Fallout: Equestria - A Song of Angels

by Chaos Phantasm

Rating: mature
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Dark, Romance, Adventure, Sex, Crossover, Babs Seed
Length: 40710

Years following the Pegasus Enclaves defeat, a pre-war nation makes a stunning return. The return of the Crystal Empire, with all its power and promise, threatens to spark the embers of a new great war, with the NCR in its shadow.

Alternate Title: The Crystal Dominion.

Decades after it's disappearance, the Crystal Empire makes its stunning return, bringing with it new hope for the Equestrian Wasteland. With the NCR entering its earliest stages of development, territory wars break out, treaties are made, and factions are forced to work together to make the ensuing peace last.

Only not everything is as it seems, strange creatures have started appearing, and a threat from the east and west marks the coming of an endless storm. The horrors of the wasteland never die, and the return of this Crystal Dominion has fractured a balance set in place since the end of the Enclave. This crystal super-power will spark the embers of a new great war, with the New Canterlot Republic trapped in its shadow.

History will be re-written, the true horrors of the Wasteland will make their mark, and an Empire shall live again. There is a storm is coming.

Any similarity to other Fo:E fics containing the Crystal Empire are purely coincidental. I do however give credit to the authors of those stories, who added onto the lore for inspiration in shaping my own version of the Crystal Empire.

For those of you hoping for clop, there is no outward clop until chapters seven and around the eighty's. Currently the story mentions bodily fluids and implied sexual acts and references.

Based on the characters from Fallout: Equestria created by Kkat
Edited by: Word Worthy (Prologue - Chapter Two.) Moosetasm.
Assistant editor - Kirito-Persona
All Official Art by - turbopower1000

Published 2016-04-19 04:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-06-30 05:49:31 UTC

Prologue: The Return

Author's Note

This story is discontinued. I refuse to cancel it as that wouldn't be an entirely accurate fate to this story. It is simply unfinished.

I will be reusing the characters and names of characters such as Gattle Gun, Gameplay, Collateral Damage, Rook among other names that appear in the prologue, chapter one and two that do not belong to Kkat or Hasbro for another fic in future.

Prologue: The Return

Prologue: The Return

“The Crystal Empire has returned.”

“Hello Equestria Wasteland, it is I, DJPon3, your voice in the dark. Not that there’s much dark anymore, things are looking brighter aren’t they? Look at that sky, so blue, so crystal and beautiful, and it’s all thanks to Stable Two. If she hadn't been there, if she didn’t come out of that Stable when she did, I tell ya, we’d be in a much darker world.

“Now I’m going to get a bit excited here, so bear with me. Following the defeat of the Pegasus Enclave, and Red Eye and his goons, Gawdyna Grimfeathers, after months of planning, searching and recruiting, has founded the new nation of this wasteland, a new Equestria. The New Canterlot Republic, or NCR if you prefer.”

Three months after the Neighvarro incident, a broadcast came through on multiple channels on the radio.

“The NCR has started to grow exponentially in the past few months since the SP Towers were contested; they are now under NCR control. The NCR is expanding Fillies and Colts, and in due time, the whole of Equestria will be united once again. There is hope at the end of this tunnel everypony, just hold on a little longer. I understand it sounds like a hostile take over, but we’re coming to save you... all of you.”

They spoke of a new Government, the New Canterlot Republic, or NCR for short. Attempts at establishing Governments like this had failed in the past, and I thought: “What would make this government any different from the others? Nothing!”

Of course, I had only heard copies of the broadcast. The time between then and now hardly seemed to matter, the NCR ruled sixty percent of the wasteland by this point, yet that hold was to be contested.

I would always tell myself that the NCR would go to war and fall, just as the Equestria of old had done. Years after its founding they came north, and that was when earthquakes and strange storms would batter the wasteland. All of it coming from the north. It gained the attention of NCR scientists, apparently they thought it was a mega-spell, or some other curiosity with which they could trouble themselves over.

I wasn't there personally, the radio saw to keeping us loyal listeners updated like some pre-war television reality show.

On the night of March fifteenth, a bright light gleamed and flashed over the snowcapped Crystal Mountains, then a massive super earthquake racked the land.

My horn lit up, and my head hurt. From what I heard after the fact, many other unicorns displayed the same symptoms. An hour after, there was the loudest clap of thunder, and a spiral of rainbow light which erupted skyward. It lit up the dark land, washing away the stars and blocking out the moon.

What followed was an amazing show of lights, in the back-when times, they were called aurora, the northern lights. The beam subsided and the land fell quiet once more, but the aurora remained, and remain it would for the whole of that night.

In the morning, the ponies of the wasteland would wake to a glorious surprise. On that day, I treked over the snow capped Mountains alone, and stared out from the top of a cliff for what seemed to be an eternity. In the early mornings rays, having travelled to see what pre-war weapon had gone off that could have made that light. I saw crystals…

Towers of crystal, a wall of crystal, and a gigantic spire in the center, surrounded by quadrants of green grass and more crystal houses.

Fountains of blue, clear water, and ponies, sparkling and almost transparent going about their lives, it was as if it was pre-war Equestria, it was spectacular.

I sat down to watch over this strange new place that had sprung up overnight, pulling out my pocket radio and turned it on to DJPon3, only his voice wasn't to come out. It was the voice of a female, she spoke with nobility, and a formality not seen in Equestria in many a decade. She had a message, chilling, and threatening.

“Attention, Equestria! I am Sabrina, Queen of the Crystal Dominion, and we have returned. Do not fear us, do not flee us. We are the pillar of Equestria’s return, we are that which will save you, we are salvation, we are hope, the light at the end of the dark tunnel when other lights have gone dark and rife with horror.

“Come to us and be spared, flee from us and perish, the Crystal Dominion will ultimately decide the fate of this world.”

Then the transmission ended. I stared at my radio, frozen. My eyes shifted to what was now identified as the Crystal Dominion, and I saw then the world had become so much darker, and yet I found myself curious, drawn into the promise that this powerful new world had to offer.

Yet I never realized that my life would change so drastically, and what was already a dark wasteland would only grow darker as a storm loomed overhead.

My name is Gattle Gun. This is the story of the Crystal Empire, and the song of angels.

Fallout: Equestria

A Song of Angels

Chapter One: Regulator

Chapter One: Regulator

“And out in the Wasteland, there’s only one brand of justice: the gun.”

“Greetings Equestria, I hope you’re having a wonderful day. It is I, your hostess: Crystina, and you’re listening to Empire Records Radio, the best radio station this side of the Crystal Dominion. Now everypony, before I get started, we have a special guest on the show. You all know him as the Wasteland DJ, the master of music, and the stallion with a toaster problem, DJPon3!”

The voice of a stallion came on the radio, replacing the soft, calm voice that belonged to Crystina.

“Hello, fillies and colts of the Crystal Dominion! DJPon3 here, live and on the air. Thank you for having me, Crystina.”

“It’s a pleasure, I have to admit, I was thrilled when you agreed to a collaboration. Now, to those who are tuning in and are confused on how this is possible, I’d just like to clarify, DJ and I are talking over a unique audio and visual feed. We can hear him, but I can’t see him.”

“Though appearances should be kept up, I feel secure just being heard. Besides, only two ponies have ever seen me. My wonderful assistant, Homage, and the toaster repairpony. A little fun fact, children, I can see her and that lovely white coat of hers, mmh mhh.”

Crystina giggled, followed by DJ’s own chuckle.

“Oh, DJ you scoundrel. Now that you are all aware of how we are able to communicate from both of our respective studios, and channels, our show can begin. DJ, would you care to start us off?”

DJPon3 cleared his throat. “Why don’t you start us off, Ms. Crystina? It is your show after all.”

“Oh you are most too kind, very well,” Crystina spoke with a posh voice, and with a Trottingham accent to accommodate, much like the late Octavia Melody, but younger, not quite mature.

Crystina cleared her throat and started speaking again. “Relationships between the Dominion and NCR have been improving since the territory wars of last year.”

“The Territory Wars, was the result of the NCR’s attempted conquest of Dominion territory, while the Dominion was in the process of re-establishing itself as a super power,” DJPon3 added.

Crystina spoke again, “After five months of fighting, NCR founder and president, Gawdyna Grimfeathers, agreed to meet with the Crystal Queen, Sabrina, on neutral ground to discuss an end to the short-lived war.”

“The terms of the treaty laid down by Queen Sabrina, decreed that the Crystal Dominion would continue to hold all of its pre-war territory.”

“In addition to that, Queen Sabrina has allowed NCR members to enter Dominion territory, to recruit wastelanders into the still blossoming nation. However, this term only applies to ponies without Dominion citizenship. If an NCR recruiter was caught extending the offer to citizens within the walls, they are to be imprisoned until an appeal for release is heard.”

“That’s harsh, don’t you think, Crystina?” asked DJPon3

“I agree, DJ, though this law was put in place to remind the NCR of the treaty, and to deter anypony bold enough to try.”

“And I don’t doubt that the law does its job well. I have reports that many of the recruiters won’t go near the walls, under the pretense that they would be arrested. Now, changing the subject here so our viewers don’t get too bored of this political drama. I’ve heard from a reliable source that there’s signs of Raider activity down in the old Canterhorn trainyard. Do you have any comment on that, Crystina?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. The Canterhorn trainyard is based just south east of the Dominion, closer to Manehatten and the settlement of Brighter Days Valley. The Raider group, calling themselves the "Players", have been attacking and killing caravaneers moving to, and from Hoofington, Wintertrot, the Vanhoover ruins, Manehatten and Junction Town.”

“Stay clear of them kiddies, don’t go waving the white flag,you know what they’d do,” DJ Pon3's sentence had a familiarity to it. Not that I’d care to elaborate.

“Now, in other news, the part of the west coast around Vanhoover and the Great Celestia Sea in the east is still shrouded in endless cloud cover. DJPon3, would you care to elaborate? I’m afraid the Dominion is still in the dark about it.”

“Of course, Crystina. After that mess up in Neighvarro, the cloud cover had been dispersed, bringing in all that warm sunshine. But for some reason, the clouds over by the east and west coasts continue to shroud the seas with its darky darkness. When questioned, Enclave soldiers, scientists and members of their senate failed to say what was up there. President Gawdyna has started to suspect that the former Enclave members are intentionally withholding information.”

“That sounds mighty terrifying, DJ. Thank you for sharing that with us. Now everypony, don’t touch that dial; we’ll be right back in a few moments. And now some—”

Crystina’s voice was cut off as I turned the radio to silence. I let out a deep breath, smoke flowing out of my mouth and into the air. I levitated my cigarette close by, picked up my pocket radio and placed it into the inner compartments of my duster.

I sighed, I looked out towards the horizon; the sun was already quite high, and I had barely even made a start. I took one last puff of my cigarette, then pressed the lit end onto the surface of a giant shell, attached to the bones of a mutant tortoise.

I threw the butt away and stood up, the wind blowing my coat about, picking up the dust and carrying with it a scent.

Growl

I looked down to my dog, a blue heeler. He had a blue colored coat, with few patches of black fur, blue eyes and a dirtied red ascot tie.

“Smell something, Dogmeat?”

Dogmeat looked back to me, licked his lips, then looked south once more.

I adjusted my hat, tilting it up a little before hopping down from the skeleton’s domed back. I walked around to Dogmeat’s side and stared out in the same direction, I sniffed the air (doesn’t do much really), then the wind picked up and I could smell blood.

The land stretched out before us was as empty as it would be elsewhere. Dead, rotten trees were sparse; there were a few rocky areas, perfect hiding places for any lowlife looking to grease some unlucky bastard. The roads nearby had holes and small craters, and were deteriorating. Gravel all over the place.

I squinted, Dogmeat started growling even louder. Usually when he growled I’d be alert, my gun(s) drawn and ready. But the way that cloud moved in the distance wasn’t new to me. You see dust storms like that on occasion, except this was no dust storm.

My horn glowed a bright green under my hat, and a pair of binoculars floated out from my saddlebags. I looked through them at the dust storm. Red dots appeared on the built-in Eyes Forward Sparkle. I could barely make out the shapes of a pair of stingers attached to a giant creature sporting one hundred legs and a mile long body, it was a Horror-pede.

It was still too far away to be any problem to me. Though sad to say, it was a problem for the caravan it had just torn through. Horror-pedes don’t kill you as quick as a Tank might, they constrict you, vomit on you, then eat your head. Just about everypony knew that (unless they happened to be retarded).

I put the binoculars down and back into my saddlebags; then placed a hoof on Dogmeat’s head, patting him for a moment and looking down at him.

“Don’t worry about it, boy, it ain’t going to hurt us,” I assured him. “Come on, we have a contract waiting for us.”

I turned away from Dogmeat and walked around the Tank’s skeleton, barely any flesh remained on the mutated tortoise. It’s neck had been snapped, I could tell as the vertebrae had been twisted right around. Hiding on the other side was a unique little toy of mine. It looked like a pre-war chariot. A podium stood at the front, two metal handlebars jutting out from either side in the shape of hooves.

Two pairs of transparent wings jutted out from the sides, the front ones were at least three meters long, while the back ones were just inches smaller, blue magical energy glowed and moved around the wings veins like blood.

I walk around to the back and stepped onto its center, held up by its landing gear in the shape of insect-like legs. I looked around for Dogmeat, and whistled when he had not followed.

“Come on boy, I’m riding with or without you,” I said sarcastically, but I wasn’t joking.

Dogmeat barked and came quickly to me, jumping over the Tank skeleton and climbing onto the chariot. He sat beside me and panted.

“Good dog.” A smile formed at the corner of my mouth and I gave him another pat, followed by a scratch behind the ears.

I looked at the podium in front of me, a terminal screen laid slanted on its surface, deactivated for the moment. I slipped my front hooves onto the metal handles, fit like a glove. I revved it, the engine roaring and turning on with a sparkling roar of magic. The screen flashed on and a voice played.

“Luna voice interface online. Welcome back, Gattle Gun. What is your command?”

“Thank you, Luna. Now then, gate close!”

Two metal cage doors slid out from the chariot’s sides, pulled by a clockwork mechanism that allowed them to slide and close up the back part of the chariot, preventing either Dogmeat or myself from falling out.

“Gate closed and locked,” Luna responded.

I put on a set of goggles and replaced my black akubra with a pre-war pegasus flight cap. “Engage flight.” With a smirk on my face, I twisted the disks back and forth.

A bright blue glow came from beneath the chariot, and the wings started to flap with startling speed, buzzing like a thousand hornets. With my back hoof I stepped on a peddle, then with a loud whoosh, the chariot flew.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

With the Sky-Rider I managed to cover more ground and make great time. I kept an eye on the terminal screen, the Eyes Forward Sparkle display kept me alert of anything that might come from ahead. A small box on the top right corner of the screen displayed map data which would update as I continued to travel over unexplored land.

Occasionally I would look around, scanning my surroundings for anything just off of the E.F.S’s radar. Thankfully, there was nothing, nothing but dirt, dead trees and barely any grass.

Sky-Riders were fast, they aren’t exactly pre-war, only the pieces required to make them. The Spark battery was the hardest to come by. A trip to Vanhoover for one of those damn things isn’t worth it.

Dogmeat came alert every now and again, usually at the sight of a Sprite-bot playing some of DJ Pon3’s tunes, nothing too out of the ordinary. But I had started to feel on edge, nothing was happening. It wasn't quiet, not in the slightest. The wings buzzed with each rapid flap that made it hard to hear. If somepony shot at me with a rocket launcher, I was screwed.

We flew low along that dusty road, coming up on the small settlement the map data named ‘Red Ruby Creek.’

“We’re in luck, boy,” I said to Dogmeat, “If we’re lucky, our target’s taken residence here. Luna, tell me what you can about Red Ruby Creek.”

“Red Ruby Creek, started out as a small settlement before the rule of the late Discord. Over the years leading up to the great war, the small village went through drastic change into a large town with plans on expansion. By the great war, it had become one of the lesser, and least known Hubs of the Ministry of Image, devolving into more of a sub-archive of information.

“By the final days of the war, the Ministry of Morale and the Ministry of Wartime Technology had begun to suspect the Red Ruby, Ministry of Image branch was leaking information to the Zebras and began to conduct investigations. The Ministry of Morale was far more subtle then the Ministry of Wartime Technology.”

Once she had finished, Luna’s feminine voice turned off and she was silent again until called upon. The information she gave me was irrelevant to the operation at hoof. While interesting, the information was practically useless.

“Luna, I need to know what faction holds this town. I know the region, I know what lives in this region, but I’ve never been to this town before, I need modern info, not pre-war information. Recent inhabitant, faction in control, capish?”

It took a moment, but Luna was able to gather the information she needed to give to me.

“Red Ruby Creek, over the years following the war, has been host to a variety of groups. Most notably, Raiders, Slavers, and Hellhounds. However, the town has been abandoned since its liberation seventy five years ago, and in recent months has become become the interest of a possible settlement. Faction in control: Crystal Dominion”

Once again, at the conclusion of sharing what information she could find, Luna went silent. At that moment I remembered hearing something about this town. I looked up at the highest tower, bearing the decaying emblem of an eye with a diamond. With eyebrows furrowed, I pressed onward, continuing on the four hour journey to Red Ruby Creek.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I started to slow the Sky-Rider’s advance. It decelerated, the wing’s flapping growing soft and gentle. As I neared the entrance of the village, I hit a switch on the side of the right handle disk, stopping and bringing my ride to a slow descent back firmly on the ground.

The gates slid open and Dogmeat was the first to hop off, I followed suit. I stepped away from the Sky-Rider, and stood in the center of the long road that ran right through the center of this town.

My eyes shifted to Dogmeat, sniffing around the entrance curiously. It was too quiet, I had heard from Crystina that this settlement had fallen quiet in recent months (predictable if you ask me). I floated out my gun, a chrome magnum, slightly rusted with age. I called it: Chrome (I lack the initiative and creativity to name it anything more then its color).

I floated Chrome close beside me, barrel pointed skyward. Dogmeat stepped into the town. I looked around, and everywhere I saw remnants of an attempt to establish a community. Piles of wood, razor wire, scrap metal, tools and nails had been left randomly scattered about.

“Where is everypony?” I mumbled to myself.

Dogmeat ahead of me sniffed out something by one of the many ruined buildings. “Dogmeat? You got something, boy?” I approached; he lifted his head and stared down the long stretch of road, corridored by buildings on either side.

He took off down a street, running like somepony had thrown some Brahmin steak, fresh off the roast.

“Dogmeat!” I growled and ran after him (loyal as he was, he bugged me sometimes with his lack of obedience).

Deeper and deeper into the town we went, passing by streets and buildings, many of them collapsed and falling apart. Before long, I had caught up with Dogmeat.

I slowed down, taking only a few large steps before stopping. I took a moment to catch my breath, then glared at the animal. “You’re not supposed to just run off… what the hell got into you?!”

Dogmeat whimpered, he looked at me then into the darkness that filled the building's foyer. I walked to him, stopped by his side and peered into the decaying old building. I saw and heard nothing, then I saw the blood trail. Dry and old, somepony had died here and was taken inside.

I wasn’t eager to see what was inside, and turned away. “Dogmeat, come on, ignore it. Let’s just see where the rest of the ponies are.”

Dogmeat woofed at me, confused and scared.

“I want to avoid charging in and angering whatever’s taken up residence. Remember the Yao Guai a while back?” I occasionally brought that particular moment whenever Dogmeat argued with me about disturbing sleeping creatures. Surprisingly, it was effective (sometimes).

Dogmeat growled in shame. “I thought so. No, I think we’re both to blame for that. Still, I killed it.”

Dogmeat chomped his jaws and bared his teeth. I looked at him in a slightly nervous fashion when he started to show his teeth toward me. “We killed it, I meant we killed it,” I chuckled.

Dogmeat wagged his tail and panted happily at my correction. I rolled my eyes and continued to walk. We left the vicinity of that creepy ass building and moved toward the river, from which this town was named.

I looked toward the east, the night sky had started to show itself, though there was a little light. This worried me, I knew this region only somewhat as territory for a nasty piece of work that hunts in packs, Viper-wolves, Night-stalkers nor Coyotes had anything on these bipedal beasts.

As I rounded a corner, exiting one of the many streets and stepping into view of the river, there was a loud bang. A bullet whizzed past my ear and kept on going. Dogmeat growled while I stopped in my tracks and held still.

“If you’re friend or foe, I don’t know. And nor do I care for that matter.” The pony’s voice came from a loudspeaker, atop a large watch tower close to the river.

“Now, you put down that there gun all nice and slow-like, then maybe we can talk.”

I looked over to where the pony’s voice had resonated from, I saw him standing in a watchtower-like construct, rifle drawn and ready to shoot. We looked each other in the eye, I saw the conviction in his eyes, he would shoot me and likely my dog if I made a wrong move (smart).

He was an innocent, if he was a hostile he’d have shot me by now. He’s protecting something, there’s a makeshift wall where his watchtower is, made out of barrels and old sky wagons which had long outlived their use. long wooden spikes stuck out of the ground with bodies of zombie ponies attached, spiked and rotting.

My lips curled into a small smirk, I had sort of smug expression on my face. I put the safety on and slowly lowered Chrome, dropping it just inches from the ground, followed by a loud metallic thump.

The pony let up, he holstered his rifle to his side and turned away from the edge. “Stay where you are!” boomed his gruff rural voice.

A set of wooden gates opened, and on the other side I could see where the real settlement had been established. I was surprised that the whole town hadn’t been converted into a full fledged community, but then again, this region wasn't the best to be living in.

My silence was hell, that’s the worst part about travelling with a dog, they are terrible conversationalists. That guard pony came into view, I watched him, and clearly he was watching me.

As he drew closer he took notice of my duster, it was ripped, had a few bullet holes here and there, and it was red in random places. He glossed over me and picked up my gun in his hoof. I glossed over him in turn.

He was an earth pony, murky greyish green coat, orange eyes which bordered on red, and a large scruff on his chin accompanied by a five o’clock. He looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep either. Her wore this torn up, dark navy blue vest over a black undershirt; he had a red handkerchief tied to his left foreleg, a shaved mane, short tail, a leg brace on one of his back legs, and a large holster on his flank with the rifle.

I snorted and opened my mouth, “Something wrong, sir?” I cocked an eyebrow. This pony clearly knew what I was, and didn’t look fazed at all.

“I want to know what some pussyboots like you is doing this close to the edge of Dominion territory,” said the pony. “You do realize that it’s all neutral terrain from here until beyond Canterlot, right?”

“I’m hunting somepony, I have reason to believe they fled toward the border. Perhaps you could help me.” I waited to hear his reply while I poked the inside of my cheek with my tongue, watching him with caution.

If he tried to pull on me, floating my gun and shooting him would be child's play, it’s too easy (and I seriously doubt he knew that). Or perhaps Dogmeat will bite out his throat. It’s all random chance, really.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline, son. I have a town to defend, besides, we’re not safe being out here, especially after dark.” He looked up at the starlit sky.

I hadn’t noticed that the time had flown by so quick. I let out a slightly irritated groan and closed my eyes. The pony held up his hoof, Chrome resting in the center. I reopened my eyes, wrapped the weapon in a sheet of my magical aura, (its light magnified by the night) and floated it over to me.

The pony turned away. He made his way back toward the gates of the walled settlement while I watched him for a few moments. I noticed his cutie mark was a chess piece, the rook if I wasn't mistaken. I thought then that he might’ve come all the way from New Pegas, but I dismissed the thought.

I holstered my magnum and began to take my leave. “Come on, Dogmeat, let’s get moving.”

As I went to take a step, my ears quickly caught the sounds of distant hissing and rasping. Hundreds of hooves, voices and sounds echoed all over the town, this wasn't what I had expected to find in this region. “Zombie Ponies…”

Dogmeat’s teeth were bared. He backed up toward the settlement, his growls turning into fearful whimpers. To be fair, I couldn’t help but feel as he did about those sounds. I backed up myself, one step at a time.

“Hey Duster, in here, quick, before they see you!” The guard pony beckoned as quietly as possible.

Hearing him and seeing no other alternative (other then fight), I turned and ran toward the gates with much haste. Dogmeat barked and kept pace with me, and when we were through the gates, they closed, and all the torches went out.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I lit my cigarette by a fire close to the river. Many of the townsfolk were gathered around and chatting.

During that time I quickly noticed that a few of the mares looked distressed, as did their children. As I puffed on my past time, curiosity got to me and I stood up. Dogmeat, who had been lying nearby, lifted his head and watched me walk over over to the guard tower on the other side of the safe-zone.

Torches were lit lowly along the paths, these ponies were effectively avoiding the attention they could get from the occasional raider, or slaver, or even worse, a horde of zombies. Now I’m no bigot, I respect ghouls no different than I would another pony (contracts were a whole other story).

That same guard was watching out into the town, one eye closed, the other looking through the scope of his rifle. He had a zombie in his sights, though he didn’t pull the trigger. My approach behind him wasn't so silent. He heard my hooves as they moved along the wooden steps up to the main platform; he was expecting me.

“You know, sometimes I wonder why I even set up here. Put all these good folk in danger,” he mused to himself, at the same time talking to me as well.

I crossed my forelegs over the wooden fence that formed a type of railing, which allowed the pony to rest his gun on when taking shots.

“This region isn’t known for the zombies, mind you,” I started to inform him, “those are just the poor ponies trapped inside them larger buildings when the bombs fell. I bet there’s a pool of taint in the sewers emptying out into the waste reservoir…

“I’m Gattle Gun by the way.”

“You haven’t earned the right to know my name, tatters.” I could only assume he meant my duster.

“Fair enough,” I replied. “Though a name would be nice to remember you by incase you get yourself killed by the native abominations.”

“And just what’s supposed to live way out here?” the old horse inquired.

I smiled in amusement, like I had just been asked to hide daddy’s smokes when mommy got tired of his habit. I felt myself about to chuckle, but I held it back long enough to open my mouth, that’s when—

Wawawa wrarrrawarra!!!

I snickered and let out a deep breath. “That.”

““That”?” he repeated.

“Oh yeah, “that”.” I let out a puff of smoke, my cigarette floating only inches away. “I doubt you have any idea what “that” was. Trust me, not a lot of ponies have seen them.

“They come out at night, love warm climates. I’m surprised the Steel Rangers down near New Pegas haven’t kept track of them. They’ve grown vastly in number over the past seventy four years.”

“Well stop stalling and tell me, boy, what is it? What are they?” I could hear he was agitated, understandable, but I do so love to draw out big reveals.

“Wanamingo.” My smile reached ear to ear.

That earth pony was confused, I knew for a fact that he hadn’t seen one, he’d be dead otherwise.

“Wanamingos are technically extinct everywhere but here and the Appleloosan desert. The great Koots of the Lowlands figured they could tame them, and when they had the chance, caught a few and brought them up to the Dominion. They breed fast, kill faster.

“And the fucked up part is, I don’t have the proper means to kill them. In fact, I hope to never see another one again.”

“And why’s that?” He cocked an eyebrow, his full attention on me.

“Imagine a giant mouth on legs, no eyes and two large tentacles either side of them in place of arms. They make hellhounds look like a fucking pastry.”

I finished my cigarette and threw it into the moat below, breathing out deeply. Then came another call, this one sounded extremely close. I chuckled, I couldn’t contain my utter joy at the thought of finding one despite my desire to avoid them.

“You need to deal with your zombie problem, sir, and get this town fortified fast. That Wanamingo sounded close, yeah?”

The pony nodded. “Well I can tell you now, that Wanamingo is over a hundred miles away, south east from here.”

“We hear them at night, I usually dismissed them as Night-stalkers.”

“Then you’re a foal. You’re lucky the Wanamingos haven’t found this place yet. They will break down those pissweak walls and kill all of you. They hunt in packs of twenty five, sometimes whole nests if there’s no young to care for.

“And they happen to be very greedy. One might be chewing on your skull, while the other fifteen are tearing out your spine, legs, liver, whatever they can get. The ones up here are far worse then the ones down south. I’d be careful.”

I took a long deep breath after that and sighed. The pony beside me stared, nervous and uncomfortable at how I acted.

I won’t lie, the Wanamingo has my highest respect among any abomination (thus far). They are effective killers, better then the hellhounds sometimes, and even they have a fifty-fifty chance at killing one without fire.

“I’m sorry about that. I’ve seen some things out there that’d make even a veteran wastelander terrified to set hoof outside,” I sighed once more, my mind calming after that little episode.

I remembered why I came over here, I turned my head around to look toward the fire on the other side of the settlement, those same mares’ fillies and colts sitting around the fire, Dogmeat trying to offer them comfort for something neither he nor I were aware of.

“So, no-name. What’s the story with those families? I noticed a bunch of worried and grim expressions, two with anxiety, one on the verge of tears. Something's up. I also noticed a distinct lack of stallions, I only noticed five of what I assume is a statistic of eleven.

“You’re a small community, but you are very large at that. This has something to do with the sudden loss of communication, doesn’t it?”

The earth pony had readjusted his rifle, pointing it into the town once more, his head leaning into the scope to look through; only his eyes were fixed on me.

“You’re not wrong there,” the earth pony spoke up.

I looked at him, my interest piqued. “Really? Well, I’m all ears. What’s going on around here?”

The earth pony scoffed. “It ain’t like you can do anything to help. They’re probably dead already. Chewed up by them zombies out there.”

“I’m not so sure. How long have they been out there?” My face became stern, my eyes narrowed as I looked out into the dark night.

The earth pony laughed as if what I was implying was a mere jest, he was wrong, and he realized that soon as I looked at him.

“... Y-you’re not serious are you? You want to go out there?”

“Yep,” I replied.

“With the zombies?”

“Uh-huh,” I affirmed.

“Alone..?”

“You have no idea just how much the thrill of low survival turns me on. Yes, I want to go out there alone, it'll be easier to find your missing stallions that way.”

I couldn’t be any more sure then that, I was going to go out there, without my usual equipment, with only a magnum to save six stallions. Originally I was going to do it alone, but Dogmeat made it difficult.

The earth pony sighed and holstered his rifle. “If you’re going to do that then you might as well know my name anyway. It’s Rooker, but everypony else calls me Rook.”

I looked out toward the town again, its large office buildings silhouetted by the night sky. As Rook and I stood silently, the sounds of the not so dead undead were heard as clear as day. Groaning, growling, hissing and roaring, I just had to know how many were out there.

One again, I whipped out my binoculars and peered through them, and wasn't the E.F.S just dominated by the largest red I had ever seen on the damn thing (it took up almost half of the sights), it hurt my eyes and forced me to pull out.

“What? Strain your eyes on somethin out there? You ain’t going to see much in the dark..” Rook scoffed.

I smirked, eyes wide with crazed delight and looked at him. “Oh that’s not why I took a peek. You familiar with the Eyes Forward Sparkle?”

“That Stable-Tec shit? Vaguely, why?” Rook looked at me, questioningly.

I floated over the binoculars and encouraged him to take a look. What he saw would give him second thoughts about letting me go, at least not without backup. Jokes on him, I intend to fuck shit up.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Rook and I sat around the fire, and told the mares and foals what I was planning to do. I had no plan, no strategy, just the typical wastelander’s ideal way of going about things (which consisted of looking around, and shooting what happens to charge at you with intent to eat your face).

“Before I get started, here’s what I need: Time, I need to know just how long they’ve been missing. This will ultimately depend on the success of the mission. Any longer then two days then you might as well consider them dead.

“Where: I need to know where they were so I have a place to start. And I’ll need a map of said area if you have one.

“These two things contribute to help finding those stallions and getting them back alive.”

I could see the mares looking at each other, as if the odds of getting their loved ones back seemed even more bleak than the future of a toddler left out in the dust to fend for itself.

Taking their grim looks into account, as well as the hopelessness in their eyes, I could assume that their loved ones had been lost for more then eight weeks at best (and I wasn't too far off there).

“Eleven weeks,” Rook spoke up, “Eleven weeks, that’s how long they’ve been gone for. It was a scavenge run, to get supplies from the small market place closer to the town center.

“We found that’s where the zombies love to congregate the most.” Rook lowered his head as if guilty of sending them to their graves.

I only looked up at him. “You sent them out eleven weeks ago and not once sent for help?” I sighed “Then I won’t have to search for very long, don’t get me wrong, you wasteland ponies are resilient, but are hopeless survivors. If they live, I’ll find them.” I stood up and stretched my legs and neck.

“Now, I’m going to need a map of the town, is there one on hoof?”

“Fraid not. We’ve only explored half the town, and not once have we found a map,” said a desert green-coloured stallion.

I sighed louder and with exasperation, I hovered out Chrome and checked my ammunition, making sure I had spares on hoof should the need arise. Five magazines of ammo, and a gun that fires only six shots, I felt prepared, though probably not nearly so, as we would soon discover.

“T-there’s one more thing, m-mister…” a young colt spoke up.

I got down to his height, sitting on my haunches and lowering myself onto my stomach so we saw each other eye to eye. “What’s up, kid?”

“When… when the adults left… they took some of our friends…”

“Thimble…” the colts mother spoke his name in an attempt to silence him.

“Your friends..? Wait… they didn’t—” I quickly stood up and turned to Rook.

Rook took one look into my eyes and bowed his head, ashamed and guilt ridden. I approached him, gritting my teeth almost and glaring. “You let six stallions go out scavenging with foals, fully aware that this town had a feral problem?!”

“Listen kid, ain’t nothing bad like this happened before now. Foals used to always go out on scavenge runs if they wanted to! I do, however, bear the full weight of not stopping this while I still could…” Rook’s argument was utter bullshit, but at the very least he regret his decisions.

I sighed and shook my head. “I can’t guarantee the foals are even alive anymore, that long out there is far too dangerous for a foal to be lost, even with an adult nearby.”

I proceeded toward the gates, only to be stopped after a few steps with a question.

“How much?” Rook asked.

My ears swiveled round to hear him properly. “Hm? Do you mean to say you’re paying me?”

“I’ll give you at least eight hundred caps for the return of the foals, and two hundred for the stallions. Believe me son, the young ones are the future, and the future is worth more then the lives of us older ponies.”

I looked to the ground, pondering his words, which seemed philosophical. Foals are the future of ponykind, especially in this world.

“Keep your caps. There’s only one thing that I want, and that is information.” I turned my head around to look at Rook, who seemed confused by my choice.

“You’re a mercenary, aren’t you? You’d do anything for caps. What would somepony like you need with information?”

I chuckled, “You said it yourself, I’m a mercenary. But you see, the Dominion and the NCR are paying tenfold what you’re offering to anypony who can find a particular pony; one who has committed crimes within both faction territories.”

“And just what is the name of this asshole?” Rook asked.

I smirked. “Sorry, but I can only divulge information about my targets to those who earn it. I’ll give you the information, when I return with the missing ponies.”

I turned around and started walking once again, past the houses and over to the front gates. Rook had accompanied me all the way just to open the gates for me. He glanced over to me then walked over to a lever rigged to open both gates.

As I waited, I felt the wet nose of Dogmeat nudge my back leg. Rolling my eyes, I turned around to see him sitting on his haunches, looking up at me as if begging to come with me.

“Sorry boy, too dangerous; you’ll have to stay here.”

Dogmeat whimpered and woofed at me in disapproval. He stood up, approached and bit my hoof to make his point (it wasn't hard, but it hurt).

I hissed; he let go and I shook my hoof. “Ssss… there’s no convincing you, is there?”

“Arf!!” he barked.

I snickered and rubbed the top of his head. “Fine, you win.”

“Shall I open the gate now, or did you need to take a shit first?” Rook was being impatiently sarcastic (can’t say I blame him).

I nodded to him then turned to face the gates, Dogmeat at my side. Rook pulled the lever, some cogs and gears moved and a rope was pulled. Only the left gate had opened, the other lever remaining unpulled kept the gate on that side closed.

“Gattle.”

I turned to look at Rook. He held in his mouth his sniper rifle, which he hurled toward me, passing his weapon which I caught in the glow of my magic. I looked along this fine weapon’s barrel, its scope and body, then turned my sight at Rook, giving a nod of gratitude.

I holstered it on my back, pulled out my magnum, and stepped out from the settlement. Dogmeat panted loudly and growled as he sensed the zombies. I looked around at the darkness and started my little side-quest.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Stealth.

I wanted to avoid attracting the attention of a zombie pony as best I could, one shot from a magnum would be enough to draw the cesspool in ontop of me.

Dogmeat alerted me frequently to an approaching zombie pony, I could hear the clopping of its hooves as it took step after slow step in a mindless shuffle. It’s always shuffles before that guttural hiss, then the sounds of running.

Wishing to avoid it, I looked toward higher ground and approached one of the many alleyways nearest a ladder. I entered the long dark corridor, the walls covered in ancient Ministry of Image propaganda posters. Dogmeat growled louder and louder, his teeth bared as I unknowingly neared one of the horrors.

I passed it, the poor soul was so quiet up until the moment I stepped within biting distance.

With a guttural roar, I was beset by the zombie. It charged out from behind and tackled me to the concrete ground. My hat came free from my head and fell into a pool of radiation just inches from my horn.

The feral ghoul chomped, snapped and hissed in a blood rage. It pushed down on me and I struggled to hold it back. Foul droplets of yellow, pus like mucus dripped from its rotting skin, frothy saliva sprayed onto my face.

The stench curled my nose. I tried to float out my gun but I was too focused on one thing to be on the other (fuck!!)

As the beast drew close to my muzzle, teeth ready to bite into my skin, the ghoul reared up off of me as Dogmeat had bitten into its back, having jumped from the nearby trash bins.

The ghoul roared and roared, calling more of its kind to the ally. Dogmeat quickly let go, allowing me a moment to dispatch it, point blank with my ancient magnum. The clarity of the gunshot caused a sudden tremendous roar which filled the night sky.

“Shit…” I could then hear the zombies stampeding to my location. Dogmeat’s ears fell backwards, he whimpered and started taking steps back (double dog shit!!)

Quickly, I grabbed him with my magical glow and levitated him onto the roof of what was once a cafe. He struggled and whined; he hated being lifted, but given the circumstance, he didn’t have a choice.

I glanced down both ends of the alley, sweat sliding down my forehead as both sides had quickly filled with charging, ravenous rotters.

Whump! Vump! Crack!

The cafe’s back door splintered slightly, an opening in its center revealed another lot of ghouls attempting to come at me. Unwilling to wait for them to reach me (what idiot would?), I holstered Chrome, jumped up and grabbed the third rung of the ladder. I climbed as fast as my legs would allow.

The door finally broke, and like Radroaches, the zombie ponies poured out, some crushing the others to death and making a pile of corpses from which the other two groups clambered over to get to me. Luckily I was too high up for them to reach, climbing the ladder was futile.

I fell back on my haunches, panting and clutching my chest from that ordeal. “We’re safe now… we’re safe boy.”

“Arf!” replied Dogmeat.

I laid back for a moment and closed my eyes, relaxed and content to be in the safety of an old rooftop with possibly rotting supports (because that’s totally safe).

A cool breeze blowed into my auburn mane, it was nice of course, brought me a sense of peace. Which begged the question: why am I feeling it?!

I half opened my eyes, blinked for a moment, then reached up to feel my hat. Only it wasn't there. I opened my eyes fully and shot up quickly. My jaw dropped as I patted my mane and felt the shaft of my horn.

I couldn’t believe it, I left my hat on the ground, my good hat! I face hoofed with a smack, leaving a red mark beneath my horn. My moment of feeling stupid was interrupted when Dogmeat started to bark furiously.

“Don’t tell me…” I bolted up and ran to the corner of the cafe’s rooftop, then peered down to see that the zombies had started to pile up on each other like ants.

“Dammit!!” I cursed and removed my saddlebags, slamming them down and kicking up dust.

I opened them and searched feverishly for something burnable, luckily I had a bottle of Stalliongrad vodka on hoof and a strip of cloth that had once been a part of some bandages I had.

Dogmeat’s barking grew panicked and desperate, a zombie pony put its hoof on the side, only for it to be bitten and pulled back with a terrifying roar. Dogmeat spat the torn flesh and backed away from the wall.

“Dogmeat! Get back!” I lit the rag after having poured some of the alcohol on it and tying it to the bottle. Dogmeat, having seen me use one of these before, darted away to the opposite side of the building.

I ran toward the horde and threw the bottle as hard as I could. It smashed on a group of zombie ponies, dousing them in the beverage and setting them alight, all of them. They easily burned, as one after the other passed the flames along, creating a massive blaze.

They writhed, howled and shrieked, and it gave us an opportunity to escape. But before I looked for a way to get away, I quickly searched for my hat, scanning the horde until the radioactive pool had been cleared. My hat laid there in the rad infested water, quickly, before another few zombie ponies got in the way, I pulled it up to me and floated it beside me, unwilling to wear it while it was wet and irradiated.

I tossed my saddlebags back and quickly looked around for a way down. “Right… now what do I do.”

“Ruff!” Dogmeat replied.

“Maybe, I could try to levitate us?”

Dogmeat growled at the very idea. “Oh shush, boy, I’m a lot better then I was last time. I didn’t drop you this time, did I?”

Dogmeat whined and lowered his head. “So stop complaining. There’s no nasties on this side so we aren’t going to die.”

I cocked my head in the direction of some old scaffolding which looked supportive despite its age. “Then again, high ground would provide ample opportunities to map the city myself, as well as check for the missing ponies. Maybe even fire some good shots with Rooks’ rifle.”

I weighed my options. “We could walk on the ground where we risk being jumped by another feral ghoul, or we could risk the rooftops, safe from the nasties below, but that would make us easy pickings for a Bloodwing. What do you think, Dogmeat?”

Dogmeat sniffed the air, the scent of burnt, rotten flesh irritated his senses and forced him to sneeze. I sighed and started levitating the mutt up to the next building, myself following soon after.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“To anypony receiving this distress message, we are trapped inside the Ministry of Image office building with no way down, it has been several hours since our entrapment. Garter is dead, they tore him to pieces right in front of us!

“There’s nine of us now, five stallions and four foals. Please, if anypony hears this, please help us!”

The recording replayed on a loop once it had ended. I took out my ear bud and turned off my pocket radio, lowering its antenna and putting them away. I peered through the scope of the rifle toward the Ministry of Image building, it didn’t make much sense for it to exist here.

But one must consider the isolation. Tactically having a Ministry building far from the cities made it obscure, and a useful backup archive in the likelihood that the main hub was compromised.

I spied a few shufflers by the entrance, easily handled, but then I noticed the gigantic billboard conveniently placed as a bridge between (what I assumed to be) an old antique shop.

“See that, boy?” I pointed a hoof to the billboard. “That’s our way in.”

Dogmeat, panting and rolling around on the rooftop, stopped to look at me before getting back up on all fours. He came over to see what I was talking about and barked.

“Not so loud, buddy. We don’t want to be mobbed again,” I sighed and placed my hat on the top of my head, having doused it in RadAway half an hour ago (I don’t think it works quite the same as it would when consumed).

I holstered the rifle and started to move across the building tops. Occasionally hopping over gaps that would otherwise lead to a gruesome death, or an instant death. As I crossed a plank over a divide I peered over the side into the dark alley and saw merely glimpses of the mutants below.

“Steady boy, don’t charge ahead, got it?”

Dogmeat grunted in reply and stepped slowly on the narrow stretch of wood. It stretched quite far, and was supported by centuries-old scaffolding which seemed barely able to take both our weight.

“If this breaks away, I’ll have to levitate us across…” I thought to myself, trying my best not to lose my balance.

Dogmeat growled (every time…), Bloodwings had started to take flight, and I was out in the open. Lucky they hadn't spotted Dogmeat or myself yet.

“Keep moving, slowly and quietly,” I whispered to my pet and continued to move along.

Dogmeat’s ears fell back on his head, he lowered his head and followed closely behind, his breath on my back legs.

The planks came to an end, by the scaffolding with no way down. It seemed impossible to lower myself down, though levitation was an option, it wouldn’t lead us to anywhere but the ground. I spied a nearby window, broken, dark inside.

It wasn't hard to jump to it, though Dogmeat required some assistance mid-jump. As both he and I were about to step into the dark, the scaffolding creaked and swayed, its supports finally failing after so many years and it collapsed.

I looked behind us to see its fall, and whistled as I thought about just how lucky we were.

“We now have but one choice, we must face the dark of this ancient building,” I sighed and brought out Chrome, my horn offered much needed illumination into the room. Its emerald glow revealed signs of Radroach excrement on the floor, nearby was a skeleton of an earth pony, a holo-tape by its side.

I wasn't expecting to find much in these buildings (but then my expectations might’ve been low, out of my general disinterest for anything but my quarry). I approached the skeleton, its clothes tattered and ripped, dirtied from age and Radroach waste.

I lifted the tape and shook it, dust came off of it like sand. I’d have viewed it at that moment had I not been on edge out of concern for the bloodwings and feral ghouls. We kept moving; the building had collapsed staircases and blocked off hallways, while above and below I heard the shuffling of those flesh-eating assholes.

The age-induced weakness of the walls allowed them to be destroyed with ease, but if I needed to, I had to be quiet. I came to a room, large, double bed in the center against the wall in addition to drawers, footlockers and a first aid kit.

Dogmeat whimpered and looked up to me, and I looked down to him, sighing and nodding. “I know boy, but we can’t waste any more time. Those ponies need us.”

I stepped into the room, approaching the first aid box, whose lock was weak enough to force. It came open with ease, three health potions, some bandages and four bottles of purified water.

Dogmeat nipped my hind leg inquisitively. I jumped slightly and looked at him. “What? The lock was easy enough and besides, they’re going to need these if they’re alive.”

I stored the chems in my saddlebags, unwilling to place them in my coat where they could get broken. After that, we approached a massive hole in the side of the building. A large sheet of metal formed a bridge down to the antique shop.

“Just one more hurdle now.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The billboard held up pretty well as we crossed it. Now we sat in the massive debris-filled hole in the side of the building, right where the billboard had slammed down years ago. Dogmeat licked himself while I looked out into the city through my binoculars.

This wasn't to check for what I already knew was an infestation below, but to check for the missing ponies should they have moved. As I saw nothing, I put them away and let out a sigh.

“Alright, Dogmeat. Let's go take a look inside, shall we?”

“Ruff!” he replied.

I kicked down the door and barrel rolled in, pointing Chrome down the hall one way, then the other. Danger was neither here nor there, I stood up and cleared my throat. “All clear, boy.”

Dogmeat passed me and started to sniff about, the thick, dank smell of mildew built up over the years made it harder for him to smell, but I knew better than to ignore a dog who might have a lead on the missing ponies. The building was quiet, ancient skeletons lined the halls and offices, and many posters from ages past adorned the walls.

Unsurprisingly all the terminals I found had been damaged, though I found some caps and ammo in the desks which made up for that.

The suspense made me feel as if something was just waiting to pounce. The zombie ponies above and below were either quiet or out of range. The dripping of water from the ceiling echoed through the halls, making me nervous about being in there.

The walls had mould growing on it, a nasty fungus in some rooms and corridors. Walls ripped and crumbled, bearing rusted pipes and snapped wires.

We passed through the office through another door. Dogmeat continued to lead on until he stopped in the hall just outside. I entered the same hall and saw our way blocked by a wall of debris.

“We should find an elevator shaft; that way we can descend, or ascend with ease.”

Dogmeat groaned and panted. “Oh right, you can’t climb.”

Dogmeat growled and snapped his jaws assertively.

“Okay, okay. No more levitating,” I sighed.

“Well there has to be a staircase around—Oh!” I exclaimed surprised as I spotted a door.

I quickly trotted over to it, and with a slight nudge; it opened. The lock had been forced, and nearby laid the remains of a group of what had once been Zombie Ponies. The room was large and housed a flight of stairs going to floors above and below, and in this room I could just barely make out the sound of breathing.

“Hey Dogmeat, looks like the scavenge group's been through—” Dogmeat barged past me, and started sniffing around the room.

In the meantime I looked around the room a little, the glow of a terminal casted itself on the wall in the corner on a desk and tugged at my interest. I set Chrome down and sat in the seat. The terminal was password locked, and conveniently had a tape player hooked up to it.

“Dogmeat, take a look around and keep guard, I’m going to see what’s on this tape.”

Dogmeat tilted his head and left without a sound, going down the stairs, stepping over the bodies of multiple zombies.

I got to work on the terminal (and hacking it was a bitch), it took multiple tries, each time I backed in and out before it locked up. After thirty tries, the terminal bore the fruit of my work.

There were only three files, two of which looked like personal logs. I clicked one and it opened.

“Why the hell are we even working here? This Hub is barely worth Rarity’s time and the information we obtain is almost assured to be passed on to the main hub, with no credit given to us whatsoever!

“It’s a slap to the face, and that white bitch doesn’t give two shakes of that fat ass of hers. Not to mention the pay is fucking pathetic…

“I shouldn’t be typing this, not on a ministry-owned terminal. The real question is: why is this hub based in a five story building if it’s the least important hub?! I swear, Scrapper needs to sort this out with Ms. Rarity, or I’m done.”

I moved on to the next file, however, this one was deleted. I wasn't going to stand for this. If this hub was indeed selling out Equestria to the Zebra’s, then I wanted to find that file. Unfortunately my skill in computers was so much less… (retrieving the file would be impossible).

Finally, I came to the last file, a program which ran the tape reader. I clicked it and a tray came out of the box beside the terminal. I levitated the holo-tape out, glossed over it for a moment before putting it in and playing it.

It took a moment to start, then with a loud crackle, the tape played. The sound of rumbling was in the background, like construction.

“Evangelyn, this is mommy. I’m leaving this tape for you to hear incase I can’t tell you myself. I want you to go to the empire, you’ll find your sister there. Daddy and I have to stay here, otherwise Wiser Wood is going to chuck a fit.

“Daddy and I just found out the Zebra’s have been seen mobilizing their megaspell arsenal… we’re afraid that something big will happen… and we just want you safe. You and your sister are all we have left after your brother…

“In the empire you’ll be safe, if what I think is coming turns out to be real, then I’d want you where you will be cared for. I love you, sweetheart… so much…”

The recording ended.

“Evangelyn…” I couldn’t help but think of how she felt when her parents sent her away, if she even got home in time to hear the message.

Unbeknownst to me, Dogmeat was sniffing around a floor below. The hall at the end had been caved in and the walls were broken and busted (a Radroach nest at best).

Dogmeat sniffed along the ground before coming to an opened door, a bloodied leg kept it open. Dogmeats ears perked and he turned the way he came, then barked loudly to gain my attention, and he had succeeded.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Five stallions and four colts... had just become three stallions and three colts… (damn it…)

Dogmeat and I looked down at the partially devoured corpses of a stallion, his body shielding the not so different corpse of a foal. And as I look up and down the stairs on either side of this fire escape, I saw blood trails, a torn sack and zombie corpses.

It was at this point that I realized that the distress broadcast was weeks old, having no mention of these additional deaths.

“Crap… Well… this is upsetting…” I took off my hat and held it to my chest in silence.

Whispers, loud and clumsy; echoed down the moss and mildew filled fire escape some floors up. Green slime slid down the walls and made its once whiter surface a disgusting lime. I stepped over the two bodies and approached the flight up, listening out to the voices of what sounded like a stallion. Then again, they could be a Mimic, I still had to check.

I brought out Chrome and loaded it up. Then Dogmeat charged past me and up the stairs, barking.

“Dogmeat!!” I followed him, taking the safety off of Chrome in the likelihood whoever was floor above had heard me.

Dogmeat came to a stop at the second floor above us, the way to the third was cut off as the stairway had fallen.

I kicked the door behind me open, denting it slightly and causing it to splinter down the middle, and like a bee drawn to pollen, he ran into the hall without a thought as to what dangers lay ahead. I followed, trying my hardest to keep pace.

A sickening rotting smell filled the room and brought Dogmeat to a stop, myself included. I took a few more whiffs of air and recoiled, more zombies.

“Damn it…” I hissed under my breath and pulled back on the barrel of the magnum, cocking and preparing it. “So they were up here too.”

Dogmeat whimpered at me, but not in a cowardly way. I went lopsided on one side of my head and sighed, bemused.

“It’s not like I wasn't expecting it.” I passed Dogmeat, who followed along, but as we neared the first zombie, I crouched down and silently got close to the monster.

But stealth was not my ally and the zombie pony turned on me, screeching and growling. Dogmeat charged it, biting into its throat and tearing it out.

The creature fell to the ground, yellow plasma leaking out of the tear and onto the floor. It writhed, rattled and gurgled until ceasing in death.

I sighed and looked at Dogmeat who looked back at me. “I should get a knife, shouldn’t I?”

Dogmeat barked in agreement.

I nodded with a sigh. “As soon as we get back, we’re going to the blacksmith, maybe he could set us up with a dagger.”

Dogmeat panted and walked in the direction that I was heading. We moved down the hall, stopping on occasion to check the rooms for ammo, caps and meds, all three of which I found in different places.

But my scavenging would be cut short, Dogmeat alerted me to a massive congregation of zombie ponies.

We quietly came to a large room full of rotters of all races and decay. I let out a sigh and touched a large metal boxlike object hidden beneath my duster, affixed to my side.

No… while that would be practical, I wasn't ready to use those just yet. Besides, the other parts are back on the Sky-Rider.

I rubbed my chin, I knew precisely what to do. I urged Dogmeat to go into one of the office rooms, while I prepped a noise-maker. I floated the device out from my duster and turned a small knob on its side with my hooves.

I peered around the corner and looked at the group, then at the large window nearby. And finally, a desk for which I can use to remove all (if not half) of them with ease.

I pressed a large blue button on the device, and threw it close as I could to the window, drawing the attention of one zombie pony; before the device blared and alerted the group.

They clambered around the makeshift device, allowing me a chance to get behind them. I laid low so that I would go unnoticed.

I rolled behind the desk, and wrapped the whole thing in my aura. I lifted it, sweat running down my face as I strained. I lined it up with the zombies, pulled it back, then with a loud crash, the breaking of glass and the jarring thud of the table, half of the zombies were crushed or were presently falling.

I dispatched the last two with Chrome. The head of one exploded into chunks of gore, blood spurting upward like a fountain, while the second’s leg came off and its head caved in with a shot between the eyes, the back of its head exploded over the floor and wall behind it.

The corpse fell to my hooves. I regained my straight stance and cracked my neck with a wince.

“I wish you all peace,” I said with melancholy.

I turned to the hall and whistled, “Dogmeat, all is clear.”

Dogmeat came out of his hiding place and passed me by, then scratched at a silver door by the elevator, whimpering and looking to me. I opened the door telekinetically and stepped into yet another flight of stairs (this time it wasn’t a fire escape).

On the floor on random stairs there were shell casings, slugs and bullets. “They were here.”

Dogmeat barked and ran up the stairs quickly, rounding the corner and charging through an already broken door. I followed along as best I could. I entered the hall and grabbed Dogmeat in my magic.

“Alright, that’s enough out of you!”

Dogmeat came to an instant stop, yelping and falling back as he floated over to me. I put him down beside me and sighed.

“Bad dog! We’re going to do this properly, and quietly. The last thing we want is those ponies assuming we’re unfriendly.” My voice was stern and irritated.

Dogmeat looked to his paws, sitting on his haunches and took my scolding. I started to sneak my way down the hall, Dogmeat looking up at me and following along just as quietly.

I was tempted to bring out my binoculars just to look at the Eyes Forward Sparkle, to see what was ahead, and to see if there were friendlies at all.

Without warning, the silhouette of a foal darted out of one room in front of me, and into the other, the door shutting behind him in an effort to keep me out.

“Hey, wait!” I dashed after the child and burst through same door and into an office with a single desk and torn banner, a terminal rested on the table, its monitor letting off a green light.

But my observations were cut off as a lone stallion tackled me and pinned me to the wall.

“Start talkin, buddy!” the stallion said with an accent all too similar to an Appleloosan.

The pony then cried out in pain as Dogmeat locked his jaws around the his hoof. The pony looked back at Dogmeat, and saw that the animal was waiting for a command.

“If you want to keep your hoof, I suggest you back off!!” I growled and shouted, frightening the two colts nearby.

The stallion weighed his options, sweat sliding down his forehead. He relented and let go of me, and Dogmeat let him go in turn.

The stallion limped over to the only two colts in the room and stood between them and I. I stood back up and brushed myself off, sighing and glancing at him. I examined all three closely, they were unclean, injured with wounds consisting of scratches and infected bite marks.

“I understand your reason to be cautious, but I mean you no harm,” I spoke calmly.

“What’s yer name?” the stallion asked.

“Gattle Gun. I came here to find you on behalf of Rook.”

“Name’s Collateral… Somewhat fittin’ now that Ah got four o’ us killed…” the blazing blue pegasus lowered his head.

I was initially shocked that he was a pegasus, I thought he might’ve been a former Enclave member. “I saw two of them on the way up.”

“Letter Change and his son, Orange Pear. They were both devoured alive, and Ah let it happen.” Collateral’s voice trembled with the cadence of regret.

“Then there should be two more of you and one more colt, where are they?” I glanced over to the colts then around the room in confusion.

“Dirt Racer tried to fix the elevator, but he fell…”

I looked out of the room and down the hall toward the elevator, its panel open and many wires removed in an attempt to restart it.

“Uppercut and mah son Chewy were taken…” Collateral looked to the ground, almost on the verge of tears.

“Who took them? Can you describe the culprit to me?” I had an unshakable feeling I knew who this kidnapper was, and my body tingled at the possibility I’d be right.

“He had a mottled grey coat, grey blue mane. A skinny fellow, had a tail curled into a rat-like one colored pink.”

I smirked and chuckled, “That’s my target,” I thought to myself. “I’ll get you three out of here and back to the settlement. After that, I’ll go after the others.”

Dogmeat approached the foals whilst I was distracted. The two colts petted him when he sat down and waited for the attention. He panted and whimpered happily.

Collateral and I looked over at Dogmeat and stared for a moment. The colts looked at us and shrugged, smiling cheekily. They felt happy for the first time in weeks.

“So, how did you survive the past few weeks?” I inquired.

Collateral looked back at me. “Ration packs found in the basement. There’s a locked door down there that allows access to a series of tunnels under the town.”

“And how did you find this out?” I cocked an eyebrow.

“When we first got here, we found a way into the underground through a cellar door in the basement of a house. Metal corridors, Radroaches, nothing too dangerous.

“The terminal to that steel door was unprotected so we used it frequently to get items from around the city. The M.I door is protected, however.”

“I’m not good with terminals, but I could try my hoof at the hacking side of things,” I offered.

“We also used to risk scavenging, leaving the safety of this building to try and scrounge something out of the nearest mini-mart, but the last trip ended horribly.” Collateral’s ears fell back and he lowered his head. “Letter Change and Orange didn’t have to die…”

I sighed, tired already of this depressing mood. “Then don’t let their deaths be for nothing.”

I set down my saddlebags and floated out the medical supplies I had scavenged earlier that night. I placed them on the floor in front of the pegasus and colts, sitting down on my haunches.

“You three need these; those lacerations and bites aren’t going to heal, nor will those infections die down.”

Collateral got to work on the colts with the three health potions I had offered, the anti-infectant and the bandages were used on the infections and wounds. In addition to those supplies, I gave each pony some RadAway (for good measure).

“Now, I’m going to deal with that elevator, and that down stairs terminal. Dogmeat will stay with you three, and for extra security...” I levitated Rook’s rifle out from its holster and passed it to Collateral.

“Should you ever have to use it. Though I doubt any zombie pony is going to make its way up here in such a short span of time.” I donned my saddle bags and walked over to the desk and terminal.

Collateral nodded, “Either way, it’s reassuring to have a weapon again.”

I gave him a rather agreeable smile, before standing in front of the terminal and turning it on.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Why didn’t I think of this before? The zebra’s are paying us more then what that prissy propaganda bitch would for the information they send our way. This is risky, but perfect all the same. I won’t lie, I was once a patriot, but considering that it’s going to be everypony for himself by the end of all this, one can’t be too choosy, especially when family is high on the priority list. I need the bits, and so do the rest of us.

“I’m going to have to let some ponies go. It’ll be harsh, but I’m the administrator of the Ministry of Image, Red Ruby Creek Branch, I’m the authority here and what I say goes.”

I was working at the elevator control panel as I remembered that document. I had high doubts that the Crystal Empire would tolerate such insubordination back in the day, then again, is the Dominion at all the same as it once was so long ago?

I knew not the answers to that, nor did I care to know at all. I wanted to get this over with, I had wasted enough time just searching for my quarry, Rat Catcher. There was a thick panic in my heart. I had looked out the window whilst in the office room with the missing ponies, and I saw almost a thousand if not more feral ghouls making their way here. But if I could get the tunnel unlocked, I could get us all out without any trouble.

“Any thoughts on that crowd, mister?” asked one of the colts, a grey-colored unicorn with an orange mane and tail, a small ponytail in his mane, eyes of auburn and a blank flank.

I looked at him from the corner of my eye as I attempted to reconnect wires and plug in cords. “The zombies?”

The colt nodded, his face rife with worry, his eyes full of fear.

“I think my noise maker drew them. It’s not supposed to draw a crowd that big,” I sighed, “maybe they can smell us. I made a lot of noise killing the group a floor below.”

I touched the edge of a wire, and a jolt of electricity shot through me, forcing me to pull my hoof back as my body tingled.

“Arrgh! Damn it!! If Dirt Racer hadn’t screwed this up he wouldn’t have died!” I growled and spoke loudly with contempt.

The colt’s ears hung low and so did his head. “Don’t talk about Dirt Racer that way, he helped us get up here, without him we wouldn’t have gotten away from the horde.”

I was silent for a moment. “What’s your name, kid?”

“S-Sour Twist, sir,” the colt stammered in response.

“Tell me about Dirt Racer.” I looked at Sour Twist and sat back on my haunches, donning rubber gloves at the same time.

Sour Twist closed his eyes and shuddered. “H-he was... my brother... He cared for everypony and when Collateral was unable to get us to safety, he did… But now he’s down there…” the colt gestured to the elevator shaft.

I sighed and started working again. “As long as you cherish the moments you spent with him, he will live on.”

Sour looked at me once again, teardrops welling up in his eyes. “Believe me kid, cherishing the moments you spent with them is better then forgetting.” I glanced at him, winked, and smiled.

I touched a switch inside the panel, and with a loud rumble and a ring, the elevator started working again.

I looked into the black abyss, laughing at my success and expecting the elevator to rise. I didn’t take into account the possibility that it might’ve been on the top-most floor (the roof).

I heard the screeching of the elevator and looked up to see it descending quite fast. I pulled my head back into the hall and fell back, the elevator passing me and coming to a stop two floors down.

“Are you okay, mister?” asked Sour.

I cocked my head in the colt’s direction, hoof over my heart. “Yeah, I’m feeling great, kiddo.” I got back up onto my hooves and stared toward the elevator shaft as its doors closed.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Leaving the three ponies with Dogmeat, I made the slow journey down to archives in the elevator. I passed down floor after floor, sometimes I’d hear the groans of zombies as the elevator went by one of its many stops (guess I didn’t clear them all out).

I felt whoozy as I made my way down, I had no idea what the archives would be like and without Dogmeat I was blind. I’ve explored military bases before without Dogmeat, this was no different. Though the lack of company made things all the more unsettling.

The elevator came to a stop with a thud and a ding. I stumbled back and hit the wall, my hat fell from my head only to be caught in my bright magical aura. “Not. Again,” I said in a slow and bemused tone.

I rested the black and aged akubra on my head, covering my horn in the process. I turned my head dramatically to look into the pitch black halls, pulling Chrome out of my duster in the process.

“Alright, here’s the drill: find the door, get everypony out, look for two missing ponies, then find my target,” I said to myself quietly.

I stepped out of the lift and into the darkness, only the sounds of my hooves audible through the thick silence. I expected the archives to be as large as a city block at least, plenty of hiding places for a zombie pony.

I slid open a hatch on the barrel of Chrome, allowing a cylinder to slide out of a compartment. I reloaded the weapon, adding three bullets to replace the three shot earlier, then closed it back up.

The elevator doors closed behind me, and the elevator returned to its point of origin, leaving me down here with no quick way out.

“It’s too dark…” I muttered and focused my magical power into the top of my horn, where a green glowing orb lit up a small area about two feet in all directions.

The shining of the light revealed massive columns either side of me which rose to the ceiling, large protective cabinets in rows of corridors, containing holo-tapes and other manner of pre-war propaganda (I suspected them to be in short supply in this hub, however).

The light also revealed an identification pad, with a long since deactivated scanner (it looked like it was suited for I.D passes, indicating that workers here had certain ranks to ensure this area remained available only to the administrator, their assistant, and Rarity).

At my hooves in the water was a mass of blood, I lowered Chrome slightly and looked to where the blood had come from. Laying crushed in the elevator space, was the remains of hundreds of zombie ponies, but at the top of the pile was the crushed and splayed remains of Dirt Racer.

“Oh... fuck…” I sighed and stared at the remains and the blood in the water until my moment of silence had ended and I turned away.

I walked through the corridors of cabinets and columns, the air was rife with the foul odor of rotting flesh, stale blood and gunpowder, while the floor was waterlogged hoof deep with a pool of radioactive water.

Through the blackness and the unending silence, I heard the sounds of two ponies, one older than the other, muffled, weak and faint. A voice then rang out through the dense dark, loud, screeching and old. It was a stallion's voice (and by Luna I wanted to silence him).

I dimmed the glow of my horn so just barely any light shone, but just enough to see where I was going. Even so it was not enough, and I resorted to allowing my eyes to adjust to the dark (It wasn't very smart).

Once they did I pressed on, making out only vague shapes in the dark. As I neared a corner, the voice of the pony – my target, Rat Catcher – grew louder, and with it my rage. I peered around a cabinet and saw the gaunt-faced earth pony pacing back and forth in front of a colt, Chewy and his fellow captive, Uppercut.

I glared directly at Rat Catcher. I primed Chrome, readying the magnum to kill when the time came. Rat Catcher looked panicked, the lamp he kept nearby had started to dim and was desperately trying to remain alight.

My ear twitched, I heard movement behind me, a low tapping, slow, coming every two seconds. That would be enough to set even me on edge. “Could it be there’s Zombie Ponies down here too? Wait, of course there would be… this place is perfect for ghoulification.”

“You two have been absolutely useless to me! I expected you to get the door open, Uppercut, but alas you concern yourself over the sickling beside you, as oppose to your own bastard life. But take pride in the knowledge that you two will fetch quite a few caps from the right ponies. I might take my time with you little one, before you’re sold to some lucky stallion with a colt fetish.”

I didn’t want to hear that fucker speak another word. I lunged around the corner and fired a few good shots at Rat Catcher, startling him and wounding him in his leg and shoulder. Blood poured from the bullet hole in his shoulder and the graze from his cheek; his leg shook from the shot and looked broken.

He screamed and fell back, the sight of me made him cower and flee. He stood and ran as fast as he could, vanishing around the corner as I fired the last two shots from Chrome.

“Get back here you fuck!!! Do you think you can keep on running?! I will hunt you, I will keep hunting you until your legs give up and you’re begging for mercy at my hooves!!! I will find you!!!!! Do you hear me?! You fuck up!!!!!” I shouted as loud as I could, gritting my teeth and breathing deeply with a growl.

I turned to the captives and approached, I put Chrome away and proceeded to untie them.

“I’m here to help you two, I was sent by Rook,” I said in a much calmer tone.

“Rook sent you? It's been weeks and now that bastard decides to send somepony to help us?” Uppercut said bitterly and weakly.

“You’re both bruised, you’re suffering a broken leg, Chewy there is suffering from advanced radiation poisoning from the water and dehydration. How long have you both been down here?” I cut the rope around their hooves then moved on to Chewy, releasing him and giving him some RadAway.

“A week... I think… He gave us no food or water...” Uppercut replied.

“That asshole was Rat Catcher, he’s a criminal wanted by the NCR and the Crystal Dominion. Both sides want him for the same reasons, but want him brought in two different ways,” I explained.

“Care to elaborate?” Uppercut asked as he lifted Chewy onto his back.

I nudged my hat upward, showing more of my face and the base of my horn. “The New Canterlot Republic wants him alive and will pay fifty thousand caps for his capture.”

“That’s a lot of caps, I didn’t think they could even amass that much,” Uppercut said in awe.

I chuckled and scoffed, “That’s nothing compared to the price the Dominion has on him, seventy two million pre-war crystal bits, the equivalent of seventy two million caps, for his execution. If you want my personal opinion, he’s better off dead, I’d hunt the cock fuck for free for his crimes.”

“What were his crimes?” Uppercut lifted an eyebrow, curious.

“I’m quite sure he just hinted it.” I turned away from Uppercut and looked in the direction of Rat Catcher’s escape. “He’s a paedophile, a slaver and an incestuous, miserable fuck.”

I grit my teeth, a slight growl emerging from the back of my throat. “He hasn't done anything to me personally, but I do not take the rape and abuse of innocents so lightly, nor do I tolerate venomous scum like him to exist! I promise you now, when I catch him, he’ll beg for mercy, just like all my targets before the end.”

Uppercut was intimidated, he looked down at the irradiated water and lifted his broken hoof. “We should probably get out of this water, It’s not safe down here.”

At that moment, screeching and guttural growling and hissing ensued from the darkness. It was far, possibly twenty seven hooves away.

“No, it isn’t. Those ghouls will be heading in this direction after those shots. Inquisitive chumps aren’t they?”

“There has to be a way out,” Uppercut said in a panicked voice.

“Only one safe way back up.” I turned and looked at Uppercut. “Elevator.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

With Chewy and Uppercut safe on the fifth floor, and Chrome reloaded, I ventured back into the dark of the archives. The irradiated water rippled as I slowly wandered through the halls, making barely a sound. I saw glowing over the tops of the the cabinet made walls, the glow moved about, low growling coming from its source (I don’t have enough Radaway for this shit).

I sighed and crept around the corner and hid behind one of the lockers, I peered down the row and could see plain as day a glowing Zombie Pony. It hissed, twitched, and cocked its head with quick and sudden movements.

It sniffed, it croaked and gargled, the stench of rot emanating from its decaying, tattered, sickly green glowing flesh. My nose curled (second time tonight) at its scent. Unwilling to make a noise, I settled on approaching it quietly.

Once again, the ghoul caught wind of me and turned to attack. It charged at me, hissing, its tainted glow brightening in preparation for radiation dispersal. But the creature did not live to unleash its degrading attack. I grabbed onto its head between my forehooves and with a quick but powerful twist, I broke its neck.

It fell dead at my hooves, it twitched, the water rippled calmly as though barely disturbed by the corpse that so loudly hit the waterlogged floor just now.

I looked up to the top of a row of cabinets and crouched. the bottom part of my cloak got even more wet than it had been before. I leapt, I grabbed onto the edge with my hooves, I slid, unable to get a proper firm hold to lift myself until I reached toward a raised edge of a dent on the somewhat flat surface.

“Urrgh,” I grunted as I lifted myself up onto the top, gritting my teeth and moving another hoof forward, bringing my body up fully.

I whipped out my binoculars once I got to my hooves. I approached the edge of the last cabinet, three across from the one I climbed and looked into them. “Where are you, Rat Catcher?” I muttered to myself in quiet whispers.

The Eyes Forward Sparkle picked up random, scattered dots, red and moving at the pace of a snail. Though regrettably, these were only at a distance, the Eyes Forward Sparkle I built into these register foes from afar, not point blank or nearby.

“Damn it… come on,” I growled lightly until finally the E.F.S picked up a dot moving faster then the others. My eyes went bloodshot at the sight, Rat Catcher was the smallest dot on the damn thing, he’d gotten through the wall somehow (I saw the wall long before looking at the E.F.S).

I turned off the E.F.S and lowered the scopes, grinding my teeth and puckering my lips to contain a scream.

“It’s fine!” I muttered to myself with a growl, “I will find him, but these ponies matter more. The moment I get them back to the settlement, the sooner I can track down that asshole.”

I glanced down to the floor below and quickly crouched, shrinking back as a Zombie Pony stepped just beneath me. Its skin let off bouts of radiation and glow from within, and I could feel the heat.

Raising an eyebrow and pouting in thought, I slinked back and disappeared in the shadows. The Zombie Pony sniffed and growled. It bared its decaying, broken teeth and dripped froffing saliva from the corners of its mouth.

With a loud echoing splash and the cracking of bones, following a sudden yelp, I had dropped myself on top of the now splayed and mangled Zombie Pony, and now stood in its green radioactive blood and entrails.

I blew a puff of smoke then floated a cigarette into my mouth, freshly lit and calming the nerves. “Now, where is that door?” I thought to myself.

How did Rat Catcher get out? Was there a hole in the walls that we didn’t know about? It would explain excess water which had flooded that place, I doubt the piping alone could’ve caused such a flood. Even so, it was puzzling, Rat Catcher shouldn't have have gotten away so easily. It was aggravating to think that he did.

I snapped out from that moment of thought as the sounds of hissing and rasping screams filled my ears, the glowing ones were active and the splashing of water to the hastened trot of their hooves indicated they were coming for me, but why?

The darkness that filled the corridor grew brighter from behind me, a large group was approaching. I backed up, the effects of prolonged exposure to the radioactive water starting to take hold. Sweat appeared on my forehead, I felt like I was going to keel over.

I pulled Chrome out of his holster, turned tail and ran, just as the glowing ones rounded the corner and gave chase. I occasionally paused in my running to look back at my pursuers, firing at them and greasing a few each time before reloading.

After a few minutes I floated that cigarette from my mouth and tossed it aside, setting alight one of the shit heads that stepped on it. After rounding a corner, I wrapped my aura around a cabinet and pulled it down, crushing one of the glowers and blocking the remainder, which I easily picked off with Chrome.

When all was said and done, I sat back on my haunches, out of the water and took deep breaths (by this point I was ready to leave).

Over the tops of the many archives I saw other glowing lights which moved on their own, they were hunting. I snorted, holstered Chrome and took some RadAway (that stuff tastes like scat!)

I shuddered and let it work its magic, in the meantime I looked down the rest of the corridor and followed it, using the tops of the drawers to get to the end. The opposite row to me came to an end against the wall. Lowering myself to look at the wall, I noticed some thick black cables running along the wall just below the meeting of the wall to the ceiling.

“Now why would they be moving along the wall, instead of up, unless…” I clicked to a sudden realisation, I had a hunch and I followed it.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

My hunch paid off, my eyes widened and a massive grin formed on my face, like I had found a chest of caps laid out for me like Spearer fish gutted and served in bite sized pieces. Within my sights was the glowing of a terminal, attached to the wall raised off the ground close to the ceiling, and beside it, a door.

I checked the path below for more glowing ones and saw to my relief that none were near, not even their glow was shining at all nearby. I felt the last of the radiation accumulated earlier dissipate, I jumped from the safety of the cabinet and back into the radioactive water. The hard work that RadAway put into cleansing my body was now for nothing.

Steel, Stable-Tec issued doors which folded open on spinning wheels; stood embedded in the wall. The sheets of metal were flat, but thick and hard to break, bullets bounced right off them. I rubbed my chin and glanced up at the terminal.

I let out a sigh, as I might have mentioned, hacking was not my specialty, but I did an okay job of backing out and trying again when I was one mistake away from being locked out (only this process would go on for an hour).

In time I managed to finally get in (the password was Dress… fuck me).

Two different commands appeared on the screen, disengage lock and emergency lock. “That could come in handy,” I said as a smirk formed on my face.

A red bulb protruded from the wall on my left, beside the top left corner of the door. A double-sided light bulb on a device that I assumed spins. It was an alarm light, that set off some flags.

“If that’s up there, then the doors are rigged to alert the building when opened,” I pondered, “That’s going to be a problem when I get the others out. The glowers are going to come to the source like the zombies they are and tear apart the unlucky pony that happens to be near.

“That said, I should go and get the others and come back here.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Dogmeat paced in the hallway by the elevator, he growled and whimpered with worry while Sour Twist and his friend watched on. The elevator passed by the ghoul-infested floors once more on my way up, the whirring of the wires as the pulley system pulled the elevator up and alerted the ponies of my coming.

Collateral’s ears perked up at the sound of the lift and he came out to greet me as the doors opened. I stepped out and was pounced on by Dogmeat, who licked my face happily.

“Ugh! Gah! Dogmeat!” I cried out as I was rendered helpless to his onslaught of doggy kisses.

Collateral watched from beside Sour Twist, eyebrows raised in surprise and relief. “Did ya find the door?”

Dogmeat let up and allowed me to speak. I looked up at Collateral and wiped my face with the corner of my duster. “Yeah, I found it. I trust Uppercut informed you on what exactly is down there.”

“He’s told me it’s a waterlogged maze down there, radiation abound,” replied Collateral.

“That’s true, now add to that the mob of glowing zeds that have taken to soaking up the local flavour of the water,” I said with slight amusement.

“Though this is hardly an issue, they are spread out in the maze of archives, easily pointed out by their glow. I could lead us through without encountering one.” I shifted my eyes to look at the elevator, removing my akubra.

“The cabinets that make up the maze can be used as a way to traverse the massive underground safely.” I looked back at Collateral. “That would allow us to avoid the radiation, and preserve my remaining RadAway.”

“Ruff!” Dogmeat agreed.

I smiled at the mut and gently stroked his fur with the back of my hoof. Collateral watched and adjusted the rifle which stood out diagonal from his side, he straightened it and sat on his haunches.

Collateral broke the brief silence with calm and clear words. “Thank you… fer findin’ Uppercut and mah son. Ah am indebted t’you, Gattle Gun, if you are ever n’ need of me, please call and Ah’ll be here t’fight by yer side.”

“Shut it pal, you ain’t indebted to nopony. I’m doing this to save good ponies, ponies who have family who worry about them. To tell them that three of you and a colt are dead is going to break their hearts.” I sighed and put my akubra back on.

With panic and confusion, Uppercut hobbled out from the office and toward Collateral, Dogmeat and I.

“Outside, the ghouls are congregating in the square!” Uppercut was panting, sweating with worry.

I didn’t blame him, a horde as big as the one outside is a less than desirable fight. But I had a plan. I scoffed at his worry and stood to approach him. “You have nothing to worry about, Uppercut. I have a plan. As soon as you’re all ready, I’ll set the building to explode.”

Dogmeat’s ears perked up at the word explode. Collateral and Uppercut shot some curious looks at me.

“You’re going to blow up the Ministry of Image building?” asked Uppercut.

I smirked and cracked my shoulders. “You all came here with Rook, or found your way here to re-establish a settlement here in Red Ruby Creek. These creatures are stopping that from happening, so I’m going to grease them, all of them.”

“Then we better get goin’,” said Collateral, “Ah’ll carry Chewy, Ah’ll fly while we follow you, keep him and I out of the water.”

Uppercut groaned, “That’s fair, you fly while Sour, Twist, Leaf and I walk, or trudge…”

“Or in your case, hobble,” I jabbed with a smirk. But the time for joking was not to last.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Once they had gathered up all they were taking, I ushered them into the elevator and asked them to wait, Dogmeat included.

I rushed down the hall and into the office room. The floor was littered with empty RadAway, health potion bottles, disinfectant bottles and whatever was left of the bandages. I stepped over the mess, pausing for a moment to look down at the congregation of ghouls through the window.

I felt sorry for the mass of former ponies down there, the damage to their minds irreversible. They are no more worse then a legion of giant ants. It tickled me to think that even a pony with a strong mind could turn into a feral ghoul, I chuckled at the thought.

Alas, I didn’t ponder long, I looked away from the window, slowly turning my head toward the desk and approaching it. I jumped over the table and sat perfectly in the chair, spinning in it before hunching over the terminal.

I booted up the system, and immediately I was greeted by a series of options, one of these options being labeled advanced. The file I read about the administrator selling info to the Zebras was top of the list, the rest of the files were corrupt.

I clicked on the advanced option, after a brief buzz and a disturbance of static on the screen, three options came.

“Siren, purge and protocol Spike?” I looked at that last option and wondered what it was for, if purge wasn't meant to blow up the building, then it would've likely been for wiping the propaganda and intelligence this hub held, if any.

The siren option, I had an idea what that was for. On my way in, I noticed, scattered around the town were loud speakers affixed to buildings and poles in the streets, likely intended to broadcast announcements or bombing warnings. I had to hope the ghouls came to the building once the siren started to blair.

I hit the option and like a hundred trumpets, the siren resonated loudly for miles from the town center. The congregation went from a calm mob to an angry and roaring riot of flesh eaters.

“Well that worked, now, let's redirect the sound inside the building” I typed on the keyboard and just like that, all the sound started to come from within the building.

The whole structure shook as a hundred of the ghouls hissed and screeched, I grinned wide at this and began the self destruct, protocol Spike. I clicked the program and on the screen popped a ten minute timer.

“Ten minutes is all I need!” I exclaimed and jumped from the chair to run to the elevator.

As I went to run I stopped, the sound of twinkling and faint laughter emanated from the desk’s bottom drawer. A yellow glow came through the crack as I turned to see what it could be.

I was curious, I raised an eyebrow and walked over to the desk again despite being aware of the time I had left. My horn alight, I pulled the drawer which rolled out easily. Resting inside, beneath a bundle of pre-war bits and some papers, was a glowing yellow orb with mist coming off of it like carbon dioxide from dry ice.

“A memory orb..?” I levitated it close to my face for a better look. “No… what… what is this?”

Dogmeat started to bark frantically, calling for me as feral ghouls had made their way up to this floor and were shambling down the hall. I poked my head out the door and looked to my right to see the oncoming herd.

The one at the front saw me and hissed, half of his rib cage had been ripped open, split from the sternum revealing a yellow pus-filled heart. The ghoul’s right leg had been missing, replaced with a long sharp blade that seemed to protrude out of its elbow.

“Gattle Gun, get in here quickly!!” shouted Collateral in a panic.

I put the yellow orb into one of the inner pockets of my duster and dashed down the hall and into the elevator, the blade-armed ghoul behind me.

Collateral and Uppercut stood aside and allowed me into the elevator, Collateral hit the button for the basement floor and the elevator doors closed. It was then that the ghoul wedged its leg in the door, cutting my leg and coat.

I winced, I glared at the monster and shoved Chrome’s barrel through the crack between the doors.

Bang!!

With one shot, the ghoul’s brains were splattered against the wall opposite the elevator (art at its finest), its blade leg fell limp in the door. The groaning of the ghouls drew near and quickly I pushed the dead one’s leg out of the way.

The doors closed and with a low rumble we made our way down.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Outside.

The tunnels had been an empty, cold series of corridors, full of dead ends and Rad-Roaches. Dark and damp, mildew and moss abound. Getting to the door took only a few minutes, we’d barely encountered a single glowing one.

The moment we opened the door, an alarm rang out and the glowing herd came for us (ring, ring, ring, dinners ready). I pressed to seal the door only for there to be a thirty second delay. We ran, the door closed and we were left dispatching three of the nuclear neon pains in the plot.

Collateral led us out, and now we stand on the rooftop of an old bakery in perfect view of the Ministry of image building.

There was a bright flash and a tremendous bang, which sent Dogmeat yelping and whimpering, he shook his head as his ears rang. I got down beside him and patted the creature's back and covered his ears.

The explosive sound echoed for miles, right up to the Crystal Dominion only seven hundred and twelve miles away. What followed that sound was the building's top floors going up in smoke and collapsing in on itself.

The lower portions cracked and gave way, the building literally sunk within itself, taking with it all of its secrets including the possibility of finding out what this yellow memory orb-like thing was. But that didn’t bother me, the sounds of a million screaming ghouls was comforting.

Another explosion followed this time out toward the square, killing what I assumed to be the rest, if not half the herd. The bridge Dogmeat and I entered from collapsed with metallic screeching, followed by a metallic bang as it hit the concrete ground.

“What did I tell ya, I’ll grease them, all of them,” I said with a smirk, proud of my achievement (and unbelievably turned on at that).

The town was lit up like a beacon, the remained of the tower burned brightly. I’d wager the settlement was looking at my handiwork in absolute horror and Rat Catcher, I bet he was running for his damned life, ‘cause in a few hours time, I was coming for him.

I lowered the front rim of my hat over my eyes, turned around and passed the survivors on my way to the stairs, pulling out another cigarette and lighting it. I took a quick puff of it and sighed.

“We should get moving. Rook is probably expecting us.” I was calm, though inside I was fighting the urge to burst into laughter (that night was one of many to be thrilling).

Without another word nor whisper, no sound or wind, we departed for the settlement. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the survivors were mourning their four friends who lost their lives thanks to Collateral’s leadership, I suppose he had good judgement until dusk. I could see in him right then as I looked from the corner of my eye, his eyes were guilty, he was asking himself what went wrong. How could he face Rook? I said nothing, I didn’t encourage him nor comfort him, this was his responsibility.

We walked up the street from that baker’s shop, and right ahead was the Settlement, its searchlights turned on and searching for us from the guard towers. As we neared, Rook’s light turned on us and the gates opened.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“It’s mah fault, Rook… they’re dead because of me, Ah was incompetent, Ah panicked once the night fell. We dropped the haul and fled for the apartment complex and the Ministry of Image hub,” Collateral’s voice was heavy with regret, he kept his gaze low and struggled to hold back tears.

His ears laid flat against his scalp as he grit his teeth and shook like a coward. I watched as he trembled and groveled (this one didn’t earn any respect nor admiration out of me, only pity).

I sneered and shook my head, my cigarette providing me with no more relief from stress. I put out the butt-length stick and threw it aside. Dogmeat laid nearby and watched, his patience running as thin as mine.

“The longer we stay listening to this shit is time given to Rat Catcher to run,” I said in anger at the waiting (I had no doubt he had made it onto neutral ground by now).

I shifted my view to the grieving mares who lost family or family members as a result of this, but I also looked at the one who still had family, or whatever was left.

“I’m the one ultimately responsible for sending ya’ll out there. The other trips weren’t as bad, only a few scrapes and bruises, but this time… this time we lost a foal. Nopony that young should’ve died, neither did the others. Your leadership was poor, but so was mine. The full weight of the fault mine.”

Rook was calm, he was sad and with remorse. I glanced up at him, we were silent, until my sigh.

“I don’t mean to be the asshole here, but I’d like to speak with you for a moment, Rook.” I stood, I cracked my neck and adjusted my hat, my attitude was rushing, impatient.

Collateral stood and walked away from Rook’s house toward the gate. The earth pony and I looked at one another; he saw the eagerness to get moving, my desire to hunt and kill my quarry in my eyes and smiled.

“You’re itchin to go out there and find that target of yours, aren’t’cha?” Rook cocked an eyebrow, a small smile on his face that was nonchalant.

I glanced down at my hooves and closed my eyes. “Rat Catcher must be stopped, if he escapes into NCR territory, which I highly doubt he would, he’ll be untouchable. But on neutral ground anything goes.”

“This Rat Catcher, what’s he done that’s earned the scorn of both the Dominion and NCR?”

I shot my sternest look to Rook, my horn glowed and out of a pocket inside of my duster came two scrolls, one from the New Canterlot Republic and another from the Crystal Dominion.

“Read those, they’ll tell you what you need to know about his crimes.”

Rook did just that, he opened one scroll then another and the list of crimes made even his blood boil. “I can see why you want to waste him so bad.”

“He has two children, a son and a daughter. Both of them were raped and abused by him. He was caught in the act and fled before the guards could catch him.”

“Those poor souls…” I noted Rook’s sympathy toward the foals, the entire Dominion was talking about it when I left. Guess that’s what Sabrina gets for letting wastelanders in.

“In the NCR he is known as a rapist and a slaver, he was caught attempting to sell pegasus mares to the Slavers Union. Though it took months before anypony found out.” I sighed.

“Told ya I’d tell you about him once I brought the missing ponies back. I have to find him, Rook, he has to die for his crimes, I’ll turn him into dog shit.”

There was a loud cocking sound. Rook had loaded up a large hunting rifle (I’d wager it was once used to hunt larger prey), looked at me, and with a thoughtful smile he tossed the weapon toward me and I caught it.

“You can have this. Scope works perfectly, I’ve killed Yao-Guai with it over ninety yards away. This will take the cock hole out cleanly, if you prefer.”

I smirked and looked up and down the length of the weapon, I was ecstatic, excited even to see it, to hold it firmly in my magical glow.

“Thank you, Rook. Unfortunately I prefer my victims to know who’s ending their life before I finally cave their skull in.”

Dogmeat chomped loudly and barked viciously to drive the point across. “I’m afraid Dogmeat gets a little pissed off if he can’t sink his teeth into a fool who's on my hit list.”

Rook chuckled and grinned. “Then let's not waste another moment, you have a pony to hunt.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Luna voice interface: Online! Welcome back, Gattle Gun.” Luna’s voice came in clear on the Sky-Rider’s console.

Dogmeat laid in his usual place on the chariot as I prepped the machine for flight. Rook, Collateral, and Uppercut watched as I twisted the handle disks and initiated the wings flapping.

“I’m certain I took out half of the eaters when the Ministry of Image building went down,” I said whilst adjusting my hoof gloves, “There’ll be stragglers enough for you to cull on your own.”

“And for that, you have my thanks,” replied Rook.

“Make no mistake, Rook, that light show I pulled last night is going to attract a lot of attention. Raiders or Slavers will be making their way here, possibly as we speak. Remember the Wanamingos? You’ll want to set up the wall as soon as you can. When this has become a ripe settlement, give the dead a proper burial.”

“You don’t have to tell me, tatters, I know what to do,” scoffed Rook.

“You better. I don’t want to come back and find you all raped and strung up mutilated on meat hooks.”

I looked down at Dogmeat and he looked up at me. “Ready to go boy?”

“Ruff!!” Dogmeat barked in reply.

I grinned as I twisted the disks and the Sky-Rider hovered, its wings beat faster and its legs folded up. I put my Akubra away, and donned the pre-war flight cap and goggles once more. As I prepared to fly forward, Collateral spoke up, loud enough to be heard through the flapping of the wings. I pulled the handles back. The Sky Rider backed up, and with a forward push, I took off down the road and toward my prey. Rat Catcher, was now mine.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Did you think you could hide from me in there? You are a fool, Rat Catcher. No better than scum, the lowest form of life in a world already wrapped in a blanket of cruelty with barely a rip in the fabric to allow hope!”

It was late afternoon by the time I had found him. Rat Catcher was holding out in a makeshift house close to a large cliff. I could see him through the scope of Rook’s hunting rifle, I could’ve shot him then, only I didn’t, there’d be no satisfaction.

I lowered the gun and turned away, Dogmeat watching my every move. I took off my saddlebags and placed them on the floor of the Sky-Rider. I then levitated only a few medical supplies I could carry and an extra six shots for Chrome if catching him was impossible.

I cracked my neck, stomped on the ground, and glanced down at Dogmeat. “Ready to go, Dogmeat?”

Dogmeat growled, eyes wild, teeth bared like a Timberwolf’s. I smiled at that, teeth bared in my own joyous grin.

“Let's go kill us a rat,” I said with my voice shaking and full of excitement.

I left my saddlebags and ammo belts in the Sky-Rider, the metal boxes beneath my duster were stored away in the shaft of the control pedestal. I now wore nothing but my duster, hoof gloves and akubra.

We left the machine hidden on a ridge, out of view of the house. I slid down the hill, stones and pebbles rolling down as I did, dust kicked up as the dirt was disturbed. A ruined stone wall provided a place to hide. As soon as I touched flat ground, I rolled behind the wall and poked my head around the corner. The door of the house opened and out stepped three ponies, each of them wearing an open vest with different customizations.

“Slavers…” I whispered.

I sneered and looked at Dogmeat. I tapped my hoof lightly in front of him, and motioned for him to wait by the now closed door. He growled and carefully approached the door, those other three slavers had long since disappeared around the back of the hut.

As Dogmeat waited, I stepped away from the wall and went around to a windowless side of the house. I looked up to the roof and with my horn aglow, I levitated up to it. There laid my entrance, a skylight roof window.

I moved along the roof as silently as my hooves would allow (didn’t help that it was a metal roof which made it harder to be stealthy). The Slavers looked too preoccupied with their game of poker to notice me.

As I peeked in, I saw no sign of Rat Catcher, odd because I saw the fuck enter this building minutes earlier. Did he figure out he was being followed? Still, regardless of whether or not he was there, this was a slaver cell, and I wasn't going to let them have a foothold in the Dominion.

I stood straight and let out a sigh. With an indifferent and lazy smile, I jumped onto the window and fell into the house. With an ear-splitting crack, the table broke in half, ruining their game and getting me some surprised and pissed off looks.

“Sup mutherfucks!” I exclaimed. The Slavers; after a moment of shock, sprang into action, pulling out their guns and knives while I whipped out Chrome and turned the guy next to me into art.

His head exploded backward as one bullet from Chrome passed through the middle of his face, crushing it and painting the window he stood before red.

Kra~krung!

A shotgun was fired, hitting me in the shoulder and grazing my neck. I recoiled and retaliated with three shots from Chrome, two to the chest and one through the throat (beautiful). I stood on the table, a large, crazed grin forming and pupils shrinking as the thrill started to hit me like a shot of Jet.

Another slaver charged at me, a pegasus, his wings tipped with blades (easy). He swung them at me, no technique. I ducked, I slid back while my duster dragged under me. I quickly jumped back up and grabbed onto his head with my aura, and with the tilt of my head…

Crrr~ack!

...I snapped his neck. What followed was madness, I was in utter pain, my shoulder bled from the shotgun wound and I was outnumbered seven to one.

“Time to put my plan into motion.” I thought to myself.

I threw open my cloak, revealing three dummy grenades which fooled the Slavers. I pulled their pins and threw them on the floor. Like Radroaches they scattered. The Slavers ran for the door, trampling over one another and even crushing their youngest member (whose head turned to paste beneath my hooves, silencing his pleas of mercy).

Outside, the Slavers were met with further assault, Dogmeat charged for the first one to exit, he jumped up and bit into the unicorn slaver’s neck. She thrashed in panic, her screams nothing more than quick squeals as her entire throat section was torn away, covering my pet's face in her gore.

Dogmeat ate the flesh like a hungry predator and growled with feral instinct.

“Kill them, Dogmeat! Kill them all!” I ordered and laughed.

Dogmeat barked with ferocity, he ran after another slaver whilst I fired the last two shots from Chrome into the skull of Slaver wielding a flail. Quickly, I reloaded Chrome and turned to face an oncoming Slaver, only to be struck across the back by one of the trio from earlier.

Chrome fell from my aura and I fell onto my side with a pained whinnie. My akubra fell from my head not too far from Chrome.

“You shit stain, you killed half of our cell!” the main one with the spiked, raider-like shoulder armor exclaimed with an angry growl.

I laughed and looked up at him. “Can’t help it if you schmucks make greasing ya easy.”

The slaver kicked me in the stomach and stepped on my horn. I hacked up some saliva in a gasp of pain. I could see the two other slavers that were with him, the pink female slaver whose mane was messier than it was when I first saw her, and the one that struck me, a shit brown stallion with a sledgehammer in his teeth.

I growled and grit my teeth. The slaver looked to his partner and nodded toward him, and with his head motioned him to move toward me.

“You know what to do, Smasher,” the slaver said and looked back at me.

I glanced over to Chrome lying nearby, I could easily levitate the gun and kill at least one of these had the big guys hoof been anywhere but. that was when I noticed the bloodied muzzle of Dogmeat hiding in a bush, waiting to pounce.

The slaver, Smasher, moved around me until he was within range to smash my head with that hammer of his, which dragged behind him like a burden. I looked up at the poor excuse for a pony and chuckled lightly.

“Slavers with raider names? Quite peculiar if you ask me,” I said mockingly.

“Doesn’t matter what we got, mate. You’re dead, no doubt about it now!” Smasher said with a gleeful sneer. He gripped onto his hammer tighter and lifted it over his back.

He stumbled, that hammer appeared to be way too heavy for this stallion to lift. I looked over at Dogmeat and winked. The animal growled and took a few steps back. My attention turned back to the slaver, when he shouted and swung the hammer over only for it to fall and land inches from my head as Dogmeat charged and rammed into the Slaver, taking a chunk out of his jaw at the same time.

Smasher shook his head, blood splattering onto the ground, staining the dirt. He held a hoof to where his bottom jaw was once connected to his cranium. he screamed and once again, Dogmeat leapt up and bit onto his neck, bringing him to the ground where he squeezed, crushing his throat and windpipe.

The slaver holding me down let up a bit as he and his remaining partner watched in startled terror as my dog silenced their friend. I looked to Chrome, my expression resembling twisted rage. I levitated the weapon and pressed it against the bastard’s chin, then with a loud bang I shot him, and the bullet destroyed his skull.

He dropped lifelessly to the ground and I stood quickly, turning to the mare who had only now just started running. I sighed. Where’s the fun in greasing a fleeing target? Then again, a moving target could be fun.

I stood up on my hind legs and floated Rook’s rifle out and held it in my front hooves. I stared down the scope, I got in a good view of the bitch. She panted and wheezed and continued running for her miserable life, that was until a spiraling bullet whizzed its way out of her mouth, breaking her teeth as the bullet passed through the back of her head.

“Goodnight.” I smiled and pointed the rifle skyward. Dogmeat sniffed around the house nearby while I returned to all fours and turned to look at the sunset.

My ears stood straight and swiveled around to the back of my head. Dogmeat was growling, and those growls turned to barking as Rat Catcher made a run for the cliff edge. Quickly I turned to see the coward run (for the last time).

“Rat Catcher!!” I shouted with fury. I floated the rifle beside me and gave chase, Dogmeat running beside me. This time Rat Catcher was slow, his speed had lessened since his escape back in the Ministry of Image building.

He was easier to catch up to. After only a moment my run had turned into a power walk. Rat Catcher’s back legs glowed with my horn, I twisted my neck and Rat Catcher let out a shrill, agonised scream as his legs twisted and contorted into a mangled pretzel-like shape.

“Arrgh! No! No, no no... Oh Celestia help me!” Rat Catcher pleaded while he crawled, he dared not look back, he was too afraid to try.

I passed Smasher’s sledgehammer as I approached my target, I floated it out to my side in a wide swinging arc and when I was close enough, swung it. The hammer made contact with Rat Catcher's face, knocking him into a rock and breaking a few of his teeth. He was paralyzed by the impact, it gave me an opening to approach and slam the hammer down on his twisted hooves. He woke up and screamed loudly, whimpering like a dog and quickening his breath.

“Hurts doesn’t it? It’s going to for a while.” I chuckled in amusement and watched as his crushed hooves bled; much to my surprise. “I’m surprised you can still bleed out of those legs after what I just did to them.”

“W-why… w-who are you?” Rat Catcher shook violently and spoke in a strained, struggling voice.

“Why? I don’t think you get it, you’re wanted in both the Dominion and New Canterlot Republic for the crimes of incestuous acts on a filly and colt, attempted enslavement of NCR citizens, attempt to establish a slaver cell, crimes against the Dominion, sexual abuse, foal abuse and murder of a Dominion citizen.

“You’ve got quite a sizable bounty on you because of that, and here’s a bonus; the New Canterlot Republic wants you alive, they want to imprison you for your crimes.”

“T-then w-wha-what are you waiting for asshole?” he spat out five of his teeth, blood spilling out of his mouth in small amounts of saliva. “Go ahead, t-take me in already…”

I laughed slightly, but it soon turned into an almost maniacal cackle. Did this rat honestly believe I’m going to let him go? That he’s going to live another day? He’s mental, he’s insane!

Rat Catcher watched me, confused and terrified, I ceased my laughter and moved my face close to his, my green eyes staring intently into his brown eyes, a wide smirk on my face

“But we’re not in NCR territory, are we? We’re on the tiniest little edge of the Dominion territory, and they want you dead.”

Fear became dominant on Rat Catcher's face; he shivered far more violently. I turned to Dogmeat and whispered a command to him. He barked, turned, and ran into the house.

“W-w-what is h-he doing?”

After only a moment, Dogmeat came back out with the shotgun that had done damage to my shoulder earlier. He dropped it at my hooves and sat back on his haunches, with the back of my hoof I patted and praised him. “Good boy.”

I wrapped the shotgun in my emerald aura, and took a nice long look at it. “You know, I have different views on ponies out here, do you want to know what they are? Oh yes, you don’t have much of a choice. You see, the way I see it, ponies are the type to follow the rules, leave peacefully and strive everyday to survive without once doing a thing to hurt another. But you… you don’t even fit the criteria, to me you’re not a pony at all!”

I pressed the shotgun against his twisted right leg and fired the gun, which blew the leg clean off. He screamed once more and I stood back, “You’re dog shit!”

Dogmeat barked ravenously and with intolerable aggression. He charged at Rat Catcher and tore him to pieces. He screamed, he thrashed and writhed in agony as his flesh was torn and ripped, his bones broken and crushed, every part of him was ripped to gory chunks while I watched with sadistic glee and grinned.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Lawbringer-- Once you have the Lawbringer perk, anypony you kill who has done wrong will have a hoof on their corpse. This hoof can be sold to a certain pony for caps and positive karma.

Chapter Two: The Dominion

Chapter Two: The Dominion

“The whole purpose of the Crystal Fair is to lift the spirits of the crystal ponies, so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart. I do work at a library”

Zzzzrrrur

My Sky-Rider flew fast and swiftly over the gravel and sand. Small blades of grass swayed as a large gust of wind picked up in the rapid flapping of the machine’s wings. I pulled back on the disk-like handles as the vehicle went up a ramp-like hill. As we tilted upward, Dogmeat whimpered and tried to stay onboard the flying machine. The sound of Luna screaming could barely be made out over the sound of my own thrilled laughter. We climbed into the sky, higher and higher until I deactivated the flight mechanism and caused the Sky-Rider to fall once more.

“Pull up, Gattle Gun! This is insane!” Luna cried out from her pedestal screen as we dropped.

“Not yet! Just a little more!” I responded to her, my lips formed into a twisted, joyous grin, while the wind rushed past my ears and blocked out any further sound.

Just meters away from becoming scrap and gore, I reignited the crystal matrix’s power flux and in an instant the Sky-Rider’s wings buzzed to life once more. We came to a sudden but startlingly brief stop. The Sky-Rider corrected itself as Luna’s auto-pilot set us back on the intended flight setting. With the altitude stabilized, the Sky-Rider accelerated with a whoosh of air and it continued on a straight course.

“That was reckless,” the A.I. complained.

“That was fun,” I replied, like a smart-ass.

In the podium terminal, Luna’s avatar shook her head and sighed. “Locking altitude.” My control of the Sky-Rider’s height was taken from me at that instant, and I groaned.

The Sky-Rider passed by a Radscorpion. The beast clapped its claws open and closed in rapid succession before it burrowed back beneath the surface. I breathed a heavy sigh and looked down to Dogmeat. “You okay, boy?”

Dogmeat growled at me, teeth bared and a look of bemusement on his face. “Gyah! Hey! What the hell?” He had nipped my hind leg, and I sighed, rolling my eyes.

“Why not?” Luna chided in exasperation, “You did almost eject him from the chariot, no thanks to your reckless driving and stunting.”

I glanced down at the screen which bore the face of a blue unicorn who glared up at me. She was pouting like a filly who’d had her teddy bear taken away. I rolled my eyes and sneered at her. “Would you not give me that look, eighty percent of my time is spent hunting down scum and criminals with a high bounty, I deserve to have some fun every now and—”

A sharp, powerful pain ripped through my shoulder. The shotgun blast I’d sustained the other day had chosen that moment to flare up in pain.To make matters worse, the gaping gash across my chest, courtesy of that Ghoul back in Red Ruby Creek, was aching as well. I’d run out of health potions trying to heal myself, although the infection had started to set in. That’s when I remembered the Red Ruby ponies had taken all that I had offered to treat their wounds.

I hissed at the pain and brought the Sky-Rider to a halt beside a snowy patch. I barely managed to get the legs lowered in time to prevent a crash landing. I took a moment to rest. I leaned against the side of the Sky-Rider’s chariot basket and panted while the pain persisted. Dogmeat’s ears fell back and he nudged me with his blood-stained muzzle; he whimpered and tilted his head.

“I’m okay boy, don’t worry.” I said before I picked myself up and placed my hooves back into the disks. “I’ll be fine…”

“Gattle Gun, Luna droned, “your blood sugar level has dropped since your last intake of food and nourishment. I recommend immediate sugar intake to stem hypoglycemia and inevitable bodily shut down,”

“I recommend immediate medical atten—”

“Luna, I know. Already planned.” I cut her off with a smile that secretly shouted at her for telling me stuff I already knew.

My body shook and I began to grow weak. Sweat broke out across my body and I turned slightly pale. Quickly, I opened my saddlebags and floated out a grape-flavored juice box and quickly drained it of its contents. Dogmeat stood up and nuzzled my leg and whimpered as he looked up to me with concern.

I assured him I was fine, with a gentle stroke with the back of my hoof. I ran it all the way from his head down his back to drive the point home.

“Blood sugar level rising. Vitals are returning to normal. We may proceed without further impediment. The Crystal Dominion is another seven miles away.” Luna said as I placed my hooves back into the disks.

“Thank you, Luna,” I managed, ”now then, let’s hurry up and reap my reward.”

I twisted the disks, and pushed them forward. The Sky-Rider folded up its legs and flew down the road and through the snow field of the Crystal Mountains.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Everything was quiet.

We had passed through the icy veil of the Crystal Mountains and were now climbing a hill which overlooked the Crystal Plains. I constantly checked for any sign of danger, whether by sight or Luna’s E.F.S. Dogmeat remained asleep at my hooves, surprisingly unaffected by Sky-Riders incessant buzzing which, I must admit, annoyed even myself.

The Rider adjusted itself to fly over the increased slope of the road. As I slowly started to ease the approach, my shoulder burned when I moved my shoulder, even if slightly, but I wouldn’t have to worry about that for very long. As the rider came to a stop at the top of the hill, I shifted my goggles from my eyes to just above my forehead, and I looked upon the illustrious and beautiful diamond walls of the Crystal Dominion and the shimmering glow of the the untainted and untouched Crystal Castle which lay at the heart of this pre-war nation.

It was then that I looked up and bore witness to the imposing might of pre-war machines, harbingers of a deadly era long since past. They had the majesty of phoenixes in flight, and as I stood in the shadows they casted upon the ground around me, I saw that every inch of the malachite and metallic hulls were sleek and evocative of cold, efficient yet prideful power.

They closely resembled pre-war destroyer class battleships, from their bridge to the bow. They were long and sleek with their large wings reaching out behind the ship like a crest. They had large turrets and a figurehead at the front of each ship. The Cardinal, the Phoenix, and the Falcon.

These were the three Avians. Pre-war Sky-ships that put the Pegasi’s cloud ships to shame. The Avians presided over the Dominion and were one of the few instruments that played in the creation of the New Canterlot-Crystal treaty. Their arrival had been unexpected, their power was devastating and unyielding.

I looked along their entirety for a moment and then glanced over to the clouds that were starting to form overhead. I breathed a heavy sigh and turned my focus to a large wastelander village which had sprung up just outside the Dominion’s walls since its reappearance. I knew this settlement well, and many of the ponies that lived there. Sabrina was kind enough to let them stay, even sending guards to patrol its streets and to police the area.

The town had make-shift houses made from scrap found out in the wastes. There was a business district, housing district, and a small schoolhouse in the western side of the town close to the outer perimeter and not far from the homes of the common folk. Some of the houses were made from wood, imported from within the Dominion walls. It was not much but it was still impressive.

“Will we be stopping in Shanty Town?” Luna asked.

“I have to get these scrapes looked at, don’t I? Besides, we’ll be following the road to the front gates; we have to pass through Shanty Town. Unless we go the long way, but even I’m not too fond of that idea, we’ve wasted enough time already and I need to preserve my trophy. Sabrina is expecting me.”

I revved up the Sky-Rider and once again the machine’s wings beat and buzzed as it carried us downhill and along the winding road.

We flew right beside the old railway that connected the pre-war Crystal Empire to the rest of Equestria. Work ponies from the Dominion worked tirelessly to restore the tracks for use, but meanwhile the station was left to rot, desolate and untouched.

As we passed by the old station, I glanced at it from the corner of my eye; its windows had shattered, the inside was full of upturned tables, dust, and rotting wooden walls. It was in a complete state of disrepair.

The E.F.S picked up hostiles within the building, and their shapes indicated the inhabitants were RadRoaches. My focus had not been stolen, however. Foals who played on the road cleared away when they saw me in my transport approaching.

“Hey, it’s Gattle Gun!” a young colt exclaimed. “Gattle Gun! Hey!” he waved, joined by his friends, who called out my name in greeting.

I snickered and waved back to them with my good leg, “Hey kids, stay safe for me, will ya?!” I called out, before making a tight turn into the town of wooden buildings and corrugated iron wrapped in chain-link fencing. A typical settlement no different than that of Arefoal in the mid-wastes.

Purple-coated stallions, sporting lilac colored armor with fine decoration and detail, patrolled the roads and stood on street corners and at the exits of the town. Each guard carried a long spear. Nothing about them screamed technology. They were old fashioned, no magical weapons, no guns, nor power armor. They were traditional. They might as well be considered primitive in the eyes (or visor) of a Steel Ranger.

Unlike those clowns, however, crystal guards knew how to fight. I parked the Sky-Rider out in front of a hospital, it hovered in place as the insect-like legs beneath it uncurled and spread out. Once they were in place, I hit a switch under the right handle disk and it lowered itself to the ground where the crystal matrix powered off. The wings ceased their glow, their flapping growing soft and gentle before they ceased to move and fold up at its sides.

“Luna, if you could.” I turned around to face the gate at the back of the chariot and with a loud rickety sound like a chain-link fence being shaken, the gates opened.

Dogmeat was the first one out. He licked his chops, got up off the floor and hopped down from the raised platform, myself following not long after.

“Close gates, “ I instructed.

“You’re welcome, Gattle Gun,” Luna said as she closed the gates.

I smirked at Luna’s sarcasm and shook my head. “Thank you, Luna. We’ll be back soon.”

Luna went silent, the podium powered down and the Sky-Rider locked up. I limped around to the front of the hospital and up its makeshift ramp, pieced together from a variety of materials lying around the wasteland. I opened the door and let Dogmeat in first before stepping inside myself and hobbling over to the counter.

“Jock!” I shouted. “Where are you?!” I sat on my haunches and cringed, I grit my teeth and held my hoof against the shotgun wound. I growled at my own carelessness.

“Hopefully this’ll be an easy fix, wouldn’t that be nice, boy? Just a few bottles of potion and we’re all set,” I joked.

Dogmeat panted and looked around the room. The monotonous squeaking of the ceiling fan quickly became annoying and my own patience was wearing thin by the second. I rang the bell, nothing happened, five minutes later and I started ringing the bell once more. Again, he didn’t come in, and I had no more fucks to give.

“Fuck this…” I unholstered the same shotgun that had given me that accursed wound, cocked it, and with a loud bang, I blew a hole in the ceiling, which frightened a few mares outside.

“What was that?! Are we under attack?! Guards?! Guar—” And like an idiot, Jock came rushing into the room, tripped over his own four hooves and fell over and into a vase of Pre-war petunias.

He sported a brass-colored coat, coyote brown mane and tail, and his cutie mark happened to be a scalpel and stitches (a little insight into what his talent was).

I sighed and applied hoof to face in irritation. I wrapped him in my magic and kindly lifted him back onto his feet. He went limp in the spell until all four hooves were back on the floor and he was standing again.

I cleared my throat and put on a friendly face. “Good afternoon, Jock. I hope I didn’t startle you too much.”

Jock breathed a sigh of relief and trotted around to the back of the counter. He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “It’s only you, Gattle Gun. I’m sorry I got caught up in sorting out storage.”

“So that’s why you were ignoring me,” I sighed. “Whatever… Look, I need some supplies, healing potions, radaway, Med-X, suturing kit, and first-aid pack.”

Jock took a look at my shoulder and chest and hummed in thought. “A health potion isn't going to fix that, but I might have something in storage that could fix both of them. I just got them delivered from the Tall Tale Commonwealth.”

Jock lifted his leg and started looking through his pip-buck for his list of new deliveries. I cocked my eyebrow, my interest piqued.

“The Tall Tale Commonwealth? What are ya sayin, pal? They made medicine for a change?”

“Here it is!” he exclaimed and turned to me. He read out loud the name of this new stock, “It’s called Farmakeftikós ánoixi kréma, it’s like a paste, made it out of testing eight years ago and works just as well as a super-restoration potion.” He lowered his hoof and trotted over to the counter.

“Got any I could take a look at?”

Jock bent down and searched around for this new stock. “Actually I might have a jar right—”

I could hear the clinking of jars and the rattle of what I could assume was a box of mint'als. With a cry of success; he brought it up, a small glass jar of creamy paste. “You can take a look while I stitch up those wounds. Get on the bed.”

“Whoa… settle down there, at least take me to dinner first.” I smirked and limped my way over to the bed in the operating room with a look of amusement (and a dash of concern) on my face.

I climbed onto the bed and took off the right side of my cloak. Blackened, sticky threads of blood clung to the leather on the dusters sleeve and stretched from the grazes and bullet holes before breaking off. It stung and burned, but what was I to expect?

Jock entered the room, pushing a trolley with a tray on top. He wore a white mask pulled over his muzzle, white gloves on his hooves and standard, albeit bloodied stable barding; which he often wore during his work, bearing the number one nine five on the collar. On the tray he brought in was a bottle of disinfectant, a spool of string, a needle, and a first aid kit, which laid flat on the lower shelf.

“No anesthesia?” I joked.

Jock looked at me with an eyebrow cocked. “You’ve never needed it before.”

“Touche, my friend.” I smirked. “You won’t have to worry about removing any bullets or splinters, I took the liberty of doing that before I came back.”

Jock nodded. “As you can see, I don’t have my tweezers, because I know you so well.” He gave me a vexed glare and picked up a cloth which hung from a plastic bar along the wall.

He poured the disinfectant onto it and started dabbing the wounds, much to my discomfort. He then applied gauze to my neck and shoulder. Jock was no unicorn, but he was a skilled doctor, even for an earth pony. Their kind normally fared badly as surgeons, but he had steady hooves and concentration. As I examined the jar, slowly turning it in my magic, he started threading the needle through the skin around the edge of my chest injury.

“So this is the wonder cream you value so much?”

“Mmhm.” Jock pulled the gash in my chest together. The skin had tightened overnight, which only made it harder to bring it together and stitch up (it hurt like a bitch!)

I unscrewed the lid and took a peek inside. The cream was unsurprisingly white, with purple and pink swirls in it. It looked thick and smelled like a sweet perfume, with a relaxing aroma the likes I hadn’t smelled before. It took me out of reality for a moment, almost like I was numb, but the stitching needle forced its way through a nerve cluster while Jock worked and I was painfully snapped back into reality (despite my tolerance.)

“And we’re done.” He tied the stitches together at the end and snipped off the needle.

“I’d give you a health potion but your wounds are already too old for one to work its magic. Even if it could, the potion wouldn’t help renew the tissue nor bring it together. You would’ve needed stitches either way. That shotgun wound appears fresh still, the blood has not entirely clotted, thank the goddesses I had that gause on hoof.

“I’m afraid the cream is the final solution. They’ll renew the cells, they’ll heal the wounds, and they’ll bind the flesh good as new by tonight.”

Jock walked over to a nearby sink and washed his hooves in purified water. While most of my blood came off easily, what had dried proved to be a nuisance. I glanced over to him and turned the now closed jar until the label was pointed in his direction.

“This is Enclave medicine, the words are written in pegasus.”

Jock shrugged and opened up the first aid kit. He pulled out bandages and a blood pack and set them aside. “Was Enclave medicine. It’s better than nothing. I was just lucky the Tall Tale Commonwealth pharmacists were kind enough to send me a few crates full of them. You can keep that one, but I’d like to apply it to your wounds before bandaging you up.”

I sighed and placed the jar on the desk beside the bed, with my mood slowly starting to sour. “Get it over with, I have somewhere to be…”

“Off to see Sabrina again?” Jock dipped his hoof into the cream and started applying it to the wounds (which stung like absolute fuck!)

I cringed and grit my teeth, “Y-yeah…”

Jock could see I was struggling with the stinging sensation this cream was causing to my exposed nerves. He was almost surprised to see me react the way I did. “Who was it this time?”

I gulped and grit my teeth, eyes shutting tightly “W-who do you think?” I looked at him as if he was some moron.

He was preparing to wrap me in bandages before he paused and looked up at me as I inserted the needle from the blood pack into my other leg. “You caught and killed Rat Catcher?!”

“You sound surprised,” I said with a snicker.

“Hard not to be when you of all the ponies got him while hunters and organisations failed, The Talons failed, the Alicorn corps surprisingly failed, even the NCR’s paladin, Calamity failed to get him.”

“Guess I’m just miles above those wannabes. You know my success rate by now; I never let a quarry go. I was just lucky to catch him when I did, any further than what he got and I would have been competing with every other schmuck in this hell for his hide.” I pulled the needle out of my leg and tossed the empty pack aside.

“So how did you—”

“Grease him?” I interrupted. “I didn’t, I maimed him. Dogmeat did the rest.” I looked over to Dogmeat. “Didn’t you boy?”

“Ruff!!!” he barked in confirmation. Jock took only one look at the animal's muzzle to see the evidence of my success.

“You should wash his muzzle before you go behind the walls, a blooded dog isn’t a trusted one.” He wrapped the bandages around each of my wounds, which pressed the cream even deeper into them.

I sat through the pain a little longer until he had finished. Half my neck and my chest were completely covered in bandages and a red stain slowly came into view through the shoulder bandages. Thankfully it didn’t leak any further. To my surprise my injuries still stung like a Paradore’s venom.

“Is this stinging going to stop soon?” I wondered aloud, rolling my shoulder while holding it in an attempt to quell the feeling.

Jock laughed and shook his head, amused and legitimately surprised at me. “I stitched up that gash on your chest without anesthesia, and you’re complaining about the cream?” He scrunched up his face, quivering with suppressed laughter.

I groaned. “Stings aren’t painful, they’re annoying!”

Jock sighed and released all of his pent up laughter in one massive guffaw. I cocked an eyebrow and stood up. Quickly I cleaned my sleeve of blood and put it back on. Still, Jock continued to laugh. I was half tempted to pull out Chrome and point it at his head in jest. He quickly came back to his senses and placed a hoof on my good shoulder.

“Seriously though, you have to be more careful out there. I can’t keep using what I sell to patch you up after a hunt. I’m still getting used to life outside a stable.”

I put a sack of caps down on the counter, a sum of which was far too generous even for me, but I owed him. “I trust that covers it this time, the cream and the last thirty times I’ve come in and left without paying.”

“About time, how much is in this?” He trotted over and peeked inside.

I jumped off the bed and walked around to his side. “Thirty thousand.”

I could see he was about to faint. He swayed and backed into a chair which slid back with a screech. “T-thirty thousand?”

“I told you I owed you.” I shrugged.

“You weren’t in debt to begin with! I appreciate payment, but I didn’t expect it to build up to this!” He looked up at me suspicious-like. “How much is the queen paying you for Rat Catcher’s corpse?”

“The equivalent of seventy two million caps,” I smirked.

“Get out... With a wad like that you’ll be the richest pony in all of the wasteland. You’d be the envy of dragons.”

I scoffed and laughed at his remark, I stomped my hooves on the metal floor and floated my hat off. “Not exactly!” I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye. “Dragons like gold and jewels with a side of grenade. Besides, I’m already a rich pony.”

“Oh right, you hoard it all back at your little haven out in the wasteland. I’m surprised nopony’s tried to rob you.”

I turned a cunningly sinister glare to him, grinning like a fox who found his meal. “Who said they haven’t?”

Jock quickly shut up about it and wiped some sweat off his forehead. “Well, um…ahem” he cleared, “I’ve done my best considering the condition of your wounds. Again you should be able to remove the bandages tonight if the cream does its job.”

“Thank you, Jock.” I twirled the jar around in my magic, and placed my hat on the bedside desk. “You know… this stuff needs a name, one that isn’t written in old pegasus.”

Jock tittered and shook his head. “Like what? Health cream? Wound-Away? There Isn't anything out there you can name that hasn't already been derived from another product. ‘Welcome to the wasteland where originality goes to die’.”

“You’re not helping, one nine five. Come on, if we can rename this, perhaps it’ll catch on, a nickname of sorts.”

“...How about Swirl?” Jock questioned.

I looked at him with an approving smile; I nodded and put the jar away into the safety of my saddlebags. “I like that, Swirl.”

“You saw what was inside, the colors that appear on the surface makes it the perfect name. I’ll log that into my pipbuck later. In the meantime, you should go and see Sabrina.”

“Probably best we don’t keep her waiting.” I looked at Dogmeat and motioned to the door with my head.

Dogmeat happily got up and opened the door, standing up on his hind legs and turning the handle with his front paws. “Good boy.” I put my hat back on and looked back at Jock once more. “I’ll see you later, Doc. I'm leaving the Sky-Rider in your care so—”

Already Jock was playing with his pip-buck again. I simply shook my head, rolled my eyes and left without another word. I had wasted enough time here, and my words were less then likely to reach him now that he had started banking and sorting.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Overlooking the Crystal Dominion from the spire’s balcony stood a mare. She was wrapped in a dress of the finest silk, colored pink lace with white swirls and streaks which decorated the skirt-like gown which reached from the base of her neck down to the floor. Armor-like rings wrapped around her neck fittingly and shone brightly as the sky reflected off their surface. On her legs she wore knee-length stockings with a point on the back sections and shoes made of amethyst, and betwixt her ears and above her horn was a crown.

This mare, with a dark gray coat, piercing red eyes and dark purple mane, was the crystal queen herself, Sabrina. She rested against the railing in idle boredom. The sky-ships in the distance had lost her interest and her royal duties were nothing short of exhausting.

She tapped her amethyst colored shoes against the railing, staring off toward the gloomy horizon, into a land of decay and violence. She would’ve been happy to stay that way had she not been interrupted by one of her royal guards.

“Your Majesty,” the guard addressed, head bowed and eyes closed.

Sabrina blinked and lifted her head, at that moment her mane started to flow as if the breeze carried it. She cast her sight on the earth pony and addressed him in turn.

“Yes, guards pony?” she spoke with a clear voice, young and pure, like most princesses out of pre-war fairy tales.

“The bounty hunter has arrived.”

One of Sabrina’s many warm smiles appeared and she reached up with her hoof and forced her hair down as gently as one would hold a foal. “Then please, let him in, we have much to discuss.”

“That’s just it, my liege, he—”

I bit into an apple, sitting on my haunches beside Dogmeat and surprising Sabrina.

“—let himself in…” the guard finished.

The two ponies watched me awkwardly while I finished my apple. I took large chunks out of it before finishing the core. I cleared my throat, pounded my chest and wiped my mouth, followed by a satisfied sigh.

“That was needed,” I remarked and looked at the pre-war ponies almost as awkwardly as they were (even Dogmeat joined in). “...What? The door was open, Sabrina. What did you expect?”

A slight giggle escaped Sabrina’s lips and she motioned for the guard to leave. He bowed and took off. The queen approached me, I stood up again and stretched, a bloodied sack floating close by which stole her notice.

“I take it you took care of Rat Catcher.”

I opened the sack and dumped its contents at Sabrina’s hooves. She lifted her leg and took a step back, her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the disembodied hoof which was all that remained of Rat catcher.

“Flawless victory,” I gloated proudly. “Dogmeat shit the rest of him out on the way in.”

Sabrina wrapped the hoof in her white aura and floated it back to me. Her disgust was plain to see. “Y-you usually sell the hooves of your enemies to somepony out there don’t you? Perhaps this one will be worth more than a common lowlife’s?”

I sighed. “No, I intend to have this taxidermied and put on a plaque, a trophy if you will.”

“That’s disgusting, macabre even...” She shuddered.

“I’m sorry you see it that way.” I put the hoof away and approached the queen, slowly and without any sudden movement.

“I thought by now you were used to seeing stuff like that after the territory wars.”

Sabrina looked away as if ashamed. “I saw enough in that war. We shouldn’t have had to fight, Gattle Gun, what the NCR did was unforgivable, I don’t care for the justifications. There. Are. None.”

She turned away and approached the railing once more. “Look down there, Gattle Gun. We were gone two hundred years, we left behind a time of unrest, horror and strife only to come back and be thrust into it again. I want to keep them safe, but how can I? I’m not powerful. I’m nothing like my predecessor; I’m just… weak in comparison to everything else.”

I stood at her side and looked down at a group of school children and their teacher on a walk, and at the ponies setting up stalls and tents and making preparations for a festival, then I looked out toward the Diamond walls and toward the Crystal Mountains, the contrast of this peaceful haven and that homely hell was one of the many things that compelled me to get involved in what this old world nation had to offer.

“Don’t forget, you’re a powerful unicorn in your own right, Sabrina. You are a strong leader, you got the Dominion in shape in a matter of days and the instant the fighting broke out you were ready.”

“Is that why you visit us as often as you do? “ She crouched down and stroked Dogmeat’s fur with the back of her hoof, content and comforted by his presence.

“You know the reason why I visit,” I smiled.

As Sabrina got back up, both of our ears stood on edge as thunder rumbled in the distance. We looked out to the stormy horizon, the direction of Neighvarro.

“Rat Catcher’s foals…” I started.

“W-what about them?” Sabrina asked and tilted her head.

“Erase their memories,” I said callously.

Dogmeat’s ears fell back and he groaned, Sabrina’s ears fell flat on her head, horror on her face.

“Gattle Gun, we can’t—”

I glared at her, our eyes met and it paralyzed her. “Because of Rat Catcher their chances of ever having a normal life is effectively dashed. Without their memories you could prevent two foals from going someplace that will force me to end them both, if not one.”

Sabrina recoiled at the harshness of my voice, my cold words and my enraged tone. She shrank back and looked to the floor, processing my words.

I took a deep breath and calmed down, in and out. “I’m aware you have pre-war tech capable of removing select memories from ponies. I know that they were used on brainwashed Equestrians during the Great War. All memory of their father must be erased, for their sake. They’ll never grow up to be normal. I know that better than anypony. As long as they remember the trauma, the mental scar will always remain, and it will not fade. And I honestly don’t want to have to put them down if they go the way of the raider.”

Sabrina stared at me in stunned silence and struggled to find her words. “I… I’ll see that it’s done, and that they are adopted into a proper family together. I wouldn’t dare separate them.”

“Don’t send them back out there.”

Sabrina looked at me as if I had labeled her a monster. “I wouldn’t dare! As far as I am concerned they are now citizens of the Crystal Dominion, the NCR can break their horn and dispute their place of belonging. I will not hear of it.”

There was a brief moment of silence. Through the silence the thunder from afar was easily audible, as were the voices of the crystal ponies below and the sound of a faint wind.

“You can keep the caps, I have more than enough. All I ask for in return is the hoof. That is reward enough.”

Sabrina nodded and turned away from the balcony. I admired her for her strength, her kind heart and her desire to rebuild all that was, she was as caring as she could be cruel. I wondered if the stress of ruling the Dominion got to her, if it did then she was remarkable at hiding it, especially when she has to maintain a treaty with the damnable New Canterlot Republic. Dogmeat ran up to her and brushed against her leg, he sensed her mounting frustration and was rewarded for being so concerned.

“Who’s a good boy?” Sabrina asked in an adorable voice, which aroused Dogmeat’s playful puppy side.

He ran around and barked, panting and drooling onto the tiles. He pawed at her and looked back to me as Sabrina’s hooves graced his fur.

“You’re a good puppy, yes you are,” Sabrina took off her shoes and ruffled Dogmeat’s coat, scratching his belly when he rolled onto his back.

I couldn’t help but smile while watching the two interact, maybe it was because I rarely got to enjoy moments like this. It provided insight to what life was like two hundred years ago, and it showed me that Sabrina was truly as pure as diamond.

“Just so you know, Gattle. The Crystal Faire will be held tomorrow, the timing is unfortunate with the Rat Catcher incident, but at the same time it’s perfect. This will hopefully allow the children to integrate into the Dominion and achieve their shine, with thanks to the crystal heart. They will be the first wastelanders to achieve citizenship in this city.”

“I don’t plan on going out any farther then Stable B-19. Not just yet.”

There was another moment of silence between us. I was unaware that my bandages had started to show through my duster’s shotgun holes, the red stain easily visible through the leather’s black and the bandages’ white. Sabrina noticed it and was unhappy with my slip up.

“You’re hurt… I thought you said it was a “flawless victory!”” she yelled and glared at me in what I could only guess was concern.

“It was! Rat Catcher put on little more than a show of gore, he was a coward who ran away. No, I sustained these injuries dealing with his slaver buddies. If Dogmeat and I hadn’t dealt with them, there’d be missing posters all over the city!”

Sabrina sneered in disgust, “They’re as bad as that accursed band of murderers out in Canterhorn…” Sabrina looked out into the wasteland once more, right at the Crystal Mountains and came to a decision.

“I have another task for you, this isn’t a stallion hunt, it’s not a search and rescue, it’s a slaughter.” She looked to me out of the corner of her eyes.

My face twisted into insanity. Eyes wide and parted, lips curled into a grotesque and twisted grin. “You had me at: ‘slaughter’”

Sabrina smiled. “I take it I have your interest? Good. Crystina has mentioned Canterhorn and its infestation on the radio quite frequently, recently with, DjPon3. If you didn’t already plan to, once the faire is over and you’ve done all you need to do—”

“I go to Canterhorn trainyard and clear it. I understand, but why? Canterhorn sits on the edge of the neutral zone near Manehatten and poses no threat to the Dominion. I’ll also need more information.” I followed Sabrina. She had turned away from the balcony and started walking to her throne room.

“They're a blight, Gattle Gun. Those caravans they harm, they pass through the Shanty Town just outside the walls. I don't take kindly to innocents being harmed for no reason. As for information, if Crystina lacks the it, so do we. Though perhaps we could weasel the information out of DjPon3. The NCR seems to find out much more than we do.”

Sabrina turned around and faced me, “But you are lucky the NCR’s radio-show host was kind enough to divulge one piece of information about the Players.”

“Tell me,” I pressed, I wasn't going to let her draw out big reveals like I do.

“The Canterhorn group is a cell. Only a shred of the actual gang that split off from a larger cell based out in Cadence knows where.”

“That’s interesting and all, but I need to know who to hit! Who runs this cell, how many are there?!” I continued to press until Sabrina exploded.

“We don’t know!” she shouted with incredible volume, a look of irritation on her face which shortly changed. She pressed her hoof to her chest, took a deep breath, and reached out as she exhaled before speaking in a much calmer tone.

“Look, I know how you operate, gathering information and using it to your advantage; but I’m afraid we just don’t have the means.”

I clopped my hoof on the crystal floor, a loud krang echoed around the hall, and I looked down to it, exasperated.

Sabrina came over to me, she paused and reached up to caress my cheek gently. “Listen, it’s a lovely day. Go out and enjoy it. I’m sure you have somewhere to be, or somepony to meet, right?”

I nodded and calmed right down with a deep breath. “I do… I’m sorry for my reactions. I should behave better than this in your presence.”

“There’s no need to apologise. I must apologise for bringing you down to such a state.” She moved back, her hoof lowered back onto the floor with a soft clop. “I will handle the children. In the meantime, I hope to see you at the faire tomorrow.”

I bowed. “Of course, Queen Sabrina.” I noticed the room suddenly went quiet and I looked back up to Sabrina to see she had these beautiful bedroom eyes and wore this small and naughty smirk.

She twirled around on one hoof to face her throne and looked back to me. “Hey Gattle Gun. Perhaps next time, maybe we could… ‘dance?’”

She lifted her tail which in turn lifted her dress, giving me a slight peek at her… special place… My cheeks went red, I quickly averted my eyes and lowered my hat over my face.

“U-um… U-until tomorrow, Sabrina.” I turned to leave, only to find myself in pain once my head collided with the door frame.

“Argh! Crap… come on, Dogmeat…” I hurried out of there as quick as I could before Sabrina could chortle at my misfortune.

Out of earshot, Sabrina sat down on her throne and hunched herself like a vulture. Her red eyes glowed amid the darkness of that cold court. She put her hooves together, her smile dropped, and her eyebrows furrowed, lips bent into a scowl like frown.

“All will be dealt with accordingly...”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

That place…

Out there your mind is always on edge; you always anticipate when the next pony comes out shooting at you from behind a rock.

But behind those diamond walls, the wasteland feels like an illusion. Here I felt detached from what was reality, I was absorbed in this pre-war world protected by the treasured crystal heart. Dogmeat and I walked together down a long stretch of road, shared only by the beautiful and radiant crystal ponies.

I was out of place. I didn’t care if I didn’t fit in, I was here, to me that was enough. I tipped my hat to a passing couple, their bodies shone like crystal and glowed with a tender warmth. I wasn’t quite accustomed to the magics that laid here, but I wasn't bothered by it all too much.

I turned down an alleyway large enough to be a place of ambush. I lit a cigarette on my way, only for it to evaporate into nothingness in my glow. I sighed shaking my head in disappointment. Soon after, I came to a large open spot at the halfway point. My destination lay dead ahead.

“Yo, Gattle!” a colt called out and jumped down onto the top of a dumpster lid with a thump, joined by three other foals covered in dirt and wearing makeshift clothes and armor fashioned from whatever they could scavage.

“What’s the hizzle bizzle gizzle?” the colt with the headband, dark blue mane and tail asked, speaking in pre-war (dick) delinquent.

I honestly couldn’t help myself when he started talking like that, I smirked, and managed to contain my laughter. “The shizzle little dizzle, what’s the fizzle?” I replied.

“Wow, you really said that?” The lead foal said as the group got in front of me and walked backwards while I stepped on forward.

“If the Allycat Colts can talk that way, why not I?” I asked smugly, looking at all four of them, “oh no…” my smile dropped. “Nova, you joined up with this gang? Your parents would be ashamed.”

A pegasus filly backed up a little and hunched down to avoid a scolding I was in no position to give. I had half a mind to open my mouth and berate her from running with this gang to begin with, only I wasn’t given the chance to.

“Leave her alone, buddy. She ain’t doin nuthin wrong.”

I looked at the ringleader, Dizzy and craned forward toward him. “Is that… a Manehatten impression?”

Dizzy stammered in his response, he was trying to talk like me. I laughed before he could get any more words out and ruffled his mane. “Not bad, kid. But you might want to stick with what you were given, my accent’s a bit rustic nowadays and hasn’t aged well.”

“Why? How does an accent age badly?” the other colt, Jasper, asked.

I stroked Dogmeat’s head and tilted my hat up a little more. “I suppose it just died out over the years. Ya hardly hear it anymore. Then again, none of you have ever been beyond the walls.”

“One day we hope to travel all over Equestria! We haven’t seen it since before the war. Can ya’ll imagine what changes there are? What new discoveries await.”

It should be noted, the guards patrolling Shanty Town struggled during their first few days outside. Many of them wept in sorrow at the drastic changes to the land. Many of them felt disheartened and refused to work any further outside the walls. The Avians did provide security to the ones with the balls big enough to patrol outside. Even I would be afraid to step near the Dominion with those titanic warships in flight, especially if had I met Sabrina any later than when I did.

I hated to put a bullet in Dizzy’s dreams, but as much as he wanted to see what was outside, it was foolish, he had no idea what was out there.“One day, by then you better be ready. What’s out there is nothing compared to what was out there two hundred years ago. And to be honest, it’s a stupid dream, naive and without thought.”

I saw Dizzy’s cheerful expression sink, the other gang members sharing that same despairing face. “But,” I continued, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t go for it when the time comes. Maybe you’ll be able enough to fight back against a hellhound when one comes running, maybe.”

“We’ll be ready! And we’ll be super strong, Gattle Gun, just like you!” Dizzy threw his hoof forward in a hoof bump, which I returned.

“Yeah!” the children shouted in unison.

“Bark!!!” Dogmeat exalted.

I chuckled to myself and nodded my head to the other end of the alley. “Beat it, you four.”

I stood aside as the three colts and one filly rushed past me. “Later, G.G.!” Dizzy shouted, the other two colts saying their goodbyes in turn.

“And, Nova, you go straight home, little filly! Don’t hang out with those boys or I’ll tell ya motha’!” I shouted to Nova, who vanished around the corner with the rest of the gang.

Dogmeat nipped at the air and whimpered. He looked up to me and I nodded with a sigh. “Yeah, I know, boy. C’mon, I need a smoothie.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

There was a jingle of a bell as I walked through the door of a drinking establishment known as The Punch Bowl.

Crystal ponies, most of them working stallions and guards, sat around tables or played pool, talking and sipping away at mugs of cider. I asked Dogmeat to wait outside. He responded with a groan, then laid down beside the door. I approached the bar and took a seat on a stool. The two well dressed stallions either side of me cleared out when they noticed my attire.

I watched them go and rolled my eyes, “Elitists…” I muttered. I took off my akubra and set it down on the counter top.

I sat there and put my hooves together, and reflected on the events that transpired just the day before. Everything grew silent as I shut out all other sounds. These were then replaced by the same faint laughter I’d heard back in the Ministry of Image Red Ruby Creek branch.

The yellow orb-- I had barely a moment to think about it on my return to the Dominion capital. It remained in one of the inner pockets of my saddlebags, which were now resting on the floor besides the stool. I now wondered what it was, was it a memory orb? I doubted there was such a thing as a yellow memory orb. It had a yellow mist coming off of it, very uncharacteristic of the archaic items of pre-war atrocities.

The whispers and the laughter that faintly resonated from the sphere made no sense to me, and it only hurt my brain to even try and figure it out. I needed to consult my books, maybe they’d know something.

My train of thought was broken by the entrance of the bar maid. She was carrying a hefty barrel on her back, which looked to be putting a strain on her legs. They shook and looked ready to collapse, she might have too, had I not lifted the keg for her.

I set the keg on the end of the table and looked up to the maid. “Need some help?” I asked with a friendly face.

“Gattle Gun!” Berry Punch cried out and grinned happily. “Oh, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you in here. How have you been? Busy I bet.”

Berry Punch leaned against the counter and wiped out a mug which she’d just cleaned (I assumed she was trying to look cool.) I’d seen photos of her from before the war, her coat and mane was brighter back then, not as many white hairs.

“Very busy, in case the bandages didn’t give that away.”

“You stallions are still fighting wars long after they’ve been and gone…” she sighed dreamily and draped herself over the counter before me. “I think that’s hot,” she growled and winked at me.

I leaned in close to her face, close enough for a kiss and looked her right into her lustful, half-lidded eyes, disinterested but flattered with her flirting. “I’ll have my usual, Ms. Punch.”

Berry Punch huffed with feigned disappointment, and giggled as she got off the table as Berry Pinch came in from the backroom. “Coming right up!”

“Hey, Gattle Gun,” Berry Pinch said in her sweet young voice. Berry Pinch wasn’t a flirting type like her mother. She was a sweetheart, always saying hello and seeing the good in ponies.

“Hey, Pinch,” I replied with a smile.

“Make that two, on me,” a mare’s voice came from the entrance which sent my blood cold and my heart pumping, followed by the jingle of the bell.

“Sure thing, darling.” Berry Punch got to work with help from Berry Pinch

It was at that moment I felt a cold chill run up my spine. I started hunching, ears folded back as I anticipated what was coming.

The mare from the entrance came up behind me, she wrapped her forelegs around me and planted a kiss on my cheek. “You stood me up,” she smirked.

Though somewhat playfully terrified I smiled and turned my head so our eyes would meet. “I had a rat to catch, babe.” I blushed and felt her let go. She sat on the stool beside me and cast her hazel eyes upon my bandages.

“You’ve been wounded again…” she said as she removed her lilac colored helmet and set it down on the stool beside her.

Her coat was lime yellow, her mane was cropped fifteen inches above her shoulders and her tail was short, reaching down only to her back knees. Both were colored purple and white in a blended mix. Her cutie mark depicted a shining ocean blue star. She was an earth pony, beautiful and thoughtful, but had a dangerous air about her, especially since she was a royal guard, and a former marksman.

“That happens in my line of work, I go out there to kill for caps, and do what I feel is right,” I said as Berry Punch set down our mugs of Applejack’s Cider, still as fresh as the day it was made.

“You know how it is. Besides, you’re safe and that lets me know I’ve done my job.” I took a sip of the apple liquid.

“I have dangers of my own to face too, you know?” Cynthia took in a large gulp of cider, greater than my measly sip. “They’re just closer to home.”

I snickered and stared at my mug. Whatever dangers she faced must be petty. There’s no reason for anything bad to happen within the Dominion walls.

“You off duty for tonight?” I turned my eyes on her as she turned hers on me.

“Would I be here, otherwise?” she snickered.

“Well then, duh, I guess.” We laughed, we almost didn’t get to our refill with the amount of talking we did.

Cynthia’s eyes would occasionally gloss over my bandages. She seemed to fidget and cringe just thinking of what it looked like underneath them. It made me nervous, I finished my current mug and got a refill from Berry Pinch, who had taken over Berry Punch’s shift (the crystal ponies generally called her Berryshine, to avoid confusion between the two).

“General Flash let me have tonight and tomorrow off to prepare for the Crystal Faire. My little sister has been looking forward to it since the turn of the month.”

I thought back to the skeleton and the holo-tape back in Red Ruby Creek, I had almost forgotten about it as one often does with those things. My horn lit up, and out of my saddlebags floated the tape which came to rest beside Cynthia’s hoof on the counter.

She looked down to it inquisitively, then looked back up to me. “What’s with the tape?”

I tapped my hoof on the counter top and turned my eyes away from her. “I found that in Red Ruby Creek, addressed to Evangelyn, your sister.”

Cynthia Shine frowned and picked up the tape to see the faded label which read: “For our Evangelyn.”

“I’ll listen to it later...” She put the tape away and got back to drinking, likely trying to forget about it now as I had before.

I didn’t apologise, I fell as quiet as she did and continued drinking. Music started to play, the theme of Empire Records Radio blaired from the radio on the other side of the bar. The room fell quiet, and the trottingham voiced hostess started the evening broadcast.

“Good evening, Equestrians of the Crystal Dominion. It is I, the lovely Crystina, here to keep you all up to date on the current affairs and goings on in this old/new world. The time is just after six in the evening, you know what that means? Take a seat at the dinner table, around a fire. With your foals, the mister or the missus, it’s time now for the evening news.”

“I’ve got to admire her, she’s been at that post for years. Three years before the wars end, she was a nervous little filly then, but now she’s a shining star.”

I slowly turned to looked over to Cynthia, who blushed in embarrassment and stammered. “W-well… I mean she’s—”

“Yes?” I raised an eyebrow.

“...Shut up!” she huffed, glared, and started gulping down her (I think) fourth refill.

I shook my head and looked over to the radio. I turned the knob at the front which upped the volume somewhat as somepony called for Berry Pinch to do it.

“Well, there is some exciting news here, and some rather gruesome developments,” Crystina’s voice came through clearer within the walls then it did outside. My pocket radio’s signal wasn’t strong and required a mini-satellite dish to get anything substantial.

I knew what she was going to broadcast. Even as I was finishing up my last refill Crystina had mentioned my gruesome slaughter of Rat Catcher and the Slaver Union cell, followed by a brightening reminder to all the crystal ponies of the Crystal Faire.

I leaned down and kissed Cynthia. My hat levitated off the table and came to rest on my head, my saddlebags clipped together around my stomach, and I was ready to go.

“Will you be staying this time, Gattle?” she asked, her cheeks were red and her eyes were half lidded.

“Somepony’s gotta get your drunk ass back home,” I joked. “Of course I’m staying the night. I live too far from the Dominion anyway, and besides, Sabrina implored me to attend the faire.”

Cynthia stood up and grumbled. “I’m. Not. Drunk.” She brought her hoof down on the bartop and left seventy bits in payment for the drinks.

“Sure you aren’t. But I can’t tell since you’re so good at hiding it.”

“Shut up!” she cried out, donning her helmet once more and pouting like a filly.

Oh how I had so much fun riling her up and teasing her. She got used to it after a while, at least now she doesn’t try to pummel me physically (it’s like fighting a Hellhound), but her verbal responses were more or less fun to hear.

I had things to do before before stores closed. I needed to invest in a close quarters weapon, and see what can be done about my prize.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“That’s a cool looking toy you got there. What’s it made of?” Cynthia pestered me about my new crystal dagger, a weapon similar to what I had been meaning to procure since before DJ was broadcasting news about repair ponies and slavers.

“The blacksmith told me it was made from red rubies and red opal with a fire enchantment laid into the blade whilst it was forged.” I examined the glowing red blade of that dagger that had cost me a hundred and seventy crystal bits.

The light of the blade illuminated the area around Cynthia and myself, which made me a little anxious about being able to use it for stealth kills. I sheathed the blade and tied the scabbard to my right forelimb bicep. The knife rested over the duster’s torn leg sleeve easily. It looked fitting enough to be there, so I kept it.

“What do you think? Does it work with my cloak?”

Cynthia tapped her chin and licked her lips. “I think it’s pretty cool. Although, the battle damage and tears takes away from the overall look of it.”

“I’ll fix it soon enough.”

“You will?” Cynthia scoffed. “You’re not exactly a tailor, you know.”

Really? Now she was making fun of my sewing skills. I shook my head at her with a large smile stuck to the corner of my mouth. She brushed past and lead me down the street, which was empty and dark, with street lanterns lighting the path. Dogmeat walked just ahead of us.

Lights went out in the houses around us. Crystal Guards started patrolling about the streets all over the city as the nightly curfew was put into effect. Sabrina had grown worried that something, or somepony from outside might slip in at some point and start trouble, and I’m not always here to clean up the scum.

Dogmeat’s ears perked up, he stopped in our path and looked toward the entrance of an alley way.

“Dogmeat?” Cynthia stepped forward, neck craned to see if he was alright.

I floated out my binoculars and looked into them toward the alley. The E.F.S picked up four dots which were white, but one of them was frozen with a nearby red dot. Dizzy and three of his Allycat Colt pals stumbled from the alley and ran off down the road into the black.

“Dizzy Step!!” Cynthia grit her teeth. “You ruffian, where do you think you’re going?!”

“Cynthia,” I started softly. “Why don’t you go on without me, I’ll meet you back at your place shortly.” I stomped a lone hoof twice and Dogmeat growled and came to my side.

“Are you sure? Maybe I could help you out?”

I shook my head and gave her a smile. “I’ll be alright.”

She gave off a reluctant sigh and started moving. “Just be careful…”

She trotted away down the street, in the same direction as the colts. I tipped my hat and approached the alleyway, with no caution and no regard for myself. I turned into the corridor to find Nova, crying and sitting on her haunches.

She was looking down at her hooves, standing beside her and towering over her in menace, was the captain of the guard himself. He held Nova by her mane with a scarred and featherless wing, and it was evident that this was causing her pain.

“Let her go, Sentry.” I said sternly with my eyes fixed square on the stallion shadowed in the dark.

The pegasus, Flash Sentry looked over to me with a scowl and bitter glare. Dogmeat had tensed up, teeth beard, a feral growl resonating from his throat.

“This doesn’t concern you, bounty hunter.” Flash spoke with a rough, dry voice, it was almost guttural.

“It does when you menace ponies too weak to stand up for themselves. Nova, get over here, now.”

Nova wasn’t wasting another second near Flash. She stumbled to her hooves and struggled free of his hold. She bolted to me and hid behind my hind legs.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

Nova responded with a slight nod, but her eyes quickly fixed fearfully on Flash Sentry once more, one side of him in fact. I found even myself struggling to look away from the left side of his body, from the left side of his face down his leg to his wing.

He bore the scars of third degree burns. I suspected that he had sustained these injuries following a direct hit from an Incinerator sometime during the war. I cringed and gulped at the sight. The pale skin, healed open cheek wound, and the exposed bone on his face which was dark grey and charred. He had a twisted permanent scowl, and his left eye was missing. The darkness of the alley cast eerie shadows across the black empty void of the vacant socket.

I was rarely ever stunned to see things like that, having grown accustomed to horrors of all sorts. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen him, however.

“She has broken curfew and is associated with the Alleycat Colts, Gattle Gun. Those delinquents are wanted for committing acts of vandalism and theft. Stand aside!”

Dogmeat barked and swiped at the air. I took a defensive stance and shook my head. “She. Knows. Nothing, Flash. She was only in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I’m not going to let you terrorize her. Besides, the curfew started only a few minutes ago, I'm sure she was on her way home before you pulled her aside.”

Flash sneered. “Don’t try to defend her, Gattle Gun!”

“She isn’t a criminal! Sure she’s running with a bad crowd. So what? It doesn’t mean you can stand over and terrorize her for information she may or may not have!”

Dogmeat barked once more in aggression toward Flash.

Flash gritted his teeth, glaring intently and angrily. I held my ground; I didn’t want to fight him, but I was ready in case it came to that. We stared each other down, my face was calmer than the twisted scarred scowling mess that decorated the left side of his face.

“Stand down, Flash. You know this’ll end badly for both of us.” I placed a hoof on Dogmeats back to stem his growing aggression.

After a short time passed, he let out a loud and defeated growl and kicked over a trash can. “You’re only here because of a service you did for Sabrina. Don’t think that gives you the right to stop me!”

“I’m not! You’re free to do as you like. But harassing an innocent based on association is the wrong way to conduct your duty. Am I not wrong?”

I watched Flash ponder this for a moment. He turned his burns to the dark and I watched him scan the ground, as if searching for any justifiable reason for his actions. He lifted his head and turned his attention to me. He stood straight after his show of pegasi aggression. He folded his wings at his side and merely glared at us.

“Fine... Just see to it she gets back home safely… I can’t guarantee the neighborhood watch and the night guards on duty won’t try and arrest you and that pipsqueak!!”

I watched Flash turn around and leave the alley the way he came. He disappeared around the corner, and was gone soon after. His hoof-falls grew faint and then faded to silence.

Dogmeat calmed himself enough to lick Nova’s tears off her face, the suddenness of his motion startled me so much, I ended up lifting my foreleg and hind leg on the same side just to let the mutt get to the filly.

Nova giggled and tried to escape the animal’s loving onslaught in vain before my intervention. “I told ya to go home or I’d tell ya mother.”

Nova’s cheerfulness evaporated quickly. “She’s going to be mad at me.”

“You were hanging out with the Alleycat Colts, they have no family to go back to, but you do, and you certainly don’t need them as friends. Don’t you have friends at school, ?”

Nova nodded with her eyes to the ground. She shed tears, and started to shed tears again like all foals her age when in trouble.

I wiped the tears away from Nova’s night-like eyes and ruffled her midnight mane. “I don’t want to see those twinkles in your eyes go out. I don’t want a mark on that amaranth coat, either. You don’t belong with them.”

“I know…” she looked me in the eyes, the purple color of her own and the small twinkling star-like dots that decorated her irises filled me with happiness. She was innocent and fragile.

I lifted her up and onto my back with telekinesis. She squeaked in surprise and wrapped her forelimbs around my neck so as not to fall.

“Calm down, little Nova. Dogmeat and I won’t let you fall.”

“Are you sure?” she wriggled and adjusted herself to get comfortable.

I started to trot out of the alley and along the road. “Sure as the hat on my noggin.”

I started to canter my way through the streets and into alleys. I was going in the direction which was opposite of Cynthia’s house and into another district of the city. With the curfew enabled, I was restricted to skulking about buildings and using back alleys to move about the city. On every street corner and patrolling along the main paths would be bat-pegasi in the same lilac armor that made up every other crystal guard pony’s uniform, the exception being Flash’s.

Nova had started to drift into sleep on my back by the time we had reached the halfway point. There were only three more houses and we would have arrived. Dogmeat’s ears perked up and he backed up, two of the patrol ponies strode by but kept their eyes to the rooftops.

When they had passed, I quickly galloped to the next alley and stepped deep enough into it that they wouldn’t notice me.

“This is almost fun, too bad they’re trying too hard.” I blew a puff of air from my nostrils and went to take another step.

“She’s going to be mad at me…” My ears swiveled around to the sound of Nova’s voice.

“My mommy… she’s going to be so mad at me for…”

I came to a stop between two buildings. We hid easily in their shadow, and went unnoticed by the patrols. “For what? You can tell me, Nova.”

“You know… being around those colts and… getting into trouble, and staying out after dark…” she sniffled and buried her face into my mane.

“We don’t have to tell her the whole truth,” I suggested, “Let's just say that I needed your help and held you back too long, I’ll get into trouble instead of you.”

She sniffled and craned her neck to look at me. “But.. then you would be lying?”

“And you technically didn’t do anything wrong. You were their scapegoat. I’ll have a word with them later. But for now, let me spin my yarn and bail you out. ‘Kay?” I winked.

Nova nodded and cuddled into me. “Okay…”

I returned Nova home; her mother was furious with her until my intervention. I explained to her exactly what I told Nova, that I had called her to help me pick out a gift for Cynthia. Thanks to my way with mares, she bought it and apologized to Nova.

I bid them both a goodnight, but not before I copped an earful by Nova’s mother, prompting even more apologies (from me this time.) I then sighed and looked down to Dogmeat, who whimpered.

“Let’s go and find, Cynthia.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Evangelyn was more than excited when she found out I was staying the night, the unicorn foal hovered around me, giving Cynthia and I barely a moment to talk. The tape I had given Cynthia for Evangelyn to hear was kept up in a bookshelf between two large books, out of sight and out of mind, I understood.

Dogmeat’s love and affection was thoroughly exercised on Evangelyn, who giggled and played with the animal every chance she got. Green eyes, purple coat with a silver underbelly. Her shoulders had a single large green streak on each one and her mane was orange with red streaks in it.

“Evangelyn, I think it’s time for you to go to bed now,” Cynthia said, interrupting the filly’s playtime with Dogmeat.

“But, Cynthia…” she whined and put on a pouty face.

Cynthia wasn’t going to let Evangelyn have her away; she moved around and nudged the foal onto her hooves. Evangelyn stubbornly and clumsily got to her fours and I saw a hint of rebellion in the little ones eyes.

“Come on, don’t fight me, Evangelyn. It’s already past your bedtime.”

Evangelyn dug her hooves into the carpet. “Nuu!!” she cried out.

“Evangelyn, if you go to bed, Dogmeat will sleep with you,” I said from the couch, smirking in delight.

Dogmeat’s ears stood erect and he looked at me pleadingly. Evangelyn perked up and without wasting another second, she jumped up and skipped happily to her room. Cynthia took only a few moments to prepare Evangelyn before turning off the light and holding the door for a grumbling and grossly irritated, Dogmeat.

Cynthia joined me after, she climbed onto the couch and snuggled into my side, her head rested over my back. “Finally…” I said with a smile.

“Were you hoping to be alone with me the whole time, hm?”

“Ya know I love to be alone with you.” I turned my neck around and rested my head over the top of her neck with a sigh.

We relaxed for a while, just the two of us, the ticking of a clock and the warmth of a fire crackling in the hearth to set the mood (one I had hoped to avoid.)

“...Gattle... do you want to...” Cynthia paused just a few words off.

I looked at her from the corner of my half-lidded eye and moved my head to get comfortable. “Hm..?”

“Do you want to have children one day?”

My eyes shot open and went slightly bloodshot. I looked at her, completely surprised by the sudden question which felt like a massive kick to the face.

“I... don’t think that’d be wise, considering,” I chuckled like an idiot, which made Cynthia laugh slightly.

“I keep forgetting you’re not a totally safe stallion to be around. You’d probably make a Celestia-shit father, but I’m okay with that.” She lifted her head off my back.

We looked at each other in the eyes and took a small moment to share our feelings. One passionate kiss was all we needed, not a heated three hours of lovemaking that dominates the world outside in Slaver pits and Raider holes.

She forced me down onto my back, and as my hat fell from my head, I couldn’t fight her. She straddled me, she was trying to arouse me, get me in the mood to breed. It wasn't going to work on me like it would on other stallions; even when her tongue had wrapped itself around mine, I resisted my male hormonal instincts. I wrapped my hooves around her and rolled into a dominant position, now she was mine.

The sudden shift in power caused her to falter. Cynthia’s tongue loosened with her lips, our kiss was broken, I had won this fight.

We both took a moment to catch our breath, and Cynthia couldn’t help but look disappointed. She laid her head back against the arm and shut her eyes for the moment.

“Dammit… everytime I try you just never seem to turn on. Is there something wrong with me...?”

“Not you…” I laid my head down on her chest and listened to her heart beat. “I’m sorry I’m not quite the stud you had hoped me to be; I’ve overheard you vent your disappointment during your heat cycles.”

I felt her hoof gently move down the back of my neck and through my mane. I relaxed and closed my eyes tiredly. “I haven’t slept in weeks…”

“Now you can, my Gattle Gun. You need your rest for the faire tomorrow.” Cynthia’s soothing voice slowly brought me to drift.

“I’m sorry I left you to walk home alone…” I sighed groggily.

“Oh yeah, what went down with that?”

I adjusted myself to get a little more comfortable. “Flash was bothering Nova.”

Cynthia paused in her strokes. “General Flash? He was out and on duty?” she asked, surprised.

I sighed and lifted my head up. “I don’t know about that, but old scarface was there with the intent on arresting Nova.”

“What for?” Cynthia asked in a slightly irritated tone.

I jerked back a bit, as if in preparation for a bomb to be dropped “Running with the Alleycat Colts.”

Cynthia groaned and hit her head against the arm. “Those three are nothing but trouble… I’m just surprised you and Flash didn’t try and kill each other.”

“I wasn’t going to grease him, I wouldn’t dare,” I asserted. “Not without a reason…” I muttered.

Cynthia frowned at my comment and lifted herself. I moved to let her up and she rubbed her neck, which was sore after that flip.

“Can I be honest with you, Gattle Gun?”

I nodded, “Always.”

There was a small moment of silence while Cynthia thought of her words. I retrieved my hat and dusted it off in the meantime only to put it aside once more. Then the silence broke, and Cynthia spoke again.

“I want to leave the Dominion, Gattle Gun. I want to go beyond the walls and see what’s out there. I only had one tour during the war before I came here seeking help, and I only saw so much of Equestria. I want to see it as it is now, with you.”

I was torn between screaming at her and granting her wish. She was a former soldier and her skills would be useful out there, but even so it was still far beyond dangerous for her, and the radiation outside would affect her worse than it would’ve had she been born out there.

“I’m tired of the repetitive routine of waking up, going on patrol then coming home to my dear little sister, and if I’m lucky, I get to see you. I just wish for once I could do something other than be a Dominion pony, I want to experience the wasteland, the only place detached from what everypony calls Equestria.”

She looked at me and cuddled up to me. “Out there is Equestria, not this small area of Dominion territory.”

I couldn’t stand it, her talk of leaving was ludicrous, and not in an amusing way. It was the nonsense of foals. These pre-war ponies only had a bittersweet sip of the piss filled cider that was the Grand Pony-Zebra war. I might as well be straw feeding them my own urine with a side of feces once they went out there. I couldn’t stress it enough, the citizens weren’t ready and they never will be.

I shook my head, which disheartened Cynthia. “You’d be no better than a blind foal trying to find a bit on a highway…”

Cynthia sighed and kissed my cheek. She was disappointed at my lack of support, but I knew deep down she understood. “We should go to bed, G.G. The Crystal Faire starts early and we don’t want to miss out on getting a flugel horn.”

I laughed. “Oh yes, the flugel horn.”

What scares me is that In the Dominion I feel like whatever is out there didn’t matter, I could stay behind the diamond walls for the remainder of my life with Cynthia. But then I wouldn’t be free. I don’t fit into society with rules and restrictions, not like they can. I was born free. I was born to survive.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Festive.

The whole of the Dominion was bustling about around the faire grounds. Foals played around their parents. Games were enjoyed by the parents and bachelors, and the crystal queen herself came down to be a part of celebration.

She was adored by all of the foals; the moment she stepped into the faire ground, ponies bowed and talked about her. She was sparkling, transparent and crystal. Her mane had been done up with the gems as radiant as an aurora. Foals, mostly fillies, ran up to her with drawings that brought so much happiness to the otherwise intimidating mare.

“Are these for me?” she would ask them.

“Yes!” the foals would reply in unison.

Sabrina thanked them all. She took the drawings that were given to her, and admired them. That’s where Evangelyn froze. I noticed the scroll of paper she was floating beside her, and I noticed she was shaking, and whimpering.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

Evangelyn looked up at me, she was fidgeting and glancing over to Sabrina almost as if she was afraid. “I-I don’t know…”

“Did you want to give that to Sabrina?” I got down to Evangelyn's height and looked at the scroll she held close and dear.

“M-mhm...” she nodded. “I just... I don't think she'll like it.”

I chuckled. “Well, do you mind if I have a look?”

She was reluctant, Evangelyn looked around almost distressed in thought. She looked at the scroll and unfurled it slowly for me to see, and my eyes lit up, I'm not an artist in the proper sense but I knew this was the work of somepony with talent. It was a sketch of the queen herself, standing by the Crystal Heart and staring up at the statues of Shining Armor and Crystal Queen Cadenza.

I blinked and examined it, the shading the sketching, all of it and looked at Evangelyn. “Where is your cutie mark? This is lovely.”

“No it's not…” Evangelyn shook her head in denial and took back the sketch.

I looked over to Cynthia, talking to her fellow guards ponies and trying to win a flugel horn. I smiled over to her, then took it upon myself to encourage Evangelyn.

“Now you listen here, little Evangelyn. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re a talented little filly, and this piece of work you’ve done is amazing. I know you’re a little bit afraid, she may or may not like it, but you know, Fluttershy was afraid too.”

Evangelyn looked up to me curiously. “Fluttershy?”

I nodded. “Yeah. She was afraid of everything, she often locked herself in her house, especially on Nightmare Night. She was a timid pegasus, easily frightened and skittish like a Rad-Sta— I mean deer. But when her friends needed her most she never let her fear get the better of her, and she’d always come through in the end, because deep down she was brave, and just like Fluttershy, you are a brave filly, Evangelyn.”

I wanted to puke, here I was preaching that Fluttershy was a good pony, while deep down I wanted to crucify and burn her.

“Words of wisdom, I must admit, at first I never took you for being a friend to foals.”

I stood up quickly, turned and bowed my head in greeting to Sabrina. “Good day, your grace. You look lovely today.”

The queen curtsied and spun around. “Why thank you, Gattle Gun.” She paused when her eyes fell on Evangelyn, and I saw her heartwarming smile brighten more than before. “And who’s this little dear?”

I looked down at Evangelyn and gave her a little nudge. She clumsily stepped forward a little and caught the queen’s eye.

“Hello, little one. I hope you are enjoying the faire.” Sabrina smiled sweetly.

“U-um… H-hello Q-Queen Sabrina...” She was so nervous, I swear I could hear her teeth chattering.

Sabrina got down to Evangeline's height and tilted her head curiously. She smiled sweetly at the stammering Evangelyn, she was patient, she didn’t rush her, she was quite motherly in fact.

“I-I…” Evangelyn looked over to me, I could see her insecurity, and simply nodded my head in encouragement. She bit her lower lip and faced Sabrina once more, clenching the scroll tightly in her aura.

“ I… m-m-made this f-for you…” Finally Evangelyn passed the scroll into Sabrina's white glow and released her hold from it.

“For me?” Sabrina asked in playful surprise. She unfurled the parchment and held a hoof to her mouth with a gasp. “This… this is beautiful…”

Evangelyn dug at the ground. “I-It’s nothing really…”

“Surely you jest, little one. You have a talent, I implore you to continue your craft, this is an amazing piece.”

Evangeline's eyes lit up widely and she jumped in place. “Oh thank you! Thank you, Queen Sabrina!”

“You’re quite welcome, darling.” Sabrina looked at me next, without words I could tell what she was thinking and she nodded, she was happy to see me here.

I took the moment to try and light another cigarette. Once it was lit, the flame went out and the stick evaporated and flittered to the ground as ashes on the breeze. I sighed down at the remains and looked over at the crystal heart.

“Trying to smoke again, Gattle Gun?” Cynthia Shine said with unconcealed contempt for my habit.

“Try is right.” I sighed.

“You know the law, Gattle Gun.” Flash landed in front of me and got up in my face. “It’s the only law my guards don’t have to lift a hoof to do anything about.”

“Get out of my face, Flash.”

Flash didn’t need to sneer, or smirk. One half did it all for him. He huffed, he turned his bad side on me and walked away. I merely watched and shook my head.

“I don’t care what he went through, he needs an attitude adjustment.”

Cynthia shook her head and nudged me. “C’mon, I got a flugel horn, lets go bob for some apples.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her suggestion. “You’d know a lot about bobbing for apples, wouldn’t you?”

Cynthia looked back to me with a massive, heart-stopping, blood-freezing glare. “We are in a public place, Gattle Gun… so kindly hold your tongue before I pluck it from your mouth.”

She gave one of those smart ass smiles, one I'd give if I was dealing with somepony I thought was a joke. Though, despite being dangerous myself, I recoiled with the knowledge she was perfectly capable of doing it. Mare's teeth are as sharp as her shot, but she was forgiving, and she giggled to herself at my expression, and I could hardly blame her. Dogmeat chuckled to himself, he thought it was funny. I was tempted to chain him to a street lamp and leave him there, it wouldn't be the first time.

Despite Dogmeat’s amusement, Cynthia and I enjoyed our small walk through the faire, Evangelyn joined us, although she would break away to enjoy some of the games lined up, she even asked me to win her a prize. Nearby the apple bobbing barrel, three stallions stood together, chatting among themselves, that's when they called Cynthia over and she was more than happy to drag me along.

“Hey Gattle, come and meet some of my friends, We have plenty of time before the crystalling ceremony.” Cynthia said as she nuzzled me just under my neck.

“Friends? Great...” I wasn't thrilled, given my already established troubles getting along with ponies, both in and out of the Dominion. So she brought me over to them. Two of them were still in lilac armor, shining transparently while the third wheel was naked and wearing a straw hat.

I wasn't very talkative but the three sure were. Each one was a war veteran, and each one had a story, although their conversations centered on what they did the past week. There was no mention of the war. I suppose each of these pre-war ponies has a story to tell, all time to listen.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I stayed with them throughout the Crystal Faire. Apple bobbing one hour, and playing around with Nova and Evangelyn the next. It was dark by the end, I looked up at the night sky and saw an aurora shining bright against the dark backdrop of stars. I watched as light glittered into rainbows off of the red diamond wall in the moonlight, and I lost myself once more in its beauty, free of my anxieties. With a heavy sigh I left Cynthia alone with Evangelyn, but not before leaving her with a small kiss.

Soon the time came, by then every crystal pony had brightened, everypony but Flash and myself. Their manes were styled uniquely and their coats shimmered beautifully as a white sparkly ring washed over them from the hooves up, and they beamed in happiness. The citizens gathered by the Crystal Heart, which had started pulsating. Its radiance was white as snow and it filled my ears with a loud melodic ringing.

Sabrina addressed the masses in front of the Crystal Heart, overlooked by the statues of Cadence and Shining Armor, their horns crossed in matrimony. Sabrina's smile was radiating like the glow of the crystal beacon itself: contagious, sweet and pure; she fluttered her eyelids, scanning the ponies with her ruby-red eyes.

“Everypony… I... Words cannot express the joy I feel seeing you all here. To see us together and reunited truly in the protection of the Crystal Heart; in what is the first Crystal Faire since the last harvest year. The year of the war’s end. Alas, our return wasn’t peaceful, it wasn't celebrated… it was spat on, by the New Canterlot Republic, we were pulled into another war. I had just been coronated, but now that the fighting is over, we have a chance to rebuild. I see not just Crystal ponies but Equestrians as well, Equestrians who came to us in their darkest hour when the war had reached its worst.”

“We are not a nation divided. We are one nation, a culmination of ponies from the old world convened into the last true hope for the wasteland. We are Equestria, and we will make the wasteland into Equestria once more. Thank you, all of you for being here today, for joining me in renewing the Crystal Dominion, and giving strength to the Crystal Heart.”

She stepped away from the heart, and everypony roared with applause, they stomped their hooves on the ground with such force that it knocked Dogmeat and I off balance. It was a monstrous stampeding rumble that made even pebbles shift and bounce.

What followed was a grand display of age-old magic. The stars in the night sky were blotted out by the light coming out of the crystal ponies and being channeled into the crystal heart. From the castle’s middle spire, a rainbow stream of energy shot into the sky then exploded outward into a gigantic dome-like shield, bringing with it the aurora.

I was mesmerized by it, for all the time I’d been here I had wondered what kept the radiation and the monsters out, now it seemed my questions had been answered. None of the books in the library said anything about this shield. Intriguing.

Once the light show had subsided, the crystal ponies opened their eyes and started talking all at once to each other as they rejoiced. Cynthia and Evangelyn hugged, while the other foals readily welcomed the recommissioned Sea Spray and Ocean Blue, the foals of Rat Catcher.

During this moment, all of them achieved their full crystal form, while Dogmeat and I remained as we were. Then again, I don’t think dogs can go full crystal. As I tried to imagine a crystal dog I was tackled by an overjoyed, giggling Cynthia. She swung around my neck like a pole and got caught in my forehooves.

“Careful there, sweetheart, I can only stand like this for so long.” I stood on my hind legs which were straining.

“Oh, sorry!” Cynthia hopped off and allowed me to return to all fours.

I stretched my hind legs, which cracked fiercely in multiple loud clicks. “Good for a gun, lifting a mare? Not so much.”

“Oh bite me, asshole.” Cynthia giggled.

I poked my tongue out at her, then I noticed the sudden lack of Evangelyn, which gave me pause. “W-where’s..?”

Cynthia fidgeted and acted innocent. “I may or may not have arranged for her to be looked after by Marble…”

“You want to come outside with me… don’t you?” It wasn’t hard to figure out that no Evangelyn meant something.

She stopped fidgeting and pulled her old sharpshooter rifle off of her back. “I’m capable of surviving out there.”

“How did you—”

“Don’t question it,” she said, smirking slyly. “If you can hide bags of money on you without it showing through your pockets, then you can bet I could hide this old girl in plain sight on my body and nopony would bat an eye.”

She wasn't kidding about that, she could’ve had it on her the whole time during the faire and I wouldn’t have noticed, doubt anyone would have. Now that I got a good look at the pre-war sniper rifle, I felt somewhat confident enough to overlook my conduct toward letting her accompany me. I looked down at Dogmeat, I wondered if he approved, and he did with one loud bark.

“Alright then, but I won’t be held accountable for whatever happens to you out there. This is your decision, I hope to Luna you’re careful.”

She nuzzled me, sighing with a smile, “Let's just go exploring, cowboy. I made sure to let Sabrina know I’ll be going with you.”

I bid Sabrina farewell with a bow before taking my leave of the Crystal Dominion’s capital. Cynthia, Dogmeat and I followed the blue crystal road and out through the front gates.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The Sky-Rider waited untouched by Doc Jock’s clinic, only activating once I got near. The machine's console lit up with Luna’s voice radiating from the speakers.

“About time you got back,” she said with a smug smile.

“Hey, Luna,” Cynthia saluted with a playful wink.

Luna’s on-screen avatar saluted back and brought up the map screen, “I assume we’re going somewhere since you brought a second companion with you. Which destination would you like to select? With the fast travel option, the Sky-Rider will lock its speed and altitude and get you there in a matter of minutes.”

I rolled my eyes and pressed onto a square symbol on the map with a Stable insignia on it, “Stable B-19, let’s go home.”

I put my akubra down and replaced it with the pegasus flight cap and goggles, I even gave a pair to Cynthia, “you might want to cover your ears.”

Dogmeat wasted no time covering his ears. An electrical zapping sound unlocked the servo joints of the rider and allowed it to start its loud buzz-like flapping, as unsynchronized wings beat fast and lifted the chariot off its bug-like legs. The sound took Cynthia by complete surprise. She screamed and held her ears.

“Too loud!!” she cried out.

“You’ll get used to it!’ I called back.

I revved the control disks, the legs folded up, then Luna did the rest.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

We rode south west, following the tracks through the Crystal Pass and into the wasteland. Then it was a southeastern ride to a large rise in the ground, an old military fort built into the side of a cliff separate and farther from the Crystal Mountains in a sea of dust and sand.

This military fort couldn’t be seen, it was far too small to even be considered an outpost, and it was too far inland to be strategic. The Sky-Rider swung around a sharp corner, then we were facing a massive stable door. Upon first glance it looked rusted from age, barely operable, but that’s the charm.

“It’s not rust. The door was deliberately made to look like the rock,” I smiled, happy to see it again. “Luna. Once all passengers, myself included have vacated the Sky-Rider. I want you to test out the auto-dock. You know where to put it.”

“Back into the crow's nest? Alright, but don’t blame me if I crash it, this hardware is older than some of the battleships out on the coast.”

The back gate of the rider opened and we all stepped off. After that, The Sky-Rider took off once more, slowly with a little struggle. The auto-docking was part of a prototype auto-pilot I hoped to include within the Sky-Rider, alas the current hardware made that exceedingly difficult.

It rose up to a large cliff wall, and disappeared within an open cave of steel floors and walls. Cynthia watched in awe as the vehicle lifted itself and disappeared without myself at the helm. While she was pre-occupied she failed to realize the Radroach creeping up on her.

That was when I heard her scream, she was bucking wildly and I would soon see why. As she twirled around in a frenzied panic, she managed to kick free the disgusting Radroach which clung to her like a parasite.

She was frightened, too much to even draw her weapon. One shot from Chrome and the insect was a splattered mess of white mucus-like blood and body parts.

I looked back to Cynthia to see she was shaking like a leaf “Ugh!!! Disgusting!! I thought they were bad enough before the war.”

I laughed in cruel amusement and joy at seeing her reaction to her first wasteland horror, “Well, there is a shower in there, purified water and beds, plenty of space. Spared no expense.”

I lifted a hatch made to look like a piece of the rock wall and flipped the switch. Dust came off of the stable door, the alarm blared on the inside; and a camera mounted on the wall but hidden by rocks locked onto us. I tipped my hat to it, and once the stable doors let off a hiss and opened, I stepped inside, Dogmeat and Cynthia following.

The door closed once more at the hit of another switch, a loud metal grind and a bang followed. Now we were locked in.

I sighed and looked over to Dogmeat, who stayed with me until I dismissed him. He wandered off into the small bunker-like Stable, while Cynthia found her way to my room and put down her gun at the bedside.

I came in not long after, floating with me some leather clothes for her to put on. I left them on the end of the bed. She took one look and raised an eyebrow.

“What is this?”

“Your clothes,” I said as I put down my saddlebags and emptied it. “If you want to survive out here you’re going to need them. You can't be naked out here like you would be in the Dominion. A raider will take one look at you with necrophilia on the brain.”

Cynthia cringed at the thought and shook her head. “Good point. But first, a shower.”

“Just out the door, across the foyer and down the hall. Third door on the right”

Cynthia took one step out of the bedroom door and sighed, “this entire stable is just a Stable door control room, a large living space with doors to other rooms and a kitchen, a staircase to an overstallion’s office and… wow this Stable is small.”

“It wasn't built to house entire families so it isn’t as complex as some of the other Stable-Tec facilities. This was made for only one pony, a personal stable for one and their family.”

“And how is it that a stable like this happens to be in your care?” Cynthia was curious, but I wasn't going to answer this one.

“This stable was given to Gattle Gun by the previous tenant. He has lived here for ten years.”

Cynthia spun around in fright of a Sprite-bot which had hovered behind her the whole time. But this Sprite-bot was different. The whole front section where the eyes would be had been replaced by a pitch black screen, and on this screen were two bright blue eyes which blinked and changed shape.

“And seven years alone.” I added. “I see you got into your mobile unit without issue, Luna.”

“Bitch talking with you is so unseemly, Gattle Gun.” Luna’s blue dynamic eyes turned into angry ones.

Cynthia inspected Luna’s sprite-bot body inquisitively. “I’ve seen sprite bot’s floating around before I came to the Dominion. I thought they were creepy little pests.” She turned to look at me. “How did you get the bot to express emotion like that?”

“I removed the plate and some of the inner workings. I re-wired it, installed some LED, put over the faceplate, uploaded Luna, and... bingo.”

“I can express my emotion by controlling the LED lights in my optical visor. The way Gattle put it, made it sound as if I have only a limited range of emotion, I have lights riddled throughout my visor, I can express more than you ponies can.”

I groaned and mumbled everything Luna said, “Before you mention, no I didn’t do it all myself. I happen to be bad at building things. I followed blueprint. I built the sprite-bot Luna module alone, Sky-rider included, but programming is a totally different story. I’m no scientist.”

I looked over to Cynthia, she stood in place, head tilted mouth agape. “I’m sorry, this is hurting my brain…”

I chuckled. “I’m sorry… don’t let me keep you, babe.”

Cynthia sighed happily and retreated into the shower room. I heard the door shut with a hiss, then I brought out the taxidermied hoof of Rat Catcher. I took this ‘souvenir’ into the overstallion’s office and placed it on a wall of other trophies above my desk.

I took a moment to look at the hooves which belonged to some of my more prominent, high profile kills. I’m going on my twentieth trophy with my next target. Of course, Rat’s name engraved on the hoof alone wasn't enough, so I put a small gold plaque with his name on it on the shield-shaped trophy mount.

“I think Dogmeat ate too much of you, Rat Catcher. Compared to your trophy mates whose hooves are still attached to their legs, your’s isn’t.” I sighed and turned to leave the room.

I turned off the lights and opened the door to leave, though not before looking back to a shelf in the corner of the room. I mostly glanced at it for a little while before actually leaving and making my way to the bathroom.

Cynthia passed me on her way back to the room while I stood in front of the mirror and removed my bandages. Just like Jock said, the wounds had healed up completely, hardly a scar was visible. I hadn't noticed any side-effects yet, and I was willing to bet the Grand Pegasus Enclave was using this stuff for years without any repercussions. Perhaps Swirl had a chance after all if Jock could sell it to a caravaneer.

I put my coat back on and discarded the bandages. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth and let out a satisfied sigh, which turned into a jump of surprise as Cynthia latched onto me with a pauldron in her mouth.

“Cynthia..?” I looked back at her.

She put down the armor piece and nuzzled me. “I had an idea that I think you’ll enjoy.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“So what do you think?”

I looked in my bedroom mirror at the metal plate with a clip-like design incorporated on a raised rectangle shaped piece which the pauldron slid onto and clipped in. Cynthia had shown me how to install plates like this on the fabric my coat.

“I think it’s brilliant, but why?” I looked to her while she sat on my bed holding the pauldron in her hooves.

“That metal plate allows you to attach these protective pauldrons. They’re centuries old and haven’t been incorporated into any armor but the Steel Rangers. Having one pauldron would make your duster standout. I like it.”

She held up the shoulder armor, which I took in my glow and attached to the plate. It had barely any weight which took me off guard. I gave it a thorough look once it was one with my duster and grinned.

“Is this diamond plating?” The prospect of having diamond armor was pleasing, though my joy was soon crushed when Cynthia explained that it was black opal with traces of fire opal. A strong combination, though not indestructible.

Even so, I was happy to have a customizable armor piece, it added some spice to the sugar that was my usual regulator gear. I kissed Cynthia in gratitude and detached the piece, I laid it to rest on a table by my wardrobe and removed my coat.

“Gattle… the respirator…”

I paused to comprehend what she said, and with a facehoof I growled. “I’m sorry…” I quickly raced out of the room and back up into my study to retrieve a small mask with two small canisters of anti-tar attached to the muzzle.

I brought it back down and shut off the rest of the stable lights before climbing into bed. After a few breaths, I removed the mask and endured the brief period of blindness that came from using it.

The mask was designed back in the war to prevent lung cancer, or other lung defects. Anti-tar was a commonly used medicine for this as it cleared all of the tar and nicotine from the organs, in addition to other things which endangered the smoker. Alas, the one side effect of cleansing one’s lungs was, obviously, the irritating period of blindness.

“You need to break that habit of yours…” Cynthia said as she laid back onto the soft pillow.

I closed my eyes tightly as my sight came back painfully, I reopened them and wiped the tears away which formed from the burn. “Maybe... But not just yet…” I kissed her cheek.

I laid down to rest, and in doing so, I let my guard down. Once more, Cynthia straddled me, and this time she sat in just the right place. I reopened my eyes and looked up to her with an irritated sigh. In her mouth was a condom, still in its wrapper and I knew then she wasn't going to let this go like last time.

“You know I don’t enjoy it, Cynthia…”

“I know, but it hasn’t stopped you before. We haven’t done this in months and I’m hornier than a minotaur. So put on your saddle, Gattle; I want to ride.” She smirked and gave me her bedroom eyes.

I took the condom and watched her slide her way under the blankets and out of sight. “It’s because Evangelyn’s not around, isn’t it?”

I felt her moist tongue drag itself lightly along my shaft, only to sigh in disinterest and lay my head back into the pillow. I thought about reading a book to pass the time, at least until she was ready for me to plow her.

I didn’t have any fun, it was droll, but at least it made her happy.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

By dawn's first light the floor was riddled with condoms, filled and tied shut. I think we used half a pack at least. I was tired, even with the sleep I got (which wasn't much) I still felt exhausted.

I reeked of sweat and seed, Cynthia was no different. Silently, I lifted my head and yawned out loud. The clock on my bedside table read six-thirty in the morning. I looked down at Cynthia, resting contently at my side and kissed her forehead before wrapping the balloons of clear bodily fluids in my magic. I left the warmth of my bed in favour of putting the trash in the incinerator and taking a long hot shower.

Once I was cleaned, I donned my coat and opened the stable door to enjoy the fresh air and listen to the music that played over the Empire Records channel. I loaded one bullet into Chrome and put him away, replacing him with a lit cigarette which I took my time with.

One look out east and I was taken in by the early morning sky, it was clear, and the breeze was brisk and chilling. I could see my own breath, which made me chuckle.

I took this moment of solitude to ponder over the yellow orb. I floated it out from my pocket and turned it gently in my glow. The yellow mist danced off its surface like carbon dioxide visible furthermore in this cold. Just holding it in my aura gave me urges to do things that were crazy, not out of insanity, but joy.

I put the orb away again, shook my head, and took another puff of my cigarette.

“That was Hay Ms. Derpy, courtesy of DJPon3 whom I thank very much for allowing its use on this radio. Now everypony, this next song is another popular one from the second last harvest year of the Equestrian-Zebra war, Megaspell-baby.”

Crystina’s voice was replaced by the song mentioned just now, I found myself mumbling the lyrics and tapping my hoof to the beat. But this was short lived, as out of the corner of my eye I spotted two ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn. Both immediately recognizable.

“Good morning, sir,” the unicorn spoke in a harmonic voice once she was near, “my name is Velvet Remedy and this is my husband, Calamity.”

I knew of Velvet Remedy and her affiliation with the New Canterlot Republic, and of course I knew the cyborg standing beside her. Calamity watched me like I was some raider, clearly age and the Territory Wars had taken quite a nasty toll on his trust issues. A bird of green flame swooped down and came to rest on Velvet’s back. It folded up its neon wings and cooed.

“And this is Pyrelight.” The Balefire Phoenix bowed, to which I couldn’t help but bow back.

“I know who you are, Ms. Remedy, I’ve heard you on Dj’s radio before it was replaced in this region. I’m a big fan of your songs, though probably not nearly as big as the ones back home.” I chuckled.

Velvet let out a slight giggle,“I’m always happy to meet a fan,” she grinned.

“Ah like yer accent,” Calamity suddenly decided to say. “ It’s nice t’ see there’s still some ponies out ‘ere with a reflection of culture,” Calamity was monotonous and I could hear he was just saying that to be nice for his beloved here.

He wasn't fooling me, “Thanks, you too.” I replied with the same brash sarcasm as Calamity.

“So,” I began, changing the subject, “what is the NCR’s doll and Paladin doing this far in Dominion territory?” I inquired. I had seen other NCR ponies go by but they were mere recruiters, nopony's, drifters, etcetera. Why was Gawdyna sending these two out? Of all ponies…

“We’re actually out here looking for Hellhounds, in addition to anypony willing to join with the New Canterlot Republic.” Velvet explained, although it seemed rather strange to me.

“Hellhounds?!” I sucked in the smoke and coughed after nearly swallowing my lit stick.

“Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to shock you like that.”

I lifted a hoof, “It’s fine, Ms. Remedy. Don’t worry, I’m okay,” I cleared my throat. “You’re both mad to be looking for Hellhounds, if you want to find something worse, I know a few places you can look.”

I was focused more so on Velvet than I was with with her trigger-happy fuck buddy. Despite that I noticed Calamity had been scanning me the whole time and I could tell just from his glare that he didn’t like what he saw.

I looked at the pegasus subtly from the corner of my eyes, right as I heard the loud click of his battle saddle as it changed ammo types. I was all too aware of his saddles functionality.

“Something wrong, pegasus? I don’t want trouble, but there might be if you don’t step off,” I warned him and let my horn glow, as if about to pull out a weapon.

“Ya gonna make me?” He opened his mouth over the reins of his saddle.

Velvet looked at the both of us, and quickly moved to stand in front of Calamity. “Calamity, stop, we don’t want to start anything we’re guests in this territory, remember? Regina will have your feathers if you cause any unwanted trouble… again.”

Calamity took his eyes off me to look at Velvet before turning them back on me again. “Fine… Since ya asked nicely and all.” He moved his mouth away from the reins and continued to glare at me.

My attention on my guests were diverted when Dogmeat came growling out of the stable. He took a few steps forward in what I realized was a preparation to pounce, so I placed my hoof on his back to call him off. "You might want to be a little careful on how you act, Calamity. one of these days, that battle saddle's going to weigh you down."

“Gattle Gun…” Cynthia came out of the stable wearing the clothes I gave her, mane and tail wet. “I heard voices, what’s going on?”

I turned to look at Cynthia and gave her a comforting smile. “Don’t worry, Cynthia, everything’s fine.”

“I’m deeply sorry for this…” Velvet frowned with a sigh. “We won’t tell anypony else about your stable. I’ll see that Calamity remembers his manners the next time we meet a couple of wastelanders, or if we ever cross paths again. Good day.”

Grabbing Calamity by the ear with her own magic, Velvet and Calamity took their leave. I watched Calamity with a blood curdling glare. It was only thanks to Velvet and Cynthia being close by that we didn’t kill each other on the spot, even as we were prepared for things to get ugly.

Than I felt Cynthia’s hoof on my shoulder. “Are you okay... Gattle?”

I took in a deep breath and exhaled shakily, “I’ll be in a minute…”

Cynthia let her hoof fall from me and she returned to the underground bunker, leaving me to calm myself and regain some of my composure. Calamity’s little act had sent me back into the wasteland on a mental level, two days in the Dominion after being out in the wastes sometimes messes me up, I start expecting things and losing my edge. Then I remembered the task Sabrina gave me.

I needed to hunt down the Players, they’d fall easier without their leader, and I had no idea who it was yet. It hurt my head to think about it.

“That, everypony, was Megaspell-baby by ‘The Five Suns.’ now I believe it’s time for some morning news.”

I sat back on my haunches beside the radio and held my head in my hooves. What came next was unexpected but helpful, though odd. Crystina’s voice, as she was giving the news, became distorted and mixed in with the sound of static and an ear piercing screech.

“I-I-I have a message!!! for the Red Death - Death! himself,” a voice came, it was masked with the voices of many ponies, words from out of old war tapes mixed together to form sentences. Stallion, mare, foal and some electronic voice. “We, we have discovered the name of the raider - raider!!! boss leading the Canterhorn Players cell, a pony called, Gameplay - Gameplay!!!”

“Gameplay?” I thought. I grinned widely and turned off the radio just as Crystina’s usual broadcast came back. Just the name alone is all I need to go on a killing spree, I could learn the rest as I went along.

“This is not- not!!! Not…” Then the static cleared, and a deep, commanding voice came through, a stallions. “Not a Dominion message.” And then the transmission ended.

Though I wondered for a moment why the information came through the way it did, a mess of pre-war voices, ghosts even, giving me information however small with so many voices spliced together as if an indecisive computer. I didn’t want to dwell on it, it was hardly noteworthy.

Although that voice at the end, being so clear and natural was somehow unsettling.

I floated the radio back into the inner pockets of my coat and went back into the Stable. “Luna, prepare the Sky-Rider for launch. Dogmeat, fetch my hat and the medikit!”

Luna wasted not another moment to fly up to the crow's nest and upload herself. Dogmeat obeyed and barked in reply to my order. He retrieved what was told, while Cynthia watched on, puzzled.

“Did something happen? What’s going on, I don’t even—”

I stopped her with my hoof to her lips, “You wanted to come out here and see Equestria, right?”

Cynthia hesitated to answer but nodded her reply, “Mmhmm.”

I let go and and set about gearing up, extra ammo, medicine, saddlebags and all, “before we met up at Berry Punch’s, Queen Sabrina gave me a new assignment, one I aim to carry out.”

“A new assignment? What is it? Is it an assassination or some other mercenary thing?” Cynthia pressed for answers, hoping to clear up some of the confusion. “Where are we going?”

“To Canterhorn,” I replied without giving any further details, my full attention on getting ready to go.

“Y-you mean… You mean you’re going after the Players?”

I grinned from ear to ear at Cynthia, “I’m a little excited actually. I’ve taken out raider camps and slaver dens all with Dogmeats help before. It usually ends with a bloody mess and my silhouette walking away with a merry whistle and a gun at my side. It’s almost art if it’s done right.”

Cynthia looked terrified, but she didn’t back away. Once all was said and done, I offered her to join me in liberating a piece of the wasteland from what I deemed parasites, an offer she accepted with a hint of reluctance

All we have to do now is go to them.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Lady Killer Rank 2 -- You are literally irresistible! Female opponents now sustain +10% extra damage in battle. In addition, your devilish knack for the spoken word grants you an additional edge in unique verbal approaches when encountering the opposite sex.