Fallout Equestria: The Walking Shadow

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?