Fallout Equestria: Hightide
Chapter Three: A Hellhound and Pony Show
by King of Malta

“Ah, mystery solved. It’s your breath.”

“Of course. Of course you ate the keys along with everything else! Stupid dog!”

Fear and glee of the knowledge that I was not going to die as some dog-beast’s after dinner snack had been quickly replaced by annoyance and anger. Not only could I not free myself from my bindings, but that dog dared trot away as I reprimanded it! Neither, Blue Ball’s or Uncle Shackle’s shredded and blooded saddlebags contained the keys to my shackles and I had looked through them both multiple times. The only glimmer of relief I had felt was that I was able to use my magic to search the heaps of flesh and stuff that no longer resembled ponies. If I had, had to stain my slightly-worn-and-not-chipped-but-still-perfect-hooves or my mouth sifting through scraps of blood covered bones, cloth, metal, and such I would have vomited into it.

I hoped that all the vomiting I had done recently did not corrode the enamel of my teeth from stomach acids.

“Still…” I told myself, “Better than what had happened to those two buffoons.” I shuddered and stomped down on the quick succession of memories from the last hour that flooded my mind. Why had Dog Meat spared me? Did he recognize my superior nature and accept me as some sort of Alpha Pony? To me this seemed the most likely reason, but what if he had been just grateful for the meal I had provided for him? Did he plan to save me for later and for that matter did he plan anything at all? Was there a higher intelligence behind that scarred skull of his? I looked over to where Dog Meat had trotted over to and I returned my last thought while he rolled around in the dirt and barked happily.

No, no higher intelligence there. He was just a stupid dog and from the smell that wafted off his body he needed a bath. He could wait in line for that. While I had not committed murder yet, Blue Ball had been self-defense I reasoned, but I certainly felt like I could have killed for a shower at that point. Ugh. Here I was thinking of taking a shower when I should have been taking a shower!

While I did not normally ‘take stock of the situation’ as Brute Force would have said, I had become surprisingly adept at doing so over the last few days. While I may have fooled myself before I had since come to realize that if I wanted to destroy the Mother-of-All-Boglurks and return to my life in Stable 81 I would have to do it myself. Mother had not sent a detail of ponies to secure me then that meant that my earlier hopes of the Stable having a Mutant-Tortoise-Turtle-Thing gun had been wrong. That had since signaled to me that I needed to find something to get me back into the Stable on my own.

What was this something though? It would have to be something that could kill that thing guarding the entrance to Stable 81. Surely, somewhere in Equestria, there had to be something to kill the living tank of destruction that had chased me. I glanced at Dog Meat and grimaced as he lifted his leg to relieve himself. What if I needed more than one gun? Further, I would need somepony or even other ponies to kill the Mother-of-All-Boglurks for me or anything that stood in my way. While I had thus far sullied my hooves it had…it had always…ALWAYS been to defend myself and Blue Ball deserved it! He did! No, I was not some barbarian that killed anything. I was a lady and as such I would need…acquaintances… to do the dirty work for me. I needed an army, a loyal following, or servants who could charge down the tunnel to the entrance of Stable 81 and if needed allow me to walk over their corpses to get back to what I deserved.

Where could I start?

A chirp from my PipBuck focused my attention to the glowing screen. The last time I had looked at the screen had been right before Dog Meat had made mincemeat of Uncle Shackle. I looked on the screen and saw again what I had seen before. A small, square icon that read ‘Short Round Field’, but this time no longer rushed by the two slavers I now noticed that two more icons graced the green and black screen. To the north and east a gear-shaped icon read ‘Stable 81’ and now to the south a few blocks a square icon with windows and a door read ‘Midtown’.

What kind of Stable was called Midtown?

No, that did not seem quite right. It must be some sort of above ground Stable or not-Stable. The two slavers had said they had been going to Midtown to scout it out for some pony called ‘Red Eye’ had they not? If Dog Meat had not destroyed Uncle Shackle’s map in his feeding frenzy then I might have had some clue of where else I could go for help. Still, that the two had been going to Midtown in secret told me that at least this Midtown did not look well on slavers or whoever Red Eye was. Midtown did not seem very far if I understood my PipBuck’s map correctly and it even indicated which direction Midtown was.
My, my these PipBucks were quite useful out of the Stable.

I hoped soon enough I would never have to use it again.

I might even get lucky and Midtown would be civilized enough to have running hot water!

“Dog Meat! Come here, boy! Come here this instant Dog Meat!” I called as I slipped the sports bat out with my magic. When Dog Meat had caught Blue Ball in midair he had torn Blue Ball apart which had been good for me since Blue Ball’s bat holster had come off without being destroyed. When I had picked through Blue Ball’s remains in my search for the key I had noticed the strap of leather to the side. It was not a dress, but as an accessory it would do for now. The sooner I returned to Stable 81 the sooner I could spend days trying on my nice, clean dresses. I raised the bat to Dog Meat’s eye level as he trotted back to me. “Alright, Dog Meat. You WILL be a good boy and you WILL follow me. No eating ponies unless I tell you to. Do you understand?”

“Woof.” Dog Meat’s eyes followed the bat while I made it sway in the air. His tongue rolled out of his muzzle as he barked and jumped in place. He wanted my bat. Oh no, I had seen what he had done to the two slavers and the ball I had thrown him before. This outside was dangerous and I was still not sure of Dog Meat’s loyalty. While a sport bat would not be much against Dog Meat or another Boglurk it was still something. I had not found any trace of the pistol that Uncle Shackle had used to beat me and that meant I did not have the desire or time to wait for it to show up again.
It was for the best. What would ponies in Stable 81 say if they had found out I had done something as menial as fire a gun? My reputation would surely have been ruined.

“Dog Meat. Follow, follow Dog Meat.” I backed off toward the direction of Midtown and slided the sports bat back into its holster. Dog Meat looked disappointed that he did not have something else to play with, but nevertheless he followed after me. Simple minds followed the examples of their betters after all.

I spared a glance toward the two dugouts where Dog Meat had emerged from. The rank smell that wafted from them had since kept me from investigating either one, but for a moment I pondered if it would be a good idea to investigate. Maybe something useful had been dragged there by Dog Meat or some other pony? I dismissed the idea as foalish. Dog Meat was an animal and the only thing he would have dragged there was carcasses and who would ever hide something important in plain sight? No, the sooner I arrived in Midtown the sooner I would be back where I belong.

Midtown looked as the journey to find it had been.

Boring, short, and unappealing to every one of my senses.

The only real annoyance that had occurred on the journey to Midtown had been Dog Meat. As we traveled he seemed to hear or sense something in the ruins and would disappear randomly into the surrounding decay. A few times my ears noticed the sound of a very familiar crunching sound where then I would immediately reassure myself that no pony, even a commoner, would sulk in ruins like this. When he returned I would discipline Dog Meat with a smack to the nose and firmly commanded the mongrel as he whimpered to not leave me so exposed.

Beyond Short Round Field had been row after row of ruined structures that were not as big as the far larger buildings closer to the Metro and all seemed to be made from the same model. Intersected by several streets each structure was surrounded by a patch of dead dirt that was surrounded by picket fences that ended at cracked slabs of concrete that separated the fence and the street. Every one of these structures had been completely ruined by age and past destruction, ceilings or walls had caved in and some were nothing more than the original foundation.

I could not imagine Ponies had ever or even still did actually live in these things.

Midtown itself was actually little more than a half a dozen of these structures that had not collapsed onto themselves or at least had been repaired and the streets surrounding them had been excavated into a moat of spiked metal and wood. My side throbbed with phantom pain at the sight of the rusted pieces of metal that rose from the green-brownish water. I resisted the urge to vomit and approached the bridge of more wood and rusted metal that looked to be the only entrance to Midtown.

As my hooves clacked against the bridge I was greeted by…

…nopony.

“Commoners! They should show me the respect of greeting me! Don’t they know who I am?” I mentally berated myself for that. Of course nopony would know who I was. The first two ponies I had met had even mistaken me for a completely different pony that I had no clue who she was other than second hand exploits. At the sheer amount of indignity I had already come face to face to it was a wonder I did not explode. I would just have to show these ponies who I was.
I started to trot forward across the bridge when after several steps I noticed a beeping noise had started at my hooves.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I looked down at the pie shaped object that was the source of the sound. In the center of the object a red light flashed at me and moved faster as the beeping noise also seemed to speed up in tempo. What was this thing? That noise had quickly started to give me a headache. I glared at it and raised an angry hoof “Quiet you!”

Beep-beep. Beep-BEEP.

Before I could demand it to stop once more a rush of air crashed down on me from behind and a familiar form overshadowed me. In one motion Dog Meat leaned over me and swatted the beeping object into the air with one swipe of his oversized paws.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BOOOM!

The little object exploded in a much larger explosion that I cringed away from. I dived to the floor of the bridge as red, hot pieces of metal sprayed out in all directions, but none of it managed to strike me. I looked back up at Dog Meat who returned my look with his usual happy, idiotic grin. What had been that thing? Why had it exploded? Had Dog Meat actually recognized it and saved me? My earlier suspicions about Dog Meat emerged momentarily. No, that could not be. Dog Meat was just a stupid animal. He had probably just reacted to the noise as any animal would…then again how would I know how an animal would react, besides Dog Meat and the boglurk I had never actually encountered any other animal.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud whistle that came from the opposite side of the bridge.

“Boooooy howdy. I never seen anypony or anything smack a frag mine like that. It got some distance before it went off, didn’t it?”

I grunted as I realized how undignified I must have looked cowering on the dirty bridge and immediately jumped back to my hooves. I failed to wipe off the latest layer of grime that my Stable barding seemed to become a magnet for and looked to the source of the voice. I suppose it was a good thing that Uncle Shackle and Blue Ball had long since shattered any hopes I may have fostered toward finding a good looking Stallion. The stallion that stood in front of me looked the definition of ancient and weathered. Either his coat was actually the color of dry dirt or he was just covered in it given his grey mane was splotched with the same color. Over his shoulder he had slung what had to be a long, metal gun of some kind. Given that it was not pointed at me I did not particularly care what kind of gun it was. His cutie mark was obscured by a pair of worn saddlebags he carried.

“Shoot, I expected them raiders to come back for me not some mare and her…” he paused as he looked over to Dog Meat and squinted. Panic flared in me as I realized I had not thought out about how Dog Meat would react to other ponies. Even if I had a leash I doubt I could have restrained him with my own strength. I wrapped my magic around my bat and turned to order Dog Meat to stay and not maul the other pony, but my eyes had not expected to see that look on Dog Meat now. Instead of a hungry, snarl his face continued to wear the same idiotic grin of a happy Dog Meat. He appeared to not be in the process of making any move to tear this new pony limb from bloody limb. From in front of me the ancient pony finished his sentence, “…little dog, too.”

‘Little’ dog? I turned and gaped at the pony, but he did not seem to notice and instead trotted forward across the narrow bridge. “Unless, you’re all changelings or wanadingos from the moon…” he stopped and looked to me seriously “You’re not wanadingos sent to take my collection of teddy bears to the moon are you?”

“I..don’t even know what a wanadingo is…” I replied slowly.

“Oh, good. Of course if you were changelings or wanadingos my magic horn would have detected your spells.” Before I could point out that he had no horn and was an Earth pony he continued on. “The name’s Marbles Shoot, but you can call me Lost Marbles. Everypony in Midtown calls me that ever since that radscorpian climbed under my hat. I don’t know why. I never lost my marbles their right here...” Marbles rummaged in his saddlebags, a look of confusion formed on his face “…hmm did I pack them? Maybe I left them back at the house…oh well, what brings you to Midtown, Miss?”
I stared at the crazy pony for several seconds before I once more slowly replied, “Is there…is there some other pony I could talk to? Please?”

“Nope!” Marbles shook his head as he seemed unoffended by my words. “There are no other ponies in Midtown. Raiders came the other night and hauled them off to Silver Screen Theater. Only reason I didn’t get caught with them was cuz I was out trading with the Ghoul ponies by the Graveyard.”

Seriously? Ghoul ponies? Why in all that is fair and right did I have to meet a pony that did not –seem- to want to enslave me or kill me, but was utterly insane? What had I done to deserve this? It was almost enough to make me think that Pompadour would have been better company out here. Almost. I certainly could have used his skill with a comb to pick out the dried dirt and grime that coated my mane.

“Anyway. Why don’t you come back to my shack? You look for a little worse for the wear and I’m sure you and your doggy could use a good meal.” Marbles turned and pointed across Midtown to a shack on the very edge of the town that was so haphazardly made out of old wood and sheet metal it looked like it would collapse if anypony opened the door.

EW.

“What? Oh, no, no, no. I could not possibly-.” I held up my hooves and backed away. I already knew that Dog Meat was quite full of ‘food’ at the moment.

“Don’t you worry. Now that I am Midtown’s mayor, vice-mayor, chairman of hygiene, director of security, head of the welcoming committee, and sole resident it is my duty to welcome a guest!” Marbles grabbed my leg with a hoof and dragged me across the bridge.

“No!” I squirmed under his filthy touch. “I could not!” I really could not. Who knows what kind of food he ate would do to my delicate stomach. His shack might have had more parasites then sleeping outside would give me. I turned to Dog Meat for help, but that stupid, traitorous dog just followed behind and wagged his tail excitedly. Argh! That idiotic, bestial mongrel! Betrayal would have seen him locked away in Security forever!

Against my will I found myself forced to sit on a sofa that I swore made my flank itch. Dog Meat seemed happy curled up in one of the few clutter free corners of the shack, but what did I care about his leisure. The Marbles’ shack looked on the inside as much as I expected its owner’s brain to look on the inside. It contained a jumble mess of junk and odds and ends that had been picked up from who knows where. One corner was dominated by empty, glass bottles while the other had a mound of thousands of stacked bottlecaps. Only a crazy pony would collect bottlecaps.

The ‘meal’ he had promised at first looked horrible due to the fact Marbles had pulled it from a two hundred year old box that said ‘MmmMmm Royal Eggs’, but after my hunger got the better of me and I took a bite into the oval shaped…something…I was taken aback by the flavor of the preserved food. My momentary delight was crumpled slightly as my PipBuck clicked and indicated the food was irradiated. Though, the décor was tacky and the food toxic I had to admit to myself that I did like the feeling of being waited on by another pony.

Who chattered up a storm of insane and idiotic topics that I only half-listened to, I told him who I was and what had happened to me over the last few days and I was honestly surprised by the look he gave me as I told my story.

Pity.

He pitied me for all the hardships I had gone through. I had seen the look many times when directed at unruly Stable ponies by some of the Security ponies, but I had never given or received pity myself. At least I had never noticed any pony giving it to me. I sometimes suspected Brute Force and Bulletproof gave me looks behind the visors of their Security helmets, but I never found any reason why they would. The emotions that now rolled within me were both alien and familiar. The former pulled at my stomach and inside of my chest, while the latter burned with anger as I was subjugated to pity from a commoner.

“Now, Miss Precious I was wondering if I could ask you a little favor…”

I ignored my maelstrom of emotions and stared at Marbles. A little favor?

“What do you mean?” I asked confused about what he had to be thinking.

“Well, you see as Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and Director of Security I am obligated by my constituents to see to their welfare. Being killed, raped, and tortured by raiders is not in their best welfare. So, given that the assemblage of Midtown has given you food and shelter…”

“No.” I interrupted him and shook my head.

“What?” Marbles seemed taken aback by my blunt reply. He put down his own meal of ‘Fancy Pony Cake Snacks’ and put his hooves together in a plea. “Well, I gave you-“

“A meal and shelter out of the hospitality of Midtown” I countered shrewdly and continued with a smirk “You did not say anything obligating me to return ANY service to you. What is the term ponies’ use…ah. You gave me these things out of the, heh, ‘goodness of your heart’”.

“Well, you are right about that. I was just being generous I suppose…” he frowned still and pressed his hooves together. I noticed now that the way he clutched them together it had not been a plea gesture at all. It was an involuntary gesture, like how Pomadour would run his comb through his mane when nervous, but whatever Marbles used to clutch he did not seem to have it anymore.

“Though, I suppose with the right reward I could do what you had in mind.” I offered, but when I said ‘I’ I really meant Dog Meat. I was still unsure of just how tame he was, but I figured I could still point for him and let him loose. I would have absolutely nothing to do with ponies that killed, tortured, and raped in whatever order. That was what the help was for. Still, I needed a clue to something or someone in Baltimare that could get me back into Stable 81. All I needed was for one, just one of the other ponies of Midtown to be at least as half as crazy as Lost Marbles.

“Alright.” Marbles seemed to brighten up at my words. “I’ll give you a hundred bottlecaps for helping me rescue the captured ponies.”

“What? I don’t want bottlecaps.” I groaned. Again this pony was with the crazy.

“Really now? Are you sure?” he seemed honestly surprised. I waved that off as the crazy.

“Yes, I am sure. I do not need to carry around a hundred bottle caps with me everywhere I go.” By the Princesses who were dead and dust what would I ever need bottlecaps for?

“Well, then how about this if you won’t take bottlecaps for rescuing the town ponies…I’ll give you supplies for surviving in Baltimare if you…you find something the raiders stole from me…I’ll sweeten the deal…” Marbles’ voice strained to speak the last few words. He pressed his hooves together tightly.

“Hmmm…I’ll think about it. What exactly did they steal from you?”

“Those bastards…look what they did to the Scotch family.” Lost Marbles whispered and motioned for me to peek around the corner he, Dog Meat, and I hid behind. I peeked around the corner and at first I wondered what he had meant. At first nothing appeared out of the ordinary of the insane Wasteland by the cloud filtered light of the sun that remained in the ‘day’. Time had passed and Marbles had said something about only having a few hours left before dark. I still was unable to make any sense of ‘night’ and ‘day’ and the gradual shift of light as it felled into darkness disoriented my senses.

The Silver Screen Theater was a large building that dominated the street not far off from Midtown. The ‘neighborhood of houses’ as Marbles had referred to the area in pre-war-tense had ended a few streets back and we had drawn close to the local center of the ‘sub-urban sprawl’ that had been the original Midtown of Baltimare. The Silver Screen looked like it had once been the smallest building on the street. The streets though were now filled with rubble from collapsed buildings, but the Silver Screen had weathered apocalypse and collapse that had felled its neighbors.

The Silver Screen Theater was a large square building that looked to have only around three floors. Faded posters lined the walls to either side of the entrance and I noticed graffiti scrawled on the tattered posters, but it was too far away to make out. The entrance to the Silver Screen was two sets of blown out glass doors that sat to either side of a booth that similarly had its glass window broken. In front of the ticket booth five ponies stood lined up as if they were waiting in line. Wait, why were they waiting in line? I looked closer at the ponies and felt my stomach turn over.

All five ponies were dead, three adult ponies and two foals. They looked from a distance like they had been standing, but their bodies were slumped and the ground below them covered in dried blood. Their hooves had been nailed to the ground with large iron spikes and each pony had been propped up by boards of wood studded with glass. Once they had become tired from standing they must have…they must have fallen onto the glass and…the boards had been propped underneath their hind legs and…and…bleah! I stumbled back from the corner.

“W-what? What was that? A-are these raiders even ponies?” that was just…beyond words. Even for a regular pony this was something else completely. My mind flashed back to Short Round Field with its sun bleached bones wrapped in the chain link fence and I imagined what they had looked like with flesh on them.

“Someponies…someponies just lose themselves in the Equestrian Wasteland.” Lost Marbles looked at me sadly, “…and raiders are what happen to the ponies that come back.”

Murder, rape, and torture. They were just words to me. I had been threatened with rape and murder by Blue Ball, but here I had seen all three in action or at least the after of each. This was unimaginable in Stable 81. It made me want to run straight back to Stable 81 before I could actually witness anymore, but that was impossible. I had a terrible feeling that I would soon be face to face with it. It made me want to push somepony else off a water tower to deny a terrible fate that I seemed destined for.

“Don’t you worry.” Marbles leaned forward and patted my shoulder with a smile. “I’ll go first. Just stick behind me.”
Before I could call him a fool he disappeared around the corner. That idiot. Why was he risking his life for these ponies? They were probably dead anyway. Ugh, if he died then I would be alone with Dog Meat again. I chased after him and Dog Meat followed behind me. He was the great big monster, why did he follow me instead of being a meat shield? Why did I have to do everything myself?

I glanced between Marbles and the Silver Screen as I scurried across the street. Marbles had reached the dead ponies and had begun to carefully slide each corpse to the ground and close their eyes. The Silver Screen looked almost completely unscathed except for the hole in the masonry that gaped between the second and third floor. The back of my neck itched as I looked at the dark hole and I feared twisted abominations of ponies would pour out from it. The moment I reached the opposite end of the street I opened my mouth to whisper an order to Marbles when my PipBuck chirped. Several boxes flashed in my vision as voices spoke out loud from my PipBuck.

>Stable-Tec Transmission Found…<
>P.S Transmission B4 003: Downloaded…<
>P.S. Transmission B4 003: Activated…<

“Come on, sis. It will be fun!”

“Your idea of fun is preeetty different than mine.”

No. Nonononono! Not now! Oh, damn you little tacky leg bracelet! If I would chew you off if I could. I looked up in panic as Marbles returned my panicked expression. We both turned out heads toward the hole in the Silver Screen as a voice from within yelled an obscenity.

“Don’t you want to be a part of history?”

“I’ll be fine if my son grows up safe and is able to run through fields of grass under a blue sky.”

“Sigh…sis don’t be like that. Stable-Tec-“
“
Stable-Tec TALKS a lot about saving ponies.”

“Shut it off! Shut it off!” Marbles half-whispered, half-screamed at me as he trotted over to shake my PipBuck. He had to raise his voice higher due to the sound of the two voices and the voices of a multitude of ponies that chattered in their own conversations within the background of the recording. While the recording did recreate a point in time that the empty and vacant street had not heard for over two hundred years it was imperfect. The sound of more angry voices from within the Silver Screen joined the ones of old.

“I don’t know how! Don’t touch me I can do it!” I replied my voice filled with no small amount of panic as I flipped through random screens on my PipBuck. An inventory screen I had never seen before listed my only possessions as my Stable barding and my sports bat. I could use that one later. The map screen appeared one moment and was replaced by the image of a tired looking Stable pony. The voices from the recording continued to talk, but all I could hear was the sound of my blood as it boiled. I snarled and smashed my PipBuck into the ground, “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up, you stupid, tacky thing!”

Remarkably that seemed to do the trick.

“FINALLY!” I yelled in triumph as the recording stopped playing. One such as me could fix anything after giving it a few well-placed smacks. I looked up from my PipBuck just in time to see a head of an Earth pony mare as it emerged from the darkness of the whole in the wall. The head was soon followed by a rather large metal tube that as I squinted I could see was carried by the head’s body by some sort of saddle.

The mare smiled and I noticed that her teeth had for the most part rotted away.

From behind me the sound of fast paced digging filled my ears and as I glanced back I saw that the sound originated from Dog Meat. He easily used his massive claws to tear past the concrete of the street and in the time that I blinked he had disappeared down a hole. From within the hole the sound of a splashed echoed upward and that had told me that he must have fallen into some sort of wet tunnel. I was honestly surprised he used his paws for something other than ripping the limbs off of ponies. Why had he been so docile lately?

My mind rolled over this for a moment when I realized that Dog Meat had abandoned me! Oh, that ungrateful mongrel. How I wanted to roll up a magazine and swat him over the nose. I obviously had not disciplined him enough. Granted, with him gone I would no longer have to be afraid of him turning around and eating me. On the other hoof…who was going to protect me from these raiders?

I recoiled as Lost Marbles grabbed my foreleg and urged me forward. Memories of Uncle Shackle and Blue Ball as they enslaved me and Pompadour and his Tunnel Snakes as they foalnapped me flashed in my mind’s eye. All these commoners with their filthy hooves and demands touching me and defiling my perfect coat! How dare they insult me! I pushed Marbles away and backed up several steps. I had just begun to shout at him to never lay a hoof on me when from above something beeped and was followed by a fizzling sound.

I looked up with enough time to witness a single moment. The rancid-mouthed mare somehow smiled even wider then she had before. Eugh, she licked at one of her yellow, cracked teeth with a purple tongue as she stared down with bloodshot eyes. What had probably been more important was the trail of smoke from her metal tube thing which had been made by a metal rocket that zoomed toward the ground in front of me. Marbles ducked through a doorway into the Silver Screen while I continued to back away. Just as the metal rocket exploded upon impact with the ground my back hooves failed to step on ground and I plunged into the hole that Dog Meat had made earlier.

I landed in a heap and counted myself lucky as hot metal and flame washed over the entrance several feet above me. Unlike the tunnel to Stable 81 this one was dry except for a tiny stream, but I was still surrounded by an impenetrable darkness. What if…what if one of those boglurks lived down here? What if it saw me and I could not see it? What if something even more horrible sneaked up behind me and dragged me into the darkness? It was the tunnel out of Stable 81 all over again.

I felt my heart as it hammered in my chest; I encircled the bat in my magic and swiped at the surrounding darkness around me. A noise like a stone hitting the floor echoed through the tunnel. What if something would use the sound to mask their attack on me? I circled my pool of light and screamed as I hit and thrust at the nothing around me. I was not crazy. I could feel something watching me. It was just in the corner of my eye as it creped out of my field of vision. Something had to be watching me. I could not let it get me here! I had to get out of here. I was too important to die here.

“Come already you…you...bucker! Show yourself. I-I am Precious! I am not going to die curled up in a ball! If you want some of this flank then you will receive several broken teeth!”

I screamed again as I charged into the darkness at something I thought I saw in the corner of my eye. My magic slightly illuminated the sewer as I poured more magic into the telekinesis spell, but the more magic I used the more erratic my hold on the bat had become. The bat swung in larger and larger arcs until it finally slipped from my hold and sailed toward a wall. As my magic light died I just managed to make out the hole in the side wall of the sewer which looked rather similar to the one above. I could have kissed that flea-bitten beast’s mouth as I scrambled through the hole and into some sort of basement.

The basement must have been directly underneath the Silver Screen as I could see by way of a thin strip of light that filtered in from atop a flight of stairs and under a door that the basement was not empty but, filled with boxes and stacks of round film cans. Once through I slipped my bat into its holster and did not stop as I was determined to put as much distance between me and whatever things lurked in the sewer as possible.

As I charged up the stairs I could not shake the feeling that a specter hovered over me ready to strike as it waited for me to reach the door to freedom so it could take my hope away at the very last moment. I reached the top of the stairs and still expected something to grab my hind legs and drag me kicking and screaming back into the darkness.

I held my breath and pounced for the metal door.

Nothing happened as I pushed open the door and slammed it shut behind me.
I slowly sided down to my hooves with my back pressed against the door. I was half relieved to be out of the darkness and half confused why I had not just died. I pressed one ear to the cool metal of the door and listened for anything beyond.

Nothing.

No, no, no. There had to be something! Something had been down there. It was impossible for me to be wrong or delusional and certainly impossible to be wrong about being delusional. I listened harder for sound; I squeezed my head against the metal door. After several moments I heard sounds, but they were sounds that did not come the other side of the door. The sounds echoed from down the hallway I had slumped in.

They were many different sounds.

Groans and moans. Cries of pain and anguish. Pleas for help or for the end to come and take them. Those sorts of sounds.
I did not particularly like those sounds. I told myself I should leave, but I was compelled by a curious urge to see the sources of the sounds.

I tried to use my magic to lift my bat from it holster, but instead pain lanced through my horn. I needed some time before I could properly use my magic. I fought with myself for a minute as I cringed at the thought of putting the old, splintery bat handle into my mouth but, self-preservation won in the end. I gagged as my teeth clenched the wood and I added hydro-teeth scrubbing to my list of things-I-would-do-once-back-in-Stable 81.

The crusted and faded rug that lined the floor of the hallway muffled the sound of my hooves as I approached one of the half dozen open doorways. I peeked my head around the corner and beheld a room that was filled with cushioned seats. The seats had ponies in them. I gripped my bat tighter in my mouth and tried not to spit it out as my tongue touched the handle. The only light in the room were several dim light bulbs that flickered along the ceiling. I stepped into the room confident that I would not be spotted. The ponies all seemed to have their attention riveted to the faded, white screen that dominated the far wall.

As I approached one of the ponies I realized that the sounds from outside of the room had become muffled to the point of silence, possibly a muting spell that seemed to work one way, and I realized why the ponies were so…captivated by the blank screen. The ponies were dead. At least this pony was. I poked my bat into the face of a dead pony and shuddered as its dead eyes stared back at me. Like the ponies at the ticket booth it seemed that all these ponies had spikes driven into their legs that prevented them from leaving and probably explained the large pools of blood that coated the floor.

I REALLY needed to go now. I mean this was someplace I should not even be near. I did not want to come face to face with the monsters that had done this. I urged my eyes to turn away from the corpse and after some effort I gazed away in control of my body again. It was time to make a graceful, dignified exit.

As I turned to leave a light turned on from a small window set above and behind the rows of seats and without thinking I pushed past the dead pony and climbed into the seat next to it. The body was still warm. I dropped my bat into my lap and squeezed my hooves to the chair rests as the light projected black and white images onto the screen. There was no sound but I could make out the words that flashed on the screen.

‘THESE MESSAGES ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE BALTIMARE SUN NEWS COMPANY IN PARTICIPATION WITH THE MINISTRY OF IMAGE! ‘ The image of two cartoon alicorns, one of white coat and the other of a much darker coat, stood facing each other with their hooves pressed to each other as they smiled into each other’s faces. The alicorns image slided into another image of three sparkling diamonds then both images transformed into a rather majestic looking bird that spread its wings out inside the image of a round object that erupted with fire. Whatever could that be? Though, I rather liked the bird’s feathers. So fetching to the eye! I wondered what they would look like sewn into one of my dresses as the next images played out.

An overly energetic mare with a rather annoying smile appeared on the screen and waved to the audience. Even without sound I could tell she rattled off words at an alarming rate especially after she paused to inhale an exaggerated breath. Even though the image was colorless I could not help but feel as I watched her that she had been colored something garish and bright…like a blinding pink. She pointed a hoof above me and waggled it as if she knew somepony had been naughty and what she did next caused me to jump in my seat. She looked directly at me. I knew she was just a pre-recorded image from over two hundred years ago and she could not have had looked at me in particular never mind knew who I was and she had to be just addressing the entire audience. Still, her eyes seemed to bore into me in particular. What was worse was just before her image disappeared she winked…at me… and said something that I felt in my spine was something along the lines of ‘I’ll be watching you…forever!’

I felt so relieved when she had disappeared that not even the next images of some sort of makeshift war hospital could jolt me. Ponies with all sorts of wounds appeared on the screen. Some ponies just looked like they had received minor wounds while others displayed far more serious injuries such as missing limbs or blood soaked bandages. The wounded ponies were attended by ponies that looked to be nurses and doctors; they all wore the similar symbol of three pink butterflies on their uniforms. I was surprised when the images of a screaming soldier mare who had looked like she had received extremely fresh wounds was accompanied by loud, painful screams that I could hear.

The shadows of two ponies thrashed together on the screen which soon made watching the film impossible. The shouts continued to come from a mare and were soon joined by the grunts and curses of a stallion’s voice. The mare pleaded with the stallion for something as I heard a loud thump against the wall and the mare’s voice screamed louder as something smacked hard over flesh again and again. For several seconds I remained in my seat and listened to the two voices and wondered how a pony could withstand torture like tha-

“Oh yea! Fuck me Buzz Saw! Do me over this dead-fucker’s bones!” the mare’s voice cried in ecstasy, not pain.

“Bones Jumper, damn you are one kinky piece of flank…” the stallion snickered and continued with his…work.

What. She wasn’t…and he was…they were both up there…with all these corpses here…and…what…the…FUCK!!
I wanted to scream out the word, but I kept my lips sealed shut. I slowly slipped from chair and crawled on my hooves through the pool of blood and through the door I had entered. I ignored the feeling of my face going red and decided that it had to be from anger and not some other emotion that could be related to a blush. I was so disgusted I ignored the fact that the mare from the film had seemed to have known about the two ‘naughty ponies’ in the projector box.

The moment I slipped past the threshold though I once more was bombarded by the sound of ponies in agony or weeping. There was a new sound though. It took me several moments for my mind to recognize the sound as it sifted through my memories back to the Stable entrance moments after Mother had ordered the execution of the Tunnel Stallions.

Gunfire.

Nope. Not that way.

I turned away from the sound and galloped down the hall in the opposite direction. Anypony that would have charged toward the sound of gunfire had to be crazy or a stupid pony. Whoever the raiders were firing at they had my wishes that they would be able to beat the raiders but that was all they would get. Unless of course the raiders were just executing their prisoners…no, I would be no use! These scums would not recognize my authority and besides all I had was my bat. What could I do with just that?

Hopefully the hallway would lead me to the entrance where I could get out of this mad house. If this hallway was parallel to the street where I had appeared then this hallway should end where the entrance was.

I emerged from the hall way into…where the ticket booth and entrance should have been. Instead, there was just a large gaping hole surrounded by recent rubble, the last few days of staring at ruins had surprisingly given me perspective on what could be considered ‘old ruins’ and ‘new ruins’. The blown out hole had seemed to have been caused by some sort of explosion given the black scorched rubble and small fires that clung to the carpet. The hole extended to the floor above and even as I looked up a solid length of rebar and concrete slightly longer than my bat fell down from part of a wall on the floor above that had been blown off. This was where the entrance should have been but, technically this rather large hole was more than enough exit then I needed.

I had been about to gallop off to freedom when I was stopped by the boom of a gunshot and the sudden explosion of a piece of masonry in front of me. I turned and looked as three raider ponies emerged from the shadows from behind the concession stand.

“Looks like someone wiggled out of their spikes” one of the raider ponies laughed as they advanced on me.

“Naw, look at her legs. No blood! No holey-moleys! She ain’t one of those MidTownies.” The shortest of the raider ponies said between mouthfuls of lead pipe.

“Lemme guess cunt…you came in with that old ass hat didn’t you? He shot Frag Hag right after she pulled the pin on a frag apple. I was there when that gawddess cunt licking, whore dropped it into the missile pile.” The third raider pony floated a long shaped gun and growled through his teeth, “I told Frag Hag not to pile her gawddess damn missiles like that. She got Cut Throat and some of the newbies blown up. I barely got out before the place went to shit!”

What was I supposed to do now? Was this not the part in my plan where Dog Meat was supposed to show up and rip these raiders limb from limb while I sipped recycled apple cider in the corner?

“What are we gonna do with her? Spike her?” the second raider pony, a stallion with a crazed look in his eye, asked while he licked his cracked lips.

“Nah, look at her. Just standing there. Don’t need to bleed her out or teach her what.” The first raider pony, a mare with a cracked skull for a cutie mark, trotted behind me and smacked my flank with her lead pipe.
“She does look like she could take it…for hours.” The raider pony with the gun agreed and moved his gun back on his shoulder. I was no threat to him.

These ponies were monsters. They were responsible for the murder and torture of so many other ponies in ways I did not want to think about. These ponies were not ponies, at least not anymore. They might as well have been radroaches. Yet, no matter how much I mentally screamed at my body to do something, anything, I could not move.

My mind struggled to decide on what to do next. What I would have to do would to kill these ponies with my own hooves, not give them a tap on the head and see them fall off a water tower. They would of course see my magic as I wrapped it around the bat. They had me surrounded and outnumbered and would be on me in a matter of moments. The first two would probably hold me down while the third took his gun and placed it against my head or worse it would not be his gun that he used.

Could I even kill these ponies if I received the chance? I had just agreed that they were monsters, but to do that I would still have to actually kill them. I would have to take my bat and…and…take it and smash it into their heads or…necks. I would have to smash it into them over and over and over until their heads had become chunks of meat as their blood splashed over my hooves and mane. Would I feel their lives slip away as I took it from them? What would I smell as their entrails rotted in the air and the flies buzzed around to feed on their corpses?

What would I do then? Would I bathe in their deaths and wash out the anguish of this wasteland with not just their lives but others? What sort of Princess would I be then?

Yes, a voice inside of me said as it seemed to be all too excited over the prospect of endless bloodshed.

“Maybe we could get a few pound of meat off her. She looks pretty healthy and well rounded.” The crazed raider laughed out as he swatted my flank.

WHAT DID HE SAY? WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?!?

My eyes swelled open to the size of dinner plates.

“Haha, you cannibal don’t you know that would be a waste? You know what they say about heavy mares? More comfort for the pushing.” The raider mare snickered.

Oh, no. Oh, no she did not just say that. I felt my eye twitch as a blood vein throbbed just above it. I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood as something welled up inside of me.

“Heh, no way do I want to get stuck in her. Besides, I’d bet you ten caps that she has been passed around before.” The third raider joined in as he leaned forward and continued to speak directly into my stunned face. “Nah, I like a mare with a flank I can reach around to…”

Oh, Princesses what was that high pitched noise that drowned out his words? Was it an explosion? Was some pony making tea? Oh. It was the sound of my hesitations shattering. I sucked in a good, deep breath and-
-slowly let it out. I shook my head and smiled at the third raider pony and asked sweetly.

“Do you know who I am?”

As I did so I concentrated my magic in my horn and wrapped it around an object that I spied out of the corner of my vision. The third raider pony took a step forward and floated his gun to point at my face. “Hey, hey, hey. No funny business you fu-“
“MY NAME IS…” I shouted over his voice and with a flick of my magic I smashed the chunk of concrete and rebar like a club into his flank. He cried out through the sound of crunching bone and collapsed to the floor, his gun clattered to the ground next to him. As the raider mare and the crazy raider charged for me I took several steps back and unsheathed my bat with my magic. I swung the bat across the face of the crazy raider so hard I noticed several of his rotten teeth, along with blood, fly from his mouth. As the crazy raider crumpled to the floor I simply hurled the rebar club at the raider mare as she prepared to smash me with her lead pipe. The rebar club impacted squarely in her rib cage, my aim had improved, and as she coughed up her lead pipe I smashed her across the face with the rebar club which pulped her head into a chunky paste. The crazy raider groaned and began to rise so I thumped him again in the head and was satisfied that he would not get up again. “…Precious. My name is Precious.”

BANG!

“Fuck you, Precious.” The raider with the gun hissed through his teeth as he climbed back on his hooves. His magic faltered again and dropped his gun but, it had done its job judging from the sudden bloom of pain that erupted in my shoulder. AHHHH! Getting shot hurt! I dropped to my knees and let both my weapons slip from my grip as blood spilled out from the sharp wound in my shoulder. All sense of victory vanished as my vision blurred momentarily. Oh, I did not like getting shot at all!

“You…!” I glared at the raider pony and though it made me my head feel like it was being cleaved in two I wrapped my magic around his rifle and aimed it at his head. The raider pony had not counted on that and gasped and started to scramble back, but his wounded flank caused him to topple on his side equally in pain as me.

“No, stop! I surrender!” he pleaded with me. For once I was not in a groveling mood.

“You just tried to rape and kill me…you…you called me fat! Why on Equestria would I spare you? You worm! You worm food! You worm food’s food!” He killed, raped, and looted and he asked me for mercy? I had not received one bit of mercy since I had entered this wasteland. I certainly was not about to give it to him!

“Aw, damnit. You crazy, fucking bitch! Go die in Tartarus!” he spat in my direction.

“You first!” I replied and with all my magic I had left I hurled the gun at him and smashed it across his side.

“Damnit, did you just fucking throw a gun at me? You crazy, retarded cunt!” he cried in pain and wrapped his magic once more around the gun.

…right. I probably should have shot him with the gun not throw it at him. It was not my fault I had no clue how to shoot a gun never the less use one when I had one. I had begun to panic again and tried to rise to my hooves to run but, the pain from my wound was too much. I cried out and slumped back to the floor as the raider pony cocked a bullet into the gun and aimed at me.

I was dead! I was so very dead. Oh, dear me. I would never see any of my dresses in Stable 81 again!

The raider pony never received the chance to fire as two familiar, blood soaked claws ripped through the ground below him and pulled him into a newly made hole. He screamed for several more moments before it cut off into a stomach churning gurgle followed by a loud crunch sound that churned my stomach even more. Dog Meat emerged from the hole a minute or so later and he looked…well fed.

“Bark!”

“Eeeew! Do not touch me, mongrel!” I protested as he lumbered over to me and proceeded to lick my face with his sticky, slobbering tongue. I practically smelled the blood and carnage on his breath. He had been a busy. Not that I cared. Dead raiders were good raiders. Though, the possibility that he had also devoured the Midtown survivors existed as well. I still could have cared less, now that the adrenaline of the unsophisticated, if favorable, fight for my life had drained from my veins the gunshot wound in my shoulder pained me worse.

“Ugh…make yourself useful…find me a healing potion...” I sighed immediately after I said those words. I had just wasted what could have been my last few breaths on this flea bitten, mangy, foul odor mongrel. I was quite surprised when Dog Meat barked as if answering my command and scooped me up in his arms. “The shoulder! Watch the shoulder and my face, my beautiful face!”

Dog Meat continued toward a door past the concession stands as if he had not heard a thing I had said. If I was going to die then why did I have to die such an ignoble death in this idiotic mutt’s arms? As died would the wasteland not afford me a shred of decency and dignity? My answer was for Dog Meat to rip the door behind the concession stand off its frame and for me be immediately dropped onto the dirt covered ground. If I had any ounce of magic left in me I swore I would have used it to bring the roof down on his head, but as I looked around the room I had been so unceremoniously deposited in I realized that Dog Meat had actually heeded my orders.

It looked like he had brought me to what appeared to be a pre-war storeroom, but had since been used by the raider ponies to store the loot of their past victims. Dog Meat had even dropped me not three feet from a box full of healing potions.

Shocked, I looked up at Dog Meat who grinned down at me with his blood covered lips.

“Err…good boy, Dog Meat. That is a good dog.” I praised awkwardly, but Dog Meat seemed to have enjoyed my words. He barked again and disappeared back through the storeroom door, my last view of him before he dropped back down his hole was his tail as it wagged. The sight may have been almost endearing to me if he had not paused to drag the other two raider corpses down with him.

“Now…what was it that crazy, old coot wanted me to find again?” I mumbled to myself after I had drowned a healing potion and felt my wound heal as well as my strength to stand return to me. Lost Marbles probably was dead by now, but still what he had, had stolen to him intrigued me the moment he described the object. Perhaps, it had been the way he had described it, how his words seemed to echo some sort of deep passion or care for his lost property. How he longed for it had infected me to a degree.

I should not have been surprised that it had not taken me long to find it. It shined like a diamond amongst the trash and junk heaped on every shelf or left strewn across the floor.

“Oh...my…goodness…” my mouth dropped as I laid my eyes on the small statuette of the unicorn mare with a cutie mark of three diamonds. Her clean white coat and beautifully styled mane and tail seemed free of the dust and grime that had become so ever present to me since I had left Stable 81. The small statuette practically shined, its glow seemed to make the room around it more appealing. I did from time to time imagine my white knight would kick down the Stable’s door and whisk me away to a beautiful castle full of dresses and servants, but as I stared and closely examined every detail of the little statuette I felt that if the mare had been there I would have happily been whisked away in her hooves!

Get a hold of yourself, Precious! I laughed nervously and fanned my face with a hoof. Where had this blush appeared?

True, this object was a thing of grace and beauty. It seemed to radiate a sense of refinement that the Equestrian Wasteland had not seen for two hundred years or so.

I knew in that moment I HAD to have it. Even if Marbles was alive he did not deserve this vision of class. No, it would be much better in my hooves.

“Come here my precious!” I giggled and reached forward with my hoof. The moment I picked up the statuette I felt a jolt of energy pass from it to me. It was a strange sensation. It was…it was…

…rejection.

It was as if a small pony in my head turned her nose up at me, as if the small pony had decided I not worthy of her attention or presence. I was mentally and physically taken back by the sensation and stumbled back several steps with the statuette pressed in my hooves. That would have been impossible of course since I was Precious of Stable 81, no pony looked down on me like that, yet the pony inside my head seemed to disagree quite indeed and I felt…guilty for my… greed. I would have argued more, but a familiar voice interrupted my thoughts as it called out to me from the entrance-hole.

“Little miss are you in there? If you’re a raider or a wanadingo then I hope you like metal apples…” Lost Marbles’ voice caused me to panic as I looked between the door and the statuette. I looked frantically around the storage room for some sort of answer and I found it in the form of a set of worn out saddlebags. I stuffed the statuette inside the saddlebags that little pony inside my head seemed to collapse on a sofa which was good as she quieted down long enough for me to scoop several random items into the saddlebags to cover up the statuette. “It is me! I do not know what a metal apple is, but do not do it! Anything but that!”

I raced out of the storage room; I placed the saddlebags over my back as I did, and nearly impacted with Lost Marbles as he paused in putting the stem of a strange, metallic apple to his lips.

“Oh, good. It was you and not a wanadingo! I tell you that dog of yours gave the folks from Midtown a scare, but I told them he was a good dog. ” One moment he smiled quite broadly then the next his smile seemed to jump off a cliff as he looked at me with worry and concern. “Miss Precious, did you by chance…did you by chance see my little lady in there? I’ve been looking all over this place for it…can’t seem to find it or my marbles.”

“Oh, what did it look like again?” I bluffed and tilted my head to the side in mock puzzlement.

“Oh, it is a small statuette about…yay big and yay wide. It is something very precious to me you see, my late wife she was so generous…she found that thing and…well it is all I have to remember her by.” The more he talked the more strained Marbles’ voice became.
“Ah, that thing. No, cannot say I have seen it…uhm…what, uh, what happened to your wife?” I tried to change the subject. Why did it seem like the statuette’s horn was poking me through the material of the saddlebags?
“Oh, my wife was such a nice, little lady. We traveled the Wasteland together and everywhere she went she always went out on a limb to help a pony in need…one day we were traveling up from Hoofington and we heard a cry for help. We came up to a quarry filled with radscorpians and a little filly was trapped on a boulder. Before I could stop her she charged right in and managed to kill all those critters.” Marbles seemed to have aged over a decade since he had begun talking.

“Oh? She sounds…nice.” I offered.

“Yes…she was…” he sniffed and continued, “Like I was saying. We charged in and killed the radscorpians and we all had been stung by their damn tails at least twice each, but we only had anti-venom for two of us…so she gave one to me and another to the filly. We tried to get out of these as soon as we could…to get her some help, but…there were more radscorpians…they just…they just popped out of the ground and were on her so very fast. Before I could help her I felt something strike me in the back of my head and I was out of it. I woke up a week later, the little filly had actually managed to drag me to a nearby settlement and cure me…”

“That sounds…um…bad.” I tried not to meet his gaze and instead looked at the fine detail of the ruined ceiling, “Maybe it is somewhere still in here…I bet if you look hard it will be…somewhere”

“Heh, you’re, right. Thank you, Miss Precious” Lost Marbles smiled weakly, and I smiled back “I know it is just me getting old, but I live all alone and though I could not understand some of the words she said half the time I really enjoyed the conversations I would have with that little lady. Heh. I don’t suppose you could lend this old hide a hoof?”

“Oh, um…suuuure.” I smiled what had to be the most fake and backstabbing smile in all of Equestria. “I’ll look this way and you look that way.”

Note: Level Up!
New Perk:
-Secrets and Lies: You have mastered the art of the fib. 10+ Speech and unique dialogue choices are now available.

Author's Note

HUZZAH! Chapter Done.

Now, the most controversial aspect of this chapter of course would be the fact that I made use of one of the limited edition Stable Statuettes. I think though t hat the way I used it was...interesting. Rather then accept Precious the little Rarity Statuette had rejected her. That has of course all kinds of meanings for her...