Fallout Equestria: Cyber's Story

by CyberBass587

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Adventure, Crossover, Dark, Romance
Length: 44514

Join Cyber and friends on there adventure throughout the wasteland!

War….war never changes.

As a young colt, Cyber was raised in Stable 82. He was taught that if your born in the Stable, you die in the Stable. This was all to be believed as well….until one day everything changed.

This is my personal branch of Kkat's highly popular Fallout Equestria story, I hope you all enjoy. Please leave comments of any kind!

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-05-20 01:10:02 UTC

Chapter 2: A few Loose Screws

Cyber's Point of View

The elevator doors creaked open with a screech and hiss as the smell of grease and smoke seemed to smack me with tremendous force as the smell crawled its way up my nostrils. Ironhoof walked stepped out of the elevator like the smell didn't even phase him, I've only been down here one other time...and you see how that turned out...but the smell wasn't nearly as bad last time.

"Does it usually smell this bad down here?" I asked as I walked out of the elevator, the now loud hum of the generator now almost blocked out your hearing.

"Not usually...I think one of the filters in the vents need fixed. I need to get maintenance on it soon." Ironhoof said, not stopping to make eye contact. "Pipbuck technician is right up here."

"You just gonna change the subject like that?" I questioned.

"Yep...It's not your business." Ironhoof said as we went into a hallway simply labeled MAINTENANCE WORKERS QUARTERS. "There's the door. Go in, tell the worker what's wrong, get it fixed, then come out and I'll escort you to your room. Got it?" He questioned.

"Sure." I sarcastically said as I walked in the room to see a twitchy, bloodshot eyed, black coated and haired unicorn pony with a cutie mark that just looked like a pile of mechanical parts staring me down as soon as the door opened...damn it...I got Loose Screw. I went to ask for somepony else, but by the time I turned to talk to Ironhoof the door was already locked shut.

"WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE PROBLEM!?" Loose Screw screamed as her left eye twitched.

Loose Screw was sure good with machines...but not much else. She was constantly rumored to be a shut-in down here in her little work room...that seemed to be true so far. The room smelled of sweat and grease...and a few other smells that made me want to gag. I really think this mare was going to snap at any moment.

"WELL...YOU GONNA ANSWER!?" She yelled again.

"Lets start by lowering your voice maybe." I said.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" She yelled again...I don't think she even knew that she was talking as loud as she was...maybe all the machines down here almost had her deaf.

"Never mind...Ironhoof sent me down to get my pipbuck looked at." I said, preparing for the sudden loudness of Loose Screw's voice.

"What's wrong with it?" She asked...in a sudden and surprising calm, moderate toned voice this time...I was kindove shocked...her voice just seemed to get so professional when the conversation went to her job...I guess that's why the guards haven't put her down yet.

"Well...you know that message that everyone got about a week ago?" I asked.

"Yea. Why?" She questioned...I was still confused to why her voice just changed whenever the conversation involved her job.

"Well...I just got it about twenty minutes ago, any idea what's wrong.?" I asked...I can't really say I wanted to know, as that would just mean I would now have to attend any meetings.

"Well...sounds like your processor might have a bug. Let me see." Loose Screw said as she reached into her utility belt and pulled out a key that was marked MASTER KEY.

I lifted up my hoof and let her unhook my pipbuck from my forehoof. She took it over to a bench in the corner of the room and began removing parts and screws from it that I have never even seen on my pipbuck before. This was the first time I have had that thing off of my since I was a foal though...and it felt good having it off as the things didn't exactly have padding in them, just some cheap foam that usually started chaffing after about a year of wearing it...you just got used to it though.

Loose Screw started making an assortment of grunting noises as she picked away at my pipbuck, pulling an assortment of parts from it that where alien to me. I'm pretty sure that the only internal part I recognized was when she pulled out the mother board.

"You think there's something wrong with that?" I questioned simply out of curiosity.

"No...the board looks fine...but this, on the other hoof, might just be your problem." She said as she held up her hoof, which had a part that looked exactly like the mother board in my eyes, except it was much smaller...and looked burnt to the crisp.

"Is that the processor you were talking about." I asked.

"That's exactly what it is...looks like it burnt up somehow. You have any idea why this thing blew?" Loose screw asked me.

"Your the pipbuck technician, you tell me." I said, I wasn't sure why she was asking me. She was supposed to be a master when it came to this stuff.

"Well...I've never actually seen this before. Have you gotten any other messages in the pass week, preferably on the day that the weeks messages were sent out?" She asked, staring me down with great intent.

I think she asked me to quick, I really had to think for a minute if I had gotten any other messages sense then. I guarantee that I sat there like an idiot for a good five minutes until I finally settled on "I don't think so."

"Well...I guess I'll put a new processor in and then send you a message, if you don't get it within ten seconds, then that's not the problem."

"Sounds good to me." I said.

Loose Screw turned back to her workbench and pulled out a toolbox labeled SPARE PARTS, then reached in face first and pulled out a brand new processor with her teeth. I then saw her reach back over and grab all the scraps from my pipbuck and started putting it back together. It wasn't long until she was done and locking my pipbuck back onto my forehoof. I got to say, I liked it better when I didn't have it on.

"Alright, I'm going to send you a messa..." She was cut off by a multitude of beeps from my pipbuck...the same static filled beep you get when you receive a message.

I quickly looked down at my pipbuck to see multiple alerts that read

ATTENTION: CYBER BASS

YOU HAVE 4 NEW MESSAGES FROM: TREBLE CLEF

WOULD YOU LIKE TO OPEN MESSAGES

YES NO

I rapidly tapped the YES button on my pipbuck with my hoof, and read the messages.

MESSAGE ONE

HEY CYBER, I WAS WONDERING WHAT YOU WERE DOING TOMMOROW.

I HAVE A FREE DAY AND I THINK I KNOW HOW WE CAN SEE EACHOTHER.

MESSAGE ME BACK WHEN YOU GET THIS PLEASE

FROM: TREBLE CLEF

MESSAGE TWO

IT'S ME AGAIN CYBER

YOU NEVER RESPONDED YESTERDAY

I GUESS YOU WERE JUST BUSY

ANYWAY, PLEASE MESSAGE ME BACK

FROM: TREBLE CLEF

MESSAGE THREE

COME ON CYBER

PLEASE RESPOND

I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU FOR ABOUT A WEEK

CAN YOU PLEASE RESPOND

IM GETTING WORRIED

FROM: TREBLE CLEF

MESSAGE FOUR

WHATEVER CYBER

I THINK YOURE JUST IGNORING ME NOW

IF YOU WERE DEAD THEN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN KNOWN BY NOW

SEE YOU THIS FRIDAY, YOU CAN'T SKIP WORK

FROM: TREBLE CLEF

Mother of Celestia was I in some deep shit now. I needed to get a message to her ASAP.

I lifted up my pipbuck and clicked a button labeled NEW MESSAGE, picked out Treble's name from my contacts, and clicked SEND NEW MESSAGE. Then I began typing.

HEY TREBLE

I AM SO DAMN SORRY ABOUT THIS

I JUST FOUND OUT THAT MY PIPBUCK WAS BUSTED

I'M ACTUALLY IN THE PIPBUCK TECHNICIAN'S ROOM AS I SEND THIS

PLEASE BELIEVE ME TREBLE

YOU KNOW THAT I WOULDN'T IGNORE YOU

PLEASE TELL ME YOU GET THIS

FROM: CYBER

I was now praying that she would get that message. If she wouldn't talk to me, I don't think I would know what to do with myself. She was my only friend down here, and it doesn't help knowing that those four messages were spread out over three days. I could tell a was shaking, and Loose Screw could probably tell something was up to. I wouldn't even make eye contact with her right now, I was to intent on staring at my pipbuck as I waited for a response...then it went off. My pipbuck's screen lit up as the bright green letters NEW MESSAGE appeared on the screen. I frantically tapped the bright green YES button and opened up the message to read

THANK THE GODS

YOU HAD ME REALLY WORRIED CYBER

DISREGARD EVERYTHING IN THOSE LAST MESSAGES

IM REALLY GLAD TO HEAR YOUR OKAY

TOMMOROWS THURSDAY AND IM FREE

WANT TO HANG OUT

FROM: TREBLE CLEF

No pony understands how happy I felt to get that message. I clicked the bright green RESPOND BUTTON, and began typing

HELL YEA

12 O'CLOCK SOUND GOOD

FROM: CYBER

It didn't take long until my screen flashed with the same NEW MESSAGE lettering, and it took me even less long to open it up.

SOUNDS GOOD

SEE YOU THEN

NIGHT BABE

FROM: TREBLE

I was now extremely relieved. I looked up from my pipbuck and looked at Loose Screw.

"It's working now...thanks, you may not realize it, but you really saved my ass there." I said as I stuck out my hoof to shake hers...but she just stood there with an awkward smile on her face. She never broke eye contact, never spoke, didn't even twitch like she usually did...It was starting to creep me the hell out.

"Ummm...Okay...I guess I'll just be leaving then." I said, slowly putting my hoof back down and turned to walk out the door...but then my pipbuck received another message.

I looked down to read what it was, I just assumed it was another from Treble...but I was wrong, and quite surprised.

TRUST ME

I KNOW

FROM: UNKOWN USER

It took me a minute to realized what just happened...but then I looked over at Loose Screw, I think I just made a new friend.

I lifted my pipbuck back up and clicked a set of bright green lettering that I have only clicked one other time, NEW CONTACT. My pipbuck pulled up a screen saying

CONTACT NAME:

CONTACT PIPBUCK NUMBER:

PLEASE FILL IN

CLICK DONE ONCE FINISHED

DONE

I began to fill in the information, then clicked done. My pipbuck received a message reading

NEW CONTACT: LOOSE SCREW

HAS BEEN SUCCESFULLY INSTALLED ON YOUR PIPBUCK

I smiled at Loose Screw and walked out the door to see Ironhoof standing directly outside.

"I'm assuming everything is working now?" He asked.

"Yep." I responded.

"Alright then, I'll escort you back to your room." He said, turning and walking towards the elevators. I followed behind, this was probably one of the best days I've had in the vault in a while.

Foot note: Level Up

New Perk: Pipbuck Technician

From watching pony's tamper with pipbucks, you now have better knowledge on them and can repair them when needed

Chapter 3: Sleeping Troubles

Cyber's Point of View

I walked into my room and turned to thank Ironhoof...even though he wasn't exactly my friend.

"Thanks Ironhoof." I said.

"For what?" He responded. His voice still calm yet pissed seemingly at the same time.

"Well...I never would have suggested the pipbuck technician. Plus, you know I would have walked out to attend what I thought was weekly announcement and would have ended up getting my ass beat by some guards for being out after hours. So thanks." I said.

"Just doing my job." He said, acting like he couldn't give half a rats ass...but I knew that somewhere in his sentence, he accepted the thanks.

"Well...you do it well." I responded.

"Bet your ass I do." He chuckled, then turned away and locked me in my room. I managed to catch a glimpse of a smile as the door hissed shut.

Well...I guess I should get to sleep. According to my pipbuck it's almost 1 A.M., and I did have a date with Treble tomorrow...or, well were just hanging out, but I consider any rare time we can hang out as a date. I'm sure anypony would consider it one if they maybe get to hang out once every week or so. Hell, who am I kidding. I maybe get to see her every two weeks. Dear Celestia, I really hate the gender rules around here.

The gender rules are a set of rules made by The Overmare about two years ago that make it so no pony of opposite gender can be seen with eachother after hours. That only gets you a talking by the guards at first. But if you are caught doing "it", well...you know the story there. Whatever, at least I managed to get a day to hang out. Guess I'll just have to go to sleep and then get ready in the morning.

I trotted over to my bed, laying my headphones and Stable 82 jumpsuit on the nightstand at the end, then plopping down in the stiff-as-a-rock metal-framed bed that's blankets was no better then the sheets that laid under them. I rolled over to face the wall and wrapped up in the blankets and sheets as best as I could. Then shut my eyes and attempted to dose off...but something was preventing me. I wasn't sure what though, I've never had sleeping problems though. But what was weird was that this just didn't feel like I just simply wasn't tired, this was more like a gut feeling that something was up. I rolled over and looked at my headphones, thinking maybe I just needed some other noise besides the humming of lights and generators to help me sleep. I levitated them over and put them over my ears, then plugged them into my pipbuck.

The headphone port on my pipbuck was a nice customization that was exclusive to my model of pipbuck. I don't think I remember what the model was called though, something like the Pipbuck X13 or something like that. Sure, they were a bit more expensive, but it was passed down from my dad to me before he passed away.

I scrolled through my song artist on my pipbuck until I came across a folder on it that I simply labeled TREBLE'S SONGS. I clicked open file and played the first song and let my pipbuck automatically go through the rest, playing each one over and over until I would choose to exit out...which I probably wouldn't. I was so close to finally falling asleep until I started getting that gut feeling again. It was really bugging me now, I paused the song and sat up. Then opened up the message section and started to type a message to Treble.

HEY, I CANT SLEEP

CAN YOU?

I HAVE A GUT FEELING THAT SOMETHING IS UP

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

FROM: CYBER

I clicked SEND with my hoof and waited for a response. It really didn't take long to get one back. I opened it up and started reading.

YOU TO?

I THOUGHT I WAS JUST HAVING STOMACH PAINS

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS UP?

FROM: TREBLE

I clicked respond and started typing again.

I REALLY HAVE NO CLUE

I'LL ASK LOOSE SCREW

SEE IF SHE'S STILL UP

FROM: CYBER

I waited for Treble to send something back. Then my pipbuck lit up green, I again opened the message and started reading.

YOUR FRINEDS WITH LOOSE SCREW?

FROM: TREBLE

Shit, I forgot to tell her about Loose Screw. I clicked respond once more and began typing.

YEA. SHE'S THE ONE WHO WORKED ON MY PIPBUCK

SHE'S NOT THAT BAD

SHE'S A BIT LOUD

BUT SHE'S A GOOD PONY

SHE'S BETTER THEN MOST OTHERS IN THE STABLE

BUT IM GONNA ASK HER IF SHE'S UP TO

K

FROM: CYBER

I waited for her to respond, wasn't quiet sure how she was going to react to this one. It would either go on the "jealous marefriend route" or the "good for you, I don't give a shit route". Was kindove hoping for the second one. My pipbuck lit up green again and I opened it up and began reading.

WELL

I'LL HAVE TO MEET HER SOMETIME

TELL ME IF SHE RESPONDS

FROM: TREBLE

Well, that wasn't exactly the route I wanted to go down, but I guess that works out nonetheless. However I didn't think she'd want to meet her...Oh well. I went back to my contacts list and clicked on the glowing digitalized green letters reading LOOSE SCREW, then started typing a message.

HEY LOOSE SCREW

IT'S CYBER BASS

TREBLE CLEF AND I ARE HAVING TROUBLE SLEEPING

WE HAVE A FEELING THAT SOMETHINGS UP

YOU HAVE THAT FEELING TO?

FROM: CYBER

I overlooked the message and clicked send, then waited for a response. I wasn't sure if I would even get one back. It could really just be an odd coincidence that both Treble and I can't sleep and both have the same feeling that something is up. And if that was the case, then that was to damn good of a coincidence. I was hoping I would get a response back, and I was hoping even more that she new that something is wrong. I had to have been sitting there for at least ten minutes, I guess she was asleep. This really must be a damn good coincidence. I started to send a message back to Treble.

HEY TREBLE

I GUESS IT'S JUST YOU AND MEAN

I NEVER GOT ANYTHING BA

*DING*

I didn't even get to finish typing by the time I got a response from Loose Screw. I quickly deleted the message I was typing and opened up the new one.

HEY CYBER!

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO GET BACK

LOOK

SOMETHING IS UP

THE MAIN GENERATOR DOWN HERE IS FAILING

WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW BEFORE

*BOOM*

I didn't even get to finish reading when a large eruption of an explosion shook the ground under me. No...don't tell me...that was the generator wasn't it! It wasn't long until I heard the ear-piercing alarms echo throughout the stable and multiple sounds of guards running outside the of my door. I got out of bed and grabbed my stable barding and saddle bags. I put my headphones in the saddle bag and went to walk out the door, but then my pipbuck got another message. It was from Treble. I opened up as quick as my hoofs would let me, and read as fast as my eyes would let me.

CYBER

WHAT WAS THAT

ARE YOU OKAY

FROM: TREBLE

I didn't even think, I just began typing back.

TREBLE.

IM FINE

BUT THAT MAY NBOT BE THE STORY IF WE DONT LEAVE NOW

THE MAIN GENERATOR JUST BLEW AND WE DONT HAVE A BACKUP

LOOSE SCREW TOLD US TO LEAVE NOW

THE STABLES DOOR TO THE OUTSIDE IS GOING TO OPEN

MEET ME IN THE HALLWAY THATS INBETWEEN OUR ROOMS

PLEASE GET THERE SAFE

TRY TO NOT GET CAUGHT BY THE GUARDS

SEE YOU SOON BABE

FROM: CYBER

I frantically hit send and waited for the guards outside my door to leave, then rushed outside...What I saw was the most frightening thing I have seen in all of my years in the Stable. Everything is about to change.

Chapter 4: Stable Malfunctions

Cyber's Point of View

I was frozen in fear. The Stable's walls and floor now were covered in a thick red liquid...blood...definably blood. This usually wouldn't bother me as blood was normal, but not when it's this much. The Stable's dull silver walls were just covered. I slowly started walking, but couldn't help myself but stop again. I looked down the hallway and noticed the source of the blood. There was what looked to be a guard...or more half of one. It was what was around him, feeding off him, that nearly made me soil myself right there. I couldn't even explain it, it had the body structure of a normal pony, but it was glowing green and had multiple rips and tears all throughout its body. And what skin was on it was all shriveled up and nearly burnt to a crisp. It had no hair whatsoever other then some small strands here and there. I looked at my pipbuck and noticed multiple red marks above my compass. And it seemed that each reed dot symbolized a threat as I recall there being green marks when there was a friendly. It seemed there was only the one enemy here though, the others must be on different floors of the Stable.

I still wasn't quiet sure what I was staring at, but according to my pipbuck it wasn't friendly...however it was in my way. I needed to get by it or get rid of it somehow, and sneak was never a strong suit with me. So I had to go with the other option of removing it.

I started looking around for a some sort of weapon. I noticed the guards baton about 5 feet away from the monstrosity in front of me. I focused and ran forward, levitating the baton up off the ground as soon as it was within reach of my telekinetic abilities. The creature stood up on it's hind legs and let out on ear-piercing scream, yellow ooze leaking out of it's mouth in the process. But before it could do anything else I whacked it as hard as my magic would let me. A message popped up on my pipbuck reading DIRECT HIT.

The creature fell to the bloody floors with a hiss and a moan. I guess...I guess it was dead. It wasn't moving anymore, and the glowing green it was putting off faded away in almost an instant. I guess that it wasn't a problem anymore.

I looked down at the guard. I didn't recognize him, but he probably didn't deserve this. He was completely torn in two, his legs about five feet away from his the rest of him. The only thing joining the two was a large stream of fresh blood leading from one to the other. I literally threw up in my mouth, but managed to pull it back in. I started walking away, but then got to thinking. There is definably going to be more of these things throughout the Stable, and it probably wouldn't be good if one got a hit in on me. I didn't feel right doing it...but it was for the better.

I slowly turned and walked back over to the guards corpse. I stared at it for another minute or two, but then started using my telekinesis to undo all of the straps on his riot gear. Starting at the helmet, then the torso piece, the leg and hoof guards. The armor was defiantly worn and beaten. But it was better then just plain Stable barding. I slipped it all on my body and adjusted it so it would all fit properly. The gear was snug...and warm from all the blood. This thought didn't help me. But for all I know this gear could mean the difference between life and death right now. I quickly put on the riot helmet and turned to find Treble.

Treble shouldn't be far by now. Our rooms were only about ten minutes away from each other if we walked, probably a solid six or seven if you ran...and I was booking it at this rate. I was so worried right now. I didn't even know if she was still alive...I knew that Loose Screw was dead, she was in the room when the generator exploded, there was no way she made it. That thought alone brought a few tears to my eye.

I was now in the hallway over from Treble's room. I was extremely worried now, she was supposed to meet me halfway! I don't even know what I would do if I turned this next corner and saw she met the same fate as that guard...I would probably just end it right there. I wouldn't have anything else to live for. I wouldn't be able to make it without her. These thoughts almost made me hesitate as I approached the corner. I almost didn't turn the corner...but then it occurred...what if...what if her door was just jammed or something like that! What if...what if...what if.

Different scenarios of what if bounced around in my mind. So much that I raised up my baton and charged around the corner. I didn't like what I saw, but it was so much better then what could have been.

This hall was also nearly covered in the blood of another guard pony, I noticed he had some sort of clear shield next to him attached to a robotic arm that connected to a mechanical mechanism that was all nicely packaged onto a saddle. It was a riot saddle. I have heard of these, but I never saw one with my own eyes. I looked up from it and saw three of those shriveled skinned, burnt up, green, hairless zombie ponies clawing at a door...Trebles door.

They were extremely intent on getting in, I guess that was why she didn't meet my in the halls. But they were so intent on getting in the I was able to pull up my pipbuck and send a message to Treble. I started typing

TREBLE

IM IN THE HALLWAY OVER FROM YOUR ROOM

PLEASE TELL ME YOUR IN THERE

FROM: CYBER

I clicked send and went back around the corner so the zombie ponies wouldn't see me. Then waited for a response...hoping I got a response. But the odds were in my favor as I nearly got one back immediately. I opened up the message and started reading.

CYBER!

THANK THE GODS YOUR OKAY

YES, IM IN MY ROOM

THESE THINGS GOT ME LOCKED IN HERE

I SAW THE GUARD OUT THERE GET KILLED

HE SAVED ME

BUT I DONT WANT YOU FIGHTING THESE THINGS CYBER

LET THEM LEAVE

THEN COME GET ME

FROM: TREBLE

I was glad to see she responded, but I was going with her decision. I could take these things, I had a plan. I pulled up my pipbuck and began typing again.

TREBLE

IM GETTING YOU OUT OF THERE

I'VE KILLED ONE OF THOSE THINGS ALREADY

JUST HANG TIGHT

ILL BE OKAY

I PROMISE

FROM: CYBER

I clicked send then un-holstered my baton and peeked around the corner. My eyes were drawn to the riot saddle again. It would help keep these things off me if they charged.

I peeked my head around the corner and pulled the corpse over to me with my magic. Another thing that almost made me spill my guts all over the blood stained metal floors. But I managed to get it to me quick enough without any of the zombie ponies noticing. I used my magic to unhook the saddle from the guards corpse, then put it on myself.

It was fairly heavy, but not enough to bug me.....at least not as much as the fresh blood that was currently on it. It didn't take me long to figure out how it worked though. The saddle had a bar that connected to the mechanical system on the saddle that went from it and up to your mouth. There was a pressure plate on that bar that, when bit, would raise the shield up from your side to in front of you. It honestly wasn't that complicated of machinery. I sat back and practiced with the riot saddle for a minute. I decided on using my mouth to activate the pressure plate to raise the shield, then use my magic to levitate the baton at my side and strike when I knew that I could land a hit. I think I was ready.

I walked around the corner, shield raised, and slowly pushed forward, banging my baton on the walls to get the zombie ponies attention. It worked to, all three let out an extremely similar scream that the first one I ran into let out, then slowly started walking towards me.

I stood still and held my ground as they got closer. I probably couldn't bite that pressure plate any harder than what I was. Sweat was literally dripping onto the floor from my face. I have never been this nervous or scared in my life. One of the zombie ponies let out another scream and charged towards me, bolting past the other two. I levitated up my baton and waited for in to run into my shield. It hit the shield with a thud, almost pushing me back a step. It's lifeless eyes seemed to stare into my very soul as it scratched and pelted my shield. I quit staring and quickly lowered the shield, then cracked it in the head with the baton, sending it falling to the ground. That was one down, two to go. I raised the shield back up and waited for another to charge. And luckily enough...one did.

As this one charged past the other it knocked it over in the process, that just made my part easier. It was a simple repeat of the last one. It hit my shield, I lowered the shield, then I hit it with as much force as possible. That was two down, only one to go, and this one was having trouble getting up. I lowered the shield and walked up to it, then pinned its head to the metal floors with my armored hoof and smashed its head in in one smooth stomp. That was three.

I holstered my baton and ran up to Treble's door and entered in the code to get in. The door slid open with a hiss and I walked in. I wasn't expecting to get hit in the side with a lamp though.

I looked over and saw Treble, lamp grasped in her mouth, standing there in fear. I lifted up the tinted riot visor on my helmet and looked into her eyes. Then leaned forward and hugged her as tight as I ever have.

"Thank Luna your okay." I said, trying not to let tears of joy and relief get to me.

She quickly leaned in and hugged me in return, neither of us letting go. "I told you to let them leave." She said, she was definably crying.

"And you know that I wasn't leaving without you." I responded, I was now holding back tears.

"Where did you get that gear?" She asked.

"Well...I got it off of a guard...two actually. I'm not proud of it, but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for it." I said.

"Well...that's good, as long as your alive...everything is good." She said, hugging me so tight that I could feel it through the riot gear.

I unlatched from our hug. "Loose Screw said we need to leave right now." I said.

"Wait...where is she?" Treble questioned.

"I don't think she made it. She sent me a message saying that the generator was about to blow and we needed to leave. She was in the room when it happened...she didn't make it." I said, showing Treble the message from earlier.

Treble didn't say anything for a minute. She just looked up at me and stared into my eyes with an odd look on her face...she was thinking.

"Do you think we should exit the vault?" Treble said.

I looked into her eyes and grabbed her hoof. "Were leaving." I said.

"Not without my help your not." A deep voice from the hallway said.

I didn't know who it was, but before I even bothered to see who it was I pushed Treble behind me and bit onto the pressure plate for the shield. I was surprised to see a blood stained, battle worn Ironhoof standing in the doorway.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Battle Saddle experience

Do to your natural knowledge of battle saddles, you can operate a battle saddle of any kind without issue.

Chapter 5: Escape

Cyber's P.O.V

"Ironhoof! Thank god you're still here! You know the code for the Stable's door." Treble said, wiping tears from her eyes with her hoof.

"Well...not exactly." Ironhoof said with a look of sadness on his usually pissed off looking face.

"What do you mean, your the warden. Isn't that something The Overmare tells you when you become a warden?" I yelled, I honestly thought we weren't getting out of here now, I sat down on my hind legs, as did Treble.

"Well no, only she knows the door combination. But that really doesn't matter. How do you think the mutants got in in the first place." Ironhoof said.

"Wait...what?" I questioned, looking over at Treble, she just shrugged.

"When the generator blew, the door opened up, letting in the mutants." He said. "So the door is wide open, we just have to fight our way out."

"What are mutants?" Treble interrupted.

"It's the things that your coltfriend over here have been killing." Ironhoof said.

"Well...I thought they were zombies, like a disease or something did this to them." I responded.

"You can say that. What killed them was radiation poisoning, something left behind by the megaspells during the war that put everypony in these damned Stables." Ironhoof said, looking at the ground. He was obviously depressed about what was going on, I really don't blame him. Who knows how many of his guard friends he's seen torn to pieces or become a all you can eat buffet to these so called mutants...but wait, how did he know so much about the outside. Nopony has ever been out of the Stable since they first closed over a hundred years ago...I was curious.

"Ironhoof...how do you know so much about the outside?" I questioned, Treble looked at me, then started to intently stare at Ironhoof.

"Nevermind that! We need to leave!" Ironhoof yelled. He was getting defensive, he was trying to dodge my questioned.

"No...you'll tell us why, or where not leaving!" I yelled back.

"God damnit Cyber! That isn't going to matter in a minute if we don't leave right Celestia Damn now!" He screamed, he was hiding something.

I went to yell back, but Treble grabbed my hoof and stopped me.

"Look Cyber, he's right. Look at the compass on your pipbuck, these things are everywhere! We need to go, we can ask questions once were out." Treble said...and damn was she right.

"We will talk about this once were out." I said, looking furiously into Ironhoof's eyes.

"Glad to here it. Now follow me to the stairs, the elevators are down. Cyber, get her some armor. I'll watch you guys while you get her some." Ironhoof's said, I was actually about so suggest the same thing.

I looked over at Treble. "Babe, stay here. I'm going to get you that armor outside. I'll be right back, just stay with Ironhoof, you'll be okay." I said, looking intently into her neon green eyes.

"You have two minutes..." She said, she was starting to tear up again.

"That's all I need." I said as I kissed her cheek and walked out into the hall, shield raised.

I was going slowly as I could hear more mutants around the corner, no doubt feeding on something else. Another thought that made me want to puke.

As soon as I got within telekinetic reach of the guards body, I started undoing all the straps on his armor. It wasn't long until all the gear was floating in the light blue mist of my magic. I slowly started walking back into Treble's room. Once in I plopped all the gear onto her bed...I felt bad that I couldn't get her some that wasn't just as soaked in blood as mine was.

"Well...come here babe. I'm sorry you have to wear this...but it's way better than nothing." I said, she was staring at it like she just saw the guard get killed...wait...she did...now I felt bad giving it to her.

"I'm sorry Treble...do you want mine instead...I can wear this one if it makes you feel any better." I said, I honestly felt bad trying to give her the armor of a pony that she just saw get brutally murdered.

"Y...Yes...thank you." Treble said.

"Hey...this is nice and all...but were gonna have mutants on us real soon if you two don't hurry up!" Ironhoof jumped in.

I quickly started undoing all of my armor. Every time I took a piece of I would snuggly fit it on Treble with my magic and then replacing it with the other set of gear to save some time. I was lucky that I had stronger magic, otherwise this would be nearly impossible to do.

"Treble...you okay?" I asked as I put on her chest piece.

"It's...It's really warm...and nasty...*gag*" Treble said, she was cut off by spilling her lunch on the floor beneath her and crashing to the ground. I didn't blame her either, I have been wanting to do the same thing sense I walked out of my room. I walked over to her and put my hoof around her while I snapped on her helmet.

"I'm so sorry Treble, but it could mean life and death if one of those things were to get a hit on you. We'll try to get you something better when we get out." I said, I was hoping that it was comforting her...even in the slightest bit.

"It's okay...I understand...this stuff is really heavy Cyber." She said, she was definably crying now.

"I know...but it's gets lighter once you get used to it. Don't worry, I'll be by your side. Are you ready?" I asked as I put on the rest of my armor and riot saddle.

"Yea...lets get this over with...quick." She said as she slowly stood back up.

"Okay. Ironhoof, let's go." I said as Treble and I walked up behind him. He was still guarding the door.

"Thank Luna! Follow me and stay quiet, the less attention we attract to ourselves the better. Follow me to the stairs." He said as he walked out into the hallway. Treble and I followed close behind.

Once we got to the stairs I started to hear a loud rumble similar to the first erupt from the floors under us. I looked back at Treble, she was almost frozen in fear. I looked at Ironhoof, he could tell what I was about to ask...but then the lights went out and the alarms stopped, and everything went dead silent other then the menacing howls and screams of mutants

"We need to go, the backup generator just blew. Nothing will work now. These things seem to be stronger in the dark, watch yourself now." Ironhoof said as he slowly started walking backup the stairs. We followed.

Ironhoof turned on his flashlight connected to his helmet, something that he had installed himself. He shined it on a wall, it read F2 in all yellow, giant letters.

"One more floor to go, let's move." He said, continuing up. We again followed. We really didn't have a choice though now, without his light...Treble and I would be lost.

We walked up onto the next floor, a large F1 shined beside the exit door. We made it this far, but my pipbuck was reading tons of threats outside of the door, plus we still had a few rooms to go through until we reached the mane door to the Stable. Ironhoof turned around to talk to us.

"Okay...this floor is going to be flooded with mutants. Our best bet is to run for it. That sound alright with you guys.

I looked over at Treble, she nodded.

"Sounds good." I said, levitating out my baton. Treble pulled hers out of her sheath and grasped it in her mouth. I never understood how earth ponies were able to do stuff without magic, it just seemed difficult. But hey, if she could kill one of those things just as easy as I could with magic by using her mouth...that's fine by me.

"Okay, I'll go in front. Cyber, you in middle. Treble, stay in back." Ironhoof said, I wasn't cool with Treble being in the back.

"Hey...no. Treble, you go in the middle. I can fight anything behind us. I know you don't want to." I said.

"I was thinking the same thing." Treble said.

"That's my bad, probably should have considered that." Ironhoof said. I was slightly pissed at him now, but he was saving our lives...so I didn't say anything.

"Okay, I'm going to open the door on three." He said.

"Okay, I'm ready. Treble?" I said, she nodded. She couldn't talk with the baton in her mouth.

"Alright...One...Two...Three!" He screamed, we all went charging out the door. following Ironhoof.

Every hall, room, and everything in-between was infested with mutants. Thank god these things weren't fast. We usually only had to deal with about three or four with every room we entered. It honestly wasn't that bad right now.

We ran into a hallway labeled MAIN HALL.

"This is it!" Ironhoof yelled. "The door is right around this cor" *BANG* Ironhoof dropped to the ground with a scream as he turned the corner, his head blowing clean off as he fell to the ground like a bag of rocks, blood painting the walls behind him, and all followed by a maniacal, twisted, deep toned laugh.

I stopped in my tracks and grabbed Trebles tail with my teeth and yanked her behind me.

"Stay here." I said as I sat her down up against the wall, put up my shield, and went around the corner. I was not expecting what I saw.

In front of me was a large, yellow coated, puffy veined, muscled up, earth pony gripping a two barreled gun in his mouth. I have never seen a gun before, let alone had one aimed directly at me.

*BANG* The shot hit the shield directly, putting what looked to be hundreds of dents in it, but not piercing it. The pony wasn't a mutant, but instead completely normal and seemed untouched by radiation like the mutants, but instead a normal pony...nut either way, he was a still a red mark on my pipbuck. So he was an enemy in my book.

The gun in his mouth popped open, two red, cylindrical tubes popping out of the back of the barrels. He pulled two more of those red tubes out of his saddle bags, then slid them into the same part of the barrel that the other two flew out of. Then aimed at me again.

*BANG* I heard Treble yelp after this one as more pellets dented my shield. I knew I had to end this and get rid of this guy so Treble wouldn't come around that corner...but then he opened back up the gun and started putting more red tubes into the weapon. So he could only shoot once and then had to but more rounds in the gun. I took this chance and sprung forward, bashing the pony with my shield. Causing him to drop his weapon and yelp. I then jumped on top him and cracked his head with my baton. He flailed and tried to hit me with his hoof, and it probably would have hurt if it wasn't for the riot gear. I rapidly hit his head with the baton, each hit drawing out slightly more blood from his skull. And I continued until he fell limp. He was dead, the red dot that was on my pipbuck was now gone...it was over with...but then the thought sat in...I just killed a pony, a living, breathing pony! I stepped off of his corpse and nearly threw up next to him.

"Treble...it's okay...you can come out now, it's safe...we won." I said, trying to regain my breath.

I turned and saw Treble cautiously come around the corner, she was shaking with fear. I walked up to her and hugged her even tighter than I did before...and finally started to let the tears roll down my cheeks.

"It had to be done...I'm just glad your okay Cyber. Look, there's the door...we can leave this hell!" Treble said, hugging me in return, tears also rolling down her face.

I got out of our hug and turned to face the Stable's main door...it was wide open...we could leave...we could finally leave! I looked over at Treble and nodded. Then we started walking...but I was stopped by something. I turned back around and looked at the headless corpse of Ironhoof...I picked his helmet up of the ground and crouched down beside him, laying the helmet on his chest.

"Thank you." I said.

"We wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for your loss." Treble added in, sitting beside me as we both shed a few last tears before we got up and continued to walk back out the main door of the stable. On the way out I grabbed the pony's gun and holstered it with my baton...then Treble and I walked out of the door of Stable 82...our home.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Mutant Slayer

You now do 10% more damage to mutants of any kind.

Chapter 6: A new World

Cyber's Point of View

Treble and I are shaking in fear. Everything we just witnessed...just did...we have never seen or had to do before. We could see the light at the end of the cave to the outside world, but we didn't know what was awaiting us. Our only hope of knowing about what was outside this entrance cave to the Stable just had his head blown off. I levitated out the gun that I looted from that pony...my first kill. I wasn't sure what to think of that, but it was in self defense...And judging from what all we just saw, it was safe to assume that the outside world was survival of the fittest...but I should wait to make assumptions until we Treble and I get out of here.

I levitated this gun in front of my face, confused on what exactly made it fire and just overall wondered how it worked, and how necessary it was to have one once we meet with the outside world. I looked at my pipbuck and went under the file labeled ITEMS, then noticed a new file showed up, it was simply labeled WEAPONS. I went over to it and saw two things, STABLE 82 RIOT BATON and 12G SAWED OFF SHOTGUN. I guess that was what this gun was called. I looked through the rest of the files as we walked. Noticing that STABLE 82 RIOT ARMOR and STABLE 82 RIOT MASK were now in my APPAREL file. I noticed yet another new file labeled ammo. I scrolled over to it and opened it up, seeing one thing show up reading 12G SHOTGUN SHELL, then it showed me how many I had, which happened to be eight. I guess that was what those red cylinders that went into the sawed off shotgun were called.

I opened up the shotgun and two opened up shells came flying out, then I put in two of the shells in, one for each barrel, then closed it. It locked in with a soft click.

"Please be careful with that Cyber, neither one of us have ever used one before. We should probably get some practice in with them before we fight anypony with them. I hope it doesn't come to that though." Treble said, I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was exhausted and scared. Couldn't blame her either.

"Your probably right...but I hat to say that it might come to that. I mean look what just crawled into the Stable when the door opened. And we saw that there is probably other ponies out here, but I wouldn't sat that most of them are friendly. We should at least keep our guard up." I said.

"Well...that does make sense. But...do you think we can find a safe place to rest before we do anything. If it's okay with you." Treble said, I wasn't going to deny it either.

"Agreed, I was pretty much thinking the same thing. We'll find a place to crash, then figure stuff out in the morning." I said.

"Okay...let's get out of this cave...it's really cold." Treble said.

She was right to, it seemed that the closer we got to the cave exit, the colder it got. And I think I could here wind now, and I don't mean like the cool breeze of air that the Stables air conditioner let off, I mean actual heavy winds. I guess I can just add that to the list of things I have never seen or witnessed.

Treble and I were probably about ten yards away from the exit now. All it was was a simple wooden door that was connected to a perfect, pony sized hole that had outside light piercing through the cracks of the wood. Every time I heard a gust of wind particles of a white looking powder would come through the cracks. It was definably colder up here.

I looked over at Treble.

"You ready to see what's out there?" I asked.

"Not really, but we don't have much of a choice...do we?" Treble asked, she now sounded even more tired then when we first came out of the Stable.

"I'm afraid not." I said as I used my magic to open the door.

As the old, wooden door opened the powerful winds seem to almost push Treble and I back into the cave. It was snow...snow and ashes. It was in the middle of winter. Perfect...now we had to worry about not freezing to death as well as figure out where to go and what to do. I looked over at Treble, she didn't say anything, but I could tell be how she was looking at our new world that she didn't like it one bit so far...and neither did I.

"Well...I guess we should find a house now." I suggested.

"Yea...that sounds good." Treble responded.

"Well...do you just want to walk straight and see what we run into?" I asked.

"It's not like we have any better leads." Treble said.

"Alright then...put your riot mask down so the snow and ash doesn't get in your eyes. It's bad enough we can't see ten feet in front of our own faces, lets prevent it from getting worse." I said as I used my magic to put my mask over my face.

"Smart." Treble said as she reached up and pulled down the riot mask over her face.

"Don't get any further than about ten feet away, that way we don't get separated. Let's start walking." I said as I levitated the sawed off shotgun out in front of me and activated my riot shield.

I walked past Treble and took my first step onto ground that wasn't the metal from the Stable. It was not only soft but also freezing to the touch. I shivered as I felt Treble rub up against my side.

"Holy shit it's cold." She said, I could practically feel her shaking. "You aren't going to have to worry about me getting any further than a foot away from you if the weather stays like this."

"Hey...that's fine by me. The closer you are the better I feel." I said, trying to keep a grip on the riot saddle's pressure plates. I really didn't want this shield folding over.

"Good...cause I'm not leaving your side." She said, I had zero problem with this.

I stopped and looked down at my pipbuck. Above the compass was now small, green lined triangles. I think I learned about these when I first got my pipbuck. I think they marked important locations. I pulled up the map and saw how close the nearest location was, which was about a mile to my right. I guess that was where we were heading.

"That where we're going?" Treble asked, I guess she was looking at my pipbuck as well.

"Yep." I said.

"Let's get there quick." Treble said as we started to head out to what we hoped would be our new home. But as soon as I took a step to my right *CLICK* a pressure plate went down under my hoof.

"Don't move, and especially don't lift up your hoof!" A light, robotic voice screamed in the same area of the Stable cave.

I looked over and saw a familiar, black coated and haired unicorn walk out of the Stable doors.

"Loose Screw?" I said, Treble had a look of confusion on her face.

"Yep." Loose Screw said as she walked out of the cave and next to Treble and I.

Chapter 7: Loose Screw Returns

Cyber's P.O.V

Loose Screw slowly walked towards Treble and I through the ash and snow. It was odd because even though she was only about fifteen feet away...she was still a gray mass due to the heavy sheet of snow and ash that was blowing through the air.

"Don't move." Loose Screw continuously said as she slowly got closer, and as she did...I really didn't like what I saw.

Her all black mane and coat was still the same, just it now had spots here and there that were completely ridded of hair. She still had on her Stable 82 mechanic jumpsuit, but it was burned and had multiple holes. It was when I looked at her face that scared me a bit. She now only had one eye...the other seemingly glued shot with blood and then stapled with a large piece of shrapnel sticking about 3 inches out of the socket.

"Are...are you okay." I asked, Treble went behind me.

"I'm fine...just some shrapnel and radiation poisoning from the explosion. Afraid this eye is useless now, thank Celestia it went numb. But none of that will matter if you lift up your hoof." She demanded.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your hoof is resting on a landmine right now. If you lift up, it will be the end to all of us." She said.

"The hell's a landmine?" Treble asked.

"Shit...forgot that this is your guy's first time in the wasteland." Loose Screw said to herself...a little louder than she should have.

"Wait...so this isn't your first time out here?" I questioned.

"Yea...is it?" Treble added in.

"Look...let's get you off of the live landmine and into a safe place, then I'll answer anything you two are wanting to know. Okay?" She said, cocking her head slightly to the left, blood and puss dripping out of the closed socket. I heard Treble gag behind me.

"Okay...you obviously know what you're doing. I won't question it until were safe. Just...remove whatever the hell this thing under me is!" I said, I was frustrated and confused...all at the same time.

Treble knelt down beside my hoof and pulled out a small shovel with what looked like a sharpened edge out of her utility belt, then began digging around my hoof. She was very slow and cautious about it, I take it that was a good thing. However it wasn't long until I could see the round, metal tin under my front left hoof. It was rusted, and had a small, red, flashing light on top.

"I take it that's what you're talking about?" I asked.

"Yea." Loose Screw said.

"How could something so small be so dangerous?" Treble asked, she had a good point to. The thing was only about three inches tall and every bit the same diameter as my hoof.

"If we live long enough out here, I'll show you why." Loose Screw said, a sigh escaped behind her words.

Loose Screw then pulled out a small screw driver and undid a few screws on the side of the mine. Once the screws detached, a small plate followed. This plate was covering some colored wires, all I could see were red, green, and blue ones. Looses Screw then picker her sharpened shovel back up and snagged the red wire on one the sharpened end of the shovel, then pulled up, causing the wire to snap in two.

The mine let out a few high pitched beeps, then the red light flashed and faded into nothing.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"Should be." Loose Screw said.

"Are you sure?" I asked, my heart started pounding slightly faster.

"Look...you obviously now that I've been outside the Stable before. I have done this before, so just lift up your hoof before we freeze to death!" She yelled, not sure why the sudden burst of anger.

"Um...okay then." I said as I looked down...and cautiously began lifting up my hoof off of the mine. I noticed the small pressure plate come back up out of the inside of the mine as I removed my hoof.

"Is it supposed to do that?" I asked.

"Well...it hasn't exploded yet. So I'd say your good." She said, this almost made my heart skip a beat.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" I said.

"Were not dead...so yeah." She quickly responded. "Now can we please get somewhere warm?"

"Yeah...let's head out. I guess you know a place to go?" I said.

"Yes...follow me, it should only take a few hours to get there.

Chapter 8: A place for the night

Cyber's Point of View

Holy shit was it freezing right now. We have only been walking for about half an hour now, and according to Loose Screw...we had a few more to go. I couldn't imagine how cols she was right now. Treble and I both had riot armor on with our Stable barding under that. All Loose Screw had was her Stable mechanic barding, and it was littered with holes.

"Hey Screw, is there anywhere closer we can go?" I asked.

"Why?" She responded.

"Well...where going to freeze to death soon. You said we had a few hours to go at the least. There has to be a closer place." I said, looking over at Treble. She was shivering more than any of us.

"Of course there's closer places, but the one were going to is the only place that I know is safe. So either we suck it up and go to the for sure safe place...or we take the risk of running into something that will definably kill us on sight...your pick." She said, turning to face Treble and I...I could tell she wanted to get to this so called safe place, but I don't think we were going to make it there without becoming pony-cicles, and I think she knew that as well.

"Look, we both know that we will not survive out here much longer. So lets just take our chances, at least that way we'll die quickly and not freeze to death." I said, Treble nodded in agreement.

There was a long pause. For a moment the only sound that we could here was heavy breathing and the heavy gust of wind that felt like it was going to freeze you instantaneously as it blew past you. Then Loose Screw let out a sigh.

"Fine...it does make sense. We'll try the closest location on our pipbucks. If it isn't safe and we live getting away, we go to my place. Deal?" She asked, again tilting her head to the side...and again more puss and blood leaked out of her eye socket. I tried not to gag, then looked over at Treble.

"That sound good to you?" I asked.

"Y...yea." She said, then shivered and leaned closer to me.

"Alright, where's the closest place from here?" I asked Loose Screw.

She lifted up her pipbuck and started looking through her map. I noticed that there where about five locations that were already discovered on her pipbuck's map.

"What about any of those locations?" I asked, I really didn't care that she has been outside the Stable before as I knew that it would help us...hell, it already did once. That didn't mean I wasn't asking questions later though.

"Well...one of them is the Stable, another is the place we'll be heading if this doesn't work out, and the others are pretty much deathtraps." She said, then looking back down at the glowing screen of her pipbuck.

"Simple enough...did you find a close place?" I asked.

"Three actually...just deciding which one is less likely to be infested with raiders or mutants." She said.

"Raiders?" Treble added in, it was a pretty good question.

"Yea...raiders, drugged up good for nothing ponies that would rather kill then rape you, in that order, than maybe stop and talk or trade. The only good raiders a dead one." Loose Screw said, this time never breaking eye contact from her pipbuck screen.

"Well...they sound pleasant." I said, then I remembered the pony I killed and got this shotgun off of. Was that a so called raider. It did try to kill me rather then let me pass or just try to talk it out. That did make me feel better about killing him...still wasn't thrilled about it though.

"Alright, this one here to the south is more up in the hills, that means it is less likely to be inhabited already. I guess we can try it, should only take about twenty minutes to get there. That the one we're heading to?" Loose Screw asked.

"Sounds good to me, Treble?" I asked.

She nodded in response, I think she was to cold to talk right now.

"Alright...lets head south." I said.

Loose Screw nodded and then turned to what I was assuming was south, and started walking, a thin trail of blood from her eye and probably a few other places throughout her burnt, slightly skinned body. It was probably a miracle that she was still walking.

We followed her, and it wasn't long until we were already walking up the hill to this location...and Loose Screw was quickly slowing down, and she was definably limping, every step she took seemed to make her cringe in pain...yet she still continued to go forward, nothing seemed to stop her.

"We need to get her help." Treble whispered.

"I know, but we can't help her unless we can sit down for the night. Even if we don't have medical supplies, she could at least use a good nights rest." I responded.

"Right...but what if there's other ponies here...one's that aren't friendly." Treble said.

"I'll fight if I have to...I want to try to run them off first. But if there are raiders up here...I have a feeling they can't be scared away." I said, levitating my shotgun out of my saddle bag, staring at it...I think I had a bad feeling that I was going to have to use this.

"Only if you have to..." Treble said, it took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about...but then I got what she was getting at.

"Promise." I responded, then stuck the shotgun back into the saddle bag.

We only had to walk through the freezing cold nuclear winter for about ten minutes until we reached the top of the hill. At the bottom sat a nearly destroyed looking house, a farm house at that. It had a dirt pathway leading to it with a sign that was half way up, half way destroyed and laying in splinters on the ground. The part of the sign that was still up read SWEET APPLE...it then cut off as the rest of the sign was what was in splinters on the ground.

"Is that the place?" I asked.

"Y...yeah." Loose Screw quietly responded.

"Think there are other ponies down there?" I said.

"You bet your ass there is!" A deeper voice responded behind us, it was then followed by laughter of another unknown pony.

My heart nearly dropped as I turned to see two, well armed yet barely clothed ponies, one unicorn, the other earth pony...both aiming loaded guns at us. They where both clothed of that to rival a barbarian like in the stories my dad told me as a colt, except these where nearly coated in dried up blood. The unicorns weapon looked to be like a single barreled, yet much longer version of my shotgun. The earth pony held a smaller gun in his mouth...not sure how that worked, but I guess they just figured it out.

"Raiders?" I asked Treble while I slowly backed up.

"Yep." She responded.

"Yea we raiders...and you can't do shit about it!" The unicorn said, his speech was fairly poor.

"Ha...I say we kill them two." The unicorn said, gesturing to Loose Screw and I. "Then we keep the other as a sex slave." He continued...this infuriated me beyond any belief. They wanted to use Treble for that. I looked at her, she was cowering behind me in fear. I wanted her to stay behind me anyway, so this worked out.

"You best back the fuck off her!" I responded to the two of them with all the rage I could put into my voice...but I was greeted with the unicorn's rifle stock directly to the side of my face, followed by Treble and Loose Screw yelping. This definably wrung my bells and knocked my over, but it didn't knock me out thanks to my riot helmet.

"Quiet you pathetic worm!" The unicorn yelled. "Pipeline, grab the mares. I'll drag the knocked out little bitch over here."

What the unicorn didn't realize was that while he was bragging and talking, I was levitating out my shotgun. I pressed it up against the unicorns stomach...then pulled the trigger.

Blood and guts painted the ground behind and under the unicorn, I quickly stood up while I used my magic to load two more shells into my shotgun, then unloaded them into the earth pony before he had a chance to react. More blood painted the ash filled snow. As I stood there in the snow with my heart pounding, everything started to come to me. I just realized what I did, and I wasn't that proud. I more took it as self defense and defending my friends then attacking, but I wasn't happy about it.

I looked at Treble and Screw Loose to see there reactions. Loose Screw didn't seemed phased, but Treble obviously didn't like what she just saw. You could tell by simply looking into her eyes. I didn't blame her either.

"Treble...I...I said if I had to, I would. Please...please understand." I said as I slowly put my shotgun back into the saddle bag.

There was a pause as Treble looked into my eyes, this seemed to almost pull the tears out of my eyes. But then she responded.

"You saved both of us...I think that's all that matters." She said, then ran in to hug me, I returned the favor.

"Um...this is nice and all, but were about to get swarmed." Loose Screw said as she pointed down the hill at the dozen ponies charging up the hill.

"Loose Screw, take this." I said as I levitated my shotgun over to her with all the shells I had left. Then I picked up the larger shotgun off the ground and looted any rounds I could find. Then I picked up the small gun off the ground I wiped off all the blood with the best of my ability and gave it to Treble. I noticed my pipbuck labeled it as 10mm pistol. I guess it was safe for earth pony use without the need of a battle saddle. She refused at first.

"Only if you have to?" I suggested.

"Promise." She responded as she grabbed the pistol in her mouth. We all then took cover on the larger rocks and prepared for the living hellstorm we were all about to go through.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Extreme Focusing

You fight and react well under pressure. Your magic and senses are now stronger when in a firefight or life or death situation.

Chapter 9: The first of many

Cyber's Point of View

This...was horrifying. I could hear bullets hitting all around me. Every time one hit the rock Treble and I was behind I could feel it. Every time one flew above me, it seemed to make a noise I have never heard before, it was comparable to something of an extremely quick burst of high powered wind going by your ear. Every time it happened I nearly shit myself. Treble was nearly frightened stiff, I was constantly having to snap her back into reality. Loose Screw, despite her death defying injuries, was right there with me. We were constantly peeking up and blindly firing rounds down the hill. Hell, I don't even know if Loose Screw's sawed off shotgun was reaching the raiders. At least the blizzard was dying down, I could finally see more then ten feet in front of me. I'm assuming that we were all low on bullets. I only had seven shots left.

"How many shells you have Screw?" I asked, she was currently laying on her back behind a fallen tree about twenty feet away from the rock Treble and I were at.

"Six shells, so I have three shots left. I think I'm just wasting shots though, they don't seem to reach!" She yelled back. "Is Treble even shooting?"

I looked over sat Treble, she was shaking her head back and forth. Eyes wide open.

"No, I told her she wouldn't have to, remember." I responded as I popped back up and sent another round down the hill, this time I think I hit a raider in the front legs as he fell over in pain. Nine shots left.

"We need to wait for them to get close!" Loose Screw yelled.

This was smart. These shotguns didn't seem to have range on them whatsoever, but then I remembered Trebles 10mm pistol. I may not know much about guns, but it was worth a try.

"Treble, can I see your gun?" I asked, it didn't take much for her to give it up.

I levitated the gun over and checked to see how many shots I had, but first I had to find where the bullets went in this thing. The shotgun was simple, you just simply slid shells into an obvious slot on the bottom. However this thing didn't have a slot like the shotgun, just a trigger, sights, and a few buttons. One button was labeled SAFE and FIRE, it was currently on FIRE, probably smart to keep it there. The other button was just a small circle, I guess it didn't hurt to push it. The worst it could do was just make the gun not work or something. I pushed the button...then out came a small, rectangular box from the bottom of the pistol...and it was filled from the bottom to the top with bullets.

I slid the rectangle back in...backwards at first, but I figured it out. Then I popped up from behind the rock and aimed the sights directly at the chest of a raider armed with what looked to be a pitchfork with only one point, a crazed smile on her face as she charged upwards towards us. I squeezed the trigger with my magic, and the gun popped. It was quitter then the shotgun and had much less kick, yet it definably had more range then a shotgun. I guess that shotguns were for up close encounters when you needed to drop something with a single shot, yet completely useless at longer distances. This pistol, however, had significantly more range, but much less power. I needed to put another shot into the raider's chest to drop her for good.

"What is that?" I heard Loose Screw yell from her tree.

"It's that 10mm pistol we got from that raider. I have a plan now, I'll get the one's at a distance, you take them out if they get to close." I yelled as I dropped another charging raider around thirty yards down the hill.

"Sounds good! I'll just wait here." She responded.

Then I looked over at Treble.

"Were gonna be okay." I said.

"Promise." She asked, her voice was trembling. I was surprised there was a few tears in her eyes.

"Would never lie." I said as I popped back up from the rock and dropped another raider, this time my first shot missed and I needed an additional two shots to kill the raider.

I noticed that we now had five out of the original twelve raiders that started charging towards us dead, so that meant seven were left.

"Only seven left!" I yelled over to Loose Screw.

"Good, let's end this quick!" She responded.

I popped up yet again and popped off three shots, killing another raider. But this time my 10mm's slide that ejected the empty bullets stayed back instead of going back forward like it usually did. This startled me, I thought my gun broke, but then I looked inside the slide, there wasn't any bullets left in the gun. I guess that was how you knew to put more bullets in.

I hunkered down behind the rock and started looking for more 10mm bullets. I used my magic to pull over the corpse of the raider that we got the pistol off of, then started searching for any type of bullets I could find.

He had seven 10mm rounds laying in the bottom of his torn up saddle bags, and four rounds that my pipbuck labeled 7.62 NATO ROUNDS. I had no clue what kind of gun these went to, but it must have been powerful as the round was every bit as long as the 12g shotgun shells, yet they looked to be in the same style brass casing as the 10mm pistol. I would have to inspect these later, I stuck them in my saddle bags and started to reload the pistol.

I removed the small rectangular bullet holder and started sliding all seven bullets in the top of the box, then sliding it back into the pistol. As soon as the bullet box went in the gun, the slide shot forward. I was now ready to shoot again, but then I heard Loose Screw pop off a shot. Did the raider's already get that far up here? I peeked over at Loose Screw's downed tree, there was one raider laying on the tree nearly headless. Another behind the tree...on top of Loose Screw. She was screaming in pain, and those screams where nearly drowned out by insane, maniacal laughter. I looked up from my rock and popped off four shots, two raider's fell, one with another 10mm pistol, another with a shovel.

"Stay here Treble." I said as I gave her my baton. "If you have to, aim for the head. It will only knock them out, I promise." I told her as I flipped down the mask on her riot helmet. "I'll be right back, Screw needs help."

"You sure it won't kill them?" She said, her voice was loud and worrying.

"Yes." I said as I turned and ran over to Loose Screw's tree, picking up my shotgun off the ground along the way.

As I was running over, I felt a bullet hit me directly in the side. It stung like hell, but I have never been so grateful for armor in my life. I think it stopped the bullet just enough to not pierce the plating. I simply shook it off and made it the rest of the way to the tree.

As I charged in I head-butted the raider on top of Loose Screw, causing him to fall over on the ground. I was again thankful for my helmet. I quickly pushed the barrel of the shotgun on his chest, then pulled the trigger. More blood splattered the snow under us...then I noticed all the blood on his mouth, then I looked at Loose Screw. The metal piece that was originally stuck in her eye with dried up blood and puss was now lying next to her, blood surrounding it...and around Loose Screw's head. The raider literally ripped it out...for fun...just like Loose Screw had said, raider's were heartless bastards who would rather kill you for fun. They deserved death.

She wasn't dead, but she was definably unconscious. I levitated her up onto my back and ran back over to Treble, another round nearly hitting me on the way. But I made it. Treble was fine, she was still in the same position as when I left, except now a baton was clenched in her teeth. I laid Loose Screw in the snow, blood dipping and oozing out of her eye socket. I was actually glad that she was passed out, I wouldn't want anyone to be conscious in that state.

"2 left, I'll get them." I said to Treble. "You see if you can patch her up at all if you can."

"Okay, that I can do." Treble said as she started crawling over to Loose Screw.

I peeked back over the rock, 1 of the final two raiders where climbing up the hill with a knife clenched in her mouth. I picker her off with one clean headshot. I couldn't find the other though, maybe he or she went back into the barn. I stood up completely to get a better view, no raider in sight...except for one peeking his head out of the barn's main entrance.

"You're not hiding from me." I said as a carefully aimed the pistol, angling the sight's slightly above the raider's head. Then pulled off two shots...the raider fell...headshot. That was it...we won...none of us were dead, but we where all scared...some more then others.

"That's all! We have to get to the barn, come on. I'll get Loose Screw, you follow me." I said to Treble.

"Okay. Lets go." She said.

I put the 10mm pistol in my saddle bag and attached the larger shotgun to my riot gear. Then I levitated Loose Screw back on top of me, then ran down the hill to the barn as fast as I could without Screw falling off. At least she was still breathing.

Treble and I walked up to the barn entrance, the dead raider laying in front with a small bullet wound in his skull. I walked in to observe the barn, laying Loose Screw down in a corner as I walked through the rest of the barn to see if there was any raiders we missed. I walked into what I thought was the kitchen, looking around for any food or supplies. Found a few things labeled STIMPAKS lying on the counter, when I picked them up I noticed my pipbuck sorted them under a file called MEDICAL. I guess we could at least see if they helped Loose Screw. I walked into another room

*BANG*

I jumped and pulled out my shotgun, turning to see a raider cowering in the corner. I put a shot into his skull, popping it like a balloon. Treble came running in.

"Are you......." There was a pause, followed by a horrifying look on her face.

"What?" I asked......but then I felt an extremely sharp pain in my side that made my heart skip a beat.

I looked down to be greeted by tons of blood leaking out of my riot gear...the shot made it through. I looked at Treble

"I...I'll be...okay." I said...then I passed out.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Sniper

When aiming at a alone target, your magic allows you to perform headshots with ease.

Chapter 10: The First Night

Cyber's P.O.V

I collapsed to the ground as the pain shot through my whole entire chest and stomach area, my shotgun completely falling out of my levitation spell in the process. I could feel myself getting weaker by the second. I went and looked around, seeing Treble and Loose Screw standing over me talking...except I couldn't hear anything they were saying. There lips were moving, just nothing was heard...that's when I realized that I couldn't hear anything either. I was starting to black out, my vision was getting blurry, I was coughing up blood, yet worst of all of this was seeing Treble crying over me whenever I could see. I couldn't do anything about it either. I kept trying to move, to talk, to at least make a damned sound. But still, nothing would work, all I could do was lay there and semi-watch as Treble and Loose Screw tried to figure out what to do. I moved my head so I could at least see what I was just shot with. On the ground was yet another gun I have never seen before. It was around the size of my shotgun, yet it seemed to have an external box that the bullets went that was sticking out of the bottom of the gun. It also had, what looked to be, something that resembled a small telescope on the top of it. I'm sure all these things had names and some sort of gun nut would call me out on it, but that doesn't matter now.

I tried standing...nothing. Then at least tried to talk...still nothing. I was starting to think that the bullet pierced something vital, and that thought alone just made everything worse. I was literally useless right now. And every time I looked at Treble, she was laying next to me...weeping. Yet another unsettling thought. I knew that if I died out here, Treble and Loose Screw would to. However, that thought also fueled a fire inside me. It forced me to do something instead of just lye here and bleed out. I used what magic energy I had left to levitate over the needle I had found earlier. This alone seemed to drain everything I had. I noticed that Treble and Loose Screw were now sitting back, watching.

The needle was now up to my eyes, from what I could tell, it was labeled a STIMPACK. I had no clue what it did, but I knew it was medical. So this could be a number of things. It could kill me, it could give me energy, it could simply fix everything. I had no clue, but I had to take a chance. It was either that, or die. I levitated the needle down to the hole in my riot gear, then shoved it into the wound. This probably would have stung like a bitch, but I was already to numb to feel anything. I used my magic to push the plunger on the needle down, all it's liquid going into the wound, then I removed it, and relaxed as I waited for something to take affect...and it didn't take long.

I felt sudden energy and feeling start to return to my body. My vision started going back to normal. My hearing suddenly wasn't as muted like before. I could breath normally now. I guess these things helped. I used my new energy to roll from my side to my stomach, then sitting up, pain shooting through my side where the bullet entered. Treble and Loose Screw rushed to my side to keep my upright.

"Cyber!" I heard Treble scream. "Your okay!"

"I...I guess you could say that." I responded, my speech still kindove slurred due to me being out of breath.

"You can do stuff now, but you sure as hell aren't okay. The bullet didn't pass through completely, it's still in you." Loose Screw said.

"Great...I'm assuming it can't stay there either?" I responded.

"Afraid not, we need to get you to a doctor." Loose Screw said.

"We should hold off until tomorrow though, it's dark out." Treble said.

"What, you afraid of the dark." Loose Screw responded.

"No, it's freezing out there. You said it yourself, we wouldn't make it out here at night." Treble quickly responded.

"I don't recall ever saying that!" Loose Screw said.

"You said something similar!" Treble responded.

"DID NOT!" Loose Screw yelled, her loud voice seeming to return.

"Look...I'm agreeing with Treble here. We stay here tonight, go to your place tomorrow. Okay?" I say.

"Good." Treble says.

"Fine." Loose Screw adds in, she sounded annoyed.

"Now, can we all just find a place to lay?" I said. "I really want to lay down right now."

"Yea, come on. I saw a room over here before you...you know..." Treble said, stopping mid sentence.

"Got shot?" I said, finishing it for her.

"Yea." She said, blushing slightly.

Loose Screw walked off to a room next to the one that I got shot in and laid down on a pile of straw that was neatly placed in the corner of the room. Treble and I went into the one next to it. It was pretty much the same as the one Loose Screw went in. A small, rectangular room that had a pile of straw in the corner. The only difference being that this room had a dresser with a cracked, dusty mirror in it. I limped over to the dresser and opened it, seeing a tan winter duster neatly folded inside. I pulled it out with my teeth then levitated it up with my magic so I could unfold it. It was way to small for me, but then I remembered saying I would get Treble something that wasn't drenched in blood.

"Hey Treble." I said.

"Yea." She responded from the makeshift straw bed.

"It's not blood soaked, think this will work for you?" I asked.

"You know...it's perfect." She responded.

"Come here then, I'll help you get in on." I said.

"No, I can do it. You need to rest." She responded.

"I'm fine. Now come here, lets get you out of that nasty thing." I said.

Treble smiled, then stood up and lightly trotted over to me in probably the cutest way I have seen.

"What was that?" I jokingly asked.

"My happy walk." She responded.

"Your what?" I chuckled as I started undoing all the straps on her riot gear.

"Shut up." She responded, nudging my shoulder with her hoof.

"Just messing with you...it was cute though." I said.

"That's what I was going for." She said, holding her head up with some weird sense of pride...which was even cuter.

"Well it worked." I responded as I started sliding off all the gear.

I started with the helmet, then the leg and hoof guards, then the chest piece. Then I slid the duster on her.

"How is it?" I asked.

"A little loose, but I think it will work. It's warm though." She said, smiling ear to ear.

"Good. It's a winter duster, if it wasn't warm then theirs a problem" I said, but then I thought about protection. That thing was just leather with a thick lining on the inside for winter. It probably didn't protect against anything.

"Wait here, I'm going to get something." I said.

"Be quick." She responded as she walked back to the straw bed.

I walked out of the room and into the room where I got shot. Once inside I walked over to the mare's corpse, the same one who shot me. I looked at her armor. It was a finely crafted leather chest piece and front hoof guards. I figured that would be light, and at least protect against small weapons fire, plus it somehow had nearly zero blood on it. I removed the gear from the corpse and started heading back to the room, but then I remembered the weapon that I was previously curious about. I turned and levitated the weapon off the ground, a note popped up on my pipbuck.

AK47 ASSAULT RIFLE ADDED TO INVINTORY

Well, now I knew what it was called. An AK47. I started to observe it so I could see how it worked. It had a trigger, obviously, a safety switch, a bullet box release, it was pretty much the same as the 10mm pistol, just much bigger. I released the bullet box to see what kind of rounds it took. Once I took it out I saw a vary familiar type of round. I removed one out of the bullet box and levitated out one of the 7.62 NATO ROUNDS that a found earlier so I could compare them. They were exactly the same.

"Well I'll be damned." I said to my self as I levitated out the rest of the 7.62 bullets and put them into the bullet box, then slapped it into the AK47. My pipbuck said I had a total of 26 7.62 bullets, and unless I was right on the money, the AK47's bullet box could hold even more bullets then that. I walked over to the corpse to see if I could find more 7.62 bullets, and I did. But instead of just finding some spare bullets here and there, I found two full bullet boxes for the gun!

"Hell yea." I said, but then I realized that when I picked them up, my pipbuck labeled the bullet boxes as AK47 MAGAZINES. Now I felt stupid, this whole time I have been calling these things bullet boxes, they were actually called magazines...good job Cyber, dad would be proud. I also saw that the magazines could hold up to 30 rounds each. I removed the magazine I had in the gun and then put in a full one for safe measures. Then a slid the two magazines into my right saddle bag. I think I figured how I was going to organize my saddle bags from now on. I will use the right one for magazines and bullets, and the left for pretty much anything else. I guess I had three guns now, an AK47, a 12g pump shotgun, and a 10mm pistol. I had to say that it did way me down a bit, but not enough for me to want to get rid of one. I was built like an Earth pony thanks to my dad, and had the magic skill of my mother. I guess I got lucky when it came to the gene pool.

I hung the AK47 right next to my shotgun and 10mm pistol, then walked back into the room Treble was in.

"Got something to help with protection." I said.

"What's that?" She said from the straw bed.

"My pipbuck says it's called a leather tunic, I figured it would be better bullet protection if you wore it under the duster." I said. "It's up to you if you want to wear it though."

"Is it blood soaked?" She asked.

"No." I responded "It actually looks pretty clean."

"Then put it on." She said. "I guess it wouldn't be smart to go around without any sort of armor at all."

"That was my logic behind it." I said as she walked over, slipping off the duster.

I put the leather tunic and fore hoof guards on her, it actually looked like it was all meant to be worn like that as it all had the same leathery brown color. Once it was all strapped down I slid the duster over it all. Now it really looked like a complete outfit.

"What do you think?" Treble said.

"Well...you actually look pretty badass." I said, we both chuckled.

"Alright...I guess we should get to sleep." Treble said.

"Agreed." I responded.

"But don't think I'm letting you in this straw bed with all those guns hanging off you." She said.

"I didn't plan on it." I responded as I took all the weapons off of my riot gear, including my riot shield battle saddle. I was probably going to ditch the riot shield anyway. With all the damage it took before, it was pretty much useless. I then took off the riot helmet and walked over to lay with Treble.

I laid down beside her, we faced each other and simply stared into each other's eyes.

"I guess that's day one." Treble quietly said.

"I guess so...you think it might get any worse then this." I asked.

"More then likely." She responded. "But lets just deal with that once we face it."

"Agreed." I said. "Well...good night babe, love you."

"Forgetting something?" She asked, it didn't take long for me to get the memo.

We both shut our eyes as we leaned in for a kiss...the first one in a while, we made it last as long as possible. We finally released.

"Love you too." She said as we both closed our eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Every last Round

You are more likely to find bullets and magazines on fallen foes and in containers.

Chapter 11: Early Rising

Cyber's P.O.V

It was now somewhere around 4 AM maybe. I haven't been able to sleep sense I woke up about an hour or so ago. Treble was still passed out lying in the same position as when we first dosed off, and I think I could here Loose Screw lightly snoring from the next room over. Treble and I were still lying on our sides, noses touching and front hooves together. I could feel every single small breath she took, and I would be lying if I said it wasn't adorable. I didn't want to move as I didn't want to wake her up, and I had a feeling that sleep like this was rare in this wasteland of a place. I was fairly uncomfortable though, this riot gear wasn't exactly cushiony on the inside either. I attempted to move a bit, but was stopped when I heard Treble start mumbling in her sleep. I thought she was waking up, but I guess she was just dreaming. I needed to stand desperately, and it would probably be best if I did it before my legs went numb.

I started to slowly move away from Treble. She started mumbling again, she was definably dreaming, no doubt about it. Sounded like a good dream to me, she was breathing heavy, rapidly talking, sweating, or anything like that. It was probably best if I let her sleep as long as possible, I was just already fully awake.

I finally managed to get into a standing position after about five minutes. It felt good to stand and Stretch. I for sure wasn't going back to sleep, so I needed something to do. I guess I could start by ditching that riot saddle. It was useless now, some of the plastic was missing on the shield, what was left was mainly shredded or filled with holes. I levitated the riot saddle over to me and started undoing the bolt holding down the shield. It wasn't long until the shield was lying on the floorboards. Upon looking at the saddle I noticed another slot for another mechanical arm to attach something to. This gave me a brilliant idea. I could modify the riot saddle to hold two weapons. One side a ranged weapon like that AK47 I found, and the other for close quarters like the pump shotgun. The mouth part that activated the mechanical arms did have two pressure points, and that meant that it was completely possible to mount another weapon on it, and be able to fire each one separately. I still needed another mechanical arm for this to work though. I guess I could go ahead and mount at least one of them for now. I levitated the saddle and my weapons in front of my eyes, observing my options.

The pistol really wasn't worth mounting as it could be just as easily drawn out of my saddle bags just as quick. And the AK47 probably took more focus to aim, so I decided to go with the shotgun. I let the AK and pistol out of my levitation spell and then started screwing the shotgun to the mechanical arm by it's seeming universal weapon holder. And Celestia damn, it was a perfect fit. I locked the arm in place so it wouldn't fly in front of me like the shield did, and then attached the trigger mechanism to the trigger of the shotgun. I slid the battle saddle on and tied the straps down, then emptied out the shells in the shotgun so I could at least test the mechanism without having to waste any shotgun shells. I grabbed onto the mouth piece and then bit down on the left side, I was then greeted by a soft clicking noise of an empty shotgun.

"It works!" I softly, yet excitedly said to myself as I loaded some shells into the shotgun and undid the new and improved riot saddle...guess it was more of a battle saddle now.

I undid the straps on the battle saddle and then laid it with the rest of my weapons, again as softly as I could without making so much noise to wake up Treble. I looked over at her, she was still passed out. She was probably exhausted, we all were. But it probably didn't help that Treble wasn't exactly built for this kind of stuff. It's not like she's not tuff, it's more just that she war barely able to kill a bug back in the Stable, I could barely imagine her having to kill somepony. I don't think she could handle that, and that was why I was here. So she didn't have to. She was perfectly fine that I had to kill, but that was only because she wouldn't have to as long as I was around. Maybe I could give her something nonlethal if I find it. Like a tazer or something, yea, something like that wouldn't would work. I know she wouldn't give two shits if she had to simply hurt somepony that was after her. I guess something like that was the next thing on my scavenge list.

"C...Cyber...is that you?" I heard from behind me, it was Treble.

"Shit! Did I wake you up? Sorry." I said.

"No...your fine." She said, rubbing her eye with her hoof as she stood up. "Just woke up from a good sleep."

"That's good, but were you dreaming or something?" I asked.

"No, why?" She responded, her voice was still low and monotone.

"You were mumbling In your sleep. I was just wondering." I said.

"Was I really? Could you understand any of it?" She asked.

"No, it was pretty much just light gibberish." I responded.

"Oh, alright then. Is Loose Screw up yet?" She asked.

"I am now." I tired Loose Screw said from behind us.

"Hey...didn't know you were up. You okay...your eyes still a little...uhh....jacked up." I said.

"I'm good, used that other stimpack you found. Heeled it up enough to get me moving again." She said. "You two ready to head out, we got a good walk ahead of us."

"You ready Treble?" I asked.

"Yep." She responded.

"Alright then. Let me get my stuff real quick." I said as I levitated over my battle saddle and strapped it to my back, then hung the AK47 off my said by a sling and then stuck the 10mm pistol in my saddle bags.

"Let's go." I said.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Jury Rigger

You can scavenge parts from most items and use them to fix similar items or craft custom weapons.

This only applies to weapons, battle saddles, and armor

Chapter 12: Traveling

Cyber's Point of View

"So...any description of exactly wear your leading us?" I asked Loose Screw as we blindly followed to an unknown location without any sort of hint as to if this place was actually safe...or even worth it for the fact.

"Look Cyber...I know ponies there. They can help." She responded, resisting eye contact as she continued to trot up the now corpse filled hill that we came from.

"Like who?" Treble said from behind me.

"There's a few ponies there I know, specifically one known as Clicks. Or at least that's what everyone wants him to be called." She said, still avoiding any eye contact as she led our small pack.

"What kind of relation do you have with this clicks mare?" I asked out of curiosity...yet this was the thing that made her stop in her tracks. "What?" I said, slightly cocking my head to the side.

"What makes you think Clicks is a mare?" She said, a hint of ignorance and pain in her voice.

"Well...for every five ponies, one is a colt. Just common math I was taught back in the Stable." I said. "It's a common mistake."

I looked over at Treble, and she looked just as confused as me as to why she was getting so mad at this.

"Is that what that's about?" She responded.

"Yeah...did you sleep through classes or something?" Treble said. She was always the straight A student.

"Some don't get to take those classes." She said, her voice going from slight anger to a small, inner sadness as she shifted her head downwards.

"Well why didn't you?" Treble asked...this conversation obviously wasn't leading somewhere good, so I was just going to sit this one out and let Treble have a go at it.

"Well...by the time I was old enough to go into kindergarten I didn't have parents to sign the forms to let you take school classes...that's how I got stuck in maintenance." She said, turning and starting to continue walking. I could tell by her voice that talking about that hurt her. I would of tried to make this conversation completely if I would of known anything about Loose Screw's past.

"Oh...um...sorry, I didn't know." Treble said, backing up and lowering her head as she drifted towards me.

"It's fine...is there anything else you want to know so we never have to talk about this again." She said.

"So...your letting us ask anything?" I asked, I mean...it would be nice to know more about her.

"Yeah...as long as you can walk and talk at the same time." She said, her mood seeming to rapidly shift.

Damn...where do I start.

"So...umm...what where your parents names?" I shyly asked.

"Well...moms name was Broken metal...and dad, well he's been dead sense mom was pregnant with me. She never told me his name because I was only four when she passed away do to radiation poisoning. I was to young to even know to ask questions then, so I never knew what happened to dad or even knew his name." She said, yet she more sounded like she didn't give a shit rather then deep sadness.

"Well...thanks for sharing. Means a lot." I said.

"Yes...thank you." Treble added.

"No problem. Anything else?" She asked.

"Well...how long untill we get there?" Treble asked.

"Umm...about..." She was cut off.

"How about wherever your going...we all just forget about." An unknown, cheerful, charming, yet ridiculously rude voice said from our far right.

I quickly turned towards the voice, the shotgun battle saddle's pressure switch clenched in my teeth, and faced a pony that was not only frightening looking, yet still had a large hint of mystery to him. What threw me off was the fact that he was alone, no pony else in sight.

"State your business." I said to the male Earth pony as he creeped out of a thick patch of bushes.

He had a gray coat with a greyish blue mane, and a scarf to match that draped over his front right hoof to hide whatever was under there. You could barely see his face, just his blood red eyes...also with a grey tint. His cutie mark was slightly scratched out and scared, but I could make out a wrench behind an oddly placed skull that really just didn't belong.

"State yours." He says.

"You first, I'm a man of trade when it comes to questions and answers." I say, trying to sound smart.

"Well that makes two of us, now doesn't it?"  He smiled as he removed the scarf from his front right leg. This revealed what looked top be a gun with multiple barrels...however it wasn't tied to his leg or in a holster, but instead seemed to be a part of him...like it literally was the lower part of his leg from the knee down.

"What the fuck is that!?" I say, I heard Treble gasp behind me.

He started looking around like he was confused, then started focusing on a rock that was lying next to his gun.... leg.... thing.

"That's a rock dumbass...I thought you unicorns where smart...pity." He says.

This threw me off a bit, then I noticed the small rock lying next to his leg...that's when he raised it and pointed it at me. The multiple barrels started spinning, I knew this wasn't good. I took an abrasive stance and waited for something top happen, but then Loose Screw stepped out in front of me.

"Clicks! Calm yourself, they're with me." She yelled.

Chapter 13- Clicks

Cyber's Point of View

What the hell did Loose Screw just say? I think I heard Clicks...did I? I mean if this was Clicks he would have noticed Loose Screw and came out to help, not commence more violence. Or did Loose Screw have an unfriendly past with Clicks that we just didn't know about.

"Come on Clicks. Put that thing away, you know we mean no harm." Loose Screw said.

"I don't know, your armored friend over there says otherwise." Clicks quickly responded, he was definably quit witted.

"That armored friend is just running on instinct, he's a protector, not a fighter." Loose Screw said. I liked the idea of protector, not fighter.

"Is that so? What, is he protecting the small one cowering behind him?" Clicks said, gesturing to Treble with his gun hoof.

"Look Clicks. We where just heading for a place to stay that Loose Screw told us about. Could you maybe let us head there?" I said, refusing to let my guard down in the slightest.

"Oh but that's just it my friend. I run that place...did Screws here fail to mention that?" He said, Loose Screw's ears fell down beside her head. She was probably nervous, I didn't blame her. All that aside, that is something she should have told me.

"Do you think we can get to that place then. Were not known to cause trouble." I said.

"All those dead raiders back there say otherwise." He responded.

How the hell would he know that. Has he been following us this whole time? I guess I could add that to the seemingly, and quickly, growing list of reasons I didn't like this guy.

"But they're raiders! Does it really matter." Treble blurted from behind me.

"No...no it doesn't. But to those raiders you killed definably made it look like you like to cause trouble, doesn't it?" He said, I guess he was also a smart ass. Down on the imaginary list that goes. "Just imagine it this way, all those raiders were minding there own business and you just came along and murdered every last one of them. One even got a lucky shot in, didn't seem to do any good though...now did it?" He continued. There's no way he knew that I almost died back there. How close has this guy been to us the last few days?

"Look...can we just leave." Treble said.

"Absolutely!" He said...it couldn't be that simple. Loose Screw and I even looked at him with large amounts of disbelief.

"Really?" Treble said with joy and confusion in her voice.

"Of fucking course not!" He yelled with a happy tune and a slight chuckle to follow. I knew it didn't make any sense. I guess he likes to fuck with ponies as well.

"But...you said" Treble was cut off.

"Don't believe what I say honey." He said, Treble went back to her scared state and hid behind me.

I have had about enough of this, but I couldn't just kill him. Loose Screw sure wouldn't be happy and this place we where heading to would shoot us on sight if we came back with there leaders blood on us. We needed a compromise, and soon.

"Look Clicks, we just want a place to say. So how about we make a deal?" I asked, Treble and Loose Screw looked at me in an unsure way.

"And what would that be my friends?" He says, bringing his hoof gun up to his face and rotating the multiple barrels.

"There has to be something you need done in return for shelter at your place." I said, waiting for a response. All three of us stared at Clicks with great intent.

The pause lasted forever as we all stood in the cold weather, not as cold as when the blizzard when we first exited the stable, but still cold. Clicks just continued to rotate the eight barrels on his hoof in a counter clockwise motion as he thought. You could hear the gears turning through the heavy winds of the snow filled wasteland.

"I do have something for you actually." He said, I think everypony's ears perked up at this moment. "I have some groups of ponies here and there that pay my organization for protection. As you can probably tell, there late on there payments. Pick them up for me, and you can stay."

"That's it? Just go pick up some cash for you and bring it back and we can stay at your place?" I said.

"Yep. A whole week of shelter for each payment you get for me." He said.

"Wait! Only a week! What kind of shit is that!" I yelled, I felt Treble tap my side to calm down.

"Yea...what? Did you think one measly chore would allow you to permanently stay at my place. Oh hell no buddy. Each payment equals a week of shelter. Considering my organization covers around 100 places or so that pay monthly, it shouldn't be that bad. Just pick a place each week, it'll take around three days to get the money and bring it back, then get the rest of the week to stay. Simple, so do you except or not?" He asked. This was one helluva decision to make. I needed a vote on this one.

"Treble, Loose Screw, huddle, were voting on this one." I said, Treble came from behind me to my side and Loose Screw came to my other.

"What do you guys think?" I asked. "Do you think it's worth it?"

Loose Screw spoke up first. "Well, I've worked with him before. He's at least a stallion of his words. Plus, his organization is fairly known around the wasteland to be taken seriously. If we become known as his errand runners, nopony would dare mess with us as we wondered the wasteland. I say we do it."

"What about you Treble?" I asked.

"Everything Loose Screw said does seem beneficial. I just say we avoid pissing this guy off." She said, we all looked over at him. He was currently just staring at us with a sly look on his face. We went back into the huddle.

"I say we go for it." I said. We all shook our heads and looked back towards Clicks.

"Were in. Where's the first place were heading?" I said.

"Well..." Clicks said as he stuck his snout into his saddle bags and pulled out an old, burnt piece of paper. "I'll leave that decision to you." He said as he passed the paper to me.

I unfolded it to reveal a map of every place that Click's organization protected circled in black. What stood out was a small red x in the upper right corner of the map that marked Click's HQ. Nice to know.

"So...where are we?" Treble asked.

That was a really good question. The stable wasn't exactly on the map anyway, so where we were on the map was unknown.

"Hey Clicks, where exactly are we?" Loose Screw asked.

"Why don't you check your hoof traps." He said, gesturing to our pipbucks.

I didn't respond, but instead looked at the map on my pipbuck. I was surprised to what I saw. Every marked location on the map was now on the map on my pipbuck, all marked with a square. It had everything right, even the places names. It even showed where we where, now could see what one was closest to us. I slid the map into my saddle bag and walked over to Clicks.

"We'll be back." I said as the three of us started walking off, away from Clicks to do his dirty work. I guess that was one way to handle things.

FOOTNOTE

Level Up

New Perk: Cool headed

During conversations you are much calmer. You can now reason with enemies slightly better...without the use of violence that is.

Chapter 14: Observing

Cyber's Point of View

"So...where exactly are we heading?" Treble said from behind as I led our pack of three through the snow covered wasteland.

"Well...there happens to be a place close to us called 'The Bunker'. Not sure what it is, but my pipbuck sais it's a friendly place." I said.

"We should still keep our guard up. Whoever lives at this place doesn't know us, and when they do they'll know us as Click's errand runners. Sure they won't mess with us, but nopony is going to trust us either." Loose Screw said.

"Good point." I said.

"Maybe we should make a good impression when we get there before we go asking for money." Treble said.

"That might work." Loose Screw responded.

"Right, so we should at least talk to the town's ponies there before we go getting there money." I said.

"Okay...you know, this is going pretty smooth right now. Let's keep it this way." Treble said.

"I'd watch what you say babe, don't want to go jinxing anything now." I responded as I gave her a playful nudge on her forehoof with my own.

"Your probably right." She said with a small chuckle to follow.

There was a long pause in conversation. I guess I can take this time to observe my surroundings.

I began looking around as we walked to our destination. Nothing to out of the ordinary. I could guess that we were currently in what used to be a small forest. All that was here now was fried tree stumps and snow and ash covered soil. All wrapped up with a smell of gunpowder and a slightly stronger smell of radiation than usual. This was odd, I mean I know that radiation is around us 24 seven, but Unless you were close to a few ghouls or...shit. I hope that's not the case. It would really put a damper on things right now if a few ghouls turned up. I mean we could handle it, but it just would kill the mood. I should probably tell the others.

"Hey guys, might want to keep your guard up. The radiation is stronger through here. Might run into a few ghouls." I said as I checked to make sure I had a round in the chamber of all my guns.

"Good call." Loose Screw said.

"Agreed." Treble said right after.

There was another long pause, but it didn't take long for on of us to keep the conversation going.

"So...just a question...are you two, like, married or something?" Loose Screw randomly asked...this definably wasn't the type of conversation I was looking for, but I guess this is what the conversation was going to be.

"No...but we are dating." Treble said before I could speak up, not like our answers would have been any different though.

"Yea. We've known each other. Sense we were...what, like five or so?" I asked Treble.

"Somewhere in there. We've definably known each other sense we were just kids though." Treble responded.

"Weird." Loose Screw said.

"How's that weird?" I said.

"I mean...you two are complete opposites." Loose Screw replied.

"How's that?" Treble said.

"Well...um...you just are. I mean come on. Cyber..." She said, gesturing to me. "Your the one with brute strength, survival knowledge, fearlessness, you know how to take charge. And Treble...well, no offence, but your really none of that. You seem like the one who would rather talk then fight, run away from the danger instead of deal with it head on, and your definably not a fighter. So why do you two like each other so much?"

Well...that was a fascinating rant. I'm not sure either Treble or I knew a response to any of that. I think we were both equally confused on why Loose Screw wanted an answer to this so bad, and especially of why she just randomly brought it up now.

"Well...I guess opposites attract." Treble said, she was blushing slightly.

"You...two halves make a whole." I added in.

"I guess so." Loose Screw responded.

"So...um...do you think we could talk about something else." I said as this conversation was starting to get awkward.

"Sure, if you got something else to talk about." Loose Screw said.

Shit...I really didn't have anything else to talk about. And from the looks of it, neither did Treble. And I'm just assuming that Loose Screw was done with talking because we all drifted back into silence as we all went back to walking and listening to the sounds of the wasteland, which were currently light winds and an occasional howl from far away ghouls. I took this time to stop and look at my pipbuck to see how much closer we were to 'The Bunker' sense we left Clicks. We were in luck from the looks of it. At this rate we would be there in an hour or two.

"Hey guys, were almost th..." I was cut off.

"Sssshhhhhh! Listen." Loose Screw said.

"What?" I quietly said.

"Listen to our left, you hear that?" Loose Screw said.

I paused to see if I could hear what she was hearing. So far nothing, but I waited a bit longer until I could hear the sound of heavy footsteps coming our way. It was soon followed by a small, under the breath snarl that didn't sound friendly. And it wasn't long until we could all see a large silhouette of an unknown creature coming towards us.

"We should go." I said.

"Yep." Treble and Loose Screw responded as we all started jogging away from the creature.

We were trying our best to be light on our hooves. Whatever that thing was, it knew we were here. Every time we went to walk away, it would just slowly move towards us. It wasn't attacking or making any sudden movements, nothing that seemed suspicious about it. However a part of me wanted to get closer and see what it was. This may be a stupid idea, but the more we know about the creatures of the wasteland, the better.

"Guys...I think I'm gonna go in for a closer look." I quietly said as we all continued to lightly jog through the ruined forest.

"What? That's crazy." Treble said as I simotainiously got an 'are you crazy' look from Loose Screws.

"Look, we need to figure out anything we can about the wasteland. Whatever it is doesn't seem to be hostile, it's more like it's guarding something." I whispered.

"All the better reason to not get close to it." Loose Screw said.

"Yeah Cyber. Listen to her...listen to me." Treble said.

Fuck...this put me in a hell of a hole in the ground. I could go one of two ways with this. Either disobey my marefriend and go in for the closer look, or we continue walking until we reach The Bunker. This was one hell of a decision to make, and one that had to made quick.

"Alright...we keep walking to The Bunker, but if that thing charges or comes up on us, I'm fighting." I said, hoping this was a good enough compromise to get through to Treble and Loose Screw.

"Okay, that works. Lead the way." Treble said.

"No, I want to be in the back incase that thing charges at us. I don't want one of you to be its first target if it does." I say as I move to the back of our small group, in the process looking back to see if the creature was even still in our sight.

Sure enough, it was. As we continued trotting towards The Bunker the creature just seemed to remain the same distance away, almost as if it was observing us. It would only move when we did, and even then...it still remained the same distance away...an annoying distance at that, the damn thing was just far enough away so the dust and light snowfall would just make it look like a large, grey silhouette.

"Guys...I'm starting to think this thing isn't a ghoul or mutant at all." I whispered as we continued walking.

"Why's that?" Loose Screw responded.

"This things way to smart. It's been maintaining the same distance from us sense we first saw the damn thing, a normal ghoul or mutant would have charged towards first chance it gets. This thing is just observing us." I said, looking back once more.

"Are you saying it's another pony?" Treble added in.

"No...it's to big. But it is definably not any mutant or ghoul. Watch, this thing is gonna stop moving as soon as we do and just stand there." I say as I grabbed Treble's and Loose Screw's hind hooves to have them stop and watch.

"See, it just stops and watches. That thing may not be a pony, but it's definitely a living, breathing creature." I say, then look over to Treble. "Let me walk towards it."

"No Cyber...you heard what I said." Treble responded.

"Trust me Treble, what if it can help us?" I responded.

There was a long pause of thought, then a response.

"Fine...but if it attacks, your not fighting, your gonna come right back here and were gonna get to The Bunker safe and sound." She said, her voice demanding and serious.

"Promise. I'll be back in a minute. And if were lucky...I might be coming back with a new friend." I said as a began to slowly walk towards the creature.

I can't say I wasn't nervous as I walked towards the creature. It didn't help that it didn't seem startled at all, the damn thing just stood there as I walked closer. It was definitely bigger then I was, at least two times the size. It wasn't long until I could see details. It wasn't just a very large creature. It was indeed wearing a makeshift full suit of armor made of what looked to be metal scraps. It had a helmet that covered it's whole head and had tubes coming from each side of the helmet leading into two tanks on it's back. I stopped going towards it once I was easily twenty feet away from it. I guess speaking is my next best bet.

"So...uh...sir...mam...is there something you want?" I asked.

No response, just a blank stair through it's reflective visor as it stood over me.

"Well...can you at least tell me why you've been following us?" I asked.

Still no response. One more try, then I'm out.

"Well...what's your name. I'm Cyber." I said, hoping I could at least get a name.

Still nothing...I began to turn and walk away, but then I heard soft noises of metal rubbing and hitting against each other. I turned and saw that the creature was now sitting on its hind legs. I walked back towards it.

"My names Cyber Bass...you mind telling me yours?" I said, then waited for a response.

"Dawnstar." A deep, metallic voice from inside the helmet of the creature.

Holy shit...it actually spoke.

"Say that again please...I didn't quiet catch that." I responded.

The creature went back to standing on all fours, then walked a bit closer to me, we were now face to face. Easily five feet away from one another. I could now make out everything on it's body other then what was actually inside the full suit of armor. The armor was definitely custom built and made from scavenged metal and steel. The helmet did have two pipes that led into a large tank on it's back, and what I originally thought were two tanks on it's back was instead one tank and an unknown weapon resting on it's back that resembled some sort of club hung by a custom built sling.

"Dawnstar...that's my name. Thank you for not attacking, most would. You didn't. I like that." It said, it's helmet must have a speaker in it to make speech louder as it was definitely metallic. A familiar sound from the microphones back at the Stable. "Cyber...was it?" It asked.

"Yes. Do...do you want to meet the other two?" I asked, not quite sure if I was going to regret asking that or not.

"Sure." He said as he looked at me as if he was waiting for me to move. At least he was patient and respectful.

I turned and started walking towards Treble and Loose Screw. Dawnstar's heavy, metal steps echoing behind me. How in the actual hell we didn't hear him approach us much sooner was beyond me. That aside, guess I could make conversation until we got there.

"So...Dawnstar. If you don't mind me asking...what exactly are you?" I asked.

"Specify." He quickly responded.

"Well...your not a pony...so what are you?" I asked.

There was a long pause.

"I'll tell you that once you earn it. And you already close due to not attacking." He said.

This was odd...why couldn't he tell us what he was. I mean its not like we will give a shit...then again, it's probably best we don't piss this guy off.

"Alright then...one last thing. What's that weapon on your back?" I asked, this was honestly one of my main concerns.

"It's a bomb." He said. "A nuclear bomb. Small, but nuclear." He said.

"Are you fucking serious?!" I said, attempting to keep my cool.

"Let me finish. It was disarmed when I found it, so I put a hole in the middle of it and filled it with concrete, then sealed it." He said. His voice was monotone and metallic.

"Why would you do that?" I asked.

"Makes a damn good club...and if a pony or raider sees you toting around a nuke...they tend to keep away." He responded.

I looked away from Dawnstar and noticed we were probably 20 feet away from Treble and Loose Screw. They were looking up at Dawnstar with the same look I was. I stopped and turned to Dawnstar.

"Look, can you sit here for a sec so I can tell them what's going on?" I asked.

I didn't get a verbal response, but instead a heavy thump as he sat back down on his hind legs. I guess this meant okay.

I walked over to Treble and Loose Screw, it wasn't long until they were bombarding me with questions.

"Why the hell did you bring it over here?" Treble asked.

"This might bite you in the ass Cyber." Loose Screw said.

"Look...he's cool. He's friendly. His name is Dawnstar, and don't ask what he is, he won't tell me." I said. "Just go talk to him, I think he's going to be a very good ally.

It may have taken a minute or two, but they did just that. It wasn't long until we had a new friend on our side, and a seemingly powerful one at that. Hopefully Clicks isn't going to charge us more for this.

Footnote

Level Up

New Perk: Smooth talker

Making friends is slightly easier now due to you learning to not have an itchy trigger hoof.

Chapter 15: Black Rose

Cyber's P.O.V

"Were almost there guys." I say as I look up from my pipbuck. "Should be there in around half an hour."

"Good, I've had enough walking for one day." Treble said.

"Actually, it's been about a day and a half." Loose Screw responded.

"No one likes a smart ass." Dawnstar said without making any eye contact, he just continued looking forward.

We all chuckled as Loose Screw gave him an 'Are you fucking kidding me' kind of look as he just continued looking forward, although I have a feeling he was smiling under that helmet. Can admit though, I am having trouble figuring out Dawnstar's personality. Sure, we've only known him for around an hour, if that, but usually it's pretty easy to figure that out. He is definitely a very straight forward kind of...machine? I really still don't know. All I knew abut his species was that he wasn't a pony, not much else. It would be nice to see him without all that armor on. It would have also been nice if the Stable's schools would have taught us about species other then domestic animals and insects. The only intelligent species we were taught about were none other then ponies themselves. And shit, that brings the thought that even if we do figure out Dawnstar's species, it really wouldn't help because we don't know jack shit about it! Maybe we could at least figure out more about Dawnstar until we got to 'The Bunker'.

"So...uh...how old are you Dawnstar? You have to at least be able to tell us that." I said, looking up at him.

"25." He responded.

"So you were born and grew up in the wasteland." Treble asked.

"Yea...pretty ruff childhood. Got my first stab wound at the age of six, first bullet wound the next day." He responded. I think it was the first time I heard his voice change in pitch.

"So ponies still kill children here?" Treble asked in a concerned voice, I guess this surprised her.

"You guys new to the Wasteland or something?" He asked, as if we were stupid...and at this point, we kindove were.

"Well...yea. Were from the Stables. Just got out not even a week ago." I responded.

"Your kidding right?" He responded.

"Nope." I said.

"You mind telling me what your doing all the way out here then?" He asked.

"Were on a cash run for Clicks." Loose Screw said before I could get the words out.

Instead of a response, Dawnstar just stopped in his tracks and started to scan all of us. I wasn't liking the looks of this.

"What?" I asked.

"Please tell me that's a cruel joke...or you at least have a reason of doing his...bidding." He said, his voice was now deeper then usual.

"Um...were doing it for shelter. We get his money, he let's us live at his place." I nervously said, Treble and Loose Screw slowly stepping behind me. I had my shotgun battle saddle at the ready.

"You don't do anything else for him...do you?" He asked.

"No...just that...please tell me you have a valid reason to get mad about this." I said.

"He doesn't exactly have a great reputation in the wasteland. At least you don't have a choice, but you can." He said, looking right towards me.

"What do you mean?" Treble said from behind me.

"I have a place you guys could stay. But you aren't working for Clicks if you do." He said.

"Normally I would take that offer in a heartbeat Dawnstar, but I don't think Clicks is the kindove pony you should turn your back on." I said.

There was another pause, he was thinking.

"Tell you what Cyber, you finish this one job, and this one only, then you ditch Clicks and find me." Dawnstar said.

Shit...now I had this to think about. Do I go with Clicks, the psychotic, feared business pony. Or do I go with Dawnstar, an unknown seemingly friendly creature that we just met not even an hour ago. Son of a bitch...this is a surprisingly difficult thing to think about. Sure, if we go with Dawnstar we won't have to go around and get money from ponies, but I could run the risk of having the most feared and dangerous group in the wasteland on my ass if I do this. I needed a vote on this one. I turned to Treble and Loose Screw.

"I need a vote on this one guys. You all know what our choices are and the pros and cons of both. We can either go with Dawnstar or keep doing Clicks work. Dawnstar is definitely friendly and doesn't want us doing anything for him, but Clicks might come after us if we stop doing his jobs. If we go with Clicks, Dawnstar will leave us. Help me decide here guys." I said, then waiting for a response.

"I pick Dawnstar." Treble said. "I just plain don't like Clicks, he scares me."

"I don't think very many do like him babe. What about you Loose Screw, what's your vote on this?" I asked.

She was putting more thought into this then Treble as she was staring at the ground, kicking at the dirt, ash, and snow under her hooves as she was thinking.

"Dawnstar is definitely the better way to go. But I would at least finish this one job like Dawnstar said and then go with him." She said.

"So, we all go with Dawnstar then after we finish the job?" I asked.

"Yep." Treble and Loose Screw responded.

I turned back to Dawnstar.

"You heard it. We finish this, then come with you." I said to Dawnstar.

"Alright then. I won't be joining you for this job though. I won't have anything to do with Clicks and his dirty work." He said, sticking out his...claws?

This was the first time I actually saw his feet as the snow was usually covering them. His front legs were claws...could just be due to his armor though.

"You going to shake my paw or not?" He asked...he may have just given away some information on what he was, but again, really didn't have the room to be guessing his species.

"Yea...sorry. Just trying to figure out what you are." I said as I stuck out my hoof and shook his armored 'paw'.

He chuckled "Tell you what, you gu8ys make it back to my place and I might just show you what I am."

"Then you bet your ass we'll be making it back to your place." I laughed. "But uh...where exactly is your place?"

"Shit...my bad. Let me see your pipbuck." He asked.

I lifted my pipbuck to him. He somehow managed to use his giant 'paws' to scroll through the map on my pipbuck. He stopped around the upper left corner of the my pipbuck's map and set a custom compass marker, then released my pipbuck.

"Whenever your done, head there. I'll be waiting for you. Oh...and take this, you might need it for those close encounters." He said as he reached behind him and pulled a gun out of a pouch that even I didn't spot on his armor.

"It's some sort of fancy gun a found. Judging from your arsenal, you seem like the type to use something like this." He said as he handed it to me.

I grabbed it and levitated it over to observe it. It was the largest gun I had, that's for sure. It reminded me of the AK47 I found back at the barn in how it was built, but it did have some major differences. Instead of having that black frame with wooden stock and pistol grip, the whole entire thing was completely black with very detailed engraving throughout the whole gun. Instead of the thirty round magazine that my AK47 had, this one had a very large drum looking magazine that obviously held many more bullets. The barrel was also a few inches longer then the original. I also noticed that the stock had 'Black Rose' engraved on the side in very fancy writing. I gently put it on the ground and then looked up at Dawnstar.

"Are you seriously giving me this?" I asked.

"Yea." He responded.

"Why?" I said.

"I'm not a gun kind of guy. I was gonna sell it, but you could get some use out of it. Just take it." He said.

I looked down at the firearm. It was the nicest gun I have seen in the wasteland so far, and will more then likely be the only nice gun a see. The fact that he just gave it to me was shocking.

"Thanks Dawnstar. We'll be back at your place in a few days, you have my word on that." I said, shaking his ginormous paw once more as I levitated Black Rose into the same jury rigged sling my AK47 was on.

"I'll hold you to that," He said as he turned and began walking way from us. He was soon out of sight.

We all turned back towards the direction of the bunker and began walking.

"I'm glad we met him." Treble said.

"Likewise." Loose Screw said.

"Oh yeah...do any of you want this AK47, or should we sell it?" I said, levitating the gun in front of me.

"I'll sure as hell take it. We can sell this shitty sawed off shotgun you gave me." She said as she put the sawed off in her other saddle bag and took the AK out of my levitation grip. "Here, take the shells, don't need them anymore, you can use them in the shotgun on your battle saddle."

"Thanks." I said as I put the shells into my 'Weapons and ammo' saddle bag. Shit, I hope Black Rose has rounds in it. Otherwise I just gave all my 7.62 rounds to Loose Screw.

I pulled Black Rose out of the sling and waited for my pipbuck to pull up how many rounds I had for it. I was surprised to see how many I now had. So not only did Dawnstar give me a very special gun, but he also have it to me with a full, 60 round drum magazine.

"Holy shit." I said to myself.

"What?" Treble responded.

"Nothing, we just need to get this done with and get back to Dawnstar. Were not abandoning him." I said.

"Well were gonna get done a lot quicker then we thought, because were here." Loose Screw said.

At first I didn't believe her, but then I looked up and saw a very large door sticking out of the ground. Upon seeing this I was greeted with an alert on my pipbuck.

NEW LOCATION DISCOVERED

THE BUNKER

Here we go.

Chapter 16- The Bunker

Cyber's Point of View

So...this was it? This was The Bunker? Just a door leading into the ground. It can't be very big on the inside, I mean it couldn't possibly be any bigger then The Stable...could it? The Stable was nothing but cramped rooms and claustrophobic hallways. Then again...who's to say? It's not like any of us have been in The Bunker before. And we for damn sure didn't have the wasteland status to be questioning anything out here. I guess our next step is to knock.

"Well guys...guess we should knock." I said as we began to walk towards the steel door.

For some reason I was nervous about this. We had no clue what was on the other side of this door, yet we where just walking right up to it, seemingly without a care in the world.

"Careful Cyber." I heard Treble say from behind me. Guess she was thinking the same thing.

As we step up to the door I lift up my hoof and give three strong knocks on the cold steel, then wait for a response. Seconds go by, soon minutes without a response.

"Should we knock again?" Loose Screw asked.

"I guess." I said as I lifted my hoof back up to the door, this time five strong knocks, then we waited.

Still nothing. Was no one hear? That doesn't make sense though. Why would a civilized place like this be empty? And shouldn't there be some of Click's guards out here, the place was paying for protection after all, yet it still seemed vacant.

"Something doesn't seem right about this." I said.

"Yea, its like no ones here." Loose Screw said.

"You don't think something happened...do you?" Treble asked.

"Actually...that's exactly what I think." I said.

"What do you mean?" Treble responded.

"Well. It's not like they would leave this place abandoned. It's suppose to be huge inside, meaning lots of people, which means there would be guards. I don't think any one is here, and if there is, I doubt we want to meet them." I said.

That seemed to make Treble shiver with fright. She definitely didn't like the idea of all the ponies who lived here to be dead, I don't think any of us did.

"The question is...do we go inside?" Loose Screw said.

It was a good question at that. Do we actually go in and see if we find any survivors, or do we go back and go ahead and tell Clicks we couldn't get the money. No...that's a bad idea, that couldn't possibly go well. Do we just not return? Do we go ahead to Dawnstar's place? I was really at a loss right now, hell...we still didn't even know whether or not there was ponies here, we were just making assumptions at this point.

"What do you two want to do?" I asked Treble and Loose Screw.

"What are our options?" Loose Screw responded.

"I have a few in mind. Either we go in, investigate for any survivors, and try to find the money in the process. Or we could just go ahead to Dawnstar's place. Or a combination of the two. We could just take a look inside, see if anypony is alive, then get out and head to Dawnstar's place when were done." I said.

"Well...the first one is preferred." Treble said.

"Yea, but there could be some good loot inside if no ponies here." Loose Screw said, her mind must be stuck on thinking this place is vacant.

"I personally want to at east try to take a look inside. It wouldn't hurt, the ponies that where here where friendly. Then we can get to Dawnstar's place." I said.

"But what will Clicks and his group do if he finds out we didn't get his money? That couldn't possibly end well." Treble said.

"We could fake our deaths." Loose Screw suggested. This was definitely an option.

"How do you propose we do that?" Treble asked.

"I think I could figure something out there." I said.

"And what would that be?" Loose Screw asked as Treble looked at me with a face of wonder.

"Well...if nopony is here then we could always destroy the place. He knows this was our current destination, so we could destroy it and not show up to his place and go straight to Dawnstar's. He'll come looking here first when he realizes we have been gone for far to long, see the place in ruins, then assume were dead. Simple as that." I said, taking pride in my suggestion.

"That might just work." Loose Screw said.

"It's evil...but not as bad as that Clicks guy." Treble said.

"So were going in?" I asked.

"I guess so." Treble said.

Loose Screw just nodded in agreement.

"Alright, now how do we get the door open." I said.

"I got this one." Loose Screw said as she stepped out in front of us and proudly pranced up to the door.

"What do you have planned?" I suspiciously asked.

"You'll see...might wanna take a few steps back though." Loose Screw said with a smirk across her face.

That didn't sound good. But yet we did just that. Loose Screw continued to glance back at us.

"What?" I asked.

"A few more." She said.

Yet again we listened. But this time watched as she reached back into her saddle bag and pulled out a medium sized, circular tin with a red button on the top and then strap it to the door with some industrial grade tape button side up.

"What is that?" Treble asked.

"You'll see!" She lightly yelled as she trotted back to us. "Alright...see that red button Cyber?"

"Umm...yeah." I responded.

"I want you to use your magic and throw a rock at it." She said with much excitement in her voice.

"Umm...alright." I said as I found a small rock lying on the ground and picked it up with a levitation spell, then lightly threw it at the red button.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Loose Screw yelled as her smile grew much louder. That's when Treble and I realized what Loose Screw put on the door.

We both hit the deck as soon as she screamed and then listened to the sound of an explosion and breaking metal that was not to far from us. Once it was nice and quiet Treble and I stood back up. We both stared down Loose Screw through her one eye, she was now practically bouncing around with glee until she noticed we were staring at her.

"What? I take pride in my work." She said.

"Where the hell did you get a landmine?" I yelled.

"Remember that one you stepped on and I disarmed for you?" She asked "Well...I kept it then reactivated it."

"When?" Treble added in.

"Just now." She smiled.

"Your still a bit crazy aren't you?" I asked.

"More then likely." She said as she trotted up to the entrance of the now destroyed door.

We followed and all stood at the entrance to The Bunker. All we could see through the door was a long flight of stairs that led to what looked to be darkness.

"We going in?" Treble asked.

"Yep." I said as I began walking down the extremely long flight of stairs.

It wasn't to long until we reached the bottom of the stairs and were greeted by a decent sized metal room with a larger door that led into the main facility...which was also locked.

"How do you suggest we get through this one." I asked.

"Not sure...don't have an explosive big enough." Loose Screw said.

"Wait...you have more?!" I said.

"That doesn't matter." She said.

"Uhh...hell yea it matters." I responded.

"Guys. We'll sort that out later." Treble said. "But I got this one." Treble said.

This through me off...what did Treble think she was going to do with this door?

"What...uh...what exactly do you have planned here Treble?" I asked as she sat herself down in front of the large, steel door and pulled out a bobby pin.

"Well...remember all those time's I broke out of my room to come see you back at the Stable?" She said.

"Yea. Why?" I asked.

"Well. I had to break out some how...hey, do any of you have a screw driver?" She said...don't tell me she could pick locks.

"You can pick locks, can't you?" I asked in disbelief as Loose Screw handed her the screw driver she was asking for.

There was a small pause as the door made a loud clicking noise and shot open.

"Yep...but I don't think I should have picked the lock Cyber." She said with a sickening look on her face. "Come look."

I walked over and looked through the crack in the now open door...definitely didn't like what I saw. I don't think any of us did.

Chapter 17- The Bunker pt 2

Cyber's Point of View

As the doors opened an instantaneous smell of death and massive radiation seemed to fly up our nostrils. The room behind the seemed to be some sort of large room lined with tables of sorted supplies...and corpses. Bodies of ponies lined the large metal room, what struck odd was that every single one was missing there cutie mark. I don't mean that they just didn't have one...but it appeared they were all precisely cut off. What I'm assuming was a dull silverfish colors of the walls and floor was now almost completely caked with bodies, blood, and insides. It was truly horrifying, possibly enough to where I could say it looked like whatever went down here was worse then what happened to us at the stable. I noticed nobody was saying anything, but we seemed to just be taking it all in. It was definitely hard to process.

"What in the hell do you think happened here? The fuck happened to all there cutie marks?" Loose Screw quietly asked as she continued to take in the new surroundings.

"Raiders maybe?" Treble responded with a terrified voice.

"Maybe...but from what I can tell raiders usually stick around." I said.

"What about mutants? There is a strong smell of radiation." Loose Screw said.

"That's a possibility, but I don't see any. Plus that doesn't explain the cutie mark thing." I said.

"You don't think Click's guys did this...do you?" Treble asked.

That was a pretty good possibility. Clicks could of had the guards he stationed here for his so called 'protection' kill the residents, take all valuables, and for some sick twisted reason, remove there cutie marks. From what I now of him, it seems like something he'd do.

"As much as I hate to say it, that sounds like the most logical of things that happened here." I said.

"Are we gonna check it out?" Loose Screw asked.

"Well...we've made it this far. Can't hurt to have a look around." I said. "Just no splitting up."

"I didn't plan on it." Treble said.

We took our first few steps forward into the large room. The blood squishing underneath our hoofs.

"That's disgusting." Treble said.

"I know. Just keep your guard up." I said as I gripped the trigger of my battle saddle in my teeth, shotgun at the ready.

"It's warm." Loose Screw said, equally disgusted.

"Not helping." Treble said. I could tell she was attempting not to gag.

We continued to cautiously walk forward. We were about in the middle of the room when I noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eye. It seemed to come from a pile of three and a half corpses. The other half was about ten feet away. I didn't say anything, but instead slowly walked over.

"Where are you going?" Treble asked.

"Something moved over here...watch my back." I said.

As I reached the corpse pile I just slowly examined it, making no sudden movements. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Anything?" Loose Screw asked.

I looked back at them. "Don't think so, guess I'm just seeing things." I said as I faced the body pile once more, except this time something was off. One of the bodies was gone. I could only count two and a half now.

"Um...guys!" I yelled. "One of the bodies over here is gone."

As I said this I turned back around to go back to Treble and Loose Screw, but instead saw them lying unconscious on the floor.

"Guys!" I screamed as my eyes widened and I began to run over to them, but was stopped by feeling a sudden, sharp pain in my neck. Blurred vision, dizziness, and distorted hearing soon followed. My run turned into a stumbling walk, and I found it hard to make words. I t was long until my sight began to black out...then I fell to my side and fell unconscious.

I start to awake, not completely, but I start. All that comes back are my own conscious thoughts and some hearing. I can tell that what ever happened has me feeling exhausted. I am unable to open my eyes, and definitely can't move. I could, however feel myself being dragged across a very cold floor. My hearing was distant, but I could make out small, distorted voices of whatever two things were dragging me. I attempt to listen in on the conversation.

"Can't wait to use the new play toys!" One voice said.

"Come on now, we have to share." The other responded.

I couldn't even make out if the voices were male or female, everything was still fairly distorted. I could tell the first one was louder, and more crazed sounding where the other sounded more civil...that was pretty much all I could tell about whatever was dragging me actually.

I needed to escape and find Treble and Loose Screw, but in order to do that, I needed to at least be able to open my eyes. I put whatever strength I have left to attempt to open my eyes, but all I get is a small glimpse of dimmed light. Another try gets me slightly further, this time I am able to tell that I am indeed inside, but I still can't make out any details. I go to open them once more, but am interrupted by a loud noise resembling a door opening and a sharp pain in my side as I feel myself get lifted into the air. This probably wasn't good, hell, nothing that was going on here was gonna be good.

Shortly after I'm lifted onto the air I feel myself get lied back down on a hard, cold, and wet surface. I am still dazed, but I notice the two voices start talking again.

"Ohhh! Were about to start!" The more crazed on said.

"Calm yourself, you know that we need to take our time on this." The other said.

The voices got closer as they continued to talk.

"Hey, lighten up. You and I both know that there's nothing wrong with playing with our new toys." The crazed one said.

"Whatever, just bolt him up." The other said.

That was for damn sure not a good thing. I attempted to move, open my eyes, anything! But nothing happened. I then heard a button get pressed that was immediately followed by the loud rumbling of gears and metal cranking together. It wasn't long until I felt a slight pressure on all four of my hooves. It soon turned into a painful, tight squeeze, and then into an almost circulation cutting feeling.

"Just open your eyes damn it!" I thought to myself.

My thought was followed by the calmer voice. "Alright, give them the juice."

"Yes! With pleasure." The crazed one said.

What the fuck was 'The Juice'...guess I'm about to find out.

And boy was I ever right. I felt a small sting in my neck...it's what happened next that surprised me. I was expecting some sort of surging pain or some sort of knockout stuff, but instead my eyes shot open and all my senses seemed to all perfectly return at once. At first I was happy...but then I noticed my surroundings.

I was bolted down to a stone table with steel bindings. The room I was in was dimly let and smelled even worse of death then the main room of The Bunker. What struck odd was that I only noticed one other pony in the room. Shouldn't there be two of them? I stared at the pony with great intent. It was a young mare, she had a dark red coat and mane to match...that might be blood actually. I couldn't even make out a proper cutie mark she was so blood stained. Upon my observation she turned and looked at me and began walking towards me.

"Well well...look who's up!" She yelled...this was definitely the crazier sounding one. Now where was the other.

"Calm down sister...we have all the time in the world." Said the other voice...but coming from the same blood stained mare.

It was at this very point when I knew for a fact that I was dealing with a complete psychopath. She was speaking for both characters.

"Well talk damn it!" The crazed side said as she stood at the side of the stone table I was bolted to.

The mare's whole body then twitched and she began talking again...but in the other voice.

"Sis...I said be calm, we have to be nice to our new guest." She said.

I needed to say something at this point, at least before something even worse happened.

"Who are you?" I said...fuck, why was that what I asked.

" *Gasp* Did you here that sis! It spoke!" The crazed voice said.

"I heard. I guess we can begin." The calm voice said.

"Begin what?" I asked.

"Just be patient plaything!" The crazed voice said as the mare skipped over to the far end of the room and flipped a switch...revealing the rest of the room with bright lights, and was I horrified.

This was a torture room. My heart began to race even more then it already was as I took in my new surroundings. One wall was lined with nothing but assorted blades and knifes, almost all of them were bloodstained. The other wall seemed to be a sick trophy wall lined with severed pony heads and cutie marks. The floor was caked with almost as much blood as the main room. As horrifying as this was, I was relieved to not see Treble's or Loose Screw's remains upon that wall. However it did give me a general idea of what was about to happen, and it wasn't a pleasant thought. I noticed the other wall was still dark.

"You've shown me everything else, why not light up that wall." I yelled at the mare.

"Ooh. Your a demanding one aren't you." The crazed voice said, she was then followed by another twitch and a switch of characters. "Come on sis, be polite to our guest, show him the other wall." The calm voice said, then the mare twitched again. "Fine!" The crazed voice said, sounding annoyed with her 'sis'.

The mare then pressed another button, lighting up the other wall. I was not only relieved, but also worried, too see Treble and Loose Screw tied down to identical stone tables, still unconscious.

"Don't hurt them!" I yelled.

"To bad!" The crazed voice yelled back as she walked over to the weapon wall and grabbed to needles with thick, green liquid inside and walked over to Treble and Loose Screw.

"Don't you dare fucking touch them!" I yelled as I uselessly pulled on my steel bindings.

She just ignored me this time and continued walking over to Treble and Loose Screw. I continued trying to escape, but it was no use. My hooves were starting to loose circulation because of the bindings and my heart was in a uncontrollable panic. All I could do was watch as she jabbed Treble and Loose Screw in the neck with the needles. Thank Celestia is was just some of 'The Juice' that she used to wake me up. It worked with the same exact results to as I watched there eyes shoot open almost simotainiously and immediately go into a panic.

"Guys! Over here!" I yell to get there attention.

"Cyber! Is that you? The hell is going on?" Loose Screw yelled.

Treble wasn't speaking...she seemed to be in shock.

"Answer me damn it!" Loose Screw yelled.

"Look, I don't know. We all passed out and now where here with this little shit!" I screamed at Loose Screw.

It was at this point when Treble started to panic. She yelled and tried to escape, but her bindings were way to tight.

"Treble! Look at me! Over here!" I screamed, trying to get her attention.

Instead she still panicked, I could get her to calm down.

"Sis...quiet that one." The calm voice said, then she twitched.

"Already on it." The crazed voice said.

The mare then walked back over to the weapon wall and grabbed a very thick set of ropes, walked back over, and tied up Treble's mouth.

"Undo those damn ropes!" I yelled.

"I'd rather not." The calm voice said. "Quiet that as well sis." Then she twitched again.

"Okie dokie!" The crazed voice responded.

She then walked back over to the wall and grabbed another pair of ropes, then walked over to me.

"This is gonna be REALLY fun." The crazed voice said.

"Yea...how 'bout you go fuck yourself." I responded.

"Na...that happens later." She responded, still in the crazed voice.

She then reached up and tied down my mouth the same way as Treble. What the hell she meant by that last response almost confused me...but it didn't matter. What mattered was getting the fuck out before this went any further. I began looking around the room for our gear, maybe I could use my magic to get one of my guns, or a knife off the wall to cut us down. It wasn't long until I saw all of our gear sitting in the far corner of the room, Black Rose was lying right on top of the pile. I began focusing my magic on the rifle, picked it up, then aimed it at the pony as she was fiddling with some of her assorted blades and giggling to herself. I looked over at Treble and Loose Screw so they would know what I was about to do. Both of them nodded for response. I started putting pressure on the trigger with my magic.

"A little more." I thought to myself.

And I did just that, applied just enough force on the trigger to make the weapon fire...at least if it was loaded. I dropped the gun looked over at Loose Screw and Treble. Loose Screw gestured towards the weapon wall...Treble was still panicking. I went to pick out a lighter weapon to plunge into the mares chest while she was still preoccupied. One of the sharp combat knifes seemed like it would do the trick, so I went for it.

My light blue magic aura surrounded the weapon, and I went and lifted it off the wall...but this didn't go without notice. The mare looked at me and giggled.

"I know what your doing there!" The crazed voice said as she trotted over to me, then twitched. "And I don't much appreciate it." The calm voice said.

I then used my magic and plunged the knife into her side...with zero effect! She continued walking over to me while insanely giggling at the same time, a truly frightening thing to see. I looked at Treble and Loose Screw...they seemed to be at a loss just like me. It's like she didn't even feel it! She didn't even flinch! She got face to face with my and her face went from crazed to pissed in a split second. She then grabbed the knife with her mouth and yanked it out, zero signs of pain showing. She then shoved it directly into my stomach, twisted, then pulled it out.

Blood immediately began pouring out, and I couldn't scream because of the ropes. I could only let the blood ooze out and look over at Treble and Loose Screw, there eyes almost as wide as I've ever seen them before. Even Loose Screw was now in shock as to what was going on. It wasn't long until I could feel my eyes begin to close, and my stomach go numb.

"Now now...you can't die until I let you!" The mare said as she gave me another dose of "The Juice".

It pretty much did the same thing but not to the same immediate effect. This time feelings slowly came back, my stomach soon wasn't numb anymore...although I wish it was.

"Well...we usually remove the horn once your dead...but maybe we should go ahead and remove that...can't have another incident like that, now can we." The calmer voice said as she walked over to the weapon wall and grabbed a rusted, but definitely used, hack saw. I couldn't do anything about it either. The guns were unloaded and knifes didn't even do anything. So this was it...this is the end of it all...this here is where we were all gonna die. There was nothing any of us could do. I began to cry.

"Oh come on now...this won't hurt...at least until I start that is!" The crazed voice said as she rested the hack saw against my horn, locked the teeth in...and began moving back and forth.

She got maybe three saws through until she was interrupted by a large bang outside the steel door of the room. She let go of the hack saw, laid it on the table, and went to the door to check. My horn was aching, but she wasn't to the core yet. Right now it just felt like having a bruise. Let's just hope whatever made all that racket outside of this room was something helpful.

And holy hell was it ever. The steel door came flying off it's hinges, the mare was blown back by concussive. It was what followed that shocked me. In walked a large, non pony creature with full armor plating a club that resembled a bomb slung across his back...it was Dawnstar! He charged in on all fours and leaped on top the mare. She just giggled as Dawnstar ripped her to shreds with his armor plated claws. He was literally ripping her guts out and she was giggling. But the giggling stopped as Dawnstar stood up, took his club off his back, and swung it down on her head. This caused the mares head to explode and splatter blood, bone, and brain matter everywhere in a five foot radius. Dawnstar put his club back on his back and ran over to me and cut the ropes around my mouth.

"Holy shit...you guys are alive!" His metallic voice said.

"Barely, please get us down from here!" I yelled.

"We got to patch that hole first." He said looking at the gapping hole in my stomach, I almost forgot about this as it simply went numb again. "I'll get them down, then find some stimpacks"

"Good." I responded. "Please hurry ya big bastard."

Dawnstar walked over and undid Treble and Loose Screw, they both immediately came running over to me and stood beside the table. Treble's instincts kicked in and she started applying pressure to my wound.

"Thanks babe." I said.

"Are you okay?" She yelled.

"I'll be good if we can get some damn stimpacks." I responded.

"Found some!" Dawnstar yelled from across the room.

He ran over and injected three of them directly into the wound. The large hole got smaller...then half it's size...then closed up. I could feel my insides reconnecting. Dawnstar then undid my bindings and I landed on the ground, immediately being hugged and smother by Treble, even Loose Screw put her hoof on my shoulder.

"I thought I was gonna lose you." Treble cried into my neck as she grasped me tighter.

"Well...were good now baby. Let's just calm down and leave this hell hole." I said.

"Um...usually I'd agree with that...but I brought some unwanted guest with me." Dawnstar said as he gestured down the hallway at a large horde of mutants. "Gonna have to fight out way out."

"Okay then...everyone gear up!" I yelled as Loose Screw, Treble, and I ran over and began putting on all of out gear.

"This was about to get even more interesting.

FOOTNOTE

LEVEL UP

NEW PERK: JUICED UP

You have gained some additional side effects from "The Juice". You are now 10% more tolerant to pain.

Chapter 18- The End of The Party

Cyber's Point of View.

As we all struggled to quickly put all of our gear back on we watched as Dawnstar fought off the ghouls that were funneling into the hallway outside of the torture room. He fought with pure brute strength and tank like armor. He was slow, but his homemade club seemed to kill ghouls in one single swing, and his full suit of armor was definitely strong as the ghoul ponies bites and slashes didn't even seem to phase Dawnstar. He just kept going, not budging from the doorway as he waited for us to get our gear back on.

"The hell's taking you guys so long?" He yelled as he bashed in a ghoul's head. Yellow, thick, glowing, irradiated blood splattering in every direction.

"You try to put on full riot gear when your panicking!" I responded.

"Here, let me help." Treble yelled as she ran over to me and started putting on my leg and hoof guards, she was already fully dressed in her leather armor and duster.

"Thanks." I said as I finished strapping down my body armor and began putting my Battle Saddle on over it. "How are you doing Loose Screw?"

"I'm in the same boat as you Cyber, this shit takes forever to put on!" She quickly responded. "Plus, you trying doing this with one eye!"

"Treble, go help her, I'm good." I said as she finished strapping on my leg guards.

"You sure?" She responded.

"Yea, I just need to load my weapons up now." I said as I finished strapping down my battle saddle.

"Okay." She said as she turned and started helping Loose Screw.

I was extremely glad that my guns were still attached to my battle saddle and that everything in my saddle bags were still where they were, that just saved my that much more time of getting ready. I just needed to find where that damn psychotic pony put all of our ammo. Every single one of my guns were missing there magazines except for the shotgun on my battle saddle, but even then the shells were removed. I didn't have my baton anymore either because I gave it to Treble, so that was just even better reason to find my ammo.

I started looking around the room, starting at the weapon wall...nothing there other then nearly broken torture tools and knifes. I noticed a large desk in the back of the room where the light switches were, I ran over to see if she stored them there.

The desk had a large computer on it that said STABLE-TEC on the side, I was very familiar with these things from back at the stable, but that didn't have anything to do with my bullets. However there was a large safe under the desk. It was black and rusted, and could most definitely fit all of our ammo and then some inside. I would say I could just have Treble come pick the lock, but this was a combination lock, so conventional means of lock picking were useless. And I couldn't have Dawnstar come bust it open either because he could end up destroying all of our ammunition. Guess I would have to find the combination somewhere.

"Hey, I think our ammo is in this safe, did any of you see the combination anywhere?" I yelled to everyone in the room.

Dawnstar was still holding back the ghouls and Treble was just now finishing getting Loose Screws armor on.

"Well?" I yelled.

"No, haven't seen anything!" Loose Screw yelled.

"Nope." Treble responded.

"No...check the one mares body though!" Dawnstar yelled, I could tell he was starting to get tired, and the ghouls were still pouring in the hallway...what the hell did he do to have that many ghouls after him? Doesn't matter right now though, I can ask when we get out of this mess.

That was a good idea though, so I walked over to the mares shredded and headless corpse, and began searching. She only had one saddle bag though, and it was just had a small notebook that described the deaths of her victims in horrifying detail. It didn't have any combination however, but I did discover that either the mares name was Party Planner or one of her victims name was Party Planner and she just stole the notebook when she killed him or her off.

"Nothing here!" I yelled.

"Try the computer on the desk!" Loose Screw yelled as she drew her baton and ran to the doorway to help out Dawnstar, Treble rushed over to me.

As I sat down at the computer and waited for it to boot up Treble came over and sat beside me.

"Umm...anything I can help with?" She asked.

"Not really. I just need to find this damn combination." I responded.

As I said that the computers screen kicked on. It resembled that of a pipbuck message board but with a much larger screen. I scrolled though the documents on the computer, but other then a bunch of files labeled PARTY PLANNER'S LOG that were all outdated by a couple months, nothing looked correct...until I saw a document labeled THE SECRET that was dated only a few weeks ago, it was definitely the most recent. I opened it up and began reading.

THE SECRET

10/12/2234

SO I PICKED UP THAT NEW SAFE TODAY SIS.

IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM.

THATS WHERE I KEEP ANYTHING THAT MY NEW FRIENDS COULD HURT ME WITH WHILE I PLAY WITH THEM!

ANYWAY, THE COMBINATION FOR IT IS: 8, 17, 91, 66

That was the end of the document, but that was for sure the combination for the safe. I guess Party Planner was her name though.

"Ah ha!" I said as I looked down at the combination and began putting on the numbers. And sure enough the safe popped open when I was done, and inside was my magazine for my 10mm pistol, drum mag for Black Rose, and all of my shotgun shells. Plus all of Loose Screws ammo. There where also a few other things. A small, metal, round ball with a pin on it caught my eye. It looked dangerous...and useful. Loose Screw probably knew more about it so I stuck it in my saddle bag with her ammo for latter examination.

I loaded up Black Rose, my battle saddle shotgun, and my 10mm pistol and rushed over to help fend off the ghouls. However as I ran in I felt a tug on the back of my riot vest. I turned and saw Treble...her face went from nervous and alert to exhausted and woozy.

"Treble...you okay?" I asked as I stood beside her to help support her up.

"This...this is just...to much going on...to much blood...I...I need to lay down." She said.

Treble never liked the sight of blood, I could see where all this would have her feeling light headed and woozy.

"It's alright Treble...just lye here, I'll make sure we kill all of these things and get you to a place to rest." I said as I supported her to the ground.

"Be careful." She said as I stood up and began walking over to Dawnstar and Loose Screw to help fight.

"I will...cover your ears." I said to her.

I walked up with Dawnstar and Loose Screw and looked down the hallway, I counted about 25 ghouls left.

"You two take a break...these ones are mine." I said as I racked a round in Black Rose and my shotgun, and flipped Black Rose to a firing mode labeled full auto.

"You sure?" The both said.

"Extremely." I responded. "Go help Treble."

I was truly pissed at this point. My friends were in danger and the pony I loved the most wasn't doing to hot right now...the quicker these things die, the better.

"Alright then." They said as they fell back and stood beside Treble.

I walked up and stood in the pile of dead ghouls and puddles of yellow, thick, irradiated blood and waited for the remaining mutants to funnel into the hallway. I only had 52 rounds in Black Rose's drum magazine, and the shotgun had six shots until I had to reload. I continued waiting for them to all funnel into a semi straight line...and that didn't take long. As soon as I saw my chance I lifted Black Rose up with levitation and began holding down the trigger. Bullets were spraying down the ghouls with ease and ripping through them like butter. Every bullet seemed to drop one ghoul...and I could tell that the bullets were going through the ghouls and hitting the ones behind them. The hallway was going from silver and metallic to yellow very fast.

I noticed the last ghoul go down when I only had three rounds left in the drum mag. I just realized what I did to...I just killed 25 ghouls in around three seconds...with ease. I looked back at my friends...Treble was passed out on the floor and Loose Screw crouching over her, Dawnstar still looked ready to fight.

"This thing is amazing." I said to Dawnstar.

"Is that all of them?" He responded, Loose Screw was now looking at me, she was waiting for an answer.

"I think so...none of them are moving any no more are in the hall." I said.

"We should be good then." Dawnstar said as he slung his now yellow, blood stained club across his back.

I guess this was a good time to start asking Dawnstar some questions. I started walking towards him.

"So...for one, why did you have all these ghouls on you...and two, how did you know we where here?" I angrily yelled.

"Easy." He said. "I completely understand why you would be suspicious. I didn't know this was where you were guys were heading...but when you headed off I waited around an hour and followed your tracks. They led here. The ghouls were all the still intact corpses in the main hall."

"Well why didn't those things come after us when we where in there?" I yelled.

"Not sure if you noticed...but I'm not exactly light on my feet. I woke them up when I was walking through to find you guys. Started running until I found a good place to funnel them in and pick them off." He said. "I just happened to stumble across you guys while I was running."

"Then why did you immediately pounce and murder that pony? There's zero way you know that it was a ghoul that quick. What if it would have been one of us!" I yelled.

"Ah, that's where you're wrong. Gryphons have heightened sight perception. As soon as I blew that door open I saw you three tied up and knew you needed help, so I helped." He said.

Wait a second...did he say Gryphons? Was that what he was? It makes sense...and his body fits the shape.

"Did...did you just say Gryphon?" Loose Screw spoke up, she must have heard it to.

"Umm...no...well...yes...fuck." He said.

"So is that what you are?" I asked.

"Shit, no hiding it now. Yea, I'm a Gryphon. I'm more surprised that you didn't already have that figured out." He said.

"We just left the Stable two days ago, the fact that we know what we already do is short of a miracle." Loose Screw said.

"Good point, have you guys even heard of Gryphons before?" He asked.

"No, the Stable isn't exactly informative about the outside world." I said.

"Yea, to us we originally thought everything out here was just gone. The only thing they told us about is the war that made everything like this." I said.

"Stable really doesn't like the wasteland, does it?" He asked.

"No, but considering we are the only ones that made it out...I really don't blame them for wanting to keep us locked up inside." I responded.

"Then why did you leave?" He asked.

"The generator exploded and the door to outside opened. Once we noticed the ghouls flooding in, we decided it was either get out and live our life out here...or die in the Stable like everypony told us we would. I personally liked the idea of proving the Overmare wrong." I said, a small chuckled escaped.

"Overmare?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Kind of like the ruler of the Stable. You know, made the laws, made sure everyone followed them, organized the guards, stuff like that." I said.

"So like a small government?" He asked.

"Exactly, just not as many loopholes." Loose Screw said.

"Ha! That's good." He said, Loose Screw blushed slightly. "Anyway, we should probably get to sleep for the night. This place will do well if we clean it up first. I can seal the door back up, you guys can clean out the bodies."

I looked down at Treble who was still passed out on the floor. She really needed to rest. I guess this would be a decent place to sleep as long as it's clean.

"Alright, let's get cleaning then." I said.

We all got to work on cleaning. I moved Treble over to behind the desk and then Dawnstar and I began removing Party Planners shredded corpse. Loose Screw was removing all of the torture weapons and tossing them into an empty closet that was in the room. We were throwing Party Planner's body parts outside of the room with the ghoul ponies corpses that were littering the hallway.

"Don't you think shredding the body like this was a little much?" I asked Dawnstar.

"I was being rushed, plus she was going to kill you guys anyway." He said as He threw the lower half of her into the hallway. I was using my levitation to drag her headless upper half into the hallway.

"Still, ripping her in half was a bit much and crushing in her head was a bit much." I said.

"Noted." He responded.

As I looked around the only thing left was the torture tables that were bolted to the floor.

"How are we gonna get rid of those?" I asked.

"Not sure if we can there." He responded.

"Can we at least clean them off then?" I asked.

"Yea, give me a second." Dawnstar said as he walked over to the first table, sat down, and unlatched the large metal barrel off of his back.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Water." He said as he began pouring water across the table, the blood pouring off and going into a drain in the middle of the room.

"Is it clean?" I asked.

"Cleaner then the blood on the table." He said.

"Good enough for me." I responded.

Dawnstar chuckled and started cleaning off the next table. I walked over to Loose Screw who was putting the last of the torture tools into the closet.

"Well, the room is cleaning up fairly nice." Loose Screw said. "And at least he is pretty friendly."

"Who? Dawnstar? Yea, he seems pretty cool." I said.

"Yea." Loose Screw responded, once again blushing slightly. I've been around girls long enough to know what this kind of sudden blushing meant.

"Maybe...uh...maybe you should get to know him once were done cleaning up." I suggested.

"Yea...maybe I will." She said. "Anyway, I'm done with my side of the room. Think I'm gonna lye down."

"Alright, night." I said as I then walked over to Treble, she wasn't passed out anymore, but instead just asleep.

I went over and sat down beside her, then started nuzzling her neck. She always liked that, it usually helped her relax. I then laid down with her, she scooted in closer into my side. God, every time we did this I melted a bit inside. I lightly leaned my head against her and then kissed her cheek.

"See ya in the morning babe." I said.

I couldn't get to sleep though, there was just to much noise right now with Dawnstar fixing the door that he blew off its hinges. I instead looked at the computer on the desk, those other files had me interested. I slowly sat up and opened up the files on the computer. There were five of them, each one labeled PARTY PLANNERS LOG that were in order from one to five. I opened up the first one.

PARTY PLANNERS LOG #1

THE NEW GUARDS ARRIVED HERE TODAY. THEY SEEM ALRIGHT, THEY LOOK SCARY THOUGH. MY OLDER SISTER SOFT NOTE SAID NOT TO TRUST THEM THOUGH AND THAT THEY WORK FOR A REALLY BAD PONY. I SHOULD PROBABLY LISTEN TO HER, SHE IS MY BIG SISTER AFTER ALL.

Well, that wasn't that bad. But I could guess that this place was still intact when this was typed. Plus, Party Planner didn't seem crazy in this one, and I knew she did have a sister. But something had to of happened...I got even more curious and opened up the next one.

PARTY PLANNERS LOG #2

SIS GOT MAD AND YELLED AT ONE OF THE NEW GUARDS TODAY AND GOT IN TROUBLE. HER PUNISHMENT IS TOMORROW AND I HAVE TO WATCH. I'M REALLY SCARED, I DON'T WANT TO SEE HER GET HURT. MAYBE IT WON'T BE THAT BAD THOUGH.

I immediately opened up the next log.

PART

Y PLANNERS LOG #3

IT WAS SO HORRIBLE! SHE'S GONE! SIS IS GONE! THEY...THEY DID AWFUL THINGS TO HER. SHE WAS CRYING, TELLING ME TO LOOK AWAY, BUT THEY WOULDN'T LET ME. THEY MADE ME WATCH AS THEY TIED HER UP AND DID HORRIBLE THINGS TO HER WITH THERE STALLION PARTS. WHEN THE GUARDS WERE DONE THEY JUST SHOT HER AND KICKED ME OUT. I...I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT SIS...I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO KNOW THAT YOU'RE GONE SIS. I'M GONNA GET THOSE GUARDS THOUGH...AND ANYONE WHO GETS IN MY WAY.

Oh my...that is horrible. But I needed to read more. I had to know now. I could tell this was where she started going insane, I could also tell that she wasn't any older then 15. Now I was starting to feel bad that we killed her. Either way, I ended up opening up the next one anyway.

PARTY PLANNERS LOG #4

WELL SIS. THEY GUARDS ARE GONE! AREN'T YOU PROUD! I TOLD YOU I WOULD GET THEM FOR YOU! TO BAD SOME OF THE TWON RESIDENTS SAW ME AND ARE TRYING TO KICK ME OUT. GUESS I NEED TO GET RID OF THEM TO! OH WELL!

So this was when she started going insane. She started killing the guards and residents of the bunker one by one. Guess that was why Clicks said he was late on getting his money from this place, and I guess he wasn't going to. There was one more log though, and I made it this far, so I opened it up and began reading.

PARTY PLANNERS LOG #5

WELL...THATS ALL OF THEM SIS. EVERYONE SAW ME KILL ONE OF THE RESIDENTS ON CAMERA. THEY ARE ALL GONE NOW THOUGH! ARE YOU PROUD? TO BAD YOUR NOT HERE, BUT AT LEAST YOU'RE HERE TO ME! ANYWAY, TALK TO YOU LATER SIS.

And that's where she went crazy. She killed all of the residents of The Bunker after her sis got killed. But now I felt bad for getting her killed. She was no older then 15 and she didn't go crazy on purpose. However I felt glad to put her out of her misery. That was all the files on they computer though, so I closed them and shut the device down. As it's green screen powered down the corner got that much darker.

"You probably shouldn't be reading those." I quiet voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Treble, still lying down, but eyes open and looking up at me.

"Well, at least we know who she was though." I said as I laid down next to her, she nuzzled back against my side.

"Yea...she's gone now though." She said. "But in a much better place, probably reunited with her sister."

"Yea, it's for the better." She said. "Goodnight Cyber."

"Night baby." I responded. She then fell back asleep.

I look up to see Dawnstar had just finished up bolting the door back in place, he then walked over to the opposite corner Treble and I were in and lied down. Loose Screw walked over and started talking to him, I listened in to see if she took my advice on getting to know him.

"Hey...uh...hey Dawnstar." She said, scratching the back of her head with her hoof, still blushing.

"Yes Loose Screw?" He said.

"Do...umm...do you mind...if umm...I...uhh..." She was choking on her words, I could tell she was feeling nervous on asking whatever she was about to ask...but I think Dawnstar knew what she was asking.

"Sure, I don't mind." He said, his metallic voice pinging off the walls of the room. He lifted up his armored wing...and Loose Screw walked under, lied down, and nuzzled against his side.

"Hey Dawnstar." I whispered across the room.

"Yes." He quietly responded.

"Maybe talk off your helmet at least." I suggested.

"Hmm...sure, why not." He said.

He then reached up and unlatched the helmet from his suit, and pulled it off.

This was the first time any of us had seen Dawnstar's face. His coat was a darker grey like mine, but the feathers at the top of his head where a dark green, and he had yellow eyes. It looked like he was missing a chunk of his ear to. I noticed Loose Screw look up at him.

"You look nice." She said, then went back to nuzzling against his side. Dawnstar smiled.

"Aww...that's cute." I heard Treble say from my side. Then she kissed my cheek and laid back down at began falling asleep.

"Hey Dawnstar, one last thing." I said.

"Yea." He responded.

"Welcome to the club." I said.

We all then fell into a deep sleep. Look's like we all mad et another day.

Chapter 19- Awareness: It Was Under E

Cyber's Point of View

It was now around five AM according to my pipbuck. Guess not being able to fall asleep for more then two hours was going to be a reoccurring thing now. I didn't mind though, as long as I'm not tired the next day then I don't care how much sleep I get. Everyone else seemed to be into a very deep sleep, even Dawnstar. He currently had Loose Screw under his armor plated wing and his head cocked to the side to rest on top of hers. I smiled and then looked down at Treble, she was almost curled into a small ball and was resting against my side. She had a very slight snore, something I always thought was cute. I looked back up and then back down at my pipbuck.

Even with what Treble said I was still reading over Party Planner's Logs. It was horrible knowing what all happened to her and what it drove her to do...but it also enraged me knowing that Click's so called soldiers did that. Hired soldiers were suppose to protect ponies, not wreak havoc and get them killed. It was more of a get rich quick scheme for Clicks then protection for the residents of The Bunker. I looked up once more from my pipbuck and started looking around. I looked back up at the shut down Stable-Tec computer, wondering if there was anything else I could salvage or find in its hard drive. I used my magic to put pressure on the power button, causing the screen to flash on and fill our corner of the room with a dim, green lighting and a slight buzzing noise. I opened up the files once more.

There were three options on the screen.

LOGS

AUDIO FILES

CLEAR DATA

I had already seen all of the normal logs, so I opened up the AUDIO LOGS file. Inside was one file very old file labeled THE WINGED ONE. My curiosity took over, so I then downloaded it to my pipbuck and then plugged in my old headphones, then pressed play.

As it started up I heard a young Party Planners voice.

"A very fascinating pony was wondering around the bunker today sis. He looked very scary with his gun and all black coat and red eyes, but he didn't talk much. He had wings to sis! I've never actually seen a pony with wings. I only heard about them in the stories you tell me. I think you called them Pegasus. His armor looked very old to. Almost like a it was from before all the bad stuff happened, but that's silly. Nothing could ever stay put together for that long, right sis? Anyway, I just wanted to tell you. See you tomorrow when you get back!"

The log then shut off.

What in the world was Party Planner talking about? The Stable teachers told us that the Pegasus went extinct in the war. There was no way that they would still be any of them left. We were told that there homeland was destroyed by megaspells that made the world what it was today. Their army and everything was said to be wiped out. I just couldn't wrap my head around this. I wonder if there was something we didn't know...something that we needed to know at that.

I slowly stood myself up so I would wake Treble, then began looking around the room for any other clues. I tiptoed over to the closet in the room and opened up the door, nut all I saw were pilled up torture weapons that Loose Screw shoved in here earlier. I started looking for any other doors or containers in the room. I noticed a small file cabinet in the corner beside Dawnstar and Loose Screw. I tiptoed over and used my magic to open the first drawer as slowly and quietly as I could. Even though my expectations of actually finding something was low, I surprisingly came across a small statue of an all pink pony with three balloons as a cutiemark and a glass beverage bottle labeled Sparkle Cola.

I picked up the statue first. It was very exquisite and finely built. The base seemed to be made of bronze and the pony itself made of a high quality colored metal. Along the base it said "Awareness: It was under E". Not exactly sure what that meant...I didn't even know the pony that the statue was portraying. I could tell it was a mare, her coat was a bright pink, and her mane was also pink, just slightly darker. She stood on her back two legs and had a large smile across her face. It was extremely detailed, yet smaller then my forehoof. Possibly something we should get appraised, wouldn't hurt to have some money on hoof if we ever needed it.

I gently lowered it down into my saddle bags and then went to observing the glass bottle. I levitated it in front of my face and started reading the label. It read Sparkle Cola and had a red label wrapping around it. Nothing special about it either, Just a bottle of who knows how old pre-war soda. More then likely didn't taste that good either. Guess we could hold onto it and see if anyone else might want it. I then walked back over to where Treble was still sleeping and attempted to lay back down beside her, but ended up waking her up in the process.

"Shit, I was trying not to wake you." I said.

"It's alright...something up?" She asked.

"Not really." I responded.

"Were you reading those logs again?" She asked, yawning and rubbing her eyes in the process.

"Well..." I responded.

"Cyber, I said you shouldn't be reading those." She said with a disappointed look.

"I know, I know...I did find some fascinating stuff though." I said.

"Like what?" She responded.

"Well, some sort of old soda and this weird statue." I said as I levitated out the statue from my saddle bags.

"Hmm...that's...interesting." She said.

"You have no idea what it is either, do you?" I said.

"Not a clue. You keeping it?" She asked.

"Kindove, I figured we could maybe get some money out of it." I said as I put it back into my saddle bags.

"Yea, guess that would help at some point. Anyway, anything else." She asked.

"Umm...yea. But I'm really not sure what to think of it." I said.

"What is it?" She questioned.

"Well, it's an audio log I found on the computer. Not exactly sure what to think of what I heard.

"What was it?" She asked.

"Listen for yourself." I said as I handed her my headphones and pressed play on my pipbuck.

Seconds later she had a confused look on her face as she took off the headphones.

"Did...did she just say...pegasus?" She doubtingly asked.

"Yep." I quickly responded.

"How...how is that even possible? I thought they went extinct in the war?" She said.

"No clue. This was before Party Planner went insane to, so it's not like she was just seeing things." I said.

"Right...think Dawnstar might know? He knows more than any of us." She asked.

"Maybe...we should ask when he wakes up though." I said.

"Right." She said.

One hour later

Dawnstar's eyes slowly opened as he awoke. Loose Screw soon followed.

"Sleep good?" I asked.

"Best I have in a while." Dawnstar said.

"Same." Loose Screw added in.

"How long have you guys been up?" Dawnstar asked.

"About an hour or so." Treble responded.

"Yep." I continued.

"Why didn't you wake us so we could get moving?" Dawnstar asked.

"Wanted you guys to get as much sleep as possible." I said.

"Got it...so I take it were leaving then?" He asked.

"Well...not quite yet." I said.

"Why, what's up?" Loose Screw asked.

"Well...we found some fascinating stuff while you two were sleeping." I said.

"Like what?" Dawnstar responded.

"Well, this statue for one." I said as I pulled it back out of my saddle bag and levitated it over to Dawnstar.

His eyes shot open as he grabbed it.

"Where...umm...I take it you don't know what this is." He asked, looking over at us.

"Nope. We were hoping you did." Treble said.

"Any wastelander knows what these are." He said, staring deeply into it.

"And what exactly is that?" I asked.

"It's a highly rare statue of one of the one of the six Ministry Mares." He said.

"What exactly are the Ministry Mares?" I asked, noticing Treble and Loose Screw nod in agreement.

"You serious?" He asked.

"Dude...we just left the Stable for the first time a few days ago." I said.

"Right...Well, the Ministry Mares were pretty much the runners of the war. There were six ministry's, one for each Element of Harmony." He said.

"Elements of Harmony?" I questioned.

"Well...there were six elements. Magic, laughter, kindness, honesty, loyalty, and generosity. There was a mare that represented each one of these elements, and with the six of them together they could stop nearly anything. At one point those six mares were the main defenders for all of Equestria. Anyway, were put in charge of a ministry of their own design.

"What were there names?" Treble asked.

"Well. There was Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Twilight was the main one in charge, the element of magic, and ran the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, it was in dedicated to the study of modern magic. Pinkie Pie ran the Ministry of Morale, this ministry was mainly built to boost moral and happiness for the troops and civilians during the war, but some say it was also used to keep watch on all of Equestria with a deep network of spies and a vast majority of cameras in every major civilized area. Flutter shy ran the Ministry of Peace, which was primarily used to research medicines for the war. Applejack ran the Ministry of Wartime Technology, which focused on producing new technology and weapons to help aid in the war. She also created the Steel Rangers. Then there was Rarity, who ran the Ministry of Image, which was primarily tasked with creating everything from soldiers uniforms to posters to promote the war. And last but not least was the oddly named Ministry of Awesome, led by Rainbow Dash."

We all chuckled slightly at hearing this.

"And uh...what exactly does that ministry do?" I chuckled.

"Well, even though they had almost zero public purpose and were usually thought of as just being dead weight by equestrian society, it was actually a very large organization that was in charge of commanding the Grand Pegusus Enclave. A military air force said to made up entirely of pegasi." Dawnstar informed.

"Damn...how do you know all this?" I asked.

"When you been to the places I have, you tend to learn some fascinating things." He said.

"Well then...so I take it the statue is of Pinkie Pie?" Treble said.

"Yep." Dawnstar said as he handed it back to me. "I wouldn't sell it though."

"Why not?" Loose Screw asked.

"They were just made to hand down to family members or close friends of the Ministry mares. They have more sentimental value then actual money value." He said.

"Wait...did you say handed down through family members..." I said.

"You don't think?" Treble said.

"Party Planner!" Loose Screw yelped.

"It sounds right, I mean there names are similar." Dawnstar said.

"There has to be a way we can make sure." I said.

"Look, unless you have a DNA testing spell, that's probably not happening." Dawnstar said.

I began looking around the room for anything to indicate that Party Planner and Pinkie Pie were related in any way, but every single place I looked was empty and filled with dust. There was only one place left, and that was the cabinet I found it in. I trotted back over to it and opened the drawer. Inside was a clean and neatly folded piece of paper. I carefully pulled it out and unfolded it. It was written on...and what was written tore my heart to shreds.

This is for you Party Planner. It used to be Great Great Grandma Pinkie Pie's. I want you to have it now that I'm gone. We are supposed to pass it down in the family. I'm sorry I have to give this to you so soon though little sis. See you on the other side.

Soft Note

A tear dripped from my eye as I folded the note back up and I fell onto my back legs. Treble, Loose Screw, and Dawnstar were now standing behind me.

"So they're related...aren't they." Treble said.

"Yep...no doubt about it." I said

"Well...that's...depressing." Loose Screw said.

"Yea." Treble added.

"Shit...now I feel bad." Dawnstar said.

"No need to...she's in a better place now." I said.

"Well...we shouldn't just leave her in that hallway, should we." Treble said.

"Of course not." I said. "We really can't burry her, but we can at least make it so she can't be disturbed."

"I'll get the door." Dawnstar said as he went over and moved the makeshift metal door that went into the hallway, Party Planner's in half body lied in the middle surrounded by ghoul corpses.

I wouldn't be surprised if we were all tearing up a bit at this point.

"Were are we gonna put her?" Treble asked.

"We should set up something nice in her room." Loose Screw suggested.

"Yea...that sounds good." I said.

"Anything we can lye her on?" Treble said.

"We could completely clean off one of those tables in there." Dawnstar suggested.

"That'll work." I said. "You get to that Dawnstar...I'll get her out of that hallway. Think you two can just tidy up the place a bit more?"

"Will do." Treble and Loose Screw said.

I walked out of the room and picked up the first half of her body, slightly gagging in the process, and brought it into the room and laid it on the table. The same with her lower half.

Once everything was all said and done we all stood around the table with Party Planners lifeless body on the table.

"It's missing something." Treble said.

I didn't even say anything, but instead levitated out the Pinkie Pie statue and laid it in her hoof, along with the note from her sister. I then cleared my pipbuck of any files I got from here.

"Perfect." Treble said.

We were all basically crying now as we paid our final respects.

"Lets get out of here." I said. "Weld the door shut for good Dawnstar."

We then all turned and left the room and watched as Dawnstar sealed the room for the final time.

"Let's go...I've had enough of this place." I said as we all turned and headed for the exit o0f the bunker.

LEVEL UP

NEW PERK: PRE WAR KNOWLEDGE

YOUR NEW KNOWLEGDE OF PRE WAR HISTORY WILL PROVE TO BE HELPFULL, YOU CAN KNOW SPOT AND NOTICE PREWAR ITEMS A LOT EASIER

Chapter 20- The New Home

Cyber's Point of View

Upon leaving The Bunker we not only felt sadness on account of our previous actions, but we also felt slightly relieved as Party Planner was now in a far better place...and had her sister with her once more. None the less, we all just remained silent as all of our minds more then likely wondered ways this could have been avoided. We all looked at eachother as we stood outside, once again above the surface. Never thought I would miss the taste of ever so slightly irradiated air and the unpleasantly cold feeling of the ash and snow mixture on the ground.

"So I guess we are heading to my place now?" Dawnstar said, his metallic voice returning as he put his helmet back on.

"We have nothing better to do." I responded. "Unless you two have any ideas."

Treble and Loose Screw looked me dead in the eyes, both with a 'Maybe we should just take a brake' look. Something I was completely on there side with.

"Well then...let's get going." Dawnstar said, leading the way.

"How long you think it will take to get there?" Treble asked.

"Hmm...mind if I see your pipbuck?" He asked.

"Um...sure." I said, lifting up my hoof as close to his eye level as I could.

He opened up the map and began scanning the area. "A full day if we don't stop. Two or Three if we do. Your pick." He said.

I looked at Treble and Loose Screw to get there input.

"Well, the sooner the better." Loose Screw said.

"That is true...but what if we have to?" Treble asked.

"Then I guess we only stop moving if we have to." I said. "You hear that Dawnstar?"

"Indeed I did. Let's get going then." He said.

Dawnstar then turned and began leading the way to his house, Loose Screw trotted up beside him. Treble and I followed not to far behind.

"So...what do you think his place is like?" Treble asked.

"In looks or safety?" I jokingly responded.

"Well...both I guess." She responded.

"In looks I have a feeling it's much like a walk in version of his armor." I said.

"What do you mean by that?" She questioned.

"Built from scraps but holds up when you need it most. That's what I think at least, could be wrong." I said.

"You know I can hear you guys, right?" Dawnstar yelled from in front of us...I could basically feel my ears slouch back in embarrassment.

"Sorry." Treble and I said.

"No need to apologize, your pretty much right anyway. The place is basically built from scraps, but it hasn't failed yet" He said, chuckling in the process.

"Is it big enough to hold all of us?" Treble asked.

"Trust me, the place is bigger then you think." He responded.

I guess that was good news...and I'd really take any good news without questioning as of right now. I can honestly say that we have all now officially seen some un-seeable shit. Now all we have to do is pray that nothing else happens in the time it will take us to get there.

15 hours later

We have been hoofing it for a whopping 15 hours now. All of our legs ached, we were out of breath, and drank the last of Dawnstar's water out of his tank. So far there hasn't been any trouble other then a few irradiated insects that could simply be killed with a solid swing of a hoof. Everything as of now was going well other then being hungry and exhausted.

"Were almost there...another two hours or so." Dawnstar spoke up.

"How...in the hell...are you still...going strong." I said to Dawnstar.

Dawnstar seemed to not be out of breath or tired in the slightest way...and he didn't even drink any of the water from his tank.

"Not sure, I just don't get easily tired." He responded, keeping his eyes forward.

"But it has been fifteen nonstop hours of constant walking, hell the sun just went down like an hour ago." I heard Loose Screw say from upfront.

"True, but like I said, I just don't get tired easily...not much more I can really say." He said.

"Shit bro...I just hope we get there soon." I said.

"Well...your in luck, my timing was a bit off. Place is right over this hill." He said as we peeked the large hill we where climbing.

We where greeted with not just a house, but instead a whole entire town surrounded by a large, scrap metal wall that was easily 30 feet tall. At the front was a large gate with two guards standing watch. There was another on a platform above the gate...also made of scrap metal.

"How in the name of Celestia is this place still standing?" Treble said.

"You'd be surprised how well some scraps and a few bolts can hold up if you have the right skill. We have some talented mechanics here at New Appleoosa." Dawnstar said as he started walking down the hill. "Come on guys, I'll be sure to give you the tour."

We began following Dawnstar to the entrance. It was at this point when I heard my pipbuck beep, so naturally I looked down at it.

NEW FILLYDELPHIA DISCOVERED

The custom marker Dawnstar originally set when we first met turned into a grey square with a picture of a house in it, under it was labeled New Fillydelphia.

"Hmm, nice to know." I said to myself as we approached the front gates, the two guards stepping forward.

One of them had a similar leather tunic like Treble's, just minus the duster, and was armed with a shotgun. The other just had small metal plating on his legs and chest, and a piece of rubber on his shoulders and back of his neck, he was armed with a type of pistol I have yet to see. It was silver and only had a cylinder on it that seemed to hold the bullets...not many of them though.

"Dawnstar! Nice to see your back home. I take it you know these ponies?" The one with the shotgun asked.

"Yea, they're with me. In the past few days we have been through some shit together, I can vouch for them." Dawnstar said.

"Very well then." The one known as Scattershot said as he turned and looked up at the guard at the top of the large, solid metal gate. "Open it Up!" He yelled.

The guard at the top of the gate nodded, then flipped a large lever. Upon that the horrendous noise of rusted metal rubbing against eachother began filling our ears...a noise Dawnstar seemed to be used to. The gate started opening, which just added to the horrifying noise invading our eardrums, then everything just stopped in the blink of an eye.

"Clear to enter!" The guard on the top yelled.

Dawnstar began walking in and looked back at us. "Well come on." He said.

We all nodded and walked in. The placed was definitely how it was briefly described. Much like Dawnstar's armor it was made of nothing but large quantities of scrap metal and held together in seemingly drastic ways. It had many small buildings scattered throughout...also made of scrap metal. There were three larger buildings that were aligned perfectly side by side with eachother and had wight writing on them. One was labeled 'Main hall', one labeled 'General Store and Doctor', and another oddly labeled 'Bar'.

"Is a bar really a necessity?" Treble asked.

"No, but it's a nice thing to have though." Dawnstar chuckled. "Follow me, I'll help you all get a room."

Dawnstar walked us up to the main hall...this time they managed to build a two story building out of nothing but scrap metal...impressive.

Inside the Main Hall was actually nicer then I expected. The first floor was fairly empty other then a few old and worn couches and chairs and a set of stairs that led up to the second floor. In the middle was a medium sized wooden desk with a female earth pony sitting at it with a clip board. Dawnstar walked us up to the female pony. She was an earth pony with a dark green coat with a messy, brown mane, crimson eyes...and a cutiemark of an hourglass filled with...blood?

"Dawnstar! Nice to see you! Did you bring some friends?" She yelled, she was definitely a happy kind of pony.

"Indeed I did." He responded to the female pony as she nearly jumped over the desk to hug Dawnstar.

"Guys, this is Hourglass. She runs the Main Hall hear at New Fillydelphia. She will assign you guys to rooms. And don't take her cutiemark to seriously.," He said. "Oh, and Hourglass, this one is staying in my room." He said gesturing to Loose Screw who released a mile wide smile and followed Dawnstar out the door.

"Well then, I'm Hourglass! What are your names?" She asked.

"Well, I'm Cyber." I said.

"And I'm Treble." She said, leaning in and hugging us both.

"So...I take it you two want a room together as well?" She asked, giggling under her breath.

"Umm, yes. Thank you." I responded, Treble lightly blushed and giggled.

"Very well then." She politely said as she trotted back behind her desk and pulled out a set of keys. "You'll be in house 32, it's right behind the general store across from Dawnstar' s place."

"Umm, thanks." I said, I was very confused on how you end up with a cutiemark like that and be this nice. I looked over at Treble, she just shrugged. "Well, I guess we will be going then."

"Alright then, see you soon!" She said as she waved to us as we walked out the door.

The sun was officially down now, but New Fillydelphia had a vast amount of large floodlights to keep the place nice and bright on the inside.

"Well...she was cheerful." Treble said.

"You found her cutiemark a bit...un-matching as well?" I asked.

"Yea...Dawnstar trust her though, plus she seems really nice, so she must be alright." Treble said as we turned the corner to head behind the general store.

"Yea, she must be alright." I said.

It was at this point when we heard a deep, calm voice off to our left. "It isn't smart to let your guard down though." It said.

Treble jumped and scooted behind me, I turned to the general direction of the voice and watched as a pony slowly walked out of the shadows of an alleyway in-between the buildings.

I could only see one bit of him not covered by armor, which was his completely head. Even then all of his head was completely black, mane and coat. His eyes were an exceptional dark brown color. He wore an odd set of armor that I had yet to see, it was very intricate and mechanical, yet seemed to fit snug and slim with the body. It was completely black as well, but you could tell the armor had seen a lot of action as a decent amount of the black paint was chipped off with a metallic silver showing underneath. One of the shoulder pads was busted off and fitted with some sort of animal skull...sickening. There was one thing that caught Treble and I highly off guard though, this pony...he had wings!

Foot Note

Level Up

New Perk: Horse Stamina

Due to walking the wasteland as much as you have, you now have double the stamina you originally had when outside of irradiated areas

Chapter 21- Tapster!

Cyber's Point of View

I could not believe what I was seeing! Pegasi were meant to be extinct after the events of the war! This wasn't making any sense, even Treble looked like she was having trouble wrapping her head around this.

"Well...did you hear me?" He asked, his voice was raspy and deep.

"I'm afraid I didn't." I responded...I was ready to open fire at any moment.

"I said you still shouldn't let your guard down." He responded.

"And why is that?" I asked.

"The pony in there might seem nice...but who's to say what's around the next corner." He said, chuckling as he obviously referenced himself.

"Right...noted...how about we all just go our separate ways before anything gets out of hoof." I said, Treble was now starting to slowly walk behind me.

"Hmm...how about no." He said as he extended out his wings, revealing a weapon that I have yet to see that was attached to a battle saddle.

On one side of the battle saddle was a medium sized tank with a 'flammable' warning sticker on the side. Attached to the tank was a tube that led to, what looked like, a very large pipe with a nozzle that resembled a large hose nozzle on the front. Attached to the pipe was a smaller pipe that stuck out in front of the large nozzle. I scooted Treble further behind me.

"What you got there?" I asked as a readied my battle saddle.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He said as he bit onto one of the pressure plates on his battle saddle's firing mechanism.

This caused the smaller pipe to light up with a small flame. I was now confused as to what exactly this was...but I wasn't taking chances.

"You have three seconds to back off!" I said as I put my mouth on the firing mechanism of my battle saddle.

"As to..." He was cut off by a familiar sounding metallic voice off to my right.

"That's enough Nightshade." The voice said with a chuckle. "I think you've given them a nice welcome."

I looked over to see Dawnstar walking towards us. Well shit...now I was to confused.

"Yea...agreed." The pegasi Dawnstar referred to as Nightshade said as him and Dawnstar started collectively giggling.

"The flying fuck is going on here?!" I yelled.

"Easy Cyber...I wanted Nightshade here to give ya a hard time. We do it to all the new ponies." Dawnstar said as he removed his helmet.

"You guys are assholes." Treble spoke up as she came back forward.

"Agreed." I responded as I let go of my battle saddle.

"Now now...your safe here." Nightshade said as he disabled his weapon.

"Right...anyway, what are you guys doing still up? Where's Loose Screw?" I asked.

"Loose Screw is asleep at my house...she passed out pretty quick." Dawnstar said. "And Nightshade and I are on guard duty for the night shift tonight."

"Well...alright then...think maybe we should be getting to sleep." Treble said.

"Well...I was actually wondering if you wouldn't mind helping out with guard duty today Cyber." Dawnstar asked.

I looked over at Treble to get her opinion, her face was giving an obvious answer of 'No'.

"Can we please just get some sleep." Treble said. "Or at least some food."

"Yea guys...not today. Treble and I really need some rest." I said.

"Well, alright then. Your helping tomorrow on the day shift then." Dawnstar said.

"Yea, that's fine." I said.

"Alright then. See you two tomorrow." Dawnstar said as him and Nightshade turned and started walking towards the main entrance to New Fillydelphia.

"Well...guess we can finally get some sleep then." Treble said.

"Yea...thank Celestia." I said.

Treble and I then turned and started walking towards all of the small houses. They would all be extremely similar if they were all made of the same metal...but they seemed to still all be the same size. Each one had a number above the doors, also in the same white paint used on the main buildings.

"Do you remember our house number?" Treble asked.

I levitated out the set of keys Hourglass gave me and looked at the tag.

"The keys say 32." I said.

"Well...here's 28. So we must be close." She said, looking around at the metal houses.

"Yea, they go in order...so we should be...right...here?" I said as I looked at the house in between houses 31 and 33.

"What's wrong?" Treble asked.

"Umm...there's no number on the house." I said.

"And? It probably just got rubbed off by weather or something. Just try the key." Treble responded.

"Alright." I said as I levitated up the key and stuck it in the lock of the rusted, metallic door, then twisted.

The door made a loud clicking noise. Treble and I looked at eachother, then I opened the door to see inside. And dang was I surprised on what we saw.

Inside the small house was much nicer then the outside. The one couch that was in the place seemed to be made out of a high quality leather, in front of that was a small, finely built wooden table. Out in the corner of the room was a very pleasing looking bed made of straw and cotton. In another corner was what looked to be a refrigerator and a stove hooked up to a gas tank. On the ceiling was a silver-ish colored ceiling fan.

"Well...this is...unexpected." Treble said as she walked inside.

"Yea...was expecting more...rust." I said, Treble chuckled in response.

"Anyway." She said. "Want to see if there is anything to eat?"

"Yea. Food sounds really nice right now." I responded.

We then walked over to the refrigerator, and opened the door. What was inside was...interesting.

"Do they expect us to eat that?" Treble said as we stared at the unknown skinned and freshly dead animal inside.

"I take it so...it looks new." I responded.

"Please don't tell me that is the kind of stuff we have to start eating. Ponies are vegetarians Cyber." Treble said, her face might as well have been a light shade of green.

"Yea...I know. But we don't have to be vegetarians. It doesn't exactly hurt us...it just won't taste right." I said.

"Please don't be serious Cyber...I'd really rather not." Treble said.

"Well...what about the bar? They might have some selection." I suggested, an immediate nod followed.

"Yea, let's try that. I don't even care if it's spoiled." Treble said. "As long as it's not meat."

"Lets go then." I chuckled as I began to walk out of the door, but felt a hoof land on my back.

"Now now...we are in a safe place now, you should take off the armor. Were something classy." Treble said.

"Treble...the nicest thing I have is bloodstained Stable barding. Plus I would rather have a gun on me as of now. We don't exactly know anypony here other then Dawnstar, Nightshade, and Hourglass. I really don't like those odds if something happens. Plus it's a bar, so it could get a bit rowdy." I said.

"So your gonna shoot somepony if they get a bit rowdy?" Trebled jokingly said.

"Not what I meant." I responded.

"Yea...I know. But I mean, at least lose the battle saddle and helmet. You can just leave them here and lock the door." Treble said.

"Alright...but I'm keeping one gun on me." I said.

"That is fine." She said. "Just hurry, I'm starving." She said as she sat down on the leather couch against the wall.

"Just give me a sec." I said as I began unlatching my battle saddle from my riot gear. Latch after latch I could feel the battle saddle get looser, and it wasn't long until it just slid off over my head. I levitated it over in the corner along with my saddle bags and helmet. I made sure that I kept Black Rose slung at my side. I may have only had seven rounds left, but if I picked targets wisely, and only if it comes to that, I can make those last.

"Alright, lets go." I said.

"Finally." She chuckled.

"You really can't insult people with a serious face, can you?" I laughed as I opened up the door of House 32 and walked out.

"No, never could. You know that." She said, slightly blushing.

"Ah, come on now. I think it's adorable." I said as I nuzzled against her cheek.

"Glad you think so." She giggled as I locked the door behind us.

"Alright, bars right around the here." I said as we turned the corner that lead to the front of the Main Hall.

We walked by the main hall, and then the General Store/Doctor, and finally to the front of the bar. We stood in front and stared at the entrance, listening to the noises coming from inside. We could here laughter, yelling, and music.

"You know, music would be nice right now." Treble said.

"Yea, it really would. Maybe we could join in." I joked.

"Hmm, maybe. I don't were gonna hear anything from The Stable though." She said.

"Hell, I hope not." I responded as I opened the door for Treble, who smiled and walked in with her head up high, a small amount of her duster dragging at her feet. I followed behind her.

Inside the bar was more like how it was in the Main Hall, rusted and built entirely of scraps and old, broken furniture. In the middle was a bar with a female bartender serving drinks and more unknown food to the few ponies who were sitting at the bar. There were a few ponies walking around with trays that had drinks on them, they seemed to be serving the ponies sitting at the wooden tables off to the side of the large room. The music that was playing was something Treble and I had yet to hear. We looked at eachother and then went up and sat at the bar, the bartender approached us.

"What can a get ya?" The brown unicorn said, her voiced had a small slur and an unidentifiable accent to it.

"Umm...not sure. Were new here in town." I said.

"Ah...so your the ones Dawnstar brought in from the waste. He vouches for you two mighty kindly, he told me to tell ya first meals on the house." The unicorn said.

"Well, remind us to thank him then." Treble said.

"Noted. I'll get you two some menus." She said as she walked off to a small closet at the end of the room.

"She seems nice." Treble said.

"Yea, most of them do. But there is a few in here that look a bit sketchy." I said.

"How can you tell?" Treble responded.

"Well...I noticed a few gawking at you when you walked in." I said, looking over my shoulders to see if that was still an occurrence.

"Oh! Really!" Treble sarcastically said as she lifted her hoof up to her mane and lightly fluffed it, then giggled as she looked at me. "Calm down Cyber, I understand why you would be on edge, I am to. But just calm down...at least for tonight. Dawnstar, Nightshade, and the other guards can handle anything that happens out there."

This coming from Treble truly did calm me. I must have really been on edge and been to focused on it to even realize it.

"Thanks babe...you have no clue how much that helped." I said as I took a few deep breaths, during which Treble scooted over a bit and started resting her head on my side.

"Trust me...I know it did." She said as we sat there as we watched the bartender come back out of the closet, a menu in her mouth.

She walked over to us and laid the single menu in front of us. "Sorry, only one I could find." She said.

"It's fine." I said.

"Alright then, just call me over when your ready." She said.

"Umm...sorry, but...what exactly is your name?" Treble asked.

"Oh, where are my manners. Names Tapster." Tapster said. "But like I said, call me when you need me."

"TAPSTER!" A very drunk sounding pony yelled from one of the wall tables.

"Just like that." Tapster smiled as she walked off to help the drunken pony.

Treble and I then giggled and opened up the menu, looking over it's items.

"Well...anything we want first go. Take your pick." I said as we looked over the relatively small menu.

One side had beverages, the other food items. The beverages were pretty simple, stuff like water, juices, Sparkle Cola, and different kinds of alcohol. On the side side was a bit different. Not a single item was for vegetarian, every single one was some sort of animal.

"Oh no." Treble said.

"We where gonna have to do it eventually. Might as well do it now, I mean we have to eat." I said.

Treble looked at me with a defeated face, then her head drooped down. "Fine! But I'm getting some beer afterwards!" She said.

"You and me both." I yelled. "Should I yell for Tapster?"

"Might as well. What are we gonna do though? We don't know what any of this is, I mean what the hell is a bloatfly?" Treble said, she was sounding annoyed.

"No clue." I said to Treble as I turned. "TAPSTER!" I yelled.

"Coming!" Tapster voice said from off to my right as she came around to the front of the bar and looked at us. "Have you decided?"

"Well...two of the same random meal and two beers." I said.

"So surprise ya on the meal?" Tapster said, ever so slightly tilting her head.

"Yep..." Treble regrettably said.

"Something wrong?" Tapster said.

"Well, it's our first time eating anything meat related." I said.

"Oh yeah. Dawnstar said you two were only a few days fresh out of the Stables. Tell ya what, I'll prepare the best thing we have for ya. Two Brahmin steaks coming right up!" Tapster yelled as she walked off into the kitchen area of the bar.

"Well...can't be that bad." I said.

"Oh yes it can." Treble responded, leaning her head back on my side.

"Look at this way. More then likely every pony here has been eating this stuff sense they were born, and other then being dirty, most of them look just as healthy as us." I said.

"As comforting as that thought is, it doesn't make me anymore thrilled to try this." She said.

"Hey, me neither babe." I said as Treble and I began to watch as Tapster prepared our meals.

30 MINUTES LATER.

It was at this point that Tapster finished plating the so called 'Brahmin Steaks' on the stainless steel platters and started walking towards us, then laid them in front of us along with two beers.

"If it makes you two feel any better, I've been eating the stuff sense I was a filly." Tapster said.

"Yea...not really." Treble said as she stared at the steaks.

"Tip of advice, if you absolutely can't stand it, I'd save the beer for last." Tapster said. "Well, enjoy your meal." She continued as she walked away to the sound of another pony yelling her name from the opposite end of the bar.

I looked over at Treble, her face looked sickening.

"On three?" I asked, levitating up a piece of the steak.

"Ugh...yeah, on three." She said, picking up a piece with her hoof.

"One...two...three." I said as we both simotainiously bit into our pieces, and began chewing.

To be completely honest...it wasn't that bad. A little chewy, but not enough to where I could swallow it. I looked over at her face, she looked back at mine...then swallowed.

"Well...umm...it's not the worst thing I've had." She said. "Glad I have the beer though."

"Yea...it could be way worse." I responded as I took another bite, Treble did the same.

We once more looked into each other's eyes, then simply shrugged as we devoured the rest of the meal in no more then five minutes.

"Not bad. Texture is gonna take some getting used to though." I said.

"Yea...not as bad as I thought it would be...still glad I have this though." She said as she scooped up the beer mug with her hoof and began sipping.

"Same." I said as I took a large swig of the alcohol. "Damn, that's a bit strong."

"There is a reason I'm sipping Cyber." She giggled.

It wasn't to much longer until we had the drinks finished.

"Thanks for the meal Tapster." I said as we got up from the bar and headed out the door, and then back to our house.

Once inside we both took off our armor, Stable barding and all. I climbed into the bed, Treble followed. As we faced eachother I planted a light kiss on Treble's lips and then pulled the makeshift blanket over us with my magic.

"I like this place." Treble said as she returned the favor with a slightly, as one would say, heavier kiss and wrapped her front legs around me.

It wasn't long until we both fell into the only legitimate worry-free sleep either of us had sense we left The Stable. Looks like we made it another day.

Chapter 22- Guard Duty

Cyber's Point of View

I awake to hearing soft footsteps on the metal floors of the house, along with the closing of a door. I turn over in the bed to see Treble walking over to her gear. I lean up from the bed.

"Hey Cyber, I was just about to wake you." She as she began putting on her leather tunic and duster.

"Yea, beat ya to it." I giggled. "Who was at the door?" I asked.

"Oh, it was Dawnstar. He said he already got you signed up for guard duty and to meet him by the front gate. And he told me to go see hourglass about a job." She said, slipping on her duster.

"Ah, am I suppose to be meeting him now?" I asked.

"In the next thirty minutes or so." She responded.

"Ah...What time is it exactly." I asked as I got out of the bed, and walking over to my gear.

"Uhhh...around six AM." She said. "Felt like longer to be honest though."

"Yea, but I guess it is the first legitimate sleep we've had sense we left The Stable." I said as I finished strapping on my leg guards.

"Yea, true. I guess that makes a big difference." She said as she finished putting on her gear and sat down on the couch.

"Seems so. Anyway, what kind of job you hope you'll get?" I asked, just to avoid awkward silence as I put on my massive amounts of gear.

"Don't know. Hopefully something with Hourglass or Tapster. I could really help with almost anything though. What about you?" She asked.

"Well, guard duty seems to be my best bet. Don't see me being able to help with much else." I said.

"Why's that?" She responded.

"Well, I mean it seems best suited for me." I said as I finished up putting on my riot gear, moving onto my guns.

"Hmm, guess so." She giggled. "How much longer are you going to take?" She joked.

"Hey, it's not my fault. The more protection the better." I said as I reattached my battle saddle to my riot gear, then moved onto Black Rose.

"Hah...guess so." She responded.

I chuckled as I finished up putting on the rest of my gear.

"You ready to go I take it?" I sarcastically said.

"No...think I need to prepare my mane." She laughed. "Yea, I'm good to go."

"Alright then, so I take it your heading to the Main Hall to meet Hourglass?" I asked.

"Yea, your heading to see Dawnstar at the main gate then?" She responded.

"Yep. Guess I'll see you later then." I said.

"I guess so. Au revoir darling." She giggled as she exited out of the door.

To be deathly honest, I already hated being without her. It didn't take long at all for a small tear to come to my eye, but hey...that just meant I cared, right? I walked over to the door and used my magic to open it up and walk outside, lightly shutting the door behind me to prevent waking up any other ponies. I then began walking down to the main gate, a walk that seemed everlasting without Treble by my side.

"Miss her already I take it?" I familiar voice said fro behind me. I turned to see Nightshade walking towards me.

"It's sure as hell different, I'll give it that." I responded.

"She'll be alright Cyber. Everypony is in good hooves here." He said.

"Thanks." I said, then looking over at him to strike up a different conversation. "So, what kind of weapon is that anyway?"

"Oh, this thing? That's a flamethrower." He responded with a smug grin to follow.

"Flamethrower? So it shoots fire?" I asked.

"Pretty much. It can roast anything that's close enough." He said.

"Hmm, what about the armor, it looks pre-war to me? That true?" I asked.

"Yea, it's definitely pre-war. It's Grand Pegasus Enclave armor...that is other than the few modifications I made myself. How'd you know that? Didn't you just come out of the Stable not to long ago?" He questioned.

"I'm...uhh...well informed I guess." I responded, even though it was just a guess. "I take it the bladed wings is one of the modifications?"

"Indeed they are. Damn useful to." He said with pride. "Anyway, Dawnstar is right down here, he'll give ya the ropes."

We were now at the gate, Dawnstar standing tall at the front.

"Well then." Nightshade said as we walked up to him. "You're looking alert today."

"Had a good night's rest." He responded.

"You didn't sleep though." Nightshade responded.

"Exactly." Dawnstar snapped back. "Anyway, glad to see you made it Cyber."

"Glad to be here. Anything special I should know?" I ask.

"Not really. Your more then likely just gonna walk the outer walls with us." Dawnstar responded.

"Simple enough." I said.

"Alright then." Dawnstar said. "Hey Nightshade, fly up there and flip the switch for the gate.

"Got it." Nightshade said, then looked at me as hey took an odd stance. "Check this shit out."

Nightshade's armored wings then spread open and started flapping, he then jumped up...and flew. I knew he could do this due to being a pegusus, but it was still a sight to see. All that being said, he was being a bit of a showoff in the process. Between showing off speed and doing a full flip on the way to the gate switch, it was fairly obvious that he was doing just that. Dawnstar must have caught on as well.

"Hey! Calm your hooves and just flip the damn lever!" Dawnstar yelled up. "Don't make me haul my big ass up there!"

"Fine! Fine! Just don't do that." He said as he landed on the platform and flipped the switch. "Wouldn't want you falling off anyway."

"How about you come down here and say that." Dawnstar responded.

"Nah. I'd really rather not." Nightshade chuckled.

"Yea, that's what I thought chicken shit." Dawnstar yelled back.

"I take you two are usually like this." I said as I watched the metal gates screech open.

"Yea. Brotherly love I guess." Dawnstar chuckled. "Anyway, guess we should head out."

"Yea, I'll follow you two." I said, cocking all of my weapons.

"Cool." Dawnstar said as we walked out of the gate, looking up at Nightshade as we reached the other side. The two guard ponies from before standing on the outside. "Nightshade! Shut the gate and get your ass down here!" He yelled.

"Got it!" He yelled back.

Nightshade then flipped the switch and glided down to us, his armor clinking together as he hit the ground. I looked around at the familiar surroundings, the mix of dirt, ash, and snow little amounts of snow scattered throughout the ground.

"Damn, the weather really changes fast our here. Doesn't it." I said as we began walking the outer walls.

"Yea...really isn't such thing as seasons anymore. It could be a blizzard one day and then you could die of a heat stroke the next." Dawnstar said.

"Yep, you really need to be prepared for anything now." Nightshade said.

"Shit. You two really have wasteland experience, don't ya?" I asked.

"Well, like I told ya, first stab wound when I was six..." He was cut off by Nightshade.

"First bullet wound when he was six." Nightshade cut in.

"I take it you've heard the story before." I chuckled.

"Yea, I guess you could say that." Nightshade said, he tapped Dawnstar's shoulder.

"What did you tap him for?" I asked.

"Cyber...Nightshade and I go way back." Dawnstar said.

"Yep...I'm the one who shot him." Nightshade said. They both joined in on a laugh.

This almost made me stop dead in my tracks. Either these two were way older then I thought, or there was just something I didn't know.

"Are you serious?" Was the only thing that I could manage to say.

"Completely." Dawnstar said. "He's the one who shot me at the age of six."

"How old are you two?" I then asked.

"I'm 29." Dawnstar said.

"And I'm only a year older." Nightshade added in.

"So you were only kids and you were shooting eachother?" I frantically questioned as I was getting some really valuable information.

"Pretty much. I mean when your only seven and you see a pissed off looking animal that you have yet to see...you tend to either fight or run. It's obvious what I did." Nightshade said.

"I still never understood why you thought I looked pissed." Dawnstar responded.

"I told you. I was nearly starved to death and nearly hallucinating, plus you were like twice my size. You still are ya big bastard." Nightshade said.

"So let me get this straight. You two met by one of you shooting the other...and now your best friends?" I said, this was truly fascinating to me.

"It's the wasteland Cyber, weird shit happens." Dawnstar said.

We then all shared a collective laugh as we turned the first corner of New Fillydelphia's outer wall...but our laughs were interrupted by a very large bang coming from the opposite end of the wall, this was followed by a thick trail of smoke...and screaming followed by scattered gunshots.

"The fuck is going on!?" I yelled.

"Shit, not sure. Nightshade, fly in and see what's going on. Open fire if necessary. We'll meet inside." Dawnstar yelled.

"Got it." Nightshade said as he took off into the skies and into the town.

"Cyber. Follow me. We need to get to the other side of the walls." Dawnstar said ass he took off running.

I followed right at his side. A lot of things were going through my mind right now. Knowing that I couldn't currently protect Treble was amongst the worst of thoughts. Not knowing what we where up against was another one. Many other similar thoughts banged around in my head as we ran the outer walls, reaching another corner in the process.

"The explosion happened around this next corner Cyber! Be ready to fight!" Dawnstar yelled as we approached the next corner.

The smell of gunpowder was starting to fill the air as I listed to the screams and shots coming from the inside of the wall. I was worried and pissed all at the same time. I needed to know if Treble was okay or not. I picked up my pace to my absolute maximum speed as I heard an ear-piercing scream come from the town, Dawnstar sped up and matched mine as we turned the last corner.

As soon as we turned the corner I noticed a large hole in the wall, two bodies lying close to it. Dawnstar ran up and quickly examined them.

"It's the other wall guards. Something slit there throats. We need to get in there Cyber. I'm going to find Loose Screw and Nightshade. I don't blame you if you go after Treble first." He said as he pulled his club off of his back.

"Thank you. See you when this is over." I said as I turned and ran into the hole in the wall, Dawnstar followed behind, letting out a ferocious cry as he charged in.

The town was already nearly in ruins. Bodies lined the streets. The houses and other buildings nearly destroyed, some even on fire. I ran in and began thinking where Treble might be. My first thought was the Main Hall. I stopped and began looking around for the closest pathway to get up there, spotting one off to my right. I ran straight towards it, probably stepping over three bodies in the process. My heart was racing as I ran up the pathway to the Main Hall, and it wasn't long until I reached the main door. I stepped back, took a deep breath, and barged through the door.

As I ran inside time seemed to slow as I was met with many unfriendly eyes. I noticed that there were two types of ponies in this room. They were either armed and looking at my with crazed looks of murder, or unconscious and lying on the ground. There where two particular ponies lying in the corner of the room by the desk...Treble and Nightshade.

I grew more furious with every second. I looked up at the multitude of armed ponies, noticing they all had a matching symbol somewhere on they're gear. One of them started walking towards me.

"How about you surrender there hotshot." He said as he went to swing at me with the wrench he had in his mouth.

Anger took over at this point. I grasped the firing mechanism of my battle saddle and unloaded a single shot of buckshot into his chest, dropping him like a sack of rocks. I pumped the shotgun with my magic and turned to another pony, repeating the same thing. This process repeated with two other ponies until I felt a sudden pain in my back left leg, causing it to buckle and collapse under me. I looked down at it and saw a hole that pierced completely through my leg, it wasn't long until it was pouring out blood. I frantically looked around for the culprit, spotting the mare on the second floor. I pulled out my 10mm pistol and rolled over, then popping off multiple shots until I knew that the mare was dead. I kept the pistol in my grasp as I rolled back over and started crawling towards Treble and Nightshade.

The screams outside where still going on, and every now and then I could hear one of Dawnstar's battle cries. None of this mattered now. All that currently mattered was getting out of here alive with all of my friends...preferably intact. I crawled as fast as I could towards Treble and Nightshade, all the while watching and listening for anypony else that I might have to shoot at. I was nearly three feet away from them when I heard a horrifying noise come from behind me. I rolled over once more to see a familiar face, but not a friendly one.

It was Clicks, zero doubt about it. His iconic multi-barreled gun arm was uncovered, spinning, and pointed at me. I quickly lifted up my pistol and shot...once. The pistol jammed, however the shot did hit him in the gun arm, causing it to malfunction.

"You know that wasn't cheap to get done." Clicks said from across the room as he walked towards me, his voice was still calm and relaxed like when we last spoke.

"You best back the fuck up!" I yelled as I levitated up Black Rose.

"I think I'm good." He said as he continued to walk forward.

"One last chance!" I yelled.

"As to you my friend." He smiled as he was almost standing over me. "To bad you can't do it."

He then lifted up his gun arm and swung it down on my head...nocking me out nearly instantaneously.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER

I notice that I start to awake, but am greeted by not being able to move...and a skull splitting headache. I slowly open my eyes and see where I am now at and if a anything has changed. To some extent of luck I was still in the same room, only now I was propped up against the desk, mouth taped shut, and tied up with some sort of magical cuffs. I look around and notice that the room is now filled with far more ponies and that all of the corpses where removed. The ponies in the building now either consisted of Clicks and his soldiers, or, as much as it hurts to think about it, the remainder of the citizens of New Fillydelphia. Upon looking around I notice that Treble, Hourglass, and Tapster are in the far corner of the room, blindfolded and tied up. Looking at the walls I notice Dawnstar and Nightshade along with a few other miscellaneous ponies I had yet to meet. Dawnstar was definitely not unconscious, but he was severely tied and bound as he attempted to squirm out of it...without any helpful results from the looks of it. Nightshade was still unconscious. I didn't see Loose Screw anywhere...I feared the worst.

"Well look who finally gets to join the party!" I hear Click's voice yell out of a group of soldiers in the middle of the room.

Clicks walks out of the crowd and comes towards me.

"Hmm...guess you'll get to witness what I had planned after all." He grins as he pulls out a very elegant and beautiful looking pistol.

It was also one of those revolver looking pistols, but this one was all black with very nice silver engraving all over the weapon. But instead of taking normal bullets, it seemed to take smaller shotgun shells. All this said, I was more then likely about to dread what he was going to do with this weapon.

"Someone get the first three hostages. Let's start this party, shall we?" He yells to his soldiers who all respond by cheering, laughing, and stomping there hooves on the wooden floor.

Three of his guards walked over to Treble, Hourglass, and Tapster. They practically drug them to the center of the room. The center of the room cleared out as guards gathered at the sides of the room.

"Clear a path and make them face Cyber...I want him to witness every bit of this." Clicks said, the soldiers were cheering even louder now.

Treble, Hourglass, and Tapster where now all facing me, still blindfolded and tied up. I was growing extremely furious and scared now...and nobody could do a single thing about it. I attempted to at least remove the excessive amount of tape on my mouth, but couldn't get it to budge. I looked over at Dawnstar, he was still having useless attempts at getting out of his bindings. I looked back at Treble, Hourglass, and Tapster.

"Take off the blindfolds and tape off the hostages. I want Cyber to here and see there reactions." Clicks deviously said, the soldiers getting louder and rowdier with everything Clicks did.

One guard went along and removed everything Clicks told him to from Treble, Hourglass, and Tapster. All six of there eyes instantly darting towards me...each with a 'Help me' look that made me instantly start tearing up knowing that I couldn't do anything to get us out of this...this was literally the end of the road. And noticed Clicks trot over to me through the tears.

"Now now Cyber. Clear those tears. I'm saving Treble for last!" He said with a grin.

Treble must have heard that because she worked up the courage to speak up.

"Cyber! We need to get out of thi..."

*BANG*

She was cut off by something that made my sadness fill with complete anger. She was interrupted by the cracking of Click's pistol shotgun. I shot being sent right into her front right leg.

"AAAGGGHHHHHH!" Treble yelped as she collapsed to the floor.

"Could you just shut up for once and help yourself...oh wait." Clicks smiled as I furiously attempted to break my bindings. He noticed me and began speaking again.

"Oh calm yourself Cyber. All I did was shoot her in the leg. Just calm the fuck down." He calmly said as he walked over to Tapster.

He pointed the revolver up to Tapster's head.;

"Any final words?" Clicks asked.

"Cyber...It was nice meeting you and Treble." She said, tears going down her face.

"Aww, that's sweet." Clicks said with a sarcastic wipe of his eye as if he had shed a tear.

*BANG*

Another shot went off as Tapster dropped to the floor, the whole back of her head nearly gone and painted on the wall behind her. Clicks then walked over to Hourglass, pointed the gun up to her head, and repeated the same words.

"Any final words?" He said.

"Glad to see you came to finish the job you bloodthirsty monster." She said...this confused me.

"And what do you mean by the dearie?" Clicks questioned as he pulled back the hammer on the revolver.

"You're the one who made me what I am! Look under my mane!" She yelled, Clicks cocked his head to the side and scooted her mane with the revolver's barrel.

I noticed Dawnstar snap into attention and watched as Clicks did this. As he shuffled through her mane I noticed a small, boney stump that was hidden under Hourglass's mane...it was a broken unicorn horn.

"Nice to see you again. You've grown up so fast." Clicks said as he pulled the trigger, Hourglass falling to floor next to Tapster.

I was now not only crying, but furiously attempting to escape my bindings. Clicks looked over at my and frowned.

"Somepony hold him still...I need him to pay special attention to this one." He said as he walked over to Treble, pulling back the hammer on his revolver and pointing it at her head.

Two of Click's guards walked over to me and sat me up, then preceded to hold my eyes open. My heart was beating dangerously fast...I was actually starting to get light headed.

"Any last words Miss Treble?" Clicks smiled as he leaned down by her face.

She didn't respond to him...but instead looked over at me...and smiled.

*BANG*

Chapter 1: An average day in Stable 82

Cyber's Point of View

Setting- Cyber's Room in Stable 82

God damn was I bored. I was just laying in my bed in my semi-empty room in the absolute center of Stable 82. And I don't mean that it was just in the middle of all the important stuff in the Stable, I literally mean right in the center. My room was on the 4th out of the nine floors of Stable 82, and then directly in the middle of the fourth floor. I guess I was just easily irritated right now, I haven't had anything to do lately as I was just here for when in was the Stable's entertainment day, which was every Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. for when the morning workers got off there shift, and then I would repeat the same show for when the night workers got off their shift at 8 a.m. That was literally my job here in the amazing place of Stable 82, an entertainer...a DJ at that. You know, which would be fun and all if I didn't have to hear the same songs every time I perform. The only time I can get a different song is when the few singers in the Stable make a new one. And even then I don't record half of them because most of the time the songs aren't that good. To be honest there is really only two good singers in the Stable: Treble Clef and Sweet Melody.

Treble Clef is an amazing singer and song writer, and it really helps that we have liked eachother sense we met in school around ten years ago, she was actually my Super Special Somepony as of two years ago. Sweet Melody on the other hand was just a total bitch. Melody was the one who sat back in class and worried about her looks rather than succeeding, always thinks she's right, absolutely LOVES to rub shit in, and probably worst of all is the fact that she purposely liked to get in between me and Treble. And I don't mean that she likes me or anything, she actually is the exact opposite, she hates me to the core...and I'm fine with that. She's not a fan of Treble either, but she doesn't act like that around her. She acts like she's Treble's best friend, but then goes behind my back and tries to separate Treble and I. I know this not only because I've caught her trying to tell Treble stuff, but I've also had Treble come up to me and just randomly start questioning me on things that I have absolutely zero clue about. I hate her...but Treble thinks she's her friend, and she hasn't separated us yet, so it really wasn't a problem at the time. I really just needed to figure out something to do.

I couldn't hang with Treble right now because it was currently "after hours" in the Stable. I pulled up my pipbuck to check what time it was.

"9:42...yep...definably after hours." I said to myself, my voice quietly echoing off the dull silver walls of my room. The halls would be teaming with guards right now.

The Stable had extremely strict rules when it came to time. At 7:30 a.m. breakfast would start, then at 8 a.m. all of the morning shifts would go to work until lunch, which was at 1 p.m. Then it they would get off at 5 p.m. so the night workers could start there shift until dinner at 8 p.m., then would work until the breakfast in the morning. If you missed a meal by even one minute then you were screwed because they would just refrigerate everything as soon as the time was up. Now if you were caught after hours than it would be a solid 5 hits with the Wardens baton. Which, trust me, hurt like a bitch...Treble and I would know as we were once caught doing "it" after hours in the maintenance wing on floor 8. Which we weren't even allowed in, so that just added another ten hits of a baton. And then the whole caught doing "it" thing got us three days without food or water and another 15 hits of a baton! So our final punishment was three days with no food or water...and a whopping 25 solid hits with a baton...and it was totally worth it, broken rib and all. Treble thought the same thing.

I guess I really didn't have anything to do...just lay there in my rock hard bed, and listen to the soft humming of Stable's generators and Guards hoofsteps outside until I managed to doze off...and I was close to doing just that until I heard a small, static filled dinging noise arise from the pipbuck permanently mounted on my left forehoof. I rolled over and pulled my pipbuck up to my eyes to see what I just got.

I looked through my pipbuck until I came across a message that read

Dear all off duty workers, please report to the stage for this weeks announcement.

Thank You.

-The Overmare-

Well shit...guess I had to attend that, honestly, I completely forgot about it. To be honest, I really wasn't sure why they didn't just send out a message with all of the weeks announcements to everypony's pipbuck every Monday morning. Hell, it was freaking Wednesday night and we were just now getting these damn announcements. Maybe if they just worried more about the important shit rather then keeping all of the times on schedule, that would be possible. But no, I guess being on time was slightly more important than something like a generator going down...and if that were to ever happen...well, tough shit I guess, we wouldn't know until a few days after I guess.

I powered down my pipbuck and sat up from my bed, then rolled out of it with as much enthusiasm as you would put into something that you don't want to do. Then walked over to the door to my room, grabbing my few belongings that I had on the way out, which just consisted of my bright blue stable barding that had a large, yellow 82 in digital writing on the back. And a pair of old, worn headphones that were issued to me when I got my cutie mark when I was a kid. They really don't sound that great as all they are is on old model of headphones from pre-war times. There was bound to be better models out there, but the odds of you getting out of the Stable was completely impossible. Once those doors shut, they never open again...oh well, you're born in the stable, you die in the stable. We were actually taught this when we were just foals. Anyway, I just set all this aside now and except the fact. Who knows what's out there now anyway.

I open the door to my room and walk out into the hallway of lovely floor four of Stable 82, and turn to my left towards the elevator to go to floor seven, which is were the stage is located.

The hallways are the same exact dull silver color like all of the rooms in the Stable. I'm not kidding either, every single room, whether it's a bedroom, cafeteria, or the 'stage' room, everything from the floor to the ceiling and everything in-between is just a dull grey. In fact, so dull that you couldn't even see your reflection anymore. I stress anymore though, when I was a foal you could at least see the outlines of yourself and small blotches of your mane and coat as long as you were standing in the correct place...and angle. But ever sense about ten years ago it has just been a dull grey-ish metal wall. I just assume they either lost their color to age or all the chemicals that we used to use to clean the walls, now the janitors just use the recycled water whenever they had the chance...which was rare.

These thoughts just continued through my head as I just kept looking around at the boring walls, ceiling, and floor. I was starting to get a sense of deja-vu until I felt a tap on my back. I turned to see a grey-coated and dark green maned guard staring me down in full Stable-Tec riot armor, riot shield on his back and baton at his side. His riot gear helmet shield was tinted just enough that you could see his eyes, but not the color. His body armor was just standard Stable-Tec riot gear that just had slightly more padding, but I noticed a bright wight patch on it that had black lettering that read-

Cog Ironhoof

Warden

Stable 82

"Well well...what are you doing out of your room after hours Cyber?" He questioned in his classic calm sounding voice that managed to still sound like he was pissed no matter what he was saying.

"What do you mean?" I questioned...didn't he get the memo, the message was supposed to be sent to everypony.

"You know exactly what I mean Cyber, it's after hours and your disobeying the time system...You know what that means, five hits of a baton Cyber...but I'm sure your used to that by now." He said, circling me and slowly starting to draw his baton out of its leather sleeve.

"Sir...I got a message on my pipbuck saying that there was a meeting at the stage for this weeks announcements, didn't you get it to?" I questioned...he hesitated, but he started to re-sheath his baton, and then lifted up my hoof to inspect my pipbuck.

Multiple beeps and other digitalized sounds repeatedly came out of my pipbuck as Ironhoof went through my pipbuck. I could see that he was going through my inventory through the reflection on his riot mask...snoopy little bastard, it's not like I could stop him though, his armor is to thick for just a hoof to do any kind of damage, and even if I did do something to him then I would soon have many more guards on me. So I had to sit there and watch as he went through my belongings and past messages from Treble. It seemed like I was standing there forever until he finally muttered something.

"What was that?" I asked, trying not to sound pissed.

"This message was received by everypony last week...you should probably report down to the maintenance wing and get your pipbuck looked at. I'll escort you down, follow me." Ironhoof said as he turned and walked over to elevators. "Well, get your ass in here before I pull you in here Cyber."

"Whatever." I said as I walked into the elevator and watched as Ironhoof pushed the bottom number on the elevator, number eight.

The elevator doors shut with a loud hiss as they always did, then all of the gears and pulleys started moving. I guess my next stop was maintenance.