Fallout: Equestria - Steelheart

Fallout Equestria: Steelhearts
Written By: CyberDutchman
Edited By: JC

Chapter 3: Steel and Darkness

"Hello darkness my old friend..."

"Knights, focus on the Floaters! Initiates, spread out and lay down covering fire. DO NOT HIT THE CIVS! I'm talking to you Initiate North Wind!"

The metal pony in the center of the trio looked from side to side as it shouted commands. The voice was commanding but not harsh, with a melodious tone that seemed incredibly out of place coming from the steel... thing. I didn't have time to wonder what in Equstria it was as a group of twenty or more ponies in bulky black uniforms came rushing through the open doorway and made their way for the nearest cover they could reach. They were carrying weird devices in their mouths while the three metal ones leading them brought up saddle mounted packs. Packs mounted with miniguns I saw with horror. As one they suddenly began barking and shooting bright motes of fire and the air was filled with a multitude of whines and pigs. My ears flattened as the noise echoed deafeningly in the metal cavern of the room. I dropped to the floor as best I could with the heavy equipment hanging from my sides.

CELESTIA BURN MY ASS OFF WITH THE SUN! The noise was too familiar and my body began aching as I remembered the feel of fire pour across me. The sound of the firearms began to die down to a muffle as a sharp ringing tone rose to replace it. I felt cold, my skin freezing as I instinctively pulled my legs in closer under me. I closed my eyes to block out the glare of the fire crossing the room above me but even with my eyes shut firmly I saw a trail of red death stitching lines across the floor, closing in on where I lay.

"Feather Hide, get down!" The shout distracted me enough to yank me back into the moment. I looked up in time to see a Gutsy go flying across the room and hit one of the black suited ponies full in the throat with its shoulder joint. The pony, a white coated colt with amber eyes, collapsed to the floor. He began choking until the robot swung it's energy weapon around and unloaded a burst into his face. A hail of fire converged on it in response and it turned to face the new threat. It didn't have time though as the small arms fire began chipping away at it's green hull, pieces of its internal mechanisms flying out of the larger bullet holes.

A flash of green lit up the room. A blinding ball of green twisting light sailed over my makeshift barricade and struck the metal figure to the right of the middle one still shouting orders in its shoulder. I inhaled suddenly as I saw burned skin and muscle beneath the hole in the red hot metal plate. It was an armored pony, not a robot! I didn't have time to wonder who or what they were as a second shot followed close behind and struck the center of the three with a glancing blow to the faceplate. It recoiled and stepped back then turned to face its attacker. The glass where the eye would have been on the armor was shattered. Out of the empty space glared a purple eye, an actual living one. Disbelief grew within me as the armor of both ponies began... growing, filling in the holes left by the scorching magical energies.

Bullets and plasma bolts streaked across the open space in opposite directions. Lying there I started to notice the cries of the others who had run into this death trap with me. I poked my head around the scrap heap I'd made and saw Sunflower and Manesworth taking cover behind a large control panel. Titan had overturned a row of lockers and was propping them up on his shoulder with Spell tucked away on the opposite side of him and out of immediate danger. The rest of the survivors were hiding in whatever nook or space they could. My throat tightened when as I saw that none of them had been hurt since the sudden interruption of our executions.

The pile of scrap shifted and knocked me back and I turned only for the world above me to turn blood red as the Nightmare charged over the makeshift barricade and vaulted straight at the armored trio. All the color drained from my vision except for that hunk of metallic pain and ruin.

85%. The metal in my mouth was lukewarm and the iron taste brought up memories of bloody bodies and glowing, searching eyes.

90%. I had a crosshair splayed over its chassis and one shot left.

95%. The mouthpiece popped and warped from the force of me biting into the trigger.

The white hot rivet impacted dead center of the body just behind its outstretched forelegs. The plating peeled away in molten waves until the heat couldn't keep up with the shock wave and the rest simply shattered. It continued upward and smashed through the base of its head and burst through its faceplate in a shower of metal and gem shards. The round continued onward, trailing a line of debris and fire, until it passed between the heads of the center armored pony and the companion that hadn't taken a hit so far. The shock wave hit them moments later and knocked them both back, the one to the side falling to its knees while the center one held its ground and slid back an inch or so. It turned it's armored head to follow the path of the round then turned back to stare at me with it's head cocked to the side slightly. Those expressionless lenses gave away nothing of what it was thinking.

I saw them but I wasn't really looking at them. I wasn't really aware they existed in that moment. I wasn't aware I existed. I wasn't aware that death was still only one ricochet or lucky shot away from finding me. I wasn't aware that there was an entire world surrounding me. All I was aware of was the quick falling rain of metal bits and jeweled shards beating against the floor. Adrenaline was threatening to destroy my heart and I could hear it beating in my ears like a drum. None of it mattered though. I'd killed it. I'd destroyed it.

Slowly the tension in my muscles began to drain, relaxing inch by inch, sweat drop by sweat drop, until I was lying on the cold concrete floor. I breathed in and out. In and out. I couldn't hear any other sounds beyond my own exhaling. I slowly brought my head up and look back over my shoulder. None of the hovering robots were still standing and their wrecks were spread across the space around the ramp exit, small fires spitting from holes in their bodies here and there. The last of my family were slowly getting to their hooves, casting their eyes about in shock at our surroundings and the strangers who had breached into our home and saved us. I slowly turned my gaze the other way, terrified of what I would find.

Sun was standing in front of Manesworth, blocking three of the black clad ponies who held rifles in mouths and levitation spells and were trying to sight in on our metal and spellware counterpart. Titan and a pony who's name I couldn't recall, but knew that she worked in the Bio-sciences department and helped maintain the algae vats, were tending to Spell and her burns. One of the strangers came up to them and started offering bandages and supplies from a backpack they wore.

"Hello? Anypony home?" The voice was smooth and mildly familiar.

I turned back to find the three armored ponies standing over me. The center one cocked its head to the side as it sized me and my gear up. Then the top of what was revealed to be a helmet split in a line from just over the top of the muzzle to under the ears. The top half swung up and back while the bottom section along the jaw pivoted down slightly. Revealed between them was a lavender face with a silver hue to the coat, like somepony had found a way to make metal with an inherent color and then turned it into fur. The eyes were the same dark purple color I'd seen through a broken helmet just a minute or two ago. The expression on it was very familiar to me since it was the one I usually wore myself: a slight pull to one side of the mouth that could have been a smirk or a grimace, a narrowing of the eyes that was either tiredness or apathy, and an eyebrow arched high that said "This eyebrow can go one of two directions and both will make you uncomfortable". It was a useful expression. With little effort it could be turned into so many others: happy, sarcastic, disbelieving, confused, and countless more. The expression of someone who deals with others through a mask. The same one I'd practiced for years in the mirror.

"...what?"

The eyebrow went higher. I felt uncomfortable.

"I said, seeing as you're the only one around here using one of... whatever that thing is," the disconcerting mare said as she waved one of her armored hooves at my back, "then you must be the one that got the rest of this bunch to safety, right?"

"I-"

It hit me then, I mean, REALLY hit me. We weren't going to die. The robots, the monster included, were scrapped across the floor. We weren't going to die. Everyone else was starting to group up in a bunch in one corner near Sun and Manes. We weren't going to die. But everypony else had.

"I didn't save them. I couldn't save them. They're all- they're all- they're-"

My head throbbed in pain and my vision went blurry and cross eyed. I coughed then started hacking and in moments I was puking up bile and small traces of blood. The two armored escorts stepped back a little but the center one just kept staring down at me with that passionless expression as the pool of vomit stopped expanding just before reaching her hooves. She didn't say anything else, but took a moment to look around at the rest of the group that had entered with her then motioned her armored companions towards the entryway into the Stable. She watched impassively until they were out of sight then looked back down at me again.

"You wouldn't happen to be the local Overstallion or have the Overmare among this group would you? Things will go much more smoothly if someone with authority is available."

Overwhat? I dry heaved once or twice more then breathe slowly until the shaking stopped. I focused on a scratch in the floor, just something unmoving, unresponsive, and unchanging to steady myself on my feet. I kept staring at it as I tried to string a response together.

"I don't- we don't-... all we had was the Overframe but she... she's not... we did this to her... a signal on the Comm system... she's-"

My explanation was brought up short as a heavy and solid metal hoof reached under my head and pulled it up abruptly. The face looking back at me was no longer unresponsive and blank. There was a darkness cast over the previously impassive facade not moments before. Her eyes were almost hidden within the shadows cast by her split open helmet.

"...what did you just say? The Over...FRAME?"

Wait, why was I no longer talking to Blankface McStatuesque? What was wrong with what I'd said?

"Um, yes? She runs- ...ran, the Stable. Her core isn't too far down the corridor. But she had a lot of the others hold back as shields after I tried to take a shot at her."

She frowned at me, her brow pinching together in concern. "Others? There are still ponies in there? Did they use the machines to do this?" Her voice had a raw edge as she put the question to me.

"What? No, I meant the robots. She's operating them herself now... and there's probably nothing left of who they were before all this happened."

"Who they were? They're machines. They nothing but tools. What the hell's gotten into your-" Her eyes went wide as she looked over the group, a couple more of whom were standing with Spell trying to talk the soldier with the gun down.

"... you're going to tell me everything about your Stable, EVERYTHING, in the next minute. Starting NOW." Her armored hoof came down and shattered the concrete below it. I stared down at it and felt my stomach jump into my throat.

"Uhhhhh... okay, crash course then. I'm Gear Heart. Before I got my Cutie Mark my name was EM6609..." I got up to the point of describing the incubation tanks before she punched me clear across the room.

* * * * * * * * *

"FUCKING SPARKER-MADE PONIES! FUCKING STABLE EXPERIMENTS! DAMN STABLE-TEC TO TARTARUS! IF ANY OF THEM LIVED TO HAVE DESCENDANTS THEN THEY'RE ALL DEAD WHEN I FIND THEM! DEAD YOU HEAR ME? DEAD!"

The shouts and threats had been ongoing ever since the world stopped spinning but I was only just now starting to understand the words. I didn't have any idea what she was talking about but at least the ringing and headache were gone so that was a plus.

I opened my eyes and immediately shut them again. I've seen double images before (Spell), and even triple (Spell again), but I swear I'm seeing at least six different images this time around. At least I already emptied my stomach or else that would have done it for sure. I risked another peek and the blurry world came into focus. My family were bunched together in a loose group along with the unarmored strangers. At first I thought they were being held prisoner and began to shakily get to my feet but when I looked again I noticed that they were all facing away from the group and towards the raging ball of anger in the center of the room.

Okay, so apparently she's their Spell, or at least something close to Spell. Well, Spell with a minigun and creepy living armor. I suddenly feel a great urge to run BACK into the Stable after coming to that conclusion.

"Oh great, here we go again. Paladin Night's probably not going to come down from this one for an hour or two. Sooooooo... you're the foal of a computer aye?"

The whisper was so close that it tickled my ear. I tried to jump away only to remember I was both dazed and carrying a massive saddle pack. The jump ended up being more of a painful plop onto my stomach. I wheeled around to find one of the companion armored ponies grinning down at me mischievously, the eyes hard but with a twinkle that eased any sense of danger. His helmet was split like the armored mare's, revealing a beige face with a light pink scar running from under his chin up to just under his right eye.

"Whoa dere! Why don'tcha settle down there? I know youse bin through a lot but the Sparkers are gone now and Crusader Lily has the tunnel covered and she's as levelheaded as dey come. You're all gonna be just fine now... I tink. Wish the Paladin would come down from her stomping, just doesn't look good in front of youse." He turned to grimace at the still shouting mare before shrugging and whipping back around with that smirk again. "Ennaway, I'm Crusader Birch Tower but you can call me Birch or Tower if you like. And who might you be? Afraid I didn't catch it when the Paladin was picking your brain." His accent was really strange, like every "o" sound was taking its time getting up and out of his throat, "d" and "t" had switched places, and I swear he was putting in "r"s where there should never, ever be one.

"Uhhhhh... Gear Heart. My name is Gear Heart. Who are you? All of you?"

"Oh, that's interesting. Still surprises me sometimes dat dere's still ponies out dere who don't know abowt us. We're Steel Rangers, Platoon Seven of the Whinneapolis Contingent."

His accent was going to drive me mad. "Wait... what? What's a Steel Ranger? Where the hell did you all come from?"

"Well, we're all from the Cloudway Castle right smack dab in the middle of old Whinneapolis herself... but sumptin tells me that wasn't whatcha were asking, was it? Let me guess, you knew dat everything outside your Stable was an irradiated wasteland where nothing could live and everything was cold and bleak, yah?"

I played his words back a few times to make sure I understood then nodded slightly. He let out a small chuckle.

"Typical Stable pony answer. Well, it's not. It's a cold, bleak, irradiated wasteland where TOO MANY things are still alive most the time. We've been trying to tame the place for ages buuuut... well, you can bet it's probably never gonna be."

I was about to ask what the hell he was talking about when the third armored pony came galloping out of the tunnel into the rest of the Stable. She hesitated for a moment when she saw, what had Birch Tower called her, the Paladin? She got over it quickly and began shouting at her in that booming voice I'd come to expect from their helmets.

"Paladin Night, reinforcements are advancing towards our position! I couldn't get a count but they were filling the hallways!"

The maintenance hallways were wide to let us move equipment around and if she wasn't exaggerating when she said they were full... oh hell. That was not good! the Overframe must have been silently moving the rest of the robotic population up to throw at us in the dozens if not hundreds.

The Paladin stopped mumbling and angrily kicking my robot wreckage barricade into smaller wreckage and looked up sharply at the the pony Birch had called Crusader Lily. She shook her head and looked at me then the rest of the group.

"How many more damn robots are down there!?" She looked back and fourth between all of us, her eyes lingering on Manesworth and Sunflower for a bit as she did. One of the group raised a hoof in the air a little and I saw it was a very anxious Grease Tin, his eyes wide as they flicked back and forth between Crusader Lily and Paladin Night. The Paladin focused in on him when she saw the hoof. "Well? HOW MANY?"

"I-Uh-Umm- c-close to three hundred active but there are probably another hundred or two inactive, Miss Paladin. Sir. Ma'am!"

Oh Celestia, he was right! There were replacement units in storage below the Gallery floor level in case spare parts were needed. Tens of them had been cannibalized over the decades but most of them were still just sitting down there, inert and inactive. There was zero, nadda, none, no way we could stop that many robots, especially if the Overframe could activate the sleeping units. They could literally pile through the door and no matter how many we destroyed I'm certain we'd run out of ammo before they ran out of units. Hell, and I had probably the best weapon here for clearing the corridor and I was already out of ammo!

The Paladin seemed to come to the same conclusion as her eyes went wide then swiftly switched back into that familiar mask. The helmet closed back into a single unit and she gathered herself up again. "Tower, Lily, get whatever ordnance you have left into that hallway. I want them stuck on that side of it for another two centuries, understood?"

"You betcha Paladin." Tower's helmet closed as well but not before I saw the smirk disappear from his mouth. For some reason I felt more frightened by that then the other Crusader's report. Lily didn't say anything, just nodded and backed away from the doorway. As Tower walked over to join her Paladin Night raised a hoof and waved it around the rest of the gathered ponies.

"As for the rest of you... Initiates, once the way is sealed you are to escort the survivors to the fallback point! Two squads behind, one squad ahead! Tower Squad, Night Squad, you have rearguard with Crusader Tower and myself! White squad, you have point with Crusader Lily!"

The commanding voice had an immediate effect on the group. The black kitted Rangers began herding my family towards the gaping hole where the Stable door had stood. Most of the survivors were nervous about passing through it but their reluctance didn't last long. The hallway was beginning to echo ever more steadily and loudly with the sounds of servos and metal steps and a faint green and red glow was filling the distant end of it.

The two Crusaders didn't wait to see the approaching enemy. They both opened up with their miniguns and once again I felt my skin crawl and go cold. That was nothing though as the Paladin joined in. Then the packs opposite their spinning weapons popped open. Missiles streaked out of them and impacted the ceiling they'd been steadily chipping away at with dramatic results. The metal paneling melted away as the bedrock above it cracked and began falling down in a cascade of stone. The floor shook violently as the avalanche slowly petered out. The armored Rangers didn't waste anytime inspecting their handiwork as they wheeled around and galloped towards the rest of the retreating group.

"What in Celestia's name are you still doing here? Get moving before I decide you're a liability!"

Okay, so I may have gotten a little distracted by the destruction I just witnessed. As a result I found myself pulled off the ground and shoved towards the wrecked Stable door by the Paladin. I struggled for a second against the unwanted contact until I came to my senses. I was having trouble moving quickly with the heavy rivet gun and Sun's brace was beginning to warp and ping as I tried to move faster than a walk. Getting thrown around so much was finally starting to wear it out.

As we made it through the blasted opening into the Stable I glanced back over my shoulder. Unfortunately that meant I was able to see the rubble pile shake as the machines on the other side of it began methodically tearing it apart from the other side. How fast they could do that was anyone's guess but it would be faster than any of us could. The benefit of not having flesh and blood muscles and a lack of rest requirements. I heard the Paladin grunt beside me and saw she'd noticed as well.

"Rangers, double time!" The expressionless helmet turned to look at me struggling to keep up. "Drop the damn weapon! You're only holding up the evacuation, not protecting anypony!"

"I would if I could but the brace under its the only thing keeping my broken leg going and we secured them together! Unless you've got a mechanic, a surgeon, and a free day or two it's not going to make me go faster!"

"That's- GAHHHH, DAMN THIS OP! When we get back and I debrief the Elder..."

"Miss, we can handle this. Not to worry!" The left side of the pack with the gun itself lightened immensely as Manesworth pulled the handle up with his claw. I immediately picked up speed and shot him a cautiously grateful look. Whatever reservations I had about his continued sanity I infinitely preferred him touching me to anypony else there. The Paladin had a slightly different reaction.

"DROP HIM SPARKER!" She jumped back into a crouching position as her minigun began to spin up. Manesworth's eyes pulled back in surprise but suddenly a shadow interposed itself between the two of us and the angry mare.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. We wouldn't have gotten out if not for those two so unless you want another fight right here, right now, stow the popgun," the deep voice of Titan Steel said quietly. The towering wall of navy coated muscle turned to glance at us and I nodded in immense appreciation. I looked back at the rest of our group and saw Spell draped over Sunflower as she stared back at our confrontation, biting her lower lip in distress. Titan returned my nod before again glaring at the Paladin. It was impossible to tell what her expression was beneath her helmet but from the way her head and shoulders were shaking it probably wasn't the mask.

The gun at her side stopped spinning and she stomped away to the rest of the group. Titan simply sighed in either appreciation or relief, I couldn't tell which. Before I had time to decide the huge stallion turned around and lifted me with the handle opposite Manesworth's as though I were simply a toolbox. The Overframe wasn't the most creative name giver you could meet, but what she was REALLY good at was getting right down to the basic, distilled essence of someone with a name.

I found myself floating between the two, my legs not even touching the ground, in what had to be the most bizarre and humiliating evacuation of an invalid ever conceived. Despite that I couldn't help but giggle a little as the adrenaline once again left me feeling drained and a little loopy. I was still lucid enough to look around and take in the small local part of the world outside our Stable. There wasn't much. We were in a large large room roughly three or four stories in height and the same in length and width that appeared to have been roughly cut out of the surrounding bedrock. At the far end from us was a large elevator platform. Above it was a rectangular cut in the ceiling with four metal tubes descending out of it before passing through slots in the platform itself. Cables ran from pulleys on the sides of the platform up into the hole in the ceiling. The whole setup looked like a much more minimal and brutal version of the tube ascent into the Spire.

'A more brutal version of the Spire' ... that phrase didn't make sense anymore. Nothing did, not one thing in this insane nightmare of a day. But we were out of it. We'd made it... all twenty or so of us. My eyes burned and I felt the tears welling up and this time I couldn't hold them back. I hung there under the weapon and curled up tighter as I silently heaved, hot and heavy tears leaving a trail behind our trio. I stayed that way until we made it onto the large elevator platform. The sudden clanging of hooves on metal snapped me out of it long enough to look around.

One of the simple clad Rangers, an Initiate if I remembered right, stood by the control panel while others were attaching small boxes to the panel and the pulley system winching us upwards. They stepped back and I noticed the blinking lights and glowing red screens blazoned with a single word: "Armed". They all looked at the Paladin who glanced at each device for a moment before nodding curtly.

This was it then. They were going to blow up the elevator and possibly the shaft as well. It was the only way out of the cavern we'd left behind and would seal it more permanently than collapsing the hallway had. The Stable was behind us now. I only thought I had been crying before. This time I dry heaved and hiccuped loudly enough that others took note. They hadn't seen the Gallery in flames and the horrors that took place there. But they'd lost their home just like I had and my misery seemed to cement that realization in them and open the floodgates. In ones and twos they began softly crying until our entire group of homeless survivors was filling the stone shaft with the echoing sounds of pain and loss.

* * * * * * * * *

WHOMP

The explosions were relatively small but they were well directed. The panel was scrapped instantly while the pulleys held on for a moment or two longer before they gave way with a metallic ping. The whole platform dropped quickly, barely finding any resistance on the tubes that centered it in the shaft. About six or seven seconds later a large shrieking boom finalized the destruction.

The Paladin stepped up the the shaft and looked down before whistling slightly and turning to the group of Initiates behind her.

"Nice work demo team, that was good and clean. You're getting the stamp of approval in my report," she said with a note of professional respect to her voice. The team did a quick hoof bump with each other before coming back to attention. The Paladin stepped back and turned to face our group.

The destruction of the elevator had been the final nail in the coffin for one or two and they were now moaning from deep in their souls. Most everypony else simply hung their heads in exhaustion. Spell still hadn't come around but was at least breathing from her place on top of Sun. My friend stood next to me with a hoof on my shoulder as she supported my injured boss. Her expression was hard and distraught but she wasn't openly crying like so many of the others. Her red eyes and the quivering corner of her mouth put to rest the idea that she was beyond feeling anything now. Manesworth floated next to me, eyes scanning around without any real discernible emotion. Titan sat on his haunches just ahead and to the side of him, one hoof rubbing his temples as he closed his eyes and frowned.

"All of you, listen closely. You've been through the kind of hell that most can't imagine and I'm not going to demean the pain you're feeling right now. But you're going to have to save it till after we escort you back to the Castle and get you settled in. I promise that you will all get the time to mourn in whatever way you wish then but right now we're moving out. The MidWaste isn't a place you want to stay out in the open or in one place for too long, particularly as far out as we are." She paused to watch our reactions. A few of the group muttered back and forth to one another for a bit but all turned back to listen to her again. I was chalking a third of their obedience up to the numbing effects of shock, another third to fear of the Rangers themselves and their weapons, and the final third to fear and uncertainty of what to do outside of the Stable. At least those were what I was feeling and at least one or two of those had to apply to them as well right?

I glanced around again anxiously. The top of the shaft had ended in a massive enclosed space filled with machines and production lines, just like one of the patriotic "War Effort" videos the Overframe played for us as students in the Nursery. That wasn't what was giving me one chill after another down my spine though. No, that was from the bare skeletons of unfinished robots hanging from gantries and strewn across the floor and on long dead conveyor belts. There were hundreds if not thousands of them hanging in rows above us, quietly squeaking as the last of the elevator blast dissipated into the air. A good number of those same conveyor lines ended just in front of where we stood. The scene was made all the more ominous by a dull green tinted light that streamed through small holes and cracks in the concrete ceiling and bathed everything in an ominous glow.

"Here's how this is going to work. We're going to be moving out in formation, your group at the center, with Crusader Lily," she continued as she tossed a nod towards the smaller armored mare, "and White Squad taking point. You will all keep your noise to a minimum or we will be forced to sedate and carry you and I promise you no one here will enjoy that. The other two squads will be fanned out along the sides and flanks. We will get you to safety as long as you follow every order we give without hesitation." She was panning her helmeted gaze about us but she locked onto Manesworth for a moment when she came to the line about safety.

"Now move out!"

As we walked towards the far end my eyes kept darting from one rusting hulk to the next, expecting all of them to suddenly open up with magical fire and flame and incinerate us all. Unfortunately it was in this mindset that I my ear was tickled by a soft whisper.

"Hafta keep your eyes on the ground dere. Nearly caught your pack on one of the rusty ones."

Manes and Titan were no longer carrying me since we were walking and not running now and because of that I nearly faceplanted in the effort to back away from the voice. The voice was unmistakable but I had no idea how a stallion wearing that much metal could move so silently.

"Birch, what the hell?! After everything else today that nearly gave me a heart attack!" I snapped at him. Huh... first when the Paladin told me to drop the pack and then just now. It was probably a good sign that my snarky side was coming back. Probably not so good that it was only coming back during extreme distress. The shrinks from the Gallery would have... well, they would have had a lot of things to say about our encounters today and our reactions to them. None of them were in the group.

Birch hadn't opened his helmet again since we began our trip out of the Stable so I couldn't see his face to know if he felt at least a little remorseful over scaring me ninety nine one hundredths to death. Half to death didn't even come close to describing it. Then he spoke again and the jolly tone let me know he most likely wasn't. No way of really knowing with that accent though, yeesh. Did even his questions have to end upbeat?

"Haha well we probably should have left you down dere then. Your heart isn't going to like the MidWaste, no question of dat." His cheery tone faltered for a bit as he trailed off at the end.

"It's- it's really that bad? The world? Everything outside 63?"

He glanced back at me before turning to watch his squad and our surroundings. When he was facing away he gave me his answer.

"Depends. I know dat for one or two in your group it would have been a mercy to leave them down dere. It would have been bad... but it would have been faster fer sure. Just how it works. The Wastes... dey'll change you. Not in any way that could be mistaken for good as far as dat goes. You can lose your nerve and likely your mind as well out here. Happens in every group that's been hiding out somewhere. Old subway station, abandoned cannery, you name it. You pull dem all out and some just won't accept it. Dey retreat into their heads and create worlds of their own. Den dey start thinking that the world shouldn't be what their eyes see, it should be more like what their insanity sees. That's how you get raiders... and worse."

I inhaled sharply. What he'd just described was every Stable 63 pony's nightmare. The dead world filled with monsters, clawing to get at what remained whole. "But why-" I began but stopped when he raised a hoof in my direction.

"I can't tell you that Gear Heart. I don't know. You won't know it's happening till dey finally snap most of the time. Dis world isn't made for ponies anymore, not really. Nothing's sound and whole. Out here, everything's broken."

I froze.

No.

Noooooo...

I can't go out there.

I can't go back and I can't go out there, I can't go with them, I can't go out there. Not when I'm already broken. I can't, I was already broken back in the Stable. I was already one of those monsters trying to get in... and I'd succeeded. I'd let the rest of them in, I'd let the wasteland in with its spell to take over the Overframe and kill the Stable. I was already as good as one of the horrors Birch described.

A sudden screech jerked me from my panic as I looked up and realized with horror that we'd reached the end of the factory and a group of Ranger Initiates were now hauling a pair of rusty sliding doors apart. Muddy light filled the opening and then I could see through it and every last bit of hope drained out of me.

A large asphalt concrete pad covered in the hulks of wrecked towing and transport trucks stretched out before us. Everything was covered in a fine coating of rust, grime, and ash. Beyond the loading area the ground was a grayish brown blur, broken up by twig trees with brown and putrid leaves. Between those sharp and gnarled scrub brush dominated. Detail was lost in the distance until a flash of lightning from the grey clouds above us illuminated the dark bulk of a vast mountain range far off on the horizon. The sky flashed again and I looked up to see a faint, sickly green tint the clouds above us. This was hell beyond my worst vision of hell.

"How abowt dat? The Radstorm cleared up while we were down dere! You're all pretty lucky, you don't have to go back in the foul weather we had when we got here! Dat's a good omen fer sure!"

* * * * * * * * *

New Perk: Broken. The wasteland is hell and you can relate. You gain a slightly increased chance of successful persuasion with the denizens of the Wasteland outside of civilization.