Fallout: Equestria - The Ranger of Seamane

“The body has many ways to fight toxins by itself but sometimes it needs help.”
-Wasteland Medic’s Guide

Dreams hadn’t kept me company. I had grown accustomed to not remembering dreams, having just a disjointed memory of consciousness from when I fell asleep and to when I woke up. This time it felt different as I came back from that void of consciousness. As my awareness came to me the totality of my being blossomed into pain. The pain left me gasping and crying out as it filled the void of my senses.

Time rolled on by and the pain dulled to become background noise, tinnitus for the whole body and all its senses. When I finally opened my eyes, I was met with nothingness. A moment of fear gripped me and left me worried I had gone blind. However I felt no heat of a light source on my body, instead I felt the rails of a cot on either side of me holding me suspended with a scratchy sheet.

Well, I think I can feel everything, and I don’t think I’m blind. I don’t feel any heat on me but then again I don’t think there's a lamp pointed at me. I reasoned.

Gently filling my horn with magic, I attempted to illuminate my surroundings. As the world turned a faded green my head started to hurt. With a gasp for air and squeezing my eyes shut the spell imploded, dropping me back into darkness. The strain of casting alone had felt like someone had driven a railroad spike into my brain through the base of my horn.

Fuck me that hurt. Okay, so, good news, I’m not blind. Bad news, that fucking hurt like somepony kicked my horn’s root. I think I need to take a moment to catch my breath and sort out my thoughts. Just think things through. Plan out what I need to do. It is the best thing to keep my mind anchored and from wandering from nasty what-ifs.

Suddenly a roar shook the room. My eyes watered as I recoiled at the painfully loud noise. Beyond that, the roar itself frightened me. In my weakened state I felt so vulnerable and weak like I was a foal again, like when the plague had its claws in me. Then came a burning sensation and an acrid smell in my sinuses that I knew all too well. I held my head off the edge of the cot and just let my body do the rest.

Okay, I’m extraordinarily weak and possibly still poisoned, or whatever the term for having venom in you is. Fuck brain is too exhausted to remember terms, whatever, focus. Okay, so I need to do something to buttress my system so I can help my body recover faster. There's a battle still going on outside and I need to find some way to defend myself because right now I can’t even buck somepony. Oh right, the term is envenomed I believe? Whatever, priorities.

Without resisting the instincts of my body, I allowed my system to sort itself out before curling back up on the cot and putting it out of my mind. Focus had to be maintained on getting out of this situation if I wanted to not slide into the pits of despair and panic attacks.

Okay, what spells can I do? I can produce light, but not useful in this situation. Telekinesis, yeah that’s not helpful. I can’t actually see the toxins and have no idea what they look like to remove them, plus I’d have to bloodlet effectively to do that. Could be useful for getting medicine though.

My thoughts moved on to other magical avenues of self-medicating. Magic blasts? Nope, not unless I needed to blow off my own limbs, cauterize something, or start bloodletting. Wall of Energy? No. Regeneration? That will help the weakness to a degree, but, that’s not hitting the base issue, it would be like a bandage for a severed leg. Right, Enhancement, buff my vitality since that seems to be suffering. I need some Buck, chemically do what I could with magic, far less strain and likelihood of immense pain.

I paused and retraced my lines of logic before moving to look for my bags. I doubted I had been separated from them. If I had, well, then things would get complicated real quick. I’d be left with just trying to do some spells to deal with being weak as hell.

Let’s run back through what happened. My vitality is trash. Did I get bitten? No, no I never did so anti-venom wouldn’t help at all. It was that miasma crap those Vipers spewed out along with fucking taking a collapsing staircase to the fucking barrel. Okay, so definitely some Buck to help my vitality.

My path was clear now of what I needed to do. I braced myself by shutting my eyes as I built my magic into my horn. I could see the light through my eyelids. I put my left foreleg over my eyes to block the light from my horn. I still felt the sting of strain from lighting my horn.

“Okay, magic is still a go, let’s see if I have my bags,” I muttered.

I opened my eyes and looked down. Under the cot, I spotted my barding lying in a neat pile. I wasn’t surprised given I had been impaled in some manner some time ago. I decided to leave exploring my own body for where that was for later and focused on finding my bags. It didn’t take too long, though it made me groan seeing I should have leaned over the other side of the cot instead to take care of business. Guess fortune favored me since I didn’t hit my own stuff.

I rolled to the other side of the cot and carefully fished through my saddlebags, my hoof still fumbling over a few bottles. I pulled them all out one at a time by hoof. It was slow going but I could put back what I didn’t need later. Of course, I’d also look like a drug fiend in the meantime, covered in various chems but looks didn’t matter when you wanted to stay alive. At least that’s what I tried to tell myself when the chips are down.

Finishing grabbing what I could from my bags I rolled onto my back again and let myself rest as the light faded. When my strength came back I’d relight my horn and sort through what I had managed to grab from my bags. For the moment I needed to breathe and recover some strength. As darkness returned to the room, I let my hooves wander to examine my body. In return, I found that while I still had most of my barding on, my stomach had been uncovered as had my barrel. My front hadn’t been hurt but my underside seems to have taken the brunt of the damage. The bandages covered whatever method of treatment had been applied, leaving me in the dark as to what type of injury had occurred.

I could tell from the tenderness where the injury was and it certainly wasn’t in a place that brought me joy. The fact I was alive eliminated some of the more nasty injuries I could have gotten, ones that would have left me going septic on a battlefield. Inspecting my foreleg I found my holster and Pipbuck Zero still upon me. With a bit of coaxing, I got the machine to turn on again, though I was uncertain how or why it was off. Unfortunately, the strange cartoonish version of myself in my vision that greeted me was telling me I was in a lot of trouble.

“I think what you are telling me, my little digital friend, is that I’m fucked in all kinds of new and exciting ways.” I sighed before laying my foreleg on my chest. I let my eyes close and just breathed.

The same disjointed perception of time asserted itself upon me. Rationally, I assumed I had dozed off at some point, which wasn’t a bad thing to do given how hurt my Pipbuck said I was. Thankfully the nap had left me feeling a bit better. I used the light on the Pipbuck instead of straining myself to produce magic, which also proved using magic was what was giving me those lovely painful spikes in my brain and not my eyes hating the light.

Even being blessed with a lack of hyperlight sensitivity, I was still limited with how well I could see given the Pipbuck screen wasn’t aligned right for use as a flashlight to sort things that lay on your lap. The upside was that I wasn’t in a rush.

Once I had finished sorting the bottles I took a double dose of Buck, which was safe to do if you weren’t doing it too many times a day. So long as you don't get addicted of course but doing it once shouldn’t cause a dependency. This was likely not the wisest of choices but at the same time, I was deeply fucked up on the physiological side of things and not so much on the psychological side.

The upside of a double dose would be I hopefully would stop feeling like death warmed over sooner rather than later. Once that happened I could start actually working on putting myself back together.

Given it would be a while before I needed another dose of Buck the medicine was returned to my bag, a bit easier this time as I didn’t need to cast light from my horn to do it. Unfortunately, things in my bags were nowhere near as organized as they had been but that was fine. It was something to occupy myself with when I was more able-bodied.

The pain from my senses dulled and I began to feel more normal though still weak. The oddity of the situation sank in. Here I was somewhere dark, alone, with no medical equipment. Moving my foreleg to shine the light of my Pipbuck around I could see wherever I was hadn’t a lot of space, about enough to move around me with a canvas curtain at the feet of the cot. My gut told me I was in an old utility closet. Given my hypersensitivity at first and my general poor health it made sense to isolate me and keep things quiet. What was strange though was the empty IV bag stand. No bag, no tube, though checking my other foreleg I saw a bandage on my foreleg. So I had been given fluids at least, which explained the odd taste in my mouth. Weird how I could taste an IV bag’s contents like that...

Triage must have categorized me as being in the worst case within the survivable category. They did what they could for me and then put me somewhere out of the way where I could recover. Still better than waking up in a makeshift morgue. Still, though this is probably a new record for the number of injuries I’ve had upon admission.

Giving a moment to regard how I felt and looked, I thought about how much worse my condition must have been upon entry. Poisoned, impaled, knocked out, heavy blood loss? Yeah, those would be low chances. Though, that gives me a good idea of how bad things were whenever it was that I got hurt. High cost, low chance, do what they could to help me and hope I recovered. Which meant a lot of other ponies were hurt and needed to get back on their hooves quickly. I was just a guest in town, after all, not the town guard, for once.

I stretched out and shut the light off. I didn’t have any idea how long I had been incapacitated. I hadn’t checked what time it was on my pipbuck when shit hit the fan but upon realizing I had my Pipbuck still. I tried to not be too hard on myself for not noticing earlier. I was after all, fresh from having myself skewered and smoked.

I finally felt the Buck finish kicking in. I closed my eyes and rolled off the cot. Or rather I got halfway off the cot before it tipped over, depositing me unceremoniously on the hard floor.

“Ow…” I muttered. The clatter hadn’t been quiet and yet I hadn’t heard anyone come cantering to check on me.

Another muffled roar, a series of muffled cracks of thunder, and more shaking of the world. My legs refused to work as I continued to lay on the cold, hard concrete floor.

It was fear that was keeping me here. I can’t deny it. Just two of those vipers were enough to put me down. Down but not in the grave. I need to grab my gear and show the staff here I’m still alive and bucking. That they can do more for me than just wait for me to recover.

I smirked and croaked. “I’m not dead yet.” to myself before pushing myself to my feet.

Before leaving, I politely righted the cot just in case someone else needed it. With a moment to double-check check my saddlebags were secure before I put them on, I was as ready as I could ever be to show whoever treated me that I was alive.

“Okay, let's try to find someone to finish fixing my body. Or at least give me a once over.” My voice sounded rough even now, approaching that of a ghoul’s.

My resolve softened when there came a pause with the realization that I had no idea which way to head to find help. So then came the tried and true method of wandering until someone found me as I pushed my muzzle through the scratchy, heavy curtain that blocked the doorway.

With my escape from the utility closet, I found that I was in some unused part of a building. The lights here were all dim but not such that you couldn’t see, and what I saw was a lot of medical supplies. Well, used medical supplies. I also saw a few other ponies laid out along the hall, still breathing. Given the lack of bandaged midsections, I figured no impalements.

One hoof after another I approached the door. Leaving behind those who I imagined were individuals that required too much work. Or possibly needed more time to heal than triage had beds to spare.

Opening another door, I was greeted with an empty hallway. I was a bit surprised by this. A grunt slipped from my muzzle as I pushed on, taking a moment to softly shut the door behind me. I may have been hurt but that was no reason to be impolite to others who were still healing. After a bit more wandering I took a minute of rest, my shoulder meeting the wall. Being upright was likely a marvel given my condition. Once energy had returned to my limbs I pressed on, trying my best to ignore the small stumbles in my step as I searched for help. A few minutes later I heard voices and looked in that direction to see a better illuminated doorway.

Salvation.

The room was alive with activity and my assumption had been on the money, the triage was overflowing with casualties. If I was in better condition I’d throw myself into helping. Right now though, I felt a bit guilty for wanting help. At the same time, if I could get help I could try to help protect the city now that I was better armed with knowledge.

I heard a noise to my right. Before I could see the source I felt a nuzzle against my cheek as I was pulled away from the wall.

“Oh thank the Stars you’re alright,” Sil said as she hugged me. I was thankful for her gentle embrace.

“Alright is pushing it. Upright is a more apt descriptor.” I replied as I felt a light smile cross my muzzle.

To further my point about being upright I leaned on Sil to support my weight, which she was all too happy to help with.

“Well, I’ll take that over what I was afraid of. I’d get Riptide but she's busy helping with triage. I had been helping for a while, but...” Sil slumped against me and I followed her lead. I didn’t want to fall over again.

“It’s fine. You did what you could and now you’re here for me. Riptide can visit in a bit.” I frowned. “Any idea what they did for me? I half want to get somepony to help me, but.” I looked at the mess of work that was cut out for the medically inclined ponies. “Maybe I should just use a healing potion. I mean we have a few, why the buck not?”

Sil sighed and helped me to my hooves again. She guided me to what passed for a nurse’s station. “I’m not certain what they did for you but your shield spell saved our lives. Without that, I think all of us would have gotten skewered and concussed.” She explained. “You’ve also been out for the best part of a day.”

I grumbled when I heard that. All that time resting and I was still feeling like crap.

“Well, time to lay down and check myself over.” I sighed. Sil for her part guided me to a break room while I nosed back at her. “Can you get me some water?”

“Sure. Just don’t go anywhere.” Sil replied.

That was not a hard request to follow as all my body wanted to do was sink into the softness of the sofa that she had guided me to. Once on the sofa, my attention turned to giving myself a lookover in the proper light. A frown crept over my muzzle as I found wrappings around my lower body. That was a bad sign; a fair number of important internal organs were down there. At the same time, the coloration was a good sign as there were only a few splotches of red on the off-white cloth.

Oh goody, what internal organ did I fucking ruin? Then again, I’m not septic so maybe they patched me up before that could happen. Just did enough to heal me so my body could do the rest which, given the current workload around here, was the right call.

I gently rubbed a hoof down my stomach and muffled my cry of pain. That would be… well... Let’s just hope it was magically healed otherwise that’s a few things off the table. Then again, not like it really was ‘on’ in the first place. Oh well, it was always more likely that Silver was going to carry on the family line. Whatever, there’s nothing I can do about it right now. So what use is it fretting over the possibilities?

Even with my own words consoling myself I felt some tears in my eyes. I was uncertain whether it came from the physical pain or the emotional pain. Whatever it was, I let the tears roll freely. It was fine. I just needed to experience the emotion and let the feeling flow through me.

“What’s wrong?” Sil asked, setting down a bottle of water on the table.

“Just… felt where the wound was, and it still hurts. Then I went through the list of what was in that area.” I answered.

Sil was quiet for a moment then she hugged me. She must have been told what the damage likely was. After a few minutes, I downed the water and pulled out a healing potion.

“I did ask someone to come back here and check on you. But, they’re… well you saw. You’re on the list to get checked on when they have time.” Sil sighed. “Probably best to not drink that yet. Just in case.” She rolled her forehoof. “You know, it makes you grow a bunch of tissue wrong.”

I put the bottle away. “Yeah, you’re not wrong. Can you stay here with me?” Sil responded by climbing up on the sofa with me. I made space for her behind me so she didn’t lean on my injuries. She seemed about as tired as I was, even if she didn’t look nearly as hurt.

-=O=-

I woke up in another bed. Good money would be on me passing out again. Then came the sounds of stomps and roars. They were louder this time, closer, followed by the answering thunder. That had to be cannons. I tried to get up and immediately found that I couldn’t. While I had been strong enough to walk or endure the pain with Buck in my system I now had half a Riptide on me, pinning me by my barrel.

I didn’t know how the mare could be asleep on a veritable battlefield. Of course, I didn’t know how injured she was. Plus she had apparently been working with those doing triage. With no clocks around I was without a sense of how long it had been since I was last awake.

Hey, your Pipbuck zero has a clock, dumbass.

I groaned before looking at my left foreleg to catch the time. It was then that I noticed something interesting. It had been almost a day and a half since we arrived in town. No, it was now two days, considering it was evening not morning. I really should set the clock to twenty-four hour time. Well, that would explain it. I looked around, as my body told me it was all still there, a positive start to a new day. Not so positive was the ache that coursed through me but the nausea seemed to be gone for the moment. I moved my left foreleg around trying to get a feel for how much of my strength had returned, wincing as I did so.

Upside, I do not instantly want to curl up and die, or reflexively empty my stomach so that’s a marked improvement. Downside, I’m in no condition to fight nor am I really good for doing much of anything right now. The major downside is, shit’s still being belt-fed to the fan outside and I am nowhere near any condition to lend a hoof with it. I hope Ruby and her caravan are fine, not to mention Winter and Ocean. Not that I would want to run out of town while this shit’s happening.

I turned my head to my left and saw an IV drip going into my left foreleg. I also saw one going into Riptide’s right foreleg. A third bag was on the IV stand and I initially thought it contained blood. Then I realized what it was seeing as it almost stirred within itself. How it wasn’t a deep red but a ruddy grey.

It was Hydra, the drug. If I hadn’t known of the regenerative properties of Hydra I would have just pulled the needle out and closed the IV feed right then and there but I needed to be on my hooves as soon as possible, even if it meant this.

I just hope there isn’t too much taint. I don’t want to grow an extra leg. Regenerating a leg is fine but growing a bonus one isn’t.

Maybe it was the slow transfusion. Maybe it was just the nature of Hydra. Maybe it was how much damage there was unseen to my eyes but it was taking a long while for me to feel better as I laid there with naught but time to pass me by.

Oh, wait. The Pipbuck Zero has a medical suite. I can just check to see how fucked up my body is.

I chastised myself for not thinking of it sooner. With my left forehoof in front of my face I manipulated the buttons in my magic. The small read-out transferred to my E.F.S. after a few moments. I had a concussion, lacerations, bruised ribs, and more than a few torn tendons in my legs. I was still missing a good tenth of my blood and had severe toxin exposure of an unknown type.

Well, how the fuck did I walk down that hall then? Or did I fuck up my legs doing that? The toxins must have been from the miasma of the Vipers.

I saw the warning for taint, it had no identifying name for it. But it was helpfully labeled internally as “unknown arcano hazardous toxin”, then it was re-labeled to something else a minute later, a process that repeated several times. I shouldn’t be surprised by that though. This thing was cobbled together and programmed by us wastelanders after all. I let out a sigh as I just let things do their job.

I can say the feeling of taint is not fun. It’s like something worming its way through me. It was as if I could feel something under my skin move, writhe, and act of its own accord. It didn’t help that the nausea was coming back.

When I next woke up my left foreleg was asleep, having ended up laying on the metal arm of the bed we were on. I looked to my side to see the IV bags were gone. Checking my time read-out I saw a further six hours had passed. Then my stomach growled. That made sense; it had been around forty-six hours since I last put something in my stomach that wasn’t a chem. Probably didn’t help, taking Buck on an empty stomach. Also probably why I felt so nauseous after.

With some effort I managed to slide enough of myself out from under Riptide to sit upright and look around, drinking in my new surroundings. Isolation curtains, same canvas as before. The same ceiling I saw when in the nurses' station. I was likely in the same building but there wasn’t a rush going on around us so we possibly had been set up in a more isolated spot, not back in the store room with the other intensive care patients.

Okay, well the IV drip kept me alive but my mouth is dry as fuck. My stomach growled again and this time I felt pain from my midsection. And my stomach is starting to eat itself. I need to take care of that.

I looked around the little private room we had and spotted my bags. Unfortunately, they were too far to reach with my hooves, and with Riptide still pinning my lower half it was down to using magic if I wanted my bags. While I was stronger I didn’t want to dislodge her. Part of that was out of fear of shifting her onto my wound and screaming in pain. The other was I wanted her to get what rest the wasteland afforded us.

I used my magic to pull the bag closer. I also reached out to catch the bag so I could strain my magic-less in the hopes of pre-empting another headache. Suddenly I felt myself start to slip as my hoof caught under the bag and took its weight. Didn’t take long for my face to meet the floor. It was just another injury to be added to the extensive list of injuries. I just closed my eyes and embraced the ground for a minute. I was honestly surprised Riptide wasn’t woken up by this. Then again, when I looked back she was still mostly on the bed pinning my legs so she didn’t even get shifted.

“Miss?” Somepony asked.

I groaned in reply. In response magic wrapped around me and lifted me back into my bed. My head spun slightly as I felt my sense of balance reassert itself.

“How are you feeling?” The stallion asked as he set me down. Another pony had also entered the little room I had. I noted that the stallion didn’t have a horn so I wagered the other pony had been the one who had helped me up.

“Terrible.” I coughed. My sight filled with spiraling white and black dots, I decided to preempt them and lay flat on the bed. “I feel like someone crushed me into a wall and then proceeded to stuff my wounds full of salt and worms.”

Scribbling came from the stallion as he took notes, his face darting over the clipboard.

“Mind if we do a few tests now that you’re rested?” the stallion asked. “I’m Crash Cart by the way.”

I blinked. “Uh, I’m up for some medical tests though you might want to poke my Pipbuck Zero for data. Also Moonlight Grimoire.”

Crash Cart chuckled. “We know your name already, your friends told us who you were.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” I replied. “What kind of tests do you want to run?”

“Well, first we’ll pull what data we can get off your Pipbuck. Never seen one so compact. What stable are you from?” Crash Cart mused.

“Uh, none? I’m from Seamane. Might know it better as Saint Clover.” I answered as I offered up my left forehoof.

“Wait, then how do you have a Pipbuck?” Crash Cart asked as he waved a cart over. The other pony connected a terminal on top of it to my Pipbuck Zero.

“Well, uh. For one, it’s not an officially licensed Pipbuck.” I started explaining as I tried to look at the terminal’s monitor. “Two, we built it out of junk you can find in the wasteland. You can ask Silaha about that since she helped make it. I’ve only had it for a few days since I built it at Wayhill. Having heard about Stable ponies with their Pipbucks, I realized how darn useful they were and wanted one for quite a while.”

“Huh, well that makes sense. Impressive work for a wastelander.” Crash Cart said as his technician booted up the terminal and started interfacing with my Pipbuck.

Numbers, code, and various bits of information scrolled past my eyes. Bright lights flashed and made my stomach feel like it had turned inside out. My brain felt like someone punched it. “Nope, this sucks.” I squeezed my eyes shut and just focused on keeping my stomach bile down.

“Just hang in there while we look through the medical readouts.” Crash Cart said soothingly. “Honestly this is far better data than an oral interview and physical exam could have ever done. We’re still going to have to do a bit of a physical exam by the way but now we have a baseline to work with.” He paused for a moment. “Oh dear, that batch of hydra had more taint than expected. We’ll have to check for any obvious mutations.”

I wished I could have seen exactly what he was doing but, lovely, higher chance of mutation. Guess that ruddy color wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Miss, if you don’t mind, I’m going to start that physical,” Crash Cart’s technician explained. “Tender Care.”

“Okay, just, give me a warning before, you know. I’m still pretty sore.” I sighed, submitting to Tender Care’s tender care.

Minutes went by as I felt myself get poked and prodded. My ears were looked into, my sinuses and throat were checked, unmentionables delicately inspected, reflexes verified. A small whimper or two as they moved onto my wounds. Riptide was woken up so they could get her off of my hind legs to fully inspect me. That and I had her fetch me something more than the pre-war food I had in my bags.

“Okay, while we can’t find anything obvious at this time in terms of mutations there might be a delayed change.” Crash Cart sighed looking a bit annoyed. “Could also mean that you’ve gotten off scot-free. In either case, it would be a good idea to keep an eye on your vitals as it could take time for any mutation to mature. Your vitals are also a bit low but you should be okay once we get some food and bed rest in you.”

He paused to flip over a few pages on his clipboard. “We also checked over the two friends you came in with and they’re in good health for your information.”

“Oh, that’s great to hear. Guess Riptide resisted the miasma better than I did.” I giggled and looked away. “Sil was smarter and wore something to try to protect her lungs.”

“That, and Riptide is a bit taller and was further back in the room when the Viper broke in.” Crash Cart explained. “Plus you holding them aloft kept the two of them from hitting the ground as hard or getting cut up as badly as you did.”

I nodded. “What about Ruby’s caravan and my other friends, Winterwatch and Ocean Spray?” I inquired.

“They helped the guard, got some exposure.” Crash Cart explained. “They just need some rest but nobody is really going to be going anywhere for a while with the Hydra sitting on the Five northbound.”

“Fertility looks lower than expected.” Care interjected, to which I produced a bright blush. “Sorry, we want to check for any mutation. Surprisingly your Pipbuck has some pretty advanced sensors”

“Well, at least it wasn’t invasive…” I sighed. “Then again, I did take a fucking stars-damned metal beam to my stomach so not that surprising.”

“Well, aren’t you observant? You’re likely right on in that regard.” Crash admitted. “Though with your current… relationship situation it’s likely not something you’re too worried about, am I correct?” He held a few vials of my blood in the air. “You probably missed me taking the blood as it felt like the shooting pains you’ve been experiencing.”

I let out a groan. “Well, probably. To all of that. I mean sooner or later the wasteland takes away everything from us, at least that’s how the saying goes.” I tried to laugh. At that point, Riptide returned with Sil. I presumed the two had some food with them given Riptide’s directive from the good doctor.

“You need to eat.” Crash Cart said as he pushed another cart over, this one covered with various scientific instruments. Microscopes, centrifuges, and other devices for analysis. “We’ll keep working on checking you over. We don’t really have much to do now that things are calmer.”

I gave a nod. I wasn’t going to say no to ponies figuring out if there was anything else wrong with me. The food was mostly pre-war, which was fine even after ignoring the wait, why wasn’t there any clicking from the rads? I ignored the oddity of the situation. My perceptiveness had been already called into question anyway. It took a while to feel full, though this was a good sign that my body hadn’t gone into starvation mode.

It didn’t take long for my full stomach to lull me into yet another nap.

Sensations came before recognition as Riptide nuzzled my neck, sitting down next to me and holding her own food in her hooves.

“Glad to see you’re awake.” Riptide yawned.

“Same,” I replied and leaned over to nuzzle her in return.

“You two were out for a good while. Thankfully things outside have quieted down for now.” Sil informed me. “I took a few quick trips around town. Helped get ponies out from under debris and whatnot. After the other night, I was glad to see no real bias towards me on account of my stripes.”

It dawned on me that I hadn’t heard the roars, stomping, or cannon fire in a while. I took a wild guess that the fighting outside had died down. At least I wouldn’t have to try to defend a bunch of sick ponies while myself still recovering.

“Glad to hear nopony gave you a hard time. Hopefully, most of the old bias has died out over here, though maybe you look more like a zony thanks to that brown in your coat so you’re getting a pass.” I shook my mane. “Whatever the case, nopony needs an ass kicking.”

“Yeah pretty much,” Sil said and nipped my ear. “Though if you kicked anyone’s ass in your current condition I think it would forever shame them. I can take care of myself, Moony.”

I gave a nod, then a yawn as I let myself lay back down. I felt full and exhausted. “Yeah, well, more rest seems to be on the docket anyway.” I laughed, then smirked both of them. I was happy to see both of them doing okay.

-=O=-

I woke up with Sil against me, a rough blanket draped over us. A shudder ran through me. I didn’t see an IV bag and the feed had been removed from my leg so I probably needed water given how my mouth felt.

“Get some water to drink,” I muttered to myself as I blinked away my blurred vision. “I’m definitely still dehydrated given the headache and how my mouth feels.”

I felt a bottle thump against my chest and I reflexively wrapped my right foreleg around it. My vision cleared enough to see Crash Cart fussing with his clipboard beside me. I gave him a slow nod before undoing the cap in my magic.

“Found anything of interest?” I asked, carefully sipping at the water.

“A few particulars but that’s from comparing between baseline pony genes and your current genes.” Crash Cart explained. “It’s a little hard to know what's new and what was already there.”

“Fair.” I yawned then stretched my forelegs.

“Sorry about having to give you boiled water, there isn’t a reliable source of pure water out here.” Crash Cart said.

I paused and regarded the bottle. Then I took another sip and noticed the rad counter go off but my accumulated rads didn’t go up. I had noticed my rads didn’t go up from the pre-war food earlier. Something was off. Was I still experiencing radiation but not being harmed? Was I processing it?

What the absolute fuck? I shook my head. I would need to verify this with more testing.

“That’s fine, it’s more about managing net rads. It’s near impossible to avoid getting them anyways.” I assured him before taking another sip. Once again my radiation count didn’t increase.

No, this can’t be right. I mean, this tracks how much radiation is coming back out of your body as well as environmental radiation. Something is definitely wrong. Did the sensor get busted in the fall? I mean, honestly, that would make sense given I fell several stories. Actually, that makes the most sense. It is pretty delicate.

“Hey, are you certain this is dirty water?” I asked, setting the mostly empty bottle on the cart of scientific equipment.

“It should be, why?” Crash Cart asked.

“Well, my Pipbuck didn’t go off while drinking it. No jump in radiation within me.” I replied, staring in confusion at my left forehoof. “Can you check it? I think the fall might have broken or damaged the rad counter for my Pipbuck. If not, maybe it’s not radioactive? Though… Well, anyways, best to check it. Worst case I have to do some repairs.”

Crash Cart nodded and Care came over seemingly out of nowhere with a radiation probe. He lowered it into the bottle and we all heard the clicking, even Sil who was now more than awake.

“Well, that’s annoying,” I replied before pulling the pipbuck off my foreleg and slapping it onto Sil’s. “You take a drink, see if it goes off.”

“Well, sure. A good way to check if it’s the sensor or not and easier than wiring in a longer probe.” Sil replied before tipping the bottle against her muzzle. As she drank I both saw and heard the notification for radiation exposure, perfectly in line with what the probe had accounted for.

“Soooo, it works. It registered the rads going in and staying in, but not me so uh, tada, there’s the mutation?” I explained, trying to feel a bit of cheer knowing I was less of a pony now.

Then again I was dating a pony who had fins on her coat, could possibly breathe water, and whose entire family had scales under their coats so maybe I should just be happy I didn’t grow eye stalks, tentacles, or a self-aware mane.

Sil on the other hoof was pretty normal, she just had stripes. Riptide was the weird one in the relationship, and well now so was I.

“Interesting. Well, now that we know what to look for we’ll do some radiation tests to see how your body is reacting.” Crash Cart said, writing feverishly on his clipboard. I panicked a little at those words and he quickly added. “No, no, not on you. We’ll test it with your blood, we already have that.”

“Oh, right. Okay.” I sighed in relief, not wanting to get blasted with radiation for science.

Sil turned the Pipbuck Zero over to look it over.

“You still owe me one.” She teased with a nudge.

“I know, I’ll look for the rest of the parts when we get to Dockland,” I replied and leaned back against Sil. “I owe both Riptide and you one each after all. We’ve even got almost all the parts for one more right now.”

“Now then, I suggest you get back to getting more sleep.” Crash Cart said from behind his terminal. Beside him spells were going off, messing with my blood samples. “While everyone else is in good enough shape to travel, the Hydra is still sitting on the Five to the north.” He paused and pointed at me. “And you, Moonlight, need another day or two before I am willing to let you leave. Your insides are still pretty mashed and your outsides are still pretty bruised so we need to make sure everything is healing correctly.”

“Alright, I’ll get some more rest.” I snorted. “I have some medical training after all so I know the value of rest.”

Sil rolled her eyes and began to pilfer my bags for parts both to make repairs on my Pipbuck Zero and possibly make her own. “Let me know if you need any help, Sil,” I added. “I might get cabin fever after all. Also, toss me a book would you? It would be nice to get some reading done.”

“That I can do.” Sil nodded, smiling at me and pulling out the spell book we had found.

-=O=-

The next two days mostly consisted of us reading and me telling stories from my foalhood in Saint Clover to Riptide, along with more blood tests from Tender. Sil added her side of the story to my own in between working on the Pipbuck Zeroes and by the end of the second day she had managed to fabricate the bones of two more of the devices.

Beyond that Crash Cart and Tender Care were happy to tell us stories of the town’s past, about their troubles with a chapter of Steel Rangers that had once resided nearby. The townsfolk sent them packing after getting those magnificent cannons. Nobody ever really picked through the bunker they left behind on account that nobody wanted to give the Steel Rangers a reason to come back.

I also forced myself to do some physical training to see how my body was recovering which mostly resulted in flopping on my belly, face-planting, and twitching from muscle spasms. All of these were common for those exposed to the Viper miasma, which wasn’t an anticoagulant but a neurotoxin, lovely.

The third day of rest began with an early wake-up call from Crash Cart. For the second day in a row, I managed to get myself out of bed and walk on my own without the assistance of another or my magic.

“I think I know what the mutation is and, well, it’s one of two things, both positive for survival purposes.” Crash Cart sighed. He had been working hard to treat everypony along with trying to figure out what the taint had done to me. In part, he felt guilty because I was the only one they treated with Hydra only for it to be contaminated.

“It could be radiation resistance which means it’s going to take much higher doses for anything to stick. Of course, given your blood still broke down from high radiation exposure I wouldn’t recommend going over the normal limit regardless.” He explained. “On the other hoof, since we were just testing your blood you could just have the ability to regenerate, but given blood cells don’t go under mitosis we didn’t see radiation-induced regeneration. The only way we could test this of course is with, well, either giving you a cut and irradiating you, or seeing if you heal abnormally fast from highly irradiated food and water. As it is, your blood still breaks down at high radiation levels so I can safely say that reactors and blast craters are a no-go.”

The information took a few moments to process in my head.

“So, fundamentally I just have a constant dose of RadSafe?” I replied, trying to get the news to click in a nice clean way.

“That would be a good way to look at it.” Crash Cart nodded. “Though, if you start randomly healing while in an irradiated area, it might be more of a radiation-triggered Hydra dose with a mix of RadSafe. We’ve had a few noted cases of such happening up and down the Five.” He paused to rub his chin in thought. “I don’t know the long-term downsides of this but I have to say you came out of this better off than before, something most can’t ever say. Painkiller addiction, permanent disability, things like that are sadly the norm.”

I sat down with a groan. So I was still visibly as pony as I ever was even if I had some hidden advantages. At the same time, I shouldn’t go off beating myself up over it, considering reports of mutants like me all over the wasteland. The most common being ghouls of course. Still, taint had gotten everywhere so everypony likely had some kind of small mutation at this point.

Well, outside of those Stable Dwellers but they would eventually get something once they stepped outside and ate or drank anything from after the war. In some cases, even wartime items for some reason.

“You should have breakfast.” Crash Cart said as he pushed over a cart with food and a hot plate. “And after that, you and your friends should probably get out of town, preferably by today. The vipers are getting active again. It’s looking to be the worst fall in the past few years and we might even abandon Four Corners for the winter at this rate.”

With a nod, I prepared some tea on the hot plate and nibbled thoughtfully at the food. Worst case scenario, Riptide, Sil, Ocean, Winter, and I, with some Buck and Stampede, would pull the coach while the others were in it and hope we were fast enough to outrun the vipers.

As I ate, I messed with the readouts in the E.F.S. and managed to add the option of a digital readout for a clock onto the compass, though I noticed I had to focus to get either to show up. I much preferred it this way. Far less distracting than having text and symbols constantly in my vision. Then again, I bet Stable ponies got used to it after a life of having a Pipbuck on. Oh well, I wasn’t one and this was my device.

An hour passed before the other two woke up. I poured them cups of my tea and watched them quietly, deep in thought even as Cart brought more food and Care helped me with my stretching.

“Is there anything that you know of that draws the vipers?” I asked suddenly. “I know I don’t need to but the Five is the lifeblood of the region and we need it clear. It doesn’t sit right with me just flee while the town is in danger so I’d like to lend a hoof.” I snorted at my own words. “Blame my good nature or my time with the guard back home.”

“Uh, no. We never paid much attention to what attracts them or not.” Crash Cart answered, tapping his clipboard. “We just guessed it was the increasing population in town and slim pickings on the other side of the river so, no, we don’t know why the actual Hydra got up and started stomping around. Thank the Sisters we have those cannons though. Didn’t do much but at least it made it back off.”

I was left tapping my hoof against my chin as I began to plan. Ruby and the others needed more time if we had to make a break for it and take a longer route. They had been up and about the past day but were still weak. Beyond that, I wanted to keep this town from vanishing off the map due ironically to what was keeping them around, their source of regenerative drugs.

“So where’s that Steel Ranger bunker?” I asked. Crash Cart looked confused and a bit worried about what I was planning. “The situation is getting worse, right? Well, sounds like you need more than just ponies up on those walls if you catch my drift.”

“Well, you got it right on that account.” Crash Cart hummed before nodding. “I approve of this, just don't strain yourself. Let me see your Pipbuck so I can mark its location.” He trotted over and stared at the device for a minute before realizing he had no way to input a location on it. “Right, your Pipbuck doesn’t have a map. Let me go get one.”

Mutation Unlocked! Well, you earned one. It has been applied to your character sheet. Once you encounter a situation in which it activates it will be revealed to you. Congratulations on surviving!