I don't want to set the world on fire...

Seaddle ruins

I stifled a cough, blinking hard to clear the dust out of my eyes. Shoving that shattered bit of fallen ceiling aside had sent a cloud of centuries old dust swirling around the small space, and now my lungs burned as they tried to deal with the contamination. Wasn't safe to have a coughing fit here. To close to the grey haze's territory. They found out someone was scavenging in what they considered "their" city, and my head would eather be on a pike, or on its was to the nearest slave auction before I could blink. So, stealth was critical. And wouldn't have been that hard if only I could get a few clear breaths. My ears twisted, scanning for any noise as I poked my muzzle out a crack in the wall and breathed what passed for clean air around these parts. Oh well, still better then the air around Filly or Canterlot. Here at least the worst I had to worry about were rads, not freaking pink poison or whatever the crap in filly was. And scavenging this close to grey haze territory would be worth it is what I had read in those old pre-war papers in vanhoover was correct.

I squirmed my way deeper into the ruin of what had once been an office, careful to only move crap that wasn't keeping what was left of the ceiling still above my head. The building had been badly damaged by the megaspell that took out Seaddle, and two centuries of weathering hadn't helped matters much. Many of the floors were nothing but shells, the floors either entirely gone or so rotten that a single step would have sent anyone plummeting a few floors. It had taken a lot of moving up and down floors through a maze of half-collapsed stairs and cubicles until I had finally made my way this far down. Now, if I could just get through this half-collapsed room to what looked like the last intact basement access, I could find out if my trip all the way here would be worth it. Finally, I managed to shove my way through a gap between filling cabinets, once more my smaller then average stature proving an asset in my "line of work". The door to the basement was locked, but someone had left a key siting in the nob. must have been in a hurry to get in or out when the building was hit. Swinging the door open, I found the staircase was indeed intact, and slowly made my way down, the old lantern I had brought with me illuminating each dust-covered step. The basement lights had long ago failed, and the dim illumination given off by the lantern failed to reach the limits of the room. I carefully stepped forward, ears rotating to catch any sound of life in the damp basement. Nothing. Ether I was alone, or whatever resided here was waiting, silent as the grave.

Stepping into the dank room, my hoofsteps echoed hollowly from distant walls. My lantern illuminated nothing but dirty bare floor and scattered papers, any writing long since made illegible by mold. A flicker of light ahead caught my attention, and my lantern was just starting to illuminate the screen of an old stable-tech terminal when the turrets on the ceiling sprang to life after a century of sleep. They both attempted to fire, one blowing holes in the ceiling, rust preventing it from fully lowering, the other fired blindly, its targeting sensor overgrown with black mold. I galloped forwards, working to avoid the wild spray from the second turret. I leaped, and with a tensing of my forelegs, blades sprang out of gauntlets on my wrists. They sliced though each turret like butter, causing them to explode after my leap carried me safely past. Really, these knives were ridiculous. Good thing half the wasteland didn't have one, or my job would be a lot harder.

Stepping towards the barely-functioning terminal, I turned my attention to the massive door next to it. That was it, just behind that, according to those papers, was a stockpile that would set me up quit nicely for the foreseeable future. All I had to do was get through this door. And that shouldn't be a problem. From the small bag hung around my neck, I pulled out a red key-card, faded with age. It had been with the papers I found. Trotting up to the terminal, I slotted the card inside. The terminal beeped, whirled, and spat the card back out.
"Error, data unreadable, contact technical support", the screen read.

I snorted, bucking the terminal in anger. Great, now I had to do things the hard way. Turning, I studied the door. It was a massive thing, almost like a vault door, but without markings identifying a vault numbers, and smaller, not made to withstand the apocalypse, but to withstand a lot of punishment. Still, it wasn't really a vault door, so it shouldn't be a problem. Rearing up, I placed one foreleg on the door, and extended the knife on the other. I placed the blade on the door and pressed, shoving down. The blade squealed as it ran down the door, leaving only a light scratch. I starred. Great, it really was built like a vault door. My knives I had gotten from a unicorn who had found a whole crate ready to ship off to some pre-war hotels kitchen. Why they needed knives sharp enough to cut through un-reinforced metal was beyond me. I had to trade a load of barter goods for the pair, but they had been worth it. Could never tell if it was the weird metal they were made from or some sort of magic placed on them, but they kept their sharpness forever, and cut through practically everything. The hard part in making them useful had been finding something they didn't cut through to make the sheaths in my gauntlet out of. But strong reinforced metals, like a vault door, could withstand them, ether because the metal they were made from was resistant, or because they were magically resistant I didn't know. If I had twenty years, I might just cut through this door, but otherwise, harsher methods were called for.

That caused me to sigh. Great, now I had to go back to where I stashed the rest of my gear, then bring volatile explosives through a half-collapsed building, and blow open a hole in the door without destroying everything inside it. Just great. Oh, why could I never find a bunch of goods just lying in a chest somewhere?

It took forever to get back out the the ruin, but even in a relatively safe lobby, I had to be careful. *Beep* *Beep*, the mine alerted me before I deftly disarmed it. A task I had to repeat several times before I could get to the closet where I had stashed my gear. After all, I wasn't about to just leave all my stuff lying around in a random bin without taking precautions. I wasn't the only scavenger in the wastes after all. I was about to root through it for the needed explosives when a noise outside made my ears perk up and swivel towards it.

Hoofsteps, running, several of them, coming this way. I ducked inside the closest, throwing out a freshly activated mine before I silently shut the door. A moment later, I heard the lobby doors burst open, and a set of light hoofsteps clattered across the floor along with the sound of frantic, winded breaths. They headed straight across the lobby, not turning towards my closet, and for a moment, I thought whoever it was would pass harmlessly by. Then, I heard the rattle of a doornob, and realized whoever it was had chosen to go for the one door in the place that was blocked inside by the remains of the room above. Before whoever it was could move to another door, I heard the lobby door opened again.

"Hey kid!" A rough male voice called, half laughing. "Come out, come out, time to play!"

"Leave me alone!" A wailing voice answered. Crap, a foal. Couldn't tell by the voice weather it was a colt or filly, but it sounded like it was exhausted, and trying hard not to cry. "I just want to go home!"

"Oh honey, well take you home." Purred a softer female voice. "A nice new one, with pretty collars to wear and everything." At that, the male voice burst out in wild laughter.

"Oh yeah, paradise ain't it?" He howled gleefully.

Oh great, looks like a pair of grey hazer's had found a stupid foal to enslave. I sighed, backing further into the closest. Hopefully they would nab the kid quickly and leave. Last thing I needed was to pick a fight with the hazer's when I was this close to my prize. But the universe never let me off easy. The worst thing happened. It sounded like the kid tried to run, and one of the hazer's moved to cut him off, moving right in front of my closet.

And right into the mine I had chucked out when I hid.

*beep* *beep* *BEEP*

"AW FU-" the hazer stared to shout, before the explosion cut him off. The door of the closest, already half rotted, was blown off its hinges, peppering my hide with splinters. The remains of a large earth pony splattered the room beyound, covering a small unicorn foal with blood and miselenious bits. The foals eyes met mine, and before I could even think "No, don't.." he screamed.

"Help me!" He shrieked, running towards my hidding place, plainly terrified and hoping for help. Well, crap.

"Who's there!?" The female voice snarled. A moment later, a grey unicorn mare came into sight, a knife levitating in a field of blue magic besides her. "Oh, so you have a little friend, huh kid? Not for long." With that, she lunged, sending the knife swinging at me.

She was to late. I had already been moving when she moved into view. And taking time to taunt had cost her. I ducked under her knife thrust and brought the blade on my gauntlet into her neck. Her eyes widened in shock as I sliced deep, yanking sideways. Her blood poured down her coat, splattering in dark jets across my face. I stepped back as the mare collapsed to the floor, the life draining out of her eyes, as her head flopped to the side, neck nearly severed in two from the unnaturally sharp blade.

I gave her a moment, making sure she was truly dead. Last thing I needed was her making a last ditch attempt at me before she was gone. Learned that one the hard way. To many drugs kept a pony going long after they should have been cold on the ground. Then I searched the ody. Hmm, bobby pins, a can of cram, and of course, the knife she had been wielding. Her barding wasn't much, just the typical cobbled together crap with the symbol of the grey hazes, a stormcloud over the city ruins, but I wrestled it off her anyway. It had to be worth a couple bottle caps at least. I began moving the see if the one my landmine had taken out had anything still good on what was left of him when I realized the foal was still here. I blinked, looking over to where the foal was cowering in terror by the closet. It was a colt, he seemed absolutely frozen, gazing at the dead mare with eyes the size of diner plates. When he saw me looking at him, he gave a little squeak, and ran into the closet. I blinked, and realized that, covered in blood, fresh from looting a corpse, I must look like some sort of raider.

Eh, whatever, let him be scared. He wasn't my problem. The earth pony stallion just had some bottlecaps and a healing potion on him, and I wasn't even going to bother with the barding on this one. Turning back, I began placing the loot in my pack saddle, ignoring the shivering foal in the corner. That is, until I noticed his barding. Hadn't realized it in the fight earlier, what with all the blood and bits covering him from the dead stallion, but he was wearing the typical stable garb that occasionally popped up at trading posts, usually when someone discovered another vault. But his was actually in good condition, just a little dirty. Whats more, he had one of those pipbuck things on his foreleg, and it didn't look like it had been pried from a corpse. Which was odd, I hadn't heard of any stables around here being opened in the past few years. So where the heck did he come from? He sure as heck wasn't a wasteland pony, his mane was a mix of neon blue and green, his coat a deep midnight blue. Anypony with colors that bright had gotten sniped long ago. Yup, stablepony. But what the heck was this one doing out here?
Well, there was one simple way of finding out. "Oy, kid.", I said, poking him with a hoof. "What stable did you crawl out of?"
The colt peeked out from behind his hooves, trembling. "56... How did you.."

"Know?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Seriously, did he just step outside yesturday? "Lets see, your brightly colored, look well fed, are terrified of everything, and don't know to stay away from grey haze territory. Or it could be your wearing stable barding and a pipbuck, and you look like you've bathed recently. Take your pick."

The colt stared up at me like I was freaking sherlock hooves, before stuttering. "Please, I... I just want to go home."

"Then go", I said, waving a hoof. I began pulling the explosives I came to get out of the pack saddle, along with a timer. I was turning to leave when the colt moved to block my way.

"Please, I need help." He whined, teary eyed. "I'm lost, I don't know the way back. And what if more of these crazy ponies try and foalnap me!?"

"Not my problem." I said, rolling my eyes. Seriously, foalnap? Kid was fresher to the wasteland then most newborns if he thought that was all they wanted. I tried to move around him, but he blocked my path.

"Please!" He cried, now freely crying. "I'll give you anything!" He pawed at his barding, then apparently realized he had nothing to give me. I could see the raw panic in his eyes. "Um.." He was clearly trying to think of a something to convince me. I didn't care, I pushed him aside and headed back towards my goal. "The overmare will give you a reward!" I heard him cry out.

That gave me pause. Not because I believed that I would get much of a reward for returning the kid, but because his vault still had an overmare. That was odd. I never had heard of a stable that had an overmare, at least, not after they had been opened for any length of time. But if it had newly opened, why hadn't I heard of it? "Hey kid, how long has your stable been open?"

"It... isn't" He said, suddenly staring down at his hooves. "I.. hacked the door."

That froze me in place. Holy, crap. An unopened stable. And one that actually still had living ponies inside. Shoot, they probably had more good stuff in there then in any ten stashes like the one I had found. New plan, take the kid back to the stable, grab everything not tied down, retire to tenpony. Yeah, how could that go wrong?

"Oh, all right, I'll take you home." I said, trying to make myself sound kind and sincere. Which, I have to admit, I didn't exactly have a lot of practice doing. "Where is your vault hon?" I tried smiling, but that seemed to make him nervous, so I stopped.

"The entrance is in a big hole, with glowing liquid at the bottom." He said, waving his hooves around like I actually needed help figuring out what "Big Hole" meant. Then, he looked a bit apologetic, probably due to him seeing my expression at that. "I.. I'm not sure where it is, I got lost when the crazy ponies started chasing me."

I blinked. Well, that would explain why no one knew of a stable around here. Only one place that could be, it was in the freaking crater left by the megaspell that took out the city. Locals called it "The hole" or just "The crater". The grey haze had taken to throwing ponies that really ticked them off into it after breaking a limb or two, letting the radiation take its time killing them painfully over a few hours. But no one had bothered scavenging in that hot zone. "Yeah, I know where that is." I admitted. How could I not. Really though, how did the stable survive a near direct impact? Man, stable-tech really overbuilt those things didn't they? "Lets get you back." I slid into the light barding i wore under the pack saddle, not the best protection, but comfortable under the pack saddle. I got the pack saddle strapped on and headed out the building, the colt following, seeming slightly dazed by the sudden changed of events.

We headed out, moving towards a dull glow that signified the presence of the crater. Really, how could the kid not know the way? It literally lit up the sky. I kept my guard up, moving quietly. This was still grey haze territory, though the crater was at the very edge of it. No one wanted to live to close to that thing after all, it they had any choice in the matter. Thankfully I should have enough rad-x and radaway for what would hopefully be a brief exposure. The stable should be safe after all, once we got inside It didn't take long to reach the edge of the crater, and I took a rad-x as the kids pipbuck started clicking, getting faster and louder the closer we got, until we were looking over the jagged rim..
"Ok, where exactly is the entrance?" I asked the kid, staring down at the vast crater, the bottom of which had liquid, probably mostly rainwater, so tainted with radiation that it glowed green.

"I don't remember" The kid admitted, "I looked out from the cave and fell down into the crater."

Well, that was just great. Little fissures and openings permeated the crater, from old basements to molerat tunnels. It could take days to search them all. Then, I saw the colt facehoove.

"My pipbuck map!" He exclaimed, he started fiddling with his pipbuck, and after a moment, looked up sheepishly. “Its down there.” he said, guesturing.

I nodded, and we made our way down the side of the crater, heading for a narrow crack in the earthen wall. Seriously, if I had ever doubted the kid had spent about 5 minutes in the wasteland, this confirmed it. He seriously had a map the whole time, and just forgot. Oh well, I just had to put up with the colt a little longer, until I get my reward. “So, why did you hack your way out anyway?” I asked as we climbed down the crater, partially curious as to why anyone with plenty of food and water would seem to be desperate to escape. Then again, it was a stable, and this kid might have information on what dangers were inside it. Stables were nearly always death traps after all. “Your experiment get to bad?”

“Experiment?” He said, sounding confused. He reached the crack and hopped through, it being plenty big enough for the scrawny colt. It was a tight squeeze with my saddlebags, but i managed it. Inside, it looked like an old cave, with some reinforcements, the crack we came in was the only opening left after the megaspell blasted apart the rest of it. It was amazing anything had survived here. “No, I.. well, I don’t have my cutie mark.” The colt continued to explain, not realizing I was barely paying attention. Huh, never noticed he didn’t have one of those, but hey, I never put much stock in the magic flank tattoos anyway. What that had to do with breaking out of a stable, I didn't know.

We headed deeper into the cave, loosing the light. Before I could bring out my lantern however, the kid lit up the area with his pipbuck light. “I was always good with computers, but I could’t get a cutie mark in them, and then Falling Star dared my to hack the vault door, and um... I did.” He turned back, looking embarrassed. “And when I still didn’t get a cutie mark, I um... decided to go look outside. Then the door shut, and I fell... and..”

I raised a hoof, cutting him off from what might have been an interesting story, if he could have told a story to save his life, or I had been really listening. The vault door had finally come into view, with a big 56 printed on it. “Yeah, ok, Look, were here, now get the door open kid.”
The colt looked a little startled at the sudden interruption, but moved to some sort of control panel mounted by the door. He plugged his pipbuck into it and began fiddling. I moved around the cave, keeping a lookout. I noted that, unlike a couple old vaults I had been in, there weren't bones scattered around the door. Also unlike the others, the entrance had been scorched and blackened, and I could see a lot of cracks in the walls and ceiling. Then the colts light shifted, and I could see that, although the vault door had been blackened, there were darker areas of blackening. Pony shaped areas. Well, that explained the lack of remains. It was ground zero after all. The colts pipbuck still clicked rapidly, and I drank a radaway while I waited.

"No, no, no..." The colt began to mutter, still fiddling with his pipbuck. He stopped, seeming to read something on the screen for several long moments, then abruptly started screaming.

"NOOO!" It was loud, anguished, the kind of thing I didn't want to hear from a colt, not even a unicorn. He abandoned the panel, running over to the vault door and pounding wildly on it. "Please! Please let me in!" He howled, tears freely running down his face. "I'm ok! Its ok, please let me back!"

Well, this wasn't looking good for my profit margin. I moved over to the kid, who was still hammering away at the door and sobbing helplessly. "Hey, whats going on? I thought you could hack these things." I asked, realizing even as I said it that this had probably been a waste of my time.

The colt could barely speak from crying, and he slumped down to the floor hopelessly. "They.. they blocked my pipbuck from the systems." He looked up at me, tears still pouring down his face. "They... They left me a note, said I was contaminated now, they wont let me back, even... even if I survive long enough in the radiation out here to get back..." His voice trailed off into sobs again.

I shook him, trying to get him to focus. "Hey, can you hack in or not?!" I demanded. He seemed to wilt even further before me.
"No, I can't... They..." He started to whimper. I had stopped listening after the first word.

Yup, waste of my time. Great, now I had to go all the way back to that old office building, hope no grey hazer's had come looking for their two dead companions, and still blow that door and get the stash out before anyone came looking for them. I gave a low growl of frustration and turned, heading back the way I had come. I was almost to the exit when galloping footsteps behind me told me the colt had realized I had left.
"Wait!" He called, galloping to my side. "You can't just leave!"

"Can, and am." was my reply as I wiggled my way out the crack. The colt followed, tears once agains filling his eyes. Now he was wasting his time. I wasn't falling for this crybaby act of some freaking unicorn.

"Please, I don't know what to do!" He cried. "What am I supposed to do?!"

"Dont, know, dont care, not my problem." I said, not even bothering to look at him as I started climbing out of the crater. His pipbuck was practically a monotone now, clicking so rapidly that the individual notes blurred.

He moved in front of me, trying to block me from getting out of the crater. "Please, take me with you!"" He begged, obviously grasping at any vauge hope. I didn't even dignify that with a response. "Please!" He half howled, frantic now. "I... I don't have anywhere else to go!" I kept moving. "I can help you!" He tried "Please!"

"No, you couldn't." With that, I pushed past him. Once again, he moved to block me.

"I could!" He insisted. "I don't even care that your a zebra..."

That was as far as he got before I turned and bucked him in the chest. He fell, sliding down the slope towards the glowing gunk below. I glaring down at him. "I. Am. Not. A. Zebra." I hissed. "Not everything with stripes is a zebra you stupid little twit. Now get lost, i don't want you, I don't need you, and if you try and follow, I'll buck you until you get the hint."

With that, I turned and trotted away. Behind me, I heard one last murmer from the colt. "What are you?" He asked, barely whispering.
"What, no donkeys in your stable?" I shot back over my shoulder as I climbed over the crater rim. Alright, enough wasted time for today. Freaking unicorn had cost me time, and I had work to do if I was to make anything on this little venture.

.......

Ok, primer set, explosives in place, now to just get the timer set. I carfully reached out with a hoof, attaching the wires to the simple egg timer. Careful, as one false move and I wouldn't get to enjoy my prize. I reached out to set the timer, when behind me, a voice spoke.
"I can open the door." Said the all to familiar voice of the colt.

I jumped. Obviously I had been giving far to much attention to getting down here and setting up delicate explosives, rather then watching out for someone sneaking up behind me. Speaking of explosives, I disarmed mine, before turning and glaring at the colt, who cowered at my look. "Are you TRYING to get me killed!" I half roared, trembling at little at the sudden adrenaline rush that came from almost getting oneself blown to pieces. I took a couple deep calming breaths before speaking again. "And what do you mean you can open the door?"

The cold trembled, but stood his ground. "I can hack computers." He said with a gulp. "And I think that terminal opens the door."
Dang, seriously? After i spent all that time setting up explosives, this colt thought he was going to just hack the terminal? Joy, more time wasted. That is, if he could hack the terminal. From what I had seen so far, his skills were in doubt. But hey, he had apparently hacked OUT of the stable, so... "Fine, do it."

"No." He said, stomping a hoof.

"The crap?" I exclaimed. "You just said..."

"I'll open it if you take me with you." The colt interupted, obviously trying to look confident with his expresion.

"And just where do you expect me to take you. I'm assuming the stables out of the question." I said, glaring. Great, bartering with a foal. But seriously, why on earth would he want me draging him all over the wastes?

"I... Don't know." He admitted, once again staring at his hooves. Then, he looked up, and I was surprised at the determination in his eyes. 'But your the only pon.... Uh, donkey up here who hasn't tried to foalnap me.... so..."

Oh great, I was the most decent individual this idiot had met in his five minutes in the wasteland, and now he wanted to follow me around. But, on the other hoof, he might be able to open the door. And hey, I could just leave him here after he open it anyway. "Sure, whatever, open the door and you can follow me around until your hooves fall off."

"Promise?" The colt said, glaring.

"Yeah yeah, cross my heart and all that." I said, rolling my eyes and crossing my heart with one hoof. The colt looked at me with a bit of suspision, but moved to the terminal and plugged in his pipbuck. I waited, tapping my hoof a little, wondering if I should bother putting the explosives away. Really, this was some sort of high security vault, like some colt could...

"I'm in!" The colt exclaimed, sounding not a little surprised he had managed this feat. "There, I opened the door and turned off security." He actually sounded smug about that one, and he practically pranced over to the door. I glowered, but moved up as the door loudly rolled away. No alarms, that was good. Then, the door finished rolling away, and the kid stepped forwards. Fine with me, let him find out if he really had turned off all the security.

Turned out he had, as nothing popped up and shot him. I followed. Shelfs upon shelves of metal boxes greeted my eyes, and I trotted over to one and opened it. Papers, tons and tons of papers. With a growl of frustration, I went to the next box, and the next, and the next. "Crap, crap, crap!" I snarled, hurling a box across the room. It hit another, and both sprang open, spilling papers everywhere. "Nothing but freaking papers!"

The colt cowered in a corner, frighted, papers fluttering down around him. I stormed around the room, checking every box. Nothing but papers in every one. "Wha... What were you looking for?" The colt squeaked.

"Energy weapons, zebra tech, valueble crap!" I snarled. "Whatever "confiscated goods" ment. Not a bunch of office memos!"

"Um, this one says a bunch of stuff got relocated." He said, levitating a paper. I grabbed it and read. Yup, he was right, this memo mentioned at "Storage items 1034 to 1248 were moved to newly constructed storage site 23 alpha." Crap, where in blazes was that? It was dated a week before the megaspells hit, so my info must not have gotten updated in time. Great, just great.

"Where did you find this?" I demanded, turning to the colt.

"It was in one of the boxes you threw." He said, cowering a little. "It fell on my face."

"Great, anything telling you where storage site 23 alpha is fall on your face?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. As it turned out, no, it hadn't, and we spent the next hour looking through papers to find anything useful. No luck on my part, but the kid managed to find several papers that kept listing more storage items or confinscated goods moved to the same site. Then, I found a sheet that seemed to list info on the "new" storage site, but the location was only listed as "redacted".

"Um, are we interested in temporary storage site 16 charlie?" The colt asked.

"No, its storage site 23 alpha." I said, rolling my eyes. Really, was it that hard to remember.

"Well, this one has a listed location, and got stuff from here to."

"Okay, interested." I admitted, I grabbed the paper from the colt, reading. Yup, location and everything, to bad it wasn't what we were looking for. Unless... if it was only a temporary site, then it would ship stuff to the permanent site, right? So it might have the location for where storage site 23 alpha was. We weren't finding it here after all.

"Okay, thanks for the help." I said, heading out. "See you kid."

"But you said, I could go with you! You promised!" The colt cried.

"Yup. I lied. Your not useful anymore. Bye."

"And what if you need to get through another door?"

I was about to respond that I would pick the lock, when I realised he might have a point. This door hadn't had a lock, it had to be hacked, and if the next one was the same...

I glared at the kid. "Fine. Come on."

Level up!

New perk added: Foalsitting. Due to your new companion, you now appear less menacing to others. +1 to charisma when your companion is present. However, hostile random encounters are now more likely.

Author's Note

Meh, not the best, but ok for a start.