Once again, Futile found himself carrying somepony on his back, this time the pony being the only son of his old friend Glacier, who had somehow managed to make it through the entire Ponyville Schoolhouse with only one major wound.

“Do you think he will be ok,” asked Sorceress, who was watching the road with two guns held in her magic, her eyes looking wary.

“He’ll be fine as long as we get him to a doctor,” said Futile pleasantly, “he just passed out from the pain is all, for I don’t imagine he would have too many chances to get a broken limb down in that stable of his.”

Sorceress cringed at that, for she remembered all too well how her…captors had pushed her beyond the point her body could take, often to the point where a limb or two would end up broken and they would run endless tests on her before actually mending the damn things, though that had helped her to build up her impressive healing factor later on.

As they moved, they started hearing a voice coming from further down the road, though when they say what it was Futile snorted, continuing to walk as its voice became clear.

“…I’m Princess New Day Eden, and you’re listening to Enclave Radio, the voice of warmth and kindness in a world bereft of it, and there are some things we should talk about if that’s alright. I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about something we can all relate to, something that is unquestionably, inescapably Equestrian.”

“I am referring to of course, one of our great national pastimes, The Royal Iron Pony Competition, or so it had been back in days long past. That’s right Equestria, before we were devastated by the mega spells; each city and town had its own professional Iron Pony team.”

“Imagine it, the perfect cloudless day, crafted of course by our fearless pegasi, and Celestia’s sun is warm and welcoming to all. And then, on the horizon they appear, like knights of yore, armed with nothing but their hooves and their hearts. Their names, the Equestrian Noblemen, their purpose, to make you dear Equestria revel in the joys of sport and sunshine, if only for an afternoon.”

“Now ask yourself this dear Equestria, what if the Equestrian Noblemen could live again, what if they could compete with iron pony teams from Prancilvania or Mary Land. Put your faith in New Day Eden Equestria, and the Royal Iron Pony competition will live again. Comfort, recreation, healthy competition, all will live again. This kingdom will live again, but for now my dear Equestria, I must say farewell, for restoring the greatest kingdom in all the world well…hehe well, that takes time, even for our mighty Enclave. So till we meet again, this is Princess New Day Eden, signing off.”

The machine began to play music as soon as the voice stopped, but barley into its first song, it exploded as Futile emptied a round into it from a beastly looking carbon black revolver, the words “Peace Keeper” written upon the side of the gun Sorceress could see.

“There music is crap, but I try to keep my prejudice down long enough to hear what that bitch has to say, for as often as I tell ponies that broadcast is fake…part of it stinks of something else.”

“Like what?” said Sorceress, though she dreaded what he might say.

“Like somepony is trying to lull the wasteland into a false sense of security, for it would make it a hell of a lot easier to take over the wasteland if everypony thought some grand Enclave was coming to save them.”

Sorceress nodded, understanding the wisdom in his words, and then looked around, seeing the town Futile had mentioned and pointing it out to him. They made their way over to it, greeting the protectron at the gate before heading inside as it opened.

As they entered they saw a pony walking toward them, who was shaking his head as he got a good look at them. “I’ll be damned, more new comers; I hope you’re not bringing me any new mouths to feed C.C.”

Sorceress looked around, wondering who the sheriff might be talking about, only to become even more confused when Futile answered the sheriff. “No no Stims, I’m just taking this young pup here over to the good doctor, then maybe around town for a bit before leaving you in peace.”

“Good, because I can’t have you running around frightening the foals, I get enough complaints around here as it is.”

As the stallion walked away, Futile heard a faint growl behind him, turning to see Sorceress staring at the stallion with anger boiling in her eyes.

“Sorceress…”

“He disrespected you,” she growled, looking toward him as smoke began escaping from her nostrils as she snorted. “He didn’t even give you the courtesy of addressing you by your proper name, instead using this…C.C. title of which I have no knowledge of.”

“And it’s probably better that you don’t,” said Futile with a dark look, “and I know he was showing me disrespect, but that is how it is all over the Capital Wasteland for surface born thestrals, especially surface born thestrals like me…”

Sorceress noticed a pained look cross his face at the mention of that, but before she could ask what was wrong he started moving, pointing with a wing to a building down the hill as he walked. “Come on, we need to get this kid to the doc there, otherwise he may not recover.”

She nodded reluctantly, but resolved to address this apparent hurt at another time and place, following him into the building as the doctor walked out from behind a curtain.

“What the hell do you…oh, it’s you C.C.; when the hell did you get back into town?”

“A little while ago,” said Futile with a smile, ignoring the growl behind him as he spoke, “but that's beside the point. I need you to get this kid fixed up, he took out the raider gang that was hiding in the Ponyville Schoolhouse, and he came away with a few scrapes as you can see.”

“And I suppose you will be able to pay for all this right,” asked the doc with a scowl.

Futile nodded.

“Good, because I’m not running this clinic out of the goodness of my heart you know, but you two better go, I’ll find you later and let you know what your tab is.”

Futile thanked him, and then left the shop, Sorceress following behind before closing the door behind them.

*

“I don’t believe it, I just don’t believe it, I mean what reason do these ponies have to hate you!?”

“Because I am a surface born thestral,” said Futile simply.

“That is no reason for such…”

“It is reason enough for someponies,” said Futile with a growl, before sighing as they reached a shop known as Crater-Side Supply, named for the fact that it was situated beside one of the many impact craters which could be found within the city of Remnant. “Come on; let’s go see if Mortar has anything to sell.”

They walked into the shop, the shop keeper greeting Futile at the door while Sorceress looked around, the mare noting that the shop keep kept a large variety of merchandise around, which intrigued her. She then turned around to speak to the shop keeper, but upon seeing the shop keeper her eyes narrowed, a feral cat like hiss escaping her mouth as she glared at her.

“Get away from him!”

Futile turned to see flames escape the sides of Sorceress’s mouth and smoke escaping her nostrils as she pawed the ground, and immediately moved in front of the Mortar to keep her safe. “Sorceress, what’s gotten…?”

“Back away from her now Futile!” said Sorceress with a growl, unaware that a guard was coming down from the steps and was drawing a bead on her.

Futile motioned for him to wait however, moving closer to the kirin and speaking to her calmly. “Sorceress, I need you to go outside ok, this mare means me no harm.”

“But she’s a zebra!” yelled Sorceress.

“I know that,” said Futile, “but she means me no harm. Now please, go outside.”

He saw that she wanted to protest, but then she snorted flames, leaving in a huff and allowing him to turn back to Mortar, smiling at her as they got down to business.

*

Sorceress sat outside the shop, smoke billowing out the sides of her mouth as dark thoughts circled in her mind, memories from her captivity bubbling to the surface like and angry tide.

When the Enclave wasn’t putting her through torturous tests or keeping her locked up in her tube applying the latest mad concoction to “improve” her, they used her as… “Entertainment” for their zebra underlings.

The zebra’s favorite form of entertainment was pitting her against various monsters the Enclave had snagged for study, from Satyrs to Dire Wolves, Dra to fucking Wanamingo’s, even a few Deathclaws that they had taken with them from the west. All the while, they had taunted and jeered at her, making fun of every little wound she suffered, no matter how slight. It was because of them she suffered some of her most gruesome wounds, but she had always paid them back in kind, even managing to bite a nice chunk of one's neck out, nearly severing the vermin’s head clean off its body.

The zebra’s had of course wanted her killed after that, but the Enclave wouldn’t allow that. However, their kindness only stretched so far, and the zebras were able to enact their revenge in other ways.

She was bought out of her dark thoughts by the feeling of a wing draping over her back, causing her to look up to see Futile standing beside her with a concerned look on his face, “Mind telling me what just happened in there?”

“It’s…complicated…”

“It must be,” said Futile, “you must have had a really bad experience with zebra’s long ago to have a reaction like that.”

Sorceress stayed silent for a long moment, for she didn’t really want to talk about what had been done to her, even though she trusted the pony sitting beside her. However she knew it would most likely eat away at him if she kept it a secret, so she finally spoke up.

“My…captors would let their zebra underlings use me as entertainment, and they often pitted me against several of my captors other catches…all for sport.”

Futile grimaced at that, “…reminds me of some ponies I knew long ago…I’m sorry that happened to you.”

He gave her a quick squeeze, then let her go as a pony walked up the ramp, a pony they both realized was the doctor who they had spoken to earlier. “Hey doc,” said Futile with smile, “how’s the patient doing?”

“He’s awake,” said the doctor, “and he wants to thank the ponies who brought him here, so if you two would follow me.”

They began walking down the hill toward his building, and as they did, Futile couldn’t help but have one series of thoughts run through his head.

“Whatever happens today…that poor kids about to have his entire world shattered, I just hope I can pick up what pieces are left.”

*

Futile and Sorceress found the young earth pony colt sitting up in bed, looking at his pip-buck as they walked into the room. When Futile cleared his throat, he looked up, and immediately panicked; backing along the bed till Futile moved forward and managed to calm him down.

“Kid it’s alright, I’m a friend of your father Glacier, I’m here to help you.”

The name of his father seemed to get him to calm down, though it also made him look at Futile in confusion. “How do you know who my father is, I’ve never seen you before in my whole life.”

“Well I should think not,” said Futile with a grin, “I remember seeing you though, for I helped get your father and you to Stable 101 when you were nothing but a wee foal.”

That caused the colt even more confusion, “What, but my father and I were born in the Stable!”

That caused Futile to laugh, “Is that what he’s been telling you, that you were born down there, and he was born there as well?”

The colt nodded, which caused Futile to chuckle again, “Well I’m sorry to say this kid, but your father lied, he was born up here in the wasteland, and so were you.”

“But…but he said…” stuttered the colt, clutching his head in disbelief as he tried to process what Futile had said.

He was stopped however when Futile wrapped one of his wings around him, looking at him as the older stallion spoke. “Look kid, I know this is probably earth shattering for you, but it will be ok. Now, seeing as how we got that out of the way, tell me, what’s your name?”

“It’s…its Shard, Crystal Shard.”

“Well Shard, my name is Futile Task, and this here is my traveling companion Sorceress.”

The colt nodded, “Hello.”

Both Futile and Sorceress nodded in acknowledgment, and then Futile cleared his throat to speak. “Ok Shard, now could you please tell me why you thought it was a good idea to take on a school full of raiders?”

“Cause I…” started the young stallion, before his eyes widened in fear as he tried to leave the bed, “MY SISTER!”

As Futile moved to keep the young colt in bed, the doctor cleared his throat behind them, Futile turning around and nodding his head before looking back at Shard. “Well come on, we can finish talking as we walk, anyway we have to get you some gear.”

*

As Futile went off to get Shard supplies, Sorceress sat at the local diner with Shard, trying to keep him calm as she spoke to him.

“Look Shard,” said Sorceress, “I know you are nervous, but I need you to talk to me, and tell me how your sister relates to you attacking a known raider encampment.”

Shard hesitated a moment, then sighed, taking a sip of water before talking. “When my father left the stable, our overstallion just went insane. He killed our doctor, locked up my sister in one of the upper rooms, and even tried to have his daughter tortured to try and get my location. I…I managed to free my sister with the help of a loyal friend, saved the overstallions daughter from his crazed guard, and then made it out of the stable, only to get ambushed outside of Stable 101’s entrance by a group of...slavers I think their called, who said something about a place called Paradise Falls.”

“And you went to that school thinking they would know about this place?”

Shard nodded, “Yes, a mare who helped me get back on my hooves warned me about them, said they had been capturing folks who wandered too close to the schoolhouse and were selling them to slavers. I figured if anyone had idea of what that place might be; they might.”

“Well that was your first mistake, for raiders will not give you anything, they only desire to take.”

“Well I know that now...but at least I was able to save the few slaves that they had.”

“That's good,” said Sorceress. “Now, once we get you set up, you won’t mind if we stick with you right, for you are new to the wasteland, and you could use all the help you can get.”

“I would appreciate any help I can get, cause I'll be honest, I have no clue what I'm doing out here.”

Sorceress smiled at that, then jumped a bit when Futile sat down next to them, the stallion placing down a bag of supplies and sighing in relief. “Well, luckily Mortar had a lot of supplies for us to use, and she took the liberty of armoring up your Stable-Tec barbing for you, should work better than that raider armor you picked up. Which begs the question, why the hell did you put that shit on in the first place?”

“It looked like it would protect me better than my barding, a lot of those raiders were packing guns the likes of which I hand never seen before, I mean look at this.”

He pulled out a gun from his pack, Futile getting a good look at it before growling as he spoke. “Oh I am going to have to have words with that filthy ghoul when I get back around his side of the capital!”

“You know what this gun is?” asked Shard.

“Yep, that little beauty right there is called a M249 light machine gun, often called a SAW, and it’s one of several weapons that were being developed before the end of the Great War by the Spartan Ministry. They never saw action, but they were persevered in a special facility called the Phalanx Armory, which had technology designed to help replicate them for mass production. A ghoul I know found the facility years ago, gathered up a bunch of his old palls, and set up shop there, selling the guns to people in the wasteland. However, last time I was there they had a strict policy against selling their guns to raiders.”

“Well it looks like they’re no longer holding to that policy,” said Sorceress.

“Or the raiders have been getting really lucky against those their killing and taking their guns.”

Sorceress nodded at that, then watched as Futile moved up to Shard and spoke, “Now kid, I know you want to search for your sister, but Paradise Falls is no place to be going, at least not as under prepared as we are. We'd need more ponies for a mission like this, and better guns, for the moment they find out you’re connected to one of their slaves it will turn into a cluster fuck, so we need to....”

“No,” said Crystal indignantly, “I am going to go find my sister, and then me and her are going to go find our father, so you can either help me or you can leave me alone, but I'm going!”

Futile hesitated for a moment, and then sighed, the stallion gesturing to the kid’s bag before speaking. “Then you better give me a look at those guns you have, for I might be able to fix them up....and were going to need them.”

*

They were on the road again, Futile having managed to repair all the guns with scrap metal he always kept on hoof, and thus upping their arsenal quite considerably. Now, Futile was taking them along an intact roadway which led along the river bank, his eyes occasionally glancing toward the river as he began to speak.

“Now sadly there aren't that many intact bridges that go across the river,” said Futile, “and before you ask, no, swimming is not an option.”

“Why not,” asked Shard, looking confused.

“Because the river is often infested with Mirelurks,” said Futile, “crab like creatures which have a similar body structure to ponies. They are hostile to anything that is not a Mirelurk, and are extremely fast swimmers, which is why we are taking the land root to get across the river.”

“And what will we have to worry about on the land root, from that report I managed to snag from the Overstallions office, there were some frightening creatures out here.”

“Well if it were a normal situation, I would say we had some things to worry about, but with Sorceress here, we will be safe for a few days.”

“Why?”

“Because she smells like a dragon to most creatures,” said Futile, “and the dragons of the wasteland are at the top of the food chain, especially some of the nastier ones. But it most likely won’t last long, because eventually they will start to pick up the pony in her scent, and then we'll have to deal with the wastelands less cordial inhabitants.”

“Yeah, but that won’t matter to Raiders, or Talon Company Mercs for that matter.”

Both Futile and Sorceress whipped around, guns at the ready as Shard hid behind them, only for Futile to curse as he saw who it was. “Alicorns dammit Jericho are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Well we're all going to die one day,” said a grizzled looking pegasus stallion, “but I couldn't well let you all go off the Paradise Falls without some more backup, after all, I got business there.”

“What sort of business,” asked Futile.

“You remember Clover?”

Futile stared at the stallion for a moment, and then he swore as he pinched the bridge of his nose with one of his hands. “Goddess fucking dammit, what has that bitch gone and done now?”

“Um, who is this Clover?” asked Sorceress, while Shard hid behind her, which wasn't that hard due to her imposing size.

“A friend of mine; zebra mare who was born into slavery, and she has a hard time adjusting to the fact that she is a free mare.”

He then turned back to Jericho, “So, what has she gotten herself into this time?

“She got herself sold to the leader of Paradise Falls, one Prophetic Eulogy.”

“.......Celestai's sun kissed teats!” roared Futile, causing everypony to jump as he stamped his hoof, before he pulled out one of the guns he had repaired and tossed it to Jericho. “You’re going to need this if things go south in there.”

“Hot damn,” said Jericho, looking over the rifle as Futile turned to the rest of the group.

“Can he be trusted?” asked Shard, looking at the grizzly looking stallion in concern.

“We've been through some rough patches together,” said Futile, “plus he has saved my ass from some less then savory characters a few times before he became a citizen of Remnant.”

“And before that?”

“That's for him to tell you,” said Futile, “now let’s get moving; there's a place we can set up can before dark, and we don't want to be traveling the roads at night.”

*

They eventually found an abandoned farm house on the side of the road, Futile using various things from one of his saddle bags to secure the building before joining them in the barns upper floor, sitting down next to the fire that Sorceress had already built as Shard looked out the window and spoke.

“You know, the surface world is not really what I expected when I left the stable.”

“What were you expecting?” asked Futile.

“....I wasn't expecting so much green.”

Everypony was silent for a moment, and then Sorceress spoke up. “I have to admit, I did not expect that either, I always believed that the world was reduced to a wasteland, with barely any vegetation to speak of.”

“Well....there is actually a raider legend that is supposed to explain all this vegetation,” said Jericho as he began cooking a bit of radroach meat.

“....how do you know about raider legends?” asked Shard.

“Cause I used to be one,” said Jericho nonchalantly, “long ago, before I couldn't stomach what we were doing anymore. Anyways, legend goes that back when the Balefire bombs fell, the mare of The Ministry of Peace, Fluttershy, was in her hut at the edge of the Everfree Forest. When she witnessed the land she so loved being torn apart by fire and magic, it's said that she walked into the forest before laying down in a patch of killing joke, which turned her into a tree. After that, it's said that the seeds which came from her became resistant to the radiation that was poising the land, and slowly started taking over this place.”

There was silence for a long moment, and then Futile smirked, pulling out a bottle of Sparkle-Cola and taking a sip before beginning to speak. “You know, there may actually be some truth to that legend.”

That got an eyebrow raise from Jericho, “Oh really, do tell?”

“Well, back out west, my mother used to travel around the wasteland there, like her grandfather before her. Now from what she told me, both she and her grandfather actually met Fluttershy, who was apparently alive and well. Now from what she told me, when her grandfather met her, she had a little tiny plant growing out of her head, and then when she met her years later, that plant had grown, and her skin had started to take on a bark like quality. Now I don't know if any of this is true, but if it is, maybe she came out her after my mom met her and...well, took root.”

“Hm....maybe,” said Jericho, before beginning to digging into the rad roach meat. However, the moment he saw Shard looking at him with a look of disgust, he laughed. “I always forget how squeamish you stable types are when you first encounter meat.”

“We're ponies, we are herbivorous creatures, we shouldn't be eating meat!”

“Well then you obviously didn't study up on your history,” said Jericho with a smirk, “because if you had, you would know that long long ago, way before even Equestria was an idea, we ponies used to eat meat to survive, for our species is actually classified as omnivorous, not herbivorous.”

“You been reading some books Jericho?” asked Futile skeptically, “Because that sounded way too smart for you.”

“Hey, when your pushing eighty years of age out here in the wastes, you tend to start doing things that you never did before, as many as you can before you die, so I took up reading, at least that way I can say I died with a bit of knowledge in my noggin.”

He then returned back to his food, Futile following soon after by pulling out his own previsions as Sorceress looked to Shard and spoke. “Can you tell me what life was like in the stable you came from, for I have to admit I have always been curious about them?”

“Well it was really really boring for one thing,” said Shard, looking like he was happy with the change of subject. “Till you get your cutie mark, life is pretty easy, and fun in most cases, but once you get it, they chose a job for you which fits that cutie mark, and then you do that job for the rest of your life.”

He then looked back at his own cutie mark, which was the image of a pony standing behind a podium, looking like it was addressing a crowed. “Usually, when you get your cutie mark in the stable, it is the happiest day of your life, and mine was....till the overstallion saw what my cutie mark was.”

“What happened?” asked Sorceress.

“Well, if you haven't guessed, my cutie mark shows that I am a leader, and a damn good one at that. My father always said I had the kind of charisma that could charm the stripes off a zebra, and it allowed me to defuse several nasty situations that occurred down there. But it caused a problem, for with that kind of cutie mark, I was destined for only one job, and that job was being overpony for Stable 101.”

“When Alpha Almond saw my cutie mark, he freaked out, right in the middle of my cute-ceañera!”

Sorceress looked confused, “cute-ceañera?”

Jericho saved him the trouble of explaining. “A cute-ceañera is a party for a colt or filly that receives their cutie mark, their held by every settlement out here in the wastes, hell, even the raider gangs hold cute-ceañera's.”

“Wait, your telling me raiders have cute-ceañera's?” asked Shard.

Jericho gave him a look, and then sighed. “Look, I know from what you've seen the raiders can seem like monsters, and they are, don't get me wrong. But even monsters have families, and for a raider, their more likely to die before they get their cutie mark, especially the young ones. So every time one of them earns a cutie mark, they celebrate it, for to them it is a truly momentous occasion.”

Silence fell again, and then Sorceress turned back to Shard. “You were saying Shard?”

“Oh...right,” said Shard, shaking off his shock before continuing where he left off. ”Anyway, after he freaked out, he shut down the party and forced me to take the Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test, even though I already had a cutie mark.”

“And what is the Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test?” asked Sorceress.

“Well in the Stable, if you don't have a cutie mark by the time you reach the age of sixteen, they give you the Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test, which assigns you a job based on how you answer the questions. Normally, when you get your cutie mark you don't have to take it, but because of my cutie mark, Alpha made me do it, despite ponies around him protesting.”

“But why did he react so badly to your cutie mark?”

“Because,” said Shard, “to him, my cutie mark threatened everything he stood for. Back before the war, his ancestors were politicians and business ponies, the ponies who ran Equestria, and after the war, his ancestors were the ones who ran Stable 101, all the way down to him. And ever since his daughter was born, he had been trying to rear her to be the next Stable overpony, even after she got a cutie mark in repair and technical management. So when my cutie mark appeared, he felt threatened because he knew, no matter how hard he pushed for his daughter to be overmare, the ponies of Stable 101 would eventually force the issue and made me overstallion when he was forced to retired.”

He chuckled darkly at that, a smile forming on his face as he continued. “He still tried though, forced me to take the test, and then raged even more when it showed I would be best suited for being overpony, and then it only got worse after that. It got to the point where the Stable council, which is a select group of ponies that the overpony answers to, had to force him to let his daughter actually start fallowing the call of her cutie mark, and then they also had to force him to take me on as apprentice.....course three years after that it all went to hell.”

“What happened?”

Shard snorted, “My dad escaped the stable, and as best I can tell, our most benevolent overstallion saw that as an opportunity to take back the control he thought he had lost.....forcing me to leave.”

He then turned to the fire, glaring into it as it crackled while the others ate, till out of the corner of his eyes he spotted something. Getting up, he walked over to what he had seen, reaching into the hay with his magic to find a little statuette of a gray unicorn mare with brown main and tail in a Stable-Tec barding, rearing up on one leg from a little platform with the words agility written on it.

The moment he enveloped it in his magic, he felt a rush of....something flood through him, though what the hell it was he didn't really know, all he knew was he felt....well, more nimble.

“Hey, I see you have a Stable-Tec Statuette,” said Futile, drawing Shard's attention.

“Is that what this is,” asked Shard, walking over before sitting down and setting the statuette down at his hooves.

“Indeed it is, part of a set actually,” said Futile. “There really hard to find, but I have my own collection of you want to see what a full set looks like.”

Shard nodded, he and Sorceress moving close as Futile pulled a case from out of his saddle bags, the stallion opening it up till the tip of the case met with the floor, allowing him to lift up three trays before turning the case around to show them what was inside.

On each of the four trays in the case were several sets of statuettes, totaling seventy-four in all. The top tray held seven statuettes, the six ministry mares as well as Princess Twilight Sparkle, captured in the prime of their life. The second tray held another set of seven statuettes; however each statuette was of the same gray filly, captured in different poses.

The third tray held a set of twenty-four statuettes, a lot of them ponies, however there were also diamond dogs, a dragon or two, a minotaur, a few griffins, as well as several other races.

The final tray, which was attached to the bottom of the case, held the final thirty-six statuettes, and like the ones above, they had a colorful cast of several races, but unlike the ones above, they had a more wasteland feel to them.

“What are these,” asked Sorceress, looking at them in wonder.

“Well these,” said Futile, pointing to the statuettes in trays two and four, “were promotional items for comic book series known as Fallout Equestria, which was a comic book series published by Vanity Comics and funded by the original Stable-Tec, back before sit started making Stables like the ones you grew up in Shard.”

He then pointed to trays one and three, “And these were made to go along with the collection after Stable-Tec was purchased by Silver Spoon, who wanted to expand on the collection with statuettes created in the image of people she knew.”

That got a curious look from Shard, “Wait, you're telling me the founder of Stable-Tec didn't originally own the Stable-Tec Corporation?”

“Nope,” said Futile with a smile, “she was the founder of the new face of Stable-Tec, for when she bought the company; she did it with the intention to make the stables from Stable-Tec's comic book a reality.”

“.....say what now?” said Shard.

Instead of answering, Futile reached over to his saddle bags and pulled out a comic book, flipping a few pages before handing it to Shard who took a look as Sorceress looked over his shoulder.

On the page was the gray mare featured in the seven statuettes from the second tray, standing behind an open stable door with a determined look on her face.

“You....are you telling me that the founder of Stable-Tec got her inspiration for the modern day stables from a comic book?”

Futile nodded, then yawned, taking the comic back before putting it back in his saddle bags and then closing the case, before putting that too in his saddle bags and then heading over to a patch of hay and lying down. “We can talk about it more another time, right now I'm going to sleep, you guys can decide who is on watch.

With that, he fell asleep, Sorceress soon walking over to join him, leaving Shard alone with Jericho as he took one look at the meat he was eating, and then looked back at Jericho before speaking.

“Got any more of that?”

*

They managed to sleep through the night, Sorceress's scent keeping all the critters away from the barn, and allowing then to get back on the road fully rested.

Now, they were hiding inside the damaged remains of a buss, Futile looking through a pair of binoculars at the front of a Barnyard Bargains Superstore and getting a feel for the place.

“Well, this is going to be a bit of a problem,” said Futile, before handing the binoculars over to Jericho to let the grizzled old stallion get a look.

The minute he did his ears splayed back in annoyance, “How the hell did we not hear anything about this, that place has been empty for years, you'd think one of the traders would have told us that one of our favorite scavenging spots had been invaded by raiders.”

“It may be recent,” said Futile, “but that's not what's got me worried, do you see some of the guns their packing?”

Jericho turned the switch on the binoculars, getting a closer look at one of them before cursing again as he past them to Shard, who got a look before cursing himself as he spoke. “Those look like the same damn guns I found on the raiders in the Ponyville schoolhouse, what the hell, was Tirek having a sale on murder machines!”

“Don't know, but this is bad,” said Jericho, “their way to close to Remnant, and way to heavily armed to be ignored.”

They all hunkered down in the buss, getting ready to form a plan when a deep, mournful howl filled the air, followed soon by screams from the raiders and gunfire opening.

“What the fuck was....” started Shard, only to be silenced as Futile slapped a hand over his mouth, the stallion pinning him to the wall of the bus as he hugged himself against it along with the others, even Sorceress was looking cautious.

“Be still,” whispering Futile, giving Shard a look before pulling his hand back as he whispered. “If we’re lucky, it will kill them all and then move on without ever knowing we're here.”

“Why do you say that, what the hell is out there?”

“....a Dire Wolf,” said Futile, before falling silent as more gunfire and screams sounded, till finally a moment later the only noise was a growl which was slowly drawing closer.

“Crap,” said Jericho, “it's heard us.”

“What do we do?” asked Shard.

“Don't worry,” said Sorceress with a smirk, “I got this.”

Then, before any of them could react, she leaped out of one of the buss windows to face the creature.

*

When she landed outside the bus, she saw a frighteningly familiar sight before her, the massive wolf like creature stopping on its approach to the bus when it saw her, taking a step back before letting out a growl of warning.

Sorceress let out a feral hiss of her own, taking a step forward as she let the blades on her tail spring out, letting it wave behind her as she began stalking around what she planned to make her pray.

It began stalking to, growling as it moved, looking wary. But with each circle they would make, it would move closer, becoming bolder and bolder before finally it pounced, which was what Sorceress had been waiting for.

She slipped into S.A.T.S., smiling as she targeted the beasts neck, before letting the spell guide her movements, dodging deftly by the beast while letting her tail slice through its neck, cleaving its head clean off before the spell ended, the creatures corpse falling to the ground as she turned to the bus and spoke.

“You can all come out now, its safe.”

She then got to work butchering the beast, dividing up the best bits as her companions exited the bus with their guns at the ready, before spotting what she had done, Shard looking the beast and gasping in shock. “What the....what the hell is that thing?”

“A dire wolf,” said Futile as he began helping Sorceress with the bloody work, “but back before the war, they used to be called Diamond Dogs.”

“That used to be a diamond dog!” cried Shard.

“Oh not this one,” said Futile, “this one was born this way. No the diamond dogs that changed into the first Dire Wolves died out long ago, though I have no idea why, cause usually creatures effected by F.E.V. have absurdly long lifespans.”

That drew a confused look from Jericho, “um, what the fuck is F.E.V.?”

Futile returned the look with one of his own, “Um, the Forced Evolutionary Virus, you know, the thing responsible for all the mutated horrors that are roaming about the wastes.”

Jericho stared at him a moment, and then spoke, “dude, your telling me that for twenty years you have been under the belief that all these creatures were created by the Forced Evolutionary Virus?”

“Well yeah, what am I wrong.”

Jericho just snorted, “I'll explain later, right now we got to take out the rest of the raiders.”

“You mean there's more?” asked Shard.

“My best guess is that these guys were just the door guards,” said Jericho, “though if we're lucky these guys will be their strongest fighters, but don't get your hopes up.”

“Let’s see what they have on them first,” said Futile, “then let’s say hello.”

*

It didn't take long for them to strip the corpses, mostly because the Dire Wolf had shredded many of the raider’s weapons in an attempt to get at the raiders themselves. Now, they were in the store, hiding behind a checkout counter as Futile divvied up the assignments.

“Ok, Sorceress, do you see that hallway over there?” he asked, getting a nod once he pointed out the hallway on the left marked with restroom and kitchen signs. “There will most likely be a bunch of raiders resting back there, but be careful, for that is probably where they are also holding any slaves they might have. Then once you’re done with that, use whatever you can to create cover and begin opening fire on the raiders in the center of the store.”

He then turned to Jericho, “Jericho, you sneak to the back of the store and take out the guards there, then when you’re all done use that position to help Sorceress deal with the center group.”

“And what do I do,” asked Shard.

“You and me are going to take out that point there,” said Futile, pointing to the right where a small alcove could be seen in the front right hoof corner of the building. “Once we take that point, we wait for Sorceress or Jericho to open fire on the center group, then we join in. so....everypony ready for this?”

They all nodded, then split up, Futile and Shard staying low as they inched their way across the floor till they reached the door to the alcove, Shard unlocking the door before watching as Futile snuck in, activating a stealth buck before slitting throats of both the raiders in there, and then stabbing them in the head for good measure.

Now we sit and wait,” said Futile as he re-appeared, smiling at Shard as they both pulled out their rifles and waited.

It didn't take long thankfully, for as one of the raiders passed the hallway Sorceress had gone down, a beam of fire shot out from it and coated him in flame, the raider screaming as he was burned alive before gunfire began to fly from both the hallway and the deli counters at the back of the store.

Futile and Shard joined in, but as they began firing a raider ran to a nearby fire alarm and pulled the lever, but instead of the classic sound which was normal for fire alarms, a klaxon like alarm sounded through the store, followed soon after by a voice. “What the fuck is going on down there?”

“Some fuckers have invaded our base!” yelled the raider, before getting shot through the head by Shard, and then cursing sounded through the radio.

“Fuck...ok boys, let's show these fuckers who the fuck they're messing with!”

Suddenly, panels along the ceiling slid to the side, and heavily armored raiders wielding massive guns dropped down from above to land among their fellows, before beginning to open fire on the three points that had been taken from them.

“Shit,” said Futile, ducking as the bullets whizzed over their heads, Futile pulling a bundle of grenades from his pack before pulling the rip cord, releasing all the pins as he throw it near the center of the store.

“Motha......!” cried a voice from the center of the building, before a series of explosions went off, Shard opening fire upon the disorganized group as Futile searched through the bag of guns before pulling out a Beretta M82 Heavy Sniper Rifle, grinning from ear to ear as he positioned the rifle over the counter top before loading a clip and firing at one of the raiders, the bullet tearing through him and the raider behind him, and finally taking off the head of a third before burring itself in a wall.

“Been a while since I used a gun like this, nice to know I still can.”

*

From her spot in the hallway, Sorceress unleashed another ray of flame, igniting two more of the raider bastards before ducking down as their companions opened fire on her, waiting till they stopped before leaping up again, this time unleashing a thunderbolt from her horn which fried one of the heavily armored raiders.

“Cage, we got a fucking spell caster in the hallway!” cried one of the raiders, which caused one of the few remaining unicorns in their group to turn her way before shooting a spell at her barricade, causing a massive bubble to form over her position.

The moment the bubble went up Sorceress felt all her magic drain away, causing her to growl as she once again ducked, before beginning to build up some flame within her glands.

“Hahahaha, can’t use your fancy magic now bitch!” cried a raider, who Sorceress assumed was Cage, and so, she shot up and unleashed a ball of flame, the ball striking Cage in the head and melting it, which then dropped the bubble.

Ducking down again to get cover, she sent out a magic pulse to detect all the enemies in the room, and it caused her to growl in frustration. While she was sure that they could take them all out if they were patient, it would cost them a lot of bullets, to many in her mind, especially when she detected several of their unicorns conjuring up shields around them and their allies.

If they wanted to get this over with fast, she would need to do something stupid, so with a roar of challenge, she leaped out over the barricade before focusing her magic, lifting all of the raiders into the air before the tip of her horn began to glow with a bright light, and then she unleashed a ray of light which passed over all the raiders, disintegrating them and leaving only their armor and weapons, then her magic field popped, the weapons and armor falling to the ground as Sorceress passed out.

*

“......the fuck was that?” said Shard in shock, looking at the scattering of weapons and clothing as he and Futile moved out from their cover.

“I have no idea, but I am going to go check on her, meanwhile you and Jericho should strip the remains for weapons and ammo, and see if any of that armor can be salvaged.”

With that said, Futile made his way over to where Sorceress was, kneeling down next to her unconscious body and, once he made sure that the others were busy with their scavenging, he passed one of his hands over her body as a spot on his forehead glowed.

It was one of his most heavily guarded secrets, which was a most surprising thing, as pretty much every non unicorn pony in the wasteland, from raider to stable dweller, had a patented Arcane-Sciences Philosophers Chip.

The Philosophers Chip was an invention created by the head of the Ministry of Arcane-Science, Sunset Shimmer, the fabled Seventh Element of Harmony. If legends were to be believed, she had been blessed with the Element of Forgiveness after she had returned from a world where everypony in existence had a counterpart which was of a species she called human.

It was supposedly from this world that Sunset Shimmer drew inspiration for all the technological marvels which came out of the Ministry of Arcane-Science, and led to the creation of the Philosophers Chip, a device created through what was called nanite technology, that allowed non unicorns to be able to wield their magic as unicorns did, allowing for the casting of spells to the simple use of levitation for all.

However, he never liked revealing that he too had a chip, instead telling anyone that asked that his had long ago been removed. This was of course a lie, for the nanite technology of the chip spread itself throughout the central nervous system of a pony, and even if the central chip was destroyed, the nanites in the nervous system would build a new one, restoring that pony’s ability to use magic within a matter of days.

When he was done using the scanning spell, he got up, looking toward the door which lead to the bathrooms and walking in to see the slaves Sorceress had saved, smiling at them as one of them spoke.

“Are the raiders dead?”

“Yeah they are,” said Futile, “you can leave when you want, did she leave you any guns?”

“Just the ones our guards had,” said one of the slaves, “but thank you, you didn't need to do this.”

“Of course we did,” said Futile, “it's the right thing to do.”

*

The slaves had left long ago, but the group was now barricaded in the store, for since Sorceress was unconscious due to magical fatigue, they had decided to barricade the entrances to the store and camp in it for the night.

“You sure those barricades are going to hold?” asked Jericho, the stallion pulling out some more food to cook as everypony got settled.

“Pretty sure,” said Futile, before looking at Shard and speaking. “So kid, what did you find on those computers?”

“Nothing good,” said Shard, “apparently both this gang and the gang I took out in the Ponyville Schoolhouse are part of a much larger raider group, and the lead gang is based out of Everfree Mills.”

“So Shatter's gang is finally uniting the gangs,” said Jericho, “never thought I would see the day.”

“Everfree Mills?” asked Shard, looking concerned.

“Never heard of the place myself,” said Futile.

“Old stone farm out in these parts, full of all sorts of valuable goodies. Used to be full of ghouls about forty years ago, till Shatter the butcher and his raider gang slaughtered all of them, and then took over the place. Ever since then, Shatter has been talking about uniting all the raider gangs in this here capital wasteland and take over, but at the time it was as likely to happen as it was for Dire Wolves to talk!”

“Speaking of Dire Wolves,” said Futile, giving Jericho a pointed look, “I believe you have something to tell me.”

“Oh yeah,” said Jericho before, like a dramatic showman, he threw some dust on the fire which turned it green, smirking as his eyes took on a red glow as he spoke.

“I have to tell you about the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion, don't I?”

*

Footnote:

Futile Task: Maximum Level Achieved!
Starting Perks:
Friendship is Magic:
You have found all the Statuettes of the Elements of Harmony; you gain 90% resistance to Chaos Magic, as well as a 90% bonus to Harmony Magic.

Your Are S.P.E.C.I.A.L.:
You have found all the SPECIAL Statuettes, your SPECIAL stats will no longer be impacted by negative status effects.

Master Of All Trades:
You have found all the Skill Statuettes; you gain a 50% bonus to all skill checks.

Traits Make The Pony:
You have found all the Trait Statuettes; your traits are now twice as powerful.

Sorceress: Maximum Level Achieved!
Starting Perk: Ever Burning Candle.
Your magic is like a never ending flame, allowing for unlimited spell casting. Your mana pool will never drop to zero.
Perk Note: Ever Burning Candle does not protect against Magic Fatigue.

Crystal Shard: Level Up!
Statuette Perk Acquired: The Agile.
You have found the Agility Statuette; you gain a 25% bonus to all Agility checks.

Author's Note

Few, this chapter took forever, but I finally ended it on a place I liked it, next chapter will involve Those, if that is a good enough hint for everyone.

Authors Note on Jericho and Futile Task:
Both Jericho and Futile Task will serve as information characters for Crystal Shard and Sorceress, as well as the audience as a whole.

Mod Inspired Content:
Futile's Peace Keeper Revolver:
This revolver is a unique Rhino Killer .45-70 M1, A type of revolver which was inspired by the RHINO .45-70 M1 Revolver weapon mod by Nesterman, which can be seen in this picture here:

Crystal Shard's Sister:
This pony was inspired by the fantastic companion mod Ties That Bind, made by thefourwings, which can be seen in this picture here:

Crystal Shard's Mysterious Friend:
This pony was inspired by the Brisa Almodovar companion mod by rickerhk, which can be seen in this picture here:

The Overstallions Daughter Leaving The Stable:
This was inspired by the Follower Amata companion mod by Lawlder, which can be seen in this picture here:

The Guns All The Raiders Are Using, As Well As The Phalanx Armory:
This is actuallly a combonation of two mods. The first is the guns the raider gangs are using, which were inspired by the Apocalypse Armory weapon mod, which I will not provide a picture for at this time. The second is the Phalanx Armory, which was inspired by The Black Hole base from the FOOK2 gameplay mod by LinkesAuge

The Berreta M82:
This was inspired by the Berreta M82 found in The FOOK2 gameplay mod by LinkesAuge, though sadly no picture exists for this gun at this time.

The mention of the massive amounts of green vegitation:
This aspect of the story was inspired by the mod Their World by fLokii, and is where this story also gets it’s name, and you can see what this mod does in this picture here:

Last Note: the Statuettes:
Yes, there are a total of seventy four statuettes to be found for our lovely Crystal Shard, and each one has it’s own special perk. Which means that Futile task is very over powered as he has all seventy four statuettes and their perks, as well as the four perks gained for completing each statuette set.