We stood at the stable door, I watched as it closed behind us. I had fried the terminal on the inside and was standing at the one in the tunnel that left Stable One-Eleven.

As the door locked, I turned my rump to the terminal, and gave one, two, three, four solid bucks into the console. It started sparking badly and smoking. I darted behind a rock, now wearing Stable One-Eleven riot barding. The terminal exploded sealing the stable door forever.

This would now be a mass grave to the ponies of Stable One-Eleven. Hatter stood at the tunnel entrance, several mines floated in the air wrapped in this magic. I trotted to his side.

“You sure about this, kid?” Hatter asked gruffly. I nodded looking down the tunnel at the sealed stable door.

“This is now a tomb. We have everything useful from inside. It should stay a tomb for them.” I said softly watching as Hatter floated seven mines down the tunnel. One was placed in front of the stable door, one to each side of the door against the wall, then four lined the tunnel out.

We backed up to a safe distance. Hatter floated what looked like a metal apple to me. “Then it seems only right that you throw the final stone, kid.” He spoke in that gruff tone, but there was a deep gentleness and sympathy in his voice.

I nodded wrapping the metal apple in my silver magic taking it from Hatter. “Pull the pin and give it a toss, kiddo.” He urged me gently.

“May the goddess guide you, my friends and family…” I bade them farewell quietly and pulled the pin tossing the metal apple thing into the tunnel.

The metal apple exploded, the resulting chain reaction of explosions spectacular.

The ground trembled fiercely as a deep rumble full the air. The tunnel collapsed sealing the only entrance to my home with large boulders and tons of rubble. Any trace the stable had existed was wiped from the wasteland.

I looked to the cloud covered sky. There was no sunlight, no deep blue to be seen. I turned my eyes on Hatter. “Now what, oh great and deadly savior?” I asked sarcastically with a grin.

As Hatter stared at me from behind his mirrored sunglasses, he cocked an eyebrow. “Now.. we find something else to loot.” he replied just as sarcastically as he started west. “Come along, Perky,” He said over his shoulder. “Night will fall soon and we really want to find shelter before then.”

I stood there for a moment, watching as Hatter’s leather and steel clad rump began walking away. ‘Did he just call me Perky?’ I shook my head and laughed as I pulled up my E.F.S. spell. No immediate danger.

My pipbuck pinged a new map and I pulled it up. There was a shack or something in the direction Hatter was headed, “My map says there’s a shack not too far from here.” I said brightly coming up to his left flank.

The sun was setting coloring the clouds a brilliant lavender as I spotted a building not far away. Suddenly my E.F.S. sparkled to life first only a few, then more, at least fifteen red blips had shown up at once!

We heard them before we saw them. A sick rasping hiss, and the slow shuffle of hooves filled the air. “Zombie ponies. Use that revolver you found in the Overmare’s office.” He growled, clearly not pleased with what I was now catching a first glimpse of.

Whatever it was now, was once a unicorn, the horn now broken. It was also missing an eye, for that matter, half it’s damn face was gone!

I took a step back, quickly wrapping my magic around the fully loaded revolver. I aimed without S.A.T.S. firing a single shot into the zombie pony’s head, it exploded in a gory mess, the now headless body dropped. Hatter in front of me had expertly felled two of them with a single shot each.

Suddenly two green blips appeared among the horde of red. As soon as they appeared a fierce roar filled the air and red blips began to disappear until only one remained which i quickly dispersed with two shots as they came at Hatter from the side. He took down the last one in front of him.

The roar was followed by the terrifying appearance of a large bear. Only it’s fur was patchy and it was wearing.. was that a sweater?

I looked to Hatter, he was as confused by the sweater clad bear thing as I was. Following the appearance of the creature was a cheery greeting, “Hallooo fair travellers. I am Rocketeer the Traveling Merchant!” The greeting was followed by the equally cheerful appearance of another zombie pony. Only this one didn’t shuffle, it trotted, almost skipped. I saw Hatter take aim.

The zombie smiled cheerfully as Hatter lowered his weapon at the appearance of a two-headed cow laden with packs. “This little lady is Skippy!” He introduced the mutated bear.

I quickly realized he wasn’t a pony at all, but a zombie zebra. His rotting flesh was covered in black and white stripes.

“Too… Damn… Perky...” Hatter snorted in irritation, his voice rougher than usual.

I couldn’t stifle the giggle that escaped my muzzle at Hatter’s irritation. I trotted up to greet the not so zombie, zombie zebra.

“Hi, I’m Alice, and Mister Grumpy here is Hatter. It’s nice to see a friendly face.” I say cheerfully. “Most of one anyway.” Hatter said quietly. I offer Rocketeer a friendly smile ignoring Hatter’s comment, “Thank your friend Skippy for me. She was a great help.” I gave the merchant my thanks.

The zebra zombie turned to me with a bright grin, which was a little creepy considering it made the dry leathery hide of his face squish. “Well I have a place not far from here. Follow us, we keep you safe.” He seemed to purr strangely.

I looked at Hatter trying to figure out whether to trust this thing or not. Hatter looked at me blankly, “It’s a trap.” He said flatly.

I looked from him to the rotting zebra, who had just helped us. I was skeptical that it was indeed a trap. What reason would he have to help us only to betray us.

I offered Hatter a soft smile, “I get the feeling you’ve been out here so long, you don’t trust ponies.” I said softly as I clopped Hatter gently on the shoulder. “I think its okay, my pipbuck has them flagged friendly.” I assured him softly.

Hatter snorted, clearly unhappy with my decision. “If we die, I’m blaming you.” He said gruffly as he shrugged off my hoof.

I laughed giving him a confidant smile, “Fair enough, I suppose.“ I said turning my attention back to the zombie zebra who had been politely waiting for us to finish.

When I looked back to him, the trader had turned his attention to the mutated bear. He had the bear’s cheeks squished between the bare bones of hooves, forcing it to make a kissy face. He was babbling at it in some strange gibberish. I blinked at the rather creepy sight.

The Wasteland was becoming a very strange place. “A..Alright, Rocketeer, lead the way.” I spoke carefully, still extremely confused.

It was only about half an hours trot from the zombie horde attack to Rocketeer’s hut. Night had fallen when we arrived. He made dinner for us and as we sat eating, I had decided to make friends with Skippy.

The mutated bear was actually very sweet and friendly, despite looking terrifying. It wasn’t long until I noticed a charm bracelet dangling from the mutated bear’s paw in the fire light. “Rocketeer, I have a few questions I would like to ask you, they are a bit personal if thats alright?” I asked sweetly trotting back to Hatter’s side.

The undead zebra lifted his muzzle, oatmeal dropping from the open gap in his cheek. “How can I help little lady?” He asked with a perky grin.

I smiled hoping my first question wouldn’t offend him. Hatter was staring at me from behind his mirrored sunglasses. He was obviously a bit curious himself. “What exactly are you? Because sentient zombie zebra is a little complex.” Hatter snorted spitting a mouthful of oatmeal out that splattered on the wall in a fit of laughter. Obviously that question caught him off guard.

Rocketeer let out loud laugh as well. It was beginning to become blatantly obviously that neither had expected this as a personal question.

Before Rocketeer could answer, Hatter piped in with his gravely voice, “He’s a ghoul.”

Rocketeer grinned splitting the flesh on his cheek a bit. “Not like the flesh and brain munching like those that Skippy went and mowed down ‘fore dinner. My thinker may not be in one piece but I still can tell the difference between friend and food.” His words were a bit strange but I got what he meant.

So there was a difference between ghouls and those things from earlier. “Okay, sorry. That seems to be a thing that I should have known.” I said as I scuffed my hoof against the floor.

“Okay then, next question. Why does Skippy wear a charm bracelet with only a single charm?” I asked as the bear came to lay beside the zebra ghoul.

Rocketeer looked to his companion, “Actually that’s a bit of a story, but long story short, Skippy saved my life. So I gave her that bracelet and charm as a present.” He grinned again as he gently patted the mutated bear on the side.

“I see. Well we need to get some rest if we are going to head west.” At that both Rocketeer and Skippy looked at me horrified. How the mutated bear made that expression, I won’t question…

“Hatter said he was heading west, I don’t have anywhere else to go. Besides, he saved my life, so I owe him.” I offered the grumpy armored buck beside me a small smile.

“I don’t suggest it. Place is crawling with ghouls. Fast, mean, strong, scary. Go south west. South west is Shattered Hoof, traders, merchants, refugees. It’s a town.” His speech pattern seemed to have a twitch sometimes, kind of like his mouth was working but something was blocking the signal to his brain.

I looked to Hatter. Going west meant danger, I wasn’t exactly equipped for a big battle. Even I knew that much. “Hatter, I think we should go to Shattered Hoof. I need better armor and weapons if we’re going to be traveling for a while, and we’ll need supplies.”

Hatter turned his attention to me, he had been laying there quietly listening to our conversation. “You have a point, Perky. You do need better equipment.” He grunted in agreement.

“Great, we can all go together! I was going to Shattered Hoof anyway. Muuuch safer.” Rocketeer seemed to mentally glitch again but I smiled at him.

Author's Note

Rebel: End of chapter two! Next chapter Alice will go on her first adventure into the wasteland!

As always, leave a like, comment, and let me know if I missed any typos and such. Have a good'un!