Chapter 7

Going south

"Let's run the plan again. As of now, we are searching for your magic book. You left it in your home at Trottingham. Your home was located on the southern outskirts of the town, so there might be a chance of it still standing, or at least of your basement surviving the atomic blast. In order to get to Trottingham, we must pass by the ruins of Baltimare first. There were a lot of villages near it, so we should find a shelter without any problems. The next day, we move a bit towards the south-west, instead of south, to get to the ruins of Hoofington. According to the information you had got from the merchants, there must still be a railroad that can lead to Trottingham. Once we arrive there, we will have to circulate around the city ruins, in order to get to your house and not find ourselves in fatal radiation pockets. Did I miss anything?" Twilight Sparkle addressed her Equestrian compatriot.

"No. You summed up my plan quite well," Sunset Shimmer replied. "Of course, there is a chance that something may go off. No plan survives contact with reality."

"Seriously?" Spike voiced his opinion, sticking his head out of Twilight's rucksack.

"Seriously. If we encounter a radiation pocket on our way, we will have to bypass it. No need to get any extra rads. If something goes really wrong and we absolutely have to, then we swallow a pill of Rad-X and run through the pocket as fast as possible. Provided that radiaton is not above survivable level."

"And if we encounter hostile creatures of humans?" Twilight asked.

"What is that hunting rifle in your hands for?" the tone of Sunset's voice implied that she thought this question stupid.

"Oh..."

"If it's animals, we may get ourselves extra meat. It's irradiated, of course, but not too much."

"Meat?"

"Oh, sorry, Twilight. Humans are omnivores, eating meat is not exactly unusual for them. Although, I admit, for us ponies meat would be an acquired taste."

"Eww..."

"Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Besides, it's better than cannibalism, right?"

"EWWW! Sunset! Stop it, please!"

"Fine, fine. Just so you know, meat proteins are a vital part of a human's diet."

Two girls and a dog went on their way in silence...

Two hours later...

"Strange."

"What's strange, Sunset?"

"The merchants used to say that this area was inhabited by mole rats and wild dogs. And yet we don't see any."

"Wait. There might be dangerous animals here and you didn't tell me?" Twilight was not amused.

"There's always a chance to stumble on a wild animal - or a pack of them. It's everyday occurrence. We should have encountered at least one animal right now - but we haven't seen a single red mark on our IFF screens."

"That should be good, right?" Spike asked nervously.

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But Wastelands are not what used to count as "normal". If you know that there's a pack of predators and yet don't encounter them..."

"...then there's an apex predator around!" Twilight finished, fearfully.

"Precisely."

"What do we do?"

"Weapons at the ready and move stealthily. I really don't want to attract the attention of this apex predator, whatever or whoever that may be," Sunset followed her own advice.

Twilight did as asked to.

"Spike, keep an eye around. If someone's behind us, we need to know fast."

"Okie-dokie," the Number 1 assistant agreed.

Crouching, the girls proceeded to move forward in their intended direction, casting fearful glances around, determined not to miss any potential threats. Both had weapons' butts pressed firmly against their shoulders.

Twenty minutes passed on.

"Uh... Sunset? Is it safe to go on as previously planned?" Twilight asked.

"I'd rather not relax right now. You never know what may happen. We should get past the supposed beasts-infested area soon, then we may go faster," Sunset replied.

Approximately ten minutes later, the fiery-haired girl said:

"OK, I think we can go as usual, but let's keep our weapons ready, just in case."

The group went on.

However, they barely were able to make several dozen steps when...

"GRR-ROOOAAARRR!"

"Buck my flank!" Sunset cussed. "Called it! Twilight, where is it?"

"Where is what?" the lavender-skinned girl was frantically searching for the incoming threat until Spike's "Behind you!" met her ear drums. Once she turned around, she saw a strange creature resembling an ursa minor - but with bent hind legs which resembled hare's and very dangerous looking front paws. In her peripheral vision, she noticed Sunset's tanned face going pale.

"Oh, ponyfeathers..."

"Yao guai!"

The phrases were spoken at the same time, but Sunset's scream drowned out Twilight's un-Princess-y language.

BANG! BANG!

Two .32 bullets dug themselves into the monster's hide, but they were too weak to drop it dead. The yao guai growled and started jumping menacingly towards two girls.

BANG! BANG!

BANG!

"Forget the rifle, Twilight! Get your AP-79!" Sunset screamed, getting her combat shotgun.

"GR-ROAAAR!"

The monster jumped at the girls, swiping with its front paw. Sunset jumped away to the right, while Twilight went to the left.

The mutated bear stood, puzzled as to which prey to hunt.

BOOM! BOOM!

Shotgun's case-shots hit its flank, and it swiped its right paw, but missed: Sunset stepped away.

BOOM!

Another shot hit the yao guai in his head, but it didn't fall.

"What the heck? His skull is that tough?" the fiery-haired girl screamed, disbelieving.

That nearly cost her, as the mutant was about to swipe at her again, when -

BA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA! BA-TA-TA-TA-TA!

Twilight's trophy was as loud as it was effective. Some bullets hit the monster's back, and some went wide, but most of them entered its left hind leg, making him stumble and howl in pain.

Smart girl, Sunset thought, crippling its hind legs lowers its mobility. Uh-oh, now it's running towards her!

Crippling one leg was not enough. While the creature was slower, one could not say it was limping. It made its way towards Twilight, and it was still fast.

Sunset dropped her shotgun and readied her R91 assault rifle, running towards her compatriot.

Bra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! Bra-ta-ta-ta! Bra-ta-ta-ta-ta!

Unfortunately, her aim was hasty, and bullets dug themselves in monster's right side.

It was not enough to kill the creature, but enough to gain its attention. Sunset understood that in her haste to save Twilight, she had just made a very big mistake.

You don't get too close to the yao guai, you idiot!

The monster swiped.

"AAARGH!"

The claws hurt the young woman's right leg. Shocked by the pain, she fell backwards, barely avoiding hitting her head.

"Sunset!"

The yao guai's muzzle was too close to her for comfort.

She raised the rifle and fired without aiming.

Bra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-click! Click!

"Horseapples!" another swear word left her mouth as the unicorn-turned-human realized that she would not be able to reload in time. The yao guai reared back, ready to strike...

BA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!

A roar of pain, and the monster's head came apart under the bullets' strikes a moment later. The body fell down.

Twilight Sparkle came close, the barrel of her TODC assault rifle still smoking.

"Sweet Celestia!" she gasped at seeing the condition of her friend's right leg. Running up to Sunset, she took of her rucksack, taking out Silver Needle's first aid kit.

"Those claws are like razor! The wound must be deep!"

"I don't see any bright-red blood, which means no artery damage," Sunset Shimmer grumbled. "Which is good, because going back to Vault Village for extended care would have been freaking embarrassing."

"No dark-red blood, either. No vein damage, too. You are extremely lucky, Sunset," Twilight started disinfecting the wound.

"Ouch! Ponyfeathers! Extremely dumb, that's what I am," the wounded girl grumbled, wincing at the pain that disinfectant caused. "You never, ever, run up close to yao guai!"

"Well, there were two of us, and we killed it... speaking of which," the Princess of Friendship finished bandaging the wound, "do you need its'... brains washed away?"

"Don't waste the water. Just inject me with a RegenStim."

Twilight complied.

"OK... now... argh, Celestia burn it with her sunray! Urgh! OK, I can stand and... urgh... walk now."

"Maybe a painkiller?"

"No, we've got only Med-X for this, and I don't want morphine in my organism unless it's necessary. OK," Sunset took out a knife, "now let's cut ourselves some yao guai meat. This one is quite rare, you know..."

"Ugh," Twilight groaned in disgust, seeing her friend cutting away the chunks of flesh without a care.

"I still stand by what I had said. This looks terrible," the Princess of Friendship told Sunset, looking at her blood-coated hands.

"It may help us as an intimidation factor, though," the fiery-haired girl replied with a smirk.

"Argh!"

Getting the dead yao guai's meat proved to be a very dirty and bloody job. Once Sunset finished with it, her hands and sleeves were almost entirely covered in red.

They have been walking for nearly fifty minutes now, and Twilight still couldn't get over the feelings of disgust.

"Relax, Twilight, I was only joking. But the image of blood-coated hands does intimidate weak-willed people. Just keep that in mind."

"What's next? War-painting the face?"

"Eh, I don't think that really works here. Unless you paint your face for camouflage."

"Let's change the topic," Twilight suggested, not wishing to talk about anything "icky" anymore.

"If you wish," Sunset rolled her eyes. "What is it you want to talk about?"

"People have been mentioning Canterlot Wastelands, as in plural. Why plural? Isn't the world just one big Wasteland now?"

"I really don't think so. There may be a chance that some city or country may have been spared the horrors of atomic weaponry, but so far, we haven't seen any. As for why Canterlot Wastelands, well... as far as I am aware, that is because areas around Canterlot differ in various ways, from radiation levels to civilization remnants. We are in what is known as Northern Wasteland. This area comprises the Vault Village and some other small settlements, plus raider and mercenary groups. In this area, you can find the ruins of the cities of Trottingham, Baltimare, Hoofington and Whinnyapolis. To the east of Canterlot, there is Eastern Wasteland. There used to be cities of Las Pegasus, Stalliongrad, Mustangia, Maretania and Fillydelphia. To the south, there is Southern Wasteland. This area was home to massive military installations as well as closed cities, so it is irradiated as hell due to heavy atomic strikes, no one goes there. I know that the city of Cloudsdale was there..."

"There's Cloudsdale in this world?" Twilight interrupted.

"Yes. Pretty funny, huh? This city was of more recent foundation, that's why it doesn't bear any "pony-name". It was home to many war heroes of UFE, and later it became a closed town, strictly for the military. Kinda similar to the past of pegasi, who were a proud warrior race. No one knows what went there. I presume that there's nothing left now. And the Western Wasteland is where one could find the cities of Ponyville, Manehattan, Maretonia and frontier town of Appleloosa. And of course, there's Canterlot and its surroundings. No one visits it or even dares to try."

"Why?"

"Remember what I said? Canterlot was the capital city, thus it would become the priority one target of a nuclear strike. Of course, there was an anti-NBM defense system in place - NBM stands for "nuclear ballistic missile" - that was supposed to intercept the warheads, but since no one controls the land, I presume at least one bomb hit it - and one bomb would be enough. And if the enemy somehow was able to shut down the defense system, there would be more than one nuclear detonation. It is safe to presume that even now, Canterlot is very irradiated. Unless we find advanced anti-radiation defense, getting there would be impossible. Even if it is otherwise, merchants say no one who had ventured there has come out."

"But we will still need to go there? I mean, the portal and stuff..."

"I hope we won't need to. There may be other ways, but I haven't thought anything definite through yet."

"Oh... OK."

"Wait... red mark popped up on my IFF."

"On mine too."

"Get ready for battle," Sunset prepared her hunting rifle.

"But what about your leg?"

"It's in working order. I'll just have to deal with the pain," Sunset gritted her teeth together.

Three minutes later, they approached a small village and found out that there were four enemies in total. And their appearance was familiar...

"Raiders," Twilight whispered. "What do we do?"

"Shoot the one on the right, I'll take the one on the left."

The violet-skinned girl aimed her rifle at the head of the designated target and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

The raider's head came apart like watermelon. A moment later, another BOOM signifyed the death of another one.

"What the... fuck! Enemies! Kill them!"

BOOM!

"Not today, you raiding scum," Sunset muttered coolly, as she dropped the one who ran off his mouth.

BOOM! The last raider stumbled as the .32 bullet hit his torso.

"Out of ammo, reloading," Twilight said.

"I'll get him," her compatriot said, and fired again. Her shot was better; the bullet hit the raider's carotid artery, and he bled out in a minute.

"Reloading," Sunset said as she inserted new ammo, "now that's a better confrontation. Five bullets, four dead enemies and not even a scratch on us. Not like the yao guai. I wasted a whole clip on him, and you fired somewhere about two-thirds. The assault rifles are better left for exceptional circumstances."

"An encounter with a yao guai doesn't count as one?" the violet-haired girl asked, surprised.

"It does, but I'd prefer to spare the 5.56mm ammo for completely unfamiliar threats. But if there are more of these mutated bears around, then maybe we'd better avoid confrontation. That may be difficult, though - these beasts can feel you even if they do not see you."

"And running is not an option?"

"Well, I am no fast runner with this," Sunset pointed to her leg, "but even if I were, outrunning one of them is impossible. It's not "fight or flight" with them, it's "win or die", and dying isn't an option."

No, it isn't. But how far will I go to preserve my life? And Sunset's life? Twilight thought.

"Let's loot the raiders' bodies and look around the village. Maybe there's something useful."

As it turned out, the raiders were not that "rich". A hunting rifle in a bad condition, fourteen .32 ammo, two 10mm pistols (each girl took a spare), thirty-four 10mm ammo and an assault rifle in such a shoddy condition that Sunset actually spat on it.

"If the guy actually expected this piece of junk to fire or not jam, he was more of an idiot than I could imagine," she remarked. "This stuff is not worth two caps. At least the guy had the brains to have spare ammo."

Sixty 5.56mm ammo, to be exact. Those were split equally, too.

Twilight asked if taking the raiders' armour was a good idea. Sunset thought for a few seconds, and answered that it depended on how good the trophy armour was. The girls agreed to try their luck.

The armour they got was in no good condition either, especially the piece that was pierced by Twilight's bullet.

"Let's strip the pieces and see if at least one piece can be salvaged from these sorry excuses of bodily protection," Sunset suggested.

Fifteen minutes later, they put two pieces of raider armour inside their rucksacks and went to search through the village for anything valuable. There was not much to go by - most of the time they only found junk which was not worth the effort of hauling to merchants.

One of the houses had a first aid kit mounted on the wall. Inside it, there were bandages and a syringe of RegenStim. The fiery-haired girl was visibly pleased with this development.

In the fridge, they found two bottles of Nuka-Cider, still full and good for consumption.

"Oh goodie, two extra caps and something to drink," Sunset commented, but frowned. "Ah shucks, irradiated. Let's see... five rads? Not critical."

"How much is critical?" Twilight inquired.

"If you accumulate 200 rads, you'll receive radiation sickness. Getting more than 600 rads results in very heavy sickness. You'll need some serious treatment after this. One of the villagers had once managed to accumulate such a dose, and Redblood had to push him through a course of several radiation-flushing injections. Nasty business. If you get more than 800 rads, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible, or you will die in short amount of time. If a doctor is far, keep using RadAway - it helps to hold on, or at least the merchants say so. 1000 rads? Instant death, if you are lucky. If you aren't, you'll die in several hours, in most horrible agony."

"So no more than 800 rads in worst case scenario?"

"No more than 600, I'd say. Finding a doctor with access to pre-war anti-radiation drugs is in no way simple."

"So... we don't drink this cider?"

"Preferably not."

The girls moved on to the next house. It was sparsely furnished, and the most notable things were green crates on the floor.

"Ammo crates! We're in luck," Sunset said. "Let's sort through them."

Inside, they found thirty 5.56mm ammo, forty 10mm ammo and twelve ammo of a caliber Twilight had never seen before.

"What are those?" she showed her findings to her friend.

"Given the shape, I believe these are sniper rifle rounds. Let's keep them. Maybe we'll find a sniper rifle or sell these ammo to someone. Given I have never seen this ammo type before, it must be rare."

Twilight complied, and moved to open the last crate. However, it did not open.

"Er... Sunset? This one is locked."

"Oh? Let's see what I can do," the fiery-haired girl moved closer. "Ah, I see. This lock is quite simple."

She took out a screwdriver and what Twilight recognized as a bobby pin. She bent the latter so it would make a right angle, and inserted it in the keyhole's upper part. The screwdriver was inserted lower.

"What are you doing?"

"Picking this lock. We want its contents, don't we?"

Sunset pushed the screwdriver. The lock turned to the right, but got stuck halfway. She tried to turn the bobby pin to the right and pushed again. This time, the lock didn't even budge, and the bobby pin broke.

"Ponyfeathers."

The young woman took out another bobby pin and turned it to the left instead. This time, once she pushed the screwdriver, the lock turned the whole 90 degrees to the right, and then a click was heard.

"Ha!" Sunset cheered in delight, opening the crate. "Oh and look, three full ammo clips for my rifle and two for your SMG, Twilight! Totally worth a bobby pin!"

"I'm curious," Twilight asked, "just where did you learn to pick locks?"

"Well..." her friend shuffled uncomfortably, "...it was one of those disreputable things I used to do before my reformation. Snips actually was the one who taught me. You won't believe how easy school lockers are to pick if someone is too stingy to buy proper locks. That helped me to accumulate my power base quite quickly. But later, Principal Celestia had the locks upgraded, and my skills became useless. Ironic, huh? One of the bad things I used to do is now actually useful."

"Ironic indeed," the violet-haired girl agreed. "And I should be displeased at you picking locks in order to steal something else... but I can't, given the circumstances we are in."

The girls left the house and went in their intended direction.

"By the way, Sunset, what happened to your mouth filter? You are quite swear-full today."

"Says the Princess who screamed "ponyfeathers!" while fighting the raiders. I bet your world's Rarity would scold you for uncouth language," Sunset chuckled. "But seriously? Twilight, live here for a longer time and you will notice your mouth filter slipping, too..."

Twilight, Sunset and Spike were walking for about an hour and a half when their Pip-Boys started emitting cracking sounds.

"Radiation pocket!" Sunset shouted. "Back away!"

Everyone did as ordered.

"Darn, we'll have to go around that. Have your gun ready, Twilight, just in case. I'll see if we can find our way around that."

Sunset went to the left, going a hundred meters away, and then tried to proceed forward - but immediately rushed back.

"It's even worse there," she told Twilight and Spike. "Let's see if it's weaker on the other side. Follow me."

The results were disappointing. The radiation levels were dropping as they went to the right, but very slightly. Soon, they would deviate too much from intended course.

"I guess we'll have to take Rad-X and risk it," Sunset muttered, taking a pill and drinking water from one of the bottles. Twilight repeated her actions and also gave Rad-X to Spike.

"Let's run," she said.

Both girls rushed forward. Pip-Boys started emititng cracking sounds again.

"1 rad per sec," Twilight read aloud.

"That's better than 20 rads per second I was getting in another direction!" she heard her compatriot's answer. "Do not stop!"

One minute later, the cracking stopped - although to the girls it seemed like an infinity. Once they checked their Pip-Boys, they found out that both of them had accumulated 50 rads.

"Already?" Sunset muttered. "This goes on, and we will have to waste our RadAway supply. Let's go."

The rest of the day was pretty un-eventful. The trio was approaching their intended target - a relatively undamaged village with several houses still intact - when they heard shooting.

"Of all the times..." Twilight muttered. She was not in her prime condition, and fighting would take away the last of her strength.

Moreover, the IFF showed one green mark and almost a dozen of red ones. The odds were very bad.

"We can ignore it and just leave for another village," Sunset suggested.

Both Twilight and Spike gave her a look that would have burned her where she stood if it were capable of doing so.

"Just... don't miss, then," she muttered, preparing her hunting rifle.

The girls started running into the direction of battle. Spike jumped out of the rucksack and ran after them.

When they came close, they nearly dropped the jaws at the horrifying sight.

There were naked (aside from what looked like horribly torn pants) human-like figures tearing into the body of a young man lying on the ground. The man was already dead, but the monsters did not notice that or simply did not care. They looked like humans, but their skin was damaged to the point of falling off, exposing muscles and sinews underneath. Their fingers ended with sharp claw-like nails

Seven such figures were lying dead, which meant that the man was fighting ferociously for his life, but was overwhelmed by sheer numbers. All in all, there were eleven of those still standing.

"Are those... zombies?!" Spike asked, alarmed.

"I don't know," Sunset replied.

"What wouldn't I give for a grenade right now..." Twilight muttered, taking aim.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two headshots dropped a couple of "zombies", drawing the attention of the rest. They abandoned their now dead victim and began rushing towards their attackers.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two more dropped. However, the remaining seven was now very close, making hunting rifles useless.

"Run and gun!" Sunset ordered. Twilight quickly tucked her rifle away and scooped up Spike, taking away after her friend. Her another hand went after the SMG. She half-turned around, firing blindly into the crowd.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!

The bullets dropped another enemy, and made one of them stumble and fall.

Meanwhile, Sunset was able to prepare her R91 assault rifle and fire.

Bra-ta-ta! Bra-ta-ta! Bra-ta-ta!

Out of the almost dozen attackers, only four remained now.

However, once Twilight glanced at her IFF screen, her insides went cold.

"Sunset! We're surrounded!"

As she said that, a dozen of zombies ran from the direction the trio wanted to use.

"Curses!" was the reply she got. Sunset turned around and fired at the incoming wave, but only managed to kill one enemy.

You're doomed, Twilight remembered Zecora's words for some reason.

She turned around to the ramaining four and squeezed the trigger. She didn't release it until the weapon clicked, signifying a lack of ammo.

Her onslaught finished off three attackers, but the zombie who survived came too close. He swiped - and hit the armoured jumpsuit.

The resulting screech was very unpleasant to hear, but the armour worked as intended. The claws were not strong enough to pierce it.

Chomp!

Spike jumped from Twilight's hands and attempted to bite the zombie's leg. However, it apparently could not feel pain, because it did not even flinch.

Spike gave a small tug. The monstrosity was in the process of trying to hit his hatcher again and lost the balance, falling face-first to the ground.

Twilight used this moment to her advantage and reloaded her SMG. Four bullets to the head made the zombie remain still forever.

She tucked Spike back into her rucksack (against his protests) and turned to Sunset - only to discover that another wave of zombies was coming. Her fiery-haired friend has managed to kill six more, but the rest were dangerously close.

We need to find a place that can withstand the assault of zombie-humans!

Hurriedly, she looked around. The houses that they were close to were damaged, and did not count as an adequate defense position.

She released a stream of bullets at the incoming hostiles, and felt glad that two of them dropped as puppets with cut springs.

"We can't hold for too long! We need to run and hide!" she screamed.

"Fine by me!" Sunset replied, and the trio ran for their lives.

As it turned out, the whole village was positively infested with these zombies. While they were running, they had to gun down small groups of two or three zombies that were in front of them.

And more of them joined the chase. There were twenty of them chasing Twilight, Spike and Sunset.

The situation was dire.

"Ponyfeathers!" Twilight cussed, as she spent her another SMG clip. Deciding to spare what ammo she still had, she took her AP-79 and released a three-round burst. The bullets killed the zombie that was in front of them, and path became clear.

For how long?

"I'm having trouble running!" Sunset's words exacerbated the situation. If they could not outrun the zombies, they would not be able to survive!

Where to hide? Where to hide? the Princess thought frantically. Her eyes came across a building made of concrete. It had a steel door which stood ajar, and reinforced windows.

Moreover, there were no red marks in the direction which they would need to take.

There!

"Sunset! Let's hide there!" Twilight shouted, waving her hand towards their supposed safe house.

Bang-bang-bang-bang!

"Let's!" her friend screamed, reloading her pistol on the run. The girls made a wild dash towards their salvation, zombies hot on their six.

Twilight got to the door first and turned back to cover Sunset. Despite her previous injury, the fiery-haired ex-equine was only two steps behind her, and when the lavender-skinned girl opened fire, she was grabbed from behind by the collar and roughly dragged in.

The door slammed close, and a clank sounded, making it known that the door was bolted.

However, the zombies were not deterred, and started pounding - but to no avail. The reinforced door, which could withstand bullets, was more than an adequate protection against claws.

Click!

Two Pip-Boys enlightened the indoors of the concrete house, and two figures slumped against the door.

"Oh my..." one moaned.

"You know what? I think we should have robbed the Rangers' merchant and not paid him a single effing cap."

"I do not approve of such measures, or your language, but... the idea seems more enticing now."

"He couldn't just share the supplies, huh?" a third voice sounded, one that sounded more male. "His profits were more important than lives!"

"Life means nothing in the Wastelands. Deal with it."

"That's cold," a feminine voice said disapprovingly.

"It's the truth. Blunt and disgusting, but truth."

"Well, horseapples."

"Language, Princess."

"Go soak your mane."

"Wow, Twilight," a male's voice sounde again, "I don't recall you being this pissed off."

"First time for everything, Spike."

"Let's see where we are hiding," the last voice interrupted.

Two figures rose up.

"Hmmm-pf. Is that a light switch?"

Click. Click.

"Why isn't that working?"

"No electricity. Blast. Keeping our Pip-Boys on all the time is not an option. We may not find a spare battery."

"It needs a battery?!"

"What else did you expect it to run on? Magic?"

"No, but... hey, what's this?"

"Whoa, careful..!"

Suddenly, the room was filled with artificial light.

"OUCH!" three voices sounded. Twilight, Sunset and Spike closed their eyes, opening them several seconds later.

"Ah, I see you have found the panel. Good. We have electricity, then."

"But how?"

"Independent power supply, I imagine. If one was rich enough, they could install a power generator. Now let's see if there's anything lying around."

"Looting again?"

"Something tells me that the dead man we had seen earlier is the owner of this house."

"And if not?"

"...we'll cross that bridge when we come across it."

The ground floor, however, did not have anything interesting aside from pre-war clothes.

"Well, I guess that's not what we need. Although I like this baseball cap. Helps against the sun. Want one?"

"Why not?"

"I bet Rarity would love these," Spike remarked.

"I don't know. These are in good condition, but I don't know if they are "fabulous" enough," Sunset replied. Twilight rolled her eyes; she prayed for Spike's sake that human-Rarity was still alive.

He would be crushed if she were dead.

"Let's go to the second floor," she said.

The second floor was somewhat more rich in loot. In the bathroom, they found a first aid kit with two RegenStims, one syringe of Med-X and one bag of RadAway. The bedroom had three full pistol clips.

"What's that gizmo?" Twilight asked, pointing to a strange thing attached to a barrel of the 10mm pistol she found.

"Silencer, I believe. Strange. Just who used to live here?"

"You don't know?"

"No certain idea. Keep the pistol, we may need it. Silenced weapons are rare here."

Aside from that, they found nothing.

"Darn, I hoped we would find some assault rifle ammo. I am down to two clips for my R91."

"Me too."

Once they finished, Twilight noticed something.

"Is that a computer? I don't remember them looking like that."

"A terminal by RobCo. They adopted the same radiation fashion look. Computers used to look like this almost a century ago. I wonder if it works?" Sunset turned one of the switches to "ON" position.

"Hey, what are you..." Twilight was distracted by the lines on screen.

ROBCO INDUSTRIES UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM
COPYRIGHT 2089-2094 ROBCO INDUSTRIES

"What year is it now, by local calendar?" she asked

"2101."

Sunset typed the words "LOGON ADMIN". Once she hit the enter button, though, she was greeted with a message:

ENTER PASSWORD

"Well, shucks. Password-protected. And I don't know it."

"Isn't there a way around it?" Spike asked.

"If there is, I have never heard of one. My work at Vault 75 never required hacking into terminals, you know."

"Maybe we should just leave it alone?" Twilight suggested.

"That would be a bummer. Hmm... Twilight, why don't you try searching through this table?"

"How would that help?"

"If the previous owner of this terminal was an idiot, his or her password should be in there."

"Why an idiot?"

"Because leaving the password to your terminal lying around is the height of idiocy."

The lavender-skinned girl rolled her eyes and started searching.

"Is this what you need?" she said a moment later, showing a small piece of paper with the words "admin" and "runner875" on it.

"Let's see. R-U-N-N-E-R-eight-seven-five..."

As Sunset hit enter once again, she was greeted with another message:

DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE OF UNITED FEDERATION OF EQUESTRIA
WELCOME BACK, AGENT #67-195

"Agent? Directorate of Intelligence?"

"Directorate of Intelligence is the governmental department that was responsible for spying on other countries. During the war, they targeted the countries that were a part of TODC," Sunset explained. "They had some sort of... hubs... all over the UFE. Apparently, this home was used by one of their agents who was supposed to stay here for some reason. Interesting..." she trailed off, looking at the options presented to her.

Contact other hubs

Review intelligence reports

Requisition equipment

Remove redactions

Open the hidden safe

Use file system

"Let's see... remove redactions," Sunset chose the according option.

ERROR: You do not have the necessary clearance. Please contact your supervisor.

"Yeah, and contacting..."

ERROR: Communication hardlines damaged. Contact not possible.

"...is not an option either. Predictable. I bet that trying to ask for some equipment is useless, too. Open safe."

A section of the wall opened, revealing the hidden safe. Much to the group's disappointment, it was empty.

"Apparently the owner took everything they hid there. And forgot the password. As I said, idiot."

The fiery-haired girl choose "Review intelligence reports".

Warning! Unauthorized viewing of the data within is considered an act of treason against UFE and is punished accordingly!

Continue (Y/N)?

"Yeah, well, too late to punish me. Does DOI actually exist now?" Sunset snorted and entered "Y"

She was presented with six reports. Opening the one that was the oldest, they read:

Report #379
The latest events in [REDACTED] are troubling. After the [REDACTED], the new government is by no means friendly towards us and leans more towards [REDACTED], but the increased marine traffic between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] is too big, even with the good relationships [REDACTED] enjoy.

This can only mean one thing: [REDACTED] Unfortunately, our abilities are limited. Agent Gravity is requesting more [REDACTED], but I am not inclined to take this risk. The final decision rests upon [REDACTED], however.

END

"I can't make sense of it," Twilight complained.

"Me neither. Let's see what the other report says."

Report #382
Agent Gravity suspects that the latest shipment to [REDACTED] contains [REDACTED]. She has sent another request for [REDACTED].

Given that [REDACTED] is too close, the possibility of [REDACTED] is too scary to ignore. I request that Agent Gravity's request be approved.

END

Report #388
Agents Gravity and Ukulele confirmed the shipment of [REDACTED] from [REDACTED] to [REDACTED]. The Field Director states that [REDACTED] needs to be carried out.

I would rather wait. Such drastic actions may have terrible repercussions, especially if [REDACTED] has already secretly joined TODC. Agents Falls and Ukulele say the same in their reports, while the majority of other agents agrees with Field Director, and a small part says nothing on the issue.

This report along with all relevant appendixes is sent upwards. Such decisions are above our pay grade.

END

"This sounds like trashy spy novels, except that this is real life," Twilight muttered.

"And these agents "Gravity" and "Ukulele" have disagreed with this "Field Director" fellow, who must be the superior. That takes guts. Intelligence agencies do not forgive such actions - at least, I believe so. Let's see the next report."

Report #391
Field Director is having doubts in the loyalty of agents Gravity and Ukulele. They are the only agents that speak against carrying out the [REDACTED], while the rest insist.

Paranoia is a must in our job, but too much of it is harmful. Gravity and Ukulele are our best agents in [REDACTED]. Their information has never failed us. Of course, there's a possibility of them being double-agents and supplying carefully crafted disinformation, but I can't see the endgame in this case.

I'll contact [REDACTED] and ask for advice. Maybe we will need to involve [REDACTED].

END

"Ominous," both girls said at the same time. They read the next report:

Report #395
We have lost two more agents. It's no longer possible to argue against agents Gravity and Ukulele being traitors.

[REDACTED] will wait for them to bring Gravity back, while Ukulele will be brought back by [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] is being assembled at [REDACTED] in order to implement [REDACTED]. We will use [REDACTED] for [REDACTED].

END

Report #396
Agents Falls and Ukulele have boarded [REDACTED], as planned. Before that, however, they sent us one final report.

If its contents are to be believed, [REDACTED] does not threaten [REDACTED] at all and there is no point in [REDACTED]. The [REDACTED] that they presumably saw were [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], good for [REDACTED], but not [REDACTED]. The question is: why? Surely [REDACTED] is a good point for [REDACTED].

Anyway, since we believe them to be traitors now, their opinion is irrelevant. They will be separated and given over to [REDACTED]. The [REDACTED] will begin soon.

"Were these agents actually traitors?" Twilight asked, once they finished reading.

"Who knows? It's a mystery," Sunset muttered, turning off the terminal. "We need to go to sleep now. Tomorrow may be an even harder day, and we need strength."

"Don't jinx it," Spike muttered.

"I thought that in situation like this we can't sleep?"

"We can, but with a finger on the trigger and in turns. I don't think those zombies can break through the door, but one may never be too careful. You go first and sleep for four hours, I'll stand guard - my leg still hurts and I won't be able to sleep properly. Then I'll try and get some shut-eye and you stand guard."

"I can stand guard too, you know," the dragon-turned-dog said.

"You need your rest, too. Then you'll help Twilight while I sleep."

"OK," Twilight moved towards the only bed in the room, "we'll do it your way."

Tucking herself in, she heard Sunset say :

"Good night, Twilight, Spike."

"Good night," the equine Princess and her assistant replied.

Sunset turned off the lights, turning on her Pip-Boy lighting.

Night and silence reigned in the house.

Running out of ammo, besieged by zombies, and who knows what expects us out there on the remaining part of the way. Life is good, she thought sarcastically.

Level Up!

New Perk (Twilight Sparkle):

Hardened (Rank 1): You gain additional 50 Health Points with each rank of this Perk.

New Perk (Sunset Shimmer):

I Hate Hospitals! Your natural healing rate receives a permanent +5% bonus.

Author's Note

I know, I promised a longer wait. That was due to the fact that I was trying to think of a decent transition point to an important encounter that happens later. I expected it would take me days to think of one, as it usually happens.

But then, inspiration struck me. And here is an update. Yay

Still, I make no promises that the next update will be as quick as this one. The next chapter is planned to be bigger in volume - probably equal to Chapter 5 (ca. 10 000 words) - and significance, and will take more time.

Unless something drastically changes in my life, the estimated waiting time is 5-10 days.

I was asked by Gadman85 why I write "Canterlot Waslelands", as in plural opposed to singular. That was the result of a mistake. I did not have the possibility of getting myself an English version of Fallout 3 and had to use the localized Russian version. And there, as far as I remember, the Russian equivalent of the word "wasteland" is used in plural when referring to Capital Wasteland at least once, which lead to plural being used here liberally. Reverse translation fail at its finest

Before I began writing this story, the area where the events of Fallout: Equestria Girls take place had been previously divided into sectors based on their position relative of Canterlot (northern sector, southern sector and so forth). The idea was shelved away, because once I started writing, I saw no need for it. But once I realized my mistake regarding terminology, I, to be honest, did not really want to change every "Wastelands" to "Wasteland". Instead, I dug out this idea of sectors and modified it into several separate Wastelands around Canterlot, thus solidifying the usage of the term "Canterlot Wastelands" by characters.

Gadman85, thank you a lot for the help

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Stay tuned!

P. S. Can you find the hidden references?