"One moment I'm here, the next I'm gone. Is it really magic, or is it an illusion?"

Enclave. For the past few days I have been hearing nothing but strange little bits of information about the group of ponies that go by the same name. Sure I know that they are all pegasi and that they don't give a RadRoaches ass about the ponies down below, but I still don't truly know who and what they are. If they were presumably pegasi, then it would make sense that a random white feathered pegasus that started strutting around Detrot would most likely be Enclave. I mean, it would only make sense if that was the case.

But there was one catch.

"I'm not Enclave Beanie!" I told the orange pony for probably the twenty-third time.

"Then, where are you from? It makes no logical sense that a pegasus like you would be trotting around Detrot like you do?" Beanie answered as he continued along beside me as we weaved through the Detrot ruins.

"I'm from Stable 37!"

"You do realize that Stable 37 is not anywhere near here right? It's located around Old Appleoosa and is currently the home to a bunch of Steel Rangers. Everypony knows that."

"Damnit! I'm not a Steel Ranger, I'm not Enclave, and I'm not lying!"

Apparently, according to Beanie, there are several other stables located around the Detrot area. For instance, there was Stable 22 where a pony by the name of Chancer who showed up many years ago before the Detrot weather got as bad as it is now. He, accompanied by another pony named Sandy Hooves, went outside on a dare that they could not survive outside for a month. Beanie did not know all the details of why or for what reason they did that; all he knew was that they, in fact, did not survive the Wasteland after about a week. Not much is known about them after they left. Essentially they disappeared into thin air.

Another strange thing about Detrot that I recently learned from Beanie was that the city itself had a long history of emerging Stable Dwellers. The theory was that it was some sort of massive project put out by Stable-Tec. The idea was that one or two ponies were to leave a stable for a specific amount of time, return, and then record all of what they learned from the outside. That would then allow the Overmares to come up with a better plan on how to adapt to the outside for the eventual release of all the ponies back into the world. By the looks of it though, it never looked like it actually happened. It's a shame really. If more ponies were out here that had the same ideals, then things would be solved quicker and a solution would be found easier.

But, of course, that was never meant to be.

"Really? Well what are you then if not any of them?" Beanie asked looking back at me and raising his one visible eyebrow.

"A. FUCKING. STABLE PONY!" I yelled back in outrage.

Beanie rolled his eyes and it was all I could do to keep myself from tackling him and knocking some sense into him. Preferably by means of a heavy metal shovel.

"Yeah a Stable Pony with a wide variety of weapons, language, and owns a set of armor that would make anypony with a shit ton of caps want to fork them over to you without thinking twice."

A shit ton of caps for a set of Electrician's Barding? I looked down at the purple colored fabric with the wire weaving that surrounded my chest and most of my neck with the yellow undershirt and raised an eyebrow at Beanie myself. Honestly I didn't see the big deal about the suit. Sure it was useful, but the thing about it was that it didn't do much good against bullets and flames. As far as I could tell, the only things it really worked on was your simple flow of electricity and nothing else. The one plate on my shoulder that was given to me from War was there mostly for decoration and the fact that it put itself there by magic. I didn't know if it really did anything.

"What are you talking about? This is just your Standard Issue Electrician's Barding given to every electrical worker in Stable 37. Other than your average Electron Gun or Taser, it's pretty useless."

"And that is why your also part idiot," Beanie said with a slight chuckle.

"Oi! What that hell does that even mean?" I answered in disgust.

"That barding of yours is not made of your standard metals. You know that wiring in it?"

"Yeah."

"It's made out of some of the rarest metal to ever exist. Sure there is only a small amount of it but, under the right conditions, it can be the most powerful substance any idiot like you will ever lay their eyes on."

"So, mister wise-guy, what is this all powerful metal shit that you keep talking about?" I asked giving him the most distasteful, most annoyed look that a pony like me could possibly conceive.

The orange pony rolled his one eye and whispered,

"Do you think I know what its called?"

"HAH! YOU DON'T, DON'T YOU?!"

Then, quicker than any unicorn should be able to move, Beanie put his hoof over my mouth and shushed me. My eyes narrowed at his contact with my face and I was almost tempted to pull a revolver out and give him a good warning shot right next to his one ear. Okay... maybe not his ear, but really, really close to something that would get him off of me.

"Shut the fuck up," he hissed through his teeth as he glanced around, twisting his head around so much that I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up with a case of whiplash.

"Roody Herl," I groaned as I tried to say something to him but was rewarded with him pressing his hoof tighter around my mouth.

"Do you know when to shut up?" Beanie growled silently, "Unless those big ass ears of yours are useless, you should be able to hear them."

"Hem oo?"

"The ghouls you moron."

Silence. There was nothing but silence, much to Beanie's fears. Nothing but the sounds of the howling snow and wind mixed with the occasional gunshot or yell from a distance. There was nothing.

Then I heard it. My ears twitched and swiveled around until it honed in on the faint noise of hoofsteps in the snow. It wasn't from a pony. No, the steps it made were to quiet for a pony of even below average weight and height. The fact that the snow wasn't making its distinct crush also told me that it wasn't even a filly. It was some sort of creature rather than a pony. A creature that a pony like Beanie knew about all too well.

In acknowledgement of Beanie's warning, I pushed his hoof off of my mouth with my wing and pulled the shotgun out and made sure that it was loaded. With a flap of my wings I lifted off a few inches from the ground and flew to where the noise came from. Out of all the times that the EFS would have been the most useful, it decided to not register anything and thus left me blind in a whiteout. My heart was thudding in my chest like a drum and my breathing was slowed down to an unnatural pace. Funny, I thought that my breathing was supposed to speed up and at least attempt to keep up with my heart rate.

Then, there it was. The very sight of its raw and grotesque complexion made all the organs in my body turn to cast iron. Its slime coated hide was covered in little flakes of snow that refused to melt on its cold skin made the creature a set of perfect Detrot camouflage. Its muzzle was a foot longer than it should be with curved, hook-like teeth stained yellow with age sticking out of its maw. No mane, no tail, no cutie mark.

Oh. Shit.

"NOPE!" I yelled as I hopped into SATS and cued up to shots at the creature not even waiting for the distinct blue hue of the spell to fully fade in.

Two shots to the head with a shotgun should do it. Even if the attack would cost me all but ten of my Spell Charge I was planning on making the attack worth every bit of charge I needed. When the spell released, I watched the two barrels of the gun light up with orange fire at the same time and two cones of lead pellets spraying out the ends with mesmerizing clarity. But, with all the bits of buckshot fired at the creature at once, when they make contact with its head, all it did was peal skin from its skull to reveal blackened bone.

It was the creature's turn to attack now, and it was pissed. He let out a shrill scream of battle that made me curl to my knees and hold my ears. Blood began dripping onto the snow and the creature's voice began to fade out into pure silence. Well, time to do something a bit more intelligent.

Using the magic in my magic-crown-thingy I picked up the ghoul and drove its head into the deep snow and ran. That didn't stop it for long as, when I glanced back, it had already gotten back up and continued its reckless, suicidal charge. I slung the shotgun back and grabbed grabbed Beanie while injecting another one of the HYDRA potions that the Detrot Steel Rangers gave me. Gradually, I could feel my eardrums form back and soon sound returned to its full horror as the creature still screamed as it charged us. I was too scared to look back and fire.

Beanie on the other hoof, had no such problem. He had a strange assault weapon with a metal drum attached to it and the gun was cackling and banging with the furry of a dragon. Its heavy caliber bullets tore great bloody chunks from the ghoul and sent it staggering to the side. Even with that, it still wasn't enough as soon more ghouls were after us as they pursued their prize of living pony flesh.

"What in Celestia's name are these things?!" I yelled through the madness as I took random shots with the Whinnychesters.

"You haven't seen an Aerico?" Beanie answered with a question as he reloaded his gun with a fresh drum.

"That's an Aerico?!"

"Yeah. Nasty bastards and nearly infuckingpossible to kill."

Then, out of the white, an Aerico leaped from the snow and began to close its distance with Beanie. It was only reflexes and pure adrenaline that allowed me to grab him with my wing and pull him to the side just before the ghoul made a nice snack out of him. When we tried to pick up speed again, another Aerico (or possibly the same one I couldn't really tell) bit me in the tail and ground me to a halt. Beanie didn't notice as he kept on running. Good for him I guess.

The Aerico lunged its mouth onto my shoulder trying to take a bite out of it. He wasn't very successful however as he was stopped War's Metal Plate. The sudden contact with the metal did stop the Aerico and reel back for a second. Which gave me enough time to reach for one of my Whinnychesters and point it just below the creature's mouth. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as if I was in SATS as I pulled the trigger. The hammer of the gun swung forward and struck the firing pin...

And nothing happened! I had forgotten to reload just after I spent every single bullet I had trying to shake the thing off of our tail! A scream wanted to be made, but none could be. I was paralyzed with the sudden realization that I was to die and become one of these things after this one was finished with me. I could see the Aerico's eyes widen in maddened glee as he now knew that his snack couldn't do anything to save itself. It tilted his head back, opened its mouth to reveal those unnatural curved fangs of his, and went to take a bite.

"NO!" I yelled as I gathered all of my strength in my body in order to do anything with this golden weight on my head that would make this thing go away.

Then I felt it again. The feeling of absolute and all consuming pain and torment. It was just the same as what it felt like when I first put the crown on but somehow it felt more controlled rather than a full outburst of magic. My coat flashed from its normal white to its brilliant golden yellow, blinding the Aerico for a very precious second in order for me to get my thoughts back in place. Still though, one second is not enough in the grand scale of the Wasteland and the Aerico recovered once more. With all the strength that I could muster, I pulled together all of the magic I had in order to make a telekinetic spell strong enough to throw the thing off of me.

But that did not happen. Instead, with another powerful burst of yellow magic, the Aerico vaporized right in front of me. Without thinking on what did happen though I got back up and ran to catch back up to Beanie. Even with that one down it didn't take long for another one to show its disgusting self. Before the Aerico got any closer, with a passing glance and a single thought, a bright yellow beam of flight fired from atop my head and struck the Aerico square in the chest. It vaporized just like the one before him. In my vision, a message flashed.

WARNING: NEURO-MAGICAL EXTERNAL PROCESSING UNIT #6 OVERHEATED

>COOL-DOWN ADVISED

If its a cool-down it wants, then now would actually be a good opportunity for the crown. Why? Because all of the Aerico's stopped advancing. With one last glance back I saw a small group of at least seven of those ghouls gathered behind one in the front. Now, I wasn't sure if it was the snow, the sweat, or the tears of pain that was throwing it off, but I swore the ghoul in front had glowing orange eyes that I've seen before.

Eyes very similar to a particular Steel Ranger's...

***

Eventually I did meet back up with Beanie. He was hiding in a building that my PipBuck labeled as "Bell Isle Conservancy" across the Detrot River. At that time, I was more amazed that an entire river like that would be frozen so thick that it was as if you were walking on dirt, but I guess that years of the cold would eventually do that to anything liquid if it stayed in the same place for long enough. However the fact that these Aerico's that were following us did not look like they came from underneath bridges. Not that I would know what an average Aerico would look like anyways, but still. You would likely assume that that they would be more filthy and rotted. The ones that chased us, as much as I hate to admit it, looked young. As if they were recently turned. That thought gave me chills. If by just touching one of these bastards kill you, then why wasn't I turned when the one bit me in the tail and drug me down to the ground?

I have a feeling that War might have something to do with this...

"So," Beanie said as he broke the silence between the two of us, "How did you manage to get away from it?"

It was the first thing he said when we met back up in the Conservancy. It was a stark, empty place with only a metal skeleton remaining as a reminder of a civilization now long dead. I really didn't know what a conservancy was per say but I guessed that it was some sort of a greenhouse type thing like the ones in Stable 37, but slightly bigger. The building had a massive dome that rose up from the ground over-top a flat space where still exposed patches of dirt lay frozen in time unable to bring forth more life to this barren landscape. Some wooden boxes lye in heaps and stacks all across the walls and doors. The strangest thing was that the entire building was free of the dead or the attempting to survive. No Raiders, no Slavers, no Aericos, nothing.

"Lets just say it was magic. Special stable, pegasus pony magic," I answered as I took another small bit of ridiculously overpriced chocolate and bit into it.

SNAP!

"Gaw Uck!" I yelled as I spat something white from my mouth along with a cloud of glowing orange blood.

"Yeah, we'll go with magic," the unicorn retorted.

The chocolate broke a motherfucking tooth! Candy broke my damn tooth! That isn't fair!

"Rut teh uck up!" I yelled in one part anger and one part pain as my white coat around my hoof turned red as I tried to stop the bleeding and praying that somehow the tooth would grow back.

Then, thinking that it was a good idea, I scooped up a bit of snow and packed it into my mouth. That made the pain about a hundred times worse and I immediately spat it out too. Using what little concentration I had, I used a weak telekinetic field to levitate the tooth out of the snow and pack into my mouth. Beanie was kind enough to give me a healing potion which I put drank greedily. Within a few seconds, I could feel the magic heal stuff work its magic and the gums in my mouth closed over the white enamel Incisor. Despite its uses, the potion did not help with the pain. One MedX reduced the pain from a sharp, stabbing sensation to a dull thudding like a percussion line.

"Son of a bitch...," I moaned in pain.

"You know, for the Stable Pony you claim to be, you seem to have a very open dictionary of curses for things. Care to explain?"

"Oi! You try being an electrician for Celestia only knows how many years and not have a colorful book of insults ready to go. Its almost required for anypony in Stable 37 maintenance."

Beanie closed his one viable eye and shook his head. In response, I rolled mine.

"Can you do me a favor and keep watch? I'm going to go scavenge," I asked walking away into a room that lead underground.

"Oh I get to do all the work while you have fun looking for shit? Yeah, no problem Quantum," Beanie snarked back.

Great. Not only am I stuck in a Detrot blizzard with no way of getting through it back to Foxes, but I'm stuck with one of the most stingy ponies in the entire Wasteland. I need this time to think before my shovel says hello to his face.

***

The structure underground the conservancy was much like a stable. Sure some things are missing though. For instance, it wasn't as big, it wasn't as open, it wasn't as technologically advanced, and the lighting was atrocious. Still, it was better than nothing at all. By the looks of how the ducts on the sides of the wall moved and were built, this structure seemed to only be made up of one single floor that stretched out in all directions. So being able to pinpoint where each little RadRoach was on the EFS was much, much easier. Even with the structure's simplicity, it seemed like nothing much would be here.

The hallways of concrete and metal were all crumbling and rusting away. If it wasn't for the snow keeping all of the water frozen, I really couldn't imagine this sub-level to be anything more than a knee deep pool by now. That would imply that the walls wouldn't have disintegrated into nothing by that time. Most of the rooms that were down here were more of living spaces than anything. Ponies with their hides perfectly preserved by the cold became a common sight down here. It made my stomach churn. If this is how the ponies two hundred years ago met their end then I wouldn't...

Wait.

I trotted up to one of the bodies and examined it more closely. The dead mare had soft grey hair and a near teal coat with slightly yellowing teeth. Her clothing was still mostly intact and still looked like it held possible supplies and tools. She was a unicorn, no doubt about that, with a ring pierced into her horn. A horn piercing from where I came from meant that you were a recently married unicorn or somepony who had committed a crime and they just happened to be a unicorn. Those rings were separated by color. Silver was marriage; Bronze was a crime conviction and sentenced punishment. This unicorn had a bronze piercing.

Bronze piercings in Stable 37 were very rare. They were mostly reserved for more of the murder/treason crimes as the government in the stable required full support from everypony in order to stay strong. Treason consisted of illegal seizing of heavy weapons from Security and the intent on using said weapon and deliberate sabotage of vital stable equipment. When a bronze piercing is given, all ponies receive either a letter or some other form of message informing of the name of the pony with the new bronze piercing and the discontinuation of that pony's position in the workforce or government. The only punishment after that would be Death.

The Death Penalty was the most rare of all. There were only two ways to become qualified for death. It was to plot the murder of the Overmare and any one of her government officials, or to try to open the stable door for any reason. Simple as that.

The thing was about this pony I see here now was the fact that she had a piercing. Ponies were never kicked out of the stable because of piercing as they were still useful to society as they could still work in Waste Management. The fact that this pony was out here in the cold made me question the Overmare's authority over Stable 37 just a bit more.

"Ah well," I sighed, "Sorry whoever you are, but I need your stuff a bit more than you do."

I began to pull open the pony's coat and saddlebags to see if there was anything good. Nothing major. Just a few bits of scrap metal, a single bottle cap, and two rifle rounds. Repeating the same thing with the other corpses, I found that they too had some sort of branding indicating punishment in the typical Stable 37 style whether it was a unicorn or not. Same basic loot came from them too with only the occasional extra cap. One of them did have a pair of stainless-steel scissors which I took. By now, I probably needed to get my mane cut shorter. It was on my calendar for tomorrow at home so I'm still following schedule. Technically. All I needed was a mirror.

And, like most bathrooms that were designed by ponies with more common sense than me, there was one in the Stallion's Bathroom. Up until now, this was the first time I could really get a good look at myself as all the other mirrors in Foxes were either broken or missing. This mirror in particular almost reached up to the ceiling and had a large boarder around it with ornate crystals and gems that still somehow shined with life and energy. With one glance at the wall mirror, I found that it was not only intact, but also the sharpest and most clear mirror I have ever seen. Cleaner than any mirror in Stable 37. With it I could see...

"Holy hell," I groaned to myself.

I was a complete mess! My coat around my ears and neck were matted in still glowing blood, my ears themselves are torn at the very tips, whole tufts of feathers were missing from my wings, the Electrician's Barding I wore was all full of holes, and my mane was a completely tangled mess. I looked way worse than I previously imagined. Everything I wore was a shredded ghost of what it was before I entered the Wasteland. All except The Crown of course. Damn crown. Of all the magical things it could do, why couldn't it fix my clothes and ears?

Well, it could at least help with how long my hair was.

Taking the scissors from my bag, I lined up the correct cut that I wanted to make with them on my mane and...

CRACK!

Startled, I dropped the scissors to the ground and pulled a Whinnychester from my belt and was prepared to leap right into SATS. The only reason why I stopped was the fact that I saw the scissors broken into several different pieces on the floor. Holstering the small gun, I lowered my head to the small metal fragments in two parts shock, one part amazement, and several more parts annoyance.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I growled, "I cant even get a haircut with this damn thing on my head?!"

The crown grew a bit brighter as if it wanted to respond. I rolled my eyes at my own reflection.

"Okay so, I cant cut my hair, but I need it out of the way. Any suggestions oh all powerful magical thingy?" I asked up to the artifact as if it was going to give me an answer that I was going to be okay with.

And, like all other inanimate objects that I talked too with the exception of Sawbones, the crown did not give me an answer in the slightest. One day it might give me an answer. At least, that's what I hope.

Then I figured out a way to solve this. Using some of The Crown's telekinetic grip I curled the bangs of my mane up and back into a curve that ended into a sharp point over ears. The light blue stands of hair were all focused in the very front while the jet black hairs were all sectioned behind giving my mane a blade-like appearance. When my hair got to the point where it could stay on its own I looked back at the mirror to find that I looked no longer like the Stable Pony that I was before. I looked like a hardened badass with a short fuse and a strong feedback current.

Okay. Maybe the "badass" part was a little much. I still looked like I could kick some flank Detrot Style. Whatever that style was of course.

UGH! Focus Quantum! Don't develop an ego! Egos are bad for ponies. That's how the world ended. That's what they taught you in school!

"Have no ego, have no problems," I said to myself repeating the age old Stable 37 motto.

I looked back to the mirror and grinned. Maybe I can't have an ego, but I can be proud. After using a duller part of the broken scissors to scrape off some of the blood and other grime off of me, I found that I did still look like a Stable Pony; just one with more experience that's all.

Then, at the peak of all the different emotions flowing through me at once, I sneezed on the mirror spraying an entire glob of glowing mucus all over the finely polished glass. A reflection better than anything anypony has ever seen in the last two hundred years, ruined in less than a decisecond. Well, better clean it up then.

Ripping a small piece of clothing from one of the dead ponies, I closer to the mirror and began to wipe off all of the snot. The process was a lot harder than one would think as the bodily fluids already started freezing to the reflective material and the fact that the cloth itself was pretty dirty to begin with. But, after about a minute, most of the grime was cleaned off and I could once again say that the mirror was the cleanest thing in the Wasteland.

Relatively speaking.

The gems of the mirror's frame then became the new subject of my inherent curiosity. The pristine jewels shown like a constellation of stars like the ones I've seen in old texts and scrolls. All except one though. The small, greenish stone on the very top of the frame stood dark among the rest of its glowing companions. With a light beat of my wings in the frigid air I lifted up to it and touched it with as much care as a mother with their foal.

That is the moment when three things happened all in sequence. First, the inactive gem burst to life and bathed the room in a radiant yellow-green light. Second, an eerie chill ran up my spine. Not a chill you would get from the Detrot winds and snow. No, it was something more unnatural. Alien even. As such, the contact and the change in body temperature zapped my brain back into the reality of "This is the Wasteland and not a dream Quantum," and made me fall from midair and onto my face while effectively making my wings snap closed. The entire room then became covered in a strange and otherworldly cold. It was so cold in fact that I could literally see frost forming on some of the wall fixtures within a matter of seconds. All of that however, did not come anywhere close to the third thing that happened.

I looked in the mirror and saw me. No, not the me that I knew mind you. But rather a more emaciated and battle torn Quantum. I got back up to my hooves and moved cautiously to the reflection. The Quantum in the mirror had a menacing appearance. He still had the Electrician's Barding and the bright yellow undershirt, but he also had not one. Not two. But three metal plates strapped to him in varying places around his front hooves with varying sizes. Automatically, I could recognize War's plate on my left shoulder, but I had no idea who the other ones belonged to.

The other Quantum's hair was the same, if not slightly bloody and very much longer to the degree that it covered his right eye. Same thing applied with the tail cut. As if the mirror Quantum could see me and my utter confusion, he unfolded his wings to reveal that...

They were made of metal! Metal wings! That fact alone make me real back in shock. Why was this Quantum missing his wings?

The mirror Quantum then turned to his side slightly to reveal that, not only did he have metal wings, but he also had the lower part of his back hooves were the knees begin and the hoof ends were prosthetic. And this was the case for BOTH of the back legs too! Two missing wings, two missing legs what next?

Then, with the slowest and most pained movement anypony could make and the saddest look in his eye, the mirror Quantum fixed his hair and displayed a bright, blue robot eye. It was very similar in model and make to Sawbones' camera lenses, but two-and-a-half times bigger and one hundred times more blue. There was no pupil nor iris. There was only a cross hair with a small circle in the middle that gave the illusion of some sort of pupil. That eye looked at me and I could only interperite one thing...

This Quantum wanted me to run. He wanted me to go home and face the possible punishment that I would receive. It would be more merciful than what the future had in store for me out here in the Equestrian Wasteland. This place was going to bring me nothing but pain and suffering in every way shape and form possible.

But then, the mirror Quantum shed a single tear and put on the smallest smile ever worn on a pony. What did it mean? Did it mean that I would face happiness through the horrors? Will I become psychopath? What?

"QUANTUM!" I heard Beanie yell from the building floor above.

"WHAT?!" I yelled back, turning away from the haunting mirror.

"GET THE FUCK UP HERE! WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"

Without a second thought, I loaded in fresh bullets in all of my guns and sprinted out of the door. With one last glance at the mirror, the mirror Quantum was gone and replaced by emptiness.

Like he never even existed...

***

With the forces of both desperation and worry working hoof-in-hoof, I flew through the hallways of the Conservancy's' underground an back up to the snowy grounds outside. Beanie was preoccupied with a group of ponies dressed in ragged, sniped armor and manes coated in nothing but blood. Their demonic grins and their chorus of insane laughter gave rise to one conclusion.

Raiders.

And, unlike the time before that I had faced them, I was ready. More ready than I ever dreamed of being. With a grin of my own curling on my face I levitated the two Whinnychesters in front of me and gave a loud and booming, "Oi" that managed to grab every single Raiders' attention. They turned from their now helpless Beanie and focused all of their priorities on the now more interesting looking pegasus in purple and yellow clothing. The first two Raiders came charging at me just in time for the blue hue of SATS to finish loading up. Two shots to the chest, one to the head for each.

The spell released and the symphonic harmony of exploding gunpowder returned to life. The first Raider went down with a single lucky shot to the head the pierced through skin, skull, and brains through skull and skin again making his head have a perfectly circular hole that I could see through. The Raider slumped down and fell forward like a domino as the second gun continued to fire.

The second Raider took the shots to the his chest rather well considering that they were all Hollow Point .44's. The shot to his head that would normally put anypony down missed him completely and I was soon face to face with the bastard as he tackled me to the ground and down the steps that I was standing above. Apparently, falling down stairs feels like a lot longer of a distance rather that just walking down it normally. And having the luck that I had, the Raider fell right on top of me and proceeded to flail and kick with furry and determination.

"Note to self," I groaned as I strained to keep the maddened pony away from me, "Never fight at the top of a staircase."

The unicorn Raider on top of me bit at my hair and pulled at it making my eyes close and water in pain. What is it with Detrot Raiders and their forms of dirty fighting? With all I knew, he was reading another attack or possibly grabbing one of my own weapons to use against me.

Fine. If he wants a piece of me, then he'll get one. A nice sharp piece of me. With as much force I could gather, I tilted my head forward despite the pain of the Raider pulling at my hair and quickly swung it back. Though I could not see what actually happened, I could tell that when a pony makes a gargling sound, its either crippling or lethal. When the Raider's jaw relaxed and released my hair from its grip. I opened my eyes and looked up at the Raider's skull with a fairly large golden piercing through the bottom of his jaw and into his brain. A few seconds of telekinesis later, the corpse was off my crown and I charged back up to the top of the staircase. When I made it there, Beanie was gone.

"DAMNIT!" I screamed as I threw my guns to the ground.

Why the hell cant I save one pony? ONE! I would think that the Security Mare all the way in the Hoofington Ruins didn't have this very same problem. She was a unicorn according to Watcher when I last saw him. Hell, she could probably use all of her magic to slow down time like she was in SATS and grab all of the ponies with her magic and save them before anything bad happened to them AND stop the bad guys all at once. She sounded like that kind of a badass if she could clear out an entire group of Raiders that were stopping a caravan in one day. Heck, if she was in Detrot right now, she could probably trot around without any armor on and still not get cold or get shot at...

Okay Quantum... dropping that thought out of my brain. You don't even know what she looks like in the first place.

Finding Beanie again will take the skills of a different type of pony. Skills that I do not posses. This job requires the skill of a tracker. A hunter who is experienced in all of the methods of movement, stealth, and concealment.

I need the help of a griffin.

Author's Note

LEVEL UP

NEW PERK EARNED

RUN AND GUN

You either have a stable magical field or a very good knowledge of how to use a Battle Saddle. Either way, you have better accuracy with ranged weapons while moving.

QUEST PERK ADDED

THE CROWN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE GUN

You can now fire magical beams of energy from The Crown at the strength equal to a basic Plasma Rifle. The amount of attacks you can make depends on the amount of Magical Radiation and Bio-Magical Contamination within the surrounding area and within The Crown itself.