Fallout Equestria: The Walking Shadow

Chapters

Intro: A walker of Shadows.
Chapter one: Life beyond the stable.
Chapter two: Welcome to Dirty River.
Chapter Three: Hotel Rescue
Chapter four: Dirty River's problem.
Chapter five: All over but the Blood.
Chapter Six: A Book, Cyberponies, and Dum-Dum.
Chapter Seven: The Collector
Chapter Eight: The Artist
Chapter Nine: The Origins and the Thestral

Intro: A walker of Shadows.

A book is calmly placed on a table, inside a shop in the calm little town near the coast of Baltimare known as Dusty Sands. It's a calm day, and at the table, a ghoul pony sits. He wears a captain's uniform that is completely overshadowed by the strange plant growing from the top of his head. He seems to be calm and relaxed He looks up and smiles as he hears somepony sit in the chair next to the table, showing his rotting yellow teeth, but speaks with a kind tone, including a soft gruff.

"Welcome to Captain Tree Bark's Library! A home for stories... Even in these goddess forsaken wastes. Many come to search for stories. Stories of many that have passed the sands of time to near forgotten, but in this book on the table... Is my adventure's with a pony... Who most called her... The Chosen Dweller... Though it's mostly her book, but I did write some of my story in there as well, and I'm pretty sure you're here to learn about The Chosen Dweller."

The stranger nods.

"Well, let me see if I can remember..."

Tree Bark rubs his hoof along the tree growing out of his head, some leaves falling out as result. His eyes close for a moment as he tries to regain his thoughts before smiling and speaking. "Ah, I know how to start." He opens the book and starts to explain the story.

“Ten years ago... Before it was all sunshine and rainbows, there was another threat that another hero had to deal with. The Leader and his minions of Super Earth Ponies... Fortunately, they only stayed in this area of the waste and so went unnoticed to the rest of the Equestrian wastelands. Most of these creatures seemed extremely smart as well as deadly. It wasn't going to be easy, the idea of how deadly everything that was going on. It's hard to care about the outside world, as it was for most of us ponies that lived in the waste, but there were those... a lucky few that didn't live in the waste like most of us... Our story starts there with the Chosen Dweller. The stable this dweller came from was interesting. It was known as Stable 15. In this stable, our Chosen Dweller was hard at work..."

Sweat was dripping slowly down my face as I held a pin and a screwdriver in my magic, trying to break into a safe. I wanted to see what was in there. Not to steal whatever is in the safe, but just to see what I could find; I was always a curious filly. I already broke a few bobby pins and was now on my fourth, and if I didn’t crack that safe open that sooner or later if I kept messing up, I would be caught... again. But I had to do it, another personality trait of being stubborn. Though I didn’t know if it was wise to try at that point it was around morning, and the store owner only left for his fifteen minute break.

As I almost got the safe cracked, I heard hoof steps and so I turned myself invisible. That was my special talent that I was quite proud of, seeing that it was the only spell I could do besides a weak telekinesis... even if it contributed nothing to Stable 15 but mischief. Then a pony entered the store. I was trying my best to hide in a place where they wouldn't bump into me and thus getting caught. The pony was the store owner Peanut Cracker. When I was younger I was allowed to roam freely through the same store I was in, but after being caught multiple times stealing, I was now only allowed to come in supervised by some pony watching over me. Peanut Cracker seemed to be checking the counters to make sure everything was in order before checking hidden alarm traps that he placed in case somepony, specifically me, broke in, they would alert him. Thankfully I still manage to avoid these traps and continue as I please. While I was able to stay hidden as long as my special talent allowed me to, my personal record was 15 minutes. If I tried to push it, I would have a complete magical burnout where not only my magic would be completely empty and thus wouldn't able to use magic. It would also give me a horrible headache, but fortunately I hadn’t pushed myself to that point in a long time.

Peanut Cracker was checking the bookshelf over me. I didn't know how I was going to get out, but then I got an idea. I lit up my horn a bit, not too much to give myself away, but enough for me to use my telekinesis to move the coffee mug on the counter to fall down and break. With that, he turned around to check the noise, giving me a chance to quickly but calmly snuck out of the store.

I followed through the area to try to get back home. Since I was trying not to get noticed I had to looked around before moving forward. I was trying very hard to get away, but a minor migraine began to form because of my spell. I got into my room quickly and quietly before I finally stopped the spell. Despite the headache I now had I still smiled haply, knowing that I wasn't caught. Sitting in my room for awhile, letting my magic recharge brought me back up to shape, especially the migraine. I sighed, knowing that someday I'm going to get in trouble again, and that my step family would come in sooner or later.

I stripped out of my jumpsuit and entered my bathroom before going into the shower to relax and calm my nerves. The water went through my mint turquoise fur, along with my mint green mane and tail. I calmly enjoyed the moment to just ignore the world around me... To clean my nerves away. I leaned on the wall as the water went along my body, still enjoying the sensation, one of the reasons I love showers. After a while I got out of the shower, I brushed and braided my mane in one braid. After looking at myself in the mirror a bit I put my jumpsuit on before leaving the room. Nearing the store again, I cast my vanishing spell like I did last time, but before I rounded the corner, my step brother in his Stable-Security jumpsuit that covered his orange fur was in front of me. He came towards me, knowing that I was there despite my spell. To this day, I still don't know how he manages to know where I am when using my invisibility spell. He knew where my eye level would be and stared right at me with a stern look in his hazel eyes.

"Whisper... I know you're there... get back into our room now." I gulped and come out of the spell lowering my head and tail going back to our home with my brother behind. We got back to our home and saw my sister was there. I quickly rushed to her side, knowing what will happen next. She wrapped her foreleg around me... My brother came in, closing the sliding door behind him. He took off his helmet revealing his white mane, then put it down and stood towards me before stomping his hoof angrily.

"Damn it Whisper, this is why no one trusts you!" My sister wrapped tighter around me as my brother got more upset. "You can't just keep doing this!" He stomped hard on the metal floor which made me flinch. Then my sister Empty Horn spoke out.

"Stop it Bulb, you're scaring her!" He blinked, staring at my sister and then to me. Growling softly, he shook his head and took a deep breath before speaking again this time a more calm but serious tone.

"You're lucky I found you before the others did... They would have beaten you." I was leaning into my step sister now with my eyes close, still listening to his lecture. I tried to speak but, I always get extremely shy when he lectures me whenever I done something. Then I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and I looked up and saw Bulb now looking at my with sincerity in his eyes. "Whisper.. Sis, you have to understand that I'm trying to help you, I don't want anything bad to happen to you, but I can't do that if you keep getting in trouble."

"He's right Whisper... You can't do that, but I still understand." She then face Bulb. "And Bulb, you know that nopony don't treat her well, and she need to try to speak out... In her own way."

Bulb sighed. "I know Empty, and I'm sorry Whisper, but you need to stop doing this." The radio in his helmet made a static sound, he went over to it and put it back on to listen. "What is it? Hmm.. I see..." He turned to us. "I got to go, a few maintenance ponies are getting a bit riled up because of the extended working hours.. the Overmare wants me there just in case." He then went to the door and opened it, but before he left, with all my willpower I spoke.

"Stay safe..."

He looked back with a grin. "I'm the chief of security, I'm supposed to say that." With that he left.

As he left I looked down with so much sadness in my eyes. "I'm such a disappointment to him..." My calm purple eyes began to water. "I'm so.. useless!" I now had tears falling down my face, but my pure black sister just nuzzled and hugging to relax me.

"Shhh, it's okay Whisper, I promise you that me and Bulb will never shun you like the others." Calming down a bit, I hug Empty back. She took me to my room to rest a while after the ordeal with our brother and left me with only my thoughts. I know that they’re trying to help me.. but I just can't help it, whenever I see something locked or hidden, I just have a compulsion to find out what’s inside at any means... which included trying to break into that safe again, but I'm sure it wasn't wise to do it during the morning hours.. I would have to try during the night hours.

When I opened my eyes, I looked at my PipBuck and saw that it was the middle of the night; perfect. I got out of my bed and went to my drawer, grabbing a dozen hidden bobby pins and my lucky screwdriver. I walked quietly through the living room and exited through the door. After closing it, I began walking normally through the halls. As I turned around a corner, I saw a group of ponies that I was unfortunately familiar with... The Powder Snake Gang.

At first they were just bullies in elementary, but as years went on they went from insulting me to insulting and beating. The leader, Tunnel Snake, actually formed his gang just for the sole purpose of tormenting me that it even began to be like a routine. Whenever they saw me, they would always beat me, insult me, and eventually my brother would come, but despite him arresting them, the Overmare always pardoned them. In the back of my mind, I always suspected that the reason was just for they could keep tormenting me, my brother and sister think that's the case as well. Bulb even thinks the Overmare secretly congratulates them for what they do too me, but... In Stable 15... Nopony questions the Overmare.

To my despair, they looked towards me, and Tunnel Snake grinned while the rest started to laugh with their black leather jackets that had a picture of a Snake rising from a pile of powder. "Oh looky here boys, it's the useless one," Tunnel said while the rest followed him. I gulped. I backed up and was now running away, my hooves clomping on the metal floor. They chased after me as I did my best to get away, rushing through most parts of the stable. It wasn't until I ran through the Stable's bar that was still open around this night. I managed to slide on the tile floor far enough to get under a crowded table. I eventually got back up and looked back to make sure that the Powder Snakes got blocked by the other ponies. They were trying to push ponies out of the way while Tunnel Snake yelled. "Don't think you're gonna get away, we'll find you!" With that said, I started to run again.

Trying to get away, I went into the generator room and used my magic to hide. As I hid, I also heard a couple of ponies coming in and went towards the Water Talisman. I heard them talking to each other about it, so I kept myself quiet to listen and with my ears perked up. I leaned to see the group of ponies to hear what they were saying.

"It's been like this for a week now..." A mare whose name I remembered as Electric Sparks said, who was examining the Water Talisman which was squirting some water out of itself.

The other mare, Green Daisy spoke.

"But... if we can't fix it.. what will we do?"

"Do we inform the Overmare of our update?" Electric Spark asked as she looked at the head engineer stallion, Tap Water, who then spoke.

"No, I'll do it. You two keep trying to maintain the Talisman as best as you can."

Both Electric and Daisy nodded, seeing Tap Water pick up his notes and leaving.

I watched Tap leaving through the door, slowly walking to the exit seeing that hadn’t closed yet, but I stepped into a puddle of water which alerted Daisy. She looked where I was, and her facial expression turned to annoyance.

"Hey Electry, do you still have that bag of chalk dust from the lab?"

"Yes why?" Electric asked, bringing out the pouch with her magic. When she looked at Daisy's face and where she was looking at, Daisy's expression turned into annoyance. "I see..." Then she threw the pouch in my direction and hit me, turning my once clean jumpsuit into a white powdery mess that included the rest of my body.

"I'm... I'm sorry... I was just hiding from-"

Electric Spark turned to me and gave me a hateful look and used her horn to toss me out of the open door. Her eyes were full of hate as she shooed me with her hoof, while Daisy also with a hateful look just said,

"Go."

My ears went down to my head as the door slid shut.

I was walking down the second hallway to my room, but as I rounded the corner, the Powder Snakes were there. I tried to back away, but two of them blocked me from escaping. I then attempted to use my spell, but with the chalk dust still on me, I was still visible enough for the two stallions in front of me to grab me with their magic and pin me too the wall. I didn't have any time to call out for help as Tunnel Snake stuffed a lump of cloth in my mouth. I looked at him with fear in my eyes as his hoof clamped my jaw.

"You know, after all this time using you as a punching bag, I haven't actually gotten a look at you. Such a petite body..." His eyes were scanning me from horn to hooves. "Usually we would make you bleed the regular way, though..." His hoof let go of my chin and trailed my fur downwards. "There's one part of you that hasn't bled yet." His hoof kept going down, almost between my—

My eyes widened as I realized what he was implying. I immediately doubled my struggle while Tunnel now was pressing his entire body against me while. All I could do was whimper as tears formed. Just when I thought it was over, he punched me in the gut in the attempt to quiet me; it did take my breath away, but unintentionally also caused me to cough out the cloth. With my mouth cleared, I quickly and instinctively bit as hard as I could onto Tunnel's left ear as he was licking my neck. He instantly screamed out of the top of his lungs and backed away. I looked at his ear: while my bite wasn't enough to cause bleeding, it did leave a bite mark. He turned to me again, this time with rage in his eyes as he walked up.

"Well I guess you're just gonna bleed the regular way." He smashed his hoof into my left eye, causing my head to jerk right. I opened my right eye to see Empty Horn at the end of the hall; she must of heard Tunnel's scream, and after seeing me, she rushed off home to get Bulb. My head was then jerked to the left as he punched again, again, and again. He was beating me so bad that I wasn't even able to cry, I was just in so much pain. Just before they could hurt me anymore, my brother rushed in and launched a taser spell at them, shocking them unconscious. As I saw Bulb and Empty rushing to me, my eyes started to get fuzzy. I passed out from the pain.

My eyes fluttered opened, looking at the lighting above. I looked to my right to see I was in the clinic room. I also saw Empty Horn laying her head on the edge of the bed while holding my hoof with hers; she was asleep. Bulb was here as well. Although he was leaning in a chair, he too was sleeping, his snoring being a dead giveaway. That caused me to chuckle, in which was enough to awaken Empty. She beamed at me and gave me a big hug.

"Oh, thank goodness you're ok!" Empty practically screamed, which caused Bulb to be jolted out from his sleep. Seeing that I was awake he also came to the side of the bed.

"What happened?" I asked as Empty Horn stopped hugging me and stood next to Bulb.

"I heard screaming outside, so I went out and saw Tunnel Snake beating you again..." Empty explained, but she almost started to cry, so Bulb continued for her.

"She ran back to get me, and I tased them before they did anything serious. I locked them up while Empty brought you to the clinic."

I remember, how the Powder Snake gang caught me and that Tunnel Snake almost... I shook my head, trying to get rid of that awful memory. I instead tried to focus on something else. "How bad was it?" I asked, which was answered by Empty, who was now more optimistic.

"Thankfully, it was just a bruised-up face and some cuts." She levitated out a mirror to show my face. "So Doctor Herb Seed just had you drink a healing potion to heal all that up."

"Oh, that's good.." I sat up on the bed. "Where is Herb anyways?"

"He just went out to get more supplies, he said to just leave the bits for the healing potion on the counter." Bulb answered.

I got out of bed, but when I did, Empty Horn hugged me tightly, with Bulb joining as well. I smiled and hugged back, enjoying the warm embrace. I wished it would last forever, but unfortunately, the Overmare's voice spoke from the Stable's speaker system.

"Everypony, I need all of you to gather in the atrium for an emergency meeting. All will be explained when everypony is here."

We stopped our hug and looked at each other. "An emergency meeting?" my sister asked, looking to Bulb. "Has this ever happened before?"

"Not since the mega spells were detonated." Bulb looked back to her; she was going to speak, but he stopped her. "And before you ask, no, I wasn't informed of this. So I have no idea what's going on."

Then I remembered last night... in the generator room. "I... think I know what's happening.." Both of my siblings looked at me, making me nervous, but I still continued. "When I was being chased last night, I hid in the generator room for a while, and overheard some maintenance ponies saying that the Water Talisman was failing. I saw it myself, the talisman was practically leaking everywhere."

"But that can't be," Empty said in disbelief. "The Water Talisman has been working for the past 200 years."

"Actually... when you think about, it does make sense." Bulb looked at both of us. "The increased hours for maintenance ponies, the occasional water rationing... and I guess the reason for the emergency meeting is because that the Water Talisman no longer works."

"But... if that's true... than the entire Stable will die" I said as the realization dawned on me that the home we grew up in was going to be gone. Bulb saw my worry and put his hoof on my shoulder.

"Don't worry Whisper, if the Overmare called for an emergency meeting, than she might have already figured out a solution," Bulb reassured me, but then turned and was walking towards the door. "But there's only one way to find out, I'm going to put my gear on first. Empty, Whisper, go to the atrium to join the others."

"Alright," Empty said as Bulb left. After putting on a jumpsuit that Empty brought me, I followed her lead out.

I blinked and followed my sister into the atrium, and I could see almost all of the ponies in the Stable standing in the middle, looking forward at the Overmare who was on a podium surround by security, which included my brother. She stood over us, looking to the security who was there to make sure everything stayed peaceful. The Overmare, pushing a piece of her pure white mane back into place, straightened her light red body and studied all the ponies before softly speaking.

"Everypony, I unfortunately have dreadful news... our Water Talisman is broken." Ponies gasped all around. Both Empty and I looked at each other in worry, but quickly back to the Overmare as she continued. "In a few more months... it will fully shatter, and we won't be able to live in this stable if the Water Talisman fully breaks." She paced back and forth behind the podium. "We need to choose a pony to head out of the Stable and into the world above." The Overmare began trotting through the crowd with two security ponies beside her. "This pony would have an attribute to them: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. These are what makes ponies... SPECIAL, and after some consideration, I believe a pony with Agility would be the most suited." She kept walking through the crowd, until I noticed that she was actually heading towards me... no... "A pony with this attribute would be able to hide and sneak away from hostiles, able to steal what is necessary, and if they are in a confrontation, that pony would be able to use S.A.T.S more often, have a greater chance to escape by dodging or out-running the hostile as they'll be more mobile and visceral." She stopped right in front of me, her cold eyes looking upon me while my sister put her right fore hoof over me, she realized it as well. "Silent Whisper, you have the most experience because of your.. history.. and so I am giving you the option to help save Stable 15."

"Overmare!" my brother yelled as he ran from the podium and stood at my right side. "You can't actually think that my sister would be the one to do this!" Bulb looked at stared at the Overmare, rage in his eyes. "In fact, I'll volunteer to take her place."

The Overmare looked at Bulb, unfazed by his outburst. "I'm not forcing her Chief Bulb, it's still her choice... But..." She walked between me and Empty, and with her magic forces her away and begins circling me. "Like I said before, she is the most qualified to go on such a journey, and if she does come back with a Water Talisman, she would be welcomed as a hero... though I do understand her not wanting to go through with it because of the risks." I perked up my ears; maybe I won't be roped into this mess. "So that leaves Chief Bulb as our second best option."

"Wha.. What!?" I asked in disbelief. "But.. yo... you can't!"

"Your brother has the most combat experience in the Stable, and so would have a higher chance to fight any hostiles, and he did volunteer to take your place." She then stopped in front of me again. "Unless you do choose to go on the journey."

I wanted to argue.. but I couldn't. I realized that the Overmare had cornered me with the circumstances of my alternative. I looked around and saw that almost everypony was staring at me; if I decline, I would be an even bigger outcast then before, the pony who refuse to save the Stable, but the thing I feared for the most was my brother... I couldn't let him take one for me.

No... Fair...

I gulped, then spoke. "Over... Overmare." My voice was timid and shaky. I tried to be brave, but was obviously failing. "I.. I.. sh... shall... Overmare."

For the first time in the meeting, the Overmare grinned at my answer. "Excellent, Silent Whisper." She turned around and was walking back to the podium. “You will be given an hour to gather any valuables. You will also have time to spend with your family as well, and after that you will come to the Stable entrance where you'll be supplied with necessities for survival." She went behind the podium. "With a final goodbye to your loved ones, the Stable door will open and from that point on, you will be on your own." She then looked at everypony else.

"This meeting has been concluded..."

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" my brother yelled, tossing our dining table over which in turn made me flinch while Empty was trying calm Bulb.

"Bulb, please... Calm down, wrecking our home won't solve anything."

Bulb turned towards Empty and snarled. "Calm down? Our sister has just been chosen to go die out there! How the hell am I going to be calm about that?!"

"Maybe we can convince the Overmare to—"

"Oh no Empty, I bet that bitch had this planned all along to send Whisper out first as soon as the Water Talisman broke!" Bulb ground his teeth. "Well I'm not going to have that happen, I'm going to the Stable door and going out myself. The Overmare can kiss my ass!"

"SHUT UP!" Both Bulb and Empty looked at me as I yelled out, tears pouring down my face. "I chose this... so I'm going to follow through with it!"

"Whisper.. you can't." Bulb walked up to me. "Don't you understand? It's too dangerous."

"You don't think I know that?" I yelled again, now fully crying. "I didn't have any other chose... also..." I tried to wipe away my tears but there was too much. "I've been useless all my life, and this... this could be the first time for me to finally be useful."

"Whisper..." Empty said as she walk closer too me.

"Please... brother... sister... just let me do this..." I was then being hugged by both of them, their warmth calming me down that I finally stopped crying. We stopped after a while, and Bulb started looking around the room.

"I really made a mess... I'll clean it up." He used his magic to pick up the items he threw to the ground, but soon enough both Empty and I joined in.

"I think things will go faster if we work together," Empty said. My brother grinned, and we all continued cleaning the living room.

After we cleaned the living room, I went to my room and gathered anything I needed, which included my lucky screwdriver. Bulb even gave me his 10mm pistol, and I pack them both in my saddle bag. I soon found myself at the large Stable door entrance being supplied with food, water, and anything else that would help. I looked at my PipBuck and saw that I got everything I needed. Both of my siblings were here.. along with the Overmare. Empty Horn rushed in and hugged me tightly, along with my brother one last time. In the moment, the only thing I could say to them was...

"I'm sorry..."

They both nodded and released me from the hug before walking back to the top of the staircase. The Overmare began putting her authorization code into the control board, and with that, warning lights and sirens were going off as the Stable 15 door was opening. I felt my heartbeat in my chest over and over as a huge hinge-arm swung down from the ceiling and attached itself to the solid steel door, shaped like a huge gear, and with a teeth-hurting squeal, it pulled the massive door out and had it rotating to the side of the entrance. Very quickly, I breathed in and in out, trying to calm myself. Looking back to my family, I smiled at them and then took each step out of the Stable. I was in a cave, and slowly the Stable door was now closing shut behind me. I turned on the light of the PipBuck and looked around, first sitting on my haunches to think to myself for a moment, thinking if this was a good idea... scratch that, I knew this wasn't a good idea. But I had to be strong, the Stable needed a new Water Talisman and I was going to find one... somehow...

I stood back up and walked my way to the cave exit, and soon into a new world that nopony in Stable 15 had never done before. What I would find in this new world? The only way to find out was to discover it myself.

Chapter one: Life beyond the stable.

As I walked towards the tunnel exit, I felt a feeling of self doubt again in my mind. I didn’t know what to do in this new world. Would I even survive? Only thing I did know was that I’m now alone… truly alone. Going through the tunnel, I was passing many old bones of ponies, the last ponies that seemed to try to get in before… the end. Then the smell hit my nose. While it wasn’t the smell of decaying flesh, it was still the smell of death. As I was moving an old lantern out of my way, the string of it broke off of the tunnel and crashed down, causing a big cloud of dust to engulf me. The dust affected my nose as I sneezed a few times, which caused me to taste the dust in the air and thus caused me to cough as well. I tried to spat any dust out of my mouth and looked around myself; dust was still lingering in the air, so much that the light from my PipBuck wasn’t able to light the way, so I had to use the magic from my horn to make some more light to find my way through the tunnel.

With the extra light, I now could see words on the walls, and from the fractured hooves on the skeletons, my best guess was the ponies that wrote these words did it by their own bloody hooves. I walked closer to one side of the wall and read.

“We are dying here!”... “Fuck you!”... “Take my foals please!!”

I tried to hold back the tears, but as I kept reading every word, I imagined ponies’ voices from the past saying these words. Their last words before death. I fell on my knees and cried. I never thought my heart would break so hard; these ponies never wanted this to happen, yet cruel fate chose their destiny. Looking back, this reminded of my situation: I never wanted this, I never wanted to leave, to be forced out as a chosen one… But I also remembered that unlike these ponies, I’m still alive, I still have a future. I picked myself up and continued on. After reaching the door out of the tunnel, I opened it up and revealed a strange building. I went in and began looking around, seeing old deflated blimps and some old chariots that once could fly into the air. I roamed through the building; in one room, I saw a group of skeletons. I saw that most of them had strange bags strapped to their backs. Most of them were closed, with the exception of a few that were opened up. I looked inside one of them and saw that it had a large sheet of cloth inside. I lifted it up with my hoof. It felt soft and smooth, but it also had so much dirt and grime on it that my hoof was covered with it. I looked at my hoof; I never thought it would get this dirty in my life.

In fact, I never thought I would be here in my life. “Why am I here?” I said out loud to myself, tears falling down my face. “Why was I chosen?”

As my mind was occupied, I wasn't watching where I was going and my hoof stepped into a hole into the floor which caused me to fall down. Screaming loudly, I landed on one of the open bags and so my fall was broken a bit by the soft fabric, but it also caused all the dust inside to explode out into a cloud. So much dust was lifted up into the air that it caused another coughing and sneezing fit. I’m really starting to hate dust. After I cleared my lungs, I got out of the fabric and looked forward to see a safe in front of me. I blinked, and for the first time since leaving, I smiled.

“Finally, something to calm my nerves.”

I eagerly opened my saddle bag and brought out my lucky screwdriver and a bobby pin. I placed the screwdriver into the keyhole and with a bobby pin, I started to pick it. It was a bit difficult, but I am sure I could do it, no, I can do—!

*Snap*

I blinked and looked at the broken bobby pin, taking a deep breath before getting out another one. I had the same thoughts in my head. I can do this… I can do this—!

*Snap*

I groaned in frustration. I wanted to just throw my screwdriver at the safe, but managed to restrain the thought and just put it back in my saddle bag. I wanted to cry out in anger; this was one of the only few things I was good at, but here I couldn’t pick the damn safe. I needed to prove to myself that I can do this, I can’t let this safe win! I went towards the nearby desk to sit on the chair, but in doing so, I hit the desk, then I heard a metal sound dropping on the floor. I looked down below the dusty desk and saw a key

“Really! Goddesses damn it!” I looked up the ceiling in anger. “Are you both trying to make me look like a joke?!”

I hate using keys. There’s no fun in unlocking when there's a key, it's like using a cheat code in ‘Striped Menace’. I sighed, lifting the key in my weak magic. I placed the key into the hole and with a click, the safe opened, and with that, I felt my pride bruised. I looked inside to see a few papers and documents, but at the far corner I saw a magazine inside a sealed plastic bag. Curious, I levitated the magazine in front of me and blew away the dust covering it.

“Seems to be in great condition…” With most of the dust out of the way I saw a picture of a zebra lying in bed sleeping, but above the zebra was a unicorn in light combat armor who had a combat knife in their magic, then I finally read the title.: "Sleepy Head to Sleepy Dead" I also read the slogan below the title. “The only thing better than a sleeping zebra is a zebra who doesn’t wake up!”

I levitated it out of the plastic bag and began to read it. After a moment of reading, it seems the magazine can teach how to sneak better and kill enemies in their sleep without alerting anyone nearby. I shuttered; hopefully I would never have to use this skill. I put the magazine back into the plastic bag and into my saddle bag to read more of it later. I went to the nearby desk again and started searching through it, looking for anything else that could help. Then I found a small pouch used for marbles. I opened it with my magic and looked inside, but instead of marbles, I instead found... bottle caps? I looked through them and blinked, wondering why the hell someone would collect these. I tossed them around with my magic before deciding to place them in my saddle bag.

“Probably something I can try to have fun with.”

I went to a doorway and I saw above it a sign saying ‘Waiting Room’, I went through the doorway, hoping this could lead me out, but when I got into the waiting room, I saw something on my E.F.S. A red dot was coming from behind a couch from the corner of the room, I walked up cautiously to the couch, and when I looked behind it, my eyes widened with shock. Behind the couch was large cockroach, and by large I mean large; it was practically the size of a small dog! It seemed to be eating some kind of meat, and my shock increased when I manage to figure out that it was also a giant rat.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked myself in disbelief.

Then it looked at me and crawled under the couch,reemerging in front me. I gasped, backing up as fast as possible before lifting up my gun. I shot three rounds, but missed every shot, and because of my shooting, the giant cockroach charged at me. Backing up more, I tried to remembered my training I was taught in soccer when I was a filly. Just as the giant cockroach jumped at me for its attack, I finally managed to remember how to cast S.A.T.S from my Pipbuck. When I casted the spell, I saw that the giant cockroach thing was floating in the air, only 3 feet away from me, and below it, a bar showing its full health. Is was as if time just stopped. As I looked at it, I saw that wherever I looked at it, a certain body part of it highlighted. Seeing this as my chance I picked its whole body since I wasn’t a good shot. Thankfully, true to the Overmare’s speech, I had more magical reserves for S.A.T.S. so manage to score three more shots readied. Then I deactivated the first stage of S.A.T.S. and I fired my gun six times in slow motion. The first three bullets missed, the fourth grazed one of its legs. It was getting closer to me in the slow motion state. Then the fifth bullet finally struck its torso. The giant cockroach was now half a foot away from me before my final bullet in S.A.T.S. hit it again in the torso, and the spell was now fully deactivated. I quickly ducked out of the way and the now dead cockroach flings over me and into the wall on the other side of the waiting room.

I stood up huffing from the experience. I looked towards the giant cockroach, and I saw that the last bullet went right through it and saw its blood and innards dripping from the bigger exit hole behind it. While it was by definition just a bug, I still killed something, so I dropped the gun and started to sob softly.

“I want to go home… I just want to go home…” Tears kept streaming down my face, messing up the fur under my eyes. I looked at the giant cockroach again, and I started to reason with myself. “Damn it Whisper.. It's just a stupid bug.” I sighed, finally reasoning with my thoughts. I removed any tears from my face headed towards the exit and went outside.

As I took my first steps into the outside world, I was momentarily blind from a very bright light which caused me to instantly cover my eyes with my hoof. As I slowly let my eyes recover a bit, I removed my hoof from my face and walked into the parking lot, I turned my head to the sign above the building which said ‘Snow Fall’s Sky Diving’. I looked towards the street and saw that it was next to a cliff. Cautiously, I walked to the cliff and looked down at the ruined city and from what I learned in history, this city was once known as Baltimare.

I saw that a good portion of the city was underwater, with only a few remains of buildings poking out of the water. As for the city that was not submerged, it was as expected: many buildings and skyscrapers were either destroyed or half collapsed and only a few skyscrapers were left barely standing. There were also many large ships either beached or sunk in the harbor. Seeing most of the city looking like I thought it would, I noticed something about the direction of the ocean. There was a big ball of light that was so bright that I couldn’t fully look at it, that is when I realized that… it was the sun. I had never seen the sun. It was slowly coming up from the ocean, like it was rising from the water itself. Then I looked over to my right to see a strange tower at the very edge of the city which towered over everything, even the mountains in the region. Looking up, I also expected to see the lovely sky that was only described in books as wonderful, but to my disappointment, I only saw clouds. While not enough to block all light, it blocked enough that the sky wouldn’t be visible. So I instead looked towards the beautiful… horizon. I must have stayed on the cliffside for almost a half hour just enjoying the view, but just as quickly as it rose, the sun slowly rose into the clouds before disappearing altogether. I sighed; with the sun gone, I went back to just stare at the city below.

As I was looking at the city, I saw a large building with lights still coming from it. Seeing that there might actually be civilization, my mind became hopeful again.

“Maybe they can tell me where I could get a Water Talisman!” I said cheerfully. “Heck, maybe by some luck, they might even have a extra one!”

I took one last deep breath, staring at the city a bit more before looking at the cliff. I saw that the road followed down the cliffside and lead into the outer city. Before leaving, I looked again towards the sea. Despite the sun no longer there, I still felt my heartbeat from the memory of the beautiful sight. Then my Pipbuck made a sound, and I looked at it. It brought up my current quest for me: it said that I needed to find a location called Stable-Tech Warehouse. I checked my map, I first saw my location was near Stable 15 and the Stable-Tech Warehouse wasn’t actually that far from here. Knowing where to go, I began walking down the road.

After following the road for awhile, I finally getting near ground level, so I decided to rest on a nearby boulder and sat on top of it. As I was bringing out an apple, I heard hoof steps behind me. I turned to see a large pony stallion in front of me. I blinked: it wasn’t just pony, it was a real life earth pony, and not one from a old photograph. Not only was he a earth pony, he was a earth pony I could talk too, but when I opened my mouth to speak, he spoke first.

“Give me everything you have and I will let you live.”

“Wha.. What?” I shakily asked as I quickly got up, my instincts telling me that this stallion is trouble.

“You Stable Dwellers always have good shit on you,” he said as he walked closer, with me immediately walking a few steps back. “Now give me all you have, or you’ll regret ever leaving your safe Stable.”

I backed up a bit more as he kept coming closer. I gulped, now knowing that this stallion had no interest in having a friendly conversation. I picked up some dust in my magic and threw it into his eyes. He grunted and backed up a bit, but not before smacking me with his hoof. I fell onto the ground, my facing burning from the strike. I looked at the stallion as he was trying to clear his eyes, and the bar underneath him now colored as red, showing him as a hostile. I pulled out my gun and aimed it at him. I tried to pull the trigger, but I hesitated; if I did, I would take away a pony’s life. Unfortunately, because of my hesitation, the large stallion manage to clear his eyes enough and charged at me, knocking my gun out of my telekinesis and painfully smashing me into the ground.

After he pinned me to the ground, he used his large hooves to stomp my head over and over. Then he brought out a knife from its sheath from the side of his body, then put it into his mouth and tried to cut me. Even though my magic was weak, I did manage to pull the knife from his mouth. I then tried to get out from under him, but all he had to do was to force more of his weight on me. I saw his blood red eyes, probably from the dust I threw at him. Then I felt him wrapping his hooves around my neck and start to strangle me. Quickly losing air, I frantically flailed my hind hooves, trying to push him off with my fore hooves with no avail. As he kept tightening his grip, my will to fight back was quickly fading as I could feel the very life being strangled out of me. I had imagined myself dying out here when I left, but I never thought I would die such a cruel death like this. As I started struggling less and less, I felt my horn tap on the ground. I looked up at the stallion and saw that he towered over me such that his neck was right above… That’s when I had an idea. I used that last of my strength and magic to push him slightly higher, and with my eyes closed, I lifted my head upwards and despite his hold on my neck, I thrusted as much as I can up towards him. Then I felt it: I felt my horn stab into his neck. He finally let go of my neck, causing me to take a deep raspy breath as I took as much oxygen as I could back into my lungs, but then I tasted a iron taste in my mouth as large amounts of blood started pouring on my face and horn. I heard him gasping for air as blood was now draining from his wound and onto my head, and because he let go of my neck, he had no support for his body and so I felt all his weight on me. I fell fully flat on my back with the now dead stallion ontop of me. I tried lifting him off me with any strength I could muster, but with my weak magic and physique I couldn’t lift a inch of him.

With still lack of oxygen and energy from fighting the stallion, I slowly started to pass out as I heard hooves rushing to me, and I saw blurry face of a mare. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but as my vision fully went dark. I felt her lifting the dead stallion off my body, but after such an ordeal, I felt my brain shutting down to fully allow me to pass out.

“Miss Silent Whisper.”

I snapped out of my daze and I saw that I was in a classroom with other fillies and colts inside. As I looked around, my eyes finally stopped at my teacher, Banana Cream.

“Have you been paying attention?” she asked in a stern voice.

“Sorry, Miss Cream,” I said in a high pitched voice. “I didn’t meant to doze off.”

Miss Banana Cream looked at me for a moment before she spoke. “Well, then make sure not to do it again.” She turned back to the chalkboard and pulled down a screen, showing a unicorn mare casting a spell of a small orb lighting a room. “Alright class, today you will be learning the basic lighting spell.” Just like the unicorn on the screen, she cast the same spell, which resulted in creating a small bright orb. “While this spell isn’t necessarily useful because of your Pipbuck’s light, it is essential for all of you to pass for your basic magical requirements for fourth grade.” After showing us the example, she ceases the spell and the orb disappeared. “Though I will have to remind you that spells from this point on don't get any easier, so I promise you class this will help you learn. Now, form a line and you will all cast the spell one at a time”

I felt my heart drop to the floor after hearing that. I always felt like a failure whenever I had to try to do a spell. The last three years of grade school just taught me and the other students basic math, history, and even some cooking lessons, but it was fourth grade where we officially started magic lessons, and so far, I had been horrible at it. Every time Miss Banana Cream had us do a spell, I always was the only one to fail at it. The only spell I barely passed was basic levitation, but other than that, I hadn’t able to accomplish one spell. The only reason why I didn’t get kicked out was Miss Banana Cream felt sorry for me and secretly passed me anyways. I looked towards Banana Cream as she started each name from the top of the line; I was at the very end. I didn’t want to do this, but unlike other times, my family was here. They both managed to have a early lunch and got permission to observe from the class window. For this reason, I wanted to pass: I wanted to show my brother and sister that I could be useful in the Stable. Despite my self doubts, my 10 year old mind didn't always felt that I wasn’t useful. As I watched Banana Cream calling each name one by one, my fellow classmates began doing the spell. I watched as all of them were able to accomplish the spell with no issue. Closing my eyes, getting myself ready, I felt each muscle in my body tense, I moved my hooves back and forth. Wanting to do this right, remembering what I was taught by Empty and Bulb, gathering much of my thoughts to make sure I could do it correctly. Opening my eyes, I saw more students passing the spell. I felt my heart beating harder, the feeling that I was going to fail creeping into my mind again. I knew if I failed, I wouldn’t just be a laughing stock in class again, I would look bad with my family watching. I didn't wish this to happen at all. I never liked school. I was always treated like trash by other students.

Then she called my name.

“Silent Whisper. Your turn.”

I gulped as I walked to the front of the classroom. As I was walking, I could hear the other students around me started to laugh and heard one filly speaking. “Oh, I could see her failing again…” the filly known as Pressure Cooker giggled to another student who was also her step sister, Pencil Pusher.

“Ah yes, and we can keep calling her useless some more.” I sniffled, keeping tears back as the two fillies were giggling.

“Pressure Cooker, Pencil Pusher, quiet now or both of you will get detention,” Miss Banana Cream said sternly. “That includes the rest of you.”

With most of the classroom quiet, I continued my way to the front room and stood in the middle. I calmly breathed, but before I could continue, the teacher leaned down to me and whispered, “Silent Whisper, you don't have to do this, I will pass you. If you wish to back out you won't be treated any differently.”

I looked at my teacher, my heart dropping. I could back out, save myself from further humiliation, but I had to prove myself. I shook my head to her, and with that she sighed and backed away for I could have some room. I spread my legs, closed my eyes, and took a deep calm breath as my horn glowed softly. I tried hard to gather as much magic in my body to my horn. I never had strong magic, but if I could at least focus all of it I could for the very least create a weak orb. I kept forcing the magic through me and into my horn until I felt as rush of magic inside my body. I tried to get the magic out of my very core to prove I can do this. Then, I felt a small surge of magic in my horn and a sensation that I did something. I also heard gasps from the other students, and even from the teacher. I smiled; maybe I finally did cast a spell. Maybe I did… no, I did cast it. I opened my eyes in excitement, but to my shock it wasn’t a glowing bright orb, instead a complete black orb which was sparking some kind of dark lightning.

“Wait... That’s not right!”

I backed away in fear with the orb following me, and I got so scared that I was no longer focused and I stopped the spell. While for other ponies, when they stopped the spell the orb just dissipated, the black orb instead was now sparking even more, and the dark lightning was leaving long streaks of burn marks on the ground and ceiling. I gasped, standing there in fear as it started to get more unstable, and the rest of the students screamed while rushing out of the room. I was now whimpering, so scared that I couldn't even move even when a few bolts of dark lightning struck near me, but I felt myself being levitated. I saw that I was in Banana’s magic aura, and with me, she ran out of the room just as we heard a large explosion. As I was still being levitated in the air, I could see through the window that the entire interior of the classroom was basically destroyed. Desks blown into pieces, the room was all burnt with smoke still lingering in the air. I was brought down by my teacher and when my hooves met ground, both my brother and sister rushed up to me and gave me a hug. As they were hugging me, I saw the other students behind them. Usually after a failed spell, they would taunt and insult me, but instead they were just looking at me with fear. I turned my direction to Miss Banana Cream, and even she was looking at me with the same look. Seeing this and what I caused, I began sobbing into my siblings’ hug.

This is why never learned any other spells. After the incident which even involved the Overmare, I was no longer alloyed to learn any other spell throughout my school years other than what I had already learned, which was just telekinesis. This resulted with me having more free time in school, which is when I began to get interested in lockpicking, and eventually learning my invisibility spell and earning my cutie mark a year later after the incident.

As I felt my heart breaking from crying into the hug, my vision started to get blurry before blacking out.

Chapter two: Welcome to Dirty River.

I suddenly woke up from the dream. My eyes were wide open, but my vision was too fuzzy to recognize anything. Coughing gently, I rubbed my eyes with my hooves before trying to look around again. This time, my vision cleared up. Looking around, I saw that I was in bed inside a room, though unlike the clinic in Stable 15, this room looked like it was made with junk. Then my gaze finally landed face to face to a dark green mare with a puffy, bright red mane who was sitting at the side of the bed.

“'Ey dare lassy, yer gran' so?”

I frantically back away from her in fear. From what I learned from my first encounter with the stallion, this mare could also want to kill me. I was backing up so much in my panicked state that I fell out of bed, then got up immediately and tried to run away. After seeing me in panic, the earth pony mare chased me around the room. The chase ended when she stopped, then jumped where I was running and pounced me. We rolled a bit until she managed to hold me down, just like how the stallion did. She tried to speak to me, but couldn't hear her as I struggled and screamed, trying to get away from her.

“Let me go!” I screamed under her. “I just want… I just want to go home!” I kept struggling with the mare, then suddenly felt a hard slap across my face.

I looked to see that the mare used her hoof to smack me. It was at this moment that I realized that besides the slap, the mare on top of me doesn’t seem to want to harm me. I rubbed my cheek with my hoof as the mare got off of me, and I saw that she was wearing an old duster with some kind of light leather armor underneath. She then lent her hoof for me to grab. After hesitating for a second, I grabbed her hoof and she pulled me up to my hooves.

Now that I was calm, she finally was able to speak to me. “Geez lassy, yer were really panickin' loike yer were in a mouse inside a barn full av cats.” As she spoke, I could tell from her voice that she was kind and calm. She even sounded like my sister, with the exception of her bizarre accent.

“Oh.. ah.. Sorry about what just happened, miss...”

“Red Daisy, an' yer don’t 'av ter be sorry lassy. Seein' dat you're a Stable Dweller, dis must al' be new ter yer.”

I raised my eyebrow as she said ‘Stable Dweller’. I was about to asked her about that when I noticed further detail about the room we were in. Both the floors, walls, and ceiling were made out of sheet metal. Other than that, it still had features of a room with a bed, wardrobe, a small table and other things you would find.

“How did I get here?” I asked as my eyes returned to Red Daisy.

“Well that’s a bit av a scayle, so I’ll jist tell yer de short version.” She said, taking a seat in one of the chairs. “Oi wus deliverin' a package ter dis town we’re in, but den Oi saw from a distance av yisser err… wee struggle wi' dat bandit.” Then she pulled out a small silver canteen from one of her pockets in her duster. “Oi pushed 'im aff av yer. After Oi saw wat yer bandit did ter yer, Oi tried ter keep yer awake.” She then took a sip from her canteen, and from the smell of her breath after she breathed out, I’m guessing it wasn’t water. “But whaen yer passed oyt, Oi 'ad ter shenanagans yer 'ere, after lookin' through wat yer 'ad on yer. Oi used wan av yer 'Healin' Poshuns ter 'ayle yer wounds.” She took another drink, but noticed it was empty as she looked into her canteen. From the new viewpoint, I saw that one side of the canteen actually had small purple and red gems embedded into it to form the shapes of a grape vine and a strawberry next to each other. “As for de room, we’re in de town’s motel, Oi payed for wan noight 'ere.” She put away her canteen and just looked back at me. “Ah an' de wee town is called Derdy River.” I kinda giggled at that which she obviously noticed. “Aye yes Oi nu, silly name, but de river nearby is derdy.”

Nodding at that, I realized that because she payed for the room, I have to pay her back. I levitated 10 bits to to her that I brought before leaving the Stable, though in response, Daisy stared at the bits and then me with a strange look.

“Why ye givin' me dees for?”

I blinked at her reaction. “They’re bits…” I calmly explained to her. “It's to pay you back for the room."

Daisy blinked at that, then started to snicker before laughing softly shaking her head. “Oi completely forgot dat yer Stable ponies still use dohs bit things.” I felt I was being the butt of a joke as she pat my head with her hoof but tried to keep my composure. Because of my history, I didn't enjoy being the butt of a joke. She saw my face, so she stopped laughing as she coughed a few time before explaining. “Listen, unlike in dohs Stables, we ponies above don't use bits as a way ter pay anymore, instead we use dees.” She reached into another pocket and brought out a bottle cap.

“Bottle caps?” I looked at her with an odd expression.

“Yep, dees bottle caps, or yer can jist call dem caps, are used ter pay for services.” She observed the bottle cap in her hoof before letting out a small chuckle. “Oi nu its seems silly ter yer Stable Dwellers, but dis is 'ow Equestria weurks nigh.” She put the bottle cap back into her bags. “'Eck I’m juicy sure dat bandit dat tried ter kill yer wud 'av bloody taken dat pouch av caps yer 'av bloody than de kip av yer gear.”

“Yeah…” I said as I put my hoof to my neck. “That stallion would of killed me if I… I…”

The stallion… I started remembering my encounter with the stallion again, only this time I remembered the outcome. Why did it take me so long to remember that moment? Was my mind that broken after falling like that? I touched my horn, feeling how smooth and sharp it was, and how easily it stabbed into his neck. Then I began hyperventilating, as the memory of me stabbing the stallion played over and over like a broken record. Tears formed around my eyes asI started to sob heavily.

Daisy looked at me with a worried expression as she got of the chair and walked close to me.

“What's de matter, lassy?”

I looked at her as I kept crying, harder than I had in my whole life. “I… I… I killed...” Daisy put her hoof on my shoulder to calm me down. It wasn’t working. “I..... I killed a pony…” I looked at the ground with tears running down my face like a waterfall. “I am a murder!” I fell to the ground, sobbing very hard into my forehooves as I covered my face with them. Seeing me in distress, Daisy went to the ground as well to wrap herself around me. She nuzzled my head with hers, which got me to calm down a bit but couldn’t stop my crying. She looked straight into my eyes and spoke with soft, but blunt tone.

“Luk lassy, Oi nu for yer Stable Dwellers are new ter de outside an' so everythin' dat yer experience is traumatic ter yer, especially wat 'appened wi' dat bandit, but….” She rubbed my back as she kept talking. “It wus either you or 'im, yer wanted… naw yer needed ter live on, an' so you 'ad ter kill 'im.” She pulled back, and was now looking at me with pity. “I’m sorry for wat 'appened ter yer, but dis is unfortunately 'ow de warrld werks. Equestria is not a peaceful lan' anymore, I’m afraid.” Daisy got up, extending her hoof to me again. “Nigh enoof cryin', an' 'ow aboyt you gie me yer name, Oi failed ter ask yer dat before.” I finally calmed down, grabbing her hoof. She picked me up, and after rubbing my puffy eyes, I gave a very weak smile.

“Silent Whisper.”

“Silent Whisper 'uh… nice name, it really suits yer,” Daisy complimented as she smiled back. I was a bit surprised: no one, not even my family, has ever complimented my name, and because of that, I hugged her again. Daisy chuckled at my reaction. “By de goddesses, Oi got meself a 'ugger.” I hugged her for a bit longer before letting go.

“Daisy, you helped me so much... is there anything I can do to repay you for your kindness?" She seemed to be thinking about it in her head for a moment and finally shook her head and swayed her hoof at me

“Aye don’t worry aboyt it Silent, Oi 'av galore av caps.”

“Well how about I help you with something?” I persisted.

“Aw naw, Oi canny 'av yer 'elp me wi' me problems.” She shook her head. “Besides, Oi can’t let yer folly me ter a raider stronghauld.” She gasped and put her hoof to her mouth to shut herself up, and then I stared at her with a bit of a concerned look. While I do know from schooling of what the word ‘raider' means, I never payed any mind. So I calmly asked,

“What are raiders?”

Daisy looked at me, and for the first time in our early friendship, I saw her with so much fear in her eyes as she shuddered. She shifted her hooves and felt that something was wrong to explain to me what these ponies or creatures are. She paced a bit, wondering if she even wanted to tell me, but it seemed hard for her to talk to me about it. Then she finally answered.

“Raiders… are ponies… if you even can call dem dat.” She spat as she started describing them. “Save ter say, they tend ter kill an' murder any ponies they clap.” She sat down again, bringing out her canteen, most likely wishing she had more inside it. “Dey usually rape ponies den kill dem, an' sometimes dey jist kill ponies ter rape their corpses, after dat, den they use de bodies av ponies ter ‘decorate’ their 'ide oyt, loike put their noggin on a spear or spike or somethin' fucked up.” Daisy got back up and walked to a bucket of water and with a cup, then dunked it into the bucket. “They rip apart de bodies an' flay dem in such a gruesum way ter show every part av dem an' den paint de walls wi' de blud av de ponies themselves.” She drank some of the water before giving it to me. “A few gangs, loike at de stronghauld Oi mentioned, are even cannibals. Sadly, wi' 'oy Equestria is nigh. Der really nasty creatures, they don’t even deserve ter be called ponies.” She looked back at me with pity again. I don’t like when other ponies see me like that. “Oi fale really brutal for yer Silent, yer shud 'av never lef yer Stable.”

After hearing all what Red Daisy told me, I began to have second thoughts again, I felt scared, if the bandit was bad, I can’t even imagine what monster these raiders are. Then I realized something that didn’t make any sense, so I asked.

“Daisy, why do you need to go to this stronghold?”

After asking that, her she became a bit nervous, as her eyes looked around the room. “Ah well… it's… cos... Oi got a package for dem!” She pointed to a small box at the corner of the room. “Yer clap I’m a courier, an' Oi wus 'ired ter brin' a package ter dohs raiders as a peace offerin' for another town. I’m 'opin' they 'ill accept it an' not 'urt me.” She tried to give me a fake smile as she explained her story, but I could see through it.

“Daisy, that doesn’t make sense.” I walked closer to her and stared at her with my purple eyes. “You just told me these raiders are blood thirsty monsters that would kill anyone they find, and how you talked about them, I doubt that you would accept this job.” I was trying to get her to break.

“They nade a package… they... they…” She stared into my eyes and I could tell she was trying to think of more lies. I may be poor at magic, but I can tell when a pony is lying. After she was backed into a corner, unable to think of any lies that would make sense, she gave up and sighed. “Dead on, you got me… jist gie me a moment.” She looked around, and even though I wanted her to tell me what was wrong, I wanted to make sure she was ready to speak. As I watched her walk away from me to the other side of the room, she put her forehead on the wall as she softly spoke. “Oi nade ter go dare cos they 'av me friend… she’s a pegasus an' 'er name is Azure Star, an' they tuk 'er ter their stronghauld.” While she was facing me, I did saw teardrops falling to ground. “Oi don't nu 'ow she is, but they're dohs kind av raider's dat ayte other ponies…” Daisy’s voice was now more shaky as she kept talking. “Goddesses, Oi wus only pissin' for a sec whaen they jumped 'er… Oi should've 'ad 'er back!”

I noticed her distress, so I walked up to her side and hugged her again. After a moment, she calmed down and turned her head towards me with tear marks below her eyes. “Yep, you're definitely a 'ugger… tanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” I backed up a bit so she could continue.

She took a deep breath before speaking again. “Whaen Oi saw dem takin' 'er, Oi couldn’t chucker anythin' cos al' av our stuff wus in de camp, whaich they stole as well.” I levitated the cup she gave me back to her. She grabbed it and drank some. “Fortunately, they lef de package, so me plan wus ter deliver de package ter Derdy River. After Oi got paid, Oi wus gonna use de caps ter buy a lorge arse gun, lots av ammo an' meds, an' Far Cry’s largest bottle av whiskey, den storm de place… well dat wus 'til Oi foun' yer underneath dat stallion.” She drank all the water in the cup, then put it down on a small stove. “Lookin' back on it nigh, Oi wouldn't 'av even made it past de first dure if Oi did dat.”

After hearing Red Daisy’s story and the trouble her friend might be in, I started to feel awful at myself. Daisy wasted her valuable time in saving me while she could be saving her friend. Guilt filled my body. I felt my heart breaking, knowing that she chose to save me instead. Closing my eyes, I told myself not feel guilty.

“I want to help you."

Daisy turned looking at me with surprise, her eyes full of worry as she stared at me. “Naw Silent, yer ain't used ter dis warrld. Yer from a Stable, yer canny chucker dis. Oi 'ill in me brown allow a Stable Dweller loike you ter cum wi' me.” There was much fear in her eyes.

I thought about it, yes I was new to this world, and so far my combat experience is below average compared to Daisy, but then I thought of something that could change her mind. “Daisy, you said that just assaulting this stronghold is suicide right?” When I saw her nod I continued. “Well that leaves you with one option and that is to sneak inside, and that I can help you with.”

“Naw offence Silent, but dis stronghauld is 'eavily protected, de only way ter sneak is if we were invisable, an' dis town doesn’t exactly flog stealthbucks.”

My mouth curved into a smirk, feeling that it's now my chance to prove myself to help Daisy for saving me. “Well, I know something much better than a stealthbuck.” She looked at me, her brow raised up, showing she was getting interested. “I may not be the best at magic, Daisy, but I do have a special talent that I can help you with.” My horn calmly glowed, and with that, I vanished before her. Daisy’s eyes went wide as she tried to look for me, her eyes darting around the room. I easily snuck passed her. Calmly, I went through her pockets with my telekinesis, lifting the canteen and with my magic. I jiggled it, which caused her to turn about, only to see the canteen floating as I was hidden with my magic. “See?” I mockingly asked. I removed the spell, my smirk never leaving.

Daisy stared at me with a shocked expression before shaking herself and grabbing her silver canteen from my levitation. “Oi 'av ter admit Silent, dat is a impressive talent, but Oi still canny 'av yer cum wi' me, there’s aboyt 200 raider's at de stronghauld, Oican’t be responsable if somethin' 'appened to—”

“Red Daisy!” I cut her off, which seemed to surprise her. “You can't stop me from helping you… Stable Dweller or not, I am coming with you to save your friend. You can't do this alone, you know that."

I could see the turmoil in Daisy; she clearly did not want me to be put in danger, but after a minute, she finally gave a nod. “De raider stronghauld is called Big 'Orn 'Otel. Its coordinates is-”

Then my Pipbuck made a strange beep sound. I pulled up my left hoof that had my Pipbuck strapped to it and I went through it with Daisy looking over my shoulder. As I searched my Pipbuck, I noticed I gotten a new quest which was the rescue. After I select it, I pulled up the map and noticed that Big Horn Hotel was marked on the map, along with Dirty River that was about 10 miles away from Big Horn Hotel.

“Never mind then, too brutal dat tin' can’t teleport us dare,” she chuckled.

I laughed a little as well. “Yeah, that would make things easier.”

I after the short laugh, I went to close the map screen when I noticed that the Stable-Tech Warehouse was between the way to Big Horn Hotel. Seeing this I looked up at her with a smile.

“Hey Daisy, can we go to this warehouse on the way back after we rescue your friend?” I asked, hoping she would agree. “I need to go there.” Daisy looked at the map, seeing the location was on the way to Big Horn Hotel, and after thinking a moment, she nodded. “Thank you.”

“Naw menshun it, in fact, Oi tink we shud actually go dare first.” After Daisy said that, I had mixed feelings; on one hoof I wanted to form a large smile on my face, but on the other I knew this would waste more time, time that Azure Star has little of. Daisy saw my confused state and explained. “I’ll be 'onest Silent, I’m not really optimistic aboyt findin' Azure, an' I’m afraid dat if we fend 'er… Oi don’t want ter tink aboyt.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Plus dare might be a few things at dat warehouse dat cud 'elp us in dis matter. A Stable-Tec buildin' usually 'as somethin' av 'igh value.”

She did have a point, with how she described these raiders and the amount of time that had already passed, Azure’s chances are slim, and we need any advantage we can get for Big Horn Hotel.

“Alright Daisy, if you think that’s for the best, I trust you.”

“Gran'.” At that, Daisy started putting her saddle bag on her back. “We’ll first go raun de town first, we nade ter buy as much ammo an' meds, an' most importantly sum whiskey... though cos 'ow much dis room costed, Oi only 'av 'alf av caps Oi wus payed.” She walked up to the room’s drawer, opening it and bringing out my Stable-Tec jumpsuit. Upon seeing it, I finally noticed that I wasn’t wearing anything. “By de way, whaen yer were bein' sleepin' beauty, Oi decided ter chucker sum craftin' on yer jumpsuit.” As she extended it to full mass, I saw that it was drastically changed: there were armor plates on the torso and shoulder areas, line belts that seemed to be used for storing bullets, and on the right sleeve was a pistol holste. “Loike it? Oi used a broken leather armor set to upgrade yer wears.”

Looking at the now armored jumpsuit, I grabbed it and began putting it on. After I got it fully around me, I went to a full body mirror. All the armored plates seemed to cover vital areas, and while the jumpsuit was a bit heavier, it was still flexible enough for me to be agile. I turned back to Red Daisy and answered,

“I like it.”

Hearing that, Daisy put my saddle bag on me with a thump which caused me to wobble before steadying myself as she walked to the door.

“Well den Silent, let’s git oyt av 'ere.”

She opened the door left the room with me following behind her.

As we left the building, I looked around the town as we were walking through it. It was a pretty strange town, and built in strange ways. I looked at how the town was set up; most of the buildings, like in the room, were made out of sheet metal and were supported on metal stilts. Some buildings were even built upon others with some of the roofs being connected to catwalks. We climbed one of them and into a building called ‘Far Cry’s Saloon’. Inside was what I pictured, a regular saloon, only difference is the metal sheet walls. As we walked closer to the bar counter, the bartender behind the counter, a brown-colored earth pony with a grey mane, was cleaning a glass, but when he looked up and his expression turned into a sour look when he saw Daisy.

“We’re closed,” he said sternly. In response, both me and Daisy looked around and saw that half of the saloon was full before looking back at the bartender. “To you, Red.”

“Oh cum on Far Cry, wat 'av done ter deserve dis treatment?” Daisy asked in a playful tone, most likely knowing what she done to the bartender, who I’m guessing is also the owner because of his name.

“Let me think?” Far Cry asked sarcastically, holding a hoof to his chin, pretending to be in deep thought. “Oh yes, last time you were here, it was at my daughter’s party for having my first grand filly.” Then he suddenly put his hoof down on the counter hard. “And at the end of the party, you drank my entire saloon dry! It took me three weeks to resupply only half of what you drank!”

“Not me fault yer gave me 80% aff bonus for de job.” Red Daisy walked up to the counter and hopped on an empty stool, despite the scowl Far Cry was giving her. “Besides, chucker yer nu 'ow 'ard it wus ter fend dohs ingredients for de chef you 'ired in Buffalo Teepee ter bake dat authentic chocolate cake for yer daughter’s 'ooley?”

“That doesn’t justify what you did to my saloon or her patrons that couldn’t get a good drink for weeks. So no, you aren’t allowed to buy any drink.”

Daisy tossed her head back and groaned, but then curled into a smile seeing me. She turned back to Far Cry with a smirk. “Well 'oy aboyt me mucker behind me?” She pointed to me. “Can she buy me drinks?”

Far Cry looked behind her and directly at me, after looking me over a few time before looking back at Daisy.

“Limit for her buying is only 3 bottles, nothing more.”

Hearing that, Daisy groaned again before speaking. “Jeez Far Cry, ye tryin' ter torture me 'ere?” She crossed her hooves for a second before Far Cry put out his hoof, a smirk on his face. “But gran', 'tis a dayle.” Daisy disgruntledly shook Far Cry’s hoof before turning back to me. “Cum on Silent, 'av a sate an' i’ll gie yer de caps ter buy me tree lorge bottles av whisky.” I hesitantly walked towards the counter and sat into the stool next to Daisy, and she drops a small pile of bottle caps on the counter in front of me. “That’s 45 caps ter buy de whiskey.” She got up from the chair. “I’m gonna buy ammo an' meds wi' de kip av de caps, you in de meantime shud enjoy yerself 'ere, spake ter de locals for stories or jist craic cack blather till Oi cum back.” Daisy walked to the saloon door and before she left she said one last thing. “Bye.”

Like that, she left. I was now by myself, surrounded by ponies that for the most part kept to themselves as well. As I stared at the door I heard metal jiggling, I turned back in front of me to see Far Cry using his hoof to push the bottle caps off the counter and into a bag.

“I’ll bring you the bottles in a short moment.”

As he left into another room, I decided to take Daisy’s advice and so got up from stool and walked around. I saw a table with four seats, three of them being occupied by a mare and two stallions, who were laughing and joking around. I walked up to them and politely asked,

“Is this seat taken?”

The trio of ponies stopped laughing and turned to me, now with a scowl on each of their faces. The mare, who was also a unicorn, levitated her saddle bag onto the empty seat.

“Yes it is, Stable Dweller.”

With that clear answer, I walked away with my head down. I tried to find other seats where ponies were sitting, but like the trio, ponies simply put belongings on any empty seats. I was about to just quit and go back to the stool I had been on until a mare’s voice called me out.

“This seat is free.”

I turned my head to the direction of the voice and saw at the corner of the saloon was a white earth pony mare, with a coal black mane. Just like Red Daisy, she was also wearing a duster with leather armor underneath, the only difference is that this pony was wearing a old cowcolt hat on her head despite being inside. She was was lounging on her chair with her hind hooves on the table while drinking from a beer bottle, and she made a gesture to come. Seeing that she is the only pony willing to let me have a seat next to them, I walked up and sat in the seat at the other end of the table.

After the mare stopped drinking, she put down her beer on the table and looked at me, extending her hoof out with a smirk on her face. “Name’s Jane, I’m Dirty River’s sheriff.” I shook her hoof, and after shaking it a bit, I let go and she continued. “I have to admit, it's been a long time since I saw a Stable Dweller.” She put her hoof under her chin. “I think when I was only 15 years old, so that would have been about 12 years ago.”

Stable Dweller. Ever since I left, ponies including the stallion that almost killed me call me that and it's been nagging at me since Daisy called me that. With the topic being about the name, I asked.

“What’s a Stable Dweller?”

Jane gave a soft chunkle and answered. “A Stable Dweller is one of you folks from those Stables that leave their home to have a ‘grand adventure’.” She took another drink from her bottle. “But after a few days of seeing what the world really is, most of them run back to their Stable and beg to be let back in. So what’s your excuse?”

“I didn’t have a choice.” I said almost as a whisper, though Jane still heard it and this cause her eyebrow to raise. “Short story, something bad happened to my Stable, and I was chosen to go outside to ‘save my home’.”

“Well that takes the meaning out of the name Stable Dweller.” Jane was thinking for a bit before she brightened up. “Wait, I know what you should be called… The Chosen Dweller.”

“Umm thanks, but my name is Silent Whisper.”

Then I saw a large bottle whiskey being set on the table, I looked and saw Far Cry standing at the table, setting down the last two bottles. After he did that, he looked at Jane with a loving smile, like how my brother or sister would give me.

“Good to see you today Jane.”

“Nice to see you too, pop.”

I blinked at that, I looked at both of them and then to Jane. “Wait… you're his daughter?”

Jane chuckled at that and answered. “Yep, I’m the daughter from the story.” She then turned her gaze to her father. “And dad, don’t be so hard on Red. Like she said, you did give her a 80% discount.”

In an instant, his smile turned into a frown as he grabbed an empty beer bottle from the table. “Hey, when she learns respect, I could consider letting her buy here again.” He then walked to a nearby table and used a cloth to wipe away any mess that was left. “I also saw that the water flow from the pipes is low, is the purifier still working?”

Hearing her father, Jane sighed before answering. “Barely, I don’t know how long it will last.”

Far Cry puts his hoof on his daughter’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Jane, I’m sure you’re going to figure out something.” After his reassurance, he left the table, I looked back at Jane and asked.

“What did he mean about a purifier?”

“Oh, well as you can guess from the name of the town, we have a river right next to the town, but it's polluted as hell with muck, radiation, and other nasty things that makes it undrinkable. That was until 30 years ago when a group of ponies which actually included my pop, found a derailed cargo train near the highway and found a P-6000 water purifier inside a large boxcar.”

“You found a P-6000?” I knew what that was. In case of a water talisman being repaired or like in Stable 15 broke, a P-6000 water purifier would be use to recycle any kind of wastewater, and most likely Stable 15 is using the emergency one for the next couple of months until the wastewater in the Stable dries up.

“Yep, my pop and the group of ponies brought it to this the river and got it working, and after 10 long years of planting, gathering scrap metal, and ponies settling down, Dirty River was made.”

“So what was the problem your father mentioned?”

Jane sighed and answered. “Well, 10 years ago, a couple hundred raiders occupied a large hotel called Big Horn Hotel and since then have been using it as a front for raider parties to attack caravans or other settlements, including this.” Jane took one big drink of her beer until it was empty and set it down on the table. “Those raiders tried attacking this town a few times in the past, but we manage to defend it, but last time was different. A few weeks ago, a group of raiders from Big Horn attacked us. It ended like the other times, but before the rest retreated, one of those damn raiders with a grenade rifle decided it would be funny to shoot at our only water supply. At least that raider’s head now resembles mashed-up jelly.” She was now scowling at the table as she continued. “Ever since then, the purifier has only been producing a quarter of what it was producing before and still declining.” She looked around her, making sure no pony was listening before she quietly spoke. “And despite what my pop said, I don’t know what to do.”

I can tell that Jane was stressed out as she put her hoof between in temples and groaned a bit. Then an idea popped up in my head. “Jane, I think I can fix your problem.” She looked at me again, yet again intrigued. “The P-6000 is issued in all Stables. Daisy and I are going to a Stable-Tech Warehouse by Big Horn Hotel, so maybe we can find something that can fix your water purifier?” While the prospect sounded interesting, Jane wore a worried look on her face, most likely because I mentioned Big Horn Hotel. “Oh, me and Daisy are going to Big Horn Hotel to rescue her friend Azure Star, and she thinks we should search the warehouse first to find anything useful for the rescue. I also need something there to save my Stable as well.”

“So that’s why I didn’t see Star with Red when she came here with you… well, I was thinking of going there or sending someone to that warehouse, but it's was too dangerous because it is close to Big Horn Hotel and I need as many ponies defending the town as I can get in case another raider party comes.” I saw Jane smirking again. “But knowing Red, and I imagine you had to convince her pretty hard to bring you along, I guess both of you are dead set on going.” She then pulled out a piece of paper out of a pocket, unfolding it and showing me a picture of a mechanism and the name of it above. “The piece crucial to the purifier is a ZSP Filter, and if you manage to grab a hold of schematics for the purifier as well, that will be a bonus for you.”

I smile and this time was the one to extend my hoof. “Deal.” She grabbed ahold of my hoof and shook, and at the same time, I heard a beep from my Pipbuck, most likely marking this as a quest.

Then right on cue, Red Daisy barge in with her saddle bag full. She walked up to the table and looked at me and then to Jane. “'Ey dare Jane, 'ow’s de filly?”

“Oh she’s good, in fact she said her first word… mommy.”

“Ah, 'ow juicy.” Daisy said as she looked up day dreaming. “Believe it or not, Oi mind me first ward, though de first tin' Oi said wus whiskey.” Daisy looked down at me. “Silent, 'ow aboyt yer wait for me for de moment at de town’s gate? I’m gonna 'av a friendly cack blather wi' me mucker 'ere.”

I nodded, and left the chair with Daisy now sitting down on it. I walked to the exit, and before exiting I looked back and saw the two mares talking to each other with Daisy grabbing one of Jane’s beers and drinking it all in one gulp which caused her to burp loudly. With that, both of the laughed. I smiled at that two and left.

As I walked up to the gate, I looked up saw a large locomotive pointing downwards on the other side of the gate. I went up to a gate guard stallion.

“Hey, a friend of mine and I are going to leave town for a bit, can you please open the gate?”

With that, the guard called two unicorn mares up top and they disappeared behind the barrier before coming back into view, though now with them wielding flamers in their magic. They aimed the flamers down at the locomotive’s fire chamber, where the coal would go into to fuel it, and fired two large streams of fire down into it. I both heard and saw the old locomotive’s pistons move, which caused the train wheels to start spinning with both smoke and steam coming out from the exhaust tubes from the front of the train with a loud whistle noise. Then the door was slowly being lifted up until it was high enough and stopped moving, I and heard a locking mechanism to keep it up even though the locomotive was still active with the wheels constantly moving. I have to admit, it must've taken these ponies a while to figure out how to keep the locomotive running while the gate would still stay open.

Then I felt a hoof over me and saw Daisy right by me. “Yeah Oi nu, 'tis a bit over de top an' it wud be lashings simpler jist ter 'av a regular gate, but 'tis became a signature av de town an' so makes it stan' oyt against others.” She pat my back before moving onward, with me following.

As we stepped outside the the gate, I saw a robot ponytron guard. I walked up to it and looked at the robotic guard. It looked like a normal ponytron robot like in the books, though like Jane, it had a cowcolt hat on its head, most likely just for decoration. Then I heard the locomotive stop for a moment. I looked back up, and saw the wheels now slowly going the opposite direction with the gate now being lowered back down. As the gate touched the ground, the two ponies up top stopped using the flamers and the wheels of the locomotive slowed down till they finally stopped and no more smoke or steam was coming from the train. The two unicorns put away the flamethrowers and went to both sides of the train, now picking up sniper rifles in their magic, looking out in the distance with the scopes. Looking away from the gate, I could see that the outer entrance is a parking lot, and not too far from us there was a building that was half blown up, the sign above it was also in half saying ‘ore’s Kayaking’ but from a nearby poster on a old electric pole said the full name of ‘Rocky Shore’s Kayaking’. Looking at the full map on my Pipbuck, it confirmed that like I saw on the cliff,, Baltimare had a large portion of the city underwater, with the majority of the city still at ground level. I learned in geography that Batlimare was in a harbor, so it was on unstable ground and because there was no maintenance to pump water beneath the ground, the city was slowly sinking into the ground. Because of this, the city was never going to heal. I then looked up and saw Daisy walking on the road towards the direction of the raider stronghold. I followed her, and I looked back in the map again and from the distance between Dirty River and the Stable-Tech Warehouse, it was going to take about a half hour to get there. So maybe this a chance I could ask her about her story.

Galloped to her side as we kept walking. “So um… Daisy, have you always been a courier?” She turned her head towards me, though only for a second before looking forward again.

“Listen Silent… you’re nice an' al', an' Oi wouldn’t mind yer bein' me mucker, but ter be blunt Oi don’t trust yer enoof for me ter tell yer aboyt me past. Oi'm sorry but, naw offense ter yer, but Oi don't wish ter blather aboyt yet.” With Daisy’s answer, I felt my heart shatter a bit but then I felt her bump my side with her hoof. “But dat doesn’t mean we can’t blather aboyt other things.”

“Oh, well…” I asked hesitantly, I didn’t expect that. “What’s… your favorite food?”

“Chocolate cake!” She cheered, as I looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Wat? Yer didn’t tink Oijist drank liquor at Jane’s 'ooley ye?”

I shook my head, then became curious about it. “How was the party?”

Daisy chuckle as she laid her hoof on my neck as we kept walking. “Ah, yer wouldn’t believe 'oy wild it went. It al' started whaen Oi came.”

“An' whaen we woke up in de mornin', Oi foun' meself actually breastfeedin' Jane’s filly while she wus tryin' ter breastfeed wan av 'er father’s cats!” Daisy laughed hard while I awkwardly chuckled as Daisy described the outcome of Jane’s party. “Nigh don’t tell Jane, unlike me, she doesn’t 'av a immunity ter 'angovers. Promise?”

“Promise.”

Then we finally saw the Stable-Tech Warehouse, I looked at my Pipbuck’s clock and saw that it took us 34 minutes to finally made it to the warehouse. While Daisy’s story of the party did help to distract the long journey, it still felt like it took forever to walk here. With how physically weak I was, I was not used to walking long distances. I sat down on my hunches for a moment and rubbed my hooves together in attempt to massage them. They were so sore that they felt like they were going to break off my body.

“Nigh cum on lassy,” Daisy said as I looked up to see her staring at the entrance while taking a sip from her decorated canteen. “We still 'av a warehouse ter plunder.”

With that, she was now walking inside, so I followed her. As we both made our way through the entrance that once was used to fit boxcars through, as I followed Daisy through the warehouse, I noticed that it seemed pretty calm, until I saw both giant rats and those giant cockroaches behind a large crate. In reaction, I pulled out the 10mm pistol and aimed it at the group, but before I could shoot, Daisy grabbed the gun with her hoof.

“Silent, yer don’t 'av ter pull yer gun on everythin' yer clap. Oinu yer never seen a ROUS or a Radroach, but loike any animal, if yer don’t 'assle dem, they won’t 'assle yer.”

“What’s a ROUS?” I asked as she rolled her eyes.

“Rodents Of Unusual Size, duh.”

Following what Daisy taught me, we walked passed the varmints and continued searching. We spent 10 minutes looking through some parts of the ground floor of the warehouse, but because of how big it was, we might as well be looking for two needles in a haystack. Then something caught Daisy’s eye as she looked into a fallen crate. As I watched her rummaging in the crate, Daisy pulled out a strange saddle. She sat it on her back and attached a old assault rifle on the side that she also found in the crate. She called it a battle saddle, and it apparently is for non-unicorn ponies to hold rifles and larger guns that were too big for the mouth to hold. She put what I assume to be the trigger in her mouth, which was connected to the saddle by a cord. After gathering ammo she found in the crate, Daisy turned to me.

“Besides dis battle saddle an' assault rifle, we still 'aven’t foun' wat yer came 'ere for, or de filter de town needs.” Daisy took another sip of her canteen. “Got any ideas?”

I looked around the warehouse trying figure a way to find what we need, then spotted the main office on the second floor.

“Daisy, look.” I pointed my hoof towards the main office, and she looked in that direction. “That’s the main office. If there’s a terminal up there, then we can use it to find both a ZSP Filter and a Water Talisman.”

Daisy jerked her head back to me with a surprise look. “Wait a minute, that’s de call yer nade ter root dis place?”

“Heh.. heh.. Forgot to tell you, the reason I left my Stable was to get a new Water Talisman, ours broke.”

“Gran' so den, we better 'urry up, not only we 'av a mucker an' town in nade, but nigh we 'av a Stable ter save!” she said out loud in a heroic manner before walking past me towards the stairs.

I chuckled at her at humorous tone as I followed suit. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

We got to the stairs and walked up to the second floor, walking into a hallway that stretched between the main office that was in the middle of one side and a few other rooms on the other side. We walked into the hallway and into the main office. Besides everything being covered in dust, the office looked orderly, as if it was never disturbed. The was a desk at the middle end of the room, facing away from the windows overlooking the warehouse, and in the chair was the skeleton of a unicorn pony.

I walked up to the desk to get a closer look and saw that there was a bullet hole at the right side of the skull and a old rusted 9mm pistol on the ground. I also noticed that the terminal was still working, despite it being 200 years old. Seeing no other option, I regretfully pushed the skeleton that I presumed was the manager of the warehouse out of its chair and hopped into it as Daisy was looking for potential supplies in the room. I tried to look through the files of the terminal, but it blocked me and said I needed a password or an ID card from the former manager. Seeing that I wasn’t not good with terminals yet, I began search for a ID around the desk. I looked back at the skeleton and noticed the ID card was still around the manager’s neck. Grabbing the card in my telekinesis, I closed my eyes and hesitantly yanked it off of the neck of the skeleton. After blowing some dust off it, I inserted it inside the terminal, unlocking it. I looked through files, though most of it was corrupted with the exception of notes that the manager wrote. I looked through the rows of notes, and decided to look into the last entry for any information and read.

Forgotten Shipment- October 17, 1044

I can’t believe those idiots forgot the extra ZSP Filter for the P-6000! I mean it, they got everything on board the train, yet those idiot ponies on the train forgot one simple filter! After I found out, I had some workers put it in a small blue container near the boxcar entrance. Though seeing that it wasn’t enough, I decided to write ‘IDIOTS’ in red for those stupid train ponies to see when they come back.

Good, the filter is somewhere near the entrance where we came in. I went back to the notes again, and clicked one in the middle.

Power Armor devices- October 9, 1044

Just got two experimental devices, both involve power armor. While the board didn’t say what they do, I did saw them. One looked like a visor and the other a power armor disc card. Other than that, I have no idea what they're for. So I decided to just throw them into the safe in the filing room along with the other experimental weapon.

A safe? Hopefully if it's not difficult to pick. We might find something useful, though that will have to wait. I still need to find a Water Talisman.

I went on reading titles of other notes to find where a Water Talisman would be, then I saw one note called ‘Got an extra Stable’ and the date was May 11, 1044. Hoping that this could have answers, I read it.

Well this is a surprise, this morning the cargo train arrived with materials to build Stable 15 in the mountain side dubbed Snow Fall’s Sky Diving, but when the train arrived, it had twice as much material, enough to build a second Stable. I tried contacting my superiors in the Stable-Tech office in Baltimare, but they only told me it was classified and to have the materials in storage for the time being. I can’t believe it, the warehouse is already full as it is with Stable 15 materials, now we have to store an extra Stable for no reason? Something seems off.

Another Stable is here. Well, technically pieces of a Stable, but if that’s so, then a Water Talisman would still be here. I eagerly opened up the next note entry.

August 23, 1044

I just gotten new orders from headquarters in Fillydelphia, from the president of Stable-Tech, herself, Apple Bloom. That unknown Stable material that I was told to have it stored here, now it's going to be transferred to some other place. Tried to ask where, but was told that it too was classified. Goddesses, if I have to deal with these things all the time, I’m going to shoot myself one day.

I felt my jaw just hanging as I re-read the note. For a second, I felt like breaking down again, but then something else replaced the sadness with rage. In a fit of anger, I violently pushed the terminal off the desk. After 200 years of laying here untouched, the terminal landed on the screen and made a big cracking sound as the glass broke. The crash caused Daisy to jump and look towards me as I cursed out loud.

“You gotta be fucking me with your horns, Goddesses.” In a normal situation, I would be surprised of the way I cursed the Goddesses, but right now I didn’t care. Not only was there no Water Talisman, but knowing that there was a second one here that got moved, steam may as well be whistling out of my ears.

“Silent, ye ok-”

All of a sudden, we heard a click and next thing was the sounds of alarms screaming all around us. I looked at the broken computer and realized I must've triggered some kind of security protocol. Then we heard sounds of sliding doors opening and smashing noises, so we ran to the window and looked to see that dozen of ponitrons have awakened from their stasis pods or are just simply smashing their way out of a crate. With large stomps from ponitrons, they began firing at the giant rats and radroaches, with most of them simply dying or turning into ashes from the lasers coming from the heads of the ponitrons. As the last of the varmints were killed, one of the ponitrons looked up and saw us.

“Intruder detected: Lethal force authorized.”

With that, the robot and others around it started firing at us. Both me and Daisy immediately ducked below the window, as most of the glass was being shattered by the barrage of lasers. We crawled far enough away that the angle of the robots’ lasers couldn’t hit us. We got up and ran out of the room, but when we did, I saw we were trapped by two ponitrons on both sides of the hallway. I heard multiple gunshots as Daisy used her new assault rifle to fire at the ponitron on the left, continuing till the ponitron’s head blew up. With the other ponitron on the right getting closer, I quickly lifted my gun and brought up S.A.T.S. for a more accurate shot. I picked the head of the ponitron with six shots andfired each bullet in slow motion. Two completely missed, while the rest made direct hits. As I fired the last bullet from S.A.T.S., the ponitron shot a laser and hit my gun. The laser quickly heated it up and in reaction, the ammo inside it exploded, completely destroying the pistol as it fell to the floor with a thunk. Fortunately, the last bullet from S.A.T.S. managed to hit the ponitron and with that, it fell to the ground. While I would be glad about that, the only thing I was doing now was holding my right shoulder in pain. One of the bullet casings from my pistol got lodged into my flesh. Daisy came up to me to treat my wound, but then we heard metal hoof steps from the stairs, I looked at Daisy.

“We need to hide, let's get into the other room.” She nodded, and we both rushed into the other room and closed the half blown-off door. We sat at the sides of the door, listening to the multiple hoof steps of ponitrons looking around. Then one of them opened the door, and in a quick reaction, I activated my invisibility spell not just on me, but on Daisy as well. While both of us were invisible, it was hard for me to concentrate on the spell with two of us, causing the invisibility to wave a bit. The ponitron stepped inside, looking around the room for anything.

“Scanning… Scanning… hostiles gone.”

Then finally both the ponitron and the others began going downstairs again. I released the spell, then took a deep breath as I tried to tolerate the pain in my shoulder. After a moment or so of trying to cope with the pain, I decide to just get a healing potion from my saddle bag, but when I was about to unscrew the top, Daisy grabbed it. “Sorry Silent, but 'tis better ter save dees things for as long as yer can.” She put it back into my saddle bag again, then she went into hers and pulled out a syringe that had a purple liquid inside it. “Try dis instead.”

Then she stuck it into my wound I would have screamed, but she also held her hoof to my mouth. Just as quickly it started, she took out the needle and dropped it to the floor. I wanted to scream at her for what she did, but then I got a sensation through body. After the sensation was over, I noticed that I now barely feel the pain from my shoulder any more, I even touched the casing in my shoulder and it only felt like someone was just pinching me. I looked back at Daisy who was reloading her assault rifle and asked.

“What did you do to me?”

She looked back at me with a smirk. “Oi injected yer wi' sum Med-X.” I heard a clicking sound from her battle saddle as she threw an empty clip out of it. “It 'elps numb de pain av a woun'.”

“Oh… thanks.”

Daisy nodded, then we looked around the room. There were a few desks and chairs, but it had a lot of filing cabinets. Wait, this must be the filing room the note mentioned. I began searching for a possible safe, when Daisy walked up with a magazine in her mouth. She set it down on the table, and as it was laid flat, it read ‘Today's Locksmith’.

“Oi foun' dis under a desk. Wonder if yer wud nade it.”

I was about to thank her, but when I noticed a safe partially covered by a sheet, I quickly rushed passed her to it. I held a bobby pin and my lucky screwdriver, and I started picking the lock. As I stuck the screwdriver in the keyhole, I then inserted a bobby pin inside as well and gently turned the bobby pin-.

*Snap*

Yet another safe that I can’t pick! I sat there, looking at the safe, eyes full of hate at the steel grey box, but then suddenly the magazine from earlier was in my face, with Daisy holding it in her teeth.

“Try readin' dis.” She said with the magazine in her mouth. “It might teach yer 'ow ter chucker dis 'ard wan.”

Looking towards the book, I grabbed it in my telekinesis and opened it up and started reading. As I speed read through the magazine, I felt that I had more experience for lockpicking for some reason. After reading it, I placed it into my saddle bag and started picking the safe again, and this time it felt a bit easier. It was still hard, but the bobby pin at least didn’t break instantly. I took me a few tries until I heard a click as I was finally able to get into it. I had to admit, that magazine did helped more than I thought.

I saw a couple objects inside once I opened it, one of which was a gun. It looked like a strange type of revolver, and a powerful one no doubt. I lifted it up with my magic and examined it more closely. The mouth grip was made of smooth wood, the barrel of the gun looked like it had two barrels, though when looking closer, it was only the barrel below the first that had the actual gun barrel. I looked at the ammo cylinder and saw that it was covered in a casing on both sides, with the left side having a little glowing yellow gem. As I kept looking at it, I saw the side of barrel again and this time noticed that it had and an engraving on it which said ‘This Gun’. I looked back into the save and picked up a note that was next to it. I levitated it and read it.

Description of This Gun.

This Gun is a heavily modified, pared down .223 pistol. This Gun can only be use by one individual by recognizing their DNA. It has a motorized cylinder and crane for quicker shooting and reloading than a typical revolver. Ammo type changed to 5.56mm for more damage. The green gem on the left side turns yellow while reloading, then turns green and makes a ringing noise once the weapon has reloaded.

This Gun? Really? The pony who made this couldn’t think of a better name? There was another section of the note.

How to use This Gun.

To use This Gun, you first must put the grip into your muzzle; unicorns are no exceptions. This is to gain the DNA from ponies so only they could use it. Same applies to unicorns, where only their magic can use This Gun.

Following the instructions, I placed… This Gun... into my mouth. It felt strange actually holding a firearm in my mouth. In the Stable, we all used our telekinesis for everything, so this was—

A tiny blade of some kind sliced the tip of my tongue. I yelped and dropped the revolver on the ground as I held a hoof to my mouth. Daisy came back to help.

“Silent, yer gran' so?”

“My tongue…” was the only sentence I could moan out.

“Let me clap.” She forced my mouth open and looked inside. “Ah yeah, there’s a cleave on yer tongue.”

Then I heard a beep noise from the gun. Wanting to know why that gun just nipped me, I levitated the note back to me again.

Be advised, the DNA sampler will have to extract DNA from the tongue.

“Oh now you tell me.” If I knew it was going to do that, I would have just left the gun, but seeing that it now has my DNA, I might as well continue.

To effectively reload faster, This Gun has six bullet cylinders, and each can hold five bullets. When This Gun is out of ammo, it will automatically reload one of the six cylinders with a full row of 5.56mm. A red gem is used as a recover maker for empty cylinders to be reloaded later, the gem has a pin and can be attached to any fabric.

I looked back into the safe and levitated out six cylinders and the red gem. I attach the red gem in the inside of a large pocket on my saddle bag. Then I looked at Daisy and asked. “Hey Daisy, can you possible spare like… thirty of your bullets?”

Daisy, went into her battle saddle and pulled out only fifteen bullets. “Sorry Silent, but Oi’m gettin' juicy dry for dis gun.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” I levitated the bullets to me. “This will do.”

With my magic, I pushed five bullets in one of the cylinders, and immediately, it floated by itself and I saw it going towards This Gun. This Gun’s cylinder casing flipped opened, and the ammo cylinder was placed in the slot and the casing flipped closed again, with the yellow gem now emitting a green glow and making a ringing sound. Seeing that it was fully loaded, I placed it in my pistol holder and quickly loaded two other cylinders before placing them back into the pocket.

“‘Uh… fancy gun yer got dare, though what’s in de kip av de safe?”

Daisy was right, while this gun is cool and all, the note in the terminal explained that there were other valuable objects inside. I looked back inside and like what the manager wrote, it was a visor and a small chip, each with a note attached to them. I decided just to throw them in my saddle bag, and wait to read the notes later. Then I saw at the very back were schematics, and when I levitated it to me, I saw it was the P-6000 purifier schematics! I put it inside my saddle bag, and with that we were finally ready to… go.

Stupid! I completely forgot about the dozens of ponitrons down below. With how limited our ammo is, a full fire fight would be suicidal. While I could sneak out of here, Daisy can’t unless we’re both…

“Daisy, I have a plan.” She stared at me, full concentrated on what I have to say. “I can maybe get us out of here by what we just did a moment ago of me turning us invisible... but problem is that, this was the first time I did that and it took a lot of energy for me to do that.”

“Oi clap, well 'oy long wud yer last?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. My longest time of being invisible was 15-20 minutes, but that was just for myself.” I gulped before speaking again. “Daisy, I know I asked a lot from you, but can you trust me?”

She gave a big smirk and nodded. “Oi trust you Silent.”

I smile at her as I closed my eyes, trying to gain power in my core again to envalp both of us in my spell. Just like the first time, it was hard to do with two of us, but both of us were soon hidden from the sight. Though, like before, it caused the invisibility to shimmer, hopefully these ponitrons can’t tell the difference. I opened the door as we slowly walked through the hallway and down the stairs. We had to backtrack carefully, and we nearly got caught when three ponitrons were walking down the same aisle and we barely squeezed past them. We tried to move as fast but also quietly as possible, as it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on the spell, and I started getting a headache.

We finally were getting closer to the exit, though we had to stop, because I still had to find the filter. I looked around and after a bit of searching, I finally saw a blue box. We carefully walked to it, and to make sure it is the one, I looked at the lid and saw ‘IDIOTS’ in bold red letters on top. I opened it up and there it was, the ZSP Filter. I levitated it out and put it in my saddle bag, but for some reason, fate decided that one box would cause a chain reaction to drop a larger crate above me. Fortunately, I got out of the way but caused me to lose concentration on my spell, and now both of us were being sighted by every ponitrons.

“Intruder alert: Lethal force authorised.”

We quickly hid behind the fallen crate as three ponitrons blocked the exit. As we hid from the ponitron’s lasers, I saw a ponitron coming out of a corner on my right. I quickly pulled out This Gun and activated S.A.T.S.. I fired five shots, and by my surprise, the first two bullets caused critical damage, and the robot fell with a thud.

“Nice shot,” Daisy commented, but then I saw her pulling something out of her saddle bag. “But remember when I was buying supplies?”

“Yeah.”

“And the tale of that asshole raider?”

“Yeah…”

Then I fully saw what she pulled out. A grenade rifle. “A little gift from the raider who started Dirty River’s trouble.” She then popped out from cover and aimed it at the three ponitrons, and with a pull of the trigger, all three of the now scrap metal robots lay in ruins after the explosion.

A few more ponitrons came in view, so we started to make a run for it as the ponitrons began firing at us. As we got close to the train doors, I felt a stinging sensation hitting me in the left side of my flank. I kept firing the rest of the bullets from This Gun till it was out, and like what the manual said, the empty cylinder flipped out and floated into the pocket while a full one to replace it. I decided to put it away and just kept running with Daisy. Then we finally jump to the outside world.

Outside, I was sitting down looking at the ground while Daisy was gathering her medical supplies to heal our wounds. We barely made it out of the warehouse, and fortunately, the ponitron’s programming was to only to kill intruders from inside the building. But even when we were still open targets to the robots, the ponitrons stayed in the building and continued patrolling. Despite having successfully escaped with a couple pieces of equipment we got, my mood was sour. Not only was there no Water Talisman, but with no source to guide me: I was now at a dead end in my search. Daisy noticed my mood as she was wrapping her right forehoof with magical bandages. Her eyes wandered a bit until she smirked and said,

“Luk on de bright side, Silent.” She pointed her hoof to my flank. “At laest yer got yer cutie mark filled in.”

“What?” I looked at the left side of my cutie mark and saw that the stinging feeling was from a ponitron shooting me on my cutie mark. By my surprise, the scorched fur filled in the entire outline of the star without it obscuring of the outline, making it look like a black star. “Huh, so that what it looks like when filled in.”

“Yeah, maybe yer cud rename yerself ter Black Star?” Daisy got closer to me. “Wat chucker yer tink aboyt dat?”

Finally, I manage to chuckle. “Yeah, that does sound like a good name.” That’s when I noticed Daisy was now in front of me, with her lowered down to my chest. What was she doing— “Ow!” She plopped her head up, and in her teeth was a 10mm shell casing that was embedded in my shoulder. She spit out the casing and got out another strip of magical bandages. “You could have at least warned me first, you know.”

She shrugged and lifted my left sleeve until it was all the way up, then wrapped the bandage around my shoulder. While magical bandages weren’t as effective as healing potions, I could still feel the bandage on my shoulder starting to heal my wound there.

“Gran' so Silent.” I looked at Daisy as she rolled out another large strip of magical bandages. “Oi nade ter touch yer flank nigh.”

I blinked from shock as she said. “Wha… What?” She didn’t answer, instead gently pushed me on my right side. She then walked over to my left flank, lifting my left hind hoof onto her shoulder and started touching me. Safe to say, I was completely embarrassed with another mare touching me down there. I could feel her hoof touching me and occasional rubbing, I then felt the bandage wrapping around my left flank before being tightened.

“Gran' so, you’re al' patched up.” I got up and looked to see that my entire upper left flank was completely covered in magical bandages, and once again, I felt it healing my wound. Then I heard Daisy snicker. “Jeez Silent, you’re scarlet brighter than de sun risin'.” At that, I finally noticed the heat in my cheeks. “What’s de matter Silent, yer into mares?”

The heat in my cheeks got hotter. “What? Of... of course not!” I blathered out, I tried to keep a calm face, but my blushing wasn’t helping. “I’m just as into stallions as you are Daisy!”

Daisy snickered again with a grin. “Well den in dat case, jist loike me, yer must av also 'ad 'undreds av stallions up yer 'oles.” She said as she was now laughing.

“What… no!” I yelled, the blushing still there. “Hell, I’m still a virgin!” I quickly covered my mouth, but Daisy already heard and so she laughed even harder than before falling down backwards. I groaned from the humiliation; I needed to think of a come back. Then an idea popped into my head. “Well Red Daisy, if you did do those hundreds of stallions, I imagine that you must be very loose now.” That’s when Daisy stopped laughing and got up, now with a shocked look. “In fact, I bet half of those stallions you did barely felt anything.”

“'Ey!” Daisy barked at me, now standing on all fours. “Oi 'av yer nu dat me 'oles are jist as tight as yer virgin 'oles!”

Now I was laughing hysterically with Daisy pouting, but to my surprise, she also started laughing alongside me. We laughed for a good moment before finally calming down. Then I saw Daisy bringing out one of the whiskey bottles, pouring some of it in her silver canteen. After that, she drank the rest of it in one continuous gulpes in less than 10 seconds. As she drank the last drop, she then threw the bottle to the ground as it smashed to pieces.

“Ell Silent, dis 'as al' been craic, but nigh we nade ter git gonna de stronghauld.”

With that, she head out to the direction of Big Horn Hotel, with me following her lead to our quest. I didn't know what to expect on our journey, but I finally felt safe with my new friend, which I thought I would never find in this wasteland. Hopefully, our path lead us to hope for a friend, rather a path to our deaths.

Chapter Three: Hotel Rescue

It was 12:26 pm, and because of the cloud layer, it was completely dark to the point that I had to use my Pipbuck light for direction. As we got closer to the stronghold, the scent of rotting flesh in the air was getting stronger. It was a strange smell. Being so used to the air in Stable 15 that was normally recycled from its filtration system and air made by the apple trees, it was hard to get used to this new scent. The only thing it was similar to was of something burning, though when I asked about it, Daisy told me that was probably from the bodies being burned. The scents bothered me so much that I questioned, how can ponies handle this new Equestria? Then I smelled another foul odor, so I looked to the side saw that the odor was residing from a strange little shack with a moon and star on the door. I stared at it, then Daisy tapped me on the shoulder and spoke.

“Yer don’t want ter go over dare, Silent. That’s a outhouse, that’s wha ponies… well, chucker their business.” She also smelled the odor, and in reaction stuck her tongue out in disgust. “Believe it or not, sum ponies are so desperate for grub an' water dat they sometimes forced ter draink from dohs outhouses.” I blinked at what she said. The concept made my stomach turn as I gave a similar look of disgust that Daisy had. Why would ponies eat the feces of others? Not only was that extremely gross, but it would also worsen the health of the pony as well. “Though dare is another call why ter stay away from auld outhouses.”

I looked at her, now with a curious expression. “What?”

Then I saw her pull out a flip lighter from her saddlebag, she flicked it with her teeth and it lit. She looked around, probably making sure that there wasn’t anyone nearby. Then she threw it. There was a hole on top of the outhouse which where the flip lighter fell into and-.

BOOM!

In a split second, a large fire ball exploded from the outhouse. The flash of the explosion was so intense that I had to cover my eyes momentarily. When I looked back, I saw that the entire outhouse was blown into nothing, and what remained was a hole with some fire still burning inside of it.

“De other call is dat dohs auld outhouse are filled wi' methane an' so if yer, loike say, light a fag near one… save ter say it wud be yisser last.”

I gulped, looking back at the remains of the outhouse.

“Duly noted.”

After walking for about 15 minutes, we finally made it to the Hotel. It was a pretty large Hotel, to say the least. Before the war, it must of been a popular. It even had a large swimming pool behind it. Once we were 100 yards away from the hotel, we stopped and hid inside a old shack to double check our gear. Daisy managed to give me five more bullets. After checking my equipment, I looked to Daisy as she was cleaning her assault rifle, and as I got a good look at it, I saw it was actually coloured a dark camouflage green color with a large scope. Then I saw Daisy was carving something on the side of the stock. After she carved it, she blew the sawdust, and I saw what it said. ‘The Leprechaun’. She noticed my gaze and smirked.

“Let me guess, yer want ter nu why de name?” I nodded, which caused her to let out a quiet chuckle. “Ell, seein' dis lassy saved our lives back dare, an' for sum call, oi fale luckier wi' 'er... so down de line, oi decided ter call 'er De Leprechaun. Oi personally tink it wud be a brutal omen if yer don’t name a unique weapon.” With that, she pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked down at the hotel. “Seems de seem since de last time passed 'ere.” She then gave me the binoculars, I looked through them at the hotel.

I saw that the hotel was surrounded by a metal fence with guard towers that followed along the fencing, obviously used to spot ponies if they even dared to come close. Then my eyes got to the gate, and I had to resist the urge to vomit from the sight. True were Daisy’s words: there, the raiders had used the remains of ponies as decoration around the gate and door. Intestines hung from light pulls, and the corpses were impaled by spikes near the door. I felt so much pain in my stomach from seeing all the brutality these raiders have done Still, I had to ignore the feeling, but it wasn't going to be easy.

Putting down the binoculars, I doubled check This Gun. After making sure it worked, I put it away in the holster and looked back to Daisy who was currently drinking her second bottle of whiskey.

“I understand drinking after getting out of the warehouse” I looked at her chugging down the bottle. “But drinking before sneaking into a stronghold?”

After she drank the entire bottle, she set it down on a old table and gave me smug expression. “Oi scrap better whaen Oi draink.”

With that, she walked passed and out of the shack with me in tow. As we got closer, I powered up my horn and cast my invisibility spell on me and Daisy. We quickly but quietly approached the hotel. As we got closer and closer, I noticed that the spotlights on the guard towers weren’t moving at all; in fact some are just pointed to the ground. Daisy also noticed the oddity of the situation as well, though from something else that was absent.

“Dis ain't right… Daisy Whispered in front of me as we kept walking. “Last time Oi wus 'ere, dohs raiders were 'ollerin' an' screamin' loike lunatics.” Then I heard her hooves stop before hearing her turn towards me. “'Tis ter quiet... way ter quiet, Silent.”

“Yeah…” I said shakily. “Shou… Should I just stop my spell?”

Daisy, by my guest shrugged from the sound she made. “Why not, saves up some magical energy for you.”

Nodding, I removed the spell and both of us became visible again and continued our way towards the entrance. We made it to the gate and opened it, and like before, no pony was in sight.

What happen here?

Passing the gate and now opening the door, we went inside.

As we entered through the main door, we ended up into the lobby room. The lobby had two sets of stair cases, linked to a balcony up between them. I imagine that back in the day, this hotel was probably much more cleaner, refined, and overall a lovely place to be. I had to admit, it would have been interesting to see it back before the war. Unfortunately now, just like outside, there were mutilated corpses strung up by ponies that would kill on sight. It didn’t take long before me and Daisy noticed a large hole in between the staircases.

Shocked at the discovery, we got close to it, we saw that it was about 10 feet wide and while not certain, I guessed that it must be very deep. Then Daisy finally spoke.

“Yet another sinkhole, these damn things keep popping up all around Baltimare.” Then Daisy pointed her hoof to it. “Still, lets see how deep it goes.” I nodded, and so we got closer, but before we could get close to look down it, the odor hit our noses. In reaction, we gasped deeply covering mouths and noses with our hooves.

“Fucking Luna, what the hell was that!” I said after we coughed a bit, it's then Daisy pointed out the buckets near the hole with the same odor and brown matter inside them. It was then I realized what the smell was: it was the same smell from the outhouse. These raiders must have been using this sinkhole as their on sewage for their waste for the past decade.

“Well... looks like the raiders used this sinkhole for their shithole. How the sweet goddesses they got used to the smell, I don’t know.” I couldn’t imagine it either, I was now beyond disgusted of how these pony raiders were so animal like.

Backing up from the sinkhole, our eyes looked around the lobby again until Daisy looked back at me. “We should split up and look around. Might be quicker to find Azure Star that way.”

I looked at her with a worry look. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I heard a quite few horror stories in the past, and one bad idea in those stories was to split up.

“I know it's not wise, but seeing this place might be completely empty, we might be fine, though to be on the safe side, keep your gun ready at all times.” After a moment of hesitation, I eventually nodded, even if I was still feeling some fear inside. So with that, Daisy walked to the left side of the staircases while I brought up This Gun from its holster and walked on the right side. When I got to the top, I saw Daisy vanish into a hallway while I did the same.

I went searching through many of the halls and I ended up into one of the guest room areas. I looked through some of the old rooms. In one of them, I saw that the room was burnt more than the others with the remains of glass from the windows blowing inwards, meaning that the Bale Fire bomb must have detonated in front of the windows. In the room, I also found two skeletons, one having an open briefcase with bits inside, and the other with a folder. Curious, I picked up the folder and inside it was (to my embarrassment) pictures of a stallion, having sexual interactions with various mares in all of them. One of them even had him kissing another stallion. I set down the folder by the skeleton, then I saw a recording device underneath the skeleton’s clothing. After I levitated from the skeleton, I floated it near me and I took out the holodisk that was inside it and placed it into my Pipbuck and listened.

*Creaking sound*

“Ahh… greetings mister Apple Cloth”

“Bout time you showed up.”

“Better late than never I always say. So mind if I have a seat?”

“Might as well do whatever you want to my hotel since you’re blackmailing me, you bastard.”

“Please Mmister Cloth, the name is Black Dealer. Now as for those bits…

“Yeah, yeah I have them. 50,000 bits, now the folder.”

“Oh.. no no no. This will not do.”

“What! But you said the photos were worth-”

“And they are, it's just there isn’t enough bits for your... other secret”

“What the hell are you talking about? You have nothing else on me.”

“Oh mister Cloth, I manage to find out about your… secret admirers you take advantage of. I know your other secret as well.”

“No… you couldn’t have… I made sure all the documents were destroyed…”

“Well, you didn’t destroy all of them.”

“Look, it's not even a big deal. I just bribed him.”

“Bribing is a criminal offence, Apple, especially for what you did.”

“I just bribed the safety inspector to look the other way.”

“And risked ponies’ lives just for your own ambitions? Such shame.”

“Just because the hotel is built over ‘unstable grounds’ does not warrant a risk of sinkholes.”

“And like that, I caught a big one! Ha Ha Ha.”

“What?”

“Oh, I had no idea that you bribed a safety inspector or you built this brand new hotel on top of a sinkhole bomb.”

“You son of a… you tricked me!”

“Yes, and know after I take that briefcase, I expect you to be in room 126 with a briefcase of now 1,000,000 bits.”

“Oh no, this is different, you don’t have proof!”

“Yes I do.”

“Wha… What’s that?”

“A recorder, and with a few edits, I can release this to the newspapers, and not only will this ruin you Mister Cloth, but your entire company as well.”

“Damn you…”

“So do we have a deal?”

“…. Deal…”

“Good, now like I said before, meet me tomorrow in room 126. Have a goo-”

Then the holodisk stopped. Seeing the bodies of the two stallions, I imagine that this happened just when the Bale Fire struck Baltimare.

I left the room and continued down the hallway. As I walked down the hall, I saw old paintings on both sides, though a lot of them were eroded away. Then my eyes fell on one of them, this time a intact painting. It was a portrait of Princess Luna. I stared at the portrait of one of the goddess for a moment, just admiring the beauty of it. That’s when I saw a pony’s signature at the corner of the painting. ‘Lisa Mona’ I held a hoof to my mouth to stop me from gasping. Before the great war, Lisa Mona was the most famous artist in Equestria. She could paint portraits that were so beautiful and lifelike as though it was a photographed on canvas, and not only that, she even had her own secret paint mixture that was resilient to decay that it would last lifetimes even without care. Hence why the portrait was so well preserved. Feeling my heartbeat in my chest, I knew I couldn’t just leave it here, so I used my magic to carefully break the frame and then after the portrait was removed, I rolled it up and softly set it in my saddle bag. After making sure it was in a position that it wouldn’t damaged, I continued down the hallway.

As I kept walking, I then saw a sign above a door saying ‘Big Horn Buffet’. Going inside, I found that the tables, chairs, and dishes were still all organized, to my surprise. I took a closer look and I also saw pieces of meat still on the plates. That’s when I realized that this is where the raiders ate their victims. I turn towards where the kitchen was, and I gulped before continuing, the smell of flesh radiating from within. I got to the door but hesitated to open it, afraid of what might be inside, but I needed to in order to find Azure Star. With what remained of my courage, I opened the door and what I imagined was nothing compared of what I saw. There were bodies of ponies strewn on kitchen counters, where knives were completely covered in blood. At a far corner, there was even a fire pit with a spit hanging over it. The worse of all, it had a whole pony skewered on it with one side burning while the other looked… crispy.

I held a hoof to my mouth as I felt the contents in my stomach wanting to burst out, but despite my best effort, I threw up on the ground floor below me. While was able to hold my stomach at the dead ponies at the gate entrance, it was different here since the ponies at the gate at least weren’t eaten by others. After emptying my stomach, I just wanted to cry again, I didn't want to see any more of this. I wanted to leave, but I knew that despite the setting, this was the most likely place where Azure was. So I called out her name.

“Azure Star!” I yelled in the room. “Me and Red Daisy are here to save you!”

I was quiet for a moment, trying listen for any kind of reply, but didn’t hear nothing. Sighing in defeat, I decide my next plan was to find Daisy and bring her to the kitchen in case she recognized one of these ponies, though I was also hoping Azure wasn't among the bodies. As I was about to leave, I heard a knocking not far from me. I turned back around to listen, staying absolutely quiet. I heard the banging again, and it was coming from the oven. I walked towards the oven and opened it up and with the door, a tray also followed. Upon the tray was a pony on it, though thankfully a non-cooked one. The mare was a night blue Pegasus with a black mane, and her cutie mark was the iron sight of a gun. I saw that she had both her wings and hooves bound to each other with wire string with the exception of her right hind hoof, which she must of managed to wiggle out to bang on the oven door. I also saw that there was an apple in her mouth, being held by a wire string that was tied around her head. My eyes grew wide as I realize what the raiders were going to do. By the goddesses, they were going to cook her alive!

I immediately began untying her, starting from her hooves to her wings and finally the wire with the apple. After I released her, she got off the tray and stood up and spit out the apple from her mouth.

“Are you ok?” I asked, with her nodding in response. “Good, for a second there I thought I was too late.” She smiled at that, and she looked around before finding one of the bloody knives. She wiped off the blood with one of the few clean cloths in the room before making a makeshift sheath out of some string and cloth nearby. She fastened it around her neck with the knife in it. “Well, I guess you can handle yourself.” At that, she only nodded, and that’s when I realized that she wasn’t talking to me at all. “So how long have you and Daisy known each other?” I asked, hoping to start a conversation, but instead she simply took out the knife and carved the number ‘17’ onto a wooden beam. “Oh.. that long… well how about we talk about something-”

“AH YER TINK YER CUD SNEAK ON ME YER ABOMINASHUN!”

Both me and Azure recognized that voice. It was Daisy, despite how far away her yelling was. After that, both me and Azure ran out of the kitchen and headed towards the sound. Fortunately, there was also gunfire. Then the gunfire stopped, and then we heard a explosion down a hall, and we rushed towards a large door at the end. When we got there, we barged through it and ended up in a medium-sized ballroom on top of a staircase.

We also saw Daisy as well.

She was behind a fallen column, the grenade rifle she bought completely broken. She was also covering her chest with her hoof with a pained expression. I saw that she had a first degree burn mark on her chest, large enough that her hoof wasn’t able to cover all of it. Even after she drank down a bottle of healing potion, it only healed most of her injury but still left a third degree mark. Both me and Azure rushed down to her. Daisy heard us, so she looked up and the look on her face was both surprise and happiness in one. Azure immediately hugged Daisy. Though the hug was as quick, when it started, Daisy winced and that’s when Azure must have remembered Daisy’s wound. Azure backed up next to me as we crouched, Daisy sitting behind the column again.

“Azure… Tank de goddesses.” Daisy said, and from the corners of her eyes, some tears were forming. “Oi tart oi wud never clap yer again.”

Azure used her left wing to wipe away the tears, and the two friends looked at each other happily. Seeing them like this really reminded me of my family back home.

Then Daisy brought out a gun from her saddle bag. The gun was a 10mm SMG, a heavily modified one. Its magazine was longer to hold more bullets, it even had a silencer, which was rare for SMGs, which would not only reduce the sound but also decrease the spread of the gun. There was a signature on the handle of the gun that read ‘Spectre’.

“Foun' auld Spectre on de floor in wan av de 'allways.” Daisy said as she gave it to Azure, along with two magazines’ worth of ammo as well. “Figure yer wud nade 'er again.”

When Azure grabbed the SMG, she began examining it, and from how she was treating it, I’m guessing that was hers before the raiders caught her. She smiled, then started moving her wings in a bizarre manner. She flapped her wings twice, held them up full spend, then moved individual feathers before closing them again.

“Ah, 'er name is Silent Whisper. She’s a Stable Dweller,” Daisy responded. How did she guess what Azure was trying to say?

In reaction, Azure fluttered her wings, extended fully, and closed them.

“Don’t worry Azure, she’s a gran' mucker ter trust, an' a competent fighter.” I brushed at the compliment, but before I could say anything, Daisy continued. “But roi nigh isn’t de time ter 'ang.” Daisy reloaded her assault rifle before continuing. “Not whaen there’s a Lobotomite oyt dare.”

Lobotomite? I looked at Daisy and then to Azure, her expression changed to seriousness. Not knowing what’s happening, I asked.

“What’s a Lobotomite?”

It was at that instant when a red dot suddenly was in my E.F.S., and from how close it was, it must have been right next to us. I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything. Both Daisy and Azure saw me and so also quickly looked around the ballroom. Then we heard cracking above us; we looked up and saw massive cracks forming on the ceiling. In reaction, Daisy pointed her gun and fired at the ceiling until the magazine was out. For a moment, the cracks stopped forming. Until the portion of the ceiling collapsed. We quickly got out of the way before the debris landed on us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough, as a piece of rubble hit my head, which cause me to drop to the floor, now in a groggy state. It was now dusty, the ash from the collapsed ceiling made the area invisible. After a moment passed, most of the dust settled. I saw Azure now holding her weapon in her mouth as she was aiming towards Daisy. I looked to where Daisy was, and to my surprise, there was another pony there. Though the pony was completely different.

It was an average sized unicorn stallion, he was wearing white armor plating and a white helmet with a red glow coming from the eye holes. I saw that it was also covered with many bullet holes at its side, strangely with little blood bleeding from its wounds. It was standing in the middle of the rubble, and in its white aurora magic held a magical laser pistol. When more of the dust settled, I finally noticed that the stallion held a hoof to the left side of Daisy’s head to the ground.

From the scream of pain Daisy was emitting, the stallion’s clear intention was to smash her entire head in. Azure reacted first, because she already had her weapon readied and aimed, firing at the stallion. As the bullets hit him, I was surprised that he didn’t even flinch from the multiple gun shots. However, it was enough to get its attention as he aimed his laser pistol at her and fired. When it fired, instead of red beams of light that would come from a laser weapon, it was black instead. Azure tried to hide behind a column behind her, but one of the black beams hit her hind hoof, causing both her and her SMG to fall to the ground with a thud. Azure still managed to crawl behind the column to avoid the black laser beams. After keeping her pinned down, the stallion continued to put pressure on Daisy’s head to the point that small traces of blood were flowing from both sides of her head as her screaming intensified. Finally getting my bearings, I aimed This Gun at the stallion and activated S.A.T.S. I only had enough magical reserve for 4 shots, so I first placed three shots at the leg that was pinning Daisy, and the fourth to his laser pistol. Usually I would pick the whole body, but because I was closer to the stallion, I had a higher chance to hit. Then the second stage of S.A.T.S. commenced: the first three shots hit the stallion’s right hoof, one of the bullets causing critical damage as to my surprise. The three shots caused its entire right hoof to be blown off, chunks of it scattering all over while blood poured onto Daisy’s face. After that, the last shot hit the stallion’s laser pistol, and the bullet went right through it, which caused a mini explosion.

With the stallion having a missing hoof, the explosion caused the stallion to tumble to the ground, only mere two feet from me. That’s when I could see its face. The left side of his helmet was blown off, revealing that both his muzzle and nose was sewed shut, and his eyes… his eyes were replaced with goggle lens surgically placed in. It was also the same goggle eyes that suddenly turned bright red as the stallion got up. I was shocked, not flinching to bullets was one thing, but the stallion got up from the ground, completely ignoring his missing leg. This stallion… No, this

thing

was now beyond the normality of a pony to be called one.

It made a hissing sound and charged at me, so I tried to shoot my last bullet but he used his magic to grip my throat as he pinned me to a column. He held a tight grip, and when I looked at him again, I also saw that he was holding This Gun in its magic. There was still one bullet in the chamber. He aimed my own gun at my forehead. With both Daisy and Azure unable to help, I closed my eyes, thinking this was the end. Then I heard a click, w followed by a buzz. I opened my eyes to see that he was trying to fire my gun, but it kept making the same noise over again. That’s when I remembered about This Gun’s DNA identifier, and because of that, I got a plan. I waited for the creature to give up, and luckily it did by dropping This Gun and putting more pressure on my neck. I quickly enveloped This Gun in my magic and aimed it point blank at its right side of his head and fired. He let go of my neck, and I took a deep breath of air and I saw that he backed away, hissing continually. This Gun quickly reloaded itself, but by then the creature also got its bearings too and was about to charge at me again. Then a gunshot hit his other fore hoof off. I looked to the side to see that Daisy, while still lying on the ground, managed to shoot his leg from her position. The creature fell to the floor with a thud, and with no fore hooves left, the only thing it could do was toss and turn its head while flailing its hind hooves. Wanting to deliver the final blow, I walked up to the creature, and knowing that he couldn’t do anything, I aimed This Gun to his head and fired. Even after shooting him in the head for the second time, I fired the rest of the 4 bullets into him head, and because of the overkill, the creature’s head exploded, with pieces of his head covering near his lifeless body. Though I expected to see pieces of brain matter, I instead saw a piece of tesla coil and some computer chips also scattering about.

With the creature finally dead, I quickly rushed to Daisy as she slowly stood up. Azure Star also manage to limp her way to us as well. I looked at both of them and their wounds. Azure only had a deep laser burn mark on her right fore hoof, but when I looked to Daisy, she was much worse. Daisy still had the burn mark on her chest, but now she had a wound at the side of her head of a large piece of slashed skin that was hanging limply, blood pouring out of it. It seemed she didn’t notice it; she must have thought it was a loose hair and tried to move it back up, only to have it flop down again. Both mares clearly needed medical help, Daisy most of all. I tooked out three healing potions and I hovered one to Azure and two to Daisy. Azure took it immediately and drank it, her burnt fore hoof healing till it was night blue again. Daisy was a bit more hesitant since I gave her two bottles.

“Silent, oi tink wan 'ill be enoof.”

“Trust me, Daisy.” I shook my head. “You need an extra for that head wound.”

Daisy still looked hesitant, but with a stern nod from Azure, Daisy accepted and drank both potions. Azure held her hoof to Daisy’s hanging flesh and pressed it against her head again as the potions healed both wounds. The wound on her chest completely healed to her dark green color, and the only indication she was shot was the big burnt hole in her leather armor. As for the wound on her head, because of Azure holding the flesh there, the loose skin began reattaching itself to her head once more. It wasn’t completely healed though; while the wound remain on her head, it was still bleed a bit, so I got out a roll of magical bandages as Azure was cleaning Daisy’s face and wound of blood. I wrapped the bandages around her head a few times before giving a smile to her. I backed up a bit for Daisy and Azure to speak to each other, despite not understanding how they communicate.

To pass time, I went over to the creature that I killed. I just looked at it, confused as to how this… pony-like creature was able to survive all of the abuse we caused to it.

“That’s a Lobotomite.”

That’s when Daisy walked up beside me on my left while Azure walked to my right.

“Looks loike we nigh nu why Big 'Orn is completely empty.” She turned her towards me. “The University.”

For some reason, I felt a chill up my spine as she said that. “What’s the University?” I looked back at the… Lobotomite. “And how is that connected?”

“Oi only 'eard stories 'til dis point, but it goes dat de University is sum super secret organizashun, dat uses Lobotomites ter chucker de biddings, loike abductin' ponies from de wastes an' on rare occasions, they abduct entire settlements. De ‘Boogeymare av Baltimare’, they call it.” I kept looking at the Lobotomite, now my mind wondering what this ‘University’ is. Then from the corner of my vision, I saw Daisy drinking a sip from her silver canteen. “So if wan Lobotomite wus still 'ere, let’s not fend oyt if dare are more.”

“Definitely.” I responded, placing This Gun back into my holster. Azure made a wing gesture to Daisy that I’m going on a hunch was an agreement.

“Gran' so den, let's move oyt.”

With that, we all started to walked back to the entrance.

All three of us were walking down a hallway for a while… we might have gotten lost. While I was trying to read any kind of sign or map on the old walls (I realized that my Pipbuck’s local map was completely useless in a rubble building) while Azure and Daisy were talking.

“So after they... prepared yer, they put yer in de oven. Waaat 'appened next?” Daisy asked, Azure flapped her wings three times before fluttering them, then had them full spread and had her secondary feathers moving, then her primaries. “Oh, so if they weren’t preparing you for dinner, the University would have taken you as well.”

I still didn’t get how Daisy is able to understand Azure’s wing movements, in fact, I still don’t get why Azure hasn’t spoken a word since meeting her. I sighed, closing my eyes. I took a deep breath and let it out. I’ll ask about this later; first I need some fresh air. Well, as fresh as the waste could make it, of course.

“Hey Spiked Bat, you out there buddy?!”

A voice suddenly came from behind us.

“Where the fuck is everyone?”

Hearing the voices were coming closer, both Daisy and Azure quickly hid in one of the guest rooms in the hallway. For me, I simply cast my invisibility spell and I pressed my back to the hallway wall. I looked to the left, and that’s when I saw them. They were beyond disgusting. I will admit, both Red Daisy and Azure Star looked like they haven’t showered in months, but these raiders looked like they haven’t showered in their life. From hoof to nose, these raiders were covered with dirt and grime that it practically made their natural fur unrecognizable. They also wore clothing that looked like they made from scraps of metal and cloth that were also a mess. The group of five raiders came from the corner of the hallway we passed up. I sucked up my gut while Daisy and Azure closed the door most of the way till only a small crack was left to look out of. As each of them passed us, the one at the end of the group talked.

“Fuck them! If there gone, at least that finally means we have a lot more meat!” The stallion smirked sadistically, but then turned into a scowl as he looked at the weapon on his battle saddle. “I’m more pissed off that I wasn’t able to get any kills with this thing.”

As the raider passed, I noticed from the sliver of the door that Azure's eye widened when she saw the weapon on the raider’s saddle. Even though she and Daisy were behind the door, I could still hear the small argument which Daisy was speaking in a whisper.

“Azure, I know it's important, but it's dangerous right now.” That’s when is heard the small struggle, thankfully not loud enough for the passing raiders. “I said we need to-OOF.”

Suddenly, the entire door frame came to the floor, with Daisy on it. She groaned as Azure went to help her, but because of the falling, the rest of the raiders turned their backs and saw them. Luckily, I still had my invisibility spell active and so wasn’t seen, but as for Daisy and Azure, they were in plain sight.

Daisy lifted her head and noticed the group of raiders starring at them.

“Uh… 'Ow’s it 'eadin'?”

Then, the raiders pointed all their guns at them as a mare raider shouted. “Meat is back on the menu, boys!”

Seeing that they were in danger and I was still unnoticed, I pulled out This Gun and started firing randomly at the raiders. Only one of the bullets found a target, specifically the one that held the battle rifle. He fell to the ground, crying in pain as the other raiders scattered to the other rooms in the hallway for cover. This bought enough time for Daisy and Azure to also get back into the room as well just when the raiders began firing back.

By this time, it was a firefight with Daisy and Azure taking turns firing their weapons while the raiders were firing all at once. I was laying flat on my stomach, still invisible as the bullets passed over me. I had my eyes closed from all of the micro debris coming from the bullets hitting the walls. After clearing my eyes, I saw that either Daisy or Azure shot one of the raiders in the chest as he fell to the ground.

The raider was now lying dead, but I saw that he had a gas mask on.

I used my magic to float the mask off the raider and because of the firefight, I was able to get it near me. I quickly wiped my eyes again and put on the gas mask. While the inside of it smelled bad, I could at least see through it. I began crawling my way towards the raiders as bullets kept soaring over me, and I finally got close enough that I was able to see into a room where two raiders were while shooting back. I crawled further until I saw that one of the raiders in a room behind the two other raiders threw a metal apple. Learning from old magazines in the stable, metal apples equal grenades. I quickly grabbed it with my magic before it could reach my friends and I instead threw it into the room with the two raiders and closed the door.

An explosion rang out as one of the raiders, a mare, got blown through the door and into the wall, her intestines hanging from her abdomen. I carefully crawled around the dead raider, trying my best not to touch her organs. After passing her, I made it to another door where there was just one raider with a 10mm pistol in his mouth. As he was reloading, he gazed down at the ground where I was.

He knew I was there? How?

I felt more wall chipping landing on me, and that’s when I realized that the dust and wall chips were making a layer on my back, making me visible. He quickly reloaded his pistol and aimed it at me, but before he could shoot, a bullet blew off his right ear. From where the bullet hit, it didn’t come from where my friends where. He got shot by his own. He screamed from the shot, which caused him to drop his weapon. With no more ammo for This Gun, I grabbed his own gun and shot him repeatedly in the torso in point blank. I had no time to gloat as the last raider noticed me, and I barely manage to get into the same room as the raider now had me pinned down.

“Oh I’m going to enjoy eating you tonight, bitch!”

I tried to think of something, but then I heard a ricochet and then finally there wasn’t any gun fire. I took off the gas mask and looked towards the other end to see Azure holding Daisy’s assault rifle in her mouth. I then looked to the direction where the last raider was and I saw a bullet mark on a fire hose box, which must have been where the ricochet came from before hitting the raider. How the hell did she manage to do that? After giving back The Leprechaun back to Daisy, they ran up to me.

“Well… dat really turned into a cluster feck.” Daisy spat as she kicked one of the dead raiders.

“Yeah.” I turn my gaze to Azure. “Nice shot, by the way.”

She smiled and nodded, once again not speaking a word. Then I heard rustling and saw Daisy going through the belongings of one of the dead raiders.

“We better scavenge waaat we can. Dat nice shot azure did wus also me last bullet for De Leprechaun.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. While I did not have any respect to these raiders, it still felt wrong looting a pony that you just killed.

“Sorry Silent, but morals loike dat oyt 'ere don’t keep ponies alive.” Daisy examined the dead raider’s assault rifle, but after looking at its condition, she threw it aside and grabbed 5 magazines of 5.56 rounds from the raider’s battle saddle. “Nigh cum on, we al' nade whatever dees raiders 'av.”

While I wanted to argue, I knew she was right. If we didn’t loot these ponies, other ponies, worse case other raiders, would. Sighing in defeat, I put the gas mask in my saddle bag and went to the dead raider that I shot and began searching him. I only used my magic; I did not want to touch a dead body. From the raider, I found 36 more 10mm bullets, and at his side, two grenades.

I levitated them towards Daisy, who finished searching the last raider.

“What did you get?” She asked me.

I showed her what I found except for the 10mm pistol which was in such poor condition that I was amazed that it managed to kill that raider.

“Hmm… I’ll trade you a mag of 5.56 for one of those grenades.” I exchanged one of the metal apples to Daisy as she tossed me a clip of bullets. I reloaded four out of the six cylinders, I put away the last four bullets and grenade into my saddle bag. “As for those 10’s, you should give them to Azure.”

Nodding, I went towards Azure who was trying to detach the battle rifle that practically started all this. I saw that she was having trouble getting it off of the raiders, so I helped by using my magic. Even though it wasn’t strong, with Azure tugging, we manage to detach it from the raider’s battle saddle.

“All this just for one gun, guess risking our own lives was really worth it.”

In response to my sarcastic remark, Azure rolled her eyes at me before turning back to the raider. She looked both through his battle saddle and saddle bag, but didn’t find anything but empty en bloc clips. She backed away and kicked him in the gut. Suddenly, he woken up and groaned as held one hoof to his other.

In response, I drew This Gun and aimed it directly at his head. That’s when Daisy came between both me and Azure as she also looked down at the wounded raider. She aimed The Leprechaun between the raiders head.

“Well 'eeloo 'dere fella, looks loike you're de only wan that’s lef.” Daisy said with a smirk on her face. “We 'av sum quesshuns dat nade sum answerin'.”

The raider only glared at Daisy and tried to spit at her face as he kept holding his hoof that got shot. “Go to hell, you bitch! I’m not saying nothing!”

I expected Daisy to do something violent in return, but instead she just wiped away the saliva-mixed blood with her sleeve with a smirk. “For any other pony, they wud 'av beaten yer by nigh for answer, but fortunately I’m not dat kind av pony... though me mucker 'ere...” She looked to her right. Azure, to my shock, violently stomped on the raider’s injured hoof. He screamed in agony, and Azure kept her hoof down on his leg. “Is still a bit full aff dat yer raiders tried ter ayte 'er an' dat you tuk auld White Feather from Azure as well.”

I looked towards the battle rifle now sitting against the wall and saw the name “White Feather” carved on the wooden stock. So that’s why Azure became fixated on the gun, because it was hers to begin with.

Then heard moaning from the raider as he grit his teeth as Azure put more pressure on his hoof. Despite being in pain, the raider still looked back at Daisy with anger in his eyes. “Fuck… You... Bitch!”

With his response, Azure pulled out her knife and stabbed the raider in his wound. The raider made a blood curdling scream as Azure twisted the blade in the raiders wound, making him scream even louder. I cringed at the screaming: while this raider was no good, this was still so cruel that I had to turn my head away from the sight. I tried my best to ignore the sound, but in my distraction, I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked back to see Daisy, who got close to my ear and whispered.

“Can oi use wan av yisser 'ealin' poshuns?”

“Why?” I asked back in low voice.

“Ter make dis cock sucker blather, trust me.”

I hesitated for a moment, not sure if giving a healing potion would be a good idea, but eventually I levitated one in mid air before she grasped it with her hoof. She then walked to Azure and tapped her shoulder, which caused her to pull the knife out from the raider’s wound.

“Ah fella, me mucker 'ere really made dat owie worse than it originally wus.” Despite the raider gritting his teeth and holding his worsened wound, he still glared back at Daisy, who continued talking. “But I’m willin' ter fix yisser boo boo.” That’s when she held up the healing potion in front of the raiders face. Seeing the healing potion, the raider’s expression now changed to desperation as he tried to grab it but Daisy yanked it away. “On de condishun if yer answer sum quesshuns.”

He made an angry snarl as Daisy held the only important thing at the moment. He looked back at his hoof which was now bleeding faster, now I could tell from his facial expression that he was considering his options till he looked back at Daisy.

“What do you want to know?”

With that, Daisy curled up a smile. “First, wha ye an' yisser fellas came from?” She brought a small cup from her saddlebag and poured half of the healing potion into it.

“We’re part of a raiding party, when we got back here and saw no pony was here we all spread throughout the hotel to look for anyone.”

“Gran' fella, yer deserve a trate.” Daisy gave the half cup of healing potion to the raider who immediately drank it, the wound on his fore hoof healing for a few seconds till it stopped, now no longer bleeding. “Nigh second quesshun is chucker yer nu wha de main entrance is?”

“Yes…”

“An' wud yer mind leadin' de way?” Daisy once again dangled the half bottle of healing potion in front of his face.

“Don’t really have any choice, do I?”

She put a hoof to her chin. “Cum ter tink av it… yeah, yer don’t really 'av a choice in de matter.”

Raider looked at both the bottle and Daisy again as he once again consider his options before sighing. “Fine, I’ll take you to the entrance on the condition that you let me go.”

Daisy smirked at that. “Dayle.” She then tossed him the remaining healing potion. His wound healed completely after drinking the rest, but before he could get up, Daisy suddenly tied a rope around his neck and gave the end to Azure. “Ah an' by de way, if yer even try ter run away, i’ll put a new 'ole in yisser 'oof again.”

The raider only snarled at that, before feeling a tug by Azure which he guessed was to now walk.

As we followed the raider from behind, even after all we learned, I still felt sick to my stomach. How could Daisy and Azure do that to some pony? At first I thought they were some of the few good ponies out in the waste, but after seeing their method of interrogation, I was now having doubts. That’s when I noticed that Daisy walked beside me and spoke.

“Oi nu waaat you're tinkin Silent, but don’t git de wrong impression aboyt us, me an' Azure didn’t enjoy dat wan bit, 'tis just….” She exhale a bit, taking a glance at the raider. “Wus necessary.”

I look at her for a second, I could tell she was being honest with me, but even so, I still think it wasn’t right to torture that raider. Instead of argueing over it I only nodded.

“Yeah… just how Equestria works now.”

We walked for a full fifteen minutes, and soon enough I began to recognize features that I passed by earlier. The raider was still guiding us with Azure giving a tug to move faster, which prompted him to look back at her with a scowl.

“We’re nearly there bitch, so stop pulling!”

“Can’t blame her, you bastards did tried to eat her.” Daisy glared at the raider. “You and your pals were preparing to have her for dinner.”

At that, the raider smirked. “Well she would have been a waste if we just shot her and left her to rot.” He then glanced at Azure. “Besides, we did give her the choice to be our whore for rest of her-” The raider was suddenly interrupted by Azure hitting him in the back of his head with her Spectre, which caused him to fall down to the floor. After grunting a bit, he continued. “And bitch gave a similar response.”

Daisy only shrugged. “Again, understandable, oi wud bloody die than becum a stallion’s shag doll.” She looked down at the raider. “Now how about we just continue, on shall we?”

He growled a bit before standing back up and continuing down the hall.

After a minute of walking, we could finally see the main entrance. Seeing this, we sped up our approach and we came up to balcony between the stair cases, but when we looked below we saw nearly three dozen raiders below us.

“Waaat de 'ell is dis?” Daisy said in a low voice as she craned her head to the raider. In response the raider chuckled.

“What gave you that impression that we were the last?” Before any of us had a chance to react, the raider shouted, “Hey boys, I brought fresh meat!”

All the raiders looked up and as soon they saw us, they immediately pulled out their guns and started firing at us. Azure and I quickly ducked behind the balcony from the incoming fire Daisy on the other hoof instead grabbed the raider who was trying to run down the stairs and used him as a pony shield. In just seconds, bits and pieces of the raider were spraying everywhere. So much so that his head exploded, this caused Daisy to fall backwards with the mangle raider corpse dropping to the side. We quickly pulled Daisy behind the balcony as the gunfire continued.

When we sat her down, I saw that her entire face was bloodied from the remains of the raider’s head, even to the point where her eyes were covered. “Silent, Azure, wha are! oi can’t see!” I quickly got out my canteen and poured water on her face and wiped the blood from her eyes, with the blood off, her eyes shot up. “Ah tank de goddesses, tart oi wus blind for a second.”

Before she could say more, a sudden burst of bullets from the gunfire hit the balcony that a few penetrated and nearly hit us. At that, we huddled together and began shooting back. I tried using S.A.T.S. but from this long of a distance with This Gun and the continuous storm of bullets made it impossible to even poke my head out. So with no choice, I began firing my gun blindly towards the raiders with Daisy and Azure doing the same.

Daisy took a quick glance before ducking again. “Shit… dohs damn raiders are comin' up from both av de sturs.” I took a glance as well, and indeed two groups of raiders were running on the stairs while shooting, which made me duck and cover again. “Silent, Azure, oi 'av a plan, but oi nade both av yer ter gie me coverin' fire.” Azure and I looked at each other for a second before looking back at Daisy and nodding. “Gran' so, tree.. two.. one…. NIGH!”

I levitated This Gun over the balcony and fired randomly again with Azure quickly firing her 10mm Spectre randomly as well. Finally, Daisy brought out a apple grenade I traded her, pulled the stem, and rose up on her hind legs before throwing the grenade at the left staircase. I poked out to see that the grenade landed in front of the raiders and exploded. While I couldn’t see how many raiders were killed in the blast with dust in the way, I did noticed that the staircase was shaking and making creaking noises before finally collapsing to the ground floor, taking the remaining raiders with it.

“Gran' so, jist nade ter take oyt dat last stairway, den we try ter fend another way oyt.” Daisy’s gazed went to me. “Silent, yer 'av de last grenade, so make it count.”

Nodding to Daisy, I brought out the grenade from my saddle bags and held it in my magic.

“Again, three… two… one… Now!”

Both Daisy and Azure popped up and started shooting randomly, then I stood up and was about to toss it-

BAM

The grenade suddenly broke into tiny pieces, some of which embedded into my scalp. I instantly dropped what remained of the grenade as I slumped back down, holding my hooves to the wounds on my head. Daisy saw me and crouched while Azure was still firing at the raiders. She scraped some of the pieces of shrapnel out of my scalp before getting out.

“Yisser a jammy mare.” Daisy said as she was wrapping the bandage around my head. “Usually a grenade explodes whaen 'tis shot.”

I looked down at the remains of the grenade and only saw that the detonator was still intact.

“I’m sorry, I tried to throw it, but…”

“Don’t be, we still 'av a chance.” She picked up the detonator and went through her saddle bags bring out her second bottle of whiskey. “Really 'ate ter waste perfectly gran' whiskey…” She opened it and with some duct tape, tied the detonator at the top. Like that, she just created a molotov grenade. “Gran' so Silent, join Azure in firin' an' i’ll clod dis at de sturs, 'opefully it cud burn de staircase down.” I pulled out This Gun again and started firing the last of my ammo with Azure. “Take dis, yer feckin raiders!”

She then through the bottle at the stairs through a small hole. It went through it and bounced off a canopy below it. It bounced into the air before it bounced off the chandelier above and finally dropping… right into the pit hole. Like that, the entire room fell silent as all of us, including the raiders stared at the giant hole.

" Um… Daisy, did that just drop into the-."

“Ah shit….”

Suddenly, a large column of fire erupted from the hole as if a rocket was launching backwards. We instantly ducked again as the fire consumed the entire ceiling and anything around it in the room, though fortunately we had enough cover to shield us from the intense heat of the fire. After only a few seconds, the large fire blast stopped, and I poked my head and saw that everything in the room was burning. Below, I saw the squirming bodies of remaining raiders who were screaming in pain from being burnt alive. While I didn’t like it, a small part of me did like the irony that they were going to do the same with Azure. A large piece of the ceiling fell above us.

“Luk oyt!”

Whether was it luck or stupidity, we managed to get out of the way before the chunk of flaming sealing crushed us. We got up and immediately ran to the opposite direction as more of the hotel was catching in flames.

“Azure!” Daisy called out. “Scoyt ahead ter fend another way oyt!”

She nodded and quickly flew ahead of us. Even though we were running fast, the fire was spreading faster than we could run. Then I suddenly felt a pressure on top of my back. I turned my head to see a charcoaled support beam on top of me. Fortunately, it wasn’t fully on top of me otherwise my back would be flat as a pancake, but was enough to pin me down. Daisy turned back and was trying to lift the beam of me, but she recoiled as the beam that was burning my back burned her hooves as well. Despite that, she tried again to lift it off, even as the flames were starting to engulf us. I was half tempted to convince Daisy to leave me, but then suddenly a second pair of hooves were on the beam which was enough to lift. It was enough for me to squeeze pass it. I got up, wincing at the pain in my back.

Azure made wing movements to Daisy while she turned to me.

“There’s a windy ter de lef av dat 'allway wi' dat pool in front!” She pointed down the hallway. “We gotta go nigh!”

We quickly followed Azure to our last hope, and after turning, it was indeed a window at the end of the hallway. We ran for it as Azure used her SMG to shoot out the glass, she flew out first as me and Daisy jumped out. As if from a movie, we jumped into the pool below us. I swam to the surface, looking around and a seconds later I saw Daisy popping out from the irradiated water which was causing my Pipbuck to go nuts. We swam out of the pool, and Azure flew down to greet us. Despite the burns we had, we all hugged each other. We looked back at the hotel, the once raider stronghold being engulfed in flames. As we watch it burn into the night sky, I heard Daisy grunt and saw her looking through her saddle bag to take out her last bottle of whiskey before opening it up and held it up high and in a cheerful voice proclaimed,

“Well, scon are glad ter say dat dis wee rescue wus a success.”

Chapter four: Dirty River's problem.

Author's Note

I would like to thank BioQuillFiction For helping us with this story thank you for that.

Chapter four: Dirty River's problem.

“Damn oi'm sore,” Daisy said as she sat herself down. It had gone dark an hour ago, and with just my Pipbuck lighting the way, it was rather hard to see anything. Thankfully, we found a small...shack, you could say. Whatever it was, it was small, and had been empty for a long time. It was just four small walls and a metal roof, barely big enough to have the three of us in. “Wus nice av Azure ter keep watch.”

I nodded, looking out the thin door. It had a large crack in it, and outside it I saw Azure sitting just outside the door, but with her wing holding it open a crack so she could jump in at the sign of trouble. “So, how did you and Azure meet?”

“Oi can tell yer we knew each other as fillies. she's a tad mute, so in order for 'er ter comunucate, oi 'elped 'er muk a way av blatherin' wi' 'er wings, an oi can tell yer, she's a deadly shot.”

“Really? She must be a good then.” So that’s why she doesn’t talk. Huh, wonder if I can learn her wing language?

“Ah yeah, she can snipe a radroach from well over a mile away. Fact, wan time we 'ad an shenanagans an' whaen oi wus tryin' ter deadly down, downin' a whisky, she tuk a shot an' broke de bottle in me gob, wi' a bb gun! She can 'owl a grudge, but oi figured oyt 'oy ter worm 'er oyt av dem.”

“How do you take her out of it?”

“She goes nuts for Sparkle Cola quantum. Wan bottle she chugs faster than oi can chug alcohol.”

I chuckled hearing that. The Stable had Sparkle Cola, a lot in fact. Every Night at dinner my brother, sister, and I had a bottle, and my first successful steal ever while lockpicking was from the Overmare’s personal stash of it. That stuff has kick. “So I take it those are hard to come by?”

“A bit, yeah, but sum ponies manage ter fend dem, blather av clique tryin' ter figure oyt al' de recopies for Sparkle Cola an' Sunrise Sarsaparilla, an' their variashuns.” Daisy said, letting out a loud yawn. “Oi'm gonna belt de 'ay early, noight silent.” Daisy then moved herself to lay down on the dirt with some comfort, using her saddlebags as a pillow and began to slumber.

I was sadly still awake, and didn’t have much to do. I went though my saddlebags and found the notes from the things I found in the safe. With not much else to do, I decided to read them over, seeing what exactly these things are about.

I pulled out the visor, and then searched for the notes about it. Finally finding them, I began reading.

This visor is experimental, maybe eight have been made so far. It’s an alternative for power armor helmets for unicorns. While yes, most power armor helmets for unicorns do include either a hold or horn cover, sometimes they would cut off their own horns in order to wear a full suit. This alternative taps into the wearer’s mana, creating a magic shield around their head, while in tests it protects better against armor piercing ammo and anti-material rifle rounds than even the T62-C3 power armor helmet, although it is regrettable that the wearer must be in a complete set of at least T57-D Power armor for the OS to connect and work properly. We tried with older versions of power armor, and the OS in the visor didn’t activate at all.

...It was a messy day in the lab…

That aside, we are working on an upgrade that can possibly make it work with older versions of power armor, but it requires the wearer have a Pipbuck on, and the upgrade software isn’t complete yet. It also has to be installed on the visor, power armor, and the Pipbuck in order to work. At least, that’s what we’ve predicted.

I looked at the visor. Huh, might come in handy, to either me, or someone I may come across. Still. Wonder where this upgrade is? I put it back into my saddlebags and pulled out the notes about the chip I found with the visor in the safe.

This chip. I have no idea why they asked for this to be what it is, but we made it, made for mass production, at least a hundred have been made so far. It contains an AI, one to teach the installer how to operate the power armor they adorn. Since learning how to wear any power armor means you can wear them all, the Ministry of Technology asked us to make sure that once proper instructions and operating have been completed, the AI erases itself entirely, leaving behind nothing more than a thirty gigabyte glorified external storage device. Well, I guess you could use it to keep pictures and songs on.

I looked at the chip and cringed. “That’s a lot of space for a program just to delete itself after it’s been run,” I mutter, finding that this thing even exists a cheap excuse to not have somepony to be there to teach the pony to use it properly. Still, if I come across this power armor stuff, maybe I can use this so I don’t need to haul it with me to somepony who could teach me. Even then, something tells me it would be a tad… difficult, for me to walk around in it.

I put the note and chip away, taking off my saddle bags and tried to get comfortable in the dirt. It wasn’t hard dirt, it was just...dirty. I am sadly going to have to get used to this, who knows when the next chance at a shower will come by.

I woke up with my face half in the dust of the floor. When I sat up, some dirt was in my mouth, so I started spitting it out. That made my mouth dry. I opened up my canteen and took a sip, swished it around a bit then spat it out on the floor, getting what was left of the dirt in my mouth out. I heard a yawn and turning around I saw Azure starting to wake up. Huh, Daisy must have switched with her at some point last night. I stood up, and my legs were asleep so I stretched like a cat to wake them up. That tingling they get when they’re asleep feels so weird. I froze as I was about to walk, because my spine felt like it was all twisted. “Gah!” I yelped. Damn, not used to sleeping on the ground. Getting beat, yeah, used to that, but this...this sucks…

“Yer gran' so dare Silent?” Daisy asked, walking into the shack at my yelp.

“Eh, just not used to sleeping on the ground. My back is killing me.”

Daisy chuckled at that. “Let me 'elp wi' dat dear.” Daisy said. She walked over to me, and placed her front hooves on my back. “Nigh dis 'ill 'urt.” Daisy warned.

I gulped. “How-” CRACK. “EYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” I yelled, feeling like my back was split in two. “THE HE-” I stopped myself from yelling, my back suddenly feeling...loose and relaxed. “Wow...How did you do that?”

“A treck oi picked up from me folks. Da alwus massaged mom whaen she needed it.”

“Neat,” I said, feeling more relaxed now than I did...well, ever really. “So, what do we have to eat?”

Azure perked her ears up, looking through her own saddlebags and pulled out two boxes of Sweet Apple Acres Apple Pie, and a can of refried beans. She gave us the pies and kept the can of beans, popping the lid off with its tab. Daisy began opening her box also, and I started to open mine. When I saw the pie was inside a plastic wrap, air sealed, I sighed a sigh relief, but was surprised too. It looked like it was baked just yesterday. I know in the Stable there was lots of pre war food still able to be eaten, but this food was out here, in the wastes, and it still looks this good? Wow. This stuff has outlived the apocalypse...and will likely survive my intestines. I discarded that thought, opening the plastic seal. My nose was greeted with the well preserved scent of apple pie. I took it out of the small tin it was in and took a bite.

Wow...tastes fresh even...What preservatives did they use in the foods back then? After our breakfast, we checked the area for anything strange. There was just what Daisy told me was a Molerat sniffing outside. It was about as big as the large rats I saw before, but more...naked, for lack of a better word. I had to agree. The Molerat was thinner than the rats I saw, and it had two large buck teeth sticking out of it’s mouth.

“Why don't yer take dis wan silent?” Daisy asked.

“I thought you said if we leave them alone, they won’t bother us?”

“An' that's still true so 'tis, but 'tis roi outside de dure an' 'ill reef us on sight,” Daisy explained.

“Oh. Well… I guess.” I said, taking out This Gun. It was close enough that I was sure I could hit it from the crack in the door. I fired, the Molerat’s head soon blowing up in a firework display of skull fragments and brain matter. “Gross.”

With that out of the way we headed off, finding the travel back to town rather quiet. I hummed a small tune to pass the time. For some reason I remembered the rhythm, but not the words. Must have been a song I heard a long time ago. As we were passing by another large, empty part of the wasteland, I spotted something in the distance. “Hey, what’s that?”

Daisy looked over, noticing it too and pulling out a pair of Binoculars. “Looks loike a stallion...makin' graves?” Daisy said with some confusion and worry.

“Think he lost his family?”

“Oi don't clap any bodies. Shud we risk it?”

I looked at Azure, who seemed to be mixed given her expression. “Well, do you see anyone else?”

Daisy took another look. “Naw, jist 'imself.”

“Well, it’s three against one then, so if he gives us trouble we can take it.” We took out our guns and kept them out, and loaded them in case this stallion was trouble. When we got closer, we were able to see a pile of sheet metals and scrap wood piled rather high up. There were also a few...blank tombstones. “Um, hello?” I called out.

The stallion looked over at us, then placed his shovel down. He was ash grey, with a crimson mane and a cross cutie mark. “Greetings,” he said, his voice friendly, but stern. “What brings you three here?”

“We saw yer in de distance. Why ye diggin' graves?” Daisy asked.

“I’m gonna turn this whole empty space of land into a graveyard.”

“A graveyard?” I asked.

“Yeah. World itself has been a mass grave for both the old world and the new one. High time somepony made a sacred place to bury the dead. Since it was my idea, I might as well do it, doesn’t seem like anypony else gives a damn.”

“Oh. That’s...rather thoughtful actually.” Huh, a pony who cares about the dead enough to make a safe place for them. “What’s your name?”

“Cross Roads. So, wanna reserve a lot?”

“Uh…” I stuttered. “Maybe another time. Thinking about my death now is...kinda worrying.”

“Heh, you know why I’m making these grave before fencing in the place?” He asked as I shook my head. “A friend and I are preparing for whichever one of us falls first. This world no longer cares about who you are, how old you are, good or bad, fact is, you’ll die. Most no longer have the luck of having friends or family who survive or care, and they end up food for something that comes along. Disrespectful.”

“Is dare a call you're doin' dis?” Daisy asked, and I agreed. It’s nice and all, but why?

“I already lost a lot of friends, family, and I was never able to give them a proper burial. It’s why once I get this place in shape, I’ll have scouts Head out and retrieve the bodies of those who reserved a lot. If we are unable to do so, we’ll refund the money they spent to their next of kin, and if no kin is available or found, money goes into buying supplies to expand the place.”

“How big are you gonna make it?” I asked.

“As far as I can, then, when the dead keep coming and topside is out of room, I’ll mine down and make catacombes to make sure every pony that’s passed has a place here.”

Wow. He’s so devoted to this. “Well, we’ll try and spread word about this so you can make this place a proper graveyard sooner, Cross Roads.”

“Thank ya kindly. And if you change your minds, come back and I’ll get the paperwork in order.”

With that, we left Cross Roads to his work. Heh, a graveyard in a dead world. One step at a time, I guess. Another hour passed until we spotted Dirty River in the distance. I was glad to be back, good news for the town. If only the Water Talisman was with the other stuff I got. As we were approaching the gate, I saw some rather heavily armored ponies standing in front of it. Huh, they don’t look like Raiders or bandits, but they did look like ponies I’d rather not get involved with. As the gate began to open and we were walking in, I heard a smack, then a grunt from Daisy. Then a scuffle… I turned around, and Daisy was choke holding one of the ponies.

“If yer wanna touch, den yer best buy me lashings av drinks before oi agree ter anythin',” she said, tightening her grip.

“Gah! Get this crazy mare off of me!” the stallion cried.

“Last stallion ter spank me loike dat oi 'ad 'imself spend al' 'is caps, an' show ME a craic for 'is work.” I looked over at Azure, wanting to know if that actually happened. She seemed to get it as she only nodded. I facehoofed.

“Alright, what’s goin o- Daisy?” one of the armored ponies spoke, walking back out from being in town. She had a greyish black coat with a light pink mane, her armor covering her cutie mark.

“Scythe?” Daisy asked, letting go of the Stallion who scurried out of her reach. “Been a while, 'asn't it?”

The mare, Scythe, merely rolled her eyes. “Daisy, why were you choke holding one of my boys?”

“Yer colt spanked me flank!”

Scythe, for her part, rolled her eyes and sighed. “Damn it. Knives! What did I tell you about that kind of action?”

The stallion Daisy choke held, Knives, stepped out of his spot with the others, still rubbing his neck. “After work only…” He grumbled.

“That’s right, and for your misstep, you have latrine duty when we get back to base.” Knives’ jaw dropped while the others merely chuckled or looked relieved.

“I...she! ...Fine Boss,” Knives said, defeat in his voice.

“Here,” Scythe said, handing Daisy fifteen caps. “For a drink or three, coming out of Knives’ paycheck. Now get out of here, I’m on a job.”

“Aw naw, waaat are ye at 'ere, waaat job, at laest tell me dat much,” Daisy said.

Scythe sighed. “If you must know, ask your sheriff. She has all the details.”

Daisy huffed, so Azure and I followed her into town and after a little bit of searching, we found Sheriff Jane on one of the many railings that connected the buildings. Looking over the town from up there, I guess. “Why hello girls,” Jane said as we approached her. “I hope you have good news.”

“We do,” I said, pulling out the filters and filtration schematics. “We got both a new filter and the schematics for it.”

“Well...that’s amazing!” Jane cheered, taking them both from me. “Here, you’ve earned this,” she said, taking off her hat and tossing me a rather large and heavy, pouch. I opened it and saw it was filled with caps, each taped around in counts of ten. “Five hundred caps.”

“Wha did dat cum from?!” Daisy asked in shock. “Cause that's lashings av caps!”

Jane chuckled. “I’ve been saving it to pay anypony here that might be able to fix it to an extent, so you deserve this, kid. Oh, and a little thanks from me personally,” Jane said, lifting her duster up on her right side and pulling...some kinda gun I have yet to see out of a holster and a few red things with it. “That’s one of my trusty sawed offs, this one I’ve noticed has extra kick compared to others. I call him Dragon’s Breath.”

I levitated Dragon’s Breath and its ammo up so I could get a better look at it. “What kind of gun is a sawed off?”

“It’s a type of shotgun. Its barrel is really short, and shotguns usually have a small range, so that has an even smaller range, but when it hits its target...heheh. Dragon’s Breath here does worse than his standard siblings.”

“Really? How so?”

“Go by Dirty Trash, they got a shooting range to test it out.”

“Thanks. Oh, and what were those ponies outside the gate here about?”

“Them? Heh, oddest thing, a rich pony named Luxury managed to renovate a pre war fancy building and moved there from Tenpony Tower. They said he doesn’t like the view being ‘obscured’ by the town and wants to work out a deal to have us all relocate.”

“Waaat?! Who does dat self centered egotistical pile av-!” Daisy was shouting in blasphemy before Jane spoke.

“It’s actually a fair deal,” Jane said, making Daisy’s jaw drop. “Look, with the money and resources, we can settle someplace safer from the Raiders and Bandits, get a safer, cleaner source of water, maybe even make better farms. I’m just thinking about what might be best for the town in the long run, Daisy. Scythe said that, as a sign of good will, she and her group are gonna deliver supplies and caps to show Luxury as a pony of his word.” With that, Jane walked off, leaving a stupefied Daisy and Azure behind.

I thought the whole thing strange. While being able to move someplace safer is nice… why would a pony THAT rich give away all those caps and supplies for nothing more than a view? I mean, from what I’ve read and heard from the pre war times, rich ponies spent bits on all kinds of pointless and useless things. Still, something doesn’t add up. “You all thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Dat dis Luxury pony is up ter somethin'?” Daisy said as Azure nodded.

“Then let’s head up to Dirty Trash and stock up, then head out. If Luxury up to something, we best find out before that shipment gets here.” Azure and Daisy nodded. Daisy lead me to Dirty Trash, which was pretty well named as it was a large trash boat docked on the river. There was a large painted sign that said the shop's name, the “shop” Being a sheet metal and scrap wood building atop the rather flat trash boat. The shooting range actually had a few ponies using it. We crossed a plank bridge onto the boat/shop and entered. There were only four aisles, two with weapons, one with armor, and half of one had foodstuff and the other half had ammo. The rest of the place had crates and other storage items scattered around, piled on top of each other.

Sitting behind an office desk with a cash register on it was a rather scruffy looking stallion. He was thin, smaller than me, and had bottle cap as his Cutie mark. “Well hello, I’m Bitcap, what are you here for?” he asked.

“Well, we need to stock up, and I wanna try out your shooting range.”

“Well, what do you need? Also, hi Daisy.”

“Top o' the marnin ter yer Bitcap, 'oy is yisser ma?” Daisy asked.

“Feeling better, thanks for asking. So what do you fillies need?”

“Ammo, sum 'ealin' poshuns, maybe sum med-x, an' sum liqueur if yer got it?” Daisy asked, that last part more of a plea.

“I got all those things, and something my Brother in New Appleloosa sent me. I was gonna sell it to Far Cry, but I want you to test it first,” Bitcap said, walking behind some crates. Daisy was trying her best not to act like a filly in a candy store. He came back with a crate, and the sound of glass clinking made Daisy’s smile grow wider. He opened the crate and pulled out a bottle of the liquor. It was bottled in a Sparkle Cola, a piece of paper taped around it with the label “Blood Thinner” written on it. As Daisy was about to grab the bottle, Bitcap quickly took it and kept it from her reach. “Now Daisy, my brother told me the recipe, and I am saying this because I care, it’s called Blood Thinner for a reason.”

Daisy chuckled. “Waaat cud be in it that's worth worryin'?”

“Vodka, water, barrel cactus juice, aloe, a spike of Med-X, a teaspoon of Dash, and half a ground up Party Time Mentat.”

Daisy’s face went from happy to a bit worried. “Stop de lights! is..is dat al'?”

“Well...the last, apparently most important ingredient, is Fission Battery Acid.”

“Battery acid?!” I yelled in shock. “Why? Why is that a thing?!”

“I dunno, Bro just makes them, and if he lives, he keeps the recipe,” Bitcap said in defence. “He did warn to only give it out in shot glasses. He took a shot of it, woke up maneless bald next to the town’s shopkeeper. He didn’t know what happened, only that about two days worth of time was missing from his memory.”

“Is that all?” I ask sarcastically.

“Of what he told me, yes.”

“Well, nathin' ventured nathin' gained,” Daisy said, taking the bottle and opening it. The smell reeked of chemicals and… cotton candy? Daisy took a sip. Her eyes went wide as she did what she does best: chugged the whole bottle in seconds. When she finished, there was a pop as she finished the bottle, and gave a rather loud burp. “Sweet stars above! That's rayle 'ard stuff! Gie me two more bottles!” Daisy begged.

“Alright… I still say be careful with this stuff, Daisy,” Bitcap said, taking out two more bottles. “I’ll get the other things you asked for, miss…?” he asked, looking at me.

“Oh, Silent Whisper.”

“Well Miss Whisper, the range is just behind that door, try not to aim anywhere other than the target dummies,” Bitcap said, pointing towards a door between two filing cabinets.

“I’ll try.” I said sheepishly. I opened the door and saw three ponies, one stallion and two mares, shooting the same wooden rifle-looking gun at the target dummies, which were pieces of scrap wood and metal mashed together to form something akin to a pony in shape.

First thing was to figure Dragon’s Breath out. I pulled it out of my saddle bags, as well as the twenty bullets Jane gave me with it. After messing with it a bit, I figured out that forcing the barrels down and keeping the bite grip down revealed where the ammo goes. Huh, two shots only? Should have seen that coming. I closed that back up, seeing it already had two rounds in it already. I took aim, and when I pulled the trigger...I never regretted anything more in my life.

BOOM!

The gunshot was louder than any other gunfire I have heard yet, and to my utter shock and horror, what shot out wasn’t a bullet...it was balls of FIRE! They hit the target dummy and it went up in flames and smoke, the three other ponies all looking at me in surprise. I just looked at them sheepishly. “Hehe...it’s got kick…” I said, looking at the tiny, yet powerful weapon. I opened the ammo section and both shells popped out by themselves. Both of them, and the barrels, were smoking. Taking a second look at the ammo slots, I noticed something odd. There were symbols engraved in the metal on the inside of the barrels. And a few smaller ones engraved on where I assume the trigger makes the bullets shoot… it’s enchanted!?

That was the only answer I could come up with to explain what just happened. I quickly put two more shells in it, then put it safely in my saddle bags along with its ammo. I am only using that in a worst case scenario. I took a lot of deep breaths to calm my nerves. Who in their clearly not right mind would enchant a gun to do THAT?!

I did my best to shove the horror that went through my mind of what the pony who made Dragon’s Breath must have been like, or thinking. I went back inside and saw Azure and Daisy paying for a large sack of items. “There you go Daisy, Azure. I added some of my mom’s Healing Dust, not as effective as Healing Potions, but it heals up wounds well enough.”

“Tanks Bitcap. So Whisper, 'ow wus shootin' Dragon’s Breath?” Daisy asked, handing me a box that I realized was full, twenty four extra rounds of shells, they’re apparently called, for Dragon’s Breath.

“Heh, was...stronger than I expected.”

“I bet, only saw Jane shoot Dragon’s Breath once before. Boom,” Bitcap said, making his hooves spread out with that ‘boom’ part. “Ripped like, five raiders into gore, and they kept burning to ash...wait...the target dummy!” Bitcap exclaimed, rushing to the range with a fire extinguisher.

“Perhaps we should go…” I offered as Azure and Daisy nodded. We quickly left the shop, looking back as we crossed the bridge I saw Bitcap and the three other ponies trying to put the fire out, the Dummy now molten scrap metal and ash, and the fire itself was somehow still burning. Even with a large clump of extinguisher foam being sprayed on it.

Yeah...If I’m not banned from his shop, I am so gonna have to pay him back. We picked up our pace and before we made it to the gate, Azure stopped us, making her...wing motions and made Daisy sigh. “Stop de lights! Nigh?” Azure nodded as Daisy sighed again. “Gran'. Whisper, we gotta make a queck stop, Azure needs ter peck somethin' up at de pawn shop. 'Tis not far, wanna wait or cum?”

A pawn shop. Well, if I do get banned, might as well see the other shops. “I’ll tag along.”

“Gran,” Daisy said with a nod as Azure lead the way to a stairway with a sign reading “Old-New Pawn”. We went down the stairs, and we must have gone underground. When we made it to an opening, the shop looked like a cave, but was well lit, clean, and stuff of all kinds was everywhere.

Azure went up to a painting on the wall, which, was odd, there’s no desk or pony here? She knocked on the wall next to it and the painting slid into the wall, and in the secret compartment was...was… “Zo-” I was about to yell, before Daisy covered my muzzle.

“Relax Whisper, that's jist de town ghoul, calls 'erself Raza, not sure waaat 'er rayle name is. Dare ate two types av ghouls: normals, loike Raza, dat can still blather an' act civilized, an' ferals, dat reef anythin' on sight. Also, callin' dem zombie ponies is 'ighly offensive. Yer don't want ter be labeled a recast nigh. Roi?” I shook my head, but seeing Raza still freaked me out.

She let go of my muzzle and I whispered a question. “So...what is a ghoul?”

“Stoney broke ponies 'ighly eradicated dat didn't 'av de fortune av dyin'. Their body becums altered, 'ence de mouldy form, radiashun 'eals dem, sum, go feral. Sad whaen it 'appens. Naw cure, either.”

I looked at Raza again. My fear still there, but also worry and sadness for her. She was just a normal pony. She didn’t deserve this. “So, here to pick up your trinket Azure?” Raza ashed, her voice raspy and gargled. Azure nodded as Azure walked off somewhere behind the wall and came back with a bracelet. It was weird. It looked like it was made from iron, and had some kinda barcode on it. Azure smiled and quickly put it on. “Glad ya got your trinket back. Now pay up the thirty caps you pawned it for.” Azure nodded, counting out the thirty caps.

I decided to look around a bit, and found some neat things like a combat helmet I saw from a pre-war propaganda poster. I lifted it up, and it looked really neat. “Fifteen caps,” Raza said, gaining my attention. “Got a gas mask and some scrap metal and electronics, sensor module, and I’ll sell you a schematic on making your own riot helmet.”

“A riot helmet?” I asked.

“Yeah. Hey, you got a Pipbuck? You from a Stable?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. I was too, once upon a time.”

“Wait, really?” I asked, walking over to her.

“Yeah, Stable Forty Seven. We were only in there a single generation before heading outside. Gosh, I was just a filly back then.”

“What was your Stable like?”

“Nice. You see, every stable has some kind of experimental, psychological or physical. Ours was an experiment of intelligence. Everypony had to create something that benefitted the whole Stable in some way. We were all inventors, those that were unable to make something that worked or refused to make something were either assigned as guards or tested the new inventions. One of my inventions was the schematic for a fully functioning riot mask made from scrap and other parts. Heh, best part was, I won a prize that year. A month’s worth of blank blueprints.”

“Sounds like you had a nice upbringing.”

“Yeah, even after the stable doors opened it was nice. Our first encounter with ponies topside were traders, and we had goods they absolutely wanted. Made a nice town around the stable and everything. Nowadays they use the Stable as a lab for inventing and such.”

“Really?” I wonder. “Did...your stable by chance have a spare water talisman?”

“Heh, nope. Only got the one, and by now it might be near breaking, cause when I left they were digging for a well.”

Drat. Wait! “Two things, one, where is your town slash stable, and second, how many stables were up and abandoned?”

“Well, the town’s called Gearswork, it’s pretty far north of Baltimare. Look for a building called Trans Comune; that’s the town’s main gate. As for abandoned stables, the wasteland is filled with them, although sadly the majority have either decayed to all heck or something made it a nest. If you’re heading towards any, you best be careful.”

“I will.” Great, abandoned stables will be my best chance at finding a water talisman. Heck, I could find many! A whole bag of working water talismans! And one to shove in that Overmare’s face...and to shove up the asses of that stupid Powder Snake Gang. “Oh, so how much for the extra parts to make the riot helmet? I already have the gas mask.”

Raza smiled. “For a fellow stable dweller, on the house, but the schematic is twenty caps, and that’s with a discount.”

I chuckled, pulling out two of the ten taped-together bunches of caps Jane gave me. Raza took them and went behind the wall again, walking back to the window with the items. I still had the helmet, and a riled up blueprint. “Work bench is over there,” she pointed. I turned around and saw two work benches, one with machines I had no idea what they were, and one that was blue and filled with tools. I walked over to the blue one and opened up the schematics. I had to say, they were amazing. I may have done poorly in magic, but I did fairly well in science. I laid the combat helmet and gas mask on the table and started working.

Being a unicorn made this easy, because I was able to make sure everything was held down properly to be rigged and installed. When I got to the installation of the sensor module, I grinned. According to the footnotes, if I rig it right, I can make it give off a small radio signal that, if I link to my Pipbuck via its radio application, would turn the red lenses of the gas mask into a display, showing me a compass line, warning me of hunger, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and notify me of enemies without needing to look at my Pipbuck. This mare is a genius! I sealed the final wire, and admired the work I made. I also cleaned the gas mask while making this thing, so it no longer stunk, and managed to find a spare filter in the scrap. I kept the old one, as it turned out you can wash them clean. It looked almost nothing like the individual parts anymore. Now it looked like, well, a riot helmet, I suppose.

I put it on, making sure the sensor module was on as I checked my Pipbuck. Sensor module 3849328493AC39. That’s it. I clicked on it, and my display came up. It showed a compass line, accurately showing where I was going, a bunch of blue lines showing everypony here was friendly, and even a bar off to the bottom that I think showed my health. Neat, hoofnotes said I’d get that only if my Pipbuck was a model C4000. Didn’t know that was my Pipbuck model. It also had three mini bars, SLP, FOD, and H2O. Oh this is going to be great. “Thank you Raza,” I said, my voice giving off a funny tone from being muffled a bit by the Riot helmet.

“Hey, ponies should stick together. Shame that’s not as popular these days.”

I nodded. “I’ll be back some time to sell or pawn.”

“You better,” Raza laughed as we made out way out.

By the time we B-lined it out of town, we had spent about two more hours than we should have. The sun was still up, I think, damn clouds, and we kept a steady pace towards where this Luxury would be. “So, worst case scenario?” I asked.

“Well, it cud be an al' oyt reef wi' 'igh end weapons, de grub might be poisoned, or they cud let lose lobotomites on de town, cause oi doubt 'tis, 'tis not gran',” Daisy said as Azure nodded.

“Let’s hope we get there in time.” The sky was getting dark as hours passed. I spotted some friendly dots on my display and halted, making Daisy and Azure stop as well. “They’re up ahead. Let’s try and sneak around, keeping a distance.” They nodded as she snuck closer. We spotted them all in a camp, though by the looks of it it was just for a rest, not overnight. There were three large waggons all loaded with crates.

“Tink yer can use dat talent av yers ter sneak a peek at waaat they got?”

“Easy,” I said, activating my invisibility spell and sneaking towards the carts. The ponies were all talking, but I ignored them. Carefully, I levitated a crate out and in front of me. They were nailed shut, so one by one I managed to, slowly, painfully, magically pull out every nail. Once that was done, I slowly lifted up the lid and saw...food. Cans and boxes of food. I dug down two layers and still found cans and boxes of food It’s all food. I sighed, tossing a can of beans back in, but when it landed, I heard a clink. Thinking it hit another can, I looked in...it landed on a box of apple pie? Wait, then what made the clank? I took out the can and tried to pull out the pie...only to find it stuck. Huh? I pulled harder, and there was the sound of cardboard tearing. I stopped, checking if the ponies heard. They were still talking amongst themselves, so I took a slower approach and bit by bit tore off what turned out was just the top part of the cardboard, held up by sticks it was glued to.

I looked in the hole I made and...my stomach dropped. I had seen it on posters, read about it in books, and when my brother took me with him to see the armory, I saw one in real life. A Balefire Egg. This one was altered though, with four sensor modules and a lot of wires attached to it. I quickly grabbed another box. It was full of caps, but I ignored the clear goldmine and dug to see if my fears were true. I gulped, finding another, similar Balefire Egg rigged the same way...Luxury's gonna blow up Dirty River. If all these crates have a Balefire Egg in them...Oh Goddess...it might be large enough to rival an ACTUAL Megaspell explosion. I quickly put everything back into the first crate and just covered them with their lids, not even caring to nail them shut again as I placed them back quietly. Recasting my spell, I quickly made it back to Azure and Daisy. Once safe with them, slightly up road behind a billboard, I dropped the spell. “Is it brutal?” Daisy asked.

“Extremely, each one of those crates has a Balefire Egg set up with a remote destination.”

“Dat basterd. I'll show 'imself,” Daisy growled, reaching into her saddlebags and pulling out...some plastic wrapped blocks with sensor modules attached to them. “Da alwus said 'av a backup plan for whaen push cums ter shove. Whisper, place dees on each av wan av de carts, whaen dis gets shot, it'll blow, an' so 'ill dohs Balefire Eggs.”

“So...you’re not gonna shoot it right away, right?”

“Naw, if we blow it up withoyt proof Jane 'ill git angery wi' us. 'ere, take dis,” Daisy said, giving me her flask. “An' slip sum av dis is Scythe's draink, she's a lightweight. We'll keep 'er as proof.”

I nodded, taking the strange explosive and the flash before activating my spell again. I made quick work getting the explosive on the cart, in a spot that either Daisy or Azure could hit. The tricky part was getting the liquor into Scythe’s drink. She was drinking a Sparkle Cola, but how do I get this stuff in there without anypony noticing? Huh...maybe. I grabbed a rock, it being cloaked in my spell too, and walked near the waggons and threw it at them.

“What was that?” several of the ponies asked, getting up while others looked around, waving their guns.

I snuck back around to Scythe, who had put her drink down and searched as well, and quickly poured a fair amount of what smelled like...Oh damn, this is Bitcap’s brother’s booze… Hope she won’t smell it. With that done, I snuck back around to Daisy and Azure. “Done.”

“Deadly, nigh we wait,” Daisy said as we waited, keeping watch at the ponies.

Things got loud as it seems Scythe actually drank the spiked cola. “And Y *hic* you, Knives! You’re sooooooooooooo lucky I am you-your sister, o-o-otherwise I’d have sliced ya long ago!” Scythe said, beyond drunk, earning some laughes from her group save for Knives, who rolled his eyes. Huh, sister? Never would have guessed. “A-and you know what else?”

“What?” Knives asked, clearly annoyed that all her drunken blathering was aimed at him.

“I-I-I- I know about that Griffin you shagged back in-in-in Far Haybor. *Hic*”

“You swore!”

“I’m drunk, so fuck off!” Scythe declared, trying to punch him, only to hit air and fall on the ground.

Knives went up to her, giving her a light kick as she replied with a loud snort. “Alright, who spiked her drink?” He looked around as none of the ponies answered. Hehe, over here, stupid. “Fine, if no one’s stallion, or mare enough to admit it, it’s all our heads when she gets out of her hangover. You lot start packing up to drop this stuff off, I’ll stay here til Scythe wakes up.”

“Perfect. Jist as planned,” Daisy muttered as the group started picking up their things.

Knives stayed by the fire with Scythe, who was spouting nonsense, to me at least, in her drunken sleep while Knives just rolled his eyes, watching the rest of the group haul the carts away. I activated my spell again, knowing that once those carts blow, Knives will likely shoot first when we show ourselves. Once the carts were out of hearing distance, Daisy gave Azure the okay and she went off, keeping a distance from the carts but still following them under night’s cover. Meanwhile, I drenched a cloth in that Blood Thinner booze. I was about behind Knives now, and I saw him take a sniff. “Damn, what stinks?!”

“This,” I said, dropping my spell, using my magic as best I could to pin Knives down and cover his muzzle in the cloth. He struggled like crazy, trying to yell, but after a bit he began to relax, the booze acting like chlorine, and he was soon out cold. Huh, wonder if he got drunk just by breathing it? Daisy ran up to me, taking out some duct tape and wrapping up Scythe’s and Knives’ hooves. Since Scythe was a unicorn, Daisy wrapped another piece of cloth around her eyes and secured it with duct tape. “Good idea, can’t use magic if you can’t see what’s going on around you.”

“Exactly, nigh we jist wait for-” Daisy was cut off by the night sky becoming day again, an explosion that made Dragon’s Breath sound like a BB gun going off fifteen or so yards ahead of us. My Pipbuck went crazy, irradiated winds blowing at us and so much heat that I had to close my eyes. And to think, this is not even close to what Raza or those who died when the Megaspells fell felt when they dropped. The heat was still in the air and actually I could see a hole in the clouds...stars… I saw stars! Bright, twinkling lights in the night sky...they were beautiful. I have seen pictures, but the real thing...it’s breathtaking. Sadly though, it didn’t last long as the clouds began to quickly re-cover the hole, the beautiful, true night sky that the Wasteland was deprived of hidden behind a grey layer of clouds yet again. I did see something odd though, right before the hole was covered again. I saw something...a pony, well, a silhouette of a pony, flying across the gap as it closed. They were a Pegasus, like Azure.

It hit me then that, out of all the ponies I’ve seen, the raiders I...had to kill. Not a one of them were a Pegasus. She’s the only Pegasus I’ve seen. I’ll have to ask why that is later as Azure came back, flapping her wings to tell Daisy something. Damn, really need to try and figure out how to read wings.

“Score av dem? Well, it wus dem or Derdy River,” Daisy said, sighing. She picked up Scythe, placing her on Azure’s back. From what I seen, I now know why Azure deserves her cutie mark. “Gran' so, let’s take dees two buggers back ter Derdy River!” Daisy called out as she threw Knives over her back, then drinking her flask while we headed back to town.

Chapter five: All over but the Blood.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Six: A Book, Cyberponies, and Dum-Dum.

Pain. Pain… Pain… PAIN! “OUCH! OWE, OWE, OWE!!” I screamed, waking up from blissful unconsciousness. It felt like my body was ripping in two.

Poke.

“OUCH!” I screamed again as something, a needle I think, was injected into me and I began to feel… a little bit better, still hurting though.

"Easy Silent, easy. damn, you're 'urt worse than expected," Daisy’s voice said at my side.

Finally, feeling the pain less, I managed to look around. I was just moving my eyes, because my body still hurt. We were in a… tent, two lanterns keeping it well lit, and I think I could see Azure sleeping on a bed just barely out of my sight. I coughed, trying to speak. “Where… where are we?” I managed to say. Speaking made my throat feel like it was cracking, like glass.

"Sum ponies came 'ere after de explosion an' gave us 'elp,” she explained.

“The others?”

“Scythe is in camp gettin' sum grub an' Knives lef wi' Sky an' their current bun. Tuk yisser power armor suit wi' dem back ter Derdy River, oi said they can stay at de place Jane gave yer. 'Ope that's gran' so."

“Of course.”

"An', uh, Silent… don't freak oyt, gran' so?" I started to worry as Daisy grabbed something that was on the floor next to my bed...What she brought up made my heart sink… my PipBuck… The screen smashed in…

“What?! OUCH!” I yelled, clenching myself from my outburst, as I saw Daisy inject another Med-X into my leg. The pain lessened a little, but I levitated my PipBuck up to me, some tears falling. “I’ve had this since I was a filly, everyone in my stable did.”

“Don’t feel too bad, little filly.” I managed to look up, seeing Raza enter the tent. “Hey.”

“Hi Raza,,” I replied. “Don’t suppose you can fix it? Also, why are you here?”

“You kidding? Zebras on the other side of the world probably saw that explosion. And fix a Pipbuck? I’ve never even seen a broken one, all Pipbuck technicians did was keep them shiny and make sure the leather on the inside is well kept and replace it when it tears.” My ears fell. “But, I can give you my old one.” My ears perked up. Raza grabbed a suitcase from behind her and turned it over for me to see after she opened it. Inside was a shiny, chrome colored Pipbuck with what looked like some other things added to it. “Like it? Been working on making the Pipbucks better than they were since I became a ghoul. I added a camera and microphone to take both photos and videos, it can copy and save games from pre-war holodisks onto it, makes your chances of hitting something in S.A.T.S ten percent better, sends and receives radio signals, has an auto hacking function that can break into anything from a terminal to securitron ponies, even through radio frequencies, and I messed around with the coding so it monitors more than just more than just radiation, but your needs for food, water, and sleep as well.”

“Wow…” I said, levitating it over to me. “What else does it monitor?”

“Mutations. If I wore it, it would say ‘Ghoulified.’ Try it on.”

I placed the Pipbuck on. Unlike my old one, this was secured on with a simple clamp lock. I felt a poke in my fetlock, like when This Gun took my DNA, and the Pipbuck booted to life. The screen was… very different than my normal one. The background was white and the words and such were black. I flipped to the personal tab. The sub-tabs were Health, Genetics, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and Personal. In personal there was three files: Bomb Defender, Stripped Menace, and Stable Runner. Those are the games… later.

The other main tab was Inventory, sub-tabs were Weapons, Armor, Food, Ammo, and MIC. The last tab, Activities, had Sub-tabs Radio, SOS, Map, Quests, Notes, AV-P, and Hack. It was then that I noticed a small wire that came out from the backside of the Pipbuck. I’ve seen so many terminals with that wire input. I can hack anything! I flipped to the Mutations tab and froze… there were two listed.

Atomic Bombardment

The excessive radiation suddenly taken in to create this mutation must have resulted from surviving an explosion of four or six Megaspells at once. You now can substitute Mana with Radiation when spell casting.

Cousin of The Ghoul

While not Ghoulified, you are now not only less likely to receive radiation sickness, you can actually heal minor injuries by yourself while slightly irradiated.

“Oh… my… stars…” I muttered.

“What?” Raza asked, walking over and looking at my Pipbuck. She laughed. “Well, well. Nice to meet you, ‘cousin.’ She then laughed as she left the tent.

Daisy took a look and whistled. "Those 'ill cum in 'andy."

“Daisy… does this make me a mutant?”

She blew me a raspberry. "Please Silent, yer tink every pony who lives up 'ere is ‘pure.’ Odds are we al' 'av sum sort av mutashun or two. From dohs Ah've met an' experience 'av taught me dat, whatever 'appens ter yisser body, yer are only naw longer yer whaen yer stop actin' loike it."

Huh...she has a point. I mean, I escaped with only two mutations and a broken Pipbuck. Could be worse, I could have been welded with the power armor or have my Pipbuck a permanent part of my leg. “Heh. I guess so. So how long am I going to be in this bed?”

"Doctor says two more days an' yer shud be gran' so." Daisy explained.

“Good. Could use the rest.”

“Excuse me.” Daisy and I looked over to the tents entrance, seeing a pony, stallion, thin build with an orange-yellow coat with a pink mane. “Is there a Silent Whisper here?”

“That’s me?” I say, the stallion trotting over to me and pulling a large yellow envelope out of his saddle bags.

“Package from Luxury.” Daisy immediately tackled the pony. “Gah! Hey, I’m just a courier!” I levitated the package up. Inside was a holodisk that I put into my new pipbuck and listened.

”Hello there, Miss Silent Whisper. I have to admit, stopping my bomb shipment to Dirty River was impressive, but blowing up my Balefire Egg factory? Ha! You got fire, filly, I like that. Tell you what, why don’t we have a chat, one on one? I’ll be unarmed, and it’s only courteous that you do the same. You can bring your allies if you wish, a Miss Red Daisy and Azure Star, but I’d still prefer it if we could talk with a degree of… privacy. And just a warning, if you come with the intent of killing me, then I will have to disagree. I will be unarmed when you visit, but I do know how to break bones and necks with my hooves. If you’re playing this in a Pipbuck, which you should, you’re a stable dweller, then my tower’s location will be added onto your map. And please, be civil, we are both ponies after all.”

The message clicked, signaling it’s end. Luxury's voice was...unique. I never heard that before, it was like Daisy’s accent, only his seemed… I dunno… Like it could carry a rhythm?

My Pipbuck beeped, and my map showed Luxury's tower was just to the west of here. I looked around a bit, and saw that Gearswork was also west of here, really close too! Must be in here since this was Raza’s. Well… guess I know where we’re going next then.

Daisy made me stay three days in this camp to make sure I was healed. With a goodbye to the ponies that all came to help us, Azure, Daisy and I headed off towards Gearswork, Raza telling us to say hi to them for us since she’s apparently still known there. I clicked my Pipbuck to the radio tab and decided to tune in.

”Hello again wasteland wanderers, this is Solo Note here as always here to give you the news that the great DJ PON3 can’t around here! Well you’ll never believe it if it wasn’t for the fact that everypony from here to the edge of the Baltimare waste saw it! I am surprised the world didn’t split in two! Yeas, that’s right, from what we’ve been given, it seems a Balefire Egg factory, a FACTORY, exploded! From a source that came from the camp of good hearted ponies helping whoever lived though that, it seems a certain Tenpony Tower former resident is to blame for starting up that goddess forsaken war factory, and we own what seems to be a prevented war and or invasion by a madpony to one special little filly named Silent Whisper, or as Dirty River’s sheriff is calling her, the Chosen Dweller.

“If ya’ see a mint green unicorn, a dark green earth pony, and a midnight blue pegasus, oh my, please give them ammo, caps, hell, I see them come by I’ll give them my dog Rusty! Cause ponies, these mares are taking on the wasteland, and fucking winning! I got it confirmed that these mares took out a raider hive, and stopped that Luxury from blowing up everypony's favorite muddy village Dirty River, and got them a brand new filter, and the schematics to make them!

“On to less exciting news, raiders, slavers, Steel Rangers, and a weirdo wearing radgator hide have all been seen in the west's of these parts. And sorry to say, only the one with the radgator hide is nice. Now, let’s play some happy music my sis wrote.”

Here in the waste, there’s no kindness, no mercy.

We scavenge, we kill, we do what we can just to get by.

Now here I sing to tell you, a Chosen Dweller walks among you.

Rise from the earth like the hellhounds, she’s leaving a blood trail

And raiders, she’s targeting you.

Your hive has been burned down, your numbers reduced, all thanks to one Chosen Dweller saving us… from you.

You will never see her coming, not even in death. You’ll sit in tartarus wondering. “Hey, who shot me?”

The wasteland’s got a Chosen Dweller, and raiders, she’s got a bullet for each of you.

Her team is deadly, who else would accompany, a fallen angel with the aim to kill ‘em all and an earth pony who’s buck is the least, deadly thing about her.

Put them together and what do we have, the wasteland’s salvation, and a raider’s eternal nightmare.

The fillies and colts will cheer your names, and any pony who want’s to shag ya, heh, they best follow ya forever.

I turned off my Pipbuck, Daisy, Azure and I all exchanging glances. "So… this makes us celebrities?" I asked.

Azure moved her wings to talk… still need to learn that. "I agree, dat song might 'av jist made doin' dees missions 'arder since al' av Baltimare listened ter dat stashun."

“Well… regardless, my stable needs that water talisman and apparently Luxury wants to talk.”

"You… aren't serious aboyt 'eadin' up ter 'is place an' jist...talkin', ye?" Daisy asked.

“I know it’s crazy...probably crazier than what I did three days ago, but you heard his message. He knows how to fight unarmed, I can’t so I’m screwed if I try anything. Invisibility spell or not. Besides… I wanna see what this psychopath looks like.” I grumbled that last part.

It wasn’t a long trot through the wasteland, some music every now and then and a few passers by but that was about all… until.

Daisy, Azure and I all looked ahead of us. What looked, and what probably was, a mutated alligator, was walking slowly towards us… only, there was stuff tied around its back and some kinda holo disk playing Some kind of creepy music.

“...Oi say we shoot dem,” Daisy suggested.

“The news said this pony was friendly,” I add.

“Greetings.” I looked back in front of me. He had been at least a mile ahead of us… now we were booping noses. I yelped, jumping back. The pony under the hide was thin, had a pale coat almost matching the clouded sky, and dark red eyes with bags under them. He was a unicorn. “Are you fillies in the mood for a trade?”

I gulped. “Trade what?”

“What do you need, lass?”

“A gran' guiness,” Daisy muttered.

“A beer you say,” the stallion said, startling Daisy as he pulled out a bottle of what looked like black whiskey. “They call this beauty Death’s Lips down in the swamps of the south. Its creator died making the stuff, and his kin finalized the recipe. Two bits, and she’s yours.”

“Yer mean caps, roi?” Daisy asked, the three of us confused.

“Oh no, I only accept old world currency. My… supplier, has an infatuation with gold, and old world bits are the most common source of it.”

Daisy scoffed, taking out two bits I didn’t even know she had. The stallion took them, then gave her the bottle. “Oi 'av me doubts,” she said. She opened it and took a whiff. She looked like it smelled good, then took a sip… her eyes went wide, then she passed out.

“Ah, not even its makers can handle a single sip without passing out drunk. Heh. She’ll have the mother of all hangovers when she wakes up.”

“If it’s that strong, why sell it so cheap?” I asked, Azure trying to wake up Daisy.

“Why do anything when the land has been twisted into hell?” He answered my question with a question. “I have my life, and you have yours, Chosen Dweller.”

I blushed. “Heh… you heard the radio then…”

“That I did little filly, and here’s a gift from me to you.” He reached behind himself, and pulled out a boxes of ammo, one for This Gun, one for Dragon’s Breath, and ammo for Daisy and Azure’s guns. The boxes weren’t like any I’d seen before. They were… well, they felt wrong.

“What are they?”

The stallion chuckled. “I call them R.I.P rounds. Even the weakest caliber of these special bullets can rip apart hellhounds and Steel Rangers wearing any Power Armor.”

“...How are they made…?”

“Heheh… A special book held knowledge best left alone.” He placed the ammo down and reached back behind himself again, this time pulling out a leather bound book that… just looking at it made me scared. “Passed down from generations in my family since the Great War. It’s guided me when I had no one, kept me alive when I was inches from death, and told me things that would strike fear into the very core of those who heard it. I call him Fuzzy.”

I couldn’t tell if this pony was crazy or telling the truth, all I knew was that that book just felt evil. “Well… thanks for the ammo,” I said, taking them and putting them into my saddle bags.

At that moment, I swear time stopped as the book began to… whisper something. It sounded like gibberish, but the stallion seemed to understand it well. “Oh… Is that right?” He then looked up at me. “Invisibility spell, very nice.”

“How did you…”

“Fuzzy here can see into the core of any and all we come across. And in your core, there is light, and darkness. What was it, in class when it came out?”

“What are you!?”

“Heh, just a pony without a mind with a book that eats gold. Tells the darkest secrets the world holds, and it’s here to offer you one of it’s secrets.”

“I’d rather-”

“Your spell is a twin, invisibility to hide from even the light. Hehehe, well its brother will let you hide from any whose eyes gaze upon the dark. Become a shadow, their shadow… hehehehe, and never fear death or injury while using it. Take over their bodies, learn their secrets, and, if you want… devour their very soul.”

I gulped. “I don’t want to devour souls…” I whimpered.

The stallion laughed. “Well, that’s where ‘no’ isn’t an answer. Fuzzy here knows what you are, little filly. A rare breed, if Fuzzy had you instead of me, oh, the fun you two would have. But time to start learning, Silent Whisper, you mastered one spell, now master its twin. Walk Into The Shadows.” The stallion smiled as the book flew up to my face, opening as the words written within rushed out, traveling through my eyes directly into my brain. It felt like needles were entering my brain as the spell, my spell, felt… complete, a second half now connecting with it… Walking into Shadows…

I screamed, blinking and the stallion, that book… they were gone.

“Grah!” I turned around, seeing Daisy wake up. “Shoot that's gran' stuff!" Daisy cheered, taking another sip, this time not passing out.

“Did… did you see that, Azure?”

The pegasus mare looked at me, then to Daisy, talking with her wings. "Azure says after yer man gave yer dat ammo yer fifty dare, spaced oyt while yer man ranted aboyt somethin' called a cod an' why is't so slimy.” Daisy said, much to my disbelief. “After dat yer man said take 'er 'andy an' lef."

I shook my head. I know that can’t have been real… but… Walk Into Shadows… I shook my head again. My spell is a twin… Now I have both… Whoever, whatever that stallion, and that book are…
I feel like I’m gonna meet them again...and I’m gonna be afraid… very afraid. “Well… let’s get going then, Gearswork isn’t that far away,” I said as we continued our trot… I should have let Daisy shoot him… but… then, would that book just have… attached to me? And, he said it, and he knew what I was… I’m me ...right?

We made it to Gearswork’s front gate, just like Raza said it was… only… it was broken down. As the three of us trotted into town… it was a battleground, and I dunno who won. Robots were broken all over, some ponies were dead here and there, and several… somethings... large, cartoonish muscular ponies, easy twice the height of a normal pony. Most had bullet holes in them all over, others looked blown up.

“What are they?” I asked.

"No idea… they luk loike earth ponies but..." Daisy started, inspecting the corpses of the large things closely.

“Let’s look around, there might be someone,” I said, the three of us keeping fair distance from each other. We were in each other's lines of sight, searching the area of the town.

The more I looked, the more I realized the pony corpses that were around were… odd. Legs made from metal, what looked like tubes made up they eyes of a few, and the few ghoul corpses that were around were… really strange, brains visible with a glass dome where the top of their skulls should be. These ponies… were they largely machine.

There was nothing other than corpses and a few ash piles outside. My brother once told me that magical energy weapons sometimes turned their target to ash or goo. It seemed only things like metals and such survived. I sifted through the ash pile a bit, finding seven caps, four bullets for a gun I didn’t know what it was that looked like big batteries, as well as… as… I don’t know what it was. It looked like a gem, but it was a bright white, even glowed slightly. “Heheheh, killed that one myself.” I jumped, looking up and seeing… him in front of me. “And don’t bother, same rules as last time, fact is, I am not even here.”

“What are you?”

“Due time, due time Silent Whisper. I killed the pony whose ashes you are sifting though, so that gem would appear.”

“What… is it?” I ask, levitating it up.

“A soul.”

“... what…?”

“A soul, in crystal form. Special spells or enchantments kill a pony, animal, forces the soul into a crystal. Perfect for special spells, or to gain power.”

“Power?”

“Hehehe. Each soul is like a Balefire bomb, power and energy just sitting inside each of us. Take that power for yourself.” He then lit up his horn, taking the soul crystal out of my magic. “And embrace power, memories, and more secrets.” He then broke it, a white mist escaping from it and then, he used his magic to force my mouth open as it flowed down my throat. I tried to get away, but his magic was stronger, and he only let go once it all went down.

“Gah!” I coughed, not believing my tongue. That tasted… good, really good… Like the purest white chocolate… and my brain was lurching at the fact it did. “What did…?”

“All that pony’s memories, knowledge, and secrets are now yours. As well as the power that comes with it.”

“What kind of sick power is that?”

“Hehehehe, cast a spell, try it yourself. I’ll be back, enjoy the rush. First times are always the best.”

I blinked, finding myself over the ash pile, as if I was sifting through it the whole time… Damn… did that… really happen. I sighed. “Of course it did…” I muttered, suddenly getting a head rush.

”Sis, I’m setting the locks again!”

“Just remember the passcode is 8949.”

The head rush passed. I looked to my side, seeing a house made from wood and metal. It was… so familiar. It was… this pony’s memories… his home. I walked over to it, seeing a number keypad on the door. “8949,” I entered, the keypad light turning green as the door opened by itself. I walked in, the pony’s soul… their memories of this house playing out before me… I felt all her emotions. Her name at the tip of my tongue… Comet Wrench. Memories from foalhood to adulthood were playing around me like ghosts.

Another head rush.

“Comet… it’s getting worse.”

“No! No, you have to make them better!”

“It’s reached their organs Comet, there’s nothing we can do.

“No… no!”

It passed, her emotions from that memory flooding into me. Her memories lead me upstairs. I was in front of what I assumed, no, what I know was her mother's room. I opened the door. Inside were skeletons, pony skeletons, one positioned upright, sitting, the other positioned sitting on a stool, paint brush in mouth, and a painting, showing a beautiful crimson coated mare with long, straight lapis colored hair, a mechanical front left leg, and two fillies. One with a green coat and crimson mane, and the other a filly with a crimson coat and green mane. At the bottom corner of the painting, “Love you mom, Wrench Brush and Comet Gear, your loving daughters.”

Another rush.

”So doc, what’s making my mom and sis sick?”

“Well… I’m sorry, but it’s not good.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Well, it’s a flesh eating bacteria, we have records from pre-war era that tell us it’s curable… but…”

“But?”

“It’s mutated, its DNA now drastically different than what it once was. I don’t know if we can synthesize a new cure, but we are going to try.”

My legs grew weak, tears filled my eyes. All her pain, loss, I felt it. Then… I imagined my brother and sister in their place.

I fell to the ground crying. Why. WHY!? What did he do to me?! What is he?!?! What am I…

“Silent?” Daisy's voice called out. I then heard hooves run over to me and I managed to see from the corner of my eye that she sat next to me, her hoof stroking my mane. “Waaat 'appened Whisper?”

I sniffled, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. Can I tell her...what would she think of me… Will she leave, call me a freak? “I… Can I tell you something?”

"What is it silent?" Daisy asked, stroking my back.

“That merchant… the one that took pre war money.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, we were talking… then everything got silent, right after he gave me those bullets. He showed me a book, he knew my whole name.... Said he knew what I was, said if that book had me, it would be better… He knew about my spell… Said it was a twin. His book flew up by itself, opened, and words, symbols, something came out and went through my eyes and engraved themselves into my brain. Then, earlier, I was looking through an ash pile. I found this crystal and he appeared again, out of thin air. Said it was the pony’s soul… he broke it and mist came out… he forced my mouth open as it went down… Daisy, I could remember that pony’s life, her memories in this house… Those skeletons are her mom and sister.”

Daisy took a deep breath. "Silent, oi don't nu much aboyt magic, or anythin' really. Oi lived a simple life, as simple as it can be, but whaen times were 'ard, oi 'ad me mom an' da, Azure, an' whaen mom an' da got away oi 'ad Azure. Nigh, you're in dis wi' us. nigh, oi'm not sure waaat ter tink aboyt dis, so oi'm gonna take yisser ward. Since oi 'enny seen any av dis 'appen, so scon are in me weck sayin' oi don't believe it, but scon are keepin' an open mind. if dis 'appens again, don't be afraid ter tell."

“... Alright. Thanks for listening,” I said, getting back up. She doesn’t fully believe me, but she is open to listening at least.

Azure came in as I was setting myself, looking freaked out and immediately wing talking to Daisy. "You saw wan av dem big things alive?!"

“Those dead things?” I asked.

“Yeah!”

“Let’s go see it then, guns ready.” Azure and Daisy were about to head out. I stopped for a moment, taking an empty clip from This Gun and loading it with those R.I.P Rounds. I loaded it into the gun, and a green energy emitted from it before settling. This Gun felt… different now. I placed it away and that feeling never left.

I ran to catch up with Azure and Daisy, who both were heading towards the largest building in town. It was labeled Town Hall, and there was a sign saying so made from welded pieces of metal. Inside, there was a large, alive version of whatever the corpses were outside. It stood an easy ten heads tall, and had a battle saddle with a very large weapon attached. I… don’t know what it is, but it looks like a version of a mini gun.

When we got close enough, it spotted us. “Hey! You ponies! Come here!” It shouted.

We all looked at eachother, and Daisy gave Azure and I a wink. “Yer cum over 'ere, Dum-Dum." Daisy said, the creature’s face seemed a mix of confused and worried as it walked over to us. “So, waaat ye Dum-Dum?” Daisy asked.

The creature, Dum-Dum as Daisy seems to have called it, face turned stern. “Hey… I take o-or-orders from leader! You don’t tell me things! Earth ponies to me… Me, my… Uh… Earth ponies behind me!”

“Nigh now Dum-Dum, answer me dis, ye an earth pony?” Daisy asked, Dum-Dum getting a confused look.

“I, uh… I Super Pony?”

“Chucker yer 'av wings or a 'orn?”

“Uh… No horn, or wings?”

“Den yer are an earth pony by definishun. So, as two earth ponies, canny we jist blather an' such?”

“Uh… Uh… Umm… Yes?”

“Gran', so yer said you're a Super Pony, waaat are ye at 'ere? an' who is dis master?” Daisy asked.

“Uh. Super Ponies made by leader. Take normal earth ponies… and… um… um, Oh! Take them to make more of us! Us or-ord-ordered to collect more earth ponies. All earth ponies were gathered, and non earth ponies were killed.”

“You killed all these ponies?!” I screamed.

“I, um…”

“Silent,” Daisy said, trotting up to me in a whisper. “Oi nu waaat dum-dum 'ere is brutal, but tink av it dis way, she wus a normal earth pony, jist loike me, an' nigh she's… this. plus, if de earth ponies av dis town are still alive, den she is de only wan who knows wha they are,” Daisy explained.

I took a deep breath. “You’re right… Sorry. I just…”

“'Tis gran' so.” Diasy said, giving me a pat before turning back to Dum-Dum “So, wha did al' yisser lads take de towns ponies ter? Also… why ye still 'ere?”

“Uh, others have camp set in… hole in ground. Can’t miss, has big over cover… thing… over it. I here cause… cause… was told to.”

“You were told to?” I ask. “Like, told to stay here and collect any that wander in here?”

“Uh… no. Just told stay here.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Uhh… Don’t know. Was night, then day, then night, then day again. Umm…”

“A whole day?” I ask, surprised that she stayed in this building for two whole days.

“I… guess.”

“Dum-Dum, answer me dis. Chucker yer want ter stay followin' de leader, or chucker yer want ter be yisser own pony?”

“Um… Uh…”

“Dum-Dum, oi promise, me lads an' oi 'ill be back, yer can tell us yisser answer den, gran' so?” Daisy said, giving Dum-Dum a water bottle and a pre-war apple pie.

With that, we took our leave. “So… We’re saving the ponies. Do you think the others will be that easy?”

“Naw, oi knew it wud be easy ter dayle wi' dum-dum, she wus wearin' a grenade minigun.”

“Seriously?” Daisy nodded. “Damn…”

“But, it wus still fully loaded an' she wasn't wearin' a saddle bags, didn't even 'av a single extra clip. Dat tells me she didn't even join in de reef.”

“How could you tell it was still fully loaded?”

“Dohs 'igh grade weapons 'av a counter on dem. oi saw it, they keep aboyt score rounds. it wus still at score exactly.” She explained.

“So… what does that mean?”

“We'll be findin' oyt.”

Dum-Dum was right. The camp the Super Ponies took the towns ponies to, the ones they didn’t kill, was a metro entrance. We knew this was the place because it had the overhang to block extreme sunlight and rain, and the metal gate that usually kept them closed, as Daisy said, was torn apart. No pony could do that. No normal one, anyway.

Entering, we found ourselves in some sort of make-shift underground fort. The main entrance was guarded by a Super Pony… They were slightly bigger than Dum-Dum, by two or three heads. They also had more… mass, to put it simply. “I got this,” I said, activating my invisibility spell and sneaking over to the guard. I pulled out my Zebra sword and sliced its throat. Its skin was thick, so the blade didn’t go in deep enough, but thankfully the electricity from the blade added to the strength, killing the Super Pony.

With that done, Azure and Daisy came over. After disbanding my spell, we were careful in sneaking further in. Aside from lockers, random metal boxes, and litter, there surprisingly wasn’t much. I was expecting to have run into more Super Ponies or something. It was getting creepy now. The tunnel’s lights were half dead, those that were on anyway, and the corners and such were all just… ominous.

Finally, we spotted an opening. Slowly sneaking towards it, what we saw was… horrifying. From the decor it must have once been a metro hub, turned raider hole turned cage room. The Super Ponies were using the metro carts as the cages. Activating my spell, I did a quick look around the edges of the upper level platform we were on. I saw all of the lower docking level. Six Super Ponies, each with Miniguns. Only two trains were made into cages, though. I went back and told Daisy and Azure what was going on.

“We nade ter be sneaky. Azure's got a silencer for 'er rifle, yer can sneak up ter de ones dat are oyt av sight from de others an' strike. I'll try an' clap if oi can lure dem ter area's wha they won't be seen so yer can dayle wi' dem. Or so Azure can snipe dem from 'ere.”

I nod, Azure readying her rifle as I activated my spell and snuck down the stairway to the loading platform. One of the Super Ponies was partly in a tunnel. I grinned, using that to my advantage as I snuck over to it. I passed it and once I was a fair ways in the tunnel, I grabbed some small rubble and tossed it against the wall. The Super Pony looked my way and walked over. Once it was where I threw the rubble, I thrusted my sword into the back of its skull. A small splatter of blood and the sickening scent of electrified flesh later, the Super Pony was nothing more than ash. To my surprise, there were some caps and a… a… a hoof puppet?

I lifted it out of the ash pile. It was the Stable Tech mascot, a blue coated pony with a blond mane and tail, Stable Tech logo cutie mark, and kinda creepy beady little black eyes. On the back was cloth stitched into the puppet. “My name is Alchemy Breach. Please take care of me.” It read. Must have belonged to a foal… I really hope this Super Pony wasn’t a foal before…

I gulped, putting the puppet away in my saddlebags and sneaking back to the main area. From where I could see, Azure already shot a Super Pony in the head if the headless Super Pony corpse behind one of the cage trams was anything to go by. That must have been a tricky shot.

Looking out, there were still some Super Ponies in a group. Crap, make a noise they all will come over. Think Silent, think!

I… I could try that shadow spell… But, I don’t know. The book made me know how it works, but I don’t know if I’ll be in control… Come on… Think! I looked at the Super Ponies, and as if Celestia herself answered my pleas, my answer was there. A mine was sticking out of a saddle bag one of them was wearing. I smiled wickedly, sneaking over and being careful. The Super Pony with the mine was on the other side of this group.

“So, what we tell Leader about dumb one?” one of the Super Ponies asked.

“Easy, she died in attack,” another replied.

“But, Leader ordered her not fight. He’ll know it’s lie.”

“You know how much she wants to prove her worth. We tell Leader she jumped into the battle when she was told not to, and one of those ro-bo things killed her with a laser weapon. Ash pile.” That made them all laugh. They left Dum-Dum there… on purpose?! Oh, they are so dead.

I snuck quickly to the one with the land mine. Thankfully, they were sitting down, so it was easy to take the mine out. A quick flick of the switch, and it was armed. I placed it back into the Super Pony’s saddle bags and I turned around… and walked into another Super Pony. “Huh?” The Super Pony said, looking down right at me. If not for the spell and the dark environment, it would have seen me instantly.

I made a quick prance to safety before the landmine blew, taking out the Super Pony who had it, and the one I bumped into. Gunfire told me Azure took off her silencer and opened fire on one of them. A high-pitched noise started ringing before another one of Azure’s shots fired, taking the final Super Pony down.

I deactivated my spell and ran to first cage, Daisy and Azure taking the other. “I thought we were goners,” one of the ponies inside said.

“Don’t worry,” I said, picking the lock. In a few swift movements, it clicked and fell off, letting the doors open. “You’re safe now.”

When we arrived back at Gearswork, Daisy announced that it was a Super Pony that told us where to find them. There was mixed responses, but they wanted her out. It was… understandable. When Dum-Dum saw Daisy, she said she didn’t want to follow the leader, but she had to follow someone. It’s how she is. Daisy said to head to Dirty River, and to tell the sheriff, Jane, that we sent her and Dum-Dum could follow Jane. Who wants to mess with a town where a guard is a grenade machine gun wielding Super Pony?

Happy and emotional, Dum-Dum hugged, and nearly broke, Daisy before leaving. Thankfully, my new Pipbuck had its own radio. I decided to see if I could give Jane or somepony in town a heads up. I went to the radio settings, and started broadcasting. “If anypony from Dirty River is listening, this is Silent Whisper, I need to talk with Jane, please respond.” There was some silence, before something came in.

”Holy hell, Silent? What you doing on the radio?” Jane’s voice came from the speaker.

“I’m calling to give you a heads up. We’re sending a friend, of sorts, to Dirty River. She’s… different, might scare the guards, so tell them is a giant earth pony wielding a grenade machine gun is in their sights, she’s friendly. Her name is, well, Daisy named her, so Dum-Dum… you’ll see why…”

There was silence. ”If you were any other pony, Silent, I’d tell you to fuck off and unleash all I had or something like that, but you’ve more than earned my trust, so I’ll tell the guards to keep an eye out for her. As for her name… really Daisy? If she’s sticking to it, I’m just calling her DD. Jane out.

I chuckled, turning the broadcast off and looked around. The surviving towns ponies were cleaning up, separating the dead from the Super Pony corpses. Azure and Daisy were helping. I gave a sigh and full smile, picking up the scraps of battle debris and empty ammo cases. This… is going to be the most relaxing thing I have ever done.

Chapter Seven: The Collector

Traveling back to Dirty River, I was… happy. Everything that just happened was just… stressful. We cleaned up the town and stayed overnight. We left at first light and headed towards Dirty River. Gearswork gave us some ammo, more than what we should have got, but they insisted, saying they mainly use magical energy weapons and bullets were rather useless to them. We each walked away from the town with over a hundred rounds per gun we had.

We had the radio playing, a Sapphire Shores song I had often heard in my Stable was on, as we enjoyed a rather simple and event free walk. It was nice. These simple moments in the Wasteland must help make life bearable out here. It sure was working for me. I looked up, seeing the sky an eternal dirty, sad grey… and remembered when that Balefire Egg shipment, and I saw the stars. My mind reworking the grey clouds into an ever ongoing version of those stars I saw. I used memories from books of how the moon looks to put one up in the sky…

I remembered one time, my brother made some star cuts in a large sheet of paper and a crescent moon shape in one side and turned off the lights in my room, shining a flashlight under the paper cut outs and made me a night sky. We pretended we were camping in the Everfree, my sister making animal noises to try and spook me while Bulb and I ate marshmallows… My first steal. Normally, before coming out here I no longer stole things, but when I was younger I managed to sneak into the kitchen and saw one of the cooks baking pastries, melting down marshmallows to use for some kinda icing. When they left to get more flour I snuck in and grabbed a whole bag of them.

As I thought about it I realized… I...don't know how long I've been out here exactly, I know it hasn't been that long, a week at most, but...this is the first time I’ve thought of them the whole time I’ve been here. I miss them.

Up ahead I saw Dirty River, and I was relieved to see my new home town, it was gonna be nice to sleep in that bed. As I entered I saw Dum Dum, or DD as Jane calls her, standing at the gate, armed with her grenade launcher. “Hi Silent,” shecalled out in greeting.

“Hey DD, how’s the town treating you?” I replied.

“They wereafraid at first, but they seem to like me now, especially thetiny ponies! They like to climb me like a...a...climbing thing.”

I giggled, “Glad to hear it.”

“Seem, oi knew ye'd chucker well 'ere Dum Dum,” Daisy said with a nod.

We headed inside and back to Bunker Suite, where we quickly headed to our rooms, I dropped my Saddle bags off to the sides and plopped myself on the bed once inside. The mattress was a tad lumpy, the sheets needed a wash...or five, and the pillow was dusty, but I didn’t care, I covered myself in the blanket, laid my head on the pillow, and took a nap.

I woke up, I didn’t even know how much later, and went to the bathroom where I saw my mane and part of my muzzle’s coat was in a mess in the dirty mirror. I was honestly surprised that it wasn’t cracked or broke, just really dusty, but my reflection was still visible enough. The bathroom was rather dusty itself, but, well stocked it seemed, TP lined a shelf in the corner, there was a locker with a mop, bucket, and cleaning supplies, each of the three toilets had a plunger, and behind a door was a shower like those of the Stable’s Gymnasium...public...

Fixing up my coat and mane, I used my blanket to dry myself. Gonna have to find towels and such later, and sooner or later decorate this place, I mean, I am gonna head back into the stable once this is all over...right?

That’s a question that should be easy to answer...but I’m not sure anymore. Back home...I’m a Nobody, even if I bring back a wagon filled with water talismans, I doubt many of them would actually change their opinions of me… but out here...ponies are calling me a hero, respecting me, trusting me… do I want to go back? There’s so much good I’m doing here while in there all I ever did was get into trouble, and was punished for it while those who harmed me were likely rewarded… I shook my head, trying to ignore those ugly thoughts.

I headed into the kitchen, I hadn’t actually been in there yet, but I hoped that there's some food somewhere. The dining are was...a lot like my Stable’s; several booths, a bar-like area near the door to the kitchen, and a jukebox. I turned it on, and immediately noticed something different, rather than playing a radio frequency...there was this large outfold of black disks, a metal claw grabbing one seemingly at random and it played...music, a song I had never heard before.

I can see beyond all my horizons, like a bird above clouds I see beyond all these horizons.

And I, just can’t stop, for fear I will fall.

The sun sets in all its vibrant colors, and the moon rises up, to carry us all, to sleep.

In all my life I’ve had just one desire, and that’s to see my life, reflect in my old, eyes.

In those memories I had hoped, a live filled with Friendship, love and adventure, but as the days go by and my eyes grow old, I find myself seeing a life left unsatisfied.

The pony singing was a young stallion… and I could relate to his words, despite almost dying many, many… many times out here… I don’t think I’d ever been this happy in my life.

I shook my head, trying to banish those thoughts again. Darn it… I just need to get something to eat. Entering the kitchen proper, it was different from the Stable, for that I was grateful, while it was still large, meant for many cooks, it also had...wait, what’s this? In the farmost corner, there was some kinda...metallic octopus, three eyes, and a...buzzsaw on the end of one of them… There was a small terminal on the counter next to it, curious, I turned it on.

Stable Tech Inc.

Systems Starting up….

…
…
…
…

System Booted.

Welcome User…

*******************************************

Recipes
Mr. “Handy” [Cookie]
Intercom
[Private Message]

Shrugging, I clicked the second option.

Mr. Handy Control Options.

*******************************************

Turn On/Off
Primary Operations
Secondary Operations
Friendly Mode On/Off
Personality Files

I clicked the On/Off, and quickly jumped back, as the robot buzzed to life, steam pouring from it as it activated.

“My, my, what a glorious nap. Feels like I slept through the Mega Spells,” the robot said, turning to look at me. “Ah, and who might you be miss?”

“Uhhh… Silent Whisper…” I replied, slightly dumbfounded.

“Ah, Miss Whisper, are you the resident of this fine bunker? My prior resident facial records seems to have been wiped out, so, please inform me if you are, and if you are not, I will be forced to remove you from the premises. If you are hostile, then you are no longer presumed a resident, and will be removed or terminated, ... so please stay calm and don't be rash now."

"Um, yes, I'm the resident of this bunker now," I replied nervously.

"Excellent! Facial records updated. So, what can I do for you today, Miss Whisper?"

“Um...Can you make some food? Oh, and yes, I am a resident of this bunker.”

“Certainly Ma’am. What would you like to consume?”

“Uh...surprise me?”

“Alright then, please wait in the dining area ‘til your meal is finished.”

I nodded, walking out of the kitchen and into the dinning area. Waiting for my food I decided to try out those games Raza’s Pipbuck had on them.

000000

“I have arrived M’am.” I looked up, seeing the robot fly over, “Pardon me, but the Bunker has a lack of proper sustenance, so, I simply made do with some sugar cookies.” He placed a tray of...rather delicious looking cookies before me.

“T-thank you...umm. I never got you name.”

“Oh my world, where are my manners, you can call me Boltsworth, Ma'am.”

“Boltsworth, I like it, and thank you. I’ll see about getting the kitchen stocked up some more,” I say taking a bite of the cookie… It was fluffy, sweet, chewy, and there was a hint of vanilla that left a pleasant aftertaste as I chewed. To put it simply, there is good in this hellish wasteland. Darn, now I wish I had milk…

After a few more cookies I stretched, feeling a bit better as I decided to take a walk through town, but first I went back to my room and decorated a bit. On a dusty shelf I placed Dragon’s Breath with a few rounds for it on the top, and next to it, my old Pipbuck. Seeing it made me feel sad for a moment before I shook it off, looking at the one Raza gave me. So much work and tinkering...something that like me, she had since she was a filly… and she gave it to me. “When I get back to the Stable, things will change… I won’t be some pushover anymore. Those Powder Snakes wanna beat me up, I think I’ll give them some payback.”

Giggling at a revenge fantasy of myself wedgieing them with their own tails, I was off, my saddle bag only keeping that painting I found, I want to find a frame for it. As I was heading upstairs from my bunker house I overheard Key talking with somepony, as I entered the lobby I saw her talking to an earth pony mare, her coat was a dark shade of green and her main and tail was a bright orange. “Oh, there she is.” Key said, the mare turning to look at me with a smile.

I felt a tad nervous as she trotted up to me. “Greetings, I am Treasure Trove, I’m a messenger, scavenger, and relic hunter,” she introduced herself..

“Relic hunter?” I asked.

“Many a pre-war artifacts, from~~,~~ before or WAY before still rest in the rubble of the ruins of the old world. Relic hunters like me search for them, it’s risky business, but a highly profitable one.”

“Oh...so why are you looking for me?”

“A client of mine got word of a certain filly obtaining a rare piece of Lisa Mona’s work.”

“Oh, yeah. What about it?”

“My client, Paint Stroke, has spent her life and poured thousands of caps into re-creating and restoring pre-war art from the greats, but a Lisa Mona is a work I’ve seen her nearly go mad trying, and failing to recreate, so, she had me go find an original. If you are interested, and I know you must be, she is willing to pay top cap for the one in your possession.”

“Where is she?”

“An old home, passed down from her family through the generations, before and after the war. I can put it’s location in your Pipbuck.”

I handed over the leg my Pipbuck was on as the mare entered the coordinates into it. When she finished, the new location I had was called “The House of Paint.” I nodded, putting my leg down. “I’ll try and stop by.”

“Thank you, I’ll return to Paint to tell her to expect you,” with that, Treasure Trove trotted out.

Top cap huh? Wonder how much that’s considered out here? Shrugging, I headed out and off towards town. I had a little over three hundred caps with me, and I wanted to buy food stuff to stock that kitchen a bit, and maybe some more decorative items.

It was easy to find food items, I spent fifty caps on a small wagon to carry them with and another seventy caps on the food. Most of it was pre-war boxed and canned foods, but I also got a few fresh apples, and Brahmin milk… at least I hoped it was Brahmin milk, I hadn’t seen any in town like...at all… Anyway, I headed to some other shops next, buying some pre-war books for reading, and some furniture items. I spent the rest of my caps, save for about twenty, and I knew more would be spent in the future, but it would be worth it.

With that done I headed back, the ponies I bought furniture from said it would be there in a bit, and it was, right in the lobby. I managed to pull them one at a time down with me. It wasn’t much, just a simple couch, night stand, and a dresser. The couch was the hardest. I wish my magic was stronger…

I brought them down and heaved. That’s enough...for now… I sighed, heading to the kitchen and dropping off the food stuff. As I took a rest I looked at my saddle bags… Well, whatever she’ll pay me for it, it will help me decorate this place up better. Plus, she might do it better justice than I ever could.

“Hey Azure, Daisy!” I called out, looking at Paint Stroke’s location on my Pipbuck, it wasn’t too terribly far away, a half days trott easy. The two soon came out of… wherever they were, “Wanna head on out?”

“Wha ter silent?” Daisy asked.

“Just a place half a days trot from here. Some pony wants to buy a painting I found.”

“Well den, sittin' raun 'ere wus gettin' borin'. Lead de way den.” Daisy said, Azure nodding.

“Great, I’m just gonna grab my sawed off from my room real quick.” I said, running back to my room and grabbing it and the ammo I put there for decoration and put it in my saddle bags. With that done I headed back to my friends and we headed off.

As we left Dirty River I felt...happy. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt happy. I was just...happy. I trotted along with my friends, a land of unforgiving misfortune all around us...and I was happy.

The sun was still fairly high in the sky, I thought. The cloud layer blocking it made it hard to tell, but I was certain it was barely passed midday. I didn’t wanna check my Pipbuck, I was just looking at the sky.

Time seemed to pass by quickly as the sun began to set and I kept track of where we were going. According to my Pipbuck’s map, we just had to keep to this pre-war roadway then turn into a long empty opening. Up the road I saw a mailbox just standing there all alone, and next to it was a long, half buried cobblestone path. Must be the place. I looked around when we started on the path and in the distance I saw what looked like a factory building.

It was five minutes before I could make out any details, it was a house...no, it was a mansion! Easy four stories, wood all around, well kept. As we got closer we saw that it had a high fence all around, and there were many armed ponies patrolling. They weren’t too heavily armored, just a lighter version of what the Stables security had on, but their weapons were pretty strong looking. Most had Shotguns, while others had sniper rifles.

When we arrived at the gate, a guard stopped us, "Why are you three here?" he demanded.

“We were told to come here, about selling a painting I have,” I answered.

“Oh, You’re the mare we were told about. As a safety precaution I’m gonna have to ask you all to place your weapons into these lockers,” the guard said, opening the gate and leading us into a shed where there were several large lockers and keys on small hooks. “Pick a locker, and grab the key with the matching number, lose the key, it’s twenty caps to crack it open to get your stuff back.”

I picked locker number three, Daisy picked number eight and Azure picked number five. We placed out stuff in them and I grabbed the matching keys. With that done we were lead into the mansion, a guard bringing us through what seemed like endless hallways of art, paintings mainly, and some carvings. It was so...amazing. Finally we arrived at a door that looked like some pony had thrown all sorts of paint at it. “Paint Stroke is in there, it’s her room and workshop. I’d stay behind the glass when she gets her inspiration.” The guard opened the door and we walked inside.

We were in a large room, part of it, contained within a glass dome of sorts, had a bed, nightstand, desk with pencils and blank paper scattered about. There was a simple door in it leading to the otherside, where a white mare with a rainbow mane and soaked paint covered coat was working on a painting. She was a unicorn, and in her magic she held ten different brushes and traced them across the canvas with expert skill, the random brush strokes soon became a mare, sitting on a red sofa. The mare had a pink coat, a blue mane, and wore a tight fitting black dress that told the world of her perfect figure.

The mare painting it, Paint Stroke likely, placed her tools down and looked at the painting… her muzzle suddenly twisted with anger, and she drove her horn into the canvas, making a large hole in it before pulling out a small tank, pouring out a small bit of some fluid on it before setting a mach to it.

“Nigh why is she doin' dat?! dat paintin' wus bonny!” Daisy said, Azure nodding and looking confused.

I agreed, it had been beautiful, and she just burned it. She pulled out another canvas from an open door behind her on the other side of the dome. She levitated up her brushes again, and began painting, the same painting it seemed. She got half way before dropping her tools and proceed to beat the painting with her bare hooves.

“She's aff yisser nut,” Daisy said, Paint Stroke now walking back into the same door behind her and walking out with a minigun, taking aim and shooting the painting into a ripped nonexistence.

“That’s just not right…” I said, certain that Daisy was right, and this Paint Stroke mare was a little nuts.

Once she stopped firing she started taking some calming breaths and then noticed us inside the dome. She put down her minigun and walked over to the door built into the dome, opening it and closing it behind her. “Heh, sorry you had to see that. You must be Silent Whisper, correct?” she asked, her voice was smooth and held a hint of a southern accent.

“Uh, yeah. I’m Silent Whisper,” I spoke up.

“Grand, please, tell me you have the Lisa Mona painting?” she said, bumbing her nose into mine with her eyes wide in anticipation and a huge smile.

I gulped, levitating it out of my saddlebags. She immediately took it in her own magic, but then, she screamed, a loud, ear bleeding scream that even a def pony could hear, “You kept it rolled up!?!?!?!?!?!” She yelled, unrolling it and seeing it was still in perfect condition. “Phew. Still perfect,” she said with relief, stroking it with her hoof, “A real Lisa Mona… All mine…”

“What?!” I yelled out, a loud ringing in my ears. I shook my head, some of my hearing back but the ringing was still there, “So...you good?”

“Yes. Very,” she said, placing the painting down on the desk, “Lisa Mona has been my inspiration, my muse, my...heh, crush, since I was a filly. Having one of her paintings finally in my possession...it’s a dream come true,” she took a deep breathe before turning around to face me. “So! I suppose there is the matter of your pay for this item.”

“Well, what’s good to you?” I asked, knowing the painting must be worth something, but not wanting to put a number to it.

“What will you take for it dear filly?” she countered.

“Um...Is five hundred caps too much?”

Paint Stroke looked at me...then laughed, “Oh, oh sweetie please, five hundred caps would be a steal, and I am an honest mare. A thousand caps.”

“A thousand?!”

“Hm, you’re right, still too small. Ten thousand it is.”

“Ten...ten...ten…” I said, the number trying to register in my head, “How...how can you afford that?!”

“Darling, there are few and far between fat cat ponies in the world today, and fewer and far between ponies who can supply them with the pre-war standard luxuries they crave. Come, I must show you my family!” she said, picking me, Daisy, Azure, and the painting up in her magic and bringing us along with her… Why can’t I lift this much!?

She walked to the end of the hall and placed us down, opening a door with lots of vases, all metal and sealed, and behind each was a painting. “Behold, my family exactly a one hundred years after the great war,” Paint Stroke declared.

“...Urns...these are your ancestors ashes?” I asked.

“Yes, for generations my family has crafted, restored, and collected the finest of arts from all around the world. It’s a family hobby.”

I looked around, seeing near the end of the urns, but not even halfway to the end of the hallway, a painting of what looked like a lush, green park, mares and foals playing and a family in the background having a picnic. The painter was- “Hey, that’s a Lisa Mona.” I said, pointing at it.

“Why yes, my great grandfather acquired it, said it was the find of his lifetime, and it really was. One of the guards working for him at the time found it in a five caps bin over in the ghoul city in Canterlot. Bought it and grandpappy payed him handsomely for it.”

“So, you do have some?”

“Well, yes, but it’s tradition that, after the war, each generation finds a pre-war painting worth saving, preserving, collecting. I have three others in total, but this...is mine.” She said, walking up to an urnless stand and grabbing the blank picture frame hanging behind it, the painting sliding into the frame with ease as she placed into its proper place. “I finally have that grand item. Now I can work on having foals.”

“Eheh...yeah… You’ll be… a one of a kind mom.”

“Daw, thank you sweetie. Maybe one of my kids when they grow up can find Lisa Mona’s final piece.”

Final Piece? “Her final Piece?” I asked.

“Hm. Oh yes. The Ministry of Image confiscated it not long before the bombs fell. Rumours have it, it’s something that went against many laws, so Lisa Mona herself and all her equipment, along with the painting were being held until the proper officials would come to destroy it and put her in prison for life. Oh, to have something that caused that much trouble for her, heck, to have her tools, even her corpse would be amazing!”

Eheh… “Well...I take it it’s heavily guarded?”

“Oh yes, my mother sent some guards to retrieve it, they never came back.”

“Well...maybe we can retrive it?”

“Wait, you’d try?”

“I’ll succeed too,” I boasted ...where did that come from?

“Oh, if you bring me that painting, I’ll, I’ll… five hundred thousand caps! Her tools, fifty thousand, her corpse… fifty thousand.”

“Wow, wow, wow… That’s...a lot… we can’t even carry that much money.”

“So? I can have it all in bags on a waggon! Anything if you get me all three of those things! I’ll give you my dad’s masterpieces!”

“His what?”

“Oh, these.” She said, walking over to an urn that hand a small locker at the foot of it, she opened it, and pulled out two big, scary looking pistols, one black, one white. “Dad had these when he came here and met my mom, said they were called Daybreaker,” she shook the white gun, “And Nightmare Moon,” she shook the black one. “They look nice, and always called them his masterpieces.”

“What do they fire, boulders?!”

“Actually, Dad said they are special, they only shoot evil, and never fail you. I’ve rarely left this house and whenever I try and fire them it’s like shooting an empty gun. Oddest part is that there is no way to load them. I think they might be magic powered but, I’m no expert in that.”

“So...for six hundred thousand caps, and two strange, big pistols all we have to do is get you that painting, her tools, and if we find it, her corpse?”

“Yes. All the yes,” Paint Stroke nodded. “Not including the ten thousand I’m paying you for this painting you got me just now.”

“Oh. So, where is this Ministry of Image hub?”

“Downtown Baltimare, it’s not the biggest hub, but that place is heavily irradiated since a Megaspell went off some ways from there, there’s a lot of ghouls out there too.”

“Oh, well, if you pay me now for the painting of Princess Luna, I can use that to buy supplies against the radiation as a precaution.”

“Good idea, I’ll go get the caps and send word to the head guard here to allow you access to their armory for supplies. In the meantime you three head back to my workshop till I come back with the caps,” Paint Stoke said. We nodded and headed back to her workshop, where we just sat around and relaxed for a while until she came back. She arrived with two ammunition boxes strapped and modified to be armored saddle bags on her, “Here we are, all ten thousand caps worth. Every ten caps are tied together with some tape.”

“Mind if oi ask, wha chucker yer store dat many caps?” Daisy asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Simple, my vault.”

“Vault barl av shoite a safe or basement or...?”

“Well, more of a mini Stable. My family from before the war commissioned one just for them. Sadly only my oh-so-many greats grandfather and mother and their foals made it in there, along with some lucky servants. They were in there for about a generation or so before they came out. By then Caps and such were already established as primary currency, but art was yet to be valued again until another two generations later. So, we used the mini Stable’s water talisman to clean out and bottle water and made a living off of that until art became of value again.”

“Wait, so you have a water talisman!?” I asked, shocked that one might be here.

“Sadly, not anymore, darn thing broke about twenty years ago. You don’t keep a constant checking on that thing and they just break on you for the dumbest of reasons.”

“Oh…” I said, saddened on feeling so close to my objective and yet so far now… again…

“Well, best head on off the the armory, fifth door down the hall to the left, head chief Hotty will be waiting~” She finished her sentence almost sing songy.

“You like your head guard?”

“I should, married his fine ass seven years ago. Told him I got the Lisa Mona painting, and he said ‘so that means foals now?’ I cracked up laughing and said yeah, just wait for you girls to leave, unless you are into that kind of stuff~”

I blushed cherry red, “I, Uh, think I speak for all of us when I say no thanks….” I said, the three of us heading out and I took a breathing form...that.

Shaking the last of Paint Stroke’s...offer...off, we headed to the armory. Thankfully it’s door was also heavily armored, for obvious reasons. Once inside were were greeted by a rather tall stallion, navy blue coat and a long black mane and tail. He was covered in combat armor and had a battle saddle with a minigun on his right side and a large crate to feel ammo into it on the other, “Good evening ladies, wife gave the word, so here ya are,” he said, stepping aside as we saw… HOLY SWEET CELESTIA’S! Where there wasn’t boxes or ammo storage bins, there were weapons of all kinda on racks, stands, a freaking SHOTGUN UMBRELLA STAND, and I don’t even know what else was there. “Paint said take whatever ammo you can carry, but if your want some repairs or a gun, talk with me about that,” he offered as we all nodded and looked for the ammo types for our respective guns.

Daisy got seven extra full magazines for her rifle, filled up the ones she had and grabbed spare ammo from the boxes, ten full ammo boxes, each box had three mags worth of ammo, as well as ten more shots for her grenade launcher... she was set. Azure got lots of ammo for her gun, they had these special clips that she loaded the bullets onto. Sadly they didn’t have any other kinds of her special clips, but she did get four extra ones for her SMG. It took rather small bullets but her clips held lots of them so I figure if it’s not too strong the amount of bullets hitting you must do the work for you.

I grabbed lots of spare ammo for that gun, filling up it’s odd clips again and keeping the spars in their respective boxes, as well as some extra boxes of ammo for Dragon’s Breath. I began to look around at the other guns. There were a lot, but one was a large sniper rifle, with a scope that could be a telescope, barrel almost a pony and a half long, and mags longer than my horn! It was adorned with glowing gems and something square and electronic on the side of it. It was closed and I couldn’t make it out. “Like it?” Paint’s husband came over, “It’s called The Lady Heartbreaker. .50 caliber anti material rifle adorned with gems to make the recoil feel like a regular .308 sniper rifle, adjustable scope that can also change to have Night Vision, accurate up to ten miles, and the piece de resistance, a Heartbeat Sensor.”

“Heartbeat...sensor?” I asked.

“Experimental mix of the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. Both came together to create some experimental tech to better track enemies in the trenches so soldiers didn’t go in blind. It’s magic that displays anything foal size and bigger on it’s screen by detecting its heartbeat. The tech then compares the heartbeat patterns and can tell you amazing things like age, gender, even race.”

“Wow...is it for sale?”

“Hm?” He said, looking at me, “Huh...well no one here uses it, scares them to heck and back thinking about firing that thing. Plus it’s been here since Paint was a foal… tell you what, you make it back here with the things Paint wants, I’ll sell it to you for a mesly ten caps.”

“Ten caps...why?”

“That’s if you come back, and I got a good feeling you will. And for ten caps because it’s just been sitting there for years, and if she could talk she’d be begging to be fired proper. Course this free ammo thing will be for now and such so ammo for her and then on in the future you’ll have to buy.”

“That’s fair,” I nod in agreement, “Alright then, so I’ll be back as soon as possible with Lisa Mona’s final painting and possibly her other belongings.”

“Til then little filly,” he said, giving me a nod as Daisy, Azure and I all headed out.

I'm sure Azure will love it, I think to myself happily as we headed out. Once we left Paint Strokes manner I began to wonder who would have a radiation suit… Maybe somepony back in Dirty River will? Or at least somepony should know…

“ey, yer 'ear dat?” Daisy asked as I looked up. I did hear something... something framilier...a creepy music box…

Chapter Eight: The Artist

I saw Azure squint and so did I, down the road some was… the merchant… and his demonic book. I wanted to run away, but It felt like he got closer while barely moving. I wanted to run, but my body wouldn't move.

Finally, to my fears, he walked up to us, “Hello again fillies. Need anything?” he asked casually.

“Got anymore av dat booze?” Daisy inquired.

“Ah, sadly not at the moment. Today I carry medical equipment, not munitions or confections,” he replied.

“like... radiation supplies?” I spoke up, trying to keep my cool.

“Why yes my lady, I am stocked up nicely on rad-x and rad-away. If you have the gold, I’ll sell them to you.”

“We don't have anymore bits, but,” I went up to him, close so Daisy couldn't hear. “If I willingly accept a... lesson from that book, can you spare anything?”

“Oh, now that's an interesting offer. Hehehehehehehe, I suppose I can part with half my radiation meds for that, as well as a location you can find some of them suits…”

Damn, it's like… he… did he know? “Alright, deal.”

He smiled as the world began to get… darker, “Good on you lass,” he said, that book flying out of his saddlebag and opening, it's pages flipping on their own as strange symbols moved across them. Then, like before, the words flew out from the pages, through my eyes, and into my head.

Crimson Sweetness

Consuming the blood of the dead or living with dark Mana flowing through your teeth will give you their memories, strength, recharge your mana, as well as heal any and all ailments to you.

Sanguis-Comedet-Anima mea

I lurched, backing away once the spellbook let me go. “That, that's sick!”

“Hehehehe, the dark arts are often the most sickly and gruesome, but they hold the strongest outcomes for minimal effort,” he observed, patting the book, “Remember lass, these spells will make life out in these lands much easier for you to survive in this new world we live in.” The world shifted back to it’s normal colors, “And I’ll accept payment upon our next meeting lasses,” he suddenly said. I looked down and a small saddle bag packed with likely the radiation meds were in.

“T'anks for lettin' us 'av dis on loan,” said Daisy, as she picked up the saddle bag.

“Uh, yeah… thanks,” I said, playing along. How does he do that? Or...is it all that book of his?

“Well, I must be on my way. If you finish your task before the week’s end I’ll be in Deadwater,” he said, walking off.

Deadwater? Where’s that?

As if it read my thoughts, my Pipbuck beeped, and looking at it a new location was on it, some miles down the river Dirty River sat beside. The area on the map was… it looked morbid… not surprisingly, “Well, come on girls, let’s make a quick stop to Dirty River and find those suits.”

“We lucked out at Raga’s,” I sighed with relief. All the stores were either out or waiting for a resupply, but Raga, now back in touch with her old Vault town, came back to her shop with some fresh tech supplies, including some special radiation suits. They kept twice as much radiation out, but weigh about twice as much as a standard one too.

We all put them on over out normal armor, and headed towards the last known location of Lisa Mona from before the bombs fell. The building was easy enough to spot, three, no, four stories high, and surrounded by the corpses of ponies, ghouls and mutated wasteland critters. Atop the roof was three large automated turrets, and a rusty, beat of securitron pony out front, mindlessly patrolling around in circles.

"Okay, so what's our plan Silent?" Daisy asked. Sadly, there were no pegasus style radiation outfits, so Asure had to keep her wings folded into the suits. Needless to say, she was uncomfortable.

“The automated security and securitron pony are the main obstacles right now. I can only cloak myself with my invisibility spell, so I’m thinking if Azure can snipe the turrets, Daisy can fire grenades at the robot, and with their fire power deterred, I can sneak in and disable it from the inside as fast as possible. If I have to, I’ll destroy the generator.”

“Azure can take dem oyt before they can even lock on, an' a few shorts from me launcher 'ill a go dat robot dare into scrap parts,” Dasy replied confidently as Azure nodded.

“Great, well, good luck. If I’m not out in an hour with the all clear signal, its your choice to look for me,” I said, activating my spell and sneaking towards the building, staying close to the side as Azure started firing. Three fast shots and one of the auto turrets exploded. The remaining turrets turned to face her and Daisy from their cover spot as the robot started rolling towards them. I opened the door as an explosion ran in the background. If if the securiton was still walking it wouldn’t be for much longer.

Entering the building, I saw a lobby adorned with pre-war propaganda, dusty chairs, and a few skeletons here and there. It wasn’t as fortified as I expected, but then again, it was only a lobby, any security will be on higher floors or hidden. Sneaking over to the receptionist desk, I saw the terminal was still in working order and but sadly, there was no means of disabling the security from here, ~~but~~ there were a few Emails from the security and Maintenance, however.

From: Security Chief Monkey Pearl.

Silver, fixed up the retina scanner on the security room entrance to recognize you now. It’s an older model, sadly, so even a good picture of a registered retina will trick it to allow entry, but it’s all we could afford. Damn Ministry, they can afford to advertise anypony with the bits all across Equestria, yet to give an upgrade to their security team they only give out small grants. Well, anyway, enjoy the freedom to see your husband whenever you want, you owe me.

Huh, so if I can find a picture of this Silver mare, I could enter the security office? Must be one around here somewhere.

From: Maintenance Staff Member Knife Wrench

Silver Tree, there is an issue with the retina scanner I feel I should bring up. These shitty early models reset whenever there is a power issue. It will be blank if the power goes out, luckily, there is a work around I learned about when reading up on this model in particular.

If the power goes out it’s blank profile can be hacked with a pipbuck. Since those are for Stables only, sadly, any terminal will also do, but, they can also read Keycards. Just hold up the Keycard to the retina scanner til the ‘eye’ turns blue. Once it’s blue, it means it’s registered the Keycard’s ID chip and the pony who it’s linked to, this means it will now scan their retina to load their profile into it’s systems. To avoid this, we rigged the retina scanner and the security office door to its own generator. Like the main building’s one, it’s in the basement. We had to hook it up to the wall since the generator room is tiny as all hell. Both are linked to the same terminal, that was my own doing.

And I’m rambling on a message… again. Well, see ya at the family reunion this tuesday sis. Bring that Potato salad!

Hm, well now, good to know.

I searched around the desk, not finding any photos or a Keycard. I looked at the doorways, finding one was locked, Maintenance, written across it. Crap, the one I need to get to quickly, and it’s got a Keycard reader, no keyholes at all to pick. I headed to the other doorway, seeing it was a stairway up. It was a short climb, finding myself on the second floor… Jail cells… Lisa Mona!

I quickly began searching, looking for a safe or something and… why was there a jail cell glowing?

The last cell at the end of the room glowed with an unnatural green aura. Slowly I walked up to it, and peered into it from around a corner, inside the cell was a… pony, their body looked rotted and… like a glowing version of Raga! She was laying on the bed, a barred window with the glass smashed wide open, but the bars stayed. “What the?” I whispered, causing the glowing ghoul to suddenly spring to its hooves.

“Is, is someone there?!” they asked, their voice was raspy, like Raga’s, but… also soothing and… calming, “Oh please, if there is somepony there, don’t run…. please.”

She sounded so… happy and sad at the same time. Slowly, I came out in front of the jail cell, “H-hello. Sorry, I, uh… I’ve never seen a ghoul that… glows before ...." I said nervously.

“Heh, yeah, I think it’s all the radiation in the area, kept me alive all these years I think, been eating mushrooms that grow out of the toilet even before I became this… ghoul that you call and thankfully the water still runs. My, another pony… Haven’t seen one in forever.”

“Before… have… have you been here since the megaspells?”

“Yes. I was arrested and detained here until an envoy was to take me to a proper prison. Sadly, the Megaspells fell not four hours later. The windows broke from the force, and I expected to die like the others around me, but, surprisingly, I awoke some time later, my fur falling off and my skin rotting to a degree. Not sure how long ago it was but at some point I started to glow green. Was a real pain to sleep at night when I’m my own always on night light, but I got used to it.”

“Heh, wow. That’s… gotta suck. Oh, um… I’m Silent Whisper.”

“Pleasure Silent, I am Lisa Mona.”

… WHAT?!?!?!?!??! “The Lisa Mona!?”

“Oh my. My name is still known?” she asked, giggling a bit. “And here I figured there’d be no pony left alive to know of me.”

“I… I grew up in a Stable, I saw some of your works in art books and photographs, I even found one of your works in a hotel called Big Horn, a painting of Princess Luna.”

“Ah yes, I remember painting it. I wanted to best capture the returned Princesses’ image to that of one of beauty, not of the monster she was for a thousand years. So, I shifted my lifestyle, sleeping through the day and exploring her night. It wasn’t til the first summer sun celebration after her return that I saw her in person. I knew then just how I was to capture her image, and I began painting that very day, and kept painting though the next three nights. To my shock she stopped my my studio and asked to view it.”

“You met one of the Princesses?!” I asked in amazement.

“Oh I knew Princess Celestia already, her own bedroom has some of my earlyworks. But this was the first time I ever met Luna, and when she looked at my painting of her, she cried. She cried tears of joy the likes of which Celestia said she had never seen her sister do before. Luna became a muse to me for a long time, and I kept lots of paintings of her I made throughout the years.”

“Wow… I’m not gonna lie, I came here expecting to see piles of bones and your supplies in a safe or something,” I said, chuckling a bit.

“Is that why you’re here?” Lisa asked.

“I was hired by a mare named Paint Stroke who is completely obsessed with art, especially art from you.”

“And so hired you to look for my bones and art supplies to keep? Hehe, so their are still crazed fans out there then. Good to know.”

“Yeah, her family has this tradition about finding one of your paintings at some point in their life,” I chuckled more, “In fact the main reason was to bring back your last painting… you and your supplies were bonuses.”

“Wow, imagine how she’ll reward you if you bring her me.”

“She’ll scream. Loudly. Then likely faint,” I chuckled, “So… how do I get you out of here?”

“The only way is with either the master security Keycard, held by the coroner securitron pony, or in the security office you can shut down all the jail cell locks from their terminal.”

“Coroner securitron pony?”

“Yes, ponies who didn’t agree with the values of the Ministers often killed themselves in the cells before they were sent to a proper jail where they’d wish they were dead. So, most ministry hubs that held these so called ‘political terrorists’ had a crematory built into their basements, and a robo coroner would collect and clean the bodies from the cells and send them for cremation.”

“That’s despicable.”

“That was life during the war. I saw it once, it’s just a simple protectron pony. If you got a high caliber weapon like a shotgun or a .44 it will make quick work of the thing at point blank.”

“Won’t that damage the Keycard?”

“Ha, it takes an emp to damage those things, almost as sturdy as a Pipbuck.”

“Alright, I’ll be back,” I promised with a nod. Quickly backtracking to the lobby, I found the basement entrance, it was a simple lock to pick and once down I cast my spell and snuck in. I saw the robot there next to a pony, no, a headless rotten pony corpse with some gun and a saddle bag next to it. I pulled out Dragon’s Breath and went right behind it. I fired, and the robot’s head went up in scrap metal and flames… that began mentling... oh… SHIT!! I dropped the spell and quickly tried searching for the Keycard, only to back away, the metal was already glowing a hot red and beginning to deform… crap, if it’s not melted, it’s stuck in there…

I sat back and leaned against the wall, “Damn it… if I had used This Gun rather than Dragon’s Breath I could have salvaged the Keycard…” I whimpered. Eventually, I looked over at the skeleton’s saddle bags. Curious, I opened them… There was a photo of a mare in it, and a holotape.

I put it in my pipbuck to play it.

Click.

Whoever finds this, use it to enter the security room and disable everything… The Megaspells did this, the radiation, everyone is dead. My boss, my friends, my wife… All dead, and I… I’m some kind of monster now. Take this photo of my wife, her name was Silver Tree. The Retina scanner is faulty, a good headshot of a registered pony and it will open up, just hold their eye up to the scanner. Assuming the power didn’t go out from when you find this until now, it should work.

click.

I looked back at the headless rotting corpse… a dead ghoul… do they even rot? Maybe not, even in death, so long as there is radiation, they don’t rot. I took the photo. She was beautiful, bright silver mane, deep light blue eyes, and a light grey coat. She was… a pegasus? I looked over at the pony corpse next to me. No wings, he was either a unicorn or an earth pony. Pre-war. DIfferent times. As I put the photo in my saddle bags, I looked over at the wall, built into it was a furnace… With some levitation aid and hoof work, I put his body onto the incineration table. He deserves to be cremated. It was as simple as pressing the red button on the wall, the table moved itself inside, the door slammed shut, and the fired blazed, burning the long dead pony’s body to ash.

It didn’t take long, and soon from a small chute next to it, there popped a small urn. Sealed. I placed it next to the photo of his wife in my saddle bags. With a sigh, I left, taking his revolver, it was dirty, a tad rusty, but looked like it would fire. I dusted it off a bit and noticed the barrel had an engraving on it:

“From Silver Tree to my love Magic Zap. May your magic save you even without your horn.”

Sweet… and confusing? I examined the barrel...then the bite gard… It felt like… Bone… it’s made from his horn… how did he lose it? Magic Zap… I went back to the lobby and found a marker, and wrote his name on his urn and Silver Trees on the photo. Looks like I’m paying that graveyard pony a visit after all. I looked at the caliber size of his revolver… it won’t open… too rusted? No, there’s no release button? The heck? I lifted it up with my magic to try and open it and… what the?

The munition barrel began glowing and spinning… rapidly. “Uhhh…” I said, a bit nervous as I used my magic and pulled the trigger.

Pzzet!

A green bolt shot out of it and hit the wall, the bricks exploding upon impact… How and why? Just… how and why… Maybe Daisy or some pony can see what’s up with this, likely Raga. I placed the gun into my saddle bag and headed off. The security office door was just down the hall from the crematory. I levitated out the picture and held it up to the red bulb that I presumed was the retinal scanner, there was a long pause before it beeped, turned green and the door opened… Then, a ghoul charged me, trying to bite at my face! It’s eyes were white and hollow… it’s feral! Quickly, I pulled out This Gun, put it under its jaw, and fired. The ghoul went limp and fell on me. I quickly pushed it off and whipped its blood from the suits visor. I saw it’s clothes, a jumpsuit, the name Knife Wrench sewed into the suit… Silver Tree’s brother… I shifted my saddlebags. This war ended way more than just the old world…

“Free?” A raspy voice spoke from the room making me jump as I instinctively point my gun towards it. Out from the dark came an old ghoul mare… with wings, “It… finally opened?”

“... Silver Tree?” I asked.

“Huh, who’s there, who are you, how do you know my name?” she asked, trying to walk around to find me… Is she… blind?

“My name is Silent Whisper, I came here for some stuff of Lisa Mona’s… but it seems I stumbled upon her as well, and, some history about this place.”

“Lisa… right, the painter. I remember them bringing her in, she was in hoof cuffs and with my husband as her guard escort. It was business as usual after that when… Oh my.. the Sirens, the… How… How am I alive?” she asked, feeling her face and body.

“You… you became a ghoul…” I said… I’m gonna… have to tell her everything…

“A what?”

“A ghoul, someone who’s been mutated by radiation, so is Lisa Mona. Radiation now heals you, as well as extends your lifespan, downside is that most of the time, ponies become feral ghouls, losing their minds and attacking anything not… one of them…”

“Then… Knife… that growling… thing was him this whole time?”

“If you mind my asking… how did you end up in there?”

“I… Knife, Zap and I were all in there. I was on lunch and spending time with him while my brother worked on the generators… The sirens went off and… Then it got hot, there was an explosion, so loud I thought I’d go def… We blacked out and, and… I came too, I’m not sure how much longer… I guess… I think my brother came back as that… feral and I didn’t… Wait, what about my Husband?! Where is he?”

“...” Slowly, I levitated the urn out of my saddle bags, as well as the odd revolver. “I’m sorry… I found him in the crematory, he turned ghoul, and thought you were all dead...his head was blown off. I… here…” I said, tapping on my Pipbuck and playing his note. Silver teared up as it played and when it finished she felt around for what I placed down. She felt the urn and the revolver and cried. I sat next to her as she cried. A mystery to her for all these years, locked in that room, and now she knew the truth, “Do you… want your brother cremated also?” I asked.

She snorted through the crying, “Y-yes… He deserves it. Did you… cremate my husband's body?”

“Yes, just a bit ago.”

“*sniff* Thank you. Why… are you so kind?”

“I guess… it’s because no pony was ever actually kind to me before I came out of my Stable and into this crazy world. So much is bad… but, somehow, I found friends, good ponies.”

“*sniff* How… How long has it been, since the Megaspells fell?”

“... Two hundred years…”

“T-Two… two hundred… and I spent it all, locked in that room… For a long time after I woke up, I thought I was dead and in hell.”

“Not anymore… How’d you survive in there?”

“There was a bathroom in their, water wasn’t an issue, and some food stuffs I managed to ration out for some time, when that ran out I thought I was going to starve, till some rats came along. Knife killed them quick, same with some massive roaches. He always shared with me… Even though he went mad, I think he still knew me somehow…” she snorted, wiping her eyes dry, “So, why did you come here and open the door?”

“Lisa Mona said that I can shut down the security from a terminal here.”

“Oh, yes… Well, sorry to say but the screen died out on it long ago. It still hums, so I think it’s just the screen display that broke on it. Knife always did say that was the first thing to go whenever Stable Tech hardware started failing. I think I remember something about him saying a Pipbuck can override the screen display and change it to be on it.”

“Good thing I got one then… so, you’ve been in the dark so long…”

“Yes, I figured I’ve been blind from lack of light for a long time now.”

“Mind if I ask… if you both were locked in, how did your husband get out when he woke up?”

“My guess is he saw us already ghouled but unconscious. He was always one to panic. He likely locked the door behind him and thought it would be like a crypt for us. Sweet but he should have checked to see if we were breathing before assuming the worse…” she sighed happily, “That big doof.”

“Okay, but couldn’t your Retina scan have opened the door?”

“I tried, but it didn’t work. I guess my eyes look different as a ghoul huh?”

“Yeah, they are covered in a grey-white haze.”

“Ah, well, since you got the Pipbuck just try and log into the terminal, my brother kept forgetting the password. If I remember correctly it was his pet snails name.”

“He had a pet snail?” I ask, chuckeling.

“Yes, insects were his hobby. He loved nature as much as he did technology, insects in particular,” she giggled. “Anyway, his name was… was… oh drat…”

“You… don’t remember?”

“It’s been a long time, haven't thought about that snail till now, even before the war. I only know it’s his pet snails name because he said it was his pet snails name.”

“Damn, you sure you don’t remember?” I asked her.

Sanguis-Comedet-Anima mea

No, why did that pop into my head, no, no!

Sanguis-Comedet-Anima mea

It repeated, my horn glowing...a sickly black and green.

Nonononnonononononono!

I felt my teeth ache. I looked into the slightly reflective screen of my pipbuck. My teeth...they were all like needles! “Silent, is something wrong? You’ve gone awfully silent…. Hehe, sorry to make a pun.”

“Uh, heh, no, Just, focusing on hacking.” I said, my body was moving out of my controle… towards Silver. No, no, no, NO!!!

I was fighting with every fiber of my being, my now needle like teeth inching towards her neck. When I was less than an inch from her neck, I pulled down, scratching her lower left leg. “Ouch!” She yelped, shaking her cut let. “What was that?” She asked.

“I, uh, needed a wire, just some scrap metal I threw, sorry,” I quickly said, unconsciously licking the little drops of blood from my teeth… Sweet goddess above, it’s like fresh milk, rich vanilla, and fine wine all at once. I felt my mana stop and my teeth ache again. Looking back at my pipbuck screen, they were normal again. Thank goodness.

“Wait… Scraps! That was that snails name!”

“Wait, you sure?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes, I remembered when you said scrap metal. Scraps was always given the broccoli and brussel sprouts Knife never ate as a foal. Hehe, little sneak.”

“Well, good it worked out.” I said, linking my pipbuck into the terminal. The display of the terminal came up and I typed in Scraps. It opened like a masterpiece and I deactivated all the security measures. With that done I quickly walked out of the room, spotting the Generators in the back and fired Dragon’s Breath, causing the generators to explode, and ensuring they couldn't be turned back on. With that, I helped Silver carry her brother’s body to the lobby and quickly went outside to give Azure and Daisy the All clear.

I told Daisy, and she told Azure, to help Silver to the basement to cremate her brother, but before she left she gave me… her husbands gun? “But, I can’t take this,” I protested.

“It’s yours, it served him well and I hope it does you as well,” Silver replied firmly.

“I saw how it fires… and is it made from…”

“The bite guard, yes, he lost his horn three years after we were married. His magic was what made him such a well respected officer, but after it broke he fell into a slump. So, I commissioned a friend from the Ministry of Arcane Sciences to build him this. His horn and some magical energy weapon tech are fused into this. His horn conducted magic from his body into the gun to fire. Levitation magic also fuels it, so as long as you have spare mana in you you can fire it.”

“Oh… cool, can any race fire it?”

“Sadly, no, only a unicorn can fire it as only you lot have enough mana concentrated in your heads to have it detect a charge.”

“Oh. Does it have a name?”

“Hehe, yes, my Husband always called it ‘My Heartfelt Gift’. He loved irony since it’s practically a magical grenade pistol,” the ghoul chuckled, “Well now, go get that artist out of there already.”

I nodded, placing My Heartfelt Gift into my saddle bags heading back up to Lisa Mona. Once there I could see that all of the jail cells were open, and she was waiting for me outside her cell, eating a pre-war box of cereal. “Went looking for some real food?” I asked with a smile.

“Yup,” she said through a mouthful of Sugar Snaps, “I don’t even care that two hundred years later it’s still not stale or lost any flavor, this is heaven for me right now,” she said added, munching away.

I laughed, happy she could enjoy even the simple things, like eating pre-war food that will continue to outlive us all, “I can go get your stuff while you enjoy the food, know where it is?”

She nodded, swallowing before talking, “The head officers Office, Lead Eater, mean as he is stupid, pretty sure he died with the radiation. He’s the officer that arrested me and confiscated all my supplies and my final Masterpiece, The Reflection of Sadness.”

“That’s a beautiful name.”

“I thought so, painted it when I just had enough. So much bad happened during the war, and because of it, I had to break contact with a lot of good friends in the Zebra lands.”

“You were friends with Zebra’s before the war?”

“Yes. You see, I was a lost child in my family, I knew I came from a family of painters, but something happened when I was young and I was placed into the system, moved from family to family. One year, when I was fifteen, without a cutie mark and headed towards a life of prisons and crime, ironic considering how I came here, I was taken in to a traveling Zebra’s home in Seadersville, a small, small town outside the city of Baltimare. It was a lovely little town, and the Zebra who took me in was both strange and wonderful all at once. This was the first time I was ever exposed to culture outside of Equestria. I was only with her for two years, but she turned my life around. With her I discovered my special talent, got my cutie mark, and began my career as a painter. My first ever real painting was of her, and she insisted I keep it, to remember her by, and I have. When I discovered the recipe to make my paintings safe even when un-kept for years, I made sure it was one of the first coated. I was sad when I heard she had died.”

“Oh, how did she die?”

“I don’t know, and it pained me that she was buried in her home land. Her name was Zecora, she first arrived in Equestria moving from city to city, town to town, walking all the ways to the Everfree, where she wanted to put down proper roots. She said that forest is much like the forests of her homeland. She was only to live in Seadersville for four years, but stayed for nine. She didn’t know why, but she said her ancestors told her to stay until she was told otherwise.”

“Her...ancestors?”

“Yes. Zecora was a shaman, any magic a Canterlot wizard can do, she had a potion or artifact that can match or counter it, why, if not for the potion lesson from her, I would have never have stumbled upon my preservative mixture for my paintings. I remember the day I got my Cutie Mark, I was helping Zecora painting some masks she carved, each mask was a decoration meaning different things, such as hello, and welcome. She then asked me if I would like to make my own mask, and I happily accepted. I found a mask design that spelled, Happy, and then the rest of the message was based on the colors. I spent a full week making it, and when I showed it to her, she cried in joy.”

“Aww, what did it say?”

“I had the mask say, ‘Happy to by your daughter’. I loved her like a mother, sadly though, I knew my time with her was running short, but, she helped me find my true family, the family I longed for. She did more for me than a brat like me deserved. Maybe, after I’ve adjusted to Wasteland life I’ll see if I can somehow cross the grand ocean into the Zebra lands, and find her grave, and thank her properly, and leave her the painting, flowers. Hm, maybe that’s why I became a ghoul rather than die, to find her again, and thank her one last time.”

“Maybe. Well, whatever you decide on, it’s your choice,” I said, heading off to the offices. There were lots of skeletons, all at their desks. The Head Officer would likely have his own office. Looking past the corporate cubicle graveyard I spotted a door in the backmost area. Yup, that has to be it.

I walked past all the corpses and towards the door. Opening it, I was greeted by a room that held a large barred section, like a jail cell, but it was filled with stuff… lots, and lots of paintings, and some crates too… is this all hers? There was a desk next to the door, on it was an almost mummified body. Myst be that head officer. Basterd. I walked up to the cell, wondering how I was gonna open it… oh, it has a key lock, perfect! I got to work picking the lock, trying to open it only to have four bobby pins break on me. Damn, tough lock, doesn’t even wanna budge. Well, this is a police station of sorts.

I looked back at the mummified body, and walked over to it. Has to be a key on his person or in the desk. I began patting his vest and hat for anything, and when I found nothing I opened one of the drawers on his desk. On the third one I saw a difference in the floors of it. Taking all the stuff out, I found it was a false floor, and under it was a single key. Bingo. Before I could grab the Key, I was punched, hard, sent flying against the wall and was suddenly as gunpoint by… that mummy?! “Cah! Cag! You...Ca!” He wheezed, coughing badly. “Who are you and, Cagh! Why are you lookin in my secret drawer!?” He demanded.

I yelped. “I, I thought you were dead! Are, you.. a ghoul?”

“What the hell is a ghoul? All I know is that I been sleeping for a while now. Whow!” He yelled, his legs wobbling. “Must have slept too long. Now then, who are you?”

“S-Silent Whisper.”

“Okay Miss Whisper, why are you looking in my desk for my evidence cell?”

“I-I was hired, to retrieve Lisa Mona’s-”

“Oh, you from the Canterlot Criminal Justice Dept?”

Wait, what? Carefully, I looked at his eyes, aged, old...wait, his body, he is a ghoul, but unlike Lisa or Silver, his looks… malnourished… has he stayed in this room… waiting for the ponies to take Lisa Mona and her supplies? He… He must of gone mad. “Y-Yeah, not in uniform cause I was on vacation and the dept called me in since I was the closest officer from the department, paying me some compensation at least,” I lied, hoping the mad ghoul would buy it.

“Oh, well at least you get compensation,” he said, putting his pistol away, “All I got was a threat of termination. Well, shall I go release the prisoner into your custody?”

“No, no. Transport isn’t gonna arrive until some time from now.”

“Damn lazy pegasus. Well then, I take it you were looking for my key to observe the evidence?” he asked.

“Y-Yeah. Fan of hers.”

“Heh, yeah. So was I, but, guess she couldn’t stand the harsh reality of the war. Not gonna lie, wish I could keep one or two, sell them after her execution.”

“Her… execution?” I asked, hesitant. I thought they were just gonna take her to a more suited jail?

“Yeah, Zebra Sympathizers are to be Executed, orders from the Ministry of Technology, Arcane Sciences, Image, Morals and Awesome. As usual the Ministry of Peace removed itself from the order. Damn Zebra lovers, traders are working to stop them, but their precious leader Fluttershy wants both sides safe. Biggest bleeding heart bullshit I’ve ever heard. This is war, and in war, ponies die, but we’ll kill more Zebra’s before they can kill more ponies!” he declared saluting.

“Hehe...yeah…”

“So now,”

Whack!

He pulled out his gun again and pistol whipped me. Hard. I was on the floor, my head bleeding from the impact. “Who are you really, some kind of Zebra Sympathizer? Some lovign fan who can’t stand to see her idol killed for her crimes?”

I reacted quickly, activating my spell, getting up and staying behind him. “Wha?! Oh, Stealth Buck huh, well fuck off! That tech won’t last long lass, and I’ll be guarding the door,” he said, walking over to the door and sitting in front of it, “It’s a waiting game now. Somepony is gonna die in a bit and it ain’t gonna be me,” he huffed, unaware that I was sitting pretty much right next to him.

Damn, I hate that he’s right now, my spell will last longer than any Stealth Buck, but my mana can’t keep it up for long. At most, back in the Stable, my mana could hold out for about an hour using this spell all in a single go, and that was standing still. If I needed to move I’d have less time.

I could easily use a gun, but he might hear my unholster it, plus, my spell didn’t hide my magic aura. I could try and use my sword, holding it in my mouth and...no, it makes a noise when I pull it out of its sheath. Crap, what am I going to-

Sanguis-Comedet-Anima mea

What, no. He’s evil but no pony deserves-

Sanguis-Comedet-Anima mea

I mean, can’t I use a less disturbing-

Sanguis-Comedet-Anima mea

I remembered the blood I tasted from Silver, that one drop made all the troubles of my past and present fade away, the taste, the richness… I want MORE.

My horn glowed black, my teeth changing again as I lunged at his neck, and bit deep and ripped a large hole in his throat. I pinned him down and drank, drinking large gulps of his blood all spewing in my mouth, down my throat and into my stomach.

I felt happy.

I felt strong.

I felt satisfied.

I. Felt. Pure.

Soon his blood flow lessened, and in the matter of half a minute, I drank his puny body dry. I was… angry, that was less than two minutes and it’s all gone?!

“Grah!” I yelled, biting into the back of his neck and throwing his now bloodless, lifeless body against the wall. I was breathing heavy. I wanted more, but it was all gone. Why is the blood gone? No, more blood, those fo-

SMACK

I punched myself, the spell dispersing as my aura and teeth changed back to normal… I can’t lose it like that again, I… I considered… I shook my head. I want it, the blood… badly. So, so badly, it’s amazing, I feel amazing drinking it… I need it… shaking my head. “Where did… that come from?” I wondered, finding it freaky how I… talked like the merchant.

Okay, so I can’t stop myself from drinking it, at least, not at the moment, but I can’t just go drinking ponies’ blood like a insane pony… need another option... blood packs maybe. There has to be doctors who I can buy blood packs or search old hospitals to find decent stockpiles… I have so many questions need answering as well, I need to meet that merchant again… I need to go to Dead River. I took his key, and gathered all his pre-war money, as well as all I could find in the cubicles. In total, there was about two hundred bits. Perfect. More than enough.

It took a lot of dragging, gathering, and packing and loading, but finally we managed to get a pre-war chariot that was large and in good condition working. Daisy, Azure, Lisa and I were all pulling it to make the load easier while Silver sat with the stuff, clutching the urns of her husband and brother. It was a sad picture, but at least she has closure.

We made it to Paint Stoke’s house and…

”EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

...Enough said.

As it also turned out, that mansion she’s living in was Lisa Mona’s. A bit of storytelling and pictures later, it was discovered that Lisa’s younger brother, who was in their family mini Stable, married a maid who made it in there with them, that maid was Paint’s great, great, etc great grandmother, making her and Lisa Mona family.

Paint fainted at that discovery, and her husband paid us while she was recovering. Her payment was… overkill. Pure overkill.

It was a small carriage, you had to have somepony pull it, but, it had a special fission battery powered weight reducer on it. With three fission batteries plugged into it it could be overflowing with ponies, and I could pull it effortlessly. It was also armored so that we can shoot out, but no pony could shoot in, as well as all around and under the pony pulling was covered and armored, leaving them some barred and fenced armor glass to see through, and some closable slots to shoot through it needed.

It easily held up to five ponies, ~~easy~~. It also came with fission batteries installed, four replacements, some ammo for out guns again, Paint’s husband put that rifle we agreed upon in it too. I tried to get Azure to take it, but she refused, “Azure 'as 'ad dat gun since we were fillies, saved us al' wi' it de first time she picked it up. 'tis 'ers, 'tis a part av 'er. she'd never replace it. use another whaen thar's naw ammo for it, but in terms av aimin' an' snipin', she'd bloody die than use any other gun,” Daisy explained as I saw Azure nod, showing me her rifle, holding it up with her wings.

It was old, clearly, and well kept, the wood held slight amounts of some sort of polish while the barrels looked worn, but not nearly as old as the gun itself. This rifle was a part of her, and she’d never change that.

“Alright then, Azure. Make sure it never fails you.”

Azure did her wing language and Daisy smiled as she gave me the translation, “She says she'll never fail it, or us.”

I smiled, nodding as I tossed the oversized rifle into the carriage and headed off for a quick stop, I needed to see Lisa Mona and say Goodbye. I’d have said goodbye to Paint too but, uh… she jumped her husband after giving us all this stuff. Speaking of, for Lisa Mona, all those paintings, her supplies, and discovering Paint’s lost family history, she gave us a grand total of… Well, lets just say money won’t be an issue… ever.

I found her hanging two paintings in the large room/new studio Paint had given her. It used to be her old bedroom it turns out. One was of a young colt sitting on a grassy field, looking through a fence where a young Zebra foal sat, both had a hoof on the gate, looking so… sad. The side the Zebra foal was on was all dirt, and in the background I could make out… fighting… the war…

The other, was of a young Zebra mare, wearing gold rings along her neck and leg, as well as large gold hoop earrings on her ears.

“Is that… Zecora?” I asked, walking in.

Lisa nodded, “Yes. She was amazing,” the ghoul replied, as the two of us looked at the painting. There was a lot of books, a large cauldron, and...THE Book the merchant has in the background… I’d recognize that pile of Supernatural anywhere.

“Um… What’s that book, in the background?” I asked, wanting some answers.

“That?” Lisa asked, pointing at the book as I nodded, “It’s her dark magic book. Every Zebra shaman who is to travel the world, in her case, Equestria, is given a dark magic book to study and keep pumped with light energy, countering the dark forces that it holds within. Sounds crazy, I know, but I swear there were some nights where I thought I heard the damn thing talk. Zecora said it takes a strong will to overcome it and keep it at bay. Her eternal burden as a shaman. Wonder what ever happened to it. Probably burned when the Megaspells hit.”

Sadly not, “Well, I came to say goodbye, we’re heading off.”

“Alright then, Silent Whisper, goodbye, and thank you. If you didn’t come along I’d have never escaped that place, found out I still have family, I’d never paint again.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, giving her a hug, my pipbuck began beeping, saying I was getting small amounts of radiation, but I didn’t care.

We broke the hug and I left, Lisa looked like she was pulling out her paints and a canvas. Wonder what she’ll paint next?

Chapter Nine: The Origins and the Thestral

"Cheers! ter Silent an' our greatest 'aul ever!" Daisy toasted, raising a mug.

I turned my head, trying to hide the blush on my face while a chuckle came out, “Heh, thanks Daisy. I guess after that we deserve some R&R.”

After walking all the way back to Dirty River, we all decided to celebrate by going to Far Cry’s bar. The mood was high tonight, with us being super rich, we decided to buy everypony drinks, on us. While Daisy and Azure were being complimented on the things we did, I decided to stick to and sat smiling as I watched my two friends. They were laughing, cheering, they were proud of what we did, but for me, while I also enjoyed the feeling, above all of it, I was just happy that we were alive.

"oh yeah, scon are 'eadin' on an al' noight bender!" Daisy cheered, quickly downing her mug of beer mixed with whisky.

“Heh, yeah, let’s take a few days to relax, we deserve it,” I said, taking a sip of my Sparkle-Cola.

We ate and drank, well Daisy and Azure did, I just ate some food and one Sparkle-Cola before turning in early.

“Well, I think I’m good for the rest of the night.” I said, getting up from my stool. “I’ll be heading back to the hotel.”

“Alright Silent, me and Azure are going to spend a bit more time partying,” Daisy said, drinking her entire mug dry, “Hey Far Cry, I need another!”

“Nah ah, not even in your drunken dreams Daisy!” Far Cry yelled back.

With a smile, I walked out and headed back to the hotel.

By midnight, I was in my room playing one those games that Raza gave me, which was trying to save princess Luna from a huge Zebra alchemist, unfortunately I kept failing each time I played.

"Stupid game," I grumbled, turning off my PipBuck. I then got up from my bed and walked out of the Bunker Suite and walked up while invisible. I heard both Daisy and Azure were both out cold from partying, and after looking into their rooms, I could clearly see that. This was as good a time as ever to get ready. I quickly got back to my rome and packed some of my gear, a few healing potions, three grenades, my zebra sword, and This Gun and it’s ammo, including those R.I.P rounds… Just in case...

With that done, I quietly headed out of my room before finally leaving the hotel. The town square was empty of ponies, most were either sleeping or just staying inside their homes, the only ones that were outside are the guards patrolling on top of the wall, not that it mattered, my invisibility spell made it easy regardless to sneak passed them when a late night merchant entered through the gate and back into the wasteland

Once out of Dirty River I followed the river down to Dead River.

It was a long walk, far longer that I thought it would be, and gave me time to think.

I need this spell removed from me, this addiction it’s placed on me, it has to end. Even though he was bad, that...that was monstrous what I did. Gathering my nerves I continued down the road, after about an hour I came across a sign that said Dead River Ahead.

Nodding, I continued ‘til I came across a small town made completely of scrap wood and metal. Poorly constructed, the most well kept building was a large bar made from old train storage carts.

There were crosses sticking out of the ground everywhere, and tombstones here and there, I think one pony was even selling them. There were mares who looked...too thin, worn and...dirty, trying to show off to some stallions...prostitutes… There were a few ponies with blankets laid out with random wears on them, mostly junk you could find in old ruins with minimal effort. There was only one pony selling weapons, that I could see, but they mostly looked like they were mainly selling small pocket knives and a few ammo boxes.

There was one pony with a hoof puppet, keeping to himself and...talking to the puppet… Across from him was what looked like a first aid tent, the tent’s fabric weathered and torn, showing a lot of sickly looking ponies within, none likely getting needed meds or even any real treatment. Other than the street vendors there were some other buildings, all made from scraps kept together by nails, duct tape or even Wonderglue if the used bottles laying around were any indication.

“Psst,” I looked to my left, seeing a stallion start to walk up. His coat was grimy, barely able to see his light brown fur, “Hey, need chems? I got them. Dash, Buck, Party Time Mentals, all the colors, and SuperCharge.”

“SuperCharge?”

“Yeah, crystallized mana from Unicorns. It’s like taking all other chems at once. Hundred caps per does, you interested?”

“Uhh...no. Actually, do you know where I can find a mer- MPH!” When I was about to mention the merchant, he quickly covered my mouth.

“Shhh-sshh-shh… We don’t talk about that pony out loud, last filly who did, and talked negatively at that, was found in the Bar’s whiskey batch for the month, we were drinking her for a week before we found out! We just thought it went bad,” he was actually shaking with fear.

I removed his hoof from my mouth, his hoof left a nasty aftertaste, like matches and...piss. I spit a few times, “I just need to talk with him,” I explained, “He told me to meet him here.”

“He...He told you...Hahahahahahah. He told you to meet him here? Oh, oh no….Oh nonononononono! He’s at the bar, now please stay away from me!” He yelped, dashing off someplace.

That was...disturbing. And rather worrying. Shaking that experience off, I turned around and headed towards the bar. The name read, Capital Idea, it struck me as strange, but then again, consider the location and townsponies.

As I entered I saw the bar looked...old, but was more well kept than the town. Prostitutes tried to make sales on the indoor balcony, three barkeeps kept the booze and soda flowing, and several waitresses went to collect empty bottles and caps. This looked almost normal, save for the dart game where they were throwing darts into a chained up feral ghoul, laughing as they made hits. I noticed most of the ponies around here seemed on edge. I came into the bar and saw him seated at a stall, drinking some water. As I walked towards him I noticed the random noises of the bar from when I first entered started stopping, and when I was at his table the room was dead silent. “Ah, so you came lass. I’m glad you accepted my offer.”

“I only came to talk…business.” I said, taking a seat as the bar began to liven up again, though I could see some of the ponies around here gaze at us for a bit before quickly looking away.

“Ah yes. Was it a spell you were after?”

“No...That last spell you gave me...I want it removed, forgotten, whatever, just...take it away.”

“Hm,” he said, taking a sip of his water, “Well lass I can’t do that. Book only gives spells, never takes.”

Crap… “So I’m stuck with magic vampirism?”

“That ya are, but while you’re here, why not meet the others?”

“Others?”

He laughed softly. “Did you really think, you were the only one the book took interest in, taught, had dark magic bound to your very being? No, while rare before the war...after… more began popping up.”

“There are others… like me?”

“The dark arts are linked to evil and tragedy. No greater evil or tragedy than the years of the war, and the Fallout that came after,” he said, chuckling silently, but also quite madly, “Ah, the best years, were also the worst of years.”

“Heh, guess that books told you some first hoof account stories?”

The Merchant grabbed his drink, moving it around in his fetlock before looking back up, “It’s told me a lot, in the time I’ve had it, but the stories I know of the war...are my own.”

I felt something drop in my stomach. It was a mix of confusion and worry. “But...You’re not a ghoul...right?”

“Ghoul? No, no. I’m far from a ghoul. If a medic was to look over my corpse, I’d be as pony as your friends...but, dark magic rewards, when you give it what it desired.”

“The...the book makes you immortal?”

“Immortal? No. I cut, I bleed. I can die. Longevity, a youthful appearance and vigor...now that is within the realms of possibility.”

“So… you’re-”

“Two hundred and nineteen. Two hundred and twenty next month.” He laughed. “And looking better for my age than any ghoul can claim.”

“So...how?”

“Dark magic is a rather potent thing lass. When used in typical spellworks its effects are multiplied drastically, but when put to its use for spells of its nature, the results and potential are limitless. Normal magic always follows the laws of nature and things like that, but dark magic is all about the unnatural. It, in the proper use, and used by a proper unicorn, can have truly limitless potential.”

“Where does dark magic come from?”

“Ah, now there’s a tale. To put it simple, you can say it’s similar to the tale of Nightmare Moon. In the end, the demon of the night was the sister of the sun. Dark Magic was the same, but it’s other half hogged those capable of utilizing it, so, dark magic began to taint, corrupt, and infect all it could reach.”

“Huh… well, let's go see those...others you mentioned.”

“Alright lass,” he said, chugging his water quickly before we left. Walking through town it was even more silent than before. They tried to hide it, but everypony was casting a pondering gaze. Guess it's rare when this stallion was accompanied by somepony.

We came to the River bed, and he the placed a hoof into the water… and it moved aside, “How in the-”

“In time,” he cut me off, looking at me with what...was a smile. Not his usual creepy one...a sincere one, “In time.” We continued to walk. He lead the way, the water moving around and out of our path...and even began to avoid us from above when it got deeper. The light left fast and soon with the already dark sky and mucky water I decided to turn my Pipbuck’s flashlight on. It helped a little. I saw the trash and other things this river had in it. I spotted something as we walked through… bodies. First just a few random bones, soon became whole skeletons...then corpses with rotting flesh… then newer… recent bodies. “Who… are these ponies? The dead ones?”

“Them?” Merchant said. “They were trespassers, assassins, spies, doo gooders out to end us… never again,” he muttered, “Our kind has been hunted down for countless centuries, an order Celestia herself created to kill us. Some still exist, their numbers small, nothing like before. They are dying out, but their Order’s collapse isn't enough. When they are gone, anypony of the Celestial Order’s bloodline must, and will be exterminated.”

“Old wounds?” I asked.

“Older than the book lass. Older than the book.”

“Are… there other books?”

“Yes. The Celestial Order destroyed fifteen of the original twenty, now only five remain.”

“How do you know that?”

“Book.”

“Of course,” I rolled my eyes. Looking ahead, I soon realized we were walking on nothing but bones, “Uhh…”

“We're here,” he said, before us was...the head of a dragon. It was large, but dainty in its shape. “Was the dragon lord, Dragon Lord Ember. She teamed with the Celestial Order to eliminate us a hundred years back. Now she's just our front door.” He then laughed, and tapped the former Dragon Lord’s chin… IT'S EYES OPENED!?!?! “Open wide ya cunt!” He yelled, more laughter following as it opened its mouth. Where a tongue and throat would be… was just a stone stairway.

“H-how is she?!”

“Alive? Well, she ain't, but after her loss I took her head, and bound her own soul to it. She can only open and close her mouth, but she feels the constant pressure and movement of the water. Unable to breath from lacking her body, and she is aware of every second. No. Greater. Hell.”

I… felt nauseous. “That's… that’s twisted…” I moaned, feeling my dinner trying to come back up.

“Thank ya!” he said cheerfully, entering the stairway, “Come on then lass we don't have all night.”

Hesitant, I followed. The stairway wasn't that deep down and once it flattened out into a floor the ‘door' closed. There was a lightbulb giving some light. Near the end of it's reach on the wall was a door. Once it opened I was greeted by a horrid stench, and a dark, barely lit cave. There were candles burning everywhere, but there was surprisingly little lite from them. I saw nine ponies here. Four earth ponies, four unicorns, and… a pegasus. “Hi everypony!” the merchant yelled.

“Horseshoe!” They all yelled/cheered back.

“Horseshoe?”

“It’s my name,” he said proudly, “Did I not mention that?”

“No,” I said plainly.

“Oh. My bad. Well go on then, have a talk with everypony, I’ll just be here when ya are ready to leave.”

Nodding, I slowly walked more into the medium sized cave. I came across a mare who was likely much older than she appeared...she looked like a foal. “Um… hi?” I said to her.

“Hi,” she replied, “I’m Quanta,” she introduced herself.

“Hi… um… I take it you're a lot older than you appear…?”

She nodded. “That's right. When Horseshoe met me, I was getting old, but after teaching me to properly use my special magic, I regained the body of my foal years.”

“Why your foal years specifically?”

“It's when I had my first surge of dark magic. I fused a bunch of class pets together and created a chimera. They breed like crazy and killed everypony fast cause they were highly venomous too. They didn't hurt me since I made them, though personally I hope they all get killed. They're just creepy,” Quanta admitted.

“... Okay… well, I’m gonna mingle more.”

“Have fun!”

What the literal Celestia?! What, just...what?! Shaking it off, I made my way to another unicorn. A stallion, rather thinly built, his Cutie Mark was a potion bottle. “Hey…” I said as I approached.

“Greetings. I’m Brew Batch. You are?”

“Silent Whisper.”

“Hm. A strong amount of dark magic. Very potent too.”

“So I'm told,” I replied simply, “So, what do you do?”

“I brew spells.”

“Brew… spells?”

“While the earth ponies and one pegasi here also have dark magic in them, it is harder for them to channel it out, cause, ya know. No horns. Much like the Zebra’s pre-war I create potions capable of being enchanted. All it takes is a small bit of dark magic from one of us, toss it, and boom. Balefire Egg sized explosion in a glass bottle the size of a golf ball. Plus, others. Hexes, poison gas, instant stage three cancer, and a personal favorite of mine, pure radiation. Enough to kill a pony and make a ghoul glow like a night light. Five hundred caps each by the way.”

“Five… hundred… for all that death in bottles…?”

“Hey, Necromancers gotta kill, cannibals gotta eat,” he said, flashing me his...sharp...sharp teeth, “Care to browse?”

“Uhh… maybe later,” I said, giving a small wave of goodbye before leaving. Dear Celestia…. These ponies are all insane. Every fiber of my being wants to take out my gun and start shooting...but… what can that do? They’d all either somehow survive a shot to the head or… *gulp* kill me before I even lit up my horn.

That thought resonated with me for a while… these ponies are powerful… too powerful, I’m amazed they didn't finish off what the Mega Spells missed! One more pony, then I am out of here!

Swallowing my fear I walked up to the pegasus. She was smaller than Azure, but looked older. “Hey, you the new girl?” she asked in a raspy voice.

“Yeah… Silent Whisper,” I stated.

“Ego Flock. Just call me Ego.”

“Okay...Ego. Well what do you do?”

“Eh. Not much,” Oh thank Celestia, maybe a nor- “They just tag me for work when they. Need a virgin, foal, or blood of life for sacrifice in general. And it is hard finding virgins out there these days so I settle for foals. They work just as well, youngest I brought for a sacrifice was a month old. Dumb ass parents left it alone in their house while they tended to some crops. Keep better eyes on your kids if you don't wanna cry about it when they get kidnapped, right?”

“...” I merely nodded and walked away. Nope, all the nope. I am out of here. Quickly, I made it back to Horseshoe. “Alright, can I head back up… I think I met enough of these ponies for a while.”

“Alright then lass, come on then, on the way out I’ll tell ya my tale,” he said as we walked out of the bar and headed out. “Well, as I told you my story takes place before the great war. Those were better days. Life was… peaceful. Then the war started. Things changed so fast, technology and weapons were being developed and released as quick as you could blink, those Mr. ‘Handy’ bots and such were being installed into buildings and houses for all purposes. I wasn’t lucky. I left home. Being an earth pony in Canterlot was hard enough, but my talents were...far from that of tribe tradition.”

“How so?”

“Earth ponies, no matter what the talent, can farm, even a little...every seed I ever planted never grew, every tree or other plant I tended to died. My hooves were death to nature. Being in a family of farmers made that tough, I was useless to them, so they got rid of me. I was on a one way ticket to my death, the Badlands. I got off early however, a small town near the Everfree Forest called Ponyville. Figured something there will do fine, maybe my corpse would do more good than I ever could for nature.”

“You...wanted to die?”

“My own family wanted me dead, at the time, what was I to think? Many years I killed many crops, never meant too, and whenever I tried to fix it, I made things worse. I walked into that forest, and came across a manticore. I was ready to embrace that poison tail and sharp claws and teeth. Right as it was in for the kill, l was saved by an unexpected mare. Her coat and mane were striped black and white, and she could kick flank like you'd never believe.”

“A Zebra?”

He nodded. “Her name was Zecora,”

WHAT?!

“She became like the mother I always prayed for, and I learned she was a shaman, sent to Equestria with a very special book,” He said, pulling out said book, giving it a few pats before putting it back. “She was tasked with keeping it guarded and its influence suppressed. It didn't take her long for her to discover about my… fault, and how it shared a link with that book. She knew if I was a unicorn I’d be unstoppable with that book, but even as an earth pony I’d be deadly with it… it made me the perfect guardian for it.”

“Wait, what?”

“That book influences those who have standard mana within them. Ponies like you and I are on it's frequency, having dark magic within us rather than normal magic. It can't influence us through it's normal means. No, we'd have to open it, and read it. Then, the book can lure us to it's secrets. It's power. For a price.”

“Lives…”

“Yup. But being immune naturally to its influence meant I was perfect to look after it. She began training me to be its caretaker, and the ways of Zebra shamans. For the first time, I had purpose, and I wasn't messing up at it.”

“What… happened?”

“The war,” he growled, “It started and that Applejack mare talked her into working as a representative of sorts. She was threatened, lots of nasty letters mailed to her hut that I kept. She was a saint among demons. Then...Applejack’s fiance Apple Snacks murdered her…”

“...Why?”

“He saw her murder a guard, but she told me she had to play double agent for a while. Mother me she did cause I worried for her. She was to knock out that guard, but hit a tad too hard. Apple Snacks came in and saw that, and beat her to death with his own two hooves. I barely recognized her body at the Canterlot Morgue.”

I felt...sorry. I was sorry and sad for this sadist...and kinda understood how he became who he is today. “I’m...sorry.”

“Don't be,” he said, a smile that would scare Nightmare Moon came upon his face. “I got my revenge already.”

“...how?”

“No greater hell than immortality my dear. The Megaspell that hit Canterlot was unique. It's cloud of radiation was pink, and carried with it Necromancy the likes of which are the stuff of Nightmare Moon's nightmares. I should know, I gave that necromancy to the Zebras.”

“You… gave them something to make the Mega Spells even more deadly?”

“I gave it to them to hit Canterlot specifically with it. Those who died suffered greatly, melting into whatever they were touching. Those who became ghouls…” He chuckled. “Were kept alive, and forever bound to what they were touching, like it's a part of their skin. Apple Snacks was wearing his Power Armor when it hit. The ghouls I made sure would come out were nearly immortal, only a headshot or decapitation could kill them...him being in that armor, never able to take it off. I made him as immortal as you can get. He wasn't going to have the pleasure of meeting his loved ones, and he never will, not while I still breath air.”

“So you...check up on him?”

“Yes. Damn fool has never seen me when I do. I keep him alive to torture him. No greater hell than Immortality little filly. Seeing all you've known and cared for vanish as the years go by, time and time again.”

“So...when will you end it?” I asked as he looked at me oddly. “I mean, if immortality is then...why keep yourself going just to keep yourself in hell?”

"Because somepony needs to take this book from my cold dead hooves, I am it's caretaker… a promise is a promise, it's the only purpose I have...the only bit of me that's still...me.”

After leaving that place I couldn't get any of that conversation with Horseshoe or the others out of my head. I thought I could handle whatever this world throws at me...I was wrong...so...so wrong. That place, those ponies… it's just… too much.

“Hey you.” I yelped, looking at who called out to me. He was… a pegasus… I think? His coat was a dark blue, eyes a light hazle, mane a deep midnight blue… and he had the wings of a bat. “Saw you with that merchant earlier, what was up with that?”

“Oh. I um… Was just talking?” I could tell he wasn’t buying it. “Well, I was. We… met and I bought some stuff from him and just wanted to catch up.”

“You two friends?”

“No, more like… unlikely acquaintances.”

“Hm. Fair enough.” He said, taking a seat across from me in the booth. “Shadow Storm, your friendly neighborhood bounty hunter.” He introduced.

“Silent Whisper.” I said. “So… is there something you need or…”

“Silent Whisper? The ‘Chosen Dweller’ the radio is going on non stop about?” He asked as I blushed, leading him to chuckle lightly, “Well I’ll be damned, never expected a pony like you to come around here unless it’s with an army and bullets. This is more a place for you to shoot up rather than visit from the stories I’ve heard.”

“Heh, well I just… do what I think is right. The ponies here might not be all that good but they are just making a living, right?”

“Hm. Fair enough. So, why you here alone? Thought you traveled with one or two other ponies?”

“I do, but I wanted them to get some rest, so I came here alone.” I half lied.

“Heh, good leader, though it’s not wise to go into dangerous places unaided.”

“I have my ways of avoiding combat when and if needed.”

“From what I hear on the radio, I have a good guess how,” he chuckled, “So, where you from?”

“A stable. I was sent out for a Water Talisman since ours is breaking down, but so far all my leads are ending up dry...heh, no pun intended.”

“A stable? Huh, cool. When you leave it?”

“I think it’s been about a week or so by now.” I say, remembering my sister and brother… and the bullies…

“It always hurt the first few days huh?”

“Yeah… wait are you…?”

“Yeah. Three years, Stable 66. Was all ponies like me.”

“...Bat ponies…?”

“...That’s considered Racist.”

“Oh-oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”

“Psst, compared to being shot at on sight, it’s welcome. We’re called Thestrials. If you believe the legends we were all once pegasi, normal ones, but then our specific village was cursed.”

“Cursed?”

“Yeah. Legend goes a unicorn came to town, seeking shelter from a harsh storm. Town let him stay at the inn but this was back when the tribes were separated, so he was treated rather poorly, and by the time he left he was beaten and bruised, so it’s said he cursed the whole village to become as dark as their hearts. They grew sharp teeth, eyes adapted for the night but are nearly blinded by day, all coats became dark grey like ash, and their manes all became the same dark shades of blue. Their wings changed to become demonic, like bats, hence the origin of the racist nickname. While the village still retained their pegasi magic, they were cast out from the pegasi tribe for being freaks, and of no use for weather work during the day.

“They evacuated, lived in caves ‘til Princess Luna came along, and reintroduced my ancestors to Equestria, where they served at her night guard. When she became Nightmare Moon, they returned to their ancestral cave, where they waited til she appeared yet again and returned us to our home.”

“How’d you end up in a stable?”

“Princess Luna had Stable-Tech create Stable 66 for Thestrials specifically. All the needed materials and resources for our special needs. She looked after us.”

“You have special needs?”

“Yeah, in the legend the unicorn not only mutated out bodies, but out diets as well. We can’t survive without blood. Can’t be our own, has to be from a pony for best results and benefits, or many animals for a slightly less grand result. We live, but are weaker.”

Cursed to drink… blood… I can relate… I thought, shaking my head. “How do you get by? And your stable?”

“A while before the war, Luna’s personal team of scientists discovered a pill supplement that can replace blood completely, from then on we can just eat food like any other pony. My stable sometimes sends ponies out for the raw materials but from what I gather it’s mostly plant materials and some other stuff, and so long as I give them some ammo or a new gun for the armory they give me a months worth.”

“You don’t…”

“I was… exiled…”

“Why-”

“Not… something I like talking about…” He said, looking… shaken.

A pill that… can take away the need for blood… I need that pill, “Can I… see your stable?”

Shadow shifted, unsure and worried in his movements, “I… don’t know. They don’t like me anymore, and are wary around strangers…”

“Come on, I’m… interested,” I said, it’s not exactly a lie. I am interested… mainly in those pills.

“Well…” I could tell he was thinking hard at this… I really hope he agrees... “Alright, I’ll take you… if you help me with a bounty I was hired to kill.”

“Oh, who are you supposed to kill?”

“A Mercenary Leader named Toothless Whiskey. His group used to be the best guns for hire in the wastes, but he and his group became raiders lately, only taking contracts from raiders or slavers these days. Pony who hired me wants them all dead for personal reasons. Normally I could deal with this myself...”

“But.”

“They’re hold up in a old Ministry of Arcane Science building, and they got automated defenses working that will shoot anything on sight. Not to mention the area around the building has no cover for me to evade or sneak. But you...” He looked at me with a big smirk, “Have that nifty invisible spell that can get you pass those defenses and deactivate them so I can sneak in and join you.”

“Makes sense… then what?” I asked.

“At that, we go in, kill them, collect proof that all twenty of them, Toothless included, are dead, and head back to that pony for the bounty. I’ll get seventy percent, you get thirty because I’m taking you to my stable… that’s fair, right?”

“Sure, you’d need the most anyways,” I agreed.

“Indeed, that’s why if I take you to my stable, gonna charge you ten thousand caps.”

“What?”

“Still need to make a living, plus from your latest exploits, I heard that you now have more bits than you can spend,” He looked at me with a cocky grin. “Am I right?”

“Yeah I suppose,” We do have way to many caps just for three ponies.

“Good. Got a gun on you?”

“Yeah, but not much ammo. Just enough in case I ran into issues. Does the way to the target pass Dirty River?”

“Yeah, then seven more miles from Dirty river is an old trolley station. Still works so we can catch a ride and shave off an hour or two.”

“Great, then I can head back and grab the rest of my weapons and ammo, then we can head out proper.”

“Perfect. Huh, a partner on a job. That will be new to me.”

“Neat...so, where’s your weapon?”

“Hid it. Call me paranoid but I always feel like somepony is gonna try and steal it right off me, so I, well, you’ll see once we leave town.”

“Alright,” I quickly finished my Sparkle Cola and we headed off. Just outside of Dead River Shadow stopped and moved what should have been a large rock seemingly with ease. “Hollowed out rock. Took forever but who stops to search a rock, am I right?”

“No sane or normal pony that’s for sure,” I said with a nod as Shadow pulled out an old, but well kept bow. It was black and had a very unique design. “It’s called Nightingale, it’s twin, of sorts, a sword, my dad still has. The bow is given to the first born in our family since generations back, and the sword, Nightingale Blade, is given to us after the father dies. This bow and that sword have been in our family for...geeze. I don’t even know.”

“It’s definitely cool looking.”

“Yeah, every time I shoot it I feel like I’m… lucky, plus it’s enchanted, if whoever I shoot isn’t killed, they get a bit of frostbite and a nice zap, like from a taser,” he said, putting on another, small, lightly armored saddle bag, “I use a .45 auto pistol for the day and in close quarters. Can’t see as well during the day, so in the day I fight close, and at night, I use stealth and range.”

“Oh now that is just too cool,” I almost pured. He pulled out a thin, narrow saddle bag filled with arrows. At least forty were in there. “Alright, let’s head on out.”

“Alright then. Let's get going.”