Fallout Equestria: The Walking Shadow

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.”