint smoke.

"It's the Will-o-Wisp..." Skav squeaked as she tried to shrink behind me to hide from the figure. I squared my jaw and called out to the figure.

"Hey! Friend or foe?" I yelled to the figure, hoping for an audible answer. Instead, it answered by turning away from the window and into the shadows of the buildings' interior. "Well that was...odd..." I said, looking to Skav. Her eyes were wide with fright still, pleading for us to find another way to the Arms Factory. "Let me guess; There isn't another way around." I simply asked.

"Ring-a-ding-ding buddy..." she mumbled.

"Well, let's not just stand around like a couple of tourists. Let's just get through there. We don't need to climb up to the roof, do we?" I asked. Skav tapped her chin with a hoof, then shook her head.

"No...if we can stay on the fifth floor, we can hop onto the roadway that leads to the factory. That...thing...was on the ninth floor." she said, seeming to have calmed down a bit.

I gave a nod as I checked over my gear before moving on. "Alright then; Let's go Skav." I said, taking a few steps forward, then stopping to look at her. "On second thought, you take the lead. I have no idea where I'm going." I said with a sheepish smile. Skav just snorted and rolled her eyes as she trotted ahead, her SMG out of its' holster and in her mouth. As we approached Alabaster Plaza, I looked up to the dark, looming windows, checking for hostiles.

The only thing to look back at me was the set of light blue orbs as they sat within the shadows.

~ooo000ooo~

The lobby for Alabaster Plaza was surprisingly tidy, despite the fact that the building was lurched over against its' neighbor. Despite the clean appearance though, the tell tail signs of dried blood decorated the floors and walls in large streaks and dark puddles.

"Somepony didn't have a good day..." Skav mumbled as she went to look behind the receptionists' counter. Nearby, a dark door way seemed to be calling for my attention, so I entered it and flicked on the lights. To my surprise, I had found myself in a janitorial closet. Tucked into the corner was a recharging pad for a small cleaning robot. The machine though, was totally destroyed; The clear dome that held its' processors and motors was shot to pieces. Above the recharging pad on the wall was a tattered piece of paper with scratchy looking writing on it.

"Whatever you do, do not activate the bots. They've gone nuts."

"Right then..." I mumbled as I folded the paper and placed it into my saddlebag. I gave the busted cleaning robot another glance before leaving the janitors' closet. Skav was trying her hardest to break into a rusted cash register as she sat on the tiled floor. She wielded a crowbar in her hooves, jamming the wedged end into the cash slot, trying to pry the drawer open. I just watched her with a bemused smile as she grunted and cursed the object.

"You. Piece of...shit! Open!" she yelled, throwing her crowbar at the cash register. I gave a small chuckle and approached the dented object, then pressed the 'Sale' button on the keyboard. The cash register gave a small ding! and the drawer popped open to reveal stacks of pre-war bits and bottle cap from a Sparkle-Cola bottle.

"Only one cap? What a waste." Skav grumbled as she grabbed the cap and put it into a small coin pouch.

"Guessing caps are the wasteland currency?" I asked, gesturing to the coin pouch.

"Yep. They've been used in the wasteland for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I get lucky and find a whole collection of them that some dead pony used to own." Skav said looking to the dark-screened terminal. "Can you crack that?" she asked, looking to me.

I gave her a blink before speaking. "Uh...I have no idea what the password is. That died with the pony who used to use it." I point out. Skav gave a small smirk of knowing.

"You can look into the data strands for recently used phrases. One of them is bound to be the password." she said, trotting over to the terminal and pushing the 'Power' switch on the face of the terminal. The terminal hummed to life, the black background filling with green text. After the introduction lines passed, strands of terminal data replaced the previous screen. Embedded within the random symbols and numbers were random four letter words.

"I'm telling you, it's easy." Skav said, stepping aside to let me sit before the terminal. I sat down and stared blankly at the screen. I moved the blinking cursor over the symbols and numbers before resting on the word 'Home'. I hit enter, and a beeping sounded, telling me it wasn't correct. I moved the cursor over to the word 'Love' and hit enter; Yet another incorrect submission.

"Be careful, four wrong answers and the terminal will lock you out." Skav pointed out, her hoof pointing to a phrase that said 'Attempts Left: Two'.

"Thanks." I mumbled as I moved the cursor to the word 'Lazy'. A third beeping signaled I was wrong. "Damn it..." I cursed, tapping my hoof impatiently now. The cursor moved over to the word 'Heal' and hit enter. A twin beep signaled I got the answer correct and the screen changed to a screen with a variety of options, one of them being 'Open Safe'.

"Open the safe Silver." Skav said, looking under the terminal desk to the floor safe. I hit the option and the safes' door popped up with a 'click'. Skav dived under the desk and opened the safe, digging into the contents within.

"Oh sweet! There's a beam pistol in here!" she said, pulling up a dusty boxy pistol. "No ammo though..." she said, taking a double glance into the safe. "Got some of these back at the shop I can use as spare parts for this." she said, tucking the beam pistol into her saddlebag. "Shall we continue on?" she asked, looking to me. I gave a nod of the head and stood up.

At that moment, a blood curdling scream tore through the dark hallways of Alabaster Plaza.

Skav gave a high-pitched scream and tackled me to the ground, curling against me for protection. My back hit the ground, the wind being knocked out of me from her sudden tackle.

"NEVER MIND! I DON'T WANT TO GO ON! I WANNA GO HOME!" Skav cried into my chest, her body shaking hard.

All I could do was lay there and try to regain the ability to breathe, my jaw hanging open from the shock. Skav looked up at me and gave a cry of fright.

"NO! The Will-o-Wisp got you! Oh Silver; You were so young! So young!" Skav wailed as she buried her face into my uniform again.

"I'm...not dead..." I gasped, my lungs filling with air again as my mind re-established my breathing pattern. I soon sat myself up and gently pushed Skav off me, wincing in pain as my diaphragm cried out in pain. "You just knocked the wind out of me..." I said, taking in deep breaths.

"Oh..." Skav gave a small giggle of embarrassment. "Sorry..." she added. I waved her off with a hoof as I got to my hooves and sighed.

"Well, something obviously was having a bad time..." I mumbled as I began to walk forward.

"What in Celestia's name are you doing!? Did you not hear that scream?" Skav asked, throwing her hoof in the direction of the hallway.

"Yeah, I heard it. It did give me a bit of a start, but I want to get to the Arms Factory. So we're moving on." I said, not stopping as I approached the gloomy hallway. Skav gave a whine of uncertainty as she watched me walk. Soon though, she gave a sigh and trotted along side me as we walked deeper into the building. However, it got to the point where we could not see our hooves in front of our faces.

"Hang on, I got a torch." Skav said as she began digging into her saddlebag. In a moment, she withdrew an object and I took it in my magical grip and turned it on. A beam of light emitting from a cylindrical body. "There! That's...much...oh shit..." Skav trailed off, looking straight ahead. Dangling from the ceiling were the remains of a unicorn pony with some wires wrapped around its' neck like a noose. The soul of that pony stared at us from beyond the grave through the empty eye sockets in the skull.

"Looks like somepony couldn't handle it..." I mumbled, moving ahead again. Skav gave a mumble of agreement as we skirted past the hanging skeleton. At some point, Skav realized that the rooms we were passing had the potential of having some loot inside them, so she made me trace back to the end of the hall and start going from room to room in the hunt for loot. I was under the impression that, seeing as how Alabaster Plaza was a retirement community, that there would be nothing of value in the rooms.

Boy was I wrong.

"And you said that these old farts wouldn't have anything interesting! Eat your words bucko!" Skav said as she pulled out the components for a modified minigun. She gave a cackle of pure happiness as she assembled the pieces and gave the barrel a spin. "Only three CZ57s were ever produced. One went to the Wonderbolts, another went to some buck on the frontlines, and the third ones' location wasn't disclosed. But now I found one!" Skav cheered as she plopped onto her rear and cuddled the barrel while kicking her rear hooves with glee.

"I'm guessing its' very good?" I asked as I watched her.

"Are you KIDDING me? The previous model was becoming obsolete very quickly, and the modifications produced for them did very little to improve them. The CZ57 was produced to replace the CZ53. The Fifty-Seven holds less ammo, but the improvements in the firing motor and reduced spread overshadowed that small fact. It's a shame that the Fifty-Seven barely got mass produced." Skav explained as she looked the weapon over, practically drooling over it.

"Well, clean yourself up there. We gotta keep moving." I said, patting her head a bit. She gave a small blush and stood up, strapping the minigun to her back. Once the gun was rigged up, Skav gave a nod for us to continue. After a while of walking into dead ends and looting more rooms, we eventually found a massive hole in the wall of one of the rooms. The hole looked outside over a cracked roadway that snaked its' way up and along to a large building with smokestacks.

"There's the factory." Skav said simply, gesturing a hoof forward.

"Looks simple enough; Hop on down to the road and take a nice stroll." I said with a smile, looking to Skav.

But she was gone.

"Skav? Where'd you go?" I called out, looking around the room. I looked outside to make sure she didn't start on without me, but she wasn't seen making her way down the crooked stairs. I looked back into the room, worry starting to rise as I peaked into the separate rooms, looking for her.

"SILVER!!" screamed Skav. Immediately I bolted out of the room and back into the hallway. I looked to my left and saw the mare bent around the corner wall, her hooves trying to pull her away from an unseen force. "SILVER! HELP ME!" she cried. I raced forward and grabbed her hooves, pulling with all my might. Suddenly, a pair of light blue orbs appeared over her shoulder in the darkness, staring right at me. An unholy roar emitted from an unseen mouth beneath the eyes, scaring me into releasing Skav's hooves. Skav screamed as she was ripped around the corner, my hooves scrambling to grab her again.

But it was too late.

She was being dragged away into the dark.

"SKAV!!"