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                 Fallout Equestria: Joker                  
                    -by DragonPony372-                     
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                        First Steps                        
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First Steps
Fallout Equestria Fanfic. Joker
Chapter 1: The First Steps
What do I dream? Most mornings, I can't remember any details of what I dreamed about. Recently however, it seemed different. I was laying down, feeling what I always imagined to be the warm sun on my face, a cool, gentle breeze blowing over my muzzle and the lush grass under my belly. I was happy, with a blissful smile on my face, carefree as I ever could be and best of all, I could hear my mother humming.
Her voice made me feel so safe, like nothing terrible would ever happen to us. I jumped onto my hooves and broke into a short gallop looking for her. It seemed like hours had passed by, and I felt a small bit of panic when I didn't see her anywhere in the field. I was so relieved when I found her. Over by a small pond, I could see her resting under a tree. Her brilliant tangerine coat shimmering in the sunlight shining through the leaves. Her emerald green mane which she always kept short. I never questioned why and to be honest I thought nothing of it. I felt my smile widen when I ran up to her side and jumped across her back. She let out a yelp of a surprise then giggled when she looked back at me smiling
"Oh Cobalt. You scared me" the soft rose color of her eyes was always a comforting sight. I giggled as she nipped my mane and placed me between her forelegs nuzzling my cheek "My cheeky little Cobalt."
I giggled and rolled onto my back kicking my legs up at her playfully "Sorry, Mama". I didn't want this to end, this moment of carefree bliss. I wanted to remember this. Whenever I woke up the good moments of the dreams always slipped from my memory. My mom nuzzled me again when a cold chill shot through my spine. The fear from before started to well inside my chest as a cold breeze washed over us making me shiver and nuzzle into her chest.
"Mama, it's getting cold" I said to her, as a feeling of fear as cold as the icy wind, weighed down heavily upon me.
She hugged me and held me close "It's okay, sweetie. I have you now". The wind started to blow harder. It felt like shards of ice cutting into my skin, then a faint whisper echoed inside my ear.
“wake up... Cobalt..."
My body started shaking, the familiar feeling of dread snaking its way into my mind. I knew what was coming. For the longest time, there had been something with me. Like a part of me was always missing.
Something bad…
I didn't want to wake up yet. I don't want too! I'd lose her again if I did. Like the scared little colt, I was I clutched onto her and prayed I wouldn't lose her again.
"Make it stop! Please make it stop, Mama!!" I begged her. I didn't want to leave! "MAKE IT STOP MAMA!!" I screamed this time. But she didn't answer me. I looked up and saw a statue of my mother. Who had been a loving and caring soul, now no more than a cold, heartless shell. I pushed away and started panting, my heart racing like it was gonna jump from my chest at any second.
"Mama! Please! Make it stop!! I don't want to go back there!!" every word I spoke falling on deaf ears of stone.. Then the whisper spoke again, behind me this time. I spun around and my eyes fell upon a young colt who looked exactly like me. He had the same royal blue coat and navy pinstriped mane, but his eyes weren’t the same as mine. They were black, cold and hollow. Like two dark voids waiting to suck me in. .
He opened his mouth and spoke the same words again “Wake up Cobalt. Let me out of here.” My heart was racing as I tried to back away from him but shadowy tendrils shot out and coiled around my body pulling back towards him.
I dug my hooves into the ground trying to fight back, but it wasn’t any use. I could never escape his grasp.
“Leave me alone!! I don’t wanna do this! I don’t wanna leave!!” His mouth opened again as he bellowed out a flame of sapphire blue fire engulfing me entirely. I flailed about trying to roll on the grass and snuff out the flames but it didn’t make a dent in them.
The colt grabbed me again and brought me into his face screaming at me "WAKE UP COBALT!!! “. More of the blue flames leaving an icy cold feeling on my face. Wait... Cold flames? That wasn't possible. The dream started to melt away and I found myself falling into a dark pit. The fall came to a sudden end when I opened my eyes realizing I had fallen off my bed and landed on the floor.
The obnoxious sounds of my alarm going off echoed all around my room. My vision was still hazy when I sat up and looked around the room. "Damn it all...". I looked at the Pip-buck attached to my left foreleg.
6:00am. Always the same hour every day since I became old enough to work. I hated it more than anything else. I had difficulty getting to sleep for the longest time since I switched to a first-shift job instead of pulling thirds.. But I had to find why my face felt so cold. I reached up and rubbed my face with my hoof and learned my muzzle was wet. How did I...?
"Good Morning Cobalt" A familiar greeting crackled through the speaker of one of my oldest friends. A sprite-bot I repaired as a colt. I named him Glitch. Merely because he used to malfunction daily until I repaired his circuits over time. With a smile, I looked up at him flying above me with a watering can in his utility hook
"Good morning Glitch”. Glitch, A little sprite-bot I had found in the trash compactor when I was just a young colt. I didn't even have my cutie mark yet. I asked if it was possible for me to take him home. The maintenance ponies didn't mind, neither did the guards. I can still remember my mom's reaction when I tracked oil across the floor she had cleaned minutes before I came home. She nearly had a heart attack. But the lecture I received after she made me clean it up as well as all the hours I spent bringing him back to life were worth it.
I patted the top of his casing and pushed myself into a sitting position on the cold metal floor then let a loud yawn before shutting off the alarm on my pip-buck. I really hated getting up so early. Especially when the busiest hours of the day came around 10 am. But I had my job and I had to do it. I was one of the few ponies with what was called a cross-trained position or a Swinger was most the stable ponies called us. Meaning I had skills that could be used for any job. Not the advanced jobs like maintenance on the power reactor but it was work. It was all right I guess. It let me explore most the of the stable, more specifically the ones that were limited to certain ponies. Like the maintenance ponies who worked in the boiler and incinerator areas. It always gave me the chance to scrounge up some parts for Glitch or whatever I could think of to work on as a side project which I had several unfinished ones in the works. But there was one area I tried to avoid which was the laboratory. I hated how the egg heads always looked at me and watched every move I made. Ever since I was a colt they had me made and all the other kids come in and perform various monotonous tasks. Bounce this a certain way or complete this puzzle or whatever they could think of us to do. I never got why they did this. Every filly and colt had to do this until we each came of age. I was so happy to hear I didn't have to go anymore. But I was bummed that I didn’t get to see Dr. Hard Shell anymore. He was the only one of the scientists who was nice to me. Even more so after the same accident that gave me a scar below my right eye. I tried to ask how I got it but he refused to tell me along with everypony else. It drove me nuts not getting any answers.
There was a knock at my door as I heard the guard pony on the other side "Work assignment for you Cobalt”. I dreaded the work assignments. Every random job nopony else wanted to do. Like I mentioned before I was trained to have a wide variety of simple skills. Nothing major but enough to get me by. I pulled myself from the floor and trotted over to the door. While passing the bathroom, I looked up at the mirror and the reflection of the tired blue stallion looking back at me. You could see how exhausted I was, bags under my eyes and the expression on my face that said anything from 'Please don't speak to me' to 'Would you kindly leave me the fuck alone'. The small pink scar that went vertically from my eye to my cheek was another feature I had no idea on how I had attended. Everyone said I had gotten it when one of the tests went wrong but I can't recall what happened exactly. So, I'm stuck with the usual he-said-she-said bullshit. I sighed out from pure annoyance I continued to the door and opened it. I hadn't turned on the lights on the rooms in the room so my eyes haven’t had a chance to adjust to any bright lights. I groaned and shielded my eyes until they adjusted. I heard the guards trotting away as they handed out the work assignments to the rest of residents. The envelope containing mine was on the floor. I hesitated to pick it up, I had a feeling I was going to get a lab assignment today. Glitch turned on the lights while I leaned down and picked it up by the corner with my teeth.
I closed the door and sighed "Glitch, could you open this please". He gave a confirmatory beep then opened the bottom of his casing extending three utility arms I had installed so he could help with some tasks. I gave him the letter and waited for him to open the letter. He tore open the envelope, grabbed the letter inside and unfolded it for me to read.
Work assignment for Resident #253  
Name: Cobalt Spec.  
Assignment for the day: None.
Wait. None? That couldn't be right. I rubbed my eyes and read the first three lines again to see if I may have misread it due to my impaired vision. I read them again and I wasn't dreaming. Had I no work for today? This had to be a joke or something. Hardly anyone got time off in this place! Even ponies like me. I took the letter from him and continued to read. There had to be a catch to this. Below the usual transcript, I saw a personal note from the Overmare.
Cobalt,  
 This is a letter directly from the office of Overmare Dancing Heart. I would like to invite you to a meeting between you and me in the lounge area of the atrium later today at Noon. You have been given the entire day off because we much to discuss. I would truly appreciate you attending. The future of our stable depends on it.  
Best Regards.  
Overmare Dancing Heart.
Reading the message over again to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Why would my opinion matter to anypony? Let alone the Overmare herself. I started to picture some very bad scenarios in my head until I shook them from my head and set the alarm on my pip-buck for 11 am. It was still 6:24 am and I planned to get the most out of 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep. Locked my door again, made sure my blinds were closed, turned off the lights, Glitch flew over to his charging pod and I laid my happy ass back in my bed "Any sleep is worth getting" I said closing my eyes. Even more so when you're a working adult.
11:22am  
Glitch had to dose me with the water can since my alarm failed to wake me up again. I seriously need to find a better way of waking up in the mornings. I had made my way towards the atrium of the stable where we had our shop's and everything else that you would consider a marketplace. The minute I stepped through the door every set of eyes were on me. I never knew the entire reason but the residents feared me. An accident occurred years ago, when I was just a colt, I was the subject of the test. Some experimental procedure, the details of which I cannot recall. All I remember was lying on a table looking up at some bright lights and then waking up in a security cell hours later. After that, my mom literally never left my side. Whatever had happened and it changed things for me for the worst.
I passed by the diner. Their menu hardly ever changed but at least the food was real and not some imitation food paste or whatever. The moment I knew I had stared for too long, everypony in line gave some a huge step backward. The stallion in front
“Go ahead, Cobalt. We can wait.” I blinked and shook my head walking passed the line “I’m not hungry today.” I continued heading towards the lounging area when a couple of the mares started whispering to each other
"I can't believe he came out of his room" a sunflower mare named Seeder. She was one of the mares working in the greenhouse.
"Tell me about it. Normally he never leaves his room. Gives me the creeps" Bookmark, the grayish blue mare who assisted ponies in the archives and handled the teacher's materials for the classrooms.
But they were right. I hardly left my room for this exact reason. I was tired of everyone looking at me like I had some infection I could pass to the other ponies like I was going to snap at any time as if I was mad or something. The small favors they did for soon got on my nerves after awhile when I noticed how differently everyone treated me. They’d offer me small discounts, extra snacks from the kitchen and some of the ponies offer to let me off early from my daily work schedule. It was enough to make me scream. But that would probably make things worse. Trotting towards the lounging area I hoped to avoid any trouble. Until it practically jumped in my face. Getting knocked flat on my haunches by a bully named Bench Press. The bulky brick brown earth pony who always seemed to have a problem towards me just stood there chewing on a carrot sticking out of his mouth
"Well, well. If it isn't Mr. Special" he leaned down getting eye level with me and snorted in my face "Going somewhere Special?".
'Special', Bench's little nickname for me. I wish I could ask why he had such a sour attitude towards me but his answer would have probably been a right hook to my face. I just gave him a glare and stood up brushing myself off "The Overmare has asked to meet with me and a few others. I do not wish to be late so if you would let me by I would appreciate it. Thank you".
The behemoth got in my face right as I said it. "You think you're so fucking special don't you!? Think you can talk to anyone in any way you want Huh?"
"I wasn't trying to be disrespectful Bench. I simply asked if you would let me by?" Trying to be nice to this guy was like putting your bare hoof into the hot oil. Never a good idea.
He glared at me and leaned forward enough to force me back on my haunches "I'm so sick of you! You get all kinds of special treatment and for what? Just because you had some accident when you were a runt!".
He was right. I was always given all kinds of special favors and treatment ever since the accident from my youth. The test. They were trying out some new medical treatment that would improve a pony’s memory, cognitive functions, and motor skills with electric shocks to the brain is but something happened. A surge shot through my head and I blacked out. I woke up hours later inside one of the security cells with a muzzle on my face. I tried for weeks after that to get some answers from the grownups. I even asked my mom but she hid the truth like the others did. I hated being in the dark on the whole thing. I just stared back at him "I didn't ask for this, Bench. It's not fair for anyone else."
"You're damn right it's not fair!! The rest of us bust our asses to make it through the day and you get a free pass? Not this time!"  
He cracked his neck just as Clover jumped in between us.
"Knock it off Bench! I'm tired of seeing you picking fights with Cobalt!”. Four-Leaf Clover, A grass colored mare who had I known my entire life. We weren't friends but she never allowed anyone to be a bully to anyone else. She placed herself between me and Bench probably to keep Bench from swinging at me. The brute had feelings for clover and everypony knew it. Especially Clover when he left her a flower at her door he got from the greenhouse every other day.
He glared at her and stomped the floor "Move Clover!"
"No!" she said back to him as she got in his face "We've talked about this Bench. Every time you see Cobalt you're always trying to start some fight with him. I'm getting real sick of seeing you act like some teenage school bully! Either this is the last time or else I'm dumping you"
He gawked at her "Clover! Come on don't do this to me! I just wanna see him get treated like the rest of us... "
She raised a hoof to his lip "Last time" she said in a stern tone. He deflated in defeat and turned around trotting away. Clover watched him turn the corner and sighed before looking at me "Why does every have an issue with you?".
I shrugged and stood up shaking my head "No idea. Thanks for cooling him off, though"
She smiled and hugged me which made me flinch "You're welcome. He's a real sweet guy if you give him a chance". She let me go and frowned when she saw the expression on my face. "Are you OK?".
It must have been obvious that touching another pony wasn't something I was comfortable with. I forced a smile so I didn't hurt her feelings "I'm fine really.". I walked passed her hoping she believed me. The last thing I wanted to Bench another reason to harass me. After that little episode, I finally made my way to the lounge where the meeting was being. But seeing the massive figure waiting at the door made me stop a few feet away.
The only pony who was bigger than Bench Press was his father, the head of security. Brick House. 'Built like a brick shit house'. That's what they always said about him. Had the grayest coat on anypony I had ever seen with a cinder block for a cutie mark. He kept his mane cut short so no one could try and grab it during a fight. At least that's what I thought. I looked up at the little stub where his right ear used to be. I asked him how he lost it one day.
His answer: Just an accident on the job. Leave it alone.
I never felt comfortable around him. Especially when I saw the min twitching and he rubbed it with his hoof. That always happens when I was anywhere near him and sure enough "Come on in, Cobalt. The Overmare is waiting for you and the other swingers. "
I chuckled a bit and moved closer to him hoping I could talk to him about Bench’s attitude towards “Hey Brick! Listen I was hoping I could talk to you about Bench". He looked up at me and narrowed his eyes then pointed at the door. Guess he wasn't in the mood for small talk. I shrank down to the floor and walked into the room letting out a small sigh "Luna damn me if I do and damn me twice for trying". Looking around the room I saw the tables and chairs arranged around the massive table in the center of the room. Two coolers filled with some ice and several bottles of Sparkle Cola. Ok, now I was getting thirsty. I noticed the Overmare was one of the first to arrive. The elderly unicorn was hovering some documents in front of her so I don't think she noticed me. Her purple and gray striped mane combed back behind her ears. Her pinkish coat shimmered in the light while she shuffled through the papers. I didn’t have the heart to tell anyone I once had the biggest crush on her. She was kind and sweet even though she could become your worst nightmare if meant doing her job. I made the mistake of calling her an old bag at one point when I was younger and she instantly made me regret it when I was assigned toiletry duty for a week. I looked down at her cutie mark which was a pair of ballet slippers. I had always guessed it was because she did everything with unnatural grace or something. But then my mind started to drift away into a daydream taking in the beautiful mare sitting at the table. You couldn't deny she was an attractive mare.
"Taking in the sights Cobalt?".  
Her voice made me turn pure red in the face as she placed the papers on the table and smiled "You honestly didn't think I had ever noticed you staring at me all these years?”
I choked. I was physically unable to speak from being so embarrassed while my face flared up like a cherry bomb. Finally, I dropped my head looking at the floor "I'm sorry Overmare. It won't happen again". I tried sounding as humble and apologetic as I could but then I heard her laugh.
"Oh, Cobalt. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Honestly, it makes me feel better knowing I can still turn a few heads even with my age". She smiled and got up out of the chair trotting up to me. I shook my head trying to get my head out of the gutter. I looked around the room and my mind to drift away again. There was no one else here... Okay! Not the time to be thinking of scenario out of some smut novel!
I literally slapped myself and cleared my throat as I tried to regain some dignity "Brick said everyone was waiting for me. It's just the two of us."
"Yes, I told him to lie about that so you'd come in and we could speak alone" she explained as she pulled out a chair with her magic "Have a seat"
I looked at her and sat down "Why would you tell him to say that?".
She took the seat in front of me "Because you would have been walking around wasting time waiting for them to show. You hate standing still. You must occupy your mind or else you'd go insane. You told me that on several occasions".
She was right. I hated being in one place. If I didn't something to do or had something to focus on my mind would often drift into some bad areas of thought. I simply nodded "Yeah, I did”
She nodded with me and let out a sighed as she pulled me closer with her magic "Now to business. Cobalt, before anything else you're going to be the first pony outside of the chain of command inside the stable to learn the truth of its purpose".
The stables true purpose? What was she trying to tell me? "Wasn't the stable built to protect ponies from the mega-spells during the time of the great war?"
She shook her head. That didn't sit well with me. If protecting ponies wasn't the intended purpose, then what reason did they have for building it? "Then what was the stable's purpose?"
She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled "The freedom to experiment with the ponies inside without the risk of punishment or consequence”
I felt like I was kicked in the face. The freedom to conduct any experiments they deemed necessary "What... But why?". It was the only thing I could think of to say.
She looked over at the Stable-Tec emblem on the wall "Nopony really knows why but that's the truth. Our stable was built to house several individuals with some history of mental illnesses or psychological disorders for the distinct purpose finding the genetic markers which define them". She looked down at the table "The tests you had to sit through with you were a colt were meant to trigger some form of an illness inside your mind".
I jumped up and slammed my hoof on the table "YOU PURPOSELY TRIED TO MAKE ME CRAZY!?". she jumped and gasped while her glasses hit the floor. Brick entered the room with his baton in his mouth as she threw her hoof up at him
"It's Okay, Brick!! Cobalt is calm!" she looked at me and nodded slowly "You're calm, right?”
I looked at them both and exhaled slumping back into the chair "Yes, I am calm. I didn't mean to yell."
Brick sighed sliding his baton back into his holster "Are you sure you're OK with him alone?" he kept giving me a look like I was some violent criminal and it was really grating on my nerves.
I leaned closer to the Overmare "Does this have anything to do with why everyone is scared of me?"
She stared into my eyes and then slowly nodded "It has everything to do with it. The original purpose of this stable was what lead to the night of your accident Cobalt. The night they tried to perform a brand-new procedure. One that was never tested and they wanted to push it on the ponies of the stable".  
She looked over at Brick and closed her eyes "One that made you attack the doctor's performing the procedure and ripped off Brick's right ear
I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. My heart started beating faster and I developed the urge to puke. I slowly looked between her and Brick. Brick had the expression on his face which confirmed what she said was true. At least to me it did. He walked over and placed a hoof on my shoulder. The look on his face. It made me feel like I really was a monster. The fear and... Guilt? Why would Brick have a guilty look on his face?
"It’s my fault." he said, "They told me to hold you down while they performed the procedure. You were just a colt." he turned away from me his hoof shaking like a leaf. "You were screaming and crying for your mother. But we didn't listen. We just kept going"
Dancing Heart sniffed as she wiped away her tears "We did this to you, Cobalt. It's our fault you've been treated so sourly by your peers"
I jumped up and moved away panting hard feeling like my mind was going to explode any second "You two? You were part of it!?” All the anger and frustration I always kept bottled up began to boil over. I backed up against the wall panting heavily. My heart was pounding so fast I thought it was going to jump into my throat, and it felt like it did because I couldn't breathe. I shook my head and took off for the door. It opened and I caught the sight of a silhouette standing in the bright light then a brown flash struck me and I hit the floor with a thud. Everything went into slow motion. All the panic and anxiety faded away. All there was now was an insane sense of bliss. I was still conscious so I could see what was going on. A smile came over my lips and I spoke only a few words "Right on, man"
The figure in the doorway smiled "Euphoria spell does it again”. The Euphoric spell. One of Hard shell’s specialty. Mimics the effect of certain drugs that elevate a pony’s mood. But with no risk of addiction.
The Overmare sighed "Thank Celestia you came to Dr. Shell." the figure nodded
"Not a problem. We are responsible for his condition after all". An eggshell brown stallion walked into the room. His mane completely gone leaving a pale streak down the back of his neck. He was one of the oldest unicorns I knew inside the stable.
I looked up at him and smiled waving like an idiot "Hey Doc! So, you fucked with my brain too huh?". Goddesses I wish I wasn’t aware of what I was saying or feeling for that matter. I wanted so much to get angry, to hurt somebody, I wanted to scream and swear every kind of curse word I knew. But the spell he used on me kept me from saying nothing but "So what's next? You're gonna use my junk to make a balloon animal?"
Brick and the Overmare looked at me then at Dr. Shell. The Overmare's face turning red with embarrassment at my choice of words "Please tell me that's the spell talking”
He sighed and lifted me up with his magic "Yes, it's the spell. Now let's wrap this up and get ready for the meeting. Our guest is waiting." he sat me upright sitting me down on the floor. The spell he cast on me started to wear off. It never lasted long. Just enough to get a grip on someone if they started to get violent.
"Guest? What guest?". I asked them while I was still under the veil of the spell.
Dr. Shell sat next to me "In a bit cobalt. But first, we need to fill you in on a few things". He nodded at her and Brick. They returned the rod and quickly left the room. Shell smiled as he stood up and walked over to one of the coolers on the table and pulled out two ice cold Sparkle Colas from it "Thirsty? “
I shook my head feeling the weight of reality kicking in and I looked over at the colas the doctor was offering. I gave him a short glare and sighed "Sure, why not?". I didn't want the cola to be entirely honest but I needed something to calm my nerves after what I had just learned about the stable and everything I was lead to believe.
He popped both bottles open and sets mine down in front of me and sat down sipping his first "So then. Why don't you tell me what you've been told so far?".
"Sure. Let's see. The true purpose of the stable was some Goddess damned experiment, the doctors here have been fucking with everyone's brains and now I learned I could be a potential murderer! Sound about right Doc!!?" my voice began with a soft and civil tone then rose up to me yelling my lungs out until I was red in the face.
He just sat there and looked at me sipping his cola "Hmm. Seems they left out quite a few details"
"A few!?" I snapped and kicked the cola bottle into the wall "YOU ASSHOLES LIED TO ME!! To everypony!!! How could you mess with our minds like that when we were taught this stable was built to protect the first generation who lived here all those years ago!!"
He gave me a serious look "Would you trust Stable-Tec if you knew their true intentions with the stable?”
When the question hit, I felt every bit of my anger subside almost instantly. How many ponies had they lied to? How many lives were hurt or lost because of some Goddess forsaken experiment? I sat down while my brain was in overtime imagining all the things Stable-Tec had done. Finally, I looked up at Dr. Shell "What was the purpose of our stable?" I instantly dreaded asking the question but my mind wouldn't be satisfied until I knew the truth. "Please. I have to know"
Dr. Shell took another sip of his cola and swirled the contents of the bottle "Once we ring this bell Cobalt. There will be no going back. I need you to promise you'll hear everything I have to say". He gave me the expression that I wasn't gonna like this but I knew I had to know.
I slowly nodded "Yes, I promise". With that, he placed his cola on the table and walked over to the door
"Follow me to my office. We'll talk there" he opened the door and motioned for me to follow. I hesitated for a few seconds and stood up following the doctor out of the room and into the atrium. Once again, every pony was looking at me. Goddesses, I wanted to scream every time  
But after learning about what I did I can see why they would be staring. It made sense why I was treated the way I was. They wanted to keep keeping from having another episode. I looked up at the doctor
"Dr. Shell, how does the purpose of the stable relate to what happened to me?".
He looked back at me and cocked his brow "I'm sorry?".
I sighed and trotted up to his side. "What the hell lead everyone to use me as some guinea pig?".
He stopped and placed a hoof on my shoulder "Soon Cobalt. For now, let's focus on Stable-Tec". He opened the door to his office. His desk was sitting over in the corner facing the door as always. No pictures or anything a normal pony would have on their desk. But then again I never did think Dr. Shell was normal. My attention was turned to a projector and a screen pulled down from the ceiling. Shell smiled and motioned me inside "Let's watch a movie”
I looked at the projector tilting my head to the side "A movie? Uh... Doctor, I don't think now is a good time for a picture show"  
He chuckled and walked over to the projector flipping the On switch with his magic. The light flashed to life as he went to his desk and pulled out a box of holo-cassettes from the top drawer
"Trust me. You'll wanna see this”  
He picked out a holo-cassette and slides it into a slot on the face of the projector. The cassette clicked into place and the Stable-Tec emblem appeared along with the company slogan underneath "Prepared for the future".
I looked at it for a long time before I read it aloud "Prepared for the future? What does that mean?". Dr. Shell sat on the opposite side of the projector "That is what is known as a slogan. A simple little phrase or a couple of words many companies before the war used to attract customers into their place of business." he explained pressing a button changing the image displaying various posters and pictures of ponies signing up for a place in the stables
"And Ponies just lined up for this? They had no idea what Stable-Tec was really planning?"
"I truly doubt even Stable-Tec knew what was going on. Either that or they didn't care at all" he explained as he stopped on a photo of three mares. "And here we have the mares who started Stable-Tec. Applebloom the president, Scootaloo the vice president and the head of public relations Sweetie Bell”  
My head tilted to the side as I looked over each of them
“Wow" I cocked my brow when I started to take a closer look at each of them. "Wait a minute... Applebloom? Wasn't she a member of the Apple family?".
Shell nodded "She was the younger sister of Applejack. The head of the Ministry of Wartime Technologies."
I looked at him and back at the photo "One of the Ministry Mares. Sweetie belle was Rarity's younger sister."
He nodded again "Rarity oversaw the Ministry of Image."  
The Ministry Mares. That was one subject we often avoided in the stable. The archive which was supposed to be a complete set of records from before the war. Everything from birth records to military service to family history but after what little information I got I began to think this was intended for the purpose.  
"Everyone already knows of this Dr. Shell, so why tell me this all over again?". I looked over at him as he changed the slide.
"Just to make sure you're paying attention. Now as Dancing Heart may have already told you. The stable we live was built with a very specific purpose in mind. As have many others across the Wasteland above"
"Wait... There are others like ours?"
"They were built with their own purpose. But let's focus on our stable. Okay, Cobalt".
I nodded and looked at the screen "The Overmare said this stable was built to for some research behind mental illnesses"
"That's right. More specifically the genetic markers in a pony's bloodline or family history
"An insane asylum? What the hell were they thinking?" I shook my head thinking what a moronic question I had just asked him. "They weren't thinking at all"
He chuckled a bit "That's what I always believed. They never focused on the results of their choices but I doubt they ever thought ponies would actually get better over the years"
"Wait. The stable ponies actually got better?"
He nodded again "With each new generation the very conditions they were trying to isolate faded out and left the science team in charge was losing their purpose”
"So, they stopped with the experiment right?". It was wishful thinking I know but I have to ask. He shook his head which made me regret even asking it, to begin with.
"They needed genes to work with. For the longest time, they considered some options but eventually they decided to release some of the ponies out into the wasteland."
Once again, I felt like I was kicked in the head "They released ponies out into the wastes!?". I really hated Stable-Tec right now after this.
Dr. Shell nodded and turned off the projector "And they used the most plausible excuse they had to convince the ponies to leave. If we did not gather some outside influences into the gene pool of the stable, we would be forced to incestial inbreeding
I listened to all of this and my emotions started to swirl around in my gut. I stomped my hoof and stood up pacing the room "I can't believe this shit! So, they just fed them some bullshit lie and they went out into the wasteland to suffer?!"
Dr. Shell sighed "It wasn't a lie. If they hadn't released the ponies back, then the current generation would have been forced to such an outcome"
I halted to a stop and looked at him "Are you serious? We would have been...."
He nodded "Your mother was one of the ponies who returned with a child. You”
"WHAT!!" I started panting and fell backward on my haunches "My mom was one the ponies who left!? How many did they send?" I had, even more, questions but I was trying to focus on the one involving my mother
"15 mares and 10 stallions. All of them returned with a child and a few even came back with the other parents of the child. Brick House was shut a pony"
"You're shitting me... He was a wastelander before he came here?" he nodded again "OK. So, what happened after that?"
"Your accident. We had another scientist named Fig. He conducted an experimental procedure on your which involved electroshock therapy and ancient black magic”
I looked at him and rubbed my chin "I think I remember him. He said he wanted to take the bad out of me." the details of which were vague to me
"That's what he told everypony but after you went on a rampage and attacked the staff. We stopped the project and everything Fig and his lackeys were doing." he stood up and walked closer to me "Because of you. We learned Fig had been experimenting with some darker elements than was originally intended. We had him locked away inside security but he managed to get away. Before he escaped the stable he set his office on fire destroying all the data on his work and flew through a second entrance nopony knew about
"There is a second door? Does it still work?"
He shook his head "Fig disabled the terminal which is located next to the door itself. Only the access codes on his pipbuck would open them." he placed a hoof on my shoulder and smiled "But for now we have a guest to see. Somepony came looking for you."
I blinked and gave him a double take "Looking for me? Who is it? Did they say what they wanted?"
He nodded at the door and began to lead me to this guest was waiting for me. "It's a Pegasus. She said she was hired to bring you a package”
Wait... A Pegasus? Last time I heard they abandoned Equestria during the war. "OK, it’s a bit odd but I guess it's OK to see what they have to say.... ". I turned the corner towards the atrium and saw something straight out of a creature feature. A zombie pegasus sitting at one of the table nibbling on a muffin. Her eyes dancing around all directions when she blinked, her gray coat falling off in patches. I stood there with a twitching eye as I slowly turned to Dr. Shell "What is that?"
"Ditzy Doo is a ghoul. They're ponies who have been exposed to a great deal of dark magic and radiation. But they didn't get the luxury of dying."
I looked at Ditzy and watched her. She acted like she was still a normal pony. I couldn't imagine a worse fate. Ditzy blinked as she looked at me and smiled waving. She reached into her bag pulling out a chalkboard, slipping a piece of piece of chalk into her mouth. She began writing on the board for a couple of minutes and lifted it up to where everyone read it  
 Hello! You must be Cobalt? My name is Ditzy Doo. I have some packages for you. The Overmare asked me to place the others in your room.
I nodded slowly “Ok, thank you.” What the hell did she bring me anyways? I started to worry about glitch. She reached into her bag and pulled out a holo cassette. I looked at her and walked forward taking it from her. She wiped her chalkboard clean and wrote on it again “I have to go get the others from upstairs. I slowly nodded and sat down opening the cassette player on my pipbuck and slid it in. I hit play and the next sound I heard sent a cold chill over my body
"Happy Birthday, Cobalt. It's me, sweetie, your mom". The tears started to stream down my cheeks as I heard her sing happy birthday to me  
I clutched the pipbuck into my chest. My mother was alive! She was alive and she remembered me!
"She's alive". The only two words I got out when the song finished
"My sweet Cobalt. I am so sorry for this. I never wanted to hurt you in any way but I couldn't stand being in the stable any longer. After the accident, I had to get out. So, I offered to have another foal. The moment I got to the outside I removed the pipbuck and ran for my life. I had never been so selfish in my life. I'm not asking for you to forgive me. I'm not asking for you to forget what I have done to you. I just wanna be a family again. I want us to start a new life. I hope this reaches you when Dancing Heart, Brick, and Dr. Shell will have kept their promise. I love you, baby. I hope to see you soon. Happy Birthday, Cobalt."
I couldn't fight back the tears as I looked at The Overmare "What promise?"  
She smiled and walked up to me
"You and the other swingers Cobalt are gonna leave the stable to contact other settlements across the wasteland. You're gonna find your mom, sweetie". The flood gates opened and I instantly broke down in the middle of the atrium. I was gonna see my mom again. Even after the truth hurt me. I didn't give a shit! She was alive and I'm gonna see her again!
Hours later I was in my room sorting through the presents my mom had sent me. She called it a wasteland exploration starter kit. Some leather armor with metal studs I could wear over my stable barding, some bottle caps ponies used for currency and a few healing potions and pouches of Radaway. Ditzy threw in a signed copy of her Wasteland Survival Guide. I skimmed over a few chapters and found some sound advice. I highlighted a few details to remember. Man, I couldn't wait to leave the stable! The last item was a hoof mounted weapon called a Power Hoof. From the looks of it, the weapon didn't have any special features to it. But a quick modification and I made it a weapon that would make even Brick House think twice. A conductor, some wires, and a few other parts I modified it to send a nasty jolt into anypony who would attack me. I couldn't help myself when I smiled and tried it on.
ZAP!!
I screamed pulling the metal contraption off my leg and winced looking at the burn it left behind "Note to self: Protective layering for insulation".
"You might wanna consider something with some distance before considering physical combat." I looked up and saw Brick House standing in the doorway with a box on his back "Brick? What are you doing standing in the doorway like that?"
He ducked under the arch when he entered the room "Brought you a little something" he said moving towards me and slides the box onto my bed. I looked at it for a second before I got up from the workbench and walked over. I raised my hoof to open the lid when "Happy Birthday Cobalt.". My eyes looked up at him and saw the tired smile he had on his face "Listen, I know Bench has been a real pain since you were kids and I wanna make it up to you." I could hear a slight strain in his voice. There was something else. There always was. I sat down and gave him a serious look.
"Brick, please. Tell me how you really feel”
He looked at me and hesitantly sat down on the floor. He rubbed his head when he began looking down at the floor "You have to leave Cobalt. I know I sound like an asshole for saying that but you really need to leave"
Once again, I felt that kick in my gut. I had guessed this was coming but I never expected to be so soon. I sighed and stood up turning back to my workbench "Wow, thanks for making me feel welcome."
"It's not like that Cobalt. We should have done this a long time ago and let you be a normal pony like everyone else." I turned back to him with my brow cocked "I'm serious Cobalt. With the way, we've had everyone acting around you to make sure you didn't have another episode things were getting more difficult to keep the trust the ponies of the stable in The Overmare, the doctor and myself. They look up to us. But we wasted so much time being focused on keeping you safe we neglected everypony else”
My heart sank into my stomach. The way everyone looked at me, acted towards me and said behind my back. I could only imagine how much they wanted that to stop, to change. I looked at the workbench and all the scrap parts and various electronic junk I collected over the years. Glitch was the only friend I had. But I made him so can I really say he's my friend? I turned back to Brick. He looked at me with that tired expression on his face "Where's the secret door Fig used to get out?"
He eyes widen and jumped to his hooves "How did you find out about that!?"
"Dr. Shell told me. He said Fig used it to get away from the stable after the accident". I watched him as he hung his head shaking it
"I'm gonna have a long talk with him" he looked up at me "But more importantly why the hell are you so interested in it?" His expression changed right around as he waited for me to answer
I hesitated at first but I stood up and faced him "I wanna leave. Using that door so nopony should be bothered with me again”
"ARE YOU...." he covered his mouth before he alerted anyone that may have been outside. He inhaled and then sighed giving me the serious stare guys like him had which meant he wasn't joking around "Are you insane? Do you have any idea what could happen if you go out there alone? Don't you think it'd be a smarter idea to go with the group? There's safety in numbers."
I answered his question with one of my own "And How do either of us know for sure none of the ponies here wanna shoot me in the back?". He opened his mouth to respond but stopped as he thought of the situation I was in. "Nopony here likes me, they're scared of me. I think a good number of them are waiting for the chance to put me of their misery. I've seen it Brick and I know you have too"
He just stood there staring at me and eventually nodded his head "It's behind Shell's office. There's a panel that will slide open when you press the Stable-Tec emblem on the sign on the wall." He pointed at the box "But first open this. You're gonna need it. Trust me".
I blinked then looked at the box. I was honestly very nervous to even consider touching it. But Brick was trying to help me so I’ll put my into trust him. Raising my hood to the lid I lifted off and peeked inside. It was a pistol. It looked almost brand new like it had been cleaned. I looked back up at Brick who smiled back "Called that little piece The Judge.
I gave him a puzzled look "The Judge?"
He chuckled a bit "Got the name from a comic back in my younger days." he smiled and walked over to the other side of the bed "Let me show you how it works and you can take it from there.”
I smiled and nodded as he taught me a few basics. How to aim and pull the trigger with the mouthpiece. Reloading was a bit of a challenge. Once I practiced everything he nodded with a satisfied smile.
"All right. With some practice, you'll be a sharpshooter in no time". He started to leave the room "I'll go get Dancing Heart and Shell. I packed some ammo extra caps, and potions as well." He looked back at me and sighed "You find your mom but promise me something"
I looked up at me while I was getting the feel of the safety on the pistol "What's that?" I neglected to take the gun out of my mouth
"If you find anything about Bench's mom, Rough Diamond. Please tell us”
When he mentioned Bench's mother I froze with the ammo clip on my hoof. I spit the pistol onto the bed and looked up at him "She's gone too? I didn't realize she left. Who else was there?"
"Just Rough Diamond and your mother. Both discarded their pip-bucks and disappeared into the wastes. After that, we didn't have the numbers or resources to search for them.”
I never considered how Bench felt. We had both lost our mothers and yet I was the one who was recognized as the victim. Plus, I never paid attention to anything else outside of my work. I looked up at Brick and nodded "I will".
I owed them this much. I owed Brick so much for everything he's done for me. Even if he was an ass at times. Brick nodded and left the room. I sat there looking at the Judge. Did I really deserve a weapon like it? Something which was sentimental to Brick. A reminder of his past. I exhaled and picked it up and rubbed it between my hooves "I have to make this up to them. All of them"
Two more hours passed. I waited until everyone had retired to their rooms getting ready for dinner or for bed. I left glitch in his charging pod so when he joined me he’d be at full power when we left the stable. Trotting down the halls I made my way to Shell's office. I had slipped the leather armor over my stable barding and made sure The Judge was firmly holstered where I could grab it. I looked up at the poster and read the slogan again like I have countless times before "Prepared for The Future!!". Was I prepared for the road I was about to take? Did I even have a clue of what I was supposed to do next? I only had one way to learn for sure. I pressed the emblem and the panel opened upwards into the ceiling. Inside Dancing Heart was sitting at the top of the stairs with a tearful look on her face. Anyone could see how she felt about this whole thing. I walked up to her and placed my hoof on hers
"Don't ask me to reconsider. You know this is the right thing to do for everypony else in the stable. You have a duty as the Overmare to watch over them". The tears started to fall as she grabbed me by her front legs and hugged me like I was her own foal.
"Please Cobalt! You can't expect me to stand by and let you do this!!”
I sighed and pulled away from her "Heart, I'm sorry but I have to do this. The ponies here are gonna look to you for leadership when you open that door. I can't stay and expect things to work out. I wanna do this". The tears flowed even more as I turned and walked away. Heart sniffed as she wiped her nose on her sleeve
"Cobalt. At least let me tell you something first. Something I've been keeping to myself for a long time". I sighed and stopped. If I knew Dancing Heart she was gonna try anything to make me stay. I do mean anything. I turned around to face her.
"Okay... What is it... Mff!" My face flared in a crimson red when she suddenly kissed me! Not some motherly kiss on the cheek or forehead. But A full-scale lip lock! She kissed me like I was her husband. I fell back on my haunches as I stared at her. Her cheeks were flared up like mine as she sniffled again.
"I Love You, Cobalt”
I just blinked and stood up brushing off my stable barding. With a heavy sigh, I looked her dead in the eye "You really expect me to believe you're gonna return my feelings after all this time? I'm sorry Heart but you need to focus on the stable. Not me. I'm leaving and that's my final decision". I turned away and trotted towards the second door when I heard her stomp the floor yelling as loud as she could.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!!! After everything I've done for you!!". The tears were falling faster from her cheeks. I was a bastard. With those words, I crushed her heart and soul along with any feelings she had for me. "I hope it's worth it Cobalt! Because I never wanna see you around here again!!" she stormed off back to her room sobbing as she ran. I turned around and lowered my ears.
"I'm sorry Heart I really am." I heard Glitch give off a sad whine in the hallway as he hovered into view. I turned towards him and watched him as he looked at me "You wanna come along boy?". He slowly nodded and hovered towards me. Once he was close enough I reached up to him on his casing "Let's go then". The both of us heading towards the door. Dancing Heart's words echoing in my head. I didn't think I deserved her kindness. Nor Brick's or Shell's. They put so much on the line for me. To protect me. If I didn't learn to protect myself I would never be over any of this.
I quickly found Shell and brick bent over the terminal which opened the second the door. After seeing the main door at the end of the stable I could see why this one was so well hidden. It was a fourth of the size of the other door. It was so small anyone who looked at the blueprints wouldn't be the wiser
Shell tapped his chin "So do we reboot it and try again?"
Brick "And wait for it to start up again? Forget it. We need to get this door open for Cobalt"  
I cleared my throat to get their attention. They both turned around and sighed. Shell stood up walking over to me "Cobalt, maybe you can help. This door has beaten me in every way possible”
I looked at him and then leaned over looking at the terminal mounted on the wall "Let me look at it. You're not the tech savvy guy doc. No offense."
He pushed his glasses up and moved to the side as did Brick allowing me some room to work while I looked at the green letters on the terminal "Let's see. The mainframe is connected. I'm getting data from other parts of the stable as well. So why won't it connect to the door?” I scrolled over the options to see what was what
CHECK VENTILATION STATUS  
MAINTENANCE INBOX  
OPEN SECOND STABLE DOOR (error... Connection not established)
Hmm... Not established. I looked at the side panels mounted under the terminal. The corner of the very bottom panel next to the floor was bent to hell and it seemed someone had sealed it back with putty. "Glitch, open the panel please" he beeped and flew up grabbing the bent corner of the panel pulling it free. Once he moved to the side and I looked at the wall "Thought so. Fig cut the cables to the door.”
Shell facehoofed when I said it "Of course he did. I would never have thought to check those".
I smiled looked around for a way to turn off the power to the cables. Once I found the conductor switch I flipped it off and pulled out my tools then got to work reconnecting the cables. Stripping the rubber off wasn't easy. I saw Brick's shadow loom over me and I signaled glitch for a light. He flashed his headlamp on the cables "What is it, Brick?"
Brick "I hope you know what you’re doing Cobalt. We wanna see you come back alive.”
He patted my shoulder as I cut and capped off the wires. Then I felt Shell's hoof on my shoulder "You did the right thing Cobalt. As much as none of us would want to see you go..." he sighed heavily "...You're right about this. We have the stable to look after. We need to focus on the ponies here." he patted my shoulder and walked away. A tear rolled down my cheek as I stood up and hit the command key on the terminal. The alarm sounded as the lights lit up and the massive arm which opened the door slide into place. I was a bastard for hurting her. After everything Heart and the others did for me I had no right to hurt her like that. The door screeched open and the air from the cave outside came rushing in. I nodded and looked at Glitch
"Let's go, buddy" he nodded and we made our first trek out into the wasteland that was once known  
as Equestria.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                   Chapter 2: The Basics                   
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Chapter 2: The Basics
Chapter Two
The caves outside of the stable went further into the ground than I had originally thought. The long walk from the second stable door up to the surface took at least a half hour to complete with no other lights except for my pipbuck light and Glitch's headlamp. He whined softly hovering alongside me while we got closer to the exit to the cave "I know, boy but I couldn't think of any other way of handling the situation. You could have stayed behind. The heart would have taken care of you". He blurted out a protesting mess of garbled static but I knew what he meant "Yeah, you're right. She wouldn't know to fix you if you needed repairs." He nodded and continued to hover along. We exited the cave and looked out upon the wasteland for the first time. The scorched landscape which had been a home of friendship and comradery, now it was an empty and hollow place. I looked up at the sky, the gray cloud cover didn’t help my mood at all. I felt a sudden sadness in my heart as I took in the sights "How could they... ". I shook my head. What was the point of asking such a question? Who would really know the reasons ponies had for fighting? Not just the ministry mares but the citizens, the soldiers and other leaders who ponies trusted to give them hope. Glitch nudged me and broke my train of thought. Sighing softly, I patted his casing "Come on, Glitch let's see if we can pick up mom's trail".
He nodded and hovered off while I checked the map function on my pipbuck "Hmm... Wait." I looked at one location. One of the many names I constantly heard during my school days: Ponyville. Of all the places, I could have found, the first one had to be Ponyville. I looked around and spotted a trail heading across the fields "Okay, my first day begins". With that, I started walking east to Ponyville. The former home of the Ministry Mares themselves. I wondered what their lives were like before the war. Before all the hate and conflict. After an hour-long stroll I looked up at the nearby hill and saw a barn surrounded by apple trees. No doubt who's home it was. Getting closer to the front gate I looked up at the sign: Sweet Apple Acres. The sadness hit me again. I wasn't sure if I was overly sensitive or what but I couldn't help thinking of all the lives that were lost. Not just ponies but zebras, griffins, dragons, and the other creatures who were involved with the war effort. I hung my head a bit and continued moving towards the town
I stopped and looked up at the barn as well as the farmhouse next to it. Thinking back to Dizty's survival guide I remembered one tip she mentioned a few times. Scavenging: Always look for anything that could save your life" Perhaps I could find something inside which may be of use to me.
I trotted up to the house and sighed while followed behind me. The radiation meter on my pipbuck began to click away when we passed some irradiated patches. No doubt this was common around here. Luckily mom had given me some insurance to ensure I would survive against radiation poisoning. Once I was just outside the front door of the house I reached up to push the door open then I heard some voices around the corner "Pops, are you sure there's something here we can use to trade?"
My eyes shot to the corner of the house where an earth pony walked into view. The mud brown stallion, covered in a full suit of leather armor like my own was looking back the way he came speaking to whoever spoke to him first
Pops "This used to be Applejack's home. Big Mac and Applebloom lived here too, so yes I am certain" he turned and saw me taking a huge step back "Ah shit. Somepony got here first!"
"What!" a young unicorn darted around the corner and looked at me. Her green eyes locked onto mine while her cheeks turned pink. Her coat was a dark caramel brown with a salty white mane. Didn't see her cutie mark, nor the stallion's since they wore full body armor. She said smiled a bit "He's cute."
The one she called Pops rolled his eyes "Kids always falling for the first one you see"
He stepped in front of her as he kept his eyes trained on me "All right, son. We don't want any trouble. The house is your claim. We'll head elsewhere."
The mare looked at him "Pops! Are you nuts!? We can take this guy! He may be cute but he's just one pony. Backdraft could eat him in two bites". She pulled out a .357 magnum and aimed it at me "Look here blue boy! We've been trekking all over these hills and we are not going away empty hooved!".
Pops knocked the gun to the ground and shot her an evil glare "What have I said about drawing your gun on non-hostile pony!?"
She whimpered and took a step back "Only draw your gun if they draw first"
Pops nodded "Exactly. We aren't raiders. We don't kill if there's no reason to"
I raised a hoof "um would it be a bad idea to point out I could have shot first during this whole moment between you guys?".
Both sets of eyes were on me as Pops started to smile then broke into a soft chuckle "Ha-ha! You know what? You're right. Here I am running my mouth and you're sitting there patiently waiting for this old mule to shut up"
The mare rolled her eyes "He still has a point. We'd be dead because you went into Father Mode again"
Pops snorted "Well excuse me for trying to make sure you grow up to be an old mare someday". He looked at me again then pointed a good at the collar of my stable barding which stuck out from under the armor I was wearing "You a stable pony?"
I blinked and nodded slowly "Yes, I was. I just left mine a few hours ago,"
The mare's ears shoot up as she looked at me "You left a stable? Why the hell would you do something so stupid!? "
Her reaction caught me off guard. I just look at her trying to think of a response "Well if I'm being honest I couldn't stand living in my stable anymore. I had to leave."
She gave me a deadpanned expression "So you gave up a safe haven for a life of a constant hell and an unending need to fight for your life? You're a special kind of stupid, aren't you?
"Excuse me?". What was this mare's deal? The first thing I've said to anyone and this mare has an attitude right off the bat.
Pops stepped in and smacked her over the head with his hoof "That's his decision and you have no right to judge him!"
She rubbed the spot where he struck her and glared at him "I Just don't get why anypony would give up the safety of a stable and willingly throw themselves into this hellhole the rest of us call home! Maybe I should go over to his stable and see if I get his room since he's no longer using it". She looked over at me and smiled "You wouldn’t mind, would you?"
I shook my head “I don't have time for this" I looked over Pops who had the expression of someone who was so very done with the situation in which I could sympathize "Why don't we split whatever we find and call it even?"
His ears shot up as he looked me dead in the eye "Are you serious son? I mean you got here first.”
I nodded "I'm sure. No way in hell I could possibly carry a lot on my own."
The mare shrugged it off "Eh, it's better than nothing." she stepped forward "You got a name stranger? You can call me Salt"
I nodded "I'm Cobalt.”
Salt smiled a bit then her attention was drawn to something that walked up behind me "Hey Backdraft! Did you find anything over in the barn?".
"Nope, just a bunch of old rakes and other crap".
I felt a warm gust of air against the back of my neck. My head spun around on a pivot to see who had just spoken. It was a dragon! An actual fucking dragon! I couldn't help but freak out as I started to back off the front steps "HE'S A DRAGON!!?" now it made sense why Salt said 'Two bites'
Salt giggles as she grabbed me with her magic and held me in place "Relax Blue boy he's with us. This is Backdraft our bodyguard and muscle"
Backdraft was at least 8 ft in height and I didn't wanna guess his weight. His scales looked like someone cobbled a bunch of coal together. His eyes a bright burning amber that felt like they were looking right into my soul. He let out a small laugh crossing his arms "That kind of reaction never gets old"
I just stood there staring as my eyes drifted from the dragon himself to the minigun strapped to his back. I could feel my pupils dilate when I started to get closer "Is that an MK-7 chain gun? I didn't think I'd ever see one outside of the old catalogs in my stable!"
He smiled and grabbed the gun's grip bringing to bare "Yes, it is. I named her Chainsaw". Chainsaw was right. The barrels were wrapped around with barb wire down the length and three serrated blades were mounted on the end. This weapon was built to destroy!
I smiled and looked it over starting with the motor "Man, you really put some work into this baby." he had changed the motors and most of the internal components "Where did you find it?"
Backdraft set it down on the ground "Old military base to the west of here about three years ago. Found her still attached to a crashed vertibuck. Had to rip off the damn thing but I fixed her up with some of the salvage we found that same day. She hasn't left my side since that day
The smile on my face kept getting wider like I was some colt "Can I say I'm honestly freaking jealous right now!?". Something inside the motor caught my eye. It was a holo-cassette lodged into a tight space "What's that?" I pointed at the holo-cassette
Backdraft looked at it "Oh that? That was something we found at the base. I slid it in there because it kept rattling when I fired it. Completely forgot it was in there"
I held up my pipbuck "I got a player right here." I gave him a big smile "Wanna hear what's on it?". Salt and Pops sat down next to me on both sides
Salt "okay, let's see what's on this thing.”
She lifted the cassette out with her magic as I opened the top slot of my pipbuck and hit play. Two entries popped up on my display.
Project: Cogarth Chassis blueprint
(Audio recording)
I selected the first entry and hit enter. My screen started to light up with a barrage of letters and numbers. I've seen this once before "Bad news. This first one is encrypted. My pipbuck doesn't have the software necessary to read it
Salt "Well shit. What about the other thing?"
"Yeah hold on." I moved the cursor over to the second entry and hit play
The recording crackled a bit then a stallion’s voice was heard "... Fuck! Fuck me running! Shit! *heavy panting* ... Fuck, what was I thinking bringing this in here? OK, let's try this again. Hello, my name is Brass Bell. I am a soldier at the Trotton Military base to the far west of Ponyville. Well, I won't be anymore once they find out I snuck this cassette in here. Listen, whoever finds this. The data on the cassette must not find its way back to Rising Star. You hear me? She cannot be allowed to get it back! I pray who or whatever finds this tape has the better sense to just leave it where it lies. Don't bother trying to break it! She did something to it and it's virtually indestructible! Please. Don't let her find the cassette!"
Some other ponies were heard in the background "Fuck! They found me! This is Brass Bell, signing off!" the recording ended with gunshots
We all sat there staring at my pipbuck while the name Rising Star repeated itself "OK, that was kind of ominous"
Salt snapped at me "Kind of!? You heard the guy on the tape!" She yanked the cassette from my pipbuck and threw it to the ground picking up her .357 from earlier "This thing has to go!!" she took aim and let off four shots. Each round bounced off the cassette and ricocheted into the bark of the dead apple trees surrounding the house.
We looked at the cassette when the dust settled while Salt stared in disbelief "Not a single scratch
Backdraft stood up and walked over picking up the tape then popped it into his mouth. He tried to bit the tape in half and sadly didn't do any better than Salt's gunshots. He started to get frustrated and bite even harder until we heard a small crack. One of his teeth hit the ground as he spits out the tape and held his mouth with a tear in his eyes. Salt took the tape and rolled it around "Damn. Not even his teeth did anything? It's just plastic! No way it could have stayed in one piece after all of this!". Glitch beeped as he nudged my shoulder
I looked up at him "What's wrong glitch?"
He chimed out "I hear music!" using a mixture of various audio recordings I programmed into his memory so he could form some phrases. I started to hear it too. Some bizarre Oompa music
My ears shot up tilting in all directions until I found the direction of the source. Another spritebot bobbing along blaring some festive Oompa music from its speaker. My head tilted to the side watching it drift back into the woods, I couldn't help but look at Pops. He raised his hoof "I know what you're gonna ask. Those spritebots are constantly wandering around the wasteland playing that music all over the place. Gets old real fast"
I don't think I could ever get used to that music so I got up and began moving towards the house "Yeah, I see what you..." the music stopped playing and I stood there. A feeling in the back of my mind was telling me this could be a very bad idea; however, I could not stop from turning around and seeing the spritebot just hovering in the woods staring at me and everypony else. Pops, Salt, and Backdraft all gawked at it like Glitch and I was.
Backdraft gripped the handle of the chainsaw "That's never happened before. These just fly around and play that damn music!" the spines on his back started to flare up "It's starting to piss me off!"
Pops placed a hoof on his shoulder "Easy, Son. We don't wanna attract raiders from Ponyville."
The word 'Raiders' got my attention. I looked at Pops while he kept an eye on the ominously silent spritebot "You said raiders. What are they?"
Pops looked at me for a split second and then back at the spritebot while Glitch hovered over to it beeping inquiry trying to get it to respond to him "Raiders are the worse kind of ponies. They steal, rape, kill and plunder anyone or anything they see. If you got something they want they'll take it from you. Some of them aren’t very bright but then again there are ones like the Sledge you need to watch out for"
"The Sledge?". I was pretty this wasn't the time for questions but I had to ask him while I had the time
He nodded "Yeah, The Sledge is one of the biggest Raider bosses of the west. Some say the guy was born from a dragon's brood but has the form of a pony. Insanely strong and just as smart. Some will go to say it's a damn mare!"
Backdraft "One story I've heard the Sledge got the name from taking down a dragon with nothing more than a damn sledgehammer, no armor, and no help. Just one pony. The gang running with him just sat back and watched
As soon as I looked at Backdraft after I heard what he said the spritebot resumed its previous task bobbing along the trail heading towards the woods. Every one of us just stood there waiting for someone or something to happen. Pops broke the silence when he kicked the front door in "Okay! Backdraft, you, and cobalt will check the downstairs. Salt and I will check the upstairs. Remember the rule: You find something, you whistle. Got it?"
They both nodded as he looked at me "Cobalt, you find anything you think has some value or some use to it. You can have it. But if possible I want an even split. Agreed?"
I nodded and walked over to Backdraft as he used his breath to weld a piece of metal into where they hid the holo-cassette in the Chainsaw "So what's the story with the Sledge?"
Backdraft looked at me as he closed the Chainsaw's casing "Years ago, A bandit leader called Ripper ruled over the area west of here. He was a dragon much like me. Using fear and intimidation to control his gang along with the surrounding areas. That was until... The Sledge stepped up to challenge him"
"He was said to be this dark yellow and skinny little pony with no cutie mark. He wasn't even wearing any armor and the only weapon he had on him was just a regular Sledgehammer! But no one stopped him." He drew a picture of the fight in the dirt with his claw. I watched him, imagining the fight inside my own head "He said that Ripper was just a coward and didn't have any right to lead. So, he challenged him to a duel. The Sledge against Ripper and his whole gang
While I listened to the story we had entered the house and began looking around. So far, we discovered nothing but some rusted shoes, pie tins, and gardening tools from before the war "The guy took on the whole gang?"
Backdraft nodded "Yeah, Ripper laughed at the whole thing thinking the guy was trying to be funny. The sledge threw a barrel at his face. Which really pissed him off. He gave the order for his gang to open fire right there on the spot" he picked up a few of the pie tins and chucked them at the wall making them bounce back towards us "He shook the bullets off like they were dandruff
“After the dust settled they saw the sledge just standing there. An evil smirk growing across his face. He reached up and five finger-like appendages popped out of his hoof when he grabbed his hammer. 'It's my turn.' that's all he said before the whole gang started to swarm him armed with every blunt and the sharp object they could find. Then you see nothing but red mist as the Sledge took them out with just his hooves and that one hammer. Flesh ripping, bones breaking and the sledge covered in blood from head to hoof. Not one single raider left a mark on him. Then Ripper jumped into the fight armed with his signature dual ripper saw blades. The motors roaring as the blades did nothing to the sledge but make him chuckle
"Ripper was getting pissed at this point. Finally, he tried to bite his head off. Lost half of his teeth when they broke off and the Sledge yanked more of them out. Ripper couldn't believe this was happening. He tried to fly away. However, the Sledge himself grabbed his tail and yanked him back down into the ground then hopped on his chest holding his hammer at Ripper's head. It was this moment the Sledge showed the world his favorite method of execution: The Golf Swing
"Golf swing?" I asked him when I thought back to the old classroom when we were learning about the various prewar sports activities they played. Golf was one a few I didn't really grasp the concept of the rules. He nodded when he opened a cabinet in the kitchen
"That's right. He pins you to the ground with his hind leg, holds the sledgehammer next to your head like it was a 9 iron and swings it pretending he's playing golf." he shuddered a bit "I’ve seen the bodies of a caravan who ran into Sledge and his group. It was not pretty"
Just the image in my head was enough to make me lose any kind of appetite I had. Man, this guy sounded like a real piece of work. Note to self: avoid the sledge if possible. However, I couldn't fight my growing curiosity of the guy. I kept wondering what he looked like and if the story has any truth to it at all.
Salt called to front the top of the stairs "Hey guys! You should come look at this! We found a terminal with a recorded message. Looks like Cobalt wasn't the first one to leave his stable."
Should I really be surprised that I'm not the first? The both of us started up the stairs as I looked around at the rooms of the house, I started to picture the Apple family. Happy and carefree during a much simpler time in Equestria. Once again, my oversensitive heart started to feel heavy inside my chest
Salt watched me from the doorway and tilted her head "Hey Cobalt. You OK?".
I nodded and looked up at her "Might seem stupid but I can't help but wonder how things would have been if things hadn't occurred as they did"
Pops called out from the room while he tapped at the terminal's keyboard "Can't help what happened, Son! They had every chance to prevent all this from happening but they choose to let their prejudice guide them. Trust me when I say. Learn from the Past, live in the present.
With a sigh, I walked into the room and my eyes instantly went to the terminal sitting on the desk near the window "Anything on it?"
Pops nodded "Yeah. An audio recording left here a while ago. Pretty recent from what I can tell" he hit play and the words came pouring out of the speaker
To any pony who has left Stable Two in search of me:
Please, go home. I am doing what I have to do. The Overmare understands, even if she can never agree, and I hope one day you will too. I will not be back. Do not look for me. Do not endanger yourself further for my sake. Please forgive me.
Velvet Remedy
I felt like I had heard the voice of an angel. Velvet Remedy, her voice was almost like an angelic chorus. She left her stable like I did. Whatever her reasons were I'm sure they were worth it. At least I hope they were. I walked up to Pop's side "Is that all that's on here?"
Pops "No, there's one more file among all the corrupted data but the damn thing is encrypted. We need the file from both terminals that sent and received the file to open it.
I looked at the file and shook my head "Leave it. Something tells me it's best to leave it alone." glitch flew in and beeped inquirly looking around the room "There's nothing here boy. I think we should make our way from here." I looked over at Pops "Do you know the ghoul pegasus named Ditzy Doo?"
He gave me a hearty chuckle "Of course I know her. We do some trading every so often when I pass her shop in New Appleloosa.
"New Appleloosa? Where is that?"
Pops stood up and walked over as he pointed at my pipbuck "Open up your map and I'll point it out for you"
I did as he asked waiting for him to mark my map with the location of New Appleloosa. Salt watched as she sat down on the nearby bed giving me a slightly worried look. I met her gaze and tilted my head. Was there something wrong? She and I met just met.
Pops nodded and patted my shoulder "There you go! Take this route here and you'll be there in a couple of days". He smiled and went back to scavenging through the house.
I took the moment to walk over to Salt and looked her in the eye "Are you OK?"
She looked back at me and sighed shaking her head "No, I'm not. If you leave I'm gonna be stuck with that old geezer and the walking furnace all over again
I was a bit surprised at her answer "What's wrong with Backdraft and Pops?"
She looked at me and placed her hoof over mine "There's nothing wrong with them. It's just.. " her face started to turn reddish pink "... It's not often I get to see another pony aside from raiders and slavers." she started to lean in closer "Especially one who's close to my age"
My eyes shot wide open when I got the hint of what she was saying. I yanked my hoof away and blushed a bit while my breathing started to get faster "Listen Salt. You're a cute mare but we've only met and I barely know anything about you"
Salt jumped onto her hooves "So why not travel with us and we can learn about each other together?”
I shook my head "I can't. There's something I need to do. I wish I could travel with you but I have somepony I want to find first"
Her expression started to turn sour in a split second. She stomped her hoof on the floor and snapped at me "Who the fuck is so important you have to throw yourself into this hellhole!? At least tell me who you're looking for!”
"My Mom". My answer instantly doused the fire in her eyes. A sudden sadness took its place. I reached up and rubbed her cheek "I have to find my mom. She's out here somewhere waiting for me. Please understand. I don't wanna hurt your feelings but I can't stay. I need to go"
She sighed and leaned into my touch "A guy like could wind up dead out here"
She looked up at me and kissed me catching me off guard like the Overmare did before I left. I froze up blushing so bright my face could have been a Hearth's Warming decoration. She giggled and walked out of the room leaving me there alone.
"Just come back alive OK?" she smiled and left the room.
Once again, I was dumbfounded by how easily I attracted both Salt and Dancing Heart. Did I have some kind of charm on me or was I cursed? I never liked the attention others gave me and seeing how two mares seemed so easily attached to me. Glitch beeped inquirly as he nudged my head. Finally, I regained the ability to speak "I understand... nothing.
I heard Pops chuckling in the doorway "You got the look of somepony who hasn't kissed a mare before"
I looked at him and felt my face getting redder "Usually the other pony expects it!" I shook my head after some unwanted thoughts and images started to come to mind "Does she do this often?"
He shook his head "Not usually. But it's not like he doesn't go looking for some young stud when we hit the bigger settlements." He trotted over and stood next to me "So you're looking for your mom huh?"
After I sat down I gave him a nod "Yeah, she contacted me recently and I've been trying to pick up her trail. The only clue I have is where Dizty saw her." I looked out of the window praying I'd see her flying by. "I should have asked her before I left the stable"
Pops watched me for a moment as he rubbed his chin "Last I saw her she was heading west towards the hills. I think she was heading to your stable if I remember right."
My ears popped up when I heard him mention my stable "Of Course! She'll probably fly pass this way! We can flag her down when she does!" I smiled again and darted out of the room heading down the stairs and out into the yard gathering some dried up chunks of wood or anything that would burn. A fire might would do the trick.
Pops followed me outside and instantly took notice of what I was doing "Whoa! Hold on son! That's a bad idea right there
"You light a big ol' fire out here and you could set the whole orchard ablaze. Not to mention give off a big damn beacon to any slavers or raiders in the area. Last time I checked Ponyville was lousy with raiders."
Pops once again saved my ass. A bright fire would definitely invite the wrong crowd to the house. Plus the sun was still up. At least it seemed like it. I looked up at the cloud and narrowed my eyes "So how soon do you think the clouds are gonna stay like that?"
Pops gave me a look of confusion and sighed shaking his head "If you think you're gonna see the sun anytime soon you better think again. Nopony around here has ever seen the sun”
"Haven't seen the sun? How could anyone...?" once again I was asking a dumb question. The Enclave did this. They covered the skies and abandoned Equestria after the Megaspells destroyed Cloudsdale. I sat down and sighed "I'm sorry. My mind had been set to a completely different picture of the wasteland than this." I gave him a hollow smile "Pretty naïve, isn't it?
Pops smiled as he came up and patted my shoulder "You're not the first one son. Trust me." he smiled and reached into his pack "Let's see if I can spot little Miss Ditzy before she passes over us."
I nodded and stood up "Thanks." I looked around for the others while Glitch "Any idea where Salt and Backdraft went to?"
Pops "Salt is setting up some beds for us to rest here for the night. Backdraft went into the woods to gather some wood for a fire to cook with later. You're welcome to stay if you want. At least for the night”
I rejected his offer "Thanks, Pops but I have my mom to find and I can't risk losing the chance to ask Ditzy about her."
Backdraft called out from the woods "POPS!! we need some help over here! Ditzy's stuck in a tree!"
Pops looked in the direction from where Backdraft's was coming from "Speak of the devil". He and I both broke into a sprint into the woods. Didn't take long for us to find Ditzy hanging by the reins of her sky wagon as she looked down at us and give us a sheepish smile. The chalkboard in her mouth read "I just don't know what went wrong"
I looked up at the sky wagon. The angle it was sitting at told me she had to have spun out while flying "Ditzy, How did this happen?"
She wiped her chalkboard clean and scribbled a new message "Wind blew some leaves in my eyes"
Wiped the board clean again and wrote
"Flew right into a tree branch, panicked and lost control”
Backdraft wasted no time climbing up the trunk of the tree and cuts her loose from the harness of the sky wagon. She dropped a couple of feet before catching herself in mid-air hovering for a minute then landed on the ground in front us
Pops "Perhaps you should come rest up back at the house before we try getting your wagon free." he offered her his hoof.
She dropped her head shaking it then backed away a little. Pops raised his eyebrow "No? Come on, Dizty you'll be safe with us... " I placed my hoof on his shoulder and looked him in the eye
"The Apples were some of her good friends. I don't think she wants to experience any bad memories from the past". I turned my attention to Ditzy who smiled and scribbled on her chalkboard
"It's Okay. It's just hard sometimes. So many good memories of my home in Ponyville."
She wiped it clean and scribbled again
"Breaks my heart to see it torn apart by the raider who lived there"
I blinked for a second "Wait. Lived? As in they're gone?"
She nodded "A gray unicorn filly came through a few days and saved me along with a few others. She was kinda awesome in her own way"
"A gray filly?" Was it Velvet from the recording at the house or somepony else altogether. Okay, let's add this to a growing list of curiosities I've uncovered so far
But it's gonna have to wait. I trotted closer to her while she wiped her board clean "Could you tell me where you saw my mom when she hired you? I would greatly appreciate it if you can tell me."
She nodded and scribbled on her chalkboard. Waiting for her answer was killing me. "She came to my store in New Appleloosa, But she didn't stay for very long."
"Was she alone or did you see if she was traveling with anypony?" The image of her being out here in this wasteland was bad enough to get my anxiety to an all-time high again
Once again she nodded "She was with a stallion. I think I overheard his name when someone called him Bleeding Heart. One of the biggest stallions I've ever seen”
"Bleeding Heart..." I looked over at Pops "Have you heard that name before?"
He nodded and smiled "Traded with him on a few occasions. I know exactly where your mom could be"
My whole mood turned around when he said those words. Now it was my turn to surprise somepony with an uncomfortable action. I grabbed Pops hugging him like I just won a prize or something "THANK YOU!!!" he didn't feel all that comfortable with a full grown stallion hugging him and giggling like a colt
"N-no problem Son. If you'd let me go and show me your map again I can point the settlement out for you". He started to squirm trying to pull away.
I released him and showed him my map still smiling like an idiot "Mom, I'm finally going to see her”
Pops pointed to a location at a location on the western of the map "There you go. You should have no problem reaching it within the week." he then pointed at Ponyville next "And if Dizty is right you should scavenge for some supplies before heading out. You never know what you'll find"
I nodded "Thanks, Pops." I got up and began heading back to the house "I'm gonna go say goodbye to Salt first."
Pops smiled "Yeah, you do that. There is no worse hell than an angry mare". He turned around and looked up at the Skywagon. "That's gonna be a pain in the ass to get down"
Backdraft looked down from the branch he perches himself on "Any ideas on how we're gonna get it down?"
"I got a few" Pops replied before they went into a full discussion of removing Ditzy's wagon from the tree
Ten minutes later I had reached the house. I spotted Salt inside the front door tossing out some trash she was cleaning out of the room everyone was gonna be sleeping in. She sighed and wiped her brow "This is gonna take longer than I thought". Her ears perked up when she heard the crunching of the dead leaves under my hooves and looked right at me with a big smile "Hey! I was wondering if you left or not. I cleared out a spot inside for you if you wanna stick around."
Oh man, I didn't wanna hurt her feelings telling her I was leaving already. Not after she went through the trouble to do this for me. My mom was out there and I had to follow the clues I've been given so far before things went cold. I hung my head a bit "Salt, I'm sorry but I won't be staying. I just found out where my mom is
Here I was waiting for her to snap at me too. Just like Heart did. But we just stood there until finally "Go find her, Cobalt." I looked up and saw her smiling a little but I could tell she wasn't happy about the news
"You're not mad?" I asked her
She shook her head "Don't get the wrong idea. I hate that you're going. I really do but what can I really say which would change your mind." she sat down in front of me and touched my chin with her hoof "It's your mom. You have to go, make sure she's safe" she leaned in kissing me again. I didn't feel awkward this time. When she broke the kiss and smiled I chuckled a bit "Go, Cobalt. Find your mom. Then maybe we'll meet up later down the road"
I slowly nodded and pulled up a map on my pipbuck "Maybe this will help" I told her how to find my stable and everyone who was a charge there. "Go talk to them and you could help establish some trade routes they could use. Might get your own room if you're lucky"
Her eyes lit up with hope "Oh Goddesses! My own room." she said almost dreamily "Now that's something to look forward to!
She jumped up and ran inside leaving me out in the yard. I blinked watching the door for a couple of minutes until she came out with her .357 magnum levitated next to her. She placed it in my hooves "Take Clipper. You might need some extra firepower when your other weapon uses up all the ammo you got"
"Clipper?" The gun was well maintained. The metal had been polished and the grip looked like almost brand new. Salt really took care of this gun.
She nodded when I asked about the name "Yeah, I gave it the name when I was a filly. I got lucky and clipped the wings off of a boat sprite without killing it from 35 yards away." She smiled looking at it "Kept it for good luck after that. Now it fan bring you luck”
I smiled again "Thanks. Hope we can meet up again at Stable 18". I gave her a hug then turned towards the main gate for Ponyville.
"Goodbye". She waved slowly while her smile faded from her. I hated doing this again but I have to find my mom first. For some answers more than anything else. Once I reached the main road I looked back towards the house. Pops, Salt, Dizty and Backdraft had gathered in front of the house waving at me. Seemed like the perfect setting for a family photo. I waved back and looked towards the town "Let's see what I dig up". With one step I began walking into a new chapter of my life. However, I couldn't help but feel as though I'm heading towards trouble.
A half hour later we reached Ponyville's main street. All the buildings crumbling apart as time ravaged them. I looked over at one store my pipbuck named Carousel Boutique. One side of the building had blown completely away. From the gaping hole, I noticed the inside didn't fare any better "Guess that gray pony had one hell of a fight here. What do you think..." Glitch screamed out as he grabbed my tail and yanked me back on my flank "OW! What the fuck Glitch!?". I flicked my tail to make sure he didn't pull any hairs out. He hovered over to a mound of dirt and pointed at the blinking light. Okay, I owed Glitch for this one. "A mine?" Looking over the road I was standing on I saw several others hidden in the loose soil "Minefield. Great
I stood up and took a closer look but I kept a good distance away from it so I didn't set it off "The Guide said non-detonated mines can make for some good trading." The advice I'm certain Pops would agree with. I looked up at Glitch "Think you can disarm it Glitch?"
He nodded and extended his arms scraping away the dirt then began working on the mine itself. While he did that one of the spritebots from before was getting close. I don't see how anyone could put up with that being repeated all the time. Then it stopped. Both I and Glitch looked up. The spritebots was looking right us. I narrowed my eyes and got closer "OK, who is controlling this thing? No way in hell this is random"
The damn thing spoke, "You're a perceptive one". My eyes widen and I leaped back a foot or two drawing my pistol. I didn't actually expect a response from it
I sat there panting a second before standing up and moving closer to the spritebot. I signaled Glitch to keep working in the mines in case we needed them "Who are you? Why the hell are you following me?"
The spritebot tilted to the side "Following you? I hadn't intended to. I just overheard you were down here from the ponies at the farmhouse and I switched over to the closest spritebots near here."
I blinked for a second "Are you an AI or something?"
The voice chuckled a bit "No, No. Call me Watcher. I hack into these things to look around and communicate with anypony I see along the way. Which brings me to you when I heard you were coming to Ponyville."
"Why track me down?" I asked him as I looked over the spritebot. It had definitely seen better days. Looked like it needed some serious maintenance.
"Well I was going to warn you about the mines but it seems I am too late since your friend over there is digging up a few of them"
Glitch beeped happily when he disarmed his fourth mine.
I smiled as he started working on the fifth "Appreciate the thought but we got this covered" I looked at him "So you've been keeping tabs on things around here with these little spritebots?"
"That's right."
I nodded "OK then. How long have you been doing this exactly?"
"A long time. I'm getting the feeling you don't exactly trust me"
"No, I don't. After something came up back at my stable I'm not exactly willing to trust a stranger right now."
"Fair enough. So what could I possibly do to earn your trust?". Earn my trust? Did he really expect me to trust someone I couldn't even see? He was hiding somewhere behind a terminal controlling the spritebots. However, I might be able to get some answers.
"Ever heard of Project Cogarth?". I could only imagine his reaction
"Project Cogarth? That was an old pipe dream back during the war. How did you find out about it?”
"Some scavengers found this" I pulled the holo-cassette from my pipbuck and held it up in my teeth "I played it from my Pipbuck and it has some file on it for the project. From the file name I'm guessing it was part of a set." I placed it on my hoof and looked at it "Weird part was a message on it. Someone left a recording telling anyone to keep it from Rising star."
Watcher "Rising Star? Are you sure that's the name you heard?"
I looked up at him and nodded "Yes, it was. Do you know she was?"
I heard him sign from the speaker "Yes, I did know. But that's a story for another day. I'm almost out of time"
"Time?"
"Yeah, I can only stay on one of these things for so long. I'll find you later... " The speaker crackled when the music began playing again and the spritebot hovered away. Glitch came over to me and placed nine mines next to me. He beeped at me but my attention was focused on the holo-cassette
He said it was a pipe dream. What kind of project was it? How did it fail and who was Rising Star? An even better question was who exactly is Watcher? Either he was a ghoul like Dizty or he had some access to some history files of some kind. Either way, my curiosity of this project was starting to grate away my desire to find my mom. So I need to quit stalling and find her fast. I looked at Glitch and the mines with a small smile "Good Boy, Glitch. I got a feeling we can trade these in someplace for something good”
He nodded and flew over to a building looking inside. The radio on my pipbuck gave off some static as I stood up to follow him. I looked my pipbuck and sat down before changing over to the radio. It was picking up two different broadcasts. One was some radio station and the other looked like an emergency broadcast. I switched over to the emergency broadcast first. I hoped this wasn't the stable already for help, Unlikely as it was.
".... Please send help! {messase repeats} Hello, My name is Black Panzer! I am being chased by slavers and have been wounded. I have no medical supplies or food. I am broadcasting my location with this message. It's near the west end of Ponyville. Please send help! {message repeats}" my map was updated with the location mentioned in the recording
Somepony needed help, but could I possibly do to help anyone out? I've only been out here for several hours and have learned nothing about the wasteland with the exception of scavenging for anything I could use or trade. However, I can't just walk away either. "Glitch, I need you to hide someplace and wait for me"
He gave me a confused chirp
"Trust me, boy. Now go hide". He nodded and grabbed the mines hovering to an old bakery close by. Sugar Cube Corner, the sign hanging over the door while the rest of the outside looked like someone batted it with a club. The years have been kind. I took in a deep breath then took off in the direction of the broadcast
The west end of the town didn't look any better. Every house or building boarded up and tagged with spray paint to mark any homes with unsafe living conditions. A few of the doors had the word 'Traitor' sprayed across the front of them. My imagination was fast at work recreating the scenes that occurred here. Ponies being dragged from their homes. Fathers, mothers and other loved ones. So many of the same questions went my mind. Ones which I was 100% had already been asked countless times before. The most asked question of them all: Why? Why let things get so far? Why not seek a better way? It didn't matter, though. The deeds have been done and nothing else remained. So now the ponies who survived the apocalypse and all those who came after they were fighting to survive. I was now among them and this was my chance to find the mother who left me behind. The answers she had to my questions were all I cared about.
I moved through the street keeping my ear to the recorded message. When I first got it the audio had some static to it. 5he closer I got to it the clearer the audio became. Finally, my search led me to a small makeshift shelter which had been set up in one of the old market stalls. A tarp wrapped around the wooden frame, the smoke of a burning fire coming from a hole in the top and the faint green glow of a terminal shining out of the shade. I couldn't see any sign of the pony who had recorded the message. If he still lived at all. Grabbing the Judge from its holster I crept towards the makeshift shelter. I flicked my tongue over the safety to make sure it would fire. Inching closer I saw the hind leg of a pony coming into my view. Fearing the worst I moved even closer. My heart was pounding so fast I imagined it leaping into my throat at any second
I kept moving closer seeing more of the pony inside. A blanket had been thrown over it so I didn't see a cutie mark or any other part of the body that wasn't below the knee joint. I reached a hoof forward and slid it under the edge of the blanket to lift it. Something had snapped behind me, my head spun around to see the butt of a shotgun hitting me in the face and knocked me flat to the ground. My leg fell over the pony's body, it was cold as ice. I looked at the face and saw some signs of decay. The pony was dead. I looked behind me and saw the owner of the shotgun. A unicorn stallion looked right at me as he cocked his weapon aiming it at me "Looks like I caught a fish out of water”
I was mentally screaming at myself for letting Somepony get the drop on me like this. The corpse under the blanket was just bait for a trap, and here I am the rat. The unicorn placed the barrel if the shotgun against my throat and pushed back the collar of the armor. He looked at the 18 sew into my stable barding and narrowed his eyes "You know a butch named Dancing Heart?"
How the hell did he know the Overmare's name? My eyes looked into his while my heart started to beat faster with each second. Eventually, he smiled at me and pulled his gun back "I thought as much. Chains would love to have a word with you". Then he whipped me in the face with the butt of the gun. I blacked out and faded away from the real world.
I found myself having the same dream again as I always have, yet I could sense a greater difference this time around. I woke up the same way I always have. Laying down on the crisp grass as it tickled my belly, but I was a full grown stallion this time. I began to panic a little as I pushed myself up, looking around at the scenery around I noticed some key differences from the dream I always had. The sun was eclipsed, the clouds moved like a stream over stones. My breathing hastened, my heart pounding in my chest, and the all too familiar fear creeping inside my mind all over again. The colt from my dreams. He was here I could feel it. "But where..."
"Hello, cobalt." His voice was eerily smooth like silk against your skin. It was the kind of voice you'd have if you wanted to be able to seduce any mare you can think of. I slowly turned around and found the figure from my dream standing a few yards away smiling "Well, Didn't think you'd find your way here so soon
"Here? Where is 'here'?" my body was getting heavier by the second. I couldn't move, couldn't stop shaking, and my breathing started to become erratic. The doppelganger only smiled and turn around walking towards a shadow which enveloped his entire body.
"You'll find out soon enough but for now you need to wake up. You have some friends who wanna speak to you"
"Friends? I don't know anyone..."
The shadow leaped at me. I felt the shock of cold water splashing across my face. I shot up and gasps wiping the water from my eyes. I blinked trying to see who threw the water on and I saw the unicorn with the shotgun from earlier "Alright, stable boy. Listen up. I have an offer for you and if you comply it'll be a lot easier on you if you tell me what I want to know."
I looked at him panting as I narrowed my eyes a bit "If I don't?"
He smirked at me "Then I ship you off with the other slaves."
Captured by slavers on my first day. I knew this wasn't going to end well for anyone. Especially me

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                    Chapter 3: The Plan                    
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Chapter 3: The Plan
I could feel everypony staring until Iron spoke up breaking the silence “You heard the lad!” some of the slavers jumped and scrambled to find the keys to the cage. Once they grabbed the foal and quickly gave it to the mother who had her legs stretched out sobbing. She took her foal then looked at me smiling, gave me a grateful expression mouthing the words ‘thank you’. I forced myself to smile back, it quickly faded when they pulled her away.
Crackshot walked up to the stallion "Hey Chains. There's something about this kid you should know."
Iron chains, the leader of these assholes and the one who wanted to find Dancing Heart. I really wish it was him i had grabbed instead but it was too late. My body was still paralyzed from what i had done to Boomer. He looked at me and cocked his brow “This kid? What is so special about him?”
Crackshot nodded "Comes from the same stable as Dancing Heart"
When Crackshot mentioned Heart his ears shot up and he smiled at me. "Well now. What a surprise!” He chuckled a bit “Bring him along. I'd love to talk to him. But first we need to find Cub."
Crackshot groaned and hung his head "Again!? We've been playing this damn game for hours now. Seriously Iron, That Cub of yours needs to start acting her age."
Iron shot him a glare that made Crackshot take a huge step back "If you wish to state your opinion on how I live my life. Then please, face me in a duel and we'll see who walks away with their freedom."
Crackshot sneered at him but didn't say another word. I got a clear a sense Crackshot and Iron Chains here didn't always get along. Iron smiled and turned away walking to his tent while Crackshot rapped me with his weapon again "Listen up. When we reach the tent you don't speak, you play along and you keep playing until Pretty Cub says the game is over. Got it?"
"Pretty Cub?" I asked while the collar gave me a second warning
Crackshot nodded towards the tent where Iron was staying "You're about to meet her.”
I got up and began walking towards the tent with my head hanging down, that's when one of the ponies with the caravan approached me and poked my shoulder "Thank you for this. That frugal Iron Chains wouldn't haggle with me on a price for that kid." It was a mare's voice. I couldn't bare to look up at her. I only focused on her voice. I wanted to remember the way this mare sounded if I ever came across her again. I looked at her legs and noticed the cinnamon brown coat and an oddly shaped scar on her chest. I was definitely going to remember that scar.
I simply nodded “You’re welcome.” she walked away when Crackshot gave me a nudge towards the tent again. For now however, I have to help find Cub. Whoever that was.
Iron slipped into the tent "Oh Cub! I'm back!"  
Crackshot pushed me inside. I had walked into what looked like a scene straight out of a children's book. Stuff animals stacked around the bed, each one stained and losing their stuffing. Posters of Pinkie Pie as the head of Ministry of Morale. I felt like her eyes following me. Lastly a small assortment of small toys had been scattered all over the ground.
I looked at Crackshot with a puzzled look and he rolled his eyes moving closer to whisper in my ear "Whatever you do or say just play along got it?"  
I nodded, he nodded back and approached Iron "So are you sure you haven't been able to find her?" the tone of his voice gave me the feeling he had done this numerous times before and didn't enjoy.
Iron "No, I haven't seen or heard from her all day!" he exclaimed out loud. He smiled looking around the tent "I wonder where she could be?"  
I looked down at the base of the mountain of stuffed toys and noticed two hooves sticking out from under the stack. I heard small girly giggle from under the stack. I looked at Iron and Crackshot. Iron nodded and wiggled his foot for me to play along.
I gulped and pointed at my collar. Iron rolled his eyes "Crackshot Take that damn collar off and let him talk. I swear you really are bloodthirsty sometimes.
Crackshot sneered at him when he levitated the key over to my collar and got it off. I rubbed my neck before looking at Iron "Perhaps Cub could be hiding inside her bedroll?"
Iron looked at the bedroll and poked at it "Cub, are you in there?" another giggle. Crackshot cut his eyes at the stack of stuffed toys. He wasn't enjoying this at all, neither was I. However this was giving me all kinds of ideas to throw a wrench into their operations.
Iron smiled and walked passed the stack of toys. It exploded as the mare inside jumped out and tackled Iron to the floor. He feigned the pain as he exclaimed out loud "Oh No! She's got me!!"
I watched the full grown mare biting his ear as she giggled like a little filly "I got you Daddy!"
He smiled and kissed her cheek "Yes, you did my little Cub"
I looked at Crackshot and pointed at the pair. He just waved his hoof and mouthed the words "Don't ask”
Cub giggled then looked up at me. Crouching behind Iron. i had to guess she wasn't accustomed to strangers "Daddy? Who's that?"
Iron smiled and stood up placing a foreleg over her shoulder "This is the pony who can tell us when where your big sister is"
Cub's eyes widen as she got right into my face smiling "Really!? You know where my sister is hiding!?"
I blinked looking into the eyes of a mint green mare, she looked only a couple of years younger then me, and her mane had been wrapped up in a pair of pigtails on each side. Luna help me, I actually thought she was cute   
"Um.... Who is your sister exactly?"
Iron "Her name is Dancing Heart. I'm certain you know her. You both came from the same stable" he pointed at the 18 on my collar. This was not looking good for me. I needed something that would buy me some time and get me out of this mess. My brain clicked back to what Heart, Shell and Brick said about the experiments. I gave the best saddened expression i could muster and looked away
"I'm sorry but I can't tell you tell you that. My memory was wiped cleaned of any information on the location of my old stable."
Crackshot cocked his weapon and aimed it at me "Quit screwing around and tell us!!"
I threw my hooves up "It's the truth! Please if you'll allow me to explain I promise it'll be worth your time"
Iron raised a brow and patted the spot next to him. Cub instantly went over and laid down in front of him while he sat down petting her head "Stand down Crackshot. Let's see what he's got to say first" he slipped a brush over his hoof, let down Cub's pigtails and began brushing her mane  
I cleared my throat and began to explain the purpose of my stable just to lay out the groundwork for the story I was gonna give him. I just hoped he would buy it. One hour later while I watched Iron chains brushing Cub's mane and moved to her coat along her back. She moaned softly feeling the bristles .  
"So they captured outside of the stable, dragged you back in and hooked you into a machine erasing all the information you had about the location of the stable after you stepped out?" he looked at me as I nodded  
He gave me a shrug while he continued to brush along Cub's back "Unfortunate. Crackshot, deal with him in any fashion you desire"   
A wicked smirk appeared on Crackshot's face as he drew his weapon. I leapt back and threw my hooves up "You wouldn't kill a potential tech support pony would you!?"
Iron looked at me and raised a brow "Tech Support? What do you mean?"  
I gulped and gave him a confident smile "Well from the looks of the armor your friend is wearing and the obvious signs of abuse on his weapon. I'd say that gun is one trigger pull away from putting his eye out.”  
Crackshot lunged forward and whacked me over the head, broke the butt of his shotgun right off, and snapped at me "SHUT UP YOU LITTLE SHIT!! YOU'RE JUST STALLING! MOVE YOUR FUCKING ASS TO THE YARD NOW.. "  
At this point Iron jumped up and bucked Crackshot in the side, making him fly right into the tent's support beam. He hit the ground with a thud as Iron glared at him "We discussed this time and again. I will not tolerate any swearing in front of my Cub! One more outburst like that and I will personally slapping a collar around your neck as well"  
Crackshot pushed himself up and held his side giving Iron a sharp glare "My apologies sir"  
He glared at me before leaving the tent while he had some dignity left to spare. I rubbed the lump that was already rising up and winced "Ow.. Dang that hurt." playing along with Iron's rules seemed like a good way to stay alive.   
Iron smiled and walked over "See? That's what I like to see and hear. A pony who follows the rules. Now then. You said you were good tools. Maybe you can show me your skills by fixing my pistol?"  
Cub raised her hoof "Um daddy? Could he fix my radio first?"  
He looked at her and groaned "Cub, What did you do to it now?"  
Cub whimpered and rubbed her hooves together "When you said you couldn't play with me this morning i got really mad and kicked it really hard... " she clenched her eyes shut like she was gonna get hit.   
He got up and walked over to Cub stroking her cheek "Cub, we've spoken about this. When Daddy has to work, he needs to work."  
Cub pouted a bit "I'm sorry, Daddy. Please don't be mad"  
He smiled and kissed her deeply which really threw me for a loop "Um.. Should I leave you and your daughter alone?"  
Iron and Cub broke into a laugh then Iron looked at me "Oh she's not my daughter. There isn't any relation between us". I blinked and opened my mouth to inquire why she calls him daddy but I shook my head instead. No point in asking why. I doubt I would have liked the answer. Iron smiled "Relax son. I'm not that twisted. Now, let's see that radio Cub."  
She gave him a cute squee, ran to her bedroll, and pulled out the radio that she mentioned. I took into my hooves looking it over   
"Mmm, Outside seems fine. Aside from Cub's hoofprint. If only I had my tools..." or Glitch for that matter. I couldn't help but worry about him. I left him back in Ponyville alone. Who knows what happened to him by now. "Mr. Iron would you be willing to allow me access to some tools? I believe Crackshot has taken everything I had with me the moment he caught me." he probably traded everything away by now but that didn't change the fact I needed to fix this radio to stay on Iron's good side and keep my ass intact   
Iron cocked his brow   
"Hmm, wait here" he got up and left the tent. I looked over at Cub who just stared back at me and tilted her head   
"What?" she blinked cutely   
"I'm sorry, but I'm curious. How did you and your Daddy meet?" All the information I could get the better.
She smiled and laid down on the ground "I was a abandoned in a warehouse. Can't remember where though. I tried asking Daddy where it is but he never gives me an answer.”   
It didn’t seem like she was getting the full story, which was something you’d suspect from a guy like Iron Chains. I turned my attention back to the radio and rolled it around. Her hind legs must be pretty strong to dent the side of it like she did. But without any tools I couldn't hope to fix it. A chirp echoed outside of the tent which made Cub jump up and cower behind me   
"What was that?!" her voice was loud enough to attract all kinds of attention. Right then Glitch pushed his way into the tent holding my tool bag in his claws. With the biggest smile and set the radio down on the ground   
"Good Boy, Glitch! Bring them here so we can fix this thing!" he gave me a confused chirp but flew over quickly. I grabbed my screwdriver and began taking the outside case off of the radio. Glitch looked at Cub while she stared at him and raised a hoof to touch him. He slowly moved away from her and then moved closer when she pulled her hoof away   
"You have a spritebot?"  
I nodded when I examined the inside of the radio "That's right. I named him Glitch. Built him from some spare parts back home"  
Her eyes widen, circling Glitch she drifted off into a daydream  
"He's so cute! I want one!"  
My ears perked up "Then maybe Daddy would let me make one for you from the spritebots hovering around here?"  
She squealed with delight and bolted from the tent like a bullet from a gun. I looked at the tent flap and blinked "Okay, this could be dumb luck but I think getting out of here is gonna be relatively easy". Glitch rammed himself into my head sending me into a face plant on the floor. He hovered over me growling then pointed a claw at the tent flap, he was telling me now was the best chance to run. I shook my head "No, we can't leave. I have to find my weapons first. We'll be dead without a gun." The Judge and Clipper. I gotta find out who has them and figure out how to get them back. Glitch whined and landed next to me. I petted him trying to reassure him "It'll be okay, boy. I promise.” Plus I couldn’t let someone like Iron to continue operating as he has been. Maybe I could put a big dent in his numbers.  
"Cub! Slow down!" Iron was getting closer. I jumped up and held the radio in my hooves. I was so focused on thinking of some kind of a plan for.. Whatever. I didn’t take the time to look at the radio itself. After a quick glance it seemed the inside of it was mostly intact, then I noticed the problem with it. The receiver was knocked loose. I held it over to Glitch "Hey Glitch, can you reach inside and reconnect the receiver?” He looked at it and nodded hovering off the floor a couple of inches. He reached inside the radio and pushed the receiver back into place. Just in time too, the radio came to life playing a jazz melody as Iron entered the tent   
"Well, I'll be" he looked over at Glitch and cocked his brow "A spritebot that isn't playing that Celestia damned music. That's a first”  
I smiled and petted Glitches casing “rebuilt him myself. I call him Glitch. Seemed to fit since he was pretty random the first few weeks he was active.” which was partly true. Everypony back at the staple kept calling him glitched so I decided to make it his name.   
Cub grabbed onto his leg jumping up and down "Daddy, I want one! The stable pony said he could make me one if we catch one of the other bots flying around here!!"  
Iron smiled and patted her head making her giggle nuzzling his hoof "OK, son. Looks like you've earned yourself a spot in my group." he looked at Crackshot "Return his belongings and his tools. Have one of the grunts set up a small work area where he can look over everypony's weapons and armor. I want every one of you to get your guns checked out.”  
Crackshot shot me a glare "I can maintain my own gun"  
Iron"That's an order, or maybe you'd like to take Cub scavenging again?"  
Crackshot clammed up with that and slowly nodded. I wasn't sure how but now I had the perfect chance to make my escape plan. A hour later and they told me to go to the sleeping area where the rest of the grunts, as Iron called them had been asleep. Crackshot was in front leading me to a small thrown together shack. He opened the door and pulled my bags from a shelf on the back wall tossing it at the ground in front of me. I looked at the empty holsters. Both the Clipper and the Judge were gone.
"You must be retarded if you think I'm letting you have a weapon " he lifted the flap of his saddle bags showing both my weapons. "Iron may call the shots but I'm making sure we're staying alive. Deliver on those repairs and maybe I'll give them back." he smirked at me "Maybe." he continued to lead me back to the tent. I had to get my stuff back, somehow. I looked up at him and pulled my saddle bags onto my back   
“So what’s bad with Cub doing a little scavenging?”   
That earned a load groan from him “She’s the worst scavenger i have ever seen! All she ever looks for are stuffed toys and posters of Pinkie Pie when she was the ministry mare. Trust me kid, Iron uses that as a punishment for anyone who talks shit about Cub”. ok, note to self: Do not insult Cub and let Iron found out about it. We were nearing a cage I hadn’t seen yet. Crackshot got a smirk on his face when he kicked it and chuckled at the pony inside when they jumped "Hey Ranger! Enjoying your stay!?"   
Inside the cage, one of the darkest stallions I had ever seen sat up and shot us both a glare. "Laugh it up, Crackshot. You'll get what's coming to you sooner or later.”   
Crackshot laughed as he kicked the cage again "Sure, sure. Celestia and Luna will fly down from the heavens to punish me, then set all of you free! Wake the fuck up! You're a slave now Panzer! Nothing's gonna change that!"  
Panzer? This was the pony who left that message they lured me into the trap with? I looked at him while he glanced back at me with his grey pupils. He shook his head and laid down "You're in with the wrong crowd kid.” I just stared at him. The somber coat covered in dirt and grime, a copper mane, and what looked like a lance for his cutie mark. Crackshot jabbed me in the side   
"Let's go. You've done enough for one night"  
I shot him a look "What's wrong? You're mad because Daddy told you something you don't want to do?" the look on his face was somewhat amusing. I don’t think he’s had anypony talk to him like this. Let’s how far i could push him until he made a mistake so I started to smirk a bit “Maybe Big Daddy Iron should hear how you’re treating the merchandise”  
Crackshot cocked his gun and shoved the barrel into the side of my neck “Listen here you little shit. Just because you impressed Iron doesn’t mean i'm so easily wowed. Now move!” he jabbed me in the neck which made me smirk even more. I could see how he despised Iron. Just a little more and I’ll have the perfect assistant for my escape plan. It was actually scaring me how quickly my mind was processing everything in the short amount of time I spent here. As well as this sudden burst of confidence that came from nowhere scared me a bit.   
He kicked me to the ground and stuck the barrel of the gun in my face "Keep talking like that smart-ass and I'll be more then happy to make you into paste!  
I just glared at him and smiled as I took a closer look at the shotgun. He did not put any care into it "Go ahead. Bet your gun won't even fire." I may have had a brave face on but I was scared to death that this was gonna be it for me. I slipped SATS to slow everything down and get a good measure of Crackshot and his shotgun. It was a simple combat shotgun, the frame showed a lot of abuse, and I could certainly say it hasn't been cleaned properly. I took aim for the barrel when I kicked my hind leg up while he tried to pull the trigger. My hoof bent the barrel, the gun exploded throwing him back and made me roll away with a couple of burned patches on my coat. A few away i stopped and looked over at Crackshot who was shaking his head. Everyone ran out of the their tents with weapons drawn, Iron came running as well, Cub stuck to his hip which was to be expected "What the hell was that noise?"   
I jumped up and ran over to Crackshot helping him up "I'm sorry sir. I was trying to give Crackshot some tips on maintaining his gun but he refused and bet me some caps he could..." I quickly looked around and spotted empty beer bottles stacked together, the other slavers decided to make a pyramid for the sake of boredom "... Couldn't shoot that stack of beer bottles from here." Crackshot looked up at me and gulped nodding rather quickly.  
Iron looked at the shotgun then turned to me and Crackshot "Now You see why I chose to have him repair our weapons and gear. To avoid accidents like this." he grabbed the ruined shotgun and tossed it onto a nearby trash pile "Off to bed! All of you! First thing in the morning I want you all to have your gear checked over before we continue any operations" he looked at Crackshot "Let's avoid this from now on shall we?" he turned to walk away and lead Cub back to their tent. Crackshot threw his leg around my neck and whispered in my ear   
"What the hell do you expect to gain from saving my ass?" he glared at me when I looked up at him.   
I gave him a smile "What? It's obvious you can't stand how things work so why not remove him as the head and you swoop in to take over?”  
He looked at Iron i could see the wheels turning in his head. He turned back to me narrowing his eyes “You can make that happen? What would it take?”  
I pointed at Panzer who gave me a sharp glare "Slap a collar on him and let me use his muscle to move some stuff around. I'll have a plan in place before the week is out."  
He smirked and nodded as he turned to retrieve a bomb collar. I looked at Panzer who had heard me, he glared at me until I mouthed a few words at him "Trust me.”  
He just nodded and laid back down when Crackshot approached him with a collar. He slapped it onto Panzer's neck "Alright Ranger. You just got a job. Hope you can handle it." he tossed me the detonator "Here. Hold onto that and don't lose it. See if you can make me a better shotgun." Crackshot trotted off to his tent when Panzer sat up   
"Do you have any idea of what you're up against? If the suspect anything they will.. " I raised my hoof to cut him off   
"Relax. They won't find out and we'll be long gone before anything bad happens. Trust me and we'll both be free in no time" I gave him a confident smile which made his ears go flat  
"Wish I could say I believe you”  
"Trust me. We will get out of here." I looked around to see if anypony was nearby before I looked at him "Your full name is Black Panzer isn't it?"  
He blinked at me and nodded "You heard my message didn't you?"  
I nodded "They used it as bait for a trap. I walked right into it thinking somepony was hurt."  
He sighed and laid down the floor of the cage "I'm not surprised. Ironic, I recorded it to lure them into a trap"  
"How did they catch you?" I asked. My curiosity moving towards the subject of his capture.   
He looked at me and narrowed his eyes "Get us out and then maybe I'll tell you. Until then you're just another slaver scumbag”  
I knew he wouldn't trust me just because I got him out of the cage. But now I may have the chance I need to really turn things around and get us both and the other slaves the hell out of here. Tomorrow I'm gonna start putting my plan together. All I have to do is play my part just right. For now I gotta find a bed, or what they called a bed.
Three days, three long grueling days I've been working on the weapons and armor of every slaver in the camp. Most of the "Repairs" these idiots made were ridiculous. Metal parts that were meant to move had been welded in place, oil seeping out of every crack and crevice of their weapons, and their armor was nothing more than scrap metal plates pieced together to resemble armor. I was literally straining my brain trying to figure out how these clowns stayed alive. I yawned and smacked my lips working on Crackshot's new riot shotgun. I promised him a very special modification and Luna help me if I didn't deliver. Panzer watched me as Glitch and I both places everything together, then I grabbed a screwdriver to tighten it all together. Sadly I didn’t get a spritebot to rebuild for Cub, not that i was in a rush to do so.  
Panzer "Why help them?" he finally asked. He had the expression on his face like he bad given up entirely. The entire time i had him drag in some metal scrap, spare parts from scavenged weapons, and other materials i needed for the plan I had in mind.  
I gave him a confident smile "Trust me. This is all part of the plan. I'm just waiting for everything to come together." I tightened the last screw, then pointed at a ring of plastic flowers I had hanging on the wall "The minute you see that come off the wall we'll be home free. It's a promise” He gave me a puzzled look as I smiled and picked up Crackshot's gun sticking it into my saddle bag "You'll love it. Trust me".  
Panzer stepped into my path and stared me down “Give me the short version of your plan. Then maybe i'll start to trust you a little more”. I saw the anger in his eyes. It gave me the sense he didn't appreciate being lied to. I smiled and pointed at couple of the slavers “remember how I had access to the bomb collars and their armor?”. He looked at me confused for a moment but within a few seconds his eyes widen and he smiled at me “you mean you placed….” I smiled and nodded. After that I left to find Crackshot and give him the gun I finished. Maybe now panzer will open up a bit to me.   
“Glitch, power down for a bit and save what's left of your power cell. He gave me a confirmatory beep. I had glitch remain behind and conserve the power he had left. I always had a charge station for him but now he was running low and i needed to find a solution. However i had my plan to focus on first.I had slipped some of the extra explosives into the armor each of the slavers. Each one with a receiver i rigged up with the spare parts from the bomb collars. It's been hell piecing my escape plan together. I had been working on everything from armor to weapons to the slave collars, which I had made very special modifications to the armor everypony was wearing. Not giving a second thought that I would actually rig their gear in some way. I was conflicted however, with a lot of confidence in my plan and the fear that it wouldn't work was making my heart beat like a drum. I must have had one hell of a poker face because no one has yet to notice I was freaking out internally, but I remained calm and cool.  
Crackshot was always over by the slave pens, perched up on a makeshift watch tower he made from piling a bunch of tires together. Up at the top he kept his trained eye down at the ground looking for signs of trouble. He turned around and noticed me walking up with his new weapon. He smirked and trotted down the side of the tires and approached me with a wicked a smirk on his face "Wrench! About damn time you showed up!" Wrench, a nickname the slavers gave me so I wouldn't have to use my real name. It wasn't a cool name but it made sense. I smiled back at him and grabbed the gun from my pack, tossing it to him as he caught it with his magic. He frowned and looked it over "It feels lighter than the last one. What did you just give me?” He tossed the gun around with his magic and noticed one key difference between his last weapon and this one. I rigged the gun to fire like normal but I also jury rigged something which make the gun explode if he flipped a small switch i installed. “What the hell is that?”  
"A special function i added which lets you fire two shells with each pull of the trigger” I waved my hoof a bit giving him a cocky smile “In case you want to play dirty”  
He cocked his brow at me and then slowly nodded "You're right. I put a weight on the last one to crack a few skulls open. Glad to see it didn't scramble your brains any". I cursed him inside my head. No damn wonder it hurt like hell when he struck me with his gun. But I shrugged it off while he smiled and placed it on his back "Perfect. So when do we act on our little plan together?   
I looked around and leaned in closer "You have the support we need to pull this off?"  
He nodded "Just waiting on your signal like we discussed.  
With that I nodded back and began walking back to my work bench. I felt like my heart wanted to leap out of my chest. I couldn't keep myself calm anymore as my nervousness had become somewhat obvious. Some of the slavers looked at me when I walked past them. I took a deep breath to try and calm myself down before I gave anything away. Finally I reached my work bench after what felt an eternity walking several yards away. I looked up at Panzer who was staring out at the cages being pulled into the camp "Dammit, I hoped they wouldn’t catch them"  
I cocked my brow and joined him in the window "Them who?"  
"My old ranger squad.” He looked at me and then back at the cage, his eyes focused on a mare in the center. Her pale orange coat and grey mane made her stick out a bit over the others. “That mare is Knight Poppy Seeds. I can't believe they got caught." his ears went flat "They must have heard my message.” It's my fault” I elbowed him in the ribs making him jump a bit and look down at me.   
"Don't blame yourself for this. They used your message but it's not your fault. Come on. We have to get ready to go once the plan goes into action.   
"I still don't think you know what you're doing”I gave him my best fake confidence smile, grabbed the ring of flowers from the wall and placed it in my bag "Relax, I got this covered. But first" I still had some time left so I left my work bench again and approached the cage holding Poppy Seeds and the other rangers. None of them looked at me, could I really Blame them. Poppy gave me a look when I approached the cage. I felt her eyes scanning me from head to hoof then she looked at the big 18 on my neck   
"What's a stable pony doing working with these slavers? "  
I took in a deep breath "I was dragged into it actually. I'm here on behalf of mister Iron chains, I'd like to offer you a position among our ranks. With your skills with firearms as well as power armor we could really use your assistance guarding the camp.” The entire troop gave me the evil eye at the exact time Poppy gave me a 'Go to Hell' look. I tapped at my pipbuck to get her to look at the letters I had on the screen  
PLAY ALONG  
I hope she was sharp enough to get the hint. She gave the screen a quick glance and her eyes widened a bit before looking at me again. "What exactly do you mean help guarding the camp?"  
I smiled and pointed to the slaves inside their cages "Our merchandise of course. We can't afford to have them die on us from some unforeseen occurrence or random gunfire. She slowly nodded "I see. What exactly do we get from protecting that kind of precious cargo?"  
“What exactly is going on here!?” Iron had barked out making me spin around a full 180 degrees. “Oh! Hello sir, I was just having a chat with the Rangers here. I figured we could use the extra fire power on our side.”   
He cocked his brow “Convert Rangers into Slaver guards? Are you serious Wrench? You do realise they have the combat skill and experience to kill us?” he walked closer to the cage and looked up at Poppy “I won't risk my operation because you believe you talk a pony into anything you want” he turned to me and narrowed his eyes “Why would you even consider this a possibility?”  
I gave him a half assed smirk “Well sir. Who’s to say they actually want to stay with the Rangers? There might be a few who want to find a much more ‘beneficial’ profession”   
Iron tilted his head then Poppy spoke up “he’s right sir. There’s been a great deal of strain within the Steel Rangers. I think it’s about time we consider a career change.” Iron looked at her and raised his eyebrow  
“I see. Hmm” he slowly nodded “Very well, But you’ll be collared until we can see you can be trusted”  
Poppy nodded and looked at each of the rangers who were with her until they nodded back. She looked at Iron, extended her leg through the bars, and shook Iron’s hoof “We agree to your terms.”  
He smiled and shook her hoof back as he turned to me “Good, we'll see how this goes.” Cub giggled as she nuzzled into his side while they walked away towards the other cages.   
I felt Poppy seeds poking me in the neck with her hoof. I looked at her while she leaned in closer "I don't get how you plan to help us escape but you better have a damn good plan in mind because I will not die out here because of some half assed staple dweller!" she made her distaste for my plan obvious   
I nodded "Don't worry. I got it covered. Panzer and I have it under control"  
She blinked and looked at me like I just kicked her in the face "Panzer? Are you sure he's here!?"  
I nodded "He was captured like you, they've been using his recording to attract others like you guys along with anypony else who got the signal"  
She sighed and collapsed to the floor "So he's not working with them. Thank Celestia, I knew he wouldn't do something like this.I blinked, this wasn't a reaction I was expecting. One of the other rangers stepped forward "We came here to warn Panzer of our commander elder Heartless. He's placed a bounty on his head"  
I looked at him, now I really had some questions   
"What did he do to piss him off so bad?"  
Poppy "He saved a young colt from being killed. Our Elder was A paladin at the time and Panzer was one of our best damn fighters." she hung her head "We found a little colt wearing a pipbuck on his leg, much like yours. It was still functional so Heartless demanded the kid to give it up or he would kill him."  
Another ranger stood up "Panzer lost it and dove in front of Heartless. He called him a coward for threatening a little kid"  
Poppy "We were scared they would lash it out right then and there. Two rangers in full power armor, one with grenade launchers, the other armed with a mini gun and a rocket launcher, and all of us caught in the middle of it. We have never been so scared of anyone”She looked up at me "Finally the kid himself stepped forward and offered to surrendered the pipbuck if we would just stop fighting..." her ears went flat and sighed while her body shuddered. I did not like the feeling it gave me. I knew something bad was coming.   
"He killed the kid didn't he? Heartless killed him?" I inquired while I heard Panzer's heavy hoofsteps behind me   
Panzer "He took the pipbuck and kicked the kid straight into a building. Didn't give him a warning or anything. He just attacked him.”I turned back to Panzer. The look of failure written all over his face. I wanted to say something to help him but he raised his hoof the moment I opened mouth to speak "Don't. We have to focus on the plan. You've already made it hard enough to pull off on our own. Now you're bringing them into this?" he pointed to Poppy and the other rangers  
Poppy stood up and leaned on the bars "Panzer, we're here to help! Please we can help you guys a lot more than you think"  
Panzer scoffed and walked back to the workbench "Sure, keep telling yourself that.” He looked at me "Let's go cobalt. You still haven't told me your full plan."  
With a defeated sigh I got up and followed him. I looked back seeing a guilty look on Poppy's face. However I didn't see Panzer stop so I went face first into his flank. He was definitely stronger than I was so I got knocked back on my ass "Hey!" I wiggled my nose a bit "Mind explaining why you stopped?"  
He didn't look at me "Don't trust them Cobalt. They'll stab you in the back the first chance they get”I looked at him and stood up "Don't suppose you want to tell me why?"  
He walked away "Just trust me on this. She’s a bitch. Always has been."  
I sighed again. Guess my charisma couldn't affect everyone. However this wasn't the time to focus on that. I had three more elements to put into motion. The first was the terminal which Iron kept close at hand so the slaves wouldn't get the bright idea to sneak in and hack it so they could deactivate the bomb collars. Second was to change the frequencies to the rigged armor every slaver was wearing, transfer everything to my pipbuck so i can trigger them myself. The third and final element was to get the ring of flowers around Cub’s neck. The ring itself was truly a slave collar I dressed up hoping I can pull one over on Iron and Cub at the same time. Luckily he's been complaining the terminal in question wasn’t working as it should. I trotted towards his tent and looked over at Crackshot overseeing the newest shipment of slaves being brought in. After three days I had an accurate count of the bodies here. The slavers had the firepower and armor but lacked the numbers to keep a crowd from overpowering them. The slaves outnumbered them 3 to 1. Including Iron, Crackshot and Cub there were 20 slavers. I had worked on all their guns and armor. All I needed now was access to Iron's terminal. The guards who were standing outside of Iron's tent looked up from their card game the minute I approached them. The look in their eyes reminded me far too much of my life in the stable. I hated it. It made want to smack the dog shit out of them but I kept my cool as I smiled "Hey guys, Iron said his terminal has been acting up so I thought I'd come check it out"   
One of the guards got up and walked inside while his partner kept an eye on me "So what was it like?".  
I blinked at his question. Was he actually trying to strike up a conversation "What was what like?"  
"Your stable. I heard they can be really nice. I was wondering if it was a nice stable"  
I mentally rolled my eyes. The last thing I ever wanted to talk about was my stable "It was alright. Nice, but ultimately boring. I was stuck in the same routine everyday and every night”  
"Huh... Sounds like hell." he said plainly   
I nodded "It is". The other guard opened the tent flap and motioned for me to come inside. I quickly made my way in before anyone else began asking questions. Iron as expected was brushing Cub's mane while she doodled on some sketch pad. Something I suspected was brought in with some salvaged materials. Iron "Wrench, so glad you could make it. My terminal has been acting up again, it has the frequencies for the slave collars, and I do not wish to risk them going off by accident. Could you be a good lad and see what you can could?"
I nodded and made my way over to his terminal. Right away I saw something was definitely wrong. The screen was flashing random static images i couldn’t explain. One image resembled a pony looking at me through the screen at me. I dropped my tool bag down and pulled out the interface cable from my pipbuck and plugged it into the side. Iron watched me while I worked, sorting through the bit of information then i reset the terminal and rebooted it. Everything came up like normal. I ejected the holo-cassette and looked it until I noticed the label "Cogarth OS?"   
"Another one?" I said to myself when I heard Cub giggle as she leaned into Iron's side "Daddy, you're so nice to me"  
Iron smiled and nuzzled her cheek "I love you Cub. You know that" she giggled as he looked up at me returning to the main screen "So everything is running smoothly? I don't wish to lose my merchandise because of some glitch"  
I nodded and grabbed my bag "Yes, it seems whatever bug was on that tape messed up some of the data on the terminal, but it's all good and ready to go"   
Iron smiled "Perfect. I knew you were the perfect pony for this job"  
I nodded and began moving towards the exit "Oh and sir... " I turned towards him "I have a gift for Cub if that's alright. It's back at my workbench"  
Cub's eyes lit up and went wide as she looked at Iron while he gave her a glance back. He sighed and petted her cheek "Wait here and I'll go get it” Cub started to whine and began giving him the puppy dog pout. Which I hated to admit was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Iron gave her a stern look trying to make her back down "No! I said for you to stay here and wait for me to come back with your gift!!" Cub didn't cave when she poked out her bottom lip . While it was amusing to watch I was curious about the tape I found. So I took a moment to insert into the player of my pipbuck and played it. The same encrypted bull from before popped up. No recorded message this time either. I tried to open the file and the screen of my pipbuck went completely blank.   
I blinked and pressed a few buttons "What? “Nothing Happened. I tried everything I could think of but it just sat there on my foreleg like a huge chunk of plastic. Panic started to set in. The frequencies for the plan were on my pipbuck and I was fastly running out of time. I looked over at Iron and Cub who were still arguing back and forth so I had a little time to try something. I hit the power button and held it down thinking maybe I could reset it like that. Maybe...Nothing. Great, my panic was starting to get worse.   
Iron finally gave into the nauseating cuteness of Cub's pouting "Ugh! Fine you can come along with us.” Cub squealed with delight as she clapped her hooves together in victory giggling happily.  
Oh I was so screwed. I got up and put on the biggest smile I could "Let's go then" lead them from the tent and felt the barrel of Crackshot's weapon against my throat the minute they found out what I had done. Several minutes passed before we finally reached my workbench, I walked passed Panzer giving him a worried look, his ears went flat and I took the ring of flowers from the wall.   
Cub gasped as she looked at it from outside "Oooh....! It's so pretty!"  
Iron smiled as he placed his leg around her shoulder "Not as much as you."  
She giggled while I got closer to them with the ring. I gulped and offered it to her "Here you are Miss Cub"  
Cub giggled and danced a bit "Daddy, could you put it on me?”Iron smiled as he takes the ring into his mouth. The moment I let go he looked at it "Mmm seems kinda heavy" he set it down on his hoof and looked at me narrowing his eyes “What is this...Wrench?” his tone got real dark in an instant.   
My heart was ready to burst. I was screwed in more ways then I could ever think possible. Panzer moved behind Iron and Cub nodding towards something. I looked in the direction of where he was nodding. Crackshot had taken off his armor and had gone somewhere. Things were officially worse. My mind was reeling with every bad scenario I could think of. My pipbuck sprang to life scaring me with the feedback noise from the speaker. Everyone was looking at me now. I tried to hide it but it was no good. Iron walked closer to me and glared into my eyes “Is there something you'd like to tell me Wrench?”  
Crackshot shot around the corner of the tent and charged at Iron, he kicked the ring from his hoof and pulled him away. The minute the ring hit the ground every slaver had been turned into a pulpy red paste. With each explosion the entire camp was covered in a thick cloud of dust blinding everypony. Especially me. The stinging in my lungs, dust filling my nostrils until I could barely breathe anymore. I coughed and gagged waving my hoof around to fan some of dust away. I saw a figure approaching me. My eyes widen and I backed away up to the solid side of my workbench. Iron had come after me and he was pissed. I clinched my eyes shut waiting for him to strike me down.   
Thud!   
One eye opened seeing a shotgun had been placed on the ground. Slowly I looked up until I saw the smiling face of Panzer himself "Let's Go Cobalt. I owe you a big apology later”  
I blinked "Apology? For what?"  
"For not believing in your plan. I didn't think you had what it takes to kill anypony but you proved me wrong" he tapped the gun wit his hoof and smiled "I can look for a battle saddle so you can use it. You know how to use one right?”I shook my head "No, I don't. I never had a reason too." now was a good time to learn since Iron and Crackshot were no doubt after me thanks to that stunt. I started to look around and panic even more “I didn’t want to kill them. I only wanted to scare them!”   
Panzer "What?”   
I didn't get the chance to answer when Poppy and the other rangers ran up with the freed slaves behind them "Panzer! Haha I can't believe your friend managed to pull it off!" she laughed and punched me in the shoulder. Everyone was cheering and thanking me despite everything that just happened. It was getting to be more than I could really take. Every emotion in my mind swirling around like a damn storm. I couldn’t think or react to anypony who tried to talk to me. I took off like a bullet away from the crowd running towards the edge of the camp leaving Panzer and the shotgun he tried to give behind in the thickness of the crowd. The whole time i was running i heard the voice from before inside my mind   
“why are you upset over the loss of these low lives? You should focus on the positive. You’re alive aren’t you?”   
“JUST SHUT UP!!” I blurted out then collapsed to the ground doing everything I could to keep myself from crying. It wasn’t enough. The damn broke and the tears came pouring out. I had to have looked so pathetic right now. After all of the charm and confidence I showed everyone, yet I was reduced to a blubbering mess on the ground. This wasn't my intention, I never wanted this... I just wanted to scare them away. It was all meant to scare Iron and Crackshot so they'd leave us alone. It was then I felt the gun barrel on the back of my head. I was distracted with my own feelings it gave him the best chance to sneak up on me. I sniffed and looked at up the pony holding the gun   
"Hello, Crackshot”He glared down and cocked his shotgun remaining silent until Iron and Cub emerged from under the edge of the tent each one carrying some supplies they swiped for themselves   
"I can't believe I let this kid talk me into this shit"  
Iron "Neither can I. To think you'd betray me so easily" he wrapped his leg around Cub's who latched onto his chest nuzzling into his coat.  
Crackshot growled and pointed at Cub "I can't stand the fact you care for her more than anyone else! Every time she calls out 'Daddy!' you're right there acting like her fucking parent!! It was high time someone dealt with you both and ended this joke of an operation!”  
Iron narrowed his eyes as he placed a hoof over Cub's ear "You had better watch that tone with me Crackshot. I will tolerate it around Cub and I wouldn't envy either of you should we cross paths after this"  
Crackshot scoffed as he looked at me "Like this bastard is walking away from this." I watched while he pressed the barrel against my head. Cub yelped jumping behind Iron and caught their attention   
"Daddy!!" she pointed to a shadow standing on the hill. Someone had been looking down at us. It turned and ran off out of sight.   
Crackshot groaned "Perfect!! I bet my last cap that was one of Sledge's spies.”  
I looked up at him and blurted out "How about an eye!?" Slipping into SATS I grabbed the barrel in my mouth and reached up with my hoof hitting the switch and turned it to the marker I etched into the side. With one swift kick I hit the trigger before Crackshot could pull it himself. The gun itself exploded like the one before but this time the slider shot right into Crackshot's left eye blinding him and causing him to flail around on his back writhing in pain. The sounds of his screaming attracted Panzer, Poppy seeds and the other rangers. Once they rounded the tent Poppy gawked as she saw Crackshot on the ground with the slider still stuck in his eye socket. He finally pushed himself up after I moved away towards Panzer who got in front of me. Iron grabbed Crackshot's mane and began pulling him towards the only road they had out of the camp. Which made little sense when the hills around us would have given them ample cover.   
Crackshot tried to protest "LET ME GO YOU PEDOPHILE!!"  
Iron struck him on the head "If you want to live you stick with me! The Sledge is on his way and I do not want to be caught in the crossfire!"  
Crackshot's ears went flat and he broke into a full gallop after Iron and Cub.   
Poppy pulled out a sniper rifle from her side and took aim at Iron. Just before she could pull the trigger I jumped up knocking the barrel upwards making her miss. The bullet flew skyward as Poppy kicked me away and growled when Iron, Cub and Crackshot got away. She glared down at me and pointed at the rifle at my chest "Why the duck did you let them go!? We could have taken them out and rid the wasteland of three more monsters!"  
I just looked at her. My body was shaking even more now. I just shook my head "I wasn't trying to kill them. The plan was only meant to scare them. That's it." I slowly rolled onto all fours and stood up with my head hanging down "There's been enough death already.”  
"Enough death!!? Just who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" she snapped at me while she lifted me up by the collar or my stable barding "That was one of the worst ponies in the wasteland and you let him get away!!. One of the rangers tapped her shoulder while the entire group began looking in the same direction. "What!!" she snapped and looked up herself. Her eyes widen as she let out a small gasp dropping me to the ground. I landed on my haunches and shook my head. What had gotten their attention? I stood up and pushed my way past Poppy to see what they were staring at. Then I saw it. A pony standing on the hilltop. He was standing on two legs, a sledgehammer slung across his shoulders, and had the slimmest figure I had ever seen. There was only one pony I had heard of with this description: The raider boss known as The Sledge. Plus he wasn't alone. 23 other ponies lined up beside all the way across the hilltop. We had officially gone from escaping from Slavers to Royally Fucked by Raiders. Only five days in the wasteland and I had the worst luck possible

//-------------------------------------------------------//
               Chapter 4: Picking up a trail               
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Chapter 4: Picking up a trail
The Sledge, the one pony I did not want to meet so soon in the wasteland. He just stared down at us while Poppy crouched down and gritted her teeth "Alright ponies, listen up! We're going to get what supplies we can scavenge from the camp and get the slaves out of here. I do not want them caught in the crossfire."
Panzer looked at her and then at me "What about Cobalt? He helped all of us escape." he pointed out and moved in between Poppy and me so she couldn't try anything."
She glared at him and scoffed "Not my problem. Give him to the sledge for all I care." Poppy turned and bolted into the camp "Move Ponies!!!" the Rangers followed her.
Panzer watched her leave and groaned "Cobalt. Don't move and keep an eye on them. I'll be back". He took off leaving me alone.
I tried to catch his tail in my teeth "Hey!!! What about me!?" I was alone again. I just stood there and felt my heart sink into my stomach. They had abandoned me. Even Glitch was gone. Glitch, I had forgotten all about him in the chaos. I doubted he was in good condition after everything. What the hell was I going to do now? I heard some hoof steps behind me in the loose sand. I turned around and noticed a gunmetal gray earth pony moving towards me
"Hmm.. they left in a hurry." It was a stallion carrying a large metal crate on his back. It looked like the perfect size to stuff Panzer inside of it which seemed like an idea since he ditched me. The stallion stopped and couple feet away from me and stared at me with his good eye. The other eye was covered with an eye patch. I gulped a bit "Are you the stallion who set off the explosions?" he asked me in a dark tone. I was shaking badly. I had to have looked pathetic to this guy. Like a foal who got lost in the woods. Slowly I nodded. I had been told raiders and slavers were often partners. Closing my eyes, I waited for him to shoot me, kick me or strike me down. Instead, he dropped the crate at my hooves and smiled "Then the Sledge offers these supplies for saving us a whole ass load of trouble dealing with these bastards."
I blinked in confusion and tilted my head "What?"
I said my boss wants you to have these supplies as a thank you for killing Iron's little club here." he chuckled and walked passed me looking over the aftermath of my failed plan. Each of the bodies reduced to piles of blood, flesh and shattered bone. Everypony was searching them to find anything useful that may have survived. When they saw the stallion walk into view, they scattered fleeing the camp. The stallion nodded as he kicked one of the corpses over onto it's back "I gotta say. You surprised us. We've been camped out on that hill for two days watching you work. My boss was impressed when you got those tin suits to help out."  
I looked at him. Was he complimenting everything I did? After shaking the thought from my head, I searched the area myself to see if I could spot Panzer, Glitch or Crackshot's saddlebags. I heard whining nearby. "Glitch!" I took off in the direction of his whining. Running through the field of unintentional carnage I had created I jumped over some the ruined corpses until I found Glitch trying to lift Crackshot's saddlebags but he could barely get himself off the ground. He collapsed into the dirt the moment I ran to his side "Hang on boy! I'll figure something out!!" My nerves and anxiety were steadily getting worse with each second. Glitch was a machine, and he could easily get a new power source, but I was acting like I was losing a sibling I never had. Tears were rolling down my cheeks, I was pathetic, crying over a machine. The stallion had stood by watching me bawl like a foal who just lost his toy. He didn't say a word until I finally looked up and saw him.
"Your tears are wasted here, son. If you're crying because you had to kill a few piece of shit slavers, then you're not gonna last long in this place." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I pushed myself up and stared at him   
"Who, what, and why I cry for is none of your fucking business." he gave me a surprised look when I said it. I stomped my hoof "I don't care if you have no love for these ponies, but it was not my intention to kill them. Now if your boss has a problem with what I say then you can tell him exactly what I said, and I'll invite him down here to settle the matter personally!"
"Are you retarded or something? Do you know who you're talking about kid?"
I smirked at him "He's the Sledge right? One of the biggest badass raiders from what I've heard. Unless of course there's no truth to the rumors. He scoffed and shook his head
"Whatever kid. Enjoy the rations. Hope you live long enough to see tomorrow." he walked back towards his group. I stood there watching him approaching the sledge. The Sledge just looked down at me and shook his head. It looked like he was laughing too. They both waved at me and began moving away from the camp. Guess I had completed what they came to do. No point in dwelling on this now. I've got to get Glitch a new power source and find out where the hell I am. Picking up glitch with my teeth and grabbing Crackshot's saddlebags throwing them over my back I ran back towards the crate. I hoped The Sledge was smart enough to leave me something worth while. I was somewhat surprised no one tried to claim it while I was gone. I could hear my heart beat in my ears at this point. It seemed like I was losing my mind in all this... if I had a mind to lose. I placed a hoof on the lid, then somepony calling my name made me jump ten feet away
"Cobalt!!" I spun around to find Panzer running towards me. He had gathered some of the weapons that were left behind. Which from my point of view wasn't a whole lot. He ran up to me and looked at the crate "Are you crazy? That came from the Sledge. He may have rigged it to explode or something."
I blinked and looked at the crate "How do you know for sure? It could be supplies we need right now. I did accomplish their task for them after all."
He sighed and shook his head "I don't trust raiders OK. I came from a farm on the other side of the wasteland. We were attacked on a regular basis because we could grow the food and they couldn't. I'm sorry cobalt but I can't put that kind of trust into something like this"
I just looked at him and sighed "I can't turn down any supplies I can use. I have somepony I'm trying to find." I moved towards the supplies while he stood there and watched
"Who the hell is worth the risk of opening a possibly booby-trapped crate!?" he snapped at me.
I looked back at him and took a deep breath before I answered "My Mom. She's out here somewhere, and I need to find her."  
His ears went flat for my answer, he slowly looked away from me while I continued towards the crate. I reached up and touched the lid. If he were right then, he'd have every right to say I was an idiot. All I can do now is hope for the best. Then I saw Panzer place his hoof on the lid as well.
"If you're after your mom. Then let me help" he looked at me with a pained expression "I know what it feels like to lose somepony you love" It shocked me that he changed his mind so quickly, but I hadn't the time to ask for his reasons. I nodded and we both opened the crate together. I clenched my eyes shut waiting for an explosion of some kind. Nothing... I slowly opened one eye to view the contents of the crate. There was a random assortment of ammo obviously, Some leather armor, healing potions, three doses of Rad-a-way, as well as food and water. They had also included some scrap metal and various items I couldn't identify right away. Panzer just stared at the contents of the crate
"Well, this is a bit new. Raiders rarely carry food like this on them. It looks like it came straight from the farm."
I tilted my head and examined the oddly shaped fruits and vegetables inside the crate "How can you tell?"
"Trust me I know home-grown. I grew up on this" he grabbed one fruit and held it on his hoof. It was a light purple and resembled a vine of grapes "Mutfruit." he said and took a bite. The crunch sounded fresh to me.
I looked inside and began digging around through the scrap parts they had inside. I smiled and pulled out two spark batteries.   
"Yes! I can get Glitch will be up and running yet!!"
Panzer looked at me and then at Glitch taking a bite of his mutfruit "Awe man. I like the little guy. Can you get him back online?"
I nodded and opened the back panel that covered Glitch's power source "Yeah, I just need to replace the original power supply I outfitted him with then insert these batteries. Hopefully...." I was stopped mid sentence by the sounds of that obnoxious music the other spritebots were playing.
Panzer groaned and began looking all around us "Goddesses, I hate that music!!" he walked over to a corpse and started to slip the battle saddle off of it. The music stopped making him freeze in place as he slid the saddle onto his back "It stopped?"
"Wait here, Panzer. It's a friend" I got up, set glitch on the ground an  
d started to walk towards the last direction the music was playing. I could hear the faint hum of spritebot jets when I rounded the largest tent "Watcher, Is that you?"
Watcher "Hey Cobalt! It seems you've had a pretty rough time lately."
I scoffed "Rough... That's the understatement of the year"
"Heh, yeah guess you're right. Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke. When I got wind someone had taken out a whole gang of slavers I had my concerns."
"You figured I got caught in the crossfire?"
"More or less. I would hate to see another good pony die out here" the spritebot got closer and got down to eye level with me "What exactly happened to you when I left you in Ponyville?"
With a heavy sigh, I sat down and told him the full story including my failed plan. "So you never intended to kill them? That's good."
I blinked and looked at him "How the hell is that good? Matter of fact. How the fuck did you know what happened here so damn fast? Even with all those spritebots, you couldn't have... " my eyes widen when a creeping suspension snaked it's way into my mind "You're with the Sledge are you?"
"Whoa, hang on Cobalt! I'm not with those raiders." I glared at him and got up making him fly backward "OK! I was watching from the spritebots that passed by the area, but I couldn't get myself involved."
"Why not? You could have something aside from acting as a damned spy with that machine!" I snapped pointing at the hacked spritebot "Give me one damn good reason why you couldn't have done something to help me!!"
"Because if you can't depend on your strengths, then there's no point in helping at all."
"What?"
"Cobalt, this is the wasteland. If you can't find your own strength to survive, then you're as good as dead. You're much more then you make yourself to be. But you have to see it for yourself." I just stared at him. What kind of worth does somepony like me have that would make me different from everyone else? I didn't feel like I meant anything other than a damn nuisance.
"I'm not special Watcher. You better get that straight! I want you to stay the fuck away from me, understand? If I see another one of these things with you behind it, I will track you down and shove it up your flank you got me?"
He just bobbed in the air while I hung my head down to the ground "Cobalt, I hope you survive out here. I truly do. But for now, maybe you can use this spritebot to get Glitch up and running again." The spritebot started to sputter and fell to the ground. It surprised me a bit he'd do that after I had just said to him. Oh well, what is done is done. I grabbed the lifeless hunk of metal and made my way back to Glitch. Panzer stood by him and the supplies waiting for me to come back. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow
"Are you okay?"
I dropped the spritebot next to Glitch and grabbed a screwdriver in my mouth "I'm fine. I just need a second to transplant the power cell over to Glitch, and we can get out of here."
He just looked at me "Cobalt, what happened? I can see you're pissed at something."
I waved him off "It's nothing. Just keep an eye out please."
He narrowed his eyes "Fine." It took the better part of an hour to change things over. I had no idea how this new power cell worked; I just hoped it was going to be enough for Glitch. I had no idea what this system was. All I could figure out was where to connect the wires and how to attach the new power source to Glitch's frame. Panzer made his way back after I had tightened the last screw in place "Alright, Cobalt. Why did you dodge my question earlier? You looked like you were gonna shoot me next."
With a heavy sigh, I shook my head. I didn't have the right to treat him like that after what he went through before I arrived here. I looked up at him "I discovered someone I had met before falling into that trap had been watching us. Someone other than the Sledge."
His expression turned sour in an instant, "And he did nothing to help us? Can't say I'm surprised. Most of the ponies out here only care for themselves," he sat down and looked around a bit " Any idea where he might be watching us from?"
"I don't think he's anywhere near here." I pointed over at the spritebot I disassembled "He hacked that spritebot and had been watching us through it." I turned back to Glitch with a screwdriver in my mouth "He said I wouldn't have learned my worth if he had helped in any way."
Panzer just looked at me for several seconds before he nodded a bit "Despite how fucked up it was for him to be just watching us. He did have a point Cobalt"
My ears shot up and I looked up at him "Excuse me? How in what way did he have a point, Panzer? Please enlighten me." with a shake of his head he looked down at me
"Because if not for that big brain of yours cooking up that escape plan, aside from the fact it didn't work out as you hoped it would. We would be dead right now. You saved both our asses and all those slaves from Iron Chains." he smiled and patted my shoulder "You got a lot more going for you then may think."
I blinked a few times and looked down at Glitch, who was still as stone. The plan completely backfired on me. Yeah, we survived but at what cost? I tried to dismiss the fact I was going to kill someone at some point but not so soon after leaving my stable. It was all too much. I just hung my head "Panzer, do you think we didn't have any other choice with Iron and his gang?"
He chuckled "Kid, there is no other choice with Slavers. They don't know any other way to live. Sometimes there are some things you can't help no matter what you do."
A part of me wanted to believe we could have found another way. I wanted to believe that wasn't the only option. Some of them had to have wanted a different life. Glitch sat on my lap while I held the screwdriver in my mouth. I shook the thoughts from my head and went back to work "I don't believe you. There is always another way."
Panzer looked at me and shrugged before he stood up and watched over me so I could work on Glitch in peace. Once I had the power cell install I took the receiver from Watcher's spritebot and installed it onto Glitch as well. Might make it easier for him to contact me. I still wanted to give him a piece of my mind and I had more questions about Project Cogarth.
I slipped Glitch's casing back into place and plugged my pipbuck into the interface to restart him "Panzer, you know more of the wasteland than I do. Is there you heard of Project Cogarth?" given his association with the Rangers he seemed like the best pony to ask at the time.
He looked at me and then down at the ground thinking "Hmm, I've never heard of it. I do know of a place where we can possibly find some answers though. The Taberoo Technical Institution."
"Taberoo? I didn't see any records of it in my stable." however considering the circumstances of my stable I can't say I'm surprised. They were more concerned with the mental fuck-ups of ponies then where or when they lived. "Okay, Taberoo it is. You know the way?"
He nodded "yeah, I got my stash hidden near the town along with my power armor."
I blinked and looked at him "You have Power Armor?"
He chuckled a bit "Well, yeah. I wasn't called Panzer for no reason." he nodded towards the West "It's further west of here. Hate to say it but we'll have to sneak into the Sledges turf to get there"
I groaned and fell flat to the ground "Anything! I would go through anything but that. Who knows what that psycho has lurking around out there.”
Panzer "It's our only option Cobalt. Either that or we could take a long way around and go through feral infested tunnels."
I couldn't argue back "Let's dredge through Sledge's backyard then."  
Glitch groaned as he slowly came to life. I looked down at him and smiled "It worked!"
Glitch thrilled as he hovered upward and bobbed a bit while he looked around. He gave a happy beep before he started jetting around Panzer and I both. I couldn't help but smile when I looked at Panzer "Let's get going. We might actually find some answers in that institute."
He nodded and began our journey to the west. I looked over Judge and Clipper. Both of the guns had a few smudges but nothing serious. To that, I also grabbed the comic Crackshot had on him. A small trophy for my somewhat successful plan. I didn't want to wait any longer to see my mom but maybe I could learn something worthwhile about Cogarth and it's purpose. Until then we kept going west.
We walked for about 5 hours before Panzer started to survey the landscape around us "We should be able to see the mini-mart where I got my stash any time now. we'll also have a place to rest. I'm pretty sure you could use a minute to process everything that happened."
I could say every line that would tell him that I was okay. One hitch though, Panzer wasn't a dummy. He knew I hadn't accepted what happened. With a heavy sigh, I just hung my head "I can't stop shaking.my mind keeps replaying the image of those ponies I killed."
"Slaver ponies." he quickly corrected me. "They got what was coming to them and I wish we still had a chance to end Iron along with them but we can't change the past." he looked down at me "I know you're not used to killing but you'd best learn to deal with it. If you get backed into a corner and your only option is to kill the pony who put you in that position...."
"I get it. I won't have a choice."
"You won't." he stopped and placed a hoof on my shoulder "I respect that you tried to seek a different path. You're a much better pony then I am for trying. Anyone else I wouldn't have been surprised if they just pulled the trigger and left it at that." I looked at him when he smiled softly "I can respect a guy like you. Stay you Cobalt. But keep it mind not everything will go as you plan it. You have to leave some room for mistakes and other surprises."
My thoughts shifted to the holo-cassettes   
I found so far. One of them caused whatever device it was inserted into to go nuts and malfunction. Even my pipbuck wasn't safe. With a heavy sigh, I just hung my head "I don't want any more surprises. Especially the kind that could cost us our lives."
He gave me a playful tap on my shoulder and smiled "Relax, we'll make it I promise. Now if we push forward we can reach stash before the dark sets in." he pointed to a cluster of buildings in the distance which I expected to be the mini-mart along with a few motels around it "it's right through there."
I looked at the buildings and tilted my head to the side "That's it?"
"The Slurp and trot mini-mart. Found some decent salvage my first time through here." he started towards the mini-mart. Glitch thrilled and followed after him not long before I followed suit "We should be able to pick up a few more bits of something useful if you and Glitch help look around. I still need some scrap metal to fix my power armor."
I nodded. Remembering the advice of the survival guide, Pops, and Salt at well. Sometimes rummaging through old ruins like these might save your life. My train of thought was broken when I bumped into Panzer who had abruptly stopped again. I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong but I hear a distinct ringing coming from the mini-mart "What is that?"
"My stash. Someone's trying to break into it. they must have tripped the bank's own alarm" he explained before veering off in another direction
"how do you know they haven't already broken in?
"We'd be seeing smoke from the explosion"
I blinked staring at his back "Explosion? You set up a bomb in there!?"
He looked back at me and nodded "I stashed all my stuff inside the bank vault. The whole thing is thick enough to withstand the blast. I set up enough c4 to give these a nasty shock or a scar if they live through it." we entered a building through the back door and made our way to the front. I took a moment to examine the decor of the place. Colorful characters painted on the walls, a children's play area next to registers, and deflated balloons tied to a table. The bones of fillies, colts, and full grown ponies scattered across the floor. Some of them seemed to point towards the kitchen  
. No doubt they were heading to the lead-lined refrigerator for protection against the mega-spells. My eyes scanned along the walls until I saw a poster
Cheese Sandwich's Party Pizzeria.
I shook my head at the thought of how many fillies and colts died in this place. I continued to follow Panzer to the window. Across the parking lot, we saw two mustard yellow ponies to tinkering away with whatever Panzer used to lock up his stash. He said it was all inside a safe but something told me he had something more keeping it safe aside from the explosives.
One of the ponies yelled out of frustration and threw her tools at the walls "Fuck this shit! There's no way we can get inside. That ranger had to have left some kind of trap inside
"Like what? We already found all the grenades he rigged inside the gate. Can't be much else he could have done." her partner a stallion with a pocket watch for a cutie mark, the mare's was a wristwatch. I looked at the pair and noticed they looked abnormally the same. Like twins. I turned over to Panzer who was shaking his head
"Shit Shit Shit!" he muttered to himself "After I broke from the Rangers I didn't have time to set up any other defenses. They were chasing me all over the place. I was lucky to find this place with the bank safe. Now, what am I gonna do!?"
I watched him and then the twins again "I can draw them away"
He looked at me and punched me in the shoulder "Are you nuts!? Iron's gang was one thing, this is another. Cobalt you don't have any kind of a damn plan do you!?
"I'll think of something. Just get in there when I get their attention." I jumped into the open and charged at the stallion. When he looked up I rammed into his side, however, I quickly learned he was much stronger than I was so it only made him stumble while I bounced backward a couple of feet.
"Ow! Little bastard!" The stallion looked at me and raised an eyebrow "Where the hell did a stable pony come from?"
The mare got up and grabbed a crowbar into her teeth "Who cares!? He could be worth some big caps!"
With that, I needed to run "Fuck me this was stupid!" I took off across the parking lot towards the far building away from Panzer's location giving him the perfect chance to get to his armor and get it fixed up. I only hoped I wasn't going to get myself killed for this  
. I dove into a small bakery then crawled behind the dust covered display case just before the twin ponies ran in after me.
"Okay, Tock. Remember we take him alive. I heard Iron would pay a big bounty for stable ponies." The mare instructing whom I had assumed to be her brother at this point
He huffed and looked around on the opposite side of the room "Why would he care for ponies like that anyways? Not like they're useful for anything aside from tripping traps or target practice"
"What does it matter!?" the mare spat at him "Just find the son of a mule and let's get the reward on him. Might be worth more then what that ranger hid inside the bank safe anyways.”  
I needed a way to escape from this mess. I began racking my brain to think of a solution. I slowly peeked around the corner of the counter. I noticed both of the twins carried a portion of the grenades which I suspected were part of Panzer's trap. Tock wore a double barrel shotgun on his side. His sister wielded a simple crowbar. I looked around the room to find something I use to get past them. Over the twins, I noticed three sacks of 200-year-old flour. With a quick motion, I grabbed the Judge in my mouth and loaded a fresh clip. I jumped out into view unloading the clip on the sacks of flour blasting them with the flour and blinding them for a brief moment. Both of the twins began swearing, Tock fired off both the rounds he had loaded into his shotgun which grazed my left hind leg. I had never felt such pain before. The sting nearly made me fall forward but I only stumbled around a bit  
. One fact I hated about myself: I was never the physical type of pony. I couldn't run more than a couple of minutes before my body started to collapse from under me. I stopped and turned towards the bakery waiting for the twins to emerge and focus their attention on me. The mare sprang into view first while her brother was still coughing up stale flour "You asshole. You think you can make fools out of the Clock Twins!?"
I cocked my brow "Clock twins? So with everything I've seen and heard I'm guessing your name is Tick?"
Tick smirked at me "That's right. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out. We're not very popular around here. Of course, if we can open that bank safe and turn you in for that big juicy reward we'll be moving up in the world"
I gave her my best cocky smirk going into character "You said Iron Chains was offering the reward? I'm sorry to say but I dismantled his operation several hours ago. I doubt he's going to be offering any kind of reward in the near future.
She gawked at me. Her eye started to twitch a bit "You what? There is no way in hell you could have killed him....
"I didn't say I killed him. I just said I said I dismantled his operation. As far as I know it's just him, his little pet and a back stabbing second in command." I continued to smile at her knowing full well it was making her angry but that was anger I could use to my advantage  
. Taking a brief moment to look around I noticed her brother wasn't anywhere to be seen. Most likely sneaking around to get me by surprise. It would have been a good idea.
*snap*
He yelled up as he went to grab me, I went flat against the ground. He flew towards Tick who went wide eyed just before the moment of impact. While they were scrambling around I made my way back to the bakery and looked around for something to set up a trap for these guys. My eye caught the perfect thing: Cooking Oil. There was a straight line leading from the door to the over which looked just big enough for them to fit in. I could feel the smirk on my face when I knew I had the perfect plan to trap these ponies. Despite it was more from desperation than anything else  
I heard the thundering hooves behind me which made my head spin to the door to the bakery. It was Panzer wearing his power armor. A suit of power armor missing half of its plating. I went to ask him the question but he raised a hoof to stop me "Don't ask. Now, where are those punks at?
"They're right behind me." I jumped behind the counter and grabbed a bottle of oil "Grab a bottle and help me out." he looked at me with a confused expression but he shrugged and grabbed a bottle drenching the floor with a thick coat of oil leading right up to the oven. "Alright, all we need to do is wait. Get ready to pin them inside"
"Cobalt, what exactly are you planning to do with these thieves? I'm suspecting you're gonna let them live"
"I am. But after we see what kind of information they may have. Every little bit can help if I'm going to find our anything about Project Cogarth or any details about my mom"
I could feel Panzer glaring at me "You have any idea how random it would be to find the two ponies with all the information we could possibly need? I think you fried your brain when we got away from Iron's camp"
I shoot him a look "Just help me out damn it. I don't care if it's just rumors I want to learn all that I can about the region so I don't get caught looking stupid or something." he just shrugged and kicked the fridge over so we could shove it against the oven.
"Those thieves are taking a long time to get here" he pointed out. My ears perked up and I looked towards the front door "You're right..." I did not like this. After all the talking between me and Panzer, they should have been on top of us. Then we heard some shuffling on in the back of the bakery. Fuck me sideways, they came in through the back. Panzer pulled me out of sight "I'll be the bait this time. You just wait here and get ready to push." I just stared at him and slowly nodded. He had a lot more protection than I did and he had better fire power too. He nodded back at me and took off into the kitchen firing his 50 mm cannon to get their attention. This plan was starting to be a waste of time. I shook the thought from my head. I wasn't going to survive anything thinking like that. I got ready leaning against the refrigerator waiting for Panzer. He bolted from the kitchen with the twins behind him. As soon as he hit the door he stopped and leaned forward on his front hooves and bucked his back legs landing a blow on both the twins sending them sliding into the oven. I started to push making very little progress until Panzer stepped in and helped me pin the twins between it and the oven. The sister yelled out as her leg was caught in between the two "Mother Fucker!!! I'm gonna kill you two!!!  
Panzer chuckled a bit "Yeah, good luck with that."  
She growls trying to wiggle her hoof free while I watched her. After several seconds she looked at me through the crack and glared at me "What the fuck are you looking at?"
I just smiled and tilted my head "I was just wondering if there is any gas to cook with in that oven"
She blinked at me "What! Hold on a minute! You can't just kill us!"
"I didn't say we were gonna kill you. I said cook which means you'd be alive the whole time
Panzer grabbed my shoulder "Cobalt!! What the hell!!?
I just stared blankly at him until I shook the haze from my head "Wha.... What happened? I blacked out for a second"  
Panzer "You blacked out? Cobalt, you seemed well aware of what you were saying." Was I? For a brief moment, I felt that voice from my dreams cloud my mind and speak through me. Did Igunshotsay something that cold and heartless?
I looked at the mare. Her eyes said it all. She was genuinely afraid that I would do that. Maybe I could use that to my advantage "Well we don't have any other use for them? I mean using them as targets would be a bit cliche and boring.
The stallion blurted out "WE HAVE SOME INFOR... OW!!!" he fell back after his sister Tick elbowed him in the nose
"Not in my fucking ear asswipe!!!"
I gave Panzer a nudge at his leg and whispered "we can take this chance to learn what they know and you can verify if you've heard it already.   
Panzer looked at me and nodded before he moved from Tick's line of sight. "OK, you have any information you said? What kind of information?"  
Tick sighed rubbing her ear still "We know a few big time players in the region. Ones that have been in a deadlock for years now."  
I nodded "Like who?"  
"OK, there's a new chapter of the Rangers that came into the area several months ago. They don't have a base that we know of yet." Panzer was listening and he nodded to confirm her story. "Then there's Lashing Whip and her slavers. Absolute worst pony you could ever cross."
"Slavers? What about Iron Chains?" was he some other slaver no pony knew about yet? Or was it something else entirely? Then I heard the twins burst into a raging bit of laughter
Tock "Haha! That wannabe? He's nothing but one of Whip's lackeys
Tick covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing so hard. This just earned a lot of confusion from both myself and Panzer who cocked his brow at the twins reaction "Wait, so he's some big boss?"
Tock "Hell no, Iron has been trying to establish his own group for years but he never gets anywhere. Recently we heard he tried to set up at the edge of the Sledge's turf thinking nopony would notice."
Tick "Any time the Sledge leaves his camp is a very bad sign. We watched his whole troop moving towards the camp four days ago. Haven't seen or heard anything about them since
I thought back to the moment I laid eyes on the Sledge himself. Was he really that terrifying of a raider? "Are the ponies around here truly scared of the Sledge?"  
Tock "Buddy, the day you see the sledge throw a stable door like a Goddesses damned frisbee then you'd be scared too!" he chimed in and made me do a double take
"A stable door?" I asked while Tick nodded   
Tick "Yeah, my idiot brother here shot the guy in the head, the bullet bounced off his forehead, pissed him off to no end. We were chased into the Stable-Tec regional office and tried to hide in the damn display are they had in the lobby. I guess it was meant to be some kind of method to draw in business.  
Tock "Uh... Sis? I'm pretty the Sledge is a mare."
Tick looked at him. I could feel her brow furrowing "How could you possibly know that?"  
Tock turned away at that point "I kinda noticed something downstairs was missing if the Sledge was a stallion." Tick gave him a disgusted groan "Ugh! Why in Celestia's mane were looking down there, to begin with!!? You know what never mind I don't want to know. The bottom line is The Sledge is not a pony you want to make your enemy. Trust me. Avoid the nutcase anyway you can."
I slowly nodded "And you said this was at the Stable-Tec regional office?" she nodded "Any chance you can mark the location on my pipbuck?"
Tick "Why would want the location? There's nothing of value out there except a bunch of computers."
I smiled at her "You'd be surprised what some ponies consider to be valuable. Now then. Unless you wanna get roasted with some a lime glaze I'd like to have the location, please."
With a whimper, she banged her head on the refrigerator "It's just outside of Taberoo. You can see the whole town from the hill it sits on. But I don't you'll find anything worth selling out there. Half the rooms were locked with terminals."
Couldn't I stop myself from smiling "Terminal controlled locks Eh? I don't think that'll be an issue... " my sentence trailed off when I noticed a blinking red light inside the oven. "What is that?"
The twins looked at it and then each other "We didn't know it was on." Tick had explained while Tock pulled it out of his saddlebags "A chick named Canvas gave it to us. Said it was in the case of an emergency if we got caught by anyone. Said something about the special plastic inside. Whatever the hell that means."
Special Plastic? Man, these two has to be the most.... I couldn't think of a single word to describe them. I smiled and leaned forward "Could I see the device please?"
Tock looked at me and extended his leg out with the device on his hoof. It was a half inch wider than his hoof in diameter. With a swift movement, I grabbed it into my mouth and darted into the kitchen throwing it into what used to be the freezer then spun on my hind legs running back to the front lobby of the store only to have the shockwave throw me into the wall. I hit the floor like a lump of clay and blacked out  
. had no idea how long I had been out. But I woke up with one hell of a headache and my ears ringing like crazy. My eyes struggled to focus when I opened them. My body didn't want to move and I couldn't blame it. After all that I had been through I'm shocked I survived as long as I have. I tried to look around to see where I was. I felt the fabric under me with my hoof and hit the metal rod at the edge. It was a cot. Anyone could have guessed it. I started to push myself up before Panzer called out to me "Hold on there soldier. You took a pretty nasty blow to the head. You should lay back down and rest  
." He walked up and placed a bottle of Sparkle Cola on the floor next to the cot. My head hit the wadded up bundle of cloth which I quickly learned it was my stable barding.
"How long was I out?" I asked him struggling to keep my eyes open.
"A couple of hours. After you discovered that bomb the twins helped me look after your wounds before they left."
I slowly turned my gaze to him "So they're okay?"
"As far as I know. They left a while ago. They wanted to get some answers from this Canvas character. She gave another bomb to the sister which I don't get the point of it when they glued at the hip"
"Who said they didn't split up every now and then?"
"Hmm, you're right." I was glad he didn't argue with me. I was too exhausted to think of anything to say back. He got up and went to the door "Regardless they're gone and we can rest for the night. You've been through enough I'm sure. I'll be in the next room working on my power armor. Call me if you need anything. And Cobalt?"
I looked up at him and blinked a couple of times "Yeah?"
"I never properly thanked you for saving my sorry ass. So I'm gonna help you in your mission. So when you wake up you tell me exactly what I need to do." he looked at me and smiled "I shouldn't have doubted you and you shouldn't doubt yourself." with that he left the room. Glitch beeped a few times giving me a start and made me look straight up above my head
"Oh Glitch. I thought you may have gotten hurt in the blast”  
He floated down and landed on the pillow giving me a sad whine. I lifted my hoof to pat him on the top of his casing "I know, boy. I was scared too." slowly a small realization hit me "I'm terrified Glitch. We have no idea what's out there and what's going to happen to us." rolling onto my back was a chore in my current state and I didn't think I'd staying like this for very long. Staring at the ceiling I started to really consider my options. Do I go look for my mom or solve this puzzle called Cogarth? What the hell was it and what did it do? I grabbed my head groaning "Too many questions at once!! Somepony just make my brain turn off please!!" right then I began hearing my mom's voice from Glitch's speaker. Her voice... It could calm the storm in my head. A tear streamed down my cheek when I smiled at him "Thanks, Boy"  
I rolled towards him and closed my eyes letting the music lull me away to sleep. After everything, I could use the rest. One.... Two.... Three..... Gone.
The cold. The same cold I felt within my nightmares shot up my spine shocking me awake. I jumped up onto all four hooves in a panic looking around "This place.... How did I get here again?"
"You're dreaming again, Cobalt" I sighed and shook my head. The voice again. Of course, he'd ruin a peaceful moment like this
"What do you want?" I wanted to ask since I had no other options. But I only got silence  
"I said what do you want!!!" I started screaming. This thing wasn't something natural. I've seen it so many times in my nightmares and now I was hearing its voice while I was awake. This wasn't something I wanted. I hated it, hated being afraid and most of all feeling like it was watching everything through my eyes. I grabbed my head ready to scream again. Tears streaming down my cheeks once more "Please! Just tell me what you want!!" hoof steps. I was hearing hoof steps coming towards me. Slowly I looked up and saw the stallion once again. He bared all of my features including my scar. He said nothing and just stared at me with his hollow eyes  
I growled and slammed my hoof down "ANSWER ME!!" the ground beneath my hooves began to crumble and break away from under me. I stepped away from the crumbling edge until I bumped into something behind me. I turned around to look and I saw the stallion behind me. He smiled and grabbed my shoulders "I want you to wake up." he pushed me into the hole. I couldn't even scream while I fell into the darkness.  
Then from nowhere, I landed face first on the floor. The pain was more annoying than anything else. I pushed myself up and looked around "What..."  
I was still in the same room Panzer left me in. I could only shake my head "What the hell does he mean wake up?" Asking out loud probably wasn't the best idea. But it didn't mean I was closer to an answer. Finally I got up and stretched my legs a bit "Hey Glitch you awake?" He beeped and sprang into the air "Good. Because we're gonna step outside for some air”
He gave me a confused glance as I grabbed the Judge from my pack "Just follow me." I walked over to the door and slowly pushed it open while it made a slight squeak. I am a bit afraid that I may have woke up Panzer I braced myself for his scolding. Luckily all that came was a raspy snore while he laid passed out next to his power armor. I inched my way into the room and gazed at his armor "Whoa..." it was nothing like I had seen in the archives back in the stable. Panzer had heavily modified this bad boy to a whole new levelA 50mm cannon mounted on the left, a grenade launcher on the right, the helmet looked like it had been modified for the best accuracy possible. I reached up and rubbed my down the leg. Pistons, gears, and servos. Just imagining this thing in action made drift into a day dream. Glitch tapped my shoulder and brought me back to the real world. I looked at him and nodded. I spent too much time here anyways. I needed some air. Didn't take long for me to find the doorI stepped out and looked around the bank where Panzer had set up his stash. The vault was definitely a worthwhile choice to hide his gear. Thick steel walls, a door that reminded me of the stable's entrance, and a chain link fence to close on the outside. Would make anyone think they had a chance to get in here. I sighed heavily and made my way outside. The moment I hit the sidewalk I heard that all too familiar music playing before it stopped "Hello Watcher."
"Hello, Cobalt.... I see you're still in one piece" he said.
I just looked at him "Yeah, if I can't depend on my own strength when the moment comes then what good am I?" looking at the empty buildings I started to think of the times this place had ponies coming and going. Never aware of the day things would go to shit "Watcher, those ponies I killed. I'm never going to   
forget their faces."
Watcher "Cobalt, Listen to me. You can't let these moments drag you down. You had no choice but to do what was necessary to escape and set the slaves free. Believe me when I say you're not the first one to do this. There will always be a time where you can't talk your way out of a situation. You have to take action and make a decision if you live or die. You want to see your mom again don't you?"I nodded "I do. More than anything." then the memory flashed in my mind "Watcher!" my head spun around "I found a second holo-cassette linked to Project Cogarth"
"A second one? I'm guessing it's hard to break as well?"
I nodded "There's something on it which made my pipbuck glitch when the bombs went off. I think it was a virus of some kind."
"I don't think it was a virus Cobalt. I'm gonna look into it from my end. I'll come look for you when I find something"
"Please do...." Felt like I was begging at this point. The music began playing as the spritebot went about its business. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to find my mom, wanted to learn more of Project Cogarth, but I couldn't do any of that until I learned how to survive out here. Nothing in a book was going to teach me. Got to learn it myself. I got up and began moving towards the bakery where we had cornered the twins earlier that day. Might be good salvage inside Panzer and the twins might have missed. I took a second to find a sign with the name of the place on it. It wasn't something I could explain but knowing the name helped me stay calm. I always had an unhealthy sense of curiosity since I was a colt, and there it was on the ground
"Grade A Cupcakes!!"
The name made me smile a bit. It was a bit amusing in a sense. I started to head inside then I heard a loud clattering around the corner of the building. I quickly grabbed the Judge and turned off the safety moving towards the source of the noise. I had hoped it wasn't something I was going to regret messing with. I don't need a lecture from Panzer. Rounding the corner my sights fell upon Tick, the sister of the clock twins. She gasps reaching up to me mouthing the word 'Help'Glitch and I raced over to her. I grabbed her in my hooves and lifted her up against me her blood smearing all over my legs. I didn't care. I looked her over to find the wound. On her chest was a bullet wound "You've been shot. Hold on I can help!" I had no idea how to treat a sore throat let alone a bullet wound. She shook her head and tried to point towards the road. The trial of blood she left behind was leading in the same direction. Not a second passed before she died. Her entire body slowly went limp as she exhaled her last breath. I shook her a bit "Hey! Don't die on me!! Not now!!It was pointless. She was already gone and I couldn't bring her back. Looking at the trail of blood I could only make one guess who was at the other end. Whether her brother was the shooter or not I couldn't say at this time. I sat her down and grabbed the Judge in my mouth and took off the safety "Let's go glitch. I have a feeling we're gonna find trouble at the other end."
"Panzer?" he asked me using my voice. Maybe he was right. We were going to need help.
"Go get him. Tell him to follow the blood." I started to follow the blood as Glitch gave me a confirming beep and flew off. My mind was reeling with. images of every horrible thing I could imagine. However, the reality was much crueler compared the fantasies we came up with. I followed the trail all the way to the road leaving the mini-mart parking lot. It had to be at least a 15 or 20-minute walk from where I found Tick. She endured so much more pain pushing her body to pull itself as far as she got. Then I found the end of theThe end of the blood trail. Tock was laying on the ground, his skull blasted up at the back, his gray matter all over their belongings, and the blood from him, as well as Tick's, pooled together on the asphalt. Moving closer I took a good look at the entry wound. Eight dead between his eyes. I looked up and began looking around for a high vantage point from where a sniper could set up such a shot. The only thing I noticed was a few ruined buildings nearby. The closest one looked like a hotel for travelers to spend the night. With a quick inspection to make sure my gun was loaded I broke into a short sprint towards the apartments. The moonlight shined down through the clouds down on top of the building. Within a second a shadow leaped from one of the windows and took off flying. I stopped dead in my tracks following it until it vanished into the night. "What the hell...?" Within a second of me opening my mouth, I felt the weight of something touching my shoulder. The idiot inside of me spun around and fired off two rounds at the thing touching me. Then the sparks from the ricochet as they bounce off Panzer's helmet snapped me back to my senses. He stumbled back and shook his head before looking at me "Damn it Cobalt!! Watch where you're firing damn it. You're lucky I'm wearing my helmet or you'd be short a new friend right now." he took his helmet off to examine the damage. I just stood there in shock. I nearly killed him. The one pony who was willing to follow me down whatever road I was traveling and I came close to blowing his head off.
"Panzer, I'm so...." I went to apologize but he stuck his hoof up and shook his head
"Don't. You did what anypony else would have done in a moment like this. I'm just glad to know you got some good reflexes with that pistol of yours”I just sighed "Yeah, good reflexes." I looked up at the apartments "Something flew from the higher floors of that building. I think we got a pegasus sniper flying around here"
He blinked and looked at me "How do you know it was a pegasus?"
"It flew off just before you showed up. Never seen anyone with such a dark coat and you're the most somber pony I've ever seen." I looked at him as he slid his helmet back on.
"Okay, then. Let's go see what we can find. He had to have a sniper's nest set up in one of the rooms. Even a rookie would have had some kind of set up. However...." he looked at Tock's body "I don't see why someone would go through the trouble to take these two out. They're just small game thieves."Might be some clues in the nest you mentioned." I took a step and my hoof landed on a fallen stop sign. The center of the sign was dented from what looked like a gunshot. I blinked and looked at the pole where it once sat at the top of it. "He shot the sign too?"
Panzer "That wouldn't make any sense. Too many shots would have given his position away to them. Unless..."
I turned back to him "Unless what?" he pushed past me and headed towards the apartments "Panzer?"
"Follow me. I got a feeling I know who made the shotWithout delay I followed him up to the apartments. The walk felt like it was taking longer since my eyes were looking at everything but what was ahead of me. The remains of ponies who tried to escape the fallout from the mega-spells, one couple was cuddled next to their foals inside of a bus stop. My mind was drifting to what I imagined to be their last moments. Loved ones holding each other until the very end. The father kissing his children on the head telling them things would be alright and they would always be together. Their mother's last words to them saying things like 'Mama loves you' and 'Daddy is going nowhere'. I wanted to cry for them. For whatever reason, I could think of I wanted to show that I cared for these ponies. Ones I had never met or ever will meet. Panzer's voice caught my ear "You have to ignore them, Cobalt. You're gonna get yourself killed weeping for the dead"I just looked at him and back at the family "How can anyone be so numb to this?"
"I've spent my whole life out here. You haven't been here a week yet. Trust me. You learn to block it out after a couple of days scavenging in buildings like these"He kept walking towards the apartments. I stood there looking at the family of corpses. I don't think I'd ever understand how Panzer can ignore the scenery around him but I couldn't. I notice so much more in a day than most ponies would see, hear, or smell within a week. Remembering back in the stable I recalled a moment where I tracked down Dancing Heart by her perfume from the mess hall to her office. Nearly gave her a heart attack when she came out a second laterI chuckled a bit and followed behind Panzer. This was not something which would be easy for me. I broke into a short sprint towards catch up to Panzer as he entered the main office.
Once we were inside we began to look around instinctively for any scrap we could come back for later. My eye caught the faint glow of a terminal screen sitting behind the counter. Within a second I had plugged my pipbuck into the terminal and began hacking it. Panzer looked at me and walked up looking over my shoulder "Expect to find something Cobalt?"
I nodded scrolling over the various options and tried the first possible match. Strike one. "Yeah, might be a safe in here with some valuables we can trade off later." tried my second choice: Strike two
He nodded "Hmm... Smart thinking. You keep at it and I'll go look at the rooms upstairs. Give a shout if you find anything worthwhile." He instructed while he made his way up the stairs. I stayed right there with my eyes glued to the screen. Which most would say I could go blind being so close to itI saw one entry that seemed a bit out of place, Niami. I scrolled over to it and hit enter. That did it! There were three entries on the main screen.
Check-ins  
Reservations  
Personal Diary: Corporal Pepper Spray.
I scrolled down to the personal diary. Whoever Pepper Spray was she left a pretty extensive diary. I downloaded everything onto my pipbuck for later. Glitch bumped my shoulder and turned towards the manager's office. Inside I saw the obvious green glow of another terminal. A small part of me was hoping there was something more worthwhile on it. Not that I wasn't curious about the diary of Pepper. But it had to wait. I trotted inside and looked around. The first sight that struck my eyes was the massive pile of lewd magazines scattered all over the floor. Tin cans, Sparkle Cola bottles, half eaten Cram, wrappers from Fancy Buck snack cakes.... I could go a whole day listing the trash scattered around the office. No doubt the manager was an absolute pig.
Upon further inspection, I saw a couch with the body of the manager clutching three bags of prewar bits. Glad to see he had his priorities in order. Over on the desk was his terminal. I took a seat in his chair and tapped on the keyboard. Wasn't locked, Thank Luna for that. He had the same set up as Pepper's terminal in the lobby. He left an audio file on it as well. I hit play just for the sake of curiosity
"Okay, I figured I might as well record this for the sake of covering my ass. My name is Brass Tax. I am the Manager of the Lucky Trails Apartment Complex. I am making this recording to support my claims that one of my employees could be a zebra sympathizer. She's been with conspiring with a so-called defector named Niami. I have some evidence to confirm my claims. I..." *Rising air raid alarm rising in the background* "What the hell?"  
*Phone rings* "Damn it! Hello?!! Oak, what is going on out there? Yes, I'm at the office! What's going... What? Manehatten was hit. Wasn't your sister up there? Oh fuck. Listen, get the kids and we're leaving for the stable. What? The fuck do you mean you already left? YOU FUCKING BITCH!! YOU STUPID CUNT! After all, I've done for you!! Fuck!!!"
After the recording ended I just sat there blinking "Well, that was interesting." I turned it off and got up. He claimed Pepper spray was a traitor and his family left him behind for the safety of the stable. Seemed like he was a real family guy to me. I got turned off the terminal and got up walking towards the stairs "I hope Panzer found something upstairs”I reached the top floor and found Panzer shining his headlamp into every room that had an open window "Damn it. Where would he set up a vantage point?" he turned and shined the light on me "Cobalt? Did you find anything interesting down in the lobby?"
I shielded my eyes and nodded "Yeah, Somepony's diary. I'll listen to it later. Did you find anything?"
"Yeah, I did. A half bottle of whiskey and a spent shell casing. He was definitely here." he turned around and trotted down the hallway "Follow me." without any delay I followed Panzer towards the farthest room and walked inside. My eyes immediately shot down to the floor when I saw a mixture of talon marks and paw prints. It wasn't a pegasus but a griffin. Next, to them, I saw a couple of black feathers when Panzer shined his headlamp on them "Sigfried, Death's raven. He's been a legend long before me and the other rangers moved into the area"I looked up at him "Who is he? Some kind of mercenary?"
He shrugged "No idea. But rumors indicate he's never missed a target and can fire a round from any angle. He killed the twins from this room." he walked over to the window and shined a light on the street "the twins were standing 200 yards away. But they couldn't be hit at the same time from a straight shot from this window."
I remembered the stop sign "Unless he bounced it off a hard metal surface."
Panzer nodded "Exactly. Bullet hit the stop sign, struck Tock in the head, Tick was hit in her lung making her bleed out and he didn't have to move from this spot. I found the whiskey half empty so that tells me he must have had a drink before he took off. Could be the reason you caught a glimpse of him" he reached down, picked up a holo-cassette with his hoof and held it over to me "Plus I found this. You're the only one with pipbuck so you'll have to play it”I nodded and grabbed the holo-cassette sliding it the player on my pipbuck.
A mare's voice came out. Goddesses it was like nails on a chalkboard  
"Hello Sigfried, I have another job for you. A pair of twins has offered to help us with a small task I've been trying to accomplish on my own. No surprise that I've had no luck. I can't stand working with the sledge's little gang. But that doesn't matter own. The twins have promised to 'take a look around'. Hehe no doubt they'll take a shot at Suzy while she comes back to camp, in which case that'll help get everyone's attention on Stable-Tec's regional office"
I stopped the tape and looked at Panzer "Suzy? Does the Sledge employe griffins too??"
He shrugged "Wouldn't be surprised if he did? But didn't the twins say they took a shot at the Sledge himself? Where did this Suzy come from?"
"Body double maybe?" I suggested and he just shrugged againI shrugged back and hit the play button again
"The minute the twins do their job get rid of them. Don't worry about if they make contact with anyone. It'll draw more idiots for us to complete the task Cogarth has set for us. I'll contact you again when I have some work for you"
Both Panzer and I were staring at my pipbuck. The task that Cogarth has set out for them? Was the project some kind of artificial intelligence that had been left behind from the war? Damn it! I was really started to hate getting more questions to answer than actual answers. I sighed and looked up at Panzer "What the hell is going on with these ponies?"
He got up and nodded at the door "Let's head for now. With a brief rest, we can continue towards Taberoo. As far as what's going on with everyone? I have no damn clue. But we may be heading into a major shit storm in the middle of it. Let's go." he walked out of the room and I followed him without missing a beat. Something in my guy told me he was right. We were heading into something big. How big? That was a question that I couldn't possibly answer.
End of chapter 4

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                    Chapter 5: Taberoo                     
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Chapter 5: Taberoo
After a brief resting up and gathering some supplies from Panzer's stash, we started towards Taberoo. I had grabbed what the twins had left behind. The grenades they picked from Panzer's trap might come in handy. I loaded both the Clipper and the Judge strapping them to my front legs. Had ammo for both but I have to make my shots count. Panzer slipped into his power armor and did full systems check before we left. He asked me to do some fine tuning with my pipbuck so there wouldn't be issues later. A half hour later we reached the top of the hill that overlooked the town. Panzer raised his helmet and waved his hoof in the air like he was presenting a prize on a pre-war game show "Here it is, Taberoo. The town of ghosts" I blinked and looked at him "Whoa, hold up. You never said anything about ghosts!" Panzer "Didn't know you were the type to believe in them?" "I believe in things that can't be explained and are beyond our control. Now what exactly do you mean by ghosts?" now my mind was back to creating unneeded scenarios of me being possessed and used like a living meat puppet
He chuckled a bit as he started down the hill "There have been rumors circling the town about ghosts and spirits roaming the streets. Multiple accounts from any traders who were brave enough to trek through here say that the ghost of the ponies who once lived here haunt the very town itself. No one knows if they have hostile intentions. But I doubt there is any truth to the rumors" My heart started to swell into my throat "So you say... " I didn't like ghost stories as a colt so naturally I didn't like them now. We were nearly at the foot of the hill when a gun shot pierced the ground at Panzer's hooves. We looked up seeing a griffin hovering in the air with an antimatter rifle in its talon. "One more step Ranger, and I'll send you straight to hell!!"
The griffin landed on the ground in front of us and switched to a riot shotgun aiming it at Panzer "Stable Boy! Move away from him now! Unless you wanna get shot along side him." This griffin wasn't like the others I've seen in books and in pictures. Her feathers were a brilliant mix of red and orange. Like the flames of a phoenix. The lion part of her body wore a light shade of cinnamon. Unusual combination but it worked really well. I tried to step forward and talk to her but Panzer stopped me with his leg. "What the hell Panzer!?" I snapped at him while he shook his head "Go on without me, Cobalt. Rangers aren't exactly popular around the wastes so it's best if you go on ahead and find your mom. Trust me, it's better if you don't get involved right now. I doubt you'd be ready for a gun
I shot him a glare and pushed his leg away walking towards our assailant "Why are you doing this?" Panzer "Cobalt!! I said go!" I ignored his warning. The griffin started to shake while she kept the gun trained on me "I have no problem with you. Now please just walk away. There's no reason for you to involved." Her voice, her talons, and her entire body. She was shaking all over. I didn't think she was going to pull the trigger. I kept getting closer when she cocked the gun "I swear I will fucking shoot you if you don't move!!" I smiled softly "You're not the kind of griffin to bring harm to others."
She growled and shoved the shotgun in my face "And just what makes you think I won't pull the trigger?!" The shaking was getting worse. Her focus shifting from the ranger to me. I could see the anger and pain in her eyes. Something happened to her and I had a strong feeling it was something horrible. But I needed more details. "If you wanted to kill me you wouldn't be as hesitant as you are now. Which means you're looking for something from my friend back there. Something very valuable. Something you'd risk everything to protect... " her grip tightened on the weapon, she growled even louder, she grabbed me by the collar and lifted me into the air "Shut up!!" that was it. I knew what it was. "Your child. That's who you're looking for." the words shattered her resolve when she looked up at me with tears streaming down her cheeks "How?" "Doesn't take much to see a mother who would do anything for her children."
She growled and threw me to the ground planting the butt of her weapon in my throat "HOW WOULD YOU KNOW OF THAT!!?" her voice echoed over the town which would no doubt attract some kind of attention "You're working with this monster aren't you!? You helped him kill my babies!!!" Panzer "Cobalt!" he tried to move in to tackle her but she flipped the gun around and cocked it "One more step and blue boy here gets an express ticket down!!" I gasped and looked her in the eye "Listen to me. We didn't do anything to your children. We just arrived in the town less in ten minutes ago. I swear it's the truth." She glared down at me "Bullshit."
"I'm not making it up. Did you see anything on the ranger you're after? Any marks or something about his armor that was unique?" her eyes shot up at Panzer. Right there the realization hit. Her talons started to tremble, tears streamed down her cheeks, and the weapon collapsed on the ground. She dropped onto her knees beside me shaking her head "No, it's not him. Please- please tell me I didn't get the wrong one." she clenched her fist glaring at him "Take off your helmet. Let me see your face!!"
Panzer looked at me. I slowly nodded "Do it." he sighed and sat down before he raised his hooves to lift his helmet off. She gasped seeing the face of the charcoal stallion underneath
"No, it's not him. His face was all twisted..." she started to shudder and grabbed her head. She was ready to scream "Twisted and all wrong. Like it had been melted." I saw Panzer's ears perk up when I pulled myself up from the ground.
"You said his face was melted. Did he have a burning skull insignia stamped on the side of his armor?" Her eyes snapped up at him.
"Yes, he did. You know him?" she tightened the grip on her gun which didn't help the situation at all.
He hesitated but he slowly nodded "I know of him. He's a former ranger turned mercenary like me. Doesn't use any name. Most of my old chapter just called him Nameless."
Both the griffin and I just stared at him. He looked back at us and shrugged "What? I'm serious. I've been with the chapter for three years and I have never heard the guys name. Everypony just told me to call him Nameless."
The griffin got up and charged at Panzer grabbing his chest plate "Tell me everything you know about him right now. I am not letting him get away with what he's done to my babies!!"
He didn't show any reaction "For starters, there's a damn good chance your kids are alive."
Her eyes widen with a small glisten of hope. She growled and pulled him until her until his muzzle touched her beak "How are you so certain they're alive!?"
Panzer "He allowed you to see him. He's baiting you into a trap. Are you the only griffin here?"
She shook her head "Now. My whole family is here. About 25 bodies in all. Including my children and myself."
Panzer nodded "Okay, makes sense he'd target the kids."
I blinked and came up to them "You think he's trying to get them angry so they'd screw up?"
He looked at me and nodded "You can't see anything else when you see nothing but red"
The griffin blushed so hard her feathers looked jealous as she slowly set him down and sighed "I'm sorry. I just want to find my kids and make sure they're safe. It's maddening not knowing if they're alive or not."
I looked up at her and placed my hoof on her shoulders "We'll find them. I promise. Now did you see where this nameless may have run off too?"
She looked at me and sniffed wiping her eyes "I didn't see where he went. I got left behind when I saw my children's bedrolls were empty along with a pile of feathers. I think he may have plucked their wings so they couldn't fly." This guy was becoming more twisted than I thought after learning so little about him. But his history wasn't important right now.
"Take me to where your kids were sleeping. I may be able to pick up a trail to follow." I was always more perceptive than most of the other ponies in the stable so I was confident I'd find something
She nodded and grabbed her shotgun "Follow me. But I should warn you. My father is on the warpath and he won't give your armored friend here a chance to explain things."
Panzer "I'll hide in the hardware store she was using for the moment while you two go scope things out." He pointed at my pipbuck "87.9 that's my frequency. That way if I get into a scrap I can call out for help"
I nodded and turned my attention to the griffin "We didn't get your name. I'm Cobalt and this is Panzer". He bowed his head as she looked him over
"Apt name. I'm Heather. Family doctor and single mother. We were trying to find a new place to settle down after a group of rangers forced us from our home." she nodded towards the town "But we can talk about that later. My kids come first"
I nodded "Panzer, Heather and I head into town. You hang around the hardware store like you said."
Panzer gave me a quick nod "Right, the other griffins might make the same mistake as Heather did."
Heather "Especially my father. Took everything the family had to keep him from... " she started to tremble at her thoughts. I placed my hoof on her shoulder. She looked at me while I offered her a soft smile
"It's okay, you don't have to say anything to us. I can see it hurts to think about it"
She smiled back and placed her talons over my hoof "Thank you. You have no idea what we've been through to get here"
"I can only imagine." Heather and I made our way into town while Panzer went over to what appeared to be a hardware store. I found myself thinking there may be some good salvage left inside to find. Unless Heather and her family had cleaned it out already. She stopped at the edge of the street and looked both ways then upwards "Okay, looks clear. Can't let my dad or the others see you until we've found something." she began moving down the street while I followed at a brisk pace.
"I take it your folks aren't very trusting towards ponies are they?" She shook her head "After losing our land and my kids coming up missing he'll most likely shoot first rather than ask questions."
"Right, which reminds me. You didn't say how you ran into this Nameless guy." She growled a bit "The asshole had the nerve to show his face. I had laid my kids down for a nap and walked out of the room to stand watch just outside the door so nothing would happen. But something weird happened... I began to feel like I was drunk for several seconds. The feeling kept getting worse so I closed my eyes for a brief moment. When I opened them my kids were gone. That's when Nameless showed up at the edge of town. He had some kind of speaker in his hooves. We all heard my kids yelling out for help from it." tears began to stream down her cheeks again.
I watched and listened to her "None of you could catch him? With all that power armor he had to be slow as hell."
She nodded at my assessment. "We did think that. But he had something on his armor which threw out a smoke screen. I don't know what he used for the smoke but we couldn't breathe or see anything. He slipped away laughing the whole way mocking us.
"I swear if I get my claws on him I will end him." I thought back to the moment she said she began feeling sick
"Did you hear or see anything before you got sick?"
She looked at me and looked down at the ground thinking "No, I don't think so... Unless you count a small mechanical whine. Now that I think about it. I felt some weird sensation shoot through me just before I got sick. It came from Jackson's room where he was sleeping down the stairs from me. We had set up in the general store. He kept he'd find something to help us in there. "
"Who's Jackson?"
"Our eccentric resident tinkerer. He collects every old gadget he can find and tried to get them working to sell off to other traders. One day it ended badly when he sold what he thought was a simple toy to a little filly. Turned out the toy was a teddy bear rigged with a bomb inside of it. I don't want to think who created it and who it was for. Damn thing blew up the kid's house. Thank God the kid and her family weren't home"
"And you keep him around because?" Every word I heard didn't give me a lot of confidence in the guy.
She gave a nervous laugh "He's the only mechanic we got to fix our weapons and armor. Though I wouldn't put him down just yet. He's a genius when it comes to improvisation.If anyone can dream up a better gadget its Jackson." She cleared her throat looking away from me "He does have one big flaw though"
I just stared at her and whined. "He's accident prone isn't he?" Heather rubbed her shoulder nervously "He's not the most elegant guy I know. We once we had to dig him out of his own house. He blew out the walls and dropped the roof right on top of himself testing his own version of smoke grenades."
"Smoke grenades? What the hell was he using?!" I could hear my voice crack with that particular question.   
"No idea. Didn't bother to ask. Plus I really didn't want to know." She started to walk again and peeked around the corner   
"Okay, seems everything is clear. Let's just..."
"Heather Blazebeak!! Do you mind telling me what that pony is doing here with you!?" my head spun around and spotted an elder griffon sporting a hunting rifle aimed right at me.
Heather looked up at him and jumped between us "Dad, stand down! He's here to help us find the kids."
The griffin scoffed and spat at the ground "You really think I'm gonna trust a pony after everything they've done to our family?"
Heather stood her ground "Dad, please. He can help us. Give him a chance to prove it." she pleaded while he scoffed
"What makes you think he can find anything we haven't?" he grabbed her shoulder to push her aside slinging his rifle over his shoulder. I looked at his talons and noticed something. One of his talons had been broken off and a faint scent hit my nose. It was oil, the kind they used for lamps. My eyes shot up just as the griffon pushed Heather aside.
"Your talons are covered in lamp oil!" I blurted out making him gawk at me. He narrowed his eyes reaching for a pistol straped to his side "And how would you know that?" I gulped a bit "The Overmare of my stable used something like that for reading. Said it felt more authentic compared to using the lights in her room.
He blinked and looked down at the big 18 stamped on my collar. "What the hell is a stable pony doing out here?"
"I have my reasons. Now I can help you find those kids but I need you to trust me. I'm not like the ponies you dealt with before." he growled and gripped the pistol in its holster "You get one shot. You try anything clever and all I need is one shot." I nodded and looked at Heather "Let's go." she nodded back and pointed towards the general store "We were in there. They were using the storage rooms at the back of the store to keep themselves hidden from the windows."
I pushed my way past Heather's father and went inside of the store looking around. Most of the items inside were rotted beyond saving. Nearly every shelf had been looted of every toy. I assumed some of the toys had items which could be used to survive out here. Either that or the looters were hoarders. Walking to the back of the store I trailed my eyes along the floor "I think we can find a trail to follow. The floor has several sets of prints soaked in lamp oil."
Heather "Must have come from Gamble's lantern. He made one out of some scrap some time ago."
"I always told him he'd give Jackson a run for his money. Hopefully with some common sense." her father had explained when I finally reached where the kids had their beds. Heather was right. The lantern had been stepped on by something heavy. The oil was soaked into everything around it, and there was only one set of hoof prints. Now we were making progress.
"Sir, I think I found a trail to follow. If you can allow me and my friend to follow it we can find the kids."
"Friend? What kind of friend?"
I turned to face him. "The kind of friend who has no love for the ranger who did this. He knows more about than I do and he can really speed up the search."
He just stared at me before he pointed his talons at me "Just remember what I said, boy." I nodded and turned my attention to the oil stained prints on the floor. It was easy to separate which belonged to the kids and which belonged to Nameless from the mess. I followed it to the door while Glitch and Heather stayed at my tail "You coming with me?" I asked her without looking up.
Heather "You're damn right I am. These are my kids. I'll tear Hell itself apart to find them." she cocked her shotgun as Glitch sped ahead scouting out the trail.
I took a second to turn on my pipbucks broadcaster "Panzer, we found a trail heading to the main road of the town. Meet us there as soon as you can. Tell the griffins you're with me and they should leave you alone."
Panzer responded "Roger that. On my way."
Heather "Are you sure your friend will able help us? I'm not very certain my family is going to let him through if he's wearing his power armor." Glitch chirped as he flew back to us and circled around my head. The trail was heading towards the subway entrance. No doubt everyone was down in the tunnels.
"I'm sure he can help. Right now I think it's best we find your kids." I stopped at the edge of the stairs leading down "We'll need all the help we can get. Glitch fly down and see what you can find. We'll wait here for Pazner." He gave another quick chirp before zooming down the stairs. We heard Panzer's hoof steps while another griffon followed him with a rifle at his back.
"Hey Heather, this tin can with you? Claims he's here to help find Gamble and the girls."
Heather looked up and sighed "Thelma lower the gun. He's not a threat"
Thelma scoffed and rested her rifle on her shoulder "If you say so." her eyes locked onto me, her brow went into an arch while she tilted her head "What's with the stable boy?" I smiled and held out my hoof "Private Eye Cobalt. At your service. No case too big or too small." that got a few weird looks
Thelma narrowed her gaze "I'm not in the mood for your smart ass remarks stable boy. Now, what exactly would a pony like you be doing in a shit hole town like this?"
"I couldn't just enjoy the scenery and the architecture of the buildings." I wasn't sure why my mouth was saying these things but I knew I was slowly making Thelma very angry. It didn't help when we heard Panzer snicker a bit. Thelma snarled and pushed her beak in my face "You are a few seconds from me turning you into a glue stick reject!"
Heather's father bellowed from the sky as he and two others joined the group "Back off, Thelma. I'll handle him."
Thelma backed away while he walked up to me shooting a glare down at me "So you found my grand kids?"
"I didn't find them yet but I do know where Nameless went. He's down in the subway station. Most likely to limit how much everyone has to fight in."
He widened his eyes a bit and scoffed shaking his head "Fuck, we'd be walking into a trap. Anything else you can tell me?"
"I sent my spritebot down into the station to scout ahead. I'm waiting for me to come back."
He slowly nodded "Smart Lad." Glitch chirped as he raced up the stairs and nearly clocked Thelma over the head.
"Glitch!" I grabbed him in my hooves and pulled him over to me "Did you find anything?" he nodded quickly and blurted out a mixed sentence using everyone's voice we've met so far "Traps, trip wires, and mounted turrets."
Perfect, now we have to avoid some tripwires. "We can easily avoid the tripwires in the air. This nameless clown is gonna regret fucking with us!" Thelma blurted out as she cocked her weapon and rushed into down the stairs. Heather's father reached for her tail trying to pull her back
"Thelma, wait!" he watched her zoom around the corner and sighed "Idiot girl. Who knows what that bastard has down there?" everyone got a jump start when Thelma screamed out, her voice echoed from inside the stairwell.
"MOTHER FUCK!!!" my ear twitched hearing metal rattling.
Heather "Damn it he knew we'd be coming." Her father cocked his gun keeping a talon on the trigger "Seems like he was actually expecting us. Stable boy, you and your armored friend follow me down. Everyone else stay up here and keep watch."
Panzer and I nodded. I grabbed Clipper into my mouth and made sure it was loaded. Heather jumped in front of her father "Dad, I am coming with you! Those are my kids down there and I will not stand by waiting. I will lose every bit of my sanity just sitting around."
He grabbed her shoulder "Sweetheart, I know you're eager to find your kids. I am too. But we need to make sure this Nameless doesn't get the drop on us. Please wait up here with the guys and we'll bring them back I promise."
She snarled and slapped his talons away "No!! I am going and there's nothing that even you can do to stop me, Dad. Am I not owed some payback of my own?"
Her father just stared at her for several seconds before he sighed in defeat "Fine. But I want everyone to go stock up on ammo and health potions. I will not stand for anyone dying on my watch."
One of the other griffins groaned "Sir, Jackson is an accident waiting to happen. Stepping into his shop could kill us long before this Nameless asshole has a chance."
Heather "Plus we also lost the element of surprise thanks to Hothead in the tunnels." Thelma grumbled as she climbed up the stairs with a mess of wires, cooking pans, and tin cans wrapped around her body. Heather looked at her and held back a snicker "Wow, you really stepped in it this time."
Thelma glared at her "Fuck You!"
"Alright, that's enough. Let's go stock up and get ready for whatever this asshole has planned. Stable boy, see if that robot found anything else in the tunnels." Heather's father had instructed all of us. Getting called Stable Boy had already gotten old.
I walked up to him "Sir, my name is Cobalt. I'd appreciate it if you start using my name."
He glared at me and pressed his beak into my muzzle "Find my grandkids and just maybe I'll remember it."
Heather pushed her way in between us and pushed me back away from her dad "That's enough! We don't have time for this!
I snorted "She's right. Plus I wanna take a look around Jackson's shop." He scoffed and walked away pointing his talon at the two griffins that flew in with him "Stay here and keep an eye out. If that scum bag pokes his head out, shoot it off. We'll be back." he continued to their camp while Heather punched me in the shoulder.
Heather "Are you intentionally trying to start a fight?"
I sighed and rubbed the spot where she hit me "No, I just can't stand anyone who doesn't take me seriously. Why else would he call me Stable boy?"
Heather "Just bear with it for now. I promise he'll stop if you can find my kids like you promised." I could only nod as a response before following her father back to the camp. It was a good thing too I wanted to see what Jackson had locked away. Heather followed alongside me and nudged my shoulder with her beak "Please be patient with Jackson."
I nodded "Yeah, you said he was accident prone." "We think it may be more than that. His mom was a chem fiend and he got a hold of some dash when he was a hatchling. He was lucky my dad happened by before any serious damage was done to him, providing it wasn't serious before then." I looked at her, then back to the front watching her dad "How did he come to become the mechanic for your family?" She giggled a bit "That's actually a funny story. He gobbled together some energy weapon parts a long time ago and made some kind of laser that tore through five robo-ponies at once. I didn't get the full story but that was the version I was told when everyone asked why he was working on my dad's weapons.'
Cobalt "You're missing out a few details." I told her which made her stop and stare at me.
She shook her head and placed her talons on my shoulder "Don't take it the wrong way but we don't fully trust you so I hope you can understand if I keep a few details to myself." her eyes filled with the same fear from before. Which was something I couldn't truly blame her for feeling that way. After everything I've heard about other ponies treating her family like dirt it was only logical to be distrusting towards someone like me.
I nodded and smiled "Any chance I could get the full story later on when we find your kids?" I wanted to give her hope. Her expression starter to lighten up when she returned the smile and nodded
Her father cleared his throat to get our attention. The second I looked at him I saw the scolding gaze he was giving me "So what exactly is your plan to find my grandkids?" I realized I hadn't actually put any thought into an actual plan to save them. That didn't stop me from making a fool out of Iron and Crackshot."
I smiled and trotted up to him "Don't worry about the kids. I have a plan to get them out. For now, let's get resupplied and make our way into the subway. Shall we to Jackson's room?"
He scoffed and lead us back to the general store "He's in there. Let me talk to him first." he walked inside and over to what remained of the employee entrance and knocked. Silence, he tilted his head and knocked again "Huh, weird. He's usually very punctual he gets visitors." he finally started to bang on the door. Finally, a griffin charged out and grabbed Heather's father by his foreleg dragging him behind some debris "HIT THE DECK!!!" he cried out which made everyone except Panzer and myself standing on the street. "What's going on?" I managed to ask before an explosion nearly leveled the building and sent me flying into a wall for the second time. But I stayed conscious this time around. I covered my ears with a failing attempt to stop the ringing while my eyes tried to refocus on what had just happened. Everything was blurred and muffled. I felt Heather's talons sliding under my side as she picked me up and held me close to her chest. She kept saying something to me but I didn't hear a single bit of it. I turned my head to find her father pointing and yelling at the new griffin who grabbed him. Anyone could guess it was Jackson. However, the biggest question was this: What the hell was he working on?  
My hearing started to clear up, I heard Heather's voice pushing away the haze while she slapped my cheek "Cobalt, come on. Snap out of it." she hit my cheek again before I managed to push her talons away
"I'm fine...." I said while I looked towards the clinic. The explosion took out the windows. Glass scattered everywhere like confetti. My attention to Heather's father and Jackson when the younger griffin dove behind Heather and myself.
"I'm sorry! I didn't think it was gonna go off like that!" The father growled as he grabbed Jackson's hind leg and pulled him out from behind us "You have any idea how much we go through because of your experiments!?"
Jackson yelled as he pulled away and fluttered away from Heather's father "I'm sorry Mr. Greyson! I was trying to make some thermite so we could defend the camp!" Everyone just looked at him as Greyson's jaw literally hung open.
Finally, he growled and grabbed Jackson's shoulder "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE!!? It's bad enough we have a Goddamned kidnapper to deal with so we now have you and thermite! What in the world were thinking?" Jackson whimpered and sunk down to the ground "I was trying to make something we could use for traps, cut some materials from the buildings or maybe weapons?" Jackson was a mud colored griffin with the shortest beak I had ever seen. he was genuinely scared of Greyson, Which now I could completely understand why.
Greyson sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose shaking his head "Jackson, I told you I didn't want you working with any kind of materials without someone watching over you. Now, how much of this stuff did you make?"
Jackson started fidgeting "Well excluding the batch I just set off approximately 7, maybe 8 grams of it." Everyone looked at him while Greyson's expression changed to something of being impressed "You made 8 grams of thermite?" Jackson nodded "I've also been extracting phosphorus for some grenades we can use later for later. As well as some flash bangs."
Panzer "Wait, you have flash bangs?" Jackson "Yeah, is that not going to work?" Panzer smirked at him "Are you kidding? If Nameless is in the tunnels we can use the flash bangs to blind his worthless ass. Especially if he's using night vision with his helmet
Jackson "Oh cool. I got some napalm too if you need it."
Greyson "Napalm?" asking with great concern. Which was understandable. Here was a griffin who had the know how to make some very dangerous chemicals and had the resources to do it
"Where the hell did you get the materials to make this stuff?"
Jackson "You can do just about anything with common household prewar items. It just takes a little known how and some imagination."
"Okay, and how did you learn to make any of it?"
"From a book."
I blinked for a second and cocked a brow "A book?" He nodded and went inside of the store "Yeah, wait here and I'll grab it
I shook my head when he went inside "Wow, is he always like this?"
Greyson "Every damn day. Let's get what supplies we can and head into the subway. We're wasting time standing here talking about chemistry" he walked inside followed my Thelma and Heather.
Panzer looked at me and nudged my shoulder with his hoof "You gonna be OK? You've never seen real combat before the twins showed up. Think you'll be able to keep up?" I looked up at him and gave him a heavy sigh "I'm not sure. I don't know if I'll be able to get through this without turning back into him." He cocked his head at me "Him?"
"When I said all that dark stuff back to the bakery? There is no way that was me."
His expression changed to dread when I said that. He placed a hoof on my shoulder "Let's keep that between us. The griffins hardly trust us as it is"
He was right. Thelma alone was ready to kill us. I could feel the eyes of that thing staring from the back of my mind. Waiting for the best chance to snake its way back into control of my body. What is wrong with me? My thoughts were steadily getting darker unil I heard Jackson's voice "I'm back!!" he placed a book on the ground throwing up dust in my face. I coughed a waving it away from my face. It was a thick volume with a grey stallion on the front "Redneck's Guide to Backyard science
I couldn't help but stare at the title. Backyard science did not sound like something that was safe for anypony "Um this is where you got the formula for thermite?"
Jackson nodded "Yeah, all you need a mixture of rust and some aluminum powder. Burns hotter than the sun and leaves one hell of a mark. By the way, if either of you needs to pee I have a collection barrel inside the store."
Panzer looked at him with a weird expression "You're collecting piss? Do I really want to ask why?"
Jackson "I use it to make white phosphorous."
Greyson came out of the clinic "Let's go boys. We haven't got all day." I looked up when his voice caught my ear and he was right. We have those kids to save and we needed to move. I got up and made sure my guns were loaded. I haven't used either one with the exception of the practice shots back in the stable with Brick. I was greatly hoping I would be worth having in a fight. I gripped the Clipper in my mouth and turned off the safety "Ready."
Panzer nodded as he lowered his helmet and loaded a round into his grenade launcher and a round into his cannon. Greyson nodded and lead everyone to the subway entrance. Glitch thrilled and bumped my shoulder. I reached up and patted his head "It'll be okay, boy. I promise." It didn't take much longer to find the subway entrance and begin our descent into the station. I turned on my pipbuck lamp and shined it over the mess of tripwires Thelma recklessly stumbled into before. Thanks to her Nameless had set up several grenade bouquets all along the walls. Thelma groaned muttering to herself, however, I can catch the word idiot. I waved my lamp around as Greyson sighed rubbing his head
"Now what? We left Jackson back at his shop so we can't disarm these things."
Panzer "We may not have to." Everyone looked at him as he pointed to one of the grenades "He likes to taunt his enemies. No doubt some of these are empty shells, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of him using a few live ones to make us think he wasted his time."
Thelma "So if anyone hit a live grenade they'd think others were active as well."
"The empty ones would have tempted us to trip the wires on purpose." I had finished for her. This was definitely a trap he needed a lot of time to set up. However, this would have called for more time than we gave him when we left for supplies
"Glitch and I can cut the wires so everyone can pass but we lost too much time going back for supplies. I think we should maneuver through the wires as slow as we can to make up for the time lost." Greyson nodded "I think that it'll be the best route in this case. Watch your gear and your wings everyone." He looked back at Panzer "Your friend might have more trouble getting through than the rest of us."
Panzer "That was a given. I can head back up to the surface and look for a sewer tunnel that connects to the subway."
Thelma "Why would they connect the sewer to the subway? Makes no sense."
Panzer "They may have some maintenance tunnels connecting everything. It was part of underground warfare. Moving supplies from one place to another using the connected tunnels under the enemies nose. Towns like this would be big targets for the Zebra Nations back then."
I looked towards the direction of the college "Where they were discovering and developing new ways to kill each other."
Panzer nodded and nudged my shoulder with his hoof "So I'll see you guys on the other side?"
Heather walked up "Hold on. I'm coming with you. We can make this a two pronged attack. We can ambush him from both directions."
Greyson "That sounds like a plan." he looked at Panzer "Are you sure they have those tunnels here in a small town like this?"
Panzer "Remember what I said about the school? Trust me. The tunnels are real. The Rangers were trained to use every advantage at our disposal. I'm certain Nameless has something in mind if we corner him so be ready for anything." Everyone nodded and we split into two groups. Glitch hovered ahead of our group and bobbed along a nearby wall while we searched for an entrance to the sewer.
Heather walked next to me and nudged my shoulder "I can't thank you enough for helping us."
I looked at her and gave her a soft smile "Don't thank us just yet. We're going to get those kids out first." I saw the tears forming in her eyes when she grabbed me and hugged me like we had been the best of friends. I couldn't stop myself from smiling as I hugged her back.
Panzer looked over at us and shook his head as his hoof hit a pony hole cover "Found one." He kicked his hoof through the thick metal and lifted it into the air "When you two get your bits together I'll be waiting down in the tunnel." He leapt down into the tunnel while Heather pulled away and adjusted her glasses. We heard the crash when he hit the floor
"he's right. We really need to move forward if we are to succeed." I nodded and moved to the hole down into the sewers. I took a deep breath and clicked on my pip-buck light then began climbing down the ladder. Glitch hovered over my head just a few inches so he didn't hit my head on the way down. His jets pouring hot air down on my head which was starting to make me sweat a bit. I quickly wiped my brow before I continued down the ladder. With a quick glance down at the bottom, I noticed the craters Panzer made with his hooves. But he had moved out of sight. Once I was at the bottom Glitch fluttered around the tunnel a bit looking in every direction. He beeped out a couple of times and looked at me. "I don't know where he went, Boy. Let's just keep our eyes opens for anything that might sneak up on us." Heather plopped down next to me then pulled out her shot gun ensuring it was loaded before we continued into the tunnels.
Heather "So where did Panzer waltz off to?" I shrugged before taking the clipper into my mouth and disengaged the safety "No idea. He was already gone when I got down here."
"Psst! Guys over here!" Both Heather and I spun around to find Panzer pointing at a small room "I found a terminal in here. If we're lucky we may find a map of the tunnels and see if they're linked."
Heather walked over to him and looked in the room "Um technology is not my strong suit."
Panzer "No worries. That's why Cobalt is here. He's one hell of a tech pony
I cracked a smile "That's right. There's nothing I can't...." I attempted to crack my neck but it only resulted in sending a sharp pain through my neck making her freeze with the expression of pure agony on my face "Ow! That did not pan out like I thought it would." Panzer facehoofed while Heather covered her mouth giggling. I sighed and made my way over to the office and looked inside.
Panzer tapped me on the shoulder "You're not the cool type Cobalt. Best to stay you." I nodded and flashed my light around. It was definitely some type of office. A few file cabinets, shelves with a few random assortment of tools, and the terminal sat on the desk over against the far wall. Papers were thrown about along with a shattered picture frame. Trotting over I noticed someone had taped a piece of paper on the corner of the screen 'I Am...' was all it said. Two words followed ten blank lines. Was this the password or a reminder to the owner of what their password was? Whatever the case I had to get into it and dig out any useful information we could find. I took the interface plug from my pip-buck and plugged it in bringing up the password selection menu "Okay, let's see what fate has in store for us."
"IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" a voice boomed out making all four of us jump and aim at the door. It was at that time we began to see something truly bizarre. Everything was covered a bright white hue. Everything was distorted and warped. The more I stared at it the more I began to notice it was like a TV screen when you lose the signal. This was like a TV broadcast being projected in front of us.
A stallion charged into the room and rushed over to where I was sitting at the desk. He reached through me like some kind of specter. My heart leaped into my throat while he slammed his hooves on the desk and threw all the papers and the picture frame out on the floor. He hit his head on the desk, tears streaming down his cheeks "That Slut!! I gave her so much! Five years I've spent giving her everything she could possibly want. How could she do this to me!? And our son?" He stomped the ground and charged out of the room "I'll show her who's a damn fool!!"
Panzer blinked and looked at me "What the hell was that!? First, we're dealing with a kidnapper and now we've got ghosts to contend with?"
I shook my head "I don't think that was a ghost. It looked more like it was a projection. Like somewhere was playing a pre-war film in front of us."
Heather looked at the door and sighed a bit "He looked like he had been hurt. I guess he was betrayed by someone he cared about." She sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye "I know that feeling all too well."
Panzer groaned and shook his head "Okay, not trying to sound like a heartless bastard but we need to focus. Cobalt please hack the terminal so we can see if it has a map we can use."
I looked down at the mess of folders on the floor. Brushing the folders aside I found a shattered photo frame. The photo was of the stallion, a young mare holding their foal in her forelegs. Some part of me reached out to this stallion. He may have been dead but he didn't deserve whatever made him do what he did. If I ever found out what she had done was left to be seen. I flipped over the photo. Both their names were written on the top corner 'Sewer Grate and Mud Cake. Married June 3rd' Sewer grate. I am Sewer Grate. The phrase popped into my head, I think this was the password to the terminal. I turned back to the desk and typed in the password. Exact match! Panzer blinked and gave me a blank expression "He used his own name as a password. Goddesses, that was stupid. Anypony with half a brain could have found it."
Heather snickered "If anyone had half a brain back in those days then none of us would be where we are now."
"Hmm, You have a point." Panzer agreed with her as I quickly found a map of the tunnels and downloaded it to my pip-buck. I look up at the screen and traced my hoof along that path that would lead us towards the subway station.
"I think I found a direct route to the subway station. We take the tunnel going to the right at the end of this section and we can cross over into the subway." Looking back at Panzer and they both loaded and checked their weapons. I did the same popping Clipper into my mouth before we left the office. The thought of seeing Sewer Grate's rampage was echoing inside my mind. What had happened for him to become so enraged like that? That was a question for another day. "Glitch, Fly ahead and see if you can spot anything along the tunnels. If I remember from the survival guide we could be running into feral ghouls down here." Glitch gave me a nod and shot forward zooming around the corner.
Panzer lowered his helmet taking point as he marched forward deeper into the sewer. "Let's hope that's the least of the problems we'll be facing down here. With Nameless waiting for us he could have something set up like he did with the tripwires in the subway entrance." He reached up and turned on his headlamp shining it ahead of us. Heather wiped her eyes and sniffed. Her talons had a shaky hold on her shotgun. I looked up and saw the fear in her eyes. Her kids were down here somewhere and we had no idea where they were. Any rational parent would be scared to death at the thought of their children were hurt and suffering or worse, Dead.
I placed my hoof on her arm and smiled to try and ensure her. "It's going to be okay. I promise we won't stop until we get your kids back to you."
Her smile returned and gave a small nod. She followed behind Panzer while I took up the rear. The tunnel was littered with the bones of everypony who tried to escape the fallout from the mega-spells. My gut was starting to roll up in knots from the smell of 200-year-old death. I tried to fight the urge to dry heave. In the back of my mind I knew I had to get used to this if I ever needed to go underground again. Glitch blurted out a random sequence of beeps and blips when he flew up to Panzer. Panzer "You find something glitch?"
He nodded and pointed one of his claws to an open door. "Subway Ticket Booth!" Glitch exclaimed while he bobbed up and down.
Panzer nodded "Alright, so far so good. Did you see the other griffins?" Glitch nodded and opened the hatch on his side. One of Greyson's feathers fluttered to the floor. Heather blinked and quickly picked it up looking it over "Oh God, is he?"
Glitch "No, he's alive. He got held up with the tripwires."
She let out a sigh of relief "Thank God." With a nod, Heather stood up and looked at Panzer "Okay, Panzer stay on point. If we time this right we may be able to end this without a fight."
"Don't forget this is Nameless were dealing with. He may be waiting for us." He stated heading into the tunnel towards the subway station. Along the way, we discovered further evidence that ponies had stayed a long time down below ground. A few tents and several rusted aluminum cans emptied of their contents. Heather kicked one can and stuck her tongue out "How could anyone eat that crap?" "What? You don't like Cram?" Panzer said with a chuckle. "No!" Heather snapped back tapping Panzer's back side with the barrel of her shotgun "It puts my stomach into knots. Heh, my son Gamble, however, eats just about anything you put in front of him."
"How many kids do you have if you don't mind me asking?" I asked her out of curiosity. "Three, Two daughters and Gamble my son. My oldest daughter is Haley. She's an absolute angel. She tries so hard to do more for the family. Then there's my youngest daughter Courtney." She giggled a bit "She's a bit fixated on Princess Sisters. The ones you call your Goddesses. She especially loves Celestia."
Panzer scoffed as he rounded another corner making both Heather and myself to look at him. "What the hell was that about?" Heather snapped at him. He continued to march on giving us a small glance "There are no such things as Gods or Goddesses, deities, or whatever divine beings you believe in. It's all bullshit if you ask me.
Heather "So you don't believe in having faith?"
"The only things I place my faith in are my guns, my armor, and my own four hooves. I don't need some kind of religious beliefs to know I can hold my own in a brawl. Putting too much stock in such things will only set you up to get stabbed in the back." He said with a sour tone marching further away from us.
Heather clinched her shotgun and looked at me which made my heart leap into my throat. She looked at me like I was some kind of prey "So..." She leaned closer to me "What do you think?" I gulped and exhaled before looking her dead in the eye.
"I don't believe it hurts to have a little faith where something happens that can't be explained by magic or science but only to an extent. Any other time you can only rely on yourself. Which is what I think Luna and Celestia would us to do. They wouldn't want us to rely on them for everything
Her expression eased up a bit. She sighed heavily before she continued following Panzer "I'm sorry, I'm not used to dealing with anyone who is a complete atheist but I can't really judge him for that can I?"
"No one can, it'll just lay the foundation of another conflict no matter how big or small. Religious views, money or any form of power have been the most common causes of any known conflict throughout a kingdom's history. Ponies, griffins, and even the zebras have seen their own conflicts within their own borders." I looked at her and saw the saddened expression in her eyes. I reached up and held her hand "This isn't the time for a debate. We need to find your kids. After that I'm going to help you find a home you can settle down in."
She nodded and wiped her eyes "Right. Let's go." We continued down the tunnel until we merger from a door right next to the restrooms and the subway ticket booth. At the stairwell Greyson was hovering in the air holding on to Thelma's hind leg while she worked her gun through the tripwires.
She growled and turned her weapon in all directions so she didn't pull one of the wires "Damn him! I swear I'm gonna shove this thing up his ass for this shit!" She scowled before my hoof hit a tin can making them turn their attention to Heather and I. "Hey blue boy! Come here and give me a hand. My shotgun got stuck in between some of the wires and I can't get it free."
I trotted over and looked at the shotgun. She got the clip on the shoulder strap caught on one of the wires. One good yank and it could trigger a big enough bang to kill all of us. "Glitch, see if you can get the clip off of the wire. That's what is holding her up." Thelma looked at the clip and groaned leaning her head on her arms
"Oh for fuck sake!" Glitch hovered passed her and extended a claw to grab the clip and remove it from the wire without pulling it free.
Greyson and Thelma landed on the floor without making a sound. Greyson looked at me and nodded "Good to see you all made it. Probably would have saved time traveling together. Give this bastard something to think about the next time he tries kidnapping someone's kids."
Heather and Thelma nodded while everyone did a quick weapon check. I raised my hoof to stop them "Hold on! Why not try a more covert approach to all of this instead of an all out gun fight? We could risk putting the kids at risk if one of us takes a risky shot and a stray bullet hits one of them."
The griffins looked at me and then at each other. Heather gripped her weapon tightly "Dad, he's right. Maybe we could try sneaking around him before he has a chance to use them against us?"
"With the size of this station we could find a good vantage point from the support rafters on the ceiling and take him out silently," Thelma added to which Greyson nodded in approval
"Okay, we'll go with the covert approach. Any info you can offer on Nameless, Panzer? You know him a lot better than the rest of us." Panzer reached up and pulled his helmet back "All I can add a point to be careful with his fire. He's a unicorn who can manipulate flames. He's very creative when he has the time to set up traps and other tools which could turn the battle to his favor. If we screw up we're going to have a very bad time on our hooves."
Greyson nodded "Lead the way."
Panzer lowered his helmet moving towards the boarding platform of the subway. As we passed the restrooms I noticed something blinking on the inside of the door. The door was propped open with a small gap between the door itself and the door frame. I leaned closer while Glitch hovered in the air looking down at me and tilted to the side. I didn't need to get much closer to find a laser trip wire was hidden in the stallions restroom. I looked around trying to find something that was connected to it. Too late, the security gates started to lower down behind the others. I panicked and bolted trying to beat the gate. Sadly I wasn't fast enough. The gate closed tightly down on the floor and I couldn't risk yelling to the others to warn them of what had happened. Pulling up my map I searched for another way to get to the platform. There was one way. An air vent which leads from the mare's room to the security office on the upper level of the platform. "Come on Glitch!" We dove inside the mare's restroom and found the vent with no problem. I knocked it in with my power hoof and I crawled inside. I had to thank my mom for giving me a slender frame. Inching my flank through the vent I followed the route I saw on my pip-buck. I hope it was accurate and I was heading towards the security booth inside the station. After a short struggle I reached the end and punched out the vent before rolling into the floor. I jumped up to look out the window. I was just in time. At the top of the stairs Greyson, Heather, and Thelma were whispering among each other while Heather took aim with her anti-matter rifle. Panzer was looking back at the entrance probably looking for me. I turned my attention down the floor. That's when I saw them. The kids locked inside a cage which hung from an industrial sized chain connected to the ceiling. Each of them had lost the feathers on their wings so they couldn't fly, under the cage Nameless had a stockpile of mines situated in small pile. Maybe it was meant to deter them from trying to escape. A trail wires lead from the mines to a workbench, Nameless himself was sitting down on top of the wires with his back turned to the stairs. This was a perfect set of circumstances. He doesn't see the others on the stairs and I'd take only one shot to end all of this. However, my gut was telling me it was too perfect. I watched Nameless for several seconds then slipped into SATS. He moved like anyone else but something was off about him... After everything Panzer said about him. Anypony would think he would have been pre prepared for a fight. Before I released the spell that's when I saw it. Stitches on the side of his neck. This wasn't Nameless! It was a dummy rigged up to look like him.
The panic that shot through my chest made me jump through the window. I was still under the SATS spell watching the bullet from Heather's rifle flying towards the dummy's head. Within the split seconds I had left I made one of the only decisions I could. I bolted for the cage at full speed, the bullet zipped over my back and struck the dummy's head taking it off of the body, the sounds of a pin being pulled echoed in my ears when I jumped into the air and rammed the side of the cage. The bones in my right forelegs snapped on impact, but I hit the cage with enough force to swing it from the mines blast range, however, I was now the one who was receiving the full force of the mines. My body went flying into the support pillar next to the stairs before hitting the floor like a pile of meat. Ears ringing, I couldn't move my body because it felt like it weighed a ton, and it wouldn't be long before I blacked out from the pain. It was official. I had broken my leg. I opened my eyes searching for the kids. Heather and Thelma were pulling them from the cage. Heather crying so happily while she hugged her children close to her chest was a very welcome sight. Greyson joined in grabbing who I assumed was Gamble hugging him tightly. The smile on my face was the only thing I could express before I felt a needle in my side. I flinched and looked up seeing Panzer giving me two doses of Med-x.
"Relax Cobalt." He smiled at me and sat down "You caught us in time. I can't believe he had set a trap like this." He looked over at the family of griffins, his ears went flat against his head "I told her to take the shot. I could have killed those kids. I'm glad." I felt the medicine taking effect pulling me then I was out cold. The last thing I heard was the voice from my dreams "You idiot."